Those who, for the moment, modify, or
_may_ modify the national condition, become preposterous idols in the
eyes of the gaping public; but with the sad necessity of being too utterly
trodden under foot after they are shelved, unless they live in men's
memory by something better than speeches in Parliament. Having the usual
fate, Fox was complimented, _whilst living_, on his knowledge of
Homeric Greek, which was a jest: he knew neither more nor less of Homer,
than, fortunately, most English gentlemen of his rank; quite enough that
is to read the 'Iliad' with unaffected pleasure, far too little to revise
the text of any three lines, without making himself ridiculous. The
excessive slenderness of his general literature, English and French, may
be seen in the letters published by his Secretary, Trotter. But his
fragment of a History, published by Lord Holland, at two guineas, and
currently sold for two shillings (not two _pence_, or else I have
been defrauded of 1s. 10d.), most of all proclaims the tenuity of his
knowledge. He looks upon Malcolm Laing as a huge oracle; and, having read
even less than Hume, a thing not very easy, with great _naivete_, cannot
guess where Hume picked up his facts.
[11] Even in Dr. Francis's Translation of Select Speeches from
Demosthenes, which Lord Brougham naturally used a little in his own labors
on that theme, there may be traced several peculiarities of diction that
startle us in Junius.
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