Monday, 16th August:
Somebody talked of happy moments for composition; and how a man can write at one time, and not at another. -- "Nay (said Dr. Johnson) a man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it."Wednesday, 25th August:
Dr. Johnson wrote a long letter to Mrs Thrale. I wondered to see him write so much so easily. He verified his own doctrine that "a man may always write when he will set himself doggedly to it."