bold laugher who would have ventured to tell Dr. Johnson of any of his particularities.1

Having observed the vain ostentatious importance of many people in quoting the authority of Dukes and Lords, as having been in their company, he said, he went to the other extreme, and did not mention his authority when he should have done it, had it not been that of a Duke or a Lord.

Dr. Goldsmith said once to Dr. Johnson, that he wished for some additional members to the LITERARY CLUB, to give it an agreeable variety; for, said he, there can now be nothing new among us: we have travelled over one another's minds. Johnson seemed a little angry, and said, "Sir, you have not travelled over my mind, I promise you." Si Joshua, however, thought Goldsmith right; observing, that "when people have lived a great deal together, they know what each of them will say on every subject. A new understanding, therefore, is desirable; because though it may only furnish the same sense upon a question which would have been furnished by those with whom we are accustomed to live, yet this sense will have a different colouring; and colouring is of much effect in everything else as well as in painting."

Johnson used to say that he made it a constant rule to talk as well as he could both as to sentiment and expression, by which means, what had been originally effort became familiar and easy. The consequence of this, Sir Joshua observed, was, that his common conversation in all companies was such as to secure him universal attention, as something above the usual colloquial style was expected.

Yet, though Johnson had this habit in company, when another mode was necessary, in order to investigate truth, he could descend to a language intelligible to the meanest capacity. An instance of this was witnessed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, when they were present at an examination of a little blackguard boy, by Mr. Saunders Welch, the late Westminster Justice. Welch, who imagined that he was exalting himself in Dr. Johnson's eyes by using big words, spoke in a manner that was utterly unintelligible to the boy; Dr. Johnson perceiving it, addressed himself to the boy, and changed the pompous phraseology into colloquial language. Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was much amused by this procedure, which seemed a kind of reversing of what might have been expected from the two men, took notice of it to Dr. Johnson, as they walked away by themselves. Johnson said, that it was continually the case; and that he was always obliged to translate the justice's

1 I am happy, however, to mention a pleasing instance of his enduring with great gentleness to hear one of his most striking particularities pointed out:-Miss Hunter, a niece of his friend Christopher Smart, when a very young girl, struck by his extraordinary motions, said to him," Pray, Dr. Johnson, why do you make such strange gestures?"-" From bad habit," he replied. "Do you, my dear, take care to guard against bad habits." This I was told by the young lady's brother at Margate.-BOSWELL.

swelling diction (smiling), so as that his meaning might be understood by the vulgar, from whom information was to be obtained.

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Sir Joshua once observed to him, that he had talked above the capacity of some people with whom they had been in company together. No matter, Sir," said Johnson; they consider it as a compliment to be talked to, as if they were wiser than they are So true is this, Sir, that Baxter made it a rule, in every sermon that he preached, to say something that was above the capacity of his audience."1

Johnson's dexterity in retort, when he seemed to be driven to an extremity by his adversary, was very remarkable. Of his power in this respect, Our common friend, Mr. Windham, of Norfolk, has been pleased to furnish me with an eminent instance. However unfavourable to Scotland, he uniformly gave liberal praise to George Buchanan, as a writer. In a conversation concerning the literary merits of the two countries, in which Buchanan was introduced, a Scotchman, imagining that on this ground he should have an undoubted triumph over him, exclaimed, "Ah, Dr. Johnson, what would you haye said of Buchanan, had he been an Englishman ?"-"Why, Sir," said Johnson after a little pause, “I should not have said of Buchanan, had he been an Englishman, what I will now say of him as a Scotchman, that he was the only man of genius his country ever produced."

MR. WINDHAM.

And this brings to my recollection another instance of the same nature. I once reminded him, that when Dr. Adam Smith was expatiating on the beauties of Glasgow, he had cut him short by saying, "Pray, Sir, have you ever seen Brentford?" and I took the liberty to add, "My dear Sir, surely that was shocking."-"Why, then, Sir," he replied, 66 You have never seen Brentford."

Though his usual phrase for conversation was talk, yet he made a distinction; for when he once told me that he dined the day before at a friend's house, with " a very pretty company;" and I asked him if there was good conversation, he answered, "No, Sir; we had talk enough, but no conversation; there was nothing discussed.'

Talking of the success of the Scotch in London, he imputed it, in a

am in

The justness of this remark is confirmed by the following story, for which debted to Lord Elliot:-A country parson, who was remarkable for quoting scraps of Latin in his sermons, having died, one of the parishioners was asked how he liked his successor? "He is a very good preacher," was his answer, "but no latiner."-BOSWELL..

considerable degree, to their spirit of nationality. "You know, Sir," said he, "that no Scotchman publishes a book, or has a play brought upon the stage, but there are five hundred people ready to applaud him.”

He gave much praise to his friend Dr. Burney's elegant and entertaining travels, and told Mr. Seward that he had them in his eye, when writing his "Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland."

Such was his sensibility, and so much was he affected by pathetic poetry, that, when he was reading Dr. Beattie's "Hermit," in my presence, it brought tears into his eyes.1

He disapproved much of mingling real facts with fiction. On this account he censured a book entitled "Love and Madness."

Mr. Hoole told him he was born in Moorfields, and had received part of his early instruction in Grub-street. "Sir," said Johnson smiling, "you have been regularly educated." Having asked who was his instructor, and Mr. Hoole having answered, “My uncle, Sir, who was a tailor;" Johnson, recollecting himself, said, "Sir, I knew him; we called him the metaphysical tailor. He was of a club in Old-street, with me and George Psalmanazar, and some others: but pray, Sir, was he a good tailor?" Mr. Hoole having answered that he believed he was too mathematical, and used to draw squares and triangles on his shop-board, so that he did not excel in the cut of a coat ;-"I am sorry for it," said Johnson; 'for I would have every man to be master of his own

business."

In pleasant reference to himself and Mr. Hoole, as brother authors, he often said, "Let you and I, Sir, go together, and eat a beefsteak in Grub-street.

Sir William Chambers, the great architect whose works show a sublimity of genius, and who is esteemed by all who know him, for his social, hospitable, and generous qualities, submitted the manuscript of his "Chinese Architecture" to Dr. Johnson's perusal. Johnson was much pleased with it, and said, "It wants no addition nor correction, but a few lines of introduction;" which he furnished, and Sir William adopted.3

1 The particular passage which excited this strong emotion was, as I have heard from my father, the third stanza, ""Tis night," &c.-J. BOSWELL, JUN.

2 The Honourable Horace Walpole, late Earl of Orford, thus bears testimony to this gentleman's merit as a writer:-Mr. Chambers' "Treatise on Civil Architecture," is the inost sensible book, and the most exempt from prejudices, that ever was written on that science.-Preface to "Anecdotes of Painting in England."-BOSWELL.

3 The introductory lines are these: "It is difficult to avoid praising too little or too much. The boundless panegyrics which have been lavished upon the Chinese learning, policy, and arts, show with what power novelty attracts regard, and how naturally esteem swells into admiration.

"I am far from desiring to be numbered among the exaggerators of Chinese excellence. I consider them as great, or wise, only in comparison with the nations that surround them; and have no intention to place them in competition either with the ancients or with the moderns of this part of the world; yet they must be allowed to claim our notice as a distinct and very singular race of men: as the inhabitants of a region divided by its situation from all civilised countries, who have formed their own manners, and invented their own arts, without the assistance of example."-BOSWELL.

He said to Sir William Scott, "The age is running mad after innovation; and all the business of the world is to be done in a new way; men are to be hanged in a new way; Tyburn itself is not safe from the fury of innovation. It having been argued that this was an improvement" No, Sir," said he, "eagerly, it is not an improvement; they object, that the old method drew together a number of spectators. Sir, executions are intended to draw spectators. If they do not draw spectators, they don't answer their purpose. The old method was most satisfactory to all parties; the public was gratified by a procession; the criminal was supported by it. Why is all this to be swept away?" I perfectly agree with Dr. Johnson upon this head, and am persuaded that executions now, the solemn procession being discontinued, have not nearly the effect which they formerly had. Magistrates, both in London and elsewhere, have, I am afraid, in this had too much regard to their own ease.

Of Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, Johnson said to a friend"Hurd, Sir, is one of a set of men who account for everything systematically; for instance, it has been a fashion to wear scarlet breeches ; these men would tell you that, according to causes and effects, no other* wear could at that time have been chosen.' He, however, said of him at another time to the same gentleman, Hurd, Sir, is a man whose acquaintance is a valuable acquisition."

That learned and ingenious Prelate, it is well known, published at one period of his life "Moral and Political Dialogues," with a wofully whiggish cast. Afterwards, his Lordship having thought better, came to see his error, and republished the work with a more constitutional spirit. Johnson, however, was unwilling to allow him full credit for his political conversion. I remember when his Lordship declined the honour of being Archbishop of Canterbury, Johnson said, "I am glad he did not go to Lambeth; for, after all, I fear he is a Whig in his heart."

Johnson's attention to precision and clearness in expression was very remarkable. He disapproved of a parenthesis; and I believe, in all his voluminous writings, not half a dozen of them will be found. He never used the phrases the former and the latter, having observed that they often occasioned obscurity; he therefore contrived to construct his sentences so as not to have occasion for them, and would even rather repeat the same words, in order to avoid them. Nothing is more common than to mistake surnames, when we hear them carelessly uttered for the first time. To prevent this, he used not only to pronounce them slowly and distinctly, but to take the trouble of spelling them—a practice which I have often followed, and which I wish were general,

Such was the heat and irritability of his blood, that not only did he pare his nails to the quick, but scraped the joints of his fingers with a penknife, till they seemed quite red and raw.

The heterogeneous composition of human nature was remarkably

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exemplified in Johnson. His liberality in giving his money to persons in distress was extraordinary. Yet there lurked about him a propensity to paltry saving. One day I owned to him that "I was occasionally troubled with a fit of narrowness." Why, Sir," said he, so am I But I do not tell it." He has now and then borrowed a shilling of me, and when I asked him for it again, seemed to be rather out of humour. A droll little circumstance once occurred :-As if he meant to reprimand my minute exactness as a creditor, he thus addressed me: "Boswell, lend me sixpence—not to be repaid.

This great man's attention to small things was very remarkable. As an instance of it, he one day said to me, "Sir, when you get silver in change for a guinea, look carefully at it; you may find some curious piece of coin."

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Though a stern true-born Englishman, and fully prejudiced against all other nations, he had discernment enough to see, and candour enough to censure, the cold reserve too common among Englishmen towards strangers: Sir," said he, "two men of any other nation who are shown into a room together, at a house where they are both visitors, will *immediately find some conversation. But two Englishmen will probably go each to a different window, and remain in obstinate silence. Sir, we as yet do not enough understand the common rights of humanity."

Johnson was, at a certain period of his life, a good deal with the Earl of Shelburne, now Marquis of Lansdowne, as he doubtless could not but have a due value for that nobleman's activity of inind, and uncommon acquisitions of important knowledge, however much he might disapprove of other parts of his lordship's character, which were widely different from his own.

Morice Morgann, Esq., author of the very ingenious "Essay on the Character of Falstaff," being a particular friend of his lordship, had once an opportunity of entertaining Johnson for a day or two at Wycombe, when this lord was absent, and by him I have been favoured with two anecdotes

One is not a little to the credit of Johnson's candour. Mr. Morgann and he had a dispute pretty late at night, in which Johnson would not give up, though he had the wrong side, and, in short, both kept the field. Next morning, when they met in the breakfast-room, Dr. Johnson accosted Mr. Morgann thus: "Sir, I have been thinking on our dispute last night-you were in the right."

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The other was as follows :-" Johnson, for sport perhaps, or from the spirit of contradiction, eagerly maintained that Derrick had merit as a writer. Mr. Morgann argued with him directly in vain. At length he

'Johnson being asked his opinion of this Essay, answered, "Why, Sir, we shall have the man come forth again; and as he has proved Falstaff to be no coward, he may prove Ag to be a very good character."-BosWELL.