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wrote the Doctor a letter, in which, it would appear, from the answer 

 given to it, he threatened personal violence to Johnson, if he would 

 not retract what he had written on the subject. We have not the 

 words of Macpherson's letter, but it drew from Johnson the following 

 reply : 



" Mr. James Macpherson, 



" I received your foolish and impudent letter. 

 Any violence that shall be attempted upon me, I will do my best to 

 repel ; and what I cannot do for myself, the law shall do for me ; 

 for I will not be hindered from exposing what I think a cheat, by the 

 menaces of a ruffian. What would you have me retract ? I thought 

 your work an imposture ; I think so still ; and for my opinion, I have 

 given reasons which I dare you to refute. Your abilities, since your 

 Homer, are not so formidable ; and what I hear of your morality, in- 

 clines me to credit rather what you shall prove, than what you shall 



say. 



" S. Johnson." 



This answer of Johnson's was sufficiently galling to enrage a per- 

 son of less irritable disposition than Macpherson is, by his friends, 

 represented to have been; but it seems to have had a different effect 

 on him, he wisely refrained from violence, and was obliged to sit 

 patiently under the disgrace that Johnson had fastened on him, con- 

 tenting himself with merely causing Mr, Becket, his publisher, to 

 subscribe an advertisement in the newpapers to this effect : 



" That during six weeks after the first publication of the poems, 

 the original manuscript lay at his shop for the inspection of the 

 curious. 



(Signed) " T. Becket." 



