Life of Johnson, Volume 4 · Chapter 35Footnotes: (3)
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[168] In Johnson's Works (1787), xi. 213, it is said, that this meeting was 'at the Bishop of St. ——'s [Asaph's]. Boswell, by his 'careful enquiry,' no doubt meant to show that this statement was wrong. Johnson is reported to have said:—' Dr. Warburton at first looked surlily at me; but after we had been jostled into conversation he took me to a window, asked me some questions, and before we parted was so well pleased with me that he patted me.'
[169] 'Warburton's style is copious without selection, and forcible without neatness; he took the words that presented themselves; his diction is coarse and impure; and his sentences are unmeasured.' Johnson's Works, viii. 288.
[170] Churchill, in The Duellist (Poems ed. 1766, ii. 85), describes Warburton as having
[171] Works, viii. 230.
[172] 'I never,' writes Mrs. Piozzi, 'heard Johnson pronounce the words, "I beg your pardon, Sir," to any human creature but the apparently soft and gentle Dr. Burney.' Burney had asked her whether she had subscribed £100 to building a bridge. '"It is very comical, is it not, Sir?" said I, turning to Dr. Johnson, "that people should tell such unfounded stories." "It is," answered he, "neither comical nor serious, my dear; it is only a wandering lie." This was spoken in his natural voice, without a thought of offence, I am confident; but up bounced Burney in a towering passion, and to my much amaze put on the hero, surprising Dr. Johnson into a sudden request for pardon, and protestation of not having ever intended to accuse his friend of a falsehood.' Hayward's Piozzi, i. 312.
[173] In the original, 'nor.' Works, viii. 311.
[174] In the original, 'either wise or merry.'
[175] In the original, 'stands upon record'.
[176] Works, viii. 316. Surely the words 'had not much to say' imply that Johnson had heard the answer, but thought little of its wit. According to Mr. Croker, the repartee is given in Ruffhead's Life of Pope, and this book Johnson had seen. Ante, ii. 166.
[177] Let me here express my grateful remembrance of Lord Somerville's kindness to me, at a very early period. He was the first person of high rank that took particular notice of me in the way most flattering to a young man, fondly ambitious of being distinguished for his literary talents; and by the honour of his encouragement made me think well of myself, and aspire to deserve it better. He had a happy art of communicating his varied knowledge of the world, in short remarks and anecdotes, with a quiet pleasant gravity, that was exceedingly engaging. Never shall I forget the hours which I enjoyed with him at his apartments in the Royal Palace of Holy-Rood House, and at his seat near Edinburgh, which he himself had formed with an elegant taste. BOSWELL.
[178] Ante, iii. 392.
[179] Boswell, I think, misunderstands Johnson. Johnson said (Works, viii. 313) that 'Pope's admiration of the Great seems to have increased in the advance of life.' His Iliad he had dedicated to Congreve, but 'to his latter works he took care to annex names dignified with titles, but was not very happy in his choice; for, except Lord Bathurst, none of his noble friends were such as that a good man would wish to have his intimacy with them known to posterity; he can derive little honour from the notice of Cobham, Burlington, or Bolingbroke.' Johnson, it seems clear, is speaking, not of the noblemen whom Pope knew in general, but of those to whom he dedicated any of his works. Among them Lord Marchmont is not found, so that on him no slight is cast.
[180] Neither does Johnson actually say that Lord Marchmont had 'any concern,' though perhaps he implies it. He writes:—'Pope left the care of his papers to his executors; first to Lord Bolingbroke; and, if he should not be living, to the Earl of Marchmont: undoubtedly expecting them to be proud of the trust, and eager to extend his fame. But let no man dream of influence beyond his life. After a decent time, Dodsley the bookseller went to solicit preference as the publisher, and was told that the parcel had not been yet inspected; and, whatever was the reason, the world has been disappointed of what was "reserved for the next age."' Ib. p. 306. As Bolingbroke outlived Pope by more than seven years, it is clear, from what Johnson states, that he alone had the care of the papers, and that he gave the answer to Dodsley. Marchmont, however, knew the contents of the papers. Ib. p. 319.
[181] This neglect did not arise from any ill-will towards Lord Marchmont, but from inattention; just as he neglected to correct his statement concerning the family of Thomson the poet, after it had been shewn to be erroneous (ante, in. 359). MALONE.
[182] Works, vii. 420.
[183] Benjamin Victor published in 1722, a Letter to Steele, and in 1776, Letters, Dramatic Pieces, and Poems Brit. Mus. Catalogue.
[184] Mr. Wilks. See ante, i. 167, note 1.
[185] See post, p. 91 and Macaulay's Essay on Addison (ed. 1974, iv.
207).
[186] 'A better and more Christian man scarcely ever breathed than Joseph Addison. If he had not that little weakness for wine—why we could scarcely have found a fault with him, and could not have liked him as we do.' Thackery's English Humourists, ed. 1858, p. 94.
[187] See ante, i. 30, and iii. 155.
[188] See post, under Dec. 2, 1784.
[189] Parnell 'drank to excess.' Ante, iii. 155.
[190] I should have thought that Johnson, who had felt the severe affliction from which Parnell never recovered, would have preserved this passage. BOSWELL.
[191] Mrs. Thrale wrote to Johnson in May, 1780:-'Blackmore will be rescued from the old wits who worried him much to your disliking; so, a little for love of his Christianity, a little for love of his physic, a little for love of his courage—and a little for love of contradiction, you will save him from his malevolent critics, and perhaps do him the honour to devour him yourself.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 122. See ante, ii. 107.
[192] 'This is a tribute which a painter owes to an architect who composed like a painter; and was defrauded of the due reward of his merit by the wits of his time, who did not understand the principles of composition in poetry better than he did; and who knew little, or nothing, of what he understood perfectly, the general ruling principles of architecture and painting.' Reynolds's Thirteenth Discourse.
[193] Johnson had not wished to write Lyttelton's Life. He wrote to Lord Westcote, Lyttelton's brother, 'My desire is to avoid offence, and be totally out of danger. I take the liberty of proposing to your lordship, that the historical account should be written under your direction by any friend you may be willing to employ, and I will only take upon myself to examine the poetry.'—Croker's Boswell, p.650.
[194] It was not Molly Aston (ante i. 83) but Miss Hill Boothby (ib.) of whom Mrs. Thrale wrote. She says (Anec. p.160):—'Such was the purity of her mind, Johnson said, and such the graces of her manner, that Lord Lyttelton and he used to strive for her preference with an emulation that occasioned hourly disgust, and ended in lasting animosity.' There is surely much exaggeration in this account.
[195] Let not my readers smile to think of Johnson's being a candidate for female favour; Mr. Peter Garrick assured me, that he was told by a lady, that in her opinion Johnson was 'a very seducing man.' Disadvantages of person and manner may be forgotten, where intellectual pleasure is communicated to a susceptible mind; and that Johnson was capable of feeling the most delicate and disinterested attachment, appears from the following letter, which is published by Mrs. Thrale [Piozzi Letters, ii. 391], with some others to the same person, of which the excellence is not so apparent:—
'TO MISS BOOTHBY. January, 1755.
DEAREST MADAM,
Though I am afraid your illness leaves you little leisure for the reception of airy civilities, yet I cannot forbear to pay you my congratulations on the new year; and to declare my wishes that your years to come may be many and happy. In this wish, indeed, I include myself, who have none but you on whom my heart reposes; yet surely I wish your good, even though your situation were such as should permit you to communicate no gratifications to, dearest, dearest Madam, Your, &c. SAM JOHNSON.' (BOSWELL.)
[196] Horace, Odes, iv. 3.2, quoted also ante, i.352, note.
[197] The passage which Boswell quotes in part is as follows:—'When they were first published they were kindly commended by the Critical Reviewers; [i.e. the writers in the Critical Review. In some of the later editions of Boswell these words have been printed, critical reviewers; so as to include all the reviewers who criticised the work]; and poor Lyttelton, with humble gratitude, returned, in a note which I have read, acknowledgements which can never be proper, since they must be paid either for flattery or for justice.' Works, viii.491. Boswell forgets that what may be proper in one is improper in another. Lyttelton, when he wrote this note, had long been a man of high position. He had 'stood in the first rank of opposition,' he had been Chancellor of the Exchequer, and when he lost his post, he had been 'recompensed with a peerage.' See ante, ii. 126.
[198] See post, June 12 and 15, 1784.
[199] He adopted it from indolence. Writing on Aug. 1, 1780, after mentioning the failure of his application to Lord Westcote, he continues:—'There is an ingenious scheme to save a day's work, or part of a day, utterly defeated. Then what avails it to be wise? The plain and the artful man must both do their own work.—But I think I have got a life of Dr. Young.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 173.
[200] Gent. Mag. vol. lv. p. 10. BOSWELL.
[201] By a letter to Johnson from Croft, published in the later editions of the Lives, it seems that Johnson only expunged one passage. Croft says:—'Though I could not prevail on you to make any alteration, you insisted on striking out one passage, because it said, that, if I did not wish you to live long for your sake, I did for the sake of myself and the world.' Works viii.458.
[202] The Late Mr. Burke. MALONE.
[203] Seepost, June 2, 1781.
[204] Johnson's Works, viii 440.
[205] Ib. p.436
[206] 'Eheu! fugaces, Postume, Postume, Labuntur anni.' 'How swiftly glide our flying years!' FRANCIS. Horace, Odes, ii.14. i.
[207] The late Mr. James Ralph told Lord Macartney, that he passed an evening with Dr. Young at Lord Melcombe's (then Mr. Dodington) at Hammersmith. The Doctor happening to go out into the garden, Mr. Dodington observed to him, on his return, that it was a dreadful night, as in truth it was, there being a violent storm of rain and wind. 'No, Sir, (replied the Doctor) it is a very fine night. The LORD is abroad.' BOSWELL.
[208] See ante, ii.96, and iii.251; and Boswell's Hebrides, Sept.
30.
[209] 'An ardent judge, who zealous in his trust, With warmth gives sentence, yet is always just.' Pope's Essay on Criticism, l.677.
[210] Works, viii.459. Though the Life of Young is by Croft, yet the critical remarks are by Johnson.
[211] Ib. p.460.
[212] Johnson refers to Chambers's Dissertation on Oriental Gardening, which was ridiculed in the Heroic Epistle. See post, under May 8, 1781, and Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 13.
[213] Boswell refers to the death of Narcissa in the third of the Night Thoughts. While he was writing the Life of Johnson Mrs. Boswell was dying of consumption in (to quote Young's words)
She died nearly two years before The Life was published.
[214] Proverbs, xviii.14.
[215] See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 16.
[216] See vol. i. page 133. BOSWELL.
[217] 'In his economy Swift practised a peculiar and offensive parsimony, without disguise or apology. The practice of saving being once necessary, became habitual, and grew first ridiculous, and at last detestable. But his avarice, though it might exclude pleasure, was never suffered to encroach upon his virtue. He was frugal by inclination, but liberal by principle; and if the purpose to which he destined his little accumulations be remembered, with his distribution of occasional charity, it will perhaps appear, that he only liked one mode of expense better than another, and saved merely that he might have something to give.' Works, viii.222.
[218] Ib. p.225.
[219] Mr. Chalmers here records a curious literary anecdote—that when a new and enlarged edition of the Lives of the Poets was published in 1783, Mr. Nichols, in justice to the purchasers of the preceding editions, printed the additions in a separate pamphlet, and advertised that it might be had gratis. Not ten copies were called for. CROKER.
[220] See ante, p.9, and Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 15.
[221] Works, vii. Preface.
[222] From this disreputable class, I except an ingenious though not satisfactory defence of HAMMOND, which I did not see till lately, by the favour of its authour, my amiable friend, the Reverend Mr. Bevill, who published it without his name. It is a juvenile performance, but elegantly written, with classical enthusiasm of sentiment, and yet with a becoming modesty, and great respect for Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL.
[223] Before the Life of Lyttelton was published there was, it seems, some coolness between Mrs. Montagu and Johnson. Miss Burney records the following conversation in September 1778. 'Mark now,' said Dr. Johnson, 'if I contradict Mrs. Montagu to-morrow. I am determined, let her say what she will, that I will not contradict her.' MRS. THRALE. 'Why to be sure, Sir, you did put her a little out of countenance last time she came.'...DR. JOHNSON. 'Why, Madam, I won't answer that I shan't contradict her again, if she provokes me as she did then; but a less provocation I will withstand. I believe I am not high in her good graces already; and I begin (added he, laughing heartily) to tremble for my admission into her new house. I doubt I shall never see the inside of it.' Yet when they met a few days later all seemed friendly. 'When Mrs. Montagu's new house was talked of, Dr. Johnson in a jocose manner, desired to know if he should be invited to see it. "Ay, sure," cried Mrs. Montagu, looking well pleased, "or else I shan't like it."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, i.118, 126. 'Mrs. Montagu's dinners and assemblies,' writes Wraxall, 'were principally supported by, and they fell with, the giant talents of Johnson, who formed the nucleus round which all the subordinate members revolved.' Wraxall's Memoirs, ed. 1815, i.160.
[224] Described by the author as 'a body of original essays.' 'I consider The Observer,' he arrogantly continues, 'as fairly enrolled amongst the standard classics of our native language.' Cumberland's Memoirs, ii.199. In his account of this Feast of Reason he quite as much satirises Mrs. Montagu as praises her. He introduces Johnson in it, annoyed by an impertinent fellow, and saying to him:—'Have I said anything, good Sir, that you do not comprehend?' 'No, no,' replied he, 'I perfectly well comprehend every word you have been saying.' 'Do you so, Sir?' said the philosopher, 'then I heartily ask pardon of the company for misemploying their time so egregiously.' The Observer, No. 25.
[225] Miss Burney gives an account of an attack made by Johnson, at a dinner at Streatham, in June 1781, on Mr. Pepys (post, p. 82), 'one of Mrs. Montagu's steadiest abettors.' 'Never before,' she writes, 'have I seen Dr. Johnson speak with so much passion. "Mr. Pepys," he cried, in a voice the most enraged, "I understand you are offended by my Life of Lord Lyttelton. What is it you have to say against it? Come forth, man! Here am I, ready to answer any charge you can bring."' After the quarrel had been carried even into the drawing-room, Mrs. Thrale, 'with great spirit and dignity, said that she should be very glad to hear no more of it. Everybody was silenced, and Dr. Johnson, after a pause, said:—"Well, Madam, you shall hear no more of it; yet I will defend myself in every part and in every atom."... Thursday morning, Dr. Johnson went to town for some days, but not before Mrs. Thrale read him a very serious lecture upon giving way to such violence; which he bore with a patience and quietness that even more than made his peace with me.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 45. Two months later the quarrel was made up. 'Mr. Pepys had desired this meeting by way of a reconciliation; and Dr. Johnson now made amends for his former violence, as he advanced to him, as soon as he came in, and holding out his hand to him received him with a cordiality he had never shewn him before. Indeed he told me himself that he thought the better of Mr. Pepys for all that had passed.' Ib. p. 82. Miss Burney, in Dec. 1783, described the quarrel to Mr. Cambridge:—'"I never saw Dr. Johnson really in a passion but then; and dreadful indeed it was to see. I wished myself away a thousand times. It was a frightful scene. He so red, poor Mr. Pepys so pale." "It was behaving ill to Mrs. Thrale certainly to quarrel in her house." "Yes, but he never repeated it; though he wished of all things to have gone through just such another scene with Mrs. Montagu; and to refrain was an act of heroic forbearance. She came to Streatham one morning, and I saw he was dying to attack her." "And how did Mrs. Montagu herself behave?" Very stately, indeed, at first. She turned from him very stiffly, and with a most distant air, and without even courtesying to him, and with a firm intention to keep to what she had publicly declared—that she would never speak to him more. However, he went up to her himself, longing to begin, and very roughly said:—"Well, Madam, what's become of your fine new house? I hear no more of it." "But how did she bear this?" "Why, she was obliged to answer him; and she soon grew so frightened—as everybody does—that she was as civil as ever." He laughed heartily at this account. But I told him Dr. Johnson was now much softened. He had acquainted me, when I saw him last, that he had written to her upon the death of Mrs. Williams [see post, Sept. 18, 1783, note], because she had allowed her something yearly, which now ceased. "And I had a very kind answer from her," said he. "Well then, Sir," cried I, "I hope peace now will be again proclaimed." "Why, I am now," said he, "come to that time when I wish all bitterness and animosity to be at an end."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 290.
[226] January, 1791. BOSWELL. Hastings's trial had been dragging on for more than three years when The Life of Johnson was published. It began in 1788, and ended in 1795.
[227] Gent. Mag. for 1785, p. 412.
[228] Afterwards Sir Robert Chambers, one of his Majesty's Judges in India. BOSWELL. See ante, i.274.
[229] 'He conceived that the cultivation of Persian literature might with advantage be made a part of the liberal education of an English gentleman; and he drew up a plan with that view. It is said that the University of Oxford, in which Oriental learning had never, since the revival of letters, been wholly neglected, was to be the seat of the institution which he contemplated.' Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1843, iii. 338.
[230] Lord North's. Feeble though it was, it lasted eight years longer.
[231] Jones's Persian Grammar. Boswell. It was published in 1771.
[232] Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. BOSWELL.
[233] See ante, ii. 296.
[234] Macaulay wrote of Hastings's answer to this letter:—'It is a remarkable circumstance that one of the letters of Hastings to Dr. Johnson bears date a very few hours after the death of Nuncomar. While the whole settlement was in commotion, while a mighty and ancient priesthood were weeping over the remains of their chief, the conqueror in that deadly grapple sat down, with characteristic self-possession, to write about the Tour to the Hebrides, Jones's Persian Grammar, and the history, traditions, arts, and natural productions of India.' Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1843, iii.376.
[235] Johnson wrote the Dedication, Ante, i.383.
[236] See ante, ii.82, note 2.
[237] Copy is manuscript for printing.
[238] Published by Kearsley, with this well-chosen motto:—'From his cradle He was a SCHOLAR, and a ripe and good one: And to add greater honours to his age Than man could give him, he died fearing Heaven.' SHAKSPEARE. BOSWELL. This quotation is a patched up one from Henry VIII, act iv. sc.2. The quotation in the text is found on p. 89 of this Life of Johnson.
[239] Mr. Thrale had removed, that is to say, from his winter residence in the Borough. Mrs. Piozzi has written opposite this passage in her copy of Boswell:—'Spiteful again! He went by direction of his physicians where they could easiest attend to him.' Hayward's Piozzi, i. 91. There was, perhaps, a good deal of truth in Boswell's supposition, for in 1779 Johnson had told her that he saw 'with indignation her despicable dread of living in the Borough.' Piozzi Letters, ii.92. Johnson had a room in the new house. 'Think,' wrote Hannah More, 'of Johnson's having apartments in Grosvenor-square! but he says it is not half so convenient as Bolt-court.' H. More's Memoirs, i.2O7.
[240] See ante, iii. 250.
[241] Shakspeare makes Hamlet thus describe his father:—
Milton thus pourtrays our first parent, Adam:—
[242] 'Grattan's Uncle, Dean Marlay [afterwards Bishop of Waterford], had a good deal of the humour of Swift. Once, when the footman was out of the way, he ordered the coachman to fetch some water from the well. To this the man objected, that his business was to drive, not to run on errands. "Well, then," said Marlay, "bring out the coach and four, set the pitcher inside, and drive to the well;"—a service which was several times repeated, to the great amusement of the village.' Rogers's Table-Talk, p.176.
[243] See ante, ii. 241, for Johnson's contempt of puns.
[244] 'He left not faction, but of that was left.' Absalom and Achitophel, l. 568.
[245] Boswell wrote of Gibbon in 1779:—'He is an ugly, affected, disgusting fellow, and poisons our Literary Club to me.' Letters of Boswell, p.242. See ante, ii.443, note 1.
[246] The schools in this sense means a University.
[247] See ante, ii.224.
[248] Up to the year 1770, controverted elections had been tried before a Committee of the whole House. By the Grenville Act which was passed in that year they were tried by a select committee. Parl. Hist. xvi. 902. Johnson, in The False Alarm (1770), describing the old method of trial, says;—'These decisions have often been apparently partial, and sometimes tyrannically oppressive.' Works, vi. 169. In The Patriot (1774), he says:—'A disputed election is now tried with the same scrupulousness and solemnity as any other title.' Ib. p.223. See Boswell's Hebrides, Nov.10.
[249] Miss Burney describes a dinner at Mr. Thrale's, about this time, at which she met Johnson, Boswell, and Dudley Long. Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 14.
[250] See ante, ii.171, post, two paragraphs before April 10, 1783, and May 15, 1784.
[251] Johnson wrote on May i, 1780:—'There was the Bishop of St. Asaph who comes to every place.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 111. Hannah More, in 1782, describes an assembly at this Bishop's. 'Conceive to yourself 150 or 200 people met together dressed in the extremity of the fashion, painted as red as Bacchanals...ten or a dozen card-tables crammed with dowagers of quality, grave ecclesiastics and yellow admirals.' Memoirs, i.242. He was elected a member of the Literary Club, 'with the sincere approbation and eagerness of all present,' wrote Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Jones; elected, too, on the same day on which Lord Chancellor Camden was rejected (ante, iii. 311, note 2). Two or three years later Sir William married the Bishop's daughter. Life of Sir W Jones, pp.240, 279.
[252] 'Trust not to looks, nor credit outward show; The villain lurks beneath the cassocked beau.' Churchill's Poems (ed. 1766), ii.41.
[253] No. 2.
[254] See vol. i p. 378. BOSWELL.
[255] Northcote, according to Hazlitt, said of this character with some truth, that 'it was like one of Kneller's portraits—it would do for anybody.' Northcote's Conversations, p.86.
[256] See post, p.98.
[257] London Chronicle, May 2, 1769. This respectable man is there mentioned to have died on the 3rd of April, that year, at Cofflect, the seat of Thomas Veale, Esq., in his way to London. BOSWELL.
[258] Dr. Harte was the tutor of Mr. Eliot and of young Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield's illegitimate son. 'My morning hopes,' wrote Chesterfield to his son at Rome, 'are justly placed in Mr. Harte, and the masters he will give you; my evening ones in the Roman ladies: pray be attentive to both.' Chesterfield's Letters, ii.263. See ante, i.163, note 1, ii.120, and post, June 27, 1784.
[259] Robertson's Scotland is in the February list of books in the Gent. Mag. for 1759; Harte's Gustavus Adolphus and Hume's England under the House of Tudor in the March list. Perhaps it was from Hume's competition that Harte suffered.
[260] Essays on Husbandry, 1764.
[261] See ante, iii. 381.
[262] 'Christmas Day, 1780. I shall not attempt to see Vestris till the weather is milder, though it is the universal voice that he is the only perfect being that has dropped from the clouds, within the memory of man or woman...When the Parliament meets he is to be thanked by the Speaker.' Walpole's Letters, vii. 480.
[263] Here Johnson uses his title of Doctor (ante, ii.332, note 1), but perhaps he does so as quoting the paragraph in the newspaper.
[264] William, the first Viscount Grimston. BOSWELL. Swift thus introduces him in his lines On Poetry, A Rhapsody:—
Mr. Nichols, in a note on this, says that Grimston 'wrote the play when a boy, to be acted by his schoolfellows.' Swift's Works (1803), xi. 297. Two editions were published apparently by Grimston himself, one bearing his name but no date, and the other the date of 1705 but no name. By 1705 Grimston was 22 years old—no longer a boy. The former edition was published by Bernard Lintott at the Cross Keys, Fleet-street, and the latter by the same bookseller at the Middle Temple Gate. The grossness of a young man of birth at this period is shewn by the Preface. The third edition with the elephant on the tight-rope was published in 1736. There is another illustration in which an ass is represented bearing a coronet. Grimston's name is not given here, but there is a dedication 'To the Right Sensible the Lord Flame.' Three or four notes are added, one of which is very gross. The election was for St. Alban's, for which borough he was thrice returned.
[265] Dr. T. Campbell records (Diary, p. 69) that 'Boswell asked Johnson if he had never been under the hands of a dancing master. "Aye, and a dancing mistress too," says the Doctor; "but I own to you I never took a lesson but one or two; my blind eyes showed me I could never make a proficiency."'
[266] See vol. ii. p.286. BOSWELL.
[267] Miss Burney writes of him in Feb. 1779:—'He is a professed minority man, and very active and zealous in the opposition. Men of such different principles as Dr. Johnson and Sir Philip cannot have much cordiality in their political debates; however, the very superior abilities of the former, and the remarkable good breeding of the latter have kept both upon good terms.' She describes a hot argument between them, and continues:—'Dr. Johnson pursued him with unabating vigour and dexterity, and at length, though he could not convince, he so entirely baffled him, that Sir Philip was self-compelled to be quiet—which, with a very good grace, he confessed. Dr. Johnson then recollecting himself, and thinking, as he owned afterwards, that the dispute grew too serious, with a skill all his own, suddenly and unexpectedly turned it to burlesque.' D'Arblay's Diary, i. 192.
[268] See post, Jan. 20, 1782.
[269] See ante, ii.355.
[270] Here Johnson condescended to play upon the words Long and short. But little did he know that, owing to Mr. Long's reserve in his presence, he was talking thus of a gentleman distinguised amongst his acquaintance for acuteness of wit; one to whom I think the French expression, 'Il pétille d'esprit,' is particularly He has gratified me by mentioning that he heard Dr. Johnson say, 'Sir, if I were to lose Boswell, it would be a limb amputated.' BOSWELL.
[271] William Weller Pepys, Esq., one of the Masters in the High Court of Chancery, and well known in polite circles. My acquaintance with him is not sufficient to enable me to speak of him from my own judgement. But I know that both at Eton and Oxford he was the intimate friend of the late Sir James Macdonald, the Marcellus of Scotland [ante, i.449], whose extraordinary talents, learning, and virtues, will ever be remembered with admiration and regret. BOSWELL.