is
assigned by either of these mighty geniuses in support of their
opinions, and the reader is left in the dark, as to the real truth. If
he is to be guided by the authority of a name only, no doubt the
argument will preponderate in favour of our countryman. The French lady
then proceeds to answer some observations, which Mr. Pope made upon her
Remarks on the Iliad, which she performs with a warmth that generally
attends writers of her sex. Mr. Pope, however, paid more regard to this
fair antagonist, than any other critic upon his works. He confessed that
he had received great helps from her, and only thought she had (through
a prodigious, and almost superstitious, fondness for Homer) endeavoured
to make him appear without any fault, or weakness, and stamp a
perfection on his works, which is no where to be found. He wrote her a
very obliging letter, in which he confessed himself exceedingly sorry
that he ever should have displeased so excellent a wit, and she, on the
other hand, with a goodness and frankness peculiar to her, protested to
forgive it, so that there remained no animosities between those two
great admirers and translators of Homer.

Mr. Pope, by his successful translation of the Iliad, as we have before
remarked, drew upon him the envy and raillery of a whole tribe of
writers. Though he did not esteem any particular man amongst his enemies
of consequence enough to provoke an answer, yet when they were
considered collectively, they offered excellent materials for a general
satire. This satire he planned and executed with so extraordinary a
mastery, that it is by far the most compleat poem of our author's; it
discovers more invention, and a higher effort of genius, than any other
production of his. The hint was taken from Mr. Dryden's Mac Flecknoe,
but as it is more general, so it is more pleasing. The Dunciad is so
universally read, that we reckon it superfluous to give any further
account of it here; and it would be an unpleasing task to trace all the
provocations and resentments, which were mutually discovered upon this
occasion. Mr. Pope was of opinion, that next to praising good writers,
there was a merit in exposing bad ones, though it does not hold
infallibly true, that each person stigmatized as a dunce, was genuinely
so. Something must be allowed to personal resentment; Mr. Pope was a man
of keen passions; he felt an injury strongly, retained a long
remembrance of it, and could very pungently repay i