Imatges de pàgina
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talk in France of the felicity of men and women living together; the truth is, that there the men are not higher than the women, they know no more than the women do, and they are not held down in their conversation by the presence of women.' Mr. Ramsay said, "Literature is upon the growth, it is in its spring in France; here it is rather passée."-J." Literature was in France long before we had it. Paris was the second city for the revival of letters; Italy had it first, to be sure. What have we done for literature, equal to what was done by the Stephani and others in France? Our literature came to us through France. Caxton printed only two books, Chaucer and Gower, that were not translations from the French; and Chaucer we know took much from the Italians. No, Sir, if literature be in its spring in France, it is a second spring; it is after a winter. We are now before the French in literature; but we had it long after them."

Johnson was always much attached to London; he observed, that a man stored his mind better there than any where else; and that in remote situations a man's body might be feasted, but his mind was starved, and his faculties apt to degenerate, from want of exercise and competition. No place (he said) cured a man's vanity or arrogance so well as London; for as no man was either great or good per se, but as compared with

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others not so good or great, he was sure to find in the Metropolis many his equals, and some his superiors. He observed that a man in London was in less danger of falling in love indiscreetly, than any where else; for there the difficulty of deciding between the conflicting pretensions of a vast variety of objects kept him safe. He said, that he had frequently been offered country preferment if he would consent to take orders; but he could not leave the improved society of the capital, or consent to exchange the exhilarating joys and splendid decorations of public life, for the obscurity, insipidity, and uniformity of remote situations.

At another time he observed, "Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists*."

* "I have often (says Mr. Boswell) amused myself with thinking how different a place London is to different people. They, whose narrow minds are contracted to the consideration of some one particular pursuit, view it only through that medium. A politician thinks of it merely as the seat of government in its different departments; a grazier as a vast market for cattle; a mercantile

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CECONOMY.

On the subject of wealth, the proper use of it, and the effects of that art which is called œconomy, Johnson once observed, "It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend. Lord Shelburne told me, that a man of high rank, who looks into his own affairs, may have all that he ought to have, all that can be of any use, or appear with any advantage, for five thousand pounds a year. Therefore a great proportion must go in waste; and indeed this is the case with most people, whatever their fortune is."-BOSWELL. "I have no doubt, Sir, of this; but how is it? What is waste?"-JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, breaking bottles and a thousand other things. Waste cannot

man, as a place where a prodigious deal of business is done upon 'Change; a dramatic enthusiast, as the grand scene of theatrical entertainments; a man of pleasure, as an assemblage of taverns, and the great emporium for ladies of easy virtue. But the intellectual man is struck with it, as comprehending the whole of human life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inexhaustible."

be accurately told, destructive it is.

though we are sensible how Economy on the one hand,

by which a certain income is made to maintain a man genteelly, and waste on the other, by which, on the same income, another man lives shabbily, cannot be defined. It is a very nice thing; as one man wears his coat out much sooner than another, we cannot tell how."

On the right employment of wealth he remarked thus: "A man cannot make a bad use of his money so far as regards Society, if he does not hoard it; for if he either spends it, or lends it out, Society has the benefit. It is in general better to spend money than to give it away; for industry is more promoted by spending money than by giving it away. A man who spends his money is sure he is doing good with it; he is not so sure when he gives it away. A man who spends ten thousand a year will do more good than a man who spends two thousand, and gives away eight."

His Ofellus, in the Art of living in London,' he has been heard to relate, was an Irish painter, whom he knew at Birmingham, and who had practised his own precepts of economy for several years in the British capital. He assured Johnson, who perhaps was then meditating to try his fortune in London, but was apprehensive of the ex

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pence, "that thirty pounds a year was enough to enable a man to live there without being contemptible. He allowed ten pounds for clothes and linen. He said a man might live in a garret at eighteen pence a week; few people would enquire where he lodged; and if they did, it was easy to say, Sir, I am to be found at such a place.' By spending threepence in a coffeehouse, he might be for some hours every day in very good company; he might dine for sixpence, breakfast on bread and milk for a penny, and do without supper. supper. On clean shirt-day he went abroad, and paid visits." Johnson would often talk of this frugal friend, whom he recollected with esteem and kindness, and did not like to have any one smile at the recital. "This man (said he gravely) was a very sensible man, who perfectly understood common affairs; a man of a great deal of knowledge of the world, fresh from life, not strained through books. He borrowed a horse and ten pounds at Birmingham. Finding himself master of so much money, he set off for West Chester, in order to get to Ireland. He returned the horse, and probably the ten pounds too, after he got home."

To Mr. Boswell Johnson once said, "Get as much force of mind as you can. Live within your income. Always have something saved at the end of the year. Let your imports be more

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