en heads, which were
widely distributed throughout Europe. There is this anomaly in the life
of Bolingbroke, witnessed in no other Englishman: In one year he was the
most powerful man in England--Secretary of State--an exile--and then
in the same year he occupied a similar office to one who aimed at the
English throne, and was impeached by both parties.

For several years he occupied himself in France with philosophical
pursuits--until the year 1723--when he received a pardon, which allowed
him to return to England, but still his sequestered estates were not
returned, and this apology for a pardon was negotiated by a bribe of
L11,000 to the German Duchess of Kendal--one of the king's mistresses.

Alexander Pope was Bolingbroke's constant correspondent. Pope had
won the applause of England by his poems, and was then considered the
arbiter of genius. Voltaire occupied a similar position in France.
Since Pope first laid the copy of his greatest epic at the feet of
Bolingbroke, and begged of him to correct its errors, he had gradually
won himself that renown which prosperity has endorsed. But what a unity
in divergence did those philosophers present! The calm moralism of Pope,
his sweet and polished rhyme, contrasted with the fiery wit and hissing
sarcasm of the Frenchman, more trenchant than Pope's, yet wanting
his sparkling epigrams. The keen discernment of both these men saw in
Bolingbroke a master, and they ranked by his side as twin apostles of
a new and living faith. It was the penetration of true greatness which
discerned in the English peer that sublimity of intellect they possessed
themselves, without the egotism of an imbecile rival. Bolingbroke had
cherished the ethics of one, and restrained the rancor of the other--and
both men yielded to him whose system they worshipped; and this trinity
of Deists affords the noblest example which can be evoked to prove
the Harmony of Reason amidst the most varied accomplishments. Although
Pope's name occurs but seldom in the history of Freethought--while that
of Bolingbroke is emblazoned in all its glory, and Voltaire is enshrined
as its only Deity--yet we must not forget that what is now known as
the only collection of St. John's works (the edition in five volumes
by Mallet,) were written for the instruction of Pope--sent to him in
letters--discussed and agreed to by him--so that the great essayist is
as much implicated in them as the author of the Dictionary. It is
said, "I