396.
[1256] See ante, ii. 461.
[1257] See ante, ii. 465.
[1258] See ante, ib. p. 466
[1259] See ante, ib. p. 467.
[1260] See ante, ib. p. 470.
[1261] See ante, ib. p. 469.
[1262] See ante, p. 405.
[1263] Bishop Porteus. See ante, p. 279.
[1264] Miss Letitia Barnston. BOSWELL.
[1265] 'At Chester I passed a fortnight in mortal felicity. I had from my earliest years a love for the military life, and there is in it an animation and relish of existence which I have never found amongst any other set of men, except players, with whom you know I once lived a great deal. At the mess of Colonel Stuart's regiment I was quite the great man, as we used to say; and I was at the same time all joyous and gay ... I never found myself so well received anywhere. The young ladies there were delightful, and many of them with capital fortunes. Had I been a bachelor, I should have certainly paid my addresses to a Chester lady.' Letters of Boswell, p. 247.
[1266] Mrs. Thrale wrote to Johnson from Brighton in 1778:--'I have lost what made my happiness in all seasons of the year; but the black dog shall not make prey of both my master and myself. My master swims now, and forgets the black dog.' Johnson replied:--'I shall easily forgive my master his long stay, if he leaves the dog behind him. We will watch, as well as we can, that the dog shall never be let in again, for when he comes the first thing he does is to worry my master.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 32, 37.
[1267] See ante, ii. 202.
[1268] I have a valuable collection made by my Father, which, with some additions and illustrations of my own, I intend to publish. I have some hereditary claim to be an Antiquary; not only from my Father, but as being descended, by the mother's side, from the able and learned Sir John Skene, whose merit bids defiance to all the attempts which have been made to lessen his fame. BOSWELL. See ante, i. 225, note 2, for an imperfect list of Boswell's projected publications, and Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 23, for a fuller one.
[1269] See ante, iii. 162, and Boswell's Hebrides, Nov. 11.
[1270] In the first two editions, we.
[1271] In chaps, xxiv. and xxv. of his Siecle de Louis XV. See ante, i. 498, note 4, for Voltaire's 'catching greedily at wonders.'
[1272] Burton in the last lines of The Anatomy of Melancholy, says:-- 'Only take this for a corollary and conclusion; as thou tenderest thine own welfare in this and all other melancholy, thy good health of body and mind, observe this short precept, give not way to solitariness and idleness. "Be not solitary, be not idle."'
[1273] Johnson was in better spirits than usual. The following day he wrote:--'I fancy that I grow light and airy. A man that does not begin to grow light and airy at seventy is certainly losing time if he intends ever to be light and airy.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 73.
[1274] Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit. Juvenal, xiv. 139.
[1275] He had seen it on his Tour in Wales on July 26, 1774. See post, vol. v.
[1276] Dean Percy, ante, p. 365.
[1277] Another son was the first Lord Ellenborough.
[1278] His regiment was afterwards ordered to Jamaica, where he accompanied it, and almost lost his life by the climate. This impartial order I should think a sufficient refutation of the idle rumour that 'there was still something behind the throne greater than the throne itself.' BOSWELL. Lord Shelburne, about the year 1803, likening the growth of the power of the Crown to a strong building that had been raised up, said:--'The Earl of Bute had contrived such a lock to it as a succession of the ablest men have not been able to pick, nor has he ever let the key be so much as seen by which he has held it.' Fitzmaurice's Shelburne, i. 68.
[1279] Boswell, on Jan. 4, wrote to Temple:--'How inconsiderable are both you and I, in comparison with what we used to hope we should be! Yet your learning and your memoirs set you far above the common run of educated men. And Son pittore anche io. I too, in several respects, have attained to superiority. But we both want solidity and force of mind, such as we observe in those who rise in active life.' Letters of Boswell, p. 249.
[1280]
'For in the mind alone our follies lie, The mind that never from itself can fly.'
FRANCIS. Horace, Epistles, i. 14. 13.
[1281] Requesting me to inquire concerning the family of a gentleman who was then paying his addresses to Miss Doxy. BOSWELL.
[1282] It is little more than half that distance.
[1283] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Nov. 7:--'My master, I hope, hunts and walks, and courts the belles, and shakes Brighthelmston. When he comes back, frolick and active, we will make a feast, and drink his health, and have a noble day.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 79.
[1284] See page 368. BOSWELL. On Nov. 16 he wrote:--'At home we do not much quarrel; but perhaps the less we quarrel, the more we hate. There is as much malignity amongst us as can well subsist without any thought of daggers or poisons.' Piozzi Letters, ii.