' _Ante_,
iii.293. Miss Burney records a story she had from Mrs. Thrale, 'which,'
she continues, 'exceeds, I think, in its severity all the severe things
I have yet heard of Dr. Johnson's saying. When Miss More was introduced
to him, she began singing his praise in the warmest manner. For some
time he heard her with that quietness which a long use of praise has
given him: she then redoubled her strokes, till at length he turned
suddenly to her, with a stern and angry countenance, and said, "Madam,
before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider
whether or not your flattery is worth his having."' Mme. D'Arblay's
_Diary_, i.103. Shortly afterwards Miss Burney records (_ib_. p. 121)
that Mrs. Thrale said to him:--'We have told her what you said to Miss
More, and I believe that makes her afraid.' He replied:--'Well, and if
she was to serve me as Miss More did, I should say the same thing to
her.' We have therefore three reports of what he said--one from Mrs.
Thrale indirectly, one from her directly, and the third from Malone.
However severe the reproof was, the Mores do not seem to have been much
touched by it.
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