we should be of opinion that the term of fourteen years is too fhort; it should be fixty years." DEMPSTER. "Donaldson, Sir, is anxious for the encouragement of literature. He reduces the price of books, fo that poor ftudents may buy them." JOHNSON, (laughing.) " Well, Sir, allowing that to be his motive, he is no better than Robin Hood, who robbed the rich in order to give to the poor."

It is remarkable, that when the great question concerning Literary Property came to be ultimately tried before the fupreme tribunal of this country, in confequence of the very spirited exertions of Mr. Donaldfon, Dr. Johnson was zealous against a perpetuity; but he thought that the term of the exclufive right of authours fhould be confiderably enlarged. He was then for granting a hundred years.

The converfation now turned upon Mr. David Hume's ftyle. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, his ftyle is not English; the ftructure of his fentences is French. Now the French ftructure and the English structure may, in the nature of things, be equally good. But if you allow that the English language is established, he is wrong. My name might originally have been Nicholson, as well as Johnfon; but were you to call me Nicholson now, you would call me very abfurdly."

Rouffeau's treatife on the inequality of mankind was at this time a fashionable topick. It gave rife to an obfervation by Mr. Dempfter, that the advantages of fortune and rank were nothing to a wife man, who ought to value only merit. JouNsoN. Dd2

"If

1763.

Etat. 54.

1763.

Etat. 54.

"If man were a favage, living in the woods by
himself, this might be true; but in civilized fociety
we all depend upon each other, and our happiness
is very much owing to the good opinion of man-
kind. Now, Sir, in civilifed fociety, external
advantages make us more refpected. A man with
a good coat upon his back meets with a better re-
ception than he who has a bad one.
Sir, you
may analyse this, and fay what is there in it? But
that will avail you nothing, for it is a part of a general
fyftem. Pound St. Paul's church into atoms, and
confider any fingle atom; it is, to be fure, good
for nothing but, put all these atoms together, and
you have St. Paul's church. So it is with human
felicity, which is made up of many ingredients,
each of which may be fhewn to be very infignifi-
cant. In civilifed fociety, perfonal merit will not
ferve you so much as money will. Sir, you may
make the experiment. Go into the street, and
give one man a lecture on morality, and another a
fhilling, and fee which will respect you most. If
you wish only to fupport nature, Sir William Petty
fixes your allowance at three pounds a year; but
as times are much altered, let us call it fix pounds.
This fum will fill your belly, fhelter you from the
weather, and even get you a ftrong lafting coat,
fuppofing it to be made of good bull's hide. Now,
Sir, all beyond this is artificial, and is defired in
order to obtain a greater degree of respect from
our fellow-creatures. And, Sir, if fix hundred
pounds a year procure a man more confequence,
and, of course, more happiness than fix pounds a
year, the fame proportion will hold as to fix
thousand,

3

thousand, and fo on as far as opulence can be car- 1763. ried. Perhaps he who has a large fortune may not Etat. 54. be fo happy as he who has a small one; but that muft proceed from other caufes than from his having the large fortune: for, cæteris paribus, he who is rich in a civilized lociety, must be happier than he who is poor; as riches, if properly used, (and it is a man's own fault if they are not,) must be productive of the highest advantages. Money, to be fure, of itself is of no ufe; for its only ufe is to part with it. Rouffeau, and all those who deal in paradoxes, are led away by a childish desire of novelty. When I was a boy, I used always to choose the wrong fide of a debate, because most ingenious things, that is to fay, moft new things, could be faid upon it. Sir, there is nothing for which you may not mufter up more plaufible arguments, than those which are urged against wealth and other external advantages. Why now, there is ftealing; why should it be thought a crime? When we confider by what unjuft methods property has been often acquired, and that what was unjustly got it must be unjust to keep, where is the harm in one man's taking the property of another from him? Befides, Sir, when we confider the bad ufe that many people make of their property, and how much better use the thief may make of it, it may be defended as a very allowable practice. Yet, Sir, the experience of mankind has difcovered ftealing to be fo very bad a thing, that they make no fcruple to hang a man for it. When I was running about this town a very poor fellow, I was a great arguer for the advantages of poverty; but I Dd3

was,

1763.

Etat. 54.

was, at the same time, very forry to be poor. Sir, all the arguments which are brought to reprefent poverty as no evil, fhew it to be evidently a great evil. You never find people labouring to convince you that you may live very happily upon a plentiful fortune.-So you hear people talking how miferable a King muft be; and yet they all wifh to be in his place."

It was fuggefted that Kings must be unhappy, because they are deprived of the greatest of all fatisfactions, eafy and unreferved fociety. JOHNSON. "That is an ill-founded notion. Being a King does not exclude a man from fuch fociety. Great Kings have always been focial. The King of Pruffia, the only great king at prefent, is very focial. Charles the Second, the laft King of England who was a man of parts, was focial; and our Henrys and Edwards were all focial."

Mr. Dempfter having endeavoured to maintain that intrinfick merit ought to make the only diftinction amongst mankind. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, mankind have found that this cannot be. How fhall we determine the proportion of intrinfick merit? Were that to be the only diftinction amongst mankind, we should foon quarrel about the degrees of it. Were all diftinctions abolished, the strongest would not long acquiefce, but would endeavour to obtain a fuperiority by their bodily ftrength. But, Sir, as fubordination is very neceffary for fociety, and contentions for fuperiority very dangerous, mankind, that is to fay all civilifed nations, have fettled it upon a plain invariable principle. A man is born to hereditary rank; or

1763.

his being appointed to certain offices, gives him a certain rank. Subordination tends greatly to hu- Etat. 54. man happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure."

I faid, I confidered diftinction of rank to be of fo much importance in civilised society, that if I were asked on the fame day to dine with the first duke in England, and with the first man in Britain for genius, I fhould hefitate which to prefer. JOHNSON. "To be fure, Sir, if you were to dine only once, and it were never to be known where you dined, you would choose rather to dine with the first man for genius; but to gain most respect, you should dine with the firft duke in England. For nine people in ten that you meet with, would have a higher opinion of you for having dined with a duke; and the great genius himself would receive you better, because you had been with the great duke."

He took care to guard himself against any poffible fufpicion that his fettled principles of reverence for rank and refpect for wealth were at all owing to mean or interested motives; for he afferted his own independence as a literary man. "No man (faid he) who ever lived by literature, has lived more independently than I have done." He faid he had taken longer time than he needed to have done in compofing his Dictionary. He received our compliments upon that great work with complacency, and told us that the Academy della Crufca could scarcely believe that it was done by one man.