[1009] Mr. Croker says, 'no doubt Dr. Robertson;' see post, under June 16, 1784, where Johnson says much the same of 'an authour of considerable eminence.' In this case Mr. Croker says, 'probably Dr. Robertson.' I have little doubt that Dr. Beattie was there meant. He may be meant also here, for the description of the conversation does not agree with what we are told of Robertson. See ante, p. 335. note 1. Perhaps, however, Dr. Blair was the eminent author. It is in Boswell's manner to introduce the same person in consecutive paragraphs as if there were two persons.
[1010] See ante, ii. 256.
[1011] Chappe D'Auteroche writes:—'La douceur de sa physionomie et sa vivacité annonçaient plutôt quelque indiscrétion que l'ombre d'un crime. Tous ceux que j'ai consultés par la suite m'ont cependant assuré qu'elle était coupable.' Voyage en Sibérie, i. 227. Lord Kames says:—'Of whatever indiscretion she might have been guilty, the sweetness of her countenance and her composure left not in the spectators the slightest suspicion of guilt.' She was cruelly knouted, her tongue was cut out, and she was banished to Siberia. Kames's Sketches, i. 363.
[1012] Mr. Croker says:—'Here I think the censure is quite unjust. Lord Kames gives in the clearest terms the same explanation.' Kames made many corrections in the later editions. On turning to the first, I found, as I expected, that Johnson's censure was quite just. Kames says (i. 76):—'Whatever be the cause of high or low interest, I am certain that the quantity of circulating coin can have no influence. Supposing the half of our money to be withdrawn, a hundred pounds lent ought still to afford but five pounds as interest; because if the principal be doubled in value, so is also the interest.' This passage was struck out in later editions.
[1013] 'Johnson had an extraordinary admiration of this lady, notwithstanding she was a violent Whig. In answer to her high-flown speeches for Liberty, he addressed to her the following Epigram, of which I presume to offer a translation:—
'Liber ut esse velim suasiti pulchra Maria
Ut maneam liber pulchra Maria vale,'
Adieu, Maria! since you'd have me free;
For, who beholds thy charms a slave must be.
A correspondent of The Gentleman's Magazine, who subscribes himself SCIOLUS, to whom I am indebted for several excellent remarks, observes, 'The turn of Dr. Johnson's lines to Miss Aston, whose Whig principles he had been combating, appears to me to be taken from an ingenious epigram in the Menagiana [vol. iii. p. 376, edit. 1716] on a young lady who appeared at a masquerade, habillée en Jésuite, during the fierce contentions of the followers of Molinos and Jansenius concerning free-will:—
"On s'étonne ici que Caliste
Ait pris l'habit de Moliniste.
Puisque cette jeune beauté
Ote à chacun sa liberté,
N'est-ce pas une Janseniste?"
BOSWELL.
Johnson, in his Criticism upon Pope's Epitaphs (Works, viii. 355), quotes the opinion of a 'lady of great beauty and excellence.' She was, says Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 162), Molly Aston. Mrs. Piozzi, in her Letters (ii. 383), writes:—'Nobody has ever mentioned what became of Miss Aston's letters, though he once told me they should be the last papers he would destroy.' See ante, i. 83.