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The frequent recurrence of any one topic gives information 

 of the fame fort. Milton often celebrates the mufic of the 

 nightingale, for many of his nights were fpent in folitary ftudy, 

 and he wooed the nightly vifitatlons of his mufe. Terence, who 

 was himfelf a Have, has always produced on his ftage fome 

 flave of eminent talents and addrefs to be the principal per- 

 fonage in his drama. Smollet, who was a furgeon in the navy, 

 has generally prefented to us fome naval incidents or naval 

 charaders, and makes a fhip of war the frequent fcene of his 

 novels ; while Farquhar, who had been in the land fervice, has 

 generally introduced a military man into his plays. It is natural 

 for every man to fuppofe that thofe circumftances and fituations 

 will appear mofl interefling to others in which he has found 

 himfelf pecviliarly interefted ; and an author judges wifely when 

 he prefers for his fubjedts thofe modes of life with which he is 

 beft acquainted. When a critic, not very lavifli of his commen- 

 dation, gives fupereminent praifes to particular paflages, I have 

 always, on examination, found fomething in them which met 

 his prejudices, his habits, or his temper. Johnfon, in his life of 

 Congreve, fays, that were he called on to point out the mofl 

 beautiful pafTage in all Englifh poetry, he knows not what he 

 would felecl in preference to the defcription of the temple in 

 the Aiourning Bride. In his life of Dryden he tells us, that the 

 defcription of the different modes in which the Englifh and the 

 Dutch arci in tlie Annus Mirabilis, recorded to have paffed the 

 night after the engagement, is one of the fairefl flowers of 

 Englifli poetry. It is fomewhat fingular that thefe two paffages 



( L 4 ) exprefs 



