gratitude, exaggerate their praises; and as this proceeded from a good motive, it was certainly excusable, as far as error could be excusable."

The king then asked him what he thought of Dr. Hill. Johnson answered, that he was an ingenious man, but had no veracity; and immediately mentioned, as an instance of it, an assertion of that writer, that he had seen objects magnified to a much greater degree by using three or four microscopes at a time than by using one. Now," added Johnson, " every one acquainted with microscopes knows, that the more of them he looks through, the less the object will appear.”* "Why," replied the king, "this is not only telling an untruth, but telling it clumsily; for, if that be the case, every one who can look through a microscope will be able to detect him."

I now," said Johnson to his friends, when relating what had passed, "began to consider that I was depreciating this man in the estimation of his sovereign, and thought it was time for me to say something that might be more favourable." He added, therefore, that Dr. Hill was, notwithstanding, a very curious observer; and if he would have been contented to tell the world no more than he knew, he might have been a very considerable man, and needed not to have recourse to such mean expedients to raise his reputation.

The king then talked of literary journals, mentioned particularly the Journal des Savans, and asked Johnson if it was well done. Johnson said,

*In this assertion, Johnson showed his own ignorance of the subject.-Ed.

it was formerly very well done; and gave some account of the persons who began it, and carried it on for some years; enlarging, at the same time, on the nature and use of such works. The king then asked him if it was well done now. Johnson answered, he had no reason to think that it was. The king then asked him if there were any other literary journals published in this kingdom, except the Monthly and Critical Reviews; and on being answeted, there was no other, his majesty asked which of them was the best: Johnson answered, that the Monthly Review was done with most care, the Critical upon the best principles; adding, that the authors of the Monthly Review were enemies to the church: this, the king said he was sorry to hear.

The conversation next turned on the Philosophical Transactions, when Johnson observed, that they had now a better method of arranging their materials than formerly. "Ay," said the king," they are obliged to Dr. Johnson for that;" for his majesty had heard and remembered the circumstance, which Johnson himself had forgot.

His majesty expressed a desire to have the literary biography of this country ably executed, and proposed to Dr. Johnson to undertake it. Johnson signified his readiness to comply with his majesty's wishes.

During the whole of this interview, Johnson talked to his majesty with profound respect, but still in his firm, manly manner, with a sonorous voice, and never in that subdued tone, which is commonly used at the levee, and in the drawing room. After the king withdrew, Johnson showed

himself highly pleased with his majesty's conver. sation and gracious behaviour. He said to Mr. Barnard, Sir, they may talk of the king as they will, but he is the finest gentleman I have ever seen." And he afterwards observed to Mr. Langton, "Sir, his manners are those of as a fine a gentleman as we may suppose Louis the Fourteenth, or Charles the Second."

Mrs. Montague, a lady distinguished for having written an Essay on Shakspeare, being mentioned: -REYNOLDS. "I think that Essay does her honour.” JOHNSON. "Yes, sir, it does her honour, but it would do nobody else honour. I have, indeed, not read it all; but when I take up the end of a web, and find it packthread, I do not expect, by looking farther, to find embroidery. Sir, I will venture to say, there is not one sentence of true criticism in her book." GARRICK. "But, sir, surely it shows how much Voltaire has mistaken Shakspeare, which nobody else has done." JOHNSON. Sir, nobody else has thought it worth while; and what merit is there in that? You may as well praise a school-master for whipping, a boy who has construed ill. No, sir, there is no real criticism in it; none, showing the beauty of thought, as formed on the workings of the human heart."*

Johnson proceeded-" The Scotchman has taken the right method in his Elements of Criticism. I do not mean that he has taught us any thing; but he has told us old things in a new way." MURPHY. "He seems to have read a great deal of Freuch

• As an answer, however, to Voltaire, Johnson allowed it the merit of being conclusive ad hominem.

criticism, and wants to make it his own; as if he had been for years anatomising the heart of man, and peeping into every cranny of it." GOLDSMITH. "It is easier to write that book than to read it." JOHNSON." We have an example of true criticism in Burke's Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful; and, if I recollect, there is also Du Bos; and Bouhours, who shows all beauty to depend on truth. There is no great merit in telling how many plays have ghosts in them, and how this ghost is better than that. You must show how terror is impressed on the human heart.-In the description of night in Macbeth, the beetle and the bat detract from the general idea of darkness,-inspissated gloom."

Johnson spoke unfavourably of a certain pretty voluminous author, saying, "He used to write anonymous books, and then other books commending those books, in which there was something of rascality."

He said, "I am very unwilling to read the manuscripts of authors, and give them my opinion. If the authors who apply to me have money, I bid them boldly print without a name; if they have written in order to get money, I tell them to go to the booksellers, and make the best bargain they can." BOSWELL. "But, sir, if a bookseller should 'bring you a manuscript to look at ?" JOHNSON. "Why, sir, I would desire the bookseller to take it away."

He talked with approbation of an intended edition of the Spectator, with notes; two volumes of which had been prepared by a gentleman eminent in the literary world, and the materials which he had collected for the remainder had been trausfer

red to another hand. He observed, that all works, which describe manners, require notes in sixty or seventy years, or less; and told us, he had communicated all he knew that could throw.light upon the Spectator. He said, Addison had made his sir Andrew Freeport a true Whig, arguing against giving charity to beggars, and throwing out other such ungracious sentiments; but that he had thought better, and made amends by making him found an hospital for decayed farmers. He called for the volume of the Spectator, in which that account is contained, and read it aloud to the company he read so well, that every thing acquired additional weight and grace from his utterance.

"What an expense, sir," said Boswell to him, "do you put us to, in buying books to which you have written prefaces or dedications!" JOHNSON. "Why I have dedicated to the royal family all round; that is to say, to the last generation of the royal family." GOLDSMITH." And, perhaps, sir, not one sentence of wit in a whole dedication." JOHNSON. "Perhaps not, sir." BOSWELL. "What then is the reason for applying to a particular person to do that which any one may do as well?” JOHNSON. "Why, sir, one man has greater readi. ness at doing it than another."

Mr. Andrew Stuart's elegant and plausible Letters to lord Mansfield, a copy of which had been sent by the author to Dr. Johnson, were mentioned. JOHNSON. "They have not answered the end: they have not been talked of; I have never heard of them. This is owing to their not being sold: people seldom read a book which is given to them; and few are given. The way to spread a work is to