aAaPPEN DIX. 103 
nions ; and this admiration (refulting originally from the ge- 
neral character of his tafte, which delighted more to remark 
that pliancy of genius which accommodates itfelf to eftablifhed 
rules, than to wonder at the bolder flights of an undifciplined 
imagination) was increafed to a great degree, when he faw the 
beauties that had ftruck him in the clofet, heightened by the 
utmoft perfection of theatrical exhibition. In the laft years of 
his life, he fometimes amufed himéelf, at a leifure hour, in fup- 
porting his theoretical conclufions on thefe fubjeéts, by the 
fa&s which his fabfequent ftudies and obfervations had fug- 
gefted ; and he intended, if he had lived, to have prepared the 
- refult of thefe labours for the prefs. Of this work he has left 
for publication a short fragment ; the firft part of which is, in 
my judgment, more finifhed in point of ftyle than any of his 
compofitions; but he had mot proceeded far enough to apply 
his doctrine to verfification and to the theatre. As his notions, 
however, with refpect to thefe were a favourite topic of his 
converfation, and were intimately connected with his general 
principles of criticifm, it would have been improper to pafs 
them over in this fketch of his life; and I even thought it 
proper to detail them at greater length than the comparative 
importance of the fubje@ would have juftified, if he had car- 
ried his plans into execution. Whether his love of fyftem, 
added to his partiality for the French drama, may not have led 
him, in this inftance, to generalize a little too much his conclu- 
fions, and to overlook fome peculiarities in the language and 
verfification of that country, I fhall not take AROS me to de- 
‘ termine. 
In OGober 1766, the Duke of BuccLEucu seid to Lon- 
don. His Graee, to whom I am indebted for feveral particu- 
lars in the foregoing narrative, will, Ivhope, forgive the liberty 
I take in tranferibing one paragraph in his own words: “ In 
** OGober 1766, we returned to London, after having fpent 
“* mear three years together, without the flighteft difagreement 
; 6s or 
Account of 
Dr Smith. 
