'
He said, 'Dodsley first mentioned to me the scheme of an English
Dictionary; but I had long thought of it.' BOSWELL. 'You did not know
what you were undertaking.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, I knew very well what
I was undertaking,--and very well how to do it,--and have done it very
well.' BOSWELL. 'An excellent climax! and it HAS availed you. In your
Preface you say, "What would it avail me in this gloom of solitude?" You
have been agreeably mistaken.'
In his Life of Milton he observes, 'I cannot but remark a kind
of respect, perhaps unconsciously, paid to this great man by his
biographers: every house in which he resided is historically mentioned,
as if it were an injury to neglect naming any place that he honoured by
his presence.' I had, before I read this observation, been desirous of
shewing that respect to Johnson, by various inquiries. Finding him this
evening in a very good humour, I prevailed on him to give me an exact
list of his places of residence, since he entered the metropolis as an
authour, which I subjoin in a note.
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