REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
Praise undeserved.—The correct quotation, referred to in No. 14. p. 222., is
“Praise undeserved is Satire in disguise.”
It is by Mr. Br——st, author of a copy of verses called the British Beauties. I cannot fill up the “hiatus,” which in this case is not “maxime deflendus,” because I have now no time to search the Museum Catalogue. I apprehend that the author belonged to the “mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease,” as it is something like Savage’s “tenth transmitter” (which, by the bye, your correspondent, Mr. Gutch, should have said is said to be Pope’s)—his only good line. Here is my authority:
EPIGRAM
On a certain line of Mr. Br——, author of a copy of verses called the“British Beauties.”—From the “GARLAND,” a collection of Poems, 1721.
“When one good line did much my wonder raise
In Br——st’s works, I stood resolved to praise;
And had, but that the modest author cries,
Praise undeserv’d is satire in disguise.”
I would add, that I believe this Epigram to be Dr. Kenrick’s, Goldsmith’s old persecutor in later years.
JAMES H. FRISWELL
French Maxim.—I beg to inform your correspondent “R.V.” in reply to his query (No. 14. p. 215.), that the maxim quoted is the 218th of Rochefoucauld: “L’hypocrisie est un hommage que le vice rend à la vertu.”
J.H.F.