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be affected.

He faid, "This is a total extinction to their family, as much as 1776. if they were fold into captivity." Upon my mentioning that Mr. Thrale Etat. 67. had daughters, who might inherit his wealth;" Daughters, (faid Johnson, warmly,) he'll no he'll no more value his daughters than-" I was going to fpeak." Sir, (faid he,) don't you know how you yourself think? Sir, he wishes to propagate his name." In short, I saw male fucceffion strong in his mind, even where there was no name, no family of any long fstanding. I faid, it was lucky he was not prefent when this misfortune happened. JOHNSON. "It is lucky for me. People in diftrefs never think that you feel enough." BOSWELL. "And, Sir, they will have the hope of feeing you, which will be a relief in the mean time; and when you get to them, the pain will be so far abated, that they will be capable of being confoled by you, which, in the first violence of it, I believe, would not be the cafe." JOHNSON. "No, Sir; violent pain of mind, as violent pain of body, must be feverely felt." BOSWELL. "I own, Sir, I have not fo much feeling for the diftrefs of others, as fome people have, or pretend to have: but I know this, that I would do all in my power to relieve them." JOHNSON. "Sir, it is affectation to pretend to feel the diftrefs of others, as much as they do themselves. It is equally fo, as if one fhould pretend to feel as much pain while a friend's leg is cutting off, as he does. No, Sir; you have expressed the rational and juft nature of fympathy. I would have gone to the extremity of the earth to have preferved this boy."

He was foon quite calm. The letter was from Mr. Thrale's clerk, and concluded, "I need not fay how much they wish to fee you in London." He faid, "We fhall haften back from Taylor's."

Mrs. Lucy Porter and fome other ladies of the place talked a great deal of him when he was out of the room, not only with veneration but affection. It pleased me to find that he was fo much beloved in his native city..

Mrs. Afton, whom I had feen the preceding night, and her fifter, Mrs. Gaftrel, a widow lady, had each a house and garden, and pleasure ground, Prettily fituated upon Stowhill, a gentle eminence adjoining to Lichfield. Johnson walked away to dinner there, leaving me by myself without any apology; I wondered at this want of that facility of manners, from which a man has no difficulty in carrying a friend to a house where he is intimate; I felt it very unpleasant to be thus left in folitude in a country town, where I was an entire stranger, and began to think myself unkindly deserted; but I was foon relieved, and convinced that my friend instead of being deficient in delicacy, had conducted the matter with perfect propriety, for I received the following

note

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note in his hand-writing: "Mrs. Gaftrel, at the lower houfe on Stowhill, Etat. 67. defires Mr. Bofwell's company to dinner at two." I accepted of the invitation, and had here another proof how amiable his character was in the opinion of those who knew him beft. I was not informed, till afterwards, that Mrs. Gaftrel's husband was the clergyman who, while he lived at Stratford upon Avon, where he was proprietor of Shakspeare's garden, with Gothick barbarity cut down his mulberry-tree, and, as Dr. Johnson told me, did it to vex his neighbours. His lady, I have reafon to believe, participated in the guilt of what the enthusiasts for our immortal bard deem almost a species of facrilege.

After dinner Dr. Johnson wrote a letter to Mrs. Thrale, on the death of her fon. I faid it would be very diftreffing to Thrale, but fhe would foon forget it, as she had so many things to think of. JOHNSON. "No, Sir, Thrale will forget it first. She has many things that she may think of. He has many things that he must think of." This was a very just remark upon the different. effect of those light pursuits which occupy a vacant and easy mind, and those ferious engagements which arreft attention, and keep us from brooding over grief.

He obferved of Lord Bute, "It was faid of Auguftus, that it would have been better for Rome that he had never been born, or had never died. So it would have been better for this nation if Lord Bute had never been minifter, or had never refigned."

In the evening we went to the Town-hall, which was converted into a temporary theatre, and faw "Theodofius," with "The Stratford Jubilee." I was happy to see Dr. Johnson fitting in a confpicuous part of the pit, and receiving affectionate homage from all his acquaintance. We were quite I afterwards mentioned to him that I condemned myself for gay and merry. being fo, when poor Mr. and Mrs. Thrale were in fuch diftrefs. JOHNSON. "You are wrong, Sir; twenty years hence Mr. and Mrs. Thrale will not fuffer much pain from the death of their fon. Now, Sir, you are to confider that distance of place, as well as diftance of time, operates upon the human feelings. I would not have you be gay in the prefence of the diftreffed, because it would fhock them; but you may be gay at a diftance. Pain for the loss of a friend, or of a relation whom we love, is occafioned by the want which we feel. In time the vacuity is filled with fomething elfe; or, fometimes the vacuity clofes up of itself."

Mr. Seward and Mr. Pearfon, another clergyman here, fupt with us at our inn, and after they left us, we fat up late as we used to do in London.

Here

Here I fhall record fome fragments of my friend's converfation during this jaunt.

"Marriage, Sir, is much more neceffary to a man than to a woman; for he is much less able to fupply himfelf with domeftick comforts. You will recollect my faying to fome ladies the other day, that I had often wondered why young women should marry, as they have so much more freedom, and fo much more attention paid to them while unmarried, than when married. I indeed did not mention the ftrong reafon for their marrying-the mechanical reafon." BOSWELL." Why that is a strong one. But does not imagination make it seem much more important than it is in reality? Is it not, to a certain degree, a delufion in us as well as in women?" JOHNSON. "Why yes, Sir; but it is a delufion that is always beginning again." BOSWELL. "I don't know but there is upon the whole more misery than happiness produced by that paffion." JOHNSON. "I don't think fo, Sir."

"Never speak of a man in his own prefence. It is always indelicate, and may be offenfive."

Questioning is not the mode of converfation among gentlemen. It is affuming a fuperiority, and it is particularly wrong to queftion a man concerning himself. There may be parts of his former life which he may not wish to be made known to other perfons, or even brought to his own recollection."

"A man fhould be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own difadvantage. People may be amufed and laugh at the time, but they will be remembered, and brought out against him upon fome fubfequent occafion."

"Much may be done if a man puts his whole mind to a particular object. By doing fo, Norton has made himself the great lawyer that he is allowed to be."

I mentioned an acquaintance of mine, a fectary, who was a very religious man, who not only attended regularly on publick worship with those of his communion, but made a particular study of the Scriptures, and even wrote a commentary on fome parts of them, yet was known to be very licentious in indulging himself with women, maintaining that men are to be faved by faith alone, and that the Chriftian religion had not prescribed any fixed rule for the intercourfe between the fexes. JOHNSON. "Sir, there is no trufting to that crazy piety."

I obferved that it was ftrange how well Scotchmen were known to one another in their own country, though born in very diftant counties; for we do not find that the gentlemen of neighbouring counties in England are

VOL. II.

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mutually

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Ætat. 67.

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Etat. 67.

mutually known to each other. Johnson, with his ufual acutenefs, at once faw and explained the reafon of this, "Why, Sir, you have Edinburgh, where the gentlemen from all your counties meet, and which is not fo large but that they are all known. There is no fuch common place of collection in England, except London, where from its great size and diffusion, many of those who refide in contiguous counties of England may long remain unknown to each other."

On Tuesday, March 26, there came for us an equipage properly fuited to a wealthy well-beneficed clergyman-Dr. Taylor's large, roomy post-chaife, drawn by four stout plump horfes, and driven by two fteady jolly poftillions, which conveyed us to Afhbourne, where I found my friend's fchoolfellow living upon an establishment perfectly correfponding with his fubftantial creditable equipage. His house, garden, pleasure-grounds, table, in fhort every thing good, and no fcantinefs appearing. Every man fhould form fuch a plan of living as he can execute completely. Let him not draw an outline wider than he can fill up. I have feen many skeletons of fhew and magnificence which excite at once ridicule and pity. Dr. Taylor had a good estate of his own, and good preferment in the church, being a prebendary of Westminster, and rector of Bofworth. He was a diligent juftice of the peace, and prefided over the town of Afhbourne, to the inhabitants of which I was told he was very liberal; and as a proof of this it was mentioned to me, he had the preceding winter, diftributed two hundred pounds among fuch of them as ftood in need of his affiftance. He had confequently a confiderable political intereft in the county of Derby, which he employed to fupport the Devonshire family; for though the fchoolfellow and friend of Johnfon, he was a Whig. I could not perceive in his character much congeniality of any fort with that of Johnson, who, however, faid to me, "Sir, he has a very strong underftanding." His fize and figure, and countenance, and manner, were that of a hearty English 'Squire, with the parfon fuper-induced; and I took particular notice of his upper fervant, Mr. Peters, a decent grave man, in purple clothes, and a large white wig, like the butler or major domo of a Bishop.

Dr. Johnson and Dr. Taylor met with great cordiality; and Johnfon foon gave him the fame fad account of their schoolfellow, Congreve, that he had given to Mr. Hector; adding a remark of fuch moment to the rational conduct of a man in the decline of life, that it deferves to be imprinted upon every mind: "There is nothing against which an old man fhould be fo much upon his guard as putting himself to nurfe." Innumerable have been the melancholy inftances of men once diftinguifhed for firmnefs, refolution,

and fpirit, who in their latter days have been governed like children, by inte- 1776. refted female artifice.

Dr. Taylor commended a phyfician who was known to him and Dr. Johnson, and faid, "I fight many battles for him, as many people in the country dislike him.". JOHNSON. "But you fhould confider, Sir, that by every one of your victories he is a lofer; for, every man of whom you get the better, will be very angry, and will resolve not to employ hih; whereas if people get the better of you in argument about him, they'll think, 'We'll fend for Dr. ****** nevertheless." This was an obfervation deep and fure in human nature.

Next day we talked of a book in which an eminent judge was arraigned before the bar of the publick, as having pronounced an unjust decifion in a great caufe. Dr. Johnfon maintained that this publication would not give any uneafinefs to the Judge. "For (faid he,) either he acted honeftly, or he meant to do injuftice. If he acted honestly, his own consciousnefs will protect him; if he meant to do injuftice, he will be glad to fee the man who attacks him, fo much vexed."

Next day, as Dr. Johnson had acquainted Dr. Taylor of the reason for his returning speedily to London, it was refolved that we should set out after dinner. A few of Dr. Taylor's neighbours were his guests that day.

Dr. Johnson talked with approbation of one who had attained to the ftate of the philofophical wife man, that is, to have no want of any thing. "Then, Sir, (faid I,) the favage is a wife man." "Sir, (faid he,) I do not mean fimply being without,-but not having a want." I maintained, against this propofition, that it was better to have fine clothes, for instance, than not to feel the want of them." JOHNSON. "No, Sir; fine clothes are good only as they fupply the want of other means of procuring refpect. Was Charles the Twelfth, think you, lefs refpected for his coarfe blue coat and black stock? And you find the King of Pruffia dreffes plain, because the dignity of his character is sufficient." I here brought myself into a scrape, for I heedlessly faid, "Would not you, Sir, be the better for velvet and embroidery ?" JOHNSON. "Sir, you put an end to all argument when you introduce your opponent himself. Have you no better manners? There is your want." apologised by faying, I had mentioned him as an instance of one who wanted as little as any man in the world, and yet, perhaps, might receive fome additional luftre from drefs.

I

Having left Afhbourne in the evening, we ftopped to change horfes at Derby, and availed ourselves of a moment to enjoy the converfation of my

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