Bolingbroke persuaded Pope to versify portions of the philosophy he admired so extravagantly.[739] A large scheme was drawn up, the outline of which Pope repeated to Spence. "The first book, you know, of my ethic work is on the Nature of Man. The second would have been on knowledge and its limits. Here would have come in an essay on education, part of which I have inserted in the Dunciad. The third was to have treated of government, both ecclesiastical and civil. The fourth would have been on morality in eight or nine of the most concerning branches of it, four of which would have been the two extremes to each of the cardinal virtues."[740] These four cardinal virtues,--justice, temperance, prudence, and fortitude--would alone have required twelve epistles, since every virtue was to be treated on the Aristotelian plan, and divided into rational medium, deficiency, and excess. The cardinal virtues were either to be again subdivided, or else supplemented by subordinate virtues, and all were to be presented under the triple form. "Each class," said Pope, speaking of the "eight or nine most concerning branches" of morality, "may take up three epistles: one, for instance, against Avarice; another against Prodigality: and the third on the moderate use of Riches, and so of the rest."[741] A short trial convinced Pope that the scheme was too vast for a slow composer. When the first book, which forms the Essay on Man, was completed, he told Spence that "he had drawn in the plan much narrower than it was at first," and he attached to some copies of the Essay, which he circulated among his particular friends, a table of this diminished frame-work. "INDEX TO THE ETHIC EPISTLES. BOOK I.--OF THE NATURE AND STATE OF MAN. Epistle 1.--With respect to the Universe. " 2.--As an Individual. " 3.--With respect to Society. " 4.--With respect to Happiness. BOOK II.--OF THE USE OF THINGS. Of the Limits of Human Reason. Of the Use of Learning. Of the Use of Wit. Of the Knowledge and Characters of Men. Of the Particular Characters of Women. Of the Principles and Use of Civil and Ecclesiastical Polity. Of the Use of Education. A View of the Equality of Happiness in the several Conditions of Men. Of the Use of Riches."[742] The cardinal virtues, with nearly all "the most concerning branches of morality," were omitted from the abbreviated plan, which was still too large for Pope's patience, and he left much of the work unexecuted.