and Pollux, going with the other Argonauts, land on the Bebrycian coast, and there fall into a dispute with Amycus, the king of that country; which is as well conducted as Euripides could have done it; and the battle is well related. Afterwards they carry off a woman, whose two brothers come to recover her, and expostulate with Castor and Pollux on their injustice; but they pay no regard to the brothers, and a battle ensues, where Castor and his brother are triumphant. Theocritus seems not to have seen that the brothers have the advantage in their argument over his Argonaut heroes. The Sicilian Gossips is a piece of merit.'

'Callimachus is a writer of little excellence. The chief thing to be learned from him is his account of Rites and Mythology; which, though desirable to be known for the sake of understanding other parts of ancient authors, is the least pleasing or valuable part of their writings.' 'Maittaire's account of the Stephani, is a heavy book. He seems to have been a puzzleheaded man, with a large share of scholarship, but with little geometry or logic in his head, without method, and possessed of little genius. He wrote Latin verses from time to time, and published a set in his old age, which he called Senilia; in which he shows so little learning or taste in writing, as to make Carteret a dactyl. In matters of genealogy it is necessary to give the bare names as they are; but in poetry, and in prose of any elegance in the writing, they require to have inflection given to them. His book of the Dialects is a sad heap of confusion. The only way to write on them is to tabulate them with notes, added at the bottom of the page, and references.'

It may be questioned whether there is not some mistake as to the methods of employing the poor, seemingly on a supposition that there is a certain portion of work left undone for want of persons to do it; but if that is otherwise, and all the materials we have are actually worked up, or all the manufactures we can use or dispose of are already executed, then what is given to the poor, who are to be set at work, must be taken from some who now have it; as time must be taken for learning (according to Sir William Petty's observation), a certain part of those very materials that, as it is, are properly worked up, must be spoiled by the unskilfulness of novices. We may apply to well-meaning but misjudging persons, in particulars of this nature, what Giannone said to a monk, who wanted what he called to convert him: "Tu sei santo, ma tu non sei filopho." It is an unhappy circumstance that one | might give away five hundred pounds a year to those that importune in the streets, and not do any good."

'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.'

'Having asked Mr. Langton if his father and mother had sat for their pictures, which he thought it right for each generation of a family to do, and being told they had opposed it, he said, "Sir, among the anfractuosities of the human mind, I know not if it may not be one, that there is a superstitious reluctance to sit for a picture."

'John Gilbert Cooper related, that soon after the publication of his Dictionary, Garrick being asked by Johnson what people said of it, told him that, among other animadversions, it was objected that he cited authorities which were beneath the dignity of such a work, and mentioned Richardson. Nay," said Johnson, "I have done worse than that: I have cited thee, | David."'

66

"Talking of expense, he observed with what munificence a great merchant will spend his money, both from his having it at command, and from his enlarged views by calculation of a good effect upon the whole; "whereas," said he, "you will hardly ever find a country gentleman who is not a good deal disconcerted at an unexpected occasion for his being obliged to lay out ten pounds."

'When in good humour, he would talk of his own writings with a wonderful frankness and candour, and would even criticise them with the closest severity. One day, having read over one of his Ramblers, Mr. Langton asked him how he liked that paper; he shook his head, and answered, "Too wordy." At another time, when one was reading his tragedy of Irene to a company at a house in the country, he left the and somebody having asked him the reason of this, he replied, "Sir, I thought it had been better."

room;

"Talking of a point of delicate scrupulosity of moral conduct, he said to Mr Langton, "Men of harder minds than ours will do many things from which you and I would shrink; yet, sir, they will perhaps do more good in life than we. But let us try to help one another. If there be a wrong twist, it may be set right. It is not probable that two people can be wrong the same way.".

'Of the preface to Capel's Shakspeare he said, "If the man would have come to me, I would have endeavoured to endow his purposes with words: for as it is, he doth gabble monstrously."

"Now,"

'He related that he had once in a dream a contest of wit with some other person, and that he was very much mortified by imagining that his opponent had the better of him. said he, "one may mark here the effect of sleep in weakening the power of reflection; for had not my judgment failed me, I should have seen that the wit of this supposed antagonist, by whose superiority I felt myself depressed, was as much furnished by me, as that which I thought I had been uttering in my own character."

'He repeated to Mr. Langton with great energy, in the Greek, our Saviour's gracious expression concerning the forgiveness of Mary Magdalen: 'H xioris cov crowne σs mopevov sis εἰρήνην· Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." (Luke vii. 50.) He said, "The manner of this dismission is exceedingly affecting.' 'He thus defined the difference between physical and moral truth: "Physical truth is, when you tell a thing as it actually is. Moral truth is, when you tell a thing sincerely and precisely as it appears to you. I say such a one walked across the street if he really did so, I told a physical truth. If I thought so, though I should have been mistaken, I told a moral truth."'3

'Huggins, the translator of Ariosto, and Mr. Thomas Warton, in the early part of his literary life, had a dispute concerning that poet, of whom Mr. Warton, in his Observations on Spenser's Fairy Queen, gave some account which Huggins attempted to answer with violence, and said, "I will militate no longer against his nescience." Huggins was master of the subject, but wanted expression. Mr. Warton's knowledge of it was then imperfect, but his manner lively and elegant. Johnson said, "It appears to me, that Huggins has ball without powder, and Warton powder without ball."'

Talking of the farce of High Life below Stairs, he said, "Here is a farce which is really very diverting, when you see it acted; and yet one may read it, and not know that one has been reading anything at all."'

'He used at one time to go occasionally to the green-room of Drury Lane Theatre, where he was much regarded by the players, and was very easy and facetious with them. He had a very high opinion of Mrs. Clive's comic powers, and conversed more with her than with any of them. He said, "Clive, sir, is a good thing to sit by; she always understands what you say." And she said of him, "I love to sit by Dr. Johnson; he always entertains me." One night, when

1 Secretary to the British Herring Fishery, remarkable for an extraordinary number of occasional verses, not of eminent merit.-BosWELL.

2 It does not appear that the woman forgiven was Mary Magdalen. -KEARNEY.

3 This account of the difference between moral and physical truth is in Locke's Essay on Human Understanding, and many other books. -KEARNEY.

The Recruiting Officer was acted, he said to Mr. Holland, who had been expressing an apprehension that Dr. Johnson would disdain the works of Farquhar: "No, sir, I think Farquhar a man whose writings have considerable merit."'

'His friend Garrick was so busy in conducting the drama, that they could not have so much intercourse as Mr. Garrick used to profess an anxious wish that there should be. There might, indeed, be something in the contemptuous severity as to the merit of acting, which his old preceptor nourished in himself, that would mortify Garrick after the great applause which he received from the audience. For, though Johnson said of him, "Sir, a man who has a nation to admire him every night, may well be expected to be somewhat elated;" yet he would treat theatrical matters with a ludicrous slight. He mentioned one evening, "I met David coming off the stage, dressed in a woman's ridinghood, when he acted in The Wonder. I came full upon him, and I believe he was not pleased."'

'Once he asked Tom Davies, whom he saw dressed in a fine suit of clothes, "And what art thou to-night?" Tom answered, "The Thane of Ross" (which it will be recollected is a very inconsiderable character). "Oh, brave!" said Johnson.'

'Of Mr. Longley, at Rochester, a gentleman of very considerable learning, whom Dr. Johnson met there, he said, "My heart warms towards him. I was surprised to find in him such nice acquaintance with the metre in the learned languages: though I was somewhat mortified that I had it not so much to myself, as I should have thought."'

'Talking of the minuteness with which people will record the sayings of eminent persons, a story was told, that when Pope was on a visit to Spence at Oxford, as they looked from the window they saw a gentleman commoner, who was just come in from riding, amusing himself with whipping at a post. Pope took occasion to say, "That young gentleman seems to have little to do." Mr. Beauclerk observed, "Then, to be sure, Spence turned round and wrote that down;" and went on to say to Dr. Johnson, "Pope, sir, would have said the same of you, he had seen you distilling." JOHNSON: "Sir, if Pope had told me of my distilling, I would have told him of his grotto.""

'He would allow no settled indulgence of idleness upon principle, and always repelled every attempt to urge excuses for it. A friend one day suggested that it was not wholesome to study soon after dinner. JOHNSON: "Ah, sir, don't give way to such a fancy. At one time of my life I had taken it into my head that it was not wholesome to study between breakfast and dinner."

1 In a letter written by Johnson to a friend in Jan. 1742-3, he says, 'I never see Garrick.'-MALONE.

'Mr. Beauclerk one day repeated to Dr. Johnson, Pope's lines,

"Let modest Foster, if he will, excel

Ten metropolitans in preaching well;" then asked the Doctor, "Why did Pope say this?" JOHNSON: "Sir, he hoped it would vex somebody.

member of this Society, paid up an arrear which had run on for two years. On this occasion he mentioned a circumstance as characteristic of the Scotch. "One of that nation," said he, "who had been a candidate, against whom I had voted, came up to me with a civil salutation. Now, sir, this is their way. An Englishman would have stomached it, and been sulky, and never have taken further notice of you; but a Scotchman, sir, though you vote nineteen times against

after each time, and the twentieth time, sir, he will get your vote."'

'His affection for Topham Beauclerk was so great, that when Beauclerk was labouring under that severe illness which at last occasioned his death, Johnson said (with a voice faltering with emotion), "Sir, I would walk to the extent of the diameter of the earth to save Beauclerk."

'One night at the CLUB he produced a translation of an epitaph which Lord Elibank had written in English for his lady, and requested of Johnson to turn it into Latin for him. Having read Domina de North et Gray, he said to Dyer, "You see, sir, what barbarisms we are compelled to make use of, when modern titles are to be specifically mentioned in Latin inscriptions." When he had read it once aloud, and there had been a general approbation expressed by the company, he addressed himself to Mr. Dyer in particular, and said, “Sir, I beg to have your judgment, for I know your nicety." Dyer 1 then very properly desired to read it over again: which having done, he pointed out an incongruity in one of the sentences. Johnson immediately assented to the observation, and said, "Sir, this is owing to an alteration of a part of the sentence from the form in which I had first written it; and I believe, sir, you may have remarked that the making a partial change, without a due regard to the general structure of the sentence, is a very frequent cause of error in composition."

'Johnson was well acquainted with Mr. Dossie, author of a treatise on agriculture; and said of him, "Sir, of the objects which the Society of Arts have chiefly in view, the chymical effects of bodies operating upon other bodies, he knows more than almost any man." Johnson, in order to give Mr. Dossie his vote to be a

Probably The Sisters, a comedy performed one night ery, at Covent Garden, in 1769. Dr. Goldsmith wrote an excellent epilogue to it. Mrs. Lennox, whose Laiden name was Ramsay, died in London in disfresse circumstances, in her eighty-fourth year, January 4, 1804.—MALONE.

'Talking on the subject of toleration, one day when some friends were with him in his study, he made his usual remark, that the State has a right to regulate the religion of the people, who are the children of the State. A clergyman having readily acquiesced in this, Johnson, who loved discussion, observed, "But, sir, you must go round to other States than our own. You do not know what a Brahmin has to say for himself. In short, sir, I have got no further than this: every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test."'

A man, he observed, should begin to write soon: for, if he waits till his judgment is ma tured, 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."

'Talking of a court-martial that was sitting upon a very momentous public occasion, he expressed much doubt of an enlightened decision; and said, that perhaps there was not a member of it who, in the whole course of his life, had ever spent an hour by himself in balancing probabilities.'

'Goldsmith one day brought to the CLUB a printed ode, which he, with others, had been hearing read by its author in a public room, at the rate of five shillings each for admission. One of the company having read it aloud, Dr. Johnson said, "Bolder words and more timorous meaning, I think, never were brought together."

'Talking of Gray's Odes, he said, "They are forced plants, raised in a hotbed; and they are

1 Here Lord Macartney remarks, 'A Brahimin or any caste of the Hindoos will neither admit you to be of their religion, nor be converted to yours, a thing which struck the Portuguese with the greatest astonishment when they first discovered the East Indies.'BOSWELL.

2 John, the first Earl Granville, who died January 2, 1763.-MALONE.

poor plants; they are but cucumbers after all." A gentleman present, who had been running down ode-writing in general, as a bad species of poetry, unluckily said, "Had they been literally cucumbers, they had been better things than odes."-"Yes, sir," said Johnson, "for a hog.": 'His distinction of the different degrees of attainment of learning was thus marked upon two occasions. Of Queen Elizabeth he said, "She had learning enough to have given dignity to a bishop;" and of Mr. Thomas Davies he said, "Sir, Davies has learning enough to give credit to a clergyman."

'He used to quote, with great warmth, the saying of Aristotle recorded by Diogenes Laertius, "that there was the same difference between one learned and unlearned, as between the living and the dead.":

'It is very remarkable that he retained in his memory very slight and trivial as well as important things. As an instance of this, it seems that an inferior domestic of the Duke of Leeds had attempted to celebrate his Grace's marriage in such homely rhymes as he could make: and this curious composition having been sung to Dr. Johnson, he got it by heart, and used to repeat it in a very pleasant manner. Two of the stanzas were these:

"When the Duke of Leeds shall married be
To a fine young Lady of high quality,
How happy will that gentlewoman be
In his Grace of Leeds's good company.
"She shall have all that's fine and fair,
And the best of silk and satin shall wear;
And ride in a coach to take the air,
And have a house in St. James's Square."1

'An eminent foreigner, when he was shown the British Museum, was very troublesome with many absurd inquiries. "Now there, sir," said he, "is the difference between an Englishman and a Frenchman. A Frenchman must be always talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing, when he has nothing to say."

'His unjust contempt for foreigners was, indeed, extreme. One evening, at Old Slaughter's coffeehouse, when a number of them were talking loud about little matters, he said, "Does not this confirm old Meynell's observation-For anything I see, foreigners are fools!"'

'He said that once, when he had a violent toothache, a Frenchman accosted him thus: "Ah, Monsieur, vous étudiez trop.'

Having spent an evening at Mr. Langton's with the Reverend Dr. Parr, he was much pleased with the conversation of that learned gentleman; and after he was gone, said to Mr. Langton, "Sir, I am obliged to you for having asked me this evening. Parr is a fair man. I do not know when I have had an occasion of such free controversy. It is remarkable how much of a man's life may pass without meeting with any instance of this kind of open discussion."'

'We may fairly institute a criticism between Shakspeare and Corneille, as they both had, though in a different degree, the lights of a latter age. It is not so just between the Greek dramatic writers and Shakspeare. It may be replied to what is said by one of the remarkers on Shakspeare, that though Darius's shade had prescience, it does not necessarily follow that he had all past particulars revealed to him.'

'Spanish plays, being wildly and improbably

are entertained with stories full of prodigies; their experience not being sufficient to cause them to be so readily startled at deviations from the natural course of life. The machinery of the Pagans is uninteresting to us. When a

A lady of my acquaintance remembers to have heard her uncle sing those homely stanzas more than fortyfive years ago. He repeated the second thus:

"She shall breed young lords and ladies fair,
And ride abroad in a coach and three pair,
And the best, etc.

And have a house," etc.;

and remembered a third which seems to have been the

weary; still more so in the Grecian tragedies, as in that kind of composition a nearer approach to Nature is intended. Yet there are good reasons for reading romances; as-the fertility of invention, the beauty of style and expression, the curiosity of seeing with what kind of performances the age and country in which they were written was delighted: for it is to be

"When the Duke of Leeds shall have made his choice Of a charming young lady that's beautiful and wise, She'll be the happiest young gentlewoman under the skies,

As long as the sun and moon shall rise,

And how happy shall," etc.

It is with pleasure I add that this stanza could never be more truly applied than at this present time [1792]. -BOSWELL.

improbable tales were well received, the people were in a barbarous state, and so on the footing of children, as has been explained.'

'It is evident enough that no one who writes now can use the Pagan deities and mythology ; the only machinery, therefore, seems that of ministering spirits, the ghosts of the departed,

1 The celebrated scholar.

witches and fairies, though these latter, as the vulgar superstition concerning them (which, while in its force, infected at least the imagina tion of those that had more advantage in educa tion, though their reason set them free from it) is every day wearing out, seem likely to be of | little further assistance in the machinery of poetry. As I recollect, Hammond introduces a hag or witch into one of his love elegies, where the effect is unmeaning and disgusting.'

'The man who uses his talent of ridicule in creating or grossly exaggerating the instances he gives, who imputes absurdities that did not happen, or when a man was a little ridiculous, describes him as having been very much so, abuses his talents greatly. The great use of delineating absurdities is, that we may know how far human folly can go; the account, therefore, ought of absolute necessity to be faithful. A certain character (naming the person), as to the general cast of it, is well described by Garrick, but a great deal of the phraseology he uses in it is quite his own, particularly in the proverbial comparisons, "obstinate as a pig," etc.; but I don't know whether it might not be true of Lord- , that from a too great eagerness of praise and popularity, and a politeness carried to a ridiculous excess, he was likely, after asserting a thing in general, to give it up again in parts. For instance, if he had said Reynolds was the first of painters, he was capable enough of giving up, as objections might happen to be severally made, first his outline, -then the grace in form,-then the colouring, -and lastly, to have owned that he was such a mannerist, that the disposition of his pictures was all alike.'

'For hospitality, as formerly practised, there is no longer the same reason: heretofore the poorer people were more numerous, and from want of commerce their means of getting a livelihood more difficult; therefore the supporting them was an act of great benevolence. Now that the poor can find maintenance for themselves, and their labour is wanted, a general undiscerning hospitality tends to ill, by withdrawing them from their work to idleness and drunkenness. Then, formerly rents were received in kind, so that there was a great abundance of provisions in possession of the owners of the lands, which, since the plenty of money afforded by commerce, is no longer the case.'

'Hospitality to strangers and foreigners in our country is now almost at an end, since, from the increase of them that come to us, there have been a sufficient number of people that have found an interest in providing inns and proper accommodations, which is in general a more expedient method for the entertainment of travellers. Where the travellers and strangers are few, more of that hospitality subsists, as it has not

been worth while to provide places of accommodation. In Ireland there is still hospitality to strangers in some degree; in Hungary and Poland probably more.'

'Colman, in a note on his translation of Terence, talking of Shakspeare's learning, asks, "What says Farmer to this? What says Johnson?" Upon this he observed, "Sir, let Farmer answer for himself: I never engaged in this controversy. I always said Shakspeare had Latin enough to grammaticise his English."'

ness.

'A clergyman, whom he characterized as one who loved to say little oddities, was affecting one day, at a bishop's table, a sort of slyness and freedom not in character, and repeated, as if part of The Old Man's Wish, a song by Dr. Walter Pope, a verse bordering on licentiousJohnson rebuked him in the finest manner, by first showing that he did not know the passage he was aiming at, and thus humbling him: "Sir, that is not the song: it is thus." And he gave it right. Then looking stedfastly on him, "Sir, there is a part of that song which I should wish to exemplify in my own life : "May I govern my passions with absolute sway!"'

'Being asked if Barnes knew a good deal of Greek, he answered, "I doubt, sir, he was unoculus inter cæcos.'

'He used frequently to observe, that men might be very eminent in a profession, without our perceiving any particular power of mind in them in conversation. "It seems strange," said he, “that a man should see so far to the right, who sees so short a way to the left. Burke is the only man whose common conversation corresponds with the general fame which he has in the world. Take up whatever topic you please, he is ready to meet you."'

"A gentleman, by no means deficient in literature, having discovered less acquaintance with one of the Classics than Johnson expected, when the gentleman left the room, he observed, "You see, now, how little anybody reads." Mr. Langton happening to mention his having read a good deal in Clenardus's Greek Grammar, "Why, sir," said he, "who is there in this town who knows anything of Clenardus, but you and I?" And upon Mr. Langton's mentioning that he had taken the pains to learn by heart the Epistle of St. Basil, which is given in that Grammar as a praxis, "Sir," said he, "I never made such an effort to attain Greek."'

'Of Dodsley's Public Virtue, a poem, he said, "It was fine blank (meaning to express his usual contempt for blank verse): however, this miserable poem did not sell, and my poor friend Doddy said, Public virtue was not a subject to interest the age.

'Mr. Langton, when a very young man, read Dodsley's Cleone, a tragedy, to him, not aware of his extreme impatience to be read to. As it went on he turned his face to the back of his