[1034] Lord Mahon (War of the Succession in Spain, Appendix, p. 131) proves that a Captain Carleton really served.  ‘It is not impossible,’ he says, ’that the MS. may have been intrusted to De Foe for the purpose of correction or revision...The Memoirs are most strongly marked with internal proofs of authenticity.’  Lockhart (Life of Scott, iii. 84) says:—­’It seems to be now pretty generally believed that Carleton’s Memoirs were among the numberless fabrications of De Foe; but in this case (if the fact indeed be so), as in that of his Cavalier, he no doubt had before him the rude journal of some officer.’  Dr. Burton (Reign of Queen Anne ii. 173) says that MSS. in the British Museum disprove ‘the possibility of De Foe’s authorship.’

[1035] Lord Chesterfield (Letters, ii. 109) writing to his son on Nov. 29, 1748, says of Mr. Eliot:—­’Imitate that application of his, which has made him know all thoroughly, and to the bottom.  He does not content himself with the surface of knowledge; but works in the mine for it, knowing that it lies deep.’

[1036] The Houghton Collection was sold in 1779 by the third Earl of Orford, to the Empress of Russia for L40,555. (Walpole’s Letters, vii. 227, note 1.)

Horace Walpole wrote on Aug. 4 of that year (ib. p. 235):—­’Well! adieu to Houghton! about its mad master I shall never trouble myself more.  From the moment he came into possession, he has undermined every act of my father that was within his reach, but, having none of that great man’s sense or virtues, he could only lay wild hands on lands and houses; and since he has stript Houghton of its glory, I do not care a straw what he does with the stone or the acres.’

[1037] This museum at Alkerington near Manchester is described in the Gent.  Mag. 1773, p.219.  A proposal was made in Parliament to buy it for the British Museum. Ib. 1783, p. 919.  On July 8, 1784, a bill enabling Lever to dispose of it by lottery passed the House of Commons. Ib. 1784, p.705.

[1038] Johnson defines intuition as sight of anything; immediate knowledge; and sagacity as quickness of scent; acuteness of discovery.

[1039] In the first edition it stands ‘A gentleman’ and below instead of Mr. ——­, Mr. ——.  In the second edition Mr. ——­ becomes Mr. ——.  In the third edition young is added.  Young Mr. Burke is probably meant.  As it stood in the second edition it might have been thought that Edmund Burke was the gentleman; the more so as Johnson often denied his want of wit.

[1040] Hamlet, act i. sc. 2.

[1041] See ante, i. 372, note 1.