POPE. 



" Happily to steer 



From grave to gay, from lively to severe, 

 Correct with spirit, eloquent with ease, 

 Intent to reason, or polite to please." 



Here Pope must be allowed to have established a style 

 of his own, in which he is without a rival. One can 

 open upon wit and epigram at any page. 



" Behold, if Fortune or a mistress frowns, 

 Some plunge in business, other shave their crowns; 

 To ease the soul of one oppressive weight, 

 This quits an empire, that embroils a state ; 

 The same adust complexion has impelled, 

 Charles to the convent, Philip to the field." 



Indeed, I think one gets a little tired of the invariable 

 this set off by the inevitable that, and wishes antithesis 

 would let him have a little quiet now and then. In the 

 first couplet, too, the conditional " frown " would have 

 been more elegant. But taken as detached passages, 

 how admirably the different characters are drawn, so 

 admirably that half the verses have become proverbial. 

 This of Addison will bear reading again : 



" Peace to all such : but were there one whose fires 

 True genius kindles and fair fame inspires ; 

 Blest with each talent and each art to please, 

 And born to write, converse, and live with ease; 

 Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, 

 Bear like the Turk no brother near the throne, 

 View him with scornful yet with jealous eyes, 

 And hate for arts that caused himself to rise, 

 Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, 

 And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; 

 Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike, 

 Just hint a fault and hesitate dislike, 

 Alike reserved to blame or to commend, 

 A timorous foe and a suspicious friend; 

 Dreading e'en fools, by flatterers besieged, 

 And so obliging that he ne'er obliged; 

 Like Cato give his little Senate laws, 

 And sit attentive to his own applause, 

 While wits and templars every sentence raise, 

 And wonder with a foolish face of praise; 



