Page:Modern literature (1804 Volume 2).djvu/54

 bathing, met Hamilton on the west cliff; Mortimer soon after joining them, they took a walk along the cliff, when Hamilton praised the infinite treasures of knowledge, human and divine, that Scribble possessed: "Come, now Dicky, astonish Mortimer here, by a frank account of your studies." "A detail," replied Dick, "would be tedious; but since you insist upon it, I will give you a short sketch of what I have read, or treated in publications, or, in short, what I know." "What you know and can write upon," said Hamilton; "to speak generally and concisely, every thing; nothing comes wrong to Dicky." "That is too much," said Scribble, vouchsafing a smile; "but I certainly have considered and discussed a good many subjects; physics and metapyhsics, history and poetry, criticism and compilation, divinity and morality, legislation and