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till, in order to be relieved from gloom, he has recourse again to criminal indulgences."-Boswell.

Of the various states and conditions of humanity, he despised none more than the man who marries for a maintenance; and of a friend who made his alliance on no higher principles, he said once, "Now has that fellow" (it was a nobleman of whom they were speaking) "at length obtained a certainty of three meals a day; and for that certainty, like his brother dog in the fable, he will get his neck galled for life with a collar.”—Mrs. Piozzi.

A man, he observed, should begin to write soon; for if he waits till his judgment is matured, his inability, through want of practice, to express his conceptions will make the disproportion so great between what he sees and what he can attain that he will probably be discouraged from writing at all. As a proof of the justness of this remark, we may instance what is related of the great Lord Granville: that after he had written his letter giving an account of the battle of Dettingen, he said, "Here is a letter expressed in terms not good enough for a tallow-chandler to have used." -Bennet Langton.

Mr. Langton told us he was about to establish a school upon his estate, but it had been suggested to him that it might have a tendency to make the people less industrious. Johnson: "No, sir. While learning to read and write is a distinction, the few who have that distinction may be the less inclined to work; but when everybody learns to read and write, it is no longer a distinction. A man who has a laced waistcoat is too fine a man to work; but if everybody had laced waistcoats, we should have people working in laced waistcoats. There are no people whatever more industrious, none who work more, than our manufacturers; yet they have all learned to read and write. Sir, you must

not neglect doing a thing immediately good from fear of remote evil, from fear of its being abused. A man who has candles may sit up too late, which he would not do if he had not candles; but nobody will deny that the art of making candles, by which light is continued to us beyond the time that the sun gives us light, is a valuable art, and ought to be preserved."-Boswell.

I talked of preaching, and of the great success which those called "Methodists" have. Johnson: "Sir, it is owing to their expressing themselves in a plain and familiar manner, which is the only way to do good to the common people, and which clergymen of genius and learning ought to do from a principle of duty when it is suited to their congregations-a practice for which they will be praised by men of sense. To insist against drunkenness as a crime because it debases reason, the noblest faculty of man, would be of no service to the common people; but to tell them that they may die in a fit of drunkenness, and show them how dreadful that would be, cannot fail to make a deep impression. Sir, when your Scotch clergy give up their homely manner, religion will soon decay in that country."-Boswell.

He said, "There is nothing more likely to betray a man into absurdity than condescension; when he seems to suppose his understanding too powerful for his company."Bennet Langton.

He recommended that when one person meant to serve another he should not go about it slyly, or, as we say, underhand, out of a false idea of delicacy, to surprise one's friend with an unexpected favor, "which, ten to one," says he, "fails to oblige your acquaintance, who had some reasons against such a mode of obligation, which you might have known but for that superfluous cunning which you think an elegance. Oh, never be seduced by such silly pretences!"

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continued he. "If a wench wants a good gown, do not give her a fine smelling - bottle because that is more delicateas I once knew a lady lend the key of her library to a poor scribbling dependent, as if she took the woman for an ostrich, that could digest iron.”—Mrs. Piozzi.

Though a stern, true-born Englishman, and fully prejudiced against all other nations, he had discernment enough to see, and candor enough to censure, the cold reserve too common among Englishmen toward strangers. "Sir," said he, “two men of any other nation who are shown into a room together, at a house where they are both visitors, will immediately find some conversation. But two Englishmen will probably go each to a different window, and remain in obstinate silence. Sir, we as yet do not enough understand the common rights of humanity."-Boswell.

At supper, Lady Macleod mentioned Dr. Cadogan's book on the gout. Johnson: "It is a good book in general, but a foolish one in particulars. It is good in general, as recommending temperance, and exercise, and cheerfulness. In that respect it is only Dr. Cheyne's book told in a new way; and there should come out such a book every thirty years, dressed in the mode of the times. It is foolish in maintaining that the gout is not hereditary, and that one fit of it, when gone, is like a fever when gone." Lady Macleod objected that the author does not practise what he teaches. Johnson: "I cannot help that, madam; that does not make his book the worse. People are influenced more by what a man says, if his practice is suitable to it, because they are blockheads. The more intellectual people are, the readier will they attend to what a man tells them: if it is just, they will follow it, be his practice what it will. No man practises so well as he writes. I have all my life-long been lying till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early

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will ever do any good. Only consider! You read a book; you are convinced by it; you do not know the author. Suppose you afterward know him, and find that he does not practise what he teaches, are you to give up your former conviction? At this rate you would be kept in a state of equilibrium, when reading every book, till you knew how the author practised." "But," said Lady Macleod, “you would think better of Dr. Cadogan, if he acted according to his principles." Johnson: "Why, madam, to be sure, a man who acts in the face of light is worse than a man who does not know so much; yet I think no man should be worse thought of for publishing good principles. There is something noble in publishing truth, though it condemns one's self."--Boswell.

Johnson: "There is in human nature a general inclination to make people stare; and every wise man has himself to cure of it, and does cure himself. If you wish to make people stare by doing better than others, why make them stare till they stare their eyes out? But consider how easy it is to make people stare by being absurd. I may do it by going into a drawing-room without my shoes. You remember the gentleman in 'The Spectator,' who had a commission of lunacy taken out against him for his extreme singularity, such as never wearing a wig, but a night-cap. Now, sir, abstractedly, the night-cap was best: but, relatively, the advantage was overbalanced by his making the boys run after him."-Boswell.

He ridiculed a friend who, looking out on Streatham Common from our windows one day, lamented the enormous wickedness of the times, because some bird-catchers were busy there one fine Sunday morning. "While half the Christian world is permitted," said he, "to dance and sing, and celebrate Sunday as a day of festivity, how comes your Puritanical spirit so offended with frivolous and empty de

viations from exactness? Whoever loads life with unnecessary scruples, sir," continued he, "provokes the attention of others on his conduct, and incurs the censure of singularity without reaping the reward of superior virtue.”—Mrs. Piozzi.

In answer to the arguments used by Puritans, Quakers, etc., against showy decorations of the human figure, I once heard him exclaim, "Oh, let us not be found, when our Master calls us, ripping the lace off our waistcoats, but the spirit of contention from our souls and tongues! Let us all conform in outward customs, which are of no consequence, to the manners of those whom we live among, and despise such paltry distinctions. Alas! sir," continued he, "a man who cannot get to heaven in a green coat will not find his way thither the sooner in a gray one!"—Mrs. Piozzi.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE.

He observed, "All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not. In the same manner, all power, of whatever sort, is of itself desirable. A man would not submit to learn to hem a ruffle of his wife, or of his wife's maid; but if a mere wish could attain it, he would rather wish to be able to hem a ruffle."-Boswell.

Last night Dr. Johnson gave us an account of the whole process of tanning, and of the nature of milk, and the various operations upon it, as making whey, etc. His variety of information is surprising; and it gives one much satisfaction to find such a man bestowing his attention on the useful arts of life. Ulinish was much struck with his knowledge, and said, "He is a great orator, sir; it is music to hear this man speak."-Boswell.

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