for the rest of his life did Pope much service, not always of a
reputable kind. We shall have more to say of him later on, and it will
suffice to observe here that Warburton, who through Pope's friendship
obtained a good wife, a fortune, and a bishopric, was not a man of high
character. His sole object was to advance in life, and he succeeded.

The _Moral Essays_ as they are called, and the _Imitations from Horace_
are the final and crowning efforts of the poet's genius. They contain
his finest workmanship as a satirist, and will be read, I think, with
more pleasure than the _Dunciad_, despite Mr. Ruskin's judgment of that
poem as 'the most absolutely chiselled and monumental work "exacted" in
our country.'[24] It is impossible to concur in this estimate. The
imagery of the poem serves only to disgust, and the spiteful attacks
made in it on forgotten men want the largeness of purpose that lifts
satire above what is of temporary interest, making it a lesson for all
time.

Pope's venom, and the personal animosities which give the sharpest
sting, and in some instances a zest, to his verse, are also amply
displayed in the _Moral Essays_ and in the _Imitations_, but the scope
is wider in these poems, and the subjects allow of more versatile
treatment. They should be read with the help of notes, a help generally
needed for satirical poetry, but it should be remembered always that
editorial judgments are to be received with discretion and not servilely
followed. There is perhaps no danger more carefully to be shunned by the
student of literature than the habit of resting satisfied with opinions
at second-hand. Better a wrong estimate formed after due reading and
thought, than a right estimate gleaned from critics, without any thought
at all.

According to Warburton, who is as tricky as Pope himself when it suits
his purpose to be so, the _Essay on Man_ was intended to form four
books, in which, as part of the general design, the _Moral Essays_ would
have been included, as well as Book IV. of the _Dunciad_, but to have
welded these _Essays_, which were published separately, into one
continuous poem would neither have suited Pope's genius nor the
character of the poems; and how the last book of the _Dunciad_ could
have been included in such an _olla podrida_ it is difficult to
conceive. The poet was fond of projects, and this, happily for his
readers, remained one. The dates of the four _Essays_, which are really
Epistles, a