"The beauties of this poem," says Dr. Johnson, " are well known; its chief fault is the grossness of its images. But even this fault, offensive as it is, may be forgiven for the excellence of other passages; such as the formation and dissolution of Moore, the account of the Traveller, the misfortune of the Florist, and the crowded thoughts and stately numbers which dignify the concluding paragraph." The Effay on Man, is a didactic poem written on metaphysical ideas, which he did not perfectly comprehend. His intentions were evidently good, to show men that the existence of imperfection and evil is not inconfiftent with the wisdom and goodness of God. Many of the facts are true, many of the observations are just, but do not tend to establish the truth of the proposed system. The adaptation of human senses, paffions, and reason, to their ends, the co-operation of the principles of felf-love and benevolence, in producing happiness, the uncertainty of physical good, that man's fupreme felicity consists in moral good, that we are very weak in comparison to our Creator, are all positions which are undoubtedly true, but do not prove that partial evil is univerfal good; that whatever is, is right. Pope, like Addison, had confidered man chiefly in active life. When he exhibits him in action, his exhibition is natural, beautiful, and just; but when he ana1yses his principles of thought, and of action, he is not always so successful. Voltaire ridiculed Pope's favourite position in his Candide. The consequences which Candide's application of the principle to various cases produces, are certainly such as Pope never intended, yet it must be acknowledged he did not sufficiently guard against his interpretation.

"This essay," says Dr. Johnson, " is certainly not the happiest of Pope's performances. It effords an egregious instance of the predominance of genius, the dazzling splendour of imagery, and the seductive powers of eloquence. Never were penury of knowledge, and vulgarity of sentiment so happily disguised, or recommended by fuch a blaze of embellishments, or such sweetness of melody. The vigorous contraction of some thoughts, the luxuriant amplification of others, the incidental illustrations, and sometimes the dignity, sometimes the softness of the verses, enchain phifofophy, fufpend criticism, and oppress judgment, by overpowering pleasure."

"This is true of many paragraphs; yet if I had undertaken to exemplify Pope's felicity of com pofition before a rigid critic, I should not select the Effay on Man: for it contains more lines unfuccessfully laboured, more harshness of diction, more thoughts imperfectly expressed, more levity without elegance, and more heaviness without strength, than will easily be found in all his other works."

The Characters of Men and Women, are the product of diligent speculation upon life and manners, and fhow a thorough knowledge of the human mind, engaged in action, and modified by the manners of the times.

" brecommend," says Dr. Johnson, " a comparison of his Characters of Women, with Boileau's fatire; it will then be seen with how much more perspicacity female nature is investigated, and female excellence selected. The Characters of Men, however, are written with more, if not with deeper thought, and exhibit many passages exquifitely beautiful. The Gem, and the Florver, will not eafily be equalled. In the women's part are some defects; the character of Atoffa, is not so neatly finished as that of Clodio, and fome of the female characters may be found, perhaps, more frequently among men."

Of his Epiffle to Lord Bathurst, the most valuable passage is, perhaps, the eulogy on Good Sense; and of the Epiftle to Lord Burlington, the end of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Of the Epistle to Arbuthnet, no part has more elegance, spirit, or dignity, than the vindication of his own character. The meanest passage is the satire upon Sporus. The allusion to his mother is exquifitely beautiful and interesting. His tranflations from Ovid are rendered with faithfulness and elegance. The epiftle from Sappho to Phaon breathe such paffionate and pathetic sentiments as are worthy of the exquifite sensibility of the amorous Sappho; and the versification is in point of melody next to that of the Paftorals.

On his Epitaphs, the minute criticism of Dr. Johnson, printed in the "Visitor," is acute, and well enforced; but his examination is too rigorous, and the general opinion is much more favourable. His Imitations of Horace, display a great portion of wit, as well as argument. He has the hunour, and almost the ease of Horace, with more wit, and falls little short of the severity of Juvenal. in his Letters he is seen as connected with the other contemporary wits, and suffers no disgrace in the comparison. Those of Arbuthnot are written with ease and a beautiful simplicity. Swift's

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allo are unaffected. Several of Bolingbroke's and Atterbury's are masterly. There is something more ftudied and artificial in Pope's productions than the rest. His letters to ladies are full of affectation. * Pope may be faid," says Dr. Johnson, " to write always with his reputation in his head; Swift perhaps like a man who remembered that he was writing to Pope; but Arbuthnot, like one who lets thoughts drop from his pen, as they rise into his mind."

The compositions of Pope are perhaps a greater accession to English literature, than those of any other poet of our nation, except Spenser, Shakspeare, and Milton. Of those poets who rank in the highest class after them, Dryden is generally allowed to be the first; but his claim to that diftinction is at least rendered doubtful by the pretenfions of Pope, who learned his poetry from Dryden, and whose character perhaps may receive some illustration, if he be compared with his master.

To regulate the scale, by which the comparative merit of poetical pretensions is to be estimated, is ene of the most difficult undertakings of criticism. Something of this kind, however, is attempted by Dr. Johnson in his parallel between Dryden and Pope, of which it is scarcely hyperbolical to affirm, that it is every way worthy of its subject, and such as perhaps the pen of Dr. Johnson only could have written.

Integrity of understanding, and nicety of discernment, were not allotted in a less proportion to Dryden than to Pope. The rectitude of Dryden's mind was sufficiently shown by the dismission of his poetical prejudices, and the rejection of unnatural thoughts, and rugged numbers. But Dryden never desired to apply all the judgment that he had. He wrote, and professed to write, merely for the people; and when he pleased others, he contented himself. Pope was not content to fatisfy; he defired to excel; and therefore always endeavoured to do his best. He did not court the candour, but dared the judgment of his reader; and expecting no indulgence from others, he showed none to himself. For this reason, he kept his pieces very long in his hands, while he confidered, and reconsidered them. It will seldom be found that he altered, without adding clearness, elegance and vigour. Pope had perhaps the judgment of Dryden, but Dryden certainly wanted the diligence of Pope.

" In acquired knowledge, the fuperiority must be allowed to Dryden, whose education was more scholaftic. His mind has a larger range, and he collects his images and illustrations from a more extensive circumference of science. Dryden knew more of man in his general nature, and Pope in his local manners. The notions of Dryden were formed by a comprehensive speculation, and those of Pope by minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, and more certainty in that of Pope.

"Poetry was not the sole praise of either, for both excelled likewise in profe; but Pope did not borrow his prose from his predeceffors. The style of Dryden is capricious and varied; that of Pope is cautious and uniform. Dryden observes the motions of his own mind; Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of compofition. Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid; Pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diverfified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and levelled by the roller.

" Of genius, that power which constitutes a poet, that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates, the fupefiority muk, with some hefitation, be allowed to Dryden. It is not to be inferred, that of this poetical vigour Pope had only a little, because Dryden had more, for every other writer since Milton must give place to Pope; and even of Dryden it must be faid, that if he has brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems. Dryden's performances were always hasty, either excited by fome external occafion, or extorted by some domestic neceffity; he composed without confideration, and published without correction. What his mind could fupply at call, or gather in one excursion, was all that he fought, and all that he gave. The dilatory caution of Pope enabled him to condense bis sentiments, to multiply his images, and to accumulate all that study might produce, or chance might fupply. If the flights of Dryden therefore are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often furpasses expectation, and Pope never falls below it; Dryden is read with frequent aftonifa Iment, and Pope with perpetual delight."

The fubject of this truly excellent parallel has been controverted by Mr. Weslon and Mifs Seward, in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1790. Both parties have shown much critical ingenuity in maintaining the pretenfions of their favourite poet. To give any adequate idea of the controversy, would much exceed the limits of this preface. Mr. Weston, with justice, cenfures the poetry of Pope, as too exquifitely polished, too uniformly musical, and as glutting the ear with unvaried sweetness. Judging perhaps by principles, rather than perception, he seems to think studied difcords, varied pauses, triplets, expletives, and Alexandrines, effential to rhyme, because they have been used by Dryden. But the poetry of Pope, though perhaps less impregnated with enthusiafm, less enriched with classical knowledge, less illumined by vivid imagination, and lefs diversified by variety of cadence, is certainly more elaborately correct, more regularly harmonious, more delicately polished, and more systematically dignified, than that of Dryden,

He has even ventured to affert, that Pope was not a poet, but only an elegant verfifier. When he affirms that the author of the Rape of the Lock, of the Dunciad, of Eloifa to Abelard, and of the English lliad, was not a poet, he must mean something by the term different from the general acceptation.

"If Pope be not a poet," says Dr. Johnson, "where is poetry to be found? To circumscribe poetry by a definition, will only show the narrowness of the definer, though a definition which shall exclude Pope, will not easily be made. Let us look round upon the prefent time, and back upon the palt; let us inquire to whom the voice of mankind has decreed the wreath of poetry; let their productions be examined, and their claims flated, and the pretenfions of Pope will no more be disputed. Had he given the world only his verfion, the name of poet must have been allowed him; if the writer of the Iliad were to class his fuccessors, he would affign a very high place to his tranfJator, without requiring any other evidence of genius."

A parallel, upon a more extensive scale, is given by Dr. Warton, in which the poetical qualifica. tions of Pope are as candidly examined, as they are judiciously difcriminated.

" Of Pope's works, the largest portion is of the didactic, moral, and fatyric kind; and confequently not of the most poetic species of poetry: whence it is manifest, that good fenfe and judgment were his characteriftical excellencies, rather than fancy and invention; not that the author of the Rape of the Lock and Eloisa can be thought to want imagination, but because his imagination was not his predominant talent; because he indulged it not, and because he gave not so many proofs of this talent as of the other. This turn of mind led him to admire French models; he studied Boileau attentively, formed himself upon him, as Milton formed himself upon the Grecian and Italian fons of Fancy. He gradually became one of the most correct, even, and exact poets that ever wrote, poJishing his pieces with a care and affiduity that no business or avocation ever interrupted; so that if he does not frequently ravish and transport his reader, yet he does not disgust him with unexpected inequalities and abfurd improprieties. Whatever poetical enthusiasm he actually poffefsed, he withheld and ftified. The perufal of him affects not our minds with fach strong emotions as we feel from Homer and Milton; fo that no man of a true poetical spirit is master of himself while he reads them. Hence he is a writer fit for universal perusal, adapted to all ages and stations, for the old and for the young, the man of business and the scholar. He who would think " Palamon and Arcite," " The Tempeft," or " Comus," childish and romantic, might relish Pope. Surely it is no narrow and niggardly encomium to say, that he is the great poet of reason, the first of ethical authors in verse.

Where then shall we, with justice, be authorised to place our admired Pope? Not assuredly in the fame rank with Spenfer, Shakspeare, and Milton; however justly we may applaud the Eloisa and Rape of the Lock; but, confidering the correctness, elegance, and utility of his works, the weight of fentiment, and the knowledge of man they contain, we may venture to affign him a place next to Milton, and just above Dryden. Yet, to bring our minds steadily to make this decifion, we must forget for a moment the divine " Music Ode" of Dryden, and may perhaps then be compelled to confefs, that though Dryden be the greater genius, yet Pope is the better artifl.

"The preference here given to Pope above other Modern English Poets, it must be remembered, is founded on the excellencies of his works in general, and taken all together; for there are parts and pafsages in other modern authors, in Young and in Thomson for instance, equal to any of Pope; and he has written nothing in a strain so truly fublime as the "Bard of Gray.

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WORKS OF POPE.

EXTRACT FROM DR. WARBURTON'S ADVERTISEMENT

To the Oravo Edition of MR. POPE'S Works, 1751.

MR. Popz, in his last illness, amused himself, a midst the care of his higher concerns, in preparing a corrected and complete edition of his writings; and, with his usual delicacy, was even solicitous to prevent any share of the offence they might occafion, from falling on the friend whom he had engaged to give them to the public.

In difcharge of this trust, the public has here a complete edition of his works, executed in such a manter, as, I am perfuaded, would have been to his fatisfaction.

But it may be proper to be a little more particular concerning the superiority of this edition above all the preceding; so far as Mr. Pope himfelf was concerned. What the editor hath done, the reader must collect for himself.

The first volume, and the original poems in the second, are here printed from a copy corrected throughout by the author himself, even to the very preface; which, with several additional notes in his own hand, he delivered to the editor a little before his death. The Juvenile Translations, in the other part of the second volume, it was never his intention to bring into this edition of his works, on account of the levity of some, the freedom of others, and the little importance of any but these being the property of other men, the editor had it not in his power to follow the author's intention. The third volume, all but the Effay on Man (which, together with the Effay on Criticism, the author, a little before his death, had corrected and published in quarto, as a specimen of his projected edition), was printed by him in his last illness (but never published) in the manner it is now given. The difpofition of the Epistle on the Characters of Men is quite altered; that on the Characters of Women, much enlarged; and the Epistles on Riches and Taste, corrected and improved. To these advantages of the third volume, must be added a great number of fine Verses, taken from the auVOL. VIII.

thor's manuscript copies of these poems, communicated by him for this purpose to the editor. These, when he first published the poems to which they belong, he thought proper, for various reasons, to omit. Some from the manufcript copy of the Effay on Man, which tended to difcredit fate, and to recommend the moral government of God, had, by the editor's advice, been restored to their places in the last edition of that poem. The rest, together with others of the like fort, from his ma nuscript copy of the other Ethic Epistles, are here inferted at the bottom of the page, under the title of Variations.

The fourth volume contains the Satires, with their prologue, the epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, and epilogue, the two poems, intitled M DCC XXXVIII. The prologue and epilogue are here given with the like advantages as the Ethic Epistles in the foregoing volume; that is to say with the variations, or additional verses, from the author's manufcripts. The epilogue to the fatires is likewife enriched with many and large notes, now first printed from the author's own manufcript.

The fifth volume contains a correcter and completer edition of the Dunciad than hath been hitherto published; of which, at present, I have only this farther to add, that it was at my request he laid the plan of a fourth book. I often told him, it was a pity so fine a poem should remain disgraced by the meanness of its fubject, the most infignificant of all dunces, bad rhymers, and malevolent cavillers; that he ought to raife and enoble it, by pointing his fatire against the most pernicious of all, minute philosophers and freethinkers. I imagined too, it was for the interest of religion, to have it known that so great a genius had a due abhorrence of these pests of virtue and society. He came readily into my opinion; but, at the same time, told me it would create him many enemies: he was not mistaken; for though the terror of hie

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pen kept them for some time in respect, yet on his The seventh, eighth, and ninth volumes, confift