tory of English poetry, but relinquished the design
to Warton, to whom he communicated an outline of his own plan. The
"Observations on English Metre" and the essay on the poet Lydgate, among
Gray's prose remains, are apparently portions of this projected work.

Lowell, furthermore, pronounces Joseph Warton's "Essay on the Genius and
Writings of Pope" (1756) "the earliest public official declaration of war
against the reigning mode." The new school had its critics, as well as
its poets, and the Wartons were more effective in the former capacity.
The war thus opened was by no means as internecine as that waged by the
French classicists and romanticists of 1830. It has never been possible
to get up a very serious conflict in England, upon merely aesthetic
grounds. Yet the same opposition existed. Warton's biographer tells us
that the strictures made upon his essay were "powerful enough to damp the
ardor of the essayist, who left his work in an imperfect state for the
long space of twenty-six years," _i.e._, till 1782, when he published the
second volume.

Both Wartons were personal friends of Dr. Johnson; they were members of
the Literary Club and contributors to the _Idler_ and the _Adventurer_.
Thomas interested himself to get Johnson the Master's degree from Oxford,
where the doctor made him a visit. Some correspondence between them is
given in Boswell. Johnson maintained in public a respectful attitude
toward the critical and historical work of the Wartons; but he had no
sympathy with their antiquarian enthusiasm or their liking for old
English poetry. In private he ridiculed Thomas' verses, and summed them
up in the manner ensuing:

"Whereso'er I turn my view,
All is strange yet nothing new;
Endless labor all along,
Endless labor to be wrong;
Phrase that time has flung away,
Uncouth words in disarray,
Tricked in antique ruff and bonnet,
Ode and elegy and sonnet."

And although he added, "Remember that I love the fellow dearly, for all I
laugh at him," this saving clause failed to soothe the poet's indignant
breast, when he heard that the doctor had ridiculed his lines. An
estrangement resulted which Johnson is said to have spoken of even with
tears, saying "that Tom Warton was the only man of genius he ever knew
who wanted a heart."

Goldsmith, too, belonged to the conservative party, though Mr. Perry[12]
detects romantic touches in "The Deserted Village," such as the