the Roman-Catholick faith: that he refifted all his 1778. Grace's arguments for a confiderable time, till one Ætat. 69. day he felt himself, as it were, instantaneously convinced, and with tears in his eyes ran into the Duke's arms, and embraced the ancient religion; that he continued very steady in it for fome time, and accompanied his Grace to London one winter, and lived in his household; that there he found the rigid fafting prescribed by the church very fevere upon him; that this difpofed him to reconfider the controverfy, and having then feen that he was in the wrong, he returned to Proteftantifm, I talked of fome time or other publishing this curious life. MRS. THRALE. I think you had as well let alone that publication. To discover fuch weakness exposes a man when he is gone." JOHNSON. "Nay, it is an honeft picture of human nature. How often are the primary motives of our greatest actions as fmall as Sibbald's, for his re-converfion." MRS. THRALE. "But may they not as well be forgotten?" JOHNSON. "No, Madam, a man loves to review his own mind. That is the ufe of a diary, or journal." LORD TRIMBLESTOWN. "True, Sir. As the ladies love to see themselves in a glass; so a man likes to fee himself in his journal," BOSWELL. "A very pretty allufion." JOHNSON. "Yes, indeed." BOSWELL." And as a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal," I next year found the very fame thought in Atterbury's "Sermon on Lady Cutts." "In this glafs fhe every day dreffed her mind." 1778. Etat. 69. This is a proof of coincidence, and not of plagiarifm; for I had never read that fermon before. Next morning, while we were at breakfast, Johnfon gave a very earnest recommendation of what he himself practifed with the utmost confcientiousness: I mean a ftrict attention to truth, even in the most minute particulars. "Accuftom your children (faid he) conftantly to this; if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, fay that it happened at another, do not let it pafs, but inftantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end." BOSWELL. "It may come to the door: and when once an account is at all varied in one circumftance, it may by degrees be varied fo as to be totally different from what really happened." Our lively hostess, whofe fancy was impatient of the rein, fidgeted at this, and ventured to fay, "Nay, this is too much. If Mr. Johnson should forbid me to drink tea I would comply, as I fhould feel the restraint only twice a day; but little variations in narrative muft happen a thousand times a day, if one is not perpetually watching." JOHNSON. "Well, Madam, and you ought to be perpetually watching. It is more from careleffnefs about truth than from intentional lying, that there is fo much falsehood in the world." In his review of Dr. Warton's "Effay on the Writings and Genius of Pope," Johnson has given the following falutary caution upon this fubject: "Nothing but experience could evince the frequency of false information, or enable any man to conceive that fo many groundless reports fhould be propagated 4 propagated, as every man of eminence may hear 1778. of himself. Some men relate what they think, Etat. 69. as what they know; fome men of confused memories and habitual inaccuracy, afcribe to one man what belongs to another; and fome talk on, without thought or care. A few men are fufficient to broach falfehoods, which are afterwards innocently diffused by fucceffive relaters"." Had he lived to read what Sir John Hawkins and Mrs. Piozzi have related concerning himfelf, how much would he have found his obfervation illuftrated. He was indeed fo much impreffed with the prevalence of falsehood, voluntary or unintentional, that I never knew any person who upon hearing an extraordinary circumftance told, discovered more of the incredulus odi. He would fay with a fignificant look and decifive tone, "It is not fo. Do not tell this again "." He inculcated upon all his friends the importance of perpetual vigilance against the flighteft degrees of falfehood; the effect of which, as Sir Joshua Reynolds obferved to me, has been, that all who were of his school are diftinguifhed for a love of truth and accuracy, which they would not have poffeffed in the fame degree, if they had not been known to Johnson. Talking of ghofts, he faid, "It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapfed fince Literary Magazine, 1756, p. 37. 7 The following plaufible but over-prudent counfel on this fubject is given by an Italian writer, quoted by "Rhedi de generatione infectarum," with the epithet of “divini poeta” "Sempre à quel ver ch'a faccia di menzogna the 1778. tat. 69. the creation of the world, and still it is undecided He said, "John Wesley's conversation is good, but he is never at leifure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have out his talk, as I do." On Friday, April 3, I dined with him in London, in a company where were present several eminent men, whom I fhall not name, but diftinguish their parts in the converfation by different letters. F. "I have been looking at this famous antique marble dog of Mr. Jennings, valued at a thousand guineas, faid to be Alcibiades's dog." JOHNSON, "His tail then must be docked. That was the mark of Alcibiades's dog." E. "A thoufand guineas! The representation of no animal whatever is worth fo much. At this rate a dead dog would indeed be better than a living lion." JOHNSON. "Sir, it is not the worth of the thing, but of the skill in forming it which is fo highly estimated. Every thing that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable. The firft man who balanced a straw upon his nofe; Johnston who rode upon three horfes at a time; in fhort, all fuch men deferved the applaufe of mankind, not on account of the use of what they did, but of the dexterity which they exhibited." BOSWELL. "Yet a mifapplication of time and affiduity is not to be encouraged encouraged. Addison, in one of his Spectators' commends the judgement of a King, who as a fuitable reward to a man that by long perfeverance had attained to the art of throwing a barley-corn through the eye of a needle, gave him a bufhel of barley." JOHNSON, "He must have been a King of Scotland, where barley is fcarce." F. "One of the most remarkable antique figures of an animal is the boar at Florence." JOHNSON. "The first boar that is well made in marble fhould be preserved as a wonder. When men arrive at a facility of making boars well, then the workmanship is not of fuch value, but they should however be preferved as examples, and as a greater fecurity for the restoration of the art, fhould it be lost." 1778. Etat. 69. E. "We hear prodigious complaints at present of emigration, I am convinced that emigration makes a country more populous." J. "That founds very much like a paradox." E. "Exportation of men, like exportation of all other commodities, makes more be produced. JOHNSON. "But there would be more people were there not emigration, provided there were food for more." E. "No; leave a few breeders, and you'll have more people than if there were no emigration." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, it is plain there will be more people, if there are more breeders. Thirty cows in good pafture will produce more calves than ten cows, provided they have good bulls.' E. "There are bulls enough in Ireland." JOHNSON. (fmiling,) "So, Sir, I fhould think from your argument." BOSWELL. "You faid exportation of men, like exportation " |