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ET. 69.

BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON.

Madam. We might as well desire to be equal with the angels. We shall all, I hope, be happy in a future state, but we must not expect to be all happy in the same degree. It is enough, if we be happy according to our several capacities. A worthy carman will get to heaven as well as Sir Isaac Newton. Yet, though equally good, they will not have the same degrees of happiness." JOHNSON. "Probably not."

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Upon this subject I had once before sounded him by mentioning the late Reverend Mr. Brown of Utrecht's image; that a great and small glass, though equally full, did not hold an equal quantity; which he threw out to refute David Hume's saying, that a little miss, going to dance at a ball, in a fine new dress, was as happy as a great orator, after having made an eloquent and applauded speech. After some come over to the thought, Johnson said, As an instance of coincidence of parson." thinking, Mr. Dilly told me, that Dr. King, a late dissenting minister in London, said to him, upon the happiness in a future state of good men of different capacities, "A pail does not hold so much as a tub; but, if it be equally full, it has no reason to complain. Every saint in heaven will have as much happiness as he can hold." Mr. Dilly thought this a clear, though a familiar, illustration of the phrase, "One star differeth from another in brightness." (1 Cor. xv. 41.)

Dr. Mayo having asked Johnson's opinion of Soame Jenyns's "View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion;"-JOHNSON. "I think it a pretty book; not very theological, indeed; and there seems to be an affectation of ease and carelessness, as if it were not suitable to his character to be very serious about the matter." BOSWELL. "He may have intended this to introduce his book the better among genteel people, who might be unwilling to read too grave a treatise. There is a general levity in the age. We have physicians now with bagwigs; may we not have airy divines, at least somewhat less solemn in their appearance than they used to be?" JOHNSON. "Jenyns might mean as you say." BOSWELL. "You should like his book, Mrs. Knowles, as it maintains, as you friends do, that courage is not a Christian Yes, indeed, I like virtue." MRS. KNOWLES. " him there; but I cannot agree with him that friendship is not a Christian virtue." JonxSON. Why, Madam, strictly speaking, he is

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1 The sentiment is Aristotle's: bis oies & Toddol giλor —he has no friend who has many friends (Eud. Eth. vi. 12.). which Diogenes Laertius condensed into & (?) ciao, cidal's

es, and Johnson (ante, p. 64.) into a cini, cù qikes. I doubt whether the attributed to Johnson is not an error of transcription occasioned by his having added, as Casaubon had already done, the iota subscriptum to the in the common texts of Diogenes. - CROKER.

·

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MRS.

right. All friendship is preferring the interest
of a friend to the neglect, or, perhaps, against
the interest, of others; so that an old Greek
said, 'He that has friends has no friend.
Now, Christianity recommends universal bene-
volence; to consider all men as our brethren;
philosophers.
which is contrary to the virtue of friendship,
as described by the ancient
Surely, Madam, your sect must approve of
this; for you call all men friends."
We are commanded to do good
KNOWLES.
to all men, but especially to them who are of
JOHNSON. "Well,
the household of faith.''
MRS. KNOWLES. "But, Doctor, our
Madam; the household of faith is wide
enough."
Saviour had twelve apostles, yet there was one
JOHNSON (with
whom he loved. John was called the dis-
ciple whom Jesus loved."
eyes sparkling benignantly). "Very well in-
deed, Madam. You have said very well."
"I had
BOSWELL. "A fine application. Pray, Sir, had
you ever thought of it?" JOHNSON.
not, Sir."

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From this pleasing subject, he, I know not how or why, made a sudden transition to one upon which he was a violent aggressor; for he said, "I am willing to love all mankind, except an American;" and his inflammable corruption bursting into horrid fire, he "breathed out threatenings and slaughter;" calling them "rascals, robbers, pirates," and exclaiming, he'd "burn and destroy them." Miss Seward, looking to him with mild but steady astonishment, said, "Sir, this is an instance that we are always most violent against those whom we have injured." He was irritated still more by this delicate and keen reproach; and roared out, another tremendous volley, which one might fancy could be heard across the Atlantic. During this tempest I sat in great uncasiness, lamenting his heat of temper, till, by degrees, I diverted his attention to other topics.

DR. MAYO (to Dr. Johnson). "Pray, Sir, JOHNSON. "No, Sir." BosWELL. have you read Edwards, of New England, on Grace?" 2 "It puzzled me so much as to the freedom of the human will, by stating, with wonderful acute ingenuity, our being actuated by a series of motives which we cannot resist, that the only "Alas! relief I had was to forget it." MAYO. "But he makes the proper distinction between moral and physical necessity." BOSWELL. Sir, they come both to the same thing. You may be bound as hard by chains when covered

political world now lament) observes, in his autobiography: "Robert Hall's society and conversation had a great influence on my mind. He led me to the perusal of Jonathan Edwards's work on Free Will, which Dr. Priestley had pointed out before. I am sorry that I never yet read the other works of that extraordinary man, who, in a metaphysical age or country, would certainly have been deemed as much the boast of America as his great countryman Franklin. Mem. of Mackintosh, vol. i. p. 14.- C., 1835. Boswell, it must be CROKER, but this phrase "inflammable corruption bursting out in recollected, in spite of his toryism, took the American side; horrid fire," is extravagant, if not unintelligible. Of this 1547.

2 Dr. Mayo, no doubt, meant "A Careful and Strict En-
quiry into the Modern prevailing Notion that Freedom of
Will is essential to Moral Agency," by the Rev. Jonathan
Edwards, President of the College of New Jersey.
work, Sir James Mackintosh (who so kindly assisted me in
my first edition of this work, and whose loss the literary and

Q Q

by leather, as when the iron appears. The argument for the moral necessity of human actions is always, I observe, fortified by supposing universal prescience to be one of the attributes of the Deity." JOHNSON. "You are surer that you are free, than you are of prescience; you are surer that you can lift up your finger or not as you please, than you are of any conclusion from a deduction of reasoning. But let us consider a little the objection from prescience. It is certain I am either to go home to-night or not: that does not prevent my freedom." BosWELL. "That it is certain you are either to go home or not, does not prevent your freedom: because the liberty of choice between the two is compatible with that certainty. But if one of these events be certain now, you have no future power of volition. If it be certain you are to go home tonight, you must go home." JOHNSON. "If I am well acquainted with a man, I can judge with great probability how he will act in any case, without his being restrained by my judging. God may have this probability increased to certainty. BOSWELL. "When it is increased to certainty, freedom ceases, because that cannot be certainly foreknown which is not certain at the time; but if it be certain at the time, it is a contradiction in terms to maintain that there can be afterwards any contingency dependent upon the exercise of will or any thing else." JOHNSON. "All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it." I did not push the subject any farther. I was glad to find him so mild in discussing a question of the most abstract nature, involved with theological tenets which he generally would not suffer to be in any degree opposed.

He, as usual, defended luxury: “You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury; you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it you keep them idle. I own, indeed, there may be more virtue in giving it immediately in charity, than in spending it in luxury; though there may be pride in that too." Miss Seward asked, if this was not Mandeville's doctrine of "private vices, public benefits." JOHNSON. "The fallacy of that book is, that Mandeville defines neither vices nor benefits. He reckons among vices every thing that gives pleasure. He takes the narrowest system of morality, monastic morality, which holds pleasure itself to be a vice, such as eating salt with our fish,

1 This seems a very loose report. Dr. Johnson never could have talked of " God's having probability increased to certainty." To the Eternal and Infinite Creator there can be neither probability nor futurity — all is certainty and present. The action which is future to mortals is only a point of eternity in the eye of the ALMIGHTY, and it and all the motives that led to it are and were from all eternity present to HIM. Our bounded intellects cannot comprehend the prescience of the Deity; but if that attribute be conceded, there seems no difficulty in reconciling it with our own free agency; for God has aiready scen what man will choose to do. -CROKER.

2 If any of my readers are disturbed by this thorny ques

because it makes it eat better; and he reckons wealth as a public benefit, which is by no means always true. Pleasure of itself is not a vice. Having a garden, which we all know to be perfectly innocent, is a great pleasure. At the same time, in this state of being there are many pleasures vices, which, however, are so immediately agreeable that we can hardly abstain from them. The happiness of heaven will be, that pleasure and virtue will be perfectly consistent. Mandeville puts the case of a man who gets drunk at an alehouse; and says it is a public benefit, because so much money is got by it to the public. But it must be considered, that all the good gained by this, through the gradation of alehouse-keeper, brewer, maltster, and farmer, is overbalanced by the evil caused to the man and his family by his getting drunk. This is the way to try what is vicious, by ascertaining whether more evil than good is produced by it upon the whole, which is the case in all vice. It may happen that good is produced by vice, but not as vice; for instance, a robber may take money from its owner, and give it to one who will make a better use of it. Here is good produced; but not by the robbery as robbery, but as translation of property. I read Mandeville forty or, I believe, fifty years ago. He did not puzzle me; he opened my views into real life very much. No, it is clear that the happiness of society depends on virtue. In Sparta, theft was allowed by general consent; theft, therefore, was there not a crime; but then there was no security; and what a life must they have had, when there was no security! Without truth there must be a dissolution of society. As it is, there is so little truth, that we are almost afraid to trust to our ears: but how should we be, if falsehood were multipled ten times! Society is held together by communication and information; and I remember this remark of Sir Thomas Brown's, 'Do the devils lie? No; for then hell could not subsist.'”

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Talking of Miss [Hannah More], a literary lady, he said, "I was obliged to speak to Miss Reynolds, to let her know that I desired she would not flatter me so much." Somebody now observed, She flatters Garrick." JoHNSON. "She is in the right to flatter Garrick. She is in the right for two reasons; first, because she has the world with her, who have been praising Garrick these thirty years; and, secondly, because she is rewarded for it by Garrick. Why should she flatter me? I can do nothing for

tion, I beg leave to recommend to them Letter 69. of Montesquieu's Lettres Persannes, and the late Mr. John Palmer of Islington's Answer to Dr. Priestley's mechanical arga ments for what he absurdly calls "philosophical necessity." -BOSWELL. I think any reader who turns to the 69th Persian Letter for any thing satisfactory or even plausible in this matter will be disappointed. CROKER, 1847. 3 See Piozzi's Anecdotes, p. 136.

4 Johnson probably meant either that Garrick repaid her in her own coin, or helped her in bringing out her play; or, finally, by introducing her into general society. It is not to be wondered at that an inexperienced young lady, suddenly transported from obscure provincial life into the elegance

her. Let her carry her praise to a better market." Then, turning to Mrs. Knowles, "You, Madam, have been flattering me all the evening; I wish you would give Boswell a little now. If you knew his merit as well as I do, you would say a great deal: he is the best travelling companion in the world."

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Somebody mentioned the Reverend Mr. Mason's prosecution of Mr. Murray, the bookseller, for having inserted in a collection of Gray's Poems" only fifty lines, of which Mr. Mason had still the exclusive property, under the statute of Queen Anne; and that Mr. Mason had persevered, notwithstanding his being requested to name his own terms of compensation. Johnson signified his displeasure at Mr. Mason's conduct very strongly; but added, by way of showing that he was not surprised at it, "Mason's a Whig " MRS. KNOWLES (not hearing distinctly). What! a prig, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Worse, Madam; a Whig! But he is both!"

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I expressed a horror at the thought of death. MRS. KNOWLES. "Nay, thou shouldst not have a horror for what is the gate of life." JOHNSON (standing upon the hearth, rolling about, with a serious, solemn, and somewhat gloomy air). "No rational man can die without uneasy apprehension." MRS. KNOWLES. "The Scriptures tell us, The righteous shall have hope in his death." JOHNSON. "Yes, Madam, that is, he shall not have despair. But, consider, his hope of salvation must be founded on the terms on which it is promised that the mediation of our Saviour shall be applied to us,-namely, obedience; and where obedience has failed, then, as suppletory to it, repentance. But what man can say that his obedience has been such as he would approve of in another, or even in himself, upon close examination, or that his repentance has not been such as to require being repented of? No man can be sure that his obedience and repentance will obtain salvation." MRS. KNOWLES. "But divine intimation of acceptance may be made to the soul." JOHNSON. 66 Madam, it may; but I should not think the better of a man who should tell me on his death-bed, he was sure of salvation. A man cannot be sure himself that he has divine intimation of acceptance: much less can he make others sure that he has it." BOSWELL. "Then, Sir, we must be contented to acknowledge that death is a terrible thing." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir. I have made no approaches to a state which can look on it as not terrible." MRS. KNOWLES (seeming to

and splendour of the best literary circles of London, should have at first indulged in some extravagant admiration both of Johnson and Garrick; but it appears from her letters, that her admiration was at least sincere, and that for Johnson she entertained and expressed it before she ever saw him, and when she could not expect him to hear of it again.CROKER, 1835.

1 Mr. Murray was a spirited and intelligent bookseller, the father of my worthy friend the publisher of my former editions of this work, 183), and grandfather of the publisher of the present, 1847.-CROKER.

enjoy a pleasing serenity in the persuasion of benignant divine light). "Does not St. Paul say, I have fought the good fight of faith, I have finished my course; henceforth is laid up for me a crown of life?'" JOHNSON. " Yes, Madam; but here was a man inspired, a man who had been converted by supernatura interposition." BOSWELL. "In prospect death is dreadful; but in fact we find that people die easy." JOHNSON." Why, Sir, most people have not thought much of the matter, so cannot say much, and it is supposed they die easy. Few believe it certain they are then to die; and those who do set themselves to behave with resolution, as a man does who is going to be hanged; he is not the less unwilling to be hanged." MISS SEWARD. "There is one mode of the fear of death, which is certainly absurd; and that is the dread of annihilation, which is only a pleasing sleep without a dream." JOHNSON. "It is neither pleasing nor sleep; it is nothing. Now, mere existence is so much better than nothing, that one would rather exist even in pain, than not exist." BOSWELL. "If annihilation be nothing, then existing in pain is not a comparative state, but is a positive evil, which I cannot think we should choose. I must be allowed to differ here, and it would lessen the hope of a future state founded on the argument, that the Supreme Being, who is good as he is great, will hereafter compensate for our present sufferings in this life. For if existence, such as we have it here, be comparatively a good, we have no reason to complain, though no more of it should be given to us. But if our only state of existence were in this world, then we might with some reason complain that we are so dissatisfied with our enjoyments compared with our desires." JOHNSON. "The lady confounds annihilation, which is nothing, with the apprehension of it, which is dreadful. It is in the apprehension of it that the horror of annihilation consists."

Of John Wesley he said, "He can talk well on any subject." BOSWELL. "Pray, Sir, what has he made of his story of a ghost?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, he believes it; but not on sufficient authority. He did not take time enough to examine the girl. It was at Newcastle where the ghost was said to have appeared to a young woman several times, mentioning something about the right to an old house; advising application to be made to an attorney, which was done; and at the same time, saying the attorney would do nothing, which proved to be

See "A Letter to W. Mason, A.M., from J. Murray, Bookseller in London," second edition, p. 20. BoswELL. 3 See antè, p. 546., where Paoli assumes that they are thinking of something else, a very unsatisfactory explanation. The spirit may be so subdued and so familiarised with horror, as to deprive death of its terrors. Of the thousands who suffered on the revolutionary scaffolds of Paris, two only are reported to have shown any strong fear of death-Madame du Barri and General Custine, and I suspect the death of the latter was reported to have been cowardly only because it was devout.CROKER, 1847.

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the fact. This,' says John, is a proof that a ghost knows our thoughts.' Now" (laughing), 'it is not necessary to know our thoughts, to tell that an attorney will sometimes do nothing. Charles Wesley, who is a more stationary man, does not believe the story. I am sorry that John did not take more pains to inquire into the evidence for it." Miss SEWARD (with an incredulous smile). “What, Sir! about a ghost!" JOHNSON (with solemn vehemence). "Yes, Madam; this is a question which, after five thousand years, is yet undecided'; a question, whether in theology or philosophy, one of the most important that can come before the human understanding."

Mrs. Knowles mentioned, as a proselyte to Quakerism, Miss [Jane Harry], a young lady, well known to Dr. Johnson, for whom he had shown much affection; while she ever had, | and still retained, a great respect for him. Mrs. Knowles at the same time took an opportunity of letting him know" that the amiable young creature was sorry at finding that he was offended at her leaving the Church of England, and embracing a simpler faith;" and, in the gentlest and most persuasive manner, solicited his kind indulgence for what was sincerely a matter of conscience. JOHNSON (frowning very angrily). "Madam, she is an odious wench. She could not have any proper conviction that it was her duty to change her religion, which is the most important of all subjects, and should be studied with all care, and with all the helps we can get. She knew no more of the church which she left, and that which she embraced, than she did of the difference between the

1 This is an argument just the other way; a negative cannot be proved, but five thousand years have passed without one well authenticated affirmative,-except of course the special miracles recorded in scripture. - CROKER, 1847.

2 She was the illegitimate daughter, by a mulatto woman, of what Miss Seward calls (Lett. 1. 97.) a planter in the East Indies, but, in truth, of a West Indian, who sent her over to England for her education. At the friend's house where she resided, Mrs. Knowles was a frequent visiter; and by degrees she converted this inexperienced, and probably not very wise, young creature to Quakerism. Miss Seward, with more than her usual inaccuracy, has made a romantic history of this girl, and, amongst other fables, states that she sacrificed a fortune of 100,0004. by her conscientious conversion. Mr. Markland has been so kind as to put into my hands evidence from a highly respectable member of the father's family, which proves that Jane Harry's fortune was but 10004; and so little was her father displeased at her conversion, that he afterwards gave her 100C. more. So vanishes another of Miss Seward's romances.- CROKER.

3 Mrs. Knowles, not satisfied with the fame of her needlework, the sutile pictures" mentioned by Johnson, in which she has indeed displayed much dexterity, nay, with the fame of reasoning better than women generally do, as I have fairly shown her to have done, communicated to me a dialogue of considerable length, which, after many years had elapsed, she wrote down as having passed between Dr. Johnson and her at this interview. As I had not the least recollection of it, and did not find the smallest trace of it in my "record" taken at the time, I could not, in consistency with my firm regara to authenticity, insert it in my work. It has, however been published in "The Gentleman s Magazine" for June 1791. [vol. Ixi. p. 500.] It chiefly relates to the principles of the sect called Quakers; and no doubt the lady appears to have greatly the advantage of Dr. Johnson in argument, as well as expression. From what I have now stated, and from the internal evidence of the paper itself, any one who may have the curiosity to peruse it will judge whether it was wrong in me to reject it, however willing to gratify Mrs. Knowles. BOSWELL.

MRS.

Copernican and Ptolemaic systems." KNOWLES. "She had the New Testament beJOHNSON. fore her." 66 Madam, she could not understand the New Testament, the most difficult book in the world, for which the study of a life is required." MRS. KNOWLES." It is clear as to essentials." JOHNSON." But not as to controversial points. The heathens were easily converted, because they had nothing to give up; but we ought not, without very strong conviction indeed, to desert the religion in which we have been educated. That is the religion given you, the religion in which it may be said Providence has placed you. If you live conscientiously in that religion, you may be safe. But error is dangerous indeed, if you err when you choose a religion for yourself.” MRS. KNOWLES. "Must we, then, go by implicit faith?" JOHNSON. "Why, Madam, the greatest part of our knowledge is implicit faith; and as to religion, have we heard all that a disciple of Confucius, all that a Mahometan, can say for himself?" He then rose again into passion, and attacked the young proselyte in the severest terms of reproach, so that both the ladies seemed to be much shocked.

We remained together till it was pretty late. Notwithstanding occasional explosions of violence, we were all delighted upon the whole with Johnson. I compared him at this time to a warm West Indian climate, where you have a bright sun, quick vegetation, luxuriant foliage, luscious fruits; but where the same heat sometimes produces thunder, lightning, and earthquakes in a terrible degree.3

Had

Mrs. Knowles, to her own account of this conversation was desirous of adding Miss Seward's testimony: and Miss Seward, who had become exceedingly hostile to Johnson's memory, and a great admirer of Mrs. Knowles, wat not unwilling to gratify her. She accordingly communicated to Mrs. Knowles her notes of the conversation ! Lett. v. i. 97.), which, it may be fairly presumed, were not too partial to Johnson. But they, nevertheless, did not satisfy the quaker lady, who, as Miss Seward complains (Lett ii. 179, was "curiously dissatisfied with them, because they did not contain all that passed, and as exhibiting her in a poor eclipted light;" and it is amusing to observe, that-except on the words "odious wench" at the outset, in which all three accounts agree, and the words “I never desire to meet fa& anywhere," with which the ladies agree that the conversation ended-there is little accordance between them. they been content to say that the violence of Johnson was a disagreeable contrast to the quiet reasoning of Mrs. Knowles, they would probably have said no more than the truth; but when they affect to give the precise dialogue in the very words of the speakers, and yet do not agree in almost any one expression or sentiment, when neither preserve a word of what Mr. Boswell reports, and when both (but particularly Mrs. Knowles) attribute to Johnson the poorest and feeblest trash-we may be forgiven for rejecting both as fabulous and the rather because Mr. Boswell's note was written on the instant ("his custom always of the afternoons"); while those of the ladies were made up many years after the event. It may, however, be suspected that Boswell was himself a little asnamed of Johnson's violence, for he evidentiv siurs over the .atter part of the conversation. But in the Doctor's behalf it should be reconected, that he had taken a great and affectionate interest in this young creature, who had, as he feared, not only endangered her spiritual welfare, but offended her friends, and forfeited her fortune; and that he was forced into the discussion by the very person by whose unauthorised and underhand interference so much mischief (as he considered it) had been done. Long as this note is, I must add, that it appears in another part of Miss Seward's correspondence (vol. ii. p. 383) that when a young Quaker lady married a member of the church of

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been laughed at: I would not have you added to the number. The world is now not contented to be merely entertained by a traveller's narrative; they want to learn something. Now some of my friends asked me, why I did not give some account of my travels in France. The reason is plain; intelligent readers had seen more of France than I had. You might Books of have liked my travels in France, and THE CLUB might have liked them; but, upon the whole, there would have been more ridicule than good produced by them." BOSWELL. "I cannot agree with you, Sir. People would like to read what you say of any thing. Suppose a face has been painted by fifty painters before; still we love to see it done by Sir Joshua." JOHNSON. "True, Sir; but Sir Joshua cannot paint a face when he has not time to look on it." BOSWELL. "Sir, a sketch of any sort by him is valuable. And, Sir, to talk to you in your own style (raising my voice and shaking my head), you should have given us your travels in France. I am sure I am right, and there's an end on't."

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Fleet Street. - Meeting with Mr. Lawyers.· Tom Tyers. Dignity of Literature. Lord Camden. George Psalmanazar. Daines Barrington. Punishment of the Pillory. Insolence of Wealth. Extravagance. -"Demosthenes Taylor.". Pamphlets. Goldsmith's Comedies.The Beggar's Opera."-Johnson's "Historia Studiorum." Gentleman's Magazine. Avurice. Bon Mots. Burke's Classical Pun.-Egotism.

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APRIL 17., being Good Friday, I waited on Johnson, as usual. I observed at breakfast, that although it was a part of his abstemious discipline, on this most solemn fast, to take no milk in his tea, yet when Mrs. Desmoulins inadvertently poured it in, he did not reject it. I talked of the strange indecision of mind, and imbecility of the common occurrences of life, which we may observe in some people. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, I am in the habit of getting others to do things for me." BosWELL. "What, Sir! have you that weakness?" JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir. But I always think afterwards I should have done better for myself.

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I told him that at a gentleman's house' where there was thought to be such extravagance or bad management that he was living much beyond his income, his lady had objected to the cutting of a pickled mango, and that I had taken an opportunity to ask the price of it, and found it was only two shillings; so here was a very poor saving. JOHNSON. "Sir, that is the blundering economy of a narrow understanding. It is stopping one hole in a sieve.”

I expressed some inclination to publish an account of my travels upon the continent of Europe, for which I had a variety of materials collected. JOHNSON. "I do not say, Sir, you may not publish your travels; but I give you my opinion, that you would lessen yourself by it. What can you tell of countries so well known as those the continent of Europe, upon which you have visited?" BOSWELL. "But I can give an entertaining narrative, with many incidents, anecdotes, jeux d'esprit, and remarks, so as to make very pleasant reading." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, most modern travellers in Europe who have published their travels have

England, Mrs. Knowles did not hesitate to designate her as an APOSTATE, although she had not quitted her sect, but only married one who did not belong to it.-CROKER.

1 Mr. Langton and Lady Rothes; who, however, protested to Miss Hawkins (Mem. ii. 282.) that there was no other colour of truth in the story, but that there was a mango on the table. I have already remarked Boswell's strange proneness to tell disagreeable things of his worthy friend." CROKER.

I said to him that it was certainly true, as my friend Dempster had observed in his letter to me upon the subject, that a great part of what was in his "Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland" had been in his mind before he left London. JOHNSON. "Why, yes, Sir, the topics were; and books of travels will be good in proportion to what a man has previously in his mind; his knowing what to observe; his power of contrasting one mode of life with another. As the Spanish proverb says, 'He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.' So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge." BOSWELL. "The proverb, I suppose, Sir, means, he must carry a large stock with him to trade with." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir.

It was a delightful day: as we walked to St. Clement's church, I again remarked that Fleetstreet was the most cheerful scene in the world. "Fleet-street," said I, "is in my mind more delightful than Tempé." JOHNSON. "Ay, Sir, but let it be compared with Mull !”

There was a very numerous congregation to-day at St. Clement's church, which Dr. Johnson said he observed with pleasure.

And now I am to give a pretty full account of one of the most curious incidents in Johnson's life, of which he himself has made the following minute on this day:

"In my return from church, I was accosted by Edwards, an old fellow-collegian, who had not

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