POPE. 357 



He lifts the tube and levels with his eye, 

 Straight a short thunder breaks the frozen sky : 

 Oft as in airy rings they skim the heath, 

 The clamorous lapwings feel the leaden death ; 

 Oft as the mounting larks their notes prepare, 

 They fall and leave their little lives in air.&quot; 



Now one would imagine that the tube of the fowler was a 

 telescope instead of a gun. And think of the larks pre 

 paring their notes like a country choir ! Yet even here 

 there are admirable lines 



&quot; Oft as in airy rings they skim the heath,&quot; 

 &quot; They fall and leave their little lives in air,&quot; 

 for example. 



In Pope s next poem, the &quot; Essay on Criticism,&quot; the wit 

 and poet become apparent. It is full of clear thoughts, 

 compactly expressed. In this poem, written when Pope 

 was only twenty-one, occur some of those lines which have 

 become proverbial, such as 



&quot; A little learning is a dangerous thing ; &quot; 



&quot; For fools rush in where angels fear to tread ; &quot; 



&quot;True wit is Nature to advantage dressed, 

 What oft was thought, but ne er so well expressed,&quot; 



&quot; For each ill author is as bad a friend.&quot; 



In all of these we notice that terseness in which (regard 

 being had to his especial range of thought) Pope has never 

 been equalled. One cannot help being struck also with the 

 singular discretion which the poem gives evidence of. I do 

 not know where to look for another author in whom it 

 appeared so early, and, considering the vivacity of his 

 mind and the constantly besetting temptation of his wit, it 

 is still more wonderful. In his boyish correspondence with 

 poor old Wycherley, one would suppose him to be the man 

 and Wycherley the youth. Pope s understanding was no 

 less vigorous (when not the dupe of his nerves) than his 

 fancy was lightsome and sprightly. 



I come now to what in itself would be enough to have 

 immortalised him as a poet, the &quot; Rape of the Lock,&quot; in 



