great theme were the subconscious percep- style of reading so desultory as his), Pope tions of his heart than the explicit com- became a pure dilettante; in his intellectual mentaries of his understanding. He, like eclecticism he was a mere epicure, toying so many others, was unable to read or in- with the delicacies and varieties of literaterpret the testimonies of his own heart, ture; revelling in the first bloom of moral which is a deep over which diviner agencies speculations, but sated immediately; fasbrood than are legible to the intellect. tidiously retreating from all that threatened The cipher written on his heaven-visited labor, or that exacted continuous attention; heart was deeper than his understanding fathoming, throughout all his vagrancies could interpret. amongst books, no foundation; filling up no chasms; and with all his fertility of thought expanding no germs of new life.

If the question were asked, What ought to have been the best among Pope's poems? most people would answer, the Essay on This career of luxurious indolence was Man. If the question were asked, What the result of early luck which made it posis the worst? all people of judgment would sible, and of bodily constitution which say, the Essay on Man. Whilst yet in its made it tempting. And when we rememrudiments this poem claimed the first place ber his youthful introduction to the highest by the promise of its subject: when finish- circles in the metropolis, where he never ed, by the utter failure of its execution, it lost his footing, we cannot wonder that, fell into the last. The case possesses a without any sufficient motive for resistance, triple interest-first, as illustrating the he should have sunk passively under his character of Pope modified by his situation; constitutional propensities, and should secondly, as illustrating the true nature of have fluttered amongst the flower-beds of that "didactic" poetry to which this par- literature or philosophy far more in the ticular poem is usually referred; thirdly, character of a libertine butterfly for casual as illustrating the anomalous condition to enjoyment, than of a hard-working bee purwhich a poem so grand in its ambition has suing a premeditated purpose. been reduced by the double disturbance of Such a character, strengthened by such a its proper movement; one disturbance situation, would at any rate have disqualithrough the position of Pope, another fied Pope for composing a work severely through his total misconception of didactic philosophic, or where philosophy did more poetry. First, as regards Pope's situation, than throw a colored light of pensiveness it may seem odd-but it is not so-that upon some sentimental subject. If it were a man's social position should overrule his necessary that the philosophy should enter intellect. The scriptural denunciation of substantially into the very texture of the riches, as a snare to any man that is striving poem, furnishing its interest and prescribto rise above worldly views, applies not at ing its movement, in that case Pope's comall less to the intellect, and to any man bining and theorizing faculty would have seeking to ascend by some aerial arch of shrunk as from the labor of building a pyraflight above ordinary intellectual efforts. mid. And wo to him where it did not, as Riches are fatal to those continuities of really happened in the case of the Essay energy without which there is no success of on Man. For his faculty of execution was that magnitude. Pope had £800 a year. under an absolute necessity of shrinking That seems not so much. No, certainly in horror from the enormous details of such not, with a wife and six children; but by an enterprise to which so rashly he had accident Pope had no wife and no children pledged himself. He was sure to find himHe was luxuriously at his ease: and this self, as find himself he did, landed in the accident of his position in life fell in with a most dreadful embarrassment upon reviewconstitutional infirmity that predisposed ing his own work. A work which, when him to indolence. Even his religious faith, finished, was not even begun; whose arches by shutting him out from those public em- wanted their key-stones; whose parts had ployments which else his great friends no coherency; and whose pillars, in the would have been too happy to obtain for very moment of being thrown open to pubhim, aided his idleness, or sometimes invest-lic view, were already crumbling into ruins. ed it with a false character of conscientious This utter prostration of Pope in a work so self-denial. He cherished his religion con- ambitious as an Essay on Man-a prostrafessedly as a plea for idleness. The result tion predetermined from the first by the of all this was, that in his habits of think- personal circumstances which we have noing and of study, (if study we can call a ticed, was rendered still more irresistible in

What is didactic poetry? What does

"didactic

the second place by the general misconcep- volunteer to handcuff and manacle himself, tion in which Pope shared as to the very were it only by the encumbrances of metre, meaning of "didactic" poetry. Upon and perhaps of rhyme? But these he will which point we pause to make an exposition find the very least of his encumbrances. of our own views. A far greater exists in the sheer necessity of omitting in any poem a vast variety of mean when applied as a dis- details, and even capital sections of the tinguishing epithet to such an idea as a subject, unless they will bend to purposes poem? The predicate destroys the subject: of ornament. Now this collision between it is a case of what logicians call contra- two purposes, the purpose of use in mere dictio ad adjecto-the unsaying by means teaching and the purpose of poetic delight, of an attribute the very thing which in the shows, by the uniformity of its solution, subject of that attribute you have just which is the true purpose, and which the affirmed. No poetry can have the function merely ostensible purpose. Had the true of teaching. It is impossible that a variety purpose been instruction, the moment that or species should contradict the very pur- this was found incompatible with a poetic pose which contradistinguishes its genus. treatment, as soon as it was seen that the The several species differ partially; but not sound education of the reader-pupil could by the whole idea which differentiates their not make way without loitering to gather class. Poetry, or any one of the fine arts, poetic flowers, the stern cry of duty" (all of which alike speak through the genial would oblige the poet to remember that he nature of man and his excited sensibilities), had dedicated himself to a didactic mission, can teach only as nature teaches, as forests and that he differed from other poets, as a teach, as the sea teaches, as infancy teaches, monk from other men, by his vows of selfviz., by deep impulse, by hieroglyphic sug-surrender to harsh ascetic functions. But, gestion. Their teaching is not direct or on the contrary, in the very teeth of this explicit, but lurking, implicit, masked in rule, wherever such a collision does really deep incarnations. To teach formally and take place, and one or other of the supprofessedly is to abandon the very differen- posed objects must give way, it is always tial character and principle of poetry. If the vulgar object of teaching (the pedapoetry could condescend to teach anything, gogue's object) which goes to the rear, it would be truths moral or religious. But whilst the higher object of poetic emotion even these it can utter only through sym- moves on triumphantly. In reality not one bols and actions. The great moral, for in- didactic poet has ever yet attempted to use stance, the last result of the Paradise Lost, any parts or processes of the particular art is once formally announced: but it teaches which he made his theme, unless in so far itself only by diffusing its lesson through as they seemed susceptible of poetic treatthe entire poem in the total succession of ment, and only because they seemed so. events and purposes and even this suc- Look at the poem of Cyder, by Philips, or cession teaches it only when the whole is the Fleece of Dyer, or (which is a still gathered into unity by a reflex act of mcdi- weightier example) at the Georgics of tation; just as the pulsation of the physi- Virgil,-does any of these poets show the cal heart can exist only when all the parts least anxiety for the correctness of your in an animal system are locked into one principles, or the delicacy of your manipuorganization. lations in the worshipful arts they affect to To address the insulated understanding teach? No; but they pursue these arts is to lay aside the Prospero's robe of poetry. through every stage that offers any attracThe objection, therefore, to didactic poetry, tions of beauty. And in the very teeth of as vulgarly understood, would be fatal even all anxiety for teaching, if there existed if there were none but this logical objection traditionally any very absurd way of doderived from its definition. To be in self-ing a thing which happened to be eminently contradiction is, for any idea whatever, suf- picturesque, and, if opposed to this, there ficiently to destroy itself. But it betrays were some improved mode that had recoma more obvious and practical contradiction mended itself to poetic hatred by being when a little searched. If the true pur- dirty and ugly, the poet (if a good one) pose of a man's writing a didactic poem would pretend never to have heard of this were to teach, by what suggestion of idiocy disagreeable improvement. Or if obliged, should he choose to begin by putting on by some rival poet, not absolutely to ignore fetters? wherefore should the simple man it, he would allow that such a thing could

be done, but hint that it was hateful to the We will explain ourselves by means of a Muses or Graces, and very likely to breed little illustration from Pope, which will at a pestilence the same time furnish us with a miniaThis subordination of the properly di- ture type of what we ourselves mean by a dactic function to the poetic, which, leav- didactic poem, both in reference to what it ing the old essential distinction of poetry is and to what it is not. In the Rape of (viz., its sympathy with the genial motions the Lock there is a game at cards played, of man's heart) to override all accidents of and played with a brilliancy of effect and special variation, and showing that the felicity of selection, applied to the circumessence of poetry never can be set aside by stances, which make it a sort of gem within its casual modifications,--will be compro- a gem. This game was not in the first mised by some loose thinkers, under the edition of the poem, but was an afteridea that in didactic poetry the element of thought of Pope's, labored therefore with instruction is in fact one element, though more than usual care. We regret that subordinate and secondary. Not at all. ombre, the game described, is no longer What we are denying is--that the element played, so that the entire skill with which of instruction enters at all into didactic the mimic battle is fought cannot be so poetry. The subject of the Georgies, for fully appreciated as in Pope's days. The instance, is Rural Ecomomy as practised strategics have partly perished, which really by Italian farmers: but Virgil not only Pope ought not to complain of, since he omits altogether innumerable points of in- suffers only as Hannibal, Marius, Sertorius, struction insisted on as articles of religious suffered before him. Enough however surnecessity by Varro, Cato, Columella, &c.; vives of what will tell its own story. but, even as to those instructions which he what is it, let us ask, that a poet has to do does communicate, he is careless whether in such a case, supposing that he were disthey are made technically intelligible or posed to weave a didactic poem out ofa not. He takes very little pains to keep pack of cards, as Vida has out of the chessyou from capital mistakes in practising his board? In describing any particular game instructions: but he takes good care that he does not seek to teach. you that gameyou shall not miss any strong impression he postulates it as already known to you— for the eye or the heart to which the rural but he relies upon separate resources. process, or rural scene may naturally lead he will revive in the reader's eye, for picHe pretends to give you a lecture on farm-turesque effect, the well-known personal dising, in order to have an excuse for carrying tinctions of the several kings, knaves, &c., you all round the beautiful farm. He pre- their appearances and their powers. 2dly, tends to show you a good plan for a farm- he will choose some game in which he may house, as the readiest means of veiling his display a happy selection applied to the impertinence in showing you the farmer's chances and turns of fortune, to the mawife and her rosy children. It is an excel-noeuvres, to the situations of doubt, of lent plea for getting a peep at the bonny brightening expectation, of sudden danger, milk-maids to propose an inspection of a of critical deliverance, or of final defeat. model dairy. You pass through the poul- The interest of a war will be rehearsedtry-yard, under whatever pretence, in lis est de paupere regno-that is true; but reality to see the peacock and his harem. the depth of the agitation on such occasions, And so on to the very end, the pretended whether at chess, at draughts, or at cards, instruction is but in secret the connecting is not measured of necessity by the grantie which holds together the laughing flow- deur of the stake; he selects, in short, ers going off from it to the right and left; whatever fascinates the eye or agitates the whilst if ever at intervals this prosy thread heart by mimicry of life; but so far from of pure didactics is brought forward more teaching, he presupposes the reader already obtrusively, it is so by way of foil, to make taught, in order that he may go along with more effective upon the eye the prodigality of the floral magnificence.

We affirm therefore that the didactic poet is so far from seeking even a secondary or remote object in the particular points of information which he may happen to communicate, that much rather he would prefer the having communicated none at all.

the movement of the descriptions.

1st,

Now, in treating a subject so vast, indeed so inexhaustible, as man, this eclecticism ceases to be possible Every part depends upon every other part: in such a nexus of truths to insulate is to annihilate. Severed from each other the parts lose their support, their coherence, their very mean

ing; you have no liberty to reject or to of cohesion.

It is indeed the realization of

choose. Besides, in treating the ordinary anarchy; and one amusing test of this may themes proper for what is called didactic be found in the fact, that different compoetry-say, for instance, that it were the mentators have deduced from it the very art of rearing silk-worms or bees-or sup- opposite doctrines. In some instances this pose it to be horticulture, landscape-gar apparent antinomy is doubtful, and dependening, hunting, or hawking, rarely does dent on the ambiguities or obscurities of there occur anything polemic; or, if a the expression. But in others it is fairly slight controversy does arise, it is easily deducible: and the cause lies in the elliphushed asleep-it is stated in a line, it is tical structure of the work; the ellipsis, or answered in a couplet. But in the themes (as sometimes it may be called) the chasm of Lucretius and Pope, every thing is may be filled up in two different modes espolemic you move only through dispute, sentially hostile and he that supplies the you prosper only by argument and never- hiatus, in effect determines the bias of the ending controversy. There is not positive- poem this way or that to a religious or to ly one capital proposition or doctrine about a sceptical result. In this edition the comman, about his origin, his nature, his rela- mentary of Warburton has been retained, tions to God, or his prospects, but must be which ought certainly to have been di missfought for with energy, watched at every ed. The Essay is, in effect, a Hebrew turn with vigilance, and followed into end- word with the vowel-points omitted: and less mazes, not under the choice of the Warburton supplies one set of vowels, writer, but under the inexorable dictation whilst Crousaz with equal right supplies a of the argument. contradictory set.

py

us

:

Such a poem, so unwieldy, whilst at the As a whole, the edition before us is cersame time so austere in its philosophy, to- tainly the most agreeable of all that we gether with the innumerable polemic parts possess. The fidelity of Mr. Roscoe to the essential to its good faith and even to its interests of Pope's reputation, contrasts evolution, would be absolutely unmanage-pleasingly with the harshness at times of able from excess and from disproportion, Bowles, and the reckless neutrality of since often a secondary demur would occu- Warton. In the editor of a great classic, far more space than a principal section. we view it as a virtue, wearing the grace of Here lay the impracticable dilemma for loyalty, that he should refuse to expose Pope's Essay on Man. To satisfy the de- frailties or defects in a spirit of exultation. mands of the subject, was to defeat the Mr. Roscoe's own notes are written with objects of poetry. To evade the demands peculiar good sense, temperance, and kind in the way that Pope has done, is to offer feeling. The only objection to them, which a ruin for a palace. The very same applies however still more to the notes of dilemma existed for Lucretius, and with former editors, is the want of compactness. the very same result. The De Rerum Na- They are not written under that austere turâ, (which might, agreeably to its theme, instinct of compression and verbal parsimohave been entitled De omnibus rebus), and ny, as the ideal merit in an annotator, the Essay on Man, (which might equally which ought to govern all such ministerial have borne the Lucreti in title De Rerum labors in our days. Books are becoming Natura), are both, and from the same cause, too much the oppression of the intellect, fragments that could not have been com- and cannot endure any longer the accumupleted. Both are accumulations of dia- lation of undigested commentaries, or that mond-dust without principles of coherency. species of diffusion in editors which roots In a succession of pictures, such as usually itself in laziness: the efforts of condensaform the materials of didactic poems, the tion and selection are painful; and they slightest thread of interdependency is suffi- are luxuriously evaded by reprinting indiscient. But, in works essentially and every- criminately whole masses of notes-though where argumentative and polemic, to omit often in substance reiterating each other. the connecting links, as often as they are But the interests of readers clamorously call insusceptible of poetic effect, is to break up for the amendment of this system. The the unity of the parts, and to undermine principle of selection must now be applied the foundations, in what expressly offers even to the text of great authors. It is no itself as a systematic and architectural longer advisable to reprint the whole of whole. Pope's poem has suffered even either Dryden or Pope. Not that we more than that of Lucretius from this want would wish to see their works mutilated.

Let such as are selected, be printed in the] has arrived when they may be advantageousfullest integrity of the text. Bnt some ly retrenched for they are painfully at war have lost their interest; others, by the with those feelings of entire and honorable elevation of public morals since the days of esteem with which all lovers of exquisite those great wits, are felt to be now utter- intellectual brilliancy must wish to surround ly unfit for general reading. Equally for the name and memory of POPE. the reader's sake and the poet's, the time'

From the Quarterly Review.

HORACE WALPOLE'S LETTERS TO THE COUNTESS OF OSSORY. Letters addressed to the Countess of Ossory, from the year 1769 to 1797, by Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford; now first printed from the original MSS. Edited, with Notes, by the Right Hon. R. Vernon Smith, M.P. 2 vols. 8vo. 8vo. London: 1848. WE have so often and so recently ex- phrased if we said that these volumes are plained our views of the personal and lite- not edited at all. The title-page, indeed, rary character of Horace Walpole, that we tells us that they are edited by Mr. Vernon shall on this occasion have little more to do Smith; but there is scarcely any other page than to give our readers a brief notice of an of the work that confirms this promise. unexpected and by no means inconsiderable This is a great disappointment; because of addition to the already vast harvest of his all Walpole's letters, this batch especially miscellaneous correspondence. In our num- and peculiarly needed marginal illustration, ber for September, 1843 (vol. lxxii., p. 516), and the talents and position of Mr. Smith we stated that his published letters (includ-raised a confident hope that the task he had ing the last batch of those to Sir Horace undertaken would be not merely adequately, Mann then announced) fell little short of but brilliantly, executed. From what two thousand, and we expressed an opinion causes Mr. Smith has to so great a degree that the discovery of many others might be abdicated his editorial functions, and, in reasonably looked for. These volumes are the rare instances in which he has done anycome to confirm our former, without dimi- thing, done it so superficially, we cannot nishing our further, expectation; for they conjecture. The kind of apology he makes are from a source which he had not antici- is not unmixed with a sneer at the duty he pated. We knew that Lady Ossory had has thus neglected :

been an early and intimate acquaintance of "The few notes which I have added relate only Walpole, but we were not aware of their to such circumstances as my relationship enabled having been such frequent correspondents, me to explain of family history. I have purposeas that her cabinet could supply us with ly abstained from the repetition of accounts of above four hundred of his letters; and we now see some reason to believe that there must have been many more.

persons which have been given in former editions of Walpole's letters, which are derived from registers and magazines, open to the observation of all who think it worth while to pursue such inquiries."

We are sorry to begin with repeating the complaints which we have had to make of the very defective way in which Walpole We readily admit that if Mr. Smith consihas been recently edited-perhaps our ders his publication as a mere continuation grievance on this occasion would be better-the 11th and 12th volumes as it wereof the vast mass of Walpole's letters,* it would have been needless to identify or cha

• We do not include the DUNCIAD in this list. On the contrary, the arguments by which it has been generally undervalued, as though antiquated by racterize persons incidentally mentioned, lapse of time and by the fading of names, are all and who were already familiarly known to unsound. We ourselves hold it to be the greatest all Walpole's readers; but as this is edited of Pope's efforts. But for that very reason we retire from the examination of it, which we had as a separate work, and, as is stated, for designed, as being wholly disproportioned to the narrow limits remaining to us.

*

Mr. Bentley's collective edition of 6 vols., and

the 4 vols. of the second set of the Letters to Man.