With advifing others to be charitable however, Dr. Johnfon did not content himself. He gave away all he had, and all he ever had gotten, except the two thoufand pounds he left behind; and the very fmall portion of his income which he spent upon himself, with all our calculation, we never could make more than feventy, or at moft fourfcore pounds a year, and he pretended to allow himself a hundred. He had numberlefs dependents out of doors as well as in, if who (as he expreffed it) did not like to fee him latterly, unless he brought 'em money." For thofe people he ufed frequently to raife contributions on his richer friends; and this (fays he) is one of the thousand reasons which ought to restrain a man from drony folitude and ufelefs retirement.

""

The Doctor was very athletic. Garrick told a good ftory of him. He said, that in their young days, when fome strolling players came to Litchfield, our friend had fixed his place upon the ftage, and got himself a chair accordingly; which leaving for a few minutes, he found a man in it at his return, who refused to give it back at the first intreaty: Mr. Johnfon however, who did not think it worth his while to make а fecond, took chair and man and all together, and threw them all at once into the pit. I asked the Doctor if this was a fact? "Garrick has not spoiled it in the telling, (faid he) it is very near true to be fure."

Mr. Beauclerc too related one day, how on fome occafion he ordered two large maftiffs into his parlour, to fhew a friend who was converfant in canine beauty and excellence, how the dogs quarrelled, and fastening on each other, alarmed all the company except Johnson, who feizing one in one hand by the cuff of the neck, the other in the other hand, faid gravely, "Come gentlemen! where's your difficulty ? put one dog out at the door, and I will fhew this fierce gentleman the way out of the window :" which, lifting up the maftiff and the fash, he contrived to do very expeditiously, and much to the fatisfaction of the affrighted company. We inquired as to the truth of this curious recital. "The dogs have been fomewhat magnified, I believe Sir: (was the [reply]

reply) they were, as I remember, two flout young pointers; but the story has gained but little."

I have forgotten the year, but it could fercely I think be later than 1765 or 1766, that he was called abruptly from our houfe after dinner, and returning in' about three hours, faid, he had been with an enraged, author, whose landlady preffed him for payment within doors, while the bailiffs befet him without; that he. was drinking himself drunk with Madeira to drown care,, and fretting over a novel which when finished was to be his whole fortune; but he could not get it done for diftraction, nor could he step out of doors to offer it to fale. Mr. Johnfon therefore fet away the bottle, and went to the bookfeller, recommending the performance, and defiring fome immediate relief; which when he brought back to the writer, he called the woman of the house directly to partake of punch, and pafs their time in

merriment.

It was not till ten years after, I dare fay, that fomething in Dr. Goldsmith's behaviour struck me with an idea that he was the very man, and then Johnson 'confeffed that it was fo; the novel was the charming Vicar of Wakefield.

There was a Mr. Boyce too, who wrote fome very elegant verses printed in the Magazines of five-andtwenty years ago, of whofe ingenuity and diftrefs I have heard Dr. Johnfon tell fome curious anecdotes; particularly, that when he was almoft perishing with hunger, and fome money was produced to purchase him a dinner, he got a bit of roaft beef, but could not eat it without ketchup, and laid out the last half-guinea he poffeffed in truffles and mushrooms, eating them in bed too, for want of clothes, or even a fhirt to fet up in.

Mr. Johnfon loved late hours extremely, or more properly hated early ones, Nothing was more terrifying to him than the idea of retiring to bed, which he never would call going to reft, or fuffer another to call fo. "I lie down (faid he) that my acquaintance may fleep; but I lie down to endure oppreffive mifery, and foon rife again to pafs the night in anxiety and pain." By this pathetic manner, which no one ever poffeffed in fo emi

nent

nent a degree, he used to shock me from quitting his company, till I hurt my own health not a little by fitting up with him when I was myself far from well. I often made tea for him in London till four o'clock in the morning. At Streatham indeed I managed better, having always fome friend who was kind enough to engage him in talk, and favour my retreat.

The first time I ever faw this extraordinary man was in the year 1764, when Mr. Murphy, who had heen long the friend and confidential intimate of Mr. Thrale, perfuaded him to wish for Johnson's converfation, extolling it in terms which that of no other perfon could have deserved, till we were only in doubt how to obtain his company, and find an excufe for the invitation. The celebrity of Mr. Woodhouse, a fhoemaker, whofe verfes were at that time the subject of common discourse, foon afforded a pretence, and Mr. Murphy brought Johnson to meet him, giving me general cautions not to be furprifed at his figure, drefs, or behaviour. What I recollect best of the day's talk, was his earnestly recommending Addifon's works to Mr. Woodhoufe as a model for imitation. "Give nights and days, Sir (faid he) to the ftudy of Addison, if you mean either to be a good writer, or what is more worth, an honest man," When I saw something like the fame expreffion in his criticism on that author, lately published, I put him in mind of his past injunctions to the young poet, to which he replied, "That he wished the fhoemaker might have remembered them as well." Mr. Johnson liked his new acquaintance fo much however, that from that time he dined with us every Thursday through the winter.

In the year 1766 his health, which he had always complained of, grew fo exceedingly bad, that he could not ftir out of his room in the court he inhabited, for many weeks together, I think months.

Mr. Thrale foon after prevailed on him to quit his clofe habitation in the court and come with us to Streatham, where I undertook the care of his health, and had the honour and happiness of contributing to its restoration.

One

*He then lived in Johnfon's Court, Fleet Street, whence he afterwards removed to Bolt Court, where he died.

One day, when he was not pleased with our dinner, I afked him, if he ever huffed his wife about his dinner? "So often (replied he) that at last she called to me, and faid, Nay, hold, Mr. Johnson, and do not make a farce of thanking God for a dinner which in a few minutes you will protest not eatable.”

Avarice was a vice against which, however, I never much heard Mr. Johnfon declaim, till one reprefented it to him connected with cruelty, or fome fuch disgraceful companion. "Do not (faid he) difcourage your children from hoarding, if they have a tafte to it: whoever lays up his penny rather than part with it for a cake, at least is not the flave of grofs appetite; and fhews befides a preference always to be efteemed, of the future to the prefent moment. Such a mind may be made a good one; but the natural spendthrift, who grafps his pleasures greedily and coarfely, and cares for nothing but immediate indulgence, is very little to be valued above a negro." We talked of Lady Tavistock, who grieved herself to death for the lofs of her husband. "She was rich and wanted employment (fays Johnson) so she cried till she loft all power of restraining her tears: other women are forced to outlive their husbands, who were just as much beloved, depend on it; but they have no time for grief: and I doubt not, if we had put my Lady Tavistock into a small chandler's fhop, and given her a nurse-child to tend, her life would have been faved. The poor and the bufy have no leifure for fentimental forrow."

I pitied a friend before him, who had a whining wife that found every thing painful to her, and nothing pleafing-" He does not know that the whimpers (fays Johnson); when a door has creaked for a fortnight together, you may obferve-the master will scarcely give fixpence to get it oiled."

For a lady of quality, fince dead, who received us at her husband's feat in Wales with lefs attention than he had long been accustomed to, he had a rougher denunciation: That woman (cries Johnfon) is like four fmall-beer, the beverage of her table."

Mr. Johnfon's hatred of the Scotch is fo well known, and fo many of his bons mots expreffive of that hatred have been already repeated in fo many books and pamphlets, that it is perhaps fcarcely worth while to write down the converfation between him and a friend of that nation who always refides in London, and who at his return from the Hebrides asked him, with a firm tone of voice, What he thought of his country? "That it is a very vile country to be fure, Sir; (returned for anfwer Dr. Johnfon.) Well, Sir! replies the other fomewhat mortified, God made it. "Certainly he did (anfwers Mr. Johnfon again); but we must always remember that he made it for Scotchmen."

Mr. Johnson made Dr. Goldsmith a comical answer one day, when feeming to repine at the fuccefs of Beattie's Effay on Truth" Here's fuch a stir (faid he) about a fellow that has written one book, and I have written many." Ah, Doctor (fays his friend) there go twoand-forty fix-pences you know to one guinea.

Dr. Johnfon was indeed famous for difregarding public abufe. When the people criticifed and anfwered his pamphlets, papers, &c. Why now, thefe fellows are only advertifing my book (he would fay); it is furely better a man should be abused than forgotten."

He once bade a very celebrated lady, who praifed him with too much zeal perhaps, (which always offended him), "confider what her flattery was worth before fhe choaked him with it."

We were talking of Richardfon, who wrote Clariffa: "You think I love flattery (fays Dr. Johnson), and so `I do; but a little too much always difgufts me: that fellow Richardfon, on the contrary, could not be contented to fail quietly down the ftream of reputation, without longing to taste the froth from every ftroke of the oar."

With regard to flight infults from newspaper abuse, I have already declared his notions: They fting one (fays he) but as a fly ftings a horse; and the eagle will not catch flies.

Mr. Johnson hated what we call unprofitable chat; and to a gentleman who had differted fome time about the natural history of the mouse "I wonder what such

a