A spasm of wounded vanity would make him for the time as mean and selfish as other men are made by a frenzy of bodily fear.

He would instinctively snatch at a lie even when a moment's reflection would have shown that the plain truth would be more convenient, and therefore he had to accumulate lie upon lie, each intended to patch up some previous blunder.

Though nominally the poet of reason, he was the very antithesis of the man who is reasonable in the highest sense: who is truthful in word and deed because his conduct is regulated by harmonious and invariable principles.

Pope was governed by the instantaneous feeling.

His emotion came in sudden jets and gushes, instead of a continuous stream.