A

able and benignant Hutchinson's "Moral Philosophy." But the question is, whether the animals who endure such sufferings of various kinds, for the service and entertainment of man, would accept of existence upon the terms on which they have it. Madame de Sevigné, who, though she had many enjoyments, felt with delicate sensibility the prevalence of misery, complains of the task of existence having been imposed upon her without her consent.

"That man is never happy for the present is so, true, that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while. Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.",

"Though many men are nominally intrusted with the administration of hospitals and other publick institutions, almost all the good is done by one man, by whom the rest are driven on; owing to confidence in him and indolence in them."

"Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son1, I think, might be made a very pretty book. Take out the immorality, and it should be put into the hands of every young gentleman. An elegant manner and easiness of behaviour are acquired gradually and imperceptibly. No man can say, "I'll be genteel.' There are ten genteel women for one genteel man, because they are more restrained. A man without some degree of restraint is insufferable; but we are all less restrained than women. Were a woman sitting in company to put out her legs before her as most men do, we should be tempted to kick them in." No man was a more attentive and nice observer of behaviour in those whose company he happened to be than Johnson, or, however strange it may

1

["A pretty book" was made up from these letters by the late Dr. Trusler, entitled "Principles of Politeness," and was, some years ago, commonly "put into the hands of young gentlemen."-HALL.]

seem to many, had a higher estimation of its refine

ments.

"I

p. 222.

[Mrs. Thrale one day commended a young lady Piozzi, for her beauty and pretty behaviour, to whom she thought no objections could have been made. saw her (said Dr. Johnson) take a pair of scissors in her left hand; and though her father is now become a nobleman, and as you say excessively rich, I should, were I a youth of quality ten years hence, hesitate between a girl so neglected, and a negro1.”]

Recol.

[It was amazing-so short-sighted as he was-how Reyn. very observant he was of appearances in dress and behaviour, nay, even of the deportment of servants while waiting at table. One day, as his man Frank was attending at Sir Joshua Reynolds's table, he observed with some emotion, that he had placed the salver under his arm. Nor would the conduct of the company-blind as he was to his own many and strange peculiarities-escape his animadversion on some occasions. He thought the use of water glasses a strange perversion of the idea of refinement, and had a great dislike to the use of a pocket handkerchief at meals, when, if he happened to have occasion for one, he would rise from his chair and go to some distance, with his back to the company, and perform the operation as silently as possible.]

1,

Lord Elliot informs me, that one day when Johnson and he were at dinner in a gentleman's house in London, upon Lord Chesterfield's Letters being mentioned, Johnson surprised the company by this sen

1 "The child who took a pair of scissors in her left hand is now a woman of quality, highly respected, and would cut us, I conclude, most deservedly, if more were said on the subject."-Piozzi MS. [The editor believes that the lady was the eldest daughter of Mr. Lyttelton, afterwards Lord Westcote, married to Sir Richard Hoare. She was born in Jamaica, and thence, perhaps, Johnson's strange allusion to the negro. It was Johnson's hatred to all the Lytteltons which inflamed this little accident to such a ridiculous size. ED.]

tence: " "Every Every man of man of any education would rather be called a rascal, than accused of deficiency in the graces." Mr. Gibbon, who was present, turned to a lady who knew Johnson well, and lived much with him, and in his quaint manner, tapping his box, addressed her thus: "Don't you think, madam (looking towards Johnson), that among all your acquaintance, you could find one exception?" The lady smiled, and seemed to acquiesce'.

"I read (said he), Sharpe's Letters on Italy over again, when I was at Bath. There is a great deal of matter in them."

.mid

"Mrs. Williams was angry that Thrale's family did not send regularly to her every time they heard from me while I was in the Hebrides. Little people are apt to be jealous: but they should not be jealous; for they ought to consider, that superiour attention will necessarily be paid to superiour fortune or rank. Two persons may have equal merit, and on that account may have an equal claim to attention; but one

[Mr. Colman, in his "Random Records," lately published, has given a lively sketch of the appearance and manners of Johnson and Gibbon in society. "The learned Gibbon was a curious counterbalance to the learned (may I not say less learned?) Johnson. Their manners and taste, both in writing and conversation, were as different as their habiliments. On the day I first sat down with Johnson, in his rusty brown suit, and his black worsted stockings," bon was placed opposite to me in a suit of flowered velvet, with a bag and sword. Each had his measured phraseology; and Johnson's famous parallel, between Dryden and Pope, might be loosely parodied, in reference to himself and Gibbon.-Johnson's style was grand, and Gibbon's elegant; the stateliness of the former was sometimes pedantick, and the polish of the latter was occasionally finical. Johnson marched to kettle-drums and trump

moved to flutes and haut-boys: Johnson hewed passages through while Gibbon levelled walks through parks and gardens.-Mauled as I had been by Johnson, Gibbon poured balm upon my bruises, by condescending, once or twice, in the course of the evening, to talk with me: the great historian was light and playful, suiting his matter to the capacity of the boy;—but it was done more suo;-still his mannerism prevailed; still he tapped his snuff-box, -still he smirked, and smiled; and rounded his periods with the air of good-breeding, as if he were conversing with men. His mouth, mellifluous as Plato's, was a round hole, nearly in the centre of his visage."-Vol. i. p. 121. -ED.]

#2 [Mr. Samuel Sharpe, a surgeon, who travelled for his health, and whose representation of Italian manners was supposed to be tinged by the ill humour of a valetudinarian. Baretti took up the defence of his country, and a smart controversy ensued which made some noise at the time.—ED.]

of them may have also fortune and rank, and so may have a double claim."

of Talking of his notes on Shakspeare, he said, "I despise those who do not see that I am right in the passage where as is repeated, and asses of great charge' introduced. That on To be, or not to be,' is disputable '."

3

"A gentleman, whom I found sitting with him one morning, said, that in his opinion the character of an infidel was more detestable than that of a man notoriously guilty of an atrocious crime. I differed from him, because we are surer of the odiousness of the one, than of the errour of the other. JOHNSON. Sir, I agree with him; for the infidel would be guilty of any crime if he were inclined to it."

Now the

Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. One of these is the cry against the evil of luxury. truth is that luxury produces much good. Take the luxury of buildings in London. Does it not produce real advantage in the conveniency and elegance of accommodation, and this all from the exertion of industry? People will tell you, with a melancholy face, how many builders are in gaol. It is plain they are in gaol, not for building; for rents are not fallen. A man gives half-a-guinea for a dish of green peas. How much gardening does this occasion? how many labourers must the competition to have such things early in the market keep in employment? You will heard it said, very gravely, 'Why was not the halfguinea, thus spent in luxury, given to the poor? To how many might it have afforded a good meal?'

1

22 It may be observed, that Mr. Malone, in his very valuable edition of Shakspeare, fully vindicated Dr. Johnson from the idle censures which the first of these notes has given rise to. The interpretation of the other passage, which Dr. Johnson allows to be disputable, he has clearly shown to be erroneous. BOSWELL. [The first note is on a passage in Hamlet, act 5. scene ii.—ED.]

ED.

Alas! has it not gone to the industrious poor, whom it is better to support than the idle poor? You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labour, than when you give money merely in charity. Suppose the ancient luxury of a dish of peacock's brains were to be revived, how many carcasses would be left to the poor at a cheap rate! and as to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that some individuals suffer. When so much general productive exertion is the consequence of luxury, the nation does not care though there are debtors in gaol: nay, they would not care though their creditors were there too."

The uncommon vivacity of General Oglethorpe's mind, and variety of knowledge, having sometimes made his conversation seem too desultory; Johnson observed, "Oglethorpe, sir, never completes what he has to say."

He on the same account made a similar remark on Patrick Lord Elibank; "Sir, there is nothing conclusive in his talk,"

When I complained of having dined at a splendid table without hearing one sentence of conversation worthy of being remembered, he said, Sir, there seldom is any such conversation." BOSWELL." Why then meet at table?" JOHNSON. "Why to eat and drink together, and to promote kindness; and, sir, this is better done when there is no solid conversation: for when there is, people differ in opinion, and get into bad humour, or some of the company, who are not capable of such conversation, are left out, and feel themselves uneasy. It was for this reason Sir Robert Walpole said, he always talked [coarsely] at his table, because in that all could join."