Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, by whose advice, it has been said, he committed it to the flames. In fact the bishop in one of his letters expresses his approbation of that step, although he seems not to have been previously acquainted with it. "I am not sorry," says he, your Alcander is burnt. Had I known your intentions, I would have interceded for the first page, and put it, with your leave, among my curiosities." 66 That Pope retained a partiality for some passages in this early production, is evident from the impression they had left upon his memory, which enabled him to repeat them at times for the amusement of his friends; in consequence of which, a few of them have been preserved. Among these are the following lines, in which the sound is made an echo to the sense: "Shields, helms, and swords, all jangle as they hang, There are also some couplets, which he afterwards inserted in others of his works, with little or no variation, as in his Essay on Criticism: "Whose honours with increase of ages grow, And the following in the Dunciad: "As man's meanders to the vital spring, Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring." Other parts of this poem are said to have furnished him with examples of "the art of sinking in poetry," and to have been given there, under the title of verses by an anonymous. Whilst he was engaged in reading the English poets, hewas accustomed, whenever he met with a passage or story that pleased him more than common, to endeavour to imitate it. "My first taking to imitating," says he, VOL. I. 5 Spence's Anec. p. 48. Malone's ed. "was not out of vanity, but humility. I saw how defective my own things were, and endeavoured to mend my manner by copying good strokes from others." This was the cause of his Imitations, published a long time afterwards. He also translated the treatise of Cicero, De Senectute, a copy of which translation is said to have been preserved in Lord Oxford's library, but has never been published. To these may be added, about a fourth part of the Metamorphoses, and that part of Statius which was afterwards printed with the corrections of Mr. Walsh'. Nor was Pope inattentive to the works of our English prose writers, though he found it more difficult to enter into their merits, or to avail himself of the advantages of a regular course of reading. When Locke first fell in his way, he confessed that his Essay was quite insipid to him3. On a further acquaintance, however, he not only approved, but highly admired that immortal work; and there is reason to believe, that the study of it contributed to that precision of thought, and accuracy of composition, by which he is so eminently distinguished. He is also known to have read Sir William Temple's writings; but whenever there was any thing political in them, he had no manner of feeling for it. "I believe," said Mrs. Rackett, "nobody ever studied so hard as my brother did in his youth. He did nothing but write and read'." As his judgment ripened he became less ambitious in his subjects. He had at one time intended to collect all the beauties of the great epic writers into one piece; there was to be Milton's style in one part, and Cowley's in another; here the style of Spenser 7 Spence's Anec. p. 278. Singer's ed. 9 Spence's Anec. p. 23. Malone's ed. 1 Spence's Anec. p. 38. Malone's ed. 8 Ruffhead, p. 17. imitated, and there of Statius; here Homer and Virgil, and there Ovid and Claudian. But his epic and dramatic attempts were shortly succeeded by his Pastorals, written at the age of sixteen; as was also the first portion of his Windsor Forest, although that poem was not completed till 1712. There is a tradition that Pope wrote this poem under a beech-tree in Windsor Forest, which being decayed, Lady Gower had an inscription carved upon another tree near it: "HERE POPE SANG." In adverting to the course of his poetical studies, he applied to himself with great propriety the lines of the Roman poet2: "Cum canerem reges et prælia, Cynthius aurem Vellit et admonuit." Although his Pastorals were not published till some years after they were written, yet, having been shown to his friends, they soon attracted the notice of several persons distinguished by their rank, their talents, and their taste, who vied with each other in expressing their admiration of them. From this early period, he may therefore be said to have been introduced into public life; but before we enter upon the history of these connexions, it may not be improper to advert to what little further can now be known respecting the course of his youthful studies. When about fifteen years of age, he determined to pay a visit to London, expressly for the purpose of acquiring the French and Italian languages. He had already begun to study them, but was not satisfied with his instructors. His friends discountenanced this project, and regarded it as "a wildish sort of resolution"," as his health would not permit him to go abroad1; but 2 Ruffhead, p. 28. 3 Spence's Anec. p. 8. Singer's ed. 4 He should have travelled, had it not been for his ill health, and on every occasion that offered, had a desire to travel, to the very end of his life. Spence's Anec. p. 8. Singer's ed. he succeeded in his object to a certain extent; although it does not appear that he was ever as conversant with the Italian writers as the French. Voltaire said that "Pope could hardly read French, and spoke not one syllable of the language." The speaking a language is seldom acquired without long practice, or a residence in the country where it is spoken. M. Menage, who wrote beautiful Italian poetry, was so sensible of this, that he never could be induced to pronounce a word of the language. That Pope however read French, and was well acquainted with the best French authors, is apparent from many passages in his writings. Of the extent of his classical acquirements some idea may be formed by the many pieces which he translated from the ancient authors. Amongst these was the Thebais of Statius, which, with some revision, he afterwards published. "He must have been at this time," says Johnson, "if he had no help, a considerable proficient in the Latin tongue." The translation of the Epistle from Sappho to Phaon, from Ovid, is attributed to the same period. This Epistle was also published, and is yet retained in his works. With respect to his proficiency in Greek, he has said of himself in his Imitation of the Second Epistle of the Second Book of Horace : "Bred up at home, full early I begun To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus' son." On which it has been observed, that "this ascertains an attempt only, without any intimation of proficiency." But Pope's assertion is, that he had begun to read, not that he had merely attempted to read, and justifies the following remark of Warburton upon it: "He at length thought fit to become his own master; 5 Wakefield's General Observations on Homer and his Translator, fixed to his edition of the Iliad, vol. i. p. ccliv. pre so that while he was intent upon the subject, with a strong appetite for knowledge, and an equal passion for poetry, he insensibly got Latin and Greek. And what was more extraordinary, his impatience of restraint in the usual forms, did not hinder his subjecting himself, now that he was his own master, to all the drudgery and fatigue of perpetually recurring to his grammar and lexicon." 66 Pope thought himself the better in some respects for not having had a regular education. He read, originally, for the sense; whereas we are taught for so many years to read only for the words."-"This he frequently mentioned as his great reading period; in which he went through all the best critics, almost all the English, French, and Latin poets of any name; the minor poets; Homer, and some of the greater Greek poets in the original, and Tasso and Ariosto in translations. I even then, says he, liked Tasso better than Ariosto, as I do still; and Statius, of all the Latin poets, by much, next to Virgil "." Pope may therefore properly be ranked among that class of remarkable persons who have been their own instructors; a circumstance which, whilst it expanded his powers to a wider range than the limits of a college would perhaps have admitted, has been attended with some disadvantages to him; as it has induced his more regularly educated editors to depreciate his acquirements, and to dwell upon trivial and unimportant errors. In fact, the experience of Pope at public schools had given him a dislike to the usual modes of education, which continued through life. "Had I chanced," says he, "to be of the religion of the country I was born in, and bred at the usual places of education, I should probably have written something on that subject, and |