e had
already exercised his poetry in a lampoon. Yet under those masters he
translated more than a fourth part of the Metamorphoses. If he kept the
same proportion in his other exercises, it cannot be thought that his
loss was great.

He tells of himself, in his poems, that, "he lisp'd in numbers;" and
used to say that he could not remember the time when he began to make
verses. In the style of fiction it might have been said of him as of
Pindar, that when he lay in his cradle, "the bees swarmed about his
mouth."

About the time of the revolution, his father, who was undoubtedly
disappointed by the sudden blast of Popish prosperity, quitted his
trade, and retired to Binfield, in Windsor forest, with about twenty
thousand pounds; for which, being conscientiously determined not to
entrust it to the government, he found no better use than that of
locking it up in a chest, and taking from it what his expenses required;
and his life was long enough to consume a great part of it, before his
son came to the inheritance.

To Binfield Pope was called by his father, when he was about twelve
years old; and there he had, for a few months, the assistance of one
Deane, another priest, of whom he learned only to construe a little of
Tully's Offices. How Mr. Deane could spend, with a boy who had
translated so much of Ovid, some months over a small part of Tully's
Offices, it is now vain to inquire.

Of a youth so successfully employed, and so conspicuously improved, a
minute account must be naturally desired: but curiosity must be
contented with confused, imperfect, and, sometimes, improbable
intelligence. Pope, finding little advantage from external help,
resolved, thenceforward, to direct himself, and at twelve formed a plan
of study, which he completed with little other incitement than the
desire of excellence.

His primary and principal purpose was to be a poet, with which his
father accidentally concurred, by proposing subjects, and obliging him
to correct his performances by many revisals; after which the old
gentleman, when he was satisfied, would say, "these are good rhymes."

In his perusal of the English poets he soon distinguished the
versification of Dryden, which he considered as the model to be studied,
and was impressed with such veneration for his instructor, that he
persuaded some friends to take him to the coffee-house which Dryden
frequented, and pleased himself with having seen him.

Dryden died May 1, 170