' Johnson, in a
tone of displeasure, asked him, 'Why do you praise Anson?' I did not
trouble him by asking his reason for this question. He proceeded, 'Here
is an errour, Sir; you have made Genius feminine.' 'Palpable, Sir;
(cried the enthusiast,) I know it. But (in a lower tone,) it was to
pay a compliment to the Duchess of Devonshire, with which her Grace was
pleased. She is walking across Coxheath, in the military uniform, and I
suppose her to be the Genius of Britain.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, you are giving
a reason for it; but that will not make it right. You may have a reason
why two and two should make five; but they will still make but four.'
Although I was several times with him in the course of the following
days, such it seems were my occupations, or such my negligence, that I
have preserved no memorial of his conversation till Friday, March 26,
when I visited him. He said he expected to be attacked on account of his
Lives of the Poets. 'However (said he,) I would rather be attacked than
unnoticed.
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