ed at the age of forty-seven, had
'studied eight languages critically, eight less perfectly, but all
intelligible with a dictionary, and twelve least perfectly, but all
attainable.' Teignmouth's _Life of Sir W. Jones_, ed. 1815, p. 465. See
_ante_, iv. 69.

[336] See _ante_, i. 478.

[337] See _ante_, p. 16.

[338] Mackintosh in his _Life_, ii. 171, says:--'From the refinements of
abstruse speculation Johnson was withheld, partly perhaps by that
repugnance to such subtleties which much experience often inspires, and
partly also by a secret dread that they might disturb those prejudices
in which his mind had found repose from the agitations of doubt.'

[339] See _ante_, iv. 11, note 1.

[340] Our Club, originally at the Turk's Head, Gerrard-street, then at
Prince's, Sackville-street, now at Baxter's, Dover-street, which at Mr.
Garrick's funeral acquired a _name_ for the first time, and was called
THE LITERARY CLUB, was instituted in 1764, and now consists of
thirty-five members. It has, since 1773, been greatly augmented; and
though Dr. Johnson with justice observed, that, by losing Goldsmith,
Garrick, Nugent, Chamier, Beauclerk, we had lost what would make an
eminent club, yet when I mentioned, as an accession, Mr. Fox, Dr. George
Fordyce, Sir Charles Bunbury, Lord Ossory, Mr. Gibbon, Dr. Adam Smith,
Mr. R.B. Sheridan, the Bishops of Kilaloe and St. Asaph, Dean Marley,
Mr. Steevens, Mr. Dunning, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Scott of the Commons,
Earl Spencer, Mr. Windham of Norfolk, Lord Elliott, Mr. Malone, Dr.
Joseph Warton, the Rev. Thomas Warton, Lord Lucan, Mr. Burke junior,
Lord Palmerston, Dr. Burney, Sir William Hamilton, and Dr. Warren, it
will be acknowledged that we might establish a second university of high
reputation. BOSWELL. Mr. (afterwards Sir) William Jones wrote in 1780
(_Life_, p. 241):--'Of our club I will only say that there is no branch
of human knowledge on which some of our members are not capable of
giving information.'

[341] Here, unluckily, the windows had no pullies; and Dr. Johnson, who
was constantly eager for fresh air, had much struggling to get one of
them kept open. Thus he had a notion impressed upon him, that this
wretched defect was general in Scotland; in consequence of which he has
erroneously enlarged upon it in his _Journey_. I regretted that he did
not allow me to read over his book before it was printed. I should have
changed very little; but I should have suggested an altera