whatever quarter they proceed. These are such as pretend to point out the beauties and the faults, according as they appear to the judgment of the critic. Swift has observed, that "it is the frequent error of those men, otherwise very commendable for their labours, to make excursions beyond their talent and their office, by pretending to point out the beauties and the faults; which is no part of their trade, which they always fail in, which the world never expected from them, nor gave them any thanks for endeavouring at:"-and Pope has himself remarked, in the preface to his works, that "a bad author deserves upon the whole better usage than a bad critic; for a writer's endeavour, for the most part, is to please his readers, and he fails merely through the misfortune of an ill judgment; but such a critic's is to put them out of humour; a design he could never go upon without both that and an ill temper."

In performing the difficult task which has devolved upon the present editor, of determining what pieces ought to be admitted into this edition, as constituting "THE WORKS OF POPE," he has endeavoured to keep in view what he conceives to be the chief duty of an editor; viz. to execute an office which the author can no longer perform for himself, in the same manner as he would have performed it, if living; admitting nothing that he would himself have rejected, and rejecting nothing that he would have admitted; not, however, disregarding the additional considerations suggested by the change which has taken place (so greatly for the better) in the sentiments and manners of the present times, and by which it is probable that

the author himself would have been equally influenced. On the whole, he has reason to believe, that the differences which would have arisen between the author and himself on this head, would have been very trivial, if any; and that the great variation in this respect will appear between the two last editions of Dr. Warton and Mr. Bowles, and the present.

The arrangement of the Letters has been attended with unexpected trouble, as will appear from the preliminary explanations given at the head of some of the series. Important additions have also been made, not only valuable in themselves, but as they illustrate the correspondence before published.

To the criticisms and remarks of his predecessors, the present editor has not found occasion to make any considerable additions. His own observations have chiefly been confined to the estimate of the poetical character of the author, and the preliminary notes to the principal poems, in which, as well as in the few remarks on the text, it has been his object, rather to correct the errors, and obviate the unfounded censures of former commentators, than to increase the great number of notes, by any additions of his own.

It must not, however, be supposed, that in thus presuming to point out the mistakes of his predecessors, the Editor is insensible to his own liability to error; a liability which has been much increased by the distance of his residence from Town, and the consequent want of that opportunity of obtaining instant information on any literary subject, which the metropolis alone can afford. He can however truly say, that his best endeavours have not been wanting to render this

edition as correct as possible; although he is fully conscious that he must in many instances rely on the indulgence of his readers for a favourable construction of those inaccuracies, from which no literary work is wholly exempt.

For any additional information which the editor has been enabled to communicate, by the use of original letters and papers, and consequently for any novelty which the present edition may be found to possess, he has made his particular acknowledgments, wherever such documents are introduced; and to such of his friends as have contributed to the completion of his labours, by furnishing him with early editions, and scarce publications, he avails himself of this opportunity to testify his gratitude and return his thanks.

ARRANGEMENT OF THE PRESENT EDITION.

VOLUME I. Life of the Author.

VOLUME II. Early Poems.

Translations and Imitations.

Essay on Criticism.

Rape of the Lock.

VOLUME III. Miscellaneous Poems.

The Dunciad.

VOLUME IV. Essay on Man.

Moral Epistles.

Satires.

VOLUME V. Satires.

Fragments and Fugitive Pieces.

Prose Writings.

VOLUMES VI. Correspondence.

VII. Correspondence.

VIII. Correspondence.