'
* I think it necessary to caution my readers against
concluding that in this or any other conversation of Dr.
Johnson, they have his serious and deliberate opinion on the
subject of duelling. In my Journal of a Tour to the
Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 386 [p. 366, Oct. 24], it appears
that he made this frank confession:--'Nobody at times, talks
more laxly than I do;' and, ib., p. 231 [Sept. 19, 1773],
'He fairly owned he could not explain the rationality of
duelling.' We may, therefore, infer, that he could not
think that justifiable, which seems so inconsistent with the
spirit of the Gospel.--BOSWELL.
Upon being told that old Mr. Sheridan, indignant at the neglect of his
oratorical plans, had threatened to go to America; JOHNSON. 'I hope
he will go to America.' BOSWELL. 'The Americans don't want oratory.'
JOHNSON. 'But we can want Sheridan.'
On Monday, April 29, I found him at home in the forenoon, and Mr. Seward
with him.
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