my 'Account of Corsica,' he did me the honor to call on me, and
approaching me with a frank, courteous air, said, 'Sir, my name is
Oglethorpe, and I wish to become acquainted with you.' I was not a
little flattered to be thus addressed by an eminent man, of whom I had
read in Pope from my early years,

"Or, driven by strong benevolence of soul,
Will fly like Oglethorpe from pole to pole."

"I was fortunate enough to be found worthy of his good opinion,
insomuch that I was not only invited to make one of the many
respectable companies whom he entertained at his table, but had
a cover at his hospitable board every day when I happened to be
disengaged; and in his society I never failed to enjoy learned and
animated conversation, seasoned with genuine sentiments of virtue and
religion."[1]

[Footnote 1: Vol. III. p. 225.]

Dr. Warton, referring to Oglethorpe, says, "I had the pleasure of
knowing him well;" and, in a note upon the couplet quoted from Pope,
says, "Here are lines that will justly confer immortality on a man who
well deserved so magnificent an eulogium. He was, at once, a great
hero, and a great legislator. The vigor of his mind and body have
seldom been equalled. The vivacity of his genius continued to great
old age. The variety of his adventures, and the very different scenes
in which he had been engaged, made me regret that his life has never
been written. Dr. Johnson once offered to do it, if the General would
furnish him the materials. Johnson had a great regard for him, for he
was one of the first persons that highly, in all companies, praised
his 'London.' His first campaign was made under Prince Eugene against
the Turks, and that great General always spoke of Oglethorpe in the
highest terms. But his settlement of the Colony of Georgia gave a
greater lustre to his character than even his military exploits."

With Goldsmith, too, he was intimate. In the lately published
biography of this poet by Prior,[1] referring to the occasional relief
contributed to him in his exigences, it is added, "Goldsmith was
content, likewise, to be made the channel of conveyance for the
bounty of others, as we find by a letter of General Oglethorpe,
a distinguished and amiable man, at whose table he met with good
society, and spent many agreeable hours, and who now, at an advanced
period of life, displayed the same love for the good of mankind, in a
private way, that he had exerted on a more extended scale." With th