ictims should be absolved, and the discredit,
augmented beyond measure by the perfidy and deceit, be laid where it is
due. He was the bitter satirist of individuals out of an assumed
indignation at everything base, and his claim to adopt this lofty
strain, his sincerity in it, and his fairness, are all involved in his
personal dealings. The office of an editor is neither that of an
advocate nor of an accuser. He is a judge, whose only client is truth. I
have endeavoured to investigate the facts with impartiality, and narrate
them with fidelity, and if I have anywhere failed, it is from
unconscious, not from wilful error; but having once been satisfied of
the guilt of Pope, I do not pretend to think that genius is an
extenuation of rascality. He rightly refused others the benefit of the
plea, and said in the Essay on Man, whoever is "wickedly wise is but the
more a fool, the more a knave." The sketch which Lord Macaulay has given
of his character, when describing his conduct on the appearance of
Tickell's version of the first book of the Iliad, is not too severe for
the treacheries and falsehoods which were the instruments of his
malevolence, cowardice and vanity. "An odious suspicion had sprung up in
the mind of Pope. He fancied, and he soon firmly believed, that there
was a deep conspiracy against his fame and his fortunes. The work on
which he had staked his reputation was to be depreciated. The
subscription, on which rested his hopes of a competence, was to be
defeated. With this view, Addison had made a rival translation; Tickell
had consented to father it, and the wits at Button's had consented to
puff it. We do not accuse Pope of bringing an accusation which he knew
to be false. We have not the smallest doubt that he believed it to be
true; and the evidence on which he believed it he found in his own bad
heart. His own life was one long series of tricks, as mean and as
malicious as that of which he had suspected Addison and Tickell. He was
all stiletto and mask. To injure, to insult, and to save himself from
the consequences of injury and insult by lying and equivocating, was the
habit of his life. He published a lampoon on the Duke of Chandos; he was
taxed with it; and he lied and equivocated. He published a lampoon on
Aaron Hill; he was taxed with it; and he lied and equivocated. He
published a still fouler lampoon on Lady Mary Wortley Montagu; he was
taxed with it; and he lied with more than usual effrontery and