Some one wished for Mr. Dyer's opinion, which
he gave with his usual strength and accuracy. "Why," said Goldsmith,
turning round to Dyer, whom he had scarcely noticed before, "you seem to
know a good deal of this matter." "If I had not," replied Dyer, "I
should not, in this company, have said a word upon the subject."' Burke
described him as 'a man of profound and general erudition; his sagacity
and judgment were fully equal to the extent of his learning.' Prior's
_Malone_, pp. 419, 424. Malone in his _Life of Dryden_, p. 181, says
that Dyer was _Junius_. Johnson speaks of him as 'the late learned Mr.
Dyer.' _Works_, viii. 385. Had he been alive he was to have been the
professor of mathematics in the imaginary college at St. Andrews.
Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 25. Many years after his death, Johnson
bought his portrait to hang in 'a little room that he was fitting up
with prints.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 639.
[38] _Memoirs of Agriculture and other Oeconomical Arts_, 3 vols., by
Robert Dossie, London, 1768-82.
[39] See _ante_, ii. 14.
[40] Here Lord Macartney remarks, 'A Bramin or any cast of the Hindoos
will neither admit you to be of their religion, nor be converted to
yours;--a thing which struck the Portuguese with the greatest
astonishment, when they first discovered the East Indies.
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