Pope seems to have loved him better than any one, and was probably soothed by his easy-going, unsuspicious temper.

They were of the same age; and Gay, who had been apprenticed to a linendraper, managed to gain notice by his poetical talents, and was taken up by various great people.

Pope said of him that he wanted independence of spirit, which is indeed obvious enough.

He would have been a fitting inmate of Thomson's Castle of Indolence.

He was one of those people who consider that Providence is bound to put food into their mouths without giving them any trouble; and, as sometimes happens, his draft upon the general system of things was honoured.