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themselves so widely in dissertation, are as just pictures of human nature, and I will venture to say, have more striking features, and nicer touches of the pencil; and though Johnson used to quote with approbation a saying of Richardson's, "that the virtues of Fielding's heroes were the vices of a truly good man," I will venture to add, that the moral tendency of Fielding's writings, though it does not encourage a strained and rarely possible virtue, is ever favourable to honour and honesty, and cherishes the benevolent and generous affections. He who is as good as Fielding would make him, is an amiable member of society, and may be led on by more regulated instructors, to a higher state of ethical perfection. (1)

Johnson proceeded; "Even Sir Francis Wronghead (2) is a character of manners, though drawn with great humour." He then repeated, very happily, all Sir Francis's credulous account to Manly of his being with "the great man," and securing a place. I asked him, if "The Suspicious Husband" (3) did

(1) Johnson was inclined, as being personally acquainted with Richardson, to favour the opinion of his admirers that he was acquainted with the inmost recesses of the human heart, and had an absolute command over the passions; but he seemed not firm in it, and could at any time be talked into a disapprobation of all fictitious relations, of which he would frequently say, they took no hold of the mind. - HAWKINS.

(2) [In the comedy of The Provoked Husband, begun by Sir John Vanbrugh and finished by Colley Cibber.]

(3) [By Dr. Benjamin Hoadly. Garrick's inimitable performance of Ranger was the main support of the piece during its first run. George II. was so well pleased with this comedy, that he sent the author one hundred pounds.]

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not furnish a well-drawn character, that of Ranger. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; Ranger is just a rake, a mere rake, and a lively young fellow, but no character."

The great Douglas Cause was at this time a very general subject of discussion. I found he had not studied it with much attention (1), but had only heard parts of it occasionally. He, however, talked of it, and said, "I am of opinion that positive proof of fraud should not be required of the plaintiff, but that the Judges should decide according as probability shall appear to preponderate, granting to the defendant the presumption of filiation to be strong in his faAnd I think too, that a good deal of weight should be allowed to the dying declarations, because they were spontaneous. There is a great difference between what is said without our being urged to it, and what is said from a kind of compulsion. IfI praise a man's book without being asked my opinion of it, that is honest praise, to which one may trust. But if an author asks me if I like his book, and I give him something like praise, it must not be taken as my real opinion."

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"I have not been troubled for a long time with authors desiring my opinion of their works. I used once to be sadly plagued with a man who wro:e verses, but who literally had no other notion of a verse, but that it consisted of ten syllables. Lay

(1) [Boswell, who was counsel on the side of Mr. Doug as, had published, in 1766, a pamphlet entitled the "Essence of the Douglas Cause," but which, it will be seen, post, April 27. 1773, he could not induce Johnson even to read.]

your knife and your fork across your plate, was to him a verse:

"Lay your knife and your fōrk across your plāte."

As he wrote a great number of verses, he sometimes by chance made good ones, though he did not know it." (1)

He renewed his promise of coming to Scotland, and going with me to the Hebrides, but said he would now content himself with seeing one or two of the most curious of them. He said, "Macaulay, who writes the account of St. Kilda, set out with a prejudice against prejudice, and wanted to be a smart modern thinker; and yet he affirms for a truth, that

(1) Dr. Johnson did not like that his friends should bring their manuscripts for him to read, and he liked still less to read them when they were brought: sometimes, however, when he could not refuse, he would take the play or poem, or whatever it was, and give the people his opinion from some one page that he had peeped into. A gentleman carried him his tragedy, which, because he loved the author, Johnson took, and it lay about our rooms at Streatham some time. "What answer did you give your friend, Sir?" asked I, after the book had been called for. "I told him," replied he, "that there was too much Tig and Tirry in it." Seeing me laugh most violently, “Why, what wouldst have, child?" said he; "I looked at nothing but the dramatis, and there was Tigranes and Tiridates, or Teribazus, or such stuff. A man can tell but what he knows, and I never got any farther than the first page." Piozzi.

and

In Mr. Murphy's tragedy of Zenobia, acted in 1768, there are two personages named Tigranes and Teribazus. There was a serious difference between Murphy and Garrick, in which Bickerstaff employed Dr. Johnson as a mediator; in consequence of the reconciliation thus effected, Zenobia was played. It was, no doubt, on this occasion, that the MS. was entrusted to Johnson. At the reconciliation dinner at Bickerstaff's, the last plays happening to be mentioned, Johnson said, "Prithee do not talk of plays; if you do, you will quarrel again." He was, Murphy confessed, a true prophet; for they were always quarrelling. See Foot's Life of Murphy, P. 208.. CROKER.

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when a ship arrives there all the inhabitants are seized with a cold."

Dr. John Campbell, the celebrated writer (1), took a great deal of pains to ascertain this fact, and attempted to account for it on physical principles, from the effect of effluvia from human bodies. Johnson, at another time [March 21.1772], praised Macaulay for his "magnanimity," in asserting this wonderful story, because it was well attested. A lady of Norfolk, by a letter [Oct. 2. 1773] to my friend Dr. Burney, has favoured me with the following solution:

"Now for the explication of this seeming mystery, which is so very obvious as, for that reason, to have escaped the penetration of Dr. Johnson and his friend, as well as that of the author. Reading the book with my ingenious friend, the late Rev. Mr. Christian of Docking after ruminating a little, 'The cause,' says he, ‘is a natural one. The situation of St. Kilda renders a northeast wind indispensably necessary before a stranger can land. The wind, not the stranger, occasions an epidemic cold. If I am not mistaken, Mr. Macaulay is dead; if living, this solution might please him, as I hope it will Mr. Boswell, in return for the many agreeable hours his works have afforded us."

Johnson expatiated on the advantages of Oxford for learning. "There is here, Sir," said he, "such a progressive emulation. The students are anxious appear well to their tutors; the tutors are anxious to have their pupils appear well in the college; the colleges are anxious to have their students appear

to

(1) [See antè, Vol. II. p. 195.]

well in the university; and there are excellent rules of discipline in every college. That the rules are sometimes ill observed may be true, but is nothing against the system. The members of an university may, for a season, be unmindful of their duty. I am arguing for the excellency of the institution."

Of Guthrie, he said, "Sir, he is a man of parts. He has no great regular fund of knowledge; but by reading so long, and writing so long, he no doubt has picked up a good deal."

He said he had lately been a long while at Lichfield, but had grown very weary before he left it. BOSWELL. "I wonder at that, Sir; it is your native place." JOHNSON. "Why so is Scotland your native place."

His prejudice against Scotland appeared remarkably strong at this time. (1) When I talked of our advancement in literature, "Sir," said he, " you have learnt a little from us, and you think yourselves very great men. Hume would never have written history, had not Voltaire written it before him. He is an echo of Voltaire." BosWELL. "But, Sir, we have lord Kames. JOHNSON. "You have lord Kames. Keep him; ha, ha, ha! We don't envy you him. Do you ever see Dr. Robertson?" BOSWELL. "Yes, Sir." JOHNSON. "Does the dog talk of me?" BOSWELL. "Indeed, Sir, he does,

(1) [Johnson's invectives against Scotland, in common conversation, were more in pleasantry and sport than real and malignant; for no man was more visited by natives of that country, nor were there any for whom he had a greater esteem. It was to Dr. Grainger, a Scottish physician, that I owed my first acquaintance with Johnson, in 1756. — PERCY.]

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