Which were the production of Thomas Edwards, an Etonian and King's
College man, where he graduated M.A. in 1734, but missing a
fellowship, turned soldier. After he had been some time in the army,
says a writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, for 1779, it so happened
that, being at Bath, after Mr. Warburton's marriage to Mr. Allen's
niece, he was introduced at Prior Park, _en famille_. The conversation
not unfrequently turning on literary subjects, Mr. Warburton generally
took the opportunity of showing his superiority in Greek, not having
the least idea that an officer of the army understood anything of that
language, or that Mr. Edwards had been bred at Eton; till one day,
being accidentally in the library, Mr. Edwards took down a Greek
author, and explained a passage in it in a manner that Mr. Warburton
did not approve. This occasioned no small contest; and Mr. Edwards
(who had now discovered to Mr. Warburton how he came by his knowledge)
endeavoured to convince him, that he did not understand the original
language, but that his knowledge arose from French translations. Mr.
Warburton was highly irritated; an incurable breach took place; and
this trifling altercation (after Mr. Edwards had quitted the army and
was entered of Lincoln's Inn) produced _The Canons of Criticism_.
* * * * *