This refers to the words used by Charles Boyle, in the preface to his edition of the Letters of Phalaris, where he complained of what he deemed the churlish conduct of Bentley in connexion with the loan of a MS., as 'in keeping with his extraordinary notion of courtesy' (pro singulari humanitate suâ ) Humanitas signified, of course, 'courtesy'; but it was one of the current jokes of Bentley's opponents to 'English' it as 'humanity'—thus implying that he was a savage as well as a boor.