146.
[549] See Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 28.
[550] See ante, i. 433, and ii. 217, 358.
[551] "In his Life of Swift (Works, viii. 205) he thus speaks of this Journal:-'In the midst of his power and his politicks, he kept a journal of his visits, his walks, his interviews with ministers, and quarrels with his servant, and transmitted it to Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Dingley, to whom he knew that whatever befell him was interesting, and no accounts could be too minute. Whether these diurnal trifles were properly exposed to eyes which had never received any pleasure from the presence of the dean, may be reasonably doubted: they have, however, some odd attraction: the reader, finding frequent mention of names which he has been used to consider as important, goes on in hope of information; and, as there is nothing to fatigue attention, if he is disappointed, he can hardly complain.'"
[552] On his fifty-fifth birthday he recorded:--'I resolve to keep a journal both of employment and of expenses. To keep accounts.' Pr. and Med. 59. See post, Aug. 25, 1784, where he writes to Langton:--'I am a little angry at you for not keeping minutes of your own acceptum et expensum, and think a little time might be spared from Aristophanes for the res familiares.'
[553] This Mr. Chalmers thought was George Steevens. CROKER. D'Israeli (Curiosities of Literature, ed. 1834, vi. 76) describes Steevens as guilty of 'an unparalleled series of arch deception and malicious ingenuity.' He gives curious instances of his literary impostures. See ante, iii. 281, and post, May 15, 1784.
[554] If this be Lord Mansfield, Boswell must use late in the sense of in retirement; for Mansfield was living when the Life of Johnson was published. He retired in 1788. Johnson in 1772, said that he had never been in his company (ante, ii. 158). The fact that Mansfield is mentioned in the previous paragraph adds to the probability that he is meant.
[555] See ante, ii. 318.
[556] In Scotland, Johnson spoke of Mansfield's 'splendid talents.' Boswell's Hebrides, under Nov. 11.
[557] 'I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.' 2 Henry IV, act i. sc. 2.
[558] Knowing as well as I do what precision and elegance of oratory his Lordship can display, I cannot but suspect that his unfavourable appearance in a social circle, which drew such animadversions upon him, must be owing to a cold affectation of consequence, from being reserved and stiff. If it be so, and he might be an agreeable man if he would, we cannot be sorry that he misses his aim. BOSWELL. Wedderburne, afterwards Lord Loughborough, is mentioned (ante, ii. 374), and again in Murphy's Life of Johnson, p. 43, as being in company with Johnson and Foote. Boswell also has before (ante, i. 387) praised the elegance of his oratory. Henry Mackenzie (Life of John Home, i. 56) says that Wedderburne belonged to a club at the British Coffee-house, of which Garrick, Smollett, and Dr. Douglas were members.
[559] Boswell informed the people of Scotland in the Letter that he addressed to them in 1785 (p. 29), that 'now that Dr. Johnson is gone to a better world, he (Boswell) bowed the intellectual knee to Lord Thurlow.' See post, June 22, 1784.
[560] Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 27.
[561]
'Charged with light summer-rings his fingers sweat, Unable to support a gem of weight.' DRYDEN. Juvenal, Satires, i. 29.
[562] He had published a series of seventy Essays under the title of The Hypochondriack in the London Magazine from 1777 to 1783.
[563] Juvenal, Satires, x. 365. The common reading, however, is 'Nullum numen habes,' &c. Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 218) records this saying, but with a variation. '"For," says Mr. Johnson, "though I do not quite agree with the proverb, that Nullum numen adest si sit prudentia, yet we may very well say, that Nullum numen adest, ni sit prudentia."'
[564] It has since appeared. BOSWELL.
[565] Miss Burney mentions meeting Dr. Harington at Bath in 1780. 'It is his son,' she writes, 'who published those very curious remains of his ancestor [Sir John Harington] under the title Nugae Antiquae which my father and all of us were formerly so fond of.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, i. 341.
[566]
'For though they are but trifles, thou Some value didst to them allow.'
Martin's Catullus, p. 1.
[567]
--Underneath this rude, uncouth disguise, A genius of extensive knowledge lies.'
FRANCIS. Horace, Satires, i. 3. 33.
[568] He would not have been a troublesome patient anywhere, for, according to Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 275),'he required less attendance, sick or well, than ever I saw any human creature.'
[569] 'That natural jealousy which makes every man unwilling to allow much excellence in another, always produces a disposition to believe that the mind grows old with the body; and that he whom we are now forced to confess superiour is hastening daily to a level with ourselves.' Johnson's Works, vii. 212.
[570] With the following elucidation of the saying-Quos Deus (it should rather be-Quem Jupiter) vult perdere, prius dementat-Mr. Boswell was furnished by Mr.