The view of Johnson.
As Johnson reflected on Pope’s life one idea struck him with some force. Writing of one of Pope’s ‘Morals Essays’ (also known as the Epistles to Several Persons) published between 1731-1735, specifically the Epistle to Cobham of 1734, Johnson discussed Pope’s idea of the ‘Ruling Passion.’ Johnson described this as Pope’s ‘favourite theory’ whereby the original direction of desire towards a particular object will operate on the whole of someone’s life ‘either openly, or more secretly’.
Johnson saw in this an indication that early influence, a book, an accident, an early conversation, could indicate the direction of what the excellence of a person’s life might be. But, in general, he disliked Pope’s ruling passion idea with what Johnson saw as its implication of possible moral predestination, ‘an overruling principle which cannot be resisted.”
The Solitary Reader 