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Dr. Johnson was observed by a musical friend of his to be extremely inattentive at a concert, whilst a celebrated solo player was running up and down the divisions and subdivisions of notes upon his violin. His friend, to induce him to take greater notice of what was going on, told him how extremely difficult it was. 'Difficult, do you call it, Sir?' replied the Doctor; 'I wish it were impossible.'
--
Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S. printed in Johnsonian Miscellanies, (1897), vol. II, page 308, edited by George Birkbeck Hill

 

Samuel Johnson

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