ADVERTISEMENT
TO THE
FIRST EDITION.
I AT last deliver to the world a Work which I have long promised, and of which, I am afraid, too high expectations have been raised[1].' The delay of its publication must be imputed, in a considerable degree, to the extraordinary seal which has been shewn by distinguished persons in all quarters to supply me with additional information concerning its illustrious subject; resembling in this the grateful tribes of ancient nations, of which every individual was eager to throw a stone upon the grave of a departed Hero, and thus to share in the pious office of erecting an honourable monument to his memory.[2]
- ↑ How much delighted would Boswell have been, had he been shewn the following passage, recorded by Miss Burney, in an account she gives of a conversation with the Queen:—The Queen:—'Miss Burney, have you heard that Boswell is going to publish a life of your friend Dr. Johnson?' 'No, ma'am!' 'I tell you as I heard, I don't know for the truth of it, and I can't tell what he will do. He is so extraordinary a man that perhaps he will devise something extraordinary.' Mme. D'Arblays Diary, ii. 400. 'Dr. Johnson's history,' wrote Horace Walpole. on June 20, 1785, 'though he is going to have as many lives as a cat, might be reduced to four lines; but I shall wait to extract the quintessence till Sir John Hawkins, Madame Piozzi, and Mr. Boswell have produced their quartos.' Horace Walpole's Letters, viii. 557.
- ↑ The delay was in part due to Boswell's dissipation and place-hunting, as is shewn by the following passages in his Letters to Temple:— Feb. 24, 1788, I have been wretchedly dissipated, so that I have not
The
