372 POPE. 



(He was the master of his trade 

 It curiously that builded) : 

 The windows of the eyes of cats, 

 And, for the roof, instead of slats, 

 T is covered with the skins of bats, 

 &quot;With moonshine that are gilded.&quot; 



In the last line the eye and fancy of a poet are recognised. 



Personally we know more about Pope than about any of 

 our poets. He kept no secrets about himself. If he did 

 not let the cat out of the bag, he always contrived to give 

 her tail a wrench so that we might know she was there. 

 In spite of the savageness of his satires, his natural disposi 

 tion seems to have been an amiable one, and his character 

 as an author was as purely factitious as his style. Dr. 

 Johnson appears to have suspected his sincerity ; but arti 

 fice more than insincerity lay at the basis of his character. 

 I think that there was very little real malice in him, and 

 that his &quot; evil was wrought from want of thought.&quot; When 

 Dennis was old and poor, he wrote a prologue for a play to 

 be acted for his benefit. Except Addison, he numbered 

 among his friends the most illustrious men of his time. 



The correspondence of Pope is, on the whole, less interest 

 ing than that of any other eminent English poet, except 

 that of Southey, and their letters have the same fault of 

 being laboured compositions. Southey s are, on the whole, 

 the more agreeable of the two, for they inspire one (as 

 Pope s certainly do not) with a sincere respect for the 

 character of the writer. Pope s are altogether too full of 

 the proclamation of his own virtues to be pleasant reading. 

 It is plain that they were mostly addressed to the public, 

 perhaps even to posterity. But letters, however carefully 

 drilled to be circumspect, are sure to blab, and those of 

 Pope leave in the reader s mind an unpleasant feeling of 

 circumspection of an attempt to look as an eminent 

 literary character should rather than as the man really was. 

 They have the unnatural constraint of a man in full dress 

 sitting for his portrait, and endeavouring to look his best. 

 We never catch him, if he can help it, at unawares. 

 Among all Pope s correspondents, Swift shows in the most 



