The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell [943]
1147. To-day… Milton:JohnMilton, Sonnet xxi,‘Cyriack, whose grandsire on the royal bench’ (composed? 1655, first published 1673), ll. 5–6.
1148. his name-sake… the Rules of his Club: Ben Jonson composed the ‘Leges Conviviales’ which were engraved over the mantelpiece in the Apollo of the Old Devil Tavern at Temple Bar, which he used as his club room.
1149. consilium medicum: Medical advice.
1150. squills: A preparation made from the bulb or root of the sea-onion or other related plant (OED).
1151. the triumph… over aristocratical influence: In January 1784 the ministry had been in a minority of 39 (in a House of 425); by April, and following a general election, they were in a majority of 97 (in a House of 369). On 30 March 1784 Horace Walpole, commenting on this reversal, noted its popularity: ‘The nation is intoxicated, and has poured in addresses of thanks to the crown for exerting the prerogative against the palladium of the people.’ The exertion of prerogative had been the dissolution of Parliament on 25 March 1784.
1152. the fervent prayer of this righteous man: Cf. James 5:16.
1153. One of the company: James Boswell.
1154. a gentleman of eminence: George Steevens.
1155. On Tuesday… not to appoint that gentleman minister: A reference to the mobbing of George III when he opened Parliament that day. Other witnesses suggest that the mob was favourable to Fox.
1156. Sit… Langtono: May my soul be with Langton.
1157. a very eminent friend: Edmund Burke.
1158. image in Bacon… shot by a child: In fact an image of Robert Boyle’s, not Bacon’s, and quoted in a compressed form by Johnson in the fourth edition of his Dictionary under crossbow. The passage occurs in the ‘Preface’ to Boyle’s Some Considerations About the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion (1675), and reads, ‘[T]here are some arguments, which being clearly built upon sense, or evident experiments, need borrow no assistance from the refutation of any of the proposers or approvers and may, I think, be fitly enough compared to arrows shot out of a cross-bow, and bullets shot out of a gun, which have the same strength, and pierce equally, whether they be discharged by a child, or a strong man. But then, there are other ratiocinations, which either do, or are supposed to depend, in some measure, upon the judgment and skill of those, that make the observations, whereon they are grounded, and their ability to discern truth from counterfeits, and solid things from those, that are but superficial ones: and these may be compared to arrows shot out of a long-bow, which make much the greater impres sion, by being shot by a strong and skilful archer’ (Robert Boyle, Works. A New Edition, 6 vols. (1772), IV, 156).
1159. The Journey to London: See n. 247.
1160. Nor think… and pills: Jonathan Swift, ‘Stella’s Birth-day. March 13. 1726/7’, ll. 5-6.
1161. Parenetick Divinity: Divinity composed in order to give exhortation or advice.
1162. seven Bishops… arbitrary power: A reference to the seven bishops of the Church of England who in 1687 had opposed James II’s Declaration of Indulgence – a measure which proposed to remove the disabilities attaching to Dissenters, but only in order to do the same for Roman Catholics.
1163. Here Learning… Fancy wild: Richard Savage, The Wanderer (1729), canto ii, p. 40 (where however it reads ‘Frenzy’, not ‘Fancy’).
1164. Epigram… t’other: ‘Timothy Silence’, The Foundling Hospital for Wit (1749), pp. 87-8.
1165. spoiled… deceit: Cf. Colossians 2:8.
1166. Multis… occidit: ‘He died mourned by many good men’ – Horace, Odes, I.xxiv.9.
1167. Every man… in others: William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1729), pp. 474-5.
1168. of whom I am the chief: 1 Timothy 1:15.
1169. True as the dial… shone upon: Butler, Hudibras, III.ii.175-6.
1170. a certain clergyman: The Revd Sir Henry Bate.
1171. As the soft plume… to the heart: Edward Young, Two Epistles to Mr. Pope, concerning the Authors of the Age (1730), ep. ii, p. 27.
1172. my Redeemer has