the books which their author had read;" a method of illustration which
since, certainly, has not wanted imitators. Much of his time must have
been now diverted from his favourite pursuits, by his engagement in the
instruction of college pupils. During his excursions in the summer
vacations, to different parts of England, he appears to have occupied
himself in making remarks on such specimens of Gothic and Saxon
architecture as came in his way. His manuscript on this subject was in
the possession of his brother, since whose decease, unfortunately, it
has not been discovered. Some incidental observations on our ancient
buildings, introduced into his book on the Faerie Queene, are enough to
make us regret the loss. The poetical reader would have been better
pleased if he had fulfilled an intention he had of translating the
Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius.

Though it was not the lot of Warton to attain distinction in his
clerical profession, yet literary honours, more congenial to his taste
and habits, awaited him. In 1756, he was elected Professor of Poetry at
Oxford, and faithfully performed the duties of his office, by
recommending the purest models of antiquity in lectures which are said
to have been "remarkable for elegance of diction, and justness of
observation," and interspersed with translations from the Greek
epigrammatists.

To Johnson he had already rendered a material service by his exertions
to procure him the degree of Master of Arts, by diploma; and he
increased the obligation, by contributing some notes to his edition of
Shakspeare, and three papers to The Idler. The imputation cast on one,
from whom such kindness had been received, of his "being the only man of
genius without a heart," must have been rather the effect of spleen in
Johnson, than the result of just observation; and if either these words,