written
in the manuscript, "is but to live twenty years longer than Quarles, or
Withers, or Dennis." The doctrine of Pope was unworthy the countryman of
Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Milton. The first three had not been
"thrown aside at the end of one age," and no one who was capable of
comprehending the last could seriously believe that his reputation would
be ephemeral. The hypothesis, that the writers in a dead tongue can
alone secure a worthy audience, is altogether chimerical. The literature
of living languages has the ascendancy, and Shakespeare is more read,
and better appreciated, than AEschylus and Sophocles.]

[Footnote 12: I have frequently heard Dr. Young speak with great
disapprobation of the doctrine contained in this passage, with a view to
which he wrote his discourse on Original Composition.--WARTON.

The assertion of Pope is in the face of the facts. All the greatest
names in modern literature have a marked originality, and those authors
who have imitated the ancients, except in subordinate circumstances,
have usually produced tame and lifeless compositions, which were
speedily forgotten.]

[Footnote 13: The sophistry is transparent. A man may be a scholar
without being a plagiarist or an imitator.]

[Footnote 14: Here followed in the first edition, "and that I expect not
to be excused in any negligence on account of youth, want of leisure, or
any other idle allegations." This was inconsistent with his request, at
the conclusion of his preface, that those who condemned his poems would
remember his youth when he composed them. After the omitted sentence he
had added in the manuscript, "I have ever been fearful of making an ill
present to the world, for which I have as much respect as most poets
have for themselves. What I thought incorrect I suppressed; and what I
thought most finished I never published but with fear and trembling."]

[Footnote 15: From hence to the end of the paragraph the manuscript
continues thus: "A man that can expect but sixty years may be ashamed to
employ thirty in measuring syllables, and bringing sense and rhyme
together. We spend our youth in the pursuit of riches or fame in hopes
to enjoy them when we are old, and when we are old we find it is too
late to enjoy anything. I have got over the mistake pretty early. I
therefore hope the wits will pardon me if I leave myself time enough to
save my soul, and some wise men will be of my opinion even if I should
think a p