written:—­’It would have suited the purpose better, if nobody had heard of it, except Dr. Johnson, you and J. Boswell.’ Boswell has been erased—­’artfully’ too, says—­Mr. Croker-so that ‘the sentence appears to run, “except Dr. Johnson, you, and I."’ Mr. Croker, with his usual suspiciousness, suspects ‘an uncandid trick.’  But it is very likely that Thurlow himself made the obliteration, regardless of grammar.  He might easily have thought that it would have been better still had Boswell not been in the secret.

[1083] See ante, iii. 176.

[1084] On June 11 Boswell and Johnson were together (ante, p. 293).  The date perhaps should be July 11.  The letter that follows next is dated July 12.

[1085] ‘Even in our flight from vice some virtue lies.’  FRANCIS.  Horace, i. Epistles, I. 41.

[1086] See vol. ii. p. 258.  BOSWELL.

[1087] Mrs. Johnson died in 1752.  See ante, i. 241, note 2.

[1088] See Appendix.

[1089] Printed in his Works [i. 150].  BOSWELL.  See ante, i. 241, note 2.

[1090] He wrote to Mr. Ryland on the same day:—­’Be pleased to let the whole be done with privacy that I may elude the vigilance of the papers.’ Notes and Queries, 5th S. vii. 381.

[1091] Boileau, Art Poetique, chant iv.

[1092] This is probably an errour either of the transcript or the press. Removes seems to be the word intended.  MALONE.

[1093] See ante, i. 332, and post p. 360.

[1094] See ante, p. 267.

[1095] I have heard Dr. Johnson protest that he never had quite as much as he wished of wall-fruit, except once in his life.’  Piozzi’s Anec. p. 103.

[1096] At the Essex Head, Essex-street.  BOSWELL.

[1097] Juvenal, Satires, x. 8:—­

     ‘Fate wings with every wish the afflictive dart.’

Vanity of Human Wishes, l. 15.

[1098] Mr. Allen, the printer.  BOSWELL.  See ante, iii. 141, 269.

[1099] It was on this day that he wrote the prayer given below (p. 370) in which is found that striking line—­’this world where much is to be done and little to be known.’

[1100] His letter to Dr. Heberden (Croker’s Boswell, p. 789) shews that he had gone with Dr. Brocklesby to the last Academy dinner, when, as he boasted, ’he went up all the stairs to the pictures without stopping to rest or to breathe.’ Ante, p. 270, note 2.

[1101]

     Quid te exempta levat spinis de pluribus una? 
     ’Pluck out one thorn to mitigate thy pain,
     What boots it while so many more remain?’

FRANCIS.  Horace, 2 Epistles, ii. 212.

[1102] See ante, iii. 4, note 2.

[1103] Sir Joshua’s physician.  He is mentioned by Goldsmith in his verses to the Miss Hornecks.  Forster’s Goldsmith, ii. 149.