_Poor Dryden! what a theme hadst thou, Compar'd to that which offers now? What are your Britons, Romans, Grecians, Compar'd with thorough-bred Milesians? Step into Griffin's shop, he'll tell ye Of Goldsmith, Bickerstaff, and Kelly, Three poets of one age and nation, Whose more than mortal reputation, Mounting in trio to the skies O'er Milton's fame and Virgil's flies. Nay, take one Irish evidence for t'other, Ev'n Homer's self is but their foster-brother._ [18] It seems indeed to be growing into fashion for philosophy to go in masquerade, if there be any truth in the subject of the following; which lately appeared in the public prints. To Doctor GOLDSMITH, on seeing his name in the list of the mummers at the late masquerade. "Say should the philosophic mind disdain That good which makes each humbler bosom vain; Let school-taught pride dissemble all it can, Such little things are great to little man." GOLDSMITH. _How widely different, Goldsmith, are the ways Of doctors now, and those of ancient days! Theirs taught the truth in academic shades, Ours haunt lewd hops, and midnight masquerades! So chang'd the times! say philosophic sage, Whose genius suits so well this tasteful age, Is the Pantheon, late a sink obscene, Become the fountain of chaste Hippocrene? Or do thy moral numbers quaintly flow Inspir'd by th' Aganippe of Soho?_ For who like him will patch and pilfer plays, Yielding to me the profit and the praise? Tho' cheap in French translations MURPHY deals; For cheap he well may vend the goods he steals; Tho' modest CRADDOC scorns to sell his play, But gives the good-for-nothing thing away; What tho' the courtly CUMBERLAND succeeds In writing stuff no man of letters reads; Tho' sense and language are expell'd the stage; For nonsense pleases best a senseless age; What tho' the author of the New Bath Guide Up to the skies my talents late hath cried;[19] NOTES. _Do wisdom's sons gorge cates and vermicelli Like beastly Bickerstaff or bothering Kelly? Or art thou tir'd of th' undeserv'd applause Bestow'd on bards affecting virtue's cause? Wouldst thou, like Sterne, resolv'd at length to thrive, Turn pimp and die cock-bawd at sixty-five, Is this the good that makes the humble vain, The good philosophy should not disdain If so, let pride dissemble all it can, A modern sage is still much less than man._ MORNING CHRONICLE. [19] The compliments passed between these celebrated geniuses indeed were mutual; Mr. A. commending ROSCIUS for his fine acting, and Roscius in return Mr. A. for his fine writing. The panegyric on both sides was equally modest and just; and yet some snarling epigrammatist could not forbear throwing out the following ill-natured jeu d'esprit on the occasion.