Is not this enough for you? at a time too when you
were not FISHING for a compliment?' He laughed at this with a complacent
approbation. Old Mr. Sheridan observed, upon my mentioning it to him,
'He liked your compliment so well, he was willing to take it with
PUN SAUCE.' For my own part, I think no innocent species of wit or
pleasantry should be suppressed; and that a good pun may be admitted
among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation.
Mr. Burke uniformly shewed Johnson the greatest respect; and when Mr.
Townshend, now Lord Sydney, at a period when he was conspicuous in
opposition, threw out some reflection in parliament upon the grant of
a pension to a man of such political principles as Johnson; Mr. Burke,
though then of the same party with Mr. Townshend, stood warmly forth
in defence of his friend, to whom, he justly observed, the pension
was granted solely on account of his eminent literary merit. I am well
assured, that Mr. Townshend's attack upon Johnson was the occasion of
his 'hitching in a rhyme;' for, that in the original copy of Goldsmith's
character of Mr.
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