He was a man of learning, and had employed it in an attack upon Woodward's geological speculations, as already savouring of heterodoxy.

He possessed also a vein of genuine humour, resembling that of Swift, though it has rather lost its savour, perhaps, because it was not salted by the Dean's misanthropic bitterness.

If his good humour weakened his wit, it gained him the affections of his friends, and was never soured by the sufferings of his later years.

Finally, John Gay, though fat, lazy, and wanting in manliness of spirit, had an illimitable flow of good-tempered banter; and if he could not supply the learning of Arbuthnot, he could give what was more valuable, touches of fresh natural simplicity, which still explain the liking of his friends.

Gay, as Johnson says, was the general favourite of the wits, though a playfellow rather than a partner, and treated with more fondness than respect.