“Whether I have made out the case for Pope, I know not; but I am very sure that I have been zealous in the attempt.  If it comes to the proofs we shall beat the blackguards.  I will show more imagery in twenty lines of Pope than in any equal length of quotation in English poesy, and that in places where they least expect it.  For instance, in his lines on Sporus,—­now, do just read them over—­the subject is of no consequence (whether it be satire or epic)—­we are talking of poetry and imagery from nature and art.  Now, mark the images separately and arithmetically:—­

     “’1.  The thing of silk.
       2. Curd of ass’s milk.
       3.  The butterfly.
       4.  The wheel.
       5.  Bug with gilded wings.
       6. Painted child of dirt.
       7.  Whose buzz.
       8.  Well-bred spaniels.
       9. Shallow streams run dimpling.
      10.  Florid impotence.
      11. Prompter.  Puppet squeaks.
      12. The ear of Eve.
      13. Familiar toad.
      14. Half froth, half venom, splits himself abroad.
      15. Fop at the toilet.
      16. Flatterer at the board.
      17. Amphibious thing.
      18.  Now trips a lady.
      19.  Now struts a lord.
      20.  A cherub’s face.
      21.  A reptile all the rest.
      22.  The Rabbins.
      23.  Pride that licks the dust.

        “’Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust. 
        Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust.’

“Now, is there a line of all the passage without the most forcible imagery (for his purpose)?  Look at the variety—­at the poetry of the passage—­at the imagination:  there is hardly a line from which a painting might not be made, and is.  But this is nothing in comparison with his higher passages in the Essay on Man, and many of his other poems, serious and comic.  There never was such an unjust outcry in this world as that which these fellows are trying against Pope.

     “Ask Mr. Gifford if, in the fifth act of ‘The Doge,’ you could not
     contrive (where the sentence of the Veil is passed) to insert the
     following lines in Marino Faliero’s answer?

        “But let it be so.  It will be in vain: 
        The veil which blackens o’er this blighted name,
        And hides, or seems to hide, these lineaments,
        Shall draw more gazers than the thousand portraits
        Which glitter round it in their painted trappings,
        Your delegated slaves—­the people’s tyrants.[33]

     “Yours, truly, &c.

     “P.S.  Upon public matters here I say little:  you will all hear
     soon enough of a general row throughout Italy.  There never was a
     more foolish step than the expedition to Naples by these fellows.