eturn from any journey he ever
made to France. The year was omitted by Pope exactly because he could
fix upon none which would bear the test of examination.[166] When it is
plain that the letter could not have been addressed to Arbuthnot, it is
superfluous to dwell upon the improbability that he and Caryll should
have put the same question with regard to the "railing papers about the
'Odyssey,'" or to enumerate the other coincidences which are beyond the
range of belief. The letter in all its shapes contains a passage which
forms a strange comment upon Pope's proceedings, and is the bitterest
sentence that will ever be pronounced upon them: "Falsehood is folly,
says Homer, and liars and calumniators at last hurt none but themselves,
even in this world. In the next, it is charity to say, God have mercy on
them. They were the devil's vice-regents upon earth, who is the father
of lies, and, I fear, has a right to dispose of his children."

On June 12, 1713, Pope wrote to Caryll, "As I hope, and would flatter
myself, that you know me and my thoughts so entirely as never to be
mistaken in either, so it is a pleasure to me that you guessed so right
in regard to the author of that 'Guardian' you mentioned." On June 23 he
wrote again, and said, "Your last is the more obliging as it hints at
some little niceties in my conduct which your candour and affection
prompt you to recommend to me." Both these sentences are inserted in an
undated letter to Addison, which is compiled from three letters to
Caryll, and no one could credit that Caryll and Addison had
independently, and almost simultaneously communicated their guesses to
Pope that he was the author of a particular essay in the "Guardian," and
at the same time "hinted at little niceties in his conduct." The
remainder of the letter to Addison is full of inconsistencies. The
result of the imposition is to confound dates, events, opinions, and
persons. Addison knows Pope and his thoughts so entirely as never to be
mistaken in either; Addison's candour and affection prompt him to advise
Pope in little niceties of conduct, and the perfect knowledge, the
affection, the candour, and the advice, which are represented as
proceeding from the most exquisite genius of the age, all appertain to
an obscure country gentleman whose intimacy could not confer, in the
eyes of the world, any lustre upon his friend. The whole of the letters
to Addison are an absolute fiction. Four out of the five ar