would make him, is an amiable member of society, and may be led on by more regulated instructors, to a higher state of ethical perfection." Johnson proceeded : "Even sir Francis Wronghead is a character of manners, though drawn with great humour." He then repeated, very happily, all sir Francis's credulous account to Manly of his being with "the great man" and securing a place. Boswell asked him, if the Suspicious Husband did not furnish a well-drawn character, that of Ranger? JOHNSON. "No, sir; Ranger is just a rake, a mere rake, and a lively young fellow, but no character."

"As a curious instance," says Boswell, "how little a man knows, or wishes to know, his own character in the world; or, rather as a convincing proof, that Johnson's roughness was only external, and did not proceed from his heart, I insert the following dialogue :-JOHNSON. It is wonderful, sir, how rare a quality good humour is in life: we meet with very few good-humoured men.' I mentioned four of our friends, none of whom he would allow to be good-humoured: one was acid, another was muddy, and to the others he had objections which have escaped me. Then shaking his head, and stretching himself at ease in the coach, and smiling with much complacency, he turned to me, and said, "I look upon myself as a good-humoured fellow.' The epithet fellow, applied to the great lexicographer, the stately moralist, the masterly critic, as if he had been Sam Johnson, a mere pleasant companion, was highly diverting; and this light notion of himself struck me with wonder. I answered (also smiling), No, no, sir; that will not

do: you are good-natured, but not good-humoured; you are irascible: you have not patience with folly and absurdity. I believe you would pardon them, if there were time to deprecate your vengeance; but punishment follows so quick after sentence, that they cannot escape.'

No. XVII.

TRAVEL.

BOSWELL being about to travel, says of Johnson, "He advised me, when abroad, to be as much as I could with the professors in the universities, and with the clergy; for, from their conversation I might expect the best accounts of every thing, in whatever country I should be, with the additional advantage of keeping my learning alive.

.

"It will be observed, that when giving me advice as to my travels, Dr. Johnson did not dwell upon cities, and palaces, and pictures, and shows, and Arcadian scenes. He was of Lord Essex's opinion, who advises his kinsman Roger, earl of Rutland, ' rather to go a hundred miles to speak with one wise man, than five miles to see a fair town.'"

At a period long subsequent to this, he tells us, "He talked with an uncommon animation of travelling into distant countries; that the mind was enlarged by it, and that an acquisition of dignity of character was derived from it. He expressed a particular enthusiasm with respect to visiting the wall of China. I catched it for the moment, and said, I really believed I should go and see the wall of China,

had I not children, of whom it was my duty to take care. Sir,' said he, by doing so, you would do what would be of importance in raising your children to eminence. There would be a lustre reflected upon them from your spirit and curiosity. They would be at all times regarded as the children of a man who had gone to view the wall of China. I am serious, sir.'"

Speaking of Bruce, Boswell says, "Johnson told me, that he had been in the company of a gentleman whose extraordinary travels had been much the subject of conversation: but I found he had not listened to him with that full confidence, without which there is little satisfaction in the society of travellers. I was curious to hear what opinion so able a judge as Johnson had formed of his abilities, and I asked, if he was not a man of sense. JOHNSON. Why, sir, he is not a distinct relater; and I should say, he is neither abounding nor deficient in sense. I did not perceive any superiority of understanding.' BOSWELL. But will you not allow him a nobleness of resolution, in penetrating into distant regions?' JOHNSON. That, sir, is not to the present purpose; we are talking of sense. A fighting-cock has a nobleness of resolution.""

The following conversation occurred at a tavern, dining with a numerous company. JOHNSON. "I have been reading Twiss's Travels in Spain, which are just come out. They are as good as the first book of travels that you will take up. They are as good as those of Keysler or Blainville; nay, as Addison's, if you except the learning. They are not so good as Brydone's, but they are better than Pococke's. I have not, indeed, cut the leaves yet; but

I have read in them where the pages are open, and I do not suppose that what is in the pages which are closed is worse than what is in the open pages. It would seem," he added, " that Addison had not acquired much Italian learning, for we do not find it introduced into his writings. The only instance that I recollect, is his quoting Stavo bene; per star meglio, sto qui.'

Boswell mentioned Addison's having borrowed many of his classical remarks from Leandro Alberti. Mr. Beauclerk said, "It was alleged, that he had borrowed also from another Italian author." JOHNSON. Why, sir, all who go to look for what the classics have said of Italy, must find the same passages; and I should think it would be one of the first things the Italians would do, on the revival of learning, to collect all that the Roman authors have said of their country."

Mr. Thrale had long planned a journey to Italy with his family, in which Dr. Johnson was to accompany them; and even after the death of Mr. Thrale's son, a journey to Italy was still in the doctor's thoughts. He said, "A man who has not eenin It aly is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see. The grand object of travelling is, to see the shores of the Mediterranean. On those shores were the four great empires of the world-the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman. All our religion, almost all our law, almost all our arts, almost all that sets us above savages, has come from the shores of the Mediterranean." General Paoli observed, “The Mediterranean would be a noble subject for a poem."

Boswell mentioned a scheme which he had of making a tour to the Isle of Man, and giving a full account of it; and that Mr. Burke had playfully suggested as a motto,

"The proper study of mankind is MAN."

JOHNSON. Sir, you will get more by the book than the jaunt will cost you; so you will have your diversion for nothing, and add to your reputation."

Dr. Johnson observed, "That every body commended his Journey to the Western Islands, as it were, in their own way. For instance," said he, "Mr. Jackson (the all-knowing), told me there was more good sense upon trade in it, than he should hear in the house of commons in a year, except from Burke. Jones commended the part which treats of language; Burke that which describes the inhabitants of mountainous countries."

66

JOHNSON." I have been reading Thicknesse's Travels, which, I think, are entertaining." BosWELL. What, sir, a good book?" JOHNSON. "Yes, sir, to read once; I do not say you are to make a study of it, and digest it: and I believe it to be a true book in his intention. All travellers generally mean to tell truth; though Thicknesse observes, upon Smollet's account of his alarming a whole town in France by firing a blunderbuss, and frightening a French nobleman till he made him tie on his portmanteau-that he would be loath to say Smollet had told two lies in one page; but he had found the only town in France where these things could have happened. Travellers must be often mistaken: in every thing, except where mensuration can be ap