Whether from principle or prudence, he judiciously kept himself free from identification with either party, and both sides took a pride in supporting the great literary undertaking which he had now announced.
When Pope first circulated his proposals for translating Homer, Oxford and Bolingbroke were fellow-ministers, and Swift was their most effective organ in the press.

At the time at which his first volume appeared, Bolingbroke was in exile, Oxford under impeachment, and Swift had retired, savagely and sullenly, to his deanery.

Yet, through all the intervening political tempest, the subscription list grew and flourished.

The pecuniary result was splendid.

No author had ever made anything approaching the sum which Pope received, and very few authors, even in the present age of gold, would despise such payment.