rtations on the Prophecies_
is his great work.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, it is Tom's great work; but how
far it is great, or how much of it is Tom's, are other questions. I
fancy a considerable part of it was borrowed.' DR. ADAMS. 'He was a very
successful man.' JOHNSON. 'I don't think so, Sir. He did not get very
high. He was late in getting what he did get; and he did not get it by
the best means. I believe he was a gross flatterer[882].'

I fulfilled my intention by going to London, and returned to Oxford on
Wednesday the 9th of June, when I was happy to find myself again in the
same agreeable circle at Pembroke College, with the comfortable prospect
of making some stay. Johnson welcomed my return with more than
ordinary glee.

He talked with great regard of the Honourable Archibald Campbell, whose
character he had given at the Duke of Argyll's table, when we were at
Inverary[883]; and at this time wrote out for me, in his own hand, a
fuller account of that learned and venerable writer, which I have
published in its proper place. Johnson made a remark this evening which
struck me a good deal. 'I never (said he) knew a non-juror who could
reason[884].' Surely he did not mean to deny that faculty to many of
their writers; to Hickes, Brett[885], and other eminent divines of that
persuasion; and did not recollect that the seven Bishops, so justly
celebrated for their magnanimous resistance of arbitrary power, were yet
Nonjurors to the new Government[886]. The nonjuring clergy of Scotland,
indeed, who, excepting a few, have lately, by a sudden stroke, cut off
all ties of allegiance to the house of Stuart, and resolved to pray for
our present lawful Sovereign by name, may be thought to have confirmed
this remark; as it may be said, that the divine indefeasible hereditary
right which they professed to believe, if ever true, must be equally
true still. Many of my readers will be surprized when I mention, that
Johnson assured me he had never in his life been in a nonjuring
meeting-house[887].

Next morning at breakfast, he pointed out a passage in Savage's
_Wanderer_, saying, 'These are fine verses.' 'If (said he) I had written
with hostility of Warburton in my _Shakspeare_, I should have quoted
this couplet:--

"Here Learning, blinded first and then beguil'd,
Looks dark as Ignorance, as Fancy wild[888]."

You see they'd have fitted him to a _T_,' (smiling.) DR. ADAMS. 'But you
did not write against Warburton.' JO