te dispute et
avare de son temps, laissa le docteur Clarke, son disciple en physique,
et pour le moins son egal en metaphysique, entrer pour lui dans la lice.
La dispute roula sur presque toutes les idees metaphysiques de Newton,
et c'est peut-etre le plus beau monument que nous ayons des combats
litteraires.' Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, xxviii. 44.

[782] See _ante_, iii. 248.

[783] See _ante_, iv. 295, where Boswell asked Johnson 'if he would not
have done more good if he had been more gentle.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; I
have done more good as I am. Obscenity and impiety have always been
repressed in my company.'

[784] 'Mr. Maclean has the reputation of great learning: he is
seventy-seven years old, but not infirm, with a look of venerable
dignity, excelling what I remember in any other man. His conversation
was not unsuitable to his appearance. I lost some of his good will by
treating a heretical writer with more regard than in his opinion a
heretick could deserve. I honoured his orthodoxy, and did not much
censure his asperity. A man who has settled his opinions does not love
to have the tranquillity of his conviction disturbed; and at
seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 118.

[785] 'Mr. Maclean has no publick edifice for the exercise of his
ministry, and can officiate to no greater number than a room can
contain; and the room of a hut is not very large... The want of churches
is not the only impediment to piety; there is likewise a want of
ministers. A parish often contains more islands than one... All the
provision made by the present ecclesiastical constitution for the
inhabitants of about a hundred square miles is a prayer and sermon in a
little room once in three weeks.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 118.

[786]

'Our Polly is a sad slut, nor heeds
what we have taught her.
I wonder any man alive will
ever rear a daughter.
For she must have both hoods
and gowns, and hoops to
swell her pride,
With scarfs and stays, and
gloves and lace; and she
will have men beside;
And when she's drest with care
and cost, all-tempting, fine and gay,
As men should serve a cucumber,
she flings herself away.'

Air vii.

[787] See _ante_, p. 162.

[788] In 1715.

[789]

'When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move slow.'

Pope, _Ess