I received your foolish and impudent letter. Any violence offered me I shall do my best to repel; and what I cannot do for myself, the law shall do for me. I hope I shall not be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian.
What would you have me retract? I thought your book an imposture; I think it an imposture still. For this opinion I have given my reasons to the publick, which I here dare you to refute. Your rage I defy. Your abilities, since your Homer, are not so formidable; and what I hear of your morals, inclines me to pay regard not to what you shall say, but to what you shall prove. You may print this if you will.
Sam. Johnson.
35 11–12. The Kenricks, Campbells, MacNicols, and Hendersons. If Johnson and Macaulay do not tell enough about these men, Boswell does.
35 30. Bentley. Richard Bentley (1662–1742), a well-known English classical scholar and critic.
36 13. Taxation no Tyranny. The rest of the title is An Answer to the Resolutions and Address of the American Congress.
37 6. Wilson. Richard Wilson was one of the greatest English landscape painters, says The Dictionary of National Biography.
37 14. Cowley. The man who wrote
God the first garden made, and the first city Cain.
37 18. Restoration. The International Dictionary offers a brief explanation in case you are not absolutely certain of the exact meaning.