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of "G-d d-n me," which in England does not seem to mean more mischiefor harm than any of our or their common expletives in conversation,such as "O gemini!" or "The deuce take me!" ... I am almost ashamedto own, that next morning, when I awoke, I had got so dreadful aheadache from the copious and numerous toasts of my jolly and reverendfriends that I could not possibly get up.--_Travels in England in 1782_, by C. P. Moritz, p. 123.[Footnote 3: No such person appears in the _Catalogue of Graduates_.]_Dr. Lettsom_.(Vol. in, p. 68.)Boswell in an _Ode to Mr. Charles Dilly_, published in the _Gent.Mag._ for 1791, p. 367, says that Dr. Lettsom 'Refutes pert Priestley'snonsense.'_William Vachell_.(Vol. iii, p. 83, n. 3.)Mr. George Parker of the Bodleian Library informs me that WilliamVachell had been tutor to Prince Esterhazy, and that for many yearshe held the appointment of 'Pumper,' or Lessee of the baths at Bath.In 1776 and 1777 he paid as rental for them to the Corporation L525.He died on November 26, 1789. According to Mr. Ivor Vachell (_Notesand Queries_, 6th S. vii. 327), it was his eldest son who signed theRound Robin._Johnson and Baretti_.(Vol. iii, p. 96, n. 1.)Baretti in his _Tolondron_, p. 145, gives an account of a differencebetween himself and Johnson. Johnson sent to ask him to call on him,but Baretti was leaving town. When he returned the time for areconciliation had passed, for Johnson was dead._English pulpit eloquence_.(Vol. iii, p. 248.)'Upon the whole, which is preferable, the philosophic method of theEnglish, or the rhetoric of the French preachers? The first (thoughless glorious) is certainly safer for the preacher. It is difficultfor a man to make himself ridiculous, who proposes only to deliverplain sense on a subject he has thoroughly studied. But the instanthe discovers the least pretensions towards the sublime or the pathetic,there is no medium; we must either admire or laugh; and there are somany various talents requisite to form the character of an orator thatit is more than probable we shall laugh.'--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 118._Bishop Percy's communications to Boswell relative to Johnson_.(Vol. iii, p. 278, n. 1.)'JAMES BOSWELL TO BISHOP PERCY."9 April, 1790."As to suppressing your Lordship's name when relating the very fewanecdotes of Johnson with which you have favoured me, I will do anythingto oblige your Lordship but that very thing. I owe to the authenticityof my work, to its respectability, and to the credit of my illustriousfriends [? friend] to introduce as many names of eminent persons as Ican... Believe me, my Lord, you are not the only bishop in the numberof great men with which my pages are graced. I am quite resolute as tothis matter."'--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 313._Sir Thomas Brown's remark 'Do the devils lie? No; for then Hell couldnot subsist._'(Vol. iii, p. 293.)This remark, whether it is Brown's or not, may have been suggested byMilton's lines in _Paradise Lost_, ii. 496-9, or might have suggestedthem:--'O shame to men! devil with devil damn'dFirm concord holds, men only disagreeOf 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 mostvirtuous persons were to be found amongst those who united with abusiness 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 mansionat 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, haskindly sent me the following anecdote of the meeting of Johnson andParr:--'I remember Dr. Routh, the old President of Magdalen, telling me of aninterview and conversation between Dr. Johnson and Dr. Parr, in thecourse of which the former made use of some expression respecting thelatter, which considerably wounded and offended him. "Sir," he saidto Dr. Johnson, "you know that what you have just said will be knownin 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 thePresident, with an amused and amusing look, "_I never could get him totell 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 forsixty-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 Iconjectured 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 woeNearer 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 mewith 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 abovetheir own discovery, and which they had not known before; and this Idid, that they might be kept humble, and still perceive their ignorance,and be willing to keep in a learning state. (For when Preachers telltheir People of no more than they know, and do not shew that they excelthem in knowledge, and easily overtop them in Abilities, the Peoplewill be tempted to turn Preachers themselves, and think that they havelearnt all that the Ministers can teach them, and are as wise asthey------). And this I did also to increase their knowledge; andalso to make Religion pleasant to them, by a daily addition to theirformer 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 wouldsuppose.'--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 quotationabout suicide must surely be wrong. I have no recollection in any ofBaxter's _Works_ of such a statement, and it is in direct contradictionto all that is known of his sentiments. 'Mr. Davies sends me the followingpassage, which possibly Johnson might have very imperfectly remembered:--'The commonest cause [of suicide] is melancholy, &c. Though therebe much more hope of the salvation of such as want the use of theirunderstandings, because so far it may be called involuntary, yet itis a very dreadful case, especially so far as reason remaineth in anypower.'--Baxter's _Christian Directory, edited by Orme, part iv, p. 138._Haslitt's report of Baxter's Sermon_.(Vol. iv, p. 226, n. 2.)The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies tells me that he 'entirely disbelieves thatBaxter said, "Hell was paved with infants' skulls." The same thing, orsomething very like it, has been said of Calvin, but I could never,'Mr. Davies continues, 'find it in his Works.' He kindly sends me thefollowing extract from _Reliquiae Baxterianae_, ed. 1696, p. 24:--'Once all the ignorant Rout were raging mad against me for preachingthe Doctrine of Original Sin to them, and telling them that Infantsbefore Regeneration had so much Guilt and Corruption, as made themloathsome in the Eyes of God: whereupon they vented it abroad in theCountry, That I preached that God hated, or loathed Infants; so thatthey railed at me as I passed through the streets. The next Lord's Day,I cleared and confirmed it, and shewed them that if this were not true,their Infants had no need of Christ, of Baptism, or of Renewing by theHoly Ghost. And I asked them whether they durst say that their Childrenwere saved without a Saviour, and were no Christians, and why theybaptized them, with much more to that purpose, and afterwards theywere ashamed and as mute as fishes.'_Johnson on an actor's transformation_.(Vol. iv, p. 244.)Boswell in his _Remarks on the Profession of a Player_ (Essay ii),first printed in the _London Magazine_ for 1770, says:--'I remember to have heard the most illustrious authour of this age say:"If, Sir, Garrick believes himself to be every character that herepresents he is a madman, and ought to be confined. Nay, Sir, he is avillain, and ought to be hanged. If, for instance, he believes himselfto be Macbeth he has committed murder, he is a vile assassin who, inviolation of the laws of hospitality as well as of other principles,has imbrued his hands in the blood of his King while he was sleepingunder his roof. If, Sir, he has really been that person in his own mind,he has in his own mind been as guilty as Macbeth."'--Nichols's _Literary History_, ed. 1848, vii. 373._Sir John Flayer 'On the Asthma_.'(Vol. iv, p. 353.)Johnson, writing from Ashbourne to Dr. Brocklesby on July 20, 1784, says:'I am now looking into Floyer who lived with his asthma to almost hisninetieth year.' Mr. Samuel Timmins, the author of _Dr. Johnson inBirmingham_, informs me that he and two friends of his lately foundin Lichfield a Lending Book of the Cathedral Library. Among the entriesfor 1784 was: '_Sir John Floyer on the Asthma_, lent to Dr. Johnson.'Johnson, no doubt, had taken the book with him to Ashbourne.Mr. Timmins says that the entries in this Lending Book unfortunatelydo not begin till about 1760 (or later). 'If,' he adds, 'the earlierLending Book could be found, it would form a valuable clue to bookswhich Johnson may have borrowed in his youth and early manhood.'_Boswell's expectations from Burke_.(Vol. iv, p. 223, n. 2; and p. 258, n. 2.)Boswell, in May 1783, mentioned to Johnson his 'expectations from theinterest of an eminent person then in power.' The two following extractsfrom letters written by him show what some of these expectations had been.'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. TO JAMES ABERCROMBIE, ESQ., of Philadelphia.'July 28,1793.'I have a great wish to see America; and I once flattered myself thatI should be sent thither in a station of some importance.'Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 317.Boswell had written to Burke on March 3, 1778: 'Most heartily do Irejoice that our present ministers have at last yielded to conciliation(_ante_, iii. 221). For amidst all the sanguinary zeal of my countrymen,I have professed myself a friend to our fellow-subjects in America, sofar as they claim an exemption from being taxed by the representativesof the King's British subjects. I do not perfectly agree with you; for Ideny the declaratory act, and I am a warm Tory in its true constitutionalsense. I wish I were a commissioner, or one of the secretaries of thecommission for the grand treaty. I am to be in London this spring, andif his Majesty should ask me what I would choose, my answer will be toassist at the compact between Britain and America.'--_Burke's Correspondence_, ii. 209._Boswelf's intention to attend on Johnson in his illness, and to publish'Praises' of him._(Vol. iv, p. 265.)'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO BISHOP PERCY.'Edinburgh, 8 March, 1784."...I intend to be in London about the end of this month, chiefly toattend upon Dr. Johnson with respectful affection. He has for some timebeen very ill...I wish to publish as a regale [_ante_, iii. 308, n. 2;v. 347, n. 1] to him a neat little volume, _The Praises of Dr. Johnson,by contemporary Writers_. ...Will your Lordship take the trouble tosend me a note of the writers you recollect having praised our muchrespected friend?...An edition of my pamphlet [_ante_, iv. 258] has beenpublished in London."'--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 302._The reported Russian version of the 'Rambler'_.(Vol. iv, p. 277, n. 1.)I am informed by my friend, Mr. W. R. Morfill, M.A., of Oriel College,Oxford, who has, I suppose, no rival in this country in his knowledge ofthe Slavonic tongues, that no Russian translation of the Rambler hasbeen published. He has given me the following title of the Russianversion of _Rasselas_, which he has obtained for me through the kindnessof Professor Grote, of the University of Warsaw:--'Rasselas, printz Abissinskii, Vostochnaya Poviest Sochinenie DoktoraDzhonsona Perevod s'angliiskago. 3 chasti, Moskva. 1795.'Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia, An Eastern Tale, by Doctor Johnson.Translated from the English. 2 parts, Moscow, 1795.''_It has not wit enough to keep it sweet_.'(Vol. iv, p. 320.)'Heylyn, in the Epistle to his _Letter-Combate_, addressing Baxter,and speaking of such "unsavoury pieces of wit and mischief" as "the_Church-historian_" asks, "Would you not have me rub them with a littlesalt to keep them sweet?" This passage was surely present in the mindof Dr. Johnson when he said concerning _The Rehearsal_ that "it had notwit enough to keep it sweet."'--J. E. Bailey's _Life of Thomas Fuller_, p. 640._Pictures of Johnson_.(Vol. iv, p. 421, n. 2.)In the Common Room of Trinity College, Oxford, there is an interestingportrait of Johnson, said to be by Romney. I cannot, however, findany mention of it in the _Life_ of that artist. It was presented tothe College by Canon Duckworth._The Gregory Family_.(Vol. v, p. 48, n. 3.)Mr. P. J. Anderson (in _Notes and Queries_, 7th S. iii. 147) casts somedoubt on Chalmers' statement. He gives a genealogical table of theGregory family, which includes thirteen professors; but two of thesecannot, from their dates, be reckoned among Chalmers' sixteen._The University of St. Andrews in 1778_.(Vol. v, p. 63, n. 2.)