(Original PDF) SAS Certification Prep Guide Base

Programming for SAS9, Fourth Edition pdf

download

https://ebooksecure.com/product/original-pdf-sas-certification-
prep-guide-base-programming-for-sas9-fourth-edition/

Download more ebook from https://ebooksecure.com

We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit ebooksecure.com
to discover even more!

(eBook PDF) SAS Certified Specialist Prep Guide: Base

Programming Using SAS 9.4

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-sas-certified-
specialist-prep-guide-base-programming-using-sas-9-4/

(eBook PDF) Business Analytics Using SAS Enterprise

Guide and SAS Enterprise Miner

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-business-analytics-
using-sas-enterprise-guide-and-sas-enterprise-miner/

Prepare Your Data for Tableau: A Practical Guide to the

Tableau Data Prep Tool (eBook PDF)

http://ebooksecure.com/product/prepare-your-data-for-tableau-a-
practical-guide-to-the-tableau-data-prep-tool-ebook-pdf/

(eBook PDF) SSAT Lower Level Prep Book: Study Guide &
Practice Test Questions for the SSAT Elementary Level
Test

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-ssat-lower-level-prep-
book-study-guide-practice-test-questions-for-the-ssat-elementary-
level-test/
Bicycling for Transportation: An Evidence-Base for
Communities 1st edition- eBook PDF

https://ebooksecure.com/download/bicycling-for-transportation-an-
evidence-base-for-communities-ebook-pdf/

(eBook PDF) Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Certification

Review Guide 6th Edition

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-pediatric-nurse-
practitioner-certification-review-guide-6th-edition/

(eBook PDF) LPIC-1: Linux Professional Institute

Certification Study Guide 4th Edition

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-lpic-1-linux-
professional-institute-certification-study-guide-4th-edition/

(eBook PDF) Midwifery & Women's Health Nurse

Practitioner Certification Review Guide 4th Edition

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-midwifery-womens-health-
nurse-practitioner-certification-review-guide-4th-edition/

(eBook PDF) Linux+ and LPIC-1 Guide to Linux

Certification 5th Edition

http://ebooksecure.com/product/ebook-pdf-linux-and-lpic-1-guide-
to-linux-certification-5th-edition/
SAS Certification Prep
®

Guide: Base Programming

for SAS 9, Fourth Edition
®

SAS® Documentation
December 6, 2017
viii Contents
 ix

How to Prepare for the SAS

Base Programming for
SAS®9 Exam

Requirements and Details

Requirements
To complete examples in this book, you must have access to Base SAS, SAS Enterprise
Guide, or SAS Studio. See Chapter 1, “Setting Up Practice Data,” to ensure you have
proper access.

Exam Objectives and Updates to This Book

The current exam objectives and a list of any updates to this book are available at
www.sas.com/certify. Exam objectives are subject to change.

Take a Practice Exam

Practice exams are available for purchase through SAS and Pearson VUE. For more
information about practice exams, see www.sas.com/base_programmer_cert.

Registering for the Exam

To register for the official SAS Base Programming for SAS®9 exam, see the SAS
Global Certification website at www.sas.com/certify.

Additional Resources for Learning SAS Programming

From SAS Software

Help • SAS ®9: Select Help ð SAS Help and Documentation.

• SAS Enterprise Guide: Select Help ð SAS Enterprise
Guide Help.
• SAS Studio: Select the Help icon .

Documentation • SAS ®9: Select Help ð SAS Help and Documentation.

• SAS Enterprise Guide: Access online documentation on the
web.
• SAS Studio: Select the Help icon and then click Help.
x How to Prepare for the SAS Base Programming for SAS®9 Exam

On the Web

Base SAS Glossary support.sas.com/baseglossary

Bookstore www.sas.com/books

Certification www.sas.com/certify

Community communities.sas.com

Knowledge Base support.sas.com/notes

Learning Center www.sas.com and click Learn. Then select

Get Started Learning SAS.

SAS Documentation support.sas.com/documentation

documentation.sas.com

SAS Global Academic Program www.sas.com and click Learn. Then select
For Students and Educators.

SAS OnDemand support.sas.com/ondemand/

Training www.sas.com/training

Technical Support support.sas.com. Then select Technical

Support.

Syntax Conventions

In this book, SAS syntax looks like this example:

DATA output-SAS-data-set
(DROP=variables(s) | KEEP=variables(s));
SET SAS-data-set <options>;
BY variable(s)
RUN;
Here are the conventions that are used in the example:
• DATA, DROP=, KEEP=, SET, BY, and RUN are in uppercase bold because they
must be spelled as shown.
• output-SAS-data-set, variable(s), SAS-data-set, and options are in italics because
each represents a value that you supply.
• <options> is enclosed in angle brackets because it is optional syntax.
• DROP= and KEEP= are separated by a vertical bar ( | ) to indicate that they are
mutually exclusive.
 Syntax Conventions xi

The example syntax that is shown in this book includes only what you need to know in
order to prepare for the certification exam. For complete syntax, see the appropriate SAS
reference guide.
xii How to Prepare for the SAS Base Programming for SAS®9 Exam
 xiii

Accessibility Features of the

SAS Certification Prep Guide

Overview
The SAS Certification Prep Guide: Base Programming is a test preparation document
that uses the following environments and products:
• SAS Windowing Environment
• SAS Enterprise Guide
• SAS Studio or SAS University Edition

Accessibility Documentation Help

The following table contains accessibility information for the listed products:

Accessibility Documentation Links

Where to Find Accessibility

Product or Environment Documentation

Base SAS (Microsoft Windows, UNIX, and support.sas.com/baseaccess

z/OS)

SAS Enterprise Guide support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/

guide/index.html

SAS Studio support.sas.com/studioaccess

Documentation Format
Contact [email protected] if you need this document in an alternative digital
format.
xiv Accessibility Features of the SAS Certification Prep Guide
 1

Chapter 1

Setting Up Practice Data

Determine What SAS Solution or Environment You Are Using . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Determine Whether You Have Write Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
SAS Windowing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
SAS Studio and SAS University Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
SAS Enterprise Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Determine What SAS Solution or Environment

You Are Using
This book assumes you are running SAS windowing environment, SAS Enterprise
Guide, SAS University Edition, or SAS Studio. If you are not sure which of these you
are using, select Help ð About from the SAS software main menu.

Determine Whether You Have Write Access

If you are using SAS Studio or SAS University Edition, you might not have Write access
to the Sasuser directory where the sample data is stored.
Note: If you are using the SAS windowing environment or SAS Enterprise Guide, you
can skip this section.
Submit the following code:
proc options option=rsasuser;
run;

If the result from the OPTIONS procedure code is NORSASUSER, the Sasuser folder is
writable.
If the result from the PROC OPTIONS code is RSASUSER, the Sasuser folder is Read
only, and you must redirect the Sasuser folder by using a LIBNAME statement. To set
up practice data:
1. In the Folders pane, select My Folders. Then, right-click and select New ð Folder.
2 Chapter 1 • Setting Up Practice Data

2. In the Name box, enter a folder name. This example uses the name certprep.
Click Save.
3. Redirect your SASUSER library to the new folder as follows:
If you are using SAS University Edition, submit a LIBNAME statement by copying
the following code into the Code tab:
libname sasuser "/folders/myfolders/certprep";

Note: You must use the filename of the new directory. These examples use the name
certprep. If you use another filename, substitute the name that you created.

If you are using SAS Studio, do the following:

1. Right-click the new folder that you created and select Properties.
2. Copy the path in the Location field.
3. Enter the following code, replacing location field with the path that you copied from
the Location field.
libname sasuser "location field";

4. Click Run.
5. Save the program as libname_cert.sas. You must resubmit this LIBNAME statement
program every time you work with the sample data.
6. Copy the sample data program into a new Code window in SAS Studio. You can
access the sample data at http://support.sas.com/publishing/cert/sampdata.txt.
7. Click Run.

Now that the sample data is stored in a permanent directory, reissue the LIBNAME
statement whenever you want to use the data.

SAS Windowing Environment

To set up practice data in SAS:
1. Copy the sample data program into the Editor. You can access the sample data at
http://support.sas.com/publishing/cert/sampdata.txt.
2. Click Run.

SAS Studio and SAS University Edition

To set up practice data in SAS Studio or SAS University Edition:
1. Copy the sample data program into a new Code window. You can access the sample
data at http://support.sas.com/publishing/cert/sampdata.txt.
2. Click Run.
 SAS Enterprise Guide 3

SAS Enterprise Guide

To download the sample data:
1. Start SAS Enterprise Guide.
2. In the Welcome to SAS Enterprise window, select New Project.
3. Select File ð New ð Program.
4. Depending on your network configuration, you might not have Write access to the
Sasuser directory where the sample data is stored. To determine the status of the
Sasuser directory, submit the following code:
proc options option=rsasuser;
run;

5. If the result from the PROC OPTIONS code is RSASUSER, you must redirect the
Sasuser folder by creating a new folder. From your server area, open the Files folder,
right-click a drive or folder, and select New Folder. Enter the new folder name.
Note: If the result from the PROC OPTIONS code is NORSASUSER, the Sasuser
folder is writable, and you do not have to redirect the Sasuser folder. Therefore,
you can skip this step and the next one.
6. Submit the following code in a Code window:
libname sasuser "/folders/myfolders/certprep";

Note: You must use the filename of the new folder. These examples use the name
certprep. If you use another filename, substitute the folder name that you
created for certprep.
7. Copy the sample data program into the Program window and then run the program.
You can access the sample data at http://support.sas.com/publishing/cert/
sampdata.txt.
8. Because you do not need these shortcuts, delete the Program item and all the
shortcuts from the project. This action does not delete the data that you created. To
delete the item from the project, right-click Program and select Delete.
9. In the Confirmation window, click Yes.
4 Chapter 1 • Setting Up Practice Data
 5

Chapter 2

Basic Concepts

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Basics of the SAS Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
SAS Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Global Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
PROC Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
A Simple SAS Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Processing SAS Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Log Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Results of Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
SAS Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Predefined SAS Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Defining Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
How SAS Files Are Stored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Storing Files Temporarily or Permanently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Referencing SAS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Referencing Permanent SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Referencing Temporary SAS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Rules for SAS Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Overview of Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Descriptor Portion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Data Portion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Variable Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Variable Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Informat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
SAS Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Extended Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Chapter Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6 Chapter 2 • Basic Concepts

Getting Started
In the SAS Base Programming for SAS®9 exam, you are not tested on the details of
running SAS software in the various environments. However, you might find such
information useful when working with the practice data.
You can access a brief overview on the windows and menus of the SAS windowing
environment, Enterprise Guide, and SAS Studio at http://video.sas.com/. From
Categories select How To Tutorials ð Programming. Select the video for your SAS
environment. Other tutorials are available from the SAS website.

The Basics of the SAS Language

SAS Statements
A SAS statement is a type of SAS language element that is used to perform a particular
operation in a SAS program or to provide information to a SAS program. SAS
statements are free-format. This means that they can begin and end anywhere on a line,
that one statement can continue over several lines, and that several statements can be on
the same line. Blank or special characters separate words in a SAS statement.
TIP You can specify SAS statements in uppercase or lowercase. In most situations,
text that is enclosed in quotation marks is case sensitive.
Here are two important rules for writing SAS programs:
• A SAS statement ends with a semicolon.
• A statement usually begins with a SAS keyword.
There are two types of SAS statements:
• statements that are used in DATA and PROC steps
• statements that are global in scope and can be used anywhere in a SAS program

Global Statements
Global statements are used anywhere in a SAS program and stay in effect until changed
or canceled, or until the SAS session ends. Here are some common global statements:
TITLE, LIBNAME, OPTIONS, and FOOTNOTE.

DATA Step
The DATA step creates or modifies data. The input for a DATA step can be of several
types, such as raw data or a SAS data set. The output from a DATA step can be of
several types, such as a SAS data set or a report. A SAS data set is a data file that is
formatted in a way that SAS can understand.
For example, you can use DATA steps to do the following:
• put your data into a SAS data set
 The Basics of the SAS Language 7

• compute values
• check for and correct errors in your data
• produce new SAS data sets by subsetting, supersetting, merging, and updating
existing data sets

PROC Step
The PROC (procedure) step analyzes data, produces output, or manages SAS files. The
input for a PROC step is usually a SAS data set. The output from a PROC step can be of
several types, such as a report or an updated SAS data set.
For example, you can use PROC steps to do the following:
• create a report that lists the data
• produce descriptive statistics
• create a summary report
• produce plots and charts

A Simple SAS Program

This program uses an existing SAS data set to create a new SAS data set containing a
subset of the original data set. It then prints a listing of the new data set using PROC
PRINT.

data sasuser.admit2;
set sasuser.admit;
where age>39;
run;
proc print data=sasuser.admit2;
run;

The sample SAS program contains a DATA step and a PROC step. The DATA step
produced a new SAS data set. Only those observations with an age value greater than 39
are written to the new SAS data set.
A DATA step begins with a DATA statement, which begins with the keyword DATA. A
PROC step begins with a PROC statement, which begins with the keyword PROC. The
sample program contains the following statements:

Table 2.1 SAS Program Statements

Statements Sample Program Code

DATA statement data sasuser.admit2;

SET statement set sasuser.admit;

Additional programming statements where age>39;

RUN statement run;

PROC PRINT statement proc print data=sasuser.admit2;

8 Chapter 2 • Basic Concepts

Statements Sample Program Code

RUN statement run;

Processing SAS Programs

When you submit a SAS program, SAS begins reading the statements and checking
them for errors.
DATA and PROC statements signal the beginning of a new step. The RUN statement
(for most procedures and the DATA step) and the QUIT statement (for some procedures)
mark step boundaries. The beginning of a new step (DATA or PROC) also implies the
end of the previous step. At a step boundary, SAS executes any statements that have not
previously executed and ends the step. In the sample program, each step ends with a
RUN statement.

data sasuser.admit2;
set sasuser.admit;
where age>39;
run;
proc print data=sasuser.admit2;
run;

TIP The RUN statement is not required between steps in a SAS program. It is a best
practice to use a RUN statement because it can make the SAS program easier to read
and the SAS log easier to understand when debugging.

Log Messages
The SAS log collects messages about the processing of SAS programs and about any
errors that occur. Each time a step is executed, SAS generates a log of the processing
activities and the results of the processing.
When SAS processes the sample program, it produces the log messages shown below.
Notice that you get separate sets of messages for each step in the program.
 The Basics of the SAS Language 9

Log 2.1 SAS Log Messages for Each Program Step

5 data sasuser.admit2;
6 set sasuser.admit;
7 where age>39;
8 run;

NOTE: There were 10 observations read from the data set SASUSER.ADMIT.
WHERE age>39;
NOTE: The data set SASUSER.ADMIT2 has 10 observations and 9 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

9 proc print data=sasuser.admit2;

NOTE: Writing HTML Body file: sashtml.htm
10 run;

NOTE: There were 10 observations read from the data set SASUSER.ADMIT2.
NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):
real time 0.35 seconds
cpu time 0.24 seconds

Results of Processing

The DATA Step

Suppose you submit the sample program below:

data sasuser.admit2;
set sasuser.admit;
where age>39;
run;

When the program is processed, it creates a new SAS data set (sasuser.admit2)
containing only those observations with age values greater than 39. The DATA step
creates a new data set and produces messages in the SAS log, but it does not create a
report or other output.

The PROC Step

If you add a PROC PRINT step to this same example, the program produces the same
new data set as before, but it also creates the following report, which is displayed in
HTML:
data sasuser.admit2;
set sasuser.admit;
where age>39;
run;
proc print data=sasuser.admit2;
run;

Note: The default output in SAS Enterprise Guide is SAS Report. To change the default
output in SAS Enterprise Guide to HTML, click Tools and select Options ð Results
ð Results General. Then select HTML. Ensure that you have cleared SAS Report.
10 Chapter 2 • Basic Concepts

Figure 2.1 PRINT Procedure Output

Other Procedures
SAS programs often invoke procedures that create output in the form of a report, as is
the case with the FREQ procedure:

proc freq data=sashelp.cars;

table origin*DriveTrain;
run;

Figure 2.2 FREQ Procedure Output

Other SAS programs perform tasks such as sorting and managing data, which have no
visible results except for messages in the log. (All SAS programs produce log messages,
but some SAS programs produce only log messages.)
proc copy in=sasuser out=work;
select admit;
run;
 SAS Libraries 11

Log 2.2 SAS Log: COPY Procedure Output

11 proc copy in=sasuser out=work;

12 select admit;
13 run;

NOTE: Copying SASUSER.ADMIT to WORK.ADMIT (memtype=DATA).

NOTE: There were 21 observations read from the data set SASUSER.ADMIT.
NOTE: The data set WORK.ADMIT has 21 observations and 9 variables.
NOTE: PROCEDURE COPY used (Total process time):
real time 0.02 seconds
cpu time 0.01 seconds

SAS Libraries

Definition
A SAS library contains one or more files that are defined, recognized, and accessible by
SAS, and that are referenced and stored as a unit. One special type of file is called a
catalog. In SAS libraries, catalogs function much like subfolders for grouping other
members.

Predefined SAS Libraries

By default, SAS defines several libraries for you:
Sashelp
a permanent library that contains sample data and other files that control how SAS
works at your site. This is a Read-Only library.
Sasuser
a permanent library that contains SAS files in the Profile catalog and that stores your
personal settings. This is also a convenient place to store your own files.
Note: If you are using SAS Studio or SAS University Edition, you might not have
Write access to the Sasuser directory. To verify whether you have Write access,
see “Determine Whether You Have Write Access” on page 1.
Work
a temporary library for files that do not need to be saved from session to session.
You can also define additional libraries. When you define a library, you indicate the
location of your SAS files to SAS. After you define a library, you can manage SAS files
within it.
Note: If you are using SAS Studio, you might encounter Webwork library. Webwork is
the default output library in interactive mode. For more information about the
Webwork library, see SAS Studio: User’s Guide.

Defining Libraries
To define a library, you assign a library name to it and specify the location of the files,
such as a directory path.
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
Pope must be judged according to the rank in which he stands,—
among those of the French school, not the Italian; among those
whose delineations are taken more from manners than from nature.
When I say that this is his predominant character, I must be
insensible to everything exquisite in poetry if I did not except the
Epistle to Eloisa; but this can only be considered according to its
class, and if I say that it seems to me superior to any other of the
kind to which it might fairly be compared, such as the Epistles of
Ovid, Propertius, Tibullus (I will not mention Drayton, and Pope's
numerous subsequent Imitations)—but when this transcendent
poem is compared with those which will bear the comparison, I shall
not be deemed as giving reluctant praise, when I declare my
conviction of its being infinitely superior to everything of the kind,
ancient or modern. In this poem, therefore, Pope appears on the
high ground of the poet of nature, but this certainly is not his
general character. In the particular instance of this poem how
distinguished and superior does he stand. It is sufficient that nothing
of the kind has ever been produced equal to it for pathos, painting,
and melody. The mellifluence and solemn cadence of the verse, the
dramatic transitions, the judicious contrasts, the language of
genuine passion, uttered in the sweetest flow of music, and the
pervading solemnity and grandeur of the picturesque scenery, give
the Epistle a wonderful charm, and exemplify Pope's observation in
his Essay on Criticism, "there is a happiness as well as care." The
inherent indelicacy of the subject is one objection to it, and who but
must lament its immoral effect, for of its beauty there can be but
one sentiment. It may be said of it with truth in the language of its
author:

It lives, it breathes, it speaks what love inspires,

Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires;

and as long as the English language remains, it will

 Call down tears through every age.

Pope I have no doubt wrote the Epistle to Sappho, and this of Eloisa,
under the impression of strong personal feelings. It is supposed the
subject was suggested by the unfortunate young lady going into a
convent, whose untimely death occasioned the beautiful Elegy,
"What beck'ning ghost;" but I cannot help thinking the real
circumstance that occasioned these touching effusions was his early
attachment to Lady Mary W. Montagu. The concluding lines allude to
her, as I think is evident from his letter. Speaking of a volume he had
sent her when abroad, he adds, "Among the rest you have all I am
worth, that is, my works. There are few things in them but what you
have already seen, except the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard, in which
you will find one passage that I cannot tell whether to wish you
should understand or not." The lines could not be meant for the
unfortunate lady, for she was dead and forgotten—could not relate
to Martha Blount, for he was not "condemned whole years in
absence to deplore," and therefore they could be addressed only to
Lady Mary; and "he best shall paint them who shall feel them most,"
was a direct allusion to his own ardent but hopeless passion.—
Bowles.
Mr. Bowles has represented the Epistle from Eloisa to Abelard as
being of an immoral tendency. It must however be observed, that if
this construction be put upon the poem, it is what the author never
intended. On the contrary, his object is to show the fatal
consequences of an ungovernable passion; and if he has done this in
natural and even glowing language, it must be remembered that
such are not his own sentiments, but those of the person he has
undertaken to represent, and are in general given in nearly her own
words. That many expressions and passages may be pointed out
which are inconsistent with the established order and regulations of
society, may be fully admitted. Such, for instance, as the lines
 How oft, when pressed to marriage, have I said,
Curse on all laws but those which love has made!

But surely it is not likely that such sentiments can impose upon the
weakest and most inexperienced minds. It is indeed highly probable
that Pope has in some few instances intentionally exaggerated the
sentiments and expressions of Eloisa in order to render it impossible
for any person of common capacity to be misled by such statements.
—Roscoe.
In 1693 there appeared at the Hague a French translation of the
Latin letters of Abelard and Heloisa. The work was several times
reprinted, and a later editor, M. Du Bois, informs the reader that the
translator had taken the liberty to omit, to add, and to transpose at
his pleasure. "Some of the thoughts and expressions which are
ascribed to Heloisa," continues M. Du Bois, "are so well imagined
that if we are disappointed at not finding them in the original, and at
her not having said the things she has been made to say, we are
agreeably forced to acknowledge that they might have been said by
her, and it is impossible not to be grateful to the paraphrast for his
boldness." The original correspondence contains some interesting
facts, much spurious rhetoric, and many dull pedantic quotations.
The work in its integrity was not adapted for popular reading, but as
the whole value of the letters depended on their genuineness, they
were nearly worthless in their altered form. In 1714 Hughes, the
author of the Siege of Damascus, translated the adulterate French
concoction, and from the phraseology and substance of Pope's
Epistle, it is manifest that he followed the English version of Hughes.
Wakefield and Warton have only looked for parallel passages in the
Latin, where they will often be sought in vain.
The authenticity of the Latin letters has usually been taken for
granted, but I have a strong belief that they are a forgery. The first
letter is addressed by Abelard to a friend in misfortune, for the
purpose of consoling him with a tale of greater woes. The sequel is
not in keeping with the ostensible object. The autobiographical
epistle is full of vain-glorious, irrelevant matter, which no one would
have recorded whose intention was merely to soothe a sorrow-
stricken man. The particulars relative to Abelard's intercourse with
Heloisa are worse than gratuitous; they are abominable. The intrigue
might be public; he might avow and deplore it; but some reserve
was due to decency and his paramour. She was not an anonymous
phantom who could not be reached by his revelations. He told her
name, and her connections which, according to his narrative, were
notorious already, and he was, therefore, forbidden by such honour
as even exists among profligates to expose the secret details of her
shame. But honour was unknown to him. The veil which rakes who
gloated over past misdeeds would have scorned to draw aside was
torn away by this pious penitent with treacherous baseness.[567] The
disguise is thinly worn. The Abelard of the letter is not the contrite,
sorrowing philosopher who is speaking of a gifted woman he had
enthusiastically loved, and against whom he had deeply sinned. He
is an unimpassioned author who founds a fiction upon a true story,
and realising imperfectly the sentiments proper to the situation,
relates what he thinks was likely to have happened without
perceiving that the confessions would have been infamy in Abelard.
His letter in some unexplained manner got round to Heloisa. She
might be expected to be filled with rage and humiliation, and she
sends a glowing response to the degrading recital. She outstripped
Abelard in shameless frankness. Madame Guizot asserts that "she
expresses much more in saying much less, that she recalls, but does
not specify,"[568] the truth being that some particulars in her second
letter are grosser and more precise than anything which proceeded
from the pen of Abelard. The plea that her confessions were made
to a husband is no extenuation, since she left his previous
revelations unrebuked, and the approval of his disclosures was a
licence to show about hers. What is more, her champions discover
ample evidence in her letters that they were intended for
publication. "Heloisa," says Madame Guizot, "supplies details with
the exactness of a dramatic personage obliged to give an account of
certain facts to the audience. There are few letters of the period
which have not the stamp of a literary composition destined to a
public sufficiently large to render it necessary to put them in
possession of the circumstances. If any persons are surprised that
Heloisa could design the revelations in her first and especially in her
second letter, for any eye but that of Abelard, let them read the
incidents she could see recounted without offence in the Historia
Calamitatum, and they will be convinced of the existence of a state
of manners in which elevated and even delicate sentiments in a
distinguished and naturally modest woman might be allied to the
strangest forms of language."[569] The case is put inaccurately. The
"sentiments" are not "delicate;" they are coarser than the language.
The reasoning of Madame Guizot is equally defective. An immodest
act is declared to be modest because Heloisa had committed a
previous act of immodesty. Her toleration of Abelard's grossness is
the evidence of her purity in imitating his freedoms. The appeal
should have been to independent works of the time, and these are
opposed to the theory of Madame Guizot. Language was often
plainer than at present, but only creatures of the disgusting type of
the Wife of Bath proclaimed the hidden details of their own sexual
licentiousness. The reputable classes had risen high above the point
at which elemental decency and self-respect become extinct. Heloisa
must, indeed, have been a woman of an "unbashful forehead," to
use the expression of Shakespeare, if she deliberately placed herself
before the public as she appears in the letters. It is far more likely
that they are the fabrication of an unconcerned romancer, who
speaks in the name of others with a latitude which people, not
entirely degraded, would never adopt towards themselves. The
suspicion is strengthened when the second party to the
correspondence, the chief philosopher of his generation, exhibits the
same exceptional depravity of taste. The improbability is great that
both should have courted a disgraceful notoriety. The
correspondence was coined in one mint; the impress it bears is
male, and not female; and we may apply to Heloisa the words of
Rosalind,—
 I say she never did invent these letters,
This is a man's invention, and his hand.[570]

No portion of them, if they are genuine, can do honour to her

memory. The coarse particulars she divulged to the public would
prove that she was debased, and any sentiments which might have
been creditable in an artless effusion addressed to Abelard lose their
value when they are a studied rhetorical manifesto, got up to
produce an impression on the world.
According to the Historia Calamitatum Abelard was the eldest son of
a soldier in Brittany. His father, who had a tincture of learning,
imbued him with a passion for study. He renounced the weapons of
war for those of logic, resigned his paternal inheritance to his
brothers, and traversed the kingdom that he might engage in
scholastic tournaments at the towns on his road. He arrived at Paris
about the year 1100, when he was twenty-one. There he frequented
the lectures of William of Champeaux, the most famous dialectician
of the day. Soon the pupil questioned the doctrines of his master,
and was often victorious in their public disputations. He established
a rival school, and the credit of all other teachers was lost in his
renown. William of Champeaux, devoured with envy, struggled for
years to drive his antagonist from the field. The invincible Abelard
never failed to defeat him, and finally reigned without a competitor.
When his supremacy was recognised in the domain of metaphysical
logic, he turned his attention to theology, and proceeding to Laon he
sat under Anselm, who was esteemed the foremost divine in the
church. The author of the letter affirms that his instruction consisted
of fine words without matter, smoke without flame, leaves without
fruit. Abelard soon relaxed in his attendance, and expressed his
surprise to his fellow-students that any aid should be used beyond
the text and the gloss in interpreting the Bible. With a derisive laugh
they enquired if he would be bold enough, on these terms, to
become the expositor. He accepted the challenge, and they thought
to baffle him by allotting him the book of Ezekiel. He replied by
inviting them to hear his commentary the following morning. They
recommended him to take time, and he answered that his habit was
to prevail by force of mind, and not by labour. His audience was
small the next day, for it was considered ridiculous that a young
man, who had hardly looked into the Bible, should extemporise an
explanation of its obscurest prophecies. The few who went were
fascinated, and their praises caused his lecture-room to be thronged.
The old story was re-enacted. The pupil who had vanquished the
most celebrated metaphysician of his generation, now at the first
onset eclipsed the greatest theologian in Europe. Anselm, like
William of Champeaux, was filled with jealousy, and forbade him to
continue his disquisitions at Laon.
He returned to Paris, and taught dialectics and divinity with equal
distinction. He had money and glory, he says, in profusion; he
imagined that he was the only philosopher on earth; and in the
words of the letter which bears his name, he was consumed by the
fever of pride and luxury. In this state of worldly prosperity he
reached his thirty-sixth year, when he formed his connection with
Heloisa, who was barely eighteen. His qualifications for amorous
intrigue are related by him with just the same boastful assurance
with which he describes his dictatorship in the schools. He declares
that his youth, his fame, and his handsome person gave him such a
superiority over all other men, that no woman could resist him.
Whoever she might be she would have thought herself honoured by
his love; and the context shows that the love he meant was illicit.
The learning of Heloisa obtained her the preference, and he
deliberately formed a plan to seduce her. She resided with her uncle
Fulbert, a canon of the cathedral at Paris, who doated on money and
his niece. Abelard appealed to the double passion. Professing to
desire a release from household cares, he offered to board and
lodge with the canon on any terms he chose to ask, and to devote
his leisure hours to the instruction of Heloisa. Fulbert was delighted.
He confided, to use the language of the letter, the tender lamb to
the ravenous wolf, and enjoined the tutor to administer corporal
punishment when his pupil neglected her studies. The comment of
Abelard, or his representative, is extraordinary. He marvels at the
simplicity of the canon in entrusting him with an authority which
would enable him, if Heloisa resisted his fondness, to subdue her by
blows. He thinks Fulbert childishly credulous for not divining that the
grand luminary of philosophy and divinity was a wretch of fiendish
depravity—a demon who would adopt the brutal expedient of
beating an innocent girl into submission to his wicked designs. In his
third letter he acknowledges that he had put the method in practice
when the temporary scruples of his victim prevailed.
During the frenzy of his passion Abelard was indifferent to literary
glory. His lectures were a burthen to him, and he only cared to
compose amatory songs, which he informs his friend are still popular
in numerous countries. Heloisa says in her reply that, as the greater
part of these poems celebrated their love, her name became
famous, and the jealousy of the women was roused. This is one of
the many improbabilities of the story. At the exact period that
Abelard, by his own acknowledgment, was anxious to conceal his
passion from Fulbert, he published it in popular ballads to the world.
The inconsistency is too glaring. A second statement is more
consonant with human nature. The nerveless lectures, and
preoccupied air of Abelard betrayed his infatuation to his disciples.
They divined the truth; the intrigue was noised abroad, and the
rumour at last got round to Fulbert. Abelard asserts that he and his
concubine were overwhelmed with anguish and shame on their
detection; Heloisa that her amour was the envy of princesses and
queens. The apocryphal writer, after the manner of his tribe,
overlooked these discrepancies.
When the first shock of disgrace was past, the lovers disregarded
appearances, and carried on their intercourse without disguise. The
poor canon was nearly mad between grief and rage, and Abelard to
appease him led Heloisa to the altar, on the understanding that their
union should be kept a secret; but the relations of the bride broke
their promise, and proclaimed that she was married. She protested it
was false, and Fulbert, exasperated by her denial, treated her
harshly. Her husband removed her to the abbey of Argenteuil, near
Paris, that she might be safe from persecution. Her friends
conjectured that his object was to get rid of her, and in revenge for
his former treachery and present heartlessness, Fulbert bribed some
miscreants to mutilate him when he was asleep. Overwhelmed with
mortification, he resolved to hide his head in a convent, and selected
St. Denis. His jealousy would not suffer him to leave Heloisa free,
and before he bound himself by an irrevocable vow he obliged her to
take the veil.
The monks in Abelard's new retreat led the dissolute life in which he
himself had indulged up to the moment of his disaster. He provoked
their hostility by his remonstrances, and to get rid of him they joined
in the entreaties of his disciples that he would leave his cell, and
resume his lectures. The concourse of hearers was so great that the
district where he set up his chair could not afford them food and
lodging. The popularity of his teaching is attested by independent
evidence, although his extant treatises are bald in style, prolix and
cloudy in exposition, abstruse and barren in substance. But
manuscripts were scarce; the multitude were chiefly dependent
upon oral instruction; literature was almost unknown, and the
subtleties of a meagre metaphysical system applied to theology, had
a charm for active intellects when theology, logic, and metaphysics
had undivided possession of the schools. Controversy lent its
powerful aid, animating the dry bones with the fiery life of human
passion. The superiority of Abelard in the verbal strife was due to
the comparative feebleness of his adversaries, and not to the
absolute greatness of his acute, but narrow and unprolific mind.
"How is it," said a nobleman to Lely, "that you are so celebrated,
when you know, as well as I do, that you are no painter?" "True,"
replied Lely, "but I am the best you have."
The revival of Abelard's popularity was attended by the old results.
Rival schools were deserted, envy, malice, and hatred were inflamed.
Applying his metaphysical logic to the doctrines of the Bible he
produced a treatise on the Trinity, which he asserts solved every
difficulty; and the more transcendent was the mystery, the greater,
he says, was the admiration at the acuteness of his solution. But it
was by altering the dogma that he brought it down to the level of
human reason, and a council at Soissons accused him of heresy. If
the letter is to be credited, his antagonists paid him the compliment
of refusing to hear his defence, on the plea that his arguments
would confound the united world. The assembly voted him guilty,
and the troubles which grew out of his condemnation ended in his
withdrawing to an uninhabited district on the banks of the river
Ardusson, where he constructed an oratory of reeds and mud.
Admiring crowds pursued him into his desolate retreat. Sleeping in
rude huts, and subsisting on bread and herbs, they abjured the
physical luxuries of existence for the mental feast of listening to the
arid speculations in vogue. His auditors replaced his oratory by a
larger building of wood and stone, which might serve for a lecture-
room, and he named it the Paraclete, or the Comforter, because
Providence had sent him consolation to the spot whither he had fled
in despair. He, or his personator on his behalf, cannot suppress the
usual vaunts. His body, he says, was concealed by his seclusion, but
he filled the universe by his word and his renown. His enemies were
enraged, and groaned inwardly, "Behold the world is gone after him,
and our persecution has increased his glory." He admits that the
sentiment did not fall from their lips, and it is merely the form in
which his vanity embodied their feelings. The celebrated St. Bernard
entered the lists against him, and Abelard began to be deserted by
his adherents. He completely lost heart, and when the monks of a
remote abbey on the coast of Brittany appointed him their head, he
was glad to embrace a banishment which removed him from the
midst of his increasing foes. New enmities awaited him. As at St.
Denis, he soon became odious to his brethren by reproving their
laxity. Their vindictive rage knew no bounds. They poisoned his food,
but he forbore to taste it. They poisoned the chalice at the altar, but
he did not drink of it. They suborned a servant to poison his victuals
when he was on a visit to his brother, and again he happened not to
eat of the dish, while a monk who partook of it died on the spot.
Wherever he went they posted hired assassins on the road, and for
some untold reason he always escaped. He procured the expulsion
of the most desperate of his bloodthirsty children, and when the
remainder were about to stab him he eluded their daggers. The
sword, when he wrote, was still hanging over his head, and he
passed his days in almost breathless fear. The early novelist who
composed the apocryphal correspondence had the art to leave him
in this critical situation. But the Abelard of the autobiography is a
repulsive hero of romance, since even the penitent is boastful,
coarse, and callous.
The abbey of Argenteuil, where Heloisa was prioress, was a
dependency of the abbey of St. Denis. The parent monastery
reclaimed the building and turned out Heloisa and the nuns. Abelard
invited them to meet him at the Paraclete, and he established them
in the oratory and its appurtenances, which had remained
unoccupied since he settled in Brittany. He took frequent journeys
from his abbey to instruct and console them, till finding that his
visits gave rise to scandal, he went no more. Heloisa had not seen
him or heard from him for a considerable period, when his letter to
the unknown friend fell by accident into her hands, and she
immediately replied to it. Her character, whether drawn by herself or
some fabricator who wrote in her name, comes out clearly in the
correspondence. Abelard states that she laboured to dissuade him
from marriage when he informed her of his promise to Fulbert after
the detection of the intrigue. She said that it would be dishonourable
for a philosopher, whom nature had created for the world, to be
enslaved to a woman, and submitted to the ignominious yoke of
matrimony. She said that his renown would be diminished, that his
future career would be checked, that the church would be injured,
and that she could have no pride in a union which would degrade
both of them by tarnishing his glory. In her answer she confirms his
representations; and adds, that if the name of wife was holier, she
held that of mistress, concubine, or harlot, to be sweeter, not only
for the reasons which Abelard had recapitulated, but because she
hoped that the less she made herself the more she would rise in his
favour. Dean Milman is in error when he asserts that she "resisted
the marriage in an absolute, unrivalled spirit of devotion, so
wonderful that we forget to reprove."[571] She did not overlook her
personal interests, but believed that the concubine would enjoy
more love and consideration than the wife. The theory of her
willingness to be sacrificed that her admirer might be elevated has
arisen from the inference, contradicted by her language, that she felt
the disgrace of her illicit connection. Nothing could be more remote
from her thoughts. She was proud of the distinction.
At the date of her letters Heloisa had been leading for years a
monastic life, which she embraced against her will at the command
of her husband. She had not been refined by misfortune, time, and
religion. She continued to bewail her sensual deprivations, and the
picture she draws of her subjection to her voluptuous imagination,
exceeds anything which could have been expected from the most
dissolute libertine. But none of these things repel the partisans of
historic romance, and the frail unhappy woman seduced by Abelard
is held up as a signal example of feminine excellence. "This noble
creature," says M. Cousin, "loved as Saint Theresa, and sometimes
wrote as Seneca."[572] "Her contemporaries," says M. Rémusat,
"placed her above all women, and I do not know that posterity has
belied her contemporaries"[573] "France," says M. Henri Martin, "has
always felt the grandeur of Heloisa, and the just instinct of the public
has numbered the mistress of Abelard among our national glories."
[574] Her admirers would be puzzled to explain in what her pre-
eminence consists. Her devotion to her lover is a quality which she
shares with myriads of women, bad as well as good, and her
distinctive moral traits are those in which she differs from the
majority of her sex by being vastly worse instead of better. A modern
Heloisa who pursued the same conduct and avowed the same
principles and passions would be branded with infamy.
The Epistle of Pope purports to be Heloisa's reply to Abelard's letter
to his friend; but the poet has blended in his composition whatever
topics were suited to his purpose, and ascribed sentiments to the
wife which he had copied from the husband. There is nothing in the
work to indicate that the author had read the Latin text, since he
always adheres to the English rendering of the corrupted French
version. Bishop Horne held that the original prose was finer than
Pope's verse.[575] I cannot assent to this judgment. The poem has
the superiority in every particular—in the beauty of the language, in
the picturesqueness of the descriptions, in the fervour of the
contrasted passions, in the animation of the transitions, in the
solemnity of the accompaniments, and above all, in the pathos. The
singularity of Horne's estimate may be explained by his imperfect
recollection of the productions he criticised. To the allegation of Sir
John Hawkins, that matrimony was depreciated and concubinage
justified in the poetical epistle, he replies, that the censure "is
founded on a false fact, because Abelard was married." The
observation is a proof that Horne had forgotten the argument in
favour of concubinage which occurs alike in the English verse and
the Latin prose. Hallam accuses Pope of having "done great injustice
to Eloisa by putting the sentiments of a coarse and abandoned
woman into her mouth." But the licentious doctrines which Pope
utters in her name are in the original Latin, except that when she
asserts that love is inconsistent with marriage, she speaks of her
individual case, and does not avowedly lay down a general maxim.
Nor can Pope be charged with misrepresentation because the
language in which he expresses her sensual cravings is not always
borrowed from her pretended confessions. As he has not
exaggerated the dominion of her appetite, nor the plainness with
which she avows it, he cannot be said to have degraded the copy
below the model by an occasional variation in the forms of speech.
In fact the increased fervour he has imparted to her religious
aspirations renders his portrait the more elevated of the two. The
censure to which he lies open is not for deviating from his text but
for following it too faithfully.
"The Epistle of Heloisa," says Wordsworth, "may be considered as a
species of monodrama," and he classes it under the head of
dramatic poetry. The painter of an ideal countenance omits the
subordinate details which do not contribute to the special expression
he desires to convey. By isolating he intensifies it. The holy calm of
Raphael's Madonnas would be marred by the introduction of all
those minutiæ in the living face which are not concerned in the
dominant sentiment. A monodramatic poem which turns upon a
single conflict of feeling possesses a kindred advantage. The one
absorbing struggle has undivided sway, and there is nothing to
distract attention from the pervading emotion. This unity of purpose
was present to Pope's mind with absolute distinctness, and he has
executed his conception with wonderful force. The combat between
Heloisa's earthly inclinations and heavenly convictions, the
impetuosity with which she passes from one to the other, the
tempest in her soul whichever mood prevails, deep alternately
calling to deep, are depicted with concentrated energy, and
continuous pathos. Her glowing thoughts are vehement without
exaggeration, and the natural outbursts are untainted by spurious
artifice.
"Mr. Pope's Eloisa to Abelard is," says Mason, "such a chef-d'œuvre
that nothing of the kind can be relished after it. Yet it is not the story
itself, nor the sympathy it excites in us, as Dr. Johnson would have
us think, that constitutes the principal merit in that incomparable
poem. It is the happy use he has made of the monastic gloom of the
Paraclete, and of what I will call papistical machinery, which gives it
its capital charm, so that I am almost inclined to wonder (if I could
wonder at any of that writer's criticisms) that he did not take notice
of this beauty, as his own superstitious turn certainly must have
given him more than a sufficient relish for it."[577] The buildings and
scenery, solemn and sombre, undoubtedly heighten the effect. There
is an impressive harmony between the over-cast mind of Heloisa,
and the objects around her, which deepens the sadness. But the
comment of Mason is unfounded. Johnson did "notice" the "beauty"
derived from the gloom of the convent, while the assertion that this
is the "principal merit" of the poem is an extravagant subordination
of the human interest, which is the main subject of the Epistle, to
the comparatively brief though exquisite description of the local
accompaniments. Mason disliked and dreaded Johnson, and avenged
himself when Johnson was dead, by feeble expressions of contempt.
The Rape of the Lock and the Epistle to Eloisa stand alone in Pope's
works. He produced nothing else which resembled them. They have
the merit of being master-pieces in opposite styles. The first is
remarkable for its delicious fancy and sportive satire; the second for
its fervid passion and tender melancholy. Two poems of such rare
and such different excellence would alone entitle Pope to his fame.
Like most great authors he published not a little which is mediocre,
but he is to be estimated by the qualities in which he soared above
the herd, and not by the lower range of mind he possessed in
common with inferior men. The Rape of the Lock is a higher effort of
genius than the Epistle. Pope's adaptation of his aery, refulgent
sylphs to the ephemeral trivialities of fashionable life, the admirable
art with which he fitted his fairy machinery to the follies and
common-places of a giddy London day, the poetic grace which he
threw around his sarcastic narrative, and which unites with it as
naturally as does the rose with its thorny stem, are all unborrowed
beauties, and consummate in their kind. The story and sentiments of
Heloisa were prepared to his hand, and the power is limited to the
strength and sweetness of his language and versification, and to the
vigour with which he appropriated and expanded a single leading
idea. His imagination was not prolific, and his thoughts seldom
sprung from within. Sir William Napier said to Moore, "You are a
poet by force of will; Byron by force of nature," which Moore
acknowledged to be true. Pope, like Moore, was a poet because
from his childhood he had assiduously cultivated poetry. The bulk of
his works are either direct translations, or freer renderings under the
name of imitations, and putting aside the Rape of the Lock, and
parts of his satires, the materials of his original pieces, such as the
Essay on Criticism, and Essay on Man, are mostly taken from other
authors. The thoughts in the Epistle of Eloisa are not more his own
than his critical rules, and ethical philosophy, but the passionate
emotions are more poetical, and the execution more finished. Of
Pope's better qualities the chief appears to have been a certain
tenderness of heart, and this enabled him to enter into the feelings
of Heloisa. He employed all the resources of his choicest verse to
perfect the picture, and though the details he transferred from the
letters deprived him of the credit of invention, the supposed historic
truth of the representation increased the effect. The difference
between legitimate and worthless imitation could not be more
forcibly illustrated than by comparing the tame landscape, and
affected love-babble of his Pastorals with the local descriptions and
impassioned strains in his Epistle of Eloisa.
 THE ARGUMENT.
Abelard and Eloisa flourished in the twelfth century. They were two
of the most distinguished persons of their age in learning and
beauty, but for nothing more famous than for their unfortunate
passion. After a long course of calamities, they retired each to a
several convent, and consecrated the remainder of their days to
religion. It was many years after this separation, that a letter of
Abelard's to a friend, which contained the history of his misfortune,
fell into the hands of Eloisa. This, awakening all her tenderness,
occasioned those celebrated letters (out of which the following is
partly extracted) which give so lively a picture of the struggles of
grace and nature, virtue and passion.

ELOISA TO ABELARD.
In these deep solitudes and awful cells,
Where heav'nly-pensive contemplation dwells,
And ever-musing melancholy reigns,
What means this tumult in a vestal's veins?
Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat? 5
Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat?
Yet, yet I love!—From Abelard it came,[578]
And Eloisa yet must kiss the name.[579]
Dear fatal name! rest ever unrevealed,
Nor pass these lips in holy silence sealed: 10
Hide it, my heart, within that close disguise,
Where, mixed with God's, his loved idea[580] lies:
O write it not, my hand—the name appears
Already written[581]—wash it out, my tears![582]
In vain lost Eloisa weeps and prays, 15
Her heart still dictates, and her hand obeys.
Relentless walls! whose darksome round contains[583]
Repentant sighs, and voluntary pains:
Ye rugged rocks, which holy knees have worn;
Ye grots and caverns, shagged with horrid thorn![584] 20
Shrines! where their vigils pale-eyed virgins keep,[585]
And pitying saints, whose statues learn to weep![586]
Though cold like you, unmoved and silent grown,
I have not yet forgot myself to stone.[587]
All is not heaven's while Abelard has part;[588] 25
Still rebel nature holds out half my heart;
Nor pray'rs nor fasts its stubborn pulse restrain,
Nor tears, for ages taught to flow in vain.
Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose,
That well-known name awakens all my woes.[589] 30
Oh name for ever sad! for ever dear![590]
Still breathed in sighs, still ushered with a tear.[591]
I tremble too, where'er my own I find,
Some dire misfortune follows close behind.[592]
Line after line my gushing eyes o'erflow, 35
[ 93]
Led through a sad variety of woe:[593]
Now warm in love, now with'ring in my bloom,[594]
Lost in a convent's solitary gloom!
There stern religion quenched th' unwilling flame,
There died the best of passions, love and fame.[595] 40
Yet write, oh write me all, that I may join
Griefs to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine.[596]
Nor foes nor fortune take this pow'r away;[597]
And is my Abelard less kind than they?
Tears still are mine, and those I need not spare; 45
Love but demands what else were shed in pray'r;[598]
No happier task these faded eyes pursue;
To read and weep is all they now can do.[599]
Then share thy pain, allow that sad relief;
Ah, more than share it, give me all thy grief.[600] 50
Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid,[601]
Some banished lover, or some captive maid;
They live, they speak, they breathe what love inspires,
Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires,
The virgin's wish without her fears impart, 55
Excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart,[602]
Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul,
And waft a sigh from Indus to the Pole.[603]
Thou know'st how guiltless first I met thy flame,[604]
When love approached me under friendship's name;[605] 60
My fancy formed thee of angelic kind,
Some emanation of th' all-beauteous Mind,[606]
Those smiling eyes, attemp'ring ev'ry ray,
Shone sweetly lambent with celestial day;[607]
Guiltless I gazed; heav'n listened while you sung;[608] 65
And truths divine came mended from that tongue.[609]
From lips like those, what precept failed to move?
Too soon they taught me 'twas no sin to love:
Back through the paths of pleasing sense I ran,[610]
Nor wished an angel whom I loved a man.[611] 70
Dim and remote the joys of saints I see:
Nor envy them that heav'n I lose for thee.
How oft, when pressed to marriage, have I said,
Curse on all laws but those which love has made![612]
Love, free as air, at sight of human ties, 75
Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies.[613]
Let wealth, let honour, wait the wedded dame,
August her deed, and sacred be her fame;[614]
Before true passion all those views remove;
Fame, wealth, and honour! what are you to love? 80
The jealous god, when we profane his fires,
Those restless passions in revenge inspires,
And bids them make mistaken mortals groan,
Who seek in love for aught but love alone.[615]
Should at my feet the world's great master fall, 85
Himself, his throne, his world, I'd scorn them all;
Not Cæsar's empress would I deign to prove;[616]
No, make me mistress to the man I love;
If there be yet another name more free,[617]
More fond than mistress,[618] make me that to thee. 90
Oh! happy state! when souls each other draw,
When love is liberty, and nature, law:[619]
All then is full, possessing and possessed,
No craving void left aching in the breast:[620]
Ev'n thought meets thought, ere from the lips it part, 95
And each warm wish springs mutual from the heart.
This sure is bliss, if bliss on earth there be,
And once the lot of Abelard and me.[621]
Alas, how changed! what sudden horrors rise!
A naked lover bound and bleeding lies![622] 100
Where, where was Eloise? her voice, her hand,
Her poniard, had opposed the dire command.[623]
Barbarian, stay! that bloody stroke[624] restrain;
The crime was common, common be the pain.[625]
I can no more; by shame, by rage suppressed,[626] 105
Let tears, and burning blushes speak the rest.[627]
Canst thou forget that sad, that solemn day,
[628]
When victims at yon[628] altar's foot we lay?
Canst thou forget what tears that moment fell,
When, warm in youth, I bade the world farewell?[629] 110
As with cold lips I kissed the sacred veil,[630]
The shrines all trembled, and the lamps grew pale:[631]
Heav'n scarce believed the conquest it surveyed,
And saints with wonder heard the vows I made.
Yet then, to those dread altars as I drew, 115
Not on the cross my eyes were fixed, but you;[632]
Not grace, or zeal, love only was my call,
And if I lose thy love, I lose my all.
Come! with thy looks, thy words, relieve my woe;[633]
Those still at least are left thee to bestow.[634] 120
Still on that breast enamoured let me lie,
Still drink delicious poison from thy eye,[635]
Pant on thy lip, and to thy heart be pressed;
Give all thou canst—and let me dream the rest.
Ah no! instruct me other joys to prize, 125
With other beauties charm my partial eyes,
Full in my view set all the bright abode,
And make my soul quit Abelard for God.
Ah, think at least thy flock deserves thy care,[636]
Plants of thy hand, and children of thy pray'r; 130
From the false world in early youth they fled,
By thee to mountains, wilds, and deserts led.[637]
You raised these hallowed walls;[638] the desert smiled,
And Paradise was opened in the wild.[639]
No weeping orphan saw his father's stores 135
Our shrines irradiate, or emblaze the floors:[640]
No silver saints, by dying misers giv'n,
Here bribed the rage of ill-requited heav'n:
But such plain roofs as piety could raise,[641]
And only vocal with the Maker's praise.[642] 140
In these lone walls (their day's eternal bound),
These moss-grown domes with spiry turrets crowned,
Where awful arches make a noon-day night,
[6 3]
And the dim windows shed a solemn light,[643]
Thy eyes diffused a reconciling ray,[644] 145
And gleams of glory brightened all the day.[645]
But now no face divine contentment wears,
'Tis all blank sadness, or continual tears.
See how the force of others' pray'rs I try,[646]
O pious fraud of am'rous charity! 150
But why should I on others' pray'rs depend?[647]
Come thou, my father, brother, husband, friend!
Ah, let thy handmaid, sister, daughter, move,[648]
And all those tender names in one, thy love![649]
The darksome pines that, o'er yon rocks reclined,[650] 155
Wave high, and murmur to the hollow wind,[651]
The wand'ring streams that shine between the hills,[652]
The grots that echo to the tinkling rills,[653]
The dying gales that pant upon the trees,[654]
The lakes that quiver to the curling breeze;[655] 160
No more these scenes my meditation aid,
Or lull to rest the visionary maid.[656]
But o'er the twilight groves[657] and dusky caves,
Long-sounding aisles, and intermingled graves,
Black Melancholy sits, and round her throws 165
A death-like silence, and a dread repose:[658]
Her gloomy presence saddens all the scene,
Shades ev'ry flow'r, and darkens ev'ry green,[659]
Deepens the murmur of the falling floods,
And breathes a browner horror on the woods.[660] 170
Yet here for ever, ever must I stay;
Sad proof how well a lover can obey![661]
Death, only death, can break the lasting chain;
And here, ev'n then, shall my cold dust remain;[662]
Here all its frailties, all its flames resign, 175
And wait till 'tis no sin to mix with thine.[663]
Ah wretch! believed the spouse of God in vain,
Confessed within the slave of love and man.
Assist me, heav'n! but whence arose that pray'r?
[66 ]
Sprung it from piety, or from despair?[664] 180
Ev'n here, where frozen chastity retires,
Love finds an altar for forbidden fires.[665]
I ought to grieve, but cannot what I ought;
I mourn the lover, not lament the fault;[666]
I view my crime, but kindle at the view, 185
Repent old pleasures, and solicit new;[667]
Now turned to heav'n, I weep my past offence,
Now think of thee, and curse my innocence.
Of all affliction taught a lover yet,
'Tis sure the hardest science to forget![668] 190
How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense,
And love th' offender, yet detest th' offence?[669]
How the dear object from the crime remove,
Or how distinguish penitence from love?[670]
Unequal task! a passion to resign, 195
For hearts so touched, so pierced, so lost as mine.
Ere such a soul regains its peaceful state,
How often must it love, how often hate![671]
How often hope, despair, resent, regret,
Conceal, disdain,—do all things but forget. 200
But let heav'n seize it, all at once 'tis fired;
Not touched, but rapt; not wakened, but inspired![672]
Oh come! oh teach me nature to subdue,
Renounce my love, my life, myself—and you.[673]
Fill my fond heart with God alone, for he 205
Alone can rival, can succeed to thee.[674]
How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot:[675]
Eternal sun-shine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resigned; 210
Labour and rest, that equal periods keep;
"Obedient slumbers that can wake and weep;"[676]
Desires composed, affections ever even;
Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heav'n.
Grace shines around her, with serenest beams, 215
And whisp'ring angels prompt her golden dreams.
For her, th' unfading rose of Eden blooms,
And wings of seraphs shed divine perfumes,
For her the spouse prepares the bridal ring,
For her white virgins hymeneals sing, 220
To sounds of heav'nly harps she dies away,[677]
And melts in visions of eternal day.[678]
Far other dreams my erring soul employ,
Far other raptures, of unholy joy:
When at the close of each sad, sorrowing day, 225
Fancy restores what vengeance snatched away,
Then conscience sleeps, and leaving nature free,
All my loose soul unbounded springs to thee.
Oh cursed, dear horrors of all-conscious night!
How glowing guilt exalts the keen delight![679] 230
Provoking demons all restraint remove,
And stir within me ev'ry source of love.
I hear thee, view thee, gaze o'er all thy charms,
And round thy phantom glue my clasping arms.
I wake:—no more I hear, no more I view, 235
The phantom flies me, as unkind as you.
I call aloud; it hears not what I say:
I stretch my empty arms; it glides away.
To dream once more I close my willing eyes;
Ye soft illusions, dear deceits, arise;[680] 240
Alas, no more!—methinks we wand'ring go
Through dreary wastes, and weep each other's woe,[681]
Where round some mould'ring tow'r pale ivy creeps,
And low-browed rocks hang nodding o'er the deeps.
Sudden you mount, you beckon from the skies; 245
Clouds interpose, waves roar, and winds arise.
I shriek, start up, the same sad prospect find,
And wake to all the griefs I left behind.
For thee the fates, severely kind,[682] ordain
A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain; 250
Thy life a long dead calm of fixed repose;
[683]
No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows;[683]
Still as the sea, ere winds were taught to blow,
Or moving spirit bade the waters flow;[684]
Soft as the slumbers of a saint forgiv'n, 255
And mild as op'ning gleams of promised heav'n.[685]
Come, Abelard! for what hast thou to dread?
The torch of Venus burns not for the dead.[686]
Nature stands checked; religion disapproves;
Ev'n thou art cold—yet Eloisa loves. 260
Ah hopeless, lasting flames! like those that burn
To light the dead, and warm th' unfruitful urn.[687]
What scenes appear where'er I turn my view?
The dear ideas, where I fly, pursue,
Rise in the grove, before the altar rise,[688] 265
Stain all my soul, and wanton in my eyes.
I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee,
Thy image steals between my God and me,[689]
Thy voice I seem in ev'ry hymn to hear,
With ev'ry bead I drop too soft a tear.[690] 270
When from the censer clouds of fragrance roll,
And swelling organs lift the rising soul,
One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight,
Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my sight;[691]
In seas of flame my plunging soul is drowned, 275
While altars blaze, and angels tremble round.[692]
While prostrate here in humble grief I lie,
Kind, virtuous drops just gath'ring in my eye,
While praying, trembling, in the dust I roll,
And dawning grace is op'ning on my soul: 280
Come, if thou dar'st, all charming as thou art!
Oppose thyself to heav'n; dispute my heart:
Come, with one glance of those deluding eyes
Blot out each bright idea of the skies;
Take back that grace, those sorrows, and those tears; 285
Take back my fruitless penitence and pray'rs;
Snatch me, just mounting, from the bless'd abode;
[693]
Welcome to Our Bookstore - The Ultimate Destination for Book Lovers
Are you passionate about testbank and eager to explore new worlds of
knowledge? At our website, we offer a vast collection of books that
cater to every interest and age group. From classic literature to
specialized publications, self-help books, and children’s stories, we
have it all! Each book is a gateway to new adventures, helping you
expand your knowledge and nourish your soul
Experience Convenient and Enjoyable Book Shopping Our website is more
than just an online bookstore—it’s a bridge connecting readers to the
timeless values of culture and wisdom. With a sleek and user-friendly
interface and a smart search system, you can find your favorite books
quickly and easily. Enjoy special promotions, fast home delivery, and
a seamless shopping experience that saves you time and enhances your
love for reading.
Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and
personal growth!

ebooksecure.com