you

When have faid a man of gentle manners, you have faid enough."

The late Mr. Fitzherbert told Mr. Langton that Johnson said to him, "Sir, a man has no more right to fay an uncivil thing, than to act one; no more right to fay a rude thing to another than to knock him down."

On fome occafion he obferved, "Though many men are nominally entrusted with the administration of hospitals and other publick institutions, almost all the good is done by one man, by whom the reft are driven on; owing to confidence in him, and indolence in them." Speaking of a gentleman whofe house was much frequented by low company, "Rags (faid he) will always make their appearance where they have a right to do it." x

Of the fame gentleman's mode of living, he faid, "The fervants, inftead of doing what they are bid, ftand round the table in idle clufters, gaping upon the guests; and feem as unfit to attend a company, as to steer a man of war."

He remarked," that a man fhould pass a part of his time with the laughers, by which means any thing ridiculous or particular about him might be presented to his view, and corrected." Mr. Bofwell obferved, that he must have been a bold laugher who would have ventured

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ventured to tell Dr. Johnfon of any of his ticularities.

par

"There is (faid Johnson) a wicked inclination in most people to fuppofe an old man decayed in his intellects. If a young or middle aged man, when leaving a company, does not recollect where he laid his hat it is nothing; but if the fame inattention is difcovered in an old man, people will fhrug up their fhoulders, and fay, His memory is going."

Of a certain noble Lord he faid, " Refpect him you could not; for he had no mind of his own love him you could not; for that which you could do with him, every one elfe could."

Being afked by a young nobleman, what was become of the gallantry and military spirit of the old English nobility, he replied, "Why, my Lord, I'll tell you what is become of it; it is gone into the city to look for a fortune."

Speaking of a dull tirefome fellow, whom he chanced to meet, he faid, "That fellow feems to me to poffefs but one idea, and that is a wrong one."

To a correfpondent who had been tardy in his communications, he wrote thus: "Are you playing the fame trick again, and trying who can keep filence longeft? Remember that all tricks are either knavifh or childish; and that it is as foolish to make experiments upon

the

the conftancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife. What can be the caufe of this fecond fit of filence, I cannot conjecture; but after one trick, I will not be cheated by another, nor will harass my thoughts with conjectures. about the motives of a man who probably acts only by caprice."

He one day observed to Sir William Scott, "The age is running mad after innovation; all the business of the world is to be done in a new way; men are to be hanged in a new way'; Tyburn itself is not safe from the fury of innovation." It having been argued that this was an improvement, "No, Sir (faid he eagerly), it is not an improvement: they object that the old method drew together a number of fpectators;-Sir, executions are intended to draw fpectators. If they do not draw fpectators, they do not answer the purpose. The old method was moft fatisfactory to all parties; the public was gratified by a proceffion; the criminal was fupported by it. Why is all this to be fwept away *?"

He faid, "Mankind have a ftrong attachment to the habitations to which they have

"I perfectly agree (fays Mr. Bofwell) with Dr. Johnfon upon this head, and am perfuaded that executions now, the folemn proceffion being difcontinued, have not nearly the effect which they formerly had. Magiftrates, both in London, and elsewhere, have, I am afraid, in this had too much regard to their own cafe."

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been

been accustomed.

You fee the inhabitants of Norway do not with one confent quit it, and go to fome part of America, where there is a mild climate, and where they may have the fame produce from land, with the tenth part of the labour. No, Sir; their affection for their old dwellings, and the terror of a general change, keep them at home. Thus we fee many of the finest spots in the world thinly inhabited, and many rugged fpots well inhabited."

"Madness (he faid on fome other occafion) frequently discovers itself merely by unnecef fary deviation from the ufual modes of the world. My poor friend Smart fhewed the dif turbance of his mind, by falling upon his knees, and faying his prayers in the street, or in any other unufual place. Now although, rationally fpeaking, it is greater madness not to pray at all, than to pray as Smart did, I am afraid there are fo many who do not pray, that their understanding is not called in question."

In a conversation on gaming, a gentleman animadverted on it with feverity. "Nay, gentlemen (faid Johnson), let us not aggravate the matter. It is not roguery to play with a man who is ignorant of the game, while you are mafter of it, and fo win his money; for he thinks he can play better than you, as you think you can play better than he; and the

fuperior

fuperior skill carries it." ERSKINE. He is a fool, but you are not a rogue."-JOHNSON. "That's much about the truth, Sir. It must be confidered, that a man who only does what every one of the fociety to which he belongs would do, is not a dishonest man. In the republic of Sparta it was agreed, that stealing was not difhonourable, if not difcovered. I do not commend a fociety where there is an agreement that what would not otherwise be fair, fhall be fair; but I maintain, that an individual of any fociety, who practises what is allowed, is not a difhoneft man." -BOSWELL, "So then, Sir, you do not think ill of a man who wins perhaps forty thousand pounds in a winter?". "Sir, I do not call a gamefter a difhoneft man; but I call him an unfocial man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good. Trade gives employment to numbers, and fo produces intermediate good."

Talking of a gentleman who was supposed to be gradually involving his circumstances by bad management, Johnson said to Mr. B. "Wafting a fortune is evaporation by a thousand imperceptible means. If it were aftream, they'd ftop it, You must speak to him. It is really miferable. Were he a gamefter, it could be said he had hopes of winning, Were he a bankrupt in