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.behalf,