most personally unacquainted. But such
instances, though we must wonder at them, are not rare. If I am rightly
informed, after a careful enquiry, they never met but once, which was at
the house of Mrs. French, in London, well known for her elegant
assemblies, and bringing eminent characters together. The interview
proved to be mutually agreeable[168].

I am well informed, that Warburton said of Johnson, 'I admire him, but I
cannot bear his style:' and that Johnson being told of this, said, 'That
is exactly my case as to him[169].' The manner in which he expressed his
admiration of the fertility of Warburton's genius and of the variety of
his materials was, 'The table is always full, Sir. He brings things from
the north, and the south, and from every quarter. In his _Divine
Legation_, you are always entertained. He carries you round and round,
without carrying you forward to the point; but then you have no wish to
be carried forward.' He said to the Reverend Mr. Strahan, 'Warburton is
perhaps the last man who has written with a mind full of reading and
reflection[170].'

It is remarkable, that in the Life of Broome[171], Johnson takes notice
of Dr. Warburton using a mode of expression which he himself used, and
that not seldom, to the great offence of those who did not know him.
Having occasion to mention a note, stating the different parts which
were executed by the associated translators of _The Odyssey_, he says,
'Dr. Warburton told me, in his warm language, that he thought the
relation given in the note _a lie_. The language is _warm_ indeed; and,
I must own, cannot be justified in consistency with a decent regard to
the established forms of speech. Johnson had accustomed himself to use
the word _lie_[172], to express a mistake or an errour in relation; in
short, when the _thing was not so as told_, though the relator did not
_mean_ to deceive. When he thought there was intentional falsehood in
the relator, his expression was, 'He _lies_, and he _knows_ he _lies_.'

Speaking of Pope's not having been known to excel in conversation,
Johnson observes, that 'traditional memory retains no sallies of
raillery, or[173] sentences of observation; nothing either pointed or
solid, wise or merry[174]; and that one apophthegm only is
recorded[175].' In this respect, Pope differed widely from Johnson,
whose conversation was, perhaps, more admirable than even his writings,
however excellent. Mr. Wilkes has, however, favoured me