Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 4.djvu/197

Rh neither original nor translated, neither ancient nor modern.

Pope had, in proportions very nicely adjusted to each other, all the qualities that constitute genius. He had Invention, by which, new trains of events are formed, and new scenes of imagery displayed; as in the "Rape of the Lock;" and by which extrinsick and adventitious embellishments and illustrations are connected with a known subject, as in the "Essay on Criticism." He had Imagination, which strongly impresses on the writer's mind, and enables him to convey to the reader, the various forms of nature, incidents of life, and energies of passion, as in his "Eloisa," Rh