the cane of a warm Hibernian.
Hill seems to have been desirous of abusing certain friends whom he
had praised in the _Inspectors_; so volatile, like the loves of
coquettes, are the literary friendships of the "Scribleri." As this
could not be done with any propriety there, he published the first
number of a new paper, entitled _The Impertinent_. Having thus
relieved his private feelings, he announced the cessation of this new
enterprise in his _Inspectors_, and congratulated the public on the
ill reception it had given to the _Impertinent_, applauding them for
their having shown by this that "their indignation was superior to
their curiosity." With impudence all his own, he adds--"It will not be
easy to say too much in favour of the candour of the town, which has
despised a piece that cruelly and unjustly attacked Mr. Smart the
poet." What innocent soul could have imagined that _The Impertinent_
and _The Inspector_ were the same individual? The style is a specimen
of _persiflage_; the thin sparkling thought; the pert vivacity, that
looks like wit without wit; the glittering bubble, that rises in
emptiness;--even its author tells us, in _The Inspector_, it is "the
most pert, the most pretending," &c.[289]

Smart, in return for our Janus-faced critic's treatment, balanced the
amount of debtor and creditor with a pungent Dunciad _The Hilliad_.
Hill, who had heard of the rod in pickle, anticipated the blow, to
break its strength; and, according to his adopted system, introduced
himself and Smart, with a story of his having recommended the bard to
his bookseller, "who took him into salary on my approbation. I
betrayed him into the profession, and having starved upon it, he has a
right to abuse me." This story was formally denied by an advertisement
from Newbery, the bookseller.

"The Hilliad" is a polished and pointed satire. The hero is thus
exhibited on earth, and in heaven.

On earth, "a tawny sibyl," with "an old striped curtain--"

And tatter'd tapestry o'er her shoulders hung--
Her loins with patchwork cincture were begirt,
That more than spoke diversity of dirt.
Twain were her teeth, and single was her eye--
Cold palsy shook her head----

with "moon-struck madness," awards him all the wealth and fame she
could afford him for sixpence; and closes her orgasm with the sage
admonition--

The chequer'd world's before thee; go, farewell!
Beware of Irishmen; and learn to spell!

But in heaven, among