[678] William Hunter, scarcely less famous as a physician than his youngest brother, John Hunter, as a surgeon.

[679] Let it be remembered by those who accuse Dr. Johnson of illiberality that both were Scotchmen.  BOSWELL.

[680] The following day he dined at Mrs. Garrick’s.  ‘Poor Johnson,’ wrote Hannah More (Memoirs, i. 280), ’exerted himself exceedingly, but he was very ill and looked so dreadfully, that it quite grieved me.  He is more mild and complacent than he used to be.  His sickness seems to have softened his mind, without having at all weakened it.  I was struck with the mild radiance of this setting sun.’

[681] In the winter of 1788-9 Boswell began a canvass of his own county, He also courted Lord Lonsdale, in the hope of getting one of the seats in his gift, who first fooled him and then treated him with great brutality, Letters of Boswell, pp. 270, 294, 324.

[682] On April 6, 1780—­’a day,’ wrote Horace Walpole (Letters, vii. 345), ’that ought for ever to be a red-lettered day’—­Mr. Dunning made this motion.  It was carried by 233 to 215. Parl.  Hist. xxi. 340-367.

[683] See ante, i. 355, and ii. 94 for Johnson’s appeal to meals as a measure of vexation.

[684] Johnson defines cant as ’1.  A corrupt dialect used by beggars and vagabonds. 2.  A particular form of speaking peculiar to some certain class or body of men. 3.  A whining pretension to goodness in formal and affected terms. 4.  Barbarous jargon. 5.  Auction.’  I have noted the following instances of his use of the word:—­’I betook myself to a coffee-house frequented by wits, among whom I learned in a short time the cant of criticism.’ The Rambler, No.123.  ’Every class of society has its cant of lamentation.’ Ib.  No.128.  ’Milton’s invention required no assistance from the common cant of poetry.’ Ib.  No.140.  ’We shall secure our language from being overrun with cant, from being crowded with low terms, the spawn of folly or affectation.’ Works, v.  II.  ’This fugitive cant, which is always in a state of increase or decay, cannot be regarded as any part of the durable materials of a language.’ Ib. p.45.  In a note on I Henry VI, act iii. sc.1, he says:  ’To roam is supposed to be derived from the cant of vagabonds, who often pretended a pilgrimage to Rome.’  See ante, iii. 197, for ‘modern cant.’

[685] ‘Custom,’ wrote Sir Joshua, ’or politeness, or courtly manners has authorised such an eastern hyperbolical style of compliment, that part of Dr. Johnson’s character for rudeness of manners must be put to the account of scrupulous adherence to truth.  His obstinate silence, whilst all the company were in raptures, vying with each other who should pepper highest, was considered as rudeness or ill-nature.’  Taylor’s Reynolds, ii. 458.