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"Speaking of the inward light, to which some Methodists pretended, he said, it was a principle utterly incompatible with social or civil security. 'If a man,' said he, pretends to a principle of action of which I can know nothing, nay, not so much as that he has it, but only that he pretends to it; how can I tell what that person may be prompted to do? When a person professes to be governed by a written ascertained law, I can then know where to find him.'

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"The poem of Fingal, he said, was a mere unconnected rhapsody, a tiresome repetition of the same images. In vain shall we look for the lucidus ordo, where there is neither end nor object, design or moral, nec1 certa recurrit imago.'

"Being asked by a young nobleman, what was become of the gallantry and military spirit of the old English nobility, he replied, Why, my lord, I'll tell you what is become of it: it is gone into the city to look for a fortune.'

"Speaking of a dull, tiresome fellow, whom he chanced to meet, he said, That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.' "Much inquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained, at last Johnson observed, that he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney.'

"He spoke with much contempt of the notice taken of Woodhouse, the poetical shoemaker. He said, it was all vanity and childishness; and that such objects were, to those who patronised them, mere mirrors of their own superiority. They had better,' said he, furnish the man with good implements for his trade, than raise subscriptions for his poems. He may make an excellent shoemaker, but can never make a good poet. A schoolboy's exercise may be a pretty thing for a schoolboy; but it is no treat for a man.'

"Speaking of Boetius, who was the favourite writer of the middle ages, he said, it was very surprising that, upon such a subject, and in such a situation, he should be magis philosophus quam Christianus.

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1 Did he not vary the phrase, and say sed instead of nec, for he had just before imputed as blame, that there was a tiresome recurrence of the same images? - CHOKER.

2 See antè, p. 170. n. 3. There is an account of this poetical prodigy, as he was called, in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1764, p. 289. He was brought into notice by Shenstone. CROKER.

3 I suspect no treat' to be a misprint-perhaps for nothing.-CROKER.

4 He meant evidently that if the interest of millions — the country at large required that the national debt should be sponged off, it would prevail over the interest of thousands— the holders of stock.-CROKER.

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"Of Dr. Kennicott's Collations, he observed, that though the text should not be much mended thereby, yet it was no small advantage to know that we had as good a text as the most consummate industry and diligence could procure.'

"Johnson observed, that so many objections might be made to every thing, that nothing could overcome them but the necessity of doing something. No man would be of any profession, as simply opposed to not being of it; but every one must do something.'

"He remarked, that a London parish was a very comfortless thing: for the clergyman seldom knew the face of one out of ten of his parishioners.

"Of the late Mr. Mallet he spoke with no great respect: said, he was ready for any dirty job; that he had wrote against. Byng at the instigation of the ministry, and was equally ready to write for him, provided he found his account in it.

"A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately after his wife died: Johnson said, it was the triumph of hope over experience.

He observed, that a man of sense and education should meet a suitable companion in a wife. It was a miserable thing when the conversation could only be such as, whether the mutton should be boiled or roasted, and probably a dispute about that.

"He did not approve of late marriages, observing that more was lost in point of time, than compensated for by any possible advantages. Even illassorted marriages were preferable to cheerless celibacy.

"Of old Sheridan he remarked, that he neither wanted parts nor literature; but that his vanity and Quixotism obscured his merits.

"He said, foppery was never cured; it was the bad stamina of the mind, which, like those of the body, were never rectified: once a coxcomb, and always a coxcomb.

"Being told that Gilbert Cooper called him the Caliban of literature. 'Well,' said he, ' I must dub him the Punchinello.''

"Speaking of the old Earl of Cork and Orrery, he said, That man spent his life in catching at an object (literary eminence), which he had not power to grasp.'

To find a substitution for violated morality, he said, was the leading feature in all perversions of religion.

"He often used to quote, with great pathos, those fine lines of Virgil :

:

'Optima quæque dies miseris mortalibus ævi

Prima fugit; subeunt morbi, tristisque senectus, Et labor, et duræ rapit inclementia mortis.'s

by a large subscription, to undertake a collation of all the Hebrew MSS. of the Old Testament. The first volume of his learned labour was, however, not published till 1776; and the second, with a general dissertation, completed the work in 1783. He was Radcliffe librarian, and canon of Christ Church; in which cathedral he was buried in 1783.CROKER.

6 Perhaps a misprint for "seek." - -CROKER.

7 John Gilbert Cooper, Esq., author of a good deal of prose and verse, but best known as the author of a Life of Socrates, and a consequent dispute with Bishop Warburton. Cooper was in person short and squab; hence Johnson's allusion to Punch. He died in 1769. CROKER.

8

In youth alone unhappy mortals live.

But ah ! the mighty bliss is fugitive.
Discoloured sickness, anxious labours come,
And age and death's inevitable doom.

Geor. iii. 68.-Dryden.-C.

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"He observed, it was a most mortifying reflection for any man to consider, what he had done, compared with what he might have done.'

"He said few people had intellectual resources sufficient to forego the pleasures of wine. They could not otherwise contrive how to fill the interval between dinner and supper.

"He went with me, one Sunday, to hear my old master, Gregory Sharpe, preach at the Temple. In the prefatory prayer, Sharpe ranted about liberty, as a blessing most fervently to be implored, and its continuance prayed for. Johnson observed, that our liberty was in no sort of danger: - he would have done much better to pray against our licentiousness. "One evening at Mrs. Montagu's, where a splendid company had assembled, consisting of the most eminent literary characters, I thought he seemed highly pleased with the respect and attention that were shown him, and asked him, on our return home, if he was not highly gratified by his visit. 'No, Sir,' said he, not highly gratified; yet I do not recollect to have passed many evenings with fewer objections.'

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Though of no high extraction himself, he had much respect for birth and family, especially among ladies. He said, adventitious accomplishments may be possessed by all ranks; but one may easily distinguish the born gentlewoman.'

"He said, 'the poor in England were better provided for than in any other country of the same extent: he did not mean little cantons, or petty republics. Where a great proportion of the people,' said he, are suffered to languish in helpless misery, that country must be ill policed, and wretchedly governed: a decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilisation. Gentlemen of education,' he observed, were pretty much the same in all countries; the condition of the lower orders, the poor especially, was the true mark of national discrimination.'

1 Johnson's usual seal, at one time of his life, was a head of Homer, and at another, a head of Augustus, as appears from the envelopes of his letters.- CROKER.

2 Dr. Maxwell's memory has deceived him. Glaucus is the person who received this counsel; and Clarke's translation of the passage (11. vi. 1. 208.) is as follows:-" Ut semper fortissime rem gererem, et superior virtute essem aliis.-J. BosWELL, jun. Pope's version is

"To stand the first in worth as in command.”- CROKER. 3 Gregory Sharpe, D.D. F.R.S. and F.A.S., born in 1713. He published some religious works, and several critical Essays on the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages. Maxwell calls him his old master, because Sharpe was Master of the Temple when Maxwell was assistant preacher. He died in 1771. CROKER.

4 Dr. John Browne, born in 1715; A.B. of St. John's, Cambridge, in 1735, and D.D. in 1755; besides his celebrated "Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times,". a work which, in one year, ran through seven editions, and is now forgotten, -and several religious and miscellaneous works, he was the author of two tragedies, "Barbarossa " and "Athelstan." He was a man of considerable, but irregular genius; and died insane, by his own hand, in 1766.-CROKER.

"When the corn laws were in agitation in Ireland, by which that country has been enabled not only to feed itself, but to export corn to a large amount, Sir Thomas Robinson observed, that those laws might be prejudicial to the corn-trade of England. 'Sir Thomas,' said he, you talk the language of a savage: what, Sir, would you prevent any people from feeding themselves, if by any honest means they can do it?'

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It being mentioned, that Garrick assisted Dr. Browne, the author of the Estimate.' in some dramatic composition, No, Sir,' said Johnson; 'he would no more suffer Garrick to write a line in his play, than he would suffer him to mount his pulpit.' "Speaking of Burke, he said It was commonly observed he spoke too often in parliament; but nobody could say he did not speak well, though too frequently and too familiarly.'s

"Speaking of economy, he remarked, it was hardly worth while to save anxiously twenty pounds a year. If a man could save to that degree, so as to enable him to assume a different rank in society, then, indeed, it might answer some purpose.

"He observed, a principal source of erroneous judgment was viewing things partially and only on one side; as for instance, fortune-hunters, when they contemplated the fortunes singly and separately, it was a dazzling and tempting object; but when they came to possess the wives and their fortunes together, they began to suspect they had not made quite so good a bargain.

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"Speaking of the late Duke of Northumberland" living very magnificently when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, somebody remarked, it would be difficult to find a suitable successor to him: Then,' exclaimed Johnson, he is only fit to succeed himself.' "He advised me, if possible, to have a good orchard. He knew, he said, a clergyman of small income, who brought up a family very reputably, which he chiefly fed with apple dumplings.

7

"He said he had known several good scholars among the Irish gentlemen; but scarcely any of them correct in quantity. He extended the same observation to Scotland.

"Speaking of a certain prelate, who exerted himself very laudably in building churches and parsonage houses; however,' said he,' I do not find that he is esteemed a man of much professional learning, or a liberal patron of it; — yet, it is well where a man possesses any strong positive excellence. Few have all kinds of merit belonging to their

Mr. Burke came into parliament in 1765. CROKER,

6 Sir Hugh Smithson, who, by his marriage with the daughter of Algernon, last Duke of Somerset, of that branch, became second Earl of Northumberland of the new creation, was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1763 to 1765; he was created a duke in 1766. I suppose Johnson's phrase was meant as an Hibernicism, imitated from Theobald's celebrated blunder, in the Περι Βάθους,

"None but himself can be his parallel!" which, however, Warton discovered to be itself borrowed from Seneca's Hercules Furens —

"Queris Alcidæ parem? Nemo, nise ipse." i. 84.

CROKER.

7 This seems strange. I suppose Dr. Maxwell, at the interval of so many years, did not perfectly recollect Dr. Johnson's statement.- CROKER.

8 Probably Dr. Richard Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland from 1765 to 1795. He was created Lord Rokeby in 1777, with remainder to the issue of his cousin, Matthew Robinson, of West Layton. He built what is called Canterbury Gate, and the adjacent quadrangle, in Christ Church, Oxford. — CROKER.

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"We dined tête-à-tête at the Mitre, as I was preparing to return to Ireland, after an absence of many years.

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Lichfield and Ashbourne.
I regretted much leaving London,

where I had formed many agreeable connections:
Sir,' said he, I don't wonder at it: no man, fond
of letters, leaves London without regret.
But re-
member, Sir, you have seen and enjoyed a great
deal; you have seen life in its highest decorations,
and the world has nothing new to exhibit. No man
is so well qualified to leave public life as he who
has long tried it and known it well. We are always
hankering after untried situations, and imagining
greater felicity from them than they can afford.
No, Sir, knowledge and virtue may be acquired in
all countries, and your local consequence will make
you some amends for the intellectual gratifications
you relinquish.' Then he quoted the following
lines with great pathos:

"He who has early known the pomps of state,
(For things unknown 't is ignorance to con-
demn ;)

And after having view'd the gaudy bait,

Can boldly say, the trifle I contemn; With such a one contented could I live, Contented could I die.'1

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The Thirty-nine Articles. Thirtieth of January. Royal Marriage Act. Old Families. Mimickry. Foote. - Mr. Peyton. Origin of Languages. Flogging at Schools. Gilbert Elliot.

Irish and Gaelic. Lord Mansfield.

Sir

IN 1771 he published another political_pam-
phlet, entitled "Thoughts on the late Trans-
actions respecting Falkland's Islands," in which,
upon materials furnished to him by ministry,
and upon general topics, expanded in his rich
style, he successfully endeavoured to persuade
the nation that it was wise and laudable to
suffer the question of right to remain un-
decided, rather than involve our country in
another war.
It has been suggested by some,
with what truth I shall not take upon me to
decide, that he rated the consequence of those
islands to Great Britain too low. But however
this may be, every humane mind must surely
applaud the earnestness with which he averted
the calamity of war; a calamity so dreadful,
that it is astonishing how civilised, nay,
Christian nations, can deliberately continue to
renew it. His description of its miseries, in

1 Being desirous to trace these verses to the fountain head, after having in vain turned over several of our elder poets with the hope of lighting on them, I applied to Dr. Maxwell, now resident at Bath, for the purpose of ascertaining their author: but that gentleman could furnish no aid on this occasion. At length the lines have been discovered by the author's second son, Mr. James Boswell, in the London Magazine for July 1732, where they form part of a poem on Retirement, there published anonymously, but in fact (as he afterwards found) copied, with some slight variations, from one of Walsh's smaller poems, entitled "The Retirement; and they exhibit another proof of what has been elsewhere observed by the author of the work before us, that Johnson retained in his memory fragments of obscure or neglected poetry. In quoting verses of that description, he appears by a slight deviation to have sometimes given them a moral turn, and to have dexterously adapted them to his own sentiments, where the original had a very different tendency. Thus, in the present instance (as Mr. J. Boswell observes to me), "the author of the poem above mentioned exhibits himself as having retired to the country, to avoid the vain follies of a town life, ambition, avarice, and the pursuit of pleasure, contrasted with the enjoyments of the country, and the delightful conversation that the brooks, &c. furnish; which he holds to be infinitely more pleasing and instructive than any which towns afford. He is then led to consider the weakness of the human mind, and, after lamenting that he (the writer,) who is neither enslaved by avarice, ambition, or pleasure, has yet made himself a slave to love, he thus proceeds:

'If this dire passion never will be gone,
If beauty always must my heart enthral,
O, rather let me be confined by one,

Than madly thus become a slave to all:

'One who has early known the pomp of state
(For things unknown 't is ignorance to condemn),
And, after having view'd the gaudy bait,
Can coldly say, the trifle I contemn;

In her blest arms contented could I live,
Contented could I die. But O, my mind,
Imaginary scenes of bliss deceive

With hopes of joys impossible to find.'"
Another instance of Johnson's retaining in his memory
verses by obscure authors is given post, Aug. 27. 1773.

In the autumn of 1782, when he was at Brighthelmstone, he frequently accompanied Mr. Philip Metcalfe in his chaise, to take the air; and the conversation in one of their excur sions happening to turn on a celebrated historian, [no doubt Gibbon], since deceased, he repeated, with great precision, some verses, as very characteristic of that gentleman. These furnish another proof of what has been above observed; for they are found in a very obscure quarter, among some anonymous poems appended to the second volume of a collection frequently printed by Lintot, under the title of "Pope's Miscellanies: "—

"See how the wand'ring Danube flows,
Realms and religions parting;

A friend to all true christian foes,
To Peter, Jack, and Martin.

"Now Protestant, and Papist now,
Not constant long to either,
At length an infidel does grow,

And ends his journey neither.

"Thus many a youth I've known set out,
Half Protestant, half Papist,

And rambling long the world about,
Turn infidel or atheist."

In reciting these verses, I have no doubt that Johnson substituted some word for infidel [perhaps Mussulman] in the second stanza, to avoid the disagreeable repetition of the same expression. - MALONE.

this pamphlet, is one of the finest pieces of eloquence in the English language. Upon this occasion, too, we find Johnson lashing the party in opposition with unbounded severity, and making the fullest use of what he ever reckoned a most effectual argumentative instrument, contempt. His character of their very able mysterious champion, Junius, is executed with all the force of his genius, and finished with the highest care. He seems to have exulted in sallying forth to single combat against the boasted and formidable hero, who bade defiance to "principalities and powers, and the rulers of this world." 1

This pamphlet, it is observable, was softened in one particular, after the first edition; for the conclusion of Mr. George Grenville's character stood thus: "Let him not, however, be depreciated in his grave. He had powers not universally possessed: could he have enforced payment of the Manilla ransom, he could have counted it." Which, instead of retaining its sly sharp point, was reduced to a mere flat unmeaning expression, or, if I may use the word,truism: "He had powers not universally possessed and if he sometimes erred, he was likewise sometimes right."

JOHNSON TO LANGTON.

"March 20. 1771.

"DEAR SIR, After much lingering of my own, and much of the ministry, I have, at length, got out my paper. But delay is not yet at an end. Not many had been dispersed, before Lord North ordered the sale to stop. His reasons I do not distinctly know. You may try to find them in the perusal. Before his order, a sufficient number were dispersed to do all the mischief, though, perhaps, not to make all the sport that might be expected from it.

"Soon after your departure, I had the pleasure

1 He often (says Mrs. Piozzi) delighted his imagination with the thoughts of having destroyed Junius. One day I had received a remarkably fine Stilton cheese as a present from some person who had packed and directed it carefully, but without mentioning whence it came. Mr. Thrale, desirous to know who they were obliged to, asked every friend as they came in, but nobody owned it. "Depend upon it, Sir," says Johnson, "it was sent by Junius." -CROKER.

2 Probably a canal, in which Mr. Langton was, and his family is, I believe, still interested. What the danger was is not now recollected. CROKER.

3 Mr. Langton married, May 24. 1770, Jane Lloyd, widow of John, eighth Earl of Rothes, who died in 1767. MALONE. It was, Mr. Chalmers told me, a saying about that time, "Married a Countess Dowager of Rothes! Why, every body marries a Countess Dowager of Rothes!" And there were, in fact, about 1772, three ladies of that name married to second husbands. Mary Lloyd, married to Mr. Langton; Jane Maitland, widow of John, ninth Earl of Rothes, married the Honourable P. Maitland, seventh son of the sixth Earl of Lauderdale; and Lady Jane Leslie, Countess of Rothes, widow of John Raymond Evelyn, Esq., remarried to Sir Lucas Pepys.- CROKER.

4 The Hermit of Warkworth; London, 1771, 4to.P. CUNNINGHAM.

5 Robert Nugent, an Irish gentleman, who married the sister and heiress of Secretary Craggs. He was created, in 1767, Baron Nugent and Viscount Clare, and in 1777, Earl Nugent. His only daughter married the first Marquis of Buckingham, on whose second son the title of Baron Nugent devolved. Lord Nugent wrote some odes and light pieces, which had some merit and a great vogue. He died in 1788. Goldsmith addressed to him his lively verses called "The Haunch of Venison." The characters exhibited in this piece

of finding all the danger past with which your navigation was threatened. I hope nothing happens at home to abate your satisfaction; but that Lady Rothes, and Mrs. Langtou and the young ladies, are all well.

"I was last night at the Club. Dr. Percy has written a long ballad in many fits; it is pretty enough. He has printed, and will soon publish it. Thrale's, where I am now writing, all are well. I Goldsmith is at Bath, with Lord Clare. At Mr. am, dear Sir, your most humble servant,

"SAM. JOHNSON." 6

Mr. Strahan, the printer, who had been long in intimacy with Johnson, in the course of his literary labours, who was at once his friendly agent in receiving his pension for him, and his banker in supplying him with money when he wanted it; who was himself now a member of parliament, and who loved much to be employed in political negotiation; thought he should do eminent service, both to government and Johnson, if he could be the means of his getting a seat in the House of Commons. With this view, he wrote a letter to one of the Secretaries of the Treasury 7, of which he gave me a copy in his own handwriting, which is as follows:

MR. STRAHAN TO

"New Street, March 30. 1771. "SIR, You will easily recollect, when I had the honour of waiting upon you some time ago, I took the liberty to observe to you, that Dr. Johnson would make an excellent figure in the House of Commons, and beartily wished he had a seat there. My reasons are briefly these:

"I know his perfect good affection to his Majesty and his government, which I am certain he wishes to support by every means in his power.

"He possesses a great share of manly, nervous, and ready eloquence; is quick in discerning the

are very comic, and were no doubt drawn from nature; but Goldsmith ought to have confessed that he had borrowed the idea and some of the details from Boileau.- CROKER.

6 One evening, in the oratorio season of 1771, Mr. Johnson went with Mrs. Thrale to Covent Garden; and though he was for the most part an exceeding bad playhouse compa nion, as his person drew people's eyes upon the box, and the loudness of his voice made it difficult to hear anybody but himself, he sat surprisingly quiet, and she flattered herself that he was listening to the music. When they got home, however, he repeated these verses, which he said he had made at the oratorio:

IN THEATRO.

Tertii verso quater orbe lustri,
Quid theatrales tibi, Crispe, pompæ!
Quam decet canos male litteratos
Sera voluptas !

Tene mulceri fidibus canoris ?
Tene cantorum modulis stupere?
Tene per pictas, oculo elegante,

Currere formas ?

Inter equales, sine felle liber,
Codices, veri studiosus, inter,
Rectius vives: sua quisque carpat
Gaudia gratus.

Lusibus gaudet puer otiosis,
Luxus oblectat juvenem theatri,
At seni, fluxo sapienter uti

Tempore restat.— CROKER. 7 The secretaries of the Treasury, at this time, were Sir Grey Cooper and James West, Esq. -CROKER.

ET. 62.

BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON.

strength and weakness of an argument; can express himself with clearness and precision, and fears the face of no man alive.

"His known character, as a man of extraordinary sense and unimpeached virtue, would secure him the attention of the House, and could not fail to give him a proper weight there. "He is capable of the greatest application, and it can undergo any degree of labour, where he sees necessary, and where his heart and affections are strongly engaged. His Majesty's ministers might therefore securely depend on his doing, upon every proper occasion, the utmost that could be expected from him. They would find him ready to vindicate such measures as tended to promote the stability of government, and resolute and steady in carrying them into execution. Nor is any thing to be apprehended from the supposed impetuosity of his temper. To the friends of the king you will find him a lamb, to his enemies a lion.

And I

"For these reasons I humbly apprehend that he would be a very able and useful member. will venture to say, the employment would not be disagreeable to him; and knowing, as I do, his strong affection to the king, his ability to serve him in that capacity, and the extreme ardour with which I am convinced he would engage in that service, I must repeat, that I wish most heartily to

see him in the House.

"If you think this worthy of attention, you will be pleased to take a convenient opportunity of If his lordship mentioning it to Lord North. should happily approve of it, I shall have the satisfaction of having been, in some degree, the humble instrument of doing my country, in my opinion, a very essential service. I know your good-nature, and your zeal for the public welfare, will plead my excuse for giving you this trouble. I am, with the greatest respect, Sir, your most obedient and humble servant,

"WILLIAM STRAHAN."

This recommendation, we know, was not effectual; but how, or for what reason, can only be conjectured.' It is not to be believed that Mr. Strahan would have applied, unless Johnson had approved of it. I never heard him mention the subject; but at a later period of his life, when Sir Joshua Reynolds told him that Mr. Edmund Burke had said, that if he had come early into parliament, he certainly would have been the greatest speaker that ever was there, Johnson exclaimed, "I should like to try my hand now."

1 Hawkins tells us that Mr. Thrale made a like attempt. "Mr. Thrale, a man of slow conceptions, but of a sound judgment, entertained a design of bringing Johnson into parliament. We must suppose that he had previously determined to furnish him with a legal qualification, and Johnson, it is certain, was willing to accept the trust. Mr. Thrale had two meetings with the minister, who, at first, seemed inclined to find him a seat; but, whether upon conversation he doubted his fitness for his purpose, or that he thought himself in no need of his assistance, the project failed. Johnson was a little soured at this disappointment: he spoke of Lord North in terms of severity."

Lord Stowell told me, that it was understood amongst Johnson's friends that "Lord North was afraid that Johnson's help (as he himself said of Lord Chesterfield's) might have been sometimes embarrassing."" He perhaps thought, and not unreasonably," added Lord Stowell," that, like the elephant in the battle, he was quite as likely to trample down his friends as his foes." This, and perhaps some dissatis

It has been much agitated among his friends and others, whether he would have been a powerful speaker in parliament, had he been brought in when advanced in life. I am inclined to think that his extensive knowledge, his quickness and force of mind, his vivacity and above all, his poignancy of sarcasm, would and richness of expression, his wit and humour, have had a great effect in a popular assembly; and that the magnitude of his figure, and striking peculiarity of his manner, would have aided the effect. But I remember it was observed by Mr. Flood, that Johnson, having been long used to sententious brevity, and the short flights of conversation, might have failed in that continued and expanded kind of argument, which is requisite in stating complicated matters in public speaking; and, as a proof of this, he mentioned the supposed speeches in parliament written by him for the magazine, none of which, in his opinion, were at all like real debates. The opinion of one who was himself so eminent an orator, must be allowed to have great weight. It was confirmed by Sir William Scott [Lord Stowell], who mentioned, that Johnson had told him that he had several times tried to speak in the Society of Arts and Sciences, but "had found he could not get on."2 From Mr. William Gerard Hamilton I have heard, that Johnson, when observing to him that it was prudent for a man who had not been accustomed to speak in public, to begin his speech in as simple a manner as possible, acknowledged that he rose in that society to deliver a speech which he had prepared; "but," said he, "all my flowers of oratory forsook me." I however cannot help wishing, that he had "tried his hand" in Parliament; and I wonder that ministry did not make the experiment.

I at length renewed a correspondence which had been too long discontinued:

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faction with Lord North, concerning the Falkland Islands pamphlet, may, as Hawkins suggests, have given Johnson that dislike that he certainly felt towards Lord North. - CROKER.

2 Dr. Kippis, however, (Biog. Brit. art. "J. Gilbert Cooper," p. 266. n. new edit.) says, that he "once heard Dr. Johnson speak in the Society of Arts and Manufactures, upon a subject relative to mechanics, with a propriety, perspicuity, and energy, which excited general admiration. MALONE. I cannot give credit to Dr. Kippis's account against Johnson's own statement, vouched by Lord Stowell and Mr. Hamilton; but even if we could, one speech in the Society of Arts was no test of what Johnson might have been able to do in parliament; and it may be suspected that, at the age of sixty-two, he, with all his talents, would have failed to acquire that peculiar tact and dexterity, without which even great abilities do not succeed in that very fastidious assembly.-CROKER.

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