" &c. &c. Now, although there
might occur on the subsequent, or on the same page, a faint show of
disbelief, seasoned with the expression of "the _same candour_" (the
_same_ exactly as throughout the book), I should say that this editor
was either foolish or false to his trust; such a story ought not to
have been admitted, except for one brief mark of crushing
indignation, unless it were _completely proved._ Why the words "_if
true_?" that "_if"_ is not a peacemaker. Why talk of "Cibber's
testimony" to his licentiousness? to what does this amount? that Pope
when very young was _once_ decoyed by some noblemen and the player to
a house of carnal recreation. Mr. Bowles was not always a clergyman;
and when he was a very young man, was he never seduced into as much?
If I were in the humour for story-telling, and relating little
anecdotes, I could tell a much better story of Mr. Bowles than
Cibber's, upon much better authority, viz. that of Mr. Bowles
himself. It was not related by _him_ in my presence, but in that of a
third person, whom Mr. Bowles names oftener than once in the course
of his replies. This gentleman related it to me as a humorous and
witty anecdote; and so it was, whatever its other characteristics
might be. But should I, for a youthful frolic, brand Mr. Bowles with
a "libertine sort of love," or with "licentiousness?" is he the less
now a pious or a good man, for not having always been a priest? No
such thing; I am willing to believe him a good man, almost as good a
man as Pope, but no better.

The truth is, that in these days the grand "_primum mobile"_ of
England is _cant;_ cant political, cant poetical, cant religious,
cant moral; but always cant, multiplied through all the varieties of
life. It is the fashion, and while it lasts will be too powerful for
those who can only exist by taking the tone of the time. I say
_cant,_ because it is a thing of words, without the smallest
influence upon human actions; the English being no wiser, no better,
and much poorer, and more divided amongst themselves, as well as far
less moral, than they were before the prevalence of this verbal
decorum. This hysterical horror of poor Pope's not very well
ascertained, and never fully proved amours (for even Cibber owns that
he prevented the somewhat perilous adventure in which Pope was
embarking) sounds very virtuous in a controversial pamphlet; but all
men of the world who know what life is, or at least what it was to
them