Page:In the dozy hours, and other papers.djvu/189

 Rh which he probably never paid his tailor. It has forgiven Dr. Johnson all his little sins; and Lamb the only sin for which he craves forgiveness; and Scott—but here we are not privileged even to offer pardon. "It ill becomes either you or me to compare ourselves with Scott," said Thackeray to a young writer who excused himself for some literary laxity by saying that "Sir Walter did the same." "We should take off our hats whenever that great and good man's name is mentioned in our presence."