In this concluding address of our author to Lord Bolingbroke *, one is at a lofs which to admire most, 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 used to speak of him as a being of a fuperior order, that had condescended 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 "it Bolingbroke, HOME AGAIN; just as a stagecoach ftops at your door to take up a paffenger." A graceful perfon, 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 Thofe paffages in Bolingbroke's pofthumous works, that bear the closest resemblance 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. 5. p. 328 of voliv. and more particularly than all p. 326 of vol. iv. of of his life, his disappointments embittered his temper, and he seems to have been difgufted with all religions and all governments. I have been informed from an eye-witness of one of his laft interviews with POPE, who was then given over by the phyficians, that Bolingbroke, standing behind POPE's chair, looked carnestly down upon him, and repeated several times interrupted with fobs, "O Great God, what is man! I never knew a person that had fo tender a heart for his particular friends, or a warmer benevolence for all mankind." It is to be hoped that * Bolingbroke profited by thofe + His manner of reasoning and philofophifing has been fo happily caught in a piece entitled AVindication of Natural Society; that many, even acute readers, mistook it for a genuine difcourse of the author whom it was intended to expose; it is indeed a master-piece of irony. No writings that raised fo mighty an expectation in the public as those of Bolingbroke, ever perished so foon and funk into oblivion. It is afferted on good authority, that Bolingbroke was accuftomed to ridicule POPE as not understanding the drift 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 confistent with the fundamental principles of religion. This also those remarkable words that POPE fpoke in his laft illness to the fame gentleman who communicated the foregoing anecdote ; " I am farther appears from fome curious letters that paffed in the year one thousand feven hundred and forty-two, between Ramfay, Racine the younger, and our author. The former addreffed a vindication of the principles of the Effay on Man to Racine, who had charged it with Spinozifm 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 fubmitting all my private opinions to the decifion of the church." London, Sep. 1. 1747. 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' ayoua quelque tems avant que de mourir après plufieurs conférences que j'avois eues avec lui, combien il fe repentoit d' avoir fait imprimer fon Ouvrage : je fus témoin il y douze ans, à Londres, des derniers fentimens de cę modefte & verteux Docteur." Œuvres de Racine, tom, i. p. 233: The "I am so certain of the foul's being immortal that I feem even to feel it within me, as it were by intuition." After fuch a declaration, and after writing so fervent and elevated a piece The manner in which Ramfay explains the doctrine of the Effay is as follows. "POPE is far from afferting that the prefent ftate of man is his primitive ftate, and is conformable to order. His defign is to fhew that, fince the Fall, all is proportioned with weight, measure, 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 wisdom, 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 subject to that neceffity which renders us virtuous without merit, and vicious without crime; that, we fee at present but a single wheel of the magnificent machine of the universe; but a small link of the great chain; and but an infignificant part of that immenfe plan which will one day be unfolded. Then will God fully juftify all the incomprehenfible proceedings of his wif dom and goodnefs; and will vindicate himself, as Milton fpeaks, from the rash judgment of mortals." Lettre De M. De Ramfay. of of devotion, as the universal prayer, would it not be injustice to accuse our author of libertinism and irreligion? Especially, as I am told he had inferted an address to Jesus Christ, in the Effay on Man, which he omitted at the instance of Bishop Berkley, because the Christian difpenfation did not come within the compass of his plan. Not that fo pious and worthy a prelate could imagine, that this Platonic scheme, of the BEST, fufficiently accounts for the introduction of moral and physical evil into the world; which in truth nothing but revelation can explain, and nothing but a future state can compenfate *. * The Effay on Man was elegantly, but unfaithfully, tranflated into French verfe by M. Du Refnel. It was more accurately rendered into French profe by M. De Silhouete. Which tranflation has been often printed; at Paris 1736; at London 1741, in Quarto; at the Hague, 1742. He has fubjoined a defence of the doctrines of the Effay from Warburton's Letters and has added a translation also, with a large commentary, of the four fucceeding epiftles of POPE. This is the fame M. De Silhouete, who has fince been the famous Controller General of the Finances in France. He is well known is London, where he refided a confiderable time, attentive to the politics as well as poetry of England. SECT. |