1772 forget whatever is difagreeable. Would not you' allow a man to drink for that reafon ?" JOHNSON. Yes, Sir, if he fat next you."

Ærat: 63.

I expreffed a liking for Mr. Francis Ofborn's works, and asked him what he thought of that writer. He answered, "A conceited fellow. Were a man to write fo now, the boys would throw ftones at him." He however did not alter my opinion of a favourite authour, to whom I was first directed by his being quoted in "The Spectator," and in whom I have found much fhrewd and lively fenfe, expreffed indeed in a ftyle fomewhat quaint, which, however, I do not dinike. His book has an air of originality. We figure to ourselves an ancient gentleman talking to us.

:..When one of his friends endeavoured to maintain that a country gentleman might contrive to pafs his life very agreeably, "Sir (faid he,) you cannot give me an inftance of any man who is permitted to lay out his own time, contriving not to have tedious hours." This obfervation, howhow◄ ever, is equally applicable to gentlemen who live in cities, and are of no profeffion.

He faid, "there is no permanent national character; it varies according to circumftances. Alexander the Great fwept India: now the Turks fweep Greece."

A learned gentleman who in the courfe of converfation wished to inform us of this fimple fact, that the Counsel upon the circuit at Shrewsbury were much bitten by fleas, took, I fuppose seven or eight minutes in relating it circumstantially.

He

He in a plenitude of phrase told us, that large bales
of woollen cloth were lodged in the town-hall
that by reason of this, fleas neftled there in prodi-
gious numbers; that the lodgings of the Counsel
were near to the town-hall; and that thofe little
animals moved from place to place with wonderful
agility. Johnfon fat in great impatience till the
gentleman had finished his tedious narrative, and
then burft out, (playfully however,) "It is a pity,
Sir, that you have not feen a lion; for a flea has
taken you fuch a time, that a lion must have
ferved you a twelvemonth "."

He would not allow Scotland to derive any credit from Lord Mansfield; for he was educated in England. “Much (faid he,) may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.'

Talking of a modern hiftorian and a modern moralift, he faid, "There is more thought in the moralift than in the hiftorian. There is but a fhallow ftream of thought in hiftory." BOSWELL. "But furely, Sir, an hiftorian has reflection.' JOHNSON. "Why yes, Sir; and so has a cat when the catches a moufe for her kitten. But fhe cannot write like ******* ; neither can

****”

He faid, "I am very unwilling to read the manuscripts of authours, and give them my opinion. If the authours who apply to me have money, bid them boldly print without a name; if they

I

Mrs. Piozzi, to whom I told this anecdote, has related it, as if the gentleman had given “ the natural history of the mouse.” Anecdotes, p. 191,

1772.

Etat. 63.

1772.

Etat. 63.

have written in order to get money, I tell them to go to the booksellers, and make the best bargain they can." BOSWELL." But, Sir, if a bookfeller should bring you a manuscript to look at.' JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, I would defire the bookfeller to take it away."

I mentioned a friend of mine who had refided long in Spain, and was unwilling to return to Britain. JOHNSON. "Sir, he is attached to fome woman.' BOSWELL. "I rather believe, Sir, it is the fine climate which keeps him there." JOHNSON.. Nay, Sir, how can you talk fo? What is climate. to happiness? Place me in the heart of Afia, fhould I not be exiled? What proportion does climate bear to the complex system of human life?. You may advise me to go to live at Bologna to eat. faufages. The faufages there, are the best in the world; they lofe much by being carried."

On Saturday, May 9, Mr. Dempfter and I had agreed to dine by ourselves at the British Coffeehouse. Johnson, on whom I happened to call in the morning, faid, he would join us, which he did, and we spent a very agreeable day, though I recollect but little of what passed.

He faid, "Walpole was a minifter given by the King to the people: Pitt was a minister given by the people to the King,-as an adjunct."

.எ

"The misfortune of Goldfmith in converfation is this: he goes on without knowing how he is to get off. His genius is great, but his knowledge is fmall. As they fay of a generous man, it is a pity he is not rich, we may fay of Goldsmith, it is

a pity he is not knowing. He would not keep his 1772. knowledge to himself." Etat. 63.

Before leaving London this year, I confulted him upon a question purely of Scotch law. It was held of old, and continued for a long period, to be an established principle in that law, that whoever intermeddled with the effects of a perfon deceased, without the interpofition of legal authority to guard againft embezzlement, fhould be fubjected to pay all the debts of the deceased, as having been guilty of what was technically called vicious intromiffion. The Court of Seffion had gradually relaxed the strictness of this principle, where the interference proved had been inconfiderable. In a cafe which came before that Court the preceding winter, I had laboured to perfuade the Judges to return to the ancient law. It was my own fincere opinion, that they ought to adhere to it; but I had exhaufted all my powers of reasoning in vain. Johnfon thought as I did; and in order to affist me in my application to the Court for a revision and alteration of the judgement, he dictated to me the following argument:

"THIS, we are told, is a law which has its force only from the long practice of the Court; and may, therefore, be fufpended or modified as the Court fhall think proper.

"Concerning the power of the Court to make or to suspend a law, we have no intention to inquire. It is fufficient for our purpose that every juft law is dictated by reafon; and that the practice of every

• Wilson against Smith and Armour.

1772. legal Court is regulated by equity. It is the quaAtat. 63. lity of reafon to be invariable and conftant; and of equity, to give to one man what, in the fame cafe, is given to another. The advantage which humanity derives from law is this: that the law gives every man a rule of action, and prefcribes a mode of conduct which fhall entitle him to the fupport and protection of fociety. That the law may be a rule of action, it is neceffary that it be known; it is necessary that it be permanent and stable. The law is the measure of civil right; but if the measure be changeable, the extent of the thing measured never can be fettled.

"To permit a law to be modified at discretion, is to leave the community without law. It is to withdraw the direction of that publick wisdom, by which the deficiencies of private understanding are to be fupplied. It is to fuffer the rafh and ignorant to act at difcretion, and then to depend for the legality of that action on the sentence of the Judge. He that is thus governed, lives not by law, but by opinion: not by a certain rule to which he can apply his intention before he acts, but by an uncertain and variable opinion, which he can never know but after he has committed the act on which that opinion fhall be paffed. He lives by a law, (if a law it be,) which he can never know before he has offended it. To this cafe may be justly applied that important principle, mifera eft fervitus ubi jus eft aut incognitum aut vagum. If Intromiffion be not criminal till it exceeds a certain point, and that point be unfettled, and confequently different in different minds, the right of Intromiffion,