peare, one may say that if many
passages were struck out, Shakspeare would not be injured, for many of
them were never composed by that great bard! There not only existed a
literary intimacy between Oldys and Pope, but our poet adopting his
suggestions on so important an occasion, evinces how highly he esteemed
his judgment; and unquestionably Pope had often been delighted by Oldys
with the history of his predecessors, and the curiosities of English
poetry.

I have now introduced the reader to Oldys sitting amidst his "poetical
bags," his "parchment biographical budgets," his "catalogues," and his
"diaries," often venting a solitary groan, or active in some fresh
inquiry. Such is the _Silhouette_ of this prodigy of literary curiosity!

The very existence of Oldys's manuscripts continues to be of an
ambiguous nature; referred to, quoted, and transcribed, we can but
seldom turn to the originals. These masses of curious knowledge,
dispersed or lost, have enriched an after-race, who have often picked up
the spoil and claimed the victory, but it was Oldys who had fought the
battle!

Oldys affords one more example how life is often closed amidst
discoveries and acquisitions. The literary antiquary, when he has
attempted to embody his multiplied inquiries, and to finish his
scattered designs, has found that the LABOR ABSQUE LABORE, "the labour
void of labour," as the inscription on the library of Florence finely
describes the researches of literature, has dissolved his days in the
voluptuousness of his curiosity; and that too often, like the hunter in
the heat of the chase, while he disdained the prey which lay before him,
he was still stretching onwards to catch the fugitive!

_Transvolat in medio posita, et fugientia captat._

At the close of every century, in this growing world of books, may an
Oldys be the reader for the nation! Should he be endowed with a
philosophical spirit, and combine the genius of his own times with that
of the preceding, he will hold in his hand the chain of human thoughts,
and, like another Bayle, become the historian of the human mind!

FOOTNOTES:

[338] His intention was to publish a general classified biography of
all the Italian authors.

[339] He says in his advertisement, "It will be difficult to ascertain
whether he meant to give them to the public, or only to reserve them
for his own amusement and the entertainment of his friends." Many of
these anecdotes a