rimentum in corpore vili, said a French physician to his colleague, in speaking of the disorder of a poor man that understood Latin, and who was brought into an hospital; corpus non tam vile est, says the patient, pro quo Christus ipse non dedignatus est mori. Johnson used to say, a man was a scoundrel that was afraid of any thing.

After having disused swimming for many years, he went into the river at Oxford, and swam away to a part of it that he had been told of as a dangerous place, and where some one had been drowned.

He waited on Lord Marchmont to make some inquiries after particulars of Mr. Pope's life; his first question was,-What kind of a man was Mr. Pope in his conversation? his lordship answered, that if the conversation did not take something of a lively or epigrammatick turn, he fell asleep, or perhaps pretended to do so.

Talking one day of the patronage the great sometimes affect to give to literature, and literary men,—Andrew Millar, says he, is the Mecænas of the age.

Of the state of learning among the Scots, he said,—It is with their learning as with provisions in a besieged town, every one has a mouthful, and no one a bellyfull.

Of Sir Joshua Reynolds he requested three things; that he would not work on a Sunday; that he would read a portion of scripture on that day; and that he would forgive him a debt which he had incurred for some benevolent purpose.

When he first felt the stroke of the palsy, he prayed to God that he would spare his mind, whatever he thought fit to do with his body.

To some lady who was praising Shenstone's poems very much, and who had an Italian greyhound lying by the fire, he said, Shenstone holds amongst poets the same rank your dog holds amongst dogs; he has not the sagacity of the hound, the docility of the spaniel, nor the courage of the bull-dog, yet he is still a pretty fellow.

Johnson said he was better pleased with the commendations bestowed on his account of the Hebrides than on any book he had ever written. Burke, says he, thought well of the philosophy of it; Sir William Jones of the observations on language; and Mr. Jackson of those on trade.

Of Foote's wit and readiness of repartee he thought very

highly-He was, says he, the readiest dog at an escape I ever knew; if you thought you had him on the ground fairly down, he was upon his legs and over your shoulders again in an instant.

When some one asked him, whether they should introduce Hugh Kelly, the author, to him;-No, Sir, says he, I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read :—yet when his play was acted for the benefit of his widow, Johnson furnished a prologue.

He repeated poetry with wonderful energy and feeling. He was seen to weep whilst he repeated Goldsmith's character of the English in his "Traveller," beginning thus:

"Stern o'er each bosom," &c.

He was supposed to have assisted Goldsmith very much in that poem, but has been heard to say, he might have contributed three or four lines, taking together all he had done.

He held all authors very cheap, that were not satisfied with the opinion of the publick about them. He used to say, that every man who writes, thinks he can amuse or inform mankind, and they must be the best judges of his pretensions.

Of Warburton he always spoke well.

his good word when it was of use to me.

He gave me, says he,

Warburton, in the Preface to his Shakespeare, has commended Johnson's Observations on Macbeth.

Two days before he died, he said, with some pleasantry,Poor Johnson is dying; **** will say, he dies of taking a few **** will grains more of squills than were ordered him ; say, he dies of the scarifications made by the surgeon in his leg. His last act of understanding is said to have been exerted in giving his blessing to a young lady that requested it of him.

He was always ready to assist any authors in correcting their works, and selling them to booksellers.—I have done writing, said he, myself, and should assist those that do write.

Johnson always advised his friends, when they were about to marry, to unite themselves to a woman of a pious and religious frame of mind.-Fear of the world, and a sense of honour, said he, may have an effect upon a man's conduct and behaviour; a woman without religion is without the only motive that in general can incite her to do well.

When some one asked him for what he should marry, he replied, first, for virtue; secondly, for wit; thirdly, for beauty; and fourthly, for money.

He thought worse of the vices of retirement than of those of society.

He attended Mr. Thrale in his last moments, and stayed in the room praying, as is imagined, till he had drawn his last breath. His servants, said he, would have waited upon him in this awful period, and why not his friend?

He was extremely fond of reading the lives of great and learned persons. Two or three years before he died, he applied to a friend of his to give him a list of those in the French language that were well written and genuine. He said, that Bolingbroke had declared he could not read Middleton's life of Cicero.

He was a great enemy to the present fashionable way of supposing worthless and infamous persons mad.

He was not apt to judge ill of persons without good reasons; an old friend of his used to say, that in general he thought too well of mankind.

One day, on seeing an old terrier lie asleep by the fire-side at Streatham, he said, Presto, you are, if possible, a more lazy dog than I am.

Being told that Churchill had abused him under the character of Pomposo, in his Ghost,-I always thought, said he, he was a shallow fellow, and I think so still.

The duke of *** once said to Johnson, that every religion had a certain degree of morality in it;-Aye, my lord, answered he, but the Christian religion alone puts it on its proper basis.

When some one asked him how he felt at the indifferent reception of his tragedy at Drury Lane;-Like the Monument, said he, and as unshaken as that fabrick.

Being asked by Dr. Lawrence what he thought the best system of education, he replied,-School in school-hours, and homeinstruction in the intervals.

I would never, said he, desire a young man to neglect his business for the purpose of pursuing his studies, because it is unreasonable; I would only desire him to read at those hours when he would otherwise be unemployed. I will not promise that he will be a Bentley; but if he be a lad of any parts, he will certainly make a sensible man.

The picture of him by Sir Joshua Reynolds,' which was painted for Mr. Beauclerk, and is now Mr. Langton's, and scraped in mezzotinto by Doughty, is extremely like him; there is in it that appearance of a labouring working mind, of an indolent reposing body, which he had to a very great degree. wrote under his picture,

Beauclerk

Indeed, the common operations of dressing, shaving, &c., were a toil to him; he held the care of the body very cheap. He used to say, that a man who rode out for an appetite consulted but little the dignity of human nature.

The life of Charles XII. by Voltaire, he said, was one of the finest pieces of history ever written.

He was much pleased with an Italian improvisatore, whom he saw at Streatham, and with whom he talked much in Latin. He told him, if he had not been a witness to his faculty himself, he should not have thought it possible. He said, Isaac Hawkins Browne had endeavoured at it in English, but could not get beyond thirty verses.

When a Scotsman was one day talking to him of the great writers of that country that were then existing, he said,-We have taught that nation to write, and do they pretend to be our teachers? let me hear no more of the tinsel of Robertson, and the foppery of Dalrymple. He said, Hume had taken his style. from Voltaire. He would never hear Hume mentioned with any temper :-A man, said he, who endeavoured to persuade his friend who had the stone to shoot himself!

Upon hearing a lady of his acquaintance commended for her learning, he said,—A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek. My old friend, Mrs. Carter, said he, could make a pudding, as well as translate Epictetus from the Greek, and work a handkerchief as well as compose a poem. He thought she was too reserved in conversation upon subjects she was so eminently able to converse upon, which was occasioned by her modesty and fear of giving offence.

1 Now in the possession of John Murray, Esq., Albemarle Street.Editor.

Being asked whether he had read Mrs. Macaulay's second volume of the History of England;-No, Sir, says he, nor her first neither. He would not be introduced to the Abbé Raynal, when he was in England.

He was one night behind the scenes at Drury-lane theatre, when Mr. Garrick was preparing to go upon the stage in the character of Macbeth, and making a great noise by talking, Mr. Garrick desired him to desist, as he would interrupt his feelings ;Punch, says Johnson, has no feelings; had you told me to have held my tongue I should have known what you meant.

He said, that when he first conversed with Mr. Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, he was very much inclined to believe he had been there; but that he had afterwards altered his opinion.

He was much pleased with Dr. Jortin's Sermons, the language of which he thought very elegant; but thought his life of Erasmus a dull book.

He was very well acquainted with Psalmanaazar, the pretended Formosan, and said, he had never seen the close of the life of any one that he wished so much his own to resemble, as that of him, for its purity and devotion. He told many anecdotes of him; and said he was supposed by his accent to have been a Gascon. He said, that Psalmanaazar spoke English with the city accent, and coarsely enough. He for some years spent his evenings at a publick house near Old-Street, where many persons went to talk with him; Johnson was asked whether he ever contradicted Psalmanaazar;-I should as soon, said he, have thought of contradicting a bishop; —so high did he hold his character in the latter part of his life. When he was asked whether he had ever mentioned Formosa before him, he said, he was afraid to mention even China.

He thought "Cato" the best model of tragedy we had; yet he used to say, of all things, the most ridiculous would be, to see a girl cry at the representation of it.

He thought the happiest life was that of a man of business, with some literary pursuits for his amusement; and that in general no one could be virtuous or happy, that was not completely employed.

Johnson had read much in the works of Bishop Taylor; in his Dutch Thomas à Kempis he has quoted him occasionally in the margin.

He is said to have very frequently made sermons for clergymen