Hawk. Apoph. p. 213.

p. 208.

for her elegant assemblies, and bringing eminent characters together. The interview proved to be mutually agreeable.

[Sir John Hawkins, however, relates that to a person who asked "whether he had ever been in company with Dr. Warburton ?" he answered, "I never saw him till one evening, about a week ago, at the Bishop of St. [Asaph's]: at first he looked surlily at me; but after we had been jostled into conversation, he took me to a window, asked me some questions, and before we parted was so well pleased with me, that he patted me." "You always, sir, preserved a respect for him?" "Yes, and justly; when as yet I was in no favour with the world, he spoke well of me', and I hope I never forgot the obligation."]

I am well informed, that Warburton said of Johnşon, "I admire him, but I cannot bear his style:" and that Johnson being told of this, said, "That is exactly my case as to him." The manner in which he expressed his admiration of the fertility of Warburton's genius and of the variety of his materials, was "The table is always full, sir. He brings things from the north, and the south, and from every quarter. In his Divine Legation,' you are always entertained. He carries you round and round, without carrying you forward to the point, but then you have no wish to be carried forward." He said to the Reverend Mr. Strahan, "Warburton is perhaps the last man who has written with a mind full of reading and reflection."

[When a Scotsman was talking against Warburton, Johnson said he had more literature than had been imported from Scotland since the days of Buchanan, Upon his mentioning other eminent writers of the

In his Preface to Shakspeare,

Scots-"These will not do," said Johnson; "let us have some more of your northern lights; these are mere farthing candles."]

It is remarkable, that in the Life of Broome, Johnson takes notice of Dr. Warburton's using a mode of expression which he himself used, and that not seldom, to the great offence of those who did not know him. Having occasion to mention a note, stating the different parts which were executed by the associated translators of "The Odyssey," he says, "Dr. Warburton told me, in his warm language, that he thought the relation given in the note a lie." The language is warm indeed; and, I must own, cannot be justified in consistency with a decent regard to the established forms of speech. Johnson had accustomed himself to use the word lie, to express a mistake or an errour in relation; in short, when the thing was not so as told, though the relater did not mean to deceive. When he thought there was intentional falsehood in the relater, his expression was, "He lies, and he knows he lies."

Speaking of Pope's not having been known to excel in conversation, Johnson observes, that "traditional memory retains no sallies of raillery, or sentences of observation; nothing either pointed or solid, wise or merry; and that one apophthegm only is recorded." In this respect, Pope differed widely from Johnson, whose conversation was, perhaps, more admirable than even his writings, however excellent. Mr. Wilkes has, however, favoured me with one repartee of Pope, of which Johnson was not informed. Johnson, after justly censuring him for having "nursed in his mind a foolish disesteem of kings," tells us, "yet a little regard shown him by the Prince of Wales melted his obduracy; and he had not much to say when he was asked by his royal highness, how

VOL. IV.

EE

he could love a prince while he disliked kings?” The answer which Pope made was, "The young lion is harmless, and even playful; but when his claws are full grown, he becomes cruel, dreadful, and mischievous."

But although we have no collection of Pope's sayings, it is not therefore to be concluded, that he was not agreeable in social intercourse; for Johnson has been heard to say, that "the happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression." The late Lord Somerville', who saw much both of great and brilliant life, told me, that he had dined in company with Pope, and that after dinner the little man, as he called him, drank his bottle of Burgundy, and was exceedingly gay and entertaining.

I cannot withhold from my great friend a censure of at least culpable inattention, to a nobleman, who, it has been shown, behaved to him with uncommon politeness. He says, He says, "except Lord Bathurst, none of Pope's noble friends were such as that a good man would wish to have his intimacy with them known to posterity." This will not apply to Lord Mansfield, who was not ennobled in Pope's life-time; but Johnson should have recollected, that Lord Marchmont was one of those noble friends 3. He includes

1 James Lord Somerville, who died in 1763.-MALONE. [He was the 13th lord, and died in 1765.-ED.] Let me here express my grateful remembrance of Lord Somerville's kindness to me, at a very carly period. He was the first person of high rank that took particular notice of me in the way most flattering to a young man, fondly ambitious of being distinguished for his literary talents; and by the honour of his encouragement made me think well of myself, and aspire to deserve it better. He had a happy art of communicating his varied knowledge of the world, in short remarks and anecdotes, with a quiet pleasant gravity, that was exceedingly engaging. Never shall I forget the hours which I enjoyed with him at his apartments in the royal palace of Holyrood House, and at his seat near Edinburgh, which he himself had formed with an elegant taste.-BOSWELL.

[This must surely be a mistake; Pope never could have been in the habit of drinking a bottle of Burgundy at a sitting.-ED.]

3 [He said, on a subsequent occasion, that another of Pope's noble friends, "Lord Peterborough, was a favourite of his." See post, 27th June, 1784. ED.]

his lordship along with Lord Bolingbroke, in a charge of neglect of the papers which Pope left by his will; when, in truth, as I myself pointed out to him, before he wrote that poet's life, the papers were "committed to the sole care and judgment of Lord Bolingbroke, unless he (Lord Bolingbroke) shall not survive me;" so that Lord Marchmont has no concern whatever with them. After the first edition of the Lives, Mr. Malone, whose love of justice is equal to his accuracy, made, in my hearing, the same remark to Johnson; yet he omitted to correct the erroneous statement 1. These particulars I mention, in the belief that there was only forgetfulness in my friend; but I owe this much to the Earl of Marchmont's reputation, who, were there no other memorials, will be immortalized by that line of Pope, in the verses on his Grotto:

"And the bright flame was shot through Marchiont's soul."

VARIOUS READINGS IN THE LIFE OF POPE.

[Somewhat free] sufficiently bold in his criticism. "All the gay [niceties] varieties of diction. "Strikes the imagination with far [more] greater

force.

"It is [probably] certainly the noblest version of poetry which the world has ever seen.

66

'Every sheet enabled him to write the next with [less trouble] more facility.

"No man sympathizes with [vanity depressed] the sorrows of vanity.

"It had been [criminal] less easily excused. "When he [threatened to lay down] talked of laying down his pen.

This neglect, however, assuredly did not arise from any ill-will towards Lord Marchmont, but from inattention; just as he neglected to correct his statement concerning the family of Thomson, the poet, after it had been shown to be erroneous.—) -MALONE.

"Society [is so named emphatically in opposition to] politically regulated, is a state contra-distinguished from a state of nature.

A fictitious life of an [absurd] infatuated scholar. “A foolish [contempt, disregard,] disesteem of kings.

"His hopes and fears, his joys and sorrows [were like those of other mortals] acted strongly upon his

mind.

66

Eager to pursue knowledge and attentive to [accumulate] retain it.

66

"A mind [excursive] active, ambitious, and ad

venturous.

“ In its [noblest] ridest searches still longing to go forward.

"He wrote in such a manner as might expose him to few [neglects] hazards.

"The [reasonableness] justice of my determina

tion.

“ A [favourite] delicious employment of the poets. "More terrifick and more powerful [beings] phantoms perform on the stormy ocean.

tion.

The inventor of [those] this petty [beings] na

"The [mind] heart naturally loves truth."

In the Life of Addison we find an unpleasing account of his having lent Steele a hundred pounds, and "reclaimed his loan by an execution." In the new edition of the Biographia Britannica, the authenticity of this anecdote is denied. But Mr. Malone has obliged me with the following note concerning it :

"15th March, 1781.

"Many persons having doubts concerning this fact, I applied to Dr. Johnson, to learn on what