OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. .

TOGETHER WITH

A JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES,

BY JAMES BOSWELL.

A REPRINT OF THE FIRST EDITION.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED MR. BOSWELL'S CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS, ISSU ED

IN 1792 ; THE VARIATIONS OF THE SECOND EDITION, WITH SOME
OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTES PREPARED FOR THE THIRD : THE WHOLE

EDITED, WITH NEW NOTES,

BY

PERCY FITZGERALD, M.A., F.S.A.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

SECOND EDITION WITH A PREFACE BY THE EDITOR, AND A BOSWELL

BIBLIOGRAPHY BY
H. R. TEDDER, F.S. A.,

Librarian to the Atheneum Club.

LONDON

SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LTD.

PATERNOSTER SQUARE

1900

Friedman
15-17-17
15628

THE LIFE

0 11-7-27 hub

OF

SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D.

DR. JOHNSON revised some sheets of Lord Hailes's “ Annals of Scotland,” and wrote a few notes on the margin with red ink, which he bade me tell his Lordship did not sink into the paper, and might be wiped off with a wet sponge, so that he did not spoil his manuscript. I told him there were very few of his friends so accurate as that I could venture to put down in writing what they told me as his sayings. JOHNSON. “Why should you write down my sayings ?" BOSWELL. “ I write them when they are good.” JOHNSON. “Nay, you may as well write down the sayings of any one else that are good.” But where, I might with great propriety have added, can I find such ?

I visited him by appointment in the evening, and we drank tea with Mrs. Williams. He told me that he had been in the company of a gentleman whose extraordinary travels had been much the subject of conversation.' But I found that he had not listened to him with that full confidence, without which there is little satisfaction in the society of travellers. I was curious to hear what opinion so able a judge as Johnson had formed of his abilities, and I asked if he was not a man of sense. JOHNSON. “Why, Sir, he is not a distinct relater; and I should say, he is neither abounding nor deficient in sense. I did not perceive any superiority of understanding." Boswell. “But will you not allow him a nobleness of resolution, in penetrating into distant regions ?" JOHNSON. “That,

* The traveller Bruce,

"Of Saturday, April 1, 1775.

VOL. II.

1