"See, from the brake the whirring pheasant springs And mounts exulting on triumphant wings. * * * * * Ah! what avail his glossy, varying dyes, His purple crest, and scarlet-circled eyes, The vivid green his shining plumes unfold, His painted wings, and breast that flames with gold." And again, this, from the _Rape of the Lock_:-- "Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting grace A two-edged weapon from her shining case; So ladies in romance assist their knight, Present the spear, and arm him for the fight, He takes the gift with reverence, and extends The little engine on his fingers' ends; {37} This just behind Belinda's neck he spread, As o'er the fragrant steams she bends her head. Swift to the lock a thousand sprites repair, A thousand wings, by turns, throw back the hair; And thrice they twitched the diamond in her ear, Thrice she looked back, and thrice the foe drew near." And yet again--this worthier excerpt from the same dainty poem:-- "Fair nymphs, and well-drest youths around her shone But every eye was fixed on her alone. On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore, Which Jews might kiss, and infidels adore. Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose, Quick as her eyes, and as unfixed as those; Favors to none, to all she smiles extends; Oft she rejects, but never once offends." Ten pages of extracts would not show better his amazing attention to details--his quick eye--his gifts in word-craft, and his musical exploitation of his themes. I know that this poet works in harness, and has not the free movement of one who gallops under a loose rein; the couplets fetter him; may be they cramp him; but there is a blithe, strong resonance of true metal, in the clinking chains that bind him. No, I do not think that Pope is to be laughed out of court, in {38} our day, or in any day, because he labored at form and polish, or because he loved so much the tingle of a rhyme; I think there was something else that tingled in a good deal that he wrote and will continue to tingle so long as Wit is known by its own name. The good word spoken for him in the _Spectator_--the great printed authority in literary matters--brought him into more intimate association with the Literary Guild of that paper; he wrote for the _Spectator_ on several occasions. An early contribution is that of 1712 (November 10th), where he calls attention to the famous verses which the Emperor Adrian spoke on his death-bed; he says:-- "I was in company the other day with five or six men of learning, who agreed that they showed a gayety unworthy that prince in those circumstances;" and he quotes the lines: Animula vagula, blandula Hospes Comes que Corporis Pallidula, rigida, nudula, etc. "But," he says, "methinks it was by no means a gay, but a very serious soliloquy to his soul at the point of his departure." {39}