"' This, Parr said, was by no means his first
introduction to Johnson. Field's _Parr_, i. 161. Parr wrote to Romilly
in 1811:--'Pray let me ask whether you have ever read some admirable
remarks of Mr. Hutcheson upon the word _merit_. I remember a controversy
I had with Dr. Johnson upon this very term: we began with theology
fiercely, I gently carried the conversation onward to philosophy, and
after a dispute of more than three hours he lost sight of my heresy, and
came over to my opinion upon the metaphysical import of the term.' _Life
of Romilly_, ii. 365. When Parr was a candidate for the mastership of
Colchester Grammar School, Johnson wrote for him a letter of
recommendation. Johnstone's _Parr_, i. 94.
[56] 'Somebody was praising Corneille one day in opposition to
Shakespeare. "Corneille is to Shakespeare," replied Mr. Johnson, "as a
clipped hedge is to a forest."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 59.
[57] Johnson, it is clear, discusses here Mrs. Montagu's _Essay on
Shakespeare_. She compared Shakespeare first with Corneille, and then
with Aeschylus. In contrasting the ghost in _Hamlet_ with the shade of
Darius in _The Persians_, she says:--'The phantom, who was to appear
ignorant of what was past, that the Athenian ear might be soothed and
flattered with the detail of their victory at Salamis, is allowed, for
the same reason, such prescience as to foretell their future triumph at
Plataea.
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