[1504] There is something so familiar, nay even vulgar, in these two lines as renders them very unworthy of our author.—Ruffhead.
[1505] That is, "the politic and wise" are "no less alike" than the heroes, of whom he had said, ver. 219, that they had all the same characteristics.
[1506] Shakespeare, Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3: "The sly, slow hours."
[1507] "'Tis phrase absurd" is one of those departures from pure English which would only be endurable in familiar poetry.
[1508] The pronunciation of "great" was not uniform in Pope's day. "When I published," says Johnson, "the plan for my Dictionary, Lord Chesterfield told me that the word 'great' should be pronounced so as to rhyme to 'state,' and Sir William Yonge sent me word that it should be pronounced so as to rhyme to 'seat,' and that none but an Irishman would pronounce it 'grait.'" Pope, in this epistle, and elsewhere, has made "great" rhyme to both sounds.
[1509] Marcus Aurelius, who regulated his life by the lofty principles of the Stoics, was born A.D. 121 and died 180. The man, says Pope, who aims at noble ends by noble means is great, whether he attains his end or fails, whether he reigns like Aurelius or perishes like Socrates.
[1510] Considering the manner in which Socrates was put to death, the word "bleed" seems to be improperly used.—Warton.
[1511] Wollaston, Religion of Nature, sect. v. prop. 19: "Fame lives but in the breath of the people."
[1512] Is depreciating the passion for fame consistent with the doctrine before advanced, Epist. ii. ver. 290, that "not a vanity is giv'n in vain?"—Warton.
[1513] This is said to Bolingbroke.