He was convinced, by adding one circumstance dulgences, or that mankind expect from elevated to another, that the other translation was the work genius a uniformity of greatness, and watch its deof Addison himself; but, if he knew it in Addison's gradation with malicious wonder; like him who, life-time, it does not appear that he told it. He having followed with his eye an eagle into the left his illustrious antagonist to be punished by clouds, should lament that she ever descended to a what has been considered as the most painful of all perch. reflections, the remembrance of a crime perpe- While the volumes of his 'Homer' were annutrated in vain. ally published, he collected his former works The other circumstances of their quarrel were (1717) into one quarto volume, to which he prethus related by Pope.* fixed a Preface, written with great sprightliness

Phillips seemed to have been encouraged to and elegance, which was afterwards reprinted, abuse me in coffee-houses and conversations: and with some passages subjoined that he at first omitGildon wrote a thing about Wycherley, in which ted; other marginal additions of the same kind he he had abused both me and my relations very made in the latter editions of his poems. Waller grossly. Lord Warwick himself told me one day, remarks, that poets lose half their praise, because that it was in vain for me to endeavour to be well the reader knows not what they have blotted. with Mr. Addison; that his jealous temper would Pope's voracity of fame taught him the art of obnever admit of a settled friendship between us: taining the accumulated honour, both of what he and, to convince me of what he had said, assured had published, and of what he had suppressed. me, that Addison had encouraged Gildon to publish In this year his father died very suddenly, in his those scandals, and had given him ten guineas after seventy-fifth year, having passed twenty-nine they were published. The next day, while I was years in privacy. He is not known but by the heated with what I had heard, I wrote a letter to character which his son has given him. If the Mr. Addison, to let him know that I was not un- money with which he retired was all gotten by acquainted with this behaviour of his; that, if I was himself, he had traded very successfully in times to speak severely of him in return for it, it should when sudden riches were rarely attainable. not be in such a dirty way; that I should rather The publication of the Iliad' was at last comtell him, himself, fairly of his faults, and allow pleted in 1720. The splendour and success of this his good qualities; and that it should be something work raised Pope many enemies, that endeavoured in the following manner; I then adjoined the first to depreciate his abilities. Burnet, who was afsketch of what has since been called my satire on terwards a judge of no mean reputation, censured Addison. Mr. Addison used me very civilly ever him in a piece called 'Homerides' before it was after."t published. Ducket likewise endeavoured to make

The verses on Addison, when they were sent to him ridiculous. Dennis was the perpetual perseAtterbury, were considered by him as the most ex-cutor of all his studies. But, whoever his critics cellent of Pope's performances; and the writer was were, their writings are lost; and the names which advised, since he knew where his strength lay, are preserved, are preserved in the 'Dunciad.' not to suffer it to remain unemployed.

In this disastrous year (1720) of national infatuThis year (1715) being, by the subscription, ation, where more riches than Peru can boast were enabled to live more by choice, having persuaded expected from the South Sea, when the contagion his father to sell their estate at Binfield, he pur- of avarice tainted every mind, and even poets chased, I think only for his life, that house at panted after wealth, Pope was seized with the Twickenham, to which his residence afterwards universal passion, and ventured some of his money. procured so much celebration, and removed thither The stock rose in its price; and for a while he with his father and mother. thought himself the lord of thousands. But this

Here he planted the vines and the quincunx dream of happiness did not last long; and he seems which his verses mention; and being under the ne- to have waked soon enough to get clear with the cessity of making a subterraneous passage to a gar-loss of what he once thought himself to have won, den on the other side of the road, he adorned it and perhaps not wholly of that.

with fossile bodies, and dignified it with the title Next year he published some select poems of his of a grotto, a place of silence and retreat, from friend Dr. Parnell, with a very elegant Dedication which he endeavoured to persuade his friends and to the Earl of Oxford; who, after all his struggles himself that cares and passions could be excluded. and dangers, then lived in retirement, still under A grotto is not often the wish or pleasure of an the frown of a victorious faction, who could take no Englishman, who has more frequent need to solicit pleasure in hearing his praise. than exclude the sun; but Pope's excavation was He gave the same year (1721) an edition of requisite as an entrance to his garden, and, as some 'Shakspeare.' His name was now of so much aumen try to be proud of their defects, he extracted thority, that Tonson thought himself entitled by an ornament from an inconvenience, and vanity annexing it, to demand a subscription of six guineas produced a grotto where necessity enforced a pas- for Shakspeare's plays in six quarto volumes; nor sage. It may be frequently remarked of the stu- did his expectation much deceive him; for of seven dious and speculative, that they are proud of tri- hundred and fifty which he printed, he dispersed fles, and that their amusements seem frivolous and a great number at the price proposed. The repachildish; whether it be that men, conscious of great tation of that edition indeed sunk afterwards so reputation, think themselves above the reach of low, that one hundred and forty copies were sold censure, and safe in the admission of negligent in- at sixteen shillings each.

* Spence.

On this undertaking, to which Pope was induced

† See, however Life of Addison, in the Biographia Bri-by a reward of two hundred and seventeen pounds

tannica.

twelve shillings, he seems never to have reflected

afterwards without vexation; for Theobald, a man of heavy diligence, with very slender powers, first, in a book called 'Shakspeare Restored,' and then in a formal edition, detected his deficiencies with all the insolence of victory; and, as he was now high enough to be feared and hated, Theobald had from others all the help that could be supplied, by the desire of humbling a haughty character. From this time Pope became an enemy to edi-been found; but Pope complained, as it is reported, tors, collators, commentators, and verbal critics; that he had much trouble in correcting them, and hoped to persuade the world, that he miscarried in this undertaking only by having a mind too great for such minute employment.

The first copy of Pope's books, with those of Fenton, are to be seen in the Museum. The parts of Pope are less interlined than the Iliad; and the latter books of the 'Iliad' less than the former. He grew dexterous by practice, and every sheet enabled him to write the next with more facility. The books of Fenton have very few alterations by the hand of Pope. Those of Broome have not

His contract with Lintot was the same as for the 'Iliad,' except that only one hundred pounds were to be paid him for each volume. The number of subscribers were five hundred and seventy-four, and of copies eight hundred and nineteen; so that his profits, when he had paid his assistants, were still very considerable. The work was finished in 1725; and from that time he resolved to make no more translations.

The sale did not answer Lintot's expectation; and he then pretended to discover something of fraud in Pope, and commenced or threatened a suit in Chancery.

Pope, in his edition, undoubtedly did many things wrong, and left many things undone; but let him not be defrauded of his due praise. He was the first that knew, at least the first that told, by what helps the text might be improved. If he inspected the early editions negligently, he taught others to be more accurate. In his Preface he expanded with great skill and elegance the character which had been given of Shakspeare by Dryden; and he drew the public attention upon his works, which, though often mentioned, had been little read. On the English 'Odyssey' a criticism was pubSoon after the appearance of the Iliad,' resolv-lished by Spence, at that time Prelector of Poetry ing not to let the general kindness cool, he publish- at Oxford; a man whose learning was not very ed proposals for a translation of the 'Odyssey,' in great, and whose mind was not very powerful. His five volumes, for five guineas. He was willing, criticism, however, was commonly just; what he however, now to have associates in his labour, thought, he thought rightly: and his remarks were being either weary with toiling upon another's recommended by his coolness and candour. In him thoughts, or having heard, as Ruffhead relates, that Fenton and Broome had already begun the work, and liking better to have them confederates than rivals.

Pope had the first experience of a critic without malevolence, who thought it as much his duty to display beauties as expose faults: who censured with respect, and praised with alacrity.

In the patent, instead of saying that he had With this criticism Pope was so little offended, "translated the Odyssey," as he had said of the that he sought the acquaintance of the writer, who 'Iliad,' he says, that he had "undertaken" a trans-lived with him from that time in great familiarity, lation; and in the proposals the subscription is said to be not solely for his own use, but for that of "two of his friends who have assisted him in this work."

In 1723, while he was engaged in this new version, he appeared before the Lords at the memorable trial of Bishop Atterbury, with whom he had lived in great familiarity, and frequent correspondence. Atterbury had honestly recommended to him the study of the Popish controversy, in hope of his conversion; to which Pope answered in a manner that cannot much recommend his principles, or his judgment. In questions and projects of learning, they agreed better. He was called at the trial to give an account of Atterbury's domestic life, and private employment, that it might appear how little time he had left for plots. Pope had bat few words to utter, and in those few he made several blunders.

attended him in his last hours, and compiled memorials of his conversation. The regard of Pope recommended him to the great and powerful; and he obtained very valuable preferments in the Church.

Not long after, Pope was returning home from a visit in a friend's coach, which, in passing a bridge, was overturned into the water; the windows were closed, and being unable to force them open, he was in danger of immediate death, when the postillion snatched him out by breaking the glass, of which the fragments cut two of his fingers in such a manner, that he lost their use.

Voltaire, who was then in England, sent him a letter of consolation. He had been entertained by Pope at his table, where he talked with so much grossness, that Mrs. Pope was driven from the room. Pope discovered, by a trick, that he was a spy for the court, and never considered him as a man worthy of confidence.

His letters to Atterbury express the utmost esteem, tenderness, and gratitude; "perhaps," says He soon afterwards (1727) joined with Swift, he, "it is not only in this world that I may have who was then in England, to publish three volumes Cause to remember the Bishop of Rochester." At of Miscellanies,' in which, amongst other things, their last interview in the Tower, Atterbury pre- he inserted the 'Memoirs of a Parish Clerk,' in sented him with a Bible. ridicule of Burnet's importance in his own History, Of the Odyssey' Pope translated only twelve and a 'Debate upon Black and White Horses,' books; the rest were the work of Broome and Fen-written in all the formalities of a legal process, by to the notes were written wholly by Broome, the assistance, as is said, of Mr. Fortescue, afterwho was not over liberally rewarded. The public wards Master of the Rolls. Before these 'Miscelwas carefully kept ignorant of the several shares; lanies' is a Preface signed by Swift and Pope, but and an account was subjoined at the conclusion, apparently written by Pope, in which he makes a which is now known not to be true. ridiculous and romantic complaint of the robberies

committed upon authors by the clandestine seizurejas had casually got abroad, there was added to and sale of their papers. He tells, in tragic them the Treatise of the Bathos,' or the 'Art of strains, how "the cabinets of the Sick and the Sinking in Poetry.' It happened that, in one chap. closets of the Dead have been broken open and ter of this piece, the several species of bad poetz ransacked;" as if those violences were often com- were ranged in classes, to which were prefixed almitted for papers of uncertain and accidental value, most all the letters of the alphabet (the greatest which are rarely provoked by real treasures; as if part of them at random;) but such was the number epigrams and essays were in danger where gold of poets eminent in that art, that some one or other and diamonds are safe. A cat hunted for his musk took every letter to himself: all fell into so violent is, according to Pope's account, but the emblem of a fury, that, for half a year or more, the common a wit winded by booksellers. newspapers (in most of which they had some proHis complaint, however, received some attesta-perty, as being hired writers) were filled with the tion; for the same year the Letters written by him most abusive falsehoods and scurrilities they could to Mr. Cromwell, in his youth, were sold by Mrs. possibly devise; a liberty no way to be wondered Thomas to Curll, who printed them. at in those people, and in those papers, that, for

In these Miscellanies was first published the many years during the uncontrolled license of the 'Art of Sinking in Poetry,' which, by such a train press, had aspersed almost all the great characters of consequences as usually passes in literary quar- of the age; and this with impunity, their own perrels, gave, in a short time, according to Pope's ac-sons and names being utterly secret and obscure. count, occasion to the Dunciad.' "This gave Mr. Pope the thought, that he had In the following year (1728) he began to put now some opportunity of doing good, by detecting Atterbury's advice in practice; and showed his and dragging into light these common enemies of satirical powers by publishing the Dunciad,' one mankind; since, to invalidate this universal slanof his greatest and most elaborate performances, in der, it sufficed to show what contemptible men which he endeavoured to sink into contempt all the were the authors of it. He was not without hopes, writers by whom he had been attacked, and some that, by manifesting the dulness of those who had others whom he thought unable to defend them- only malice to recommend them, either the bookselves. sellers would not find their account in employing At the head of the Dunces he placed poor Theo- them, or the men themselves, when discovered, bald, whom he accused of ingratitude; but whose want courage to proceed in so unlawful an occupareal crime was supposed to be that of having re-tion. This it was that gave birth to the 'Dunciad;' vised Shakspeare more happily than himself. This and he thought it a happiness, that by the late flood satire had the effect which he intended, by blast- of slander on himself, he had acquired such a peing the characters which it touched. Ralph, who, culiar right over their names as was necessary to unnecessarily interposing in the quarrel, got a this design.

place in a subsequent edition, complained that for "On the 12th of March, 1729, at St. James's, a time he was in danger of starving, as the book-that poem was presented to the King and Queen sellers had no longer any confidence in his capacity. (who had before been pleased to read it) by the The prevalence of this poem was gradual and right honourable Sir Robert Walpole; and, some slow: the plan, if not wholly new, was little un-days after, the whole impression was taken and derstood by common readers. Many of the allu- dispersed by several noblemen and persons of the sions required illustration; the names were often first distinction.

expressed only by the initial and final letters, and "It is certainly a truc observation, that no peoif they had been printed at length, were such as ple are so impatient of censure as those who are the few had known or recollected. The subject itself greatest slanderers, which was wonderfully exemhad nothing generally interesting; for whom did it plified on this occasion. On the day the book was concern to know that one or another scribbler was first vended, a crowd of authors besieged the shop; a dunce? If therefore it had been possible for intreaties, advices, threats of law and battery, nay those who were attacked to conceal their pain and cries of treason, were all employed to hinder the their resentment, the 'Dunciad' might have made coming out of the Dunciad;' on the other side, the its way very slowly in the world. booksellers and hawkers made as great efforts to

This, however, was not to be expected: every procure it. What could a few poor authors do man is of importance to himself, and therefore, in against so great a majority of the public? There his own opinion, to others; and, supposing the was no stopping a torrent with a finger; so out it world already acquainted with all his pleasures came.

and his pains, is perhaps the first to publish inju

"Many ludicrous circumstances attended it. The ries or misfortunes, which had never been known Dunces (for by this name they were called) held unless related by himself, and at which those that weekly clubs, to consult of hostilities against the hear them will only laugh; for no man sympathises author; one wrote a letter to a great minister, aswith the sorrows of vanity. suring him Mr. Pope was the greatest enemy the The history of the 'Dunciad' is very minutely government had; and another bought his image in related by Pope himself, in a Dedication which he clay, to execute him in effigy; with which sad sor wrote to Lord Middlesex in the name of Savage. of satisfaction the gentlemen were a little com"I will relate the War of the Dunces' (for so it has been commonly called,) which began in the "Some false editions of the book having an ow year 1727, and ended 1730. in their frontispiece, the true one, to distinguish it "When Dr. Swift and Mr. Pope thought it pro-fixed in his stead an ass laden with authors. Ther per, for reasons specified in the Preface to their another surreptitious one being printed with the Miscellanies, to publish such little pieces of theirs same ass, the now edition in octavo returned, fo

forted.

distinction, to the owl again. Hence arose a great [not idle. He published (1731) a poem on 'Taste,' contest of booksellers against booksellers, and ad- in which he very particularly and severely critivertisements against advertisements; some recom-cises the house, the furniture, the gardens, and the mending the edition of the owl, and others the edi-entertainments of Timon, a man of great wealth tion of the ass; by which name they came to be and little taste. By Timon he was universally distinguished, to the great honour also of the gen- supposed, and by the Earl of Burlington, to whom tlemen of the Dunciad." " the poem is addressed, was privately said, to mean

Pope appears by his narrative to have contem- the Duke of Chandos; a man perhaps too much deplated his victory over the Dunces with great ex- lighted with pomp and show, but of a temper kind ultation; and such was his delight in the tumult and beneficent, and who had consequently the voice which he had raised, that for a while his natural of the public in his favour. sensibility was suspended, and he read reproaches and invectives without emotion, considering them only as the necessary effects of that pain which he rejoiced in having given.

A violent outery was therefore raised against the ingratitude and treachery of Pope, who was said to have been indebted to the patronage of Chandos for a present of a thousand pounds, and who gained the It cannot however be concealed, that, by his own opportunity of insulting him by the kindness of his confession, he was the aggressor: for nobody believes invitation.

that the letters in the Bathos' were placed at ran- The receipt of the thousand pounds Pope publicly dom: and it may be discovered that when he thinks denied; but from the reproach which the attack on himself concealed, he indulges the common vanity a character so amiable brought upon him, he tried of common men, and triumphs in those distinctions all means of escaping. The name of Cleland was which he had affected to despise. He is proud that again employed in an apology, by which no man his book was presented to the King and Queen by was satisfied; and he was at last reduced to shelter the right honourable Sir Robert Walpole; he is his temerity behind dissimulation, and endeavour proud that they had read it before; he is proud that to make that disbelieved which he never had conthe edition was taken off by the nobility and per-fidence openly to deny. He wrote an exculpatory sons of the first distinction. letter to the Duke, which was answered with

The edition of which he speaks was, I believe, great magnanimity, as by a man who accepted his that which, by telling in the text the names, and excuse without believing his professions. He said, in the notes the characters, of those whom he had that to have ridiculed his taste, or his buildings, satirised, was made intelligible and diverting. The had been an indifferent action in another man; but critics had now declared their approbation of the that in Pope, after the reciprocal kindness that had plan, and the common reader began to like it with-been exchanged between them, it had been less out fear; those who were strangers to petty litera- easily excused. ture, and therefore unable to decipher initials and Pope, in one of his Letters, complaining of the blanks, had now names and persons brought within treatment which his poem had found, "owns that their view; and delighted in the visible effect of such critics can intimidate him, nay almost persuade those shafts of malice, which they had hitherto him to write no more, which is a compliment this contemplated, as shot into the air. age deserves." The man who threatens the world

Dennis, upon the fresh provocation now given is always ridiculous; for the world can easily go on him, renewed the enmity which had for a time without him, and in a short time will cease to miss been appeased by mutual civilities; and published him. I have heard of an idiot, who used to reremarks, which he had till then suppressed, upon venge his vexations by lying all night upon the the Rape of the Lock.' Many more grumbled in bridge. "There is nothing," says Juvenal, “that secret, or vented their resentment in the newspa- a man will not believe in his own favour." Pope pers by epigrams or invectives. had been flattered till he thought himself one of the

Ducket, indeed, being mentioned as loving Bur-moving powers in the system of life. When he net with "pious passion," pretended that his moral talked of laying down his pen, those who sat round character was injured, and for some time declared him intreated and implored: and self-love did not his resolution to take vengeance with a cudgel. But suffer him to suspect that they went away and Pope appeased him, by changing "pious passion" laughed. to “cordial friendship;" and by a note, in which he vehemently disclaims the malignity of meaning imputed to the first expression.

The following year deprived him of Gay, a man whom he had known early, and whom he seemed to love with more tenderness than any other of his Aaron Hill, who was represented as diving for literary friends. Pope was now forty-four years the prize, expostulated with Pope in a manner so old; an age at which the mind begins less easily to much superior to all mean solicitation, that Pope admit new confidence, and the will to grow less was reduced to sneak and shuffle, sometimes to flexible; and when, therefore, the departure of an deny, and sometimes to apologize; he first endea-old friend is very acutely felt.

meant a blow.

vours to wound, and is then afraid to own that he In the next year he lost his mother, not by an unexpected death, for she had lasted to the age of The Dunciad,' in a complete edition, is ad-ninety-three: but she did not die unlamented. The dressed to Dr. Swift: of the notes, part were writ-filial piety of Pope was in the highest degree amiten by Dr. Arbuthnot; and an apologetical Letter able and exemplary; his parents had the happiness was prefixed, signed by Cleland, but supposed to of living till he was at the summit of poetical repuhave been written by Pope. tation, till he was at ease in his fortune, and withAfter this general war upon Dulness, he seems out a rival in his fame, and found no diminution of to have indulged himself a while in tranquillity; his respect and tenderness. Whatever was his but his subsequent productions prove that he was pride, to them he was obedient; and whatever was

C

his irritability, to them he was gentle. Life has, [purpose of vindicating his own property by a genuamong its soothing and quiet comforts, few things ine edition, he offered to pay the cost. better to give than such a son. This however Pope did not accept; but in time One of the passages of Pope's life, which seems solicited a subscription for a Quarto volume, which to deserve some inquiry, was a publication of Let-appeared (1737,) I believe, with sufficient profit. ters between him and many of his friends, which In the preface he tells, that his Letters were refalling into the hands of Curll, a rapacious book-posited in a friend's library, said to be the Earl of seller of no good fame, were by him printed and Oxford's, and that the copy thence stolen was sent sold. This volume containing some Letters from to the press. The story was doubtless received noblemen, Pope incited a prosecution against him with different degrees of credit. It may be susin the House of Lords for a breach of privilege, and pected that the Preface to the 'Miscellanies' was attended himself to stimulate the resentment of his written to prepare the public for such an incident; friends. Curll appeared at the bar, and, knowing and to strengthen this opinion, James Worsdale, a himself in no great danger, spoke of Pope with very painter, who was employed in clandestine negolittle reverence: "He has," said Curll, " a knack tiations, but whose veracity was very doubtful, at versifying, but in prose I think myself a match declared that he was the messenger who carried, for him." When the orders of the House were by Pope's direction, the books to Curll. examined, none of them appeared to have been infringed; Curl went away triumphant; and Pope was left to seek some other remedy.

When they were first published and avowed, as they had relation to recent facts, and persons either then fiving or not yet forgotten, they may be supCurll's account was, that one evening a man in a posed to have found readers; but as the facts were clergyman's gown, but with a lawyer's band, minute, and the characters, being either private or brought and offered to sale a number of printed literary, were little known, or little regarded, volumes, which he found to be Pope's epistolary they awakened no popular kindness or resentment; correspondence; that he asked no name, and was the book never became much the subject of convertold none, but gave the price demanded, and thought sation; some read it as a contemporary history, and himself authorised to use his purchase to his own some perhaps as a model of epistolary language: advantage. but those who read it did not talk of it. Not much

That Curll gave a true account of the transaction therefore was added by it to fame or envy; nor do it is reasonable to believe, because no falsehood was I remember that it produced either public praise, ever detected: and when, some years afterwards, or public censure.

I mentioned it to Lintot, the son of Bernard, he It had, however, in some degree, the recommendeclared his opinion to be, that Pope knew better dation of novelty. Our language had few Letters, than any body else how Curll obtained the copies, except those of statesmen. Howel, indeed, about because another parcel was at the same time sent a century ago, published his Letters, which are to himself for which no price had ever been de-commended by Morhoff, and which alone, of his manded, as he made known his resolution not to hundred volumes, continue his memory. Lovepay a porter, and consequently not to deal with a day's Letters were printed only once; those of nameless agent. Herbert and Suckling are hardly known. Mrs. Such care had been taken to make them public, Phillips [Orinda's] are equally neglected. And that they were sent at once to two booksellers: to those of Walsh seem written as exercises, and Curll, who was likely to seize them as a prey; and were never sent to any living mistress or friend. to Lintot, who might be expected to give Pope in- Pope's epistolary excellence had an open field; he formation of the seeming injury. Lintot, I believe, had no English rival living or dead. did nothing; and Curll did what was expected. Pope is seen in this collection as connected with That to make them public was the only purpose the other contemporary wits, and certainly suffers may be reasonably supposed, because the numbers, no disgrace in the comparison; but it must be reoffered to sale by the private messengers, showed membered, that he had the power of favouring himthat hope of gain could not have been the motive self; he might have originally had publication in of the impression. his mind, and have written with care, or have af

It seems that Pope, being desirous of printing his terwards selected those which he had most hapLetters, and not knowing how to do, without im- pily conceived, or most diligently laboured; and 1 putation of vanity, what has in this country been know not whether there does not appear something done very rarely, contrived an appearance of com- more studied and artificial in his productions than pulsion; that, when he could complain that his Let- the rest, except one long Letter by Bolingbroke, ters were surreptitiously published, he might de- composed with the skill and industry of a professed cently and defensively publish them himself. author. It is indeed not easy to distinguish affecPope's private correspondence, thus promulgated, tation from habit; he that has once studiously formfilled the nation with praises of his candour, tender-ed a style rarely writes afterwards with complete ness, and benevolence, the purity of his purposes, ease. Pope may be said to write always with his and the fidelity of his friendship. There were reputation in his head; Swift, perhaps, like a man some Letters which a very good or a very wise who remembered he was writing to Pope; but man would wish suppressed; but as they had been Arbuthnot, like one who lets thoughts drop from already exposed, it was impracticable now to re- his pen as they rise into his mind. tract them.

Before these Letters appeared, he published the From the perusal of those Letters, Mr. Allen first part of what he persuaded himself to think a first conceived the desire of knowing him; and with system of Ethics, under the title of an Essay on so much zeal did he cultivate the friendship which Man:' which, if his Letter to Swift (of September he had newly formed, that, when Pope told his 14, 1735) be rightly explained by the commentator,