He fought on every occasion as if his whole reputation depended upon the victory of the minute, and he fought with all the weapons. If he was foiled in argument he had recourse to abuse and rudeness 1. That he was not thus strenuous for victory with his intimates in tête-à-tête conversations when there were no witnesses, may be easily believed2. Indeed, had his conduct been to them the same as he exhibited to the public, his friends could never have entertained that love and affection for him which they all feel and profess for his memory.

But what appears extraordinary is that a man who so well saw, himself, the folly of this ambition of shining, of speaking, or of acting always according to the character [he] imagined [he] possessed in the world, should produce himself the greatest example of a contrary conduct.

Were I to write the Life of Dr. Johnson I would labour this point, to separate his conduct that proceeded from his passions, and what proceeded from his reason, from his natural disposition seen in his quiet hours 3.

him, and they talked of Tull's Hus-
bandry. Dr. Campbell said some-
thing. Dr. Johnson began to dis-
pute it.
Come, (said Dr. Camp-
bell,) we do not want to get the
better of one another: we want to
encrease each other's ideas." Dr.
Johnson took it in good part, and
the conversation then went on coolly
and instructively.' Life, v. 324.

Cobbett, on Nov. 20, 1821, went on 'a sort of pilgrimage to see the Farm of Tull at Shalborne in Berkshire... where Tull wrote that book which does so much honour to his memory.' Rural Rides, ed. 1893, i. 43, 5.

3If you come to settle here,' he said to Boswell, 'we will have one day in the week on which we will meet by ourselves. That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm quiet interchange of sentiments.' Ib. ii. 359.

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS

ON

JOHNSON'S INFLUENCE1

I REMEMBER Mr. Burke, speaking of the Essays of Sir Francis Bacon, said, he thought them the best of his works. Dr. Johnson was of opinion, that their excellence and their value consisted in being the observations of a strong mind operating upon life; and in consequence you find there what you seldom find in other books 2. It is this kind of excellence which gives a value to the

performances of artists also. It is the thoughts expressed in the works of Michael Angelo, Correggio, Raffaelle, Parmegiano, and perhaps some of the old Gothic masters, and not the inventions of Pietro da Cortona, Carlo Marati, Luca Giordano, and others, that I might mention, which we seek after with avidity: from the former we learn to think originally.

May I presume to introduce myself on this occasion, and even to mention, as an instance of the truth of what I have remarked, the very Discourses which I have had the honour of delivering from this place? Whatever merit they have, must be imputed, in a great measure, to the education which I may be said to have had under Dr. Johnson. I do not mean to say, though it certainly would be to the credit of these Discourses, if I could say it with truth, that he contributed even a single sentiment to them2; but he qualified my mind to think justly. No man had, like him, the faculty of teaching inferior minds the art of thinking. Perhaps other men might have equal knowledge; but few were so communicative. His great pleasure was to talk to those who looked up to him. It was here he exhibited his wonderful powers. In mixed company, and frequently in company that ought to have looked up to him, many, thinking they had a character for learning to support, considered it as beneath them to enlist in the train of his auditors; and to such persons he certainly did not appear to advantage, being often impetuous and overbearing 3.

I 'Under the rudeness of Gothic essays a skilful painter will find original, rational, and even sublime inventions. The works of Albert Durer, Lucas Van Leyden, the numerous inventions of Tobias Stimmer and Jost Ammon afford a rich mass of genuine materials, which wrought up and polished to elegance will add copiousness to what, perhaps, without such aid could have aspired only to justness and propriety.' Reynolds's Sixth Discourse. Works, 1824, i. 137. For Gothic see also ante, i. 478.

2 He wrote the Dedication. Life, ii. 2, n. 1, and ante, ii. 29.

3' On Saturday, May 2, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, where there was a very large company, and a great deal of conversation; but owing to some circumstance which I cannot now recollect, I have no record of any part of it, except that there were several people there by no means of the Johnsonian school; so that less attention was paid to him than usual, which put him out of humour; and upon some imaginary offence from me he

The

The desire of shining in conversation was in him, indeed, a predominant passion; and if it must be attributed to vanity, let it at the same time be recollected, that it produced that loquaciousness from which his more intimate friends derived considerable advantage. The observations which he made on poetry, on life, and on every thing about us, I applied to our art; with what success, others must judge. Perhaps an artist in his studies should pursue the same conduct; and, instead of patching up a particular work on the narrow plan of imitation, rather endeavour to acquire the art and power of thinking. On this subject I have often spoken; but it cannot be too often repeated, that the general power of composition may be acquired; and when acquired, the artist may then lawfully take hints from his predecessors. In reality, indeed, it appears to me, that a man must begin by the study of others. Thus Bacon became a great thinker, by entering into and making himself master of the thoughts of other men.

TWO DIALOGUES

BY

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS

IN IMITATION OF JOHNSON'S STYLE OF CONVERSATION'

[THE following jeu d'esprit was written by Sir Joshua Reynolds to illustrate a remark which he had made, that 'Dr. Johnson