once defire to learn, they will naturally have recourse to the neareft language by which that defire can be gratified; and one will tell another that if he would attain knowledge, he muft learn English.

"This fpeculation may, perhaps, be thought more fubtle than the groffhefs of real life will eafily admit. Let it however be remembered, that the efficacy of ignorance has been long tried, and has not produced the confequence expected. Let knowledge, therefore, take its turn; and let the patrons of privation stand awhile afide, and admit the operation of pofitive principles."

General Paoli once talked of languages being formed on the particular notions and manners of a people, without knowing which we cannot know the language. We may by allufion to other ideas. "Sir (faid Johnfon), you talk of language, as if you had never done any thing else but study it, instead of governing a nation."-The General faid, "Quefto e un troppo gran complimento," this is too great a compliment. Johnfon answered, "I fhould have thought fo, Sir, if I had not heard you talk."

Mr. Erfkine one day told Johnson, that' when he was in the island of Minorca, he not only read prayers, but preached two fermons

to the regiment. He feemed to object to the paffage in fcripture where we are told that the angel of the Lord fmote in one night forty thousand Affyrians. "Sir (faid the Doctor), you fhould recollect that there was a fupernatural interpofition; they were deftroyed by peftilence. You are not to fuppofe that the angel of the Lord went about and stabbed each of them with a dagger, -or knocked them on the head, man by man.'

Talking on the fubject of taste in the arts, he obferved, that difference of tafle was, in truth, difference of fkill. Mr. Bofwell faid, "But, Sir, is there not a quality called tafte, which confifts merely in perception or in liking? For infiance, we find people differ much as to what is the beft ftyle of English compofition. Some think Swift's the beft; others prefer a fuller and grander way of writing."-JOHNSON. "Sir, you must first define what you mean by ftyle, before you can judge who has a good tafte in ftyle, and who has a bad. The two claffes of perfons whom you have mentioned don't differ as to good and bad. They both agree that Swift has a good neat ftyle; but one loves a neat style, another loves a style of more fplendour. In like manner, one loves a plain coat, another loves a laced coat; but neither will deny that each is good in its kind."

Speaking

Speaking of reading, "Snatches of reading, he faid, will not make a Bentley or a Clarke. They are, however, in a certain degree advantageous. I would put a child into a library (where no unfit books are), and let him read at his choice. A child fhould not be discouraged from reading any thing that he takes a liking to, from a notion that it is above his reach. If that be the cafe the child will foon find it out and defift; if not, he of courfe gains the inftruction; which is fo much the more likely to come, from the inclination with which he takes up the study."

Mr. Andrew Stuart's plaufible Letters to Lord Mansfield, a copy of which had been fent by the author to Dr. Johnfon, becoming the fubject of converfation, Johnson faid, "They have not anfwered the end. They have not been talked of; I have never heard of them. This is owing to their not being fold. People feldom read a book which is given to them; and few are given. The way to spread a work is to fell it at a low price. No man will fend to buy a thing that cofts even fixpence, without an intention to read it."-BOSWELL. May it not be doubted, Sir, whether it be proper to publifh letters, arraigning the ultimate decifion of an important caufe by the fupreme judicature of the nation?"-." No, Sir, I do not think it was

wrong to publish these letters. If they are thought to do harm, why not answer them? But they will do no harm."

Somebody found fault with writing verfes in a dead language, maintaining that they were merely arrangements of fo many words; and laughed at the Univerfities of Oxford and Cambridge for fending forth collections of them not only in Greek and Latin, but even in Syriac, Arabick, and other more unknown tongues. Johnson obferved, "I would have as many of these as poffible; I would have verfes in every language that there are the means of acquiring. Nobody imagines that an University is to have at once two hundred poets; but it fhould be able to fhow two hundred scholars. Peirefc's death was lamented, I think, in forty languages; and I would have had at every coronation, and every death of a king, every Gaudium, and every Luctus, University verses in as many languages as can be acquired. I would have the world to be thus told, Here is a school where every thing may be learnt."

The topick was once introduced, which is often ignorantly urged, that the Universities of England are too rich; fo that learning does not flourish in them, as it would do if those who teach had smaller falaries, and depended on their affiduity for a great part of their in

come,

come.

Johnfon faid, "Sir, the very reverfe of this is the truth; the English Universities are not rich enough. Our fellowships are only fufficient to fupport a man during his ftudies to fit him for the world, and accordingly in general they are held no longer than till an opportunity offers of getting away. Now and then, perhaps, there is a fellow who grows old in his college; but this is against his will, unless he be a man very indolent indeed. A hundred a year is reckoned a good fellowship, and that is no more than is neceflary to keep a man decently as a fcholar. We do not allow our fellows to marry, because we confider academical inftitutions as preparatory to a fettlement in the world. It is only by being employed as a tutor, that a fellow can obtain any thing more than a livelihood. To be fure a man who has enough without teaching will not teach; for we would all be idle if we could. In the fame manner, a man who is to get nothing by teaching, will not exert himself. Gresham College was intended as a place of inftruction for London; able profeffors were to read lectures gratis, and they contrived to have no fcholars; whereas if they had been allowed to receive but fixpence a lecture from each scholar, they would have been emulous to have had many scholars. Every body will agree that it fhould be the in

tereft