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1768.

Talking of fome of the modern plays, he said " Falfe Delicacy" was totally void of character. He praised Goldfmith's "Good-natured Man;" Etat. 59said, it was the best comedy that had appeared fince "The Provoked Hufband," and that there had not been of late any fuch character exhibited on the stage as that of Croaker. I obferved it was the Sufpirius of his Rambler. He faid, Goldsmith had owned he had borrowed it from thence. " Sir, (continued he,) there is all the difference in the world between characters of nature and characters of manners; and there is the difference between the characters of Fielding and thofe of Richardfon. Characters of manners are very entertaining; but they are to be understood, by a more fuperficial observer, than characters of nature, where a man must dive into the receffes of the human heart.”

It always appeared to me that he estimated the compofitions of Richardson too highly, and that he had an unreasonable prejudice against Fielding. In comparing those two writers, he ufed this expreffion; "that there was as great a difference between them as between a man who knew how a watch was made, and a man who could tell the hour by looking on the dial-plate." This was a fhort and figurative state of his diftinction between drawing characters of nature and characters only of manners. But I cannot help being of opinion, that the neat watches of Fielding are as well constructed as the large clocks of Richardson, and that his dial-plates are brighter. Fielding's characters, though they do not expand themselves fo widely in differtation, are as just pictures of human nature, and I will venture to fay, have more striking features, and nicer touches of the pencil; and though Johnson used to quote with approbation a faying of Richardfon's, "that the virtues of Fielding's heroes were the vices of a truly good man," I will venture to add, that the moral tendency of Fielding's writings, though it does not encourage a strained and rarely poffible virtue, is ever favourable to honour and honesty, and cherishes the benevolent and generous affections. He who is as good as Fielding would make him, is an amiable member of fociety, and may be led on by more regulated inftructors, to a higher ftate of ethical perfection.

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Johnson proceeded: "Even Sir Francis Wronghead is a character of manners, though drawn with great humour." He then repeated, very happily, all Sir Francis's credulous account to Manly of his being with "the great man,' and securing a place. I asked him if the "Sufpicious Hufband" did not furnish a well-drawn character, that of Ranger. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; Ranger is just a rake, a mere rake, and a lively young fellow, but no character." The great Douglas caufe was at this time a very general fubject of difcuffion. I found he had not studied it with much attention, but had only heard Q ૧ 2 parts

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parts of it occafionally. He, however, talked of it, and faid, "I am of Atat. 59. opinion that positive proof of fraud should not be required of the plaintiff, but that the Judges fhould decide according as probability fhall appear to preponderate, granting to the defendant the prefumption of filiation to be ftrong in his favour. And I think too, that a good deal of weight fhould be allowed to the dying declarations, because they were fpontaneous. There is a great difference between what is faid without our being urged to it, and what is faid from a kind of compulfion. If I praise a man's book without being afked my opinion of it, that is honeft praife, to which one may trust. But if an authour asks me if I like his book, and I give him fomething like praife, it must not be taken as my real opinion.

"I have not been troubled for a long time with authours defiring my opinion of their works. I ufed once to be fadly plagued with a man who wrote verses, but who literally had no other notion of a verse, but that it confifted of ten fyllables. Lay your knife and your fork across your plate, was to him a verse :

Lay your knife and your fōrk, acrōfs your plate.

As he wrote a great number of verses he fometimes by chance made good ones, though he did not know it."

He renewed his promife of coming to Scotland, and going with me to the Hebrides, but faid he would now content himself with feeing one or two of the most curious of them. He faid "Macaulay, who writes the account of St. Kilda, fet out with a prejudice against prejudices, and wanted to be a smart modern thinker; and yet he affirms for a truth, that when a ship arrives there all the inhabitants are feized with a cold."

"There is here,

He expatiated on the advantages of Oxford for learning. Sir, (faid he,) fuch a progreffive emulation. The ftudents are anxious to appear well to their tutors; the tutors are anxious to have their pupils appear well in the college; the colleges are anxious to have their students appear well in the Univerfity; and there are excellent rules of difcipline in every college. That the rules are fometimes ill obferved, may be true; but is nothing against the fyftem. The members of an University may, for a season, be unmindful of their duty. I am arguing for the excellency of the institution."

Of Guthrie he faid, "Sir, he is a man of parts. He has no great regular fund of knowledge; but by reading fo long, and writing so long, he no doubt has picked up a good deal."

He faid he had lately been a long while at Lichfield, but had grown very weary before he left it. BOSWELL. "I wonder at that, Sir; it is your native place." JOHNSON. "Why fo is Scotland your native place."

His prejudice against Scotland appeared remarkably ftrong at this time. When I talked of our advancement in literature, "Sir, (faid he,) you have learnt a little from us, and you think yourselves very great men. Hume would never have written Hiftory, had not Voltaire written it before him. He is an echo of Voltaire." BoSWELL. "But, Sir, we have Lord Kames." JOHNSON. "You have Lord Kames. Keep him; ha, ha, ha! We don't envy you him. Do you ever fee Dr. Robertson?" BOSWELL. "Yes, Sir." JOHNSON. "Does the dog talk of me?" Boswell. BOSWELL. Indeed, Sir, he does,

and loves you." Thinking that I now had him in a corner, and being folicitous for the literary fame of my country, I preffed him for his opinion on the merit of Dr. Robertfon's Hiftory of Scotland. But, to my furprize, he efcaped." Sir, I love Robertson, and I won't talk of his book."

It is but juftice both to him and Dr. Robertson to add, that though he indulged himself in this fally of wit, he had too good tafte not to be fully fenfible of the merits of that admirable work.

An effay, written by Mr. Deane, a divine of the Church of England, maintaining the future life of brutes, by an explication of certain parts of the fcriptures, was mentioned, and the doctrine infifted on by a gentleman who feemed fond of curious fpeculation. Johnson, who did not like to hear of any thing concerning a future ftate which was not authorised by the regular canons of orthodoxy, discouraged this talk; and being offended at its continuation, he watched an opportunity to give the gentleman a blow of reprehenfion. So, when the poor fpeculatift, with a ferious metaphyfical penfive face, addreffed him, "But really, Sir, when we see a very fenfible dog, we don't know what to think of him." Johnfon, rolling with joy at the thought, which beamed in his eye, turned quickly round, and replied, "True, Sir: and when we fee a very foolish fellow, we don't know what to think of him." He then rofe up, strided to the fire, and stood for fome time laughing and exulting.

I told him that I had several times, when in Italy, feen the experiment of placing a fcorpion within a circle of burning coals; that it ran round and round in extreme pain; and finding no way to escape, retired to the centre, and, like a true Stoick philofopher, darted its fting into its head, and thus at once freed itfelf from its woes. "This must end 'em." I faid, this was a curious. fact, as it fhewed deliberate fuicide in a reptile. Johnson would not admit the fact. He said, Maupertuis was of opinion that it does not kill itself, but dies of the heat; that it gets to the centre of the circle, as the coolest place; that its turning its tail in upon its head is merely a convulsion, and that it does not fting itself. He faid he would be fatisfied if the great anatomist Morgagni,

after

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tat. 59.

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after diffecting a fcorpion upon whom the experiment had been tried, should Etat. 59. certify that its fting had penetrated into its head.

He feemed pleased to talk of natural philofophy. "That woodcocks, (faid he,) fly over to the northern countries, is proved, because they have been obferved at fea. Swallows certainly fleep all the winter. A number of them conglobulate together, by flying round and round, and then all in a heap throw themselves under water, and lye in the bed of a river." He told us, one of his first effays was a Latin poem upon the glow-worm. I am sorry I did not ask where it was to be found.

Talking of the Ruffians and the Chinese, he advised me to read Bell's travels. I afked him whether I fhould read Du Halde's account of China. "Why yes, (faid he,) as one reads fuch a book; that is to fay, confult it."

He talked of the heinoufnefs of the crime of adultery, by which the peace of families was deftroyed. He faid, "Confusion of progeny conftitutes the effence of the crime; and therefore a woman who breaks her marriage vows is much more criminal than a man who does it. A man, to be sure, is criminal in the fight of GoD: but he does not do his wife a very material injury, if he does not infult her; if, for inftance, from mere wantonness of appetite, he steals privately to her chambermaid. Sir, a wife ought not greatly to resent this. I would not receive home a daughter who had run from her husband on that account. away A wife fhould study to reclaim her husband by more attention to please him. Sir, a man will not, once in a hundred instances, leave his wife and go to a harlot, if his wife has not been negligent of pleasing."

I asked him if it was not hard that one deviation from chastity should so abso ́lutely ruin a young woman. JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir; it is the great principle which fhe is taught. When fhe has given up that principle, fhe has given up every notion of female honour and virtue, which are all included in chastity.”

A gentleman talked to him of a lady whom he greatly admired and wished to marry, but was afraid of her fuperiority of talents. "Sir, (faid he,) you need not be afraid; marry her. Before a year goes about, you'll find that reafon much weaker, and that wit not fo bright." Yet the gentleman may be justified in his apprehenfion by one of Dr. Johnson's admirable sentences in his life of Waller: "He doubtlefs praised many whom he would have been afraid to marry; and, perhaps, married one whom he would have been afhamed to praife. Many qualities contribute to domeftick happiness, upon which poetry has no colours to bestow; and many airs and fallies may delight imagination, which he who flatters them never can approve."

He

Etat. 59.

He praised Signor Baretti. "His account of Italy is a very entertaining 1768. book; and, Sir, I know no man who carries his head higher in converfation than Baretti. There are ftrong powers in his mind. He has not, indeed, many hooks; but with what hooks he has he grapples very forcibly."

At this time I obferved upon the dial-plate of his watch a fhort Greek infcription, taken from the New Teftament, Nu EpxETα, being the first words of our Saviour's folemn admonition to the improvement of that time which is allowed us to prepare for eternity; "the night cometh when no man can work." He fome time afterwards laid afide this dial-plate; and when I asked him the reason, he faid, "It might do very well upon a clock which a man keeps in his clofet; but to have it upon his watch which he carries about with him, and which is often looked at by others, might be cenfured as oftentatious." Mr. Steevens is now poffeffed of the dial-plate inscribed as above.

He remained at Oxford a confiderable time; I was obliged to go to London, where I received his letter, which had been returned from Scotland.

To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq.

"MY DEAR BOSWELL,

"I HAVE Omitted a long time to write to you, without knowing very well why. I could now tell why I fhould not write, for who would write to men who publish the letters of their friends without their leave? Yet I write to you in spite of my caution, to tell you that I fhall be glad to fee you, and that I wish you would empty your head of Corfica, which I think has filled it rather too long. But, at all events, I fhall be glad, very glad to fee

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London, 26th April, 1768.

"MY DEAR SIR, "I HAVE received your last letter, which, though very fhort, and by no means complimentary, yet gave me real pleasure, because it contains these words, I fhall be glad, very glad to fee you.'-Surely, you have no reason to complain of my publishing a single paragragh of one of your letters;

the

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