[753] Edmund Burke he called Mund; Dodsley, Doddy; Derrick, Derry; Cumberland, Cumbey; Monboddo, Monny; Stockdale, Stockey. Mrs. Piozzi represents him in his youth as calling Edmund Hector 'dear Mund.' Ante, i. 93, note. Sheridan's father had been known as Sherry among Swift and his friends. Swift's Works, ed. 1803, x. 256.
[754] Mr. Forster (Life of Goldsmith, ii. 103) on this remarks:—'It was a courteous way of saying, "I wish you [Davies] wouldn't call me Goldy, whatever Mr. Johnson does."' That he is wrong in this is shown by Boswell, in his letter to Johnson of Feb. 14, 1777, where he says:—'You remember poor Goldsmith, when he grew important, and wished to appear Doctor Major, could not bear your calling him Goldy.' See also Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 14, 1773.
[755] The Reverend Thomas Bagshaw, M.A., who died on November 20, 1787, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, Chaplain of Bromley College, in Kent, and Rector of Southfleet. He had resigned the cure of Bromley Parish some time before his death. For this, and another letter from Dr. Johnson in 1784, to the same truely respectable man, I am indebted to Dr. John Loveday, of the Commons [ante, i. 462, note 1], a son of the late learned and pious John Loveday, Esq., of Caversham in Berkshire, who obligingly transcribed them for me from the originals in his possession. This worthy gentleman, having retired from business, now lives in Warwickshire. The world has been lately obliged to him as the Editor of the late Rev. Dr. Townson's excellent work, modestly entitled, A Discourse on the Evangelical History, from the Interment to the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; to which is prefixed, a truly interesting and pleasing account of the authour, by the Reverend Mr. Ralph Churton. BOSWELL.
[756] Sunday was May 9.
[757] As Langton was found to deeply resent Johnson's hasty expression at the dinner on the 7th, we must assume that he had invited Johnson to dine with him before the offence had been given.
[758] In the Dictionary Johnson, as the second definition of metaphysical, says: 'In Shakespeare it means supernatural or preternatural.' 'Creation' being beyond the nature of man, the right derived from it is preternatural or metaphysical.
[759] See ante, i. 437.
[760] Hume, on Feb. 24 of this year, mentioned to Adam Smith as a late publication Lord Monboddo's Origin and Progress of Language:—'It contains all the absurdity and malignity which I suspected; but is writ with more ingenuity and in a better style than I looked for.' J. H. Burton's Hume, ii. 466. See ante, ii. 74.
[761] Monday was May 10.
[762] See ante, i. 413. Percy wrote of Goldsmith's envy:—'Whatever appeared of this kind was a mere momentary sensation, which he knew not how, like other men, to conceal.' Goldsmith's Misc. Works, i. 117.