' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. They have not been _partial_,
they have told their own story, without shame or regard to equitable
treatment of their injured enemy; they had no compunction, no feeling
for a Carthaginian. Why, Sir, they would never have borne Virgil's
description of Aeneas's treatment of Dido, if she had not been a
Carthaginian[615].'
I gratefully acknowledge this and other communications from Mr.
Cambridge, whom, if a beautiful villa on the banks of the Thames, a few
miles distant from London, a numerous and excellent library, which he
accurately knows and reads, a choice collection of pictures, which he
understands and relishes, an easy fortune, an amiable family, an
extensive circle of friends and acquaintance, distinguished by rank,
fashion and genius, a literary fame, various, elegant and still
increasing, colloquial talents rarely to be found[616], and with all
these means of happiness, enjoying, when well advanced in years, health
and vigour of body, serenity and animation of mind, do not entitle to be
addressed _fortunate senex!_[617] I know not to whom, in any age, that
expression could with propriety have been used.
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