APOPHTHEGMS, SENTIMENTS,

OPINIONS,

AND

OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS.

Published in the eleventh volume, pp. 196-216, of Sir John Hawkins' Collective Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. London, 1787.

APOPHTHEGMS, SENTIMENTS,

OPINIONS, &c.

R. JOHNSON said he always mistrusted romantick virtue, as thinking it founded on no fixed principle.

He 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.

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.

Of Sheridan's writings on Elocution, he said, they were a continual renovation of hope, and an unvaried succession of disappointments. Of musick, he said,-It is the only sensual pleasure without vice. 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.

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.

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.

He has been accused of treating Lord Lyttelton roughly in his life of him; he assured a friend, however, that he kept back a very

1 Query-no ill life?

ridiculous anecdote of him, relative to a question he put to a great divine of his time.

Johnson's account of Lord Lyttelton's envy to1 Shenstone for his improvements in his grounds, &c., was confirmed by an ingenious writer. Spence was in the house for a fortnight with the Lytteltons, before they offered to shew him Shenstone's place.

When accused of mentioning ridiculous anecdotes in the lives of the poets, he said, he should not have been an exact biographer if he had omitted them. The business of such a one, said he, is to give a complete account of the person whose life he is writing, and to discriminate him from all other persons by any peculiarities of character or sentiment he may happen to have.

He spoke Latin with great fluency and elegance. He said, indeed, he had taken great pains about it.

A very famous schoolmaster said, he had rather take Johnson's opinion about any Latin composition, than that of any other person in England.

Dr. Sumner, of Harrow, used to tell this story of Johnson: they were dining one day, with many other persons, at Mrs. Macaulay's; she had talked a long time at dinner about the natural equality of mankind; Johnson, when she had finished her harangue, rose up from the table, and with great solemnity of countenance, and a bow to the ground, said to the servant, who was waiting behind his chair, Mr. John, pray be seated in my place, and permit me to wait upon you in my turn; your mistress says, you hear, that we are all equal.

When some one was lamenting Foote's unlucky fate in being kicked in Dublin, Johnson said he was glad of it; he is rising in the world, said he; when he was in England, no one thought it worth while to kick him.

He was much pleased with the following repartee: Fiat experi mentum in corpore vili, said a French physician to his colleague, in speaking of the disorder of a poor man that understood Latin, and who was brought into an hospital; corpus non tam vile est, says the patient, pro quo Christus ipse non dedignatus est mori.

Johnson used to say, a man was a scoundrel that was afraid of any thing.

After having disused swimming for many years, he went into the river at Oxford, and swam away to a part of it that he had been told of as a dangerous place, and where some one had been drowned. He waited on Lord Marchmont, to make some inquiries after par1 Query-of Shenstone?

ticulars of Mr. Pope's life; his first question was,—What kind of a man was Mr. Pope in his conversation? his lordship answered, that if the conversation did not take something of a lively or epigrammatick turn, he fell asleep, or perhaps pretended to do so.

Talking one day of the patronage the great sometimes affect to give to literature, and literary men, -Andrew Millar, says he, is the Mecenas of the age.

Of the state of learning amongst the Scots, he said,-It is with their learning as with provisions in a besieged town, every one has a mouthful, and no one a bellyfull.

Of Sir Joshua Reynolds he requested three things; that he would not work on a Sunday; that he would read a portion of scripture on that day; and that he would forgive him a debt which he had incurred for some benevolent purpose.

When he first felt the stroke of the palsy, he prayed to God that he would spare his mind, whatever he thought fit to do with his body. To some lady who was praising Shenstone's poems very much, and who had an Italian greyhound lying by the fire, he said, Shenstone holds amongst poets the same rank your dog holds amongst dogs; he has not the sagacity of the hound, the docility of the spaniel, nor the courage of the bull-dog, yet he is still a pretty fellow.

Johnson said he was better pleased with the commendations bestowed on his account of the Hebrides than on any book he had ever written. Burke, says he, thought well of the philosophy of it; Sir William Jones of the observations on language; and Mr. Jackson of

those on trade.

Of Foote's wit and readiness of repartee he thought very highly ;He was, says he, the readiest dog at an escape I ever knew; if you thought you had him on the ground fairly down, he was upon his legs and over your shoulders again in an instant.

When some one asked him, whether they should introduce Hugh Kelly, the author, to him ;-No, Sir, says he, I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read:-yet when his play was acted for the benefit of his widow, Johnson furnished a prologue.

He repeated poetry with wonderful energy and feeling. He was seen to weep whilst he repeated Goldsmith's character of the English in his "Traveller," beginning thus:

"Stern o'er each bosom," &c.

He was supposed to have assisted Goldsmith very much in that poem,