FOOTNOTES:
[14] The evidence by which the statements in this chapter are supported
is fully set forth in Mr. Elwin's edition of Pope's Works, Vol. I., and
in the notes to the Orrery Correspondence in the third volume of
letters.
[15] This is proved by a note referring to "the present edition of the
posthumous works of Mr. Wycherley," which, by an oversight, was allowed
to remain in the Curll volume.
[16] These expressions come from two letters of Pope to Lord Orrery in
March, 1737, and may not accurately reproduce his statements to Swift;
but they probably represent approximately what he had said.
[17] It is said that the son objected to allow his wife to meet his
father's mistress.
[18] See Elwin's edition of Pope's Correspondence, iii., 399, note.
[19] Pope's Works, vol. i. p. cxxi.
CHAPTER VII.
THE ESSAY ON MAN.
It is a relief to turn from this miserable record of Pope's petty or
malicious deceptions to the history of his legitimate career. I go back
to the period when he was still in full power. Having finished the
Dunciad, he was soon employed on a more ambitious task. Pope resembled
one of the inferior bodies of the solar system, whose orbit is dependent
upon that of some more massive planet; and having been a satellite of
Swift, he was now swept into the train of the more imposing Bolingbroke.
He had been originally introduced to Bolingbroke by Swift, but had
probably seen little of the brilliant minister who, in the first years
of their acquaintance, had too many occupations to give much time to the
rising poet.
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