It was absurd of him, no doubt, to say, "Am I not fortunate in having
something about me that interests most people at first sight in my
favour?" but it seems to have been near the truth. "I am really the
great man now. I have had David Hume in the forenoon, and Mr. Johnson in
the afternoon." These great men were interested somehow, and so, one
must suppose, was Miss Silverton:

"There is a Miss Silverton in the Fly with me, an amiable creature,
who has been in France. I can unite little fondnesses with perfect
conjugal love."

There was, too, "an agreeable young widow" who, also in a fly, "nursed
me, and supported my lame foot on her knee."

Boswell's life in Edinburgh was not happy; he hated the rough society of
Scotch lawyers, and quarrelled with his father, the Laird of Auchinleck,
who seems to have been a tiresome, disagreeable old man. The Laird died
in 1782, and seven years later Boswell lost his "valuable wife." His
story becomes melancholy: money troubles and family perplexities beset
him (he was left with five children); and it may be that what once made
him odd, aggravated by his breaking health, now made him gloomy. After
his wife's death he came to London for good. Already he had taken a
house in Queen Anne Street, and here he worked hard at "The Life,"
comforted a little by his assurance that it would be a masterpiece:

"I am absolutely certain that my mode of biography, which gives not
only a _History_ of Johnson's _visible_ progress through the world,
and of his publications, but a _view_ of his mind in his letters
and conversations, is the most perfect that can be conceived, and
will be more of a Life than any work that has ever yet appeared."

With this bold but just prophecy we may leave him; he died in 1795.

FOOTNOTE:

[7] "Letters of James Boswell to the Rev. W. J. Temple." (Sidgwick and
Jackson.)

CARLYLE'S LOVES AND LOVE-LETTERS[8]

I

[Sidenote: _Athenaeum May and Oct. 1909_]

Are people still interested in the Carlyles? Some are, we suppose. The
older generation is interested in Carlyle, at any rate; though the
younger, we believe, is not. For men and women under thirty the
redoubtable sage has apparently no message; but for many of their
fathers and mothers his least word still has a certain importance.

Such reverent curiosity, though it may excuse some bad books and much
futile research, will, we fear, hardly justify the