So intoxicated was this vain young man with the ironical praises
of Pickle, that he forthwith shook off all reserve; and having
professed a friendship for our hero, whose taste and learning he did
not fail to extol, intimated in plain terms, that he was the only
person, in these latter ages, who possessed that genius, that portion of
the divinity, or Ti Theion, which immortalized the Grecian poets:
that as Pythagoras affirmed the spirit of Euphorbus had transmigrated
into his body, he, the doctor, strangely possessed with the opinion
that he himself was inspired by the soul of Pindar; because, making
allowance for the difference of languages in which they wrote,
there was a surprising affinity between his own works and those of
that celebrated Theban; and as a confirmation of this truth, he
immediately produced a sample of each, which, though in spirit and
versification as different as the Odes of Horace and our present
poet-laureat, Peregrine did not scruple to pronounce altogether
congenial, notwithstanding the violence he by this sentence offered
to his own conscience, and a certain alarm to his pride, that was
weak enough to be disturbed by the physician's ridiculous vanity
and presumption, which, not contented with displaying his importance
in the world of taste and polite literature, manifested itself in
arrogating certain material discoveries in the province of physic,
which could not fail to advance him to the highest pinnacle of that
profession, considering the recommendation of his other talents,
together with a liberal fortune which he inherited from his father.
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