not, however, have been the case, unless they had been too often heard before; for he never repeated any thing that was not characterized by excellence, of some kind or other. One talent and quality he had, for which they who have hitherto exhibited biographical sketches of him, have not given him sufficient credit:—This was humour. To prove that he possessed this in no ordinary degree of perfection, appeal need only be made to the three witty and facetious letters which he inserted in the Gentleman’s Magazine, with the signature of “Sundry Whereof.” The occasion was, The Life of Johnson, by Sir John Hawkins—Let the reader judge from one or two specimens. Addressing the Editor he says: “Have you read that divine book, ‘The Life of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D. by Sir John Hawkins, Knt.?’ Have you done any thing but read it, since it was first published? For my own part, I scruple not to declare, that I could not rest till I had read it quite through, notes, digressions, index, and all. Then I could not rest till I had gone over it a second time. I begin to think that increase of appetite grows by what it feeds on, for I have been reading it ever since. I am now in the midst of the sixteenth perusal, and still I discover more beauties. I can think of nothing else—I can talk of nothing else, &c. &c. &c. “Read Hawkins once, and you can read no more, For all books hence appear so mean, so poor, Johnson’s a dunce; but still persist to read, And Hawkins will be all the books you need.” Who would have expected this sally of facetiousness from the grave and didactic Porson? After proposing to offer, in a future letter, a few corrections and amendments, the first epistle thus concludes: “In a statue from the hand of Phidias, I would not, if I could help it, have a single toe-nail amiss. And since the smallest speck is seen on snow, I am persuaded that the Knight himself will not be displeased with a freedom which proceeds solely from esteem.” The second letter is still more pregnant with the truest humour. It is to be remembered that Porson was himself an Etonian; Sir John’s book had been attacked in the Microcosm, a periodical work, by the upper boys at Eton, which fact is thus mentioned by Porson: “Soon after the publication of Sir John’s book, a parcel of Eton boys, not having the fear of God before their eyes, &c. instead of playing truant, robbing orchards, annoying poultry, or performing any other part of their school exercises, fell foul, in print, upon his Worship’s censure of Addison’s middling style; and even sneered at the story of the Quaker, which I hold to be as good a thing as any in the volume. But what can you expect, as Lord Kaimes justly observes, from a school, where boys are taught to rob on the highway?”