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1759. "Well! and what does the public, I mean those who
" are out of the university, say of those mutual conrpli- " ments ? " " The public are a parcel of blockheads, and all " blockheads are critics, and all critics are spiders, and " spiders are a set of reptiles that all the world despises."* Noticeable also, in recapitulation of this drudgery, are papers on President Grouget's Origin of Laws, Arts, and Sciences J and on Foymefs Philosophical Miscellanies, written with livery understanding of the characters of French and German intellect;—on Van Egmont's Travels in Asia, wherein a scheme of later life was shadowed forth; " a man " shall go a hundred miles to admire a mountain, only " because it was spoken of in Scripture, yet what information " can be received from hearing that JEgidius Van Egmont " went up such a hill, only in order to come down again ? " Could we see a man set out upon this journey, not with an " intent to discover rocks and rivers, but the manners, the " mechanic inventions, and the imperfect learning of the " inhabitants; resolved to penetrate into countries as yet " little known, and eager to pry into all their secrets, with " a heart not terrified at trifling clangers; if there could be " found a man who could thus unite true courage with " sound learning, from such a character we might expect "much information;"—on Gruicciardrni's History of Italy, showing considerable knowledge of Italian literature; I—on Montesquieu's Miscellaneous Pieces, justifying, by many expressions, such rapid indication as I now give of his own earlier and less known performances: (" Cicero observes," he remarks in it, " that we behold with transport and enthusiasm " the little barren spot, or ruins of a house, in which a person
* Critical Review, ix. 235, March 1760. f Jbid, vii. 270, March 1759.
J' IUd, viii. 89, August 1759.
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