touches the point we are upon; but I mention
the author to you, as the pleasantest, the most learned, and the most full
of sterling sense. The wits of Queen Anne's reign, and the beginning of
George the First, were not a little beholden to him."--_Archbishop
Herring's Letters_, 12mo. 1777. p. 149.

"BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, he (Dr. Johnson) said, was the only book
that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to
rise."--_Boswell's Life of Johnson_, vol. i. p. 580. 8vo. edit.

"BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY is a valuable book," said Dr. Johnson. "It
is, perhaps, overloaded with quotation. But there is great spirit and great
power in what Burton says when he writes from his own mind."--_Ibid_, vol.
ii. p. 325.

"It will be no detraction from the powers of Milton's original genius and
invention, to remark, that he seems to have borrowed the subject of _L'
Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_, together with some particular thoughts,
expressions, and rhymes, more especially the idea of a contrast between
these two dispositions, from a forgotten poem prefixed to the first edition
of BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, entitled, 'The Author's Abstract of
Melancholy; or, A Dialogue between Pleasure and Pain.' Here pain is
melancholy. It was written, as I conjecture, about the year 1600. I will
make no apology for abstracting and citing as much of this poem as will be
sufficient to prove, to a discerning reader, how far it had taken
possession of Milton's mind. The measure will appear to be the same; and
that our author was at least an attentive reader of Burton's book, may be
already concluded from the traces of resemblance which I have incidentally
noticed in passing through the _L' Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_."--After
extracting the lines, Mr. Warton adds, "as to the very elaborate work to
which these visionary verses are no unsuitable introduction, the writer's
variety of learning, his quotations from scarce and curious books, his
pedantry sparkling with rude wit and shapeless elegance, miscellaneous
matter, intermixture of agreeable tales and illustrations, and, perhaps,
above all, the singularities of his feelings, clothed in an uncommon
quaintness of style, have contributed to render it, even to modern readers,
a valuable repository of amusement and information."--_Warton's Milton_, 2d
edit. p. 94.

"THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY is a book which has been universally read and
admired. This work is, for the most