he reprefents him under the notion of a mighty tree, "which rifes from the moft vigorous feed, is improved with induftry, flourishes and produces the

fineft fruit, but bears too many branches, which "might be lopped into form, to give it a more regular appearance.

"What! is Homer's poem then, according to Mr. "Pope, a confufed heap of beauties, without erder "or iymmetry, and a plot whereon nothing but feeds, "nor nothing perfect or formed is to be found; and a "production loaded with many unprofitable things, "which ought to be retrenched, and which choak and "disfigure thofe which deferve to be preferved? Mr. "Pope will pardon me if I here oppofe thofe com"parisons, which to me appear very false, and entirely contrary to what the greateft of ancient and "modern critics ever thought.

"The Iliad is fo far from being a wild paradife, that it is the moft regular garden, and laid out with more fymmetry than any ever was. Every thing therein is not only in the place it ought to have "been, but every thing is fitted for the place it hath. "He prefents you, at firft, with that which ought to be firft feen; he places in the middle what ought to be in the middle, and what would be improperly placed at the beginning or end; and he removes "what ought to be at a greater diftance, to create

the more agreeable furprife; and, to ufe a compa"rifon drawn from painting, he places that in the greatest light which cannot be too vilible, and sinks in the obfcurity of the fhade what does not require "a full view; fo that it may be faid that Homer is "the painter who best knew how to employ the fhades

and lights. The fecond comparifon is equally un"juft: How could Mr. Pope fay, that one can only difcover feeds, and the firft productions of every kind in the Iliad ?" Every beauty is there to fuch an amazing perfection, that the following ages could "add

"add nothing to thofe of any kind; and the Ancients "have always propofed Homer as the most perfect "model in every kind of poetry.

"The third comparison is compofed of the errors "of the two former. Homer had certainly an incom"parable fertility of invention, but his fertility is "always checked by that juft fenfe which made him "reject every fuperfluous thing which his vaft imagination could offer, and to retain only what was "neceflary and useful. Judgment guided the hand "of this admirable gardener, and was the prun"ing-hook he employed to lop off every useless "branch."

Thus far Madam Dacier differs in her opinion from Mr. Pope concerning Homer; but thefe remarks, which we have juft quoted, partake not at all of the nature of criticiim; they are mere affertion. Pope had declared Homer to abound with irregular beauties. Dacier has contradicted him, and afferted, that all his beauties are regular; but no reason is alligned by either of thefe mighty geniufes in fupport of their opinions, and the reader is left in the dark as to the real truth. If he is to be guided by the authority of a name only, no doubt the argument will preponderate in favour of our countryman. The French lady then proceeds to answer fome obfervations which Mr. Pope made upon her Remarks on the Iliad, which the performs with a warmth that generally attends writers of her fex. Mr. Pope, however, paid more regard to this fair antagonist than any other critic upon his works. He confeld that he had received great helps from her, and only thought he had (through a prodigious and almoft fuperftitious fondnefs for Homer) endeavoured to make him appear without any fault or weakness, and ftamp a perfection on his works which is no where to be found, Here wrote her a very obliging letter, in which he confeffed himself exceedingly forry that he ever fhould

have difpleafed fo excellent a wit; and fhe, on the other hand, with a goodness and franknefs peculiar to her, protested to forgive it; fo that there remained no animofities between those two great admirers and tranflators of Homer.

Mr. Pope, by his fuccefsful tranflation of the Iliad, as we have before remarked, drew upon him the envy and raillery of a whole tribe of writers. Though he did not esteem any particular man amongst his enemies of confequence enough to provoke an anfwer, yet, when they were confidered collectively, they offered excellent materials for a general fatire. This fatire he planned and executed with fo extraordinary a maffery, that it is by far the most complete poem of our Author's ; it is intitled the Dunciad, and discovers more invention, and a higher effort of genius, than any other production of his. The hint was taken from Mr. Dryden's Mac Flecknoe; but as it is more general, fo it is more pleafing.

The Dunciad has been fo univerfally read, that we reckon it fuperfluous to give any further account of it here; and it would be an unpleafing task to trace all the provocations and refentments which were mutually discovered upon this occafion. Mr. Pope was of opinion that, next to praifing good writers, there was a merit in expofing bad ones; though it does not hold infallibly true that each perfon ftigmatized as a dunce was genuinely fo. Something must be allowed to perfonal refentment. Mr. Pope was a man of keen paffions; he felt an injury ftrongly, retained a long remembrance of it, and could very pungently repay it. Some of the gentlemen, however, who had been more feverley lafhed than the reft, meditated a revenge which redounds but little to their honour. They either intended to chaftife him corporally, or gave it out that they had really done fo, in order to bring fhame upon Mr. Pope, which, if true, could only bring shame upon themselves. The

The "Dunciad," in the complete edition, is addreffed to Dr. Swift. Of the notes, part were written by Dr. Arbuthnot; and an apologetical Letter was prefixed, figned by Cleland, but supposed to have been written by Pope.

After this general war upon Dulness, he seems to have indulged himself awhile in tranquillity; but his fubfequent productions prove that he was not idle. He published (1731) a poem on "Tafte," in which he very particularly and feverely criticifes the house, the furniture, the gardens, and the entertainments, of Timon, a man of great wealth and little tafte. By Timon he was univerfally fuppofed, and by the Earl of Burlington, to whom the poem is addressed, was privately faid to mean the Duke of Chandos; a man perhaps too much delighted with pomp and show, but of a temper kind and beneficent, and who had confequently the voice of the public in his favour.

A violent outcry was therefore raifed against the ingratitude and treachery of Pope, who was faid to have been indebted to the patronage of Chandos for a thousand pounds, and who gained the opportunity of infulting him by the kindness of his invitation.

The receipt of the thousand pounds Pope publicly denied; but from the reproach which the attack on a character fo amiable brought upon him, he tried all means of escaping. The name of Cleland was again employed in an apology, by which no man was fatisfied; and he was at laft reduced to shelter his temerity behind diffimulation, and endeavour to make that disbelieved which he never had confidence openly to deny. He wrote an exculpatory letter to the Duke, which was answered with great magnanimity, as by a man who accepted his excufe without believing his profeffions. He faid, that to have ridiculed his taste, or his buildings, had been an indifferent action in another man; but that in Pope, after the reciprocal VOL. I. kindness

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kindness that had been exchanged between them, it had been lefs easily excufed.

The following year deprived him of Gay, a man whom he had known early, and whom he feemed to love with more tenderness than any other of his literary friends. Pope was now forty-four years old; an age at which the mind begins lefs eafily to admit new confidence, and the will to grow leis flexible, and when therefore the departure of an old friend is very acutely felt.

In the next year he loft his mother, not by an unexpected death, for he had lafted to the age of ninetythree; but he did not die unlamented. The filial piety of Pope was in the highest degree amiable and exemplary; his parents had the happiness of living till he was at the fummit of poetical reputation, till he was at eafe in his fortune, and without a rival in his fame, and found no diminution of his refpect or tendernefs. Whatever was his pride, to them he was obedient; and whatever was his irritability, to them he was gentle. Life has, among its foothing and quiet comforts, few things better to give than fuch a fon.

In 1733 he published the first part of the "Effay "on Man." This poem had a form and title with which its readers were unacquainted. Its reception was not uniform; fome thought it a very imperfect piece, though not without good lines. While the author was unknown, fome, as will always happen, fayoured him as an adventurer, and fome cenfured him as an intruder; but all thought him above negle&t; the fale increafed, and editions were multiplied. The fecond and third parts were foon after publifhed; and, in 1734, the fourth; when Pope avowed himself the author, and claimed the honour of a moral poet.

About this time Warburton began to make his appearance in the firft ranks of learning. He was a man of vigorous faculties, a mind fervid and vehement, fupplied by inceffant and unlimited enquiry, with wonderful extent and variety of knowledge, which

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