POPE. 345 



&quot; Above our neighbours our conceptions are, 

 But faultless writing is the effect of care ; 

 Our lines reformed, and not composed in haste, 

 Polished like marble, would like marble last. 



Were we but less indulgent to our fau ts, 

 And patience had to cultivate our thoughts, 

 Our Muse would flourish, and a nobler rage 

 Would honour this than did the Grecian stage.&quot; 



It is a curious comment on these verses in favour of careful 

 writing, that Waller should have failed even to express his 

 own meaning either clearly or with propriety. He talks of 

 &quot; cultivating our thoughts,&quot; when he means &quot; pruning our 

 style ; &quot; he confounds the Muse with the laurel, or at any 

 rate makes her a plant, and then goes on with perfect 

 equanimity to tell us that a nobler &quot; rage &quot; (that is madness) 

 than that of Greece would follow the horticultural devices 

 he recommends. It never seems to have occurred to 

 Waller that it is the substance of what you polish, and not 

 the polish itself, that insures duration. Dryden, in his 

 rough-and-ready way, has hinted at this in his verses to 

 Congreve on the &quot; Double Dealer.&quot; He begins by stating 

 the received theory about the improvement of English 

 literature under the new regime, but the thin ice of 

 sophistry over which Waller had glided smoothly gives way 

 under his greater weight, and he finds himself in deep water 

 ere he is aware. 



&quot; Well, then, the promised hour has come at last, 

 The present age in wit obscures the past ; 

 Strong were our sires, and as they fought they writ, 

 Conquering with force of arm* and dint of wit 

 Theirs was the giant race before the Flood ; 

 And thus when Charles returned our Empire stood ; 

 Like Janus he the stubborn soil manured, 

 With rules of husbandry the rankness cured, 

 Tamed us to manners when the stage was rude, 

 And boisterous English wit with art endued ; 



* Usually printed arms, but Dryden certainly wrote arm, to 

 correspond with dint, which he used in its old meaning of a downright 

 blow. 



