tion. In the twelfth line, instead of one establish'd fame,' he repeated 'one unclouded flame,' which he thought was the reading in former editions; but I believe was a flash of his own genius. It is much more poetical than the other. On Monday, June 14, and Tuesday, 15th, Dr. Johnson and I dined (on one of them, I forget which) with Mr. Mickle, translator of The Lusiad, at Wheatley,-a very pretty country place a few miles from Oxford; and on the other with Dr. Wetherell, Master of University College. From Dr. Wetherell's he went to visit Mr. Sackville Parker, the bookseller; and when he returned to us he gave the following account of his visit, saying, 'I have been to see my old friend, Sack. Parker; I find he has married his maid; he has done right. She had lived with him many years in great confidence, and they had mingled minds; I do not think he could have found any wife that would have made him so happy. The woman was very attentive and civil to me; she pressed me to fix a day for dining with them, and to say what I liked, and she would be sure to get it for me. Poor Sack! he is very ill indeed. We parted as never to meet again. It has quite broken me down.' This pathetic narrative was strangely diversified with the grave and earnest defence of a man's having married his maid. I could not but feel it as in some degree ludicrous. Upon his mentioning that when he came to college he wrote his first exercises twice over, but never did so afterwards-MISS ADAMS: 'I suppose, sir, you could not make them better?' JOHNSON: 'Yes, madam, to be sure, I could make them better. Thought is better than no thought.' MISS ADAMS: 'Do you think, sir, you could make your Ramblers better?' JOHNSON: Certainly I could.' BOSWELL: 'I'll lay a bet, sir, you cannot.' JOHNSON: 'But I will, sir, if I choose. I shall make the best of them you shall pick out better.' BOSWELL: 'But you may add to them. I will not allow of that.' JOHNSON: Nay, sir, there are three ways of making them better;-putting out, adding, or correcting.' During our visit at Oxford, the following conversation passed between him and me on the subject of my trying my fortune at the English bar. Having asked whether a very extensive acquaintance in London, which was very valuable, and of great advantage to a man at large, might not be prejudicial to a lawyer, by preventing him from giving sufficient attention to his business?-JOHNSON: Sir, you will attend to business as business lays hold of you. When not actually employed, you may see your friends as much as you do now. You may dine at a club every day, and sup with one of the members every night; and you may be as much at public places as one who has seen them all would wish to be. But you must take care to attend constantly in Westminster Hall; both to mind your business, as it is almost all learnt there (for nobody reads now), and to show that you want to have business. And you must not be too often seen at public places, that com the playhouse or at Ranelagh, and never to be found at his chambers." And, sir, there must be a kind of solemnity in the manner of a professional man. I have nothing particular to say to you on the subject. All this I should say to any one; I should have said it to Lord Thurlow twenty years ago.' In the morning of Tuesday, June 15, while we sat at Dr. Adams's, we talked of a printed letter from the Rev. Herbert Croft, to a young gentleman who had been his pupil, in which he advised him to read to the end of whatever books he should begin to read. JOHNSON: "This is surely a strange advice; you may as well re-petitors may not have it to say, "He is always at solve, that whatever men you happen to get acquainted with, you are to keep to them for life. A book may be good for nothing, or there may be only one thing in it worth knowing: are we to read it all through? These voyages (pointing to the three large volumes of Voyages to the South Sea,2 which were just come out), who will read them through? A man had better work his way before the mast, than read them through; they will be eaten by rats and mice, before they are read through. There can be little entertainment in such books; one set of savages is like another.' BOSWELL: 'I do not think the people of Otaheité can be reckoned savages.' JOHNSON: 'Don't cant in defence of savages.' BOSWELL: They have the art of navigation.' JOHNSON: 'A dog or a cat can swim.' BOSWELL: 'They carve very ingeniously.' JOHNSON: A cat can scratch, and a child with a nail can scratch.' I perceived this was none of the mollia tempora fandi; so desisted. The PROFESSION may probably think this representation of what is required in a barrister who would hope for success, to be much too indulgent; but certain it is, that as "The wits of Charles found easier ways to fame,' some of the lawyers of this age, who have risen high, have by no means thought it absolutely necessary to submit to that long and painful course of study which a Plowden, a Coke, and a Hale considered as requisite. My respected friend, Mr. Langton, has shown me, in the handwriting of his grandfather, a curious ac count of a conversation which he had with Lord Chief-Justice Hale, in which that great man He died at Oxford in his 89th year, Dec. 10, 1796, tells him, 'That for two years after he came to -MALONE. 2 Cook's Voyages. the inn of the court, he studied sixteen hours a day; however (his Lordship added), that by this intense application he almost brought himself to his grave, though he were of a very strong constitution, and after reduced himself to eight hours; but that he would not advise anybody to so much; that he thought six hours a day, with attention and constancy, was sufficient; that man must use his body as he would his horse and his stomach: not tire him at once, but rise with an appetite.' On Wednesday, June 19th, Dr. Johnson and I returned to London; he was not well to-day, and said very little, employing himself chiefly in reading Euripides. He expressed some displeasure at me, for not observing sufficiently the various objects on the road. If I had your eyes, sir,' said he, 'I should count the passengers.' It was wonderful how accurate his observation of visual objects was, notwithstanding his imperfect eyesight, owing to a habit of attention. That he was much satisfied with the respect paid to him at Dr. Adams's is thus attested by himself: 'I returned last night from Oxford, after a fortnight's abode with Dr. Adams, who treated me as well as I could expect or wish; and he that contents a sick man, a man whom it is impossible to please, has surely done his part well.' After his return to London from this ex cursion, I saw him frequently, but have few memorandums; I shall therefore here insert some particulars which I collected at various times. imagined to have an extreme degree of timidity, resolved to send him to a public school, that he might acquire confidence-'Sir,' said Johnson, 'this is a preposterous expedient for removing his infirmity; such a disposition should be cultivated in the shade. Placing him at a public school is forcing an owl upon day.' Speaking of a gentleman whose house was much frequented by low company: Rags, sir,' said he, 'will always make their appearance, where they have a right to do it.' Of the same gentleman's mode of living he said, 'Sir, the servants, instead of doing what they are bid, stand round the table in idle clusters, gaping upon the guests; and seem as unfit to attend a company as to steer a man of war.' A dull country, magistrate gave Johnson a long tedious account of his exercising his criminal jurisdiction, the result of which was having sentenced four convicts to transportation. Johnson, in an agony of impatience to get rid of such a companion, exclaimed, 'I heartily wish, sir, that I were a fifth.' Johnson was present when a tragedy was read, in which there occurred this line: "Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free.' The company having admired it much-'I cannot agree with you,' said Johnson; it might as well be said, "Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat."' He was pleased with the kindness of Mr. Cator, who was joined with him in Mr. Thrale's important trust, and thus describes him: "There is much good in his character, and much usefulness in his knowledge.' He found a cordial solace at that gentleman's seat at Beckenham, in Kent, which is indeed one of the finest The Rev. Mr. Astle, of Ashbourne, in Derbyshire, brother to the learned and ingenious Thomas Astle, Esq., was from his early years known to Dr. Johnson, who obligingly advised him as to his studies, and recommended to him the following books, of which a list, which he has been pleased to communicate, lies before me, in Johnson's own hand-places at which I ever was a guest, and where writing: "Universal History" (ancient); "Rollin's Ancient History;" "Puffendorf's Introduction to History;" "Vertot's History of Knights of Malta; " ""Vertot's Revolution of Portugal;" "Vertot's Revolution of Sweden;" "Carte's History of England;" "Present State of England;" "Geographical Grammar;" "Prideaux's Connexion; "Nelson's Feasts and Fasts;" "Duty of Man;" "Gentleman's Religion;' "Clarendon's History;" "Watts's Improvement of the Mind;""Watts's Logic;""Nature Displayed;" "Louth's English Grammar;" "Blackwell on the Classics; "Sherlock's Sermons; " "Burnett's Life of Hale;" 99 66 Dupin's History of the Church;" "Shuckford's Connexions;" "Law's Serious Call;" ""Walton's Complete Angler;" Sandys's Travels; " "Sprat's History of the Royal Society;" "England's Gazetteer;" "Goldsmith's Roman History;" "Some Commentaries on the Bible. " 66 It having been mentioned to Dr. Johnson, that a gentleman who had a son whom he I find more and more a hospitable welcome. Johnson seldom encouraged general censure of any profession; but he was willing to allow a due share of merit to the various departments necessary in civilised life. In a splenetic, sarcastical, or jocular frame of mind, however, he would sometimes utter a pointed saying of that nature. One instance has been mentioned, where he gave a sudden satirical stroke to the character of an attorney. The too indiscriminate admission to that employment, which requires both abilities and integrity, has given rise to injurious reflections, which are totally inapplicable to many very respectable men who exercise it with reputation and honour. Johnson having argued for some time with a pertinacious gentleman, his opponent, who had talked in a very puzzling manner, happened to say, 'I don't understand you, sir;' upon which Johnson observed, 'Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am no obliged to find you an understanding.' Talking to me of Horry Walpole (as Horace late Earl of Orford was often called), Johnson allowed that he got together a great many curious little things, and told them in an elegant manner. Mr. Walpole thought Johnson a more amiable character after reading his Letters to Mrs Thrale, but never was one of the true admirers of that great man.' We may suppose a prejudice conceived, if he ever heard Johnson's account to Sir George Staunton, that when he made the speeches in Parliament for the Gentleman's Magazine, he always took care to put Sir Robert Walpole in the wrong, and to say everything he could against the electorate of Hanover.' The celebrated Heroic Epistle, in which Johnson is satirically introduced, has been ascribed both to Mr. Walpole and Mr. Mason. One day at Mr. Courtenay's, when a gentleman expressed his opinion that there was more energy in that poem than could be expected from Mr. Walpole, Mr. Warton, the late Laureate, observed, 'It may have been written by Walpole, and buckram'd by Mason.'2 He disapproved of Lord Hailes for having modernized the language of the ever-memorable John Hales of Eton, in an edition which his Lordship published of that writer's works. 'An author's language, sir,' said he, 'is a characteristical part of his composition, and is also characteristical of the age in which he writes. Besides, sir, when the language is changed, we are not sure that the sense is the same. No, sir: I am sorry Lord Hailes has done this.' Here it may be observed, that his frequent use of the expression, No, sir, was not always to intimate contradiction; for he would say so when he was about to enforce an affirmative proposition which had not been denied, as in the instance last mentioned. I used to consider it as a kind of flag of defiance: as if he had said, 'Any argument you may offer against this is not just. No, sir, it is not.' It was like Falstaff's 'I deny your major.' Sir Joshua Reynolds having said that he took the altitude of a man's taste by his stories and his wit, and of his understanding by the remarks which he repeated, being always sure that he must be a weak man who quotes common things with an emphasis as if they were oracles, Johnson agreed with him; and Sir Joshua having also observed that the real character of a man was found out by his amusements, Johnson added, ‘Yes, sir; no man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.' I have mentioned Johnson's general aversion to a pun. He once, however, endured one of mine. When we were talking of a numerous company in which he had distinguished himself 1 In his Posthumous Works he has spoken of Johnson in the most contemptuous manner.-MALONE. 2 It is now (1804) known that the Heroic Epistle was written by Mason. -MALONE. highly, I said, 'Sir, you were a cod surrounded by smelts. Is not this enough for you?-at a time, too, when you were not fishing for a compliment?' He laughed at this with a complacent approbation. Old Mr. Sheridan observed, upon my mentioning it to him, 'He liked your compliment so well, he was willing to take it with pun sauce.' For my own part, I think no innocent species of wit or pleasantry should be suppressed, and that a good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellences of lively conversation. Had Johnson treated at large De Claris Oratoribus, he might have given us an admirable work. When the Duke of Bedford attacked the Ministry as vehemently as he could, for having taken upon them to extend the time for the importation of corn, Lord Chatham, in his first speech in the House of Lords, boldly avowed himself to be an adviser of that measure. My colleagues,' said he, as I was confined by indisposition, did me the signal honour of coming to the bedside of a sick man to ask his opinion. But, had they not thus condescended, I should have taken up my bed and walked, in order to have delivered that opinion at the Council-board.' Mr. Langton, who was present, mentioned this to Johnson, who observed, 'Now, sir, we see that he took these words as he found them; without considering, that though the expression in Scripture, take up thy bed and walk, strictly suited the instance of the sick man restored to health and strength, who would of course be supposed to carry his bed with him, it could not be proper in the case of a man who was lying in a state of feebleness, and who certainly would not add to the difficulty of moving at all, that of carrying his bed.' When I pointed out to him in the newspaper one of Mr. Grattan's animated and glowing speeches in favour of the freedom of Ireland, in which this expression occurred (I know not if accurately taken): 'We will persevere till there is not one link of the English chain left to clank upon the rags of the meanest beggar in Ireland; '-'Nay, sir,' said Johnson, 'don't you perceive that one link cannot clank?' Mrs. Thrale has published, as Johnson's, a kind of parody or counterpart of a fine poetical passage in one of Mr. Burke's speeches on American Taxation. It is vigorously but somewhat coarsely executed; and, I am inclined to suppose, is not quite correctly exhibited. I hope he did not use the words 'vile agents' for the Americans in the House of Parliament; and if he did so in an extempore effusion, I wish the lady had not committed it to writing. Mr. Burke uniformly showed Johnson the greatest respect; and when Mr. Townshend, now Lord Sydney, at a period when he was conspicuous in opposition, threw out some reflection in Parliament upon the grant of a pension to a man of such political principles as Johnson, Mr. Burke, though then of the same party with Mr. Townshend, stood warmly forth in defence of his friend, to whom, he justly observed, the pension was granted solely on account of his eminent literary merit. I am well assured that Mr. Townshend's attack upon Johnson was the occasion of his hitching in a rhyme;' for that in the original copy of Goldsmith's character of Mr. Burke, in his Retaliation, another person's name stood in the couplet where Mr. Townshend is now introduced: Though fraught with all learning kept straining his throat To persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote.' It may be worth remarking, among the minutice of my collection, that Johnson was once drawn to serve in the militia, the Trained Bands of the City of London, and that Mr. Rackstrow, of the Museum in Fleet Street, was his colonel. It may be believed he did not serve in person; but the idea, with all its circumstances, is certainly laughable. He upon that occasion provided himself with a musket, and with a sword and belt, which I have seen hanging in his closet. He was very constant to those whom he once employed, if they gave him no reason to be displeased. When somebody talked of being imposed on in the purchase of tea and sugar, and such articles: That will not be the case,' said he, if you go to a stately shop, as I always do. In such a shop it is not worth their while to take a petty advantage.' An author of most anxious and restless vanity being mentioned,-'Sir,' said he, there is not a young sapling upon Parnassus more severely blown about by every wind of criticism than that poor fellow.' The difference, he observed, between a wellbred and an ill-bred man is this: One immediately attracts your liking, the other your aversion. You love the one till you find reason to hate him; you hate the other till you find reason to love him.' The wife of one of his acquaintance had fraudulently made a purse for herself out of her husband's fortune. Feeling a proper compunction in her last moments, she confessed how much she had secreted; but before she could tell where it was placed, she was seized with a convulsive fit and expired. Her husband said, he was more hurt by her want of confidence in him, than by the loss of his money. 'I told him,' said Johnson, 'that he should console himself: for perhaps the money might be found, and he was sure that his wife was gone.' A foppish physician once reminded Johnson of his having been in company with him on a former occasion. 'I do not remember it, sir.' The physician still insisted; adding, that he that day wore so fine a coat that it must have attracted his notice. 'Sir,' said Johnson, 'had you been dipped in Pactolus, I should not have noticed you.' He seemed to take a pleasure in speaking in his own style; for when he had carelessly missed it, he would repeat the thought translated into it. Talking of the comedy of The Rehearsal, he said, 'It has not wit enough to keep it sweet.' This was easy; he therefore caught himself, and pronounced a more round sentence: 'It has not vitality enough to preserve it from putrefaction.' He censured a writer of entertaining travels for assuming a feigned character, saying (in his sense of the word), 'He carries out one lie; we know not how many he brings back.' At another time, talking of the same person, he observed, Sir, your assent to a man whom you have never known to falsify, is a debt; but after you have known a man to falsify, your assent to him then is a favour.' Though he had no taste for painting, he admired much the manner in which Sir Joshua Reynolds treated of his art, in his Discourses to the Royal Academy. He observed one day of a passage in them, 'I think I might as well have said this myself;' and once, when Mr. Langton was sitting by him, he read one of them very eagerly, and expressed himself thus: 'Very well, Master Reynolds; very well indeed. But it will not be understood.' When I observed to him that painting was so far inferior to poetry, that the story or even emblem which it communicates must be previously known, and mentioned, as a natural and laughable instance of this, that a little Miss, on seeing a picture of Justice with the scales, had exclaimed to me, 'See, there's a woman selling sweetmeats;' he said, 'Painting, sir, can illustrate, but cannot inform.' No man was more ready to make an apology, when he had censured unjustly, than Johnson. When a proof-sheet of one of his works was brought to him, he found fault with the mode in which a part of it was arranged, refused to read it, and in a passion desired that the compositor might be sent to him. The compositor was Mr. Manning, a decent, sensible man, who had composed about one-half of his Dictionary, when in Mr. Strahan's printing-house; and a great part of his Lives of the Poets, when in that of Mr. Nichols ; and who (in his seventy-seventh year), when in Mr. Baldwin's printing-house, composed a part of the first edition of this work concerning him. By producing the manuscript, he at once satisfied Dr. Johnson that he was not to blame. Upon which Johnson candidly and earnestly said to him, 'Mr. Compositor, I ask your pardon; Mr. Compositor, I ask your pardon again and again.' 1 Compositor in the printing-house means the person who adjusts the types in the order in which they are to stand for printing; and arranges what is called the form, from which an impression is taken.-BOSWELL. His generous humanity to the miserable was almost beyond example. The following instance is well attested:-Coming home late one night, he found a poor woman lying in the street so much exhausted that she could not walk. He took her upon his back, and carried her to his house, where he discovered that she was one of those wretched females who had fallen into the lowest state of vice, poverty, and disease. Instead of harshly upbraiding her, he had her taken care of with all tenderness for a long time, at a considerable expense, till she was restored to health, and endeavoured to put her into a virtuous way of living.' He thought Mr. Caleb Whitefoord singularly happy in hitting on the signature of Papyrius Cursor to his ingenious and diverting crossreadings of the newspapers; it being a real name of an ancient Roman, and clearly expressive of the thing done in this lively conceit. He once in his life was known to have uttered what is called a bull. Sir Joshua Reynolds, when they were riding together in Devonshire, complained that he had a very bad horse, for that even when going downhill he moved slowly step by step. Ay,' said Johnson, ‘and when he goes uphill, he stands still.' He had a great aversion to gesticulating in company. He called once to a gentleman who offended him in that point, 'Don't attitudinize.' And when another gentleman thought he was giving additional force to what he uttered, by expressive movements of his hands, Johnson fairly seized them, and held them down. An author of considerable eminence having engrossed a good share of the conversation in the company of Johnson, and having said nothing but what was trifling and insignificant, Johnson, when he was gone, observed to us, 'It is wonderful what a difference there sometimes is between a man's powers of writing and of talking. writes with great spirit, but is a poor talker. Had he held his tongue, we might have supposed him to have been restrained by modesty; but he has spoken a great deal to-day, and you have heard what stuff it was.' A gentleman having said that a congé d'elire has not perhaps the force of a command, but may be considered only as a strong recommendation,-'Sir,' replied Johnson, who overheard him, 'it is such a recommendation, as if I should throw you out of a two pair of stairs window, and recommend you to fall soft.'" Mr. Steevens, who passed many a social hour The circumstance therefore alluded to, in Mr. Courtenay's Poetical Character of him, is strictly true. My informer was Mrs. Desmoulins, who lived many years in Dr. Johnson's house. -BOSWELL. 2 This has been printed in other publications, 'fall to the ground.' But Johnson himself gave me the true expression which he had used as above, meaning that the recommendation left as little choice in the one case as the other.- BosWELL. with him during their long acquaintance, which commenced when they both lived in the Temple, has preserved a good number of particulars concerning him, most of which are to be found in the department of Apophthegms, etc., in the Collection of Johnson's Works. But he has been pleased to favour me with the following, which are original : 'One evening, previous to the trial of Baretti, a consultation of his friends was held at the house of Mr. Cox, the solicitor, in Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane. Among others present were Mr. Burke and Dr. Johnson, who differed in sentiments concerning the tendency of some part of the defence the prisoner was to make. When the meeting was over, Mr. Steevens observed, that the question between him and his friend had been agitated with rather too much warmth. "It may be so, sir (replied the Doctor), for Burke and I should have been of one opinion, if we had had no audience." 'Dr. Johnson once assumed a character in which perhaps even Mr. Boswell never saw him. His curiosity having been excited by the praises bestowed on the celebrated Torré's fireworks at Marylebone Gardens, he desired Mr. Steevens to accompany him thither. The evening had proved showery; and soon after the few people present were assembled, public notice was given, that the conductors to the wheels, suns, stars, etc. were so thoroughly water-soaked, that it was impossible any part of the exhibition should be made. "This is a mere excuse," says the Doctor, "to save their crackers for a more profitable company. Let us both hold up our sticks, and threaten to break those coloured lamps that surround the orchestra, and we shall soon have our wishes gratified. The core of the fireworks cannot be injured; let the different pieces be touched in their respective centres, and they will do their offices as well as ever."-Some young men who overheard him, immediately began the violence he had recommended, and an attempt was speedily made to fire some of the wheels which appeared to have received the smallest damage; but to little purpose were they lighted, for most of them completely failed.-The author of the Rambler, however, may be considered, on this occasion, as the ringleader of a successful riot, though not as a skilful pyrotech nist.' 'It has been supposed that Dr. Johnson, so far as fashion was concerned, was careless of his appearance in public. But this is not altogether true, as the following slight instance may show : -Goldsmith's last comedy was to be represented during some court-mourning; and Mr. Steevens appointed to call on Dr. Johnson, and carry him to the tavern where he was to dine with others of the poet's friends. The Doctor was ready dressed, but in coloured clothes; yet being told that he would find every one else in black, |