. The
letters of Boswell to his "Atticus" were first published by Bentley in
1857. One winter he spent at Glasgow, where he sat under Adam Smith, who
was then lecturing on moral philosophy and rhetoric.

In 1760 he was first brought into contact with "the elegance, the
refinement and the liberality" of London society, for which he had long
sighed. The young earl of Eglintoun took him to Newmarket and introduced
him into the society of "the great, the gay and the ingenious." He wrote
a poem called "The Cub at Newmarket," published by Dodsley in 1762, and
had visions of entering the Guards. Reclaimed with some difficulty by
his father from his rakish companions in the metropolis, he contrived to
alleviate the irksomeness of law study in Edinburgh by forcing his
acquaintance upon the celebrities then assembled in the northern
capital, among them Kames, Blair, Robertson, Hume and Sir David
Dalrymple (Lord Hailes), of whose sayings on the Northern Circuit he
kept a brief journal. Boswell had already realized his vocation, the
exercise of which was to give a new word to the language. He had begun
to Boswellize. He was already on the track of bigger game--the biggest
available in the Britain of that day. In the spring of 1763 Boswell came
to a composition with his father. He consented to give up his pursuit of
a guidon in the Guards and three and sixpence a day on condition that
his father would allow him to study civil law on the continent. He set
out in April 1763 by "the best road in Scotland" with a servant, on
horseback like himself, in "a cocked hat, a brown wig, brown coat made
in the court fashion, red vest, corduroy small clothes and long military
boots." On Monday, the 16th of May 1763, in the back shop of Tom Davies
the bookseller, No. 8 Russell Street, Covent Garden, James Boswell first
met "Dictionary Johnson," the great man of his dreams, and was severely
buffeted by him. Eight days later, on Tuesday, the 24th of May, Boswell
boldly called on Mr Johnson at his chambers on the first floor of No. 1
Inner Temple Lane. On this occasion Johnson pressed him to stay; on the
13th of June he said, "Come to me as often as you can"; on the 25th of
June Boswell gave the great man a little sketch of his own life, and
Johnson exclaimed with warmth, "Give me your hand; I have taken a
liking to you." Boswell experienced a variety of sensations, among which
exultation was predominant. Some one asked, "Who is this Scotch cur at
Jo