'793* on EngKJh poetry,'— the Eplgoniad. 27T 



Jents and dispositioni, almost above all others. And 

 though it was impofbible for him to discover defects 

 which nature had deprived him of the faculties of dis- 

 criminating, so that he deemed it a valuable producti- 

 on till his dying day : yet he told me himself, that 

 the labour of this composition had been such, as so 

 much to impair his constitution that it never was 

 afterwards re-establiflied; and the emoluments he de- 

 rived from it were so inconsiderable, that he would 

 have earned more money had he been employed all 

 the time in hoing potatoes, at tlie rate of eight-pence 

 a day ; the common wages of a labourer in his neigh- 

 bourhood at the time he wrote it. At an after pe- 

 riod he publiQic'd some fabits in verse with much 

 happier succef for ; in that species of composition, 

 judgement is chiefly concerned, and a due selectioa 

 of proper words, so as to constitute easy verse ; 

 in both which respects he was far from being defi- 

 cient. Indeed in respect to mathematical learn- 

 ing, philosophy, historical and political knowledge, 

 and strong sense in regard to the common occurren- 

 ce- of life, Mr Wilkie had few equals in any part 

 ct the world ; and I have often regretted that in 

 place of wasting his time in a vain attempt at poeti- 

 cal excellence, be had not turned his attention to his- 

 torical diFquisition; in which, 1 am satisfied, he would 

 have made a gi eater figure than perhaps any BritiQi 

 author that has appeared wiihin the present age. 



Pardon this involuntary digrefsion in favour of a 

 jnan whom I respected much in life, and whose 

 memory 1 fhall ever highly revere I 



/ 



