Honest Catcot seemed to pay no attention whatever to any objections, but
insisted, as an end of all controversy, that we should go with him to
the tower of the church of St. Mary, Redcliff, and VIEW WITH OUR OWN
EYES the ancient chest in which the manuscripts were found. To this, Dr.
Johnson good-naturedly agreed; and though troubled with a shortness of
breathing, laboured up a long flight of steps, till we came to the place
where the wonderous chest stood. 'THERE, (said Cateot, with a bouncing
confident credulity,) THERE is the very chest itself.' After this
OCULAR DEMONSTRATION, there was no more to be said. He brought to my
recollection a Scotch Highlander, a man of learning too, and who had
seen the world, attesting, and at the same time giving his reasons for
the authenticity of Fingal:--'I have heard all that poem when I was
young.'--'Have you, Sir? Pray what have you heard?'--'I have heard
Ossian, Oscar, and EVERY ONE OF THEM.'
Johnson said of Chatterton, 'This is the most extraordinary young man
that has encountered my knowledge.
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