[192] My respectable friend, upon reading this passage, observed, that he probably must have said not simply, 'strong facts,' but 'strong facts well arranged.' His lordship, however, knows too well the value of written documents to insist on setting his recollection against my notes taken at the time. He does not attempt to traverse the record. The fact, perhaps, may have been, either that the additional words escaped me in the noise of a numerous company, or that Dr. Johnson, from his impetuosity, and eagerness to seize an opportunity to make a lively retort, did not allow Dr. Douglas to finish his sentence. BOSWELL.
[193] 'It is boasted that between November [1712] and January, eleven thousand [of The Conduct of the Allies] were sold…. Yet surely whoever surveys this wonder-working pamphlet with cool perusal, will confess that it's efficacy was supplied by the passions of its readers; that it operates by the mere weight of facts, with very little assistance from the hand that produced them.' Johnson's Works, viii. 203.
[194] 'Every great man, of whatever kind be his greatness, has among his friends those who officiously or insidiously quicken his attention to offences, heighten his disgust, and stimulate his resentment.' Ib viii 266.
[195] See the hard drawing of him in Churchill's Rosciad. BOSWELL. See ante, i. 391, note 2.
[196] For talk, see post, under March 30 1783.
[197] See post, Oct. 6, 1769, and May 8, 1778, where Johnson tosses Boswell.
[198] See post, Sept. 22, 1777, and Boswell's Hebrides, Nov. i, 1773.
[199] See post, Nov. 27, 1773, note, April 7, 1775, and under May 8, 1781.
[200] He wrote the character of Mr. Mudge. See post, under March 20, 1781.
[201] 'Sept. 18, 1769. This day completes the sixtieth year of my age…. The last year has been wholly spent in a slow progress of recovery.' Pr. and Med. p. 85.