410 POPE. 



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 



" A little learning is a dangerous thing "; 



" For fools rush in where angels fear to tread " ; 



" True wit is Nature to advantage dressed, 

 What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed." 



" For each ill author is as bad a friend." 



In all of these we notice that terseness in which (re- 

 gard 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 au- 

 thor in whom it appeared so early, and, considering the 

 vivacity of his mind and the constantly besetting temp- 

 tation 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 

 immortalized him as a poet, the " Rape of the Lock," 

 in which, indeed, he appears more purely as poet than 

 in any other of his productions. Elsewhere he has 

 shown more force, more wit, more reach of thought, but 

 nowhere such a truly artistic combination of elegance 

 and fancy. His genius has here found its true direction, 

 and the very same artificiality, which in his pastorals 

 was unpleasing, heightens the effect, and adds to the 

 general keeping. As truly as Shakespeare is the poet 

 of man, as God made him, dealing with great passions 

 and innate motives, so truly is Pope the poet of society, 



