afterwards resided at Twickenham, and here he planted the vines and quinces mentioned in his verses.

The publication of the Iliad" was completed in 1720, and the success of this work raised him many enemies, the foremost of whom was Dennis, whom he afterwards lashed so severely in his " Dunciad." The following year he published some select Poems of his friend Dr. Parnell, with an elegant dedication to the Earl of Oxford, then in retirement; and the same year he published an edition of "Shakspere." Of this edition, however, Pope seems never to have reflected without vexation, for Theobald, in his work entitled "Shakspere Restored," and in his subsequent edition of that author, detected the errors of Pope with all the insolence of victory. This check made him a declared enemy to all editors, collators, and verbal critics. However, Dr. Johnson is of opinion that Pope, notwithstanding his manifest errors, has great merit in his edition, and particularly in his Preface.

His next work was a translation of the "Odyssey," which was also undertaken by subscription. Pope, however, translated but twelve books; the remainder were done by Broome and Fenton. His profit on this work was very considerable. Spence, Professor of Poetry at Oxford, published a criticism on this work, written in such a style, that Pope courted his acquaintance, and they ever afterwards lived on terms of the closest intimacy. In 1727, he joined with Dr. Swift in publishing three volumes of their Miscellanies," in which were inscribed the "Memoirs of a Parish Clerk," in ridicule of Bishop Burnet's affected importance, the "Debate on Black and White Horses," in prose, and the "Art of Sinking," in poetry.

The following year he published his "Dunciad" one of the greatest and most elaborate performances, in which he endeavoured to sink into contempt all the writers by whom he had been attacked. He had long borne the insults and injuries of his enemies: but at length, in this work, he made an absolutely universal slaughter of them. Even Cibber, who was afterwards advanced to be the hero of it, could not forbear owning, that nothing was ever more perfect and finished in its kind, than this poem. At the head of his dunces, he placed poor Theobald; and Ralph, for unceasingly interposing in the quarrel, found a place in the second edition. Dennis renewed his enmity to Pope on this fresh attack, and Aaron Hale reduced Pope to the disagreeable necessity of making an apology.

In 1731, he published his poem on 66 Taste," in which, under the name of Timou, the Duke of Chandos was supposed to be ridiculed. The poet was severely lashed for such an attack on an amiable nobleman, and he wrote him an exculpatory letter on the subject.

About this time he published the first part of his System of Ethics, under the title of the Essay on Man :" the second and third epistles were published soon afterwards: those, however, appeared without the author's name; but in the fourth Epistle, published in 1734, he avowed the whole, and claimed the honour of a moral poet. The ground-work of these poems was supplied by Lord Bolingbroke, to whom the " Essay on Man" is addressed. The high reputation which these poems acquired, soon gave rise to many translations, and also to some very severe criticisms, in which Pope was stigmatized as a profound Deist. In the late Dr. Warburton, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester, however, Pope found a most zealous defender; and from that period, Dr. Warburton and Pope lived in the closest habits of intimacy.

It was the intention of Pope that the "Essay on Man" should be sue ceeded by distinct poems on the different duties and conditions of life; one of these poems is the Epistle to Lord Bathurst on the Use of Riches." This is the only piece in which the author has given a hint of his religion. A second was inscribed to Lord Cobham, on the Characters of Men," in which he has endeavoured to establish and exemplify his favourite theory of the ruling passion. To these he soon added his Epistle on the "Character of Women."

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In 1743, Pope began to consider himself as approaching to his end. His friends Lord Bolingbroke and Dr. Warburton, and also Lord Marchmont, were almost continually with him, and endeavoured to alleviate his pain. By his Will, which he made towards the close of the same year, Miss Blunt, a lady to whom he was always devoted, was made his heir during her life; he left his papers to the care of Lord Bolingbroke, and failing him, to Lord Marchmont; and to Warburton the property of all his works, on which Dr. Warburton had written or should write commentaries, except those of which the property had been sold. To his noble friends he left his pictures and statues, with some of his favourite books.

In May, 1744, he found his death near at hand. He had all his life long been subject to the head-ache; and that complaint, which he derived from his mother, was now greatly increased by a dropsy in his breast. He expressed the strongest conviction of the truth of the Christian religion, and of the existence of a future state as certain both from reason and revelation. He received the sacrament from a Romish priest, and declared himself to have lived always of the Roman Catholic persuasion. He died the 30th of May, 1744, in the most perfect tranquillity, and was buried at Twickenham, near his father and mother, where a monument has been erected to him by his friend Warburton. A few days before his death, he had entered the

fifty-seventh year of his age.

The external appearance of Pope was far from being adequate to the excellence of his mind. The mens sana in corpore sano, seems in him to have been reversed; and in the " Guardian," he compares himself to a spider. He appears to have been protuberant both before and behind, and his crooked form gave rise to the smart repartee of the lamp-lighter, who, being asked by Pope if he knew what an interrogation was, replied, "that it was little crooked thing that asked questions.'

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His face was animated and intelligent, but the feebleness of his frame made him sickly and impatient. The waterman, who used to lift him into his boat. stated that he wore stays to sustain himself in sitting up. In this boat he had a sedan-chair, in which be sat, with the blinds down, and in that way he would take an airing on the river, or pay a visit to some of the ladies of honour at Hampton Court. His impatience rendered him a troublesome guest in the many families whom he visited. He was perpetually sending the servants on the most frivolous errands, but took care to compensate them for their trouble by pecuniary rewards. In his eating he was both dainty and voracious; and when he had eaten too much, if a dram was offered him, he pretended to be angry, but nevertheless did not fail to drink it. To his feebleness, and the uneasiness and pain resulting from it, may in a great degree be imputed the irritability and fretfulness of his temper, which often led him into little quarrels, that would make him leave the houses of his friends in the most abrupt manner. With Lady Mary Wortley Montague,

whom he frequently met at Lord Oxford's, he was continually quarreling ; and her ladyship, it must be confessed, very often designedly put the temper of the poet to the trial. It is said that when he had two guests in his house, that he would only set a single pint of wine on the table; but he sometimes gave the most splendid entertainments, and on those occasions the utmost taste and magnificence were displayed. Of his fortune, which was not very considerable, he was excessively proud, infinitely more so indeed than he was of his wit and genius. In the former, he was surpassed by thousands; in the latter, he was surpassed by none.

Notwithstanding, however, the great frugality of Pope, he possessed great generosity. To the unfortunate Savage he was particularly liberal. He supported several persons who were entering a commercial business, and bestowed considerable sums in charity. He was a faithful and constant friend, and, notwithstanding the little defects of his constitutional temper, was beloved by them during his life, and remembered with the most tender affection after his death.

Of all the writings of Pope, the following letter confers upon him the most honour:

"Dear Mr. Gay,

Binfield, September 23, 1714. "Welcome to your native soil! welcome to your friends! welcome to me! whether returned in glory, blest with court interest, the love and familiarity of the great, and filled with agreeable hopes, or melancholy with dejection, contemplative of the changes of fortune, and doubtful for the future whether returned a triumphant Whig, or a desponding Tory, all hail! equally beloved and welcome to me! If happy, I am to share in your elevation; if unhappy, you have still a warm corner in my heart, and a retreat at Binfield in the worst of times, at your service.-If you are a Tory, or thought so by any man, I know it can proceed from nothing but your gratitude to a few people, who endeavoured to serve you, and whose politics were never your concern.-If you are a Whig, as I rather hope, and as I think your principles and mine,- -as brother poets,-had ever a bias to the side of liberty, I know you will be an honest man, and an inoffensive one.— Therefore once more, whatever you are, or in whatever state you are,—all hail!"

Of his intellectual character, the constituent and fundamental principle was good sense, a prompt and intuitive perception of consonance and propriety. He saw immediately, of his own conceptions, what was to be chosen and what to be rejected, and in the works of others what was to be shunned and what was to be copied. His last volumes are all of the moral kind; he has avoided trifles, and "consequently has escaped a rock which has proved very injurious to Swift's reputation.' He has given his imagination full scope, and yet has preserved a perpetual guard upon his conduct.

Dr. Johnson, speaking of his precosity, observes more gracefully than truly, that it might be said of Pope as it was of Pindar, that when he lay in his cradle, "the bees swarmed about his mouth." Had he substituted wasps for bees, the figure would have been rather more accurate. The earliest swarm that is known to have settled on him, produced a piece of scandalous verse on his schoolmaster, for which he was sentenced to a flogging. His hive, instead of being rich in honey, was filled with gall; and it is worthy of note, that the first thing he wrote was a lampoon, and the last thing he uttered was a witticism. A few hours before his death, his physician, out of

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a desire, perhaps, to assuage the pain of thinking about death, assured him that his pulse was good, and that there were also other favourable symptoms. Ah!" exclaimed Pope, "here am I dying of a hundred good symptoms!" On the whole, the moral qualities of Pope were a compound of good interwoven with bad, of strength with weakness; but when they are carefully separated and examined, and the degree of each ascertained, and the general consequence to society considered, we may plainly perceive that the moral excellencies far exceeded the defects.

Warton's "Essay on the writings and genius of Pope," will be read with pleasure by those who desire to know more of the person, character, and writings of this excellent poet. In the mean time. we may introduce the following account of him by Lord Orrery, in his Memoirs of the "Life of Swift.

"If we may judge of him by his works," says this noble author, "his chief aim was to be esteemed a man of virtue. His letters are written in that style; his last volumes are all of the moral kind; he has avoided trifles, and consequently has escaped a rock which has proved very injurious to Dr. Swift's reputation. He has given his imagination full scope, and yet has possessed a perpetual guard upon his conduct. The constitution of his body and mind might really incline him to the habits of caution and reserve. The treatment which he met with afterwards, from an innumerable tribe of adversaries, confirmed his habit; and made him slower than the Dean, in pronouncing his judgment upon persons and things. His prose-writings are little less harmonious than his verse: and his voice, in common conversation, was so naturally musical, that I remember honest Tom Southern used to call him "the little nightingale." His manners were delicate, easy, and engaging; and he treated his friends with a politeness that charmed; and a generosity that was much to his honour. Every guest was made happy within his doors; pleasure dwelt under his roof, and elegance presided at his table."

J. M. T.

"SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME." (Painted by S. Bourdon.

The subject of this picture will be found in the following verses.

13 "And they brought young children to him, that he might touch them; and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.

14 But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.

15 Verily, I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child he shall not enter therein.

16 And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them." Mark, chap. x.

This composition before us displays, in a particular manner, the powers of M. Bourdon; and evinces considerable proficiency in the art, as an historical painter.