must he therefore have felt the power of harmony, and the zeal of
genius. Who does not wish that Dryden could have known the value of
the homage that was paid him, and foreseen the greatness of his
young admirer?

The earliest of Pope's productions is his "Ode on Solitude," written
before he was twelve, in which there is nothing more than other
forward boys have attained, and which is not equal to Cowley's
performance at the same age. His time was now wholly spent in
reading and writing. As he read the classics he amused himself with
translating them, and at fourteen made a version of the first book
of the "Thebais," which, with some revision, he afterwards
published. He must have been at this time, if he had no help, a
considerable proficient in the Latin tongue.

By Dryden's fables, which had then been not long published, and were
much in the hands of poetical readers, he was tempted to try his own
skill in giving Chaucer a more fashionable appearance, and put
"January and May" and the "Prologue of the Wife of Bath" into modern
English. He translated likewise the Epistle of "Sappho to Phaon"
from Ovid, to complete the version, which was before imperfect, and
wrote some other small pieces, which he afterwards printed. He
sometimes imitated the English poets, and professed to have written
at fourteen his poem upon "Silence," after Rochester's "Nothing."
He had now formed his versification, and the smoothness of his
numbers surpassed his original; but this is a small part of his
praise; he discovers such acquaintance both with human life and
public affairs as is not easily conceived to have been attainable by
a boy of fourteen in Windsor Forest.