departments, and withal so much liberality, that the stupendous powers of the literary Goliath, though they did not frighten this little David of popular spirit, could not but excite his admiration. There was also Mr. Braithwaite of the post-office, that amiable and friendly man, who, with modest and unassuming manners, has associated with many of the wits of the age. Johnson was very quiescent today. Perhaps too I was indolent. I find nothing more of him in my notes, but that when I mentioned that I had seen in the king's library sixty-three editions of my favourite Thomas à Kempis,―amongst which it was in eight languages, Latin, German, French, Italian, Spanish, English, Arabick, and Armenian, he said he thought it unnecessary to collect many editions of a book, which were all the same, except as to the paper and print; he would have the original, and all the translations, and all the editions which had any variations in the text. He approved of the famous collection of editions of Horace by Douglas, mentioned by Pope, who is said to have had a closet filled with them; and he added, "every man should try to collect one book in that manner, and present it to a public library."

On Tuesday, May 18, I saw him for a short time in the morning. I told him that the mob had called out, as the king passed 3, "No Fox, no Fox!" which

1

[He probably was not quite at his ease in the company of Mr. Capel Lofft, if he exhibited, as Mr. Boswell seems to hint, any of his whig zeal.-ED.] 2 [The mention by Pope, (no very delicate one,) is in the following lines of the Dunciad and the subjoined note:

"Bid me with Pollio sup, as well as dine,

There all the learned shall at the labour stand,
And Douglas lend his soft obstetric hand.

"Douglas, a physician of great learning and no less taste; above all, curious "in what related to Horace; of whom he collected every edition, translation, "and comment, to the number of several hundred volumes."-Dunciad, b. iv. 1. 392. Dr. Douglas was born in Scotland in 1675, and died in London in 1742. He published some medical works.-ED.]

3

[To open parliament. The Westminster election had concluded only the day before in favour of Mr. Fox, whose return, however, was delayed by the requisition for a scrutiny.-ED.]

I did not like. He said, "They were right, sir." I said, I thought not; for it seemed to be making Mr. Fox the king's competitor. There being no audience, so that there could be no triumph in a victory, he fairly agreed with me. I said it might do very well, if explained thus, "Let us have no Fox," understanding it as a prayer to his majesty not to appoint that gentleman minister.

On Wednesday, May 19, I sat a part of the evening with him, by ourselves. I observed, that the death of our friends might be a consolation against the fear of our own dissolution, because we might have more friends in the other world than in this. He perhaps felt this as a reflection upon his apprehension as to death, and said, with heat, "How can a man know where his departed friends are, or whether they will be his friends in the other world? How many friendships have you known formed upon principles of virtue? Most friendships are formed by caprice or by chance-mere confederacies in vice or leagues in folly."

We talked of our worthy friend Mr. Langton. He said, "I know not who will go to heaven if Langton does not. Sir, I could almost say Sit anima mea cum Langtono." I mentioned a very eminent friend' as a virtuous man. JOHNSON. "Yes, sir; but

has not the evangelical virtue of Langton.

I am afraid, would not scruple to pick up a wench." He however charged Mr. Langton with what he thought want of judgment upon an interesting occasion. "When I was ill," said he, "I desired he

[As Mr. Boswell has seldom applied the term "eminent friend" excepeither to Mr. Burke or Sir Joshua Reynolds, it may not be unnecessary to remind the reader that at this time Mr. Burke was fifty-four and Sir Joshua sixtytwo years of age, and that the good taste, morals, and piety of both, (and more particularly of Mr. Burke, a married man of exemplary conduct-see ante, vol. iv. p. 248), forbid our believing that either of them were meant in this passage. It is to be wished that Mr. Boswell had not mentioned so offensive an allusion, or had appropriated it to the proper object.—ED.]

VOL. V.

N

would tell me sincerely in what he thought my life was faulty. Sir, he brought me a sheet of paper, on which he had written down several texts of Scripture recommending christian charity. And when I questioned him what occasion I had given for such an animadversion, all that he could say amounted to this, that I sometimes contradicted people in conversation. Now what harm does it do to any man to be contradicted ?" BOSWELL. "I suppose he meant the manner of doing it; roughly and harshly." JOHNSON." And who is the worse for that?" BOSWELL. "It hurts people of weaker nerves." JOHNSON. "I know no such weak-nerved people." Mr. Burke, to whom I related this conference, said, "It is well if, when a man comes to die, he has nothing heavier upon his conscience than having been a little rough in conversation."

Johnson, at the time when the paper was presented to him, though at first pleased with the attention of his friend, whom he thanked in an earnest manner, soon exclaimed in a loud and angry tone, "What is your drift, sir?" Sir Joshua Reynolds pleasantly observed, that it was a scene for a comedy, to see a penitent get into a violent passion and belabour his confessor. After all, I cannot but be of opinion, that as Mr. Langton was seriously requested by Dr. Johnson to mention what appeared to him erroneous in the character of his friend, he was bound as an honest man to intimate what he really thought, which he certainly did in the most delicate manner; so that Johnson himself, when in a quiet frame of mind, was pleased with it. The texts suggested are now before me, and I shall quote a few of them. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."-Matt. v. 5.

"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you

that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love."-Ephes. v. 1, 2.

"And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness."-Col. iii. 14.

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, is not easily provoked."-1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5.

I have preserved no more of his conversation at the times when I saw him during the rest of this month, till Sunday, the 30th of May, when I met him in the evening at Mr. Hoole's, where there was a large company both of ladies and gentlemen. Sir James Johnston happened to say that he paid no regard to the arguments of counsel at the bar of the House of Commons, because they were paid for speaking. JOHNSON. " Nay, sir, argument is argument. You cannot help paying regard to their arguments if they are good. If it were testimony, you might disregard it, if you knew that it were purchased. There is a beautiful image in Bacon1 upon this subject: testimony is like an arrow shot from a long bow; the force of it depends on the strength of the hand that draws it. Argument is like an arrow from a crossbow, which has equal force though shot by a child."

Dr. Johnson's memory deceived him. The passage referred to is not Bacon's, but Boyle's, and may be found, with a slight variation, in Johnson's Dictionary, under the word Crossbore.-So happily selected are the greater part of the examples in that incomparable work, that if the most striking passages found in it were collected by one of our modern book-makers, under the title of The Beauties of Johnson's Dictionary, they would form a very pleasing and popular volume.-MALONE.

[The anecdote, as Mr. Markland observes, is somewhat differently told by Dr. Moore in his life of Smollett.-"In Boswell's Life of Johnson, mention "is made of an observation of his respecting the manner in which argument ought "to be rated. As Mr. Boswell has not recorded this with his usual precision, "and as I was present at Mr. Hoole's at the time mentioned by Mr. Roswell, I "shall here insert what passed, of which I have a perfect recollection. Mention

2

He had dined that day at Mr. Hoole's, and Miss Helen Maria Williams being expected in the evening, Mr. Hoole put into his hands her beautiful "Ode on the Peace 1." Johnson read it over, and when this elegant and accomplished young lady was presented to him, he took her by the hand in the most courteous manner, and repeated the finest stanza of her poem. This was the most delicate and pleasing compliment he could pay. Her respectable friend, Dr. Kippis, from whom I had this anecdote, was standing by, and was not a little gratified.

Miss Williams told me, that the only other time she was fortunate enough to be in Dr. Johnson's company, he asked her to sit down by him, which she did; and upon her inquiring how he was, he "having been made that counsel were to be heard at the bar of the House of "Commons, one of the company at Mr. Hoole's asked Sir James Johnston if ❝he intended to be present. He answered, that he believed he should not, be"cause he paid little regard to the arguments of counsel at the bar of the House "of Commons. Wherefore do you pay little regard to their arguments, sir?? "said Dr. Johnson. Because, replied Sir James, they argue for their fee.' "What is it to you, sir,' rejoined Dr. Johnson, what they argue for? You "have nothing to do with their motive, but you ought to weigh their argument. "Sir, you seem to confound argument with assertion; but there is an essential "distinction between them. Assertion is like an arrow shot from a long bow; "the force with which it strikes depends on the strength of the arm that draws "it. But argument is like an arrow from a crossbow, which has equal force "whether shot by a boy or a giant.' The whole company was struck with the aptness and beauty of this illustration; and one of them said, That is, in. "deed, one of the most just and admirable illustrations that I ever heard in "my life.' 'Sir,' said Dr. Johnson, the illustration is none of mine - you will "find it in Bacon.""

66

6

It is satisfactory to find Mr. Boswell thus rather corroborated than corrected by a person who professes superior precision. The substance is the same in both accounts, and it seems to the editor that Mr. Boswell's narration is at least as terse and characteristic as Dr. Moore's.-ED.]

The peace made by that very able statesman the Earl of Shelburne, now Marquis of Lansdown, which may fairly be considered as the foundation of all the prosperity of Great Britain since that time.-BOSWELL.

2 In the first edition of my work, the epithet amiable was given. I was sorry to be obliged to strike it out; but I could not in justice suffer it to remain, after this young lady had not only written in favour of the savage anarchy with which France has been visited, but had (as I have been informed by good authority) walked, without horrour, over the ground at the Thuilleries when it was strewed with the naked bodies of the faithful Swiss Guards, who were barbarously massacred for having bravely defended, against a crew of ruffians, the monarch whom they had taken an oath to defend. From Dr. Johnson she could now expect not endearment, but repulsion.-BosWELL. [Miss Williams, like many other early enthusiasts of the French revolution, had latterly altered her opinion very considerably. She died in 1828, æt. 65. ED.]