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At this time it appears from his " Prayers and Meditations," that he had been more than commonly diligent in religious duties, particularly in reading Etat. 63. the holy fcriptures. It was Paffion Week, that folemn feafon which the Christian world has appropriated to the commemoration of the mysteries of our redemption, and during which, whatever embers of religion are in our breafts, will be kindled into pious warmth.

I paid him fhort vifits both on Friday and Saturday, and feeing his large folio Greek Teftament before him, beheld him with a reverential awe, and would not intrude upon his time. While he was thus employed to fuch good purpose, and while his friends in their intercourfe with him conftantly found a vigorous intellect and a lively imagination, it is melancholy to read in his private register, "My mind is unfettled and my memory confufed. I have of late turned my thoughts with a very ufelefs earneftness upon paft incidents. I have yet got no command over my thoughts; an unpleafing incident is almost certain to hinder my reft?." What philofophick heroifm was it in him to appear with fuch manly fortitude to the world, while he was inwardly fo diftreffed! We may furely believe that the mysterious principle of being "made perfect through fuffering," was to be ftrongly exemplified in him.

On Sunday, April 19, being Eafter-day, General Paoli and I paid him a vifit before dinner. We talked of the notion that blind perfons can distinguish colours by the touch. Johnson faid, that Profeffor Sanderson mentions his having attempted to do it, but that he found he was aiming at an impoffibility; that to be fure a difference in the furface makes the difference of colours; but that difference is fo fine, that it is not fenfible to the touch. The General mentioned jugglers and fraudulent gamefters, who could know cards by the touch. Dr. Johnson said, "the cards used by such persons must be less polished than ours commonly are."

We talked of founds. The General faid, there was no beauty in a fimple found but only in an harmonious compofition of founds. I prefumed to differ from this opinion, and mentioned the foft and fweet found of a fine woman's voice. JOHNSON. "No, Sir, if a ferpent or a toad uttered it, you would think it ugly." BOSWELL. "So you would think, Sir, were a beautiful tune to be uttered by one of thofe animals." JOHNSON. "No, Sir, it would be admired. We have seen fine fidlers whom we liked as little as toads," (laughing).

Talking on the fubject of tafte in the arts, he faid, that difference of tafte was, in truth, difference of skill. BOSWELL. "But, Sir, is there not a quality

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1772.

Etat. 63.

called tafte, which confifts merely in perception or in liking? For instance, we find people differ much as to what is the best style of English compofition. Some think Swift's the beft; others prefer a fuller and grander way of writing." JOHNSON. "Sir, you must firft define what you mean by ftyle, before you can judge who has a good tafte in style, and who has a bad. The two claffes of perfons whom you have mentioned don't differ as to good and bad. They both agree that Swift has a good neat style; but one loves a neat ftyle, another loves a ftyle of more fplendour. In like manner, one loves a plain coat, another loves a laced coat; but neither will deny that each is good in its kind."

While I remained in London this fpring, I was with him at several other times, both by himself and in company. I dined with him one day at the Crown and Anchor tavern, in the Strand, with Lord Elibank, Mr. Langton, and Dr. Vanfittart of Oxford. Without specifying each particular day, I have preferved the following memorable things.

I regretted the reflection in his Preface to Shakspeare against Garrick, to whom we cannot but apply the following paffage: "I collated fuch copies as I could procure, and wifhed for more, but have not found the collectors of these rarities very communicative." I told him, that Garrick had complained to me of it, and had vindicated himself by affuring me, that Johnfon was made welcome to the full use of his collection, and that he left the key of it with a fervant, with orders to have a fire and every convenience for him. I found Johnson's notion was, that Garrick wanted to be courted for them, and that, on the contrary, Garrick fhould have courted him, and fent him the plays of his own accord. But, indeed, confidering the flovenly and careless manner in which books were treated by Johnson, it could not be expected that scarce and valuable editions fhould have been lent to him.

A gentleman having to fome of the ufual arguments for drinking added this: "You know, Sir, drinking drives away care, and makes us forget whatever is disagreeable. Would not you allow a man to drink for that reafon?” JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir, if he fat next you.”

I expreffed a liking for Mr. Francis Ofborn's works, and asked him what he thought of that writer. He answered, "A conceited fellow. Were a man to write fo now, the boys would throw ftones at him." He however did not alter my opinion of a favourite authour, to whom I was first directed by his being quoted in "The Spectator," and in whom I have found. much fhrewd and lively fenfe, expreffed indeed in a ftyle fomewhat quaint, which, however, I do not diflike. His book has an air of originality. We figure to ourselves an ancient gentleman talking to us.

When

1772.

When one of his friends endeavoured to maintain that a country gentleman might contrive to pafs his life very agreeably, "Sir, (faid he,) you cannot Etat. 63. give me an instance of any man who is permitted to lay out his own time, contriving not to have tedious hours." This obfervation, however, is equally applicable to gentlemen who live in cities, and are of no profession.

He said, "there is no permanent national character; it varies according to circumstances. Alexander the Great swept India: now the Turks fweep Greece."

A learned gentleman who in the course of conversation wished to inform us of this simple fact, that the Counsel upon the circuit at Shrewsbury were much bitten by fleas, took, I fuppofe, feven or eight minutes in relating it circumstantially. He in a plenitude of phrasfe told us, that large bales of woollen cloth were lodged in the town-hall;-that by reason of this, fleas neftled there in prodigious numbers;-that the lodgings of the Counsel were near to the town-hall;—and that those little animals moved from place to place with wonderful agility. Johnson fat in great impatience till the gentleman had finished his tedious narrative, and then burft out, "It is a pity, Sir, that your have not feen a lion; for a flea has taken you fuch a time, that a lion must have ferved you a twelvemonth."

He would not allow Scotland to derive any credit from Lord Mansfield; for he was educated in England. "Much (faid he,) may be made of a

Scotchman, if he be caught young.

Talking of a modern hiftorian and a modern moralift, he faid, "There is more thought in the moralift than in the historian. There is but a shallow ftream of thought in history." BOSWELL. "But furely, Sir, an hiftorian has reflection." JOHNSON. "Why yes, Sir; and so has a cat when she catches a mouse for her kitten. But fhe cannot write like the moralift; neither can the hiftorian."

He said, "I am very unwilling to read the manufcripts of authours, and give them my opinion. If the authours 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 bookfellers, 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 defire the bookfeller to take it away."

Mrs. Piozzi, to whom I told this anecdote, has related it, as if the gentleman had given "the natural hiftory of the mouse." Anecdotes, p. 191.

I mentioned

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1772. I mentioned a friend of mine who had refided long in Spain, and was Etat. 63, unwilling to return to Britain. JOHNSON. "Sir, he is attached to fome woman." BOSWELL. "I rather believe, Sir, it is the fine climate which keeps him there." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, how can you talk so? What is climate to happiness? Place me in the heart of Asia, should I not be exiled? What proportion does climate bear to the complex fyftem of human life. You may advise me to go and live at Bologna to eat faufages. The faufages there, are the best in the world; they lofe much by being carried."

On Saturday, May 9, Mr. Dempfter and I had agreed to dine by ourselves at the British coffee-houfe. Johnfon, on whom I happened to call in the morning, faid, he would join us, which he did, and we spent a very pleasant day, though I recollect but little of what paffed.

He faid, "Walpole was a minifter given by the King to the people: Pitt was a minister given by the people to the King,—as an adjunct.”

"The misfortune of Goldfmith in converfation is this: he goes on without knowing how he is to get off. His genius is great, but his knowledge is finall. As they say of a generous man, it is a pity he is not rich; we may fay of Goldfinith, it is a pity he is not knowing. He would not keep his knowledge to himself.”

Before leaving London this year, I confulted him upon a question purely of Scotch law. It was held of old, and continued for a long period, to be an established principle in that law, that whoever intermeddled with the effects of a perfon deceased, without the interpofition of legal authority to guard against embezzlement, should be subjected to pay all the debts of the deceased, as having been guilty of what was technically called vitious intromiffion. The Court of Seffion had gradually relaxed the ftrictnefs of this principle, where the interference proved had been inconfiderable. In a cafe which came before that Court the preceding winter, I had laboured to perfuade the Judges to return to the ancient law. It was my own fincere opinion, that they ought to adhere to it; but I had exhausted all my powers of reasoning in vain. Johnson thought as I did; and in order to affist me in my application to the Court for a revision and alteration of the judgement, he dictated to me the following argument:

"This, we are told, is a law which has its force only from the long practice of the Court; and may, therefore, be fufpended or modified as the Court fhall think proper.

"Concerning the power of the Court to make or to fufpend a law, we have no intention to inquire. It is fufficient for our purpose that every just law is

• Wilfon against Smith and Armour.

dictated

1772.

dictated by reason; and that the practice of every legal Court is regulated by equity. It is the quality of reafon to be invariable and conftant; and of Etat. 63. equity, to give to one man what, in the fame cafe, is given to another. The advantage which humanity derives from law is this: that the law gives every man a rule of action, and prefcribes a mode of conduct which fhall entitle him to the support and protection of fociety. That the law may be a rule of action, it is neceffary that it be known;-it is neceffary that it be permanent and stable. The law is the measure of civil right; but if the measure be changeable, the extent of the thing measured never can be fettled.

"To permit a law to be modified at difcretion, is to leave the community without law. It is to withdraw the direction of that publick wifdom, by which the deficiencies of private understanding are to be fupplied. It is to fuffer the rafh and ignorant to act at difcretion, and then to depend for the legality of that action on the sentence of the Judge. He that is thus governed, lives not by law, but by opinion: not by a certain rule to which he can apply his intention before he acts, but by an uncertain and variable opinion, which he can never know but after he has committed the act on which that opinion fhall be paffed. He lives by a law (if a law it be,) which he can never know before he has offended it. To this cafe may be juftly applied that important principle, mifera eft fervitus ubi jus eft aut incognitum aut vagum. If Intromiffion be not criminal till it exceeds a certain point, and that point be unsettled, and confequently different in different minds, the right of Intromiffion, and the right of the Creditor arifing from it, are all jura vaga, and, by confequence, are jura incognita; and the refult can be no other than a mifera fervitus, an uncertainty concerning the event of action, a fervile dependance on private opinion.

"It may be urged, and with great plaufibility, that there may be Intromiffion without fraud; which, however true, will by no means juftify an occasional and arbitrary relaxation of the law. The end of law is protection as well as vengeance. Indeed, vengeance is never used but to strengthen protection. That society only is well governed, where life is freed from danger and from fufpicion; where poffeffion is fo fheltered by falutary prohibitions, that violation is prevented more frequently than punished. Such a prohibition was this, while it operated with its original force. The creditor of the deceased was not only without lofs, but without fear. He was not to feek a remedy for an injury suffered; for injury was warded off.

"As the law has been fometimes adminiftered, it lays us open to wounds, because it is imagined to have the power of healing. To punish fraud when

it

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