I^gi. ANECDOTES OF THE LATE DR. SMITH J 



" inquirj, it came out that the gentleman never had a 

 " filler. As to Mr. Burke, he is a worthy honeft mar. 

 "He married an accompiiflied girl, without a fhilling cf 

 " fortune." I wanted to get the Gentleman's Magazine 

 excepted from his general cenfure ; but lie would not 

 hear me. He never, he faid, looked at a R.eview, nor 

 even knew the names of the publilliers. 



He was fond of Pope, and had by heart many fa- 

 vourite paflagci ; but he difliked the private character 

 of the man. He was, he faid, all affectation, and men- 

 tioned his letter to Arbuthnot, when the latter was dy- 

 ing, as a confummate fpecimen of canting ; which to be 

 fure it is. He had alfo a very high opinion of Dryden, 

 and loudly extolled his fables. I mentioned Mr. 

 Hume's objefl:ions ; he replied, " You will learn more 

 " as to poetry by reading one good poem, than by a 

 " thoufand volumes of criticifm." He quoted fome paf- 

 fages in Defoe, which breathed, as he thought, the 

 true fpirit of Englilh verfe. 



He difliked Meikle's tranflation of the Lufiad, and 

 elteemed the French verlion of that work as far fupe- 

 rior. Meikle, in his preface, has contradicted with 

 great franknefs, fome of the pofitions advanced in the 

 Do6tor's inquiry, which may perhaps have difgufteA- 

 hiio ; but in truth, Meikle is only an indifferent rhymer. 



You have lately quoted largely from Lord Garden- 

 lloun's Remarks on Englifli Plays ; and I obferve, that 

 this lively and venerable critic, damns by far the great- 

 er part of them. In this fentiment, Dr. Smith, agreed 

 molt heartily with his Lord.^ip ; he regarded the 

 French theatre as the Itandard of dramatic excellence *. 



He faid, that at the beginning of the prefeut reign, 



• It is entertaining to obferve men of abilities contradidl each other on 

 topics apparently finiple. Dr. Smith admired as the very climax of dra- 

 matic excellence, Voltaire's Mahomet ; on the other hand. Lord Garden- 

 floun pronounces, that every line in the play betrays a total want of geni- 

 us, and even of taftc for tragic compofition. It is not my buCi'efs co 

 balance accounts between his Lardfhip and the Doilor, 



