I owe to the authenticity of my work, to its respectability, and to the credit of my illustrious friends [? friend] to introduce as many names of eminent persons as I can... Believe me, my Lord, you are not the only bishop in the number of great men with which my pages are graced. I am quite resolute as to this matter." '--Nichols's Literary History, vii. 313.
Sir Thomas Brown's remark 'Do the devils lie? No; for then Hell could not subsist.'
(Vol. iii, p. 293.)
This remark, whether it is Brown's or not, may have been suggested by Milton's lines in Paradise Lost, ii. 496-9, or might have suggested them:--
'O shame to men! devil with devil damn'd Firm concord holds, men only disagree Of creatures rational.'
Johnson on the advantages of having a profession or business.
(Vol. iii, p. 309, n. 1.)
'Dr. Johnson was of opinion that the happiest as well as the most virtuous persons were to be found amongst those who united with a business or profession a love of literature.' --Seward's Biographiana, p. 599.
Johnson's trips to the country.
(Vol. iii, p. 453.)
I have omitted to mention Johnson's visit to 'Squire Dilly's mansion at Southill in June, 1781 (ante, iv. 118-132).
Citations of living authors in Johnson's Dictionary.
(Vol. iv, p. 4, n. 3.)
Johnson cites Irene under impostures, and Lord Lyttelton under twist.
Dr. Parrs evening with Dr. Johnson. (Vol. iv, p. 15.)
The Rev. John Rigaud, B.D., Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, has kindly sent me the following anecdote of the meeting of Johnson and Parr:--
'I remember Dr. Routh, the old President of Magdalen, telling me of an interview and conversation between Dr. Johnson and Dr. Parr, in the course of which the former made use of some expression respecting the latter, which considerably wounded and offended him. "Sir," he said to Dr. Johnson, "you know that what you have just said will be known in four-and-twenty hours over this vast metropolis." Upon which Dr. Johnson's manner altered, his eye became calm, and he put out his hand, and said, "Forgive me, Parr, I didn't quite mean it." "But," said the President, with an amused and amusing look, "I never could get him to tell me what it was Dr. Johnson had said!" He spoke of seeing Dr. Johnson going up the steps into University College, dressed, I think, in a snuff-coloured coat.'
Dr. Martin Joseph Routh, who was President of Magdalen College for sixty-four years, was born in 1755 and died on December 22, 1854.
'Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris.'
(Vol. iv, p. 181, n. 3.)
Malone's note on The Rape of Lucrece must have been, not as I conjectured on line 1111, but on lines 1581-2:--
'It easeth some, though none it ever cured, To think their dolour others have endured.'
With these lines may be compared Satan's speech in Paradise Regained, Book i, lines 399-402:--
'Long since with woe Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof, That fellowship in pain divides not smart, Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load.'
Richard Baxter's rule of preaching.
(Vol. iv, p. 185.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies [See ante, p. xlix.] has furnished me with the following extract from Reliquiae Baxterianae, ed. 1696, p. 93, in illustration of Johnson's statement:--
'And yet I did usually put in something in my Sermon which was above their own discovery, and which they had not known before; and this I did, that they might be kept humble, and still perceive their ignorance, and be willing to keep in a learning state. (For when Preachers tell their People of no more than they know, and do not shew that they excel them in knowledge, and easily overtop them in Abilities, the People will be tempted to turn Preachers themselves, and think that they have learnt all that the Ministers can teach them, and are as wise as they------). And this I did also to increase their knowledge; and also to make Religion pleasant to them, by a daily addition to their former Sight, and to draw them on with desire and Delight.'
Opposition to Sir Joshua Reynolds in the Royal Academy.
(Vol. iv, p. 219, n. 4.)
'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO BISHOP PERCY. '12 March, 1790.
'Sir Joshua has been shamefully used by a junto of the Academicians. I live a great deal with him, and he is much better than you would suppose.' --Nichols's Literary History, vii. 313.
Richard Baxter on the possible salvation of a Suicide. (Vol. iv, p. 225.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies writes to me that 'Dr. Johnson's quotation about suicide must surely be wrong. I have no recollection in any of Baxter's Works of such a statement, and it is in direct contradiction to all that is known of his sentiments. 'Mr. Davies sends me the following passage, which possibly Johnson might have very imperfectly remembered:--
'The commonest cause [of suicide] is melancholy, &c. Though there be much more hope of the salvation of such as want the use of their understandings, because so far it may be called involuntary, yet it is a very dreadful case, especially so far as reason remaineth in any power.' --Baxter's Christian Directory, edited by Orme, part iv, p.