Note 273 — THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Johnson once said to Mrs. Thrale:—'Why, Madam, you often provoke me to say severe things by unreasonable commendation. If you would not call for my praise, I would not give you my censure; but it constantly moves my indignation to be applied to, to speak well of a thing which I think contemptible.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, i.132. See ante, iii.225.