This may be taken to confirm the common theory that Pope's versification was a mere mechanical trick.

Without admitting this, it must be admitted that the external characteristics of his manner were easily caught; and that it was not hard for a clever versifier to produce something closely resembling his inferior work, especially when following the same original.

But it may be added that Pope's Odyssey was really inferior to the Iliad, both because his declamatory style is more out of place in its romantic narrative, and because he was weary and languid, and glad to turn his fame to account without more labour than necessary.

The Odyssey, I may say, in conclusion, led to one incidental advantage.

It was criticized by Spence, a mild and cultivated scholar, who was professor of poetry at Oxford.