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By Root 4949 0

to whom we cannot but apply the following passage: ‘I collated such copies as I could procure, and wished for more, but have not found the collectors of these rarities very communicative.’ I told him, that Garrick had complained to me of it, and had vindicated himself by assuring me, that Johnson was made welcome to the full use of his collection, and that he left the key of it with a servant, with orders to have a fire and every convenience for him. I found Johnson’s notion was, that Garrick wanted to be courted for them, and that, on the contrary, Garrick should have courted him, and sent him the plays of his own accord. But, indeed, considering the slovenly and careless manner in which books were treated by Johnson, it could not be expected that scarce and valuable editions should have been lent to him.

A gentleman343 having to some of the usual arguments for drinking added this: ‘You know, Sir, drinking drives away care, and makes us forget whatever is disagreeable. Would not you allow a man to drink for that reason?’ JOHNSON. ‘Yes, Sir, if he sat next you.’

I expressed a liking for Mr. Francis Osborne’s works, and asked him what he thought of that writer. He answered, ‘A conceited fellow. Were a man to write so now, the boys would throw stones at him.’ He, however, did not alter my opinion of a favourite authour, to whom I was first directed by his being quoted in The Spectator, and in whom I have found much shrewd and lively sense, expressed indeed in a style somewhat quaint, which, however, I do not dislike. His book has an air of originality. We figure to ourselves an ancient gentleman talking to us.

When one of his friends344 endeavoured to maintain that a country gentleman might contrive to pass his life very agreeably, ‘Sir, (said he,) you cannot give me an instance of any man who is permitted to lay out his own time, contriving not to have tedious hours.’ This observation, however, is equally applicable to gentlemen who live in cities, and are of no profession.

He said, ‘there is no permanent national character; it varies according to circumstances. Alexander the Great swept India: now the Turks sweep Greece.’

A learned gentleman345 who in the course of conversation wished to inform us of this simple fact, that the Counsel upon the circuit at Shrewsbury were much bitten by fleas, took, I suppose, seven or eight minutes in relating it circumstantially. He in a plenitude of phrase told us, that large bales of woollen cloth were lodged in the town-hall; – that by reason of this, fleas nestled there in prodigious numbers; that the lodgings of the counsel were near to the town-hall; – and that those little animals moved from place to place with wonderful agility. Johnson sat in great impatience till the gentleman had finished his tedious narrative, and then burst out (playfully however,) ‘It is a pity, Sir, that you have not seen a lion; for a flea has taken you such a time, that a lion must have served you a twelve-month.’a

He would not allow Scotland to derive any credit from Lord Mansfield; for he was educated in England. ‘Much (said he,) may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.’

Talking of a modern historian and a modern moralist,346 he said, ‘There is more thought in the moralist than in the historian. There is but a shallow stream of thought in history.’ BOSWELL. ‘But surely, Sir, an historian has reflection.’ JOHNSON. ‘Why yes, Sir; and so has a cat when she catches a mouse for her kitten. But she cannot write like ∗∗∗∗∗∗∗; neither can ∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗∗.’

He said, ‘I am very unwilling to read the manuscripts of authours, and give them my opinion. If the authours who apply to me have money, I bid them boldly print without a name; if they have written in order to get money, I tell them to go to the booksellers, and make the best bargain they can.’ BOSWELL. ‘But, Sir, if a bookseller should bring you a manuscript to look at?’ JOHNSON. ‘Why, Sir, I would desire the bookseller to take it away.’

I mentioned a friend of mine347 who had resided long in Spain, and was unwilling to return to Britain. JOHNSON.