I have read "Mr. RICH'S" letter with great interest, and I willingly
allow that he has combated my charge of plagiarism against Pope, and
discussed the subject generally with equal fairness and ability. "But
yet," I think that he wanders a little from the point when he says, "the
surmise of the plagiarism originates in a misconception of the terms
employed by the Latin author, especially _corcillum_." Now the question,
in my opinion, turns not so much on what _Petronius said_, as on what
_Pope read_; i.e. not on the meaning that _Petronius gave_ to the word
(_corcillum_), but on that which _Pope attributed_ to it. I cannot,
without further proof, give him credit for having read the words as
critically and correctly as "Mr. R." has done. I believe that he looked
on it merely as a simple derivative of _cor_, and therefore rendered it
"worth," i.e. a _moral_, not a _mental_ quality.