The belief that a man is persecuted by hidden conspirators is one of the
common symptoms in such cases; and Pope would seem to have been almost
in the initial stage of mental disease. His madness, indeed, was not
such as would lead us to call him morally irresponsible, nor was it the
kind of madness which is to be found in a good many people who well
deserve criminal prosecution; but it was a state of mind so morbid as to
justify some compassion for the unhappy offender.
One result besides the illustration of Pope's character remains to be
noticed. According to Pope's assertion it was a communication from Lord
Warwick which led him to write his celebrated copy of verses upon
Addison. Warwick (afterwards Addison's stepson) accused Addison of
paying Gildon for a gross libel upon Pope. Pope wrote to Addison, he
says, the next day. He said in this letter that he knew of Addison's
behaviour--and that, unwilling to take a revenge of the same kind, he
would rather tell Addison fairly of his faults in plain words. If he had
to take such a step, it would be in some such way as followed, and he
subjoined the first sketch of the famous lines. Addison, says Pope, used
him very civilly ever afterwards. Indeed, if the account be true,
Addison showed his Christian spirit by paying a compliment in one of his
_Freeholders_ (May 17th, 1716) to Pope's Homer.
Macaulay, taking the story for granted, praises Addison's magnanimity,
which, I must confess, I should be hardly Christian enough to admire.
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