12 
To the 
Hs 
Deditur of the Monthly Magazine. 
NOt 
* 1Sta y fae same 
aBi GEN 22 O 0 at 
a your Review of literature in the 
WLM. for Jannary last, p. 541, you 
summed up. pretty briefly the angry 
controversy excited by Mr. Bowles’ 
edition and life of Pope; and, by the 
manner. in which you dismissed the 
subject, seemed to think that it was high 
time that the word jfinis were affixed to 
the dispute. As far as relates to the 
merits or demerits of Mr. Bowles, and 
some Of. his antagonists in that con- 
troversy, this is perhaps the case; but 
as far as relates to Pope himself, and 
the genuine characteristics of the higher 
or highest order of poetry, the question 
may nod awhile, amid the buzz.and hum 
of more local, or themporary themes, but 
it..will mot so soon sink into eternal 
slumber. And yet there. seems to be 
some.sort of.peril in awakening it again : 
for: what a heat and hectoring hath there 
been about it —what tomes of dogmatic 
logic. and infuriate declamation hath the 
press groaned withal, upon a differ- 
ence. of opinion, which, fume and wran- 
gle as long as we will, can depend alone 
upon taste and feeling, and different 
susceptibilities of poetic impression; and 
which, therefore, can never be brought to 
the decision of logical demonstration — 
nor ever needs to be. What occasion 
there was to make it a theme for factious 
heart-burnings, and critical (or rather 
anti-critical) virulance and recrimination 
(as fierce-as if Arius-and St. Athanasius 
were again together by the ears about 
the salvation of souls, or Whigand Tory 
forthe monopoly of places and pensions), 
I confess. I. could never understand,. 
Was there any thing so new and un- 
heard-of,—so monstrously strange and 
unprecedentedly heretical in the opi- 
ions of poor master Bowles, that his 
cassock should have been torn to rags, 
and his backfront as much -bescourged,- 
as.if hejhad been exorcised by a catholic 
flaxellation, or an Trish picquetting ? 
‘The rank to which Pope is entitled, 
onthe rolls of poetic record, has surely 
never been regarded as one of the most 
settled and: incontrovertible. points of 
literary. faith, His claim~ to be con-. 
sideredjay-a poet of the very. first order, 
has indeed been. frequently -asserted,’ 
but has» never been undisputed; and, 
fromthe very nature of those percep- 
tiads. from: svhich.. poetic: predilections: 
ate derived,-I will venture to prophesy*| 
thateit mever bwill. «ive Dr, Jchnsen: 
Rank of Pope'as a Poets. 
[Auigh 
(the critical oracleof the servitors of the 
Row,—and, according tot b-street 
eonversations:of Medwin;of Lior in 
himself though hebenhotmiteb}doubts 
whether to’ giver the! palate. ‘hinoor 
Dryden + about:whomowe: bave! ceased 
to make/an equal: fuss¢land, perhaps, 
the very.circumstance ‘of ‘so! protracted. 
a dispute many not be undminous of the. 
ultimate decision: of more: rembte"pos- 
terity. But what was:there in the very 
matter of this-diversity. of judgment to 
provoke all the rancour of personality, 
or to justify the wrangling © tenacity 
which has been vented uponiit 2?) What 
if Mr. Bowles be cf! opinion'(or if you 
and I should be so:too ?) that Mr, Pope, 
instead. of belonging to ‘the very. first 
order of, poets—joint ‘heir with:Homer, 
Milton, Shakspeare, &c., to thechighest 
honours of Famé’s: loftiest ‘temple=is' 
only to be reckoned:among theforemést’ 
of those secondary favourites who'throng 
the vestibule, or gather round thesteps of 
her high altar ?—Is this a sentiment too 
impiously demoralizing to be suffered 
to be promulgated?—:must»there be a 
society for the suppression of. poetical. 
heresy also?—a Bridge-street: gang of 
critcial inquisitors, to prosecute: and) 
hunt us down, because our Parnas- 
sian creed does not happen to square’ 
with the assumed orthodoxy of those’ 
who choose to make of Milton, Pope 
and Shakspeare, or of Shakspeare, Pope, 
and Spenser (for even orthodoxy itself 
seems to waver. on. this:point), 'the*tri+ 
nig of anglo-poetic adoration?» 
ut the. curiosity in this controversy: 
was, to mark, in certain of its individua-) 
lities, the array of the pros and consj:and 
to compare the characteristics: of ‘the 
combatants with those of the-respective’ - 
causes in which they ‘engaged, ‘That’ 
Mr. Roscoe, indeed, should uphold ‘the’ 
supremacy of Pope, is natural enongh, 
because it is evident, from allvhis:/writ-- 
ings, that be has. never aspired’ to the 
meditation of any other model ;—wever 
indulged in‘ any-of thosé: daring bursts. 
of energy, which evincedia taste or’sus- ; 
ceptibility, inconsistent» with the polish- ’ 
ed elaboration which was at.onee; per-- 
haps, the mean by which Pope attained. : 
his ¢leyation, and. the causes whyche 
climbed no higher... But. that‘ Letd” 
Byron, with a:mind aceordingwith thato 
of Pope. in nothing ‘but irascibilityzssi2 
who. was all. excursive vividness andi! 
/ daring eccentricity -whose;sforce sand. 
whose splendour were othdoresaltm af: 
spontaneous \impulse-—not -oficplabora<: 
tion— 
