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The labour and anxious attention with which I have collected and arranged the materials of which these volumes are composed, will hardly be conceived by those who read them with careless facility.[1] The stretch of mind and prompt assiduity by which so many conversations were preserved[2] I myself, at
- ↑ You cannot imagine what labour, what perplexity, what vexation I have endured in arranging a prodigious multiplicity of materials, in supplying omissions, in searching for paper. buried in different masses, and all this besides the exertion of composing and polishing: many a time have I thought of giving it up.' letters of Boswell, p. 311
- ↑ Boswell writing to Temple in 1775, says:—"I try to keep a journal, and shall shew you that I have done tolerably; but it is hardly credible what ground I go over, and what a variety of men and manners I contemplate in a day; and all the time I myself am Pars magna, for my exuberant spirits will not let me listen enough.' lb. p. 188. Mr. Barclay, said that 'he had seen Boswell lay down his knife and fork, and take out his tablets, in order to register a good anecdote.' Crokcr's Boswell. p. 837. The account given by Paoli to Miss Burney. shows that very early in life Boswell took out his tablets:—'He came to my country, and he fetched me some letter of recommending him: but I was of the belief he might be an impostor, and I supposed in my minte he was an espy; for I look away from him, and in a moment I took to him again, and I behold his tablets. Oh! he was to the work of writing down all I say. Indeed I was angry. But soon I discover he was no impostor and no espy: and I only find I was myself the monster he had come to discern. Oh! he is a very good man; I love him indeed; so cheerful, so gay. so pleasant! but at the first, oh! I was indeed angry.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 155. Boswell not only recorded the conversations, he often stimulated them. On one occasion 'he assumed,' he said, 'an air of ignorance to incite Dr. Johnson to talk, for which it was often necessary to employ some address.' See post, April 12. 1776. 'Tom Tyers.' said Johnson, 'described me the best. He once said to me, "Sir. you are like a ghost: you never speak till you are spoken to."' Boswell's Hebrides. Aug. 20. 1773. Boswell writing
written a line for a fortnight.' p. 266. 'Nov. 28, 1789. Malone's hospitality, and my other invitations, and particularly my attendance at Lord Lonsdale's, have lost us many evenings.' lb. p. 311. 'June 21. l790. How unfortunate to be obliged to interrupt my work! Never was a poor ambitious projector more mortified. I am suffering without any prospect of reward, and only from my own folly.' lb. p. 326.
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