into the form wherein it is now printed in the octavo edition. While he was at the fchool near Hyde-Park Corner, the attention paid to his conduct was so remifs, that he was fuffered to frequent the playhouse in company with the greater boys. At his years, and with his caft of genius, it is eafy to conceive that the novelty of theatrical representation, muft have made a more than ordinary impreffion on his mind. He was fo forcibly fmitten with the charms of the drama, that he was difpofed to imitation, and applied himself to turn the chief transactions of the Iliad into a kind of play, composed of a number of speeches from Ogilby's tranflation, tacked together with verfes of his own. By his early abilities and winning disposition, he had acquired fuch influence among his school-fellows, that he perfuaded fome of the upper boys to take parts in a representation of this juvenile piece, and he prevailed on the mafter's gardener to act the character of Ajax. The dreffes of the actors were all modelled after the fashion of the prints in his favourite Ogilby, which, as fome have remarked, formed the chief merit of that book, they having been designed and engraved by artists of note. At the age of twelve, he went to refide at Binfield, in Windfor-Foreft, with his father, who had retired thither from business about the time of the 2 revo : revolution and, having converted all his effects into money, he is faid to have brought with him into the country, near 20,000 l. Being a papist, he could not vest his money on real fecurity; and as he adhered to the interest of James, he deemed it a point of confcience not to lend it to the new government. He therefore locked up this fum in his cheft, and lived upon the principal, till by that time his fon came to the fucceffion, a great part of it was confumed. To this mistaken pertinacity, our bard, fpeaking of his father, alludes in the following lines, in his Epiftle to Dr. Arbuthnot: "For right hereditary tax'd and fin'd, "He stuck to poverty, with peace of mind.” Soon after our author was, for a few months, placed under the tuition of another prieft, one Deane, from whofe inftructions however, he received very little benefit, having made no farther progrefs under him, than that of being able to conftrue a little of Tully's Offices. Our poet was often heard to say, that he could never follow any thing which he did not pursue with pleasure: and his masters either wanted fagacity to difcover the bent of his genius, or talents to adapt, their inftructions accordingly, fo as to render his ftudies an amufement to him. Finding that he profited fo little under their tuition, he formed a noble refolution, at this early period of life, of becoming his own mafter, and he began to cultivate his talents talents with unwearied fedulity. The method of study which he prefcribed to himself for this purpose, was the reading of the claffic writers, more especially of the poets, to whom he applied with great eagerness and enthusiasm. It is in our early years, that the true bent of genius is discovered. It then acts fpontaneously, nay in fome, as has been intimated, it is fo powerful as even to act against oppofition. Mr. POPE's paffion for poetry was fo ftrong, that he often declared he began to write verfes earlier in life than he could call to memory; and he says, in his Epiftle to Dr. Arbuthnot: "I lifp'd in numbers, for the numbers came. When he was yet a child, his father would frequently fet him to make English verses, and, though no poet, was nevertheless fo very difficult to be pleased, that he would make his fon correct them again and again. When they were to his mind, he took pleasure in perusing them, and would fay, "These are good rhymes." It has been well obferved, that the early praises of a tender and refpected parent, co-operating with the powerful bias of natural inclination in the fon, might fix our young bard in his ambition to become eminent in this art. It seems, however, that his father had fometimes recommended to him the ftudy of phyfic*, but * Letter 8th, to Cromwell. this this could be no more than a bare recommendation, fince our author himself affures us, in the epiftle above mentioned, that he broke no duty, nor difobeyed any parent by commencing poet "I left no calling for this idle trade, By the time he was fifteen, having made a very refpectable proficiency in the learned languages, he, expreffed a very ftrong defire of removing to London, in order to learn French and Italian. His family, whofe folicitude chiefly regarded the improvement and preservation of his health, and who knew that his miferable infirm state of body, would never suffer him to travel abroad, where thofe languages might be of moft ufe to him, could not help confidering his defign as wild and extravagant. He nevertheless perfifted in it; and they yielding to his importunities, he came to town, where he mastered those languages with furprizing difpatch. It was very remarkable, that though he was vaftly impatient of reftraint in the common fcholaftic forms of education, yet, now he was his own mafter, he readily fubjected himfelf to the fatigue and drudgery of perpetually recurring to grammars and dictionaries: by which means, with a ftrong appetite for knowlege, which made him intent on every fubject he read, he infenfibly made himself mafter of the learned and modern languages, His paffion for poetry, however, being predominant, he was eager to explore all the treafures of Parnaffus; and between this and his twentieth year, he devoted himself entirely to the reading of the most confiderable poets and critics in the Greek, Latin, French, Italian and English languages. About this time likewise, he made a tranflation of Tully de Senectute, a copy of which, it is faid, is preserved in Lord Oxford's library. In all this time, he has been heard to declare that he never read any treatise on the art of logic or rhetoric. Locke indeed fell into his hands, but he confeffed that his effay was at firft quite infipid to him. Nature, however, having early difpofed him to method in his compofitions, and philofophic reflection quickly following, and foon enabling him to correct the flights of his imagination, as clearly appears from his juvenile letters, he became delighted with that precifion of thought, which is the characteristic of that immortal effay and Mr. Locke had fo warmed and fortified his innate love of truth, that the only thing, he used to fay, he could never forgive his philofophic mafter, was the dedication to the effay *. : He likewise read Sir William Temple's effays; but when he met with any thing political in them, he owned that he had no manner of relish for This dedication, though it contains many juft and fenfible remarks, is in general couched under fuch terms of unmanly adulation, as degrade the fcholar and the philofopher. C it. |