te contention for the old, or new philosophy,
no assuming way of dictating to others, which are faults which some
are insensibly led into, who are constrained to dwell within the walls
of a private college." Thus far Mr. Oldisworth, who has drawn the
character of his deceased friend, with a laudable fondness. Mr. Smith,
no doubt, possessed the highest genius for poetry; but it is certain
he had mixed but too little in life. His language, however luxuriously
poetical, yet is far from being proper for the drama, and there is
too much of the poet in every speech he puts in the mouths of his
characters, which produces an uniformity, that nothing could teach him
to avoid, but a more general knowledge of real life and characters.
It is acknowledged that Mr. Smith was much inclined to intemperance,
though Mr. Oldisworth has glossed it over with the hand of a friend;
nor is it improbable, that this disposition sunk him in that vis
inertiae, which has been the bane of many of the brightest geniuses of
the world. Mr. Smith was, upon the whole, a good natured man, a great
poet, a finished scholar, and a discerning critic.

[Footnote A: See the Life and Character of Mr. Smith, by Mr.
Oldisworth, prefixed to his Phaedra and Hippolitus, edit. 1719.]

[Footnote B: Oldisworth, ubi supra.]

* * * * *

DANIEL DE FOE,

This gentleman acquired a very considerable name by his political and
poetical works; his early attachment to the revolution interest, and
the extraordinary zeal and ability with which he defended it. He
was bred, says Mr. Jacob, a Hosier, which profession he forsook, as
unworthy of him, and became one of the most enterprizing authors
this, or any other age, ever produced. The work by which he is most
distinguished, as a poet, is his True Born Englishman, a Satire,
occasioned by a poem entitled Foreigners, written by John Tutchin,
esq;[A]. This gentleman (Tutchin) was of the Monmouth faction, in the
reign of King Charles II. and when that unhappy prince made an attempt
upon his uncle's crown, Mr. Tutchin wrote a political piece in his
favour, for which, says Jacob, he was so severely handled by Judge
Jeffries, and his sentence was so very uncommon, and so rigorously
executed, that he petitioned King James to be hanged.

Soon after the revolution, the people, who are restless in their
inclinations, and loath that, to-day, for which they would yesterday
have sacrificed their liv