and Studies of a Country Clergyman of the XVIIIth
Century_, p. 72.

[597] 'A shilling was now wanted for some purpose or other, and none of
them happened to have one; I begged that I might lend one. "Ay, do,"
said the Doctor, "I will borrow of you; authors are like privateers,
always fair game for one another."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 212.

[598] See _ante_, i. 129, note 3.

[599] See _post_, June 3, 1784, where he uses almost the same words.

[600] What this period was Boswell seems to leave intentionally vague.
Johnson knew Lord Shelburne at least as early as 1778 (_ante_, iii.
265). He wrote to Dr. Taylor on July 22, 1782:--'Shelburne speaks of
Burke in private with great malignity.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S. v.
462. The company commonly gathered at his house would have been
displeasing to Johnson. Priestley, who lived with Shelburne seven years,
says (_Auto_. p. 55) that a great part of the company he saw there was
like the French philosophers, unbelievers in Christianity, and even
professed atheists: men 'who had given no proper attention to
Christianity, and did not really know what it was.' Johnson was intimate
with Lord Shelburne's brother. _Ante_, ii. 282, note 3.

[601] Johnson being asked his opinion of this Essay, answered, 'Why,
Sir, we shall have the man come forth again; and as he has proved
Falstaff to be no coward, he may prove Iago to be a very good
character.' BOSWELL.

[602] A writer in the _European Magazine_, xxx. 160, says that Johnson
visited Lord Shelburne at Bowood. At dinner he repeated part of his
letter to Lord Chesterfield (_ante_, i. 261). A gentleman arrived late.
Shelburne, telling him what he had missed, went on:-'I dare say the
Doctor will be kind enough to give it to us again.' 'Indeed, my Lord, I
will not. I told the circumstance first for my own amusement, but I will
not be dragged in as story-teller to a company.' In an argument he used
some strong expressions, of which his opponent took no notice, Next
morning 'he went up to the gentleman with great good-nature, and said,
"Sir, I have found out upon reflection that I was both warm and wrong in
my argument with you last night; for the first of which I beg your
pardon, and for the second, I thank you for setting me right."' It is
clear that the second of these anecdotes is the same as that told by Mr.
Morgann of Johnson and himself, and that the scene has been wrongly
transferred from Wickham to Bowood. The same write