Note 1107 — THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11.

Johnson said, 'I never think I have hit hard, unless it rebounds (ante, ii. 335), and, 'I would rather be attacked than unnoticed' (ante, iii. 375). When he was told of a caricature 'of the nine muses flogging him round Parnassus,' he said, 'Sir, I am very glad to hear this. I hope the day will never arrive when I shall neither be the object of calumny or ridicule, for then I shall be neglected and forgotten.' Croker's Boswell, p. 837. See ante, ii. 61, and pp. 174, 273. 'There was much laughter when M. de Lesseps mentioned that on his first visit to England the publisher who brought out the report of his meeting charged, as the first item of his bill, "£50 for attacking the book in order to make it succeed." "Since then," observed M. de Lesseps, "I have been attacked gratuitously, and have got on without paying."' The Times, Feb. 19, 1884.