twelve formed a plan of ftudy which he completed with little other incitement than the defire of excellence.

His primary and principal purpose was to be a poet, with which his father accidentally concurred, by propofing fubjects, and obliging him to correct his performances by many revifals; after which the old gentleman, when he was fatisfied, would fay thefe are good rhymes.

In his perufal of the English poets he foon diftinguifhed the verfification of Dryden, which he confidered as the model to be ftudied, and was impreffed with fuch veneration for his inftructer, that he perfuaded fome friends to take him to the coffee-house which Dryden

fre

frequented, and pleafed himself with having feen him..

Dryden died May 1, 1701, fome days before Pope was twelve; so early muft 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 forefeen the greatnefs 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, aud which is not equal to Cowley's performances at the fame age. His time was now fpent wholly in reading and writing.

As he read the

Claf

Clafficks, he amufed himself with tranflating them; and at fourteen madea verfion of the first book of the Thebais, which, with fome revifion, he afterwards published. He must have been at this time, if he had no help, a confide-rable 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. likewife the Epistle of Sappho to Phaon from Ovid, to complete the verfion, which was before imperfect; and wrote

fome

fome other fmall pieces, which he after

wards printed.

He fometimes imitated the English poets, and profeffed to have written at fourteen his poem upon Silence, after Rochester's Nothing. He had now formed his verfification, and in the fmoothness of his numbers furpaffed his. original but this is but a small part of his praife; he discovers fuch acquaintance both with human life and publick affairs as is not eafily conceived to have been attainable by a boy of fourteen in Windfor Foreft.

Next year he was defirous of opening to himself new fources of knowledge, by making himself acquainted with mo→ dern languages; and removed for a time

to

to London, that he might ftudy French and Italian, which, as he défired nothing more than to read them, were by diligent application foon difpatched. Of Italian learning he does not appear to have ever made much ufel in his fubfe quent ftudies. 1. 2

He then returned to Binfield, and delighted himself with his own poetry. He tried all styles, and many fubjects. He wrote a comedy, a tragedy, an epick poem, with panegyricks on all the Princes of Europe; and, as he confeffes, thought bimfelf the greatest genius that. Self-confidence is the first

Ever was.

a

requifite to great undertakings; he, in-. deed, who forms his opinion of himself.

in folitude, without knowing the

powers

of