English pulpit eloquence.
(Vol. iii, p. 248.)
'Upon the whole, which is preferable, the philosophic method of the English, or the rhetoric of the French preachers? The first (though less glorious) is certainly safer for the preacher. It is difficult for a man to make himself ridiculous, who proposes only to deliver plain sense on a subject he has thoroughly studied. But the instant he discovers the least pretensions towards the sublime or the pathetic, there is no medium; we must either admire or laugh; and there are so many various talents requisite to form the character of an orator that it is more than probable we shall laugh.' —Memoirs of Edward Gibbon, ed. 1827, i. 118.
Bishop Percy's communications to Boswell relative to Johnson.
(Vol. iii, p. 278, n. 1.)
'JAMES BOSWELL TO BISHOP PERCY.
"9 April, 1790.
"As to suppressing your Lordship's name when relating the very few anecdotes of Johnson with which you have favoured me, I will do anything to oblige your Lordship but that very thing. I owe to the authenticity of my work, to its respectability, and to the credit of my illustrious friends [? friend] to introduce as many names of eminent persons as I can… Believe me, my Lord, you are not the only bishop in the number of great men with which my pages are graced. I am quite resolute as to this matter." '—Nichols's Literary History, vii. 313.
Sir Thomas Brown's remark 'Do the devils lie? No; for then Hell could not subsist.'
(Vol. iii, p. 293.)