It would appear as if Mr. Addison were himself so immersed in party business, as to contrast his benevolence to the limits of a faction:  Which was infinitely beneath the views of a philosopher, and the rules which that excellent writer himself established.  If this was the failing of Mr. Addison, it was not the error of Pope, for he kept the strictest correspondence with some persons, whose affections to the Whig-interest were suspected, yet was his name never called in question.  While he was in favour with the duke of Buckingham, the lords Bolingbroke, Oxford, and Harcourt, Dr. Swift, and Mr. Prior, he did not drop his correspondence with the lord Hallifax, Mr. Craggs, and most of those who were at the head of the Whig interest.  A professed Jacobite one day remonstrated to Mr. Pope, that the people of his party took it ill that he should write with Mr. Steele upon ever so indifferent a subject; at which he could not help smiling, and observed, that he hated narrowness of soul in any party; and that if he renounced his reason in religious matters, he should hardly do it on any other, and that he could pray not only for opposite parties, but even for opposite religions.  Mr. Pope considered himself as a citizen of the world, and was therefore obliged to pray for the prosperity of mankind in general.  As a son of Britain he wished those councils might be suffered by providence to prevail, which were most for the interest of his native country:  But as politics was not his study, he could not always determine, at least, with any degree of certainty, whose councils were best; and had charity enough to believe, that contending parties might mean well.  As taste and science are confined to no country, so ought they not to be excluded from any party, and Mr. Pope had an unexceptionable right to live upon terms of the strictest friendship with every man of parts, to which party soever he might belong.  Mr. Pope’s uprightness in his conduct towards contending politicians, is demonstrated by his living independent of either faction.  He accepted no place, and had too high a spirit to become a pensioner.

Many effects however were made to proselyte him from the Popish faith, which all proved ineffectual.  His friends conceived hopes from the moderation which he on all occasions expressed, that he was really a Protestant in his heart, and that upon the death of his mother, he would not scruple to declare his sentiments, notwithstanding the reproaches he might incur from the Popish party, and the public observation it would draw upon him.  The bishop of Rochester strongly advised him to read the controverted points between the Protestant and the Catholic church, to suffer his unprejudiced reason to determine for him, and he made no doubt, but a separation from the Romish communion would soon ensue.  To this Mr. Pope very candidly answered, ’Whether the change would be to my spiritual advantage, God only knows:  This I know, that I mean as well in the religion I now profess, as ever I can do in any other.  Can a man who thinks so, justify a change, even if he thought both equally good?  To such an one, the part of joining with any one body of Christians might perhaps be easy, but I think it would not be so to renounce the other.