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that there is no position, however false in its universality, which is not true of some particular man.' Sir William Forbes said, "Might not a man warmed with wine be like a bottle of beer, which is made brisker by being set before the fire." "Nay," said Johnson, laughing, "I cannot answer that: that is too much for me."

I observed, that wine did some people harm, by inflaming, confusing, and irritating their minds; but that the experience of mankind had declared in favour of moderate drinking. JOHNSON. "Sir, I do not say it is wrong to produce self-complacency by drinking; I only deny that it improves the mind. When I drank wine, I scorned to drink it when in company. I have drunk many a bottle by myself; in the first place, because I had need of it to raise my spirits; in the second place, because I would have nobody to witness its effects upon me."

He told us, "almost all his Ramblers were written just as they were wanted for the press; that he sent a certain portion of the copy of an essay, and wrote the remainder, while the former part of it was printing. When it was wanted, and he had fairly sat down to it, he was sure it would be done."

He said, that, for general improvement, a man should read whatever his immediate inclination prompts him to; though, to be sure, if a man has a science to learn, he must regularly and resolutely advance. He added, "What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read." He told us, he read Fielding's "Amelia" through without stopping. He said, "If a man begins to read in the middle of a book, and feels an inclination to go on, let him not quit it, to go to the beginning. He may, perhaps, not feel again

the inclination."

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Sir Joshua mentioned Mr. Cumberland's "Odes," which were just published. JOHNSON. Why, Sir, they would have been thought as good as odes commonly are, if Cumberland had not put his name to them; but a name imme

The strongest liquors, says Hawkins, and in very large quantities, produced no other effect on him than moderate exhilaration. Once, and but once, he is known to have had his dose; a circumstance which he himself discovered, on finding one of his sesquipedalian words hang fire; he then started up, and gravely observed, "I think it time we should go to bed." Mrs. Piozzi tells us that his favourite beverage was port, in large draughts, sweetened with sugar or capillaire: but that was in his earlier day. "After a ten years' forbearance of every fluid except tea and sherbet, I drank," said he to Hawkins, "one glass of wine to the health of Sir Joshua Reynolds, on the evening of the day [Dec. 1768] on which he was knighted. I never swallowed another drop, till old Madeira was prescribed to me as a cordial during my present indisposition; but this liquor did not relish as formerly, and I therefore discontinued it.". CROKER.

2 We have here an involuntary testimony to the excellence of this admirable writer, to whom we have seen that Dr. Johnson directly allowed so little merit. - BoswELL. Johnson appears to have been particularly pleased with the

diately draws censure, unless it be a name that bears down every thing before it. Nay, Cumberland has made his 'Odes' subsidiary to the fame of another man.3 They might have run well enough by themselves; but he has not only loaded them with a name, but has made them carry double."

We talked of the reviews, and Dr. Johnson spoke of them as he did at Thrale's. Sir Joshua said, what I have often thought, that he wondered to find so much good writing employed in them, when the authors were to remain unknown, and so could not have the motive of fame. JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, those who write in them, write well in order to be paid well.”

[JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS.

"April 15. 1776, Thrale, I find by enquiry that she was really "DEAREST MADAM,- When you called on Mrs.

abroad. The same thing happened to Mrs. Montagu, of which I beg you to inform her, for she went likewise by my opinion. The denial, if it had been feigned, would not have pleased me. Your visits, however, are kindly paid, and very kindly taken. We are going to Bath this morning; but I could not part without telling you the real state of your visit. — I am, dearest Madam, &c., —Reynolds MS. "SAM. JOHNSON."]

Soon after this day, he went to Bath with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. I had never seen that beautiful city, and wished to take the opportunity of visiting it while Johnson was there. Having written to him, I received the following answer: —

JOHNSON TO BOSWELL.

"DEAR SIR,- Why do you talk of neglect? When did I neglect you? If you will come to Bath, we shall all be glad to see you. Come, therefore, as soon as you can.— . But I have a little business for you at London. Bid Francis look in the paper drawer of the chest of drawers in my bedchamber, for two cases; one for the attorneygeneral, and one for the solicitor-general. They lie, I think, at the top of my papers; otherwise they are somewhere else, and will give me more trouble.

character of the heroine of this novel. "His attention to veracity," says Mrs. Piozzi," was without equal or example;" and when I mentioned Clarissa as a perfect character," On the contrary," said he, "you may observe there is always something which she prefers to truth." "Fielding's Amelia was the most pleasing heroine of all the romances," he said: "but that vile broken nose, never cured, ruined the sale of perhaps the only book, of which, being printed off [published?] betimes one morning, a new edition was called for before night."- Anecdotes, p. 221. MALONE.

3 Mr. Romney, the painter, who has now deservedly established a high reputation. BOSWELL. A curious work might be written on the reputation of painters. Horace Walpole talked at one time of Kamsay as of at least equal fame with Reynolds; and Hayley dedicated his lyre (such as it was) to Romney. What is a picture of Ramsay or Romney now worth? CROKER.

4 These cases related probably to a law-suit which Dr. Taylor was carrying on, and in which Dr. Johnson assisted him with his advice. - CROKER.

"Please to write to me immediately, if they can be found. Make my compliments to all our friends round the world, and to Mrs. Williams at home. - I am, Sir, your, &c. "SAM. JOHNSON."

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"Search for the papers as soon as you can, that, if it is necessary, I may write to you again before you come down."

CHAPTER LVI.

1776.

Boswell's Visit to Bath and Bristol.

It having been mentioned, I know not with what truth, that a certain female political writer [Mrs. Macaulay], whose doctrines he disliked, had of late become very fond of dress, sat hours together at her toilet, and even put on rouge:-JOHNSON." She is better employed at her toilet, than using her pen. It is better she should be reddening her own cheeks, than blackening other people's characters."

He told us that "Addison wrote Budgell's papers in the Spectator, at least mended them so much that he made them almost his own; and that Draper, Tonson's partner, assured Mrs. Johnson, that the much admired Epilogue to 'The Distressed Mother,' which came out in Budgell's name, was in reality written Rowley's by Addison."

Garrick's " Archer.”.

Poems. Chatterton.
Brute Creation. Chesterfield's "Letters."-
Notes on Shakspeare. — Luxury. —
Lord Elibank.
Dr. Oldfield. Commentators on the Bible.
Thompson's Case. - Dinner at Mr. Dilly's.

Conversation.

Oglethorpe. Egotism.

"The mode of government by one may be ill adapted to a small society, but is best for a The characteristic of our own great nation. The government at present is imbecility. magistrates dare not call the guards for fear of being hanged. Garrick's The guards will not come Dryden. Cibber's Plays. for fear of being given up to the blind of "Difficile est propriè," &c. — City Poets. popular juries." "Diabolus Regis." Lord Bute. Mrs. Knowles. - Mrs. Rudd.

John Wilkes.- Foote's Mimicry.

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On the 26th April, I went to Bath; and on my arrival at the Pelican inn, found lying for me an obliging invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, by whom I was agreeably entertained almost constantly during my stay. They were gone to the rooms: but there was a kind note from Dr. Johnson, that he should sit at home all the evening. I went to him directly; and before Mr. and Mrs. Thrale returned, we had by ourselves some hours of tea-drinking and talk.

I shall group together such of his sayings as I preserved during the few days that I was at Bath.

Of a person [Mr. Burke] who differed from him in politics, he said, "In private life he is a very honest gentleman; but I will not allow him to be so in public life. People may be honest, though they are doing wrong: that is, between their Maker and them. But we, who are suffering by their pernicious conduct, are to destroy them. We are sure that [Burke] acts from interest. We know what his genuine principles were.1 They who allow their passions to confound the distinctions between right and wrong, are criminal. They may be convinced; but they have not come honestly by their conviction.'

He means, that, in earlier life, they, at the Club, knew that Burke was not what Johnson would call a Whig. Mr. Burke ended as he began

"This sun of empire, where he rose, he set !"- CROKER. 2 The elder Mr. Langton. -Hawk. Mem. It is not easy to understand how any filtration could have cured a mind of such an error as this. CROKER.

3 I am sorry that there are no memoirs of the Rev. Robert Blair, the author of this poem. He was the representative of the ancient family of Blair, of Blair, in Ayrshire; but the estate had descended to a female, and afterwards passed to

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3

He told me that "so long ago as 1748, he had read 'The Grave, a Poem,' but did not like it much." I differed from him; for though it is not equal throughout, and is seldom elegantly correct, it abounds in solemn thought and poetical imagery beyond the common reach. The world has differed from him; for the poem has passed through many editions, and is still much read by people of a serious cast of mind.

A literary lady of large fortune [Mrs. Montagu] was mentioned, as one who did good to many, but by no means "by stealth;" and instead of "blushing to find it fame," acted evidently from vanity. JOHNSON. "I have seen no beings who do as much good from benevolence, as she does, from whatever motive. If there are such under the earth, or in the clouds, I wish they would come up, or come down. What Soame Jenyns says upon this subject is not to be minded; he is a wit. No, Sir; to act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite beings. Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other

motive."+

He was

the son of her husband by another marriage. minister of the parish of Athelstaneford, where Mr. John Home was his successor; so that it may truly be called classic ground. His son, who is of the same name, and a man eminent for talents and learning, is now, with universal approbation, solicitor-general of Scotland. - BOSWELL. And was afterwards Lord President of the Court of Session. A life of Blair is given in the editions of the English Poets by Anderson and Chalmers. He died in 1746, in his fortyseventh year. CROKER.

4 The pension which Mrs. Montagu had lately settled on

escape

2

He would not allow me to praise a lady then at Bath; observing, "She does not gain upon me, Sir; I think her empty-headed." He was, indeed, a stern critic upon characters and manners. Even Mrs. Thrale did not his friendly animadversion at times. When he and I were one day endeavouring to ascertain, article by article, how one of our friends could possibly spend as much money in his family as he told us he did, she interrupted us by a lively extravagant sally, on the expense of clothing his children, describing it in a very ludicrous and fanciful manner. Johnson looked a little angry, and said, "Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate." At another time, when she said, perhaps affectedly, "I don't like to fly;"-JOHNSON. "With your wings, Madam, you must fly but have a care, there are clippers abroad." How very well was this said, and how fully has experience proved the truth of it! But have they not clipped rather rudely, and gone a great deal closer than was necessary?3

A gentleman expressed a wish to go and live three years at Otaheité, or New Zealand, in order to obtain a full acquaintance with people so totally different from all that we have ever known, and be satisfied what pure nature can do for man. JOHNSON. "What could you learn, Sir? What can savages tell, but what they themselves have seen? Of the past or the invisible they can tell nothing. The inhabitants of Otaheité and New Zealand are not in a state of pure nature; for it is plain they broke off from some other people. Had they grown out of the ground, you might have judged of a state of pure nature. Fanciful people may talk of a mythology being amongst them; but it must be invention. They have once had religion, which has been gradually debased. And what account of their religion can you suppose to be learnt from savages? Only consider, Sir, our own state: our religion is in a book; we have an order of men whose duty it is to teach it; we have one day in the week set apart for it, and this is in general pretty well observed: yet ask the first ten gross men you meet, and hear what they can tell of their religion."

On Monday, April 29., he and I made an excursion to Bristol, where I was entertained

Miss Williams (see antè, p. 458.) would naturally account for this defence of that lady's beneficence, but it seems also to have induced Johnson to speak of her intellectual powers in a strain of panegyric as excessive as his former depreciation; but I can scarcely believe that he ever could have spoken of her in such terms as the good-natured Miss Reynolds relates. "Sir," he would say, "that lady exerts more mind in conversation than any person I ever met with: Sir, she displays such powers of ratiocination such radiations of intellectual excellence, as are amazing !"- CROKER.

This has been supposed to be Miss Hannah More; yet it seems hard to conceive in what wayward fancy he could call her "empty-headed."— C., 1830. I am glad to find, from Hannah More's Letters, recently published, that my doubt was well founded. She was at this time in London, and could not have been the person meant. - CROKER, 1835. 2 Mr. Langton.- CROKER.

with seeing him enquire upon the spot into the authenticity of "Rowley's poetry," as I had seen him enquire upon the spot into the authenticity of "Ossian's poetry." George Catcot, the pewterer, who was as zealous for Rowley as Dr. Hugh Blair was for Ossian (I trust my reverend friend will excuse the comparison), attended us at our inn, and with a triumphant air of lively simplicity, called out,

"I'll make Dr. Johnson a convert." Dr. Johnson, at his desire, read aloud some of Chatterton's fabricated verses; while Catcot stood at the back of his chair, moving himself like a pendulum, and beating time with his feet, and now and then looking into Dr. Johnson's face, wondering that he was not yet convinced. We called on Mr. Barret, the surgeon, and saw some of the originals, as they were called, which were executed very artificially; but from a careful inspection of them, and a consideration of the circumstances with which they were attended, we were quite satisfied of the imposture, which, indeed, has been clearly demonstrated from internal evidence, by several able critics.5

Honest Catcot seemed to pay no attention whatever to any objections, but insisted, as an end of all controversy, that we should go with him to the tower of the church of St. Mary, Redcliff, and view with our own eyes the ancient chest in which the manuscripts were found. To this Dr. Johnson good-naturedly agreed; and, though troubled with a shortness of breathing, laboured up a long flight of steps, till we came to the place where the wondrous chest stood. "There," said Catcot, with a bouncing confident credulity, "there is the very chest itself." After this ocular demonstration, there was no more to be said. He brought to my recollection a Scotch Highlander, a man of learning too, and who had seen the world, attesting, and at the same time giving his reasons for, the authenticity of Fingal: "I have heard all that poem when I was young." "Have you, Sir? Pray what have you heard?" "I have heard Ossian, Oscar, and every one of them."

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ד יי

Johnson said of Chatterton, "This is the most extraordinary young man that has encountered my knowledge. It is wonderful how the whelp has written such things."

We were by no means pleased with our inn

3 This alludes to the many sarcastic observations published against Mrs. Piozzi, on her lamentable marriage, and particularly to Baretti's brutal strictures in the European Magazine for 1788; which even Boswell, with all his enmity towards her, could not approve, CROKER.

4 Several of these originals are now in the British Museum, and in point of penmanship are very sorry fabrications, far inferior to Ireland's Shakespearian forgeries. — P. CUNNING

HAM.

5 Mr. Tyrwhitt, Mr. Warton, Mr. Malone. - BOSWELL. 6 This naiveté resembles the style of evidence which Johnson so pleasantly ridicules in the Idler, No. 10. "Jack Sneaker is a hearty adherent to the protestant establishment; he has known those who saw the bed into which the Pretender was conveyed in a warming-pan."- CROKER.

7 Boswell had not told us this in his Journal. — CROKES, 1847.

at Bristol.

"Let us see now," said I, "how we should describe it." Johnson was ready with his raillery. "Describe it, Sir? Why, it was so bad, that-Boswell wished to be in Scotland!"

After Dr. Johnson returned to London' [May 4th], I was several times with him at his house, where I occasionally slept, in the room that had been assigned for me. I dined with him at Dr. Taylor's [7th], at General Oglethorpe's [8th], and at General Paoli's [9th]. To avoid a tedious minuteness, I shall group together what I have preserved of his conversation during this period also, without specifying each scene where it passed, except one, which will be found so remarkable as certainly to deserve a very particular relation. Where the place or the persons do not contribute to the zest of the conversation, it is unnecessary to encumber my page with mentioning them. To know of what vintage our wine is, enables us to judge of its value, and to drink it with more relish: but to have the produce of each vine of one vineyard, in the same year, kept separate, would serve no purpose. To know that our wine (to use an advertising phrase) is "of the stock of an ambassador lately deceased," heightens its flavour: but it signifies nothing to know the bin where each bottle was once deposited.2

"Garrick," he observed, "does not play the part of Archer in the Beaux Stratagem' well. The gentleman should break through the footman, which is not the case as he does it."3

"Where there is no education, as in savage countries, men will have the upper hand of women. Bodily strength, no doubt, contributes to this; but it would be so, exclusive of that; for it is mind that always governs. When it comes to dry understanding, man has the better."

"The little volumes entitled, 'Respublica,' which are very well done, were a bookseller's work."

"There is much talk of the misery which we cause to the brute creation; but they are recompensed by existence. If they were not useful to man, and therefore protected by him, they would not be nearly so numerous.' This argument is to be found in the able and benignant Hutchinson's "Moral Philosophy." But the question is, whether the animals who

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1 It appears from his Letters, that being called up to advise Dr. Taylor in an ecclesiastical suit, (antè, p 508. n. 4.) he left Bath on Friday night, 3d May, and arrived in London by seven o'clock on Saturday. - CROKER.

2 This, metaphor by no means reconciles us to the negligence which it is intended to excuse. Boswell's greatest merit is in his details. - CROKER.

3 Garrick, on the other hand, denied that Johnson was capable of distinguishing the gentleman from the footman. See antè, p. 490.- CROKER.

4 Accounts of the principal States of Europe. - CROKER. 5 "A pretty book" was made up from these letters by the late Dr. Trusler, entitled “Principles of Politeness."-Hall. CROKER.

6" I one day," says Mrs. Piozzi," commended a young lady for her beauty and pretty behaviour," to whom she thought

endure such sufferings of various kinds, for the service and entertainment of man, would accept of existence upon the terms on which they have it. Madame de Sevigné, who, though she had many enjoyments, felt with delicate sensibility the prevalence of misery, complains of the task of existence having been imposed upon her without her consent.

"That man is never happy for the present is so true, that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while. Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment."

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Though many men are nominally intrusted with the administration of hospitals and other public institutions, almost all the good is done by one man, by whom the rest are driven on; owing to confidence in him and indolence in them."

"Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son 5, I think, might be made a very pretty book. Take out the immorality, and it should be put into the hands of every young gentleman. An elegant manner and easiness of behaviour are acquired gradually and imperceptibly. No man can say, 'I'll be genteel.' There are ten genteel women for one genteel man, because they are more restrained. A man without some degree of restraint is insufferable; but we are all less restrained than women. Were a woman sitting in company to put out her legs before her as most men do, we should be tempted to kick them in." No man was a more attentive and nice observer of behaviour in those whose company he happened to be than Johnson, or, however strange it may seem to many, had a higher estimation of its refinements.6

Lord Eliot informs me, that one day when Johnson and he were at dinner in a gentleman's house in London, upon Lord Chesterfield's Letters being mentioned, Johnson surprised the company by this sentence: "Every man of any education would rather be called a rascal, than accused of deficiency in the graces." Mr. Gibbon, who was present, turned to a lady who knew Johnson well, and lived much with him, and in his quaint manner, tapping his box, addressed her thus: "Don't you think, Madam (looking towards Johnson), that among all your acquaintance, you could find one exception?" The lady smiled, and seemed to acquiesce.” 7

no objections could have been made. "I saw her (says Dr. Johnson) take a pair of scissors in her left hand; and, although her father is now become a nobleman, and, as you say, excessively rich, I should, were I a youth of quality ten years hence, hesitate between a girl so neglected and a negro." Anecdotes. "The child who took a pair of scissors in her left hand is now a woman of quality, highly respected, and would cut us, I conclude, most deservedly, if more were said on the subject."— Piozzi MS. I believe that the lady was the eldest daughter of Mr. Lyttelton, afterwards Lord Westcote, married to Sir Richard Hoare. She was born in Jamaica, and thence, perhaps, Johnson's strange allusion to the negro. - CROKER.

7 Colman, in his " Random Records," has given a lively sketch of the appearance and manners of Johnson and Gibbon in society:

"I read," said he, "Sharpe's Letters on Italy' over again, when I was at Bath. There is a great deal of matter in them."

"Mrs. Williams was angry that Thrale's family did not send regularly to her every time they heard from me while I was in the Hebrides. Little people are apt to be jealous: but they should not be jealous; for they ought to consider, that superior attention will necessarily be paid to superior fortune or rank. Two persons may have equal merit, and on that account may have an equal claim to attention; but one of them may have also fortune and rank, and so may have a double claim."

Talking of his notes on Shakspeare, he said, "I despise those who do not see that I am right in the passage, where as is repeated, and 'asses of great charge' introduced. That on To be, or not to be,' is disputable." 2

A gentleman, whom I found sitting with him one morning, said, that in his opinion the character of an infidel was more detestable than that of a man notoriously guilty of an atrocious crime. I differed from him, because we are surer of the odiousness of the one, than of the error of the other. JOHNSON. "Sir, I agree with him; for the infidel would be guilty of any crime if he were inclined to it."

"Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. One of these is the cry against the evil of luxury. Now the truth is, that luxury produces much good. Take the luxury of buildings in London. Does it not produce real advantage in the conveniency and elegance of accommodation, and this all from the exertion of industry? People will tell you, with a melancholy face, how many builders are in gaol. It is plain they are in gaol, not for building; for rents are not fallen. A man gives half-a-guinea for a dish of green peas. How much gardening does this occasion? how many labourers must the competition to have such things early in the market keep in em

"The learned Gibbon was a curious counterbalance to the learned (may I not say less learned ?) Johnson. Their manners and taste, both in writing and conversation, were as different as their habiliments. On the day I first sat down with Johnson, in his rusty brown suit, and his black worsted stockings, Gibbon was placed opposite to me in a suit of flowered velvet, with a bag and sword. Each had his measured phraseology; and Johnson's famous parallel between Dryden and Pope, might be loosely parodied, in reference to himself and Gibbon: Johnson's style was grand, and Gibbon's elegant: the stateliness of the former was sometimes pedantic, and the latter was occasionally finical. Johnson marched to kettle-drums and trumpets; Gibbon moved to flutes and hautboys: Johnson hewed passages through the Alps, while Gibbon levelled walks through parks and gardens. Mauled as I had been by Johnson, Gibbon poured balm upon my bruises by condescending, once or twice in the course of the evening, to talk with me: the great historian was light and playful, suiting his matter to the capacity of the boy; but it was done more suo; still his mannerism prevailed; still he tapped his snuff-box; still he smirked and smiled, and rounded his periods with the same air of good-breeding, as if he were conversing with men. His mouth, mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole nearly in the centre of his visage." Vol. i. p. 121. CROKER.

ployment? You will hear it said, very gravely, Why was not the half-guinea, thus spent in luxury, given to the poor? To how many might it have afforded a good meal ? ' Alas! has it not gone to the industrious poor, whom it is better to support than the idle poor? You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labour, than when you give money merely in charity. Suppose the ancient luxury of a dish of peacock's brains were to be revived, how many carcases would be left to the poor at a cheap rate! and as to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that some individuals suffer. When so much general productive exertion is the consequence of luxury, the nation does not care though there are debtors in gaol: nay, they would not care though their creditors were there too."

The uncommon vivacity of General Oglethorpe's mind, and variety of knowledge, having sometimes made his conversation seem too desultory; Johnson observed, "Oglethorpe, Sir, never completes what he has to say."

He on the same account made a similar remark on Patrick Lord Elibank; "Sir, there is nothing conclusive in his talk."

When I complained of having dined at a splendid table without hearing one sentence of conversation worthy of being remembered, he said, " Sir, there seldom is any such conversation." BOSWELL. "Why then meet at table?" JOHNSON. "Why, to eat and drink together, and to promote kindness; and, Sir, this is better done when there is no solid conversation: for when there is, people differ in opinion, and get into bad humour, or some of the company, who are not capable of such conversation, are left out, and feel themselves uneasy. It was for this reason Sir Robert Walpole said, he always talked grossly at his table, because in that all could join.

3

Being irritated by hearing a gentleman* ask Mr. Levett a variety of questions concerning

1 Mr. Samuel Sharpe, a surgeon, who had travelled for his health, and whose representation of Italian manners was supposed to be tinged by the ill humour of a valetudinarian. Baretti took up the defence of his country, and a smart controversy ensued, which made some noise at the time. — CROKER.

2 It may be observed, that Mr. Malone, in his very valu able edition of Shakespeare, has fully vindicated Dr. Johnson from the idle censures which the first of these notes has given rise to. The interpretation of the other passage, which Dr. Johnson allows to be disputable, he has clearly shown to be erroneous.-BOSWELL. The first note is on a passage in Hamlet, act v. scene ii., where Johnson detects an obscure quibble of which, I fear, Shakespeare is guilty. In the other, on the celebrated soliloquy, Johnson imagines, very absurdly, that "To be, or not to be" is a question, not whether Hamlet shall or not put an end to his existence here, but whether there be a future state. - CROKER. 3 See antè, p. 176. n. 6. C. of Sir Robert says,

Thus Swift in his character

"With favour and fortune fastidiously blest,
He is loud in his laugh and is coarse in his jest."
P. CUNNINGHAM.

4 Probably Mr. Boswell himself, who frequently practised this mode of obtaining information.— CROKER.

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