U Poetry. [Chap. XX. 



ather the gentius and spirit of the original ; and 

 to deserve a mtich higher degree of approbation 

 than it has generally obtained *, 



SECTION II. 

 DIDACTIC POETRY. 



In this species of poetic composition the eigh- 

 teenth century produced some works of great ex- 

 cellence, a few of which may be compared, without 

 disadvantage, with the best specimens of any pre- 

 ceding age. The Ess-ay on Criticism, by Mr. 

 Pope, as i^ was one of his earliest compositions, so 

 it is also one of his best f . In the opinion of a 

 great critic " it exhibits every mode of excellence 

 that can embellish or dignify didactic composi- 

 tion ; selection of matter, novelty of arrangement, 

 justness of precept, splendour of illustration, 

 and propriety of digression." The Essay o?z 

 Man J, by the same author, though in some re- 



* Life ofRowe, by Johnson. 



f He produced this work at twenty years of age, and is pro- 

 nounced by Dr. Johnson never afterwards to have excelled it. 



% It has been often said that lord Bolingbroke had somo 

 agency in the composition of the Essay on Man. The following 

 extract of a letter from the late reverend Dr. Hugh Blair, of Edin- 

 burgh, will probably be considered as deciding the fact. " In 

 the year 1763, being at London, I was carried by Dr. John 

 Blair, prebendary of Westminster, to dine at old lord Bathurst's, 

 The conversation turning on Mr. Pope, lord Bathurst told ns, 

 that the Essay on Man was originally composed by lord BoUng" 



