The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [844]
b Mr. Paterson, in a pamphlet, produced some evidence to show that his work was written before Sterne’s Sentimental Journey appeared.
a See this curious question treated by him with most acute ability, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 33 {16 Aug.}.
a Here was a blank, which may be filled up thus: – ‘was told by an apparition;’ – the writer being probably uncertain whether he was asleep or awake, when his mind was impressed with the solemn presentiment with which the fact afterwards happened so wonderfully to correspond.
a It is remarkable, that Lord Monboddo, whom, on account of his resembling Dr. Johnson in some particulars, Foote called an Elzevir edition342 of him, has, by coincidence, made the very same remark. Origin and Progress of Language, vol. iii. 2nd edit. p. 219.
a Pr. and Med. p. 111.
a Mrs. Piozzi, to whom I told this anecdote, has related it, as if the gentleman had given ‘the natural history of the mouse.’ Anec. p. 191.
a Wilson against Smith and Armour.
a Lord Kames, in his Historical Law Tracts.
a He, however, wrote, or partly wrote, an Epitaph on Mrs. Bell, wife of his friend John Bell, Esq., brother of the Reverend Dr. Bell, Prebendary of Westminster, which is printed in his Works {i. 151}. It is in English prose, and has so little of his manner, that I did not believe he had any hand in it, till I was satisfied of the fact by the authority of Mr. Bell.
b Given by a lady at Edinburgh.
c There had been masquerades in Scotland; but not for a very long time.
a This gentleman,358 who now resides in America in a publick character of considerable dignity, desired that his name might not be transcribed at full length.
a Now Doctor White, and Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania. During his first visit to England in 1771, as a candidate for holy orders, he was several times in company with Dr. Johnson, who expressed a wish to see the edition of his Rasselas, which Dr. White told him had been printed in America. Dr. White, on his return immediately sent him a copy.
a Afterwards Charles I.
a ‘By inscribing this slight performance to you, I do not mean so much to compliment you as myself. It may do me some honour to inform the publick, that I have lived many years in intimacy with you. It may serve the interests of mankind also to inform them, that the greatest wit may be found in a character, without impairing the most unaffected piety.’
b See an account of this learned and respectable gentleman, and of his curious work on the Middle State, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 371 {25 Oct.}.
a The humours of Ballamagairy.
a I regretted that Dr. Johnson never took the trouble to study a question which interested nations. He would not even read a pamphlet which I wrote upon it, entitled The Essence of the Douglas Cause; which, I have reason to flatter myself, had considerable effect in favour of Mr. Douglas; of whose legitimate filiation I was then, and am still, firmly convinced. Let me add, that no fact can be more respectably ascertained, than by the judgement of the most august tribunal in the world; a judgement, in which Lord Mansfield and Lord Camden united in 1769, and from which only five of a numerous body entered a protest.
a [It has already been observed (ante, 291), that one of his first Essays was a Latin Poem on a glow-worm; but whether it be any where extant, has not been ascertained.]
a Ovid. de Art. Amand. i. iii. v. 13.
b In allusion to Dr. Johnson’s supposed political principles, and perhaps his own.
a Here is another instance of his high admiration of Milton as a Poet, notwithstanding his just abhorrence of that sour Republican’s political principles. His candour and discrimination are equally conspicuous. Let us hear no more of his ‘injustice to Milton’.
a Dr. Johnson’s memory here was not perfectly accurate: Eugenio does not conclude thus. There are eight more lines after the last of those quoted by him; and the passage which he meant to recite is as follows: –