the Tory party, says he does not
question but the author 'who has endeavoured to prove that he who wrote
the _Dispensary_ was no poet, will very suddenly undertake to show that
he who gained the battle of _Blenheim_ is no general.' The comparison
was an unfortunate one. Marlborough's military reputation has grown
brighter with time, Garth's fame as a poet has long ago ceased to exist.

A literary although not a poetical interest is associated with the name
of "well-natured Garth," who, as Pope acknowledges, was one of his
earliest friends; like Arbuthnot, he lived among the wits, and as a
member of the famous Kit-cat Club he wrote verses upon the Whig beauties
toasted by its members. His name is linked with Dryden's as well as with
that of his illustrious successor. It will be remembered how, on the
death of Dryden, the poet's body lay in state in the College of
Physicians, and how, before the great procession started for
Westminster Abbey, Sir Samuel, who was then President, delivered a Latin
oration.

Garth died in January, 1717-18, and, according to Pope, was a good
Christian without knowing it. Addison, however, who visited Garth in his
last illness, told Dr. Berkeley that he rejected Christianity on the
assurance of his friend Halley that its doctrines were incomprehensible,
and the religion itself an imposture. According to another report which
comes through Pope, he actually 'died a papist.'

[Sidenote: Ambrose Philips (1671-1749).]

Ambrose Philips, who belonged, like Tickell, to Addison's 'little
senate,' was born in 1671, and educated at St. John's, Cambridge. His
_Pastorals_ were published in Tonson's _Miscellany_ (1709), and the same
volume contained the _Pastorals_ of Pope. Log-rolling was understood in
those days, and Philips's verses received warm praise in more than one
number of the _Guardian_, the writer in one place declaring that there
have been only four masters of the art in above two thousand years:
'Theocritus, who left his dominions to Virgil; Virgil, who left his to
his son Spenser; and Spenser, who was succeeded by his eldest born,
Philips.'

Pope's _Pastorals_ were not mentioned, and in revenge he devised the
consummate artifice of sending an anonymous paper to the _Guardian_, in
which, while appearing to praise Philips, he exalted himself. Steele
took the bait, and considering that the essay depreciated Pope would not
publish it without his permission, which was of course readily grante