supercilious; fierce and even
coarse in his attacks on opponents; boastful of his self-acquired wealth
and of his intimacy with the nobility. The great redeeming feature of his
character was his tender devotion to his aged parents.

As a poet, however, Pope challenges the highest admiration. At the age of
sixteen he commenced his "Pastorals," and when only twenty-one published
his "Essay on Criticism," pronounced "the finest piece of argumentative
and reasoning poetry in the English language." His reputation was now
firmly established, and his literary activity ceased only at his death;
although, during the latter portion of his life, he was so weak physically
that he was unable to dress himself or even to rise from bed without
assistance. Pope's great admiration was Dryden, whose style he studied and
copied. He lacks the latter's strength, but in elegance and polish he
remains unequaled.

Pope's most remarkable work is "The Rape of the Lock;" his greatest, the
translation into English verse of Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey." His
"Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard," "The Dunciad," and the "Essay On Man" are
also famous productions. He published an edition of "Shakespeare," which
was awaited with great curiosity, and received with equal disappointment.
During the three years following its appearance, he united with Swift and
Arbuthnot in writing the "Miscellanies," an extensive satire on the abuses
of learning and the extravagances of philosophy. His "Epistles," addressed
to various distinguished men, and covering a period of four years, were
copied after those of Horace; they were marked by great clearness,
neatness of diction, and good sense, and by Pope's usual elegance and
grace. His "Imitations of Horace" was left unfinished at his death.

The following selection is an extract from the "Essay on Man;"
###

Oh, sons of earth! attempt ye still to rise,
By mountains piled on mountains, to the skies?
Heaven still with laughter the vain toil surveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raise.
Know all the good that individuals find,
Or God and nature meant to mere mankind.
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words,--health, peace, and competence.

But health consists with temperance alone;
And peace, O virtue! peace is all thy own.
The good or bad the gifts of fortune gain;
But these less taste them as they worse obtain.
Say, in pursuit of profit or delight,
Who risk the most, that take wron