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1772.

people of Campbelltown be diftreffed by the restoration of the refpondent, they are diftreffed only by their own fault; by turbulent paffions and unrea- tat. 63. fonable defires; by tyranny, which law has defeated, and by malice which virtue has furmounted."

"This, Sir, (faid he,) you are to turn in your mind, and make the beft ufe of it you can in your speech."

Of our friend Goldfmith he faid, "Sir, he is fo much afraid of being unnoticed, that he often talks merely left you should forget that he is in the company." BOSWELL. "Yes, he ftands forward." JOHNSON. "True, Sir; but if a man is to stand forward, he should wish to do it not in an aukward pofture, not in rags, not fo as that he shall only be expofed to ridicule." BosWELL. For my part, I like very well to hear honest Goldsmith talk away carelessly." JOHNSON. "Why yes, Sir; but he should not like to hear himself."

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On Tuesday, April 14, the decree of the Court of Seffion in the schoolmafter's caufe was reverfed in the Houfe of Lords, after a very eloquent fpeech by Lord Mansfield, who fhewed himself an adept in school discipline, but I thought was too rigorous towards my client. On the evening of the next day I fupped with Dr. Johnson, at the Crown and Anchor tavern, in the Strand, in company with Mr. Langton and his brother-in-law, Lord Binning. I repeated a sentence of Lord Mansfield's speech, of which, by the aid of Mr. Longlands, the folicitor on the other fide, who obligingly allowed me to compare his note with my own, I have a full copy: "My Lords, feverity is not the way to govern either boys or men." " Nay, (faid Johnson,) it is the way to govern them. I know not whether it be the way to mend them."

I talked of the recent expulfion of fix ftudents from the University of Oxford, who were methodists, and would not defift from publickly praying and exhorting. JOHNSON. "Sir, that expulfion was extremely just and proper. What have they to do at an University who are not willing to be taught, but will presume to teach? Where is religion to be learnt but at an University? Sir, they were examined, and found to be mighty ignorant fellows." BOSWELL. "But, was it not hard, Sir, to expel them, for I am told they were good beings?" JOHNSON, "Sir, I believe they might be good beings; but they were not fit to be in the University of Oxford. A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden." Lord Elibank used to repeat this as an illuftration uncommonly happy.

Defirous of calling Johnfon forth to talk, and exercife his wit, though I fhould myself be the object of it, I refolutely ventured to undertake the defence of convivial indulgence in wine, though he was not to-night in the Ccc moft

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most genial humour. After,urging the common plaufible topicks, I at last had recourse to the maxim, in vino veritas; a man who is well warmed with wine will speak truth. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, that may be an argument for drinking, if you fuppofe men in general to be liars. But, Sir, I would not keep company with a fellow who lyes as long as he is fober, and whom you must make drunk before you can get a word of truth out of him "."

Mr. Langton told us he was about to establish a school upon his eftate, but it had been fuggefted to him, that it might have a tendency to make the people lefs induftrious. JOHNSON. "No, Sir. While learning to read and write is a diftinction, the few who have that diftinction may be the lefs inclined. to work but when every body learns to read and write, it is no longer a distinction. A man who has a laced waistcoat is too fine a man to work; but if every body had laced waistcoats, we fhould have people working in laced waistcoats. There are no people whatever more industrious, none who work more, than our manufacturers; yet they have all learnt to read and write. Sir, you must not neglect doing a thing immediately good, from fear of remote evil;-from fear of its being abused. A man who has candles may fit up too late, which he would not do if he had not candles; but nobody will deny that the art of making candles, by which light is continued to us beyond the time that the fun gives us light, is a valuable art, and ought to be preserved." BOSWELL." But, Sir, would it not be better to follow Nature; and go to bed and rise just as Nature gives us light or with-holds it?" JOHNSON. “No, Sir; for then we should have no kind of equality in the partition of our time between fleeping and waking. It would be very different in different seasons and in different places. In fome of the northern parts of Scotland how little light is there in the depth of winter!"

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We talked of Tacitus, and I hazarded an opinion, that with all his merit for penetration, fhrewdness of judgement, and terfenefs of expreffion, he was too compact, too much broken into hints, as it were, and therefore too difficult to be understood. To my great fatisfaction Dr. Johnson fanctioned this opinion. "Tacitus, Sir, feems to me rather to have made notes for an hiftorical work, than to have written a history ".

5 Mrs. Piozzi, in her " Anecdotes," p. 261, has given an erroneous account of this incident, as of many others. She pretends to relate it from recollection, as if she herself had been present ; when the fact is, that it was communicated to her by me. She has reprefented it as a perfonality, and the true point has escaped her.

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• It is remarkable, that Lord Monboddo, whom on account of his resembling Dr. Johnson in fome particulars, Foote called an Elzevir edition of him, has, by coincidence, made the very fame remark. Origin and Progress of Language, vol. iii. 2d edit. p. 219.

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At this time it appears from his "Prayers and Meditations," that he had 1772. been more than commonly diligent in religious duties, particularly in reading Etat. 63. the holy fcriptures. It was Paffion Week, that folemn feafon which the Christian world has appropriated to the commemoration of the mysteries of our redemption, and during which, whatever embers of religion are in our breasts, will be kindled into pious warmth.

I paid him fhort vifits both on Friday and Saturday, and feeing his large folio Greek Teftament before him, beheld him with a reverential awe, and would not intrude upon his time. While he was thus employed to fuch good purpose, and while his friends in their intercourfe with him conftantly found a vigorous intellect and a lively imagination, it is melancholy to read in his private register, "My mind is unfettled and my memory confused. I have of late turned my thoughts with a very useless earnestness upon past incidents. I have yet got no command over my thoughts; an unpleafing incident is almost certain to hinder my reft"." What philofophick heroifm was it in him to appear with fuch manly fortitude to the world, while he was inwardly fo diftreffed! We may furely believe that the mysterious principle of being "made perfect through suffering," was to be ftrongly exemplified in him.

On Sunday, April 19, being Eafter-day, General Paoli and I paid him a vifit before dinner. We talked of the notion that blind perfons can distinguish colours by the touch. Johnson faid, that Profeffor Sanderfon mentions his having attempted to do it, but that he found he was aiming at an impoffibility; that to be fure a difference in the furface makes the difference of colours; but that difference is fo fine, that it is not fenfible to the touch. The General mentioned jugglers and fraudulent gamefters, who could know cards by the touch. Dr. Johnson said, "the cards used by such persons must be less polished than ours commonly are."

We talked of founds. The General faid, there was no beauty in a fimple found but only in an harmonious compofition of founds. I prefumed to differ from this opinion, and mentioned the foft and fweet found of a fine woman's voice. JOHNSON. «No, Sir, if a ferpent or a toad uttered it, you would think it ugly." BOSWELL. "So you would think, Sir, were a beautiful tune to be uttered by one of those animals." JOHNSON. "No, Sir, it would be admired. We have seen fine fidlers whom we liked as little as toads," (laughing).

Talking on the fubject of taste in the arts, he faid, that difference of tafte was, in truth, difference of skill. BOSWELL. "But, Sir, is there not a quality

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called tafte, which confifts merely in perception or in liking? For instance, we find people differ much as to what is the best style of English compofition. Some think Swift's the beft; others prefer a fuller and grander way of writing.” JOHNSON. "Sir, you must first define what you mean by ftyle, before you can judge who has a good taste in style, and who has a bad. The two claffes of perfons whom you have mentioned don't differ as to good and bad. They both agree that Swift has a good neat style; but one loves a neat style, another loves a ftyle of more fplendour. In like manner, one loves a plain coat, another loves a laced coat; but neither will deny that each is good in its kind."

While I remained in London this fpring, I was with him at feveral other times, both by himself and in company. I dined with him one day at the Crown and Anchor tavern, in the Strand, with Lord Elibank, Mr. Langton, and Dr. Vanfittart of Oxford. Without fpecifying each particular day, I have preferved the following memorable things.

I regretted the reflection in his Preface to Shakspeare against Garrick, to whom we cannot but apply the following paffage: "I collated fuch copies as I could procure, and wished for more, but have not found the collectors of these rarities very communicative." I told him, that Garrick had complained to me of it, and had vindicated himself by affuring me, that Johnson was made welcome to the full use of his collection, and that he left the key of it with a fervant, with orders to have a fire and every convenience for him. I found Johnson's notion was, that Garrick wanted to be courted for them, and that, on the contrary, Garrick fhould have courted him, and fent him the plays of his own accord. But, indeed, confidering the flovenly and careless manner in which books were treated by Johnson, it could not be expected that scarce and valuable editions fhould have been lent to him.

A gentleman having to fome of the ufual arguments for drinking added this: "You know, Sir, drinking drives away care, and makes us forget whatever is difagreeable. Would not you allow a man to drink for that reafon ?" JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir, if he fat next you."

I expreffed a liking for Mr. Francis Ofborn's works, and afked him what he thought of that writer. He anfwered, "A conceited fellow. Were a man to write fo now, the boys would throw ftones at him." He however did not alter my opinion of a favourite authour, to whom I was first directed by his being quoted in "The Spectator," and in whom I have found much fhrewd and lively fenfe, expreffed indeed in a ftyle fomewhat quaint, which, however, I do not diflike. His book has an air of originality. We figure to ourselves an ancient gentleman talking to us..

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When one of his friends endeavoured to maintain that a country gentleman might contrive to pass his life very agreeably, "Sir, (faid he,) you cannot Etat. 63. give me an instance of any man who is permitted to lay out his own time, contriving not to have tedious hours." This obfervation, however, is equally applicable to gentlemen who live in cities, and are of no profeffion.

He said, "there is no permanent national character; it varies according to circumstances. Alexander the Great swept India: now the Turks fweep Greece."

A learned gentleman who in the course of conversation wifhed to inform us of this fimple fact, that the Counsel upon the circuit at Shrewsbury were much bitten by fleas, took, I suppose, seven or eight minutes in relating it circumftantially. He in a plenitude of phrafe told us, that large bales of woollen cloth were lodged in the town-hall;-that by reason of this, fleas neftled there in prodigious numbers ;-that the lodgings of the Counsel were near to the town-hall;—and that those little animals moved from place to place with wonderful agility. Johnson fat in great impatience till the gentleman had finished his tedious narrative, and then burst out, "It is a pity, Sir, that you have not feen a lion; for a flea has taken you fuch a time, that a lion must have served you a twelvemonth."

He would not allow Scotland to derive any credit from Lord Mansfield; for he was educated in England.. "Much (faid he,) may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young."

Talking of a modern historian and a modern moralift, he faid, "There is more thought in the moralift than in the hiftorian. There is but a fhallow ftream of thought in hiftory." BOSWELL. "But furely, Sir, an hiftorian has reflection." JOHNSON. "Why yes, Sir; and fo has a cat when the catches a mouse for her kitten. But she cannot write like the moralist; neither can the hiftorian."

He said," I am very unwilling to read the manufcripts of authours, and give them my opinion. If the authours who apply to me have money, I bid them boldly print without a name; if they have written in order to get money, I tell them to go to the bookfellers, and make the beft bargain they can." BOSWELL. "But, Sir, if a bookfeller fhould bring you a manuscript to look at."-JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, I would defire the bookfeller to take it away."

Mrs. Piozzi, to whom I told this anecdote, has related it, as if the gentleman had given the natural hiftory of the mouse." Anecdotes, p. 191.

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