"Please to write me immediately, if they can be found, Make my compliments to all our friends round the world, and to Mrs. Williams at home. "I am, Sir, your, &c.

"SAM. JOHNSON.

Search for the papers as foon as you can, that, if it is neceffary, I may write to you again before you come down."

On the 26th of April, I went to Bath; and on my arrival at the Pelican inn, found lying for me an obliging invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, by whom I was agreeably entertained almost constantly during my stay. They were gone to the rooms; but there was a kind note from Dr. Johnson, that he should fit at home all the evening. I went to him directly, and before Mr. and Mrs. Thrale returned, we had by ourselves fome hours of tea-drinking and talk.

I fhall groupe together fuch of his fayings as I preserved during the few days that I was at Bath.

Of a person who differed from him in politicks, he said, "In private life he is a very honeft gentleman; but I will not allow him to be fo in publick life. People may be honeft, though they are doing wrong: that is between their Maker and them. But we, who are fuffering by their pernicious conduct, are to destroy them. We are fure that acts from interest. We know what his genuine principles were. They who allow their paffions to confound the diftinctions between right and wrong, are criminal. They may be convinced; but they have not come honestly by their conviction."

1776. Land Etat. 67.

It having been mentioned, I know not with what truth, that a certain female political writer, whose doctrines he disliked, had of late become very fond of drefs, fat hours together at her toilet, and even put on rouge;-JOHNSON. "She is better employed at her toilet than using her pen. It is better she should be reddening her own cheeks, than blackening other people's characters."

He told us that " Addison wrote Budgell's papers in the Spectator, at least mended them fo much, that he made them almost all his own; and that Draper, Tonfon's partner, affured Mrs. Johnfon, that the much admired Epilogue to The Distreffed Mother,' which came out in Budgell's name, was in reality written by Addifon."

"The mode of government by one may be ill adapted to a small society, but is best for a great nation. The characteristick of our own government at present is imbecillity. The magiftrate dare not call the guards for fear of

1776.

Ætat. 67.

being hanged. The guards will not come, for fear of being given up to the blind rage of popular juries."

Of the father of one of our friends, he obferved, "He never clarified his notions, by filtrating them through other minds. He had a canal upon his eftate, where at one place the bank was too low.-I dug the canal deeper," faid he.

He told me that "fo long ago as 1748, he had read The Grave, a Poem ',' but did not like it much." I differed from him; for though it is not equal throughout, and is feldom elegantly correct, it abounds in folemn thought, and poetical imagery beyond the common reach. The world has differed from him; for the poem has paffed through many editions, and is ftill much read by people of a ferious caft of mind.

A literary lady of large fortune was mentioned, as one who did good to many, but by no means "by ftealth," and instead of "blufhing to find it fame," acted evidently from vanity. JOHNSON. "I have feen no beings who do as much good from benevolence, as fhe does, from whatever motive. If there are fuch under the earth, or in the clouds, I wish they would come up, or come down. What Soame Jennyns fays upon this fubject is not to be minded; he is a wit. No, Sir, to act from pure benevolence is not poffible for finite beings. Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or fome other motive."

He would not allow me to praise a lady then at Bath; obferving, "She does not gain upon me, Sir; I think her empty-headed." He was, indeed, a ftern critick upon characters and manners. Even Mrs. Thrale did not efcape his friendly animadverfion at times. When he and I were one day endeavouring to ascertain article by article, how one of our friends could poffibly spend as much money in his family as he told us he did, fhe interrupted us with a lively extravagant fally, on the expence of clothing his children, describing it in a very ludicrous and fanciful manner. Johnson looked a little angry, and faid, "Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate." At another time, when she said, perhaps affectedly, "I don't like to fly." JOHNSON. "With your wings, Madam,

I am forry that there are no memoirs of the Reverend Robert Blair, the authour of this poem. He was the reprefentative of the ancient family of Blair, of Blair in Ayrshire, but the eftate had defcended to a female, and afterwards paffed to the son of her husband by another marriage. He was minifter of the parish of Athelstaneford, where Mr. John Home was his fuccessor ; so that it may be truly called claffick ground. His fon, who is of the fame name, and a man emiment for talents and learning, is now, with univerfal approbation, Solicitor-General of Scotland..

you must fly but have a care, there are clippers abroad." How very well 1776. was this said, and how fully has experience proved the truth of it! But rat. 67. have they not clipped rather rudely, and gone a great deal closer than was neceffary?

A gentleman expreffed a wish to go and live three years at Otaheite, or New-Zealand, in order to obtain a full acquaintance with people, fo totally different from all that we have ever known, and be fatisfied what pure nature can do for man. JOHNSON. "What could you learn, Sir? What can favages tell, but what they themselves have feen? Of the past, or the invisible, they can tell nothing. The inhabitants of Otaheite and NewZealand are not in a flate of pure nature; for it is plain they broke off from fome other people. Had they grown out of the ground, you might have judged of a state of pure nature. Fanciful people may talk of a mythology being amongst them, but it must be invention. They have once had religion, which has been gradually debafed. And what account of their religion can you suppose to be learnt from favages? Only confider, Sir, our own state: Our religion is in a book; we have an order of men whose duty it is to teach it; we have one day in the week fet apart for it, and this in general pretty well obferved: Yet ask the first ten grofs men you meet, and hear what they can tell of their religion."

On Monday, April 29, he and I made an excurfion to Bristol, where I was entertained with feeing him inquire upon the fpot, into the authenticity of "Rowley's Poetry," as I had feen him inquire upon the spot into the authenticity of "Offian's Poetry." George Catcot, the pewterer, who was as zealous for Rowley, as Dr. Hugh Blair was for Offian, (I truft my Reverend friend will excufe the comparison,) attended us at our inn, and with a triumphant air of lively fimplicity called out, "I'll make Dr. Johnfon a convert." Dr. Johnfon, at his defire, read aloud fome of Chatterton's fabricated verses, while Catcot ftood at the back of his chair, moving himself like a pendulum, and beating time with his feet, and now and then looking into Dr. Johnfon's face, wondering that he was not yet convinced. We called on Mr. Barret, the furgeon, and faw fome of the originals as they were called, which were executed very artificially; but from a careful infpection of them, and a confideration of the circumftances with which they were attended, we were quite fatisfied of the impofture, which, indeed, has been clearly demonAtrated from internal evidence, by feveral able criticks".

6 Mr. Tyrwhitt, Mr. Warton, Mr. Malone.

Honeft

1776.

Honeft Catcor feemed to pay no attention whatever to any objections, but Atat. 67. infifted, as an end of all controverfy, that we should go with him to the tower of the church of St. Mary, Redcliff, and view with our own eyes the ancient cheft in which the manufcripts were found. To this, Dr. Johnson goodnaturedly agreed; and though troubled with a fhortnefs of breathing, laboured up a long flight of steps, till we came to the place where the wondrous chest ftood. There, (faid Catcot, with a bouncing confident credulity,) there is the very cheft itfelf." After this ocular demonftration, there was no more to be faid. He brought to my recollection a Scotch Highlander, a man of learning too, and who had feen the world, attesting, and at the fame time giving his reasons for the authenticity of Fingal :-" I have heard all that poem when I was young."-" Have you, Sir? Pray what have you heard?"-"I have heard Offian, Oscar, and every one of them."

Johnson said of Chatterton, "This is the most extraordinary young man that has encountered my knowledge. It is wonderful how the whelp has written fuch things."

We were by no means pleased with our inn at Bristol. "Let us fee now, (faid I,) how we should defcribe it." Johnson was ready with his raillery. "Describe it, Sir?-Why, it was fo bad that Boswell wished to be in Scotland!"

After Dr. Johnson's return to London, I was feveral times with him at his house, where I occafionally flept, in the room that had been affigned to me. I dined with him at Dr. Taylor's, at General Oglethorpe's, and at General Paoli's. To avoid a tedious minutenefs, I fhall groupe together what I have preferved of his converfation during this period alfo, without fpecifying each scene where it paffed, except one, which will be found fo remarkable as certainly to deserve a very particular relation. Where the place or the persons do not contribute to the zeft of the converfation, it is unneceffary to encumber my page with mentioning them. To know of what vintage our wine is, enables us to judge of its value, and to drink it with more relish: but to have the produce of each vine of one vineyard, in the fame year, kept separate, would serve no purpose. To know that our wine (to use an advertising phrase,) is “of the stock of an Ambassadour lately deceased," heightens its flavour: but it fignifies nothing to know the bin where each bottle was once depofited.

"Garrick (he observed,) does not play the part of Archer in "The Beaux Stratagem" well. The gentleman fhould break out through the footman, which is not the cafe as he does it."

I

"Where

1776.

"Where there is no education, as in favage countries, men will have the upper hand of women. Bodily strength, no doubt, contributes to this: but it tat. 67. would be fo, exclufive of that; for it is mind that always governs. When it comes to dry understanding, man has the better."

"The little volumes entitled "Refpublica," which are very well done, were a bookseller's work."

"There is much talk of the mifery which we cause to the brute creation; but they are recompensed by existence. If they were not useful to man, and therefore protected by him, they would not be nearly fo numerous." This argument is to be found in the able and benignant Hutchinfon's "Moral Philofophy." But the queftion is, whether the animals who endure fuch fufferings of various kinds, for the fervice and entertainment of man, would accept of existence upon the terms on which they have it. Madame Sevigné, who, though she had many enjoyments, felt with delicate fenfibility the prevalence of mifery, complains of the task of existence having been imposed upon her without her confent.

“That man is never happy for the present is so true, that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while. Life is a progrefs from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment."

"Though many men are nominally entrusted with the administration of hospitals and other publick inftitutions, almost all the good is done by one man, by whom the reft are driven on; owing to confidence in him, and indolence in them."

"Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his fon, I think, might be made a very pretty book. Take out the immorality, and it fhould be put into the hands of every young gentleman. An elegant manner and eafinefs of behaviour are acquired gradually and imperceptibly. No man can fay, I'll be genteel.' There are ten genteel women for one genteel man, because they are more restrained. A man without fome degree of restraint is infufferable; but we are all lefs reftrained than women. Were a woman fitting in company to put out her legs before her as moft men do, we fhould be tempted to kick them in."

No man was a more attentive and nice obferver of behaviour in thofe in whose company he happened to be, than Johnson; or, however ftrange it may feem to many, had a higher estimation of its refinements. Lord Eliot informs me, that one day when Johnson and he were at dinner at a gentleman's house in London, upon Lord Chesterfield's Letters being mentioned, Johnson furprized the company by this fentence: "Every man of any education would

rather