Binfield being near Easthamstead, where Sir William Trumbull then resided, he was introduced to the acquaintance of that gentleman; who struck with admiration of his genius, his good sense, and his correct and regular manners, readily admitted him to a share of his friendship.

In the mean time, the young bard was constantly employed in the improving of his poetical talents. At fourteen, he had composed several elegant pieces; and at fifteen he had made himself familiar to a certain extent with the two learned languages, to which he soon afterward added French and Italian.

Some seeds of vanity, it has been observed, are almost necessary ingredients in the composition of a poet. Pope now thought himself capable of undertaking an epic poem. In this spirit he set about writing his, Alcander.' He had either the sense however, or the modesty, to keep it in his study till it was burnt by the advice of Atterbury; and in his riper years he spoke of it with a degree of ingenuousness, which more than atoned for the forwardness and the failure of the attempt.* "I confess," says he, "there was a time, when I was in love with myself; and my first productions were the children of selflove upon innocence. I had made an epic poem, and panegyrics upon all the princes; and I thought myself the greatest genius that ever was. I cannot but regret these delightful visions of my childhood, which, like the fine colours we see when our eyes are shut, are vanished for ever." He essayed likewise a comedy, upon a subject not now known, and a

* Some of it's extravagances are produced, in the Art of Sinking in Poetry,' under the signature of Anonymous.'

tragedy founded on the legend of St. Genevieve: but he destroyed them with most of his puerile productions. His version of Cicero's Cato Major' appears to have shared the same fate.

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He was, also, tempted by Dryden's Fables' to try his skill in modernising from Chaucer his January and May,' and the Prologue of the Wife of Bath;' and about the same time, likewise, he professed to have written his poem on Silence,' in imitation of Rochester's 'Nothing.' He had now formed his versification, assisted by the rich melodies of Dryden; and the smoothness of his numbers surpassed the original.

In the following year, 1704, he entered upon a task more suited to his age. This was his Pastorals,'* which procured for him the acquaintance of some of the most eminent wits of the time. He communicated them first to Mr. Wycherley, who was highly pleased with them; and he subsequently sent a copy to Mr. Walsh,† who observing that his chief talent lay not so much in striking out new thoughts of his own, as improving those which he borrowed from the ancients, suggested to him, that there was

*First printed, in a volume of Tonson's Miscellanies, in 1709. Melodiously tuneful, and brilliantly polished, these compositions display a great want of original observation, and much puerile artificialness of sentiment. In the same volume appeared Ambrose Philips' Pastorals,' which were commended in the Spectator to a degree exciting Pope's very irritable jealousy. He printed in the Guardian, No. 40, in consequence, an ironical comparison of the rival compositions; and incited Gay to write his Shepherd's Week' in mockery of Philips, who never forgave him.

one way left open for him in which to outstrip his predecessors, and that was correctness.' This advice was not lost Pope received it with gratitude, and observed it with punctuality.*

* The following letter to this friendly Aristarchus is inserted, as a specimen :

Oct. 22, 1706. "After the thoughts I have already sent you on the subject of English versification, you desire my opinion as to some farther particulars. There are indeed certain niceties, which though not much observed even by correct versifiers, I cannot but think deserve to be better regarded.

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1. It is not enough that nothing offends the ear, but a good poet will adapt the very sounds, as well as words, to the thing he treats of. So that there is (if one may express it so) a stile of sound as in describing a gliding stream, the numbers shall run easy and flowing; in describing a rough torrent or deluge, sonorous and swelling; and so of the rest. This is evident every where in Homer and Virgil, and no where else, that I know of, to any observable degree. The following examples, will make this plain, which I have taken from Vida:

Molle viam tacito lapsu per lævia radit.
Incedit tardo molimine subsidendo.
Luctantes ventos, tempestatesque sonoras.
Immenso cùm præcipitans ruit oceano Nox.
Telum imbelle sine ictu

Conjicit.

Tolle moras; cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor.
Ferte citi flammas, date tela, repellite pestem.

This, I think, is what very few observe in practice, and is undoubtedly of wonderful force in imprinting the image on the reader: we have one excellent example of it in our language, Mr. Dryden's Ode on St. Cæcilia's Day, entitled 'Alexander's Feast,'

2. Every nice ear must (I believe) have observed, that in any smooth English verse of ten syllables, there is naturally a pause at the fourth, fifth, or sixth syllable. It is upon these the ear rests, and upon the judicious change and management of which depends the variety of versification. For example,

This year, also, he wrote the first part of his • Windsor Forest; though the whole was not pub

At the fifth,

Where'er thy navy | spreads her canvass wings.

At the fourth,

Homage to thee and peace to all she brings. At the sixth,

Like tracts of leverets | in morning snow.

Now I fancy, that to preserve an exact harmony and variety, the pause at the fourth or sixth should not be continued above three lines together, without the interposition of another; else it will be apt to weary the ear with one continued tone, at least it does mine: that at the fifth runs quicker, and carries not quite so dead a weight, so tires not so much, though it be continued longer.

3. Another nicety is in relation to expletives, whether words or syllables, which are made use of purely to supply a vacancy. Do before verbs plural is absolutely such; and it is not improbable but future refiners may explode did and does in the same manner, which are almost always used for the sake of rhyme. The same cause has occasioned the promiscuous use of you and thou to the same person, which can never sound so graceful as either one or the other.

4. I would also object to the irruption of Alexandrine verses, of twelve syllables; which I think, should never be allowed, but when some remarkable beauty or propriety in them atones for the liberty: Mr. Dryden has been too free of these, especially in his latter works. I am of the same opinion, as to triple rhymes.

5. I could equally object to the repetition of the same rhymes within four or six lines of each other, as tiresome to the ear through their monotony.

6. Monosyllable lines, unless very artfully managed, are stiff, or languishing; but may be beautiful to express melancholy, slowness, or labour.

7. To come to the hiatus, or gap between two words, which is caused by two vowels opening on each other, upon which you desire me to be particular; I think the rule in this case is either to use the cæsura, or admit the hiatus, just as the ear is least shocked by either: for the cæsura sometimes offends the ear

lished till 1710, when it appeared with a dedication to Lord Lansdowne, whom he mentions as one of his earliest acquaintance.*

more than the hiatus itself, and our language is naturally overcharged with consonants: as for example, if in this verse,

The old have interest ever in their eye;

we shall say, to avoid the hiatus,

But th' old have interest.

The hiatus, which has the worst effect, is when one word ends with the same vowel that begins the following; and next to this, those vowels whose sounds come nearest each other, are mosť to be avoided. O, A, or U, will bear a more full and graceful sound than E, I, or Y. I know, some people will think these observations trivial, and therefore I am glad to corroborate them by some great authorities, which I have met with in Tully and Quintilian. In the fourth book of Rhetoric to Herennius, are these words: Fugiemus crebras vocalium concussiones, quæ vastam atque hiantem reddunt orationem; ut hoc est, Baccæ æneæ amœ» nissimæ impendebant. And Quintilian, ix. 4. Vocalium concursus cùm accidit, hiat et intersistit et quasi laborat oratio. Pessimè longæ, quæ easdem inter se literas committunt, sonabunt: præcipuus tamen erit hiatus earum, quæ cavo aut patulo ore efferuntur. E plenior litera est, I angustior. But he goes on to reprove the excess, on the other hand, of being too solicitous in this matter, and says admirably, Nescio an negligentia in hoc, an solicitudo sit pejor. So, likewise, Tully (Orat. ad Brut.) Theopompum reprehendunt, quòd eas literas tanto opere fugerit, etsi idem magister ejus Socrates: which last author, as Turnebus on Quintilian observes, has hardly one hiatus in all his works. Quintilian tells us, that Tully and Demosthenes did not much observe this nicety, though Tully himself says in his Orator, Crebra ista vocum concursio, quam magnâ ex parte vitiosam fugit Demosthenes. If I am not mistaken, Malherbe of all the moderns has been the most scrupulous in this point; and I think Menage in his observations upon him says, 'he has not one in his poems.' To conclude, I believe the hiatus should be avoided with more care in poetry than in oratory; and I would constantly try to prevent it, unless where the cutting it off is more prejudicial to the sound than the hiatus itself. I am, &c."

* To this illustrious name he adds those of Bolingbroke, Con