CHAPTER VII.
THE ESSAY ON MAN.
It is a relief to turn from this miserable record of Pope's petty or malicious deceptions to the history of his legitimate career.

I go back to the period when he was still in full power.

Having finished the Dunciad, he was soon employed on a more ambitious task.

Pope resembled one of the inferior bodies of the solar system, whose orbit is dependent upon that of some more massive planet; and having been a satellite of Swift, he was now swept into the train of the more imposing Bolingbroke.
He had been originally introduced to Bolingbroke by Swift, but had probably seen little of the brilliant minister who, in the first years of their acquaintance, had too many occupations to give much time to the rising poet.

Bolingbroke, however, had been suffering a long eclipse, whilst Pope was gathering fresh splendour.