Pope's suspicions are a proof that in this case he was almost subject to the illusion characteristic of actual insanity.
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.