[996] Addison's Cato, act i. sc. 4.

[997] Johnson, reviewing the Duchess of Marlborough's attack on Queen Mary, says (Works, vi. 8):—'This is a character so different from all those that have been hitherto given of this celebrated princess, that the reader stands in suspense, till he considers that … it has hitherto had this great advantage, that it has only been compared with those of kings.'

[998] Johnson had explained how it comes to pass that Englishmen talk so commonly of the weather. He continues:—'Such is the reason of our practice; and who shall treat it with contempt? Surely not the attendant on a court, whose business is to watch the looks of a being weak and foolish as himself, and whose vanity is to recount the names of men, who might drop into nothing, and leave no vacuity…. The weather is a nobler and more interesting subject; it is the present state of the skies and of the earth, on which plenty and famine are suspended, on which millions depend for the necessaries of life.' 'Garrick complained that when he went to read before the court, not a look or a murmur testified approbation; there was a profound stillness—every one only watched to see what the king thought.' Hazlitt's Conversations of Northcote, p. 262.

[999] The Idler, No. 90. See post, April 3, 1773, where he declaims against action in public speaking.

[1000] He now and then repeats himself. Thus, in The Idler, No. 37, he moralises on the story, how Socrates, passing through the fair at Athens, cried out:—'How many things are here which I do not need!' though he had already moralised on it in the Adventurer, Nos. 67, 119.

[1001] No. 34.

[1002] Poems on Several Occasions, by Thomas Blacklock, p. 179. See post, Aug. 5, 1763, and Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 17, 1773.

[1003] 'Among the papers of Newbery, in the possession of Mr. Murray, is the account rendered on the collection of The Idler into two small volumes, when the arrangement seems to have been that Johnson should receive two-thirds of the profits.

The Idler.

'DR. £. s. d.
Paid for Advertising.. 20 0 6
Printing two vols., 1,500 41 13 0
Paper. . . . . . . 52 3 0
* * * * *
£113 16 6
Profit on the edition . 126 3 6
* * * * *
£240 0 0
* * * * *
'CR. £. s. d.
1,500 Sets at 16£ per 100 240 0 0
* * * * *
Dr. Johnson two-thirds 84 2 4
Mr. Newbery one-third. 42 1 2
* * * * *
£126 3 6
* * * * *