ld not discover even a spark of merit in it. On the other hand,
Smith considered Gray's _Odes_, which Johnson had damned, to be the
standard of lyric excellence.

_The Gentle Shepherd_ he did not admire much. He preferred the _Pastor
Fido_, of which, says Amicus, he "spoke with rapture," and the
_Eclogues_ of Virgil. Amicus put in a word in favour of the poet of
his own country, but Smith would not yield a point. "It is the duty of
a poet," he said, "to write like a gentleman. I dislike that homely
style which some think fit to call the language of nature and
simplicity and so forth. In Percy's _Reliques_ too a few tolerable
pieces are buried under a heap of rubbish. You have read perhaps _Adam
Bell, Clym of the Cleugh, and William of Cloudesley_." "Yes," said
Amicus. "Well then," continued Smith, "do you think that was worth
printing?"

Of Goldsmith Smith spoke somewhat severely--of Goldsmith as a man
apparently, not as a writer--relating some anecdotes of his easy
morals, which Amicus does not repeat. But when Amicus mentioned some
story about Burke seducing a young lady, Smith at once declared it an
invention. "I imagine," said he, "that you have got that fine story
out of some of the Magazines. If anything can be lower than the
Reviews, they are so. They once had the impudence to publish a story
of a gentleman having debauched his own sister, and on inquiry it came
out that the gentleman never had a sister. As to Mr. Burke, he is a
worthy, honest man, who married an accomplished girl without a
shilling of fortune." Of the Reviews Smith never spoke but with
ridicule and detestation. Amicus tried to get the _Gentleman's
Magazine_ exempted from the general condemnation, but Smith would not
hear of that, and said that for his part he never looked at a Review,
nor even at the names of the publishers.

Pope was a great favourite with him as a poet, and he knew by heart
many passages from his poems, though he disliked Pope's personal
character as a man, saying he was all affectation, and speaking of his
letter to Arbuthnot when the latter was dying as a consummate piece of
canting. Dryden was another of his favourite poets, and when he was
speaking one day in high praise of Dryden's fables, Amicus mentioned
Hume's objections, and was told, "You will learn more as to poetry by
reading one good poem than by a thousand volumes of criticism." Smith
regarded the French theatre as the standard of dramatic excellence.

Amicu