It was
worth while being a dunce then. Ah, Sir, hadst THOU lived in those
days! It is not worth while 'being a dunce now, when there are no wits.'
Bickerstaff observed, as a peculiar circumstance, that Pope's fame was
higher when he was alive than it was then. Johnson said, his Pastorals
were poor things, though the versification was fine. He told us, with
high satisfaction, the anecdote of Pope's inquiring who was the authour
of his London, and saying, he will be soon deterre. He observed, that in
Dryden's poetry there were passages drawn from a profundity which Pope
could never reach. He repeated some fine lines on love, by the former,
(which I have now forgotten,) and gave great applause to the character
of Zimri. Goldsmith said, that Pope's character of Addison shewed a deep
knowledge of the human heart. Johnson said, that the description of the
temple, in The Mourning Bride, was the finest poetical passage he had
ever read; he recollected none in Shakspeare equal to it. 'But, (said
Garrick, all alarmed for the 'God of his idolatry,') we know not the
extent and variety of his powers.
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