rfect delineation of this _Literary Jack of all
Trades_, may find it in an ingenious tract, entitled, 'A SMALL
WHOLE-LENGTH OF DR. PRIESTLEY,' printed for Rivingtons, in St. Paul's
Church-Yard. BOSWELL. See Appendix B.

[740] Burke said, 'I have learnt to think _better_ of mankind.' _Ante_,
iii.236.

[741] He wrote to his servant Frank from Heale on Sept. l6:--'As
Thursday [the 18th] is my birthday I would have a little dinner got, and
would have you invite Mrs. Desmoulins, Mrs. Davis that was about Mrs.
Williams, and Mr. Allen, and Mrs. Gardiner.' Croker's _Boswell_, p.739.
See _ante_, iii.157, note 3.

[742] Dr. Burney had just lost Mr. Bewley, 'the Broom Gentleman'
(_ante_, p. 134), and Mr. Crisp. Dr. Burney's _Memoirs_, ii.323, 352.
For Mr. Crisp, see Macaulay's _Review_ of Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary.
Essays_, ed. 1874, iv.104.

[743] He wrote of her to Mrs. Montagu:--'Her curiosity was universal,
her knowledge was very extensive, and she sustained forty years of
misery with steady fortitude. Thirty years and more she had been my
companion, and her death has left me very desolate.' Croker's _Boswell_,
p. 739. This letter brought to a close his quarrel with Mrs. Montagu
(_ante_, p. 64).

[744] On Sept. 22 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'If excision should be
delayed, there is danger of a gangrene. You would not have me for fear
of pain perish in putrescence. I shall, I hope, with trust in eternal
mercy, lay hold of the possibility of life which yet remains.' _Piozzi
Letters_, ii.312.

[745] Rather more than seven years ago. _Ante_, ii.82, note 2.

[746] Mrs. Anna Williams. BOSWELL.

[747] See _ante_, p. 163, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov 2.

[748] Dated Oct. 27. _Piozzi Letters_, ii.321.

[749] According to Mrs. Piozzi (_Letters_, ii.387), he said to Mrs.
Siddons:--'You see, Madam, wherever you go there are no seats to be
got.' Sir Joshua also paid her a fine compliment. 'He never marked his
own name [on a picture],' says Northcote, 'except in the instance of
Mrs. Siddons's portrait as the Tragic Muse, when he wrote his name upon
the hem of her garment. "I could not lose," he said, "the honour this
opportunity offered to me for my name going down to posterity on the hem
of your garment."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 246. In Johnson's _Works_,
ed. 1787, xi. 207, we read that 'he said of Mrs. Siddons that she
appeared to him to be one of the few persons that the two great
corrupters of mankind, money and reputation,