application. The _Moral Essays_, it may be added, are not
especially moral, but they are full of fine things, and form a portion
of Pope's verse second only to the _Imitations from Horace_.

These _Imitations_ are introduced by the Prologue addressed to Dr.
Arbuthnot, a poem of more than common brilliancy, and also more than
commonly venomous. Nowhere, perhaps, is there in Pope's works so
powerful and bitter an attack as the twenty-five lines in the Prologue
devoted to the vivisection of Lord Hervey, which we are forced to admire
while feeling their malevolence; nowhere is there a more consummate
piece of satire than the twenty-two lines that contain the poet's
masterpiece, the character of Atticus; and nowhere, I may add, are there
lines more personally interesting. Portions of the poem were written
long before the date of publication, and this is Pope's excuse, a rather
lame one perhaps, for printing the character of Atticus and the lines on
his mother after the death of Addison and of Mrs. Pope.

'When I had a fever one winter in town,' Pope said to his friend Spence,
'that confined me to my room for some days, Lord Bolingbroke came to see
me, happened to take up a Horace that lay on the table, and in turning
it over dipt on the first satire of the second book. He observed how
well that would hit my case if I were to imitate it in English. After he
was gone I read it over, translated it in a morning or two, and sent it
to press in a week or fortnight after. And this was the occasion of my
imitating some other of the satires and epistles afterwards.'

Bolingbroke did his friend a better service in giving this advice than
he had done with regard to the _Essay on Man_; and the six _Imitations_,
with the Prologue and Epilogue, which are among the latest fruits of
Pope's genius as a satirist, are also the ripest.

Warburton, writing of the _Imitations of Horace_, says: 'Whoever expects
a paraphrase of Horace or a faithful copy of his genius or his manner of
writing in these _Imitations_ will be much disappointed. Our author uses
the Roman poet for little more than his canvas; and if the old design or
colouring chance to suit his purpose, it is well; if not, he employs his
own without scruple or ceremony.'

This is true. Pope makes use of Horace when it suits his convenience,
but never follows him servilely, and quits him altogether when his
design carries him another way.

It was inevitable that he should exercise th