ling to begin to talk, nor in hafte to leave off." Bofwell. "Yet he can liften."-Johnson. "No; Į cannot fay he is good at that. So defirous is he to talk, that, if one is fpeaking at this end of the table, he'll fpeak to fomebody at the other end. Burke, fir, is fuch a man, that if you met him for the first time He also observed, that he has often heard Burke say, in the course of an evening, ten good things, each of which would have served a noted wit (whom he named) to live upon for a twelvemonth. I find, fince the former edition, that fome perfons have objected to the inftances which I have given of Mr. Burke's wit, as not doing justice to my very ingenious friend; the fpecimens produced having, it is alledged, more of conceit than real wit, and being merely fportive fallies of the moment, not juftifying the encomium which they think with me, he undoubtedly merits. I was well aware, how hazardous it was to exhibit particular inftances of wit, which is of fo airy and spiritual a nature as often to elude the hand that attempts to grafp it. The excellence and efficacy of a bon mot depend frequently fo much on the occafion on which it is spoken, on the particular manner of the fpeaker, on the person of whom it is applied, the previous introduction, and a thousand minute particu lars which cannot be eafily enumerated, that it is always dangerous to detach a witty faying from the group to which it belongs, and to fet it before the eye of the fpectator, divefted of thofe concomitant circumftances, which gave it animation, mellownefs, and relief. I ventured, however, at all hazards, to put down the first inftances that occurred to me, as proofs of Mr. Burke's lively and brilliant fancy; but am very fenfible that his numerous friends could have uggested many of a fuperior quality. Indeed, the being in company with him, for a single day, is fufficient to fhew that what I have afferted is well founded; and it was only neceffary to have appealed to all who know him intimately, for a complete refutation of the heterodox opinion entertained by Dr. Johnson on this fubject. He allowed Mr. Burke, as the reader will find hereafter, to be a man of confummate and unrivalled abilities in every light except that now under confideration; and the variety of his allufions, and fplendour of his imagery, have made fuch an impreffion on all the rest of the world, that fuperficial obfervers are apt to overlook his other merits, and to fuppofe that wit is his chief and most prominent excellence; when in fact it is only one of the many talents that he poffeffes, which are fo various and extraordinary, that it is very diffi cult to ascertain precisely the rank and value of each. time in the street where you were stopped by a drove of oxen, and you and he stepped afide to take fhelter but for five minutes, he'd talk to you in fuch a manner, that, when you parted, you would fay, this is an extraordinary man. Now, you may be long enough with me, without finding any thing extraordinary." He faid, he believed Burke was intended for the law; but either had not money enough to follow it, or had not diligence enough. He faid, he could not understand how a man could apply to one thing, and not to another. Robertfon faid, one man had more judgment, another more imagination.-Johnson. "No, fir; it is only, one man has more mind than another. He He may direct it differently; he may, by accident, fee the fuccefs of one kind of study, and take a defire to excel in it. I am perfuaded that, had Sir Ifaac Newton applied to poetry, he would have made a very fine epick poem. I could as eafily apply to law as to tragick poetry."-Bofwell. "Yet, fir, you did apply to tragick poetry, not to law."-Johnson. "Because, fir, I had not money to ftudy law. Sir, the man who has vigour, may walk to the east, just as well as to the weft, if he happens to turn his head that way."-Bofwell. But, fir, 'tis like walking up and down a hill; one man will naturally do the one better than the other. A hare will run up a hill beft, from her fore-legs being fhort; a dog down." Johnfon. "Nay, fir; that is from mechanical powers. If you make mind mechanical, you may argue in that manner. One mind is a vice, and holds faft; there's a good memory. Another is a file; and he is a difputant, a controverfialift. Another is a razor; and he is farcaftical."--We talked of White field. He faid, he was at the fame college with him, and knew him before he began to be better than other people (fmiling); that he believed he fincerely meant well, but had a mixture of politicks and oftentation: whereas Wefley thought of religion only*.-Robertfon faid, Whitefield had strong natural eloquence, which, if cultivated, would have done great things.—Johnson. Why, fir, I take it, he was at the height of what his abilities could do, and was fenfible of it. He had the ordinary advantages of education; but he chofe to purfue that oratory which is for the mob."-Bofwell. "He had great effect on the paffions."-Johnfon. "Why, fir, I don't think fo. He could not reprefent a fucceffion of pathetick images. He vociferated, and made an impreffion. There, again, was a mind like a hammer."-Dr. Johnfon now faid, a certain eminent political friend of our's was wrong, in his maxim of sticking to a certain fet of men on all occafions. "I can fee that a man may do right to ftick to a party (faid he); that is to fay, he is a Whig, or he is a Tory, and he thinks one of those parties upon the whole the beft, and that to make it prevail, it must be generally fupported, though, in particulars, it may be wrong. He takes its fag got * That cannot be faid now, after the flagrant part which Mr. John Wesley took against our American brethren, when, in his own name, he threw amongst his enthufiaftick flock, the very individual combustibles of Dr. Johnson's " Taxation no Tyranny;" and after the intolerant spirit which he manifefted against our fellow-chriftians of the Roman Catholick Communion, for which that able champion, Father O'Leary, has given him fo hearty a drubbing. But I should think myfelf very unworthy, if I did not at the fame time acknowledge Mr. John Wesley's merit, as a veteran "Soldier of Jefus Chrift," who has, I do believe, turned many from darkness into light, and from the power of Satan to the living GOD.” got of principles, in which there are fewer rotten. fticks than in the other, though fome rotten sticks to be fure; and they cannot well be feparated. But, to bind one's felf to one man, or one fet of men, (who may be right to-day and wrong to-morrow,) without any general preference of system, I must disapprove" He told us of Cooke, who tranflated Hefiod, and lived twenty years on a tranflation of Plautus, for * If due attention were paid to this obfervation, there would be more virtue, even in politicks. What Dr. Johnson juftly condemned, has, I am forry to fay, greatly increased in the prefent reign. At the distance of four years from this conversation, 21st February 1777, My Lord Archbishop of York, in his "fermon before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," thus indignantly defcribes the then ftate of parties: "Parties once had a principle belonging to them, abfurd perhaps, " and indefenfible, but ftill carrying a notion of duty, by which "honeft minds might eafily be caught. "But they are now combinations of individuals, who, instead of being the fons and fervants of the community, make a league for advancing their private interefts. It is their bufiness to hold high "the notion of political bonour. I believe and truft, it is not injurious to fay, that fuch a bond is no better than that by which the floweft and wickedeft combinations are held together; and that it "denotes the last tage of political depravity." To find a thought, which juft fhewed itself to us from the mind of Johnson, thus appearing again at fuch a distance of time, and without any communication between them, enlarged to full growth in the mind of Markham, is a curious object of philofophical contemplation. -That two fuch great and luminous minds fhould have been fo dark in one corner, that they should have held it to be "Wicked rebellion in the British subjects established in America,to refift the abject condition of holding all their property at the mercy of British subjects remain. ing at home, while their allegiance to our common Lord the King was to be preserved inviolate,—is a striking proof to me, either that "He who fitteth in Heaven," fcorns the loftinefs of human pride,or that the evil fpirit, whofe perfonal exiftence I ftrongly believe, and even in this age am confirmed in that belief by a Fell, nay, by a Hurd, has more power than fome choose to allow, for which he was always taking fubfcriptions; and that he prefented Foote to a Club, in the following fingular manner: "This is the nephew of the gentleman who was lately hung in chains for murdering his brother." In the evening I introduced to Mr. Johnson* two good friends of mine, Mr. William Nairne, Advocate, and Mr. Hamilton of Sundrum, my neighbour in the country, both of whom fupped with us. I have preferved nothing of what paffed, except that Dr. Johnson displayed another of his heterodox opinions, a contempt of tragick acting. He faid, "the action of all players in tragedy is bad. It fhould be a man's ftudy to reprefs thofe figns of emotion and paffion, as they are called." He was of a directly contrary opinion to that of Fielding, in his Tom Jones; who makes Partridge say, of Garrick, " why, I could act as well as he myself. I "am fure, if I had feen a ghost, I should have looked in the very fame manner, and done just as he did." For, when I asked him, "Would not you, fir, start as Mr. Garrick does, a ghoft?" He answered, "I hope not. I fhould frighten the ghoft." "as Monday, 16th Auguft. if you faw If I did, Dr. William Robertfon came to breakfast. We talked of Ogden on Prayer. Prayer. Dr. Johnson said, "The *It may be obferved, that I fometimes call my great friend, Mr. Johnfon, fometimes Dr. Johnson; though he had at this time a doctor's degree from Trinity College, Dublin. The University of Oxford afterwards conferred it upon him by a diploma, in very honourable terms. It was fome time before I could bring myself tą call him Doctor; but, as he has been long known by that title, fhall give it to him in the rest of this Journal. |