Learnedest

IT is not any private reſpect of gain, Gentle Reader, for the ſlighteſt Pamphlet is now adayes more vendible then the Works of learnedeſt men; but it is the love I have to our own Language that hath made me diligent to collect, and ſet forth ſuch Peeces both in Proſe and Vers, as may renew the wonted honour and eſteem of our English tongue: and it’s the worth of theſe both Engliſh and Latin Poems, not the flouriſh of any prefixed encomions that can invite thee to buy them, though theſe are not without the higheſt Commendations and Applauſe of the learnedeſt Academicks, both domeſtick and forrein: […]

[…] while they mean while be at Eaſe to live in their Sins ſecure Whence, when all is well Examined, the Cauſe is plain, it is becauſe their deeds are evil, that with one Conſent they Reject this Light: for it Checks the Wiſeſt of them all, and the Learnedeſt of them all in ſecret, it Reproves them; […]

Why, that’s the famous Doctor Samuel Johnson, who, they say, is the greatest and learnedest man in England.