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profitable,' as Hamlet says." Johnson: "Nay, if you are to bring in gabble, I'll talk no more. I will not, upon my honor." My readers will decide upon this dispute.-Boswell.

Mrs. Thrale stops a very stormy dispute between Johnson and Mr. Pepys, by saying, "I should be very glad to hear no more of this." This speech had an admirable effect. Mr. Pepys was much gratified by the interruption; and Dr. Johnson, after a pause, said, "Well, madam, you shall hear no more of it; yet I will defend myself in every part and in every atom!"-Madame D'Arblay.

Care must be taken to distinguish between Johnson when he “talked for victory," and Johnson when he had no desire but to inform and illustrate. "One of Johnson's principal talents (says an eminent friend of his) was shown. in maintaining the wrong side of an argument, and in a splendid perversion of the truth. If you could contrive to have his fair opinion on a subject, and without any bias from personal prejudice, or from a wish to be victorious in argument, it was wisdom itself, not only convincing, but overpowering." He had, however, all his life habituated himself to consider conversation as a trial of intellectual vigor and skill; and to this, I think, we may venture to ascribe that unexampled richness and brilliancy which appeared in his own. As a proof at once of his eagerness for colloquial distinction, and his high notion of this eminent friend, he once addressed him thus: we now have been several hours together, and you have said but one thing for which I envied you.”—Boswell.

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In the afternoon the gentlewoman talked violently against the Roman Catholics, and of the horrors of the Inquisition. To the utter astonishment of all the passengers but myself, who knew that he could talk upon any side of a

question, he defended the Inquisition, and maintained that "false doctrine should be checked on its first appearance; that the civil power should unite with the Church in punishing those who dare to attack the established religion, and that such only were punished by the Inquisition."Boswell.

Boswell: "What do you think, sir, of purgatory, as believed by the Roman Catholics ?" Johnson: "Why, sir, it is a very harmless doctrine. They are of opinion that the generality of mankind are neither so obstinately wicked as to deserve everlasting punishment, nor so good as to merit being admitted into the society of blessed spirits; and therefore that God is graciously pleased to allow of a middle state, where they may be purified by certain degrees of suffering. You see, sir, there is nothing unreasonable in this." Boswell: "But then, sir, their masses for the dead?" Johnson: "Why, sir, if it be once established that there are souls in purgatory, it is as proper to pray for them as for our brethren of mankind who are yet in this life." Boswell: "The idolatry of the mass?" Johnson: "Sir, there is no idolatry in the mass. They believe God to be there, and they adore him." Boswell: "The worship of saints?" Johnson: "Sir, they do not worship saints; they invoke them: they only ask their prayers. I am talking all this time of the doctrines of the Church of Rome. I grant you that, in practice, purgatory is made a lucrative imposition, and that the people do become idolatrous as they recommend themselves to the tutelary protection of particular saints. I think their giving the sacrament only in one kind. is criminal, because it is contrary to the express institution of Christ, and I wonder how the Council of Trent admitted it." Boswell: "Confession?" Johnson: "Why, I don't know but that is a good thing. The Scripture says, 'Confess your faults one to another,' and the priests confess as well as the laity. Then it must be considered that their

absolution is only upon repentance, and often upon penance also. You think your sins may be forgiven without penance, upon repentance alone." I thus ventured to mention all the common objections against the Roman Catholic Church, that I might hear so great a man upon them. What he said is here accurately recorded. But it is not improbable that if one had taken the other side, he might have reasoned differently.-Boswell.

He this evening expressed himself strongly against the Roman Catholics, observing, "In everything in which they differ from us they are wrong." He was even against the invocation of saints; in short, he was in the humor of opposition.-Boswell.

Dominicetti being mentioned, he would not allow him any merit. "There is nothing in all this boasted system. No, sir; medicated baths can be no better than warm water: their only effect can be that of tepid moisture." One of the company took the other side, maintaining that medicines of various sorts, and some, too, of most powerful effect, are introduced into the human frame by the medium of the pores, and therefore, when warm water is impregnated with salutiferous substances, it may produce great effects as a bath. This appeared to me very satisfactory. Johnson did not answer it; but, talking for victory, and determined to be master of the field, he had recourse to the device which Goldsmith imputed to him in the witty words of one of Cibber's comedies: "There is no arguing with Johnson; for when his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the buttend of it." He turned to the gentleman: "Well, sir, go to Dominicetti and get thyself fumigated; but be sure that the steam be directed to thy head, for that is the peccant part."-Boswell.

Mr. Pepys joined Dr. Johnson, with whom he entered into

an argument upon some lines of Gray, and upon Pope's definition of wit, in which he was so roughly confuted, and so severely ridiculed, that he was hurt and piqued beyond all power of disguise, and, in the midst of the discourse, suddenly turned from him, and wishing Mrs. Thrale good-night, very abruptly withdrew. Dr. Johnson was certainly right with respect to the argument and to reason; but his opposi tion was so warm, and his wit so satirical and exulting, that I was really quite grieved to see how unamiable he appeared, and how greatly he made himself dreaded by all, and hy many abhorred. What pity that he will not curb the vehemence of his love of victory and superiority!- Madame D'Arblay.

When I called upon Dr. Johnson next morning, I found him highly satisfied with his colloquial prowess the preceding evening. "Well," said he, "we had good talk." Boswell: "Yes, sir, you tossed and gored several persons."Boswell.

GENERAL BRUTALITY.

Ar Mr. Tytler's I happened to tell that one evening, a great many years ago, when Dr. Hugh Blair and I were sitting together in the pit of Drury Lane play-house, in a wild freak of youthful extravagance I entertained the audience prodigiously by imitating the lowing of a cow. A little while after I had told this story, I differed from Dr. Johnson, I suppose too confidently, upon some point which I now forget. He did not spare me. "Nay, sir," said he, "if you cannot talk better as a man, I'd have you bellow like a cow."-Boswell.

One of the gentlemen said he had seen three folio volumes of Dr. Johnson's sayings collected by me. "I must

put you right, sir," said I, "for I am very exact in authenticity. You could not see folio volumes, for I have none: you might have seen some in quarto and octavo. This is an inattention which one should guard against." Johnson: "Sir, it is a want of concern about veracity. He does not know that he saw any volumes. If he had seen them, he could have remembered their size."-Boswell.

Johnson: "Sheridan is a wonderful admirer of the tragedy of Douglas, and presented its author with a gold medal. Some years ago, at a coffee-house in Oxford, I called to him, 'Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Sheridan, how came you to give a gold medal to Home for writing that foolish play? This, you see, was wanton and insolent; but I meant to be wanton and insolent. A medal has no value but as a stamp of merit. And was Sheridan to assume to himself the right of giving that stamp ?"-Boswell.

Mrs. Thrale told a story of Hannah More which, I think, exceeds in its severity all the severe things I have yet heard of Dr. Johnson's saying. When she was introduced to him, not long ago, she began singing his praise in the warmest manner, and talking of the pleasure and the instruction she had received from his writings with the highest encomiums. For some time he heard her with that quietness which a long use of praise has given him. She then redoubled her strokes, and, as Mr. Seward calls it, peppered still more highly, till at length he turned suddenly to her, with a stern and angry countenance, and said, "Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having.”—Ma-. dame D'Arblay.

We dined at Mr. Keith's. Mrs. Keith was rather too attentive to Dr. Johnson, asking him many questions about his drinking only water. He repressed that observation by

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