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pathy; a friend hanged, and a cucumber pickled. We know not whether Baretti or the pickle-man has kept Davies from fleep; hor does he know himfelf. And as to his not fleeping, Sir, Tom Davies is a very great man; Tom has been upon the ftage, and knows how to do thofe things: I have not been upon the ftage, and cannot do thofe things."-B. "I have often blamed myfelf, Sir, for not feeling for others as fenfibly as many fay they do."-." Sir,, don't be duped by them any more. You will find these very feeling people are not very ready to do you good. They pay you by feeling."

Of the late Mr. Fitzherbert, of Derbyshire, he faid, "There was no fparkle, no brilliancy in Fitzherbert; but I never knew a man who was fo generally acceptable. He made every body quite cafy; overpowered nobody by the fuperiority of his talents; made no man think worfe of himfelf by being his rival; feemed always to liften; did not oblige you to hear much from him; and did not oppofe what you faid. Every body liked him; but he had no friend, as I understand the word, nobody with whom he exchanged intimate thoughts. People were willing to think well of every thing about him. A gentleman was making an affected rant, as many people do, of great feelings

feelings about his dear fon,' who was at fchool near London; how anxious he was left he might be ill, and what he would give to fee him. Can't you (faid Fitzherbert) take a post-chaife, and go to him? This, to be fure, finished the affected man, but there was not much in it. However, this was circulated as wit for a whole winter, and I believe part of a fummer too; a proof that he was no very witty man. He was an inftance of the truth of the obfervation, that a man will please more upon the whole by negative qualities than by pofitive; by never offending, than by giving a great deal of delight. In the first place, men hate more fteadily than they love; and if I have faid fomething to hurt a man once, I fhall not get the better of this by faying many things to please him."

On another occafion Johnfon remarked, "That pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages are always cruel.

*The affected gentleman is understood to have been the late John Gilbert Cooper, Efq. author of a Life of Socrates, and of fome poems in Dodfley's collection. Mr. Fitzherbert found him 'one morning, apparently, in fuch violent agitation, on account of the indifpofition of his fon, as to feem beyond the power of comfort. At length, however, he exclaimed, "I'll write an elegy." Mr. Fitzherbert, be ing fatisfied by this of the fincerity of his emotions, flyly faid, "Had not you better take a poft chaife, and go and fee him." It was the fhrewdnefs of the infinuation which made the story he circulated.

Pity is acquired and improved by the cultiva tion of reason. We may have uneasy fenfations from feeing a creature in diftrefs, without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them. When I am on my way to dine with a friend, and finding it late have bid the coachman make hafte, if I happen to attend when he whips his horfes, I may feel unpleasantly that the animals are put to pain, but I do not with him to defift. No, Sir, I with him to drive on."

On a very wet day, Mr. Bofwell complained of the difagreeable effects of fuch weather; but Johnson faid, "Sir, this is all imagination, which phyficians encourage; for man lives in air, as a fifh lives in water; fo that if the atmofphere prefs heavy from above, there is an equal refiftance from below. To be fure, bad weather is hard upon people who are obliged to be abroad; and men cannot labour fo well in the open air in bad weather as in good: but, Sir, a fmith or a taylor, whofe work is within doors, will furely do as much in rainy Some very delicate frames, indeed, may be affected by wet weather, but not common conftitutions."

weather as in fair,

One evening, when Johnfon was fomewhat fretful from illness, a gentleman afked him, whether he had been abroad that day." Don't

talk

talk fo childishly (faid he), you may as well afk if I hanged myself to-day." Mr. B. mentioned politicks.-7. "Sir, I'd as foon have a man to break my bones as talk to me of public affairs, internal or external. I have lived to fee things all as bad as they can be." He fome time after obferved, "That disease produces much felfifhnefs. A man in pain is looking after eafe; and lets most other things go as chance fhall difpofe of them."

To Mr. Bofwell he once faid, "You are always complaining of melancholy, and I conclude, from thofe complaints, that you are fond of it. No man talks of that which he is defirous to conceal, and every man defires to conceal that of which he is afhamed. Do not pretend to deny it-manifeftum habemus furem ; make it an invariable and obligatory law to yourself never to mention your own mental difeafes; if you are never to speak of them you will think on them but little; and if you think little of them they will moleft you rarely. When you talk of them, it is plain that you want either praise or pity; for praise there is no room, and pity will do you no good; therefore, from this hour fpeak no more, think no more about them."

"I one day asked him (fays his Biographer) if he was not diffatisfied with having so small a share

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a' fhare of wealth, and none of thofe diftinctions in the State which are the objects of ambition. He had only a penfion of three hundred a year. Why was he not in fuch circumftances as to keep his coach? Why had he not fome confiderable office ?"-7. "Sir, I have never complained of the world; nor do I think that I have reafon to complain. It is rather to be wondered at that I have fo much. My penfion is more out of the ufual course of things than any inftance that I have known. Here, Sir, was a man avowedly no friend to government at the time, who got a pension without asking for it. I never courted the great; they fent for me; but I think they now give me up. They are fatisfied; they have seen enough of me." Upon my Upon my obferving, that I could not believe this, for they muft certainly be highly pleased by his converfation; confcious of his own fuperiority, he answered, "No, Sir; great lords and great ladies don't love to have their mouths ftopped." This was very expreffive of the effect which the force of his understanding and brilliancy of his fancy could not but produce; and, to be fure, they must have found themfelves ftrangely diminished in his com→ pany. When I warmly declared how happy I was at all times to hear him" Yes, Sir