Jones teach me modesty and Greek, Smith how to think, Burke how to speak

From The collected works of Dugald Stewart by Dugald Stewart, 1753-1828. Published between 1854-60. Stewart was an apostle of Adam Smith. On page 71, he recounts Smith's later recognition and rewards.

About two years after the publication of The Wealth of Nations, Mr. Smith was appointed one of the Commissioners of
his Majesty's Customs in Scotland; a preferment which, in his estimation, derived an additional value from its being bestowed on him at the request of the Duke of Buccleuch. The greater part of these two years he passed in London, enjoying a society too extensive and varied to afford him any opportunity of indulging his taste for study. His time, however, was not lost to himself; for much of it was spent with some of the first names in English literature. Of these no unfavourable specimen is preserved by Dr. Barnard, in his well-known Verses addressed to Sir Joshua Reynolds and his Friends.

If I have thoughts, and can't express 'em,
Gibbon shall teach me how to dress 'em
In words select and terse:
Jones teach me modesty and Greek,
Smith how to think, Burke how to speak.
And Beauclerc to converse.

It is a tribute to Britains extraordinary burst of thought and innovation in the latter half of the 18th century when in a London of perhaps 800,000 people, you should have Reynolds and Smith and Burke and Jones and Gibbon and Johnson and Handel and Fielding and Garrick and Banks and Cook and Soane, etc., etc. What an extraordinary effervescence of talent and thinking.