Note 124 — AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM.
Reading edition
Cowley on the death of Crashaw:
Hail, bard triumphant.
Virg. Æn. vi. 649:
Magnanimi heroes! nati melioribus annis.—Wakefield.
Dryden's Religio Laici:
Those giant wits in happier ages born.
From Pope's manuscript it appears that he had originally written:
Hail, happy heroes, born in better days.
In a note he gave the line from Virgil of which his own was a translation.