JOHNSON,

As  to  PETRARCH  being  equal,  or  reckoned,  in
Italy,  superior,  to  DANTE,  it  may  be  the  conse-
quence of  some  peculiar  attachment  of  the  Italians
to  the  name  of  PETRARCH  ;  but  of  this  they  could
never  persuade  me,  though  fulminated  ex  cathedra

•  What!  is  the  conception  of  such  a  JJOGW  as  the  Paradis
Lost  nothing  ?


c  87  :

by  all  the  Popes  that  Italy  ever  produced.  And
I  may  safely  appeal  to  the  universal  opinion,  not
only  of  professed  critics,  but  of  all  men  of  general
common  intelligence.
One  word  more  will  end  all  I  have  to  say  at
present  on  another  subject, — the  moral  character
of  POPE.  If  it  was  not  from  want  of  "  money"
&c.  that  I  wrote  his  life,  and  published  an  edition
of  his  works,  there  is  another  circumstance  that
might  have  prevailed  with  me|in  giving  my  opinions,
namely,  a  conscientious  conviction  of  the  truth  of
what  I  advanced;  and  what  is  biography,  if  failings
are  not  to  be  mentioned  ?  As  to  his  "  ethics,'*  the
poet,  I  admit,  profanes  the  dignity  of  his  high  art,
who  does  not  apply  the  gifts  he  possesses  to  the
furtherance  of  TRUTH  and  of  VIRTUE.  But  I  con-
tend,  that  one  epistle  of  Eloisa  will  counteract,  as
a  pander  to  vice,  ten  thousand  of  POPE'S  ethical
epistles ;  and  I  wish  your  Lordship  to  look  at  that
glorious  passage  in  MILTON'S  prose  works,  where
he  speaks  of  meditating  some  immortal  strain,  and
you  will  confess,  that,  so  far  from  thinking  he  was
telling  "  lies,"  his  object  was  high  and  holy  praise
to  that  Being,  to  whom  he  owed  the  power  of
praising  him.
