fifteen years.

Recently, however, evidence has turned up which makes the attribution
a certainty. It is now obvious that Northcote must have been mistaken
in the source of his quotations. Writing as he did many years after
the events he was describing, Northcote either had found a copy of
the first draft of Miss Reynolds' essay, or erroneously quoted from
another anonymous piece which he assumed was by Miss Reynolds. In any
event he was not quoting from the final version which she wished the
world to see.

The story of Miss Reynolds' attempts to publish her essay can at
last be pieced together from various bits of evidence, some hitherto
unpublished. Just when the essay was written is uncertain. All that
we know is that a preliminary version was submitted to the rigorous
criticism of Dr. Johnson in 1781. Johnson, who had corrected some of
her verses in red ink the year before, commented on 21 July 1781:

There is in these such force of comprehension, and such nicety
of observation as Locke or Pascal might be proud of. This I
say with intention to have you think that I speak my opinion.

They cannot however be printed in their present state. Many
of your notions seem not very clear in your own mind, many are
not sufficiently developed and expanded for the common reader;
the expression almost every where wants to be made clearer and
smoother. You may by revisal and improvement make it a very
elegant and curious work.[1]

But Miss Reynolds was not easily discouraged, and Johnson wrote again