this could be no more than a bare recommendation, fince our author himself affures us, in the epistle above mentioned, that he broke no duty, nor disobeyed any parent by commencing poet "I left no calling for this idle trade, By the time he was fifteen, having made a very refpectable proficiency in the learned languages, he expreffed a very strong defire of removing to London, in order to learn French and Italian. His family, whofe folicitude chiefly regarded the improvement and preservation of his health, and who knew that his miferable infirm state of body, would never suffer him to travel abroad, where those languages might be of most use to him, could not help confidering his design as wild and extravagant. He nevertheless perfifted in it; and they yielding to his importunities, he came to town, where he mastered thofe languages with furprizing difpatch. It was very remarkable, that though he was vastly impatient of restraint in the common fcholaftic forms of education, yet, now he was his own mafter, he readily fubjected himself to the fatigue and drudgery of perpetually recurring to grammars and dictionaries: by which means, with a ftrong appetite for knowlege, which made him intent on every fubject he read, he infenfibly made himself mafter of the learned and modern languages, His paffion for poetry, however, being predominant, he was eager to explore all the treafures of Parnaffus; and between this and his twentieth year, he devoted himself entirely to the reading of the most confiderable poets and critics in the Greek, Latin, French, Italian and English languages. About this time likewife, he made a tranflation of Tully de Senectute, a copy of which, it is faid, is preserved in Lord Oxford's library.) In all this time, he has been heard to declare that he never read any treatise on the art of logic or rhetoric. Locke indeed fell into his hands, but he confeffed that his effay was at firft quite infipid to him. Nature, however, having early disposed him to method in his compofitions, and philofophic reflection quickly following, and foon enabling him to correct the flights of his imagination, as clearly appears from his juvenile letters, he became delighted with that precision of thought, which is the characteristic of that immortal effay and Mr. Locke had fo warmed and fortified his innate love of truth, that the only thing, he used to fay, he could never forgive his philofophic master, was the dedication to the effay *. He likewife read Sir William Temple's effays; but when he met with any thing political in them, he owned that he had no manner of relish for * This dedication, though it contains many juft and fenfible remarks, is in general couched under fuch terms of unmanly adulation, as degrade the scholar and the philofopher. it. This difrelish for politics, continued through out his whole life: and farther than a warm love for his country, which never could miflead him, and for his friends, which fometimes, perhaps, did, (that is, his judgment only) his indifference at laft ended in averfion. In a word, his early ftudies were confined to poetry, and the Belles Lettres *. But ftill, as he affures us, he read without any defign but that of pleasing himself. He profecuted fuch ftudies as accident threw in his way, or as the caprice of fancy inclined him to purfue. He used to obferve, that, during this time, he was like a boy gathering flowers. in the fields and woods, juft as they rose before him; and he always fpoke of these four or five years, which were paffed in mere curiofity and amufement, as the most pleasing part of his life. Whenever he met with any paffage or ftory which delighted him more than common, it was his cuftom to imitate it. But he has often declared, that the firft propenfity to imitation, proceeded rather from motives of modefty, than vanity. He perceived how defective his own productions were, and endeavoured to mend his compofition by copying the capital strokes of others and thus he became a poet, as the best artifts have become painters, by copying from *He used to declare, that of the Latin poets, he preferred Statius next after Virgil; and that of the Italian, he liked Taffo better than Ariofto. His tafte in this latter respect had not been viciated like Milton's, by much reading of the Gothic romances of chivalry. 6 the the antients; with this difference only, that as he frequently copied the beft moderns likewife, which those painters had not the fame opportu nity of doing in their art, he as commonly excelled as he copied.) Mr. POPE's difcernment, however, was too acute not to perceive the defects of fuch irregular and defultory habits of study. For though a retentive memory and correct judgment enabled him to remedy many of those defects, they at the fame time contributed to render him more fenfible of them all. At twenty therefore, when the impetuofity of his fpirits began to fubfide, and his genius grew more patient of reftraint, he fubjected himself to the toil of renewing his ftudies from the beginning, and went through the feveral parts of a learned education, upon a more regular and well-digested plan. He penetrated into the general grounds and reafons of fpeech; he learnt to distinguish the several species of ftile; he ftudied the peculiar idiom of each language, with the genius and character of each author; he mastered those parts of philofophy and hiftory*, which mostly contributed to enrich the ftore of fentiment: *Our author in his riper years, used to say, that the true ufe of reading was not to know facts, but to underftand human nature, and therefore recommended the study of history. "I fhould read, faid he, in a very different manner now than when I had my early fit of reading, from 14 to 20. Then it was merely from the amusement the ftory afforded me, now it fhould be with the view of learning how to make myfelf and others better. and lastly, he reduced his natural talent for poetry, to a science. From the age of twenty to twenty-feven, he purfued this fyftem with unremitted attention and severity; and he used to say, that he had spent these seven years, in unlearning all that he had acquired before. Many circumftances, however, contributed to fix him in a habit of perfevering industry. His conftitution was too infirm and delicate to fuftain the violent agitations of licentious pleasures: fo that his tender frame preferved him from thofe modes of intemperance, to which genius, in particular, has often proved a victim. The ftrength of the paffions, as has been hinted, will always be in proportion to the vigour of the imagination. For true genius, as is well obferved by a critic whom I fhall shortly have occafion to mention, rarely refides in a cold phlegmatic conftitution. But his fickly state of health foon making him fenfible of fenfual exceffes, he was early checked from giving way to thofe allurements, which, unlefs the mind is armed with a due portion of firmness, lead to every fpecies of inertnefs and diffipation. Perhaps too the uncomelinefs of his perfon, might not be without fome effect. It has been well remarked by Lord Bacon, that whoever hath any thing fixed in his perfon, that doth induce contempt, hath alfo a perpetual spur within himself, to refcue and deliver himfelf from fcorn. This confideration, therefore, might render |