Prev | Current Page 807 | Next

Boswell, James, 1740-1795

"1776-1780"

But this is
very improbable. MALONE. Malone assumes, as Mr. Croker points out, that
this rate of publication continued to the year 1792. But after all, the
difference is trifling. Johnson here forgot to use his favourite cure
for exaggeration--counting. See _post_, April 18, 1783. 'Round numbers,'
he said, 'are always false.' Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 198. Horace
Walpole (_Letters_, viii. 300), after making a calculation, writes:--'I
may err in my calculations, for I am a woeful arithmetician; but no
matter, one large sum is as good as another.'
[638] The original passage is: 'Si non potes te talem facere, qualem
vis, quomodo poteris alium ad tuum habere beneplacitum?' _De Imit.
Christ_. lib. i. cap. xvi. J. BOSWELL, Jun.
[639] See p. 29 of this vol. BOSWELL.
[640] Since this was written the attainder has been reversed; and
Nicholas Barnewall is now a peer of Ireland with this title. The person
mentioned in the text had studied physick, and prescribed _gratis_ to
the poor. Hence arose the subsequent conversation. MALONE.
[641] See Franklin's _Autobiography_ for his conversion from
vegetarianism.
[642] See _ante_, ii.


Pages:
795 796 797 798 799 800 801 802 803 804 805 806 807 808 809 810 811 812 813 814 815 816 817 818 819