tors, it will indeed be difficult to determine into whose scale
the ballance should be thrown: That Mr. Pope had a more arduous province
in doing justice to Homer, than Dryden with regard to Virgil is
certainly true; as Homer is a more various and diffuse poet than Virgil;
and it is likewise true, that Pope has even exceeded Dryden in the
execution, and none will deny, that Pope's Homer's Iliad, is a finer
poem than Dryden's Aeneis of Virgil: Making a proper allowance for the
disproportion of the original authors. But then a candid critic should
reflect, that as Dryden was prior in the great attempt of rendering
Virgil into English, so did he perform the task under many
disadvantages, which Pope, by a happier situation in life, was enabled
to avoid; and could not but improve upon Dryden's errors, though the
authors translated were not the same: And it is much to be doubted, if
Dryden were to translate the Aeneid now, with that attention which the
correctness of the present age would force upon him, whether the
preference would be due to Pope's Homer.

But supposing it to be yielded (as it certainly must) that the latter
bard was the greatest translator; we are now to throw into Mr. Dryden's
scale all his dramatic works; which though not the most excellent of his
writings, yet as nothing of Mr. Pope's can be opposed to them, they have
an undoubted right to turn the ballance greatly in favour of Mr.
Dryden.--When the two poets are considered as critics, the comparison
will very imperfectly hold. Dryden's Dedications and Prefaces, besides
that they are more numerous, and are the best models for courtly
panegyric, shew that he understood poetry as an art, beyond any man that
ever lived. And he explained this art so well, that he taught his
antagonists to turn the tables against himself; for he so illuminated
the mind by his clear and perspicuous reasoning, that dullness itself
became capable of discerning; and when at any time his performances fell
short of his own ideas of excellence; his enemies tried him by rules of
his own establishing; and though they owed to him the ability of
judging, they seldom had candour enough to spare him.

Perhaps it may be true that Pope's works are read with more appetite, as
there is a greater evenness and correctness in them; but in perusing the
works of Dryden the mind will take a wider range, and be more fraught
with poetical ideas: We admire Dryden as the greater genius, and Pope as
th