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priety engage in trade. Johnson warmly main tained that they might: For why," he urged, "should not judges get riches, as well as those who deserve them less?" BOSWELL. "They should have sufficient salaries, and have nothing to take off their attention from the affairs of the public." JOHNSON. "No judge, sir, can give his whole attention to his office; and it is very proper he should employ what time he has to himself, to his own advantage, in the most profitable manner." Davies enlivened the dispute, by making it somewhat dramatic. "Then, sir, he may become an usurer; and when he is going to the bench, he may be stopped- Your lordship cannot go yet: here is a bunch of invoices; several ships are about to sail.'" JOHNSON. Sir, you may as well say a judge should not have a house; for they may come and tell him- your lordship's house is on fire;' and so, instead of minding the business of his court, he is to be occupied in getting the engine with the greatest speed. There is no end of this. Every judge, who has land, trades to a certain extent in corn, or in cattle, and in the land itself: undoubtedly, his steward acts for him, and so do clerks for a great merchant. A judge may be a farmer; but he is not to geld his own pigs. A judge may play at cards for his amusement; but he is not to play at marbles, or chuck farthings, in the piazza. No, sir, there is no profession to which a man gives a very great proportion of his time. It is wonderful, when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession. No man would be a judge, upon the condition of being totally a judge. The best employed lawyer has his mind at work but for a small proportion of his time: a great deal of

his occupation is merely mechanical. I once wrote for a magazine: I made a calculation, that if I should write but a page a day at the same rate, I should, in ten years, write nine volumes in folio, of an ordinary size and print." BOSWELL. "Such as Carte's History?" JOHNSON. "Yes, sir: when a man writes from his own mind, he writes very rapidly the greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book."

Boswell argued warmly against the judges' trading, and mentioned Hale as an instance of a perfect judge, who devoted himself entirely to his office. JOHNSON. "Hale, sir, attended to other things besides law he left a great estate." BOSWELL. "That was, because what he got accumulated without any exertion or anxiety on his part."

After talking of the great consequence which a man acquired by being employed in his profession, Boswell suggested a doubt of the justice of the general opinion, that it is improper in a lawyer to solicit employment; "for why," he urged," should it not be equally allowable to solicit that as the means of consequence, as it is to solicit votes to be elected a member of parliament ?" Mr. Strahan had told him that a countryman of his, who had risen to eminence in the law, had, when first making his way, solicited him to get him employed in city causes. JOHNSON. "Sir, it is wrong to stir up law-suits; but when once it is certain that a law-suit is to go on, there is nothing wrong in a lawyer's endeavouring that he shall have the benefit, rather than another." BosWELL. "You would not solicit employment, sir, if you were a lawyer." JOHNSON.

No, sir; but not because I should think it wrong,

but because I should disdain it." This was a good distinction, which will be felt by men of just pride. He proceeded: "However, I would not have a lawyer be wanting to himself in using fair means. I would have him inject a little hint now and then, to prevent his being overlooked."

Dr. Johnson made a remark, which both Mr. Macbean and Boswell thought new. It was this: that "the law against usury is for the protection of creditors as well as debtors; for if there were no such check, people would be apt, from the temptation of great interest, to lend to desperate persons, by whom they would lose their money. Accordingly, there are instances of ladies being ruined, by having injudiciously sunk their fortunes for high annuities, which, after a few years, ceased to be paid, in consequence of the ruined circumstances of the borrower."

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.

At a conversation at dinner one day at Mr. Hoole's, Mr. Nichol, the king's bookseller, and Boswell, attempted to controvert the maxim, "better that ten guilty should escape than one innocent person suffer;" and were answered by Dr. Johnson with great power of reasoning and eloquence. He ably showed, that unless civil institutions ensure protec tion to the innocent, all the confidence which mankind should have in them would be lost.

No. XIX.

PHYSIC.

WHEN Mr. Beauclerk was ill, Johnson informed Boswell that, though he was in great pain, it was hoped he was not in danger; and that he now wished to consult Dr. Heberden, to try the effect of a "new understanding."

A physician being mentioned who had lost his practice, because his whimsically changing his religion had made people distrustful of him, Boswell maintained that this was unreasonable, as religion is unconnected with medical skill. JOHNSON." Sir, it is not unreasonable; for when people see a man absurd in what they understand, they may conclude the same of him in what they do not understand. If a physician were to take to eating of horse-flesh, nobody would employ him; though one may eat horse-flesh, and be a very skilful physician. If a man were educated in an absurd religion, his continuing to profess it would not hurt him, though his changing to it would."

Dr. Taylor commended a physician who was known to him and Dr. Johnson, and said, "I fight many battles for him, as many people in the country dislike him." JOHNSON. "But you should consider, sir, that by every one of your victories he is a loser for every man of whom you get the better, will be very angry, and resolve not to employ him; whereas, if people get the better of you in argument about him, they'll think, 'We'll send for Dr. ***** uever

P

theless.'

This was an observation deep and sure in human nature.

Johnson mentioned Dr. Barry's System of Physic. "He was a man," said he, "who had acquired a high reputation in Dublin, came over to England, and brought his reputation with him, but had not great success. His notion was, that pulsation occasions death by attrition; and that, therefore, the way to preserve life is to retard pulsation, But we know, that pulsation is strongest in infants, and that we increase in growth while it operates in its regular course; so it cannot be the cause of destruction." Soon after this, he said something very flattering to Mrs. Thrale, which concluded with wishing her long life. "Sir," said Boswell," if Dr. Barry's System be true, you have now shortened Mrs. Thrale's life, perhaps, some minutes, by accelerating her pulsation."

No. XX.

FINE ARTS.

WE fell into a disquisition, whether there is any beauty independent of utility. General Paoli maintained there was not; Dr. Johnson, that there was ; and he instanced a coffee-cup, which he held in his hand, the painting of which was of no real use, as the cup would hold the coffee equally well if plain; yet the painting was beautiful.

The following conversation passed between several eminent men who had been dining together.

F. "I have been looking at this famous antique