[660] See ante, iii. 239, where he discusses the question of shooting a highwayman.

[661] In The Rambler, No. 78, he says:—­’I believe men may be generally observed to grow less tender as they advance in age.’

[662] He passed over his own Life of Savage.

[663] ‘When I was a young fellow, I wanted to write the Life of Dryden’ Ante, iii. 71.

[664] See ante, p. 117.

[665] ’I asked a very learned minister in Sky, who had used all arts to make me believe the genuineness of the book, whether at last he believed it himself; but he would not answer.  He wished me to be deceived for the honour of his country; but would not directly and formally deceive me.  Yet has this man’s testimony been publickly produced, as of one that held Fingal to be the work of Ossian.’  Johnson’s Works, ix. 115.

[666] A young lady had sung to him an Erse song.  He asked her, ’What is that about?  I question if she conceived that I did not understand it.  For the entertainment of the company, said she.  But, Madam, what is the meaning of it?  It is a love song.  This was all the intelligence that I could obtain; nor have I been able to procure the translation of a single line of Erse.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 146.  See post, Oct. 16

[667] This droll quotation, I have since found, was from a song in honour of the Earl of Essex, called Queen Elisabeth’s Champion, which is preserved in a collection of Old Ballads, in three volumes, published in London in different years, between 1720 and 1730.  The full verse is as follows:—­

     ’Oh! then bespoke the prentices all,
      Living in London, both proper and tall,
      In a kind letter sent straight to the Queen,
      For Essex’s sake they would fight all. 
          Raderer too, tandaro te,
          Raderer, tandorer, tan do re.’

BOSWELL.

[668] La Condamine describes a tribe called the Tameos, on the north side of the river Tiger in South America, who have a word for three.  He continues:—­’Happily for those who have transactions with them, their arithmetic goes no farther.  The Brazilian tongue, a language spoken by people less savage, is equally barren; the people who speak it, where more than three is to be expressed, are obliged to use the Portuguese.’  Pinkerton’s Voyages, xiv. 225.

[669] ’It was Addison’s practice, when he found any man invincibly wrong, to flatter his opinions by acquiescence, and sink him yet deeper in absurdity.  This artifice of mischief was admired by Stella; and Swift seems to approve her admiration.’  Johnson’s Works, vii. 450.  Swift, in his Character of Mrs. Johnson (Stella), says:—­’Whether this proceeded from her easiness in general, or from her indifference to persons, or from her despair of mending them, or from the same practice which she much liked in Mr. Addison, I cannot determine; but when she saw any of the company very warm in a wrong opinion, she was more inclined to confirm them in it than oppose them.  The excuse she commonly gave, when her friends asked the reason, was, “That it prevented noise and saved time.”  Swift’s Works, xiv. 254.