abilities, and in all school business cuts but a very poor figure; but having a tolerable share of common sense and acuteness, contrives to treasure up the stories he has read, or hears elsewhere, so as to retail them with a good deal of felicity. This quality, together with having seen more of the world than most of his schoolfellows, and an immoderate stock of impudence, enables him to play his part in conversation with as much, if not more, success than many of his companionsadd to this, that he is one of the best tempered fellows alive, and from having been a long time at Westminster, is perfectly acquainted with the most likely topics to suit the tastes and tickle the fancies of his hearers. I question if any one has ever yet seen him in a passion, and am certain that he was never yet known to give way to what is so generally disliked, though much practised by those who dislike it-I mean sulkiness. With these advantages, however, he is not free from slander: there is but too much reason, from the manner in which he acts, to suspect that self interest is the main spring of his good qualities; and though mostly liked, because he injures no one, he is frequently laughed at even by those whom he has taken the greatest pains to please; for they are aware that it is not because he admires their characters, that he courts their good will, but because they have an opinion and a voice. As for myself, I will candidly allow, I was once fool enough to imagine I might possibly adopt a style of writing which would suit the tempers of all my readers: but, as many critiques on my writings are frequently uttered in my presence, (for there are but a very few of my readers, that know who Thomas Brown really is, although, by the bye, they almost all agree in protesting there can be no doubt on that head), a very little experience set me in a right way of thinking on that subject.Once I overheard a set of critics raising an outcry against the lamentable dryness of my productions. The next number, I was resolved, should be suited to the taste of these gentlemen; but when it had appeared, I overheard another set protesting that my general levity was almost disgusting. Some declared that they had sermons enough in the Abbey;, others, that the deplorable want of morality in my papers was disgraceful both to the taste and disposition of the author. In short, I was soon convinced, like the old man and bis son with their ass in the fable, that the best plan is "to manage our jack-asses just as 66 we like," and take the chance whether our management meets with the sanction. of the majority of the public. Q. & X. No. XXII. MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1816. Respue quod non es. HORACE. THERE are at Westminster, two kinds of Imitators, which I will divide into the classes of public and private. By the public Imitators, I mean those that form themselves into a set, and range under the banners of some leader, who by personal prowess, or some other popular qualification, has made himself absolute, who, "Like Cato gives his little senate laws," and sets the fashion of language, clothes, and manners to his whole party, all the members of which make no secret of imitating in every thing as much as possible their "magnus Apollo.” By the private Imitators, I mean those who, having chosen themselves a model from their predecessors, and sometimes from their cotemporaries, copy his sentiments, habits, and peculiarities with a disgusting exactness, and yet all the while disclaim the idea of any imitation whatsoever, and even consider the imputation of it as an insult. This last class of Imitators, I must say, I hold in the greatest abhorrence: I look on their conduct with the same feelings mankind has towards monkeys; that race of animals is hated, because their whole system of life is one continued servile imitation of other creatures, the idea of which allows no praise to their good tricks, and throws double odium on their bad ones.. The affectation of closely imitating even the most celebrated characters, is always displeasing; for the very points which are |