half-read poet, he may find a
sufficient statement of the case in Lessing. But Lessing sensibly
protests from the start against the intrusion of such a work into
serious discussion; and that is the only ground which is worth taking in
the matter.

The most remarkable result of the Essay on Man, it may be
parenthetically noticed, was its effect upon Voltaire. In 1751 Voltaire
wrote a poem on Natural Law, which is a comparatively feeble application
of Pope's principles. It is addressed to Frederick instead of
Bolingbroke, and contains a warm eulogy of Pope's philosophy. But a few
years later the earthquake at Lisbon suggested certain doubts to
Voltaire as to the completeness of the optimist theory; and, in some of
the most impressive verses of the century, he issued an energetic
protest against the platitudes applied by Pope and his followers to
deaden our sense of the miseries under which the race suffers. Verbally,
indeed, Voltaire still makes his bow to the optimist theory, and the two
poems appeared together in 1756; but his noble outcry against the empty
and complacent deductions which it covers, led to his famous controversy
with Rousseau. The history of this conflict falls beyond my subject,
and I must be content with this brief reference, which proves, amongst
other things, the interest created by Pope's advocacy of the most
characteristic doctrines of his time on the minds of the greatest
leaders of the revolutionary movement.

Meanwhile, however, Crousaz was translated into English, and Pope was
terribly alarmed. His "guide, philosopher, and friend" had returned to
the Continent (in 1735), disgusted with his political failure, but was
again in England from June, 1738, to May, 1739. We know not what comfort
he may have given to his unlucky disciple, but an unexpected champion
suddenly arose. William Warburton (born 1698) was gradually pushing his
way to success. He had been an attorney's clerk, and had not received a
university education; but his multifarious reading was making him
conspicuous, helped by great energy, and by a quality which gave some
plausibility to the title bestowed on him by Mallet, "The most impudent
man living." In his humble days he had been intimate with Pope's
enemies, Concanen and Theobald, and had spoken scornfully of Pope,
saying, amongst other things, that he "borrowed for want of genius," as
Addison borrowed from modesty and Milton from pride. In 1736 he had
published his first im