The defect was aggravated or caused by the physical infirmities which put sustained intellectual labour out of the question.
The laborious and patient meditation which brings a converging series of arguments to bear upon a single point, was to him as impossible as the power of devising an elaborate strategical combination to a dashing Prince Rupert.

The reasonings in the Essay are confused, contradictory, and often childish.

He was equally far from having assimilated any definite system of thought.

Brought up as a Catholic, he had gradually swung into vague deistic belief.

But he had never studied any philosophy or theology whatever, and he accepts in perfect unconsciousness fragments of the most heterogeneous systems.
Swift, in verses from which I have already quoted, describes his method of composition, which is characteristic of Pope's habits of work.
Now backs of letters, though design'd For those who more will need 'em, Are fill'd with hints and interlined, Himself can scarcely read 'em.
Each atom by some other struck All turns and motions tries; Till in a lump together stuck Behold a poem rise! It was strange enough that any poem should arise by such means; but it would have been miraculous if a poem so constructed had been at once a demonstration and an exposition of a harmonious philosophical system.
The confession which he made to Warburton will be a sufficient indication of his qualifications as a student.