[861] In April 1784 she records (ib. i. 319) that she called on Johnson shortly after she wrote Le Bas Bleu. 'As to it,' she continues, 'all the flattery I ever received from everybody together would not make up his sum. He said there was no name in poetry that might not be glad to own it. All this from Johnson, that parsimonious praiser!' He wrote of it to Mrs. Thrale on April 19, 1784:—'It is in my opinion a very great performance.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 364. Dr. Beattie wrote on July 31, 1784:—'Johnson told me with great solemnity that Miss More was "the most powerful versificatrix" in the English language.' Forbes's Beattie, ed. 1824, p. 320.
[862] See Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 18.
[863] The ancestor of Mr. Murray of Albemarle Street.
[864] See A Letter to W. Mason, A.M. from J. Murray, Bookseller in London; 2d edition, p. 20. BOSWELL.
[865] 'The righteous hath hope in his death.' Proverbs, xiv. 32.
[866] See post, June 12, 1784.
[867] Johnson, in The Convict's Address (ante, p. 141), makes Dodd say:—'Possibly it may please God to afford us some consolation, some secret intimations of acceptance and forgiveness. But these radiations of favour are not always felt by the sincerest penitents. To the greater part of those whom angels stand ready to receive, nothing is granted in this world beyond rational hope; and with hope, founded on promise, we may well be satisfied.'
[868] 'I do not find anything able to reconcile us to death but extreme pain, shame or despair; for poverty, imprisonment, ill fortune, grief, sickness and old age do generally fail.' Swift's Works, ed. 1803, xiv. 178.
[869] 'I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.' 2 Timothy, iv. 7 and 8.
[870] See ante, p. 154.