His first efforts were translations. He made English versions of the first
book of the _Thebais_ of Statius; several of the stories of Chaucer, and
one of Ovid's Epistles, all of which were produced before he was fifteen.
ESSAY ON CRITICISM.--He was not quite twenty-one when he wrote his _Essay
on Criticism_, in which he lays down the canons of just criticism, and the
causes which prevent it. In illustration, he attacks the multitude of
critics of that day, and is particularly harsh in his handling of a few
among them. He gained a name by this excellent poem, but he made many
enemies, and among them one John Dennis, whom he had satirized under the
name of Appius. Dennis was his life-long foe.
Perhaps there is no better proof of the lasting and deserved popularity of
this Essay, than the numerous quotations from it, not only in works on
rhetoric and literary criticism, but in our ordinary intercourse with men.
Couplets and lines have become household words wherever the English
language is spoken. How often do we hear the sciolist condemned in these
words:
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or touch not the Pierian spring?
Irreverence and rash speculation are satirized thus:
Nay, fly to altars; there they'll talk you dead,
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
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