BULLER.
I never heard of him—was he a Scotch Peer?
NORTH.
One of the Fifteen. A strained elevation—says his Lordship—I am sure of the words, though I have not seen his Elements of Criticism for fifty years——
BULLER.
You are a creature of a wonderful memory.
NORTH.
"A strained elevation is attended with another inconvenience, that the author is apt to fall suddenly, as well as the reader; because it is not a little difficult to descend sweetly and easily from such elevation to the ordinary tone of the subject. The following is a good illustration of that observation"—and then his Lordship quotes the passage I recited—stopping with the words, "densissimus imber," which are thus made to conclude the description!
BULLER.
Oh! oh! oh! That's murder.