Mais Newton, ennemi de toute dispute et
avare de son temps, laissa le docteur Clarke, son disciple en physique,
et pour le moins son egal en metaphysique, entrer pour lui dans la lice.
La dispute roula sur presque toutes les idees metaphysiques de Newton,
et c'est peut-etre le plus beau monument que nous ayons des combats
litteraires.' Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, xxviii. 44.
[782] See _ante_, iii. 248.
[783] See _ante_, iv. 295, where Boswell asked Johnson 'if he would not
have done more good if he had been more gentle.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; I
have done more good as I am. Obscenity and impiety have always been
repressed in my company.'
[784] 'Mr. Maclean has the reputation of great learning: he is
seventy-seven years old, but not infirm, with a look of venerable
dignity, excelling what I remember in any other man. His conversation
was not unsuitable to his appearance. I lost some of his good will by
treating a heretical writer with more regard than in his opinion a
heretick could deserve. I honoured his orthodoxy, and did not much
censure his asperity. A man who has settled his opinions does not love
to have the tranquillity of his conviction disturbed; and at
seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 118.
[785] 'Mr. Maclean has no publick edifice for the exercise of his
ministry, and can officiate to no greater number than a room can
contain; and the room of a hut is not very large.
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