[319] See p. 77 of this volume.  BOSWELL.

[320] See ante, iii. 97.

[321] On April 6 of the next year this gentleman, when Secretary of the Treasury, destroyed himself, overwhelmed, just as Cowper had been, by the sense of the responsibility of an office which had been thrust upon him.  See Hannah More’s Memoirs, i. 245, and Walpole’s Letters, viii. 206.

[322] ’It is commonly supposed that the uniformity of a studious life affords no matter for a narration; but the truth is, that of the most studious life a great part passes without study.  An author partakes of the common condition of humanity; he is born and married like another man; he has hopes and fears, expectations and disappointments, griefs and joys, and friends and enemies, like a courtier, or a statesman; nor can I conceive why his affairs should not excite curiosity as much as the whisper of a drawing-room or the factions of a camp.’ The Idler, No. 102.

[323] Hannah More wrote of this day (Memoirs, i. 212):—­’I accused Dr. Johnson of not having done justice to the Allegro and Penseroso.  He spoke disparagingly of both.  I praised Lycidas, which he absolutely abused, adding, “if Milton had not written the Paradise Lost, he would have only ranked among the minor Poets.  He was a Phidias that could cut a Colossus out of a rock, but could not cut heads out of cherry-stones."’ See post, June 13, 1784.  The Allegro and Penseroso Johnson described as ‘two noble efforts of imagination.’  Of Lycidas he wrote:—­’Surely no man could have fancied that he read it with pleasure, had he not known the author.’ Works, vii. 121, 2.

[324] Murphy (Life of Garrick, p. 374) says ’Shortly after Garrick’s death Johnson was told in a large company, “You are recent from the Lives of the Poets; why not add your friend Garrick to the number?” Johnson’s answer was, “I do not like to be officious; but if Mrs. Garrick will desire me to do it, I shall be very willing to pay that last tribute to the memory of a man I loved.”  ’Murphy adds that he himself took care that Mrs. Garrick was informed of what Johnson had said, but that no answer was ever received.

[325] Miss Burney wrote in May:—­’Dr. Johnson was charming, both in spirits and humour.  I really think he grows gayer and gayer daily, and more ductile and pleasant.’  In June she wrote:—­’I found him in admirable good-humour, and our journey [to Streatham] was extremely pleasant.  I thanked him for the last batch of his poets, and we talked them over almost all the way.’  Mme. D’Arblay’s Diary, ii. 23, 44.  Beattie, a week or two later, wrote:—­’Johnson grows in grace as he grows in years.  He not only has better health and a fresher complexion than ever he had before (at least since I knew him), but he has contracted a gentleness of manner which pleases everybody.’  Beattie’s Life, ed. 1824, p. 289.