'
Sir John Hawkins, who is unlucky upon all occasions, tells us, that
'this method of accumulating intelligence had been practised by Mr.
Addison, and is humourously described in one of the _Spectators_[612],
wherein he feigns to have dropped his paper of _notanda_, consisting of
a diverting medley of broken sentences and loose hints, which he tells
us he had collected, and meant to make use of. Much of the same kind is
Johnson's _Adversaria_[613]'. But the truth is, that there is no
resemblance at all between them. Addison's note was a fiction, in which
unconnected fragments of his lucubrations were purposely jumbled
together, in as odd a manner as he could, in order to produce a
laughable effect. Whereas Johnson's abbreviations are all distinct, and
applicable to each subject of which the head is mentioned.
For instance, there is the following specimen:
_Youth's Entry, &c_.
'Baxter's account of things in which he had changed his mind as he grew
up. Voluminous.--No wonder.--If every man was to tell, or mark, on how
many subjects he has changed, it would make vols. but the changes not
always observed by man's self.--From pleasure to bus. [business] to
quiet; from thoughtfulness to reflect. to piety; from dissipation to
domestic. by impercept. gradat. but the change is certain. Dial[614] _non
progredi, progress. esse conspicimus_. Look back, consider what was
thought at some dist.
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