hes, yet I think that in his thunder there
is often more noise than fire. Don't you find him too declamatory, too
turgid, too unnatural, even in his best tragedies?

_Pope_.--I own I do; yet the greatness and elevation of his sentiments,
and the nervous vigour of his sense, atone, in my opinion, for all his
faults. But let me now, in my turn, desire your opinion of our epic
poet, Milton.

_Boileau_.--Longinus perhaps would prefer him to all other writers, for
he surpasses even Homer in the sublime; but other critics who require
variety, and agreeableness, and a correct regularity of thought and
judgment in an epic poem, who can endure no absurdities, no extravagant
fictions, would place him far below Virgil.

_Pope_.--His genius was indeed so vast and sublime, that his poem seems
beyond the limits of criticism, as his subject is beyond the limits of
nature. The bright and excessive blaze of poetical fire, which shines in
so many parts of the "Paradise Lost," will hardly permit the dazzled eye
to see its faults.

_Boileau_.--The taste of your countrymen is much changed since the days
of Charles II., when Dryden was thought a greater poet than Milton!

_Pope_.--The politics of Milton at that time brought his poetry into
disgrace, for it is a rule with the English, they see no good in a man
whose politics they dislike; but, as their notions of government are apt
to change, men of parts whom they have slighted become their favourite
authors, and others who have possessed their warmest admiration are in
their turn undervalued. This revolution of favour was experienced by
Dryden as well as Milton; he lived to see his writings, together with his
politics, quite out of fashion. But even in the days of his highest
prosperity, when the generality of the people admired his _Almanzor_, and
thought his _Indian Emperor_ the perfection of tragedy, the Duke of
Buckingham and Lord Rochester, the two wittiest noblemen our country has
produced, attacked his fame, and turned the rants of his heroes, the
jargon of his spirits, and the absurdity of his plots into just ridicule.

_Boileau_.--You have made him good amends by the praise you have given
him in some of your writings.

_Pope_.--I owed him that praise as my master in the art of versification,
yet I subscribe to the censures which have been passed by other writers
on many of his works. They are good critics, but he is still a great
poet. You, sir, I am sure, must partic