at the remonstrance of Garrick; I did not think his criticism juft, but it was neceffary that he fhould be fatisfied with what he was to utter. To a gentleman who expreffed himfelf in difrespectful terms of Blackmore, one of whofe poetick bulls he happened just then to recollect, Dr. Johnfon answered, I hope, Sir, a blunder, after you have heard what I fhall relate, will not be reckoned decifive against a poet's reputation: when I was a young man, I tranflated Addifon's Latin poem on the Battle of the Pigmies and the Cranes, and must plead guilty to the following couplet: Down from the guardian boughs the nets they flung, And yet I truft I am no blockhead. I afterwards changed the word kill'd into crush'd. When Bolingbroke died, and bequeathed the publication of his works to Mallett, Johnfon obferved, -His lordship has loaded a blunderbufs against religion, and has left a fcoundrel to pull the trigger. Were you ever, Sir, faid a person to Johnson, in company with Dr. Warburton? He answered, I never faw him till one evening, about a week ago, at the bishop of St.-'s: at first he looked furlily at me; but, after we had been jostled into converfation, he took me to a window, asked me fome questions, and before we parted, was fo well pleased with me, that he patted me. You always, Sir, preferved a respect for him? Yes, and juftly; when as yet I was in no favour with the world, he spoke well of me, and I hope I never forgot the obligation, In his Preface to Shakespeare. P 3 I am I am convinced, faid he to a friend, I ought to be prefent at divine fervice more frequently than I am; but the provocations given by ignorant and affected preachers too often difturb the mental calm. which otherwife would fucceed to prayer. I am apt to whisper to myself on fuch occafions, How can this illiterate fellow dream of fixing attention, after we have been liftening to the fublimeft truths, conveyed in the most chafte and exalted language, throughout a liturgy, which must be regarded as the genuine offspring of piety impregnated by wifdom. Take notice, however, though I make this confeffion refpecting myself, I do not mean to recommend the faftidiousness that fometimes leads me to exchange congregational for folitary worship.He was at Streatham church when Dodd's firft application to him was made, and went out of his pew immediately, to write an answer to the letter he had received; afterwards, when he related this circumstance, he added,-I hope I fhall be pardoned, if once I deferted the fervice of God for that of man. He once expreffed thefe fentiments:-I have feldom met with a man whofe colloquial ability exceeded that of Mallett. I was but once in Sterne's company, and then his only attempt at merriment confifted in his difplay of a drawing too indecently grofs to have delighted even in a brothel. Colman never produced a luckier thing than his first Ode in ridicule of Gray; a confiderable part of it may be numbered among thofe felicities which no man has twice attained. Gray was the very Torré of poetry; *A foreigner of that name, who fome years ago exhibited a variety of fplendid fire-works at Marybone Gardens. he he played his corufcations fo fpecioufly, that his fteel-duft is mistaken by many for a fhower of gold. At one period of the Doctor's life he was reconciled to the bottle. Sweet wines, however, were his chief favourites; when none of these were before him, he would fometimes drink Port with a lump of fugar in every glass. The strongest liquors, and in very large quantities, produced no other effect on him than moderate exhilaration. Once, and but once, he is known to have had his dofe, a circumftance which he himself difcovered, on finding one of his fefquipedalian words hang fire; he then ftarted up, and gravely obferved,-I think it time we should go to bed. After a ten years' forbearance of every fluid except tea and fherbet, I drank, faid he, one glass of wine to the health of Sir Joshua Reynolds, on the evening of the day on which he was knighted; I never fwallowed another drop, till old Madeira was prefcribed to me as a cordial during my prefent indifpofition, but this liquor did not relish as formerly, and I therefore difcontinued it. His knowledge in manufactures was extenûve, and his comprehenfion relative to mechanical contrivances was ftill more extraordinary. The wellknown Mr. Arkwright pronounced him to be the only perfon who, on a firft view, understood both the principle and powers of his most complicated piece of machinery. Garrick, faid he, I hear complains that I am the only popular author of his time who has exhibited. no praise of him in print; but he is miftaken, Akenfide has forborne to mention him. Some indeed are lavish P 4 lavish in their applause of all who come within the compass of their recollection; yet he who praises every body, praises nobody; when both fcales are equally loaded, neither can preponderate. A congé d'elire, faid a gentleman, has not the force of a pofitive command, but implies only a ftrong recommendation. Yes, replied Johnfon, who overheard him, juft fuch a recommendation as if I fhould throw you out of a three-pairof-stairs window, and recommend you to fall to the ground. He would not allow the verb derange, a word at present much in use, to be an English word. Sir, faid a gentleman who had some pretenfions to literature, I have seen it in a book. Not in a bound book, faid Johnfon; difarrange is the word we ought to use instead of it. He thought very favourably of the profeffion of the law, and faid, that the fages thereof, for a long feries backward, had been friends to religion. Fortescue fays, that their afternoon's employment was the study of the Scriptures. |