' BOSWELL.
[1077] According to Malone, 'Mr. Burke said of Mr. Boswell that good
nature was so natural to him that he had no merit in possessing it, and
that a man might as well assume to himself merit in possessing an
excellent constitution.' _European Mag_. 1798, p. 376. See Boswell's
_Hebrides_, Aug. 21.
[1078] Langton. See _ante_, iii. 48.
[1079] No doubt his house at Langton.
[1080] The Wey Canal. See _ante_, ii. 136. From _navigation_, i.e. a
canal for internal navigation, we have _navvy_. A _canal_ was the
common term for an ornamental pool, and for a time it seemed that
_navigation_ and not _canal_ might be the term applied to artificial
rivers.
[1081] Langton.
[1082]
'He plunging downward shot his radiant head:
Dispelled the breathing air that broke his flight;
Shorn of his beams, a man to mortal sight.'
Dryden, quoted in Johnson's _Dictionary_ under _shorn_. The phrase first
appears in _Paradise Lost_, i. 596.
[1083] Mrs. Thrale, this same summer, 'asked whether Mr. Langton took
any better care of his affairs. "No, madam," cried the doctor, "and
never will. He complains of the ill-effects of habit, and rests
contentedly upon a confessed indolence.
Pages:
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925