JOHNSON. 'It was a noble
attempt.' BOSWELL. 'I wish we could have an authentick history of it.'
JOHNSON. 'If you were not an idle dog you might write it, by collecting
from every body what they can tell, and putting down your authorities.'
BOSWELL. 'But I could not have the advantage of it in my life-time.'
JOHNSON. 'You might have the satisfaction of its fame, by printing it in
Holland; and as to profit, consider how long it was before writing came
to be considered in a pecuniary view. Baretti says, he is the first man
that ever received copy-money in Italy.' I said that I would endeavour
to do what Dr. Johnson suggested and I thought that I might write so as
to venture to publish my History of the Civil War in Great-Britain in
1745 and 1746, without being obliged to go to a foreign press.
When we arrived at Derby, Dr. Butter accompanied us to see the
manufactory of china there. I admired the ingenuity and delicate art
with which a man fashioned clay into a cup, a saucer, or a tea-pot,
while a boy turned round a wheel to give the mass rotundity.
Pages:
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699