POPE. 307 



the man the department, and it has a great deal to dp with our. 

 estimate of him. Is the department of Milton no higher than 

 that of Butler ? Byron took especial care not to write in the 

 style he commended. But I think Pope has received quite as 

 much credit in respect even of execution as he deserves. Surely 

 execution is not confined to versification alone. What can be 

 worse than this ? 



At length Erasmus, that great, injured name, 

 (The glory of the priesthood and the shame,) 

 Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age, 

 And drove those holy vandals off the stage. 



It would have been hard for Pope to have found a prettier piece 

 of confusion in any of the small authors he laughed at than this 

 image of a great, injured name stemming a torrent and driving 

 vandals off the stage. And in the following verses the image is 

 helplessly confused : 



Kind self-conceit to some her glass applies, 

 Which no one looks in with another s eyes, 

 But, as the flatterer or dependant paint, 

 Beholds himself a patriot, chief, or saint. 



The use of the word applies is perfectly un-English ; and it 

 seems that people who look in this remarkable glass see their 

 pictures and not their reflections. Often, also, when Pope at 

 tempts the sublime, his epithets become curiously unpoetical, as 

 where he says, in the Dunciad, 



As, one by one, at dread Medea s strain, 



The sickening stars fade off the ethereal plain. 



And not seldom he is satisfied with the music of the verse with 

 out much regard to fitness of imagery ; in the Essay on Man/ 

 for example : 



Passions, like elements, though born to fight, 

 Yet, mixed and softened, in his work unite ; 

 These t is enough to temper and employ ; 

 But what composes man can man destroy ? 

 Suffice that reason keep to Nature s road, 

 Subject, compound them, follow her and God. 

 Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleasure s smiling train, 

 Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain, 

 These mixed with Art, and to due bounds confined, 

 Make and maintain the balance of the mind. 



Here reason is represented as an apothecary compounding pills 

 of &amp;lt; pleasure s smiling train and the family of pain. ; And in 

 the Moral Essays, 



Know God and Nature only are the same ; 

 In man the judgment shoots at flying game, 

 A bird of passage, gone as soon as found, 

 _, . IN ow in the moon, perhaps, now under ground. 



1 he judgment shooting at flying game is an odd image enough ; 

 but I think a bird of passage, now in the moon and now under- 



