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our Saviour said, "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin." He had said in the morning, that "Macaulay's History of St. Kilda" was very well written, except some foppery about liberty and slavery. I mentioned to him that Macaulay told me, he was advised to leave out of his book the wonderful story that upon the approach of a stranger all the inhabitants catch cold; but that it had been so well authenticated, he determined to retain it. JOHNSON. "Sir, to leave things out of a book, merely because people tell you they will not be believed, is meanness. Macaulay acted with more magnanimity."

We talked of the Roman Catholic religion, and how little difference there was in essential matters between ours and it. JOHNSON. "True, Sir; all denominations of Christians have really little difference in point of doctrine, though they may differ widely in external forms. There is a prodigious difference between the external form of one of your Presbyterian churches in Scotland, and the church in Italy; yet the doctrine taught is essentially the same."

I mentioned the petition to parliament for removing the subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles. JOHNSON. "It was soon thrown out. Sir, they talk of not making boys at the University subscribe to what they do not understand; but they ought to consider, that our Universities were founded to bring up members for the Church of England, and we must not supply our enemies with arms from our arsenal. No, Sir, the meaning of subscribing is, not that they fully understand all the articles, but that they will adhere to the church of England. Now take it in this way, and suppose that they should only subscribe their adherence to the church of England, there would be still the same difficulty; for still the young men would be subscribing to what they do not understand. For if you should ask them, what do you mean by the church of England? Do you know in what it differs from the Presbyterian church? from the

visions in his sleep, and every body knows that the sick see them in their paroxysms; and there are, we are told, some cases (such as that of Nicolai, the Berlin bookseller), in which persons, awake and not otherwise disordered in mind, have thick-coming fancies," and see what, if real, would be supernatural; but where, we must again ask, is there, in the profane history of the world, one well-attested supernatural fact? CROKER.

See antè, p. 191.-C.

2 This was a petition drawn up by Mr. Francis Blackburn, who, though an archdeacon of the Church of England, had published several works against her discipline and peculiar doctrines: the petition was presented on the 6th of February, and, after an animated debate, rejected (not being even allowed to lie on the table) by 217 voices against 71. Mr. Gibbon thus notices this debate, in a letter to Lord Sheffield: -"Icongratulate you on the late victory of our dear mamma, the Church of England. She had, last Thursday (Feb. 6.), 71 rebellious sons, who pretended to set aside her will, on account of insanity; but 217 worthy champions, headed by Lord North, Burke, Hans Stanley, Charles Fox, Godfrey Clarke, &c., supported the validity of it with infinite humour. By the by, Charles Fox prepared himself for that holy war, by passing twenty-two hours in the pious exercise of hazard: his devotion only cost him 5 01. per hour, in all 11,000Z." Misc. Works, vol. ii. p. 74. The argument against subscrip

Romish church? from the Greek church? from the Coptic church? they could not tell you. So, Sir, it comes to the same thing." BoSWELL. "But, would it not be sufficient to subscribe the Bible?" JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir; for all sects will subscribe the Bible; nay, the Mahometans will subscribe the Bible; for the Mahometans acknowledge Jesus Christ, as well as Moses, but maintain that God sent Mahomet as a still greater prophet than either."

3

I mentioned the motion which had been made in the House of Commons, to abolish the fast of the 30th of January. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, I could have wished that it had been a temporary act, perhaps, to have expired with the century. I am against abolishing it; because that would be declaring it wrong to establish it; but I should have no objection to make an act, continuing it for another century, and then letting it expire."

He disapproved of the Royal Marriage bill; "because," said he, "I would not have the people think that the validity of marriage depends on the will of man, or that the right of a king depends on the will of man. I should not have been against making the marriage of any of the royal family without the approbation of king and parliament, highly criminal."4

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In the morning we had talked of old families, and the respect due to them. JOHNSON. "Sir, you have a right to that kind of respect, and are arguing for yourself. I am for supporting the principle, and am disinterested in doing it, as I have no such right." BosWELL. Why, Sir, it is one more incitement to a man to do well." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir, and it is a matter of opinion, very necessary to keep society together. What is it but opinion, by which we have a respect for authority, that prevents us, who are the rabble, from rising up and pulling down you who are gentlemen from your places, and saying, 'We will be gentlemen in our turn?' Now,

tion, which seemed to make most effect in the House, was the requiring it from every youth entering the University, of whatever age, or intended for whatever profession. To this point Johnson's observation particularly alludes.CROKER.

3 Dr. Nowell had preached, as usual, before the House on the 30th of January, and had been thanked for his sermon. Some days afterwards, Mr. Thomas Townshend complained of certain unconstitutional passages in the sermon; and on the 21st of February, after a debate, the thanks were ordered to be expunged from the Journals; and on the 2d of March, Mr. Frederic Montagu moved for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the observance of that day altogether. This motion was rejected by 125 to 97.-CROKER.

4 It is not very easy to understand Dr. Johnson's objection as above stated. Does not the validity of all marriages "depend on the will of man?" that is, are there not in all civilised nations certain legal forms and conditions, requisite to constitute a marriage? And if it be competent to the legislature to make an act highly criminal, does not that imply a competency to forbid it altogether? I do not understand what the right of a king" has to do with this marriage act, which went rather to increase than to diminish the right of the king over his family. Unless indeed, as Mr. Lockhart suggests, Johnson might have been thinking of the divine right of kings. - CROKER.

Sir, that respect for authority is much more easily granted to a man whose father has had it, than to an upstart, and so society is more easily supported." BOSWELL. "Perhaps, Sir, it might be done by the respect belonging to office, as among the Romans, where the dress, the toga, inspired reverence." JOHNSON. 66 Why, we know very little about the Romans. But, surely, it is much easier to respect a man who has always had respect, than to respect a man who we know was last year no better than ourselves, and will be no better next year. In republics there is no respect for authority, but a fear of power." BOSWELL. "At present, Sir, I think riches seem to gain most respect." JOHNSON. "No, Sir, riches do not gain hearty respect; they only procure external attention. A very rich man, from low beginnings, may buy his election in a borough; but, cæteris paribus, a man of family will be preferred. People will prefer a man for whose father their fathers have voted, though they should get no more money, or even less. That shows that the respect for family is not merely fanciful, but has an actual operation. If gentlemen of family would allow the rich upstarts to spend their money profusely, which they are ready enough to do, and not vie with them in expense, the upstarts would soon be at an end, and the gentlemen would remain; but if the gentlemen will vie in expense with the upstarts, which is very foolish, they must be ruined." I

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I gave him an account of the excellent mimicry of a friend of mine in Scotland; observing, at the same time, that some people thought it a very mean thing. JOHNSON. Why, Sir, it is making a very mean use of man's powers. But to be a good mimic, requires great powers; great acuteness of observation, great retention of what is observed, and great pliancy of organs, to represent what is observed. I remember a lady of quality in this town, Lady - who was a wonderful mimic, and used to make me laugh immoderately. I have heard she is

Mrs. Piozzi says, that though a man of obscure birth himself, Dr. Johnson's partiality to people of family was visible on every occasion; his zeal for subordination warm even to bigotry; his hatred to innovation, and reverence for the old feudal times, apparent, whenever any possible manner of showing them occurred. CROKER.

2 This friend, as Sir James Mackintosh informed me, was Mr. Cullen, advocate, son of the celebrated physician, afterwards a judge, by the name of Lord Cullen.- CROKER, 1835.

3 The melancholy circumstance stated as to the lady, prevents my attempting to fill up this blank-which. however, an attentive reader will probably be able, at least as to the family name, to do for himself. CROKER.

The printer of the Dublin Journal. "In his portraits of Faulkner, Foote found the only sitter whom his extravagant pencil could not caricature; for he had a solemn intrepidity of egotism, and a daring contempt of absurdity, that fairly outfaced imitation. George prosecuted Foote for lampooning him on the Dublin stage: his counsel, the prime-serjeant, compared him to Socrates, and his libeller to Aristophanes ; this, I believe, was all George got by his course of law. He died in 1775." Cumberland. — CROKER.

5 Civilization has been introduced into Todd's edition of

now gone mad." BOSWELL. "It is amazing how a mimic can not only give you the gestures and voice of a person whom he represents, but even what a person would say on any particular subject." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, you are to consider, that the manner and some particular phrases of a person do much to impress you with an idea of him, and you are not sure that he would say what the mimic says in his character." BosWELL. "I don't think Foote a good mimic, Sir." JOHNSON. "No, Sir; his imitations are not like. He gives you something different from himself, but not the character which he means to assume. He goes out of himself, without going into other people. He cannot take off any person unless he is strongly marked, such as George Faulkner.+ He is like a painter who can draw the portrait of a man who has a wen upon his face, and who therefore is easily known. If a man hops upon one leg, Foote can hop upon one leg. But he has not that nice discrimination which your friend seems to possess. Foote is, however, very entertaining with a kind of conversation between wit and buffoonery."

On Monday, March 23., I found him busy, preparing a fourth edition of his folio Dictionary. Mr. Peyton, one of his original amanuenses, was writing for him. I put him in mind of a meaning of the word side, which he had omitted, viz. relationship; as father's side, mother's side. He inserted it. I asked him, if humiliating was a good word. He said, he had seen it frequently used, but he did not know it to be legitimate English. He would not admit civilization, but only civility. With great deference to him I thought civilization, from to civilize, better in the sense opposed to barbarity, than civility; as it is better to have a distinct word for each sense, than one word with two senses, which civility is, in his way of using it.5

He seemed also to be intent on some sort of chemical operation. I was entertained by observing how he contrived to send Mr. Peyton on an errand, without seeming to degrade

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"Poor Peyton expired this morning. He probably - during many years, for which he sat starving by the bed of a wife, not only useless but almost motionless, condemned by poverty to personal attendance, and by the necessity of such attendance chained down to poverty- he probably thought often how lightly he should tread the path of life without his burthen. Of this thought the admission was unavoidable, and the indulgence might be forgiven to frailty and distress. His wife died at last, and before she was buried, he was seized by a fever, and is now going to the grave.

"Such miscarriages, when they happen to those on whom many eyes are fixed, fill histories and tragedies; and tears have been shed for the sufferings, and wonder excited by the fortitude, of those who neither did nor suffered more than Peyton." Letters, vol. i. p. 312. — Croker.

him :-"Mr. Peyton, Mr. Peyton, will you be so good as to take a walk to Temple-Bar? You will there see a chemist's shop, at which you will be pleased to buy for me an ounce of oil of vitriol; not spirit of vitriol, but oil of vitriol. It will cost three half-pence." Peyton immediately went, and returned with it, and told him it cost but a penny.

I then reminded him of the Schoolmaster's cause, and proposed to read to him the printed papers concerning it. "No, Sir," said he, "I can read quicker than I can hear." So he read them to himself.

After he had read for some time, we were interrupted by the entrance of Mr. Kristrom, a Swede, who was tutor to some young gentlemen in the city. He told me, that there was a very good History of Sweden by Daline. Having at the time an intention of writing the history of that country, I asked Dr. Johnson whether one might write a history of Sweden without going thither. "Yes, Sir," said he, "one for common use."

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We talked of languages. Johnson observed, that Leibnitz had made some progress in a work tracing all languages up to the Hebrew. "Why, Sir," said he, " you would not imagine that the French jour, day, is derived from the Latin dies, and yet nothing is more certain; and the intermediate steps are very clear. From dies, comes diurnus. Diu is, by inaccurate ears, or inaccurate pronunciation, easily confounded with giu; then the Italians form a substantive of the ablative of an adjective, and thence giurno, or, as they make it, giorno: which is readily contracted into giour, or jour."1 He observed, that the Bohemian language was true Sclavonic. The Swede said, it had some

Edinburgh, when there is an Irish translation ?" BOSWELL. "Although the Erse and Irish are both dialects of the same language, there may be a good deal of diversity between them, as between the different dialects in Italy." The Swede went away, and Mr. Johnson continued his reading of the papers. I said, "I am afraid, Sir, it is troublesome." Why, Sir," said he, "I do not take much delight in it; but I'll go through it."

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We went to the Mitre, and dined in the room where he and I first supped together. He gave me great hopes of my cause. "Sir," said he, "the government of a schoolmaster is somewhat of the nature of military government; that is to say, it must be arbitrary, —it must be exercised by the will of one man, according to particular circumstances. You must show some learning upon this occasion. You must show, that a schoolmaster has a prescriptive right to beat; and that an action of assault and battery cannot be admitted against him unless there is some great excess, some barbarity. This man has maimed none of his boys. They are all left with the full exercise of their corporeal faculties. In our schools in England, many boys have been maimed; yet I never heard of an action against a schoolmaster on that account. Puffendorff, I think, maintains the right of a schoolmaster to beat his scholars." "

CHAPTER XXVI.

1772.

Coke. Lord Mansfield. -
nunciation. - Etymology.

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Lord

Scotch Accent.- Pro-
Disembodied Spirits.

similarity with the German. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir A. Mucdonald. — Choice of Chancellors.
Sir, to be sure, such parts of Sclavonia as
confine with Germany will borrow German
words; and such parts as confine with Tartary
will borrow Tartar words."

He said, he never had it properly ascertained that the Scotch Highlanders and the Irish understood each other. I told him that my cousin, Colonel Graham, of the Royal Highlanders, whom I met at Drogheda, told me they did. JOHNSON. "Sir, if the Highlanders understood Irish, why translate the New Testament into Erse, as was lately done at

! Thus Journal assuredly comes from dies, without having a single letter in common. - CROKER.

2 in Mr. Anderson's Historical Sketches of the Native Irish, we find the following observations:

"The Irish and Gaelic languages are the same, and formerly what was spoken in the Highlands of Scotland was generally called Irish. Those who have attended to the subject must have observed, that the word Irish was gradually changed into Erse, denoting the language that is now generally called Gaelic." Mr. Anderson states that, when he was in Galway, in Ireland, in 1814, he found a vessel there from Lewis, one of the Hebrides, the master of which remarked to him that the people here spoke curious Gaelic, but he understood them easily, and commerce is actually carried on between the Highlanders and the Irish, through the medium of their common language. - p. 133.

My friend, Colonel Meyrick Shawe, told me from his own experience, that "were it not for the difference of pro

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Ghost Stories.-Mrs. Veal.

Gray, Mason,

and Akenside.-Swearing. Warton's Essay on
Pope. Pantheon. Luxury. · Inequality of
Livings. - Hon. Thomas Erskine. - Fielding and
Richardson. Coriat's Crudities. - Gaming. ·
Earl of Buchan, Attachment in Families.—
Feudal System. - Cave's Ghost Story. - Witches.

ON Saturday, March 27., I introduced to him Sir Alexander Macdonald, with whom

nunciation, the Irish and the Highlanders would be perfectly intelligible to each other; and even with that disadvantage, they become so in a short time. The Scotch, as is natural from their position, have many Pictish and other foreign words. The Irish have no Pictish words, but many Latin." Sir Walter Scott also informed me, that "there is no doubt the languages are the same, and the difference in pronunciation and construction not very considerable. The Erse or Earish is the Irish; and the race called Scots came originally from Ulster."-CROKER.

3 Puffendorf states that "tutors and schoolmasters have a right to the moderate use of gentle discipline over their pupils."-viii. 3-10.; adding, rather superduously, Grotius's caveat, that " it shall not extend to a power of death." In our common law courts there have been several instances of action even for over-severity: there can be no doubt of the right of action in a case of maiming. - CROKER.

4 Next brother of Sir James Macdonald, whom Mr. Bos

he had expressed a wish to be acquainted. He received him very courteously.

Sir Alexander observed, that the Chancellors in England are chosen from views much inferior to the office, being chosen from temporary political views. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, in such a government as ours, no man is appointed to an office because he is the fittest for it, nor hardly in any other government; because there are so many connections and dependencies to be studied. A despotic prince may choose a man to an office merely because he is the fittest for it. The king of Prussia may do it." SIR A. "I think, Sir, almost all great lawyers, such at least as have written upon law, have known only law, and nothing else." JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir; Judge Hale was a great lawyer, and wrote upon law; and yet he knew a great many other things, and has written upon other things. Selden too." SIR A. " Very true, Sir; and Lord Bacon. But was not Lord Coke a mere lawyer? JOHNSON. "Why, I am afraid he was; but he would have taken it very ill if you had told him so. He would have prosecuted you for scandal." BOSWELL. "Lord Mansfield is not a mere lawyer." JOHNSON. No, Sir. I never was in Lord Mansfield's company; but Lord Mansfield was distinguished at the University. Lord Mansfield, when he first came to town, 'drank champagne with the wits, as Prior He was the friend of Pope." SIR A. Barristers, I believe, are not so abusive now as they were formerly. I fancy they had less | law long ago, and so were obliged to take to abuse, to fill up the time. Now they have such a number of precedents, they have no occasion for abuse." JOHNSON. Nay, Sir, they had more law long ago than they have now. As to precedents, to be sure they will increase in course of time; but the more precedents there are, the less occasion is there for law; that is to say, the less occasion is there for investigating principles." SIR A. I have been correcting several Scotch accents in my friend Boswell. I doubt, Sir, if any Scotchman ever attains to a perfect English pronunciation." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, few of them do, because they do not persevere after acquiring a certain

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degree of it. But, Sir, there can be no doubt that they may attain to a perfect English pronunciation, if they will. We find how near they come to it; and certainly, a man who conquers nineteen parts of the Scottish accent, may conquer the twentieth. But, Sir, when a man has got the better of nine tenths he grows weary, he relaxes his diligence, he finds he has corrected his accent so far as not to be disagreeable, and he no longer desires his friends to tell him when he is wrong; nor does he choose to be told. Sir, when people watch me narrowly, and I do not watch myself, they will find me out to be of a particular county. In the same manner, Dunning3 may be found out to be a Devonshire man. So most Scotchmen may be found out. But, Sir, little aberrations are of no disadvantage. I never catched Mallet in a Scotch accent; and yet Mallet, I suppose, was past five-and-twenty before he came to London."

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Upon another occasion I talked to him on this subject, having myself taken some pains to improve my pronunciation, by the aid of the late Mr. Love, of Drury Lane theatre, when he was a player at Edinburgh, and also of old Mr. Sheridan. Johnson said to me, Sir, your pronunciation is not offensive." With this concession I was pretty well satisfied; and let me give my countrymen of North Britain an advice not to aim at absolute perfection in this respect; not to speak High English, as we are apt to call what is far removed from the Scotch, but which is by no means good English, and makes "the fools who use it" truly ridiculous. Good English is plain, easy, and smooth in the mouth of an unaffected English gentleman. A studied and factitious pronunciation, which requires perpetual attention, and imposes perpetual constraint, is exceedingly disgusting. A small intermixture of provincial peculiarities may, perhaps, have an agreeable effect, as the notes of different birds concur in the harmony of the grove, and please more than if they were all exactly alike. I could name some gentlemen of Ireland 5, to whom a slight proportion of the accent and recitative of that country is an advantage. The same observation will apply to the gentlemen of

well calls the Marcellus of Scotland, and whom the concurrent testimony of his contemporaries proves to have been a very extraordinary young man. He died at Rome in 1766. (See post, Sept. 5. 1773.) Sir Alexander succeeded his brother as eighth Baronet, and was created an Irish Baron, by the title of Lord Macdonald, in 1776. The late Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Sir Archibald Macdonald, was their youngest brother. We shall see more of Sir Alexander under the year 1773, during the Tour to the Hebrides. - CROKER.

1 He was one of his executors. The large space which (thanks to Mr. Boswell) Dr. Johnson occupies in our estimate of the society of his day, makes it surprising that he should never have been in company with Lord Mansfield; but Boswell was disposed to overrate the extent and rank of Johnson's acquaintance. It is proper here to correct an error relative to Lord Mansfield and Dr. Johnson, which has found its way into print. In Miss Hawkins's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 218., she gives the following anecdote, on the authority of her brother, who states that, "calling upon Dr. Johnson shortly after the death of Lord Mansfield, and mentioning the

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event, Johnson answered, Ah, sir; there was little learning, and less virtue." It happens, unluckily for the accuracy of this anecdote, that Lord Mansfield survived Dr. Johnson above eight years.- CROKER.

2 The general tone of society is probably improved in this respect, and there is certainly a marked amendment in forensic manners since the times Sir Alexander Macdonald alluded to. - CROKER.

3 John Dunning, born in 1731, one of the most successful lawyers of his time, and an active politician. He attached himself to Lord Shelburn, and was created Lord Ashburton during his short administration. He died in 1783.- CROKER. 4 Love was an assumed name. He was the son of Mr. Dance, the architect. He resided many years at Edinburgh as manager of the theatre; he removed, in 1762, to Drury Lane, and died in 1771. He wrote some theatrical pieces of no reputation. CROKER.

5 Mr. Boswell probably included, in this observation, Mr. Burke; who, to the last, retained more of the Irish accent than was agree ble to English ears. - CROKER.

Scotland. I do not mean that we should speak as broad as a certain prosperous member of parliament from that country'; though it has been well observed, that "it has been of no small use to him, as it rouses the attention of the House by its uncommonness; and is equal to tropes and figures in a good English speaker." I would give as an instance of what I mean to recommend to my countrymen, the pronunciation of the late Sir Gilbert Elliot; and may I presume to add that of the present Earl of Marchmont, who told me with great good humour, that the master of a shop in London, where he was not known, said to him, "I suppose, Sir, you are American." "Why so, Sir?" said his Lordship. "Because, Šir," replied the shopkeeper, "you speak neither English nor Scotch, but something different from both, which I conclude is the language of America."

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BOSWELL. "It may be of use, Sir, to have a Dictionary to ascertain the pronunciation." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, my Dictionary shows you the accent of words, if you can but remember them." BOSWELL. "But, Sir, we want marks to ascertain the pronunciation of the vowels. Sheridan, I believe, has finished such a work." JOHNSON. Why, Sir, consider how much easier it is to learn a language by the ear, than by any marks. Sheridan's Dictionary may do very well; but you cannot always carry it about with you: and, when you want the word, you have not the Dictionary. It is like a man who has a sword that will not draw. It is an admirable sword, to be sure: but while your enemy is cutting your throat, you are unable to use it. Besides, Sir, what entitles Sheridan to fix the pronunciation of English? He has, in the first place, the disadvantage of being an Irishman; and if he says he will fix it after the example of the best company, why, they differ among themselves. I remember an instance: when I published the plan for my Dictionary, Lord Chesterfield told me that the word great should be pronounced so as to rhyme to state; and Sir William Yonge sent me word that it should be pronounced so as to rhyme to seat, and that none but an Irishman would pronounce it gruit. Now, here were two men of the highest rank, the one the best speaker in the House of Lords,

4

the other the best speaker in the House of Commons, differing entirely."

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I again visited him at night. Finding him in a very good humour, I ventured to lead him to the subject of our situation in a future state, having much curiosity to know his notions on that point. JOHNSON. Why, Sir, the happiness of an unembodied spirit will consist in a consciousness of the favour of God, in the contemplation of truth, and in the pos session of felicitating ideas." BOSWELL. But, Sir, is there any harm in our forming to ourselves conjectures as to the particulars of our happiness, though the Scripture has said but very little on the subject? 'We know not what we shall be."" JOHNSON. "Sir, there is no harm. What philosophy suggests to us on this topic is probable: what Scripture tells us is certain. Dr. Henry More has carried it as far as philosophy can. You may buy both his theological and philosophical works, in two volumes folio, for about eight shillings." BosWELL. "One of the most pleasing thoughts is, that we shall see our friends again.' JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; but you must consider, that when we are become purely rational, many of our friendships will be cut off. Many friendships are formed by a community of sensual pleasures: all these will be cut off. We form many friendships with bad men, because they have agreeable qualities, and they can be useful to us; but, after death, they can no longer be of use to us. We form many friendships by mistake, imagining people to be different from what they really are. After death, we shall see every one in a true light. Then, Sir, they talk of our meeting our relations; but then all relationship is dissolved; and we shall have no regard for one person more than another, but for their real value. However, we shall either have the satisfaction of meeting our friends, or be satisfied without meeting them." BoSWELL. "Yet, Sir, we see in Scripture, that Dives still retained an anxious concern about his brethren." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, we must either suppose that passage to be metaphorical, or hold, with many divines and all the Purgatorians, that departed souls do not all at once arrive at the utmost perfection of which they are capable." BOSWELL." I think, Sir, that is a very rational supposition." JOHNSON. "Why yes, Sir; but

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Mr. Dundas, successively Lord Advocate, Secretary of State, First Lord of the Admiralty, and Viscount Melville, whose accent and many of whose phrases were to the last peculiarly national. See post, sub Sept. 29. 1777.CROKER.

2 The third Baronet, father of the first Lord Minto; a gentleman of distinction in the political, and not unknown in the poetical, world: he died in 1777 Is it not, however, rather Hibernian to recommend as a model of pronunciation one who is already dead - ignotum per ignotius?- CROKER. Sir Gilbert Elliot wrote the beautiful pastoral ballad quoted in the notes to the Lay of the Last Minstrel, "My sheep I neglected," &c. - LOCKHART.

3 Hugh, fourth Earl of Marchmont, the friend and executor of Pope; born in 1708, died in 1794.-CROKER.

Walpole's administration, and therefore very odious to Pope, who makes frequent depreciating allusions to him. He died in 1755.- The pronunciation is now settled beyond question in Lord Chesterfield's way.-CROKER.

5 Called the Platonist, on account of his voluminous efforts to blend the Platonic philosophy with Christianity. He, Van Helmont, and Valentine Greatrakes, all mystics in their several professions, were patronised by Anne Finch, Lady Conway, (herself a mystic,) and all resided for some time in her house at Ragley, where there is a portrait of Van Hel mont, and where were found, by Horace Walpole, several letters of Dr. More. - CROKER.

6 Bishop Hall, in his Epistle, "discoursing of the different degrees of heavenly glory, and of our mutual knowledge of each other above," holds the affirmative on both these ques

4 Sir William Yonge, Secretary at War in Sir Robert tions. MALONE.

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