They are somehow opposed, yet art turns out to be only "nature methodized." We have indeed a clue for our guidance; to study nature, we are told, is the same thing as to study Homer, and Homer should be read day and night, with Virgil for a comment and Aristotle for an expositor.

Nature, good sense, Homer, Virgil, and the Stagyrite all, it seems, come to much the same thing.
It would be very easy to pick holes in this very loose theory.

But it is better to try to understand the point of view indicated; for, in truth, Pope is really stating the assumptions which guided his whole career.

No one will accept his position at the present time; but any one who is incapable of, at least, a provisional sympathy, may as well throw Pope aside at once, and with Pope most contemporary literature.
The dominant figure in Pope's day was the Wit.

The wit--taken personally--was the man who represented what we now describe by culture or the spirit of the age.