only are found in those books which were translated by Pope.—(This comes from Mr. Langton, who had his information from Mr. Spence.)
The books of the Odyssey which Pope translated were the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, tenth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth, twenty-first, twenty-second, and twenty-fourth. Fenton translated the first, fourth, nineteenth, and twentieth books. Broome the second, sixth, eighth, eleventh, twelfth, eighteenth, and twenty-third.
When Spence carried his preface to Gorboduck, which I think was published in 1736, to Pope, he asked the poet his opinion of it. Pope said, “It would do very well; there was nothing pert or low in it.”[1] Spence was satisfied with this praise, which however was an implied censure on his other writings, and not without foundation; for in his Essay on the Odyssey (the only piece of his that I at present recollect to have read) he appears very fond of the familiar vulgarisms of common talk. In this respect he is the reverse of Johnson. The book however is not without merit. Mr. Cambridge, who is now above seventy and was acquainted with Spence, says he was a poor creature though a very worthy man.
The late Dr. informed Dr. Warton that when Warburton resided at Newark, he and several others held a club, where Warburton used to produce and read weekly essays in refutation of Pope’s Essay on Man. This poem he afterwards found it conve-
- ↑ From Mr. Langton.
