3o8 POPE. 



ground, could be found nowhere out of Goldsmith s Natural 

 History, perhaps. An epigrammatic expression will also tempt 

 him into saying something without basis in truth, as where he 

 ranks together Macedonia s madman and the Swede, and says 

 that neither of them looked forward farther than his nose, a 

 slang phrase which may apply well enough to Charles XII., but 

 certainly not to the pupil of Aristotle, who showed himself capa 

 ble of a large political forethought. So, too, the rhyme, if correct, 

 is a sufficient apology for want of propriety in phrase, as where 

 he makes * Socrates bleed. 1 



But it is in his Moral Essays and parts of his Satires that Pope 

 deserves the praise which he himself desired : 



Happily to steer 



From grave to gay, from lively to severe, 

 Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, 

 Intent to reason, or polite to please. 



Here Pope must be allowed to have established a^style of his 

 own, in which he is without a rival. One can open upon wit 

 and epigram at any page. 



Behold, if Fortune or a mistress frowns, 



Some plunge in business, other shave their crowns ; 



To ease the soul of one oppressive weight, 



This quits an empire, that embroils a state ; 



The same adust complexion has impelled, 



Charles to the convent, Philip to the field. 



Indeed, I think one gets a little tired of the invariable this set off 

 by the inevitable that, and wishes antithesis would let him have 

 a little quiet now and then. In the first couplet, too, the con 

 ditional frown would have been more elegant. But taken as 

 detached passages, how admirably the different characters are 

 drawn, so admirably that half the verses have become proverbial. 

 This of Addison will bear reading again : 



Peace to all such ; but were there one whose fires 

 True genius kindles and fair fame inspires ; 

 Blest with each talent and each art to please, 

 And born to write, converse, and live with ease 

 Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, 

 Bear like the Turk no brother near the throne, 

 View him with scornful yet with jealous eyes, 

 And hate for arts that caused himself to rise, 

 Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, 

 And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer ; 

 Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike, 

 Just hint a fault and hesitate dislike, 

 Alike reserved to blame or to commend, 

 A timorous foe and a suspicious friend ; 

 Dreading e en fools, by flatterers besieged, 

 And so obliging that he ne er obliged ; 



