Boswell, in his Corrections and Additions to the First Edition (ante, i.10), corrected an error into which he had been led by Miss Seward (ante, i.92, note 2). She, in the Gent. Mag. for 1793, p.875, defended herself and attacked him. His reply is found on p.1009. He says:--'As my book was to be a real history, and not a novel, it was necessary to suppress all erroneous particulars, however entertaining.' (Ante, ii 467, note 4.) He continues:--'So far from having any hostile disposition towards this Lady, I have, in my Life of Dr. Johnson...quoted a compliment paid by him to one of her poetical pieces; and I have withheld his opinion of herself, thinking that she might not like it. I am afraid it has reached her by some other means; and thus we may account for various attacks by her on her venerable townsman since his decease...What are we to think of the scraps of letters between her and Mr. Hayley, impotently attempting to undermine the noble pedestal on which the publick opinion has placed Dr. Johnson?'
[1025] See ante, i.265, and iv. 174.
[1026] 'Johnson said he had once seen Mr. Stanhope at Dodsley's shop, and was so much struck with his awkward manners and appearance that he could not help asking Mr. Dodsley who he was.' Johnson's Works, (1787) xi.209.
[1027] Chesterfield was Secretary of State from Nov. 1746 to Feb. 1748. His letters to his son extend from 1739 to 1768.
[1028] Foote had taken off Lord Chesterfield in The Cozeners. Mrs. Aircastle trains her son Toby in the graces. She says to her husband:--'Nothing but grace! I wish you would read some late Posthumous Letters; you would then know the true value of grace.' Act ii. sc. 2.
[1029] See ante, p.78, note 1.
[1030] See a pamphlet entitled Remarks on the Characters of the Court of Queen Anne, included in Swift's Works, ed. 1803, vi. 163.
[1031] Carleton, according to the Memoirs, made his first service in the navy in 1672--seventeen years before the siege of Derry. There is no mention of this siege in the book.
[1032] 'He had obtained, by his long service, some knowledge of the practic part of an engineer.' Preface to the Memoirs.
[1033] Nearly 200 pages in Bohn's edition. See ante, i. 71, for Johnson's rapid reading.
[1034] Lord Mahon (War of the Succession in Spain, Appendix, p. 131) proves that a Captain Carleton really served. 'It is not impossible,' he says, 'that the MS. may have been intrusted to De Foe for the purpose of correction or revision...The Memoirs are most strongly marked with internal proofs of authenticity.' Lockhart (Life of Scott, iii. 84) says:--'It seems to be now pretty generally believed that Carleton's Memoirs were among the numberless fabrications of De Foe; but in this case (if the fact indeed be so), as in that of his Cavalier, he no doubt had before him the rude journal of some officer.' Dr. Burton (Reign of Queen Anne ii. 173) says that MSS. in the British Museum disprove 'the possibility of De Foe's authorship.'
[1035] Lord Chesterfield (Letters, ii. 109) writing to his son on Nov. 29, 1748, says of Mr. Eliot:--'Imitate that application of his, which has made him know all thoroughly, and to the bottom. He does not content himself with the surface of knowledge; but works in the mine for it, knowing that it lies deep.'
[1036] The Houghton Collection was sold in 1779 by the third Earl of Orford, to the Empress of Russia for L40,555. (Walpole's Letters, vii. 227, note 1.)
Horace Walpole wrote on Aug. 4 of that year (ib. p. 235):--'Well! adieu to Houghton! about its mad master I shall never trouble myself more. From the moment he came into possession, he has undermined every act of my father that was within his reach, but, having none of that great man's sense or virtues, he could only lay wild hands on lands and houses; and since he has stript Houghton of its glory, I do not care a straw what he does with the stone or the acres.'
[1037] This museum at Alkerington near Manchester is described in the Gent. Mag. 1773, p.219. A proposal was made in Parliament to buy it for the British Museum. Ib. 1783, p. 919. On July 8, 1784, a bill enabling Lever to dispose of it by lottery passed the House of Commons. Ib. 1784, p.705.
[1038] Johnson defines intuition as sight of anything; immediate knowledge; and sagacity as quickness of scent; acuteness of discovery.
[1039] In the first edition it stands 'A gentleman' and below instead of Mr. ----, Mr. ----. In the second edition Mr. ---- becomes Mr. ----. In the third edition young is added. Young Mr. Burke is probably meant. As it stood in the second edition it might have been thought that Edmund Burke was the gentleman; the more so as Johnson often denied his want of wit.
[1040] Hamlet, act i. sc. 2.
[1041] See ante, i. 372, note 1.
[1042] Windham says (Diary, p. 34) that when Dr. Brocklesby made this offer 'Johnson pressed his hands and said, "God bless you through Jesus Christ, but I will take no money but from my sovereign." This, if I mistake not, was told the King through West.' Dr.