of an exculpatory comment, Pope
testified that, whatever might be the seeming or real import of the
principles which he had received from Bolingbroke, he had not
intentionally attacked religion; and Bolingbroke, if he meant to make
him, without his own consent, an instrument of mischief, found him now
engaged, with his eyes open, on the side of truth.

It is known that Bolingbroke concealed from Pope his real opinions. He
once discovered them to Mr. Hooke, who related them again to Pope, and
was told by him that he must have mistaken the meaning of what he heard;
and Bolingbroke, when Pope's uneasiness incited him to desire an
explanation, declared that Hooke had misunderstood him.

Bolingbroke hated Warburton, who had drawn his pupil from him; and a
little before Pope's death they had a dispute, from which they parted
with mutual aversion.

From this time Pope lived in the closest intimacy with his commentator,
and amply rewarded his kindness and his zeal; for he introduced him to
Mr. Murray, by whose interest he became preacher at Lincoln's inn; and
to Mr. Allen, who gave him his niece and his estate, and, by
consequence, a bishoprick. When he died, he left him the property of
his works; a legacy which may be reasonably estimated at four thousand
pounds.

Pope's fondness for the Essay on Man appeared by his desire of its
propagation. Dobson, who had gained reputation by his version of Prior's
Solomon, was employed by him to translate it into Latin verse, and was,
for that purpose, some time at Twickenham; but he left his work,
whatever was the reason, unfinished; and, by Benson's invitation,
undertook the longer task of Paradise Lost. Pope then desired his friend
to find a scholar who should turn his essay into Latin prose; but no
such performance has ever appeared.

Pope lived at this time "among the great," with that reception and
respect to which his works entitled him, and which he had not impaired
by any private misconduct or factious partiality. Though Bolingbroke was
his friend, Walpole was not his enemy; but treated him with so much
consideration as, at his request, to solicit and obtain from the French
minister an abbey for Mr. Southcot, whom he considered himself as
obliged to reward, by this exertion of his interest, for the benefit
which he had received from his attendance in a long illness.

It was said, that, when the court was at Richmond, queen Caroline had
declared her intention to visit him.