se I shan't like it."' Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, i.118, 126. 'Mrs. Montagu's dinners and assemblies,'
writes Wraxall, 'were principally supported by, and they fell with, the
giant talents of Johnson, who formed the nucleus round which all the
subordinate members revolved.' Wraxall's _Memoirs_, ed. 1815, i.160.

[224] Described by the author as 'a body of original essays.' 'I
consider _The Observer,'_ he arrogantly continues, 'as fairly enrolled
amongst the standard classics of our native language.' Cumberland's
_Memoirs_, ii.199. In his account of this _Feast of Reason_ he quite as
much satirises Mrs. Montagu as praises her. He introduces Johnson in it,
annoyed by an impertinent fellow, and saying to him:--'Have I said
anything, good Sir, that you do not comprehend?' 'No, no,' replied he,
'I perfectly well comprehend every word you have been saying.' 'Do you
so, Sir?' said the philosopher, 'then I heartily ask pardon of the
company for misemploying their time so egregiously.' _The Observer_,
No. 25.

[225] Miss Burney gives an account of an attack made by Johnson, at a
dinner at Streatham, in June 1781, on Mr. Pepys (_post_, p. 82), 'one of
Mrs. Montagu's steadiest abettors.' 'Never before,' she writes, 'have I
seen Dr. Johnson speak with so much passion. "Mr. Pepys," he cried, in a
voice the most enraged, "I understand you are offended by my _Life of
Lord Lyttelton_. What is it you have to say against it? Come forth, man!
Here am I, ready to answer any charge you can bring."' After the quarrel
had been carried even into the drawing-room, Mrs. Thrale, 'with great
spirit and dignity, said that she should be very glad to hear no more of
it. Everybody was silenced, and Dr. Johnson, after a pause,
said:--"Well, Madam, you _shall_ hear no more of it; yet I will defend
myself in every part and in every atom."... Thursday morning, Dr.
Johnson went to town for some days, but not before Mrs. Thrale read him
a very serious lecture upon giving way to such violence; which he bore
with a patience and quietness that even more than made his peace with
me.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 45. Two months later the quarrel was
made up. 'Mr. Pepys had desired this meeting by way of a reconciliation;
and Dr. Johnson now made amends for his former violence, as he advanced
to him, as soon as he came in, and holding out his hand to him received
him with a cordiality he had never shewn him before. Indeed he told me
himself that he thought the bet