ose who
had no expectation of his skill in such matters.'

[631] See _ante_, ii. 179, 226, and iv. 211.

[632] See _ante_, p. 98.

[633] See _ante_, i, 110.

[634] See _ante_, i. 398, and ii. 15, 35, 441.

[635] Gibbon, thirteen years later, writing to Lord Sheffield about the
commercial treaty with France, said (_Misc. Works_, ii. 399):--'I hope
both nations are gainers; since otherwise it cannot be lasting; and such
double mutual gain is surely possible in fair trade, though it could not
easily happen in the mischievous amusements of war and gaming.'

[636] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 139), writing of gratitude and resentment,
says:--'Though there are few who will practise a laborious virtue,
there will never be wanting multitudes that will indulge an easy vice.'

[637] _Aul. Gellius_, lib. v. c. xiv. BOSWELL.

[638] 'The difficulties in princes' business are many and great; but the
greatest difficulty is often in their own mind. For it is common with
princes, saith Tacitus, to will contradictories. _Sunt plerumque regum
voluntates vehementes, et inter se contrariae_. For it is the solecism
of power to think to command the end, and yet not to endure the mean.'
Bacon's _Essays_, No. xix.

[639] Yet Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Sept. 30:--'I am now no longer
pleased with the delay; you can hear from me but seldom, and I cannot at
all hear from you. It comes into my mind that some evil may happen.'
_Piozzi Letters_, i. 148. On Oct. 15 he wrote to Mr. Thrale:--'Having
for many weeks had no letter, my longings are very great to be informed
how all things are at home, as you and mistress allow me to call it....
I beg to have my thoughts set at rest by a letter from you or my
mistress.' _Ib_. p. 166. See _ante_, iii. 4.

[640] Sir Walter Scott thus describes Dunvegan in 1814:--'The whole
castle occupies a precipitous mass of rock overhanging the lake, divided
by two or three islands in that place, which form a snug little harbour
under the walls. There is a court-yard looking out upon the sea,
protected by a battery, at least a succession of embrasures, for only
two guns are pointed, and these unfit for service. The ancient entrance
rose up a flight of steps cut in the rock, and passed into this
court-yard through a portal, but this is now demolished. You land under
the castle, and walking round find yourself in front of it. This was
originally inaccessible, for a brook coming down on the one side, a
chasm of the