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'So mixed our studies, and so joined our fame;'

for we shall go down hand to hand to posterity."-Madame D'Arblay.

Goldsmith, in his diverting simplicity, complained one day, in a mixed company, of Lord Camden. "I met him," said he, "at Lord Clare's house in the country, and he took no more notice of me than if I had been an ordinary man.' The company having laughed heartily, Johnson stood forth in defence of his friend. "Nay, gentlemen," said he, “Dr. Goldsmith is in the right. A nobleman ought to have made up to such a man as Goldsmith; and I think it is much against Lord Camden that he neglected him."-Boswell.

I talked of the officers whom we had left to-day, how much service they had seen, and how little they got for it, even of fame. Johnson: "Sir, a soldier gets as little as any man can get." Boswell: "Goldsmith has acquired more fame than all the officers last war who were not generals.” Johnson: "Why, sir, you will find ten thousand fit to do what they did, before you find one who does what Goldsmith has done. You must consider that a thing is valued according to its rarity. A pebble that paves the street is in itself more useful than the diamond upon a lady's finger." I wish our friend Goldsmith had heard this.-Boswell.

Soon after Goldsmith's death, some people dining with Sir Joshua were commenting rather freely on some part of his works, which in their opinion neither discovered talent nor originality. To this Dr. Johnson listened, in his usual growling manner, for some time; when at length, his patience being exhausted, he rose with great dignity, looked them full in the face, and exclaimed, "If nobody were suffered to abuse poor Goldy but those who could write as well, he would have few censors."-Northcote.

We talked of Mr. Burke. Dr. Johnson said he had great variety of knowledge, store of imagery, copiousness of language. Robertson: "He has wit too." Johnson: “No, sir; he never succeeds there. 'Tis low; 'tis conceit. I used to say Burke never once made a good joke. What I most envy Burke for is his being constantly the same. He is never what we call humdrum; never unwilling to begin to talk, nor in haste to leave off." Boswell: "Yet he can listen." Johnson: "No, I cannot say he is good at that. So desirous is he to talk, that if one is speaking at this end of the table, he'll speak to somebody at the other end. Burke, sir, is such a man, that if you met him for the first time in the street where you were stopped by a drove of oxen, and you and he stepped aside to take shelter but for five minutes, he'd talk to you in such a manner that when you parted you would say, 'This is an extraordinary man.'"-Boswell.

Johnson: "Never believe extraordinary characters which you hear of people. Depend upon it, sir, they are exaggerated. You do not see one man shoot a great deal higher than another." I mentioned Mr. Burke. Johnson: “Yes, Burke is an extraordinary man. His stream of mind is perpetual." It is very pleasing to me to record that Johnson's high estimation of the talents of this gentleman was uniform from their early acquaintance. Sir Joshua Reynolds informs me that when Mr. Burke was first elected a member of Parliament, and Sir J. Hawkins expressed a wonder at his attaining a seat, Johnson said: "Now, we who know Mr. Burke know that he will be one of the first men in the country." And once when Johnson was ill, and unable to exert himself as much as usual without fatigue, Mr. Burke having been mentioned, he said, "That fellow calls forth all my powers. Were I to see Burke now, it would kill me." So much was he accustomed to consider conversation as a contest, and such was his notion of Burke as an opponent !— Boswell.

He had spent during the progress of the work the money for which he had contracted to write his Dictionary. We have seen that the reward of his labor was only fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds; and when the expense of amanuenses and paper, and other articles is deducted, his clear profit was very inconsiderable. I once said to him, "I am sorry, sir, you did not get more for your Dictionary." His answer was, "I am sorry too. But it was very well. The booksellers are generous, liberal-minded men." He upon all occasions did ample justice to their character in this respect. He considered them as the patrons of literature.-Boswell.

E.: “From the experience which I have had—and I have had a great deal-I have learned to think better of mankind." Johnson: "From my experience, I have found them worse in commercial dealings, more disposed to cheat, than I had any notion of; but more disposed to do one another good. than I had conceived." J.: "Less just, and more beneficent." Johnson: "And really it is wonderful, considering how much attention is necessary for men to take care of themselves, and ward off immediate evils which press upon them-it is wonderful how much they do for others. As it is said of the greatest liar that he tells more truth than falsehood, so it may be said of the worst man that he does more good than evil."-Boswell.

GENEROSITY.

On Friday, March 20th, I found him at his own house, sitting with Mrs. Williams, and was informed that the room formerly allotted to me was now appropriated to a charitable purpose, Mrs. Desmoulins, and I think her daughter, and a Miss Carmichael, being all lodged in it. Such was his humanity, and such his generosity, that Mrs. Desmoulins her

self told me he allowed her half a guinea a week. Let it be remembered that this was above a twelfth part of his pension. His liberality, indeed, was at all periods of his life very remarkable. Mr. Howard, of Lichfield, at whose father's house Johnson had in his early years been kindly received, told me that when he was a boy at the Charterhouse, his father wrote to him to go and pay a visit to Mr. Samuel Johnson, which he accordingly did, and found him in an upper room of poor appearance. Johnson received him with much courteousness, and talked a great deal to him as to a school-boy, of the course of his education, and other particulars. When he afterward came to know and understand the high character of this great man, he recollected his condescension with wonder. He added, that when he was going away, Mr. Johnson presented him with half a guinea; and this, said Mr. Howard, was at a time when he probably had not another.-Boswell.

He gave away all he had, and all he ever had gotten, except the two thousand pounds he left behind; and the very small portion of income which he spent on himself, with all our calculation, we never could make more than seventy, or, at most, fourscore pounds a year; and he pretended to allow himself a hundred. He had numberless dependents, out of doors as well as in, "who," as he expressed it, "did not like to see him latterly, unless he brought 'em money.” — Mrs. Piozzi.

The addition of three hundred pounds a year* to what Johnson was able to earn by the ordinary exercise of his talents raised him to a state of comparative affluence, and afforded him the means of assisting many whose real or pretended wants had formerly excited his compassion. He now practised a rule which he often recommended to his friends.

* His pension.

-always to go abroad with some loose money to give to beggars.-Sir John Hawkins.

When visiting Lichfield, toward the latter part of his life, he was accustomed, on his arrival, to deposit with Miss Porter as much cash as would pay his expenses back to London. He could not trust himself with his own money, as he felt himself unable to resist the importunity of the numerous claimants on his benevolence.-Harwood.

KINDNESS.

THOUGH Johnson's circumstances were at this time far from being easy, his humane and charitable disposition was constantly exerting itself. Mrs. Anna Williams, daughter of a very ingenious Welsh physician, and a woman of more than ordinary talents in literature, having come to London in hopes of being cured of a cataract in both her eyes, which afterward ended in total blindness, was kindly received as a constant visitor at his house while Mrs. Johnson lived; and after her death, having come under his roof in order to have an operation upon her eyes performed with more comfort to her than in lodgings, she had an apartment from him during the rest of her life at all times when he had a house.— Boswell (1751).

My next meeting with Johnson was on Friday, the 1st of July, when he and I and Dr. Goldsmith supped at the Mitre. I was before this time pretty well acquainted with Goldsmith, who was one of the brightest ornaments of the Johnsonian school. Goldsmith's respectful attachment to Johnson was then at its height; for his own literary reputation had not yet distinguished him so much as to excite a vain desire of competition with his great master. He had increased my admiration of the goodness of Johnson's heart

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