[708] My ingenuously relating this occasional instance of intemperance has I find been made the subject both of serious criticism and ludicrous banter. With the banterers I shall not trouble myself, but I wonder that those who pretend to the appellation of serious criticks should not have had sagacity enough to perceive that here, as in every other part of the present work, my principal object was to delineate Dr. Johnson's manners and character. In justice to him I would not omit an anecdote, which, though in some degree to my own disadvantage, exhibits in so strong a light the indulgence and good humour with which he could treat those excesses in his friends, of which he highly disapproved.
In some other instances, the criticks have been equally wrong as to the true motive of my recording particulars, the objections to which I saw as clearly as they. But it would be an endless task for an authour to point out upon every occasion the precise object he has in view, Contenting himself with the approbation of readers of discernment and taste, he ought not to complain that some are found who cannot or will not understand him. BOSWELL.
[709] In the original, 'wherein is excess.'
[710] See Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, i. 231.
[711] See ante, iii. 383.
[712] see ante, p. 184.
[713] See ante, ii. 120, where he took upon his knee a young woman who came to consult him on the subject of Methodism.
[714] See ante, pp. 215, 246.
[715] See ante, iv. 176.