ice by its sale, which could never have taken place
till the death of its author; a circumstance not likely to occur
during Pope's lifetime.[237]

The vindictive rage of Bolingbroke; the bitter invective he permitted
MALLET to publish, as the editor of his works; and the two anonymous
pamphlets of the latter, which I have noticed in the article of
WARBURTON; are effects much too disproportionate to the cause which is
usually assigned. JOHNSON does not develope the secret motives of what
he has energetically termed "Bolingbroke's thirst of vengeance." He
and Mallet carried their secret revenge beyond all bounds: the lordly
stoic and the irritated bardling, under the cloak of anonymous
calumny, have but ill-concealed the malignity of their passions. Let
anonymous calumniators recollect, in the midst of their dark work,
that if they escape the detection of their contemporaries, their
reputation, if they have any to lose, will not probably elude the
researches of the historian;--a fatal witness against them at the
tribunal of posterity.

The preface of Mallet to the "Patriot King" of Bolingbroke, produced a
literary quarrel; and more pamphlets than perhaps I have discovered
were published on this occasion.

Every lover of literature was indignant to observe that the vain and
petulant Mallet, under the protection of Pope's

Guide, philosopher, and friend!

should have been permitted to have aspersed Pope with the most
degrading language. Pope is here always designated as "This Man." Thus
"_This Man_ was no sooner dead than Lord Bolingbroke received
information that an entire edition of 1500 copies of these papers had
been printed; that this very _Man_ had corrected the press, &c." Could
one imagine that this was the Tully of England, describing our Virgil?
For Mallet was but the mouthpiece of Bolingbroke.

After a careful detection of many facts concerning the parties now
before us, I must attribute the concealed motive of this outrage
on Pope to the election the dying poet made of Warburton as his
editor. A mortal hatred raged between Bolingbroke and Warburton. The
philosophical lord had seen the mighty theologian ravish the prey
from his grasp. Although Pope held in idolatrous veneration the
genius of Bolingbroke, yet had this literary superstition been
gradually enlightened by the energy of Warburton. They were his good
and his evil genii in a dreadful conflict, wrestling to obtain the
entire possession of the s