[1037] This museum at Alkerington near Manchester is described in the Gent. Mag. 1773, p.219. A proposal was made in Parliament to buy it for the British Museum. Ib. 1783, p. 919. On July 8, 1784, a bill enabling Lever to dispose of it by lottery passed the House of Commons. Ib. 1784, p.705.
[1038] Johnson defines intuition as sight of anything; immediate knowledge; and sagacity as quickness of scent; acuteness of discovery.
[1039] In the first edition it stands 'A gentleman' and below instead of Mr. ——, Mr. ——. In the second edition Mr. —— becomes Mr. ——. In the third edition young is added. Young Mr. Burke is probably meant. As it stood in the second edition it might have been thought that Edmund Burke was the gentleman; the more so as Johnson often denied his want of wit.
[1040] Hamlet, act i. sc. 2.
[1041] See ante, i. 372, note 1.
[1042] Windham says (Diary, p. 34) that when Dr. Brocklesby made this offer 'Johnson pressed his hands and said, "God bless you through Jesus Christ, but I will take no money but from my sovereign." This, if I mistake not, was told the King through West.' Dr. Brocklesby wrote to Burke, on July 2, 1788, to make him 'an instant present of £1000, which,' he continues, 'for years past, by will, I had destined as a testimony of my regard on my decease.' Burke, accepting the present, said:—'I shall never be ashamed to have it known, that I am obliged to one who never can be capable of converting his kindness into a burthen.' Burke's Corres. iii.78. See ante, p. 263, for the just praise bestowed by Johnson on physicians in his Life of Garth.
[1043] See ante, ii. 194.
[1044] Letters to Mrs. Thrale, vol. ii. p 375. BOSWELL.
[1045] Rogers (Table-Talk, p. 45) describes him as 'a very handsome, gentlemanly, and amiable person. Mme. D'Arblay tells how one evening at Dr. Burney's home, when Signor Piozzi was playing on the piano, 'Mrs. Thrale stealing on tip-toe behind him, ludicrously began imitating him. Dr. Burney whispered to her, "Because, Madam, you have no ear yourself for music, will you destroy the attention of all who in that one point are otherwise gifted?"' Mrs. Thrale took this rebuke very well. This was her first meeting with Piozzi. It was in Mr. Thrale's life-time. Memoirs of Dr. Burney, ii. 110.
[1046] Dr. Johnson's letter to Sir John Hawkins, Life, p. 570. BOSWELL. The last time Miss Burney saw Johnson, not three weeks before his death, he told her that the day before he had seen Miss Thrale. 'I then said:—"Do you ever, Sir, hear from mother?" "No," cried he, "nor write to her. I drive her quite from my mind. If I meet with one of her letters, I burn it instantly. I have burnt all I can find. I never speak of her, and I desire never to hear of her more. I drive her, as I said, wholly from my mind."' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 328.