and persons of very shallow learning. 'Tis
certain that Mr. Rawlinson understood the titles and editions of books
better than any man I ever knew (for he had a very great memory), but
besides this, he was a great reader, and had read abundantly of the best
writers, ancient and modern, throughout, and was entirely master of the
learning contained in them. He had digested the classicks so well as to
be able readily and upon all occasions (what I have very often admired)
to make use of passages from them very pertinently, what I never knew in
so great perfection in any other person whatsoever.'[67]

A poem of twenty-six lines by Rawlinson on the death of the Duke of
Gloucester in 1700 was printed in a collection of verses written by
members of the University of Oxford on that event. This appears to be
his only publication with his name attached. The pretty edition of the
_Satires of Juvenal and Persius_, published at London in 1716, and
edited by Michael Maittaire, was dedicated by him to Rawlinson.

It is stated in Nichols's _Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century_
(vol. v. p. 704) that the following inscription was found among the
papers of Rawlinson, written with his own hand, and in all probability
designed by him for part of an epitaph on himself:--

'Hic jacet----Vir liberrimi Spiritus
qui omnes Mortales pari ratione habuit;
tacuisse de Criminibus non auro vendidit.
Qui, Rege dempto, neminem agnovit superiorem;
illum vero, O infortunium! nunquam potuit
inspicere.'

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 67: _Diary_, Sept. 4, 1725.]

JOSEPH SMITH, 1682-1770

[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF JOSEPH SMITH.]

Joseph Smith, a portion of whose collection formed the foundation of
King George III.'s library, now in the British Museum, was born in 1682.
Nothing appears to be known about his parents and his early years, but
at the age of nineteen he took up his residence at Venice, where he
spent his life, apparently engaged in commerce.[68] In 1740 he was
appointed British Consul in that city, and he died there on the 6th of
November 1770, aged eighty-eight.

Smith was well known as a collector of books, manuscripts, and works of
art. In 1762 George III. purchased all the books Smith had amassed up to
that time for about ten thousand pounds, and at a later period the king
also bought his pictures, coins, and gems for the sum of twenty thousand
pounds. After the sale of his library Smith still continued to co