An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1806. Excerpt: ... SECTION III. OP THE ESSAY ON CRITICISM. We are now arrived at a poem of that species, for which our author's genius was particularly turned, the Didactic and the Moral; it is, i therefore, as might be expected, a master-piece in its kind. I have been sometimes inclined to think, that the praises Addison has bestowed on it, were a little partial and invidious. "The observations (says he) follow one another like those in Horace's Art of Poetry, without that methodical regularity which would have been requisite in a prose writer."* It is, however, certain, that the poem before us is by no means destitute of a just integrity, and a lucid order: each of the precepts and remarks naturally introduce the sucVol. i. H ceeding * Spectator, No. 253. ceeding ones, so as to form an entire whole. The ingenious Dr. Hurd hath also endeavoured to shew, that Horace observed a strict method, and unity of design, in his Epistle to the Pisones; and that, although the connexions are delicately fine, and almost imperceptible, like the secret hinges of a well-wrought box, yet they artfully and closely unite each part together, and give coherence, uniformity and beauty to the work. The Spectator adds, "The observations in this essay are some of them uncommon." There is, I fear, a small mixture of ill-nature in these words: for this Essay, though on a beaten subject, abounds in many new remarks, and original rules, as well as in many happy and beautiful illustrations, and applications, of the old ones. We are, indeed, amazed to find such a knowledge of the world, such a maturity of judgment, and such a penetration into human nature, as are here displayed, in so very young a writer as was Pope when he produced this Essay, for he was not twenty years old. Correctness, and a just taste, are usually not attained...