BOSWELL. ‘Sir Alexander Dick tells me, that he remembers having a thousand people in a year to dine at his house: that is, reckoning each person as one, each time that he dined there.’ JOHNSON. ‘That, Sir, is about three a day.’ BOSWELL. ‘How your statement lessens the idea.’ JOHNSON. ‘That, Sir, is the good of counting. It brings every thing to a certainty, which before floated in the mind indefinitely.’
If each person counts as one for each time he dines, Alexander can only claim to have personally hosted the guests at his most recent meal; the others were guests of someone else.
From Boswell’s Life of Johnson. HT to a commenter on the West Hunter blog.
If each person counts as one for each time he dines, Alexander can only claim to have personally hosted the guests at his most recent meal; the others were guests of someone else.
I think the idea is that all of the people are him.
quick math
I used to dine with 1460 people a year in my home, reckoning each person as one each time I dined there.
Families of four are mighty terrifying, aren’t they?
Oooh. That explains a lot...