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1770.

"Of the paffion of love he remarked, that its violence and ill effects were much exaggerated; Etat. 61. for who knows any real fufferings on that head, more than from the exorbitancy of any other paffion?

"He much commended Law's Serious Call,' which he faid was the fineft piece of hortatory theology in any language. Law (faid he) fell latterly into the reveries of Jacob Behmen, whom Law alledged to have been fomewhat in the fame ftate with St. Paul, and to have feen unutterable things. Were it even fo, (faid Johnfon,) Jacob would have refembled St. Paul ftill more, by not attempting to utter them."

"He obferved, that the established clergy in general did not preach plain enough; and that polished periods and glittering fentences flew over the heads of the common people, without any impreffion upon their hearts. Something might be neceffary, he obferved, to excite the affections of the common people, who were funk in languor and lethargy, and therefore he supposed that the new concomitants of methodifin might probably produce fo defirable an effect. The mind, like the body, he obferved, delighted in change and novelty, and even in religion itself, courted new appearances and modifications. Whatever might be thought of fome methodist teachers, he faid, he could fcarcely doubt the fincerity of that man, who travelled nine hundred miles in a month, and preached twelve times a week; for no adequate reward, merely temporal, could be given for fuch indefatigable labour.

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1770.

Etat. 61.

"Of Dr. Priestley's theological works, he remarked, that they tended to unfettle every thing, and yet fettled nothing.

"He was much affected by the death of his mother, and wrote to me to come and affift him to compofe his mind, which indeed I found extremely agitated. He lamented that all ferious and religious converfation was banished from the fociety of men, and yet great advantages might be derived from it. All acknowledged, he said, what hardly any body practifed, the obligation we were under of making the concerns of eternity the governing principles of our lives. Every man, he obferved, at last wishes for retreat: he sees his expectations fruftrated in the world, and begins to wean himself from it, and to prepare for everlasting feparation.

"He obferved, that the influence of London now extended every where, and that from all manner of communication being opened, there shortly would be no remains of the ancient fimplicity, or places of cheap retreat to be found..

"He was no admirer of blank-verse, and faid it always failed, unless fuftained by the dignity of the fubject. In blank-verse, he said, the language fuffered more distortion, to keep it out of profe, than any inconvenience or limitation to be apprehended from the fhackles and circumfpection of rhyme.

"He reproved me once for faying grace without mention of the name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, and hoped in future I would be more mindful of the apoftolical injunction.

"He

"He refused to go out of a room before me at 1770. Mr. Langton's houfe, faying, he hoped he knew Etat. 61. his rank better than to prefume to take place of a Doctor in Divinity. I mention fuch little anecdotes, merely to fhew the peculiar turn and habit of his mind.

"He ufed frequently to obferve, that there was more to be endured than enjoyed, in the general condition of human life; and frequently quoted thofe lines of Dryden:

"Strange cozenage! none would live past years again,

'Yet all hope pleasure from what still remain.'

For his part, he faid, he never paffed that week in his life which he would wish to repeat, were an angel to make the proposal to him.

"He was of opinion, that the English nation cultivated both their foil and their reason better than any other people; but admitted that the French, though not the higheft, perhaps, in any department of literature, yet in every department were very high. Intellectual pre-eminence, he obferved, was the higheft fuperiority; and that every nation derived their highest reputation from the fplendour and dignity of their writers. Voltaire, he faid, was a good narrator, and that his principal merit confifted in a happy felection and arrangement of circumftances.

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Speaking of the French novels, compared with Richardfon's, he faid they might be pretty baubles, but a wren was not an eagle.

1770.

"In a Latin converfation with the Pere Bofco

Etat. 61. vitz, at the houfe of Mrs. Cholmondeley, I heard him maintain the fuperiority of Sir Ifaac Newton over all foreign philofophers, with a dignity and eloquence that furprized that learned foreigner. It being obferved to him, that a rage for every thing English prevailed much in France after Lord Chatham's glorious war, he said, he did not wonder at it, for that we had drubbed thofe fellows into a proper reverence for us, and that their national petulance required periodical chastisement.

"Lord Lyttelton's Dialogues, he deemed a nugatory performance. That man (faid he,) fat down to write a book, to tell the world what the world had all his life been telling him.'

"Somebody obferving that the Scotch Highlanders in the year 1745, had made furprizing efforts, confidering their numerous wants and difadvantages: Yes, Sir, (faid he,) their wants were numerous; but you have not mentioned the greatest of them all,-the want of law.'

"Speaking of the inward light, to which fome methodists pretended, he faid, it was a principle utterly incompatible with focial or civil fecurity.

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If a man (faid he) pretends to a principle of action of which I can know nothing, nay, not fo much as that he has it, but only that he pretends to it; how can I tell what that perfon may be prompted to do? When a perfon profeffes to be governed by a written afcertained law, I can then know where to find him.'

"The poem of Fingal, he faid, was a mere unconnected rhaplody, a tirefome repetition of

the

the fame images.

In vain fhall we look for the

1770.

lucidus ordo, where there is neither end or object, Etat. 61. defign or moral, nec certa recurrit imago.'

"Being afked by a young nobleman, what was become of the gallantry and military fpirit of the old English nobility, he replied, Why, my Lord, I'll tell you what is become of it; it is gone into the city to look for a fortune.'

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"Speaking of a dull tirefome fellow, whom he chanced to meet, he said, That fellow feems to me to poffefs but one idea, and that is a wrong

one.'

"Much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at laft Johnson obferved, that he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney.'

"He fpoke with much contempt of the notice taken of Woodhoufe, the poetical fhoemaker. He said, it was al vanity and childishness; and that fuch objects were, to thofe who patronised them, mere mirrours of their own fuperiority.

They had better (faid he,) furnish the man with good implements for his trade, than raise fubfcriptions for his poems. He may make an excellent fhoemaker, but can never make a good poet. A fchool-boy's exercise may be a pretty thing for a school-boy; but it is no treat for a man.'

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Speaking of Boetius, who was the favourite writer of the middle ages, he faid it was very furprizing, that upon fuch a fubject, and in fuch a

fituation,

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