SELECTED POEMS.; THE ESSAY ON CRITICISM ;

THE MORAL ESSAYS

EDITED, with INTRODUCTION, NOTES, and APPENDIX

BY .

THOMAS ARNOLD, M.A

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD
PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE ROYAL UNIVERSITY

OF IRELAND

OF

CALIFORNIA
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY

1896

OF THE principal works of Pope (excluding translations), the Essay on Man has been edited in a masterly way for the use of schools by Mr. Pattison, the Rector of Lincoln College; the Satires and Epistles also, with their Prologue and Epilogue, have been treated not quite so exhaustively, by the same hand. The Rape of the Lock is included among the Longer English Poems so usefully and carefully edited by Mr. Hales. Among the remaining works, the Essay on Criticism and the Moral Essays are contained in the present volume; the Dunciad will shortly appear in a similar form. Nothing remains but the imita. tions of the second rank, with the Pastorals, Windsor Forest, the Messiah, the Temple of Fame, and the short occasional poems, which has not been edited for school use.

Let me say at once, that having constantly had before me the prospect of this book being in the hands of young persons of both sexes, I have suppressed without mercy all passages, lines, and words, the reading of which would clearly not tend to their

Still

edification. I may be taxed with Bowdlerizing' is of un
Pope ; and I freely admit that in what I have #1 181 of
thought myself compelled to exclude there may be
found not a few striking images and vigorous expres-
sions. If I were preparing a cabinet edition--an Vet it is
edition for the reading world in general I should, ifs all spont
I undertook it all, make it a point of conscience to smal state
reproduce the text with exact fidelity. But the duty rope Bom
of an editor who is preparing a classic work to be karvoning
used in schools is, I conceive, far different. How-te Middle A
ever, the amount of alteration thus introduced into biquity
the text is, after all, extremely slight; and the reader terary class, C
may be confident that he has the genuine text of the art and
Pope before him, except so far as a consideration dance was t
school requirements rendered excision necessary.

ре

le cared not for

And Boile

His Art Poétique, bet citical good

etical qualities, e controversy rih Wlan Temple,

The ultimate impulse which acted on Pope in
projecting and composing this remarkable poem may
be traced to his youthful study, and intense, passionate

admiration, of the classic poets. The music of their Perrault, and
verse, the grace of their phrase, and the elevation of
their thoughts, made deep impressions on that strong!

pbscure persons, the
receptive intelligence ; he felt that they were still no
half so well known by his countrymen as they
deserved to be ; that their comparative obedience to
rules arose out of a real freedom of the spirit

, and a keen perception of the beautiful, with which the sons of literary and

in his Essay on Dr English license was incompatible; and he has left Hoidwhic tribute which is itself imperishable to these immorta

live merits of ancie lave excited a kee Dryden himself had 1

stically compared th and the French dran

dut co HOF I ini reado text tion

literary class, clergy and laity alike, fixed its gaze on
the art and poetry of the pagan world. Boileau
in France was the eloquent exponent of this feeling ;
he cared not for Dante, but he bowed to Horace_o

And Boileau still in right of Horace sways.
His Art Poétique, the leading principle of which is,
that critical good sense is the most important of
poetical qualities, was doubtless well known to Pope.
The controversy in which he had been engaged
with Perrault, and which had spread to England—Sir
William Temple, Dryden, and Swift, taking up the
one side, and Wootton, Bentley, and a number of
obscure persons, the other--respecting the compara-
tive merits of ancient and modern learning, must
have excited a keen interest in the young poet.
Dryden himself had written with great force on ques-
tions of literary and dramatic criticism ; particularly
in his Essay on Dramatic Poesy, in which he had
critically compared the ancient with the modern stage,
and the French drama with the English. The work

oem m passiona sic of the levation hat strong ere still no en as the bedience e spirit, ar ch which the he has left

mort