n, apres un an de refus et de negociations, votre ouvrage
s'imprime; c'est alors qu'il faut ou assoupir les _Cerberes_ de la
litterature ou les faire aboyer en votre faveur.' He therefore carries
on the resemblance one step further,--

'Cerberus haec ingens latratu regna trifauci Personat.' _Aeneid_, vi.
417.

[845] It was in 1763 that Boswell made Johnson's acquaintance. _Ante_,
i. 391.

[846] It is no small satisfaction to me to reflect, that Dr. Johnson
read this, and, after being apprized of my intention, communicated to
me, at subsequent periods, many particulars of his life, which probably
could not otherwise have been preserved. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 26.

[847] Though Mull is, as Johnson says, the third island of the Hebrides
in extent, there was no post there. _Piozzi Letters_, i. 170.

[848] This observation is very just. The time for the Hebrides was too
late by a month or six weeks. I have heard those who remembered their
tour express surprise they were not drowned. WALTER SCOTT.

[849] _ The Charmer, a Collection of Songs Scotch and English._
Edinburgh, 1749.

[850] By Thomas Willis, M.D. It was published in 1672. 'In this work he
maintains that the soul of brutes is like the vital principle in man,
that it is corporeal in its nature and perishes with the body. Although
the book was dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury, his orthodoxy, a
matter that Willis regarded much, was called in question.' Knight's
_Eng. Cyclo_. vi. 741. Burnet speaks of him as 'Willis, the great
physician.' _History of his Own Time_, ed. 1818, i. 254. See _Wood's
Athenae_, iii. 1048.

[851] See _ante_, ii. 409 and iii. 242, where he said:--'Had I learnt to
fiddle, I should have done nothing else.'

[852] _Ante_, p. 277.

[853] _Ante_, p. 181.

[854] Mr. Langton thinks this must have been the hasty expression of a
splenetick moment, as he has heard Dr. Johnson speak of Mr. Spence's
judgment in criticism with so high a degree of respect, as to shew that
this was not his settled opinion of him. Let me add that, in the preface
to the _Preceptor_, he recommends Spence's _Essay on Papers Odyssey_,
and that his admirable _Lives of the English Poets_ are much enriched by
Spence's Anecdotes of Pope. BOSWELL. For the _Preceptor_ see _ante_, i.
192, and Johnson's _Works_, v. 240. Johnson, in his _Life of Pope (ib_.
viii. 274), speaks of Spence as 'a man whose learning was not very
great, and whose mind was not very powerful.