"Many ludicrous circumstances attended it. The Dunces (for by this name they were called) held weekly clubs, to consult of hostilities against the author: one wrote a Letter to a great Minister, assuring him Mr. Pope was the greatest enemy the government had; and another bought his image in clay, to execute him in effigy; with which sort of satisfaction the gentlemen were a little comforted.

"Some false editions of the book having an owl in their frontispiece, the true one, to distinguish it, fixed in its stead an ass laden with authors. Then another surreptitious one being printed with the same ass, the new edition in octavo returned for distinction to the owl again. Hence arose a great contest of booksellers against booksellers, and advertisements against advertisements; some recommended the edition of the owl, and others the edition of the ass; by which names they came to be distinguished, to the great honour also of the gentlemen of the 'Dunciad.""

The complete edition of the "Dunciad" was elegantly printed in quarto, by Dodd, 1729, with large Notes, and an Appendix, under the name of Cleland, but written by Pope himself. After enjoying for two years a complete triumph over Horneck, and Rome, and Gildon, and Concanen, and Oldmixon, and the nameless fabricators of the "Popiad," and "Martiniad," he printed, in folio, 1731 (for this was the original title), "An epistle to Richard Earl of Burlington, occasioned by his publishing Palladio's Designs of the Baths, Arches, Theatres, &c. of Ancient Rome."

Adhering to the chronological order in which the "Ethic Epistles" were published, I am next to observe, that there appeared, in 1732, "Of the Use of Riches, an Epistle to the Right Hon. Allen Lord Bathurst," folio.

It was in the year 1732, that, determined to wait in secret the opinion of the public, he published, what he had for eight years at least been revolving in his mind,

the First Epistle of his "Essay on Man:" the Second followed in the same year; the Third in 1733: and the Fourth in 1734.

The first specimen of our author's happy and judicious Imitations of Horace, was given, 1733, folio, with this title, The First Satire of the Second book of Horace, imitated in a dialogue between Alexander Pope of Twickenham, in Comm. Midd. Esq. on the one part, and his learned Council on the other."

It was in the year 1734, that the fine Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot was, according to the first edition in folio, first printed. Afterwards it underwent two material alterations; it was entitled, improperly and fantastically enough, "A Prologue to the Satires;" and its form was changed into that of a Dialogue, in which a man possessed of so much wit, humour, literature, science, and taste, as was Arbuthnot, makes a very indifferent figure, and says little indeed. Pope in this "Epistle," for so I shall continue to call it, has succeeded in what Cowley calls a nice and difficult task, to speak of himself with dignity and grace.

It was succeeded, 1735, by the "Epistle on the Characters of Women,” in an Advertisement to which, he asserted, but in truth was not believed, that no one character was drawn from the life.

Though he did not put his name to the loose Imitation of the Second Satire of Horace, entitled, "Sober Advice from Horace to the Young Gentlemen about Town," printed 1736, yet was he indisputably the Author of it; and suffered his friend Dodsley to publish it as such, in one edition in 12mo; and is in plain terms charged with it by Bolingbroke, in one of his letters.

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No less than four of his "Imitations of Horace 99 peared 1737, which, by the artful accommodations of modern sentiments to ancient, by judicious applications

of similar characters, and happy parallels, are become some of the most pleasing and popular of all his Works, especially to readers of years and experience. These are, the Sixth Epistle of the First Book of Horace to Mr. Murray (to whom he also addressed an Imitation of the Ode to Venus); the Second Satire of the Second Book to Mr. Bethel; the First Epistle of the First Book of Epistles to Lord Bolinbroke; the First Epistle of the Second Book to the King; the Second Epistle of this Book to Colonel Dormer. Of these Imitations, that to the King, Lord Bolingbroke, and Mr. Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, are the best; and that to Mr. Bethel the feeblest. The Epistle to Augustus, at first read and understood, by some superficial courtiers, as a compliment to George II, as soon as the bitter and sarcastic irony in it was discovered, gave great offence.

Mr. Allen of Bath, having long desired our Author to publish a Collection of his Letters, from which, he said, a perfect system of morals might be extracted, offered to be at the cost of a publication of them. Pope refused this offer; but in the year 1737, published an edition of them in quarto, by a large subscription; and a second volume with the Memoirs of Scriblerus, 1741.

Being in the year 1738, closely connected with the most able opposers of the Ministry and the Court, he wrote the Two Dialogues that took their title from the year in which they were composed, and which are, perhaps, all things considered, some of the strongest Satires ever written in any age or any country. Every species of sarcasm and mode of style are here alternately employed; ridicule, reasoning, irony, mirth, seriousness, lamentation, laughter, familiar imagery, and high poetical painting. Many persons in power were highly provoked, but the name of Pope prevented a prosecution for what Paxton wished to have called a libel.

Ceasing from politics, Pope amused himself, in 1740, in republishing "Selecta Carmina Italorum;" but he took no notice of the edition from which he borrowed his collection, called, "Anthologia," printed in London in 12mo. 1684, with a most judicious preface, and one of the best pieces of modern latinity, falsely ascribed to Atterbury; which he omitted, I think, very improperly. What he added was a very indifferent poem of Aonius Palearius, "De Immortalitate Animi," in Three Books.

In the year 1742, he was unfortunately persuaded, by Dr. Warburton, to write the Fourth Book of the "Dunciad,” which I cannot forbear considering as an injudicious and incongruous addition to that Poem, as I also do the degrading Tibbald, 1743, from being the hero of that poem, and substituting Cibber in his place. What provocations he might have received from Cibber, is a thing entirely out of the question; the matter to be considered is, whether Cibber was a hero proper, or not, for the "Dunciad." It is to be lamented, that, in this instance, our author's indignation got the better of what he possessed in an eminent degree, his judgment; and that the last effort of his genius, which might have been employed on subjects so much higher and more important, should be wasted in expressing this resentment.

About the year 1744, Pope's health and strength began visibly to decline. Besides his constant head-aches, and severe rheumatic pains, he had been afflicted for five years with an asthma, which was suspected to be occasioned by a dropsy on the breast, and which, not the skill of the many able physicians, who were always ready and eager to attend him, could relieve. It was in the evening of the thirtieth day of May 1744, that Pope had the happiness of dying with the greatest tranquillity, aged fifty-six years. He was interred at Twickenham, near his father and mother.