proved upon this, by making his lady, at the fame time, free from their defects.

He dwelt upon Buchanan's elegant verfes to Mary Queen of Scots, Nympha Caledonia, &c. and fpoke with enthusiasm of the beauty of Latin verfe. "All the modern languages (faid he) cannot furnifh fo melodious a line as

46

Formofam refonare doces Amarillida filvas."

Buchanan (he obferved) has fewer centos than any modern Latin poet. He not only has great knowledge of the Latin language, but was a great poetical genius. Both the Scaligers praife him."

Mrs. Thrale once difputed with Johnfon on the merit of Prior. He attacked him powerfully; faid he wrote of love like a man who had never felt it: his love verfes were college verfes; and he repeated the fong Alexis thunn'd his Fellow Swains," &c. in fo ludicrous a manner, as to make all the company wonder how any one could have been pleafed with fuch fantastical ftuff. Mrs. Thrale stood to her guns with great courage, in defence of amorous dittics, which Johnfon defpifed, till he at last filenced her by faying, "My dear Lady, talk no more of this. Nonfenfe can be defended but by nonfenfe.".

A propo

A propofition which had been agitated, that monuments to eminent persons should, for the time to come, be erected in St. Paul's church as well as in Westminster Abbey, was mentioned; and it was afked, who fhould be honoured by having his monument firft erected there. Somebody fuggefted Pope.-JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, as Pope was a Roman Catholick, I would not have his to be firft. I think Milton's rather should have the precedence. I think more highly of him now than I did at twenty. There is more thinking in him and in Butler, than in any of our poets."

It was a lively faying of Dr. Johnfon fo Mifs Hannah More, who had expreffed a wonder that the poet who had written Paradise Loft' fhould write fuch poor Sonnets: "Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Coloffus from a rock; but could not carve heads upon cherry-ftones."

He cenfured Ruffhead's life of Pope; and faid, "he knew nothing of Pope, and nothing of poetry." He praised Dr. Jofeph Warton's Effay on Pope; but faid, he supposed we should have no more of it, as the author had not been able to perfuade the world to think of Pope as he did.-BOSWELL. "Why, Sir, should that prevent him from continuing his work He is an ingenious Countel, who has made

the

the moft of his caufe; he is not obliged to gain it."-JOHNSON. "But, Sir, there is a difference when the cause is of a man's own making."

Mr. Bofwell told Johnfon, that Pope and Dryden had been thus diftinguished by a foreign writer: "Pope drives a handfome chariot, with a couple of neat trim nags; Dryden a coach, and fix ftately horfes."-7. "Why, Sir, the truth is, they both drive coaches and fix; but Dryden's horses are either galloping or ftumbling: Pope's go at a steady even trot."

Johnfon faid, Pope's characters of men were admirably drawn, those of women not so well. He repeated, in his forcible melodious man-. ner, the concluding lines of the Dunciad.While he was talking loudly in praise of those lines, one of the company ventured to say, "Too fine for fuch a poem: a poem on what?"-JOHNSON (with a difdainful look). Why, on dunces. It was worth while being a dunce then. Ah, Sir, hadft thou lived in those days! It is not worth while now, when there are no wits."

being a dunce

Bickerstaff ob

ferved, as a peculiar circumftance, that Pope's fame was higher when he was alive than it was then. Johnson faid, his Paftorals were poor things, though the verfification was fine

БЕ

He

told

told us, with high fatisfaction, the anecdote of Pope's inquiring who was the author of his London,' and faying he will be foon deterré. He obferved, that in Dryden's Poctry there were paffages drawn from a profundity which Pope could never reach. He repeated some fine lines on love by the former (which I have now forgotten), and gave great applaufe to the character of Zimri. Goldsmith faid, that Pope's character of Addifon fhewed a deep knowledge of the human heart.

"In the year 1763 (fays Mr. Boswell, addreffing himself to Dr. Johnson), being at London, I was carried by Dr. John Blair, Prebendary of Weftminster, to dine at old Lord Bathurft's; where we found the late Mr. Mallet, Sir James Porter, who had been Ambaffador at Conftantinople, the late Dr. Macaulay, and two or three more. The converfation turning on Mr. Pope, Lord Bathurst told us, that The Effay on Man' was originally compofed by Lord Bolingbroke in profe, and that Mr. Pope did no more than put it into verfe: that he had read Lord Bolingbroke's manufcript. in his own hand-writing; and remembered well, that he was at a lofs whether moft to admire the elegance of Lord Bolingbroke's profe, or the beauty of Mr. Pope's verfe. When Lord Bathurst told this, Mr. Mallet bade me attend,

attend, and remember this remarkable piece of information; as, by the courfe of nature, I might furvive his Lordship, and be a witness of his having faid fo. The conversation was indeed too remarkable to be forgotten. A few days after, meeting with you, who were then alfo at London, you will remember that I mentioned to you what had paffed on this fubject, as I was much ftruck with this anecdote. But what afcertains my recollection of it beyond doubt is, that being accustomed to keep a Jour nal of what paffed when I was at London, which I wrote out every evening, I find the particulars of the above information, just as I have now given them, distinctly marked ; and am thence enabled to fix this conversation to have paffed on Friday, the 22d of April, 1763.

Johnson faid, "Depend upon it, Sir, this is too strongly stated. Pope may have had from Bolingbroke the philofophic ftamina of his Effay; and admitting this to be true, Lord Bathurst did not intentionally falfify. But the thing is not true in the latitude that Blair feems to imagine; we are fure that the poetical imagery, which makes a great part of the poem, was Pope's own. It is amazing, Sir, what deviations there are from precife truth, in the account which is given of almoft every thing. I