with the same care as his avowed and finished productions; it only remains to speak of the few works in prose, which he committed to the press. The Memoirs of Scriblerus have been already mentioned. His Life of Zoilus was written at the request of his friends, and designed as a satire upon Dennis and Theobald, the ever unfortunate foes of the Scriblerus Club.
The Life of Homer, notwithstanding the careful revision by Pope, and the subsequent correction of Warburton,[1] is written in a style inelegant, and sometimes incorrect. The reflections are not interesting from their appositeness, or striking from their novelty; the learning displayed is such as might easily be collected for the subject. Parnell has endeavoured to spin out his scanty materials to too great a length, and has enlarged with too much earnestness on facts doubtful or obscure. Assumptions are made to rest on very slender foundations, and inferences are drawn that it would be difficult to support. That Parnell was a better scholar than his brother-poets of his time, no one would be inclined to doubt; but it is equally clear,
- ↑ It is very unreasonable, after this, to give you a second trouble in revising the Essay on Homer, but I look upon you as one sworn to suffer no errors in me; and though the common way with a commentator be to erect them into beauties, the best office of a critic is to correct and amend them. There being a new edition coming out of Homer, I would willingly render it a little less defective, and the bookseller will not allow me time to do so myself.Pope's Letter to Warburton, xx.
