POPE. 355 



and so far as we who read are concerned, it is of secondary 

 importance which. And Pope has done this in the &quot; Rape 

 of the Lock.&quot; For wit, fancy, invention, and keeping, it 

 has never been surpassed. I do not say there is in it 

 poetry of the highest order, or that Pope is a poet whom 

 anyone would choose as the companion of his best hours. 

 There is no inspiration in it, no trumpet-call, but for pure 

 entertainment it is unmatched. There are two kinds of 

 genius. The first and highest may be said to speak out of 

 the eternal to the present, and must compel its age to 

 understand it ; the second understands its age, and tells it 

 what it wishes to be told. Let us find strength and inspira 

 tion in the one, amusement and instruction in the other, 

 and be honestly thankful for both. 



The very earliest of Pope s productions gave indications 

 of that sense and discretion, as well as wit, which after 

 wards so eminently distinguished him. The facility of 

 expression is remarkable, and we find also that perfect 

 balance of metre, which he afterwards carried so far as to 

 be wearisome. His pastorals were written in his sixteenth 

 year, and their publication immediately brought him into 

 notice. The following four verses from his first pastoral 

 are quite characteristic in their antithetic balance : 



You that, too wise for pride, too good for power, 

 Enjoy the glory to be great no more, 

 And carrying with you all the world can boast, 

 To all the world illustriously are lost ! &quot; 



The sentiment is affected, and reminds one of that future 

 period of Pope s Correspondence with his Friends, when 

 Swift, his heart corroding with disappointed ambition at 

 Dublin, Bolingbroke raising delusive turnips at his farm, 

 and Pope pretending not to feel the lampoons which 

 imbittered his life, played together the solemn farce of 

 affecting indifference to the world by which it would have 

 agonised them to be forgotten, and wrote letters addressed 

 to each other, but really intended for that posterity whose 

 opinion they assumed to despise. 



