who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, regretted 'that
he had not been made acquainted with his plan; for he would have
procured him a sufficient salary on the Irish establishment.' Goldsmith,
in his review of Van Egmont's _Travels in Asia_, says:--'Could we see a
man set out upon this journey [to Asia] not with an intent to consider
rocks and rivers, but the manners, and the mechanic inventions, and the
imperfect learning of the inhabitants; resolved to penetrate into
countries as yet little known, and eager to pry into all their secrets,
with an heart not terrified at trifling dangers; if there could be found
a man who could unite this true courage with sound learning, from such a
character we might hope much information.' Goldsmith's _Works_, ed.
1854, iv. 225. Johnson would have gone to Constantinople, as he himself
said, had he received his pension twenty years earlier. _Post_, p. 27.

[77] It should be remembered, that this was said twenty-five or thirty
years ago, [written in 1799,] when lace was very generally worn. MALONE.
'Greek and Latin,' said Porson, 'are only luxuries.' Rogers's _Table
Talk_, p. 325.

[78] See _ante_, iii. 8.

[79] Dr. Johnson, in his _Life of Cowley_, says, that these are 'the
only English verses which Bentley is known to have written.' I shall
here insert them, and hope my readers will apply them.

'Who strives to mount Parnassus' hill,
And thence poetick laurels bring,
Must first acquire due force and skill,
Must fly with swan's or eagle's wing.

Who Nature's treasures would explore,
Her mysteries and arcana know;
Must high as lofty Newton soar,
Must stoop as delving Woodward low.

Who studies ancient laws and rites,
Tongues, arts, and arms, and history;
Must drudge, like Selden, days and nights,
And in the endless labour die.

Who travels in religious jars,
(Truth mixt with errour, shades with rays;)
Like Whiston, wanting pyx or stars,
In ocean wide or sinks or strays.

But grant our hero's hope, long toil
And comprehensive genius crown,
All sciences, all arts his spoil,
Yet what reward, or what renown?

Envy, innate in vulgar souls,
Envy steps in and stops his rise,
Envy with poison'd tarnish fouls
His lustre, and his worth decries.

He lives inglorious or in want,
To college and old books c