med the sentence of that age, which gave
the preference to Mr. Pope; for his translation is in the hands of all
readers of taste, while the other is seldom regarded but as a soil to
Pope's.

It would appear as if Mr. Addison were himself so immersed in party
business, as to contrast his benevolence to the limits of a faction:
Which was infinitely beneath the views of a philosopher, and the rules
which that excellent writer himself established. If this was the failing
of Mr. Addison, it was not the error of Pope, for he kept the strictest
correspondence with some persons, whose affections to the Whig-interest
were suspected, yet was his name never called in question. While he was
in favour with the duke of Buckingham, the lords Bolingbroke, Oxford,
and Harcourt, Dr. Swift, and Mr. Prior, he did not drop his
correspondence with the lord Hallifax, Mr. Craggs, and most of those who
were at the head of the Whig interest. A professed Jacobite one day
remonstrated to Mr. Pope, that the people of his party took it ill that
he should write with Mr. Steele upon ever so indifferent a subject; at
which he could not help smiling, and observed, that he hated narrowness
of soul in any party; and that if he renounced his reason in religious
matters, he should hardly do it on any other, and that he could pray not
only for opposite parties, but even for opposite religions. Mr. Pope
considered himself as a citizen of the world, and was therefore obliged
to pray for the prosperity of mankind in general. As a son of Britain he
wished those councils might be suffered by providence to prevail, which
were most for the interest of his native country: But as politics was
not his study, he could not always determine, at least, with any degree
of certainty, whose councils were best; and had charity enough to
believe, that contending parties might mean well. As taste and science
are confined to no country, so ought they not to be excluded from any
party, and Mr. Pope had an unexceptionable right to live upon terms of
the strictest friendship with every man of parts, to which party soever
he might belong. Mr. Pope's uprightness in his conduct towards
contending politicians, is demonstrated by his living independent of
either faction. He accepted no place, and had too high a spirit to
become a pensioner.

Many effects however were made to proselyte him from the Popish faith,
which all proved ineffectual. His friends conceived hopes from the
moderat