ADVERTISEMENTS FROM THE "SPECTATOR"

Within two Doors of the Masquerade, lives an eminent Italian Chirurgeon, arrived from the Carnival at Venice, of great Experience in private Cures. Accommodations are provided, and Persons admitted in their Masquing Habits.

He has cured since this coming thither, in less than a Fortnight, Four Scaramouches, a Mountebank Doctor, Two Turkish Bassas, three Nuns, and a Morris Dancer.

Vementi occurrite Morbo 5

N. B. Any Person may agree by the Great," and be kept in Repair by the Year. The Doctor draws Teeth without pulling off your Mask.

From The Spectator, No. 22)

A young Gentlewoman of about Nineteen Years of Age (bred in the Family of a Person of Quality lately deceased) who Paints the Finest Flesh-colour, wants a Place, and is to be heard of at the House of Minheer Grotesque, a Dutch Painter in Barbican.

N. B. She is also well skilled in the Drapery-part, and puts on Hoods, and mixes Ribbons so as to suit the Colours of the Face with great Art and Success.

(From The Spectator, No. 41)

Mr. Sly, Haberdasher of Hats at the Corner of Devereux Court in the Strand, gives Notice, that he has prepared very neat Hats, Rubbers and Brushes, for the Use of Young Tradesmen in their last Year of Apprenticeship, at reasonable Rates.

(From The Spectator, No. 187)

A

ALEXANDER POPE (1688-1744)

UGUSTINE BIRRELL said that Pope was "the abstract

and brief chronicle of his time, a man who had some of its virtue and most of its vices, one whom it is easy to hate, but easier to quote." This is a fair estimate of the man whose life and poetry were based on artificiality. Because of his unamiability and sensitiveness he quarreled with most of his contemporaries and alienated many of his friends. He revenged himself upon his critics by abusing them in his Dunciad and other satires. His temper was too uneven to allow him to form untroubled friendships with either men or women. The explanation of Pope's difficulties is that he was unable to adapt himself to his environment. He was a lonely and supersensitive poet.

Some of Pope's poems are ephemeral because of their satiric nature. They contain much autobiographical material and are full of personal feeling. The reader must know the conditions under which they were written to understand them. He feels at times that the author assumed a pose in writing many of the poems of this group. Another group consists of his translations and imitations of the classics. Pope was an admirer of the classic poets, particularly Virgil and Horace. His devotion to them resulted in his forming a new manner of poetical expression. He is the chief exponent of the classical style in English poetry. He polished the heroic couplet, which Dryden had developed, by moulding it on classical forms and by using classical phraseology. His theory of writing he expounded in his Essay on Criticism, the burden of which was:

"Be Homer's works your study and delight,
Read them by day, and meditate by night."

He practiced this teaching by translating the Iliad and part of the Odyssey. His imitation of the mock-heroic poems of Italy

and France produced his best known work, the Rape of the Lock, a witty poem on the foibles of the society of his time. Pope's wit found full play in such a subject.

The majority of Pope's remaining poems of any considerable length may be classed as moral essays. Pope wrote his essays in verse because he was more at home in that field. He wrote poetical essays rather than another type of poetry because the age of Queen Anne was an essay-reading age. The most famous of Pope's moral essays was An Essay on Man. In it he discussed man's relationship to the universe, to himself, and to society. Its comprehensive plan gave Pope an opportunity to express his philosophical ideas, which were almost as classical as his style.

Pope has been quoted more than any other English author with the exception of Shakespeare. His epigrammatic style, his terse expression, and his keen wit have made his studied phrases and balanced couplets well known. When the business writer desires to make a purely intellectual appeal by clear-cut and brilliant phrases, he should study the poetry of Alexander Pope.

DUTY OF MAN

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,

A being darkly wise and rudely great:

With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

Go, wondrous creature! mount where Science guides;
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old Time, and regulate the sun;
Go, soar with Plato to th' empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;
Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,
And quitting sense call imitating God;
As eastern priests in giddy circles run,
And turn their heads to imitate the sun.
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule-
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!

Superior beings, when of late they saw
A mortal man unfold all Nature's law,
Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape,
And show'd a Newton as we show an ape.
Could he, whose rules the rapid comet bind,
Describe or fix one movement of his mind?
Who saw its fires here rise, and there descend,
Explain his own beginning or his end?
Alas! what wonder! Man's superior part
Uncheck'd may rise, and climb from art to art;
But when his own great work is but begun,
What Reason weaves, by Passion is undone.

Trace Science then, with modesty thy guide;
First strip off all her equipage of pride;
Deduct what is but vanity or dress,

Or learning's luxury, or idleness,

Or tricks to show the stretch of human brain,
Mere curious pleasure, or ingenious pain;

Expunge the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts;
Of all our vices have created arts;

Then see how little the remaining sum,

Which serv'd the past, and must the times to come!

Essay on Man, II. 1-51.