 Although this position can’t be definitively refuted, it’s implausible and subject to the rejoinder that what Pope did is himself speak in the poem, making sure that neither aesthetic interest nor useful instruction were ever altogether lacking. Independent of strong theoretical reasons for thinking otherwise, that’s a simpler and better explanation than Beardsley’s. The point can be reinforced if didactic literary works other than poems are considered. Aldous Huxley’s essays are literary works, but it’s even more implausible to posit a fictional speaker for them, and to think of them as imitations of compound illocutionary acts, rather than simply as compound speech acts performed by Huxley.