No More Learning

C. One year later he returned to
his native country, which in his absence and against his advice had
rashly revolted from Rome. His influence with prominent Romans
mitigated somewhat the horrors of the sack of Corinth by Mummius.
His last political task was one intrusted to him by the Roman con-
querors. It was that of reconciling his conquered countrymen to their
defeat, and to the Roman rule. He accomplished this delicate task
in such a way as to retain the confidence of the Romans without
forfeiting the gratitude of the Greeks. This closed his active career.

POLYBIUS


## p. 11702 (#322) ##########################################

11702
POLYBIUS
It had especially qualified him to write of four great subjects with a
knowledge absolutely unsurpassed. These four great subjects were:
The Achæan League, or Hellenic Federations; The Roman Power
of the Second Century B. C. ; The Roman Conquest of Carthage;
The Roman Conquest of Greece. He devoted the rest of his life
to the composition of the history which finally included these four
themes, and died at the good old age of eighty-two.
His experience in public life is unique in many ways, as is also
the history which is his imperishable monument. It was a marvel-
ous combination of events which enabled a leading Greek to become
practically a leading Roman, without hearing from either side the
charge of treachery. But Polybius was compelled to go to Rome,
and only the force and dignity of his character prevented his seven-
teen years of exile from being what they were to his fellow exiles,
a prolonged imprisonment. As adviser and officer of the Achæan
League, which included at last all Peloponnesus, the policy of Polyb-
ius was to conform loyally to all actual agreements of the League
with Rome, but yet to maintain the dignity of the League, and to
guard jealously all the independence and power still left it. Polyb-
ius, that is, was a Nationalist. But there was a party of Roman-
izers in the Achæan League. These were willing, for the sake of
private gain, to further a more rapid advance of Roman interests, a
more speedy absorption of Greece by the Roman Empire. The polit-
ical situation was not unlike that of the previous century, when
Demosthenes fought a losing fight for Hellenic as opposed to Mace-
donian nationalism. Polybius had a sturdier and more philosophical
nature than Demosthenes, and his antagonists were not so disinter-
ested as was Phocion, the greatest opponent of Demosthenes. But
in other respects the political situations were similar. Rome is
merely to be substituted for Macedon, and Macedon is to be ranged
along with Athens and Sparta as a subject power. For in 168 Rome
had conquered Macedon; and soon after, ten Roman commissioners
had appeared in Achaia to establish more firmly there the Roman
power. They went as far as they could go without actual conquest,
aided by the Romanizing party in the League. One thousand of the
most influential Achæans of the Nationalist party were arrested and
deported to Italy, to be tried there for their lives.
Polybius was of course one of these. His companions were never
brought to trial, but distributed about for imprisonment in the small
towns of Italy. After seventeen years of deferred justice, the three
hundred surviving exiles were contemptuously sent home by the
Roman Senate. Cato, brutal even in his mercy, had said that "the
only question that remained was whether the undertakers of Italy
or of Greece were to have the burying of them. " But Polybius had


## p. 11703 (#323) ##########################################

POLYBIUS
11703
obtained permission to reside during those long years at Rome,
doubtless through the influence of Æmilius Paulus, who, as procon-
sul of Macedonia, had disbelieved the charges brought against the
exiles. Polybius even entered the family of the greatest Roman of
his age, and became the teacher, counselor, and beloved friend of his
greater son Scipio Africanus the Younger. His seventeen years of
exile brought him, therefore, unsurpassed opportunities to become
acquainted with the Roman State. He was free from perplexing
political turmoil, free also from all the restraints of a prisoner. The
highest circles of Roman society were open to him, and the liberality
of Scipio enabled him to devote himself to historical studies.
So when his exile also was closed by decree of the Senate, he was
specially qualified to take the part of mediator between Rome and his
own distracted country. Fervor of loyalty, romantic patriotism, might
have led him to a forlorn-hope attempt to stay the advance of Roman
power. But Polybius had neither fervor nor romance. He was emi-
nently practical by nature, a Roman by temperament rather than a
Greek; and his long residence in Rome, among the chief Romans,
had only emphasized his natural tendencies. He seems to have
been especially gifted and trained by Providence to be an acceptable
guide for the Eastern world in its transition from Greek to Roman
sway.
The history of Polybius was in forty books. Of these only the
first five have come down to us intact. Of the rest we have more or
less generous fragments. But the plan of the whole is clear. The
main part, Books iii. -xxx. , covers the events of those wonderful fifty-
three years, 220-168 B. C. , during which the Romans subdued the
world. "Can any one," he asks at the outset, "be so indifferent or
idle as not to care to know by what means, and under what kind of
polity, almost the whole inhabited world was conquered and brought
under the dominion of the single city of Rome, and that too within
a period of not quite fifty-three years? " This was an event, as
Polybius thought, for which the past afforded no precedent, and to
which the future could show no parallel. Books i. and ii. are intro-
ductory to this main body of the work, giving a sketch of the earlier
history of Rome, and of contemporary events in Greece and Asia.
The last ten books gave a history of the manner in which Rome
exercised her vast power, until Carthage was annihilated and the
Achæan league finally shattered,- the history of the years 168-146.
Polybius had the highest possible standard of the calling and
duties of the historian. The true historian, he says, will be a man of
action, versed in political and military affairs. He will not confine
himself to the study of documents and monuments merely, although
he will not neglect these. He will study carefully and in person the


## p. 11704 (#324) ##########################################

11704
POLYBIUS
topography of the actions he describes. He will ask questions of as
many people as possible who were connected in any way with the
events or places which he is describing, and he will believe those
most worthy of credit, and show critical sagacity in judging all their
reports. He will be a man of dignity and good sense. When he
resolves to retaliate upon a personal enemy, he will think first, not
what that enemy deserves, but what it is becoming in himself to do
to that enemy, what his self-respect will allow him to say of that
enemy.
Two aims distinguish his history from that of all his predecessors:
first its comprehensiveness, second its philosophical nature. He aims
to give a general view of the events of the civilized world within
the limits of the period chosen for treatment, and he aims to trace
events to their causes, and show why things happened, as well as
what happened. And what catastrophic events fall within the limits
which he sets for himself! The devastations of Hannibal, the anni-
hilation of Carthage, the sack of Corinth! Surely in matter his
work can never fail to interest. His spirit also is eminently truthful
and sincere. He labors to be impartial, and succeeds far better than
most of his predecessors. Only in method and form is he disappoint-
ing. As he had no romance or fervor, so he had no grace. His lit-
erary style is absolutely tedious. He carries to the utmost extreme
that revolt against mere grace of form and style which had been
instituted, not without some justification, by Thucydides as against
Herodotus. But he has not the severe control of Thucydides in his
very severity. His sense of proportion is false,- or wanting entirely.
He is inclined to be unjust toward his predecessors. He devotes a
whole book, for instance, to a laborious and repetitious attack upon
Timæus, the historian of Sicily. Besides this, he is forever preach-
ing and moralizing. To sum up, he treats a grand period capably but
tediously.
-
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the great critic of the Augustan age,
said that Polybius so neglected the graces of style that no one was
patient enough to read his works through to the end. And one of
the best modern estimates of the historian-that of Strachan-Davidson
in Abbott's 'Hellenica' - begins thus: "No ancient writer of equal
interest and importance finds fewer readers than Polybius. " No bet-
ter example of painstaking, conscientious, but wearisome fidelity, as
compared with brilliant, graceful, artistic invention, can be found
than the accounts of the Hannibalic wars as given by Polybius and
Livy. For the ultimate facts we go of course to Polybius. But
for the indescribable charm which brings tears to the eyes of the
poor Latin tutor in the 'Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,' we go to
Livy.


## p. 11705 (#325) ##########################################

POLYBIUS
11705
The best and most accessible text of Polybius is that of Hultsch
(Berlin, Weidmann, Vols. i. and ii. , 1888, 1892; Vols. iii. , iv. , 1870,
1872). The best English translation and a very good one too, with
admirable introduction—is that of E. S. Shuckburgh (2 vols. , Macmil-
lan & Co. , 1889.
B. Pherin
-
SCOPE OF POLYBIUS'S HISTORY
From the Histories of Polybius
W*
E SHALL best show how vast and marvelous our subject is,
by comparing the most famous empires which preceded,
and which have been the favorite themes of historians,
and measuring them with the superior greatness of Rome. There
are but three that deserve even to be so compared and meas-
ured, and they are the following. The Persians for a certain
length of time were possessed of a great empire and dominion.
But every time they ventured beyond the limits of Asia, they
found not only their empire but their own existence in danger.
The Lacedæmonians, after contending many generations for su-
premacy in Greece, held it without dispute for barely twelve years
when they did get it. The Macedonians obtained dominion in
Europe from the lands bordering on the Adriatic to the Danube,
- which after all is but a small fraction of this continent, and
by the destruction of the Persian empire they afterwards added
to that the dominion of Asia. And yet, though they had the
credit of having made themselves masters of a larger number of
countries and States than any people had ever done, they still
left the greater half of the inhabited world in the hands of oth-
ers. They never so much as thought of attempting Sicily, Sar-
dinia, or Libya; and as to Europe, to speak the plain truth, they
never even knew of the most warlike tribes of the West. The
Roman conquest, on the other hand, was not partial. Nearly
the whole inhabited world was reduced by them to obedience;
and they left behind them an empire not to be paralleled in the
past or rivaled in the future. Students will gain from my nar-
rative a clearer view of the whole story, and of the numerous
and important advantages offered by such exact record of events.


## p. 11706 (#326) ##########################################

11706
POLYBIUS
There is this analogy between the plan of my history and the
marvelous spirit of the age with which I have to deal. Just as
Fortune made almost all the affairs of the world incline in one
direction, and forced them to converge upon one and the same
point, so it is my task as a historian to put before my readers
a compendious view of the part played by Fortune in bringing
about the general catastrophe. It was this peculiarity which
originally challenged my attention, and determined me on under-
taking this work. And combined with this was the fact that no
other writer of our time has undertaken a general history. Had
any one done so, my ambition in this direction would have been
much diminished. But in point of fact, I notice that by far
the greater number of historians concern themselves with iso-
lated wars and the incidents that accompany them; while as to a
general and comprehensive scheme of events, their date, origin,
and catastrophe,- no one as far as I know has undertaken to
examine it.
-
I thought it therefore distinctly my duty neither to pass by
myself, nor allow any one else to pass by, without full study,
a characteristic specimen of the dealings of Fortune, at once
brilliant and instructive in the highest degree. For fruitful as
Fortune is in change, and constantly as she is producing dra-
mas in the life of men, yet never assuredly before this did she
work such a marvel, or act such a drama, as that which we
have witnessed. And of this we cannot obtain a comprehensive
view from writers of mere episodes. It would be as absurd to
expect to do so, as for a man to imagine that he has learnt
the shape of the whole world, its entire arrangement and order,
because he has visited one after the other the most famous cities
in it; or perhaps merely examined them in separate pictures.
That would be indeed absurd; and it has always seemed to
me that men who are persuaded that they get a competent view
of universal from episodical history, are very like persons who
should see the limbs of some body, which had once been living
and beautiful, scattered and remote; and should imagine that to
be quite as good as actually beholding the activity and beauty of
the living creature itself. But if some one could there and then
reconstruct the animal once more, in the perfection of its beauty
and the charm of its vitality, and could display it to the same
people, they would beyond doubt confess that they had been far


## p. 11707 (#327) ##########################################

POLYBIUS
11707
from conceiving the truth, and had been little better than
dreamers. For indeed some idea of a whole may be got from a
part, but an accurate knowledge and clear comprehension cannot.
Wherefore we must conclude that episodical history contributes
exceedingly little to the familiar knowledge and secure grasp of
universal history: while it is only by the combination and com-
parison of the separate parts of the whole,-by observing their
likeness and their difference,- that a man can attain his object;
can obtain a view at once clear and complete, and thus secure
both the profit and the delight of history.
POLYBIUS AND THE SCIPIOS
From the Histories>
I
WISH to carry out fully, for the sake of students, what was
left as a mere promise in my previous book. I promised
then that I would relate the origin and manner of the rise
and unusually early glory of Scipio's reputation in Rome; and
also how it came about that Polybius became so attached to and
intimate with him, that the fame of their friendship and constant
companionship was not merely confined to Italy and Greece, but
became known to more remote nations also. We have already
shown that the acquaintance began in a loan of some books and
the conversation about them. But as the intimacy went on, and
the Achæan détenus were being distributed among the various
cities, Fabius and Scipio, the sons of Lucius Æmilius Paulus,
exerted all their influence with the prætor that Polybius might
be allowed to remain in Rome. This was granted; and the inti-
macy was becoming more and more close, when the following
incident occurred:-
-
One day, when they were all three coming out of the house of
Fabius, it happened that Fabius left them to go to the Forum,
and that Polybius went in another direction with Scipio. As they
were walking along, Scipio said, in a quiet and subdued voice,
and with the blood mounting to his cheeks: "Why is it, Polyb-
ius, that though I and my brother eat at the same table, you
address all your conversation and all your questions and expla-
nations to him, and pass me over altogether? Of course you too
have the same opinion of me as I hear the rest of the city has.
For I am considered by everybody, I hear, to be a mild effete


## p. 11708 (#328) ##########################################

11708
POLYBIUS
person, and far removed from the true Roman character and
ways, because I don't care for pleading in the law courts. And
they say that the family I come of requires a different kind of
representative, and not the sort that I am. That is what annoys
me most. "
Polybius was taken aback by the opening words of the young
man's speech (for he was only just eighteen), and said, "In
heaven's name, Scipio, don't say such things, or take into your
head such an idea. It is not from any want of appreciation of
you, or any intention of slighting you, that I have acted as I
have done: far from it! It is merely that, your brother being
the elder, I begin and end my remarks with him, and address
my explanations and counsels to him, in the belief that you
share the same opinions. However, I am delighted to hear you
say now that you appear to yourself to be somewhat less spir-
ited than is becoming to members of your family; for you show
by this that you have a really high spirit, and I should gladly
devote myself to helping you to speak or act in any way worthy
of your ancestors. As for learning, to which I see you and your
brother devoting yourselves at present with so much earnestness
and zeal, you will find plenty of people to help you both; for I
see that a large number of such learned men from Greece are
finding their way into Rome at the present time. But as to the
points which you say are just now vexing you, I think you will
not find any one more fitted to support and assist you than
myself. "
While Polybius was still speaking, the young man seized his
right hand with both of his own, and pressing it warmly, said,
"Oh that I might see the day on which you would devote your
first attention to me, and join your life with mine. From that
moment I shall think myself worthy both of my family and my
ancestors. " Polybius was partly delighted at the sight of the
young man's enthusiasm and affection, and partly embarrassed
by the thought of the high position of his family and the wealth
of its members. However, from the hour of this mutual confi-
dence the youth never left the side of Polybius, but regarded
his society as his first and dearest object.
From that time forward they continually gave each other
practical proof of an affection which recalled the relationship of
father and son, or of kinsmen of the same blood.


## p. 11709 (#329) ##########################################

POLYBIUS
11709
THE FALL OF CORINTH
·
From the Histories'
THE
HE incidents of the capture of Corinth were melancholy. The
soldiers cared nothing for the works of art and the con-
secrated statues. I saw with my own eyes, pictures thrown
on the ground and soldiers playing dice on them.
Owing to the popular reverence for the memory of Philopœ-
men, they did not take down the statues of him in the various
cities. So true is it, as it seems to me, that every genuine act
of virtue produces in the mind of those who benefit by it an
affection which it is difficult to efface.
There were many statues of Philopomen, and many erections
in his honor, voted by the several cities; and a Roman, at the
time of the disaster which befell Greece at Corinth, wished to
abolish them all, and to formally indict him, laying an infor-
mation against him, as though he were still alive, as an enemy
and ill-wisher to Rome. But after a discussion, in which Polyb-
ius spoke against this sycophant, neither Mummius nor the
commissioners would consent to abolish the honors of an illus-
trious man.
Polybius, in an elaborate speech, conceived in the spirit of
what has just been said, maintained the cause of Philopomen.
His arguments were that "this man had indeed been frequently
at variance with the Romans on the matter of their in unctions,
but he only maintained his opposition so far as to inform and
persuade them on points in dispute; and even that he did not
do without serious cause. He gave a genuine proof of his loyal
policy and gratitude by a test as it were of fire, in the peri-
ods of the wars with Philip and Antiochus. For, possessing at
those times the greatest influence of any one in Greece, from his
personal power as well as that of the Achæans, he preserved
his friendship for Rome with the most absolute fidelity; having
joined in the vote of the Achæans in virtue of which, four
months before the Romans crossed from Italy, they levied a
war from their own territory upon Antiochus and the Etolians,
when nearly all the other Greeks had become estranged from
the Roman friendship. " Having listened to this speech, and ap-
proved of the speaker's view, the ten commissioners granted that
the complimentary erections to Philopomen in the several cities


## p. 11710 (#330) ##########################################

POLYBIUS
11710
should be allowed to remain. Acting on this pretext, Polybius
begged of the consul the statues of Achæus, Aratus, and Philo-
pomen, though they had already been transported to Acarnania
from the Peloponnesus: in gratitude for which action, people set
up a marble statue of Polybius himself.
•
After the settlement made by the ten commissioners in
Achaia, they directed the quæstor, who was to superintend the
selling of Diæus's property, to allow Polybius to select anything
he chose from the goods and present it to him as a free gift,
and to sell the rest to the highest bidders. But so far from
accepting any such present, Polybius urged his friends not to
covet anything whatever of the goods sold by the quæstor any-
where; - for he was going a round of the cities, and selling the
property of all those who had been partisans of Diæus, as well
as of those who had been condemned, except such as left children
or parents. Some of these friends did not take his advice; but
those who did follow it earned a most excellent reputation among
their fellow-citizens.


## p. 11710 (#331) ##########################################



## p. 11710 (#332) ##########################################


ALEXANDER POPE.


## p. 11710 (#333) ##########################################

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## p. 11710 (#334) ##########################################


RUPE


## p. 11711 (#335) ##########################################

11711
ALEXANDER POPE
(1688-1744)
BY THOMAS R. LOUNSBURY
LEXANDER POPE, the foremost English poet of the eighteenth
century, was born in Lombard Street, London, on May
21st, 1688, and died at Twickenham, May 30th, 1744.
In our
literature he is the earliest man of letters pure and simple. With
that pursuit previous writers had mingled other avocations, if indeed
literature itself had not been with them an avocation amid the dis-
traction of other pursuits. Chaucer was a soldier and a diplomatist.
Spenser was a government official. Shakespeare was an actor, besides
being connected with the management of the company of which he
was a member. Milton was an eager and earnest participant in the
fierce religious and political strife of his time. Even Dryden held a
position in the civil service. But Pope was never anything else than
a man of letters. That career he had chosen from the first; and to
it he remained faithful to the last.
It was mainly due to choice; partly it was a result of necessity.
He was the son of a linen-draper who was a Roman Catholic; and
Pope, though almost a latitudinarian in matters of religion, stood
stanchly to the end by the faith of his parents. His creed accord-
ingly shut him out of all the posts of profit and sinecures with which
it was then not uncommon to reward literary merit. Even had it
been otherwise, it is not likely that he would have been turned aside
from his choice by the attraction of any other pursuit. In his case
the Muse cannot be said to have been ungrateful. To him in a
most unusual sense poetry was its own exceeding great reward. It
lifted him to a station such as no man of letters before his time had
ever attained, and few have attained since,- and this too in spite
of obstacles that it might seem would have put an effectual bar in
the way of success. A member of a proscribed religious body, with
no advantages of birth and fortune, with every disadvantage of per-
sonal appearance, he raised himself by the sheer force of genius
to a position of equality with the highest of the land.
Unplaced,
untitled, he became the companion and friend of nobles and minis-
ters of State, without in a single instance sacrificing his personal self-
respect, or appearing even to his bitterest foes in the light of a
dependent upon the favor of the great.


## p. 11712 (#336) ##########################################

ALEXANDER POPE
11712
In one way this extraordinary success was due to good fortune.
Pope saw the beginning of the end of the system of patronage, and
was to profit more than any one else by the method of publication by
subscription — which to some extent took its place in the transition
that was going on to the system of publication now in force. Before
his time authors generally relied for their support, not on the sale of
their works, but upon the gifts received from the wealthy and power-
ful. To them they dedicated their productions, usually in terms of
fulsome eulogy; from them they received a reward varying with the
feelings and character of the bestower. The extravagant praise given
to ordinary men in these dedications by Pope's great predecessor has
cast something of a stain upon the reputation of Dryden; though all
that can be justly said against him was that in the general daubing
which every patron at that time received, his was the hand that laid
on the plaster with most skill and most effectiveness. But Pope was
reduced to no such sad necessity. The publication by subscription of
his translation of the Iliad, completed when he was but little over
thirty years old, with the subsequent translation of the Odyssey,
brought out in a similar way, made him pecuniarily independent. He
was never forced in consequence to resort for his subsistence to any
of those shifts and mean devices-as they appear at least from the
modern point of view-to which many of his most eminent contem-
poraries betook themselves either from choice or from necessity. Not
merely his example, but also his precepts, tended to bring the whole
system of patronage into disrepute. All these feelings about the early
adverse conditions which had surrounded him, and the success with
which he had triumphed over them, came to his mind when late in
life-it was in the year 1737 - he brought out his imitation of the
second epistle of the second book of Horace. In these following
lines, possessed of special biographic interest, he recalled the disabil-
ities under which he and his parents had suffered, and expressed his
joy in the right he had earned to boast that Homer had made him
independent of the favor of the powerful:-
"Bred up at home, full early I begun
To read in Greek the wrath of Peleus's son.
Besides, my father taught me from a lad
The better art to know the good from bad
(And little sure imported to remove,
To hunt for truth in Maudlin's learned grove):
But knottier points we knew not half so well
Deprived us soon of our paternal cell;
And certain laws, by sufferers thought unjust,
Denied all posts of profit or of trust:
Hopes after hopes of pious Papists failed,
While mighty William's thundering arm prevailed.


## p. 11713 (#337) ##########################################

ALEXANDER POPE
11713
For right hereditary taxed and fined,
He stuck to poverty with peace of mind;
And me the Muses helped to undergo it:
Convict a Papist he, and I a poet.
But (thanks to Homer) since I live and thrive,
Indebted to no prince or peer alive,
Sure I should want the care of ten Monroes,
If I would scribble rather than repose.
Years following years steal something every day,
At last they steal us from ourselves away;
In one our frolics, one amusements end,
In one a mistress drops, in one a friend:
This subtle thief of life, this paltry time,
What will it leave me if it snatch my rhyme?
If every wheel of that unwearied mill,
That turned ten thousand verses, now stands still ? »
In many respects Pope's life was peculiarly uneventful in the
usually uneventful life of an author. His father quitted his business
while the son was still a child, and took up his residence at Binfield
in Berkshire, on the northern border of Windsor Forest. From that
place he went in 1716 to Chiswick. In October of the following year
he died. Early in 1718 Pope left Chiswick, and removed with his
mother to Twickenham, about twelve miles from the centre of the
city of London proper. There he leased a house surrounded with five
acres on the banks of the Thames. On the adornment and improve-
ment of these grounds he spent henceforth time, thought, and money.
Through them ran the highway from Hampton Court to London, and
the two portions of his property were connected by a tunnel under
the road. This underground passage, styled a grotto, possessed a
spring; and was adorned with shells, corals, crystals, and in general
with an assortment of natural curiosities, to which Dr. Johnson in
his life of the poet applies the name of "fossil bodies. " This grotto
became noted; and references to it are by no means unfrequent in
the literature of the day. Twickenham remained henceforth Pope's
home, and his residence in it made it even during his lifetime classic
ground. From that place he ruled with almost undisputed sway over
English letters, making and unmaking reputations by the praise or
blame he bestowed in a single line.
Pope had almost from his infancy been devoted to literature.
He never really knew what it was to be a boy. His health, always
delicate, would not have endured the close confinement and hard
application of any rigid system of training. As he was a Catholic,
he could not have attended a public school had he so wished. That
deprivation was to him however no misfortune. Sickly and deformed,
precocious and sensitive, he would have been little at home in that
XX-733


## p. 11714 (#338) ##########################################

11714
ALEXANDER POPE
brutal boy-world, which spares the feelings of no comrade on the
ground of personal or mental defects. Accordingly he was thrown
from his earliest years upon the society of books and of his elders.
Taught mainly by private tutors and schoolmasters more
or less
incapable, his education was mainly of a desultory character; and
for the best part of it he was indebted to himself. For his purposes
it was probably none the worse on that account. Living a secluded
life in the country, he early manifested all the tastes and aspira-
tions of the born man of letters. While yet a mere boy he made
translations into verse, he wrote an epic, he wrote a tragedy; and
long before he reached his majority, he had displayed powers which
attracted the attention of men prominent in the social and literary
world.
His active career as a man of letters began with the publication
of his 'Pastorals. ' These appeared in 1709 in the sixth volume of
Tonson's Miscellany. Never was there a kind of literature more
unreal and conventional than that to which they belonged, though
our ancestors persuaded themselves, or affected to believe, that it was
a return to the simplicity of nature. The poetical pieces of the char-
acter then written are the most artificial products of an artificial age.
At their best no inhabitant of either city or country ever talked or
felt in real life as did those who are represented as bearing a part in
their dialogue; at their worst they were so expressionless as to re-
semble much more the bleating of sheep than the song of shepherds.
Yet they had been made a fashion. Those of Pope were received
with great contemporary applause, which, so far as the melody of the
numbers was concerned, was fully deserved. Following these on not
altogether dissimilar lines was the descriptive poem Windsor For-
est,' which came out in 1712. At a later period Pope apparently
learned to despise the taste which had inspired these productions.
"Who could take offense," he said, referring to them,
"While pure description took the place of sense? »
A far more worthy and substantial success was achieved by the
'Essay on Criticism,' which appeared in 1711. Pope was but twenty-
three years old at the time of its publication. The production,
however, is a remarkable one in many ways. The rules and maxims
are indeed little more than commonplaces; but the skill with which
they are expressed makes this poem, considering its character and
the youth of its writer, one of the most signal illustrations of pre-
cocity which our literature furnishes. In it in particular occur a
number of those pointed lines which have contributed to render Pope,
with the single exception of Shakespeare, the most frequently quoted
author in our speech. To "snatch a grace beyond the reach of art,"


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ALEXANDER POPE
11715
and "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread," are perhaps the
most familiar of the numerous sayings, which, occurring originally
in this poem, are now heard from the lips of everybody. But these,
as has been indicated, are far from being the only ones; while the
following comparison of the increasing difficulties that invariably
wait upon effort to reach the highest place has always been justly
admired:-
-
"So pleased at first, the towering Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales and seem to tread the sky;
The eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last:
But, those attained, we tremble to survey
The growing labors of the lengthened way;
The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes;
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise. »
The greatest success, however, of Pope's early career was his mock-
heroic poem of the Rape of the Lock. ' This appeared in its origi-
nal form in 1712, but its present much enlarged form belongs to 1714.
The poem stands by itself in our literature. There is none like it;
and it may not be too much to say that in no literature is there
anything of the kind equaling it. The productions already mentioned,
with the Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady' and the
epistle of 'Eloïsa to Abélard,' constitute the most important contri-
butions that Pope made to English literature before he had completed
his version of the Iliad. They stand largely distinct in spirit and in
matter from the work of his later years. Some of them address the
emotional side of our nature, as contrasted with the appeal to the
purely intellectual side which is the distinguishing note of everything
written after the publication of the translation of the Odyssey. To
use his own words, he thenceforward
"Stooped to truth, and moralized his song»;
though this is a line which expresses his own belief rather than his
actual performance. These early productions brought him general
reputation, and the personal friendship of men eminent in the world.
of society and of letters. The good opinion of all was confirmed by
the publication of his translation of the Iliad, the first installment of
which was published in 1715, and the last as late as 1720.
It was this work which at that time established Pope's reputation
and fortune on a secure basis. To some extent it was necessity that
led him to undertake it, rather than strong desire or special qualifi-
cation. His father's fortune, whatever it was, had been reduced by
investments that turned out unfortunately. His own original work
had been paid for on a scale which the pettiest author of the present


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11716
ALEXANDER POPE
age would deem beggarly. For the 'Rape of the Lock,' for instance,
in its first form, he had received but seven pounds; for the additions
to it, nearly tripling its length, fifteen pounds was the sum paid.
But the publication of the translation of the Iliad netted him over
five thousand pounds; and the subsequent translation of the Odyssey,
after paying his fellow-workers, Brome and Fenton, added to this
amount the further sum of three thousand pounds. Henceforth he
was pecuniarily independent. Even far greater was the accession to
his literary reputation. The translation of the Iliad, when completed,
placed him at the undisputed headship of English men of letters then
living. The subsequent fortunes of his version may be thought to
justify the enthusiasm with which it was received. There had been
three other translations of Homer before his own; those that have
followed, or are to follow, are as the sands of the sea for number.
Yet during the whole period that has elapsed since its publication,
Pope's version has never ceased to hold its place. Other translations
may more accurately reflect the spirit of the original; other transla-
tions may be more faithful to the sense: the one executed by him
has the supreme distinction of being readable.
The publication of his version of the two Homeric epics was fol-
lowed by his edition of the works of Shakespeare. This came out in
1725. It was a task Pope had no business to undertake; for his time
was too precious to be spent in text-correction and annotation, and
he had neither the leisure nor the taste to engage in that minute
and painstaking research which makes such correction or annotation
of real and permanent value. The edition was a general disappoint-
ment. In the year after its appearance Theobald (or Tibbald, as the
name is sometimes spelled) brought out a critical treatise with the
not altogether conciliatory title of Shakspear restored; or a Speci-
men of The Many Errors committed as well as unamended by Mr.
Pope in his late edition of this Poet. ' Yet in spite of these some-
what suggestive words, the reviewer expressed a good deal of respect
for the poet, though it was for him as a poet and not as a com-
mentator. Even in the latter capacity, he cannot fairly be deemed to
have exceeded the legitimate province of that criticism which is al-
ways held to justify an exultant yell over a real or fancied blunder
made by another scholar. But the comparative moderation of Theo-
bald did him no good. Of all the irritable race of authors, Pope was
the one least disposed to forget or forgive. This particular treatise
was the occasion of his bringing out, what he had long had in mind,
an attack on the whole body of minor authors, with whose venomous
but vigorous mediocrity his own sensitiveness had brought him into
conflict. Accordingly in 1728 appeared the 'Dunciad,' in three books,
with Theobald for hero as the supreme dunce.


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ALEXANDER POPE
11717
It shows the influence of a man of genius both over contem-
poraries and posterity, that the reputation of Theobald has never
recovered from the effects of this blow. He was undoubtedly a very
ordinary poet, and as a critic the best that can be said of him is
that he was as poor as the average members of that fraternity. But
as an editor there had been none before to compare with him, and
there have been very few since, amid the countless number who have
attacked the text of the great dramatist. His edition of Shakespeare,
which came out in 1733, effectually put Pope's in the shade then,
and has been ever since the storehouse upon which later commenta-
tors have drawn for their readings, even while engaged in depreciat-
ing the man to whom they owe the corrections they have adopted.
For Theobald was on the whole one of the acutest as well as one of
the most painstaking of textual critics. Yet in consequence of Pope's
attack he was held up at the time as one of the dullest of mortals,
and is often termed so now by men who are duller than he ever con-
ceived of any one's being. One of the last acts of Pope's life was to
dethrone him from the position to which he had been raised. The
proceeding was eminently characteristic of the poet. His publication
of the fourth book of the 'Dunciad' in 1742 led to a pamphlet, in the
shape of a letter addressed to him, by Colley Cibber. So stung was
he by the laureate's attack that he recast the whole 'Dunciad' in
1743, with the fourth book added; and in place of Theobald put his
later antagonist, whose qualities and attainments were almost exactly
the reverse of those of his original hero.
The publication of the Dunciad' marks the turning-point in
Pope's literary career. Henceforth his writings were of a philo-
sophical cast, like the 'Essay on Man,' which came out in four parts
from 1732 to 1734; or semi-philosophical and semi-satirical, as in the
'Moral Essays'; or mainly satirical, as in the 'Imitations of Horace. '
These imitations were wonderful exhibitions of ingenuity and skill.
Pope took particular satires and epistles of the Latin poet, and clev-
erly applied to contemporary characters and to modern times and
conditions the sentiments expressed by his model. In the composi-
tion of them his peculiar powers shone out at their best. One or
two of these pieces are in a measure autobiographical. An offshoot
of the 'Imitations' the Prologue to the Satires,' printed below —
is especially marked by this characteristic, and on the whole is the
most striking of all. It labors at present, as indeed all satirical work
must eventually labor, under the general ignorance that has come to
prevail about facts and persons once widely known; and the sting
that once caused keen pain to the victim and keener delight to con-
temporaries, is now not appreciated by the mass of even educated
readers. Still the point and venom are there; and so long as fuller


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11718
ALEXANDER POPE
knowledge is accessible, change of time or circumstance can never
destroy the pungency and force of the lines, however much they may
impair belief in the justice of the attack. The picture, for instance,
of Addison under the name of Atticus, found in this prologue, may
be as grossly unfair as his partisans maintain; but while letters live,
that cruel characterization will never be dissociated from his memory,
and will always suggest doubt even when it does not carry convic-
tion.
The greatness of Addison has made this portrait familiar, and its
references easily understood. There are in Pope's works plenty of
similar passages, almost if not quite as powerful in their way; but
the subtle irony of personalities, that once made them widely read
and keenly enjoyed, now falls unheeded, save by the few who have
taken the pains to become fully acquainted with the minor charac-
ters and events of the time. The satirist, in truth, must always
sacrifice to some extent the future to the present. If Pope himself
appreciated the fact, he must have felt that for the coming loss he
was receiving some compensation in the actual terror he inspired.
About the extent of that there can be no question. He was dreaded
as no author before or since has been dreaded, and he exulted in the
consciousness of the power he wielded. "Yes, I am proud," he said
in the Epilogue to the Satires, '—
((—
-I must be proud, to see
Men not afraid of God, afraid of me:
Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne,
Yet touched and shamed by ridicule alone. »
It was an obvious answer to all this,-and Pope did not fail to have
his attention called to it,- that a somewhat similar statement could
be made about a mad dog. Nor at the time could the possession of
this power conduce to a really enviable reputation, outside of the
comparatively limited circle with which he was closely connected,
and which naturally shared in his sentiments and prejudices. During
his life it is plain that suspicions were entertained, even by many
most disposed to admire him, that he was not as attractive in his
character as he was in his writings. In spite of the respect paid to
its sting, a hornet is not a creature to which any popular sympathy
clings. This feeling about him has increased since the devious course
he often pursued has been in these later times completely exposed.
The character of Pope is indeed the most peculiar and puzzling
of that of any author of our literature. His impatience under attack
was excessive; and when his hostility was once aroused, the viru-
lence of his dislike or hatred seemed thenceforth never to experi-
ence abatement. Occasionally too he expressed himself with a ferocity


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ALEXANDER POPE
11719
that bore a close resemblance to malignity. The violence of his
language, indeed, not unfrequently impaired the effectiveness of his
invective. It certainly sometimes exceeded the bounds of decency
and sense. The terms in which he came to speak of Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu, to whom he had once professed something more.
than friendship, were simply unpardonable, no matter what the real
or fancied injury he may have suffered. There is something to be
said in palliation of his course, in fact something in the case of
certain persons which approaches justification. The age was a coarse
one; and literary combatants used towards each other the coarsest
language. Pope himself had early been subjected to contumely.
out of all proportion to the provocation he had given. By Dennis
in his remarks upon the Essay on Criticism' he had been styled a
"humpbacked toad. " Comments upon his personal deformities — and
such were not infrequent- he took deeply to heart; and these he
not only never forgave, he took care to repay in kind the abuse of
which he had been made the object. But on every side he was thin-
skinned. It was his abnormal sensitiveness to criticism that led to
the long war he carried on with the petty writers of the time, whom
he classed together under the general name of dunces. The contest
was only saved from being wholly ignoble by the marvelous ability
he brought to the work of waging it. But outside of any pretexts
furnished by the action of his opponents, he loved personalities for
their own sake. "Touch me," he wrote, "and no minister so sore. "
He adds:-
-
"Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time
Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme;
Sacred to ridicule his whole life long,
And the sad burthen of some merry song. ».
The most singular thing about his character was, that while in
his controversies he was at times moved by some of the meanest
passions that can stir the heart, he sincerely regarded himself as
actuated by the purest and loftiest motives. It was, to use his own
words, the strong antipathy of good to bad, that led him to attack
those who had incurred his dislike, either on social, or political, or
literary grounds. It is needless to add that in his opinion those who
had incurred his dislike were invariably contemptible and vile. In
this matter he may or may not have imposed upon others; but there
is little reason to doubt that he imposed upon himself. No one
was ever more under the influence of that pleasing self-flattery which
tempts a man to give to his ill-nature the name of virtuous indigna-
tion. According to his own account he was engaged in a holy war
against vice, in whatever station of life it presented itself. Nor is


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11720
ALEXANDER POPE
this all. He himself was, if anything, more fond of the reputation of
being a good than a great man; and in order to secure the name of
it, stood constantly ready to sacrifice the thing. His life was largely
made up of a series of strategic devices to persuade the public that
he was by nature incapable of the very acts he was engaged in per-
petrating. If these things contributed to the benefit of his reputation
with his contemporaries, they have damaged him irretrievably with
posterity, now that his devious tracks have been fully explored.
This characteristic was most fully exemplified in his epistolary
correspondence,- both in its matter and the means he took to secure
its publication. His letters are not really letters; they are rather
little essays, short and somewhat tedious moral discourses. In fact,
Pope, when he wrote prose, wrote with his left hand. The difference
between it and his verse is everywhere plainly marked, but nowhere
more so than in the correspondence, which was brought out under
his own supervision. Never were letters more artificial. They are
particularly distinguished for the lofty moral sentiments they contain.
The impression they give of him is of a man animated by the most
exalted feelings that belong to humanity. Yet we know now that
they were never written as they were published. The correspondence
he carried on in his youth with Wycherley was so altered that the
parts the two writers played were completely reversed; and until a
recent period all biographers and literary historians have been de-
ceived by the mutilations of the originals then made. It was even
worse in the subsequent publication of his correspondence. He had
recalled the letters he wrote; and when time had made it safe, he
brought them out with dates changed, with contents dismembered,
and addressed to eminent persons then dead who had never had the
pleasure of receiving them while living. The elaborate scheme he
planned and carried out so as to appear in the light of being forced
for his own protection to publish this correspondence, reads like the
plot of a cheap and particularly villainous melodrama. For us the
effect of all these elaborate devices has been rendered absolutely
nugatory by the accidental discovery, in the middle of this century,
of transcripts of the original letters made before they were returned.
It is the barest act of justice to Pope to state that there was much
in his surroundings to explain these peculiarities in his proceedings,
though it is impossible to condone them. His family professed a per-
secuted religion; and in the anti-Catholic reaction that followed the
expulsion of James II. , their situation must often have been disagree-
able. The boy was necessarily brought up in that atmosphere of
evasion and intrigue by which the weak strive to protect themselves
from the strong, seeking to secure by trickery what could not be
wrested from law. It was not a school to encourage the development


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ALEXANDER POPE
11721
of openness and manliness. Indirection to those thus nurtured tends
to become a second nature. Besides this, there were bodily defects
which probably exerted an influence of their own upon the poet's
nature. His life was, as he himself said, a long disease; and his per-
sonal appearance was such that his enemies delighted to call him a
monster. Deformity of the body sometimes reacts upon the charac-
ter; and Pope seems to have been one to whom this principle in a
measure applies. On the other hand, there is a good deal to be said
in his favor. In many respects he was an example to even good
men. Never was there a more pious and devoted son. He constantly
interested himself in behalf of the unfortunate who had gained his
sympathy or had engaged his respect. Furthermore, he early secured
the esteem of a number of persons whose friendship was always
an honor and was sometimes fame; and there must have been much
in his character to inspire respect and affection, or he could not have
earned a regard which was never given lightly, and would have been
withdrawn had there not existed qualities to retain it.
From Pope the man it is much more satisfactory to turn to Pope
the writer. The first thing that here arrests the attention is the esti-
mate in which he was held by his own generation. No poet of any
previous period in English literature ever attained like success, per-
haps no poet of any period. The critical attitude of the nineteenth
century is so different from the attitude of the eighteenth, that so
far from the former being able to sympathize with the sentiments of
the latter, it is hardly able to understand them. The view taken
of Pope by his contemporaries and immediate successors is some-
thing ordinarily incomprehensible to the modern man. In their eyes.
he was not merely a great poet; there was no greater English poet.
Some were disposed to reckon him the greatest.