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afferted was done in the true spirit of Homer? In matters of genius the public judgment feldom errs, and in this cafe pofterity has confirmed the fentence of that age which gave the preference to Mr. Pope: for his tranflation is in the hands of all readers of tafte, while the other is feldom regarded but as a foil to Pope's.

It would appear as if Mr. Addifon were himself fo immerfed in party bufinefs as to contract his benevolence to the limits of a faction, which was infinitely beneath the views of a philofopher, and the rules which that excellent writer himfelf eftablished. If this was the failing of Mr. Addifon, it was not the error of Pope, for he kept the ftricteft correspondence with fome persons whofe affections to the Whig intereft were sufpected, yet was his name never called in queftion, While he was in favour with the Duke of Buckingham, the Lords Bolingbroke, Oxford, and Harcourt, Dr. Swift, and Mr. Prior, he did not drop his correfpondence with the Lord Halifax, Mr. Craggs, and most of those who were at the head of the Whig intereft. A profeffed Jacobite one day remonftrated to Mr. Pope, that the people of his party took it ill that he should write with Mr. Steele upon ever fo indifferent a fubject; at which he could not help fmiling, and obferved, that he hated narrownefs of foul in any party; and that if he renounced his reafon in religious matters, he fhould hardly do it on any other; and that he could pray, not only for oppofite parties, but even for oppofite religions. Mr. Pope confidered himself as a citizen of the world, and was therefore obliged to pray for the profperity of mankind in general. As a ton of Britain, he withed thofe councils might be fuffered by Providence to prevail which were moft for the intereft of his native country; but as politics was not his ftudy, he could not always determine, at leaft with any degree of certainty, whole councils were beft; and had charity enough to believe that contending parties might mean well. As tafte and science are confined to no country,

fo ought they not to be excluded from any party; and Mr. Pope had an unexceptionable right to live upon terms of the strictest friendship with every man of parts, to which party foever he might belong. Mr. Pope's uprightness in his conduct towards contending politicians, is demonftrated by his living independent of either faction: he accepted no place, and had too high a spirit to become a pensioner.

Many efforts were made to profelyte Pope from the Popish faith, which all proved ineffectual. His friends conceived hopes, from the moderation which he on all occafions expreffed, that he was really a Proteftant in his heart, and that upon the death of his mother he would not fcruple to declare his fentiments, notwithftanding the reproaches he might incur from the Popish party, and the public obfervation it would draw upon him. The Bishop of Rochefter ftrongly advised him to read the controverted points between the Protestant and the Catholic church, to fuffer his unprejudiced reason to determine for him, and he made no doubt but a feparation from the Romish communion would foon enfue. To this Mr. Pope very candidly anfwered, "Whether the change would be to my fpiritual ad"vantage God only knows: this I know, that I mean "as well in the religion I now profefs, as ever I can "do in any other. Can a man who thinks fo justify a change, even if he thought both equally good? To "fuch an one the part of joining with any one body of "Chriftians might perhaps be ealy, but I think it "would not be lo to renounce the other.

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"Your Lordship has formerly advised me to read "the best controverfies between the Churches. Shall "I tell you a fecret? I did fo at fourteen years old, "for I loved reading, and my father had no other "books. There was a collection of all that had been "written on both fides in the reign of King James II. "I warmed my head with them, and the confequence 66 was, I found myself a Papist or a Proteftant by turns,

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"according to the last book I read. I am afraid most "feekers are in the fame cafe, and when they stop, "they are not fo properly controverted as outwitted. "You fee how little glory you would gain by my con"verfion; and, after all, I verily believe your Lord"fhip and I are both of the fame religion, if we were thoroughly understood by one another, and "that all honeft and reasonable Chriftians would be "fo, if they did but talk enough together every day, " and had nothing to do together but to serve God, " and live in peace with their neighbours.

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"As to the temporal fide of the question, I can "have no difpute with you; it is certain all the bene"ficial circunftances of life, and all the fhining ones, "lie on the part you would invite me to: but if I "could bring myself to fancy, what I think you do "but fancy, that I have any talents for active life, I "want health for it; and befides, it is a real truth, I "have, if poffible, lefs inclination than ability. Con"templative life is not only my fcene, but is my habit "too. I begun my life where most people end theirs, "with a difguft of all that the whole world calls am"bition. I don't know why it is called fo; for, to

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me, it always feemed to be rather stooping than "climbing. I'll tell you my politic and religious "fentiments in a few words: in my politics I think "no farther than how to preferve my peace of life in 66 any government under which I live; nor in my re"ligion than to preferve the peace of my confcience in "in any church with which I communicate. I hope "all churches and all governments are fo far of God, "as they are rightly understood, and rightly admi❝ftered; and where they are, or may be, wrong, I "leave it to God alone to mend or reform them, which, "whenever he does, it must be by greater inftruments “than I am. I am not a Papist, for I renounce the temporal invafions of the papal power, and deteft "their arrogated authority over princes and states.

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"I am a Catholic in the ftricteft fenfe of the word. "If I was born under an abfolute prince I would be "a quiet fubject; but I thank God I was not. Ι "have a due fenfe of the excellence of the British "conftitution. In a word, the things I have always "wished to fee are not a Roman Catholic, or a French "Catholic, or a Spanish Catholic, but a true Catho"lic; and not a king of Whigs, or a king of Tories, "but a king of England."

Thefe are the peaceful maxims upon which we find Mr. Pope conducted his life; and if they cannot in fome refpects be juftified, yet it must be owned that his religion and his politics were well enough adapted for a poet, which entitled him to a kind of univerfal patronage, and to make every good man his friend.

Dean Swift fometimes wrote to Mr. Pope on the topic of changing his religion, and once humorously offered him twenty pounds for that purpofe. Mr. Pope's answer to this Lord Orrery has obliged the world by preferving in the life of Swift. It is a perfect masterpiece of wit and pleafantry.

We have already taken notice that Mr. Pope was called upon by the public voice to tranflate the Iliad, which he performed with fo much applause, and, at the fame time, with fo much profit to himielf, that he was envied by many writers whofe vanity, perhaps, induced them to believe themselves equal to fo great a defign. A combination of inferior wits were employed to write the Popiad, in which his tranflation is characterized as unjuft to the original, without beauty of language, or variety of numbers. Inftead of the jufnels of the original, they fay there is abfurdity and extravagance: initead of the beautiful language of the original, there is folecifm and barbarous Erglifh. A candid reader may eafily difcern from this furious introduction, that the critics were actuated Father by malice than truth, and that they muft judge

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with their eyes shut, who can see no beauty of language, no harmony of numbers, in this tranflation.

But the most formidable critic against Mr. Pope in this great undertaking was the celebrated Madam Dacier, whom Mr. Pope treated with lefs ceremony in his Notes on the Iliad, than, in the opinion of fome people, was due to her fex. This learned lady was not without a fenfe of the injury, and took an opportunity of difcovering her refentment.

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"Upon finishing," fays fhe, "the second edition of tranflation of Homer, a particular friend fent me a tranflation of part of Mr. Pope's Preface to his "verfion of the Iliad. As I do not understand Eng"lifh, I cannot form any judgment of his performance, "though I have heard inuch of it. I am indeed wil"ling to believe, that the praises it has met with are "not unmerited, because whatever work is approved "by the English nation cannot be bad; but yet I hope "I may be permitted to judge of that part of the "preface which has been tranfmitted to me; and I "here take the liberty of giving my fentiments con"cerning it. I most freely acknowledge that Mr. "Pope's invention is very lively, though he feems to "have been guilty of the fame fault into which he "owns we are often precipitated by our invention, "when we depend too much upon the strength of it; "as magnanimity, fays he, may run up to confufion "and extravagance, fo may great invention to redun"dancy and wildness.

"This has been the very cafe of Mr. Pope himself: "nothing is more overftrained, or more falfe, than "the images in which his fancy has reprefented Ho"mer. Sometimes he tells us that the Iliad is a wild

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paradife, where, if he cannot fee all the beauties, as "in an ordered gaiden, it is only because the number "of them is infinitely greater. Sometimes he com66 pares him to a copious nurfery, which contains the "feeds and first productions of every kind; and, lastly,

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