You can't
therefore expect an answer."' Prior's _Malone_, p. 399. Sir Joshua
Reynolds, on hearing this from Malone, said:--'This turn which Baretti
now gives to the matter was an after-thought; for he once said to me
myself:--"There are various opinions about the writer of that prayer;
some give it to St. Augustine, some to St. Chrysostom, &c. What is your
opinion? "' _Ib_. p. 394. Mrs. Piozzi says that she heard 'Baretti tell
a clergyman the story of Dives and Lazarus as the subject of a poem he
once had composed in the Milanese district, expecting great credit for
his powers of invention.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 348.
[381] Goldsmith (_Present Slate of Polite Learning_, chap. 13) thus
wrote of servitorships: 'Surely pride itself has dictated to the fellows
of our colleges the absurd passion of being attended at meals, and on
other public occasions, by those poor men who, willing to be scholars,
come in upon some charitable foundation. It implies a contradiction for
men to be at once learning the _liberal_ arts, and at the same time
treated as _slaves_; at once studying freedom and practising servitude.'
Yet a young man like Whitefield was willing enough to be a servitor. He
had been a waiter in his mother's inn; he was now a waiter in a college,
but a student also. See my _Dr. Johnson: His Friends and his
Critics_, p.
Pages:
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623