1778.

Etat. 69.

the solid structures of Rome are totally perished, while the Tiber remains the fame, he adds,

Lo que èra Firme huió folamente,

Lo Fugitivo permanece y dura?

JOHNSON. "Sir, that is taken from Janus Vitalis:

The Bishop faid, it appeared from Horace's writings that he was a cheerful contented man. JOHNSON. "We have no reason to believe that, my Lord. Are we to think Pope was happy, because he says so in his writings? We fee in his writings what he wished the ftate of his mind to appear. Dr. Young, who pined for preferment, talks with contempt of it in his writings, and affects to despise every thing that he did not despise." BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. "He was like other chaplains, looking for vacancies: but that is not peculiar to the clergy. I remember when I was with the army, after the battle of Lafeldt, the officers seriously grumbled that no general was killed." CAMBRIDGE. "We may believe Horace more. when he says,

‹ Romæ Tibur amem ventofus Tibure Romam.”

BOSWELL. How hard is it that man can never be at reft." RAMSAY. "It is not in his nature to be at reft. When he is at rest he is in the worst state

that

that he can be in; for he has nothing to agitate him.
He is then like the man in the Irish fong,

"There liv'd a young man in Ballinocrazy,
"Who wanted a wife for to make him unaify."

Goldsmith being mentioned, Johnson obferved
that it was long before his merit came to be ac-
knowledged. That he once complained to him,
in ludicrous terms of diftrefs, "Whenever I write
any thing, the publick make a point to know no-
thing about it:" but that his "Traveller" brought
him into high reputation. LANGTON. "There
is not one bad line in that poem; not one of
Dryden's careless verfes." SIR JOSHUA. "I was
glad to hear Charles Fox fay it was one of the fineft
poems in the English language." LANGTON.
"Why, was you glad? You furely had no doubt.
of this before." JOHNSON." No; the merit of
The Traveller' is fo well established, that Mr.
Fox's praise cannot augment it, nor his cenfure
diminish it." SIR JOSHUA.
SIR JOSHUA. "But his friends may
suspect they had a too great partiality for him."
JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, the partiality of his friends.
was always against him. It was with difficulty we
could give him a hearing. Goldsmith had no set-
tled notions upon any subject; so he talked always
at random. It seemed to be his intention to
blurt out whatever was in his mind, and see what
would become of it. He was angry too when
catched in an abfurdity; but it did not prevent
him from falling into another the next minute. I
remember Chamier, after talking with him for
fome time, faid, 'Well, I do believe he wrote
VOL. III.

D

this

1778.

Etat. 69.

1778.

Etat. 69.

this poem himself: and, let me tell you, that is believing a great deal.' Chamier once asked him what he meant by flow, the laft word in the first line of The Traveller,

Remote, unfriended, melancholy, flow.'

Did he mean tardinefs of locomotion? Goldsmith,
who would fay fomething without confideration,
anfwered, Yes.' I was fitting
I was fitting by, and faid,

No, Sir; you do not mean tardiness of locomotion; you mean, that fluggishness of mind which comes upon a man in folitude.' Chamier believed then that I had written the line, as much as if he had feen me write it. Goldfmith, however, was a man, who, whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do. He deferved a place in Westminster-Abbey, and every year he lived, would have deferved it better. He had, indeed, been at no pains to fill his mind with knowledge. He tranfplanted it from one place to another; and it did not fettle in his mind; fo he could not tell what was in his own books."

We talked of living in the country. JOHNSON. "No wife man will go to live in the country, unless he has fomething to do which can be better done in the country. For inftance: if he is to fhut himself up for a year to study a fcience, it is better to look out to the fields, than to an oppofite wall. Then, if a man walks out in the country, there is nobody to keep him from walking in again: but if a man walks out in London

London, he is not fure when he shall walk in again.

1778.

A great city is, to be fure, the school for ftudying Atat. 69. life; and The proper ftudy of mankind is man,' as Pope obferves." BOSWELL. "I fancy London is the best place for fociety; though I have heard that the very first fociety of Paris is ftill beyond any thing that we have here." JOHNSON. "Sir, I queftion if in Paris fuch a company as is fitting round this table could be got together in lefs than half a year. They talk in France of the felicity of men and women living together: the truth is, that there the men are not higher than the women, they know no more than the women do, and they are not held down in their converfation by the prefence of women." ." RAMSAY. "Literature is upon the growth, it is in its fpring in France. Here it is rather paffee." JOHNSON. "Literature was in France long before we had it. Paris was the fecond city for the revival of letters: Italy had it first, to be fure. What have we done for literature, equal to what was done by the Stephani and others in France? Our literature came to us through France. Caxton printed only two books, Chaucer and Gower, that were not translations from the French; and Chaucer, we know, took much from the Italians. No, Sir, if literature be in its spring in France, it is a fecond spring; it is after a winter. We are now before the French in literature; but we had it long after them. In England, any man who wears a fword and a powdered wig is afhamed to be illiterate. I believe it is not fo in France. Yet there is, probably, a great deal of learning in France, because they have D 2

fuch

1778.

Etat. 69.

fuch a number of religious establishments; fo many men who have nothing else to do but to ftudy. I do not know this; but I take it upon the common principles of chance. Where there are many fhooters, fome will hit."

We talked of old age. Johnfon (now in his feventieth year) faid, "It is a man's own fault, it is from want of ufe, if his mind grows torpid in old age." The Bishop asked, if an old man does not lose faster than he gets. JOHNSON. "I think not, my Lord, if he exerts himself." One of the company rafhly obferved, that he thought it was happy for an old man that infenfibility comes upon him. JOHNSON. (with a noble elevation and difdain) "No, Sir, I fhould never be happy by being lefs rational." BISHOP OF ST. Asaph. “Your with then, Sir, is yngaσnew didacnoμevos." JOHNSON. "Yes, my Lord."

His Lordship mentioned a charitable establishment in Wales, where people were maintained, and fupplied with every thing, upon the condition of their contributing the weekly produce of their labour; and he said, they grew quite torpid for want of property. JOHNSON. "They have no object for hope. Their condition cannot be better. It is rowing without a port."

One of the company afked him the meaning of the expreffion in Juvenal, unius lacerte. JOHNSON. "I think it clear enough; as much ground as one may have a chance to find a lizard upon."

Commentators have differed as to the exact meaning of the expreffion by which the Poet intended to enforce the fentiment contained in the

paffage