Pope's "Essay on Man."

191 the exercise of the satirist's art. "He seems," says Johnson with melancholy scorn, "to be of an opinion not very uncommon in the world, that to want money is to want everything." How far mere personal indignation could lead him is shown by the fact that when, in 1741, he published a revised edition of the "Dunciad," to which the fourth book was added, he degraded Theobald from his former position as hero, and placed Colley Cibber, who had offended him in the interval between 1728 and 1741, in his stead. The change altered the "Dunciad" greatly for the worse. Theobald was really a very dull man; Colley Cibber, on the other hand, was decidedly lively and clever, so that the ridicule which was applicable enough to Theobald loses all its pungency when applied to him. Like many writers who are careless how much pain they may give to others, Pope felt any attack on himself with the intensest keenness. On one occasion, when a pamphlet of Cibber's against him came into his hands while Richardson the painter was with him, Pope turned to Richardson and said, "These things are my diversion." Richardson watched him as he perused it, and saw his features writhing with anguish ! In the "Essay on Man," published in 1732, Pope attempted to deal in verse with a philosophical topic which was then exciting much attention. The "Essay on Man," says Mr. Mark Pattison in the Introduction to his admirable edition of it, "was composed at a time when the reading public in this country were occupied with an intense and eager curiosity by speculation on the first principles of natural religion. Everywhere, in the pulpit, in the coffee-houses, in every pamphlet, argument on the origin of evil, on the goodness of God, and the constitution of the world was rife. Into the prevailing topic of polite conversation, Bolingbroke, who returned from exile in 1723, was drawn by the bent of his native genius. Pope followed the example and impulse of his friend's more powerful mind. Thus much there was of special suggestion; but the arguments or topics of the poem are to be traced to books in much vogue at the time." There is now a pretty general consensus of critical opinion as to the "Essay on Man."

Its philosophy is poor, borrowed, and inadequate. Pope did not understand what he was writing about, and mixed up in congruous statements; but it has kept and will keep its place in literature owing to its masterly execution, its many felicitous phrases, and the great beauty of occasional passages. When the "Essay" first appeared, many assailed it on account of its alleged heterodoxy. Pope was annoyed at the charge, and was therefore delighted when an unexpected auxiliary rushed to his aid in the person of William Warburton (1698–1779), who afterwards rose to be Bishop of Gloucester, and whose very paradoxical work, "The Divine Legation of Moses," is still remembered. By helping Pope in his difficulty, Warburton thought he saw an opportunity for advancing his own fame and fortune, and he therefore vindicated the orthodoxy of the "Essay on Man" in a series of articles which appeared in a monthly publication called The Works of the Learned. The substance of these articles was afterwards, at Pope's request, formed into a commentary-a very tedious and worthless production, it may be said in passing-and printed in the next edition of the "Essay." Pope never ceased to be grateful to Warburton for the service he had done him, and on the death of the poet, which occurred in 1744, Warburton found he had been appointed his literary executor. He discharged the duties of his office arrogantly, carelessly, and dishonourably.

The careful research of Pope's latest editors, and particularly of Mr. Whitwell Elwin, if it has not materially altered the estimate of Pope's private character which may be derived from the perusal of Johnson's Life of him, with its curious undertone of latent scorn, has proved beyond all possibility of doubt that he was frequently guilty of treachery, falsehood, and hypocrisy. Anxious to have his letters printed in his lifetime, and desirous of an excuse for so unusual an act, he contrived that an alleged surreptitious edition of these should be published, so as to give him a colourable pretext for printing an authentic edition. Great allowances are to be made for a man like Pope, with his deformed figure and his weak health, which debarred him from many of the common pleasures of

London Society in Pope's Time.

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mankind. It is only natural that such a man should be peevish, irritable, and, if possessed of talents, insatiate of praise and impatient of censure; but Pope's habitual duplicity cannot be condoned even by his most lenient judges. The most pleasing feature of his character is his unwearying tenderness to his parents, and the sincere affection and esteem which he appears to have felt for a large and brilliant circle of friends. "I never in my life," said Bolingbroke by his deathbed, "knew a man who had so tender a heart for his particular friends, or a more general friendship for mankind." This "general friendship for mankind" did not prevent him from traducing cruelly all who happened to offend him; but the statement of his love for his particular friends may be accepted without reservation.

Like the other writers of the time when his fame reached its zenith, Pope in all his works had "the town" in view when he wrote. All the chief authors of that period appealed in their style, their mode of treatment, their sentiments, their descriptions, their satires to an audience of Londoners. It is this which gives the poetry of the age its polish, neatness, and clearness; it is this also which gives it its artificiality, and which accounts for the absence from it of any deep emotional feeling, and for its poverty as regards natural description. Pope's poetry is the mirror of his age, as it presented itself before one who saw it with the eyes of a man to whom metropolitan society constituted the world. "He shows us the rise of woman as a controlling power in society and politics; the extension among the nobility of an Italian taste in painting and architecture; the hatred felt by the Catholics for the moneyed middle-class, which was the backbone of the Revolution, the mainstay of Whiggery, and the bulwark of Protestantism. In his satires, too, we see a mirror of the feelings of the Parliamentary Opposition directed by Bolingbroke and Pulteney; of their rancour against Walpole's foreign and domestic policy; of the relations between the court and the party of the Prince of Wales; of the popular dislike of the Hanoverian dynasty and of Low Church principles. Besides, we have suggestive glimpses of the interior of society at a time

when St. James's was in the extreme west-end of London, and old Burlington House was but just built. The 'British youth' appear at their diversions at White's Chocolate House, Hocklyin-the-Hole, or Fig's Academy. Complaints are heard from polite society of the degradation of the stage in consequence of the public passion for spectacles. The penniless 'man of rhyme waiks forth' from the Mint, and the dealings of the ill-lodged bard of Drury Lane with his aristocratic or commercial patrons are exposed in the full light of pitiless ridicule. As we read, the society of the past rises before us in its dramatic reality. The age in many respects may have had the defects of the poet, but, like him, it was not without its generous qualities; it is, at least, full of human and historical interest, whether it be regarded as the period when the British Empire first began to rise, or as the aristocratic stage of English society, in which the realities of character displayed themselves with a frankness wanting in our democratic times, when the individual is apt to disguise his natural impulses in deference to public opinion."

Among the poets who were contemporary with Pope, a few deserve notice. Matthew Prior (1664–1721) affords one of the most striking instances on record of the extraordinary rewards sometimes bestowed on literary merit in the reign of Queen Anne. He received a good education at Westminster School, and was then employed by his uncle, who kept a tavern near Charing Cross, as his assistant. In this uncongenial situation his love of literature did not forsake him, and one day the Earl of Dorset by chance found the vintner's boy reading. Horace. This was the turning-point of Prior's fortunes. The Earl, who was celebrated for his patronage of genius, was so well pleased with Prior's proficiency, that he undertook the care and cost of his education. Prior passed through his academical career with credit, and soon after obtained great popularity by his authorship, in conjunction with Montague, of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse," in ridicule of Dryden's "Hind and Panther." Upon the merits of this parody, which attained great celebrity at the time, opinions

differ considerably. Mr. Saintsbury, a very acute critic, thinks that it has had the honour of being more overpraised than perhaps anything of its kind in English literature.1 Soon after its publication Prior was taken into the service of the State, and rose to various high diplomatic appointments, justifying the choice of his patrons by his industry and dexterity. A happy retort of his, uttered when he was secretary to the English embassy at Paris, has been often quoted. When he was being shown the pictures of the victories of Louis XIV. painted on the walls of the apartments of Versailles, he was asked whether the King of England's palace had any such decorations. "The monuments of my master's actions," replied Prior, "are to be seen everywhere but in his own house." On the death of Queen Anne, Prior's diplomatic career came to an end, and for a time he laboured under considerable difficulties, from which, however, he was at length. relieved by the success of a subscription edition of his poems, and by the generous assistance of the Earl of Oxford. Prior's serious poems are worthless and unreadable, but his songs and humorous pieces, though not over-delicate, are lively and spirited enough of their kind. "Johnson speaks slightingly of his lyrics," says Thackeray, "but with due deference to the great Samuel, Prior's seems to me among the easiest, the richest, the most charmingly humorous of English lyrical poeins. Horace is always in his mind, and his song, and his philosophy, his good sense, his happy easy turns and melody, his loves and Epicureanism, bear a great resemblance to that most delightful and accomplished master. In reading his works, one is struck by their modern air, as well as by their happy similarity to the songs of the charming owner of the Sabine farm." This is too high commendation; but the fact that Prior's lyrical pieces obtained such praise from a man like Thackeray shows that, slight and somewhat artificial as they are, they possess a considerable degree of genuine excellence. John Gay, who was born in the same year as Pope, was one of those ineffectual, helpless, likeable men, who pass through

1 Monograph on Dryden, p. 97.