In his exile, Bolingbroke, though never really weaned from political ambition, had amused himself with superficial philosophical studies.

In political life it was his special glory to extemporize statesmanship without sacrificing pleasure.
He could be at once the most reckless of rakes and the leading spirit in the Cabinet or the House of Commons.

He seems to have thought that philosophical eminence was obtainable in the same offhand fashion, and that a brilliant style would justify a man in laying down the law to metaphysicians as well as to diplomatists and politicians.

His philosophical writings are equally superficial and arrogant, though they show here and there the practised debater's power of making a good point against his antagonist without really grasping the real problems at issue.
Bolingbroke received a pardon in 1723, and returned to England, crossing Atterbury, who had just been convicted of treasonable practices.

In 1725 Bolingbroke settled at Dawley, near Uxbridge, and for the next ten years he was alternately amusing himself in playing the retired philosopher, and endeavouring, with more serious purpose, to animate the opposition to Walpole.