196 Poetry. 



respects to the great Roman satirists, and in some 

 superior to them all, brought modern satire to a 

 very high degree of excellence. Dryden was 

 the first who displayed with success the power of 

 the English language in this kind of composition. 

 In the eighteenth century the candidates for sati- 

 rical fame were numerous; and in variety of man- 

 ner, correctness of taste, purity of virtue, and, in 

 some instances, in wit, humour, and force of ridi- 

 cule, may be said to have exceeded all their pre- 

 decessors. 



In this list Mr. Pope is entitled to the first place. 

 His Satirical Epistles, his Imitations of the ancient 

 satirists, his Dunciad, v and several other per- 

 formances of a similar kind, have been long ad- 

 mired. In keenness of satire, energy of descrip- 

 tion, condensation of thought, and vivacity and 

 correctness of style, he is, perhaps, superior to all 

 who went before him. And though the moral 

 tendency of some of his pictures may be questioned, 

 yet he lashes vice with great force and effect.* The 



v Some of the images in the Bunciad are very gross and disgusting. 

 Pope had too much of that fondness for impure ideas which was so con- 

 spicuous, and carried so much further in the writings of Swift. 



u The author of the Pursuits of Literature thus speaks of this great poet ; 

 " The sixth and last of this immortal Brotherhood, (the satirists) in the 

 fulness of time, and in the maturity of poetical power, came Pope. All 

 that was wanting to his illustrious predecessor found its consummation in 

 the genius, knowledge, correct sense, and condensation of thought and ex- 

 presssion, which distinguished this poet. The tenour of his life was pecu= 

 liarly favourable to his office. He had first cultivated all the flowery 

 ground* of poetry. He had excelled in description, in pastoral, in the 

 pathetic, and in general criticism; and had given an English existence in 

 perpetuity to the father of all poetry. Thus honoured, and with these 

 pretensions, he left them all for that excellence, for which the maturity of 

 his talents and judgment so eminently designed him. Familiar with the 

 great ; intimate with the polite ; graced by the attentions of the fair; ad- 

 mired by the learned;^ favourite with the nation ; independent in an ac- 

 quired opulence, the honourable product of his genius and industry ; the 

 companion of persons distinguished for birth, high fashion, rank, wit, or 

 virtue ; resident in the centre of all public information and intelligence ; 

 every avenue to knowledge and every mode of observation were open to his 

 curious prying, piercing, and unwearied intellect. His works are so ge- 

 nerally read and studied, that I should not merely fatigue, but I should al- 

 most insult you by such a needless disquisition." 



