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Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Bickerstaff (1), and Mr. Thomas Davies. Garrick played round him with a fond vivacity, taking hold of the breasts of his coat, and, looking up in his face with a lively archness, complimented him on the good health which he seemed then to enjoy; while the sage, shaking his head, beheld him with a gentle complacency. One of the company not being come at the appointed hour, I proposed, as usual upon such occasions, to order dinner to be served; adding, "Ought six people to be kept waiting for one?" Why, yes," answered Johnson, with a delicate humanity, "if the one will suffer more by your sitting down, than the six will do by waiting." Goldsmith, to divert the tedious minutes, strutted about, bragging of his dress, and I believe was seriously vain of it, for his mind was wonderfully prone to such impressions. "Come, come," said Garrick, "talk no more of that. You are, perhaps, the worst-eh, eh!"- Goldsmith was eagerly attempting to interrupt him, when Garrick went on, laughing ironically, "Nay, you will always look like a gentleman; but I am talking of being well or ill drest." "Well, let me tell you," said Goldsmith,

(1) Isaac Bickerstaff, a native of Ireland, the author of "Love in a Village," "Lionel and Clarissa," the "Spoiled Child," and several other theatrical pieces of considerable merit and continued popularity. This unhappy man was obliged to fly the country, on suspicion of a capital crime, on which occasion Mrs. Piozzi relates, that "when Mr. Bickerstaff's flight confirmed the report of his guilt, and Mr. Thrale said, in answer to Johnson's astonishment, that he had long been a suspected man, By those who look close to the ground dirt will be seen, Sir,' was the lofty reply: I hope I see things from a greater distance.'" Piozzi, p. 130.-C.

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"when my tailor brought home my bloom-coloured coat, he said, Sir, I have a favour to beg of you. When any body asks you who made your clothes, be pleased to mention John Filby, at the Harrow, in Water Lane.' JOHNSON." Why, Sir, that was because he knew the strange colour would attract crowds to gaze at it, and thus they might hear of him, and see how well he could make a coat even of so absurd a colour."

After dinner our conversation first turned upon Pope. Johnson said, his characters of men were admirably drawn, those of women not so well. He repeated to us, in his forcible, melodious manner, the concluding lines of the Dunciad. (1) While he was talking loudly in praise of those lines, one of the company ventured to say, "Too fine for such a poem :-a poem on what?" JOHNSON (with a disdainful look), "Why, on dunces. It was worth while being a dunce then. Ah, Sir, hadst thou lived in those days! (2) It is not worth

(1) ["Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored;
Light dies before thy uncreating word:

Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall;
And universal darkness buries all."]

Mr. Langton informed me that he once related to Johnson (on the authority of Spence) that Pope himself admired those lines so much, that when he repeated them his voice faltered: "And well it might, Sir," said Johnson, "for they are noble lines."-J. BoSWELL, jun.

(2) [Boswell once lamented that he had not lived in the Augustan age of England, when Pope and others flourished. Sir Joshua Reynolds thought that Boswell had no right to complain, as it were better to be alive than dead. Johnson said, 'No, Sir, Boswell is in the right; as, perhaps, he has lost the opportunity of having his name immortalised in the Dunciad.' NORTHCOTE'S Life of Reynolds, vol. ii. p. 189.]

while being a dunce now, when there are no wits." Bickerstaff observed, as a peculiar circumstance, that Pope's fame was higher when he was alive than it was then. Johnson said, his Pastorals were poor things, though the versification was fine. He told us, with high satisfaction, the anecdote of Pope's inquiring who was the author of his "London," and saying, he will be soon deterré. He observed, that in Dryden's poetry there were passages drawn from a profundity which Pope could never reach. He repeated some fine lines on love, by the former, which I have now forgotten (1), and gave great applause to the character of Zimri. (2) Goldsmith said, that Pope's character of Addison shewed a deep knowledge of the human heart. Johnson said, that the description of the temple, in "The Mourn

(1) No doubt one of the many splendid passages on the subject of love in Dryden's Fables; probably that which Johnson quotes in the "Life of Dryden," though it is by no means the most beautiful that might be selected." C.

["Love various minds does variously inspire:
It stirs in gentle bosoms gentle fire,
Like that of incense on the altar laid;
But raging flames tempestuous souls invade;
A fire which every windy passion blows,

With pride it mounts, or with revenge it glows."]

(2) The Duke of Buckingham, in "Absalom and Achitophel: "-C.

["A man so various that he seem'd to be

Not one, but all mankind's epitome:
Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong;
Was every thing by starts, and nothing long;
But, in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon,
Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking,
Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking."]

ing Bride," (1) was the finest poetical passage he had ever read; he recollected none in Shakspeare equal to it. -"But," said Garrick, all alarmed for "the God of his idolatry," 66 we know not the extent and variety of his powers. We are to suppose there are such passages in his works. Shakspeare must not suffer from the badness of our memories." Johnson, diverted by this enthusiastic jealousy, went on with great ardour: " No, Sir; Congreve has nature" (smiling on the tragick eagerness of Garrick); but composing himself, he added, "Sir, this is not comparing Congreve on the whole with Shakspeare on the whole; but only maintaining that Congreve has one finer passage than any that can be found in Shakspeare. Sir, a man may have no more than ten guineas in the world, but he may have those ten guineas in one piece; and so may have a finer piece than a man who has ten thousand pound: but then he has only one ten-guinea piece. -What I mean is, that you can shew me no passage where there is simply a description of material objects, without any intermixture of moral notions (2), which

(1) ["How reverend is the face of this tall pile,

Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads,
To bear aloft its arch'd and pond'rous roof,
By its own weight made stedfast and unmoveable,
Looking tranquillity! It strikes an awe
And terror on my aching sight. The tombs
And monumental caves of death look cold,
And shoot a chilness to my trembling heart!"
Act ii. sc. 1.]

(2) In Congreve's description there seems to be an intermixture of moral notions; as the affecting power of the passage arises from the vivid impression of the described objects on the mind of the speaker: "And shoot a chilness," &c.-KEARNEY.

produces such an effect." Mr. Murphy mentioned Shakspeare's description of the night before the battle of Agincourt; but it was observed it had men in it. Mr. Davies suggested the speech of Juliet, in which she figures herself awaking in the tomb of her ancestors. Some one mentioned the description of Dover Cliff. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; it should be all precipice,—all vacuum. The crows impede your fall. The diminished appearance of the boats, and other circumstances, are all very good description; but do not impress the mind at once with the horrible idea of immense height. The impression is divided; you pass on by computation, from one stage of the tremendous space to another. Had the girl in The Mourning Bride' said, she could not cast her shoe to the top of one of the pillars in the temple, it would not have aided the idea, but weakened it." (1)

Talking of a barrister who had a bad utterance, some one (to rouse Johnson), wickedly said, that he was unfortunate in not having been taught oratory by Sheridan. JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, if he had been taught by Sheridan, he would have cleared the room." GARRICK. "Sheridan has too much vanity to be a good man."-We shall now see Johnson's mode of defending a man; taking him into his own

(1) Mr. Johnson told me, how he used to tease Garrick by commendations on the tomb scene in Congreve's "Mourning Bride," protesting that Shakspeare had, in the same line of excellence, nothing as good: "All which is strictly true," he would add; "but that is no reason for supposing that Congreve is to stand in competition with Shakspeare: these fellows know not how to blame, or how to commend."- Piozzi.