Surrounding sylphs protect the beauty; and one to whom the lock has been given in charge, flutters unfortunately too near, and is clipped in two by the scissors that cut the lock. It is a rather extravagant conclusion, even in a mock-heroic poem, that when the strife was greatest to restore the lock, it flew upward: A sudden star, it shot through liquid air, And drew behind a radiant trail of hair, and thus, and always, it Adds new glory to the shining sphere. With these simple and meagre materials, Pope has constructed an harmonious poem in which the sylphs, gnomes, and other sprites of the Rosicrucian philosophy find appropriate place and service. It failed in its principal purpose of reconciliation, but it has given us the best mock-heroic poem in the language. As might have been expected, it called forth bitter criticisms from Dennis; and there were not wanting those who saw in it a political significance. Pope's pleasantry was aroused at this, and he published _A Key to the Lock_, in which he further mystifies these sage readers: Belinda becomes Great Britain; the Baron is the Earl of Oxford; and Thalestris is the Duchess of Marlborough. THE MESSIAH.--In 1712 there appeared in one of the numbers of _The Spectator_, his _Messiah, a Sacred Eclogue_, written with the purpose of harmonizing the prophecy of Isaiah and the singular oracles of the Pollio, or Fourth Eclogue of Virgil. Elevated in thought and grand in diction, the Messiah has kept its hold upon public favor ever since, and portions of it are used as hymns in general worship. Among these will be recognized that of which the opening lines are: Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise; Exalt thy towering head and lift thine eyes. In 1713 he published a poem on _Windsor Forest_, and an _Ode on St. Cecilia's Day_, in imitation of Dryden. He also furnished the beautiful prologue to Addison's Cato. TRANSLATION OF THE ILIAD.--He now proposed to himself a task which was to give him more reputation and far greater emolument than anything he had yet accomplished--a translation of the Iliad of Homer. This was a great desideratum, and men of all parties conspired to encourage and reward him. Chapman's Homer, excellent as it was, was not in a popular measure, and was known only to scholars.