Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol. II — 1773 part 1

'I am, &c. 'JAMES BOSWELL.'

1773: AETAT.

64. --In 1773 his only publication was an edition of his folio _Dictionary_, with additions and corrections[585]; nor did he, so far as is known, furnish any productions of his fertile pen to any of his numerous friends or dependants, except the Preface[586] to his old amanuensis Macbean's _Dictionary of Ancient Geography_.

[587] His _Shakspeare_, indeed, which had been received with high approbation by the publick, and gone through several editions, was this year re-published by George Steevens, Esq.

, a gentleman not only deeply skilled in ancient learning, and of very extensive reading in English literature, especially the early writers, but at the same time of acute discernment and elegant taste.

[588] It is almost unnecessary to say, that by his great and valuable additions to Dr. Johnson's work, he justly obtained considerable reputation: '_Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet_.'

[589] 'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

'DEAR SIR, 'I have read your kind letter much more than the elegant _Pindar_ which it accompanied.

I am always glad to find myself not forgotten; and to be forgotten by you would give me great uneasiness.

My northern friends have never been unkind to me: I have from you, dear Sir, testimonies of affection, which I have not often been able to excite; and Dr. Beattie rates the testimony which I was desirous of paying to his merit, much higher than I should have thought it reasonable to expect.

'I have heard of your masquerade[590].

What says your synod to such innovations?

I am not studiously scrupulous, nor do I think a masquerade either evil in itself, or very likely to be the occasion of evil; yet as the world thinks it a very licentious relaxation of manners, I would not have been one of the _first_ masquers in a country where no masquerade had ever been before[591].

'A new edition of my great _Dictionary_ is printed, from a copy which I was persuaded to revise; but having made no preparation, I was able to do very little.

Some superfluities I have expunged, and some faults I have corrected, and here and there have scattered a remark; but the main fabrick of the work remains as it was.

I had looked very little into it since I wrote it, and, I think, I found it full as often better, as worse, than I expected.

'Baretti and Davies have had a furious quarrel[592]; a quarrel, I think, irreconcileable.

Dr. Goldsmith has a new comedy, which is expected in the spring.

No name is yet given it[593].

The chief diversion arises from a stratagem by which a lover is made to mistake his future father-in-law's house for an inn.

This, you see, borders upon farce.

The dialogue is quick and gay, and the incidents are so prepared as not to seem improbable.

'I am sorry that you lost your cause of Intromission, because I yet think the arguments on your side unanswerable.

But you seem, I think, to say that you gained reputation even by your defeat; and reputation you will daily gain, if you keep Lord Auchinleck's precept in your mind, and endeavour to consolidate in your mind a firm and regular system of law, instead of picking up occasional fragments.

'My health seems in general to improve; but I have been troubled for many weeks with a vexatious catarrh, which is sometimes sufficiently distressful.

I have not found any great effects from bleeding and physick; and am afraid, that I must expect help from brighter days and softer air.

'Write to me now and then; and whenever any good befalls you, make haste to let me know it, for no one will rejoice at it more than, dear Sir, 'Your most humble servant, 'SAM.

JOHNSON.'

'London, Feb.

24, 1773.' 'You continue to stand very high in the favour of Mrs. Thrale.'

While a former edition of my work was passing through the press, I was unexpectedly favoured with a packet from Philadelphia, from Mr. James Abercrombie, a gentleman of that country, who is pleased to honour me with very high praise of my _Life of Dr. Johnson_.

To have the fame of my illustrious friend, and his faithful biographer, echoed from the New World is extremely flattering; and my grateful acknowledgements shall be wafted across the Atlantick.

Mr. Abercrombie has politely conferred on me a considerable additional obligation, by transmitting to me copies of two letters from Dr. Johnson to American gentlemen.

'Gladly, Sir, (says he,) would I have sent you the originals; but being the only relicks of the kind in America, they are considered by the possessors of such inestimable value, that no possible consideration would induce them to part with them.

In some future publication of yours relative to that great and good man, they may perhaps be thought worthy of insertion.'

'To MR. B---D[594].

'SIR, 'That in the hurry of a sudden departure you should yet find leisure to consult my convenience, is a degree of kindness, and an instance of regard, not only beyond my claims, but above my expectation.

You are not mistaken in supposing that I set a high value on my American friends, and that you should confer a very valuable favour upon me by giving me an opportunity of keeping myself in their memory.

'I have taken the liberty of troubling you with a packet, to which I wish a safe and speedy conveyance, because I wish a safe and speedy voyage to him that conveys it.

I am, Sir, 'Your most humble servant, 'SAM.

JOHNSON.'

'London, Johnson's-court, Fleet street, March 4, 1773.' 'To THE REVEREND MR. WHITE[595].

'DEAR SIR, 'Your kindness for your friends accompanies you across the Atlantick.

It was long since observed by Horace[596], that no ship could leave care behind; you have been attended in your voyage by other powers,--by benevolence and constancy; and I hope care did not often shew her face in their company.

'I received the copy of _Rasselas_.

The impression is not magnificent, but it flatters an authour, because the printer seems to have expected that it would be scattered among the people.

The little book has been well received, and is translated into Italian[597], French[598], German, and Dutch[599].

It has now one honour more by an American edition.

'I know not that much has happened since your departure that can engage your curiosity.

Of all publick transactions the whole world is now informed by the newspapers.

Opposition seems to despond; and the dissenters, though they have taken advantage of unsettled times, and a government much enfeebled, seem not likely to gain any immunities[600].

'Dr. Goldsmith has a new comedy in rehearsal at Covent-Garden, to which the manager predicts ill success[601].

I hope he will be mistaken.

I think it deserves a very kind reception.

'I shall soon publish a new edition of my large _Dictionary_; I have been persuaded to revise it, and have mended some faults, but added little to its usefulness.

'No book has been published since your departure, of which much notice is taken.

Faction only fills the town with pamphlets, and greater subjects are forgotten in the noise of discord.

'Thus have I written, only to tell you how little I have to tell.

Of myself I can only add, that having been afflicted many weeks with a very troublesome cough, I am now recovered.

'I take the liberty which you give me of troubling you with a letter, of which you will please to fill up the direction.

I am, Sir, 'Your most humble servant, 'SAM JOHNSON.'

'Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, London, March 4, 1773.' On Saturday, April 3, the day after my arrival in London this year, I went to his house late in the evening, and sat with Mrs. Williams till he came home.

I found in the _London Chronicle_, Dr. Goldsmith's apology[602] to the publick for beating Evans, a bookseller, on account of a paragraph in a newspaper published by him, which Goldsmith thought impertinent to him and to a lady of his acquaintance[603].

The apology was written so much in Dr. Johnson's manner, that both Mrs. Williams and I supposed it to be his; but when he came home, he soon undeceived us.

When he said to Mrs. Williams, 'Well, Dr. Goldsmith's _manifesto_ has got into your paper[604];' I asked him if Dr. Goldsmith had written it, with an air that made him see I suspected it was his, though subscribed by Goldsmith.

JOHNSON.

'Sir, Dr. Goldsmith would no more have asked me to write such a thing as that for him, than he would have asked me to feed him with a spoon, or to do anything else that denoted his imbecility.

I as much believe that he wrote it, as if I had seen him do it.

Sir, had he shewn it to any one friend, he would not have been allowed to publish it.

He has, indeed, done it very well; but it is a foolish thing well done.

I suppose he has been so much elated with the success of his new comedy, that he has thought every thing that concerned him must be of importance to the publick.'

BOSWELL.

'I fancy, Sir, this is the first time that he has been engaged in such an adventure.'

JOHNSON.

'Why, Sir, I believe it is the first time he has _beat_; he may have _been beaten_ before[605].

This, Sir, is a new plume to him.'

I mentioned Sir John Dalrymple's _Memoirs of Great-Britain and Ireland_, and his discoveries to the prejudice of Lord Russel and Algernon Sydney.

JOHNSON.

'Why, Sir, every body who had just notions of government thought them rascals before.

It is well that all mankind now see them to be rascals.'

BOSWELL.

'But, Sir, may not those discoveries be true without their being rascals?'

JOHNSON.

'Consider, Sir; would any of them have been willing to have had it known that they intrigued with France?

Depend upon it, Sir, he who does what he is afraid should be known, has something rotten about him.

This Dalrymple seems to be an honest fellow[606]; for he tells equally what makes against both sides.

But nothing can be poorer than his mode of writing, it is the mere bouncing of a school-boy.

Great He!

but greater She!

and such stuff[607].'

I could not agree with him in this criticism; for though Sir John Dalrymple's style is not regularly formed in any respect, and one cannot help smiling sometimes at his affected _grandiloquence_, there is in his writing a pointed vivacity, and much of a gentlemanly spirit.

At Mr. Thrale's, in the evening, he repeated his usual paradoxical declamation against action in publick speaking[608].

'Action can have no effect upon reasonable minds.

It may augment noise, but it never can enforce argument.

If you speak to a dog, you use action; you hold up your hand thus, because he is a brute; and in proportion as men are removed from brutes, action will have the less influence upon them.'

MRS.

THRALE.

'What then, Sir, becomes of Demosthenes's saying?

"Action, action, action!"

' JOHNSON.

'Demosthenes, Madam, spoke to an assembly of brutes; to a barbarous people[609].'

I thought it extraordinary, that he should deny the power of rhetorical action upon human nature, when it is proved by innumerable facts in all stages of society.

Reasonable beings are not solely reasonable.

They have fancies which may be pleased, passions which may be roused.

Lord Chesterfield being mentioned, Johnson remarked, that almost all of that celebrated nobleman's witty sayings were puns[610].

He, however, allowed the merit of good wit to his Lordship's saying of Lord Tyrawley[611] and himself, when both very old and infirm: 'Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years; but we don't choose to have it known.'

He talked with approbation of an intended edition of _The_ Spectator, with notes; two volumes of which had been prepared by a gentleman eminent in the literary world, and the materials which he had collected for the remainder had been transferred to another hand[612].

He observed, that all works which describe manners, require notes in sixty or seventy years, or less; and told us, he had communicated all he knew that could throw light upon _The Spectator_.

He said, 'Addison had made his Sir Andrew Freeport a true Whig, arguing against giving charity to beggars, and throwing out other such ungracious sentiments; but that he had thought better, and made amends by making him found an hospital for decayed farmers[613].'

He called for the volume of _The Spectator_, in which that account is contained, and read it aloud to us.

He read so well, that every thing acquired additional weight and grace from his utterance[614].

The conversation having turned on modern imitations of ancient ballads, and some one having praised their simplicity, he treated them with that ridicule which he always displayed when that subject was mentioned[615].

He disapproved of introducing scripture phrases into secular discourse.

This seemed to me a question of some difficulty.

A scripture expression may be used, like a highly classical phrase, to produce an instantaneous strong impression; and it may be done without being at all improper.

Yet I own there is danger, that applying the language of our sacred book to ordinary subjects may tend to lessen our reverence for it.

If therefore it be introduced at all, it should be with very great caution.

On Thursday, April 8, I sat a good part of the evening with him, but he was very silent.

He said, 'Burnet's _History of his own times_ is very entertaining[616].

The style, indeed, is mere chitchat[617].

I do not believe that Burnet intentionally lyed; but he was so much prejudiced, that he took no pains to find out the truth.

He was like a man who resolves to regulate his time by a certain watch; but will not inquire whether the watch is right or not[618].'

Though he was not disposed to talk, he was unwilling that I should leave him; and when I looked at my watch, and told him it was twelve o'clock, he cried, 'What's that to you and me?'

and ordered Frank to tell Mrs. Williams that we were coming to drink tea with her, which we did.

It was settled that we should go to church together next day.

On the 9th of April, being Good Friday, I breakfasted with him on tea and cross-buns[619]; _Doctor_ Levet, as Frank called him, making the tea.

He carried me with him to the church of St. Clement Danes, where he had his seat; and his behaviour was, as I had imaged to myself, solemnly devout[620].

I never shall forget the tremulous earnestness with which he pronounced the awful petition in the Litany: 'In the hour of death, and at[621] the day of judgement, good LORD deliver us.'

We went to church both in the morning and evening.

In the interval between the two services we did not dine; but he read in the Greek New Testament, and I turned over several of his books.

In Archbishop Laud's Diary, I found the following passage, which I read to Dr. Johnson:-- '1623. February 1, Sunday.

I stood by the most illustrious Prince Charles[622], at dinner.

He was then very merry, and talked occasionally of many things with his attendants.

Among other things, he said, that if he were necessitated to take any particular profession of life, he could not be a lawyer, adding his reasons: "I cannot (saith he,) defend a bad, nor yield in a good cause."

' JOHNSON.

'Sir, this is false reasoning; because every cause has a bad side[623]; and a lawyer is not overcome, though the cause which he has endeavoured to support be determined against him.'

I told him that Goldsmith had said to me a few days before, 'As I take my shoes from the shoemaker, and my coat from the taylor, so I take my religion from the priest.'

I regretted this loose way of talking.

JOHNSON.

'Sir, he knows nothing; he has made up his mind about nothing[624].'

To my great surprize he asked me to dine with him on Easter-day.

I never supposed that he had a dinner at his house; for I had not then heard of any one of his friends having been entertained at his table.

He told me, 'I generally have a meat pye on Sunday: it is baked at a publick oven, which is very properly allowed, because one man can attend it; and thus the advantage is obtained of not keeping servants from church to dress dinners[625].'

April 11, being Easter-Sunday, after having attended Divine Service at St. Paul's, I repaired to Dr. Johnson's. I had gratified my curiosity much in dining with JEAN JAQUES ROUSSEAU[626], while he lived in the wilds of Neufchatel: I had as great a curiosity to dine with DR. SAMUEL

JOHNSON, in the dusky recess of a court in Fleet-street.

I supposed we should scarcely have knives and forks, and only some strange, uncouth, ill-drest dish: but I found every thing in very good order.

We had no other company but Mrs. Williams and a young woman whom I did not know.

As a dinner here was considered as a singular phenomenon, and as I was frequently interrogated on the subject, my readers may perhaps be desirous to know our bill of fare.

Foote, I remember, in allusion to Francis, the _negro_, was willing to suppose that our repast was _black broth_.

But the fact was, that we had a very good soup, a boiled leg of lamb and spinach, a veal pye, and a rice pudding[627].

Of Dr. John Campbell, the authour, he said, 'He is a very inquisitive and a very able man, and a man of good religious principles, though I am afraid he has been deficient in practice.

Campbell is radically right;

and we may hope, that in time there will be good practice[628].'

He owned that he thought Hawkesworth was one of his imitators[629], but he did not think Goldsmith was.

Goldsmith, he said, had great merit.

BOSWELL.

'But, Sir, he is much indebted to you for his getting so high in the publick estimation.'

JOHNSON.

'Why, Sir, he has perhaps got _sooner_ to it by his intimacy with me.'

Goldsmith, though his vanity often excited him to occasional competition, had a very high regard for Johnson, which he at this time expressed in the strongest manner in the Dedication of his comedy, entitled, _She Stoops to Conquer_.

[630] Johnson observed, that there were very few books printed in Scotland before the Union.

He had seen a complete collection of them in the possession of the Hon. Archibald Campbell, a non-juring Bishop[631].

I

wish this collection had been kept entire.

Many of them are in the library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh.

I told Dr. Johnson that I had some intention to write the life of the learned and worthy Thomas Ruddiman[632].

He said, 'I should take pleasure in helping you to do honour to him.

But his farewell letter to the Faculty of Advocates, when he resigned the office of their Librarian, should have been in Latin.'

I put a question to him upon a fact in common life, which he could not answer, nor have I found any one else who could.

What is the reason that women servants, though obliged to be at the expense of purchasing their own clothes, have much lower wages than men servants, to whom a great proportion of that article is furnished, and when in fact our female house servants work much harder than the male[633]?

He told me that he had twelve or fourteen times attempted to keep a journal of his life, but never could persevere[634].

He advised me to do it.

'The great thing to be recorded, (said he), is the state of your own mind[635]; and you should write down every thing that you remember, for you cannot judge at first what is good or bad; and write immediately while the impression is fresh, for it will not be the same a week afterwards[636].'

I again solicited him to communicate to me the particulars of his early life.

He said, 'You shall have them all for twopence.

I hope you shall know a great deal more of me before you write my Life.'

He mentioned to me this day many circumstances, which I wrote down when I went home, and have interwoven in the former part of this narrative.

On Tuesday, April 13, he and Dr. Goldsmith and I dined at General Oglethorpe's. Goldsmith expatiated on the common topick, that the race of our people was degenerated, and that this was owing to luxury.

JOHNSON.

'Sir, in the first place, I doubt the fact[637].

I believe there are as many tall men in England now, as ever there were.

But, secondly, supposing the stature of our people to be diminished, that is not owing to luxury; for, Sir, consider to how very small a proportion of our people luxury can reach.

Our soldiery, surely, are not luxurious, who live on six-pence a day[638]; and the same remark will apply to almost all the other classes.

Luxury, so far as it reaches the poor, will do good to the race of people; it will strengthen and multiply them.

Sir, no nation was ever hurt by luxury; for, as I said before, it can reach but to a very few.

I admit that the great increase of commerce and manufactures hurts the military spirit of a people; because it produces a competition for something else than martial honours,--a competition for riches.

It also hurts the bodies of the people; for you will observe, there is no man who works at any particular trade, but you may know him from his appearance to do so.

One part or other of his body being more used than the rest, he is in some degree deformed: but, Sir, that is not luxury.

A tailor sits cross-legged; but that is not luxury.'

GOLDSMITH.

'Come, you're just going to the same place by another road.'

JOHNSON.

'Nay, Sir, I say that is not _luxury_.

Let us take a walk from Charing-cross to White-chapel, through, I suppose, the greatest series of shops in the world; what is there in any of these shops (if you except gin-shops,) that can do any human being any harm?'

GOLDSMITH.

'Well, Sir, I'll accept your challenge.

The very next shop to Northumberland-house is a pickle-shop.'

JOHNSON.

'Well, Sir: do we not know that a maid can in one afternoon make pickles sufficient to serve a whole family for a year?

nay, that five pickle-shops can serve all the kingdom?

Besides, Sir, there is no harm done to any body by the making of pickles, or the eating of pickles.'

We drank tea with the ladies; and Goldsmith sung Tony Lumpkin's song in his comedy, _She Stoops to Conquer_, and a very pretty one, to an Irish tune[639], which he had designed for Miss Hardcastle; but as Mrs. Bulkeley, who played the part, could not sing, it was left out.

He afterwards wrote it down for me, by which means it was preserved, and now appears amongst his poems[640].

Dr. Johnson, in his way home, stopped at my lodgings in Piccadilly, and sat with me, drinking tea a second time, till a late hour.

I told him that Mrs. Macaulay said, she wondered how he could reconcile his political principles with his moral; his notions of inequality and subordination with wishing well to the happiness of all mankind, who might live so agreeably, had they all their portions of land, and none to domineer over another.

JOHNSON.

'Why, Sir, I reconcile my principles very well, because mankind are happier in a state of inequality and subordination[641].

Were they to be in this pretty state of equality, they would soon degenerate into brutes;--they would become Monboddo's nation[642];--their tails would grow.

Sir, all would be losers were all to work for all:--they would have no intellectual improvement.

All intellectual improvement arises from leisure; all leisure arises from one working for another.'

Talking of the family of Stuart[643], he said, 'It should seem that the family at present on the throne has now established as good a right as the former family, by the long consent of the people; and that to disturb this right might be considered as culpable.

At the same time I own, that it is a very difficult question, when considered with respect to the house of Stuart.

To oblige people to take oaths as to the disputed right, is wrong.

I know not whether I could take them: but I do not blame those who do.'

So conscientious and so delicate was he upon this subject, which has occasioned so much clamour against him.

Talking of law cases, he said, 'The English reports, in general, are very poor: only the half of what has been said is taken down; and of that half, much is mistaken.

Whereas, in Scotland, the arguments on each side are deliberately put in writing, to be considered by the Court.

I

think a collection of your cases upon subjects of importance, with the opinions of the Judges upon them, would be valuable.'

On Thursday, April 15, I dined with him and Dr. Goldsmith at General Paoli's. We found here Signor Martinelli, of Florence, authour of a _History of England_, in Italian, printed at London.

I spoke of Allan Ramsay's _Gentle Shepherd_, in the Scottish dialect, as the best pastoral that had ever been written; not only abounding with beautiful rural imagery, and just and pleasing sentiments, but being a real picture of manners; and I offered to teach Dr. Johnson to understand it.

'No, Sir (said he,) I won't learn it.

You shall retain your superiority by my not knowing it.'

This brought on a question whether one man is lessened by another's acquiring an equal degree of knowledge with him[644].

Johnson asserted the affirmative.

I maintained that the position might be true in those kinds of knowledge which produce wisdom, power, and force, so as to enable one man to have the government of others; but that a man is not in any degree lessened by others knowing as well as he what ends in mere pleasure:--eating fine fruits, drinking delicious wines, reading exquisite poetry.

The General observed, that Martinelli was a Whig.

JOHNSON.

'I am sorry for it.

It shows the spirit of the times: he is obliged to temporise.'

BOSWELL.

'I rather think, Sir, that Toryism prevails in this reign.'

JOHNSON.

'I know not why you should think so, Sir.

You see your friend Lord Lyttelton[645], a nobleman, is obliged in his _History_ to write the most vulgar Whiggism.'

An animated debate took place whether Martinelli should continue his _History of England_ to the present day.

GOLDSMITH.

'To be sure he should.'

JOHNSON.

'No, Sir; he would give great offence.

He would have to tell of almost all the living great what they do not wish told.'

GOLDSMITH.

'It may, perhaps, be necessary for a native to be more cautious; but a foreigner who comes among us without prejudice, may be considered as holding the place of a Judge, and may speak his mind freely.'

JOHNSON.

'Sir, a foreigner, when he sends a work from the press, ought to be on his guard against catching the errour and mistaken enthusiasm of the people among whom he happens to be.'

GOLDSMITH.

'Sir, he wants only to sell his history, and to tell truth; one an honest, the other a laudable motive.'

JOHNSON.

'Sir, they are both laudable motives.

It is laudable in a man to wish to live by his labours; but he should write so as he may _live_ by them, not so as he may be knocked on the head.

I would advise him to be at Calais before he publishes his history of the present age.

A foreigner who attaches himself to a political party in this country, is in the worst state that can be imagined: he is looked upon as a mere intermeddler.

A native may do it from interest.'

BOSWELL.

'Or principle.'

GOLDSMITH.

'There are people who tell a hundred political lies every day, and are not hurt by it.

Surely, then, one may tell truth with safety.'

JOHNSON.

'Why, Sir, in the first place, he who tells a hundred lies has disarmed the force of his lies[646].

But besides;

a man had rather have a hundred lies told of him, than one truth which he does not wish should be told.'

GOLDSMITH.

'For my part, I'd tell truth, and shame the devil.'

JOHNSON.

'Yes, Sir; but the devil will be angry.

I wish to shame the devil as much you do, but I should choose to be out of the reach of his claws.'

GOLDSMITH.

'His claws can do you no harm, when you have the shield of truth.'

It having been observed that there was little hospitality in London;--JOHNSON.

'Nay, Sir, any man who has a name, or who has the power of pleasing, will be very generally invited in London.

The man, Sterne, I have been told, has had engagements for three months[647].'

GOLDSMITH.

'And a very dull fellow.'

JOHNSON.

'Why, no, Sir[648].'

Martinelli told us, that for several years he lived much with Charles Townshend, and that he ventured to tell him he was a bad joker.

JOHNSON.

'Why, Sir, thus much I can say upon the subject.

One day he and a few more agreed to go and dine in the country, and each of them was to bring a friend in his carriage with him.

Charles Townshend asked Fitzherbert to go with him, but told him, 'You must find somebody to bring you back: I can only carry you there.'

Fitzherbert did not much like this arrangement.

He however consented, observing sarcastically, 'It will do very well; for then the same jokes will serve you in returning as in going[649].'

An eminent publick character[650] being mentioned;--JOHNSON.

'I remember being present when he shewed himself to be so corrupted, or at least something so different from what I think right, as to maintain, that a member of parliament should go along with his party right or wrong.

Now, Sir, this is so remote from native virtue, from scholastick virtue, that a good man must have undergone a great change before he can reconcile himself to such a doctrine.

It is maintaining that you may lie to the publick; for you lie when you call that right which you think wrong, or the reverse[651].

A friend of ours, who is too much an echo of that gentleman, observed, that a man who does not stick uniformly to a party, is only waiting to be bought.

Why then, said I, he is only waiting to be what that gentleman is already.'

We talked of the King's coming to see Goldsmith's new play.

--'I wish he would[652],' said Goldsmith; adding, however, with an affected indifference, 'Not that it would do me the least good.'

JOHNSON.

'Well then, Sir, let us say it would do _him_ good, (laughing).

No, Sir, this affectation will not pass;--it is mighty idle.

In such a state as ours, who would not wish to please the Chief Magistrate?'

GOLDSMITH.

'I _do_ wish to please him.

I remember a line in Dryden,-- "And every poet is the monarch's friend."

It ought to be reversed.'

JOHNSON.