sending an execution into Steele's house.* "Sir," said he, "it is generally known; it is known to all who are acquainted with the literary history of that period: it is as well known as that he wrote 'Cato."" Mr. Thomas Sheridan once defended Addison to me by alleging that he did it in order to cover Steele's goods from other creditors, who were going to seize them. We talked of the difference between the mode of education at Oxford, and that in those colleges where instruction is chiefly conveyed by lectures. JOHNSON: "Lectures were once useful; but now, when all can read, and books are so numerous, lectures are unnecessary. If your attention fails, and you miss a part of the lecture, it is lost; you cannot go back as you do upon a book." Dr. Scott agreed with him. "But yet," said I, "Dr. Scott, you yourself gave lectures at Oxford." He smiled. "You laughed," then said I, at those who came to you.' Dr. Scott left us, and soon afterwards we went to dinner. Our company consisted of Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Desmoulins, Mr. Levett, Mr. Allen the printer, [Mr. Macbean,] and Mrs. Hall, sister of the Reverend Mr. John Wesley, and resembling him, as I thought, both in figure and manner. Johnson produced now, for the first time, some handsome silver salvers, which he told me he had bought fourteen years ago; so it was a great day. was not a little amused by observing Allen perpetually struggling to talk in the manner of Johnson, like the little frog in the fable blowing himself up to resemble the stately OX. I mentioned a kind of religious Robin Hood Society, which met every Sunday evening at Coachmakers'-hall, for free debates; and that the subject for this night was, the text which relates, with. other miracles which happened at our Saviour's death, "And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many." Mrs. Hall said it was a very curious subject, and she should like to hear it discussed. JOHNSON (Somewhat warmly): "One would not go to such a place to hear it, one would not be seen in such a place to give countenance to such a meeting." I, however, resolved that I would go. "But, Sir," said she to Johnson, "I should like to hear you discuss it. He seemed reluctant to engage in it. She talked of the resurrection of the human race in general, and maintained that we shall be raised with the same bodies. JOHNSON: "Nay, Madam, we see that it is not to be the same body; for the Scripture uses the illustration of grain sown, and we know that the grain which grows is not the same with what is sown. You cannot suppose that we shall rise with a diseased body; it is enough if there be such a sameness as to distinguish identity of person.' She seemed desirous of knowing more, but he left the question in obscurity. Of apparitions,† he observed, "A total dis See this explained in chap. 46, p. 400.-BOSWELL. As this subject frequently recurs in this volume, the reader may be led erroneously to suppose that Dr. Johnson was so fond of such discussions, as frequently belief of them is adverse to the opinion of the existence of the soul between death and the last day; the question simply is, whether departed spirits ever have the power of making themselves perceptible to us. A man who thinks he has seen an apparition, can only be convinced himself; his authority will not convince another; and his conviction, if rational, must be founded on being told something which cannot be known but by supernatural means.' " He mentioned a thing as not unfrequent, of which I had never heard before,-being called, that is, hearing one's name pronounced by the voice of a known person at a great distance, far beyond the possibility of being reached by any sound uttered by human organs. An acquaintance, on whose veracity I can depend, told me, that walking home one evening to Kilmarnock, he heard himself called from a wood, by the voice of a brother who had gone to America; and the next packet brought accounts of that brother's death. Macbean asserted that this inexplicable calling was a thing very well known. Dr. Johnson said, that one day at Oxford, as he was turning the key of his chamber, he heard his mother distinctly call-Sam. She was then at Lichfield; but nothing ensued. This phenomenon is, I think, as wonderful as any other mysterious fact, which many people are very slow to believe, or rather, indeed, reject with an obstinate contempt. Some time after this, upon his making a remark which escaped my attention, Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Hall were both together striving to answer him. He grew angry, and called out loudly, "Nay, when you both speak at once it is intolerable." But checking himself, and softening, he said, "This one may say, though you are ladies."" Then he brightened into gay humour, and addressed them in the words of one of the songs in "The Beggars' Opera:' "But two at a time there's no mortal can bear." "What, Sir," said I, are you going to turn Captain Macheath?" There was something as pleasantly ludicrous in this scene as can be imagined. The contrast between Macheath, Polly, and Lucy-and Dr. Samuel Johnson; blind, peevish Mrs. Williams; and lean, lank, preaching Mrs. Hall, was exquisite. I stole away to Coachmakers'-hall, and heard the difficult text of which we had talked, discussed with great decency, and some intelligence, by several speakers. There was a difference of opinion as to the appearance of ghosts in modern times, though the arguments for it, supported by Mr. Addison's authority, preponderated. The immediate subject of debate was embarrassed by the bodies of the saints having been said to rise, to introduce them. But the truth is, that the author him. self delighted in talking concerning ghosts, and what he has frequently denominated the mysterious; and therefore took every opportunity of leading Johnson to converse on such subjects.-MALONE. The author of this work was most undoubtedly fond of the mysterious, and perhaps upon some occasions may have directed the conversation to those topics, when they would not spontaneously have suggested themselves to Johnson's mind; but that he also had a love for specula. tions of that nature, may be gathered from his writings throughout.-J. BOSWRI L, JUN. Mrs. Carter having said of the same person, "I doubt he was an atheist." JOHNSON: "I don't know that. He might perhaps have become one, if he had had time to ripen (smiling). He might have exuberated into an atheist." and by the question what became of them after- Hollis, the strenuous Whig, who used to send wards: did they return again to their graves, or over Europe presents of democratical books, with were they translated to heaven? Only one evan- their boards stamped with daggers and caps of gelist mentions the fact (St. Matthew, xxvii. 52, liberty. Mrs. Carter said, "he was a bad man: 53), and the commentators whom I have looked at he used to talk uncharitably." JOHNSON: "Poh! do not make the passage clear. There is, how- poh! Madam; who is the worse for being talked ever, no occasion for our understanding it farther of uncharitably? Besides, he was a dull poor than to know that it was one of the extraordinary creature as ever lived: and I believe he would manifestations of divine power, which accompa- not have done harm to a man whom he knew to nied the most important event that ever happened. be of very opposite principles to his own. I reOn Friday, April 20, I spent with him one of member once at the Society of Arts, when an the happiest days that I remember to have en- advertisement was to be drawn up, he pointed me joyed in the whole course of my life. Mrs. Gar-out as the man who could do it best. This, you rick, whose grief for the loss of her husband was, will observe, was kindness to me. I, however, I believe, as sincere as wounded affection and slipped away, and escaped it." admiration could produce, had this day, for the first time since his death, a select party of his friends to dine with her.* The company was, Miss Hannah More, who lived with her, and whom she called her chaplain; Mrs. Boscawen, Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Burney, Dr. Johnson, and myself. We found ourselves very elegantly entertained at her house in the Adelphi, where I have passed many a pleasing hour with him "who gladdened life." She looked well, talked of her husband with complacency, and while she cast her eyes on his portrait, which hung over the chimney-piece, said, that "death was now the most agreeable object to her." The very semblance of David Garrick was cheering. Mr. Beauclerk, with happy propriety, inscribed under that fine portrait of him, which by Lady Diana's kindness is now the property of my friend Mr. Langton, the following passage from his beloved Shakspeare: A merrier man, Sir Joshua Reynolds praised "Mudge's* Sermons. JOHNSON: "Mudge's Sermons are good but not practical. He grasps more sense than he can hold; he takes more corn than he can make into meal; he opens a wide prospect, but it is so distant, it is indistinct. I love 'Blair's Sermons.' Though the dog is a Scotchman, and a Presbyterian, and everything he should not be, I was the first to praise them. Such was my candour" (smiling). MRS. BOSCAWEN: "Such his great merit, to get the better of all your prejudices." JOHNSON: "Why, Madam, let us compound the matter; let us ascribe it to my candour and his merit." In the evening we had a large company in the drawing-room; several ladies, the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr. Percy, Mr. Chamberlayne of the Treasury, &c., &c. Somebody said, the life of a mere literary man could not be very entertaining. JOHNSON: "But it certait'y may. This is a remark which has been made, and repeated, without justice; why should the life of a literary man be less entertaining than the life of any other man? Are there not as interesting varieties in such a life? As a literary life it may be very entertaining." BOSWELL:"But it must be better We were all in fine spirits; and I whispered to surely, when it is diversified with a little active Mrs. Boscawen, "I believe this is as much as can variety-such as his having gone to Jamaica; or be made of life." In addition to a splendid en--his having gone to the Hebrides." Johnson tertainment, we were regaled with Lichfield ale, which had a peculiar appropriate value. Sir Joshua, and Dr. Burney, and I, drank cordially of it to Dr. Johnson's health; and though he would not join us, he as cordially answered, "Gentlemen, I wish you all as well as you do me." The general effect of this day dwells upon my mind in fond remembrance; but I do not find much conversation recorded. What I have preserved shall be faithfully given. One of the company mentioned Mr. Thomas Mrs. Garrick was born at Vienna, in 1725. Her maiden name was Viegel, which she changed to Violette, at the command of the Empress Maria-Theresa, whose patronage she had attracted by her consummate ski. as An opera dancer. She arrived in England in 1744, and was married to David Garrick in 1749, when the Earl of BurIngton gave the bride a marriage portion of 6000l. She remained a widow and survived her husband for forty years. She died in 1942, aged 97.-E0. was not displeased at this. Talking of a very respectable author, he told us a curious circumstance in his life, which was, that he had married a printer's devil. REYNOLDS: "A printer's devil, Sir! Why, I thought a printer's devil was a creature with a black face and in rags." JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir. But I suppose he had her face washed, and put clean clothes on her. (Then looking very serious and very earnest.) And she did not disgrace him ;the woman had a bottom of good sense." word bottom, thus introduced, was so ludicrous, when contrasted with his gravity, that most of us could not forbear tittering and laughing; though I recollect that the Bishop of Killaloe kept his countenance with perfect steadiness, while Miss Hannah More slily hid her face behind a lady's back who sat on the same settee with her. * See p. 408.-BOSWELL. The His ment?" pride could not bear that any expression of his should excite ridicule, when he did not intend it; he therefore resolved to assume and exercise despotic power, glanced sternly around, and called out, in a strong tone, "Where's the merriThen collecting himself, and looking awful, to make us feel how he could impose restraint, and as it were searching his mind for a still more ludicrous word, he slowly pronounced, "I say the woman was fundamentally sensible;" as if he had said, hear this now, and laugh if you darc. We all sat composed as at a funeral. He and I walked away together; we stopped a little while by the rails of the Adelphi, looking on the Thames, and I said to him, with some emotion, that I was now thinking of two friends we had lost, who once lived in the buildings behind us, Beauclerk and Garrick. "Ay, Sir," said he tenderly, "and two such friends as cannot be supplied." For some time after this day I did not see him very often, and of the conversation which I did enjoy, I am sorry to find I have preserved but litt c. I was at this time engaged in a variety of other matters, which required exertion and assidu.ty, and necessarily occupied almost all my time. One day having spoken very freely of those who were then in power, he said to me, "Between ourselves, Sir, I do not like to give opposition the satisfaction of knowing how much I disapprove of the ministry." And when I mentioned that Mr. Burke had boasted how quiet the nation was in George the Second's reign, when Whigs were in rower, compared with the present reign, when 1ories governed;-"Why, Sir," said he, you ar to consider that Tories, having more reverence for government, will not oppose with the same violence as Whigs, who being unrestrained by that principle, will oppose by any means.'" This month he lost not only Mr. Thrale, but another friend, Mr. William Strahan, junior, printer, the eldest son of his old and constant friend, printer to his Majesty. " 66 TO MRS. STRAHAN. "DEAR MADAM, April 23, 1781. "The grief which I feel for the loss of a very kind friend is sufficient to make me know how much you suffer by the death of an amiable son: a man, of whom I think it may be truly said, that no one knew him who does not lament him. I look upon myself as having a friend, another friend, taken from me. "Comfort, dear Madam, I would give you, if I could; but I know how little the forms of consolation can avail. Let me, however, counsel you not to waste your health in unprofitable sorrow, but go to Bath, and endeavour to prolong your own life; but when we have all done all that we can, one friend must in time lose the other. I am, dear Madam, "Your most humble servant, 1 CHAPTER XLVIII.-1781. again dining with Johnson and Mr. Wilkes, at ON Tuesday, May 8, I had the pleasure of Mr. Dilly's. No negociation was now required to bring them together; for Johnson was so well satisfied with the former interview, that he was very glad to meet Wilkes again, who was this day seated between Dr. Beattie and Dr. Johuson (between Truth and Reason, as General Paoli said, when I told him of it). WILKES: "I have been thinking, Dr. Johnson, that there should be a bill brought into Parliament that the controthat country at their own Abbey of Holyroodhouse, and not here, for the consequence of trying them here is, that we have an inundation of Scotchmen, who come up and never go back the election for his own county, which will not again. Now here is Boswell, who is come upon last a fortnight." JOHNSON: "Nay, Sir, I see no reason why they should be tried at all; for, you know, one Scotchman is as good as another.' WILKES: 'Pray, Boswell, how much may be got in a year by an Advocate at the Scotch bar?" WILKES: "How can it be possible to spend that BOSWELL: "I believe, two thousand pounds." money in Scotland?" JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, the money may be spent in England; but there is a harder question. If one man in Scotland gets possession of two thousand pounds, what verted elections for Scotland should be tried in remains for all the rest of the nation?" WILKES: which Thurot carried off by the complete plunder You know, in the last war, the immense booty of seven Scotch isles; he re-embarked with three and sixpence." Here again Johnson and Wilkes joined in extravagant sportive raillery upon the supposed poverty of Scotland, which Dr. Beattie and I did not think it worth our while to dispute. t Wilkes censured it as pedantry. JOHNSON: “No, The subject of quotation being introduced, Mr. Sir, it is a good thing; there is a community of mind in it. Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world." WILKES: "Upon the continent they all quote the Vulgate Bible. Shakspeare is chiefly quoted here; and we quote also Pope, Prior, Butler, Waller, and sometimes Cowley." We talked of letter-writing. JOHNSON: It is now become so much the fashion to publish letters, that, in order to avoid it, I put as little into mine as " can." BOSWELL : "Do what you will, Sir, you cannot avoid it. Should you even write as ill as you can, your letters would be published as curiosities: 'Behold a miracle I instead of wit, See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.'" He gave us an entertaining account of Bet Flint, a woman of the town, who, with some eccentric talents and much effrontery, forced herself upon his acquaintance. "Bet," said he, wrote her own life in verse, which she brought to me, wishing that I would furnish her with a * Johnson, whose memory was wonderfully retentive, remembered the first four lines of this curious production, preface to it (laughing). I used to say of her, that she was generally slut and drunkard;-occasionally, whore and thief. She had, however, genteel lodgings, a spinnet on which she played, and a boy that walked before her chair. Poor Bet was taken up on a charge of stealing a counterpane, and tried at the Old Bailey. Chief Justice -, who loved a wench, summed up favourably, and she was acquitted.* After which, Bet said, with a gay and satisfied air, Now that the counterpane is my own, I shall make a petticoat of it.""" Talking of oratory, Mr. Wilkes described it as accompanied with all the charms of poetical expression. JOHNSON: "No, Sir; oratory is the power of beating down your adversary's arguments, and putting better in their place." WILKES: "But this does not move the passions." JOHNSON: "He must be a weak man, who is to be so moved." WILKES (naming a celebrated orator): "Amidst all the brilliancy of 's imagination, and the exuberance of his wit, there is a strange want of taste. It was observed of Apelles's Venus, † that her flesh seemed as if she had been nourished by roses his oratory would sometimes make one suspect that he eats potatoes and drinks whiskey." To hear what had been treated with such violence in " The False Alarm," now turned into pleasant repartee, was extremely agreeable. Johnson went on :-" Locke observes well, that a prohibition to export the current coin is impolitic; for when the balance of trade happens to be against a state, the current coin must be exported." Mr. Beauclerk's great library was this season sold in London by auction. Mr. Wilkes said, he wondered to find in it such a numerous collection of sermons: seeming to think it strange that a gentleman of Mr. Beauclerk's character in the gay world should have chosen to have many compositions of that kind. JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, you are to consider, that sermons make a considerable branch of English literature; so that a library must be very imperfect if it has not a numerous collection of sermons:* and in all Mr. Wilkes observed, how tenacious we are of forms in this country; and gave, as an instance, the vote of the House of Commons for remitting money to pay the army in America in Portugal pieces, when, in reality, the remittance is made not in Portugal money, but in our specie. JOHNSON: "Is there not a law, Sir, against exporting the current coin of the realm? WILKES: Yes, Sir, but might not the House of Commons, in case of real evident necessity, order our own current coin to be sent into our own colonies?"-garbs, so variously apprehended by several eyes and Here Johnson, with that quickness of recollection which distinguished him so eminently, gave the Middlesex Patriot an admirable retort upon his own ground. Sure, Sir, you don't think a resolution of the House of Commons equal to the law of the land." WILKES (at once perceiving the application): "God forbid, Sir."which have been communicated to me by a young lady of his acquaintance : "When first I drew my vital breath, BOSWELL. The account which Johnson had received on this occasion was not quite accurate. Bet was tried at the Old Bailey in September, 1758, not by the Chief Justice here alluded to (who, however, tried another cause on the same day), but before Sir William Moreton, Recorder; and she was acquitted, not in consequence of any favour able summing up of the judge, but because the prosecutrix, Mary Walthow, could not prove that the goods charged to have been stolen (a counterpane, a silver spoon, two napkins, &c.) were her property. Bet does not appear to have lived at that time in a very genteel style; for she paid for her ready-furnished room in Meard's-court, Dean-street, Soho, from which. these articles were alleged to be stolen, only five shillings a week. Mr. James Boswell took the trouble to examine the Sessions Paper, to ascertain these particulars.MALONE. Mr. Wilkes mistook the objection of Euphranor to the Theseus of Parrhasius for a description of the Venus of Apelles. Vide Plutarch, "Bellone an pace clariores Athenienses."-KEARNEY. Mr. Wilkes probably did not know that there is in an English sermon the most comprehensive and lively ac count of that entertaining faculty, for which he himself was so much admired. It is in Dr. Barrow's first volume, Jesting." My old acquaintance, the late Corbyn Morris, and fourteenth sermon, "Against Foolish Talking and in his ingenious "Essay on Wit, Humour, and Ridicule, calls it "a profuse description of wit;" but I do not see how it could be curtailed, without leaving out some good circumstance of discrimination. As it is not generally known, and may perhaps dispose some to read sermons, from which they may receive real advantage, while looking only for entertainment, I shall here subjoin it. manded, what the thing we speak of is? Or what this "But first," says the learned preacher, it may be de facetiousness (or wit, as he calls it before) doth import? To which questions I might reply, as Democritus did to him that asked the definition of a man, 'Tis that which we all see and know.' Any one better apprehends what it is by acquaintance, than I can inform him by description. It is, indeed, a thing so versatile and multiform, appearing in so many shapes, so many postures, so many judgments, that it seemed no less hard to settle a clear Proteus, or to define the figure of the fleeting air. Someand certain notion thereof, than to make a portrait of times it lieth in pat allusion to a known story, or in seasonable application of a trivial saying, or in forging an apposite tale; sometimes it playeth in words and phrases, taking advantage from the ambiguity of their sense, or the affinity of their sound; sometimes it is wrapped in a dress of humorous expression; sometimes it lurketh under an odd similitude; sometimes it is lodged in a sly question, in a smart answer, in a quirkish reason, in a shrewd intimation, in cunningly diverting or cleverly retorting an objection; sometimes it is couched in a bold scheme of speech, in a tart irony, in a lusty hyperbole, in a startling metaphor, in a plausible reconciling of contradictions, or in acute nonsense; sometimes a scenical representation of persons or things, a counterfeit speech, a mimical look or gesture, passeth for it; sometimes an affected simplicity, sometimes a presumptuous bluntness, giveth it, being; sometimes it ariseth only from a lucky hitting upon what is strange; sometimes from a crafty wresting obvious matter to the purpose. Often it consisteth in one knows not what, and springeth up one can hardly tell how. Its ways are unaccountable and inexplicable; being answerable to the numberless rovings of fancy, and windings of language. It is, in short, a manner of speaking out of the simple and plain way (such as reason teacheth and proveth things by), which by a pretty surprising uncouthness in conceit or expression, doth affect and amuse the fancy, stirring in it some wonder, and breeding some delight thereto.⚫ It raiseth admiration, as signifying a nimble sagacity of apprehension, a special felicity of invention, a vivacity of spirit, and reach of wit more than vulgar; it seeming to argue a rare quickness of parts, that one can fetch in remote conceits applicable; a notable skill, that he can dexterously accommodate them to the purpose before him; together with a lively briskness of humour, not apt to damp those sportful flashes of imagination. (Whence, in Aristotle. Mr. Wilkes said to me, loud enough for Dr. Johnson to hear, "Dr. Johnson should make me a present of his 'Lives of the Poets,' as I am a poor patriot who cannot afford to buy them." Johnson seemed to take no notice of this hint; but in a little while he called to Mr. Dilly, "Pray, Sir, be so good as to send a set of my Lives to Mr. Wilkes, with my compliments." This was accordingly done; and Mr. Wilkes paid Dr. Johnson a visit, was courteously received, and sat with him a long time. The company gradually dropped away. Mr. Dilly himself was called downstairs upon business; I left the room for some time; when I returned, I was struck with observing Dr. Samuel Johnson and John Wilkes, Esq., literally téte-à-tête; for they were reclined upon their chairs, with their heads leaning almost close to each other, and talking earnestly, in a kind of confidential whisper, of the personal quarrel between George the Second and the King of Prussia. Such a scene of perfectly easy sociality between two such opponents in the war of political controversy, as that which I now beheld, would have been an excellent subject for a picture. It presented to my mind the happy days which are foretold in Scripture, when the lion shall lie down with the kid.* After this day there was another pretty long interval, during which Dr. Johnson and I did not meet. When mentioned it to him with regret, he was pleased to say, "Then, Sir, let us live double." whose dress was remarkably grave, and in particular it was observed that he wore blue stockings. Such was the excellence of his conversation, that his absence was felt as so great a loss, that it used to be said, "We can do nothing without the blue stockings;" and thus by degrees the title was established. Miss Hannah More has admirably described a Blue-stocking Club, in her "Bas Bleu," a poem in which many of the persons who were most conspicuous there are mentioned. Johnson was prevailed with to come sometimes into these circles, and did not think himself too grave even for the lively Miss Monckton (now Countess of Cork), who used to have the finest bit of blue at the house of her mother, Lady Galway. Her vivacity enchanted the sage, and they used to talk together with all imaginable ease. * A singular instance happened one evening, when she insisted that some of Sterne's writings were very pathetic. Johnson bluntly denied it. "I am sure," said she, "they have affected me.' "Why," said Johnson smiling, and rolling himself about, "that is, because, dearest, you're a dunce." When she some time afterwards mentioned this to him, he said, with equal truth and politeness, "Madam, if I had thought so, I certainly should not have said it." Another evening Johnson's kind indulgence towards me had a pretty difficult trial. I had dined at the Duke of Montrose's with a very agreeable party, and his Grace, according to his usual custom, had circulated the bottle very freely. Lord Graham and I went together to Miss Monckton's, where I certainly was in extraordinary spirits, and above all fear or awe. In the midst of a great number of persons of the first rank, amongst whom I recollect, with confusion, a noble lady of the most stately decorum, I placed myself next to Johnson, and thinking myself now fully his match, talked to him in a loud and boisterous manner, desirous to let the company know how I could About this time it was much the fashion for contend with Ajax. particularly remember several ladies to have evening assemblies, where pressing him upon the value of the pleasures of the fair sex might participate in conversation with the imagination, and as an illustration of my arguliterary and ingenious men, animated by a desire ment, asking him, "What, Sir, supposing I were to please. These societies were denominated Blue-to fancy that the (naming the most charming stocking Clubs, the origin of which title being little known, it may be worth while to relate it. One of the most eminent members of those societies, when they first commenced, was Mr. Stillingfleet, such persons are termed iridio, dexterous men, and torespo, men of facile or versatile manners, who can easily turn themselves to all things, or turn all things to themselves.) It also procureth delight, by gratifying curiosity with its rareness, as semblance of difficulty (as monsters, not for their beauty, but their rarity; as juggling tricks, not for their use, but their abstruseness, are beheld with pleasure); by diverting the mind from its road of serious thoughts; by instilling gaiety and airiness of spirit; by provoking to such dispositions of spirit in way of emulation or complaisance; and by seasoning matters, otherwise distasteful or insipid, with an unusual and thence grateful tang."-BOSWELL. When I mentioned this to the Bishop of Killaloe, "With the goat," said his lordship. Such, however, was the engaging politeness and pleasantry of Mr. Wilkes, and, such the social good humour of the bishop, that when they dined together at Mr. Dilly's, where I also was, they were mutually agreeable.-BOSWELL. Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet, author of tracts relating to natural history, &c.-BOSWELL. Benjamin Stillingfleet was the grandson of the learned Duchess in his Majesty's dominions) were in love with me, should I not be very happy?" My friend with much address evaded my interrogatories, and kept me as quiet as possible; but it may easily le conceived how he must-have felt.t However, when a few days afterwards I waited upon him and made an apology, he behaved with the most friendly gentleness. son and I dined together at several places. I While I remained in London this year, Johnrecollect a placid day at Dr. Butter's, who had now removed from Derby to Lower Grosvenorstreet, London; but of his conversation on that and other occasions, during this period, I neglected to keep any regular record, and shall Bishop Stillingfleet, and besides his works on natural history, he was known as the author of "A Treatise on the Principles and the Powers of Harmony." He held the situation of barrack-master at Kensington, and died in 1771, at the age of 69.-ED. This lady survived to upwards of ninety years of age, and died at her residence in New Burlington-street, in 1840.-ED. Next day I endeavoured to give what had happeno1 |