assume.

that he would say what the mimick says in his. character."-B. "I don't think Foote a good mimick, Sir."-J. "No, Sir; his imitations are not like. He gives you something different from himself, but not the character which he means to He goes out of himself, without going into other people. He cannot take off any person unless he is strongly marked, such as George Faulkner. He is like a painter who can draw the portrait of a man who has a wen upon his face, and who, therefore, is easily known. If a man hops upon one leg, Foote can hop upon one leg. But he has not that nice discrimination which your friend seems to possess. Foote is, however, very entertaining, with a kind of conversation between wit and buffoonery."

At another time he said, "Garrick's gaiety of conversation has delicacy and elegance; Foote makes you laugh more: but Foote has the air of a buffoon paid for entertaining the company. He, indeed, well deserves his hire."

Of Mr. Wilkes Johnson one day said, “ Did we not hear so much said of Jack Wilkes, we should think more highly of his conversation. Jack has great variety of talk, Jack is a scholar, and Jack has the manners of a gentleman. But after hearing his name sounded from pole to pole, as the phoenix of convivial felicity, we are disappointed in his company. He has always

been at me; but I would do Jack a kindness rather than not. The contest is now over."

"The value of every story (he said) depended on its being true. A story is a picture either of an individual or of human nature in general: if it be false, it is a picture of nothing. For instance : suppose a man should tell that Johnson, before setting out for Italy, as he had to cross the Alps, sat down to make himself wings. This many people would believe; but it would be a picture of nothing. ******* (naming a worthy friend of ours) used to think a story a story, till I shewed him that truth was essential to it."

"Questioning (he once remarked) is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen. It is assuming a superiority, and it is particularly wrong to question a man concerning himself. There may be parts of his former life which he may not wish to be made known to other persons, or even brought to his own recollection."

Mr. Langton having repeated the anecdote of Addison having distinguished between his powers in conversation and in writing, by saying, "I have only nine-pence in my pocket; but I can draw for a thousand pounds," Johnson said, “He had not that retort ready, Sir; he had prepared it before hand."-LANGTON. (turning to Mr. Boswell) "A fine surmise. Set a thief to catch a thief."

A gentleman who introduced his brother to Dr. Johnson was earnest to recommend him to the Doctor's notice, which he did by saying, "When we have sat together some time, you'll find my brother grow very entertaining."-" Sir, (said Johnson) I can wait.'

Mrs. Thrale one day gave high praise to a Mr. Long-JOHNSON. "Nay, my dear Lady, don't talk so. Mr. Long's character is very short. It is nothing. He fills a chair. He is a man of genteel appearance, and that is all. I know nobody who blasts by praise as you do; for whenever there is exaggerated praise, every body is set against a character. They are provoked to attack it. Now there is *****; you praised that man with so much disproportion, that I was incited to lessen him, perhaps more than he deserves. His blood is upon your head. By the same principle, your malice defeats itself; for your censure is too violent. And yet (looking to her with a leering smile) she is the first woman in the world, could she but restrain that wicked tongue of hers;-she would be the only woman, could she but command that little whirligig."

Mrs. Thrale mentioned a gentleman who had acquired a fortune of four thousand a year in trade, but was absolutely miserable because he could not talk in company. "I am a most unhappy man (said he). I am invited to conversa

This

tions; I go to conversations; but, alas! I have no conversation."- JOHNSON. "Man commonly cannot be successful in different ways. gentleman has spent, in getting four thousand pounds a year, the time in which he might have learned to talk; and now he cannot talk." Mr. Perkins made a droll remark: "If he had got his four thousand a year as a mountebank, he might have learnt to talk at the same time that he was getting his fortune."

Some other gentlemen came in. The conversation concerning the person whose character Dr. Johnson had treated so slightingly, as he did not know his merit, was resumed. Mrs. Thrale said "You think so of him, Sir, because he is quiet, and does not exert himself with force.You'll be saying the same thing of Mr. ***** there, who sits as quiet-" This was not well bred; and Johnson did not let it pass without correction. Nay, Madam (said he), what right have you to talk thus? Both Mr. ***** and I have reason to take it ill. You may talk so of Mr. *****, but why do you make me do it? Have I said any thing against Mr. *****? You have set him, that I might shoot him: but I have not shot him."

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Mr. Beauclerk had such a propensity to satire, that at one time Johnson said to him, "You never open your mouth but with intention to

give pain; and you have often given have often given me pain, not from the power of what you said, but from seeing your intention." At another time applying to

him, with a slight alteration, a line of Pope, he said, "Thy love of folly, and thy scorn of foolsEvery thing thou dost shews the one, and every thing thou say'st the other." At another time he said to him," Thy body is all vice, and thy mind all virtue."

"Demosthenes Taylor, as he was called (that is, the Editor of Demosthenes)," said Johnson, 66 was the most silent man, the merest statue of a man that I have ever seen. I once dined in company with him, and all he said during the whole time was no more than Richard. How a man should say only Richard, it is not easy to imagine. But it was thus; Dr. Douglas was talking of Dr. Zachary Grey, and ascribing to him something that was written by Dr. Richard Grey; so to correct him, Taylor said (imitating his affected sententious emphasis and nod), Richard."

At another time, talking of oratory, Mr. Wilkes, who was of the party, described it as accompanied with all the charms of poetical expression.— JOHNSON, "No, Sir; oratory is the power of beating down your adversary's arguments, and putting better in their place."-Wilkes. "But this does not move the passions."-JOHNSON. "He must be a weak man who is to be so