his character in the latter part of his life. When he was asked whether he had ever mentioned Formosa before him, he said, he was afraid to mention even China.

He thought Cato the best model of tragedy we had '; yet he used to say, of all things, the most ridiculous would be, to see a girl cry at the representation of it 2.

He thought the happiest life was that of a man of business, with some literary pursuits for his amusement; and that in general no one could be virtuous or happy, that was not completely employed 3.

Johnson had read much in the works of Bishop Taylor; in his Dutch Thomas à Kempis he has quoted him occasionally in the margin *.

1 See ante, i. 185, for Johnson's random talk about authors, and Life, i. 199, n. 2, and Works, vii. 456, for his criticism of Cato in his Life of Addison. In the Preface to his Shakespeare he says (ed. 1765, p. 35) :—' Voltaire expresses his wonder that our authour's extravagancies are endured by a nation which has seen the tragedy of Cato. Let him be answered, that Addison speaks the language of poets and Shakespeare of men. We find in Cato innumerable beauties which enamour us of its authour, but we see nothing that acquaints us with human sentiments or human actions. . . . We pronounce the name of Cato, but we think on Addison.'

'I have always thought that those pompous Roman sentiments are not so difficult to be produced, as is vulgarly imagined. A stroke of nature is worth a hundred such thoughts as "When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway,

The post of honour is a private station."

Cato is a fine dialogue on liberty and the love of one's country.' J. Warton's Essay on Pope, 2nd ed., i. 259;

3 'That accurate judge of human life, Dr. Johnson, has often been heard by me to observe, that it was the greatest misfortune which could befall a man to have been bred to no profession, and pathetically to regret that this misfortune was his own.' More's Practical Piety, p. 313. See Life, iii. 309. See ante, i. 238, n. 2, and post in Seward's Anecdotes.

4 In the latter part of his life, in order to satisfy himself whether his mental faculties were impaired, he resolved that he would try to learn a new language, and fixed upon the Low Dutch, for that purpose, and this he continued till he had read about one half of Thomas à Kempis.' Life, iv. 21.

He

He is said to have very frequently made sermons for clergymen at a guinea a-piece'; that delivered by Dr. Dodd, in the chapel of Newgate, was written by him, as was also his Defence, spoken at the bar of the Old Bailey 2.

Of a certain lady's entertainments, he said,-What signifies going thither? there is neither meat, drink, nor talk3.

He advised Mrs. Siddons to play the part of Queen Catherine in Henry VIII. and said of her, that she appeared to him to be one of the few persons that the great corruptors of mankind, money and reputation, had not spoiled 5.

He had a great opinion of the knowledge procured by

conversation with intelligent and ingenious persons1. His first question concerning such as had that character, was ever, What is his conversation 2?

Johnson said of the Chattertonian controversy,—It is a sword that cuts both ways. It is as wonderful to suppose that a boy of sixteen years old had stored his mind with such a train of images and ideas as he had acquired, as to suppose the poems, with their ease of versification and elegance of language, to have been written by Rowlie in the time of Edward the Fourth 3.

Talking with some persons about allegorical painting, he said, 'I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can shew me in the world 4.'

When a Scotsman was talking against Warburton 5, Johnson said he had more literature than had been imported from Scotland since the days of Buchanan. Upon his mentioning other eminent writers of the Scots,-These will not do,' said Johnson, 'let us have some more of your northern lights, these are mere farthing candles"."

A Scotsman upon his introduction to Johnson said:—'I am afraid, Sir, you will not like me, I have the misfortune to come from Scotland.' 'Sir,' answered he, 'that is a misfortune; but such a one as you and the rest of your countrymen cannot help'.

36 'Johnson said of Chatterton, "This is the most extraordinary young man that has encountered my knowledge. It is wonderful how the whelp has written such things." Ib. iii. 51.

* For his feelings towards art see ib. i. 363, n. 3, and ante, i. 214.

5 Fielding, addressing Learning, says:-'Give me a while that key to all thy treasures which to thy Warburton thou hast entrusted.' Tom

Jones, Bk. xiii. ch. 1. (Warburton was the nephew by marriage of Fielding's patron, Allen.) Johnson told George III that he had not read much compared with Dr. Warburton.' Life, ii. 36.

On this saying Mr. Pattison remarks:-'A modest admission, yet strictly true, even understood of bare quantity. But Johnson was not thinking of volumes by number. He knew that Warburton's readings ranged over whole classes of books into which he himself had barely dipped.' Mark Pattison's Essays, ed. 1889, ii. 122. On p. 131 Pattison says that Bishop Newton, in his parallel between Jortin and Warburton, 'adds that Jortin was perhaps the better Greek and Latin scholar." "Better" implies comparison. The fact was that Jortin was a scholar in every sense of the word; Warburton in none.'

6 Life, v. 57, 80.

'The Scotsman was Boswell; for

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To one who wished him to drink some wine and be jolly, adding, 'You know Sir, in vino veritas.' 'Sir,' answered he, 'this is a good recommendation to a man who is apt to lie when sober'.'

When he was first introduced to General Paoli, he was much struck with his reception of him; he said he had very much the air of a man who had been at the head of a nation: he was particularly pleased with his manner of receiving a stranger at his own house, and said it had dignity and affability joined together2.

Johnson said, he had once seen Mr. Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield's son, at Dodsley's shop, and was so much struck with his awkward manners and appearance, that he could not help asking Mr. Dodsley who he was3.

Speaking one day of tea, he said,—What a delightful beverage must that be, that pleases all palates, at a time when they can take nothing else at breakfast"!

To his censure of fear in general, he made however one exception, with respect to the fear of death, timorum maximus; he thought that the best of us were but unprofitable servants, and had much reason to fear 5.

Johnson thought very well of Lord Kames's Elements of Criticism; of other of his writings he thought very indifferently, and laughed much at his opinion, that war was a good thing occasionally, as so much valour and virtue were exhibited in it". A fire, says Johnson, might as well be thought a good thing; there is the bravery and address of the firemen employed in

rosity and disinterestedness, which are always attended with consciousness of merit and dignity.' Sketches of the History of Man, ed. 1819, ii. 74. Tennyson, when he wrote Maud, thought with him. For Johnson's estimate of The Elements of Criticism see Life, i. 393; ii. 89. 'Adam Smith, on being complimented on the group of great writers who were then reflecting glory on Scotland, said, "Yes, but we must every one of us acknowledge Kames for our master." Life of Adam Smith by John Rae, p. 31.

extinguishing

extinguishing it; there is much humanity exerted in saving the lives and properties of the poor sufferers; yet, says he, after all this, who can say a fire is a good thing?

Speaking of schoolmasters, he used to say, they were worse than the Egyptian task-masters of old. No boy, says he, is sure any day he goes to school to escape a whipping: how can the schoolmaster tell what the boy has really forgotten, and what he has neglected to learn; what he has had no opportunities of learning, and what he has taken no pains to get at the knowledge of? yet for any of these, however difficult they may be, the boy is obnoxious to punishment'.

He used to say something tantamount to this: When a woman affects learning, she makes a rivalry between the two sexes for the same accomplishments, which ought not to be, their provinces being different. Milton said before him,

'For contemplation he and valour form'd,

For softness she and sweet attractive grace 3.

He used to say, that in all family-disputes the odds were in favour of the husband, from his superior knowledge of life and manners: he was, nevertheless, extremely fond of the company and conversation of women, and was early in life much attached to a most beautiful woman at Lichfield, of a rank superior to his own 1.

He never suffered any one to swear before him. When a libertine, but a man of some note, was talking before him, and interlarding his stories with oaths, Johnson said, 'Sir, all this swearing will do nothing for our story, I beg you will not swear.' The narrator went on swearing: Johnson said, 'I must again intreat you not to swear.' He swore again : Johnson quitted the room 5.

' For the brutality of schoolmasters of old see Life, i. 44, n. 2; ii. 144, n. 2; 146, 157. 'There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly, but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other.' Life, ii. 407. Ante, ii. II. It was the affectation of learning that he disliked, VOL. II.

2

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not the learning itself.

3 Paradise Lost, iv. 297.

4 Molly Aston. Ante, i. 255.

5 'Davies reminded Dr. Johnson of Mr. Murphy's having paid him the highest compliment that ever was paid to a layman, by asking his pardon for repeating some oaths in the course of telling a story.' Life, iii. 40. He