[671] Malone describes a call on Johnson in the winter of this year:—­’I found him in his arm-chair by the fire-side, before which a few apples were laid.  He was reading.  I asked him what book he had got.  He said the History of Birmingham.  Local histories, I observed, were generally dull.  “It is true, Sir; but this has a peculiar merit with me; for I passed some of my early years, and married my wife there.” [See ante, i. 96.] I supposed the apples were preparing as medicine.  “Why, no, Sir; I believe they are only there because I want something to do.  These are some of the solitary expedients to which we are driven by sickness.  I have been confined this week past; and here you find me roasting apples, and reading the History of Birmingham."’ Prior’s Malone, p. 92.

[672] On April 19, he wrote:—­’I can apply better to books than I could in some more vigorous parts of my life—­at least than I did; and I have one more reason for reading—­that time has, by taking away my companions, left me less opportunity of conversation.’  Croker’s Boswell, p. 727.

[673] He told Mr. Windham that he had never read the Odyssey through in the original.  Windham’s Diary, p. 17.  ‘Fox,’ said Rogers (Table Talk, p. 92), ’used to read Homer through once every year.  On my asking him, “Which poem had you rather have written, the Iliad or the Odyssey?” he answered, “I know which I had rather read” (meaning the Odyssey).’

[674] ’Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.’  Johnson’s Works, iv. 145.  Of Pope Johnson wrote (ib. viii. 321):—­’To make verses was his first labour, and to mend them was his last. ...  He was one of those few whose labour is their pleasure.’  Thomas Carlyle, in 1824, speaking of writing, says:—­’I always recoil from again engaging with it.’  Froude’s Carlyle, i. 213.  Five years later he wrote:—­’Writing is a dreadful labour, yet not so dreadful as idleness.’ Ib. ii. 75.  See ante, iii. 19.

[675] See ante, ii. 15.

[676] Miss Burney wrote to Mrs. Thrale in 1780:—­’I met at Sir Joshua’s young Burke, who is made much ado about, but I saw not enough of him to know why.’  Mme. D’Arblay’s Diary, i. 416.  Mrs. Thrale replied:—­’I congratulate myself on being quite of your opinion concerning Burke the minor, whom I once met and could make nothing of.’ Ib. p. 418.  Miss Hawkins (Memoirs, i. 304) reports, on Langton’s authority, that Burke said:—­’How extraordinary it is that I, and Lord Chatham, and Lord Holland, should each have a son so superior to ourselves.’

[677] Cruikshank, not Cruikshanks (see post, under Sept. 18, 1783, and Sept. 4 1784).  He had been Dr. Hunter’s partner; he was not elected (Gent.  Mag. 1783, p. 626).  Northcote, in quoting this letter, says that ’Sir Joshua’s influence in the Academy was not always answerable to his desire.  “Those who are of some importance everywhere else,” he said, “find themselves nobody when they come to the Academy."’ Northcote’s Reynolds, ii. 145.