To keep accounts.' _Pr. and
Med_. 59. See _post_, Aug. 25, 1784, where he writes to Langton:--'I am
a little angry at you for not keeping minutes of your own _acceptum et
expensum_, and think a little time might be spared from Aristophanes for
the _res familiares_.'

[553] This Mr. Chalmers thought was George Steevens. CROKER. D'Israeli
(_Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, vi. 76) describes Steevens as
guilty of 'an unparalleled series of arch deception and malicious
ingenuity.' He gives curious instances of his literary impostures. See
_ante_, iii. 281, and _post_, May 15, 1784.

[554] If this be Lord Mansfield, Boswell must use _late_ in the sense of
_in retirement_; for Mansfield was living when the _Life of Johnson_ was
published. He retired in 1788. Johnson in 1772, said that he had never
been in his company (_ante_, ii. 158). The fact that Mansfield is
mentioned in the previous paragraph adds to the probability that he
is meant.

[555] See _ante_, ii. 318.

[556] In Scotland, Johnson spoke of Mansfield's 'splendid talents.'
Boswell's _Hebrides_, under Nov. 11.

[557] 'I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other
men.' 2 _ Henry IV_, act i. sc. 2.

[558] Knowing as well as I do what precision and elegance of oratory his
Lordship can display, I cannot but suspect that his unfavourable
appearance in a social circle, which drew such animadversions upon him,
must be owing to a cold affectation of consequence, from being reserved
and stiff. If it be so, and he might be an agreeable man if he would, we
cannot be sorry that he misses his aim. BOSWELL. Wedderburne, afterwards
Lord Loughborough, is mentioned (_ante_, ii. 374), and again in Murphy's
_Life of Johnson_, p. 43, as being in company with Johnson and Foote.
Boswell also has before (_ante_, i. 387) praised the elegance of his
oratory. Henry Mackenzie (_Life of John Home_, i. 56) says that
Wedderburne belonged to a club at the British Coffee-house, of which
Garrick, Smollett, and Dr. Douglas were members.

[559] Boswell informed the people of Scotland in the Letter that he
addressed to them in 1785 (p. 29), that 'now that Dr. Johnson is gone to
a better world, he (Boswell) bowed the intellectual knee to _Lord
Thurlow_.' See _post_, June 22, 1784.

[560] Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 27.

[561]

'Charged with light summer-rings his fingers sweat,
Unable to support a gem of weight.'
DRYDEN. Juvenal, _Satires_, i. 29.