A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Samuel Johnson by Thomas Tyers Narrative of the Last Week of Dr. Johnson's Life by the Right Hon. 382 Dugald Stewart on Boswell's Anecdotes. From Gilbert Stuart's History of the Rise of the Arts of Design in the United States. By the Rev. Richard Warner By Mr. Wickins Styan Thirlby, by Dr. Johnson LETTERS OF DR. JOHNSON- To Samuel Richardson To Samuel Richardson To the Rev. Thomas Percy . APOPHTHEGMS, SENTIMENTS OPINIONS, & OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS' DR. JOHNSON used to say, that where secrecy or mystery began, vice or roguery was not far off; and that he leads in general an ill life, who stands in fear of no man's observation 2. When a friend of his who had not been very lucky in his first wife, married a second, he said-Alas! another instance of the triumph of hope over experience 3. Of Sheridan's writings on Elocution, he said, they were a continual renovation of hope, and an unvaried succession of disappointments *. He used to say, that no man read long together with a folio on his table:-Books, said he, that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all. He would say, such books form the man of general and easy reading 1. He was a great friend to books like the French Esprits d'un tel; for example, Beauties of Watts, &c., &c., at which, said he, a man will often look and be tempted to go on, when he would have been frightened at books of a larger size and of a more erudite appearance. Being once asked if he ever embellished a story-No, said he; a story is to lead either to the knowledge of a fact or character, and is good for nothing if it be not strictly and literally true 3. Round numbers, said he, are always false. Watts's Improvement of the Mind was a very favourite book. with him; he used to recommend it, as he also did Le Dictionnaire portatif of the Abbé L'Avocat 6. more than it performed; that he fed you with a continual renovation of hope, to end in a constant succession of disappointment.' According to the Edinburgh Courant, June 16, 1792, this player was Macklin. Foote accused him of reading in the morning for the purpose of shewing off at night.' Cooke's Memoirs of Macklin, p. 246. See post, in Steevens's Anecdotes. I 'Johnson advised me to read just as inclination prompted me, which alone, he said, would do me any good; for I had better go into company than read a set task.' Letters of Boswell, p. 28. 2 In 1781 The Beauties of Johnson was published. Life, iv. 148. According to Dr. Anderson (Life of Johnson, ed. 1815, p. 231) the selection was made by Thomson Callender, the nephew of the poet Thomson, who eleven years later fled to America to escape a prosecution for his Political Progress of Great Britain. There he distinguished himself by the violence of his attacks, first on Washington and John Adams, and next on Jefferson. Dict. of Nat. Biog. It was a long step from The Beauties of Johnson. Lamb wrote on Feb. 26, 1808 :"We have Specimens of Ancient English Poets, Specimens of Modern English Poets, Specimens of Ancient English Prose Writers without end. They used to be called Beauties. You have seen Beauties of Shakespeare; so have many people that never saw any beauties in Shakespeare.' Ainger's Letters of Lamb, i. 244. |