'[from the 1780 Johnsoniana passed to Boswell by Bennet Langton] 'Mattaire's account of the Stephani is a heavy book. He seems to have been a puzzle-headed man, with a large share of scholarship, but with little geometry or logick in his head, without method, and possessed of little genius. He wrote Latin verses from time to time, and published a set in his old age, which he called "Senilia"; in which he shews so little learning or taste in writing, as to make [italics] Carteret [end italics] a dactyl. In matters of genealogy it is necessary to give the bare names as they are; but in poetry, and in prose of any elegance in the writing, they require to have inflection given to them. His book of the Dialects is a sad heap of confusion; the only way to write on them is to tabulate them with Notes, added at the bottom of the page, and references'.
Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Johnson Print: Book
