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"We have no immediate use for this catalogue, and therefore do not desire that it should interrupt or hinder your more important employments. But it will be kind to let us know that you receive it. I am, Sir. &c., SAM. JOHNSON."

[JOHNSON TO MISS PORter.

"May 1. 1770. "DEAREST MADAM,- Among other causes that have hindered me from answering your last kind letter, is a tedious and painful rheumatism, that has afflicted me for many weeks, and still continues to molest me. I hope you are well, and will long keep your health and your cheerfulness.

"One reason why I delayed to write was, my uncertainty how to answer your letter. I like the thought of giving away the money very well; but when I consider that Tom Johnson is my nearest relation, and that he is now old and in great want; that he was my playfellow in childhood, and has never done any thing to offend me; I am in doubt, whether I ought not rather give it him than any other.

"Of this, my dear, I would have your opinion. I would willingly please you, and I know that you will be pleased best with what you think right. Tell me your mind, and do not learn of me to neglect writing; for it is a very sorry trick, though it be mine.

"Your brother is well; I saw him to-day, and thought it long since I saw him before: it seems he has called often, and could not find me. I am, my dear, your affectionate humble servant, Pearson MSS. "SAM. JOHNSON."

JOHNSON TO MISS PORTER.

"London, May 29. 1770. "MY DEAREST DEAR,I am very sorry that your eyes are bad; take great care of them, especially by candlelight. Mine continue pretty good, but they are sometimes dim. My rheumatism grows gradually better. I have considered your letter, and am willing that the whole money should go where you, my dear, originally intended. I hope to help Tom some other way. So that matter is over. "Dr. Taylor has invited me to pass some time with him at Ashbourne; if I come, you may be sure that I shall take you and Lichfield in my way. When I am nearer coming, I will send you word. "Of Mr. Porter I have seen very little, but I know not that it is his fault, for he says that he often calls, and never finds me; I am sorry for it, for I love him. Mr. Mathias has lately had a great deal of money left him, of which you have probably heard already. I am, my dearest, your most affectionate servant, SAM. JOHNSON."] -Pearson MSS.

JOHNSON TO THOMAS WARTON. "London, June 23. 1770. "DEAR SIR,The readiness with which you were pleased to promise me some notes on Shakspeare, was a new instance of your friendship. I shall not hurry you; but am desired by Mr. Steevens, who helps me in this edition, to let you know, that we shall print the tragedies first, and shall therefore want first the notes which belong to them. We think not to incommode the readers with a supplement; and therefore, what we cannot put into its proper place, will do us no good. We shall not begin to print before the end of six weeks, perhaps not so soon. I am, &c.,

"SAM JOHNSON."1

[JOHNSON TO MRS. THRALE.
(Extracts.)

"Lichfield, July 7. 1770. "I thought I should have heard something to-day about Streatham; but there is no letter; and I need some consolation, for rheumatism is come again, though in a less degree than formerly. I reckon to go next week to Ashbourne, and will try to bring you the dimensions of the great bull. The skies and the ground are all so wet, that I have been very little abroad: and Mrs. Aston is from home, so that I have no motive to walk; when she is at home, she lives on the top of Stowhill, and I commonly climb up to see her once a day. There is nothing there now but the empty

nest.

To write to you about Lichfield is of no use, for you never saw Stowpool, nor Borowcophill. I believe you may find Borow or Boroughcop-hill in my Dictionary, under cop or cob. Nobody here knows what the name imports."

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"Lichfield, July 11. 1770. Mr. Greene, the apothecary, has found a book which tells who paid levies in our parish, and how much they paid, above an hundred years ago. Do you not think we study this book hard? Nothing is like going to the bottom of things. Many families that paid the parish rates are now extinct, like the race of Hercules. Pulvis et umbra sumus. What is nearest us touches us most. The passions rise higher at domestic than at imperial tragedies. I am not wholly unaffected by the revolutions in Sadler Street; nor can forbear to mourn, when old names vanish away, and new come into their place." "Ashbourne, July 20. 1770. "I came hither on Wednesday, having staid one night at a lodge in the forest of Nedewood. Dr. Taylor's is a very pleasant house, with a lawn and a lake, and twenty deer and five fawns upon the lawn. Whether I shall by any light see Matlock I do not yet know.

"That Baretti's book, [“ Travels through Spain, Portugal, and France,"] would please you all, I make no doubt. I know not whether the world has ever seen such travels before. Those whose

1 About the end of June he made a visit to the midland counties; some account of which, extracted from his letters to Mrs. Thrale, I have placed in the text, and shall continue to make similar extracts where necessary to fill up lacunæ in Mr. Boswell's narrative - the dates will be sufficient reference to the originals. CROKER, 1846.

2 See post, March 23. 1776.- C.

3 At the corner of which stood his own house. I have satisfied myself on the spot that Michael Johnson's encroachment in Sadler Street, (antè, p. 4. n. 2.) for which he paid two shillings and sixpence a year, and a lease of which was renewed to his son, was most probably a shop bow-window, which jutted out into Sadler Street.CROKER.

lot it is to ramble can seldom write, and those who know how to write very seldom ramble. If Sidney had gone, as he desired, the great voyage with Drake, there would probably have been such a narrative as would have equally satisfied the poet and the philosopher."

"Ashbourne, July 23. 1770.

"I have seen the great bull, and very great he is. I have seen likewise his heir apparent, who promises to inherit all the bulk and all the virtues of his sire. I have seen the man who offered an hundred guineas for the young bull, while he was yet little better than a calf. Matlock, I am afraid, I shall not see, but I purpose to see Dovedale; and, after all this seeing, I hope to see you."]

JOHNSON TO JOSEPH WARTON.
"Sept. 21. 1770.

"DEAR SIR, I am revising my edition of Shakspeare, and remember that I formerly misrepresented your opinion of Lear. Be pleased to write the paragraph as you would have it, and send it. If you have any remarks of your own upon that or any other play, I shall gladly receive them. Make my compliments to Mrs. Warton. I sometimes think of wandering for a few days to Winchester, but am apt to delay. I am, Sir, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."

JOHNSON TO FRANCIS BARBER,

At Mrs. Clapp's, Bishop- Stortford.

"London, Sept. 25. 1770.

“DEAR FRANCIS, I am at last sat down to write to you, and should very much blame myself for having neglected you so long, if I did not impute that and many other failings to want of health. I hope not to be so long silent again, I am very well satisfied with your progress, if you can really perform the exercises which you are set; and I hope Mr. Ellis does not suffer you to impose on him, or on yourself. Make my compliments to Mr. Ellis, and to Mrs. Clapp, and Mr. Smith.

"Let me know what English books you read for your entertainment. You can never be wise unless you love reading. Do not imagine that I shall forget or forsake you; for if, when I examine you, I find that you have not lost your time, you shall want no encouragement from yours affectionately, "SAM JOHNSON."

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1 Dr. Taylor had a remarkably fine breed of cattle; and one bull, in particular, was of celebrated size and beauty.-CROKER.

2 Dr. William Maxwell was the son of Dr. John Maxwell, Archdeacon of Downe, in Ireland, and cousin of the Honourable Henry Maxwell, Bishop of Dromore in 1765, and of Meath in 1766, from whom he obtained preferment; but having a considerable property of his own, he resigned the living when, as it is said, his residence was insisted on; and he fixed himself in Bath, where he died, so late as 1818, at the age of 87. Dr. Maxwell was deservedly proud of his acquaintance with Johnson, and had caught something of his style of conversation. Some of his anecdotes are trifling, others obscure, some misprinted, and several, I suspect, misstated; which is not surprising, as they seem to have been

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DURING this year there was a total cessation of all correspondence between Dr. Johnson and me, without any coldness on either side, but merely from procrastination, continued from day to day; and, as I was not in London, I had no opportunity of enjoying his company and recording his conversation. To supply this blank, I shall present my readers with some Collectanea, obligingly furnished to me by the Rev. Dr. Maxwell, of Falkland, in Ireland, some time assistant preacher at the Temple, and for many years the social friend of Johnson, who spoke of him with a very kind regard.

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Collectanea.

My acquaintance with that great and venerable character commenced in the year 1754. I was introduced to him by Mr. Grierson, his Majesty's printer at Dublin, a gentleman of uncommon learning, and great wit and vivacity. Mr. Grierson died in Germany, at the age of twenty-seven. Dr. Johnson highly respected his abilities, and often observed, that he possessed more extensive knowledge than any man of his years he had ever known. His industry was equal to his talents; and he par

written for Mr. Boswell's publication from memory, a great many years after the events. - CROKER.

3 Son of the learned Mrs. Grierson, who was patronised by the late Lord Granville, and was the editor of several of the classics. BOSWELL. Her edition of Tacitus, with the notes of Rychius, in three volumes, 8vo. 1730, was dedicated, in very elegant Latin [from her own pen], to John, Lord Carteret (afterwards Earl Granville), by whom she was patronised during his residence in Ireland as Lord Lieutenant between 1724 and 1730. MALONE. Lord Carteret gave her family the lucrative patent office of king's printer in Ireland, still enjoyed by her descendants. She was very handsome, as well as learned.-CROKER. The patent has just expired -P. CUNNINGHAM, 1846.

ticularly excelled in every species of philological learning, and was, perhaps, the best critic of the age he lived in.

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"I must always remember with gratitude my obligation to Mr. Grierson, for the honour and happiness of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance and friendship, which continued uninterrupted and undiminished to his death: a connection that was at once the pride and happiness of my life.

"What pity it is, that so much wit and good sense as he continually exhibited in conversation, should perish unrecorded! Few persons quitted his company without perceiving themselves wiser and better than they were before. On serious subjects he flashed the most interesting conviction upon his auditors; and upon lighter topics, you might have supposed-Albano musas de monte locutas.

"Though I can hope to add but little to the celebrity of so exalted a character, by any communications I can furnish, yet, out of pure respect to his memory, I will venture to transmit to you some anecdotes concerning him, which fell under my own observation. The very minutiæ of such a character must be interesting, and may be compared to the filings of diamonds.

"In politics he was deemed a Tory, but certainly was not so in the obnoxious or party sense of the term; for while he asserted the legal and salutary prerogatives of the crown, he no less respected the constitutional liberties of the people. Whiggism, at the time of the Revolution, he said, was accompanied with certain principles; but latterly, as a mere party distinction under Walpole and the Pelhams, was no better than the politics of stock-jobbers, and the religion of infidels.

"He detested the idea of governing by parliamentary corruption, and asserted most strenuously, that a prince steadily and conspicuously pursuing the interests of his people could not fail of parliamentary concurrence. A prince of ability, he contended, might and should be the directing soul and spirit of his own administration; in short, his own minister, and not the mere head of a party and then, and not till then, would the royal dignity be sincerely respected.

"Johnson seemed to think, that a certain degree of crown influence over the Houses of Parliament, (not meaning a corrupt and shameful dependence) was very salutary, nay, even necessary, in our mixed government. For,' said he, if the members were under no crown influence, and disqualified from receiving any gratification from Court, and resembled, as they possibly might, Pym and Haslerig, and other stubborn and sturdy members of the Long Parliament, the wheels of government would be totally obstructed. Such men would oppose, merely to show their power, from envy, jealousy, and perversity of disposition; and, not gaining themselves, would hate and oppose all who did not loving the person of the prince, and conceiving they owed him little gratitude, from the mere spirit of insolence and contradiction, they would oppose and thwart him upon all occasions.'

"The inseparable imperfection annexed to all human governments consisted, he said, in not being able to create a sufficient fund of virtue and prin

1 No doubt Madame de Boufflers. See post, sub an. 1775. - CROKER.

ciple to carry the laws into due and effectual execution. Wisdom might plan, but virtue alone could execute. And where could sufficient virtue be found? A variety of delegated, and often discretionary, powers must be entrusted somewhere; which, if not governed by integrity and conscience, would necessarily be abused, till at last the constable would sell his for a shilling.

"This excellent person was sometimes charged with abetting slavish and arbitrary principles of government. Nothing, in my opinion, could be a grosser calumny and misrepresentation; for how can it be rationally supposed, that he should adopt such pernicious and absurd opinions, who supported his philosophical character with so much dignity, was extremely jealous of his personal liberty and independence, and could not brook the smallest appearance of neglect or insult, even from the highest personages?

"But let us view him in some instances of more familiar life.

"His general mode of life, during my acquaintance, seemed to be pretty uniform. About twelve o'clock I commonly visited him, and frequently found him in bed, or declaiming over his tea, which he drank very plentifully. He generally had a levee of morning visiters, chiefly men of letters; Hawkesworth, Goldsmith, Murphy, Langton, Steevens, Beauclerk, &c. &c., and sometimes learned ladies; particularly I remember a French lady of wit and fashion doing him the honour of a visit. He seemed to me to be considered as a kind of public oracle, whom every body thought they had a right to visit and consult; and doubtless they were well rewarded. I never could discover how he found time for his compositions. He declaimed all the morning, then went to dinner at a tavern, where he commonly stayed late, and then drank his tea at some friend's house, over which he loitered a great while, but seldom took supper. I fancy he must have read and wrote chiefly in the night, for I can scarcely recollect that he ever refused going with me to a tavern, and he often went to Ranelagh, which he deemed a place of innocent recreation.

"He frequently gave all the silver in his pocket to the poor, who watched him between his house and the tavern where he dined. He walked the streets at all hours, and said he was never robbed, for the rogues knew he had little money, nor had the appearance of having much.

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Though the most accessible and communicative man alive, yet when he suspected he was invited to be exhibited, he constantly spurned the invitation.

"Two young women from Staffordshire visited him when I was present, to consult him on the subject of Methodism, to which they were inclined.

Come,' said he, you pretty fools, dine with Maxwell and me at the Mitre, and we will talk over that subject;' which they did, and after dinner he took one of them upon his knee, and fondled her for half an hour together.

"Upon a visit to me at a country lodging near Twickenham, he asked what sort of society I had there. I told him, but indifferent; as they chiefly consisted of opulent traders, retired from business. He said, he never much liked that class of people; 'For, Sir,' said he, they have lost the civility of tradesmen, without acquiring the manners of gentle

men.'

ET. 61.

BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON.

"Johnson was much attached to London: he observed, that a man stored his mind better there, than any where else; and that in remote situations a man's body might be feasted, but his mind was starved, and his faculties apt to degenerate, from No place,' he want of exercise and competition. said, 'cured a man's vanity or arrogance, so well as London; for as no man was either great or good per se, but as compared with others not so good or great, he was sure to find in the metropolis many his equals, and some his superiors.' He observed, that a man in London was in less danger of falling in love indiscreetly, than any where else; for there the difficulty of deciding between the conflicting pretensions of a vast variety of objects, kept him safe. He told me, that he had frequently been offered country preferment', if he would consent to take orders; but he could not leave the improved society of the capital, or consent to exchange the exhilarating joys and splendid decorations of public life, for the obscurity, insipidity, and uniformity of remote situations.

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Speaking of Mr. Harte', Canon of Windsor, and writer of 'The History of Gustavus Adolphus,' he much commended him as a scholar, and a man of the most companionable talents he had ever known. He said, the defects in his History proceeded not from imbecility, but from foppery.

"He loved, he said, the old black-letter books; they were rich in matter, though their style was inelegant; wonderfully so, considering how conversant the writers were with the best models of antiquity.

"Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy,' he said, was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise. 3

"He frequently exhorted me to set about writing a History of Ireland; and archly remarked, there had been some good Irish writers, and that one Irishman might at least aspire to be equal to another. He had great compassion for the miseries and distresses of the Irish nation, particularly the Papists; and severely reprobated the barbarous debilitating policy of the British government, which, he said, was the most detestable mode of persecution. To a gentleman who hinted such policy might be necessary to support the authority of the English government, he replied by saying, 'Let the authority of the English government perish, rather than be maintained by iniquity. Better would it be to restrain the turbulence of the natives by the authority of the sword, and to make them amenable to law and justice by an effectual and vigorous police, than to grind them to powder by all manner Better,' said he, of disabilities and incapacities. 'to hang or drown people at once, than by an unrelenting persecution to beggar and starve them.'

! I suspect "frequently" to be an error- the offer of the living of Langton (ante, p. 105. and 160.) is the only one mentioned by Boswell.-CROKER, 1846.

2 Walter Harte, born about 1707, A. M. of St. Mary Hall,
in Oxford, was tutor to Lord Chesterfield's natural son, Mr.
Stanhope, and was, by his Lordship's interest, made Canon
of Windsor: he died in 1774. See more of Harte, post, March
30. 1781.- CROKER.

3"Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy' is the most amus-
ing and instructive medley of quotations and classical
anecdotes I ever perused. If the reader has patience to go
through his volumes, he will be more improved for literary
conversation than by the perusal of any twenty other works
Byron, vol. i. p. 144.-
with which I am acquainted.".
WRIGHT.

The moderation and humanity of the present times
have, in some measure, justified the wisdom of his
observations.

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"Dr. Johnson was often accused of prejudices, nay, antipathy, with regard to the natives of Scotland. Surely, so illiberal a prejudice never entered his mind and it is well known, many natives of that respectable country possessed a large share in his esteem: nor were any of them ever excluded True it is, he considered the Scotch, nafrom his good offices, as far as opportunity permitted. tionally, as a crafty, designing people, eagerly attentive to their own interest, and too apt to overlook the claims and pretensions of other people. While they confine their benevolence, in a manner, exclusively to those of their own country, they expect to share in the good offices of other people. Now,' said Johnson, this principle is either right cr wrong; if right, we should do well to imitate such conduct; if wrong, we cannot too much detest it.' Being solicited to compose a funeral sermon for the daughter of a tradesman, he naturally enquired into the character of the deceased; and being told she was remarkable for her humility and condescension to inferiors, he observed, that those were very laudable qualities, but it might not be so easy to discover who the lady's inferiors were.

46

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"Of a certain player he remarked, that his conversation usually threatened and announced more than it performed; that he fed you with a continual renovation of hope, to end in a constant succession of disappointment.

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"When exasperated by contradiction, he was apt to treat his opponents with too much acrimony : as, Sir, you don't see your way through that question: Sir, you talk the language of ignorance.' On my observing to him, that a certain gentleman had remained silent the whole evening, in the midst of a very brilliant and learned society, 'Sir,' said he, 'the conversation overflowed, and drowned him.'

"His philosophy, though austere and solemn, was by no means morose and cynical, and never blunted the laudable sensibilities of his character, or exempted him from the influence of the tender passions. Want of tenderness, he always alleged, was want of parts, and was no less a proof of stupidity than depravity.

"Speaking of Mr. Hanway, who published An Eight Days' Journey from London to Portsmouth,' Jonas,' said he, acquired some reputation by travelling abroad, but lost it all by travelling at home.'

"Of the passion of love he remarked, that its violence and ill effects were much exaggerated; for who knows any real sufferings on that head, more than from the exorbitancy of any other passion?

"He much commended Law's Serious Call,'" which, he said, was the finest piece of hortatory

4 Dr. Maxwell was mistaken, and would assuredly not have made such a statement after the publication of this work. Boswell himself confesses the antipathy, but it would be curious to know when it became so strong, and what its cause was, for one would have expected a directly contrary result from the Jacobite principles of his father and himself. - CROKER.

5 No doubt Mr. Sheridan. - CROKER.

6 He had published "An Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea, with Travels through Russia, Persia, Germany, and Holland." These travels contain very curious details of the then state of Persia. - CROKER.

7 See antè, p. 15.

theology in any language. Law,' said he, 'fell latterly into the reveries of Jacob Behmen, whom Law alleged to have been somewhat in the same state with St. Paul, and to have seen unutterable things. Were it even so,' said Johnson, Jacob would have resembled St. Paul still more, by not attempting to utter them,

"He observed, that the established clergy in general did not preach plain enough; and that polished periods and glittering sentences flew over the heads of the common people without any impression upon their hearts. Something might be necessary, he observed, to excite the affections of the common people, who were sunk in languor and lethargy, and therefore he supposed that the new concomitants of Methodism might probably produce so desirable an effect. The mind, like the body, he observed, delighted in change and novelty, and, even in religion itself, courted new appearances and modifications. Whatever might be thought of some Methodist teachers, he said he could scarcely doubt the sincerity of that man, who travelled nine hundred miles in a month, and preached twelve times in a week; for no adequate reward, merely temporal, could be given for such indefatigable labour.

"Of Dr. Priestley's theological works, he remarked, that they tended to unsettle every thing, and yet settled nothing.

"He was much affected by the death of his mother, and wrote to me to come and assist him to compose his mind; which, indeed, I found greatly agitated. He lamented that all serious and religious conversation was banished from the society of men, and yet great advantages might be derived from it. All acknowledged, he said, what hardly any body practised, the obligations we were under of making the concerns of eternity the governing principles of our lives. Every man, he observed, at last wishes for retreat: he sees his expectations frustrated in the world, and begins to wean himself from it, and to prepare for everlasting separation.

"He observed, that the influence of London now extended every where, and that from all manner of communication being opened, there shortly would be no remains of the ancient simplicity, or places of cheap retreat to be found.

"He was no admirer of blank verse, and said it always failed, unless sustained by the dignity of the subject. In blank verse, he said, the language suffered more distortion, to keep it out of prose, than any inconvenience or limitation to be apprehended from the shackles and circumspection of rhyme. "He reproved me once for saying grace without

A German fanatic, born near Görlitz, in Upper Lusatia, in 1575. He wrote a multitude of religious works, all very mystical. He probably was deranged, and died in an ecstatic vision in 1624. Mr. Law passed many of the latter years of his life in translating Behmen's works, four volumes of which were published after Mr. Law's death. - CROKER.

2 Alluding, I suppose, to Ephesians, ch. v. ver. 20."Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." But many devout people think that, becoming as a general thanksgiving at meals may be, the special introduction of the awful name of "our Lord Jesus Christ" under such circumstances as must inevitably attend the beginning and end of a dinner is far from edifying. It is, I believe, a modern addition to the older forms of domestic grace; and, after all, may it not be doubted whether that text of Scripture was meant to enjoin any special ceremony at meals?-1831. 1846. CROKER.

Aurengzebe, act iv. sc. 1. The reply of Nourmahul I never heard anybody mention except Dr. Johnson. Davies' Dram. Misc., vol. iii. p. 160.-P. CUNNINGHAM.

4 See post, Dec. 1775, where Mr. Murphy states that this

mention of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and hoped in future I would be more mindful of the apostolical injunction.

"He refused to go out of a room before me at Mr. Langton's house, saying he hoped he knew his rank better than to presume to take place of a doctor in divinity. I mention such little anecdotes merely to show the peculiar turn and habit of his mind.

"He used frequently to observe, that there was more to be endured than enjoyed, in the general condition of human life; and frequently quoted those lines of Dryden ;

Strange cozenage! none would live past years again, Yet all hope pleasure from what still remain.' For his part, he said, he never passed that week in his life which he would wish to repeat, were an angel to make the proposal to him.

He was of opinion, that the English nation cultivated both their soil and their reason better than any other people; but admitted that the French, though not the highest, perhaps, in any department of literature, yet in every department were very high. Intellectual pre-eminence, he ob. served, was the highest superiority; and that every nation derived their highest reputation from the splendour and dignity of their writers. Voltaire, he said, was a good narrator, and that his principal merit consisted in a happy selection and arrangement of circumstances.

"Speaking of the French novels, compared with Richardson's, he said, they might be pretty baubles, but a wren was not an eagle.

"In a Latin conversation with the Père Boscovich, at the house of Mrs. Cholmondely, I heard him maintain the superiority of Sir Isaac Newton over all foreign philosophers, with a dignity and eloquence that surprised that learned foreigner. It being observed to him, that a rage for every thing English prevailed much in France after Lord Chatham's glorious war, he said, he did not wonder at it, for that we had drubbed those fellows into a proper reverence for us, and that their national petulance

required periodical chastisement. 6

"Lord Lyttelton's Dialogues he deemed a nugatory performance. That man,' said he, sat down to write a book, to tell the world what the world had all his life been telling him.'

"Somebody observing that the Scotch Highlanders, in the year 1745, had made surprising efforts, considering their numerous wants and dis. advantages; 'Yes, Sir,' said he, 'their wants were numerous but you have not mentioned the greatest of them all-the want of law.'

or a similar conversation took place in the house of Dr. Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury. ČROKER.

5 In a Discourse by Sir William Jones, addressed to the Asiatic Society, February 24. 1785, is the following passage: -"One of the most sagacious men in this age, who continues. I hope, to improve and adorn it, Samuel Johnson, remarked, in my hearing, that if Newton had flourished in ancient Greece, he would have been worshipped as a divinity." - MALONE.

6 Johnson may have thought and spoken slightingly of Lyttelton and his works, but scarcely in these terms. He

could not have stated as censure what would be in truth the highest praise of such a work, that it was the result of an accurate observation of mankind. - CROKER,

7 It is not clear what was meant. Law, abstractedly, would be one of the least wants of an invading army. Johnson, perhaps, meant either that they had not the law on their side, or that they had not legal ineans of enforcing discipline. I have before (p. 54. n. 2.) expressed my suspicion, that Johnson had received some personal affront or injustice from the Scotch in 1745: but how or where he could have come across them, I cannot conjecture. - CROKER.

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