far differed in
sentiment, he had only to say, _Nunc dimittis servum tuum.' Parl. Hist._
xxiii.919.

[695] A copy of _Evelina_ had been placed in the Bodleian. 'Johnson
says,' wrote Miss Burney, 'that when he goes to Oxford he will write my
name in the books, and my age when I writ them, and then,' he says, 'the
world may know that we _So mix our studies, and so joined our fame._ For
we shall go down hand in hand to posterity.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_,
i.429. The oldest copy of _Evelina_ now in the Bodleian is of an edition
published after Johnson's death. Miss Burney, in 1793, married General
D'Arblay, a French refugee.

[696] Macaulay maintained that Johnson had a hand in the composition of
_Cecilia_. He quotes a passage from it, and says:--'We say with
confidence, either Sam. Johnson or the Devil.' (_Essays_, ed. 1874, iv.
157.) That he is mistaken is shown by Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_ (ii. 172).
'Ay,' cried Dr. Johnson, 'some people want to make out some credit to me
from the little rogue's book. I was told by a gentleman this morning
that it was a very fine book, if it was all her own.' "It is all her
own," said I, "for me, I am sure, for I never saw one word of it before
it was printed."' On p. 196 she records the following:--'SIR JOSHUA.
"Gibbon says he read the whole five volumes in a day." "'Tis
impossible," cried Mr. Burke, "it cost me three days; and you know I
never parted with it from the day I first opened it."' See _post_, among
the imitators of Johnson's style, under Dec. 6, 1784.

[697] In Mr. Barry's printed analysis, or description of these pictures,
he speaks of Johnson's character in the highest terms. BOSWELL. Barry,
in one of his pictures, placed Johnson between the two beautiful
duchesses of Rutland and Devonshire, pointing to their Graces Mrs.
Montagu as an example. He expresses his 'reverence for his consistent,
manly, and well-spent life.' Barry's _Works_, ii. 339. Johnson, in his
turn, praises 'the comprehension of Barry's design.' _Piozzi Letters_,
ii. 256. He was more likely to understand it, as the pictures formed a
series, meant 'to illustrate one great maxim of moral truth, viz. that
the obtaining of happiness depends upon cultivating the human faculties.
We begin with man in a savage state full of inconvenience, imperfection,
and misery, and we follow him through several gradations of culture and
happiness, which, after our probationary state here, are finally
attended with beatitude