New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-04-03

in the Paris Of the SOS and the two following
decades One must relinqu3sh this perhaps
whimsical excursion. however. and return Z,
facts. They are dverting facts. In all The stages
of the poets career early and late
The Fates were not unkind TO him r. as a
Catholic he was debarred from the professional
maths open TO the average Engfshnan OF his
time. this disability only threw him the more
quickly upon the literary career for which he
had a natural genius. and his i'll health also
tributed to place him where he belonged among
the authors Then. too. his family. though Of
modest origin, was sufficiently prosperous for
him 10 come soon into the enjoyment Of an in
come small but certain and he had. into the
bargain. not only serviceabie gifts. but q way of
winning friends. He knew wycherley when ne
himself was in his teens and the gay old dram
atist was in his sixties. and it is said that he
used to follow his patron about like q little
dog" He did not long need 70 assume a subor-
dinate attitude The "PastOrals'' with which ne
made his debut may not enchant the modern
reader but they served 20 please his contempo-
raries- That they also provoked some adverse
criticism is a fact prophetic of the hot water in
which he was ultimately to dispGrt himself a. IN
his native element Hill doubtless overstated
the case when he said that POpe's sentiments
were Hlow and narrow. and he was inexact in
adding that they were sour and acrid "becauss
writ in envy" On the other hand. there can he
no question about the sourness and the acridity-
1t will always be tantaIizngly problernatic as to
how far the waspishness of Pope was deter
mined by innate irritabiity and meanness and
how far il was developed by his delight in the
skill with which he could use the heroic coUPIet-
A technician Of his facility and precision may
easily be Iured into effects Of VirtuOsty for their
own sake. plying his rapier in the sheer pride
and exuberance of supreme authority Sun.
that biographer would be singuIarIy naive not
to say idiotic. who sought to whitewash Pope
The wasp had sting and reveIIed in the use q
it, There was gall in PCpe's heart. and not al
the anecdotes of his tenderness that can be
scraped together strictly limited collection II
them at the best-can keep US from seeing him
as an imp of mischief working damage q his
fellow men with a light heart.
1t is the fashion 20 blow upon MacauIay's blast
ing judgment: He was all stiletto and mask
To injure to insult and TO save himself the
consequences Of injury and insult BY lying and
equivOcating was the habit of his life" George
Pastor does not fail to remind US that a Tory
poet who had lived on i'll terms with Mr. Secre-
tary Addison could look for small mercy from
Wing historian and she goes on To a-Iude 10
MacauIay's 'glittering rhetoric and his ma
IiciOus exa operation" We dare say that the
malice will be forgiven. If the reader doubts il
let him ponder the long story set forth in these
very volumes OF POpe'S savagery as a critic his
caprice in his friendship with the Blount SIS
ters his wretChed double dealing over the pub
LEGATION of his private letters. and his zeneral
readiness TO give hurt and 10 advance his own
interests by hook or by crook At the same time,
of course, it is important for the reader 70 hold
fast ito that curious possibly morbid f-scna-
ton which the buzzing, scampiSh little gentle
man exerts- L writ because it amused me- he
said. He did everything because il amused
him. and the result is that. whatever else YOU
may find him, you never find him dull One Of
the sardOniC jokes of his career Is that he helped
10 spread the rumOr that the Essay on Man
was written by an eminent divine. Pope as a
Churchnan is Il conception for the Imagination
to bOggle at and it is only by some dry rule OF
thumb that you can adjust his often inpeccable
mOralizinss 10 a theory cxaItinS his moral pun
pose. That gnOuic wisdom OF his. which 50
often drives SO unerringly at the human heart
scarcely suggests that it had its rise in the sae
organ II IS an intellectual rather than spirit
ual fervor which guides the ethical proceedings
of Pope. To say that is. obviously. 70 tend once
more, as the reader is always tending. awaJ