r. "There are men who write because they have
wit; there are those who write because they are hungry; there
are some of the modern authors who have a constant fund of
both these causes; and there are who will write, although they
are not instigated either by the one or by the other. The
first are all spirit; the second are all earth; the third
disclose more life, or more vapidity, as the one or the other
cause prevails; and for the last, having neither the one nor
the other principle for the cause, they show neither the one
nor the other character in the effect; but begin, continue,
and end, as if they had neither begun, continued, nor ended at
all." The first class he instances by Fielding; the second by
Smart. Of the third he says:--"The mingled wreath belongs to
Hill," that is himself; and the fourth he illustrates by the
absurd Sir William Browne.

"Those of the first rank are the most capricious and lazy of
all animals. The monkey genius would rarely exert itself, if
even idleness innate did not give way to the superior love of
mischief. The ass (that is Smart), which characters the
second, is as laborious as he is empty; he wears a ridiculous
comicalness of aspect (which was, indeed, the physiognomy of
the poor poet), that makes people smile when they see him at a
distance. His mouth opens, because he must be fed, while we
laugh at the insensibility and obstinacy that make him prick
his lips with thistles."

[290] Woodward humorously attributes Hill's attack on him to his
_jealousy_ of his successful performance of _Harlequin_, and
opens some of the secret history of Hill, by which it appears
that early in life he trod the theatrical boards. He tells us
of the extraordinary pains the prompter had taken with Hill,
in the part of Oroonoko; though, "if he had not quite
forgotten it, to very little purpose." He reminds Hill of a
dramatic anecdote, which he no doubt had forgotten. It seems
he once belonged to a strolling company at May-fair, where, in
the scene between Altamont and Lothario, the polite audience
of that place all chorused, and agreed with him, when dying he
exclaimed, "Oh, Altamont, thy genius is the stronger." He then