52. Come then, my Friend! my Genius! come along; Oh mafter of the poet and the fong * ! /

In this concluding addrefs of our author to Lord Bolingbroke, one is at a lofs which to admire moft, the warmth of his friendship, or the warmth of his genius. POPE indeed idolized him: when in company with him, he appeared with all the deference and fubmiffion of an affectionate fcholar, He ufed to fpeak of him as a being of a fuperior order, that had condefcended to vifit this lower world; in particular, when the laft comet appeared and approached near the earth, he told fome of his acquaintance," it was fent only to convey Lord Bolingbroke HOME AGAIN; just as a stage-coach ftops at your door to take up à paffenger," A graceful perfon,

* Ver. 373.

Thofe paffages in Bolingbroke's pofthumous works, that bear the clofeft refemblance to the tenets of this Effay are the following. Vol. iv. octavo edition, p. 223 & p. 324; p. 94 of vol. 5; p. 388 of vol. iv. & 389; and p. 49 of vol. iv. p. 5 & 6 of vol. v. p. 17 of vol. v. p. 316 of vol. iv. p. 36 of vol. v. p. 51 of vol. v. p. 328 of vol. iv. and more particularly than all, p. 326 of vol. iv.

a flow of nervous eloquence, a vivid imagination, were the lot of this accomplished nobleman; but his ambitious views being frustrated in the early part of his life, his difappointments embittered his temper, and he feems to have been difgufted with all religions and all governments. I have been informed from an eye-witness of one his laft interviews with PoPE, who was then given over by the phyficians, that Bolingbroke, standing behind POPE's chair, looked earneftly down upon him, and repeated several times, interrupted with fobs, "O Great God, what is man! I never knew a perfon that had so tender a heart for his particular friends, or a warmer benevolence for all mankind." It is to be hoped that Bolingbroke + profited by thofe

remarkable

* His manner of reasoning and philofophifing has been fo happily caught in a piece entitled A Vindication of Natural Society; that many, even acute readers, miftook it for a genuine difcourfe of the author whom it was intended to expofe; it is indeed a mafter-piece of irony,-No writings that raised fo mighty an expectation in the public as thofe of Bolingbroke, ever perifhed fo foon and funk into ob livion.

+ It is afferted on good authority, that Bolingbroke was accustomed to ridicule POPE as not understanding the drift

of

remarkable words that POPE fpoke in his laft illness to the fame gentleman who communicated the foregoing anecdote ;-"I am fo certain of the foul's being im

mortal,

of his own principles in their full extent: It is plain from many of our author's letters, vol. ix. p. 324, that he was pleased to find fuch an interpretation could be given to this poem as was confiflent with the fundamental principles of religion. This also farther appears from fome curious letters that paffed in the year one thoufand feven hundred and forty-two, between Ramfay, Racine the younger, and our author. The former addressed a vindication of the principles of the Effay on Man to Racine, who had charged it with Spinozism and irreligion. This produced a letter from POPE to Racine, which concludes with these remarkable words. "I declare therefore loudly and with the greatest fincerity, that my fentiments are diametrically oppofite to thofe of Spinoza, and even of Leibnitz. They are in truth perfectly agreeable to the tenets of Pafcal, and the Archbishop of Cambray and I fhall think it an honour to imitate. the moderation and docility of the latter, in always submitting all my private opinions to the decifion of the church." London, Sept. 1, 1742.

There is a circumftance in the letter of Ramfay abovementioned, too remarkable to be omitted; and which perhaps fome may be almost tempted to doubt the truth of. In a cafe of fo delicate a nature I chufe to quote the original. "M. le Chevalier Newton, grand Géométre & nullement Métaphyficien, étoit perfuadé de la vérité de la Religion: mais il voulut rafiner fur d' anciennes erreurs Orientales, & renouvella l'Arianifme par l' organe de fon fameux difciple & intreprete M. Clarke; qui m' avoua quelque tems avant que de mourir après plufieurs conférences que j'avois eues avec lui, combien il fe repentoit d'avoir fait imprimer son

Ouvrage :

mortal, that I feem even to feel it within me, as it were by intuition." After fuch a declaration, and after writing fo fervent and elevated a piece of devotion, as the univerfal

Ouvrage je fus témoin il y a douze ans, à Londres, des derniers fentimens de ce modefte & vertueux Docteur." Œuvres de Racine, tom. i. P. 233.

The manner in which Ramfay endeavours to explain the doctrine of the Effay is as follows. "POPE is far from afferting that the present state of man is his primitive state, (but fee above, pag. 70) and is conformable to order. His defign is to fhew that, fince the Fall, all is proportioned with weight, meafure, and harmony, to the condition of a degraded being, who fuffers, and who deferves to fuffer, and who cannot be restored but by fufferings; that phyfical evils are defigned to cure moral evil; that the paffions and the crimes of the most abandoned men are confined, directed, and governed by infinite wifdom, in fuch a manner, as to make order emerge out of confufion, light out of darkness, and to call out innumerable advantages from the tranfitory inconveniences of this life; that this fo gracious Providence conducts all things to its own ends, without ever hurting the liberty of intelligent beings, and without either caufing or approving the effects of their deliberate malice; that All is ordained in the phyfical order, as All is free in the moral; that these two orders are connected closely without fatality, and are not fubject to that neceflity which renders us virtuous without merit, and vicious without crime; that, we see at prefent but a fingle wheel of the magnificent machine of the univerfe; but a fmall link of the great chain; and but an infignificant part of that immenfe plan which will one day be unfolded. Then will God fully justify all the incomprehenfible proceedings of his wifdom and goodness;

and

univerfal prayer, would it not be injuftice. to accuse our author of libertinism and irreligion? Efpecially, as I am told he had inferted an addrefs to Jefus Chrift, in the Effay

and will vindicate himself, as Milton fpeaks, from the rafh judgment of mortals.”

Lettre De M. De Ramsay, A Pontoife le 28 April, 1742.

It will be proper to subjoin Bolingbroke's own account of this Essay, given in a letter to Swift, August 2, 1731.

66

Does POPE talk to you of the noble work, which, at my inftigation, he has begun in fuch a manner, that he must be convinced, by this time, I judged better of his talents than he did.-The first epistle, which confiders man, and the habitation of man, relatively to the whole fyftem of univerfal being. The fecond, which considers him in his own habitation, in himself, and relatively to his own particular fyftem. And the third, which fhews how an universal caufe works to one end, but works by various laws: how man, and beaft, and vegetable, are linked in a mutual dependency: parts neceffary to each other, and neceffary to the Whole how human focieties were formed; from what fpring true religion and true policy are derived; how God has made our greatest interests and our plaineft duty indivifibly the fame. These three epiftles, I fay, are finished. The fourth he is now intent upon. It is a noble fubject: he pleads the cause of God. I ufe Seneca's expreffion against that famous charge which atheists in all ages have brought, the fuppofed unequal difpenfations of Providence; a charge which I cannot heartily forgive your divines for admitting. You admit it indeed for an extreme good purpose, and you build on this admiffion the neceffity of a future ftate of rewards and punishments; but if you should find, that this

future