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20 INTKODUCTGRY ESSAY.

read or write at their leisure; there is always a Grub
Street in contrast with a Strawberry Hill; there are
always Johnsons and Grays. The man who had to
knock down the bullying Qsborne with a folio was oui
of sympathy with the man who thought it beneath
him to write for money, whose Odes Walpole printed
and to whom Dodsley stood hat in hand. This did
not affect Gray's estimate of Johnson's literary merit;
but surely some such feeling must explain Johnson's
utterly unworthy criticism of Gray. Gray's social
preferences did not betray him into fancies, except in
the case of novels, and the stage; his liking for the
younger Cr^billon and his imperfect appreciation of
Fielding are in general contrast to his clear discern-
ment elsewhere; he agrees again with "Walpole in dis-
paraging Garrick; a coincidence of opinion the more
noticeable, as the friends, estranged at this time, were
writing independently. But he disagrees with Walpole
over Johnson; praises 'London' and the 'Verses on
the opening of Garrick's Theatre'; and never seems to
have allowed his personal dislike to colour his opinion
of Johnson's real merits, whether as a writer or a
man. Walpole's aversion to Johnson on the contrary-
is of that unreasoning and undiscriminating kind
which belongs to social and literary and political sets;
we may smile, we who see men in their right propor-
tion or perspective, when, whilst coveting the ac-
quaintance of Anstey and Mason, he excuses himself



	20 INTKODUCTGRY ESSAY. read or write at their leisure; there is always a Grub Street in contrast with a Strawberry Hill; there are always Johnsons and Grays. The man who had to knock down the bullying Qsborne with a folio was oui of sympathy with the man who thought it beneath him to write for money, whose Odes Walpole printed and to whom Dodsley stood hat in hand. This did not affect Gray's estimate of Johnson's literary merit; but surely some such feeling must explain Johnson's utterly unworthy criticism of Gray. Gray's social preferences did not betray him into fancies, except in the case of novels, and the stage; his liking for the younger Cr^billon and his imperfect appreciation of Fielding are in general contrast to his clear discern- ment elsewhere; he agrees again with "Walpole in dis- paraging Garrick; a coincidence of opinion the more noticeable, as the friends, estranged at this time, were writing independently. But he disagrees with Walpole over Johnson; praises 'London' and the 'Verses on the opening of Garrick's Theatre'; and never seems to have allowed his personal dislike to colour his opinion of Johnson's real merits, whether as a writer or a man. Walpole's aversion to Johnson on the contrary- is of that unreasoning and undiscriminating kind which belongs to social and literary and political sets; we may smile, we who see men in their right propor- tion or perspective, when, whilst coveting the ac- quaintance of Anstey and Mason, he excuses himself