807. an English Benedictine Monk: The abbe Hooke.
808. If two… must ride behind: Much Ado about Nothing, III.v.33.
809. He… has no friend: Cf. Diogenes Laertius, V.i. – ‘He had friends, but no friend.’
810. Do the devils lie… not subsist: Thomas Brown, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646), I.xi.16; cf. Samuel Johnson, Adventurer, 50 (1753).
811. Miss —: Hannah More.
812. The righteous… in his death: Proverbs 14.32.
813. I have fought… crown of life: Cf. 2 Timothy, 4:7-8.
814. Miss —: Jane Harry.
815. Copernican and Ptolemaick systems: The Ptolemaic system is a model of the universe created by the Alexandrian mathematician and astronomer Ptolemy about ad 100. It assumes that the Earth is the stationary centre of the universe. The Copernican system is a model of the solar system created by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543), which places the Sun at the centre and arranges the Earth and the other planets circling around it.
816. a gentleman: Bennet Langton.
817. Tempe: The vale of Tempe is a narrow valley in north-eastern Thessaly. The ancient Greeks dedicated Tempe to the cult of Apollo, who, legend says, purified himself in the waters of the Pinios after killing the serpent Python. A temple was built in a recess on the right bank, and every eighth year a procession came from Delphi to gather sacred laurels to be awarded to the victors of contests.
818. Jo Ann. 2… erubuit: ‘John 2 | Water turned into Wine | Whence comes this redness, this strange purple colour? | What new blush changes the wondering waters? |A God, O guests! recognize the present God! | The shy nymph saw her God, and blushed’ – Richard Crashaw, Epigrammatum sacrorum liber (1634), p. 37.
819. Mira… secuta est: I sing a marveclass="underline" the sun set, but no night followed.’ Camden tentatively ascribed the line to Giraldus Cambrensis (William Camden, Remaines Concerning Britain, 6th edn (1657), p. 321).
820. a gentleman: The Revd James Phipps.
821. O my coevals… yourselves: Edward Young, Night Thoughts: ‘Night’, iv.109 (1743).
822. Non equidem… magis: ‘I do not envy you; rather, I marvel’ – Virgil, Eclogues, i.n.
823. A reverend friend of ours: Dr Blair.
824. Omnia… porto: ‘All that is mine, I carry with me’ – Cicero, Paradoxa, i.
825. the authour: William Marshall, the author of Minutes of Agriculture (1778).
826. April 14: In fact 18 April.
827. a… delinquent: Horne Tooke.
828. a gentleman: John Shebbeare.
829. The Gentleman: The Revd Norton Nicholls.
830. a gentleman: Bennet Langton.
831. a gentleman: Ibid.
832. Musarum Delicice: Sir John Mennes, Musarum Deliciae: or, The Muses Recreation (1656).
833. a lady: Lady Lucan and her daughter.
834. Historia Studiorum: ‘History of my studies’.
835. one of his friends: Bishop Percy.
836. the Ana: A collection of the memorable sayings or table-talk of anyone (OED).
837. on the shoulders: In Latin, ‘on the shoulders’ is humeris (in place of the numerisque in the Horatian original).
838. Numerisque… solutus: ‘As he [Pindar] is carried along in irregular metre’ – Horace, Odes, IV.ii.n-12.
839. Suum cuique tribuito: ‘To each his due’ – Justinian, Institutes, I.i.i.
840. Est modus… fines: ‘There is measure in everything, there are fixed limits’ – Horace, Satires, I.i.106.
841. a poor man: Mauritius Lowe.
842. un politique… aux raves: A politician among cabbages and turnips.
843. Omne… est: ‘All things are magnified by the condition of being unknown’ – Tacitus, Agricola, xxx.
844. toy-shop: A shop for the sale of trinkets, knick-knacks, or small ornamental articles; a fancy shop (OED, citing this passage).
845. Better… in Heaven: John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667), i.263.
846. Curst… my foe: Pope, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, ll. 283-4.
847. Si patrice… cari: ‘If we wish to live in a way which endears us to our country, and to ourselves’ – Horace, Epistles, I.iii.29.
848. a nobleman: Archibald Montgomerie, nth Earl of Eglinton.
849. superfoetation: Literally, the formation of a second foetus in a uterus already pregnant; metaphorically, superabundant production or accumulation (OED).
850. a certain nobleman: Lord Clive.
851. An ingenious gentleman: Robert Adam.
852. the Sphinx’s description… night: An allusion to the riddle which the winged Sphinx of Thebes was supposed to have posed to Oedipus: ‘What is it that walks on four legs in the morning, on two at noon, on three in the evening?’ The answer is ‘Man’, who crawls in infancy, walks when grown, and in old age uses a stick (so the times of day correspond to these three ages of man).
853. Nestor: In Homeric legend, an elder statesman and counsellor in the Greek camp at the siege of Troy.
854. one of our friends: Possibly Bennet Langton.
855. Cornelius, a devout man: Acts 10:1.
856. flow of talk: An allusion to Johnson’s comment on Dryden, that ‘such rapidity of composition naturally promises a flow of talk’ (Lives of the Poets, ed. Lonsdale, II, 112; cf. Thomas Chatterton, Miscellanies in Prose and Verse (1778), p. 99.
857. An eminent authour: William Robertson.
858. habillee en Jesuite: Dressed in Jesuit costume.
859. On s’etonne… Janseniste: ‘It’s astonishing that Caliste has dressed as a Molinist. Since this young beauty denies everyone their liberty, is she not a Jansenist?’ –Menagiana, 4 vols. (Amsterdam, 1713–16), III, 376. The joke turns on the theological differences between these religious sects in respect of free will.
860. enucleated: Literally, having the kernel or nucleus extracted; so, by extension, having the essential point at issue defined and disengaged from its less important circumstances.
861. a curious clergyman: Dr Michael Lort.
862. Vous gagnerez… des honnettes gens: ‘You will win over two or three libertines, and will alienate goodness knows how many decent folk.’
863. He… not robb’d at alclass="underline" Othello, III.iii.347-8.
864. a gentleman: Bennet Langton.
865. one of our friends: Bennet Langton senior.
866. Hummums: Turkish baths.
867. cupped: Bled by means of a cupping-glass (in which a partial vacuum is created by heating) (OED, 1).