"forl won't save any thing by you, I am deter"mined. This was all faid and done with "his usual seriousness on such occafions: And " in spite of every thing we could say to the contrary, he actually obliged us to take the money." I SECT. IX. Of the ESSAY on MAN. F it be a true obfervation, that for a poet to write happily and well, he must have seen and felt what he defcribes, and must draw from living models alone; and if modern times, from their luxury and refinement, afford not manners that will bear to be defcribed; it will then follow, that those species of poetry bid faireft to fucceed at prefent, which treat of things, not men; which deliver doctrines, not difplay events. Of this fort fort is didactic and defcriptive poetry. Accordingly the moderns have produced many excellent pieces of this kind. We may mention the Syphilis of Fracaftorius, the Silkworms and Chefs of Vida, the Ambra of Politian, the Agriculture of Alamanni, the Art of Poetry of Boileau, the Gardens of Rapin, the Cyder of Phillips, the Chafe of Somerville, the Pleasures of Imagination, the Art of preferving Health, the Fleece, the Religion of Racine the younger, the elegant Latin poem of Brown on the Immortality of the Soul, the Latin poem of STAY, and the philofophical poem before us, THE ESSAY ON MAN is as close a piece of argument, admitting its principles, as perhaps can be found in verfe. POPE informs us in his way FIRST preface, "that he chose this epiftolary of writing, notwithstanding his subject "was high, and of dignity, because of its being mixed with argument which of its na"ture approacheth to profe." He has not wandered into any useless digreffions, has em ployed ployed no fictions, no tale or ftory, and has relied chiefly on the poetry of his ftile, for the purpose of interesting his readers. His ftile is concife and figurative, forcible and elegant. He has many metaphors and images, artfully interfperfed in the drieft paffages, which stood moft in need of fuch ornaments. Nevertheless there are too many lines, in this performance, plain and profaic. The meaner the subject is of a preceptive poem, the more ftriking appears the art of the poet : It is even of use to chuse a low subject. In this respect Virgil had the advantage over Lucretius; the latter with all his vigour and fublimity of genius, could hardly fatisfy and come up to the grandeur of his theme. POPE labours under the fame cafe. If any beauty in this Effay be uncommonly tranfcendent and peculiar, it is, BREVITY OF DICTION; which, in a few inftances, and thofe pardonable, have occafioned obfcurity. It is hardly to be imagined how much sense, how much thinking, how much obfervation on human life, is condensed together in a small compafs. He was fo accuf tom d tomed to confine his thoughts in rhyme, that he tells us, he could exprefs them more fhortly this way, than in profe itself. On its first publication, POPE did not own it, and it was given by the public to Lord Paget, Dr. Young, Dr. Defaguliers, and others. Even Swift seems to have been deceived: There is a remarkable paffage in one of his letters. "I confefs I did never imagine you were fo deep in morals, or that fo many new and excellent rules could be produced so advantageously and agreeably in that science, from any one head. I confefs in fome places I was forced to read twice; I believe I told before what the Duke of D- faid to me on that occafion; how a judge here who knows you, told him, that on the first reading those effays, he was much pleased, but found fome lines a little dark: On the fecond, most of them cleared up, and his pleasure increased: On the third, he had no doubt remaining, and then he admired the whole *." you VOL. II, • Letters, vol. IX, pag. 140. THE THE fubject of this Effay is a vindication of providence, in which the poet proposes to prove, that of all poffible fyftems, infinite wisdom has formed the beft: That in fuch a system, coherence, union, fubordination, are neceffary; and if so, that appearances of evil, both moral and natural, are also necessary and unavoidable; That the feeming defects and blemishes in the universe, confpire to its general beauty; That as all parts in an animal are not eyes, and as in a city, comedy, or picture, all ranks, characters, and colours, are not equal or alike; even fo, exceffes, and contrary qualities, contribute to the proportion and harmony of the universal system; That it is not ftrange, that we should not be able to discover perfection and order in every instance; because, in an infinity of things mutually relative, a mind which fees not infinitely, can fee nothing fully. This doctrine was inculcated by Plato and the Stoics, but more amply and particularly by the later Platonists, and by Antoninus and Simplicius. In illustrating his subject, POPE has been deeply indebted to |