Courtenay (_Poetical Review_, ed. 1786, p. 7), thus
attacked Mr. Strahan:--

'Let priestly S--h--n in a godly fit
The tale relate, in aid of Holy Writ;
Though candid Adams, by whom David fell [A],
Who ancient miracles sustained so well,
To recent wonders may deny his aid,
Nor own a pious brother of the trade.'

[A] The Rev. Dr. Adams of Oxford, distinguished for his answer to David
Hume's _Essay on Miracles_.

[1164] Johnson once said to Miss Burney of her brother Charles:--'I
should be glad to see him if he were not your brother; but were he a
dog, a cat, a rat, a frog, and belonged to you, I must needs be glad to
see him.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 233. On Nov. 25 she called on
him. 'He let me in, though very ill. He told me he was going to try what
sleeping out of town might do for him. "I remember," said he, "that my
wife, when she was near her end, poor woman, was also advised to sleep
out of town; and when she was carried to the lodgings that had been
prepared for her, she complained that the staircase was in very bad
condition, for the plaster was beaten off the walls in many places."
"Oh!" said the man of the house, "that's nothing but by the knocks
against it of the coffins of the poor souls that have died in the
lodgings." He laughed, though not without apparent secret anguish, in
telling me this.' Miss Burney continues:--'How delightfully bright are
his faculties, though the poor and infirm machine that contains them
seems alarmingly giving way. Yet, all brilliant as he was, I saw him
growing worse, and offered to go, which, for the first time I ever
remember, he did not oppose; but most kindly pressing both my hands, "Be
not," he said, in a voice of even tenderness, "be not longer in coming
again for my letting you go now." I assured him I would be the sooner,
and was running off, but he called me back in a solemn voice, and in a
manner the most energetic, said:--"Remember me in your prayers."' Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 327. See _ante_, iii. 367, note 4.

[1165] Mr. Hector's sister and Johnson's first love. _Ante_, ii. 459.

[1166] The Rev. Dr. Taylor. BOSWELL.

[1167] See _ante_, ii. 474, and iii. 180.

[1168] 'Reliquum est, _[Greek: Sphartan elaches, tahutan khusmei].'_
Cicero, _Epistolae ad Atticum_, iv. 6. 'Spartam nactus es, hanc orna.'
Erasmus, _Adagiorum Chiliades_, ed. 1559, p. 485.

[1169] Temple says of the spleen that it is a disease too refined for