Some years afterwards (1751) Pope came under a more powerful critic.

The Berlin Academy of Sciences offered a prize for a similar essay, and Lessing published a short tract called _Pope ein Metaphysiker_! If any one cares to see a demonstration that Pope did not understand the system of Leibnitz, and that the bubble blown by a great philosopher has more apparent cohesion than that of a half-read poet, he may find a sufficient statement of the case in Lessing.

But Lessing sensibly protests from the start against the intrusion of such a work into serious discussion; and that is the only ground which is worth taking in the matter.
The most remarkable result of the Essay on Man, it may be parenthetically noticed, was its effect upon Voltaire.

In 1751 Voltaire wrote a poem on Natural Law, which is a comparatively feeble application of Pope's principles.

It is addressed to Frederick instead of Bolingbroke, and contains a warm eulogy of Pope's philosophy.