to be placed among the most eloquent and poetical of prosewriters.

This writer must not be confounded with GILBERT BURNET (1643-1715), a Scotchman, who was one of the most active politicians and divines during the latter part of the seventeenth century (168). He held a middle place between the extreme Episcopal and Presbyterian parties; and though a man of ardent and busy character, he was tolerant and candid. He was celebrated for his talents as an extempore preacher, and was the author of a very large number of theological and political writings. Among these his History of the Reformation is still considered as one of the most valuable accounts of that important revolution. He also gave an account of the life and death of the witty and infamous Rochester, whose last moments he attended as a religious adviser, and whom his pious arguments recalled to repentance. He at one time enjoyed the favor of Charles II., but soon forfeited it, by the boldness of his remonstrances against the profligacy of the King, and by his defence of Lord William Russell. Burnet also published an Exposition of the XXXIX. Articles. On falling into disgrace at Court he traveled on the Continent, and afterwards attached himself closely to the service of William of Orange at the Hague. At the Revolution, Burnet accompanied the Deliverer on his expedition to England, took a very active part in controversy and political negotiation, and was raised to the Bishopric of Salisbury. In this office he gave a noble example of the zeal, tolerance, and humanity which should be the chief virtues of a Christian pastor. He died in 1715, leaving the MS. of his most important work, the History of My Own Times, which he directed to be published after the lapse of six years. This work is not inferior in value to Clarendon's, which represents the events of English history from a nearly opposite point of view. Burnet is minute, familiar, and gossipy, but lively and generally trustworthy. No one who desires to make acquaintance with a very critical and agitated period of English history can dispense with the materials he has accumulated.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE ARTIFICIAL POETS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

THE Augustan Age, was the name given to the epoch of literature immediately succeeding the time of Dryden. It is generally spoken of as bounded by the reign of Queen Anne; but the best fruit of the writers of her reign ripened in the reign of George I. The vigor, harmony, and careless yet majestic regularity found in the powerful writers of the school of the Restoration were given a yet higher polish by the elegant writers of the first third of the eighteenth century. Three men stand in the front rank; and these three men who make their generation famous in the history of English literature were great as satirists. They expressed the critical spirit of the age. One of them was a poet; but his song, instead of breathing such love of nature or of man as other songs have, was filled with hatreds and contempt; another was an eminent clergyman, but his zeal spent itself in violating rather than in inculcating the gentle teachings of the gospel; the third, a man distinguished in the service of the state, was so genial, so gentle, so mirthful, that though he poked his fun at all sorts of English follies, he did it with such winning words and with such charming graces that satire lost its severity and was redeemed from its

meanness.

ALEXANDER POPE.

"He was about four feet six inches high, very humpbacked and deformed. He wore a black coat, and, according to the fashion of that time, had on a little sword. He had a large and very fine eye, and a long, handsome nose; his mouth had those peculiar marks which are always found in the mouths of crooked persons, and the muscles which run across the cheek were so strongly marked that they seemed like small cords.”—Sir Joshua Reynolds.

"King Alexander had great merit as a writer, and his title to the kingdom of wit was better founded than his enemies have pretended.”—Henry Fielding.

"If Pope must yield to other poets in point of fertility of fancy, yet in point of propriety, closeness, and elegance of diction he can yield to none."-Joseph Warton.

"No poet's verse ever mounted higher than that wonderful flight with which the Dunciad concludes. In these astonishing lines Pope reaches, I think, to the very greatest height which his sublime art has attained, and shows himself the equal of all poets of all times."-W. M. Thackeray.

"At fifteen years of age I got acquainted with Mr. Walsh. He encouraged me much, and used to tell me that there was one way left of excelling; for though we have several great poets, we never had any one great poet that was correct."Alexander Pope.

"Pope's rhymes too often supply the defect of his reasons."-Richard Whately.

"There are no pictures of nature or of simple emotion in all his writings. He is the poet of town life and of high life and of literary life, and seems so much afraid of incurring ridicule by the display of feeling or unregulated fancy that it is not difficult to believe that he would have thought such ridicule well directed."— Francis Jeffrey.

"The most striking characteristics of his poetry are lucid arrangement of matter, closeness of argument, marvellous condensation of thought and expression, brilliancy of fancy ever supplying the aptest illustrations, and language elaborately finished almost beyond example.”—Alexander Dyce.

"As truly as Shakespeare is the poet of man, as God made him, dealing with great passions and innate motives, so truly is Pope the poet of society, the delineator of manners, the exposer of those motives which may be called acquired, whose spring is in institutions and habits of purely worldly origin.”—J. R. Lowell.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) stands far above all other poets of his time. He was born in London and was of a respectable Catholic family. His father was a merchant who had acquired sufficient property to retire from business and to enjoy the leisure of his rural home near Windsor. The boy was dwarfish in body, and so deformed

that his life was "that long disease." His mind was precocious. Before he was twelve years old he had written an Ode to Solitude, displaying a thoughtfulness far beyond his years. In referring to his early literary attempts he says,

"As yet a child, and all unknown to fame,

I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came."

During his childhood he indulged that taste for study and poetical reading which became the passion of his life. He had special admiration for Dryden, and once obtained a glance at the revered poet as he was seated in his easy chair at Will's Coffee House. At sixteen he composed his Pastorals and translated portions of Statius. From this time his activity was unremitting; and an uninterrupted succession of works, varied in their subjects and exquisite in their finish, placed him at the head of the poets of his age.

He was a most singular man in his appearance; so little that a high chair was needed for him at the table, so weak and sickly that he could not stand unless tied up in bandages, so sensitive to the cold that he was wrapped in flannels and furs, and had his feet encased in three pairs of stockings. He was in constant need of the attentions of a body-servant; he could not dress or undress himself. His deformity gave him the nickname of "The Interrogation Point." But this unfortunate man had a fine face and a famous, glowing eye. In his dress he was fastidious, appearing in a court suit, decorated with a little sword. His manners, too, were elegant. Whether patient or impatient about it, he had to bear the constant reminder of his physical infirmities as he looked upon the stately figures of men who were his companions and his literary rivals. Rollicking Dick Steele was large and strong, Addison had the fatness ascribed to goodnature, Swift was compelled to exercise most vigorously in keeping down his flesh, Gay and Thomson were hale; these jolly men could spend their nights in choice revelries,

laughing over the best of wit and humor, but "poor Pope " had no stomach, he must be quiet and thin and sick.

Pope's culture was not gained in the school-room. He was permitted to roam over the fields of learning wherever his fancy might lead him. The songs of stately writers had most charm for him, and so he studied Spenser, Waller and Dryden. They were men who believed that poetry consisted in elegant expression, rather than in the thought; they had detected and disclosed the arts of poetry. They had gained more success than others in the very walk where Pope must journey, if he would listen to the call of his muse, and he was true to the bent of his nature in seeking culture from them. Pope's father was a bookseller, who had the taste for literature commonly found in men of his trade. He fondly watched the spark of genius in his boy, and gently fanned it into flame by assigning the subjects for his song, and by praising or censuring when the little poet had done his singing. This was the best culture given to that boyhood.

On account of his helplessness throughout his life, Pope, like a child, was specially subject to the influence of those who petted him. His mother, though ignorant, simplehearted, and ruled by her doting love, influenced him in all things, even in his literary work. Until her death the poet was her child, her "deare." She could tell him more confidingly than another could, how wonderful he was. As he was more sensitive to ridicule than any other man ever was, he was also more fond of praise. He had a sickly craving for admiration; and that doting mother, by satisfying his craving, helped him. She nursed the self-appreciation which cheered him in his work. Swift, too, gave him the praise he asked. The Dean of Dublin had but to say, " When you think of the world, give it one more lash at my request," and he could inspire the poet. The Dunciad is more defiant, sharper, more cruel than it could have been had Pope