Passages over which we pass carelessly at the first reading then come out with wonderful freshness, and single phrases throw a sudden light upon hidden depths of feeling.
It is also true, unluckily, that parts of it must be read by the rule of contraries.

They tell us not what Pope really was, but what he wished others to think him, and what he probably endeavoured to persuade himself that he was.

How far he succeeded in imposing upon himself is indeed a very curious question which can never be fully answered.

There is the strangest mixture of honesty and hypocrisy.

Let me, he says, live my own and die so too-- (To live and die is all I have to do) Maintain a poet's dignity and ease, And see what friends and read what books I please! Well, he was independent in his fashion, and we can at least believe that he so far believed in himself.