Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/221

Rh thought proper to ſacrifice his profit to his ſafety, and diſcontinue it.

By uſing too much freedom with the character of Pope, he provoked that gentleman, who with great ſpirit ſtigmatized him in his Dunciad. In his ſecond book Mr. Pope places before the eyes of the dunces the phantom of a poet. He ſeems willing to give ſome account of the poſſibility of dulneſs making a wit, which can be done no otherwiſe than by chance. The lines which have relation to Mr. More are ſo elegantly ſatyric, that it probably will not diſpleaſe our readers to find them inſerted here.

Though theſe lines of Pope are ſufficiently ſatirical, yet it ſeems they very little affected Mr. More. A gentleman intimately acquainted with him informs us, that he has heard Mr. More ſeveral times repeat thoſe lines, without