This view of Addison's conduct was Pope's own, and was both too mean and too improbable to be shared. The chances were all in favour of Addison's advice being accurate. Johnson seldom condemns, in the terms they deserve, the meanness and suspicion of Pope's character. In this ease the offence given by Addison was, on Pope's own showing, the first occasion of any doubt as to his friendship, and this doubt was naturally the offspring of his own double-dealing in the matter of his attack upon John Dennis. Cf. note. Macaulay has warmly defended Addison's advice, in his Essays (1 vol. ed. p. 717), and even though it proved to have been mistaken, it was not more so than Pope's own advice to Addison, not to bring 'Cato' on the stage. (Pope's Works, ed. Elwin, vol. i. p. 327.)