st, secured to himself the profits arising from
his own works; he was never subjected to necessity, and therefore was
not to be imposed upon by the art or fraud of publishers.

But now approaches the period in which as he himself expressed it, he
stood in need of the generous tear he paid,

Posts themselves must fall like those they sung,
Deaf the prais'd ear, and mute the tuneful tongue.
Ev'n he whose soul now melts in mournful lays,
Shall shortly want the generous tear he pays.

Mr. Pope who had been always subjected to a variety of bodily
infirmities, finding his strength give way, began to think that his
days, which had been prolonged past his expectation, were drawing
towards a conclusion. However, he visited the Hot-Wells at Bristol,
where for some time there were small hopes of his recovery; but making
too free with purges he grew worse, and seemed desirous to draw nearer
home. A dropsy in the breast at last put a period to his life, at the
age of 56, on the 30th of May 1744, at his house at Twickenham, where he
was interred in the same grave with his father and mother.

Mr. Pope's behaviour in his last illness has been variously represented
to the world: Some have affirmed that it was timid and peevish; that
having been fixed in no particular system of faith, his mind was
wavering, and his temper broken and disturb'd. Others have asserted that
he was all chearfulness and resignation to the divine will: Which of
these opinions is true we cannot now determine; but if the former, it
must be regretted, that he, who had taught philosophy to others, should
himself be destitute of its assistance in the most critical moments of
his life.

The bulk of his fortune he bequeath'd to Mrs. Blount, with whom he lived
in the strictest friendship, and for whom he is said to have entertained
the warmest affection. His works, which are in the hands of every person
of true taste, and will last as long as our language will be understood,
render unnecessary all further remarks on his writings. He was equally
admired for the dignity and sublimity of his moral and philosophical
works, the vivacity of his satirical, the clearness and propriety of his
didactic, the richness and variety of his descriptive, and the elegance
of all, added to an harmony of versification and correctness of
sentiment and language, unknown to our former poets, and of which he has
set an example which will be an example or a reproach to his successo