"Unjust objections commonly proceed from unreasonable expectation; writers are often censured for omitting what they never intended to perform."
The note, p 48:
"Though the design of these notes is rather to teach grammar than morality, yet, as I think nothing a deviation that can serve the cause of virtue," &c.,
and the excellent remarks, p. 198., on Machiavel's Life of Castruccio Castracani, have every internal evidence of Johnson's style, and were no doubt dictated by him to Baretti, for whom Johnson in the same year, 1755, endeavours to obtain the loan of Crescimbeni from Thomas Warton (Croker's Boswell, edit. 1848, p. 91.).
Nothing is more wanted than a good and complete edition of Johnson's Works, in which omissions similar to the above, of which I have a long list when required, may be supplied. His prefaces and dedications to the works of other writers are all models in their way, and not one of them ought to be lost.
JAS. CROSSLEY.
Minor Notes.
Bishop Bedell.
—This divine, to remind him of the need he had of being cleansed and purified in heart by the Spirit, chose an ingenious device, consisting of a flaming crucible, with a Hebrew motto, signifying, "Take from me all my tin," in allusion to Isaiah i. 25. The reason for selecting these particular words was, that the Hebrew word for tin is bedil.
CLERICUS (D.)