6. BOSWELL

[966] '"That may be so," replied the lady, "for ought I know, but they
are above my comprehension." "I an't obliged to find you comprehension,
Madam, curse me," cried he,' _Roderick Random_, ch. 53. '"I protest,"
cried Moses, "I don't rightly comprehend the force of your reasoning."
"O, Sir," cried the Squire, "I am your most humble servant, I find
you want me to furnish you with argument and intellects too."' _Vicar
of Wakefield_, ch. 7.

[967] In the first edition, 'as the Honourable Horace Walpole is often
called;' in the second edition, 'as Horace, now Earl of Orford, &c.'
Walpole succeeded to the title in Dec. 1791. In answer to
congratulations he wrote (_Letters_, ix. 364):--'What has happened
destroys my tranquillity.... Surely no man of seventy-four, unless
superannuated, can have the smallest pleasure in sitting at home in his
own room, as I almost always do, and being called by a new name.' He
died March 2, 1797.

[968] In _The Rambler_, No. 83, a character of a virtuoso is given which
in many ways suits Walpole:--'It is never without grief that I find a
man capable of ratiocination or invention enlisting himself in this
secondary class of learning; for when he has once discovered a method of
gratifying his desire of eminence by expense rather than by labour, and
known the sweets of a life blest at once with the ease of idleness and
the reputation of knowledge, he will not easily be brought to undergo
again the toil of thinking, or leave his toys and trinkets for arguments
and principles.'

[969] Walpole says:--'I do not think I ever was in a room with Johnson
six times in my days.' _Letters_, ix. 319. 'The first time, I think, was
at the Royal Academy. Sir Joshua said, "Let me present Dr. Goldsmith to
you;" he did. "Now I will present Dr. Johnson to you." "No," said I,
"Sir Joshua; for Dr. Goldsmith, pass--but you shall not present Dr.
Johnson to me."' _Journal &c. of Miss Berry_, i. 305. In his _Journal of
the Reign of George III_, he speaks of Johnson as 'one of the venal
champions of the Court,' 'a renegade' (i. 430); 'a brute,' 'an old
decrepit hireling' (_ib._ p. 472); and as 'one of the subordinate crew
whom to name is to stigmatize' (_ib._ ii. 5). In his _Memoirs of the
Reign of George III_, iv. 297, he says:--'With a lumber of learning and
some strong parts Johnson was an odious and mean character. His manners
were sordid, supercilious, and brutal; his style ridiculously bombastic
and