I told him I should send him some "Essays" which I had written,' which I hoped he would be so good as to read, and pick out the good ones. JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, send me only the good ones: don't make me pick them."

I heard him once say, "" "Though the proverb 'Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia,' does not always prove true, we may be certain of the converse of it, Nullum numen adest, si sit imprudentia."

Once, when Mr. Seward was going to Bath, and asked his commands, he said, "Tell Dr. Harington that I wish he would publish another volume of the Nuga Antique;" it is a very pretty book.""" Mr. Seward seconded this wish, and recommended to Dr. Harington to dedicate it to Johnson, and take for his motto what Catullus says to Cornelius Nepos :

As a small proof of his kindliness and delicacy of feeling, the following circumstance may be mentioned: One evening, when we were in the street together, and I told him I was going to sup at Mr. Beauclerk's, he said, "I'll go with you." After having walked part of the way, seeming to recollect something, he suddenly stopped and said, "I cannot go,—but I do not love Beauclerk the less."

On the frame of his portrait Mr. Beauclerk had inscribed

After Mr. Beauclerk's death, when it became Mr. Langton's pro

1 They are to be found, under the title of "The Hypochondriack," in the London Maga. zine from 1775 to 1784.-C.

2 Mrs. Piozzi gives a more classical version of Johnson's variation: Nullum numen adest ni sit prudentia.

3 It has since appeared.-B. Though the MSS., of which this work was composed, had descended to Dr. Harington, the work was not edited by him, but by the Reverend Henry Harington, M.A-MARKLAND.

4 A new and greatly improved edition of this very curious collection was published by Mr. Park, in 1804, in two volumes octavo. In this edition the letters are chronologically arranged and the account of the bishops, which was formerly printed from a very corrupt сору, is taken from Sir John Harrington's original manuscript, which he presented to Henry, Prince of Wales, and is now in the royal library in the Museum.-M.

perty, he made the inscription be defaced. Johnson said complacently, "It was kind in you to take it off;" and then, after a short pause, added, "and not unkind in him to put it on."

He said, "How few of his friends' houses would a man choose to be at when he is sick!" He mentioned one or two. I recollect only Thrale's.

He observed, "There is a wicked inclination in most people to suppose an old man decayed in his intellects. If a young or middle-aged man, when leaving a company, does not recollect where he laid his hat, it is nothing; but if the same inattention is discovered in an old man, people will shrug up their shoulders, and say, 'His memory is going.""

When I once talked to him of some of the sayings which everybody repeats, but nobody knows where to find, such as Quos DEUS vult perdere, prius dementat; he told me that he was once offered ten guineas to point out from whence Semel insanivimus omnes was taken. He could not do it; but many years afterwards met with it by chance in Johannes Baptista Mantuanus.

I am very sorry that I did not take a note of an eloquent argument, in which he maintained that the situation of Prince of Wales was the happiest of any person's in the kingdom, even beyond that of the sovereign. I recollect only-the enjoyment of hope-the high superiority of rank, without the anxious cares of governmentand a great degree of power, both from natural influence wisely used, and from the sanguine expectations of those who look forward to the chance of future favour.

Sir Joshua Reynolds communicated to me the following particulars :

Johnson thought the poems published as translations from Ossian had so little merit, that he said, "Sir, a man might write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it."

He said, "A man should pass a part of his time with the laughers, by which means anything ridiculous or particular about him might be presented to his view, and corrected." I observed, he must have been a bold laugher who would have ventured to tell Dr. Johnson of any of his peculiarities.'

1 I am happy, however, to mention a pleasing instance of his enduring with great gentle

Having observed the vain ostentatious importance of many people in quoting the authority of dukes and lords, as having been in their company, he said, he went to the other extreme, and did not mention his authority when he should have done it, had it not been that of a duke or a lord.

Dr. Goldsmith said once to Dr. Johnson that he wished for some additional members to the Literary Club, to give it an agreeable variety; "for," said he, "there can now be nothing new among us we have travelled over one another's minds." Johnson seemed a little angry, and said, Sir, you have not travelled over my mind, I promise you." Sir Joshua, however, thought Goldsmith right; observing, that "when people have lived a great deal together, they know what each of them will say on every subject. A new understanding, therefore, is desirable; because though it may only furnish the same sense upon a question which would have been furnished by those with whom we are accustomed to live, yet this sense will have a different colouring; and colouring is of much effect in everything else as well as in painting."

Johnson used to say that he made it a constant rule to talk as well as he could, both as to sentiment and expression; by which means, what had been originally effort became familiar and easy. The consequence of this, Sir Joshua observed, was, that his common conversation in all companies was such as to secure him universal attention, as something above the usual colloquial style was expected.

Yet, though Johnson had this habit in company, when another mode was necessary, in order to investigate truth, he could descend to a language intelligible to the meanest capacity. An instance of this was witnessed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, when they were present at an examination of a little blackguard boy, by Mr. Saunders Welch, the late Westminster justice. Welch, who imagined that he was exalting himself in Dr. Johnson's eyes by using big words, spoke in a manner that was utterly unintelligible to the boy; Dr. Johnson,

ness to hear one of his most striking particularities pointed out: Miss Hunter, a niece of his friend, Christopher Smart, when a very young girl, struck by his extraordinary motions, said to him, "Pray, Dr. Johnson, why do you make such strange gestures?" "Frov. bad habit," he replied: " do you, my dear, take care to guard against bad habits." This was told by the young lady's brother at Margate.

perceiving it, addressed himself to the boy, and changed the pompous phraseology into colloquial language. Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was much amused by this proceeding, which seemed a kind of reversing of what might have been expected from the two men, took notice of it to Dr. Johnson, as they walked away by themselves. Johnson said, that it was continually the case; and that he was always obliged to translate the justice's swelling diction miling), so as that his meaning might be understood by the vnlgar, from whom information was to be obtained.

Sir Joshua once observed to him, that he had talked above the capacity of some people with whom they had been in company together. "No matter, Sir," said Johnson; they consider it as a compliment to be talked to as if they were wiser than they are. So true is this, Sir, that Baxter made it a rule in every sermon that he preached to say something that was above the capacity of his audience."

1

Johnson's dexterity in retort, when he seemed to be driven to an extremity by his adversary, was very remarkable. Of his power, in this respect, our common friend, Mr. Windham, of Norfolk, has been pleased to furnish me with an eminent instance. However unfavourable to Scotland, he uniformly gave liberal praise to George Buchanan, as a writer. In a conversation concerning the literary merits of the two countries, in which Buchanan was introduced, a Scotchman, imagining that on this ground he should have an undoubted triumph over him, exclaimed, "Ah, Dr. Johnson, what would you have said of Buchanan had he been an Englishman ?” Why, Sir," said Johnson after a little pause, "I should not have said of Buchanan, had he been an Englishman, what I will now say of him as Scotchman,—that he was the only man of genius his country ever produced."

1 The justness of this remark is confirmed by the following story, for which I am indebted to Lord Eliot :-A country parson who was remarkable for quoting scraps of Latin in his sermons, having died, one of his parishioners was asked how he liked his successor; "He is a very good preacher," was his answer, "but no Latiner."-B.

2 This prompt and sarcastic retort may not unaptly be compared with Sir Henry Wotton's celebrated answer to a priest in Italy, who asked him-" Where was your religion to be found before Luther?" My religion was to be found then where yours is not to be found now, in the written word of God." But Johnson's admirable reply has a sharper edge, and perhaps more ingenuity than that of Wotta.-M. In Selden's Table Talk we have the following

And this brings to my recollection another instance of the same nature. I once reminded him that when Dr. Adam Smith was expatiating on the beauty of Glasgow, he had cut him short by saying, "Pray, Sir, have you ever seen Brentford ?" and I took the liberty to add, "My dear Sir, surely that was shocking." "Why then, Sir," he replied, "you have never seen Brentford."

Though his usual phrase for conversation was talk yet he made a distinction; for when he once told me that he dined the day before at a friend's house, with a very pretty company; and I asked him if there was good conversation, he answered," No, Sir; we had talk enough, but no conversation; there was nothing discussed."

Talking of the success of the Scotch in London, he imputed it in a considerable degree to their spirit of nationality. "You know, Sir," said he, "that no Scotchman publishes a book, or has a play brought upon the stage, but there are five hundred people ready to applaud him."

He gave much praise to his friend Dr. Burney's elegant and entertaining Travels, and told Mr. Seward that he had them in his eye when writing his "Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland."

Such was his sensibility, and so much was he affected by pathetic poetry, that, when he was reading Dr. Beattie's "Hermit," in my presence, it brought tears into his eyes.1

He disapproved much of mingling real facts with fiction. On this account he censured a book entitled "Love and Madness." "

Mr. Hoole told him he was born in Moorfields, and had received part of his early instruction in Grub Street. "Sir," said Johnson, smiling, "you have been regularly educated." Having asked who was his instructor, and Mr. Hoole having answered, "My uncle, Sir, who was a tailor;" Johnson recollecting himself, said, "Sir, I knew him; we called him the metaphysical tailor. He was of a club in Old Street, with me and George Psalmanazer, and some others : but pray, Sir, was he a good tailor?" Mr. Hoole having answered that he believed he was too mathematical, and used to draw squares

more witty reply made to this same question: "Where was America an hundred or six-score years ago?"-MARKLAND.

1 The particular passage which excited this strong emotion was, as I have heard from my father, the fourth stanza, ""Tis night," &c.-J. BOSWELL, Jun.

2 A kind of novel founded on the story of Mr. Hackman and Miss Ray.-C.