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1769.

herself that the cups were full enough, was a little aukward: fhe put her Etat. 60. finger down a certain way, till fhe felt the tea touch it. In my first elation at being allowed the privilege of attending Dr. Johnson at his late vifits to this lady, which was like being è fecretioribus confiliis, I willingly drank cup after cup, as if it had been the Heliconian fpring. But as the charm of novelty went off, I grew more faftidious; and befides, I discovered that she was of a peevish temper.

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There was a pretty large circle this evening. Dr. Johnson was in very good humour, lively, and ready to talk upon all fubjects. Mr. Ferguffon, the selftaught philofopher, told him of a new-invented machine which went without horfes: a man who fat in it turned a handle, which worked a spring that drove it forward. "Then, Sir, (faid Johnson,) what is gained is, the man has his choice whether he will move himfelf alone, or himself and the machine too." Dominicetti being mentioned, he would not allow him any merit. "There is nothing in all this boasted system. No, Sir; medicated baths can be no better than warm water: their only effect can be that of tepid moisture.” One of the company took the other fide, maintaining that medicines of various forts, and fome too of moft powerful effect, are introduced into the human frame by the medium of the pores; and, therefore, when warm water is impregnated with falutiferous fubftances, it may produce great effects as a bath. This appeared to me very fatisfactory. Johnfon did not answer it but talking for victory, and determined to be master of the field, he had recourse to the device which Goldfmith imputed to him in the witty words of one of Cibber's comedies: "There is no arguing with Johnfon; for when his piftol miffes fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it." He turned to the gentleman, "Well, Sir, go to Dominicetti, and get thyfelf fumigated; but be sure that the steam be directed to thy head, for that is the peccant part.” This produced a triumphant roar of laughter from the motley affembly of philofophers, printers, and dependents, male and female.

I know not how fo whimsical a thought came into my mind, but I asked, "If, Sir, you were fhut up in a castle, and a new-born child with you, what would you do?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, I fhould not much like my company." BOSWELL. "But would you take the trouble of rearing it?" He feemed, as may well be fuppofed, unwilling to pursue the fubject; but upon my perfevering in my question, replied, "Why yes, Sir, I would; but I must have all conveniencies. If I had no garden, I would make a shed on the roof, and take it there for fresh air. I should feed it, and wash it much, and with warm water to please it, not with cold water to give it pain." BOSWELL." But,

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Sir, does not heat relax?" JOHNSON. "Sir, you are not to imagine the water is to be very hot. I would not coddle the child. No, Sir, the hardy tat. 69. method of treating children does no good. I'll take you five children from London, who shall cuff five Highland children. Sir, a man bred in London will carry a burthen, or run, or wrestle, as well as a man brought up in the hardiest manner in the country." BOSWELL. "Good living, I suppose, makes the Londoners ftrong.' JOHNSON." Why, Sir, I don't know that it does. Our chairmen from Ireland, who are as ftrong men as any, have been brought up upon potatoes. Quantity makes up for quality." BOSWELL. "Would you teach this child that I have furnished you with, any thing?" JOHNSON. "No, I fhould not be apt to teach it." BOSWELL. "Would not you have a pleasure in teaching it?" JOHNSON. "No, Sir, I fhould not have a pleasure in teaching it." BOSWELL. "Have you not a pleasure in teaching men?— There I have you. You have the fame pleasure in teaching men, that I should have in teaching children." JOHNSON. "Why, fomething about that."

BOSWELL. "Do you think, Sir, that what is called natural affection is born with us? It seems to me to be the effect of habit, or of gratitude for kindness. No child has it for a parent whom it has not feen." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, I think there is an instinctive natural affection in parents towards their children."

Ruffia being mentioned as likely to become a great empire, by the rapid increase of population;-JOHNSON. “ Why, Sir, I fee no prospect of their propagating more. They can have no more children than they can get. I know of no way to make them breed more than they do. It is not from reafon and prudence that people marry, but from inclination. A man is poor; he thinks, I cannot be worse, and fo I'll e'en take Peggy." BOSWELL. "But have not nations been more populous at one period than another?" JOHNSON. Yes, Sir; but that has been owing to the people being lefs thinned at one period than another, whether by emigrations, war, or peftilence, not by their being more or less prolifick. Births at all times bear the fame proportion to the fame number of people." BOSWELL. "But, to consider the state of our own country;-does not throwing a number of farms into one hand hurt population?" JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir; the fame quantity of food being produced, will be confumed by the fame number of mouths, though the people may be difpofed of in different ways. We fee, if corn be dear, and butchers' meat cheap, the farmers all apply themselves to the raising of corn, till it becomes plentiful and cheap, and then butchers' meat becomes dear; so that an equality is always preferved. No, Sir, let fanciful men do as

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they will, depend upon it, it is difficult to disturb the system of life." BOSWELL. "But, Sir, is it not a very bad thing for landlords to oppress their tenants, by raifing their rents?" JOHNSON. "Very bad. But, Sir, it never can have any general influence; it may diftrefs fome individuals. For confider this: landlords cannot do without tenants. Now tenants will not give more for land than land is worth. If they can make more of their money by keeping a fhop, or any other way, they'll do it, and fo oblige landlords to let land come back to a reasonable rent, in order that they may get tenants. Land, in England, is an article of commerce. A tenant who pays his landlord his rent, thinks himself no more obliged to him than you think yourself obliged to a man in whofe fhop you buy a piece of goods. He knows the landlord does not let him have his land for less than he can get from others, in the fame manner as the fhopkeeper fells his goods. No fhopkeeper fells a yard of ribband for fix-pence, when seven-pence is the current price." Boswell. "But, Sir, is it not better that tenants fhould be dependent on landlords?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, as there are many more tenants than landlords, perhaps, ftrictly speaking, we should wifh not. But if you please you may let your lands cheap, and fo get the value, part in money and part in homage. I fhould agree with you in that." BOSWELL." So, Sir, you laugh at schemes of political improvement." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things."

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He obferved, "Providence has wifely ordered that the more numerous men are, the more difficult it is for them to agree in any thing, and fo they are governed. There is no doubt, that if the poor fhould reafon, We'll be the poor no longer, we'll make the rich take their turn,' they could easily do it, were it not that they can't agree. So the common foldiers, though fo much more numerous than their officers, are governed by them for the fame reafon."

He faid, "Mankind have a strong attachment to the habitations to which they have been accustomed. You fee the inhabitants of Norway do not with one confent quit it, and go to fome part of America, where there is a mild climate, and where they may have the fame produce from land, with the tenth part of the labour. No, Sir; their affection for their old dwellings, and the terrour of a general change, keep them at home. Thus, we fee Thus, we see many of the finest spots in the world thinly inhabited, and inhabited."

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The London Chronicle, which was the only newspaper he conftantly took in, being brought, the office of reading it aloud was affigned to me.

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I was diverted

diverted by his impatience. He made me pass over so many parts of it, that 1769. my task was very eafy. He would not fuffer one of the petitions to the King Etat. 60. about the Middlefex election to be read.

I had hired a Bohemian as my fervant while I remained in London, and being much pleased with him, I asked Dr. Johnson whether his being a Roman Catholick fhould prevent my taking him with me to Scotland. JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir. If he has no objection, you can have none." BoSWELL. "So, Sir, you are no great enemy to the Roman Catholick religion." JOHNSON. "No more, Sir, than to the Prefbyterian religion." Boswell. "You are joking." JOHNSON. "No, Sir, I really think, fo. Nay, Sir, of the two, I prefer the Popish." BOSWELL. "How fo, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, the Prefbyterians have no church, no apoftolical ordination." BOSWELL. "And do you think that abfolutely effential, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, as it was an apoftolical inftitution, I think it is dangerous to be without it. And, Sir, the Prefbyterians have no publick worship: they have no form of prayer in which they know they are to join. They go to hear a man pray, and are to judge whether they will join with him." Boswell. "But, Sir, their doctrine is the fame with that of the Church of England. Their confeffion of faith, and the thirty-nine articles, contain the fame points, even the doctrine of predeftination." JOHNSON. "Why yes, Sir; predeftination was a part of the clamour of the times, fo it is mentioned in our articles, but with as little pofitiveness as could be." BOSWELL. "Is it neceffary, Sir, to believe all the thirty-nine articles?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, that is a question which has been much agitated. Some have thought it neceffary that they should all be believed; others have confidered them to be only articles of peace, that is to say, you are not to preach against them." BOSWELL. "It appears to me, Sir, that predeftination, or what is equivalent to it, cannot be avoided, if we hold an univerfal presence in the Deity.” JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, does not God every day fee things going on without preventing them?" BOSWELL. "True, Sir; but if a thing be certainly foreseen, it must be fixed, and cannot happen otherwife; and if we apply this confideration to the human mind, there is no free will, nor do I fee how prayer can be of any avail." He mentioned Dr. Clarke, and Bishop Bramhall on Liberty and Neceffity, and bid me read South's fermons on Prayer; but avoided the question which has excruciated philofophers and divines, beyond any other. I did not prefs it further, when I perceived that he was difpleased, and fhrunk from any abridgement of an attribute ufually afcribed to the Divinity, however irreconcileable in its full extent with the grand fyftem

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of moral government. His fuppofed orthodoxy here cramped the vigorous Etat. 60. powers of his understanding. He was confined by a chain which early imagination and long habit made him think maffy and strong, but which, had he ventured to try, he could at once have fnapt afunder.

I proceeded: “ What do you think, Sir, of Purgatory, as believed by the Roman Catholicks?" JOHNSON. Why, Sir, it is a very harmless doctrine. They are of opinion that the generality of mankind are neither fo obftinately wicked as to deserve everlasting punishment, nor fo good as to merit being admitted into the fociety of bleffed fpirits; and therefore that God is graciously pleased to allow of a middle state, where they may be purified by certain degrees of fuffering. You fee, Sir, there is nothing unreasonable in this." BOSWELL. "But then, Sir, their maffes for the dead?" JOHNSON. Why, Sir, if it be once established that there are fouls in purgatory, it is as proper to pray for them, as for our brethren of mankind who are yet in this life." BOSWELL. "The idolatry of the Mass ?"—JOHNSON. "Sir, there is no idolatry in the Mafs. They believe GOD to be there, and they adore him." BOSWELL. "The worship of Saints ?"-JOHNSON. "Sir, they do not worship faints; they invoke them; they only ask their prayers. I am talking all this time of the doctrines of the church of Rome. I grant you that in practice, Purgatory is made a lucrative imposition, and that the people do become idolatrous as they recommend themselves to the tutelary protection of particular faints. I think their giving the facrament only in one kind is criminal, because it is contrary to the exprefs inftitution of CHRIST, and I wonder how the Council of Trent admitted it." BOSWELL. "Confeffion?"-JOHNSON. Why, I don't know but that is a good thing. The fcripture fays, Confefs your faults one to another;' and the priests confefs as well as the laity. Then it must be considered that their abfolution is only upon repentance, and often upon penance alfo. You think your fins may be forgiven without penance, upon repentance alone."

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I thus ventured to mention all the common objections against the Roman Catholick Church, that I might hear fo great a man upon them. What he faid is here accurately recorded. But it is not improbable that if one had taken the other fide, he might have reafoned differently.

I must however mention, that he had a respect for "the old religion," as the mild Melancthon called that of the Roman Catholick Church, even while he was exerting himself for its reformation in fome particulars. Sir William Scott informs me, that he heard Johnfon fay, "A man who is converted from Protestantism to Popery, may be fincere: he parts with nothing: he is only fuperadding to what he already had. But a convert from Popery to Protestantism

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