ieu! May you die as happy!

"Yours," &c.

137 "Mr. Pope was with Sir Godfrey Kneller one day, when his nephew, a
Guinea trader, came in. 'Nephew,' said Sir Godfrey, 'you have the
honour of seeing the two greatest men in the world.'--'I don't know
how great you may be,' said the Guinea man, 'but I don't like your
looks: I have often bought a man, much better than both of you
together, all muscles and bones, for ten guineas.' "--DR. WARBURTON
(_Spence's Anecdotes_).

138 Swift's mention of him as one

---- whose filial piety excels,
Whatever Grecian story tells,

is well known. And a sneer of Walpole's may be put to a better use
than he ever intended it for, a propos of this subject.--He
charitably sneers, in one of his letters, at Spence's "fondling an
old mother--in imitation of Pope!"

139 Joseph Spence was the son of a clergyman, near Winchester. He was a
short time at Eton, and afterwards became a Fellow of New College,
Oxford, a clergyman, and professor of poetry. He was a friend of
Thomson's, whose reputation he aided. He published an _Essay on the
Odyssey_ in 1726, which introduced him to Pope. Everybody liked him.
His _Anecdotes_ were placed, while still in MS., at the service of
Johnson and also of Malone. They were published by Mr. Singer in
1820.

140 He speaks of Arbuthnot's having helped him through "that long
disease, my life". But not only was he so feeble as is implied in
his use of the "buckram", but "it now appears", says Mr. Peter
Cunningham, "from his unpublished letters, that, like Lord Hervey,
he had recourse to ass's-milk for the preservation of his health."
It is to his lordship's use of that simple beverage that he alludes
when he says--

Let Sporus tremble!--A. What, that thing of silk,
Sporus, that mere white-curd of ass's-milk?

141 "He (Johnson) repeated to us, in his forcible melodious manner, the
concluding lines of the _Dunciad_."--BOSWELL.

142 "Mr. Langton informed me that he once related to Johnson (on the
authority of Spence), that Pope himself admired these lines so much
that when he repeated them his voice faltered. 'And well it might,
sir,' said Johnson, 'for they are noble lines.' "

J. BOSWELL, junior.

143 Coleridge speaks of the "beautiful female faces" in