Page:Boswell - Life of Johnson.djvu/23

Rh Western Islands ; Boswell's letters of acceptance of the office of Secretary for Foreign Correspondence to the Royal Academy ; the proposal for the publication of a Geographical Dictionary issued by Johnson's beloved friend, Dr. Bathurst ; and Mr. Recorder Longley's record of his conversation with Johnson on Greek metres, will, I trust, throw some lustre on this edition. In many notes I have been able to clear up statements in the text which were not fully understood even by the author, or were left intentionally dark by him, or have become obscure through lapse of time. I would particularly refer to the light that I have thrown on Johnson's engaging in politics with William Gerard Hamilton, and on Burke's 'talk of retiring .' In many other notes I have established Boswell's accuracy against attacks which had been made on it apparently with success. It was with much pleasure that I discovered that the story told of Johnson's listening to Dr. Sacheverel's sermon is not in any way improbable, and that Johnson's 'censure' of Lord Kames was quite just. The ardent advocates of total abstinence will not, I fear, be pleased at finding at the end of my long note on Johnson's wine-drinking that I have been obliged to show that he thought that the gout from which he suffered was due to his temperance. 'I hope you persevere in drinking,' he wrote to his friend, Dr. Taylor. 'My opinion is that I have drunk too little .' In the Appendices I have generally treated of subjects which demanded more space than could be given them in the narrow limits of a foot-note. In the twelve pages of the essay on Johnson's Debates in Parliament  I have pressed