In one
of his late satires, _The Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot_, he charged
Addison with the inclination to--

"Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer."

On the basis of what he wrote, we may divide his life into three
periods. During his first thirty years, he produced various kinds of
verse, like the _Essay on Criticism_ and _The Rape of the Lock_. The
middle period of his life was marked by his translation of Homer's
_Iliad_ and _Odyssey_. In his third period, he wrote moral and
didactic poems, like the _Essay on Man_, and satires, like the
_Dunciad_.

[Illustration: POPE'S VILLA AT TWICKENHAM. _From an old print._]

Some Poems of the First Period: Essay on Criticism and The Rape of
the Lock.--Pope's first published poem, _The Pastorals_, which
appeared in 1709, was followed in 1711 by _An Essay on Criticism_,--an
exquisite setting of a number of gems of criticism which had for a
long time been current. Pope's intention in writing this poem may be
seen from what he himself says: "It seems not so much the perfection
of sense to say things that have never been said before, as to express
those best that have been said oftenest."

From this point of view, the poem is remarkable. No other writer,
except Shakespeare, has in an equal number of lines said so many
things which have passed into current quotation. Rare perfection in
the form of statement accounts for this. The poem abounds in such
lines as these:--

"For fools rush in where angels fear to tread."

"To err is human, to forgive divine."

"All seems infected that th' infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye."

"In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold,
Alike fantastic if too new or old:
Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside."

_The Rape of the Lock_, which is Pope's masterpiece, is almost a
romantic poem, even though it is written in classical couplets. It was
a favorite with Oliver Goldsmith, and James Russell Lowell rightly say
says: "The whole poem more truly deserves the name of a creation than
anything Pope ever wrote." The poem is a mock epic, and it has the
supernatural machinery which was supposed to be absolutely necessary
for an epic. In place of the gods and goddesses of the great epics,
however, the fairy-like sylphs help to guide the action of this poem.

The poem, which is founded on an actual incident