Thy genius calls thee not to purchase fame 2 Leave writing plays, and choose for thy command There thou mayst wings display, and altars raise, THE CHARACTER OF A GOOD PARSON.3 A PARISH priest was of the pilgrim train; His Rich was his soul, though his attire was poor (1) Iambics-Satirical writings were generally composed in iambic verse. (2) Anagram, &c.-This and the next five lines allude to the fantastic modes of verse-writing in which the small wits of the day indulged. (3) This is a sort of translation, as Dryden himself calls it, of Chaucer's "Character of a Good Parson" (for which see p. 241), but it is so different in many respects from the original, that it is more correctly a new building upon the old foundation. It will be useful and interesting to the reader to compare them together. (4) As God had-as if God had himself. For, letting down the golden chain' from high, But sweetly tempered awe, and softened all he spoke. He taught the gospel rather than the law, 2 He melts, and throws his cumbrous cloak away; Yet of his little he had some to spare, To feed the famished and to clothe the bare: A poorer than himself he would not see. "True priests," he said, "and preachers of the word, Nothing was theirs, but all the public store; (1) The golden chain, &c.-There is nothing of the kind in Chaucer. The idea is derived from the golden chain which is represented by Homer as attached to the foot of Jupiter's throne, and reaching to earth-a beautiful emblem of providential care. (2) Melts, &c.-This idea seems to be derived from Æsop's fable of "The Sun and the Wind." (3) Cursed, &c.-In allusion to an awful ceremony of the Romish Church, in which curses were chaunted from a book, and a bell tolled at intervals. (4) Pinched the more-i. e. denied themselves to pay his dues. Who, should they steal for want of his relief, The proud he tamed, the penitent he cheered, His preaching much, but more his practice wrought, They who contend for place and high degree, Such was the saint, who shone with every grace, POPE. PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF HIS LIFE.-Alexander Pope, the most distinguished of Dryden's followers and disciples, was born in London, in 1688. His attachment to poetry was very early developed. He says of himself— "As yet a child, and all unknown to fame, lisped in numbers, for the numbers came." As his father was a Roman Catholic, he did not receive a university education, but was carefully instructed both at home and at school by various Romish priests, until he reached the age of twelve, at which time, with singular decision and perseverance, "he formed," says Dr. Johnson, "a plan of study, which he completed with little other incitement than the desire of excellence." An important event in this early stage of his life was his being taken, at his own request, to a coffee-house frequented by Dryden, to see the eminent poet whose greatness was soon to be succeeded by his own. Dryden died about three weeks before Pope was twelve years old. His father, formerly a linen-draper in the Strand, had, some little time before this, retired from business with a considerable fortune, and was now residing at Binfield, in Windsor Forest; and here the youthful poet cultivated the genius of which he felt conscious, and ranged at will over the fair fields of ancient and modern literature. He soon became known as an author, by the publication of the "Pastorals," and subsequently, by the "Essay on Criticism," which at once formed for him the reputation that he maintained, by his numerous other writings, until his death, in 1774, at Twickenham. 99.66 PRINCIPAL WORKS.-His first work was, as above intimated, the "Pastorals," or "Spring," "Summer," "Autumn," and "Winter," which he wrote at the age of sixteen. His most important_subsequent poems were the "Essay on Criticism," Rape of the Lock,' Temple of Fame,' "Windsor Forest," "translations of the and "Odyssey, Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard," 'Essay on Man," The Messiah," "Imitations of Horace," Moral Epistles," and "The Dunciad." "Iliad 22 t وو 66 CHARACTERISTIC SPIRIT AND STYLE." In attempting to describe those characteristics which are peculiar to Pope, and by which he is more particularly distinguishable, both from those who preceded him and those who have followed him, we may, in the first place, observe in all his writings a striking, expressive, and energetic manner, so peculiar as to carry with it a conviction that no other person could have compressed the same sentiments into such narrow limits with such full effect. At the same time, he is always equal and consistent with himself; in whatever he attempts, he always succeeds; whether he rises or falls, he does it with equal grace; the one displays no effort, the other no weakness. હું "2. He always goes directly to his point, and occupies no useless time. To his writings nothing can be added but what would be superfluous; from them nothing can be taken away but what would occasion a deficiency. He does not say all that can be said, but all that ought to be said. "3. He is always alive and attentive to his subject, and he keeps his readers so. On whatever subject he writes, there is a continual and rapid variety, that plays upon the imagination, and surprises, elevates, softens, or in some other manner affects or delights the mind; yet this is never dwelt upon, so as to become tiresome or disgusting. A quick sense of propriety distinguishes all he says. His tact is sure. He feels for the reader, and never offers him anything but what is acceptable. This is a perpetual compliment to the good sense, or perhaps the self-love of the reader, who perceives that he is never treated with disrespect or neglect, and that the author has not only done all that was in his power, but all that was possible to be done, to gratify him. "4. Though highly ornamented, he exhibits no ambitious love of ornament; nothing but what his subject demands. No unnecessary similes are introduced to illustrate a proposition which is sufficiently clear already. Pope well knew that the finest figures of speech, brought forward for their own sake, are an impertinence, not an ornament. • 5. But perhaps the superlative merit of Pope consists in the point and correctness of his language, which is truly English, and exhibits no instances of being debased or intermixed with the French or any other foreign idioms. It would not be too much to say that if every English writer were to be corrected, so as to bring him to a true standard, there would be less to alter in Pope than in any other. 6. To these particular endowments of Pope, as a poet, we may add, the variety which he has displayed, not only in the choice of his subjects, but in the manner in which he has treated them. There is scarcely a subject, from the simplest description to |