"In 1726, Mr. Joseph Spence, Fellow of New College in Oxford, but not yet Professor of Poetry, as Dr. Johnson imagined him to be (my father holding that office at the time), published an Essay on the Odyssey, in a, dialogue between Philypsus and Antiphons, after the manner of Bruhours and Dryden on the Drama, in which its beauties and blemishes were minutely considered. The candour, the politeness, the true taste, and judgment, with which this criticism was conducted, were so very acceptable and pleasing to Pope that he immediately courted the acquaintance of the ingenious author, who, notwithstanding Dr. Johnson's invidious assertion, was an excellent scholar." — Warton's edition of Pope, vol. i. p. 35.
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