"What might not he have done, who wrote 'Rasselas' in the evenings of
eight days to get money enough for his mother's funeral expenses? As
it is, what has Johnson done? Is it nothing to be the first intellect
of 'an age'? and who seriously talks even of Burke as having been more
than a clever boy in the presence of old Samuel?"]
[Footnote 7: George Anson Byron, R. N., afterwards Lord Byron.]
[Footnote 8: Scott has this additional note on Lewis:
"Nothing was more tiresome than Lewis when he began to harp upon any
extravagant proposition. He would tinker at it for hours without
mercy, and repeat the same thing in four hundred different ways. If
you assented in despair, he resumed his reasoning in triumph, and you
had only for your pains the disgrace of giving in. If you disputed,
daylight and candle-light could not bring the discussion to an end,
and Mat's arguments were always 'ditto repeated'."]
[Footnote 9: Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron.]
* * * * *
Wednesday, December 1, 1813.
To-day responded to La Baronne de Stael Holstein, and sent to Leigh Hunt
(an acquisition to my acquaintance--through Moore--of last summer) a
copy of the two Turkish tales. Hunt is an extraordinary character, and
not exactly of the present age. He reminds me more of the Pym and
Hampden times--much talent, great independence of spirit, and an
austere, yet not repulsive, aspect.
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