infirmities, finding his strength give way, began to think that his
days, which had been prolonged past his expectation, were drawing
towards a conclusion. However, he visited the Hot-Wells at Bristol,
where for some time there were small hopes of his recovery; but making
too free with purges he grew worse, and seemed desirous to draw nearer
home. A dropsy in the breast at last put a period to his life, at the
age of 56, on the 30th of May 1744, at his house at Twickenham, where he
was interred in the same grave with his father and mother.
Mr. Pope's behaviour in his last illness has been variously represented
to the world: Some have affirmed that it was timid and peevish; that
having been fixed in no particular system of faith, his mind was
wavering, and his temper broken and disturb'd. Others have asserted that
he was all chearfulness and resignation to the divine will: Which of
these opinions is true we cannot now determine; but if the former, it
must be regretted, that he, who had taught philosophy to others, should
himself be destitute of its assistance in the most critical moments of
his life.
The bulk of his fortune he bequeath'd to Mrs. Blount, with whom he lived
in the strictest friendship, and for whom he is said to have entertained
the warmest affection. His works, which are in the hands of every person
of true taste, and will last as long as our language will be understood,
render unnecessary all further remarks on his writings. He was equally
admired for the dignity and sublimity of his moral and philosophical
works, the vivacity of his satirical, the clearness and propriety of his
didactic, the richness and variety of his descriptive, and the elegance
of all, added to an harmony of versification and correctness of
sentiment and language, unknown to our former poets, and of which he has
set an example which will be an example or a reproach to his successors.
His prose-stile is as perfect in its kind as his poetic, and has all the
beauties proper for it, joined to an uncommon force and perspicuity.
Under the profession of the Roman-Catholic religion, to which he adhered
to the last, he maintained all the moderation and charity becoming the
most thorough and confident Protestant. His conversation was natural,
easy and agreeable, without any affectation of displaying his wit, or
obtruding his own judgment, even upon subjects of which he was so
eminently a master.
The moral character of our author, as it did not escape the lash of his
calumniators in his life; so have there been attempts since his death to
diminish his reputation. Lord Bolingbroke, whom Mr. Pope esteemed to
almost an enthusiastic degree of admiration, was the first to make this
attack. Not many years ago, the public were entertained with this
controversy immediately upon the publication of his lordship's Letters
on the Spirit of Patriotism, and the Idea of a Patriot King. Different
opinions have been offered, some to extenuate the fault of Mr. Pope, for
printing and mutilating these letters, without his lordship's knowledge;
others to blame him for it as the highest breach of friendship, and the
greatest mark of dishonour. It would exceed our proposed bounds to enter
into the merits of this controversy; the reader, no doubt, will find it
amply discussed in that account of the life of this great author, which
Mr. Warburton has promised the public.
This great man is allowed to have been one of the first rank amongst the
poets of our nation, and to acknowledge the superiority of none but
Shakespear, Milton, and Dryden. With the two former, it is unnatural to
compare him, as their province in writing is so very different. Pope has
never attempted the drama, nor published an Epic Poem, in which these
two distinguished genius's have so wonderfully succeeded. Though Pope's
genius was great, it was yet of so different a cast from Shakespear's,
and Milton's, that no comparison can be justly formed. But if this may
be said of the former two, it will by no means hold with respect to the
later, for between him and Dryden, there is a great similarity of
writing, and a very striking coincidence of genius. It will not perhaps
be unpleasing to our readers, if we pursue this comparison, and
endeavour to discover to whom the superiority is justly to be
attributed, and to which of them poetry owes the highest obligations.
When Dryden came into the world, he found poetry in a very imperfect
state; its numbers were unpolished; its cadences rough, and there was
nothing of harmony or mellifluence to give it a graceful of flow. In
this harsh, unmusical situation, Dryden found it (for the refinements of
Waller were but puerile and unsubstantial) he polished the rough
diamond, he taught it to shine, and connected beauty, elegance, and
strength, in all his poetical compositions. Though Dryden thus polished
our English numbers, and thus harmonized versification, it cannot be
said, that he carried his art to perfection. Much was yet left undone;
his lines with all their smoothness were often rambling, and expletives
were frequently introduced to compleat his measures. It was apparent
therefore that an additional harmony might still be given to our
numbers, and that cadences were yet capable of a more musical
modulation. To effect this purpose Mr. Pope arose, who with an ear
elegantly delicate, and the advantage of the finest genius, so
harmonized the English numbers, as to make them compleatly musical. His
numbers are likewise so minutely correct, that it would be difficult to
conceive how any of his lines can be altered to to advantage. He has
created a kind of mechanical versification; every line is alike; and
though they are sweetly musical, they want diversity, for he has not
studied so great a variety of pauses, and where the accents may be laid
gracefully. The structure of his verse is the best, and a line of his is
more musical than any other line can be made, by placing the accents
elsewhere; but we are not quite certain, whether the ear is not apt to
be soon cloy'd with this uniformity of elegance, this sameness of
harmony. It must be acknowledged however, that he has much improved upon
Dryden in the article of versification, and in that part of poetry is
greatly his superior. But though this must be acknowledged, perhaps it
will not necessarily follow that his genius was therefore superior.
The grand characteristic of a poet is his invention, the surest
distinction of a great genius. In Mr. Pope, nothing is so truly original
as his Rape of the Lock, nor discovers so much invention. In this kind
of mock-heroic, he is without a rival in our language, for Dryden has
written nothing of the kind. His other work which discovers invention,
fine designing, and admirable execution, is his Dunciad; which, tho'
built on Dryden's Mac Flecknoe, is yet so much superior, that in satiric
writing, the Palm must justly be yielded to him. In Mr. Dryden's Absalom
and Achitophel, there are indeed the most poignant strokes of satire,
and characters drawn with the most masterly touches; but this poem with
all its excellencies is much inferior to the Dunciad, though Dryden had
advantages which Mr. Pope had not; for Dryden's characters are men of
great eminence and figure in the state, while Pope has to expose men of
obscure birth and unimportant lives only distinguished from the herd of
mankind, by a glimmering of genius, which rendered the greatest part of
them more emphatically contemptible. Pope's was the hardest task, and he
has executed it with the greatest success. As Mr. Dryden must
undoubtedly have yielded to Pope in satyric writing, it is incumbent on
the partizans of Dryden to name another species of composition, in which
the former excells so as to throw the ballance again upon the side of
Dryden. This species is the Lyric, in which the warmest votaries of Pope
must certainly acknowledge, that he is much inferior; as an irrefutable
proof of this we need only compare Mr. Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's
Day, with Mr. Pope's; in which the disparity is so apparent, that we
know not if the most finished of Pope's compositions has discovered such
a variety and command of numbers.
It hath been generally acknowledged, that the Lyric is a more excellent
kind of writing than the Satiric; and consequently he who excells in the
most excellent species, must undoubtedly be esteemed the greatest poet.
--Mr. Pope has very happily succeeded in many of his occasional pieces,
such as Eloisa to Abelard, his Elegy on an unfortunate young Lady, and a
variety of other performances deservedly celebrated. To these may be
opposed Mr. Dryden's Fables, which though written in a very advanced
age, are yet the most perfect of his works. In these Fables there is
perhaps a greater variety than in Pope's occasional pieces: Many of them
indeed are translations, but such as are original shew a great extent of
invention, and a large compass of genius.
There are not in Pope's works such poignant discoveries of wit, or such
a general knowledge of the humours and characters of men, as in the
Prologues and Epilogues of Dryden, which are the best records of the
whims and capricious oddities of the times in which they are written.
When these two great genius's are considered in the light of
translators, it will indeed be difficult to determine into whose scale
the ballance should be thrown: That Mr. Pope had a more arduous province
in doing justice to Homer, than Dryden with regard to Virgil is
certainly true; as Homer is a more various and diffuse poet than Virgil;
and it is likewise true, that Pope has even exceeded Dryden in the
execution, and none will deny, that Pope's Homer's Iliad, is a finer
poem than Dryden's Aeneis of Virgil: Making a proper allowance for the
disproportion of the original authors. But then a candid critic should
reflect, that as Dryden was prior in the great attempt of rendering
Virgil into English, so did he perform the task under many
disadvantages, which Pope, by a happier situation in life, was enabled
to avoid; and could not but improve upon Dryden's errors, though the
authors translated were not the same: And it is much to be doubted, if
Dryden were to translate the Aeneid now, with that attention which the
correctness of the present age would force upon him, whether the
preference would be due to Pope's Homer.
But supposing it to be yielded (as it certainly must) that the latter
bard was the greatest translator; we are now to throw into Mr. Dryden's
scale all his dramatic works; which though not the most excellent of his
writings, yet as nothing of Mr. Pope's can be opposed to them, they have
an undoubted right to turn the ballance greatly in favour of Mr.
Dryden.--When the two poets are considered as critics, the comparison
will very imperfectly hold. Dryden's Dedications and Prefaces, besides
that they are more numerous, and are the best models for courtly
panegyric, shew that he understood poetry as an art, beyond any man that
ever lived. And he explained this art so well, that he taught his
antagonists to turn the tables against himself; for he so illuminated
the mind by his clear and perspicuous reasoning, that dullness itself
became capable of discerning; and when at any time his performances fell
short of his own ideas of excellence; his enemies tried him by rules of
his own establishing; and though they owed to him the ability of
judging, they seldom had candour enough to spare him.
Perhaps it may be true that Pope's works are read with more appetite, as
there is a greater evenness and correctness in them; but in perusing the
works of Dryden the mind will take a wider range, and be more fraught
with poetical ideas: We admire Dryden as the greater genius, and Pope as
the most pleasing versifier.
ERRATA in the foregoing life, viz.
P. 237. l. 27. for with all that the world calls ambition, read with _a
disgust of_ all, &c. And l. 29. for 'stooping or climbing' read,
_rather_ stooping _than_ climbing.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] See a Note in Warburton's Edition of Pope's Works.
* * * * *
AARON HILL, Esq;[1]
Was the son of George Hill, esq; of Malmsbury-Abbey in Wiltshire; a
gentleman possessed of an estate of about 2000 l. a year, which was
entailed upon him, and the eldest son, and to his heirs for many
descents. But the unhappy misconduct of Mr. George Hill, and the
weakness of the trustees, entangled it in such a manner as hitherto has
rendered it of no advantage to his family; for, without any legal title
so to do, he sold it all, at different times, for sums greatly beneath
the value of it, and left his children to their mother's care, and her
mother's (Mrs. Ann Gregory) who took great pains with her grandson's
education. At nine years old she put him to school to Mr. Rayner at
Barnstable in Devonshire, from whence, he went to Westminster school;
where soon (under the care of Dr. Knipe) his genius shewed itself in a
distinguished light, and often made him some amends for his hard
fortune, which denied him such supplies of pocket-money as his spirit
wished, by enabling him to perform the tasks of many who had not his
capacity.
Mr. Aaron Hill, was born in Beaufort-Buildings in the Strand, on
February 10, 1684-5. At fourteen years of age he left Westminster
school; and, shortly after, hearing his grandmother make mention of a
relation much esteemed (lord Paget, then ambassador at Constantinople)
he formed a resolution of paying him a visit there, being likewise very
desirous to see that empire.
His grandmother being a woman of uncommon understanding, and great
good-nature, would not oppose him in it; and accordingly he soon
embark'd on board a ship, then going there, March 2, 1700, as appears by
a Journal which he kept during his voyage, and in his travels (though at
so weak an age) wherein he gave the most accurate account of every
particular, in a manner much above his years.
When he arrived, lord Paget received him with as much surprize, as
pleasure, wondering that so young a person as he was (but then in his
fifteenth year) should chuse to run the hazard of such a voyage to visit
a relation, whom he knew but by character. The ambassador immediately
provided for him a very learned ecclesiastic in his own house, and,
under his tuition, sent him to travel, being desirous to improve, as far
as possible, the education of a person he found worthy of it. With this
tutor he had the opportunity of seeing Egypt, Palestine, and a great
part of the Eastern country.
With lord Paget he returned home, about the year 1703, through great
part of Europe; in which tour he saw most of the courts.
He was in great esteem with that nobleman; insomuch, that in all
probability he had been still more distinguished by him at his death,
than in his life time, had not the envious fears and malice of a certain
female, who was in high authority and favour with that lord, prevented
and supplanted his kind disposition towards him: My lord took great
pleasure in instructing him himself, wrote him whole books in different
languages, on which his student placed the greatest value; which was no
sooner taken notice of by jealous observation, than they were stolen
from his apartment, and suffered to be some days missing, to the great
displeasure of my lord, but still much greater affliction of his pupil,
whose grief for losing a treasure he so highly valued, was more than
doubled, by perceiving that from some false insinuation that had been
made, it was believed he had himself wilfully lost them: But young Mr.
Hill was soon entirely cleared on this head.
A few years after, he was desired both on account of his sobriety and
understanding, to accompany Sir William Wentworth, a worthy baronet of
Yorkshire, who was then going to make the tour of Europe; with whom he
travelled two or three years, and brought him home improved, to the
satisfaction of that gentleman's relations.
'Twas in those different travels he collected matter for the history he
wrote of Turkey, and published in 1709; a work he afterwards often
repented having printed; and (though his own) would criticise upon it
with much severity. (But, as he used to say, he was a very boy when he
began and ended it; therefore great allowance may be made on that
account); and in a letter which has since been printed in his works,
wrote to his greatly valued friend, the worthy author of Clarissa, he
acknowledges his consciousness of such defects: where speaking of
obscurity, he says,
'Obscurity, indeed (if they had penetration to mean that) is burying
sense alive, and some of my rash, early, too affected, puerile
scriblings must, and should, have pleaded guilty to so just an
accusation.'
The fire of youth, with an imagination lively as his was, seldom, if
ever, go hand in hand with solid judgment. Mr. Hill did not give himself
indeed time for correction, having wrote it so very expeditiously, as
hardly would be credited. But (as Dr. Sprat, then bishop of Rochester,
used to observe) there is certainly visible in that book, the seeds of a
great writer.--He seldom in his riper years was guilty of the fault of
non-correction; for he revis'd, too strictly rather, every piece he
purposed for the public eye (exclusive of an author's natural fondness);
and it has been believed by many, who have read some of his pieces in
the first copy, that had they never been by a revisal deepened
[Transcriber's note: 'deepned' in original] into greater strength, they
would have pleased still more, at least more generally.
About the year 1709 he published his first poem, called Camillus; in
vindication, and honour of the earl of Peterborough, who had been
general in Spain. After that nobleman had seen it, he was desirous to
know who was the author of it; which having found by enquiry, he
complimented him by making him his secretary, in the room of Mr. Furly,
who was gone abroad with another nobleman: And Mr. Hill was always held
in high esteem with that great peer; with whom, however, he did not
continue long; for in the year 1710 he married the only daughter of
Edmund Morris, Esq; of Stratford, in Essex; with whom he had a very
handsome fortune: By her he had nine children, four of whom (a son, and
three daughters) are still living.
In 1709 he was made master of the Theatre in Drury-Lane; and then, at
the desire of Mr. Barton Booth, wrote his first Tragedy, (Elfrid, or the
Fair Inconstant) which from his first beginning of it he compleated in a
little more than a week.--The following year, 1710, he was master of the
Opera House in the Hay-Market; and then wrote an Opera called Rinaldo,
which met with great success: It was the first which that admirable
genius Mr. Handel compos'd, after he came to England; (this he dedicated
to Queen Anne).--His genius was adapted greatly to the business of the
stage; and while he held the management, he conducted both Theatres,
intirely to the satisfaction of the public.--But in a few months he
relinquished it, from some misunderstanding with the then lord
chamberlain; and though he was soon after sollicited to take that charge
again upon him (by a person the highest in command) he still declined
it.
From that time he bent his thoughts on studies far more solid and
desirable to him; to views of public benefit: For his mind was ardently
devoted to the pursuit of general improvement. But, as one genius seldom
is adapted to both theory and practice; so in the execution of a variety
of undertakings, the most advantageous in themselves, by some
mismanagement of those concerned with him, he fail'd of the success his
labours merited.
As in particular, in an affair he set on foot about the year 1715, and
was the sole discoverer of, for which he had a patent; the making of an
Oil, as sweet as that from Olives, from the Beech-Nuts: But this being
an undertaking of a great extent, he was obliged to work conjointly with
other men's assistance, and materials; whence arose disputes among them,
which terminated in the overthrowing the advantage then arising from it;
which otherwise might have been great and lasting.
This, has occasioned that affair to be misunderstood by many; it
therefore may not be thought improper, here, to set it in a juster
light; and this cannot more exactly be given, than from his own words,
called, A fair state of the Account, published in the year 1716.
'An impartial state of the case, between the patentee, annuitants, and
sharers, in the Beech-Oil-Company.'--Some part of which is here
recited.
'The disappointments of the Beech-Oil-Company this year have made
abundance of sharers peevish; the natural effect of peevishness is
clamour, and clamour like a tide will work itself a passage, where it
has no right of flowing; some gentlemen, misled by false conceptions
both of the affair and its direction, have driven their discontent
through a mistaken chanel, and inclined abundance who are strangers to
the truth, to accuse the patentee of faults, he is not only absolutely
free from, but by which he is, of all concern'd, the greatest sufferer.
'But, he is not angry with the angry; he considers they must take things
as they hear them represented; he governs all his actions by this
general maxim; never to be moved at a reproach, unless it be a just one.
'In October 1713 the patentee procured a grant for fourteen years, to
him and his assigns, for the Beech-Oil invention.
'Anno 1714, he made and published proposals, for taking a subscription
of 20,000 l. upon the following conditions;
'That every subscriber should receive, by half yearly payments, at
Lady-Day and Michaelmas, during the continuance of the patent from
Lady-Day 1715, inclusive, an annuity amounting to fifty-pound per cent,
for any sum subscribed, excepting a deduction for the payment of the
directors.
'That nine directors should be chosen on midsummer-day, who should
receive complaints upon non-payments of annuities; and in such case,
upon refusal, any five of the nine directors had power to meet and chuse
a governor from among themselves, enrolling that choice in chancery,
together with the reasons for it.
'That after such choice and enrollment, the patentee should stand
absolutely excluded, the business be carried on, and all the right of
the grant be vested (not as a mortgage, but as a sale without
redemption) in the governor so chosen, for the joint advantage of the
annuitants, in proportion to their several interests.
'As a security for making good the articles, the patentee did, by
indenture enrolled in chancery, assign and make over his patent to
trustees, in the indenture named, for the uses above-mentioned.
'In the mean time the first half yearly payments to the annuitants,
amounting to 3750 l. became due, and the company not being yet
compleated, the patentee himself discharged it, and has never reckon'd
that sum to the account between him and the company; which he might have
done by virtue of the articles on which he gave admission to the
sharers.
'For the better explanation of this scheme it will be necessary to
observe, that while the shares were selling, he grew apprehensive that
the season would be past, before the fifty pounds per share they were to
furnish by the articles could be contributed: He therefore gave up
voluntarily, and for the general good, 20,000 l. of his own 25,000
guineas purchase money, as a loan to the company till the expiration of
the patent, after which it was again to be made good to him, or his
assigns; and this money so lent by the patentee, is all the stock that
ever has been hitherto employed by the company.
'But instead of making good the above-mentioned conditional covenant,
the board proceeded to unnecessary warmth, and found themselves involved
still more and more in animosities, and those irregularities which
naturally follow groundless controversy. He would therefore take upon
himself the hazard and the power of the whole affair, accountable
however to the board, as to the money part; and yet would bind himself
to pay for three years to come, a profit of forty shillings per annum
upon every share, and then deliver back the business to the general
care, above the reach of future disappointments.