"Poor Vadius, long with learned spleen de"vour'd,

"Can tafte no pleasure fince his field was "fcour'd:

“And Curio, restless by the Fair One's fide, "Sighs for an Otho, and neglects his bride."

The pleasant raillery of thefe lines is admirable, and is more likely to correct fuch an abfurd and prepofterous tafte, than a grave and formal reproof.

This was the last of our author's moral effays; and in one of his letters to Dean Swift, he accounts for his declining them.

"I am," fays he, "almost at the end of my morals, as I have been long ago of my "wit; my fyftem is a fhort one, and my circle narrow. Imagination has no limits; that is ་་. a fphere in which you may move on to eter"nity: but where one is confined to truth, or "to speak more like a human creature, to the appearances of truth, we foon find the fhort"nefs of our tether.'

Among the leffer pieces in this volume, we must not omit taking notice of the little ode, intitled, The dying Chriftian to his Soul, in imitation of the Emperor Adrian's; which is very poetical and fublime, and much fuperior to the original, wherein there is fomething little and puerile.

The publication of the Ethic Epiftles having raised a vast clamour against the author, he took occafion

X 3

occafion to anfwer the flanderers in fome fatires in imitation of Horace. He thought, as he tells us, that an anfwer from Horace was both more full and of more dignity than any he could have made in his own perfon; and the example of much greater freedom in fo eminent a divine as Dr. Donne, feemed a proof with what indignation and contempt a Chriftian may treat vice or folly, in ever fo low, or ever fo high, a station.

Thefe fatires are by no means equal in point of verfification to his other compofitions *; but they abound in ftrokes of wit and fpirit. They are not, as his learned Commentator observes, a paraphrafe of Horace, or a faithful copy of his genius and manner of writing. In many places, nevertheless, the imitation is fuperior to the original. For inftance, in the following paffage from the imitation of the firft Satire of the second Book of Horace, addreffed to Mr. Fortescue †. "Nec

It must be confidered, however, that as the originals were fermoni propriora, the Poet would have tranfgreffed every rule of imitation, had he given them all the force and harmony of his verfification. Nevertheless he could not forbear to do it on many occasions.

This eminent lawyer, who afterward became a judge, appears to have been among our author's most familiar and efteemed friends. He was, though a lawyer, a man of fome wit and fancy. The whimfical cafe of the pied Horfes, penned in ridicule of the old mufty Reports, was the joint compofition of this gentleman and Mr. POPE. Our author frequently mentions him in his familiar correfpondence, in terms of the most cordial esteem. In a letter to Mr. Allen, he fays, -"You must affure judge Fortefcue of my friend

"Nec quifquam noceat, cupido mihi pacis! at «ille,

"

Qui me commôrit, (melius non tangere, clamo) "Flebit, et infignis tota cantabitur urbe."

Thus improved

"Peace is my dear delight--not Fleury's more: "But touch me, and no Minister so fore. "Whoe'er offends, at fome unlucky time "Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme, "Sacred to Ridicule his whole life long, "And the fad burden of fome merry fong."

There is a delicacy and pleafantry in this apology for the feverity of his fatire, which feems to excel the original: which is again furpaffed, in point of spirit, in these lines.

"Cervius iratus leges minitatur et urnam; "Canidia Albuti, quibus eft inimica, venenum ; "Grande malum Turius, fi quid fe judice certes."

"hip, and admit him to yours; fo juftice and righteouf"nefs will meet."

On other occafions, fpeaking of him to the fame friend, he expreffes himself fomewhat jocularly:" I have just seen "Mr. Juftice Fortefcue, who is very mindful of your kind "diftinction, and reckons the notice of a man of worth, no "fmall one. Every man bears refpect to virtue, even a "lawyer and a courtier. The wonder is, when an honest dif"interested man, will defcend to take notice of them, which "really nothing but charity could max tus do.”

"Slander or Poifon dread from Delia's rage, "Hard words or hanging, if your Judge be "Page.

"From furious Sappho fcarce a milder fate, "P--x'd by her love, or libell'd by her "hate"

It must be confeffed, however, that the paffages which follow, are, as the annotator has remarked, greatly below the original; and it may be added, much inferior to our author himfelf.

But our poet foon, however, towers above his original, and darts forth fuch lively flashes of indignation, as could only proceed from the vigour of genius, warmed with the glow of virtue.

"What? arm'd for Virtue when I point the

pen,

"Brand the bold front of fhameless guilty

"men;

"Dafh the proud Gamefter in his gilded Car, "Bare the mean Heart that lurks beneath a

"Star;

*Thefe four lines gave great offence to two court Ladies, who deemed themfelves touched and the Poet employed Lord Cobham to mediate with them, which he long attempted to no purpose. At length, however, he fatisfied them both by this ingenious expedient, which was, that Mr. POPE, in the future editions, fhould give the p-xing to Delia, and the poisoning to Sappho.

"Can

"Can there be wanting, to defend Her caufe, 66 Lights of the Church, or Guardians of the

"Laws?

"Could penfion'd Boileau lafh in honest "ftrain

"Flatt'rers and Bigots ev'n in Louis' reign? "Could Laureate Dryden Pimp and Fry'r en

gage,

"Yet neither Charles nor James be in a rage? "And I not ftrip the gilding off a Knave,

66

Unplac'd, unpenfion'd, no man's heir, or "flave?

“I will, or perish in the gen'rous cause: "Hear this, and tremble! you, who 'fcape the "Laws.

"Yes, while I live, no rich or noble knave "Shall walk the world, in credit, to his grave. "To Virtue only and her friends a friend, "The World befide may murmur, or com"mend.

"Know, all the diftant din that world can keep, "Rolls o'er my Grotto, and but fooths my. fleep.

66

"There, my retreat the beft Companions grace, Chiefs out of war, and Statefmen out of 66 place."

The confcious pride likewife with which he fpeaks of his familiarity with the great, is difplayed with becoming spirit and dignity.

Envy must own, I live among the Great, "No Pimp of pleafure, and no Spy of ftate,