I think no other English poet ever
brought so much sense into the same number of lines with equal
smoothness, ease, and poetical beauty. Let him who doubts of this peruse
his _Essay on Man_ with attention.' Shenstone's _Essays on Men and
Manners. [Works_, 4th edit. ii. 159.] 'He [Gray] approved an observation
of Shenstone, that "Pope had the art of condensing a thought."'
Nicholls' _Reminiscences of Gray_, p. 37. And Swift [in his _Lines on
the death of Dr. Swift_], himself a great condenser, says--

'In Pope I cannot read a line
But with a sigh I wish it mine;
When he can in one couplet fix
More sense than I can do in six.'

P. CUNNINGHAM.

[923] He is described by Walpole in his _Letters_, viii. 5.

[924] 'The night came on while we had yet a great part of the way to go,
though not so dark but that we could discern the cataracts which poured
down the hills on one side, and fell into one general channel, that ran
with great violence on the other. The wind was loud, the rain was heavy,
and the whistling of the blast, the fall of the shower, the rush of the
cataracts, and the roar of the torrent, made a nobler chorus of the
rough musick of nature than it had ever been my chance to hear before.'
Johnson's _Works_, ix. 155. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'All the rougher
powers of nature except thunder were in motion, but there was no danger.
I should have been sorry to have missed any of the inconveniencies, to
have had more light or less rain, for their co-operation crowded the
scene and filled the mind.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 177.

[925] I never tasted whiskey except once for experiment at the inn in
Inverary, when I thought it preferable to any English malt brandy. It
was strong, but not pungent, and was free from the empyreumatick taste
or smell. What was the process I had no opportunity of inquiring, nor do
I wish to improve the art of making poison pleasant.' Johnson's _Works_,
ix. 52. Smollett, medical man though he was, looked upon whisky as
anything but poison. 'I am told that it is given with great success to
infants, as a cordial in the confluent small-pox.' _Humphry Clinker_.
Letter of Sept. 3.

[926] _Regale_ in this sense is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_. It was,
however, a favourite word at this time. Thus, Mrs. Piozzi, in her
_Journey through France_, ii. 297, says:--'A large dish of hot chocolate
thickened with bread and cream is a common afternoon's regale here.'
Miss Burney oft