heir Infants had no need of Christ, of Baptism, or of Renewing by the
Holy Ghost. And I asked them whether they durst say that their Children
were saved without a Saviour, and were no Christians, and why they
baptized them, with much more to that purpose, and afterwards they
were ashamed and as mute as fishes.'

_Johnson on an actor's transformation_.

(Vol. iv, p. 244.)

Boswell in his _Remarks on the Profession of a Player_ (Essay ii),
first printed in the _London Magazine_ for 1770, says:--

'I remember to have heard the most illustrious authour of this age say:
"If, Sir, Garrick believes himself to be every character that he
represents he is a madman, and ought to be confined. Nay, Sir, he is a
villain, and ought to be hanged. If, for instance, he believes himself
to be Macbeth he has committed murder, he is a vile assassin who, in
violation of the laws of hospitality as well as of other principles,
has imbrued his hands in the blood of his King while he was sleeping
under his roof. If, Sir, he has really been that person in his own mind,
he has in his own mind been as guilty as Macbeth."
'--Nichols's _Literary History_, ed. 1848, vii. 373.

_Sir John Flayer 'On the Asthma_.'

(Vol. iv, p. 353.)

Johnson, writing from Ashbourne to Dr. Brocklesby on July 20, 1784, says:
'I am now looking into Floyer who lived with his asthma to almost his
ninetieth year.' Mr. Samuel Timmins, the author of _Dr. Johnson in
Birmingham_, informs me that he and two friends of his lately found
in Lichfield a Lending Book of the Cathedral Library. Among the entries
for 1784 was: '_Sir John Floyer on the Asthma_, lent to Dr. Johnson.'
Johnson, no doubt, had taken the book with him to Ashbourne.

Mr. Timmins says that the entries in this Lending Book unfortunately
do not begin till about 1760 (or later). 'If,' he adds, 'the earlier
Lending Book could be found, it would form a valuable clue to books
which Johnson may have borrowed in his youth and early manhood.'

_Boswell's expectations from Burke_.

(Vol. iv, p. 223, n. 2; and p. 258, n. 2.)

Boswell, in May 1783, mentioned to Johnson his 'expectations from the
interest of an eminent person then in power.' The two following extracts
from letters written by him show what some of these expectations had been.

'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. TO JAMES ABERCROMBIE, ESQ., of Philadelphia.
'July 28,1793.

'I have a great wish to see America; and I once flattered myself that
I shoul