The author of “The Life and Times of Dr Isaac Watts” affirms that Watts remonstrated with Pope, and, in consequence, his name was deprived of the undesirable distinction. He also adds, that “the elder Wesley’s name was probably omitted owing to the interposition of his son Samuel, who corresponded with Pope, and was highly esteemed by him,” (Watts’ _Life_, p. 436.) There may be some truth in this. In an edition of the “Dunciad” now lying before us, and published in 1729, the last line is printed— “Well purged, and worthy Withers, Quarles, and Blome.” And to this is appended the following note:—“It was printed in the surreptitious editions, ‘W—ly, W—s,’ who were persons eminent for good life; the one writ the ‘Life of Christ’ in verse; the other some valuable pieces in the lyric kind on pious subjects. The line is here restored according to its original.” Footnote 76: Wesley’s _Defence of his Letter on Education of Dissenters_. Footnote 77: Clarke’s _Wesley Family_. ----- Dr Adam Clarke, in reference to the same production, writes: “When a poet, no matter of what abilities, takes for the subject of his verse the sayings or acts of the Almighty, as recorded in the Bible, he must of necessity fail, speak untruths, and sink below himself. Who can add to the dignity, importance, or majesty of the words of God by any poetical clothing? The attempt to do it is almost impious; and, in the execution, how many words are attributed to God which He never spake, and acts which He never did! The life of our Lord was never found, and never will be found, but in the four evangelists.”[78] ----- Footnote 78: _Ibid._ ----- Dr Coke, who published a “corrected and abridged” edition of Samuel Wesley’s “Life of Christ” more than a hundred years after the first edition was issued, says in his preface:—“I found the poet had carefully collected the richest materials, with a sedulity that surpassed my expectation, and had arranged them with a degree of art that nothing but the hand of a master could have reached. In surveying the character of Christ as here delineated, no remarkable incident in His life, from the cradle to His cross, has been omitted; nay, if we even take a wider range, every event of moment is noted, from the espousals of His mother to His resurrection from the dead, and His final ascension to glory. Indeed, the life of Christ, being closely connected with both time and eternity, presented to the poet an occasion to draw aside the curtain which divides the visible from the invisible world. Both heaven and hell are permitted to burst upon us; the former to ravish us with its glories, and the latter to alarm us with its terrors. Hence angels and devils pass in review before our eyes; relate what is past, discover their condition, perform their respective actions, and retire.”