sallied forth with a little _Jeu d'Esprit_ upon the following passage in
his Grammar of the English Tongue, prefixed to the _Dictionary_: '_H_
seldom, perhaps never, begins any but the first syllable.' In an Essay
printed in _The Publick Advertiser_, this lively writer enumerated many
instances in opposition to this remark; for example, 'The authour of
this observation must be a man of a quick _apprehension_, and of a most
_compre-hensive_ genius.' The position is undoubtedly expressed with too
much latitude.

This light sally, we may suppose, made no great impression on our
Lexicographer; for we find that he did not alter the passage till many
years afterwards[880].

He had the pleasure of being treated in a very different manner by his
old pupil Mr. Garrick, in the following complimentary Epigram[881]:

'_On_ JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY,

'Talk of war with a Briton, he'll boldly advance,
That one English soldier will beat ten of France;
Would we alter the boast from the sword to the pen,
Our odds are still greater, still greater our men:
In the deep mines of science though Frenchmen may toil,
Can their strength be compar'd to Locke, Newton, and Boyle?
Let them rally their heroes, send forth all their pow'rs,
Their verse-men and prose-men, then match them with ours!
First Shakspeare and Milton[882], like gods in the fight,
Have put their whole drama and epick to flight;
In satires, epistles, and odes, would they cope,
Their numbers retreat before Dryden and Pope;