According to Warburton, who is as tricky as Pope himself when it suits his purpose to be so, the _Essay on Man_ was intended to form four books, in which, as part of the general design, the _Moral Essays_ would have been included, as well as Book IV. of the _Dunciad_, but to have welded these _Essays_, which were published separately, into one continuous poem would neither have suited Pope's genius nor the character of the poems; and how the last book of the _Dunciad_ could have been included in such an _olla podrida_ it is difficult to conceive. The poet was fond of projects, and this, happily for his readers, remained one. The dates of the four _Essays_, which are really Epistles, and appeared in folio pamphlets, run over several years, but were afterwards re-arranged by Pope. That to Lord Burlington, _Of the Use of Riches_ (Epistle IV.), was published in 1731, under the title, _Of False Taste_; that to Lord Bathurst, _Of the Use of Riches_ (Epistle III), in 1732; the epistle to Lord Cobham (Epistle I.), _Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men_, bears the date of 1733; and that To a Lady (Epistle II.), _Of the Characters of Women_, in 1735. Pope wrote other Epistles, some at a much earlier period of his career, which follow the _Moral Essays_ but are not connected with them. Of these one is addressed to Addison, two are to Martha Blount, for whom the second of the _Moral Essays_ was written; one to the painter Jervas, originally printed in 1717; while another, a few lines only in length, was addressed to Craggs when Secretary of State. Space will not allow of examining each of the _Essays_ minutely, but there are portions of them which call for comment. The first _Moral Essay_, _Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men_, in which Pope enlarges on his theory of a ruling passion, affords a significant example of his incapacity for sustaining an argument, since Warburton, to use his own words, entirely changed and reversed the order and disposition of the several parts to make the composition more coherent. That he has succeeded is doubtful, that he should have ventured upon such a task shows where Pope's weakness lay as a philosophical poet. It is the least interesting of the _Essays_, but is not without lines that none but Pope could have written. _The Characters of Women_, the subject of the second _Essay_, was not one which the satirist could treat with justice. He saw little in the sex save their foibles, and the lines with which it opens show the spirit that animates the poem: 'Nothing so true as what you once let fall; "Most women have no character at all," Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear, And best distinguished by black, brown, or fair.'