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Boswell, James, 1740-1795

"1776-1780"

' Hawkins's
_Johnson_, p. 238. Dr. T. Campbell in 1777, writing of Dublin to a
London physician, says:--'No sooner were your _medical wigs_ laid aside
than an attempt was made to do the like here. But in vain.' _Survey of
the South of Ireland_, p. 463.
[843] 'Jenyns,' wrote Malone, on the authority of W.G. Hamilton,
'could not be made without much labour to comprehend an argument. If
however there was anything weak or ridiculous in what another said, he
always laid hold of it and played upon it with success. He looked at
everything with a view to pleasantry alone. This being his grand object,
and he being no reasoner, his best friends were at a loss to know
whether his book upon Christianity was serious or ironical.' Prior's
_Malone_, p. 375.
[844] Jenyns maintains (p. 51) that 'valour, patriotism, and friendship
are only fictitious virtues--in fact no virtue at all.'
[845] He had furnished an answer to this in _The Rambler_, No. 99,
where he says:--'To love all men is our duty so far as it includes a
general habit of benevolence, and readiness of occasional kindness; but
to love all equally is impossible.... The necessities of our condition
require a thousand offices of tenderness, which mere regard for the
species will never dictate.


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