le things are in their natural situation, will always be of
the _Court_-party; as, on the contrary, dissenters of all kinds will be
of the _Country_-party.' Hume's _Essays_, Part 1, No. viii.

[706] In the original _Every island's but a prison._ The song is by a
Mr. Coffey, and is given in Ritson's _English Songs_ (1813), ii. 122.
It begins:--

'Welcome, welcome, brother debtor,
To this poor but merry place,
Where no bailiff, dun, nor setter,
Dares to show his frightful face.'

See _ante_, iii. 269.

[707] He wrote to Mrs. Thrale the day before (perhaps it was this day,
and the copyist blundered):--' I am still in Sky. Do you remember
the song--

We have at one time no boat, and at another may have too much wind; but
of our reception here we have no reason to complain.' _Piozzi
Letters_, i. 143.

[708] My ingenuously relating this occasional instance of intemperance
has I find been made the subject both of serious criticism and ludicrous
banter. With the banterers I shall not trouble myself, but I wonder that
those who pretend to the appellation of serious criticks should not have
had sagacity enough to perceive that here, as in every other part of the
present work, my principal object was to delineate Dr. Johnson's manners
and character. In justice to him I would not omit an anecdote, which,
though in some degree to my own disadvantage, exhibits in so strong a
light the indulgence and good humour with which he could treat those
excesses in his friends, of which he highly disapproved.

In some other instances, the criticks have been equally wrong as to the
true motive of my recording particulars, the objections to which I saw
as clearly as they. But it would be an endless task for an authour to
point out upon every occasion the precise object he has in view,
Contenting himself with the approbation of readers of discernment and
taste, he ought not to complain that some are found who cannot or will
not understand him. BOSWELL.

[709] In the original, 'wherein is excess.'

[710] See Chappell's _Popular Music of the Olden Time_, i. 231.

[711] See _ante_, iii. 383.

[712] see _ante_, p. 184.

[713] See _ante_, ii. 120, where he took upon his knee a young woman who
came to consult him on the subject of Methodism.

[714] See _ante_, pp. 215, 246.

[715] See _ante_, iv. 176.

[716]

'If ev'ry wheel of that unwearied mill
That turned ten thousand verses now stands