Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

1

My mother is much better this Summer then sh oright to be not having seen Mrs Knight; as that I am sick every other day as usual." this day for one : but muly & always,

Your most affectionate
& most humble Servant A. Pop

"Published as the Cct directs from the Original Jan 1806

[blocks in formation]

Satyra quidem tota nostra est: in qua primus insignem laudem adeptus est
Lucilius; qui quosdam ita deditos sibi adhuc habet amatores, ut eum, non
ejusdem modo operis autoribus, sed omnibus poetis, præferre non dubitent.
QUINTILIAN.

LONDON:

Printed by Thomas Maiden, Sherbourn-Lane, Lombard-Street,

FOR W. J. AND J. RICHARDSON; OTRIDGE AND SON; J. WALKER;
CUTHELL AND MARTIN; R. FAULDER; R. LEA; OGILVY AND SON;
J. NUNN; E. JEFFERY; LACKINGTON, ALLEN, AND CO. LONGMAN,
MURST, REES, AND ORME; CADELL AND DAVIES; J. AND A. ARCH;
J. ASPERNE; AND VERNOR, HOOD, AND SHARPE.

1806.

TO THE

REV. DR. YOUNG,

RECTOR OF WELWYN,

IN

HERTFORDSHIRE.

DEAR SIR,

PERMIT me to break into your retirement, the refidence of virtue and literature, and to trouble you with a few reflections on the merits and real character of an admired Author, and on other collateral subjects of criticism, that will naturally arise in the course of fuch an enquiry. No love of fingularity, no affectation of paradoxical opinions, gave rise to the following Work. I revere the memory of POPE, I respect and honour his abilities; but I do not think him at the head of his profeffion. In other words, in that species of poetry wherein

VOL. I.

A

POPE

POPE excelled, he is fuperior to all mankind: and I only say, that this species of poetry is not the moft excellent one of the art.

We do not, it should seem, sufficiently attend to the difference there is betwixt a MAN OF WIT, a MAN OF SENSE, and a TRUE POET. Donne and Swift were undoubtedly men of wit, and men of fenfe: but what traces have they left of PURE POETRY? It is remarkable, that Dryden says of Donne, “He was the greatest wit, though not the greatest poet, of this nation. Fontenelle and La Motte are entitled to the former character; but what can they urge to gain the latter? Which of these characters is the most valuable and useful, is entirely out of the question: all I plead for, is, to have their several provinces kept distinct from each other; and to impress on the reader, that a clear head, and acute understanding, are not fufficient, alone, to make a POET; that the most solid observations on human life, expressed with the utmost elegance and brevity, are MORALITY, and not POETRY; that the EPISTLES of Boileau in RHYME, are no more poetical, than the CHARACTERS of La Bruyere

in

« ZurückWeiter »