Note 854 — THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14.

Mr. Langton thinks this must have been the hasty expression of a splenetick moment, as he has heard Dr. Johnson speak of Mr. Spence's judgment in criticism with so high a degree of respect, as to shew that this was not his settled opinion of him. Let me add that, in the preface to the Preceptor, he recommends Spence's Essay on Papers Odyssey, and that his admirable Lives of the English Poets are much enriched by Spence's Anecdotes of Pope. BOSWELL. For the Preceptor see ante, i. 192, and Johnson's Works, v. 240. Johnson, in his Life of Pope (ib. viii. 274), speaks of Spence as 'a man whose learning was not very great, and whose mind was not very powerful. His criticism, however, was commonly just; what he thought he thought rightly; and his remarks were recommended by his coolness and candour.' See ante, iv. 9, 63.