P. 118. _The question whether Pope was a poet_. Hazlitt had written a paper in answer to this question in the Edinburgh Magazine for February, 1818 (Works, XII, 430-432), from which the following paragraphs down to "Such at least is the best account" are copied. The question had been previously answered by Dr. Johnson with the same common sense as by Hazlitt: "It is surely superfluous to answer the question that has once been asked, Whether Pope was a poet? otherwise than by asking in return, If Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found? To circumscribe poetry by a definition will only shew the narrowness of the definer, though a definition which shall exclude Pope will not easily be made." ("Life of Pope," ed. B. Hill, III, 251). In their edition of Pope (II, 140), Elwin and Courthope express the opinion that the doubt which both Johnson and Hazlitt felt called upon to refute "was never maintained by a single person of reputation." Yet there is something very close to such a doubt implied in the utterances of Coleridge: "If we consider great exquisiteness of language and sweetness of metre alone, it is impossible to deny to Pope the character of a delightful writer; but whether he was a poet, must depend upon our definition of the word.... This, I must say, that poetry, as distinguished from other modes of composition, does not rest in metre, and that it is not poetry, if it make no appeal to our passions or our imagination." (Works, ed. Shedd, IV, 56.) Pope's verse was made the occasion of a long-winded controversy as to the relative value of the natural and artificial in poetry, lasting from 1819 to 1825, with William Bowles and Lord Byron as the principal combatants. Hazlitt contributed an article to the London Magazine for June, 1821, "Pope, Lord Byron and Mr. Bowles" (Works, XII, 486-508), in which he pointed out the fallacies in Byron's position and censured the clerical priggishness of Bowles in treating of Pope's life. The chief points in the discussion are best summed up in Prothero's edition of Byron's "Letters and Journals," Vol. V, Appendix III. _If indeed by a great poet we mean_. Cf. Introduction, p. 1. P. 120. _the pale reflex_. "Romeo and Juliet," iii, 5, 20. P. 121. _Martha Blount_ (1690-1762), the object of Pope's sentimental attachment throughout his life. _In Fortune's ray_. "Troilus and Cressida," i, 3, 47. _the gnarled oak ... the soft myrtle_. "Faerie Qu.," II, ii, 116-117. _calm contemplation_. Thomson's "Autumn," 1275. P. 122. _More subtle web_. "Faerie Queene," II, xii, 77. P. 123. _from her fair head_. "Rape of the Lock," III, 154. _Now meet thy fate_. Ibid., V, 87-96. P. 124. _Lutrin_. The "Lutrin" was a mock-heroic poem (1674-1683) of the French poet and critic, Nicolas Boileau Despreaux (1636-1711), the literary dictator of the age of Louis XIV. _'Tis with our judgments_. "Essay on Criticism," I, 9. _Still green with bays_. Ibid., I, 181. P. 125. _the writer's despair_. Cf. Ibid., II, 278: