e be done to his delicacy. "For his
acquaintance," says Dennis, "he names Mr. Walsh, who had by no means the
qualification which this author reckons absolutely necessary to a
critick, it being very certain that he was, like this essayer, a very
indifferent poet; he loved to be well dressed; and I remember a little
young gentleman, whom Mr. Walsh used to take into his company, as a
double foil to his person and capacity. Inquire, between Sunninghill and
Oakingham, for a young, short, squab gentleman, the very bow of the god
of love, and tell me, whether he be a proper author to make personal
reflections? He may extol the ancients, but he has reason to thank the
gods that he was born a modern; for had he been born of Grecian parents,
and his father, consequently, had, by law, had the absolute disposal of
him, his life had been no longer than that of one of his poems, the life
of half a day. Let the person of a gentleman of his parts be never so
contemptible, his inward man is ten times more ridiculous; it being
impossible that his outward form, though it be that of a downright
monkey, should differ so much from human shape, as his unthinking,
immaterial part does from human understanding." Thus began the hostility
between Pope and Dennis, which, though it was suspended for a short
time, never was appeased. Pope seems, at first, to have attacked him
wantonly; but, though he always professed to despise him, he discovers,
by mentioning him very often, that he felt his force or his venom.

Of this essay Pope declared, that he did not expect the sale to be
quick, because "not one gentleman in sixty, even of liberal education,
could understand it." The gentlemen, and the education of that time,
seem to have been of a lower character than they are of this. He
mentioned a thousand copies as a numerous impression.

Dennis was not his only censurer: the zealous papists thought the monks
treated with too much contempt, and Erasmus too studiously praised; but
to these objections he had not much regard.

The essay has been translated into French by Hamilton, author of the
Comte de Grammont, whose version was never printed, by Robotham,
secretary to the king for Hanover, and by Resnel; and commented by Dr.
Warburton, who has discovered in it such order and connexion as was not
perceived by Addison, nor, as is said, intended by the author.

Almost every poem, consisting of precepts, is so far arbitrary and
immethodical, that many of