the hiftory of the language." He bade him also go on with collections which he was mak"Make ing upon the antiquities of Scotland.

a large book, a folio."-Bos WELL.

what ufe will it be, Sir ?"-JOHNSON, yer mind the ufe; do it."

"But of

"Ne

At another time Johnfon obferved, "It is amazing what ignorance of certain points one. fometimes finds in men of eminence, A wit about town afked me, how it happened that England and Scotland, which were once two kingdoms, were now one: and Sir Fletcher Norton did not feem to know that there were. fuch publications as the Reviews."

He loved, he faid, the old black letter books; they were rich in matter, though their style was inelegant.

In à conversation which took a philofophical turn, Johnfon faid, "Human experience, which is conftantly contradicting theory, is the great teft of truth. A fyftem, built upon the difcoveries of a great many minds, is always of more ftrength than what is produced by the mere workings of any one mind, which of itfelf can do little. There is not fo poor a book in the world that would not be a prodigious effort were it wrought out entirely by a fingle mind, without the aid of prior inveftigators. The French writers are fuperficial, becaufe

they

they are not scholars, and fo proceed upon the mere power of their own minds; and we fee how very little power they have."

He was of opinion, that the English nation cultivated both their foil and their reafon better than any other people; but admitted that the French, though not the higheft, perhaps in any department of literature, yet in every department were very high. Intellectual preeminence, he obferved, was the highest fuperiority; and every nation derived their highest reputation from the fplendor and dignity of their writers. Voltaire, he said, was a good narrator, and his principal merit confifted in a happy felection and arrangement of circumstances.

Speaking of the French novels, compared with Richardfon's, he faid they might be pretty baubles, but a wren was not an eagle.

In a Latin converfation with the Pere Bofcovitz, at the house of Mrs. Cholmondeley, he' maintained the fuperiority of Sir Ifaac Newton over all foreign philofophers, with a dignity and eloquence that furprized that learned foreigner. It being obferved to him, that a rage for every thing English prevailed much in France after Lord Chatham's glorious war, he faid he did not wonder at it, for that we had drubbed thofe fellows into a proper reverence

for

for us, and that their national petulance required periodical chaftifement.

Being once told that Gilbert Cowper called him the Caliban of literature, "Well (said he), I muft dub him the Punchinello."

He spoke with much contempt of the notice taken of Woodhouse, the poetical fhoemaker. He faid, that it was all vanity and childifhnefs; and that fuch objects were, to those who patronised them, mere mirrors of their own fuperiority. They had better (faid he) furnish the man with good implements for his trade, than raise fubfcriptions for his poems. He may make an excellent fhoemaker, but he can never make a good poet. A fchool boy's exercife may be a pretty thing for a fchool-boy; but it is no treat for a man."

Speaking of the old Earl of Cork and Orrery, he faid," That man fpent his life in catching at an object (literary eminence), which he had not power to grafp."

Talking of Tacitus, Mr. Bofwell hazarded an opinion, that with all his merit for penetration, fhrewdness of judgment, and terfeness of expreffion, he was too compact, too much broken into hints, as it were, and therefore too difficult to be understood. Dr. Johnfon fanctioned this opinion. "Tacitus, Sir, fcems to me rather to have made notes for an hiftorical work, than to have written a hiftory."

At

At another time the converfation having turned on modern imitations of ancient ballads, and fome one having praised their fimplicity, he treated them with that ridicule which he always difplayed when that fubject was mentioned.

A gentleman expreffing his wonder why the author of fo excellent a book as The Whole Duty of Man' fhould conceal himself, Johnfon faid, "There may be different reasons affigned for this, one of which would be very fufficient. He may have been a clergyman, and may have thought that his religious counfels would have lefs weight when known to come from a man whofe profeffion was Theology. He may have been a man whofe practice was not fuitable to his principles, fo that his character might injure the effect of his book, which he had written in a season of penitence; or he may have been a man of rigid felf-denial, fo that he would have no reward for his pious labours while in this world, but refer it all to a future state."

Talking of birds, Mr. Daines Barrington's ingenious Effay against the received notion of their migration was mentioned. Johnfon faid, "I think we have as good evidence for the migration of woodcocks as can be defired. We find they difappear at a certain time of the

year,

year, and appear again at a certain time of the year; and fome of them, when weary in their flight, have been known to alight on the rigging of fhips far out at fea." One of the company obferved, that there had been inftances of fome of them found in fummer in Effex. JOHNSON. "Sir, that ftrengthens our argument. Exceptio probat regulam. Some being found fhews, that if all remained many would be found. A few fick or lame ones may be found."-GOLDSMITH. "There is a partial migration of the fwallows; the ftronger enes migrate, the others do not."

At Mr. Langton's with Dr. Beattie and fome other company, Johnfon defeanted on the fubject of Literary Property. "There feems (faid he) to be in authors a stronger right of property than that by occupancy; a metaphyfical right, a right, as it were, of creation, which should from its nature be perpetual; but the confent of nations is against it, and indeed reason and the interests of learning are against it; for were it to be perpetual, no book, however ufeful, could be univerfally diffused amongst mankind, fhould the proprietor take it into his head to reftrain the circulation. No book could have the advantage of being edited with notes, however neceffary to its elucidation, fhould the proprietor perverfely

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