urged plausible objections to Dr. Robertson's excellent historical works, in the ardour of contest, than expressed his real and decided opinion; for it is not easy to suppose, that he should so widely differ from the rest of the literary world.

JOHNSON. "I remember once being with Goldsmith in Westminster Abbey. While we surveyed the Poets' Corner, I said to him,

'Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis.' (1)

When we got to Temple Bar he stopped me, pointed to the heads upon it, and slily whispered me,

"His

'Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur ISTIS.' (2) Johnson praised John Bunyan highly. 'Pilgrim's Progress' has great merit, both for invention, imagination, and the conduct of the story; and it has had the best evidence of its merit, the general and continued approbation of mankind. Few books, I believe, have had a more extensive sale. It is remarkable, that it begins very much like the poem of Dante; yet there was no translation of Dante when Bunyan wrote. There is reason to think that he had read Spenser."

A proposition which had been agitated, that monuments to eminent persons should, for the time to come, be erected in St. Paul's church, as well as in Westminster Abbey, was mentioned; and it was asked, who should be honoured by having his monument first erected there. Somebody suggested Pope.

(1) Ovid. de Art. Amand. i. iii. v. 13.

(2) In allusion to Dr. Johnson's supposed political principles, and perhaps his own.

JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, as Pope was a Roman Catholic, I would not have his to be first. I think Milton's rather should have the precedence. (1) I think more highly of him now than I did at twenty. There is more thinking in him and in Butler, than in any of our poets."

Some of the company expressed a wonder why the author of so excellent a book as "The Whole Duty of Man" should conceal himself. (2) JOHNSON. "There may be different reasons assigned for this, any one of which would be very sufficient. He may have been a clergyman, and may have thought that his religious counsels would have less weight when known to come from a man whose profession was theology. He may have been a man whose practice was not suitable to his principles, so that his character might injure the effect of his book, which he had written in a season of penitence. Or he may have been a man of rigid self-denial, so that he

(1) Here is another instance of his high admiration of Milton as a poet, notwithstanding his just abhorrence of that sour republican's political principles. His candour and discrimination are equally conspicuous. Let us hear no more of his "injustice to Milton."

(2) In a manuscript in the Bodleian Library several circumstances are stated, which strongly incline me to believe that Dr. Accepted Frewen, Archbishop of York, was the author of this work. - M.

See, on the subject of the author of this celebrated and excellent work, Gent. Mag. vol. xxiv. p. 26., and Ballard's Memoirs of Learned Ladies, p. 300. The late eccentric but learned Dr. Barrett, of Trinity College, Dublin, believed that Dr. Chapel, formerly provost of that college, was the author. Dr. Barrett was librarian of his college, and a perfect Magliabechi in slovenliness and erudition. It is odd, too, that Magliabechi's portrait is exceedingly like Dr. Barrett. — C.

would have no reward for his pious labours while in this world, but refer it all to a future state."

The gentlemen went away to their club, and I was left at Beauclerk's till the fate of my election should be announced to me. I sat in a state of anxiety which even the charming conversation of Lady Di Beauclerk could not entirely dissipate. In a short time I received the agreeable intelligence that I was chosen. I hastened to the place of meeting, and was introduced to such a society as can seldom be found. Mr. Edmund Burke, whom I then saw for the first time, and whose splendid talents had long made me ardently wish for his acquaintance; Dr. Nugent, Mr. Garrick, Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Jones, and the company with whom I had dined. Upon my entrance, Johnson placed himself behind a chair, on which he leaned as on a desk or pulpit, and with humourous formality gave me a charge, pointing out the conduct expected from me as a good member of this club.

Goldsmith produced some very absurd verses which had been publicly recited to an audience for money. JOHNSON. "I can match this nonsense. There was a poem called Eugenio,' which came out some years ago, and concludes thus : —

6

And now, ye trifling, self-assuming elves,
Brimful of pride, of nothing, of yourselves,
Survey Eugenio, view him o'er and o'er,

Then sink into yourselves, and be no more.' (1)

(1) Dr. Johnson's memory here was not perfectly accurate : "Eugenio" does not conclude thus. There are eight more

Nay, Dryden, in his poem on the Royal Society, has

Then we upon our globe's last verge shall go,

And see the ocean leaning on the sky;

From thence our rolling neighbours we shall know,
And on the lunar world securely pry.'

Talking of puns, Johnson, who had a great contempt for that species of wit, deigned to allow that there was one good pun in " Menagiana," I think on the word corps. (1)

lines after the last of those quoted by him; and the passage which he meant to recite is as follows:

"Say now, ye fluttering, poor assuming elves,
Stark full of pride, of folly, of yourselves;

Say, where's the wretch of all your impious crew
Who dares confront his character to view?
Behold Eugenio, view him o'er and o'er,

Then sink into yourselves, and be no more."

Mr. Reed informs me that the author of Eugenio, Thomas Beech, a wine-merchant at Wrexham in Denbighshire, soon after its publication, viz. May 17. 1737, cut his own throat; and that it appears by Swift's works, that the poem had been shown to him, and received some of his corrections. Johnson had read "Eugenio" on his first coming to town, for we see it mentioned in one of his letters to Mr. Cave, which has been inserted in this work.

(1) I formerly thought that I had perhaps mistaken the ⚫ word, and imagined it to be corps, from its similarity of sound to the real one. For an accurate and shrewd unknown gentleman, to whom I am indebted for some remarks on my work, observes on this passage: "Q. if not on the word, fort? A vociferous French preacher said of Bourdaloue, Il prêche fort bien, et moi bien fort.' - Menagiana. See also Anecdotes Littéraires, art. Bourdaloue." But my ingenious and obliging correspondent, Mr. Abercrombie of Philadelphia, has pointed out to me the following passage; which renders the preceding conjecture unnecessary, and confirms my original statement:

"Madame de Bourdonne, chanoinesse de Remiremont, venoit d'entendre un discours plein de feu et d'esprit, mais fort peu solide, et très-irrégulier. Une de ses amies, qui y prenoit intérêt pour l'orateur, lui dit en sortant, Eh bien, Madame, que vous semble-t-il de ce que vous venez d'entendre? Qu'il y a d'esprit ?' Il y a tant,' répondit Madame de Bourdonne, 'que je n'y ai pas vu de corps."" Menagiana, tome ii. p. 64.

Much pleasant conversation passed, which Johnson relished with great good humour. But his conversation alone, or what led to it, or was interwoven with it, is the business of this work.

On Saturday, May 1., we dined by ourselves at our old rendezvous, the Mitre tavern. He was placid, but not much disposed to talk. He observed, that “The Irish mix better with the English than the Scotch do; their language is nearer to English; as a proof of which, they succeed very well as players, which Scotchmen do not. Then, Sir, they have not that extreme nationality which we find in the Scotch. I will do you, Boswell, the justice to say, that you are the most unscottified of your countrymen. You are almost the only instance of a Scotchman that I have known, who did not at every other sentence bring in some other Scotchman." (1)

We drank tea with Mrs. Williams. I introduced a question which has been much agitated in the church of Scotland, whether the claim of lay-patrons to present ministers to parishes be well founded; ⚫ and supposing it to be well founded, whether it ought to be exercised without the concurrence of the people? That church is composed of a series of judicatures a presbytery,—a synod, and finally, a general assembly; before all of which, this matter may be contended: and in some cases the presbytery having refused to induct or settle, as they call it,

(1) Garrick, as Boswell himself tells us, used to rally him on his nationality, and there are abundant instances in these volumes to show that he was not exempt from that amiable prejudice.-C.