tion." BOSWELL: "May we not take it as amusing fiction?" JOHNSON: "Sir, the misfortune is, that you will insensibly believe as much of it as you incline to believe."

It is remarkable, that notwithstanding their congeniality in politics, he never was acquainted with a late eminent noble judge [Mansfield], whom I have heard speak of him, as a writer, with great respect. Johnson, I know not upon what degree of investigation, entertained no exalted opinion of his lordship's intellectual character. Talking of him to me one day, he said, "It is wonderful, Sir, with how little real superiority of mind men can make an eminent figure in public life." He expressed himself to the same purpose concerning another law-lord, who, it seems, once took a fancy to associate with the wits of London; but with so little success, that Foote said, "What can he mean by coming among us? He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dulness in others." Trying him by the test of his colloquial powers, Johnson had found him yery defective. He once said to Sir Joshua Reynolds, "This man now has been ten years about town, and has made nothing of it;" meaning as a companion. He said to me, "I never heard anything from him in company that was at all striking; and depend upon it, Sir, it is when you come close to a man in conversation, that you discover what his real abilities are: to make a speech in a public assembly is a knack. Now I honour Thurlow, Sir; Thurlow is a fine fellow; he fairly puts his mind to yours.'

After repeating to him some of his pointed, lively sayings, I said, "It is a pity, Sir, you don't always remember your own good things, that you may have a laugh when you will." JOHNSON: "Nay, Sir, it is better that I forget them, that I may be reminded of them, and have a laugh on their being brought to my recollection."

When I recalled to him his having said as we sailed up Lochlomond, "That if he wore anything fine, it should be very fine;" I observed that all his thoughts were upon a great scale. JOHNSON: "Depend upon it, Sir, every man will have as fine a thing as he can get; as large a diamond for his ring." BOSWELL: "Pardon me, Sir; a man of a narrow mind will not think of it; a slight trinket will satisfy him:

'Nec sufferre queat majoris pondera gemmæ.'

I told him I should send him some "Essays" that I had written,† which I hoped he would be so good as to read, and pick out the good ones. JOHNSON: Nay, Sir, send me only the good ones; don't make me pick them."

I heard him once say, "Though the proverb 'Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia,' does not always prove true, we may be certain of the

Knowing as well as I do what precision and elegance of oratory his Lordship can display, I cannot but suspect that his unfavourable appearance in a social circle, which drew such animadversions upon him, must be owing to a cold affectation of consequence, from being reserved and stiff. If it be so, and he might be an agreeable man if he would, we cannot be sorry that he misses his aim.BOSWELL.

Under the title of "The Hypochondriac."-MALONE.

converse of it, ‘Nullum numen adest, si sit imprudentia."

Once, when Mr. Seward was going to Bath, and asked his commands, he said, "Tell Dr. Harrington that I wish he would publish another volume of the Nuga Antiquæ ; it is a very pretty book." Mr. Seward seconded this wish, and recommended to Dr. Harrington to dedicate it to Johnson, and take for his motto what Catullus says to Cornelius Nepos :

namque tu solebas,

Meas esse aliquid putare NUGAS."

As a small proof of his kindliness and delicacy of feeling, the following circumstance may be mentioned: One evening, when we were in the street together, and I told him I was going to sup at Mr. Beauclerk's, he said, "I'll go with you." After having walked part of the way, seeming to recollect something, he suddenly stopped, and said, "I cannot go,-but I do not love Beauclerk the less."

On the frame of his portrait, Mr. Beauclerk had inscribed,

Thrale's.

He observed, "There is a wicked inclination in most people to suppose an old man decayed in his intellects. If a young or middle-aged man, when leaving a company, does not recollect where he laid his hat, it is nothing; but if the same inattention is discovered in an old man, people will shrug up their shoulders, and say, his memory is going."

When I once talked to him of some of the sayings which every body repeats, but nobody knows where to find; such as Quos DEUS vult perdere, prius dementat; he told me that he was once offered ten guineas to point out from whence Semel insanivimus omnes was taken. He could not do it; but many years afterwards met with it by chance in Johannes Baptista Mantuanus.

It has since appeared.-BOSWELL.

A new and greatly improved edition of this very curious collection was published by Mr. Park in 1804, in arranged, and the account of the Bishops, which was 2 vols. 8vo. In this edition the letters are chronologically formerly printed from a very corrupt copy, is taken from Sir John Harrington's original manuscript which he presented to Henry, Prince of Wales, and is now in the Royal Library in the Museum.-MALONE.

The words occur (as Mr. Bindley observes to me), in the First Eclogue of Mantuanus, De honesto Amore,

&c.

"Id commune malum; semel insanivimus omnes." With the following elucidation of the other sayingQuos Deus (it should rather be Quem Jupiter) vult per dere, prius dementat-Mr. Boswell was furnished by Mr. Richard How, of Apsley, in Bedfordshire, as communi

I am very sorry that I did not take a note of an eloquent argument in which he maintained that the situation of Prince of Wales was the happiest of any person's in the kingdom, even beyond that of the Sovereign. I recollect only-the enjoyment of hope, the high superiority of rank, without the anxious cares of government, and a great degree of power, both from natural influence wisely used, and from the sanguine expectations of those who look forward to the chance of future favour.

Sir Joshua Reynolds communicated [to me the following particulars :

Johnson thought the poems, published as translations from Ossian, had so little merit, that he said, "Sir, a man might write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it.'

He said, "A man should pass a part of his time with the laughers, by which means anything ridiculous or particular about him might be presented to his view, and corrected." I observed, he must have been a bold laugher who would have ventured to tell Dr. Johnson of any of his particularities. *

cated to that gentleman by his friend Mr. John Pitts, late

Rector of Great Brickhill, in Buckinghamshire:

"Perhaps no scrap of Latin whatever has been more quoted than this. It occasionally falls even from those who are scrupulous even to pedantry in their Latinity, and will not admit a word into their compositions which has not the sanction of the first age. The word demento is of no authority, either as a verb active or neuter.-After a long search, for the purpose of deciding a bet, some gentlemen of Cambridge found it among the fragments of Euripides, in what edition I do not recollect, where it is given as a translation of a Greek Iambic :

Ο, Θεὸς θέλει ἀπολέσαι, πρῶτ' ἀποφρενοῖ. The above scrap was found in the hand-writing of a suicide of fashion, Sir D. O., some years ago, lying on the table of the room where he had destroyed himself. The suicide was a man of classical acquirements: he left no other paper behind him."

Another of these proverbial sayings

"Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim," I some years ago, in a note on a passage in "The Merchant of Venice," traced to its source. It occurs (with a slight variation) in "The Alexandreis," of Philip Gaultier la poet of the thirteenth century), which was printed at Lyons in 1558. Darius is the person addressed

Quo tendis inertem,

Rex periture, fugam? nescis, heu! perdite, nescis Quem fugias: hostes incurris, dum fugis hostem; Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim.' The author of this line was first ascertained by Galleottus Martius, who died in 1476; as is observed in "Menagiana," vol. iii., p. 130, edit. 1762. For an account of Philip Gaultier, see "Vossius de Poet. Latin." p. 254, fol A line not less frequently quoted than any of the preceding, was suggested for inquiry, several years ago, in a note on "The Rape of Lucrece:'

$697.

·"

"Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris:"

But the author of this verse has not, I believe, been dis

covered. MALONE.

I am happy, however, to mention a pleasing instance of his enduring with great gentleness to hear one of his most striking particularities pointed out :-Miss Hunter, a niece of his friend Christopher Smart, when a very young girl, struck by his extraordinary motions, said to him, Pray, Dr. Johnson, why do you make such strange gestures?" From bad habit," he replied. "Do you, my dear, take care to guard against bad habits." This I was told by the young lady's brother at Margate.BOSWELL

Having observed the vain ostentatious impor tance of many people in quoting the authonty of Dukes and Lords, as having been in their com pany, he said, he went to the other extreme, and did not mention his authority when he should have done it, had it not been that of a Duke or a Lord.

Dr. Goldsmith said once to Dr. Johnson, that he wished for some additional members to the LITERARY CLUB, to give it an agreeable variety; for, said he, there can now be nothing new among us: we have travelled over one another's minds. Johnson seemed a little angry, and said, "Sir, you have not travelled over my mind, I promise you." Sir Joshua, however, thought Goldsmith right; observing, that "when people have lived a great deal together, they know what each of them will say on every subject. A new understanding, therefore, is desirable; because though it may only furnish the same sense upon a question which would have been furnished by those with whom we are accustomed to live, yet this sense will have a different colouring; and colouring is of much effect in everything else as well as in painting."

rule to talk as well as he could both as to sen Johnson used to say that he made it a constant timent and expression, by which means, what had been originally effort became familiar and easy. The consequence of this, Sir Joshua observed, was, that his common conversation in all companies was such as to secure him universal attention, as something above the usual colloquial style was expected.

Yet, though Johnson had this habit in company, when another mode was necessary, in order to investigate truth, he could descend to a language intelligible to the meanest capacity. An instance of this was witnessed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, when they were present at an examination of a little blackguard boy, by Mr. Saunders Welch, the late Westminster Justice. Welch, who imagined that he was exalting himself in Dr. Johnson's eyes by using big words, spoke in a manner that was utterly unintelligible to the boy; Dr. Johnson perceiving it, addressed himself to the boy, and changed the pompous phraseology into colloquial language. Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was much amused by this procedure, which seemed a kind of reversing of what might have been expected from the two men, took notice of it to Dr. Johnson, as they walked away by themselves. Johnson said, that it was continually the slate the justice's swelling diction (smiling), so as case; and that he was always obliged to tranthat his meaning might be understood by the vulgar, from whom information was to be obtained.

Sir Joshua once observed to him, that he had talked above the capacity of some people with whom they had been in company together. "No matter, Sir," said Johnson:" they consider it as a compliment to be talked to, as if they were wiser than they are. So true is this, Sir, that Baxter made it a rule, in every sermon that he preached, to say something that was above the capacity of his audience."*

The justness of this remark is confirmed by the

Johnson's dexterity in retort, when he seemed to be driven to an extremity by his adversary, was very remarkable. Of his power in this respect, our common friend, Mr. Windham, of Norfolk, has been pleased to furnish me with an eminent instance. However unfavourable to Scotland, he uniformly gave liberal praise to George Buchanan, as a writer. In a conversation concerning the literary merits of the two countries, in which Buchanan was introduced, a Scotchman, imagining that on this ground he should have an undoubted triumph over him, exclaimed, "Ah, Dr. Johnsen, what would you have said of Buchanan, had he been an Englishman ?"— "Why, Sir," said Johnson after a little pause, 'I should not have said of Buchanan, had he been an Englishman, what I will now say of him as a Scotchman,-that he was the only man of genius his country ever produced."

was of a club in Old-street, with me and George Psalmanazar, and some others: but pray, Sir, was he a good tailor?" Mr. Hoole having answered that he believed he was too mathematical, and used to draw squares and triangles on his shopboard, so that he did not excel in the cut of a coat;-"I am sorry for it," said Johnson; "for I would have every man to be master of his own business."

In pleasant reference to himself and Mr. Hoole, as brother authors, he often said, "Let you and I, Sir, go together, and eat a beefsteak in Grubstreet."

Sir William Chambers, the great architect* whose works show a sublimity of genius, and who is esteemed by all who know him, for his social, hospitable, and generous qualities, submitted the manuscript of his "Chinese Architecture" to Dr. Johnson's perusal. Johnson was much pleased with it, and said, "It wants no addition nor correction, but a few lines of introduction;" which he furnished, and Sir William adopted.t

Though his usual phrase for conversation was talk, yet he made a distinction; for when he once told me that he dined the day before at a friend's house, with "a very pretty company;" and I asked him if there was good conversation, he answered, "No, Sir; we had talk enough, but no conversation; there was nothing discussed."

Talking of the success of the Scotch in London, he imputed it, in a considerable degree, to their spirit of nationality. "You know, Sir," said he, that no Scotchman publishes a book, or has a play brought upon the stage, but there are five hundred people ready to applaud him."

He gave much praise to his friend Dr. Burney's elegant and entertaining travels, and told Mr. Seward that he had them in his eye, when writing his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.

Such was his sensibility, and so much was he affected by pathetic poetry, that, when he was reading Dr. Beattie's Hermit," in my presence, it brought tears into his eyes.*

He disapproved much of mingling real facts with fiction. On this account he censured a book entitled "Love and Madness."

you

Mr. Hoole told him he was born in Moorfields, and had received part of his early instruction in Grub-street. "Sir," said Johnson smiling, " have been regularly educated." Having asked who was his instructor, and Mr. Hoole having answered, "My uncle, Sir, who was a tailor;' Johnson, recollecting himself, said, "Sir, I knew him; we called him the metaphysical tailor. He following story, for which I am indebted to Lord Elliot :A country parson, who was remarkable for quoting scraps of Latin in his sermons, having died, one of the parishioners was asked how he liked his successor? He is a very good preacher," was his answer, "but no latiner." BOSWELL.

The particular passage which excited this strong emotion was, as I have heard from my father, the third stanza, "'Tis right," &c.-J. BOSWELL JUN.

ness of the world is to be done in a new way; men are to be hanged in a new way; Tyburn itself is not safe from the fury of innovation." It having been argued that this was an improvement-"No, Sir," said he, eagerly, "it is not an improvement; they object, that the old method drew together a number of spectators. Sir, executions are intended to draw spectators. If they do not draw spectators, they don't answer their purpose. The old method was most satisfactory to all parties; the public was gratified by a procession; the criminal was supported by it. Why is all this to be swept away?" I perfectly agree with Dr. Johnson upon this head, and am persuaded that executions now, the solemn procession being discontinued, have not nearly the effect which they formerly had. Magistrates, both in London aud elsewhere, have, I am afraid, in this had too much regard to their own ease.

Of Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, Johnson said to a friend-"Hurd, Sir, is one of a set of men who account for everything systematically; for instance, it has been a fashion to wear scarlet breeches; these men would tell you that, according to causes and effects, no other wear could at

The Honourable Horace Walpole, late Earl of Orford, thus bears testimony to this gentleman's merit as a writer: Mr. Chambers' "Treatise on Civil Architecture,"

is the most sensible book, and the most exempt from prejudices, that ever was written on that science.-Preface to "Anecdotes of Painting in England."-BOSWELL The introductory lines are these: "It is difficult to avoid praising too little or too much. The boundless panegyrics which have been lavished upon the Chinese learning, policy, and arts, show with what power novelty attracts regard, and how naturally esteem swells into admiration.

"I am far from desiring to be numbered among the exaggerators of Chinese excellence. I consider them as great, or wise, only in comparison with the nations that surround them; and have no intention to place them in competition either with the ancients or with the moderns of this part of the world; yet they must be allowed to claim our notice as a distinct and very singular race of men: as the inhabitants of a region divided by its situa tion from all civilised countries, who have formed their own manners, and invented their own arts, without the assistance of example."-BOSWELL.