Pope's own life is the strongest example upon record of the degradation he deplores.
[224] In the margin of the manuscript Pope has written the passages of Virgil from which he took his expressions. Æn. iii. 56:
quid non mortalia pectora cogis
Auri sacra fames?
Geor. i. 37:
Nec tibi regnandi veniat tam dira cupido,
which Dryden translates,
Nor let so dire a thirst of empire move.
[225] Such a manly and ingenuous censure from a culprit in this way, as in the case of Pope, is entitled to great praise.—Wakefield.
If his indecorums had been the failing of youth and thoughtlessness, and he had publicly recanted his errors, his self-condemnation would be meritorious. The larger portion of his offences were, on the contrary, committed after he had declared indecency to be unpardonable. Any man, however persistently reprobate, might earn "great praise" on terms like these.
[226] No one has expressed himself upon this subject so pithily as Cowley: