This induced La Bruyere to say, "Que Despreaux paroissoit creer les pensees d'autrui." Both he and POPE might have answered their* accusers, in the words with which Virgil is said to have replied to those who accused him of borrowing all that was valuable in his Eneid from Homer, "CUR NON ILLI QUOQUE EADEM FURTA TENTARENT? VERUM INTELLECTUROS, FACILIUS ESSE HERCULI CLAVUM, QUAM HOMERO VERSUM, SURRIPERE."†

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The Jesuits, that wrote the journals of Trevoux, strongly object plagiarism to Boileau.

+ Donat. in Vit. Virgil.

WE are now arrived at a poem of that species, for which our author's genius was particularly turned, the DIDACTIC and the MORAL; it is, therefore, as might be expected, a master-piece in its kind. I have been sometimes inclined to think, that the praises Addison has bestowed on it, were a little partial and invidious. "The observations (says he) follow one another like those in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that metho dical regularity which would have been requisite in a prose writer."* It is, however, certain, that the poem before us is by no means destitute of a just integrity, and a lucid order: each of the precepts and remarks naturally introduce the suc

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*Spectator, No. 253.

ceeding

ceeding ones, so as to form an entire whole. The ingenious Dr. Hurd hath also endeavoured to shew, that Horace observed a strict method, and unity of design, in his Epistle to the Pisones; and that, although the connexions are delicately fine, and almost imperceptible, like the secret hinges of a well-wrought box, yet they artfully and closely unite each part together, and give coherence, uniformity and beauty to the work. The Spectator adds, “The observations in this essay are some of them uncommon.' There is, I fear, a small mixture of ill-nature in these words: for this ESSAY, though on a beaten subject, abounds in many new remarks, and original rules, as well as in many happy and beautiful illustrations, and applications, of the old

We are, indeed, amazed to find such a knowledge of the world, such a maturity of judg. ment, and such a penetration into human nature, as are here displayed, in so very young a writer as was POPE when he produced this ESSAY, for he was not twenty years old. Correctness, and a just taste, are usually not attained but by long practice and experience in any art; but a clear head, and strong sense, were the characteristical

1

qualities

qualities of our author; and every man soonest displays his radical excellencies. If his predominant talent be warmth and vigor of imagina tion, it will break out in fanciful and luxuriant descriptions, the colouring of which will, perhaps, be too rich and glowing. If his chief force lies in the understanding rather than in the imagination, it will soon appear by solid and manly observations on life or learning, expressed in a more chaste and subdued style. The former will frequently be hurried into obscurity or turgidity, and a false grandeur of diction; the lat ter will seldom hazard a figure, whose usage is not already established, or an image beyond common life; will always be perspicuous, if not elevated; will never disgust, if not transport, his readers; will avoid the grosser faults, if not arrive at the greater beauties, of composition. The "eloquentiæ genus," for which he will be distinguished, will not be the "plenum et erectum, et audax, et præcelsum," but the " pressum, et mite, et limatum.”* In the earliest letters of POPE to Wycherly, to Walsh, and Cromwell, we

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find

* Quintil. 1. xi. c. 1.

find many admirable and acute judgments of men and books, and an intimate acquaintance not only with some of the best Greek and Roman, particularly the latter, but the most celebrated of the French and Italian classics.

Du Bos* fixes the period of time at which, generally speaking, the poets and the painters have arrived at as high a pitch of perfection as their geniuses will permit, to be the age of thirty years, or a few years more or less. Virgil was near thirty when he composed his first Eclogue. Horace was a grown man when he began to be talked of at Rome as a poet, having been formerly engaged in a busy military life. Racine was about the same age when his ANDROMACHE, which may be regarded as his first good tragedy, was played. Corneille was more than thirty when his CID appeared. Despreaux was full thirty when he published his satires, such as we now have them. Moliere was full forty when he wrote the first of those comedies on which his reputation is founded. But to excel in this spe

cies

* Sect. x. 2.