them being an exquisitely ironical paper, comparing Phillip's pastorals
with his own, and affecting to give them the preference--the extracts
being so selected as to damage his rival's claims. This year, also, he
wrote, although he did not publish, his fine epistle to Jervas, the
painter. Pope was passionately fond of the art of painting, and
practised it a good deal under Jervas's instructions, although he did
not reach great proficiency. The prodigy has yet to be born who combines
the characters of a great painter and a great poet.

About this time, Pope commenced preparations for the great work of
translating Homer; and subscription-papers, accordingly, were issued.
Dean Swift was now in England, and took a deep interest in the success
of this undertaking, recommending it in coffee-houses, and introducing
the subject and Pope's name to the leading Tories. Pope met the Dean for
the first time in Berkshire, where, in one of his fits of savage disgust
at the conflicting parties of the period, he had retired to the house of
a clergyman, and an intimacy commenced which was only terminated by
death. We have often regretted that Pope had not selected some author
more suitable to his genius than Homer. Horace or Lucretius, or even
Ovid, would have been more congenial. His imitations of Horace shew us
what he might have made of a complete translation. What a brilliant
thing a version of Lucretius, in the style of the "Essay on Man," would
have been! And his "Rape of the Lock" proves that he had considerable
sympathy with the elaborate fancy, although not with the meretricious
graces of Ovid. But with Homer, the severely grand, the simple, the
warlike, the lover and painter of all Nature's old original forms--the
ocean, the mountains, and the stars--what thorough sympathy could a man
have who never saw a real mountain or a battle, and whose enthusiasm for
scenery was confined to purling brooks, trim gardens, artificial
grottos, and the shades of Windsor Forest? Accordingly, his Homer,