'Mr. Murphy said, that "The Memoirs of Gray's Life" set him much higher in his estimation than his poems did; "for you there saw a man constantly at work in literature". Johnson acquiesced in this; but depreciated the book, I thought, very unreasonably. For he said, "I forced myself to read it, only because it was a common topick of conversation. I found it mighty dull; and, as to the style, it is fit for the second table". Why he thought so I was at a loss to conceive. He now gave it as his opinion, that "Akenside was a superiour poet both to Gray and Mason".'