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Boswell, James, 1740-1795

"1776-1780"


Burke," "Mr. Boswell," &c.'
[1108] In an unfinished sketch for a _Discourse_, Reynolds said of those
already delivered:--'Whatever merit they may have must be imputed, in a
great measure, to the education which I may be said to have had under Dr.
Johnson. I do not mean to say, though it certainly would be to the credit
of these _Discourses_ if I could say it with truth, that he contributed
even a single sentiment to them; but he qualified my mind to think
justly.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, ii. 282. See _ante_, i. 245.
[1109] The error in grammar is no doubt Boswell's. He was so proud of
his knowledge of languages that when he was appointed Secretary for
Foreign Correspondence to the Royal Academy (_ante_, ii. 67, note 1),
'he wrote his acceptance of the honour in three separate letters, still
preserved in the Academy archives, in English, French, and Italian.'
_The Athenaeum_, No. 3041.
[1110] The remaining six volumes came out, not in 1780, but in 1781. See
_post_, 1781. He also wrote this year the preface to a translation of
_Oedipus Tyrannus_, by Thomas Maurice, in _Poems and Miscellaneous
Pieces_. (See preface to _Westminster Abbey with other Poems_, 1813.


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