'
[812] See _ante_, p. 255.
[813] 'A fugitive from heaven and prayer,
I mocked at all religious fear,
Deep scienced in the mazy lore
Of mad philosophy: but now
Hoist sail, and back my voyage plough
To that blest harbour which I left before.'
FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, i. 34. 1.
[814] See _ante_, i. 315, and _post_, p. 288.
[815] Ovid, _Meta_. ii. 13.
[816] Johnson says (_Works_, viii. 355):--'The greater part of mankind
_have no character at all_, have little that distinguishes them from
others equally good or bad.' It would seem to follow that the greater
part of mankind have no style at all, for it is in character that style
takes its spring.
[817] 'Dodd's wish to be received into our society was conveyed to us
only by a whisper, and that being the case all opposition to his
admission became unnecessary.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 435.
[818] See note, vol. iii. p. 106. BOSWELL. See _post_, p. 290, for
Johnson's violence against the Americans and those who sided with them.
[819] The friend was Mr. Steevens. Garrick says (_Corres_. ii. 361)
that Steevens had written things in the newspapers against him that
were slanderous, and then had assured him upon his word and honour that
he had not written them; that he had later on bragged that he had
written them, and had said, 'that it was fun to vex me.
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