APPENDIX. 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 (truck him in the clofet, heightened by the 

 utmoft perfection of theatrical exhibition. In the laft years of 

 his life, he fometimes amufed himfelf, at a leifure hour, in Sup- 

 porting his theoretical conclufions on thefe Subjects, by the 

 fads which his Subsequent ftudies and obfervations had fug- 

 gefted \ and he intended, if he had lived, to have prepared the 

 remit of thefe labours for the preSs. Of this work he has left 

 for publication a fhort fragment j the firft part of which is, in 

 my judgment, more finiihed in point of ftyle than any of his 

 compofitions ; but he had not proceeded far enough to apply 

 his doctrine to verification 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 Subject would have juflified, 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- 

 {ions, and to overlook fome peculiarities in the language and 

 verfification of that country, I Ihall not take upon me to de- 

 termine* 



In October 1766, the Duke of Buccleugh returned to Lon- 

 don. His Grace, to whom I am indebted for feveral particu- 

 lars in the foregoing narrative, will, I'hope, forgive the liberty 

 I take in transcribing one paragraph in his own words : " In 

 " October 1766, we returned to London, after having fpent 

 " near three years together, without the flighteft difagreement 



" or 



Arrount of 

 Dr Smith. 



