The strangest applications in the world were certainly made from time to time towards Mr. Johnson, who by that means had an inexhaustible fund of anecdote, and could, if he pleased, tell the most astonishing stories of human folly and human weakness that ever were confided to any man not a confessor by profession.

One day when he was in a humour to record some of them, he told us the following tale: 'A person (said he) had for these last five weeks often called at my door, but would not leave his name, or other message; but that he wished to speak with me. At last we met, and he told me that he was oppressed by scruples of conscience: I blamed him gently for not applying, as the rules of our church direct, to his parish priest or other discreet clergyman'; when, after some compliments on his part, he told me, that he was clerk to a very eminent trader, at whose warehouses much business consisted in packing goods in order to go abroad that he was often tempted to take paper and packthread enough for his own use, and that he had indeed done so so often, that he could recollect no time when he ever had bought any for himself.-But probably (said I), your master was wholly indifferent with regard to such trivial emoluments; you

'If there be any of you who by this means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned Minister of God's Word, and open his grief.' Book of Common Prayer. The Communion.

2 Eminent was a favourite word last century; the following instances show its use.

'What would a stranger say of the English nation, in which on the day of marriage all the men are eminent?' Johnson's Works, iv. 186.

Rev. and eminent Mr. Warburton to
Miss Tucker of Bath.' Ib. p. 502.

'An eminent personage, however, he [Cromwell] was in many respects, and even a superior genius.' Hume's History of England, ed. 1773, vii. 290.

'The son of Mr. Galliard, an eminent Turkey merchant, is the man with whom she has made this exchange.' Sir Charles Grandison, ed. 1754, ii. 239.

'He had been an eminent man for many years for cursing, swearing, drinking,' &c. Wesley's Journal, ed. 1830, ii. 133. One of the most eminent drunkards in all the town.' Ib. ii. 226.

had

had better ask for it at once, and so take your trifles with consent. Oh, Sir! replies the visitor, my master bid me have as much as I pleased, and was half angry when I talked to him about it. Then pray Sir (said I), teize me no more about such airy nothings-and was going on to be very angry, when I recollected that the fellow might be mad perhaps; so I asked him, When he left the counting-house of an evening?---At seven o'clock, Sir.-And when do you go to-bed, Sir?—At twelve o'clock. Then (replied I) I have at least learned thus much by my new acquaintance ;-that five hours of the four-and-twenty unemployed are enough for a man to go mad in; so I would advise you Sir, to study algebra, if you are not an adept already in it your head would get less muddy3, and you will leave off tormenting your neighbours about paper and packthread, while we all live together in a world that is bursting with sin and sorrow. It is perhaps needless to add, that this visitor came no more,'

Mr. Johnson had indeed a real abhorrence of a person that had ever before him treated a little thing like a great one: and he quoted this scrupulous person with his packthread very often, in ridicule of a friend who, looking out on Streatham Common from our windows one day, lamented the enormous wickedness of the times, because some bird-catchers were busy there one fine Sunday morning. While half the Christian world is permitted (said he) to dance and sing, and celebrate Sunday as a day of festivity, how comes your puritanical spirit so offended with frivolous and empty deviations from exactness *? Whoever

loads life with unnecessary scruples1, Sir (continued he), provokes the attention of others on his conduct, and incurs the censure of singularity without reaping the reward of superior virtue.'

I must not, among the anecdotes of Dr. Johnson's life, omit to relate a thing that happened to him one day, which he told me of himself. As he was walking along the Strand a gentleman stepped out of some neighbouring tavern, with his napkin2 in his hand and no hat, and stopping him as civilly as he couldI beg your pardon, Sir; but you are Dr. Johnson, I believe. 'Yes, Sir.' We have a wager depending on your reply: Pray, Sir, is it irreparable or irrepàirable that one should say? 'The last I think, Sir (answered Dr. Johnson), for the adjective ought to follow the verb; but you had better consult my dictionary than me3, for that was the result of more thought than you will now give me time for.' No, no, replied the gentleman gaily, the book I have no certainty at all of; but here is the author, to whom I referred: Is he not, Sir? to a friend with him: I have won my twenty guineas quite fairly, and am much obliged to you, Sir; so shaking Mr. Johnson kindly by the hand, he went back to finish his dinner or desert.

Another strange thing he told me once which there was no danger of forgetting: how a young gentleman called on him one morning, and told him that his father having, just before his death, dropped suddenly into the enjoyment of an ample fortune, he, the son, was willing to qualify himself for genteel society by adding some literature to his other endowments, and wished to

be put in an easy way of obtaining it. Johnson recommended the university: 'for you read Latin, Sir, with facility! I read it a little to be sure, Sir. But do you read it with facility, I say?' Upon my word, Sir, I do not very well know, but I rather believe not. Mr. Johnson now began to recommend other branches of science, when he found languages at such an immeasurable distance, and advising him to study natural history, there arose some talk about animals, and their divisions into oviparous and viviparous; And the cat here, Sir, said the youth who wished for instruction, pray in which class is she? Our doctor's patience and desire of doing good began now to give way to the natural roughness of his temper. You would do well (said he) to look for some person to be always about you, Sir, who is capable of explaining such matters, and not come to us (there were some literary friends present as I recollect) to know whether the cat lays eggs or not get a discreet man to keep you company, there are so many who would be glad of your table and fifty pounds a year.' The young gentleman retired, and in less than a week informed his friends that he had fixed on a preceptor to whom no objections could be made; but when he named as such one of the most distinguished characters in our age or nation, Mr. Johnson fairly gave himself up to an honest burst of laughter; and seeing this youth at such a surprising distance from common knowledge of the world, or of any thing in it, desired to see his visitor no more.

He had not much better luck with two boys that he used to tell of, to whom he had taught the classics, 'so that (he said) they were no incompetent or mean scholars:' it was necessary however that something more familiar should be known, and he bid them read the history of England. After a few months had elapsed he asked them, 'If they could recollect who first destroyed the monasteries in our island?' One modestly replied, that he did not know; the other said, Jesus Christ2.

Windham records 'Johnson's opinion that I could not name above five of my college acquaintance who read Latin with sufficient ease to

make it pleasurable.' Letters, ii. 440.

2 Hawkins (p. 471) tells a similar story.

Of

Of the truth of stories which ran currently about the town concerning Dr. Johnson, it was impossible to be certain, unless one asked him himself; and what he told, or suffered to be told before his face without contradicting, has every possible mark I think of real and genuine authenticity. I made one day very minute enquiries about the tale of his knocking down the famous Tom Osborne with his own Dictionary in the man's own house. And how was that affair, in earnest? do tell me, Mr. Johnson ? 'There is nothing to tell, dearest Lady, but that he was insolent and I beat him, and that he was a blockhead and told of it, which I should never have done; so the blows have been multiplying, and the wonder thickening for all these years, as Thomas was never a favourite with the Public. I have beat many a fellow, but the rest had the wit to hold their tongues?'

'I once got from one of his friends a list, [of his works] which there was pretty good reason to suppose was accurate, for it was written down in his presence by this friend, who enumerated each article aloud, and had some of them mentioned to him by Mr. Levett, in concert with whom it was made out; and Johnson, who heard all this, did not contradict it. But when I shewed a copy of this list to him, and mentioned the evidence for its exactness, he laughed, and said, "I was willing to let them go on as they pleased, and never interfered." Life, iii. 321.

2 'It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop, with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself. "Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I beat him. But it was not in his shop: it was in my own chamber."' Life, i. 154.

6 The identical book with which Johnson knocked down Osborne (Biblia Græca Septuaginta, fol. 1594,

Frankfort; the note written by the Rev. Mills) I saw in February, 1812, at Cambridge, in the possession of J. Thorpe, bookseller; whose Catalogue, since published, contains particulars authenticating this assertion.' Nichols's Lit. Anec. viii. 446. This folio is not mentioned in the Sale Catalogue of Johnson's Library. It is scarcely likely that Osborne brought it to Johnson's chamber, as schoolboys used to provide the birch rods with which they were beaten.

In Sir Henry Irving's collection is a copy of The Shakespeare Folio (The Second Impression) in which are the following three inscription:— (1) 'Bot at Dr. Johnson's Sale Feb. 18, 1785. S. J.'

(2) This book at the death [in 1744] of Theobald the editor of Shakespear came into the hands of Osbourn ye bookseller of Gray's Inn -who soon after presented it to the late Dr. Johnson.

S. J. Feb. 25, 1785.' (3) [This is a printed cutting pasted in.] In the late sale of Dr. Johnson's books there were several