The man peevishly answered "No;" but that he had enquired into the history of the place where he was, and could not find that any one who had L200 was ever hanged. Mr. Selwin told him it was out of his power to help him, and bade him farewell--"which," added he, "he did; for he found means to escape punishment."'
[470] Dodd, in his Dedication of this Sermon to Mr. Villette, the Ordinary of Newgate, says:--'The following address owes its present public appearance to you. You heard it delivered, and are pleased to think that its publication will be useful. To a poor and abject worm like myself this is a sufficient inducement to that publication.'
[471] See ante, p. 97. 'They have,' says Lowndes (Bibl. Man.), 'passed through innumerable editions.' To how many the book-stalls testify, where they are offered second-hand for a few pence.
[472] Goldsmith was thirty when he published An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe; thirty-six when he published The Traveller; thirty-seven when he published The Vicar of Wakefield, and thirty-nine when he brought out The Good-Natured Man. In flowering late he was like Swift. 'Swift was not one of those minds which amaze the world with early pregnancy; his first work, except his few poetical Essays, was the Dissentions in Athens and Rome, published in his thirty-fourth year.' Johnson's Works, viii. 197. See post, April 9, 1778.
[473] Burke, I think, is meant.
[474] This walking about his room naked was, perhaps, part of Lord Monboddo's system that was founded 'on the superiority of the savage life.' Ante, ii. 147.
[475] This regimen was, however, practised by Bishop Ken, of whom Hawkins (not Sir John) in his life of that venerable Prelate, p. 4, tells us: 'And that neither his study might be the aggressor on his hours of instruction, or what he judged his duty prevent his improvements; or both, his closet addresses to his GOD; he strictly accustomed himself to but one sleep, which often obliged him to rise at one or two of the clock in the morning, and sometimes sooner; and grew so habitual, that it continued with him almost till his last illness. And so lively and chearful was his temper, that he would be very facetious and entertaining to his friends in the evening, even when it was perceived that with difficulty he kept his eyes open; and then seemed to go to rest with no other purpose than the refreshing and enabling him with more vigour and chearfulness to sing his morning hymn, as he then used to do to his lute before he put on his cloaths.' BOSWELL.
[476] See ante, under Dec. 17, 1775.
[477] Boswell shortened his life by drinking, if, indeed, he did not die of it. Less than a year before his death he wrote to Temple:--'I thank you sincerely for your friendly admonition on my frailty in indulging so much in wine. I do resolve anew to be upon my guard, as I am sensible how very pernicious as well as disreputable such a habit is! How miserably have I yielded to it in various years!' Letters of Boswell, p. 353. In 1776 Paoli had taken his word of honour that he would not taste fermented liquor for a year, that he might recover sobriety. Ib. p. 233. For a short time also in 1778 Boswell was a water-drinker, Post, April 28, 1778.
[478] Sir James Mackintosh told Mr. Croker that he believed Lord Errol was meant here as well as post, April 28, 1778. See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 24, 1773.
[479] 'Must give us pause.' Hamlet, act iii. sc. 1.
[480] 'He was the first,' writes Dr. T. Campbell (Survey of the South of Ireland, p. 373), 'who gave histories of the weather, seasons, and diseases of Dublin.' Wesley records (Journal, iv. 40):--'April 6, 1775. I visited that venerable man, Dr. Rutty, just tottering over the grave; but still clear in his understanding, full of faith and love, and patiently waiting till his change should come.'
[481] Cowper wrote of Johnson's Diary:--'It is certain that the publisher of it is neither much a friend to the cause of religion nor to the author's memory; for, by the specimen of it that has reached us, it seems to contain only such stuff as has a direct tendency to expose both to ridicule.' Southey's Cowper, v. 152.
[482] Huet, Bishop of Avranches, born 1630, died 1721, published in 1718 Commentarius de rebus ad eum pertinentibus. Nouv. Biog. Gene. xxv. 380.
[483] When Dr. Blair published his Lectures, he was invidiously attacked for having omitted his censure on Johnson's style, and, on the contrary, praising it highly. But before that time Johnson's Lives of the Poets had appeared, in which his style was considerably easier than when he wrote The Rambler. It would, therefore, have been uncandid in Blair, even supposing his criticism to have been just, to have preserved it. BOSWELL.
[484] Johnson refers no doubt to the essay On Romances, An Imitation, by A. L. Aikin (Mrs. Barbauld); in Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose, by J. and A. L. Aikin (1773), p. 39. He would be an acute critic who could distinguish this Imitation from a number of The Rambler.