ination was not in the
highest degree probable when the poet had been first at the pains of
revising the work, and next at the cost of an edition of 1500
copies.[183] He may even have believed that his secret, under any
circumstances, was safe with the printer. A theory which has been
verified by endless examples is a more credible alternative than to
assume that Pope had designed to leave behind him evidences of a
dishonesty which he had not dared to disclose during years of familiar
intercourse, and which, notwithstanding that Bolingbroke was perpetually
at his side, he did not venture to reveal in his dying hours when he
might have palliated his motives, and obtained pardon for his fault. But
if we admit the supposition of Warburton, and allow that he had
ultimately arrived at the resolution of suffering the course of events
to betray the misdoings he had not the courage to confess, there will
still remain the facts, which Warburton never questioned, that he
pretended to Bolingbroke that some half dozen copies had alone been
printed, when he had printed a distinct edition of 1500; that he handed
an impression to the author which was taken faithfully from the
manuscript, while the impression he hid from him was garbled and
adulterated; and that, having concealed the double treachery for years,
he left the world without an allusion to the wrongful act he had
committed. Johnson justly considered that the resentment of Bolingbroke
at this violation of faith was with reason "more acrimonious in
proportion as the violator had been more trusted or loved," for the
professions which win confidence increase the baseness of betraying it;
but with equal justice Johnson condemned the "thirst for vengeance"
which excited Bolingbroke "to blast the memory" of the man who had lived
with him in a constant interchange of affection, and who, both in public
and private, had paid him the tribute of his heartiest homage and
applause.[184]

The scrutiny to which the lives of celebrated men are subjected is one
of the severest penalties they pay for fame. Their private weaknesses
have often been exposed with wanton cruelty; but the delinquencies of
Pope are public acts by which he himself has challenged inquiry. He
endeavoured to pass off a sophisticated correspondence for genuine, and
the interests of truth demand that the deception should be exposed. He
laboured to throw his own misdoings upon innocent men, and justice
requires that his v