A correspondent of The Gentleman’s Magazine, who subscribes himself Sciolus, to whom I am indebted for several excellent remarks, observes, ‘The turn of Dr. Johnson’s lines to Miss Aston, whose Whig principles he had been combating, appears to me to be taken from an ingenious epigram in the lAenagiana on a young lady who appeared at a masquerade, habillee en jesuite,858 during the fierce contentions of the followers of Molinos and Jansenius concerning free-wilclass="underline" –
“On s’etonne ici que Caliste
Ait pris l’habit de Moliniste.
Puisque cette jeune beaute
Ote à chacun sa liberte,
N’est-ce pas une Janseniste?” ‘859
a In Mr. Horne Tooke’s enlargement of that Letter, which he has since published with the title of 7Epea pseqoe´msa;875 or, the Diversions of Purley; he mentions this compliment, as if Dr. Johnson instead of several of his etymologies had said all. His recollection having thus magnified it, shews how ambitious he was of the approbation of so great a man.
a The slip of paper on which he made the correction is deposited by me in the noble library to which it relates, and to which I have presented other pieces of his handwriting.880
a dr. johnson was by no means attentive to minute accuracy in his lives of the poets; for notwithstanding my having detected this mistake, he has continued it.
a Third edition, p. 111 {28 Aug.}.
b When I one day at Court expressed to General Hall my sense of the honour he had done my friend, he politely answered, ‘Sir, I did myself honour.’
a [Perhaps affecting.]
a Dr. Johnson here addresses his worthy friend, Bennet Langton, Esq., by his title as Captain of the Lincolnshire militia, in which he has since been most deservedly raised to the rank of Major.
a Vol. ii, p. 38.
b Miss Carmichael.
a Life of Watts.
a He sent a set elegantly bound and gilt, which was received as a very handsome present.
a p. 173.
a See ante, pp. 116, 680.
a See ante, pp. 709–10.
a ‘I do not (says Mr. Malone,) see any difficulty in this passage, and wonder that Dr. Johnson should have acknowledged it to be inaccurate. The Hermit, it should be observed, had no actual experience of the world whatsoever: all his knowledge concerning it had been obtained in two ways; from books, and from the relations of those country swains, who had seen a little of it. The plain meaning, therefore, is, “To clear his doubts concerning Providence, and to obtain some knowledge of the world by actual experience; to see whether the accounts furnished by books, or by the oral communications of swains, were just representations of it; [I say, swains,] for his oral or viva voce information had been obtained from that part of mankind alone, &c.” The word alone here does not relate to the whole of the preceeding line, as has been supposed, but, by a common licence, to the words, –of all mankind, which are understood, and of which it is restrictive.’
Mr. Malone, it must be owned, has shewn much critical ingenuity in the explanation of this passage. His interpretation, however, seems to me much too recondite. The meaning of the passage may be certain enough; but surely the expression is confused, and one part of it contradictory to the other.
a Which I communicated to him from his Lordship, but it has not yet been published. I have a copy of it. [The few notices concerning Dryden, which Lord Hailes had collected, the author afterwards gave to Mr. Malone.]
b In one of his manuscript Diaries, there is the following entry, which marks his curious minute attention: ‘July 26, 1768. I shaved my nail by accident in whetting the knife, about an eighth of an inch from the bottom, and about a fourth from the top. This I measure that I may know the growth of nails; the whole is about five eighths of an inch.’
Another of the same kind appears, ‘Aug. 7, 1779, Partem brachii dextri carpo proximam et cutem pectoris circa mamillam dextram rasi, ut notum fieret quanto temporis pili renovarentur.’913
And, ‘Aug. 15, 1773. I cut from the vine 41 leaves, which weighed five oz. and a half, and eight scruples: – I lay them upon my book-case, to see what weight they will lose by drying.’
a The Rev. Dr. Law, Bishop of Carlisle, in the Preface to his valuable edition of Archbishop King’s Essay on the Origin of Evil, mentions that the principles maintained in it had been adopted by Pope in his Essay on Man; and adds, The fact, notwithstanding such denial (Bishop Warburton’s), might have been strictly verified by an unexceptionable testimony, viz. that of the late Lord Bathurst, who saw the very same system of the $$914 (taken from the Archbishop) in Lord Bolingbroke’s own hand, lying before Mr. Pope, while he was composing his Essay.’ This is respectable evidence; but that of Dr. Blair is more direct from the fountain-head, as well as more full. Let me add to it that of Dr. Joseph Warton; The late Lord Bathurst repeatedly assured me that he had read the whole scheme of The Essay on Man, in the hand-writing of Bolingbroke, and drawn up in a series of propositions, which Pope was to versify and illustrate.’ Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, vol. ii. p. 62.
a The Spleen, a Poem.917
b 1. Exeter-street, off Catherine-street, Strand. 2. Greenwich. 3. Woodstock-street, near Hanover-square.4. Castle-street, Cavendish-square, No.6. 5. Strand.6. Boswell-court. 7. Strand, again. 8. Bow-street. 9. Holborn. 10. Fetter-lane. 11. Holborn, again. 12. Gough-square. 13. Staple Inn. 14. Gray’s Inn. 15. Inner Temple-lane, No. 1. 16. Johnson’s-court, No. 7. 17. Bolt-court, No. 8.
a Now the Lady of Sir Henry Dashwood, Bart.
b The False Alarm.
a Miss Letitia Barnston.
a I have a valuable collection made by my Father, which, with some additions and illustrations of my own, I intend to publish. I have some hereditary claim to be an Antiquary; not only from my Father, but as being descended, by the mother’s side, from the able and learned Sir John Skene, whose merit bids defiance to all the attempts which have been made to lessen his fame.
a Thomas Percy.
b His regiment was afterwards ordered to Jamaica, where he accompanied it, and almost lost his life by the climate. This impartial order I should think a sufficient refutation of the idle rumour that ‘there was still something behind the throne greater than the throne itself.’
a Requesting me to inquire concerning the family of a gentleman927 who was then paying his addresses to Miss Doxy.
b See ante, p. 722.
a [Mr. Beauclerk’s library was sold by publick auction in April and May 1781, for £5011.]
b By a fire in Northumberland-house, where he had an apartment, in which I have passed many an agreeable hour.
a Dr. John Hinchliffe.
b A kind of nick-name given to Mrs. Thrale’s eldest daughter, whose name being Esther, she might be assimilated to a Queen.