THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 77
give him for being too antithetic and sententious." He also says : Pope gave our heroic couplet its strictest melody and tersest expression."
Pope was more successful in his imitation of Horace (1739) than he had been in his translation of Homer. The similarity of the style of the Latin poet and his not less distinguished trans lator made the work of translation delightful, and Pope gave his whole strength to his new undertaking. Another of his poetical productions was a sacred eclogue the " Messiah," which appeared in the " Spectator" for May 14, 1712, with an introductory word of commendation by Addison. But Pope afterwards lost the friendship of Addison, whom he resembled in being distinguished for the possession of genius, without producing its greatest and most enduring works.
There is one hymn by Pope in the " New Congregational Hymn Book"
"Vital spark of heavenly flame." (No. 728).
Like Pope s other works, it is an imitation. The original of this hymn is to be found in a poem composed by the illustrious Roman emperor, Adrian, who dying (A.D. 138) thus gave expres sion to his mingled doubts and fears. His poem begins thus
" Anitrmla vagula blandula, Hospes comesque corporis," &c.
" Sweet spirit, ready to depart,
Guest and companion of the body," &c.
It is afterwards found freely rendered in a piece by a poet of some name in his own day, Thomas Flatman, of London a bar rister, poet, and painter Flatman s piece is called "A Thought of Death ;" and as he died in the year Pope was born, and the poems are very similar, there can be little doubt that Pope has imitated his predecessor. The emperor wrote in dim and timid uncertainty. Flatman only rises to the thought of liberty by death, and of a life beyond that may be better, and cannot be worse, than this ; but
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