282 PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION, 



comprehensive. According to the definition which many would 

 give, much that Pope has written, would scarcely come under 

 the designation of poetry; for, it may be fully conceded, that he 

 has touched upon many subjects which might have been as 

 powerfully treated in prose ; and it must be at the same acknow- 

 ledged, that the harmony of numbers, considered with relation 

 to the essentials of a poem, is only as the polish of the diamond 

 when compared with the diamond itself. Having made some re- 

 marks on the questionable application of a rythmical dress to 

 subjects which might be treated in prose, he stated that Pope, 

 from a child, was a versifyer: "He lisp'din numbers ere the num- 

 bers came. ''It became a kabitwiih him to write in rhyme — he had 

 from nature, at least, a respectable share of the imaginative and 

 creative ; and the consequence has been the production of 

 several pieces of writing, which stand forward as felicitous com- 

 binations of philosophy, and fancy, judgment and wit. 



In one virtue, Pope, as a writer, is surely matchless ; viz. 

 that of an acquaintance with the " reach'* of his own knowledge 

 and capability. 



With every .deference, however, he would venture to submit, 

 that it is less by the force of any particular quality, than by the 

 economy of his several qualities, tha* Pope hjis rendered himself 

 so worthy of our regard. With a policy truly admirable, he 

 has maintained the most complete " balance of power" between 

 the different forces of his mind ; and it may be truly said, that, 

 if those forces were not individiudly supreme, they formed, in 

 their conjunction, a mighty phalanx. He had less feeling than 

 Byron, not more fancy than Moore, less subtlety than Shelley 

 or Coleridge, less susceptiblity than Wordsworth, and a less 

 excellent vein of satire than Cowper ; but he had feeling, as the 

 Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard sufficiently testifies ; he had 

 fancy, else was he not the author of the "Rape of the Lock ;" he 

 had subtlety as the " Essay on Man" undeniably evinces; 

 proofs of poetic susceptibility are many and great; the " Dun- 

 ciad" stamps him a finished Satirist; in the smartness of his wit 

 he is second to none ; in the severity of self-judgment he is su- 

 perior to all. He had every thing which, in Dryden, was 

 wanting ; he possessed, in a great degree, the excellencies to 

 which Dryden owes his fame. He is not, certainly, the poc/, 

 of whom England has most reason to be proud ; but he is, pro- 

 bably, the writer, of whom she may make the most efficacious 

 use in polishing the general mind of her people, and in winning 

 the admiration of her variedly constituted neighbours. 



The lecturer next stated, that the writings of Pope, and 

 especially the] " Rape of the Lock," were better fitted than the 

 productions of any other English writer, to impress other 

 European nations (the Germans excepted, who could understand 

 Shakspeare) with a just notion of British genius. The "Rape of 

 vhe Lock" was characterised as elegant and vigorous, critically 



