(_Page_ 307.)
Johnson's use of the word _big_, where he says 'I wish thy books were
twice as big,' enables me to explain a passage in _The Life of Johnson
(ante_, iii. 348) which had long puzzled me. Boswell there represents
him as saying:--'A man who loses at play, or who runs out his fortune at
court, makes his estate less, in hopes of making it _bigger_.' Boswell
adds in a parenthesis:--'I am sure of this word, which was often used by
him.' He had been criticised by a writer in the _Gent. Mag_. 1785, p.
968, who quoting from the text the words 'a _big_ book,' says:--'Mr.
Boswell has made his friend (as in a few other passages) guilty of a
_Scotticism_. An Englishman reads and writes a _large_ book, and wears a
_great_ (not a _big_ or _bag_) coat.' When Boswell came to publish _The
Life of Johnson_, he took the opportunity to justify himself, though he
did not care to refer directly to his anonymous critic. This
explanation I discovered too late to insert in the text.