agreed to omit any notice of his being a Royal Academician.”
In the summer (1795), desirous of subduing unpleasant recollections, he visited Oxford. The aim was to do for John Aubrey, the antiquary, what he also intended for Dryden and Pope—that is to tell all that could be gleaned new of their lives and works.
To the superstitions of that laborious writer—the apparitions, voices, omens, dreams, and other supernatural fancies, he paid no more attention than sensible men of the present day do to table-turning and spirit-rapping. But he had great respect, as other eminent men had, for his facts—for those obvious and unmistakeable things which impress the eyes and ears and memory—not such as spring from heated imaginations.
In the History of the Stage (p. 166, Ed. 1790) he speaks of his works, printed and manuscript, with great respect. Many of the latter being biographical, told of men who, when he wrote, had then but just quitted the world, and of whom the information being recent, was probably authentic. These he considered might be edited with advantage, illustrated by his own researches. To Lord Charlemont he writes:—
“Of the whole of Aubrey’s biographical collections deposited in the Ashmolean Museum, I made a transcript last summer, which will be hereafter laid before the public.” To this project allusion is again made in the Life of Dryden[1] By letters which I
- ↑ “Mr. Aubrey, who was acquainted with Dryden, informs us in his Life of Milton (which, together with his other curious accounts of English writers, I hope speedily to give the public), that our author (Dryden),
