(said he); but if you were lord chancellor it would not be fo; you would then confider your own dignity."

He found great fault with a certain gentleman for keeping a bad table. "Sir, (faid he) when a man is invited to dinner, he is difappointed if he does not get fomething good. I advised Mrs. Thrale, who has no card parties at her house, to give sweetmeats, and fuch good things, in an evening as are not commonly given, and fhe would find company enough come to her; for every body loves to` have things which please the palate put in their way, without trouble or preparation." Such was his attention to the minutia of life and manners.

To the queftion, whether when a man knows that fome of his intimate friends are invited to the house of another friend, with whom they are all equally intimate, he may join them without an invitation, Johnfon anfwered, "No, Sir; he is not to go when he is not invited, They may be invited on purpose to abuse him" (fmiling).

One of a company not being come at the appointed hour, Mr. Bofwell propofed, as ufual upon fuch occafions, to order dinner to be ferved; adding, "Ought fix people to be kept waiting for one ?"" Why yes (answered Johnfon, with a delicate humanity) if the one

will fuffer more by your fitting down, than the fix will do by waiting."

Talking of the mode adopted by fome to rife in the world by courting great men, and being afked whether he had ever fubmitted to it, he faid, "Why, Sir, I never was near enough to great men to court them. You may be prudently attached to great men, and yet independent; you are not to do what you think wrong, and you are to calculate, and not to pay too dear for what you get. You must not give a fhilling's worth of court for fix pence worth of good; but if you can get a fhilling's worth of good for fix pence worth of court, you are a fool if you do not pay court."

Being asked how far he thought wealth fhould be employed in hofpitality, he answered, "You are to confider, that ancient hospitality, of which we hear fo much, was in an uncommercial country, when men being idle were glad to be entertained at rich men's tables; but in a commercial country, in a bufy country, time becomes precious, and therefore hofpitality is not fo much valued. No doubt there is ftill room for a certain degree of it; and a man has a fatisfaction in fecing his friends. eating and drinking around him but promif cuous hofpitality is not the way to gain real influence. You must help fome people at ta

ble

ble before others; you muft afk fome people how they like their wine oftener than others. You therefore offend more people than you please. You are like the French statesman who faid when he granted a favour, f'ai fait dix mécontents et un ingrat. Befides, Sir, being entertained ever fo well at a man's table, impreffes no lafting regard or esteem. No, Sir, the way to make fure of power and influence is, by lending money confidentially to your neighbours at a small intereft, or perhaps at no intereft at all, and having their bonds in your poffeffion."-BoSWELL. "May not a man, Sir, employ his riches to advantage in educating young men of merit ?"-JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir, if they fall in your way; but if it be understood that you patronize young men of merit, you will be haraffed with folicitations. You will have numbers forced upon you who have no merit; fome will force them upon you from mistaken partiality; and fome from downright interested motives, without fcruple; and you will be difgraced. For hofpitality as formerly practifed, there is no longer the fame reafon; heretofore the poorer people were more numerous, and, from want of commerce, their means of getting a livelihood more difficult; therefore the fupporting them was an act of great benevolence; now that the poor

can

can find maintenance for themfelves, and their labour is wanted, a general undifcerning hofpitality tends to ill, by withdrawing them from their work to idlenefs and drunkennefs. Then formerly rents were received in kind, fo that there was a great abundance of provifions in poffeffion of the owners of the lands, which, fince the plenty of money afforded by commerce, is no longer the cafe.

Hospitality to strangers and foreigners in our country is now almost at an end, fince, from the increafe of them that come to us, there have been a fufficient number of people that have found an intereft in providing inns and proper accommodations, which is in ge, neral a more expedient method for the entertainment of travellers. Where the travellers and ftrangers are few, more of that hospitality fubfifts, as it has not been worth while to provide places of accommodation, In Ireland there is fill hofpitality to ftrangers in fome degree; in Hungary and Poland probably more."

Johnson's opennefs with people at a first interview was remarkable. He faid once to Mr. Langton, "I think I am like Squire Richard in The Journey to London.' I'm never frange in a strange place." He was truly focial. He ftrongly cenfured what is much too common in England among perfons of condition

maintaining an abfolute filence, when unknown to each other; as for inftance, when occafionally brought together in a room before the mafter or mistress of the houfe has appeared. "Two men of any other nation who are fhewn into a room together, at a houfe where they are both vifitors, will immediately find fome converfation. But two Englishmen will probably go each to a different window, and -remain in obftinate filence. Sir, we as yet do not enough understand the common rights of humanity."

An eminent foreigner, when he was fhewn the British Mufeum, was very troublefome with many abfurd enquiries. "Now there, Sir, (faid Johnfon) is the difference between an Englishman and a Frenchman. A Frenchman muft be always talking, whether he knows any thing of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to fay nothing, when he has nothing to fay."

Johnson repeated an obfervation of Bathurft's, appearing to acknowledge it to be well founded, namely, "that it was fomewhat remarkable how feldom, on occafion of coming into the company of any new perfon, one felt any wish or inclination to fee him again." Talking of that ftudied behaviour which many have recommended and practifed, he