18 30–32. brilliancy ... eloquence ... humour. Johnson wrote many of these discourses so hastily, says Boswell, that he did not even read them over before they were printed. Boswell continues: "Sir Joshua Reynolds once asked him by what means he had attained his extraordinary accuracy and flow of language. He told him, that he had early laid it down as a fixed rule to do his best on every occasion, and in every company: to impart whatever he knew in the most forcible language he could put it in; and that by constant practice, and never suffering any careless expressions to escape him, or attempting to deliver his thoughts without arranging them in the clearest manner, it became habitual to him." One man who knew Johnson intimately observed "that he always talked as if he was talking upon oath."
18 32–19 10. Cf. Johnson's comment: "Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison."—Boswell, 1750.
19 1–2. Sir Roger, etc. These two sets of allusions offer a good excuse for handling complete editions of the Spectator and the Rambler.
19 21. the Gunnings. "The beautiful Misses Gunning," two sisters, were born in Ireland. They went to London in 1751, were continually followed by crowds, and were called "the handsomest women alive."—Lady Mary. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Let one of the encyclopædias introduce you to this relative of Fielding who laughed at Pope when he made love to her, and whose wit had full play in the brilliant letters from Constantinople which added greatly to her reputation as an independent thinker.
19 23–24. the Monthly Review. This Whig periodical would not appeal to Johnson as did its rival, the Critical Review. It was the Monthly that Goldsmith did hack work for. Smollett wrote for the other. See Irving's Life of Goldsmith, Chapter VII.
19 31. It was published in 1755, price £4 10s., bound.
20 17. The letter, which needs no comment, is as follows:
February 7, 1755.
To the Right Honourable the Earl of Chesterfield.
My Lord,