[119] In Boswelliana (p. 323) are recorded two more of Langton’s Anecdotes.  ’Mr. Beauclerk told Dr. Johnson that Dr. James said to him he knew more Greek than Mr. Walmesley.  “Sir,” said he, “Dr. James did not know enough of Greek to be sensible of his ignorance of the language.  Walmesley did."’ See ante, i. 81.  ’A certain young clergyman used to come about Dr. Johnson.  The Doctor said it vexed him to be in his company, his ignorance was so hopeless.  “Sir,” said Mr. Langton, “his coming about you shows he wishes to help his ignorance.”  “Sir,” said the Doctor, “his ignorance is so great, I am afraid to show him the bottom of it."’

[120] Dr. Francklin.  See ante, iii. 83, note 3.  Churchill attacked him in The Rosciad (Poems, ii. 4).  When, he says, it came to the choice of a judge,

     ’Others for Francklin voted; but ’twas known,
      He sickened at all triumphs but his own.’

[121] See ante, iii. 241, note 2.

[122] Pr. and Med. p.190.  BOSWELL.

[123] Ib. 174.  BOSWELL.

[124] ’Mr. Fowke once observed to Dr. Johnson that, in his opinion, the Doctor’s literary strength lay in writing biography, in which he infinitely exceeded all his contemporaries.  “Sir,” said Johnson, “I believe that is true.  The dogs don’t know how to write trifles with dignity."’—­R.  Warner’s Original Letters, p. 204.

[125] His design is thus announced in his Advertisement:  ’The Booksellers having determined to publish a body of English Poetry, I was persuaded to promise them a Preface to the works of each authour; an undertaking, as it was then presented to my mind, not very tedious or difficult.

’My purpose was only to have allotted to every poet an Advertisement, like that [in original those] which we find in the French Miscellanies, containing a few dates, and a general character; but I have been led beyond my intention, I hope by the honest desire of giving useful pleasure.’  BOSWELL.

[126] Institutiones, liber i, Prooemium 3.

[127] ’He had bargained for two hundred guineas, and the booksellers spontaneously added a third hundred; on this occasion Dr. Johnson observed to me, “Sir, I always said the booksellers were a generous set of men.  Nor, in the present instance, have I reason to complain.  The fact is, not that they have paid me too little, but that I have written too much.”  The Lives were soon published in a separate edition; when, for a very few corrections, he was presented with another hundred guineas.’  Nichols’s Lit.  Anec. viii. 416.  See ante, iii. 111.  In Mr. Morrison’s Collection of Autographs &c., vol. ii, ’is Johnson’s receipt for 100_l_., from the proprietors of The Lives of the Poets for revising the last edition of that work.’  It is dated Feb. 19, 1783.  ’Underneath, in Johnson’s autograph, are these words:  “It is great impudence to put Johnson’s Poets on the back of books which Johnson neither recommended nor revised.  He recommended only Blackmore on the Creation, and Watts.  How then are they Johnson’s?  This is indecent."’ The poets whom Johnson recommended were Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and Yalden. Ante, under Dec. 29, 1778.