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1772.

in the regimentals of the Scots Royal, who talked Atat. 63. with a vivacity, fluency, and precision fo uncommon, that he attracted particular attention. He proved to be the Honourable Thomas Erfkine, youngest brother to the Earl of Buchan, who has fince rifen into fuch brilliant reputation at the bar in Westminfter-hall.

Fielding being mentioned, Johnson exclaimed, " he was a blockhead;" and upon my expreffing my astonishment at so strange an assertion, he said, "What I mean by his being a blockhead is, that he was a barren rafcal." BOSWELL. "Will you not allow, Sir, that he draws very natural pictures of human life?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, it is of very low life. Richardfon used to say, that had he not known who Fielding was, he should have believed he was an oftler. Sir, there is more knowledge of the heart in one letter of Richardson's, than in all Tom Jones.' I, indeed, never read Jofeph Andrews." ERSKINE. "Surely, Sir, Richardson is very tedious." JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, if you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be fo much fretted that you would hang yourself. But you must read him for the fentiment, and confider the story as only giving occafion to the sentiment."—I have already given my opinion of Fielding; but I cannot refrain from repeating here my wonder at Johnson's exceffive and unaccountable depreciation of one of the best writers that England has produced. "Tom Jones" has stood the test of publick opinion with fuch fuccefs, as to have established its great merit, both for the story, the fentiments,

and

and the manners, and also the varieties of diction,

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fo as to leave no doubt of its having an animated Etat. 63. truth of execution throughout.

A book of travels, lately published under the title of Coriat Junior, and written by Mr. Paterson, the auctioneer, was mentioned. Johnson faid, this book was an imitation of Sterne †, and not of Coriat, whose name Paterfon had chofen as a whimfical one. "Tom Coriat, (faid he,) was a humourist about the court of James the First. He had a mixture of learning, of wit, and of buffoonery. He first travelled through Europe, and published his travels. He afterwards travelled on foot through Afia, and had made many remarks; but he died at Mandoa, and his remarks were lost.”

We talked of gaming, and animadverted on it with severity. JOHNSON. "Nay, gentlemen, let us not aggravate the matter. It is not roguery to play with a man who is ignorant of the game, while you are master of it, and so win his money; for he thinks he can play better than you, as you think you can play better than he; and the fuperiour skill carries it." ERSKINE. "He is a fool, but you are not a rogue. JOHNSON. "That's much about the truth, Sir. It must be confidered, that a man who only does what every one of the fociety to which he belongs would do, is not a dishonest In the republick of Sparta, it was agreed, that stealing was not dishonourable, if not difcovered. I do not commend a fociety where there is an agreement that what would not otherwise

man.

+ Mr. Paterson, in a pamphlet, produced fome evidence: to fhow that his work was written before Sterne's Sentimental Journey' appeared.

be

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Etat. 63.

be fair, fhall be fair; but I maintain, that an individual of any fociety, who practises what is allowed, is not a dishonest man." BOSWELL. So then, Sir, you do not think ill of a man who wins perhaps forty thousand pounds in a winter?" JOHNSON. "Sir, I do not call a gamefter a dishonest man; but I call him an unfocial man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good. Trade gives employment to numbers, and fo produces intermediate good."

Mr. Erfkine told us, that when he was in the island of Minorca, he not only read prayers, but preached two fermons to the regiment. He feemed to object to the paffage in fcripture where we are told that the angel of the Lord fmote in one night forty thousand Affyrians. "Sir, (faid Johnson,) you should recollect that there was a fupernatural interpofition; they were destroyed by peftilence. You are not to suppose that the angel of the Lord went about and stabbed each of them with a dagger, or knocked them on the head, man by man.'

After Mr. Erskine was gone, a difcuffion took place, whether the present Earl of Buchan, when Lord Cardross, did right to refuse to go Secretary of the Embaffy to Spain, when Sir James Gray, a man of inferiour rank, went Ambaffadour. Dr. Johnson faid, that perhaps in point of intereft he did wrong; but in point of dignity he did well. Sir Alexander infifted that he was wrong, and faid that Mr. Pitt intended it as an advantageous thing for him. "Why, Sir (faid Johnson,) Mr. Pitt might think it an advantageous thing for him. to make him a vintner, and get him all the Portugal

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Portugal trade; but he would have demeaned him-
felf strangely had he accepted of fuch a fituation. Etat. 63.
Sir, had he gone Secretary while his inferiour was
Ambassadour, he would have been a traitor to his
rank and family."

I talked of the little attachment which fubfifted between near relations in London. "Sir, (faid Johnson) in a country fo commercial as ours, where every man can do for himself, there is not fo much occafion for that attachment. No man is thought the worfe of here, whose brother was hanged. In uncommercial countries, many of the branches of a family muft depend on the stock; fo, in order to make the head of the family take care of them, they are represented as connected with his reputation, that, felf-love being interested, he may exert himfelf to promote their intereft. You have first large circles, or clans; as commerce incréafes, the connection is confined to families. By degrees, that too goes off, as having become unneceffary, and there being few opportu nities of intercourse. One brother is a merchant in the city, and another is an officer in the guards. How little intercourfe can these two have !"

I argued warmly for the old feudal fyftem. Sir Alexander oppofed it, and talked of the pleasure of seeing all men free and independent. JOHNSON.

I agree with Mr. Bofwell that there must be a high fatisfaction in being a feudal Lord; but we are to confider, that we ought not to wish to have a number of men unhappy for the fatisfaction of one."I maintained that numbers, namely, the vaffals or followers, were not unhappy; for that VOL. II.

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Ætat. 63.

there was a reciprocal fatisfaction between the Lord and them: he being kind in his authority over them; they being refpectful and faithful to him.

On Thursday, April 9, I called on him to beg he would go and dine with me at the Mitre tavern. He had refolved not to dine at all this day, I know not for what reafon; and I was fo unwilling to be deprived of his company, that I was content to fubmit to fuffer a want, which was at firft somewhat painful, but he foon made me forget it; and a man is always pleased with himself when he finds his intellectual inclinations predominate.

He obferved, that to reafon philofophically on the nature of prayer, was very unprofitable.

Talking of ghofts, he said, he knew one friend, who was an honeft man and a fenfible man, who told him he had seen a ghoft, old Mr. Edward Cave, the printer at St. John's Gate. He faid, Mr. Cave did not like to talk of it, and feemed to be in great horrour whenever it was mentioned. BOSWELL. "Pray, Sir, what did he fay was the appearance?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, fomething of a fhadowy being."

I mentioned witches, and asked him what they properly meant. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, they properly mean those who make ufe of the aid of evil spirits." BOSWELL. "There is no doubt, Sir, a general report and belief of their having exifted." JOHNSON. "You have not only the general report and belief, but you have many voluntary folemn confeffions." He did not affirm any thing pofitively upon a fubject which it is the fashion of the times to laugh at as a matter of abfurd credulity. He

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