27.
[382] Dr. Johnson did not neglect what he had undertaken. By his
interest with the Rev. Dr. Adams, master of Pembroke College, Oxford,
where he was educated for some time, he obtained a servitorship for
young M'Aulay. But it seems he had other views; and I believe went
abroad. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 380.
[383] 'I once drank tea,' writes Lamb, 'in company with two Methodist
divines of different persuasions. Before the first cup was handed round,
one of these reverend gentlemen put it to the other, with all due
solemnity, whether he chose to _say anything_. It seems it is the custom
with some sectaries to put up a short prayer before this meal also. His
reverend brother did not at first quite apprehend him, but upon an
explanation, with little less importance he made answer that it was not
a custom known in his church.' _Essay on Grace before Meat_.
[384] He could not bear to have it thought that, in any instance
whatever, the Scots are more pious than the English. I think grace as
proper at breakfast as at any other meal. It is the pleasantest meal we
have. Dr. Johnson has allowed the peculiar merit of breakfast in
Scotland. BOSWELL. 'If an epicure could remove by a wish in quest of
sensual gratification, wherever he had supped he would breakfast in
Scotland.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 52.
[385] Bruce, the Abyssinian Traveller, found in the annals of that
region a king named _Brus_, which he chooses to consider the genuine
orthography of the name.
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