[530] The passage to which Johnson alluded is to be found (I conjecture) in the Phoenissae, I. 1120. J. BOSWELL, JUN.
[531] Boswell (Letters, p. 324), on June 21, 1790, described to Temple the insults of that 'brutal fellow,' Lord Lonsdale, and continued:—'In my fretfulness I used such expressions as irritated him almost to fury, so that he used such expressions towards me that I should have, according to the irrational laws of honour sanctioned by the world, been under the necessity of risking my life, had not an explanation taken place.' Boswell's eldest son, Sir Alexander Boswell, lost his life in a duel.
[532] Johnson might have quoted the lieutenant in Tom Jones, Book vii. chap. 13. 'My dear boy, be a good Christian as long as you live: but be a man of honour too, and never put up an affront; not all the books, nor all the parsons in the world, shall ever persuade me to that. I love my religion very well, but I love my honour more. There must be some mistake in the wording of the text, or in the translation, or in the understanding it, or somewhere or other. But however that be, a man must run the risk, for he must preserve his honour.' See post, April 19, 1773, and April 20, 1783, and Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 19, 1773.
[533] Oglethorpe was born in 1698. In 1714 he entered the army. Prince Eugene's campaigns against the Turks in which Oglethorpe served were in 1716-17. Rose's Biog. Dict. vii. 266 and x. 381. He was not therefore quite so young as Boswell thought.
[534] In the first two editions Bender. Belgrade was taken by Eugene in 1717.
[535] 'Idem velle atque idem nolle ea demum firma amicitia est.' Sallust, Catilina, xx. 4.
[536] More than one conjecture has been hazarded as to the passage to which Johnson referred. I believe that he was thinking of the lines—
'Et variis albae junguntur saepe columbae;
Et niger a viridi turtur amatur ave.'
Sappho to Phaon, line 37.
'Turtles and doves of differing hues unite,
And glossy jet is paired with shining white.' (POPE.)