Thy art of pleasing teach me, Garrick, Thou who reverest [reversest] odes Pindaric,
A second time read o'er x ; Oh ! could we read thee backwards too, Last thirty years thou should st review,
And charm us thirty more.
If I have thoughts and can't express 'em, Gibbons [sz'f] shall teach me how to dress 'em
In terms select and terse ; Jones teach me modesty and Greek 2 ; Smith, how to think 3 ; Burke, how to speak;
And Beauclerk to converse 4 .
Let Johnson teach me how to place In fairest light each borrow'd Grace
From him I '11 learn to write : Copy his free and easy style, And from the roughness of his file Grow, like himself, Polite.
Dr. Johnson's rude repulse given to a gentleman who ask'd his leave to introduce the Abbe Raynal 5 to him, is I believe too well known to need a repetition. Something similar to that was his answer to a gentleman at the literary club, who, on
presenting his Friend, said, ' This, Sir, is Mr. V y 6 .' ' I see
him,' said Dr. Johnson, and immediately turn'd away.
His reply to Dr. Grainger, who was reading his manuscript Poem to him of the sugar-cane, will probably be thought more excusable. When he came to the line, * Say, shall I sing of Rats?' ' No,' cry'd Dr. Johnson with great vehemency. This
��Mr. Cumberland has written an mouth's Life of Sir W. Jones, ed.
Ode, as he modestly calls it, in praise 1815, p. 465.
of Gray's Odes. . . . Garrick read it 3 Adam Smith. For his talk see
the other night at Mr. Beauclerk's, Life, iv. 24, n. 2.
who comprehended so little what it 4 Ante, i. 273, 469.
was about, that he desired Garrick All the men mentioned in these
to read it backwards, and try if it verses, as well as Barnard, were
would not be equally good ; he did, members of the Literary Club,
and it was.' Walpole's Letters, vi. 298. 5 See ante, i. 211.
2 Sir William Jones, who dying at 6 ' When Mr. Vesey was proposed
the age of forty- seven had 'studied as a member of the Literary Club
eight languages critically, eight less Mr. Burke began by saying that he
perfectly, but all intelligible with a was a man of gentle manners. "Sir,"
dictionary, and twelve least per- said Johnson, "you need say no
fectly, but all attainable.' Teign- more. When you have said a man
he
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