own. That those communications had been consolidated into a scheme
regularly drawn, and delivered to Pope, from whom it returned only
transformed from prose to verse, has been reported, but hardly can
be true. The essay plainly appears the fabric of a poet; what
Bolingbroke supplied could be only the first principles, the order,
illustration, and embellishments, must all be Pope's. These
principles it is not my business to clear from obscurity, dogmatism,
or falsehood, but they were not immediately examined. Philosophy
and poetry have not often the same readers; and the essay abounded
in splendid amplifications and sparkling sentences, which were read
and admired with no great attention to their ultimate purpose. Its
flowers caught the eye, which did not see what the gay foliage
concealed, and for a time flourished in the sunshine of universal
approbation. So little was any evil tendency discovered, that, as
innocence is unsuspicious, many read it for a manual of piety. Its
reputation soon invited a translator. It was first turned into
French prose, and afterwards by Resnel into verse. Both
translations fell into the hands of Crousaz, who first, when he had
the version in prose, wrote a general censure, and afterwards
reprinted Resnel's version, with particular remarks upon every
paragraph.

Crousaz was a professor of Switzerland, eminent for his treatise of
logic, and his "Examen de Pyrrhonisme," and, however little known or
regarded here, was no mean antagonist. His mind was one of those in
which philosophy and piety are happily united. He was accustomed to
argument and disquisition, and perhaps was grown too desirous of
detecting faults, but his intentions were always right, his opinions
were solid, and his religion pure. His incessant vigilance for the
promotion of piety disposed him to look with distrust upon all