In the South Sea excitement he ventured to speculate, but though for a time he fancied himself to have made a large sum, he seems to have retired rather a loser than a gainer.

But he could say with perfect truth that, "thanks to Homer," he "could live and thrive, indebted to no prince or peer alive." The money success is, however, of less interest to us than the literary.

Pope put his best work into the translation of the Iliad.

His responsibility, he said, weighed upon him terribly on starting.

He used to dream of being on a long journey, uncertain which way to go, and doubting whether he would ever get to the end.