It
must be known to every attentive reader of Boswell. See _ante_, i. 395,
and ii. 11.
_Frederick III, King of Prussia_.
(Vol. i, p. 308.)
Boswell should have written Frederick II.
_Boswell's visit to Rousseau and Voltaire_.
(Vol. i, p. 434; and vol. ii, p. 11.)
_Boswell to Andrew Mitchell, Esq., His Britannic Majesty's
Minister at Berlin_.
'Berlin, 28 August, 1764.
... 'I have had another letter from my father, in which he continues of
opinion that travelling is of very little use, and may do a great deal
of harm. ... I esteem and love my father, and I am determined to do what
is in my power to make him easy and happy. But you will allow that I
may endeavour to make him happy, and at the same time not to be too hard
upon myself. I must use you so much with the freedom of a friend as to
tell you that with the vivacity which you allowed me I have a melancholy
disposition. I have made excursions into the fields of amusement, perhaps
of folly. I have found that amusement and folly are beneath me, and that
without some laudable pursuit my life must be insipid and wearisome.....
My father seems much against my going to Italy, but gives me leave to go
from this, and pass some months in Paris. I own that the words of the
Apostle Paul, "I must see Rome," are strongly _borne in_ upon my mind. It
would give me infinite pleasure. It would give taste for a life-time,
and I should go home to Auchinleck with serene contentment.
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