This, again, led to his putting together the epistle to Arbuthnot, which includes the bitter attack upon Hervey, as part of a general _apologia pro vita sua_.

It was afterwards called the Prologue to the Satires.

Of his other imitations of Horace, one appeared in 1734 (the second satire of the second book), and four more (the first and sixth epistles of the first book and the first and second of the second book) in 1738.
Finally, in 1737, he published two dialogues, first called "1738" and afterwards "The Epilogue to the Satires," which are in the same vein as the epistle to Arbuthnot.

These epistles and imitations of Horace, with the so-called prologue and epilogue, took up the greatest part of Pope's energy during the years in which his intellect was at its best, and show his finest technical qualities.

The Essay on Man was on hand during the early part of this period, the epistles and satires representing a ramification from the same inquiry.