tened quietly,' he said, 'to all his stories, merely
jogging the bell every now and then till it rang again. That pleases
these talkative old men.' DR. BUSCH, quoted in Lowe's _Prince
Bismarck_, i. 130.

[89] See _ante_, i. 470, for his disapproval of 'studied behaviour.'

[90] Johnson had perhaps Dr. Warton in mind. _Ante_, ii. 41, note 1.

[91] See _ante_, i. 471, and iii. 165.

[92] 'Oblivion is a kind of annihilation.' Sir Thomas Browne's
_Christian Morals_, sect. xxi.

[93] 'Nec te quaesiveris extra.' Persius, _Sat_. i. 7. We may compare
Milton's line,

'In himself was all his state.'
_Paradise Lost_, v. 353.

[94] See _ante,_ iii. 269.

[95] 'A work of this kind must, in a minute examination, discover many
imperfections; but West's version, so far as I have considered it,
appears to be the product of great labour and great abilities.'
Johnson's _Works,_ viii. 398.

[96] See Boswell's _Hebrides,_ Aug. 25, 1773.

[97] See _ante,_ i. 82, and ii. 228.

[98] See _ante,_ i. 242.

[99] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, under Nov. 11.

[100] A literary lady has favoured me with a characteristick anecdote of
Richardson. One day at his country-house at Northend, where a large
company was assembled at dinner, a gentleman who was just returned from
Paris, willing to please Mr. Richardson, mentioned to him a very
flattering circumstance,--that he had seen his _Clarissa_ lying on the
King's brother's table. Richardson observing that part of the company
were engaged in talking to each other, affected then not to attend to
it. But by and by, when there was a general silence, and he thought that
the flattery might be fully heard, he addressed himself to the
gentleman, 'I think, Sir, you were saying something about,--' pausing in
a high flutter of expectation. The gentleman provoked at his inordinate
vanity, resolved not to indulge it, and with an exquisitely sly air of
indifference answered, 'A mere trifle Sir, not worth repeating.' The
mortification of Richardson was visible, and he did not speak ten words
more the whole day. Dr. Johnson was present, and appeared to enjoy it
much. BOSWELL.

[101]

'E'en in a bishop I can spy desert;
Seeker is decent, Rundel has a heart.'

Pope, _Epil. to Sat_. ii. 70. Horace Walpole wrote on Aug. 4,1768
(Letters, v. 115):--'We have lost our Pope. Canterbury [Archbishop
Seeker] died yesterday. He had never been a Papist, but almost
everything else. Our Churchme