He was the happiest of any occasional writer in his day: happy
alike in the subject and in the execution of it.—I mention
with pleasure _Anticipation_, the _Wreath of Fashion_, &c. &c.
&c. and I wish to preserve the name and remembrance of such
a man as Mr. Tickell. Poets and ingenious men, who write on
occasional subjects with great ability, are too often lost
in the most undeserved oblivion. But we must recollect, that
even such a poem as “The Absalom and Achitophel” of Dryden
himself (perhaps his greatest production) was but _occasional_,
and written _for a party_.⸺_The Pursuits of Literature_, 5th
edition, 1798