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House of Commons, That the influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished ?"" Johnson: "Sir, I have never slept an hour less, nor eat an ounce less meat. I would have knocked the factious dogs on the head, to be sure; but I was not vexed." Boswell: "I declare, sir, upon my honor, I did imagine I was vexed, and took a pride in it; but it was, perhaps, cant; for I own I neither eat less, nor slept less." Johnson: "My dear friend, clear your mind of cant. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, 'Sir, I am your most humble servant.' You are not his most humble servant. You may say, 'These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times.' You don't mind the times. You tell a man, ‘I am sorry you had such bad weather the last day of your journey, and were so much wet.' You don't care sixpence whether he is wet or dry. You may talk in this manner-it is a mode of talking in society-but don't think foolishly."-Boswell.

While Dr. Johnson possessed the strongest compassion for poverty or illness, he did not even pretend to feel for those who lamented the loss of a child, a parent, or a friend.* "These are the distresses of sentiment," he would reply, "which a man who is really to be pitied has no leisure to feel. The sight of people who want food and raiment is so common in great cities, that a surly fellow like me has no compassion to spare for wounds given only to vanity or softness." Canter, indeed, was he none: he would forget to ask people after the health of their nearest relations, and say, in excuse, "that he knew they did not care. Why should they?" said he; "every one in this world has as much as they can do in caring for themselves, and few have leisure really to think of their neighbor's distresses, however

*A most exaggerated statement. Mrs. Piozzi had cause to know him better. (See p. 177.)

they may delight their tongues with talking of them." An acquaintance lost the almost certain hope of a good estate that had been long expected. "Such a one will grieve," said I, "at her friend's disappointment." "She will suffer as much, perhaps," said he, "as your horse did when your cow miscarried."-Mrs. Piozzi.

Boswell wrote him a letter, complaining of melancholy and mental suffering, arising from metaphysical problems which were too deep for him. He received this reply from Johnson: "I hoped you had got rid of all this hypocrisy of misery. What have you to do with Liberty and Necessity? Or what more than to hold your tongue about it? Do not doubt but I shall be most heartily glad to see you here again, for I love every part about you but your affectation of distress." Once, in the course of a political conversation, he said, "The notion of liberty amuses the people of England, and helps to keep off the tedium vitæ. When a butcher tells you that his heart bleeds for his country, he has, in fact, no uneasy feeling."-Editor.

ARROGANCE.

He was vehement against old Dr. Mounsey, of Chelsea College, as "a fellow who swore and talked bawdy." "I have often been in his company," said Dr. Percy, “and never heard him swear or talk bawdy." Mr. Davies, who sat next to Dr. Percy, having after this had some conversation aside with him, made a discovery which, in his zeal to pay court to Dr. Johnson, he eagerly proclaimed aloud from the foot of the table: "Oh, sir, I have found out a very good reason why Dr. Percy never heard Mounsey swear or talk bawdy, for he tells me he never saw him but at the Duke of Northumberland's table." "And so, sir," said Dr. Johnson, loudly, to Dr. Percy, "you would shield this man

from the charge of swearing and talking bawdy, because he did not do so at the Duke of Northumberland's table. Sir, you might as well tell us that you had seen him hold up his hand at the Old Bailey, and he neither swore nor talked bawdy; or that you had seen him in the cart at Tyburn, and he neither swore nor talked bawdy. And is it thus, sir, that you presume to controvert what I have related ?" Dr. Johnson's animadversion was uttered in such a manner that Dr. Percy seemed to be displeased, and soon afterward left the company, of which Johnson did not at that time take any notice.-Boswell.

Johnson could not brook appearing to be worsted in argument, even when he had taken the wrong side, to show the force and dexterity of his talents. When, therefore, he perceived that his opponent gained ground, he had recourse to some sudden mode of robust sophistry. Once, when I was pressing upon him with visible advantage, he stopped me thus: "My dear Boswell, let's have no more of this; you'll make nothing of it. I'd rather have you whistle a Scotch tune."-Boswell.

Dr. Maxwell said of Johnson, "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.'" In Cooke's "Life of Foote" the following story is told: "On Garrick's showing Johnson a magnificent library full of books, in most elegant bindings, the doctor began running over the volumes in his usual rough and negligent manner, opening the book so wide as almost to break the back of it, and then flung them down, one by one, on the floor, with contempt. Zounds!' said Garrick; 'why, what are you about? you'll spoil all my books.' 'No, sir,' replied Johnson, 'I have done nothing but treat a pack of silly plays, in fop's dresses, just as they deserve; but I see no books.""

Dr. Taylor, his life-long friend, said, "There is no arguing with Johnson, for he will not hear you, and, having the louder voice, must roar you down."-Editor.

SELF-ESTEEM.

WE supped at Professor Anderson's. The general impression upon my memory is that we had not much conversation at Glasgow, where the professors, like their brethren at Aberdeen, did not venture to expose themselves much to the battery of cannon which they knew might play upon them. Dr. Johnson, who was fully conscious of his own superior powers, afterward praised Principal Robertson for his caution in this respect. He said to me, "Robertson, sir, was in the right. Robertson is a man of eminence, and the head of a college at Edinburgh. He had a character to maintain, and did well not to risk its being lessened.”— Boswell.

He said, "Dodsley first mentioned to me the scheme of an English Dictionary; but I had long thought of it." Boswell: "You did not know what you were undertaking." Johnson: "Yes, sir, I knew very well what I was undertaking, and very well how to do it, and have done it very well."-Boswell.

Johnson: "Mrs. Thrale's mother said of me what flattered me much. A clergyman was complaining of want of society in the country where he lived, and said, 'They talk of runts; that is, young cows. 'Sir,' said Mrs. Salusbury, 'Mr. Johnson would learn to talk of runts,' meaning that I was a man who would make the most of my situation, whatever it was." He added, "I think myself a very polite man."-Boswell.

When I went into Dr. Johnson's room this morning, I observed to him how wonderfully courteous he had been at Inverary, and said, "You were quite a fine gentleman, when with the duchess." He answered, in good-humor, "Sir, I look upon myself as a very polite man."-Boswell.

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As a curious instance how little a man knows, or wishes to know his own character in the world, or, rather as a convincing proof that Johnson's roughness was only external, and did not proceed from his heart, I insert the following dialogue. Johnson: "It is wonderful, sir, how rare a quality good-humor is in life. We meet with very few goodhumored men. I mentioned four of our friends, none of whom he would allow to be good-humored. One was acid, another was muddy, and to the others he had objections which have escaped me. Then, shaking his head and stretching himself at ease in the coach, and smiling with much complacency, he turned to me and said, "I look upon myself as a good-humored fellow." The epithet fellow, applied to the great Lexicographer, the stately Moralist, the masterly Critic, as if he had been Sam Johnson, a mere pleasant companion, was highly diverting; and this light notion of himself struck me with wonder.-Boswell.

We happened to be talking of Dr. Barnard, the Provost of Eton, who died about that time, and after a long and just eulogium on his wit, his learning, and his goodness of heart: "He was the only man, too," says Mr. Johnson, quite seriously, “that did justice to my good-breeding; and you may observe that I am well-bred to a degree of needless scrupulosity. No man," continued he, not observing the amazement of his hearers—"no man is so cautious not to interrupt another; no man thinks it so necessary to appear attentive when others are speaking; no man so steadily refuses preference to himself, or so willingly bestows it upon another, as I do; nobody holds so strongly as I do

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