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Boswell, James, 1740-1795

"1776-1780"

' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 83. See _ante_, i. 346.
[1142] See p. 186 of this volume. BOSWELL.
[1143] He refers to Johnson's letter of July 3, 1778, _ante_, p. 363.
[1144] See _ante_, iii. 5, 178.
[1145] 'By seeing London,' said Johnson, 'I have seen as much of life as
the world can show.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 11. 'London,' wrote Hume
in 1765, 'never pleased me much. Letters are there held in no honour;
Scotmen are hated; superstition and ignorance gain ground daily.' J.H.
Burton's _Hume_, ii. 292.
[1146] See _ante_, i. 82.
[1147] 'I found in Cairo a mixture of all nations ... many brought
thither by the desire of living after their own manner without
observation, and of lying hid in the obscurity of multitudes; for in a
city populous as Cairo it is possible to obtain at the same time the
gratifications of society and the secrecy of solitude.' _Rasselas_, ch.
xii. Gibbon wrote of London (_Misc. Works_, ii. 291):--'La liberte d'un
simple particulier se fortifie par l'immensite de la ville.'
[1148] Perhaps Mr. Elphinston, of whom he said (_ante_, ii. 171), 'His
inner part is good, but his outer part is mighty awkward.


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