[109] In Rasselas (ch. ii.) we read that the prince’s look ’discovered him to receive some solace of the miseries of life, from consciousness of the delicacy with which he felt, and the eloquence with which he bewailed them.’  See ante, April 8, 1780.

[110] I hope the authority of the great Master of our language will stop that curtailing innovation, by which we see critic, public, &c., frequently written instead of critick, publick, &c.  BOSWELL.  Boswell had always been nice in his spelling.  In the Preface to his Corsica, published twenty-four years before The Life of Johnson, he defends his peculiarities, and says:—­’If this work should at any future period be reprinted, I hope that care will be taken of my orthography.’  Mr. Croker says that in a memorandum in Johnson’s writing he has found ‘cubic feet.’

[111] ‘Disorders of intellect,’ answered Imlac, ’happen much more often than superficial observers will easily believe.  Perhaps, if we speak with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state.’ Rasselas, ch. 44.

[112] See ante, i. 397, for Kit Smart’s madness in praying.

[113] Yet he gave lessons in Latin to Miss Burney and Miss Thrale.  Mme. D’Arblay’s Diary, i. 243.  In Skye he said, ’Depend upon it, no woman is the worse for sense and knowledge.’  Boswell’s Hebrides, Sept. 19.

[114] See ante, iii, 240.

[115] Nos. 588, 601, 626 and 635.  The first number of the Spectator was written by Addison, the last by Grove.  See ante, iii. 33, for Johnson’s praise of No. 626.

[116] Sterne is of a direct contrary opinion.  See his Sentimental Journey, Article, ‘The Mystery.’  BOSWELL.  Sterne had been of the same opinion as Johnson, for he says that the beggar he saw ’confounded all kind of reasoning upon him.’  ‘He passed by me,’ he continues, ’without asking anything—­and yet he did not go five steps farther before he asked charity of a little woman—­I was much more likely to have given of the two.  He had scarce done with the woman, when he pulled his hat off to another who was coming the same way.—­An ancient gentleman came slowly—­and, after him, a young smart one—­He let them both pass, and asked nothing; I stood observing him half an hour, in which time he had made a dozen turns backwards and forwards, and found that he invariably pursued the same plan.’ Sentimental Journey, ed. 1775, ii. 105.

[117] Very likely Dr. Warton. Ante, ii. 41.

[118] I differ from Mr. Croker in the explanation of this ill-turned sentence.  The shield that Homer may hold up is the observation made by Mrs. Fitzherbert.  It was this observation that Johnson respected as a very fine one.  For his high opinion of that lady’s understanding, see ante, i. 83.