corrected, and almost rewritten his Seasons, improving them on each revision, if Pope had not raised the standard of public taste with respect to poetical composition. It has been said by one who is himself a true poet, Professor Aytoun, that Pope founded no school of poetry, or if he did it was soon extinct, driven out by Percy's Reliques, by Cowper, and Burns. The attempt to rival Pope on his own peculiar ground was hopeless. Where were disciples to be found possessing at once rare good sense, knowledge of the world, refinement of manner, judgment, satire, ethics, and metaphysics, all combined with the power and animation of the poet? The outward form of the Pope worship was easily copied, but the fire that burned within the altar burned only and expired at Twickenham.

The individual character of Pope was never lost in his works. He adopted the style of Dryden because it was best adapted to his powers. He knew that the universal mind of Shakspeare, and the epic majesty of Milton, were unattainable; he therefore abstained from all imitation of them. He undertook such works as he felt he could accomplish; his invention was limited, though in the Rape of the Lock he displayed the airiness, the grace, and winged fancy of a brilliant imaginative poet. He thought deeply and earnestly; he busied himself in mental analysis, corrected carefully, and polished highly. He studied his art with intense devotion; but he aimed at no peculiar system or theory of poetry. He was, unfortunately, too fond of satire, and his constitution, moral and physical, was defective. In satire, however, he was a great master, and he was a master, also, in didactic verse (as in the Essay on Criticism), in refined pathos, and select description. His poetry may be said to be identified with the national character of the English people, and with the Anglo-Saxon race in every quarter of the globe. His imagery, wit, and sense, his critical rules and moral reflections, have made us rich in expression. His maxims on life and manners form part of our daily speech and involuntary thought; nor have the most profound or acute of our moralists enunciated finer axioms than are to be found in his Essays and Epistles.

Poetry, like the material world, has undergone a great revolution since the days of Pope. There is no danger of our going back to the artificial style of the early part of the last

century, even should such a poet as Pope arise again amongst us. The fountains of passion and imagination have been opened; nature and the old masters, the interpreters of nature, are more closely studied; and there is a higher and juster appreciation of the poet's art and mission as a fellowworker in the cause of humanity and pure intellectual advancement. Our freedom, however, may run to prodigal excess and extravagance unless properly guarded, and it is important to point to one classic standard, limited in design, but unrivalled in execution, in which correctness is combined with poetical vigour and beauty, and the patient toils of genius are seen resulting in works of consummate taste and elegance.

APPENDIX.

MAPLEDURHAM MANUSCRIPTS.

AFTER the death of Martha Blount in 1763, a mass of letters and other papers which she had left, came into the possession of the family at Mapledurham; and among them was part of the correspondence carried on by Pope with the sisters so intimately connected with his personal history. All the poet's letters and those addressed to the ladies by other friends were, it is believed, submitted by the late Michael Blount, Esq. (who died in 1821), to the publishers of Mr. Bowles's edition of Pope's Works, which was brought out in 1806. Mr. Bowles appears to have seen them, but Mr. A. Chalmers selected such as were deemed fit for publication, adding a few explanatory notes. The letters were then in a loose state, and many were lost, in passing through different hands, or were never returned to Mr. Blount. Such as were preserved were bound together, and now remain at Mapledurham, forming three quarto volumes. The Pope letters are mostly comprised in the first volume, the two others being filled with letters from other correspondents at home and abroad. No attempt at arrangement appears to have been made; and in enumerating them we shall simply follow the order in which they are placed, referring the reader to the pages of this volume in which some of the letters will be found, and for the others to Roscoe's Pope, vol. viii., edit. of 1824:

1. Pope to Martha, May 25, 1712; ante, p. 65, Roscoe, 387. 2. Do. Sept. 13, 1717; ante, p. 84, and Roscoe, 437.

3. Do. Aug. 6, 1718; ante, p. 186 (copy addressed to Lady Mary). 4. Lines on Martha's Birthday, Jan. 15, 1723.

5. Pope to Martha, Aug. 25, 1735; ante, p. 329, Roscoe, 481. 6. Do. Dec. 27; Roscoe, 484.

7. Do. June 3; Roscoe, 401.

8. Do. Stowe, July 4; Roscoe, 497.
9. Do. London, Tuesday; Roscoe, 436.

[Addressed to Mrs. B.,

at "Mr. Thos. Reeves, in Sion Rowe, Twickenham."]

10. Do. Tuesday night; Roscoe, 452.

11. Do. (No date); ante, p. 142, Roscoe, 420.

12. Do. (No date); ante, p. 378, Roscoe, 507.

13. Pope to Miss Blounts, no date, addressed "A Mademoiselles Therese & Marth. Blount, Pres." Roscoe, 425.

14. Pope to Teresa ("Mrs. Blount"), no date or sig. Roscoe, 445. 15. Pope to Martha, no date or sig.; ante, p. 149, Roscoe, 423. 16. Pope to Miss Blounts, Thursday; ante, p. 112, Roscoe, 402. 17. Do. "DEAR LADIES,-If you'll take an airing this fine morning in Kensington Gardens, I'll carry you thither at eleven o'clock, by which time my visit to the D. of B. will be performed. İ have sent the bearer for the haunch of venison, so you may spare George's gravity that trouble. I am faithfully yours, A. POPE."

18. Do. No date or sig.; ante, p. 129, and Roscoe, 407. 19. Do. No date or sig.; Roscoe, 448.

20. Letter of James Moore-Smythe, signed "Alexander," and by mistake marked as from Pope.

if

21. Pope to Martha. "MADAM,-I cannot but put you once more in mind of your appointment on Sunday; but I find I cannot return with you, and therefore let you know it, that you may, you like it, fill up your number in the coach with anybody you would bring; as any one you like must, of course, be agreeable to, madam, your most obliged and obedt. servt., A. Pope.— Tuesday. If you can drink nothing but claret, you must bring a bottle with you."

22. Do. No date, signed "A. P." Roscoe, 455.

23. Do. Stowe, Saturday. Franked by Cobham, and addressed to "Mrs. M. Blount, at Mrs. Blount's, Welbeck-street," &c. Roscoe, 500.

To a

24. Do. Easter-day; ante, p. 384, Roscoe, 504. 25. "DEAR SISTERS,-Jeremy Taylor says in his Holy Living_and Dying," &c. In surreptitious editions published as Lady in the name of her Brother." The letter gives a description of a monster then exhibiting in London. We may venture to quote one passage as containing a touch of Pope's humour: "Mr. Poole looks upon it as a prodigy, portending