" Here, again, we have the alternative of
Wollaston, who uses a similar illustration, and in one phrase comes
nearer to Pope. He speaks of "new motions being impressed upon the
atmosphere." We may suppose that the two friends had been dipping into
Wollaston together. Elsewhere Pope seems to have stolen for himself. In
the beginning of the second epistle, Pope, in describing man as "the
glory, jest, and riddle of the world," is simply versifying Pascal; and
a little farther on, when he speaks of reason as the wind and passion
as the gale on life's vast ocean, he is adapting his comparison from
Locke's treatise on government.
If all such cases were adduced, we should have nearly picked the
argumentative part of the essay to pieces; but Bolingbroke supplies
throughout the most characteristic element. The fragments cohere by
external cement, not by an internal unity of thought; and Pope too often
descends to the level of mere satire, or indulges in a quaint conceit or
palpable sophistry. Yet it would be very unjust to ignore the high
qualities which are to be found in this incongruous whole. The style is
often admirable. When Pope is at his best every word tells. His
precision and firmness of touch enables him to get the greatest possible
meaning into a narrow compass. He uses only one epithet, but it is the
right one, and never boggles and patches or, in his own phrase,
"blunders round about a meaning." Warton gives, as a specimen of this
power, the lines:--
But errs not nature from this gracious end,
From burning suns when livid deaths descend,
When earthquakes swallow or when tempests sweep
Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?
And Mr.
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