. p. 120.

men.

"Perfect good breeding (he observed) consists in having no particular mark of any profession, but a general elegance of manners; whereas, in a military man, you can commonly distinguish the Piozzi, brand of a soldier, l'homme d'epée:" [and it was, she said, the essence of a gentleman's character to bear the visible mark of no profession whatever. He once named Mr. Berenger as the standard of true elegance; but some one objecting, that he too much resembled the gentleman in Congreve's comedies, Dr. Johnson said, "We must fix then upon the famous Thomas Hervey, whose manners were polished even to acuteness and brilliancy, though he lost but little in solid power of reasoning, and in genuine force of mind." Johnson had an avowed and scarcely limited partiality for all who bore the name, or boasted the alliance of an Aston or a Hervey.]

Dr. Johnson shunned to-night any discussion of the perplexed question of fate and free will, which I attempted to agitate: "Sir (said he), we know our will is free, and there's an end on 't."

He honoured me with his company at dinner on the 16th of October, at my lodgings in Old Bondstreet, with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Garrick, Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Bickerstaff', and Mr. Thomas Davies. Garrick played round him with a fond vivacity, taking hold of the breasts of his coat, and, looking up in his face with a lively archness, complimented him on the good health which he seemed then to enjoy; while the sage, shaking his head, beheld him with a gentle complacency. One

[Isaac Bickerstaff, the author of several theatrical pieces of considerable merit and continued popularity. This unhappy man was obliged to fly on suspicion of a capital crime, on which occasion Mrs. Piozzi relates, that "when Mr. Bickerstaff's flight confirmed the report of his guilt, and Mr. Thrale said, in answer to Johnson's astonishment, that he had long been a suspected man, By those who look close to the ground dirt will be seen, sir,' was the lofty reply; 'I hope that I see things from a greater distance."" Piozzi, p. 130.-ED.]

of the company not being come at the appointed hour, I proposed, as usual upon such occasions, to order dinner to be served; adding, "Ought six people to be kept waiting for one?" "Why, yes (answered Johnson, with a delicate humanity), if the one will suffer more by your sitting down, than the six will do by waiting." Goldsmith, to divert the tedious minutes, strutted about, bragging of his dress, and I believe was seriously vain of it, for his mind was wonderfully prone to such impressions: "Come, come (said Garrick), talk no more of that. You are, perhaps, the worst-eh, eh!"--Goldsmith was eagerly attempting to interrupt him, when Garrick went on, laughing ironically, "Nay, you will always look like a gentleman; but I am talking of being well or ill drest.” “Well, let me tell you (said Goldsmith), when my tailor brought home my bloom-coloured coat, he said, 'Sir, I have a favour to beg of you. When any body asks you who made your clothes, be pleased to mention John Filby, at the Harrow, in Waterlane." JOHNSON. "Why, sir, that was because he knew the strange colour would attract crowds to gaze at it, and thus they might hear of him, and see how well he could make a coat even of so absurd a colour."

After dinner our conversation turned first upon Pope. Johnson said, his characters of men were admirably drawn, those of women not so well. He repeated to us, in his forcible melodious manner, the concluding lines of the Dunciad'. While he was talking loudly in praise of those lines, one of the company ventured to say, "Too fine for such a

1 Mr. Langton informed me that he once related to Johnson (on the authority of Spence) that Pope himself admired those lines so much, that when he repeated them, his voice faltered: "and well it might, sir (said Johnson), for they are noble lines."-J. BOSWELL.

[What an idea of the tyranny of Johnson's conversation does this word-ventured-give! There is reason, as will appear hereafter, to suspect that Boswell himself was the object of this sarcasm.-ED.]

poem-a poem on what?" JOHNSON (with a disdainful look). "Why, on dunces. It was worth while being a dunce then. Ah, sir, hadst thou lived in those days! It is not worth while being a dunce now, when there are no wits." Bickerstaff observed, as a peculiar circumstance, that Pope's fame was higher when he was alive than it was then. Johnson said, his Pastorals were poor things, though the versification was fine. He told us, with high satisfaction, the anecdote of Pope's inquiring who was the authour of his "London," and saying, he will be soon deterré. He observed, that in Dryden's poetry there were passages drawn from a profundity which Pope could never reach. He repeated some fine lines on love, by the former (which I have now forgotten), and gave great applause to the character of Zimri'. Goldsmith said, that Pope's character of Addison showed a deep knowledge of the human heart. Johnson said, that the description of the temple, in "The Mourning Bride," was the finest poetical passage he had ever read; he recollected none in Shakspeare equal to it." But (said Garrick, all alarmed for 'the god of his idolatry') we know not the extent and variety of his powers. We are to suppose there are such passages in his works. Shakspeare must not suffer from the badness of our memories." Johnson, diverted by this enthusiastic jealousy, went on with great ardour: "No, sir; Congreve has nature (smiling on the tragic eagerness of Garrick); but composing himself, he added, "Sir, this is not comparing Congreve on the whole with Shakspeare on the whole: but only maintaining that Congreve has one finer passage than any that can be found in Shakspeare. Sir, a man may have no more than ten guineas in

[The Duke of Buckingham, in Absalom and Achitophel.-ED.] 2 Act ii. scene 3.-MALONE.

the world, but he may have those ten guineas in one piece; and so may have a finer piece than a man who has ten thousand pound: but then he has only one ten-guinea piece. What I mean is, that you can show me no passage where there is simply a description of material objects, without any intermixture of moral notions', which produced such an effect." Mr. Murphy mentioned Shakspeare's description of the night before the battle of Agincourt; but it was observed it had men in it. Mr. Davies suggested the speech of Juliet, in which she figures herself awaking in the tomb of her ancestors. Some one mentioned the description of Dover Cliff. JOHNSON. "No, sir; it should be all precipice-all vacuum. The crows impede your fall. The diminished appearance of the boats, and other circumstances, are all very good description; but do not impress the mind at once with the horrible idea of immense height. The impression is divided; you pass on by computation, from one stage of the tremendous space to another. Had the girl in The Mourning Bride' said, she could not cast her shoe to the top of one of the pillars in the temple, it would not have aided the idea, but weakened it."

Talking of a barrister who had a bad utterance, some one (to rouse Johnson) wickedly said, that he was unfortunate in not having been taught oratory by Sheridan. JOHNSON. "Nay, sir, if he had been taught by Sheridan, he would have cleared the room."

1 In Congreve's description there seems to be an intermixture of moral notions; as the affecting power of the passage arises from the vivid impression of the described objects on the mind of the speaker: "And shoots a chillness," &c.-KEARNEY. [So, also, the very first words of the speech, “how reverend ;" and again, it strikes an awe and terror;" and again, “looking tranquilly." All this is surely describing the building by its effects on the mind. The truth is, as Mrs. Piozzi states, Johnson loved to tease Garrick with this apparent preference of Congreve over Shakspeare. Sec ante, vol. i. p. 516.—ED.]

GARRICK. "Sheridan has too much vanity to be a good man."-We shall now see Johnson's mode of defending a man; taking him into his own hands and discriminating. JOHNSON. "No, sir. There is, to be sure, in Sheridan, something to reprehend and every thing to laugh at; but, sir, he is not a bad man. No, sir; were mankind to be divided into good and bad, he would stand considerably within the ranks of good. And, sir, it must be allowed that Sheridan excels in plain declamation, though he can exhibit no character."

I should, perhaps, have suppressed' this disquisition concerning a person of whose merit and worth I think with respect, had he not attacked Johnson so outrageously in his Life of Swift, and, at the same time, treated us his admirers as a set of pigmies. He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

Mrs. Montague, a lady distinguished for having written an Essay on Shakspeare, being mentionedREYNOLDS. "I think that essay does her honour." JOHNSON."Yes, sir; it does her honour, but it would do nobody else honour. I have, indeed, not read it all. But when I take up the end of a web, and find it packthread, I do not expect, by looking further, to find embroidery. Sir, I will venture to say, there is not one sentence of true criticism in her book." GARRICK. "But, sir, surely it shows how much Voltaire has mistaken Shakspeare, which nobody else has done." JOHNSON. "Sir, nobody else

[This is a singular avowal, which, had it proceeded from Hawkins or Mrs. Piozzi, Boswell would have very justly censured. But the phrase which he would have thus suppressed, out of regard to Sheridan, happens to be the most favourable to his character, and even to his talents, of the many observations of Johnson's which he has recorded. See vol. i. 398, relative to what Boswell so unjustly calls Sheridan's "outrageous attack" on Johnson and his admirers. -ED.]