Boswell's life of Dr. Johnson when you come to read it, as you will be
sure to do by and by, has left a living picture of this great and good
man for all future generations to enjoy, extenuating nothing to his
quaintness, directness, and proneness to contradiction for its own sake,
yet unveiling everywhere the deep piety and fine magnanimity of his
character. He suffered much, but never complained, and certainly must
be numbered among the great men of letters who have found true
consolation and support in every circumstance of life in an earnest and
fervent faith.

Your loving old
G.P.



12


MY DEAR ANTONY,

Edmund Burke was born in 1730, and therefore was twenty-one years
younger than Dr. Johnson, and he survived him thirteen years. He was
a great prose writer, and although some of his speeches in Parliament
that have come down to us possess every quality of solid argument and
lofty eloquence, there must have been something lacking in his delivery
and voice, for he so frequently failed to rivet the attention of the
House, and so often addressed a steadily dwindling audience, that the
wits christened him "the dinner bell."

All men of letters, however, acknowledge Burke as a true master of a