he gave it right. Then, looking stedfastly on him, Langton 'Sir, there is a part of that song which I should wish to exemplify in my own life:

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"May I govern my passions with absolute sway!",

Being asked if Barnes knew a good deal of Greek, he answered, I doubt, sir, he was unoculus inter cæcos'

6

"He used frequently to observe, that men might be very eminent in a profession, without our perceiving any particular power of mind in them in conversation. It seems strange,' said he,' that a man should see so far to the right, who sees so short a way to the left. Burke is the only man whose common conversation corresponds with the general fame which he has in the world. Take up whatever topick you please, he is ready to meet you.'

"A gentleman, by no means deficient in literature, having discovered less acquaintance with one of the classicks than Johnson expected, when the gentleman left the room, he observed, 'You see, now, how little any body reads.' Mr. Langton happening to mention his having read a good deal in Clenardus's Greek Grammar, ' Why, sir,' said he, who is there in this town who knows any thing of Clenardus but

1 Johnson, in his Life of Milton, after mentioning that great poet's extraordinary fancy, that the world was in its decay, and that his book was to be written in an age too late for heroick poesy, thus concludes: "However inferiour to the heroes who were born in better ages, he might still be great among his contemporaries, with the hope of growing every day greater in the dwindle of posterity; he might still be a giant among the pigmies, the one-eyed monarch of the blind."-J. BOSWELL.

2 Nicholas Clenard, who was born in Brabant, and died at Grenada in 1542, was a great traveller and linguist. Beside his Greek Grammar (of which an improved edition was published by Vossius at Amsterdam in 1626), he wrote a Hebrew Grammar, and an account of his travels in various countries, in Latin (EPISTOLARUM LIBRI DUO, 8vo. 1556)—a very rare work, of which there is a copy in the Bodleian Library. His Latin (says the author of NOUVEAU DICTIONNAIRE HISTORIQUE, 1789) would have been more pure, if he had not known so many languages.-MALONE.

Langton you and I1?' And upon Mr. Langton's mentioning that he had taken the pains to learn by heart the Epistle of St. Basil, which is given in that grammar as a praxis, 'Sir,' said he, I never made such an effort to attain Greek.'

"Of Dodsley's 'Publick Virtue, a poem,' he said, 'It was fine blank,' (meaning to express his usual contempt for blank verse): however, this miserable poem did not sell, and my poor friend Doddy said Publick Virtue was not a subject to interest the age.

"Mr. Langton, when a very young man, read Dodsley's 'Cleone, a Tragedy,' to him, not aware of his extreme impatience to be read to. As it went on, he turned his face to the back of his chair, and put himself into various attitudes, which marked his uneasiness. At the end of an act, however, he said, Come, let's have some more; slaughter-house again, Lanky. there is more blood than brains.'

let's go into the But I am afraid Yet he afterwards

said, 'When I heard you read it, I thought higher of its power of language; when I read it myself, I was more sensible of its pathetick effect;' and then he paid it a compliment which many will think very extravagant. Sir,' said he, if Otway had written this play, no other of his pieces would have been remembered.' Dodsley himself, upon this being repeated to him, said, 'It was too much.' It must be remembered, that Johnson always appeared not to be sufficiently sensible of the merit of Otway 2.

"Snatches of reading,' said he, will not make a Bentley or a Clarke. They are, however, in a certain I would put a child into a

degree advantageous.

[Mr. Langton, as has been already observed, was very studious of Greek literature.ED.]

2 This assertion concerning Johnson's insensibility to the pathetick powers of Otway is too round. I once asked him, whether he did not think Otway frequently tender: when he answered, "Sir, he is all tenderness."-BURNEY.

library (where no unfit books are), and let him read Langton at his choice. A child should not be discouraged from reading any thing that he takes a liking to, from a notion that it is above his reach. If that be the case, the child will soon find it out and desist; if not, he of course gains the instruction; which is so much the more likely to come, from the inclination with which he takes up the study.'

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Though he used to censure carelessness with great vehemence, he owned, that he once, to avoid the trouble of locking up five guineas, hid them, he forgot where, so that he could not find them.

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'A gentleman who introduced his brother to Dr. Johnson was earnest to recommend him to the doctor's notice, which he did by saying, When we have sat together some time, you'll find my brother grow very entertaining.' 'Sir,' said Johnson, I can wait.'

"When the rumour was strong that we should have a war, because the French would assist the Americans, he rebuked a friend with some asperity for supposing it, saying, 'No, sir, national faith is not yet sunk so low.'

"In the latter part of his life, in order to satisfy himself whether his mental faculties were impaired, he resolved that he would try to learn a new language, and fixed upon the Low Dutch for that purpose, and this he continued till he had read about one half of 'Thomas à Kempis;' and, finding that there appeared no abatement of his power of acquisition, he then desisted, as thinking the experiment had been duly tried. Mr. Burke justly observed, that this was not the most vigorous trial, Low Dutch being a language so near to our own: had it been one of the languages

Langton entirely different, he might have been very soon satisfied.

Piozzi, p. 76.

Hawk.
Apoph.

"Mr. Langton and he having gone to see a freemason's funeral procession when they were at Rochester, and some solemn musick being played on French-horus, he said, 'This is the first time that I have ever been affected by musical sounds;' adding, that the impression made upon him was of a melancholy kind.' Mr. Langton saying, that this effect was a fine one,-JOHNSON. Yes, if it softens the mind so as to prepare it for the reception of salutary feelings, it may be good: but inasmuch as it is melancholy per se, it is bad'.'

["He delighted," says Mrs. Piozzi, "no more in music than in painting; in fact he was almost as deaf as he was blind."]

[Yet of musick, he, at another time, said, "It is p. 197. the only sensual pleasure without vice.”]

"Goldsmith had long a visionary project, that some time or other, when his circumstances should be casier, he would go to Aleppo, in order to acquire a knowledge, as far as might be, of any arts peculiar to the East, and introduce them into Britain. When this was talked of in Dr. Johnson's Johnson's company, he said, "Of all men Goldsmith is the most unfit to go out upon such an inquiry; for he is utterly ignorant of such arts as we already possess, and consequently could not know what would be accessions to our present stock of mechanical knowledge. Sir, he would bring home a grinding barrow, which you see in every street in London, and think that he had furnished a wonderful improvement.'

The French-horn, however, is so far from being melancholy per se, that when the strain is light, and in the field, there is nothing so cheerful! It was the funeral occasion, and probably the solemnity of the strain, that produced the plaintive effect here mentioned.-BURNEY.

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Greek, sir,' said he, 'is like lace; every man gets Langton as much of it as he can 1.’

“When Lord Charles Hay, after his return from America, was preparing his defence to be offered to the court-martial which he had demanded, having heard Mr. Langton as high in expressions of admiration of Johnson as he usually was, he requested that Dr. Johnson might be introduced to him; and Mr. Langton having mentioned it to Johnson, he very kindly and readily agreed; and, being presented by Mr. Langton to his lordship, while under arrest, he saw him several times; upon one of which occasions Lord Charles read to him what he had prepared, which Johnson signified his approbation of, saying, 'It is a very good soldierly defence.' Johnson said that he had advised his lordship, that as it was in vain to contend with those who were in possession of power, if they would offer him the rank of lieutenant-general, and a government, it would be better judged to desist from urging his complaints. It is well known that his lordship died before the sentence was made known.

"Johnson one day gave high praise to Dr. Bentley's verses in Dodsley's Collection, which he recited with

3

It should be remembered, that this was said twenty-five or thirty years ago, when lace was very generally worn. -MALONE. [But even with this allowance the meaning of the phrase does not seem clear-perhaps Johnson said that Greek was like lace; every man wears (that is, displays) as much of it as he can. -ED.]

2 [See ante, vol. iii. p. 375.-ED.]

3 Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Cowley, says, that these are "the only English verses which Bentley is known to have written." I shall here insert them, and hope my readers will apply them.

"Who strives to mount Parnassus' hill,

And thence poetick laurels bring,

Must first acquire due force and skill,
Must fly with swan's or eagle's wing.

"Who Nature's treasures would explore,
Her mysteries and arcana know,

Must high as lofty Newton soar,

Must stoop as delving Woodward low.