My mother is much better this Summer than th onight to be net hairng jeen Ms Knightias.. that I am sick every other day as usual; this day for one : bet muly & always,

Your most affcchonate
& most humble Servant A. Pop.

Published as the Act directs from the Original Jan) 1806

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. LEAB 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.

PERMIT me to break into your retirement, the residence 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 such 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 profession. In other words, in that species of poetry wherein

VOL. I.

A

POPE

Pope excelled, he is superior to all mankind : and I only say, that this species of poetry is not the most excellent one of the art.

1

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 sense: 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