“Fear not the anger of the wise to raise; Those best can bear reproof who merit praise.” The greatest conciseness is visible in his epigrams and in his compliments:-- “A vile encomium doubly ridicules: There’s nothing blackens like the ink of fools.” “And not a vanity is given in vain.” “Would ye be blest? despise low joys, low gains, Disdain whatever Cornbury disdains, Be virtuous, and be happy for your pains.” 14. Pope is the foremost literary figure of his age and century; and he is also the head of a school. He brought to perfection a style of writing verse which was followed by hundreds of clever writers. Cowper says of him:-- “But Pope-- his musical finesse was such, So nice his ear, so delicate his touch,-- Made poetry a mere mechanic art, And every warbler has his tune by heart.” Pope was not the poet of nature or of humanity; he was the poet of “the town,” and of the Court. He was greatly influenced by the neatness and polish of French verse; and, from his boyhood, his great ambition was to be “a correct poet.” He worked and worked, polished and polished, until each idea had received at his hands its very neatest and most epigrammatic expression. In the art of condensed, compact, pointed, and yet harmonious and flowing verse, Pope has no equal. But, as a vehicle for poetry-- for the love and sympathy with nature and man which every true poet must feel, Pope’s verse is artificial; and its style of expression has now died out. It was one of the chief missions of Wordsworth to drive the Popian second-hand vocabulary out of existence. 15. JAMES THOMSON (+1700-1748+), the poet of +The Seasons+, was born at Ednam in Roxburghshire, Scotland, in the year 1700. He was educated at the grammar-school of Jedburgh, and then at the University of Edinburgh. It was intended that he should enter the ministry of the Church of Scotland; but, before his college course was finished, he had given up this idea: poetry proved for him too strong a magnet. While yet a young man, he had written his poem of +Winter+; and, with that in his pocket, he resolved to try his fortune in London. While walking about the streets, looking at the shops, and gazing at the new wonders of the vast metropolis, his pocket was picked of his pocket-handkerchief and his letters of introduction; and he found himself alone in London-- thrown entirely on his own resources. A publisher was, however, in time found for +Winter+; and the poem slowly rose into appreciation and popularity. This was in 1726. Next year, +Summer+; two years after, +Spring+ appeared; while +Autumn+, in 1730, completed the +Seasons+. The +Castle of Indolence+-- a poem in the Spenserian stanza-- appeared in 1748. In the same year he was appointed Surveyor-General of the Leeward Islands, though he never visited the scene of his duty, but had his work done by deputy. He died at Kew in the year 1748.