,
but yet is in possession of it, would he bring it of his own accord to
be tried at Westminster? We who write, if we want the talents [talent],
yet have the excuse that we do it for a poor subsistence; but what can
be urged in their defence, who, not having the vocation of poverty to
scribble, out of mere wantonness take pains to make themselves
ridiculous? Horace was certainly in the right where he said, "That no
man is satisfied with his own condition." A poet is not pleased, because
he is not rich; and the rich are discontented because the poets will not
admit them of their number.' BOSWELL. Boswell, it should seem, had
followed Swift's advice:--

'Read all the prefaces of Dryden,
For these our critics much confide in;
Though merely writ at first for filling,
To raise the volume's price a shilling.'

Swift's _Works_, ed. 1803, xi. 293.

[370] See _ante_, i. 402.

[371] Wordsworth, it should seem, held with Johnson in this. When he
read the article in the _Edinburgh Review_ on Lord Byron's early poems,
he remarked that 'though Byron's verses were probably poor enough, yet
such an attack was abominable,--that a young nobleman, who took to
poetry, deserved to be encouraged, not ridiculed.' Rogers's
_Table-Talk_, p. 234, note.

[372] Dr. Barnard, formerly Dean of Derry. See _ante_, iii. 84.

[373] This gave me very great pleasure, for there had been once a pretty
smart altercation between Dr. Barnard and him, upon a question, whether
a man could improve himself after the age of forty-five; when Johnson in
a hasty humour, expressed himself in a manner not quite civil. Dr.
Barnard made it the subject of a copy of pleasant verses, in which he
supposed himself to learn different perfections from different men. They
concluded with delicate irony:--

'Johnson shall teach me how to place
In fairest light each borrow'd grace;
From him I'll learn to write;
Copy his clear familiar style,
And by the roughness of his file
Grow, like _himself, polite_.'

I know not whether Johnson ever saw the poem, but I had occasion to find
that as Dr. Barnard and he knew each other better, their mutual regard
increased. BOSWELL. See Appendix A.

[374] See _ante_, ii. 357, iii. 309, and _post_, March 23, 1783.

[375] 'Sir Joshua once asked Lord B---- to dine with Dr. Johnson and the
rest, but though a man of rank and also of good information, he seemed
as much alarmed at