'How when competitors like these contend,
Can surly virtue hope to fix a friend.'
[199] See ante, ii. 154.
[200] Johnson had said much the same at a dinner in Edinburgh. See Boswell's Hebrides, Nov. 10, 1773. See ante, March 15, 1776, and post, Sept. 21, 1777.
[201] 'To convince any man against his will is hard, but to please him against his will is justly pronounced by Dryden to be above the reach of human abilities.' The Rambler, No. 93.
[202] Foote told me that Johnson said of him, 'For loud obstreperous broadfaced mirth, I know not his equal.' BOSWELL.
[203] In Farquhar's Beaux-Stratagem, Scrub thus describes his duties: —'Of a Monday I drive the coach, of a Tuesday I drive the plough, on Wednesday I follow the hounds, a Thursday I dun the tenants, on Friday I go to market, on Saturday I draw warrants, and a Sunday I draw beer.' Act iii. sc. 3.
[204] See ante, i. 393, note 1.
[205] See post, April 10, 1778, and April 24, 1779.
[206] See ante, i. 216, note 2.
[207] See ante, March 20, 1776, and Boswell's Hebrides, Sept. 22.