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plan of study. I myself have never persisted in any plan for two days together. A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good. A young man should read five hours in a day, and so may acquire a great deal of knowledge."-Boswell.

In 1781, Johnson at last completed his "Lives of the Poets," of which he gives this account: "Some time in March I finished the 'Lives of the Poets,' which I wrote, in my usual way, dilatorily and hastily-unwilling to work, and working with vigor and haste.”—Boswell.

Before dinner Dr. Johnson seized upon Mr. Charles Sheridan's "Account of the late Revolution in Sweden," and seemed to read it ravenously, as if he devoured it, which was, to all appearance, his method of studying. "He knows how to read better than any one," said Mrs. Knowles; "he gets at the substance of a book directly; he tears out the heart of it." He kept it wrapped up in the table-cloth, in his lap, during the time of dinner, from an avidity to have one entertainment in readiness when he should have finished another; resembling (if I may use so coarse a simile) a dog who holds a bone in his paws in reserve, while he eats something else which has been thrown to him.-Boswell.

In the morning of Tuesday, June 15, while we sat at Dr. Adams's, we talked of a printed letter from the Rev. Herbert Croft, to a young gentleman who had been his pupil, in which he advised him to read to the end of whatever books he should begin to read. Johnson: "This is surely a strange advice; you may as well resolve that whatever men you happen to get acquainted with, you are to keep to them for life. A book may be good for nothing; or there may be only one thing in it worth knowing: are we to read it all through? These voyages" (pointing to the three large volumes of "Voyages to the South Sea," which were just come

out)," who will read them through? A man had better work his way before the mast than read them through; they will be eaten by rats and mice before they are read through."Boswell.

He said, "I wrote forty-eight of the printed octavo pages of the Life of Savage' at a sitting, but then I sat up all night." When a young man, he wrote three columns of the "Parliamentary Debates," in the "Gentleman's Magazine," in one hour. He composed seventy lines of his poem upon the "Vanity of Human Wishes" in one day, without putting one of them on paper until they were all finished.—Editor.

He always read amazingly quick, glancing his eye from the top to the bottom of the page in an instant. If he made any pause, it was a compliment to the work; and, after seesawing over it a few minutes, generally repeated the passage, especially if it was poetry.-Miss Reynolds.

Johnson's manner of composing has not been rightly understood. He was so extremely short-sighted that writing was inconvenient to him; for, whenever he wrote, he was obliged to hold the paper close to his face. He therefore never composed what we call a foul draught on paper of anything he published, but used to revolve the subject in his mind, and turn and form every period, till he had brought the whole to the highest correctness and the most perfect arrangement. Then his uncommonly retentive memory enabled him to deliver a whole essay, properly finished, whenever it was called for.-Thomas Percy.

We talked of composition, which was a favorite topic of Dr. Watson's, who first distinguished himself by lectures on rhetoric. Johnson: "I advised Chambers, and would advise every young man beginning to compose, to do it as fast as he can, to get a habit of having his mind to start

promptly; it is so much more difficult to improve in speed. than in accuracy." Watson: "I own I am for much atten

tion to accuracy in composing, lest one should get bad habits of doing it in a slovenly manner." Johnson: “Why, sir, you are confounding doing inaccurately with the necessity of doing inaccurately. A man knows when his composition is inaccurate, and when he thinks fit he'll correct it. But if a man is accustomed to compose slowly, and with difficulty, upon all occasions, there is danger that he may not compose at all, as we do not like to do that which is not done easily; and, at any rate, more time is consumed in a small matter than ought to be." Watson: "Dr. Hugh Blair has taken a week to compose a sermon.' Johnson: "Then,

sir, that is for want of the habit of composing quickly, which I am insisting one should acquire." Watson: "Blair was not composing all the week, but only such hours as he found himself disposed for composition." Johnson: "Nay, sir, unless you tell me the time he took, you tell me nothing. If I say I took a week to walk a mile, and have had the gout five days, and been ill otherwise another day, I have taken but one day. I myself have composed about forty sermons. I have begun a sermon after dinner, and sent it off by the post that night. I wrote forty-eight of the printed octavo pages of the 'Life of Savage' at a sitting; but then I sat up all night. I have also written six sheets in a day of translation from the French." Boswell: "We have all observed how one man dresses himself slowly, and another fast." Johnson: "Yes, sir; it is wonderful how much time some people will consume in dressing; taking up a thing and looking at it, and laying it down, and taking it up again. Every one should get the habit of doing, it quickly. I would say to a young divine, 'Here is your text; let me see how soon you can make a sermon.' Then I'd say, 'Let me see how much better you can make it.' Thus I should see both his powers and his judgment."Boswell.

POMPOSITY OF STYLE.

THERE can be no doubt that Johnson laboriously cultivated the pompous style of writing which we still call Johnsonian. Even in his own day, when rhetoric was far more highly valued than it is at present, his manner was often the theme of criticism and satire. Boswell relates one of Goldsmith's speeches upon this subject, which, for once, must have silenced the great talker; for there is no record of a repartee. The talk had run upon fable-writing, and Goldsmith observed that in most fables the animals seldom talk in character. "For instance," said he, "the fable of the little fishes, who petitioned Jupiter to be changed into birds-the skill consists in making them talk like little fishes." This struck Johnson as very ridiculous talk, and he began to roll himself about, and to shake with laughter; when Goldsmith broke in upon his entertainment by saying, "Why, Doctor Johnson, this is not so easy as you seem to think; for if you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales."-Editor.

Sir Joshua Reynolds once asked him by what means he had attained his extraordinary accuracy and flow of language. He told him that he had early laid it down as a fixed rule to do his best on every occasion, and in every company to impart whatever he knew in the most forcible language he could put it in; and that by constant practice, and never suffering any careless expressions to escape him, or attempting to deliver his thoughts without arranging them in the clearest manner, it became habitual to him.— Boswell.

His talk was generally pithy and simple, but he sometimes forced himself into his characteristic style and "talked like a book." He once objected to Boswell's calling a mountain "immense," and corrected him by saying, “No, it

is no more than a considerable protuberance." When some one told him of a man who had forgotten his own name, he said, "Sir, that was a morbid oblivion." Macaulay says, "It is clear that Johnson himself did not think in the dialect in which he wrote. The expressions which came first to his tongue were simple, energetic, and picturesque. When he wrote for publication, he did his sentences out of English into Johnsonese. His letters from the Hebrides to Mrs. Thrale are the original of that work of which the Journey to the Hebrides' is the translation. When we were taken up-stairs,' says he, in one of his letters, a dirty fellow bounced out of the bed on which one of us was to lie.' This incident is recorded in the 'Journey' as follows: 'Out of one of the beds on which we were to repose started up, at our entrance, a man black as a Cyclops from the forge.' Here are a few more passages illustrating his cultivation of the grand manner.-Editor.

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Mr. Strahan had taken a poor boy from the country as an apprentice, upon Johnson's recommendation. Johnson, having inquired after him, said, "Mr. Strahan, let me have five guineas on account, and I'll give this boy one. Nay, if a man recommends a boy, and does nothing for him, it is sad work. Call him down." I followed him into the courtyard, behind Mr. Strahan's house; and there I had a proof of what I had heard him profess, that he talked alike to all. "Some people tell you that they let themselves down to the capacity of their hearers. I never do that. I speak uniformly in as intelligible a manner as I can."-" Well, my boy, how do you go on?" "Pretty well, sir; but they are afraid I ain't strong enough for some parts of the business." Johnson: "Why, I shall be sorry for it; for when you consider with how little mental power and corporeal labor a printer can get a guinea a week, it is a very desirable occupation for you. Do you hear-take all the pains you can; and if this does not do, we must think of some other way of

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