(133) James Harris, of Salisbury, and his family.  Mr. Harris was the author of “Hermes, an Enquiry concerning Universal Grammar,” and was characterised by Dr. Johnson as a “sound, solid scholar.”  He was an enthusiast on the subject of music, and had made Dr. Burney’s acquaintance at the opera in 1773.-Ed.

(134) Fanny’s younger sister, some of whose lively and amusing letters and fragments of journal are printed in the “Early Diary.”  Unlike Fanny, she was a bit of a flirt, and she seems to have been altogether a very charming young woman, who fully sustained the Burney reputation for sprightliness and good humour.-Ed.

(135) This letter was written in reply to a few words from Mrs. Thrale, in which, alluding to her husband’s sudden death, she begs Miss Burney to “write to me—­pray for me!” The hurried note from Mrs. Thrale is thus endorsed by Miss Burney:—­“Written a few hours after the death of Mr. Thrale, which happened by a sudden stroke of apoplexy, on the morning of a day on which half the fashion of London had been invited to an intended assembly at his house in Grosvenor Square.” [Mr. Thrale, who had long suffered from ill health, had been contemplating a journey to Spa, and thence to Italy.  His physicians, however, were strongly opposed to the scheme, and Fanny writes, just before his death, that it was settled that a great meeting of hi friends should take place, and that they should endeavour to prevail with him to give it up; in which she has little doubt of their succeeding.-Ed.]

202

Section4
(1781-2.)

Miss Burney extends the circle of her acquaintance.

[During the years 1781 and 1782 Fanny was engaged upon her second novel, “Cecilia,” which was published in July, 1782.  It is not necessary here to discuss the merits of a work with which everyone ought to be acquainted.  We may safely leave the task of criticising “Cecilia” to an unimpeachable authority, Edmund Burke, whose magnificent, but just eulogy of the book will be found on page 232 Of the present volume.  In the following section of " The Diary” Fanny records one of the most memorable events of her life,—­her introduction to Burke, in June, 1782, at Sir Joshua Reynolds’s house on Richmond Hill.  Rer letter to Mr. Crisp, printed in the " Memoirs of Dr. Burney,” gives a more detailed account than that in the " Diary,” of the conversation which passed on this occasion.  Other men of genius were present, among them Gibbon the historian, whom she then met for the first time; but Fanny had eyes and ears for none but Burke.  Nor was she singular in yielding thus completely to the fascination of the great Irishman’s manner and conversation.  Wherever he appeared, in what society soever he mingled, Burke was still the man of distinction.  As Johnson said, you could not stand under a shed with Burke for a few minutes, during a shower of rain, without feeling that you were in the company of an extraordinary man.