Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/320

310 which attended Mr. Smith, was his extreme careleſſneſs in the particular of dreſs; this oddity procured him the name of Captain Ragg. His perſon was ſo well formed, and he poſſeſſed ſo much natural gracefulneſs, that notwithſtanding the diſadvantage of his appearance, he was called, by the Ladies, the Handſome Sloven.

It is to be wondered at (ſays Mr. Oldiſworth) that a man under poverty, calamities, and diſappointments, could make ſo many friends, and thoſe ſo truly valuable. He had, indeed, a noble idea of the paſſion of friendſhip, in the ſucceſs of which, conſiſted the greateſt, if not the only happineſs of his Life. He was ſerene and chearful under the diſpenſations of providence; he avoided having any dealings with mankind in which he could not be juſt, and therefore refuſed to embrace ſome opportunities of amending his fortune.

Upon Mr Smith’s coming to town, no man was more ſurrounded by all thoſe who really had, or pretended to wit, or more courted by the great men, who had then a power and opportunity of encouraging arts and ſciences. Mr. Smith’s character grew upon his friends by intimacy, and exceeded the ſtrongeſt prepoſſeſſions which had been conceived in his favour. A few years before his death, Mr. Smith engaged in ſome conſiderable Undertakings; in all which he raiſed expectations in the world, which he lived not to gratify. Mr. Oldiſworth obſerves, that he had ſeen about ten ſheets of Pindar tranſlated into Engliſh, which, he ſays, exceeded any thing of that kind, he could ever hope for in our language. He had drawn out a plan for a tragedy of Lady Jane Grey, and had written ſeveral ſcenes of it: a ſubject afterwards nobly executed by Mr. Rowe. His greateſt undertaking was Longinus, which he executed in a very maſterly manner. He propoſed a large addition to this work, of notes and obſervations of