The element, which may fairly be called poetical, is derived from an inferior source; but sometimes has passion enough in it to lift him above mere prose.
In one of his most animated passages, Pope relates his desire to-- Brand the bold front of shameless guilty men, Dash the proud gamester in his gilded car, Bare the mean heart that lurks beneath a star.
For the moment he takes himself seriously; and, indeed, he seems to have persuaded both himself and his friends that he was really a great defender of virtue.

Arbuthnot begged him, almost with his dying breath, to continue his "noble disdain and abhorrence of vice," and, with a due regard to his own safety, to try rather to reform than chastise; and Pope accepts the office ostentatiously.

His provocation is "the strong antipathy of good to bad," and he exclaims,-- Yes! I am proud--I must be proud to see Men not afraid of God, afraid of me.
Safe from the bar, the pulpit, and the throne, Yet touch'd and shamed by ridicule alone.
If the sentiment provokes a slight incredulity, it is yet worth while to understand its real meaning; and the explanation is not very far to seek.
Pope's best writing, I have said, is the essence of conversation.

It has the quick movement, the boldness and brilliance, which we suppose to be the attributes of the best talk.

Of course the apparent facility is due to conscientious labour.