es, 'did Pope know
of the principles of the "First Philosophy," that when a common
acquaintance told him in his last illness that Lord Bolingbroke denied
God's moral attributes as commonly understood, he asked Lord Bolingbroke
whether he was mistaken, and was told he was.'

On the other hand, there are the letters from Bolingbroke to Pope quoted
above; there is the undoubted fact that Pope, Shaftesbury,[167] and
Bolingbroke so far agreed with one another that they were all ardent
disciples of the optimistic school; and, it must be added, there is the
utter absence of anything distinctively Christian in that poem in which
one would naturally have expected to find it. For, to say the least of
it, the 'Essay on Man' might have been written by an unbeliever, as also
might the Universal Prayer. The fact seems to have been that Pope was
distracted by the counter influences of two very powerful but two very
opposite minds. Between Warburton and Bolingbroke, the poet might well
become somewhat confused in his views. How far he would have agreed with
the more pronounced anti-Christian sentiments of Bolingbroke which were
addressed to him, but which never met his eye, can of course be only a
matter of conjecture. It is evident that Bolingbroke himself dreaded the
influence of Warburton, for he alludes constantly and almost nervously
to 'the foul-mouthed critic whom I know you have at your elbow,' and
anticipates objections which he suspected 'the dogmatical pedant' would
raise.

However, except in so far as it is always interesting to know the
attitude of any great man towards contemporary subjects of stirring
interest, it is not a very important question as to what were the poet's
sentiments in reference to Christianity and Deism. Pope's real greatness
lay in quite another direction; and even those who most admire the
marvellous execution of his grand philosophical poem will regret that
his brilliant talents were comparatively wasted on so uncongenial a
subject.

Far otherwise is it with the other great name which both Deists and
orthodox claim as their own. What was the relationship of John Locke,
who influenced the whole tone of thought of the eighteenth century more
than any other single man, to the great controversy which is the subject
of these pages? On the one hand, it is unquestionable that Locke had the
closest personal connection with two of the principal Deistical writers,
and that most of the rest show unmistakabl