by the same solemn oath I protest that I was ignorant of it. BOSWELL. Madam, I wish much to believe you. But I own I cannot upon this occasion believe a miracle. LOUISA. Sir, I cannot say more to you. But you will leave me in the greatest misery. I shall lose your esteem. I shall be hurt in the opinion of everybody, and in my circumstances. BOSWELL (to himself). What the devil does the confounded jilt mean by being hurt in her circumstances? This is the grossest cunning. But I won't take notice of that at all. — Madam, as to the opinion of everybody, you need not be afraid. I was going to joke and say that I never boast of a lady's favours. But I give you my word of honour that you shall not be discovered. LOUISA. Sir, this is being more generous than I could expect. The London Journal was but one of various journals written by Boswell, now gathered into a number of published volumes, but it is the only one whose material had not undergone extensive familial expurgation in the 19th century, and so it retained the racy material that made the London Journal an astonishing best seller on its publication. Fundamentally an "academic book," it sold over a million copies when it appeared as the first of the Yale Boswell publications in 1950. The manuscript was re-edited and comprehensively annotated in a new edition for Penguin Classics, by Gordon Turnbull, the general editor of the Yale Boswell Editions, in 2010. References External links Boswell's London Journal Leonard Bacon - A Candle on a Naughty World - Boswell's London Journal, 1762-1763, by Frederick A. Pottle, James Boswell; The Saturday Review, 4 November 1950, p. 11 Kekäläinen, Markku: James Boswell's Urban Experience in Eighteenth-Century London; University of Helsinki Doctoral dissertation (monograph) Boswell's London Journal | Love Letter to London | Masterpiece by Danny Heitman - WSJ.com Books by James Boswell National newspapers published in the United Kingdom Newspapers published in London Publications established in 1762 Publications disestablished in 1763