Note 167 — Chapter III · THE PHILOSOPHIC GROUP

Rasselas was written soon after January 23, 1759, and published in March or April of that year. Johnson was one of the first to observe the similarity between the two books. “I have heard Johnson say, that if they had not been published so closely one after the other that there was not time for imitation, it would have been in vain to deny that the scheme of that which came latest was taken from the other.” Boswell, Life of Johnson, edited by G. B. Hill, Vol. I., p. 342. Hill’s note, same page: “It should seem that Candide was published in the latter half of February, 1759 ... Rasselas was written before March 23; how much earlier cannot be known.”