1781.

Ætat. 72.

from the complete plunder of seven Scotch ines, He re-imbarked with three and six-pence.” Here again Johnson and Wilkes joined in extravagant sportive raillery upon the supposed poverty of Scotland, which Dr. Beattie and I did not think it worth our while to dispute.

The subject of quotation being introduced, Mr. Wilkes censured it as pedantry. Johnson. .“ No, Sir, it is a good thing; there is a community of mind in it. Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.” Wilkes. “Upon the continent they all quote the vulgate Bible. Shakspeare is chiefly quoted here ; and we quote also Pope, Prior, Butler, Waller, and sometimes Cowley."

We talked of Letter-writing. JOHNSON. “ It is now become so much the fashion to publish letters, that in order to avoid it, I put as little into mine as I can.” Boswell. “Do what you will, Sir, you cannot avoid it. Should

. you even write as ill as you can, your letters would be published as curiosities.

« Behold a miracle ! instead of wit

See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.” He gave us an entertaining account of Bet Flint, a woman of the town, who, with some eccentrick talents and much effrontery, forced herself upon his acquaintance. “ Bet (said he) wrote her own Life in verse', which the brought to me, wishing that I would furnish her with a Preface to it (laughing). I used to say of her, that she was generally Nut and drunkard-occasionally, whore and thief. She had, however, genteel lodgings, a spinnet on which she played, and a boy that walked before her chair. Poor Bet was taken up on a charge of stealing a counterpane, and tried at the Old-Bailey. Chief Justice who loved a wench, summed up favourably, and she was acquitted. After which, Bet said, with a gay and satisfied air, 'Now that the counterpane

is my own, I shall make a petticoat of it.” Talking of oratory, Mr. Wilkes described it as accompanied with all the charms of poetical expression. Johnson. “ No, Sir; oratory is the power

* Johnson, whose memory was wonderfully retentive, remembered the first four lines of this curious production, which have been communicated to me by a young lady of his acquaintance :

“ When first I drew my vital breath,
" A little minikin I came upon earth ;
45 And then I came from a dark abode,
“ Into this gay and gaudy world,”

a

of

.

of beating down your adversary's arguments, and putting better in their 1781.
place.” Wilkes. “ But this does not move the passions.” Johnson. “He Ætat. 72.
must be a weak man who is to be fo moved.” Wilkes. (naming a cele-
brated orator) “ Amidst all the brilliancy of — ---'s imagination, and the
exuberance of his wit, there is a strange want of taste. It was observed of
Apelles’s Venus, that her flesh seemed as if she had been nourished by roses :
his oratory would sometimes make one suspect that he eats potatoes and drinks
whisky.”

Mr. Wilkes observed, how tenacious we are of forms in this country, and
gave us an instance, the vote of the House of Commons for remitting money
to pay the army in America in Portugal pieces, when, in reality, the remit-
tance is made not in Portugal money but in our own specie. Johnson. “Is
there not a law, Sir, against exporting the current coin of the realm?"
Wilkes. “ Yes, Sir: but might not the House of Commons, in case of

.
real evident necessity, order our own current coin to be sent into our own
colonies ?”—Here Johnson, with that quickness of recollection which distin-
guished him so eminently, gave the Middlesex Patriot an admirable retort
upon his own ground. “Sure, Sir, you don't think a resolution of the House

, a
of Commons equal to the law of the land.” Wilkes. (at once perceiving the
application) “God forbid, Sir.”-To hear what had been treated with such
violence in “ The False Alarm,” now turned into pleasant repartee, was
extremely agreeable. Johnson went on—" Locke obferves well, that a pro-
hibition to export the current coin is impolitick; for when the balance of
trade happens to be against a state, the current coin must be exported.”

Mr. Beauclerk's great library was this season sold in London by auction.
Mr. Wilkes said, he wondered to find in it such a numerous collection of
fermons, seeming to think it strange that a gentleman of Mr. Beauclerk's
character in the gay world, should have chosen to have many compositions
of that kind. Johnson. “ Why, Sir, you are to consider, that sermons
make a considerable branch of English literature ; so that a library must be
very imperfect if it has not a numerous collection of sermons ? : and in all

collections,

2 Mr. Wilkes probably did not know that there is in an English sermon the most comprehensive and lively account of that entertaining faculty, for which he himself is so much admired. It is in Dr. Barrow's first volume, and fourteenth sermon, “ Against foolish Talking and Jefting.” My old acquaintance, the late Corbyn Morris, in his ingenious “ Essay on Wit, Humour, and Ridicule,” calls it “ a profuse description of Wit:” but I do not see how it could be curtailed, without leaving out some good circumstance of discrimination. As it is not generally known,

and

1-81.

collections, Sir, the desire of augmenting it grows stronger in proportion to Feat. 72. the advance in acquisition ; as motion is accelerated by the continuance of the

impetus. Besides, Sir, (looking at Mr. Wilkes with a placid but significant sinile,) a man may collect sermons with intention of making himself better

Etat

a

a

a

and may perhaps dispose foine to read fermons, from which they may receive real advantage, while looking only for entertainment, I shall here quote it.

“ But first (says the learned preacher) it may be demanded, what the thing we speak of is? Or what this facetiousness (or uit, as he calls it before,) doth import? To which questions ! might reply, as Democritus did to him that asked the definition of a man, 'Tis that which we all see and know.' Any one better apprehends what it is by acquaintance, than I can inform him by description. It is, indeed, a thing fo versatile and multiforn, appearing in so many shapes, so many postures, so many garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and judge. ments, that it seemerh no less hard to settle a clear and certain notion thereof, than to make a portrait of Proteus, or to define the figure of the fieeting air. Sometimes it lieth in pat allusion to a known story, or in seasonable application of a trivial saying, or in forging an apposite tale : fometimes it playeth in words and phrases, taking advantage from the ambiguity of their fenfe, or the afinity of their sound: sometimes it is wrapped in a dress of humourous expression : sometimes it lurketh under an odd fimilitude: fometi:nes it is lodged in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a 1hrewd intimation, in cunningly diverting or cleverly retorting an objection : sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in a lusty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling of contradictions, or in acute nonsense : sometimes a scenical representation of perfons or things, a counterfeit speech, a mimical look or gesture, passeth for it: sometimes an affected fimplicity, sometimes a presumptuous bluniness giveth it being : sometimes it riseth only from a lucky hitting upon what is strange, Sometimes from a crafiy wresting obvious matter to the purpose. Often it confifteth in one knows not what, and springeth up one can hardly tell how. Its ways are unaccountable, and inexplicable ; being answerable to the numberless rovings of fancy, and windings of language. It is, in hort, a manner of speaking out of the simple and plain way, (such as reason teacheth and proveth things by,) which by a pretty surprizing uncouthness in conceit or expression, doth affect and amuse the fancy, stirring in it fome wonder, and breeding some delight thereto. It raiseth admiration, as fignifying a nimble fagacity of apprehension, a special felicity of invention, a vivacity of spirit, and reach of wit more than vulgar; it seeming to argue a rare quickness of parts, that one can fetch in remote conceits applicable ; a notable skill, that he can dextrously accommodate them to the purpose before him; together with a lively briskness of humour, not apt to damp those sportful flashes of imagination. (Whence in Aristotle such persons are termed Studiğios, dexterous men, and supporov, men of facile er versatile manners, who can casily turn themselves to all things, or turn all things to themselves.) It also procureth delight, by gratifying curiosity with its rareness, as semblance of difficulty: (as monsters, not for their beauty, but their rarity; as juggling tricks, not for their use, but their abstruseness, are beheld with pleasure :) by diverting the mind from its road of serious thoughts; by initilling gaiety and airiness of spirit; by provoking to such difpofitions of spirit in way of emulation or complaifance; and by seasoning matters, otherwise diftasteful or infipid, with an unusual and thence grateful tang."

by

1781.

Ætat. 72

!

by them. I hope Mr. Beauclerk intended, that some time or other that
Thould be the case with him.”

Mr. Wilkes said to me, loud enough for Dr. Johnson to hear, “Dr.
Johnson should make me a present of his 'Lives of the Poets,' as I am a
poor patriot who cannot afford to buy them.” Johnson feemed to take no
notice of this hint; but in a little while, he called to Mr. Dilly, Pray, Sir,
be so good as to send a set of my Lives to Mr. Wilkes, with my compli-
ments.” This was accordingly done ; and Mr. Wilkes paid Dr. Johnson a
visit, was courteously received, and fate with him a long time.

The company gradually dropped away. Mr. Dilly himself was called down stairs upon business; I left the room for some time; when I returned, I was itruck with observing Dr. Samuel Johnson and John Wilkes, Esq. literally tite à tête ; for they were reclined upon their chairs, with their heads leaning almost close to each other, and talking earnestly, in a kind of confidential whisper, of the personal quarrel between George the Second and the King of Prussia. Such a scene of perfectly easy fociality between two such opponents in the war of political controversy, as that which I now beheld, would have been an excellent subject for a picture. Ii presented to my mind the happy days which are foretold in Scripture, when the lion shall lye down with the kids.

After this day there was another pretty long interval, during which Dr.
Johnson and I did not meet. When I mentioned it to him with regret, he
was pleased to say, “ Then, Sir, let us live double.”

,
About this time it was much the fashion for several ladies to have evening
assemblies, where the fair sex might participate in conversation with literary and
ingenious men, animated by a desire to please. These societies were de-
nominated Blue-fiocking Clubs, the origin of which title being little known,

1781.

Etat. 72.

poem in which many of the persons who were most conspicuous there are mentioned.

Johnson was prevailed with to come sometimes into these circles, and did not think himself too grave even for the lively Miss Monckton (now Countess of Corke) who used to have the finest bit of blue at the house of her mother, Lady Galway. Her vivacity enchanted the Sage, and they used to talk together with all imaginable ease. A fingular instance happened one evening, when she insisted that some of Sterne's writings were very pathetick. Johnson bluntly denied it. “I am sure (faid she) they have affected me.”_" Why (faid Johnson, smiling, and rolling himself about) that is, because, dearest, you're a dunce.” When the some time afterwards mentioned this to him, he faid with equal truth and politeness ; “ Madam, if I had thought so, I cer

, , tainly should not have said it.”

Another evening Johnson's kind indulgence towards me had a pretty difficult trial. I had dined at the Duke of Montrose's, with a very agreeable party, and his Grace, according to his usual custom, had circulated the bottle very freely. Lord Graham and I went together to Miss Monckton's, where I certainly was in extraordinary spirits, and above all fear or awe. In the midst of a great number of persons of the first rank, amongst whom I recollect with confusion, a noble lady of the most stately decorum; I placed myself next to Johnson, and thinking myself now fully his match, talked to him in a loud and boisterous manner, desirous to let the company know how I could contend with Ajex. I particularly remember pressing him upon the value of the pleasures of the imagination, and as an illustration of my argument, asking him, “What, Sir, fupposing I were to fancy that the (naming the most charming Duchess in his Majesty's dominions) were in love with me, should I not be very happy?” My friend with much address evaded my interrogatories, and kept me as quiet as possible; but it may easily be conceived how he must have felt 4. When a few days afterwards

a