unwarrantable latitude) is one of the means that must be employed to render poetry agreeable. For most comprehenfive mind. Wit, and humour, and learning too, they feem to have poffeffed in equal meafure; or, if Dryden may be thought to have gone deeper in the sciences, Pope must be allowed to have been the greater adept in the arts. The diversities in point of correctness and delicacy, which arose from their different ways of life, I do not now infift upon. But, fetting those afide, if Dryden founds any claim of preference on the originality of his manner, we fhall venture to affirm, that Pope may found a fimilar claim, and with equal justice, on the perfection of his tafte; and that, if the critical writings of the firft are more voluminous, those of the fecond are more judicious; if Dryden's inventions are more diverfified, thofe of Pope are more regular, and more important. Pope's ftyle may be thought to have lefs fimplicity, less vivacity, and lefs of the pu rity of the mother-tongue; but is at the fame time more uniformly elevated, and lefs debafed by vulgarism, than that of his great mafter :- and the fuperior variety that animates the numbers of the latter, will perhaps be found to be compenfated by the steadier and more majestic modulation of the former. Thus far their merits would appear to be pretty equally balanced. But if the opi nion of those critics be true, who hold that the highest regions of Parnaffus are appropriated to pathos and fublimity, Dryden must after all confefs, that he has never afcended so far as his illuftrious imitator: there being nothing in the writings of the first so deeply pathetic as the Epiftle of Eloifa, or the Elegy on the Unfortunate Lady; nor fo uniformly fublime as the Effay on Man, or the Paftoral of the Meffiah. This laft is indeed but a felection and imitation of choice paffages; but it befpeaks a power of imitation, and a tafte in felection, that Dryden does not feem to have poffeffed. To all which may I not be permitted to add, what I think I could prove, that the pathos of Homer is frequently improved For by instruction I do not here understand merely the communication of moral and physical truth. Whatever tends to raise thofe human affections that are favourable to truth and virtue, or to reprefs the oppofite paffions, will always gratify and improve our moral and intellectual powers, and may properly enough be called inftructive. by Pope, and that of Virgil very frequently debased by Dryden? The writings of Dryden are ftamped with originality, but are not always the better for that circumftance. Pope is an imitator profeffedly, and of choice; but to most of those whom he copies he is at least equal, and to many of them fuperior: and it is pleafing to obferve, how he rifes in proportion to his originals. Where he fol lows Denham, Buckingham, Rofcomon, and Rochefter, in his Windfor-foreft, Effay on Criticism, and poem on Silence, he is fuperior indeed, but does not foar very high above them. When he verfifies Chaucer, he catches, as by instinct, the cafe, fimplicity, and fpirit of Dryden, whom he there emulates. In the Rape of the Lock he outfhines Boileau, as much as the fylphs that flutter round Belinda exceed in fprightlinefs and luminous beauty thofe mechanical attendants of the goddefs of luxury, who knead up plumpnefs for the chin of the canon, and pound vermilion for the cheek of the monk. His Eloifa is beyond all comparison more fub lime and more interefting than any of Ovid's letterwriting ladies. His imitations of Horace equal their ar chetypes in elegance, and often furpafs them in energy and fire. In the lyric ftyle, he was no match for Dryden but when he copies the manner of Virgil, and bor. rows the thoughts of Ifaiah, Pope is fuperior not only to himfelf, but to almost all other poets. *See Rape of the Lock, canto 2. verf. 55.; and Lutrin, chant. 2. verf. 100. All All poetry, therefore, is intitled to this epithet, not only which imparts knowledge we had not before; but also which awakens our pity for the fufferings of our fellow-creatures; promotes a tafte for the beauties of nature animated or inanimate; makes vice appear the object of indignation or ridicule; inculcates a fenfe of our dependence upon Heaven; fortifies our minds against the evils of life; or promotes the love of virtue and wisdom, either by delineating their native charms, or by fetting before us in fuitable colours the dreadful confequences of imprudent and immoral conduct. There are few good poems of length, that will not be found in one or more or perhaps in feveral of these respects, to promote the instruction of a reader of tafte. Even the poem of Lucretius, notwithstanding its abfurd philofophy, (which, when the author gives way to it, divefts him for a time of the poetical, and even of the rational, character), abounds in fentiments of great beauty and high importance; and in fuch delightful pictures of nature, as muft inflame the enthufiafin wherewith a well-informed mind contemplates the wonders and glories of creation. Who can attend to the execrable defigns of Iago, to Macbeth's progrefs through the feveral stages of guilt and mifery, to the ruin that overtakes the impious and tyrannical Mezentius, to the thoughts and machinations of Satan and his angels in Paradife Loft, without pay ing a fresh tribute of praise to virtue, and renewing his refolutions to persevere in the paths of innocence and peace! Nay the machinery of Homer's deities, which in many parts I abandon as indefenfible, will, if I mistake not, generally appear, where-ever it is really pleafing, to have somewhat of an useful tendency. I fpeak not now of the importance of machinery, as an instrument of the fublime and of the marvellous, neceffary to every epic poem; but of Homer's ufe of it in those paffages where it is fuppofed by fome to be unneceffary. And in these, it often ferves to fet off a fimple fact with allegorical decoration, and, of course, by interesting us more in the fable, to impress upon us more effectually the inftruction conveyed in it. And fometimes it is to be confidered, as nothing more than a perfonification of the attributes of the divinity, or the operations of the human foul. And, in general, it teaches emphatically this important leffon, that Providence ever fuperintends the affairs of men; that injustice and impiety are peculiarly obnoxious to divine vengeance; and that a proper attention to religious and moral duty, never fails to recommend both nations and individuals to the divine favour. But if instruction may be drawn from the fpeeches and behaviour of Milton's devils, of Shakespeare's Macbeth, and of Virgil's Mezentius, why is Cowley blamed for a phrase, which at worst implies only a flight fally fally of momentary pride? I answer, that to speak seriously the language of intemperate paffion, is one thing; to imitate or defcribe it another. By the former, one can never merit praise or esteem; by the latter one may merit much praise, and do much good. In the one cafe, we recommend intemperate paffions by our example; in the other, we may render them odious, by dif playing their abfurdity and confequences. To the greater part of his readers an author cannot convey either pleasure or instruction, by delivering fentiments as his own, which contradict the general confcience of mankind. Well; but Dryden, in the paffage lately quoted and cenfured, does not deliver his own fentiments, but only defcribes those of another why then should he be blamed for making the unfortunate plowman irreligious? Why? Because he mifrepresents his author's meaning; and (which is worfe) counteracts his defign. The defign of the Latin poet was, not to expatiate on the punishment due to blafphemy or atheism, but to raise pity, by defcribing the melancholy effects of a plague fo fatal to the brute creation: - a theme very properly introduced in the conclufion of a poem on the art of rearing and preferving cattle. Now, had Virgil faid, as Dryden has done, that the farmer who loft his work-beast was a blafphemer, we should not have pitied him at all. But Virgil says on ly, |