s pieces of
workmanship, in which phrases from Isaiah are so strung together as to
form a good imitation of the famous poem, which was once supposed to
entitle Virgil to some place among the inspired heralds of Christianity.
Pope sent another letter or two to Steele, which look very much like
intended contributions to the _Spectator_, and a short letter about
Hadrian's verses to his soul, which appeared in November, 1712. When, in
1713, the _Guardian_ succeeded the _Spectator_, Pope was one of Steele's
contributors, and a paper by him upon dedications appeared as the fourth
number. He soon gave a more remarkable proof of his friendly relations
with Addison.

It is probable that no first performance of a play upon the English
stage ever excited so much interest as that of Addison's _Cato_. It was
not only the work of the first man of letters of the day, but it had, or
was taken to have, a certain political significance. "The time was
come," says Johnson, "when those who affected to think liberty in danger
affected likewise to think that a stage-play might preserve it."
Addison, after exhibiting more than the usual display of reluctance,
prepared his play for representation, and it was undoubtedly taken to be
in some sense a Whig manifesto. It was therefore remarkable that he
should have applied to Pope for a prologue, though Pope's connexions
were entirely of the anti-Whiggish kind, and a passage in _Windsor
Forest_, his last new poem (it appeared in March 1713), indicated pretty
plainly a refusal to accept the Whig shibboleths. In the _Forest_ he was
enthusiastic for the peace, and sneered at the Revolution. Pope
afterwards declared that Addison had disavowed all party intentions at
the time, and he accused him of insincerity for afterwards taking credit
(in a poetical dedication of _Cato_) for the services rendered by his
play to the cause of liberty. Pope's assertion is worthless in any case
where he could exalt his own character for consistency at another man's
expense, but it is true that both parties were inclined to equivocate.
It is, indeed, difficult to understand how, if any "stage-play could
preserve liberty," such a play as _Cato_ should do the work. The
polished declamation is made up of the platitudes common to Whigs and
Tories; and Bolingbroke gave the one to his own party when he presented
fifty guineas to _Cato_'s representative for defending the cause of
liberty so well against a perpetual dictator. The