In the mean while I take up Chaucer where I left him.

He must have been a man of a most wonderful comprehensive nature, because, as it has been truly observed of him, he has taken into the compass of his _Canterbury Tales_ the various manners and humors (as we now call them) of the whole English nation, in his age.

Not a single character has escap'd him.

All his pilgrims are severally distinguish'd from each other; and not only in their inclinations, but in their very physiognomies and persons.
Bapista Porta[24] could not have described their natures better, than by the marks which the poet gives them.

The matter and manner of their tales, and of their telling, are so suited to their different educations, humors, and callings, that each of them would be improper in any other mouth.