we have injured." He was irritated still more by this delicate and keen reproach, and roared out another tremendous volley, which one might fancy could be heard across the Atlantic. During this tempest I sat in great uneasiness, lamenting his heat of temper, till, by degrees, I diverted his attention to other topics.—Boswell.

His unjust contempt for foreigners was, indeed, extreme. One evening, at Old Slaughter's coffee-house, when a number of them were talking loud about little matters, he said, "Does not this confirm old Meynell's observation, ‘For anything I see, foreigners are fools!"-Bennet Langton.

He had long before indulged most unfavorable sentiments. of our fellow-subjects in America. For, as early as 1769, I was told by Dr. John Campbell that he had said of them, "Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging."-Boswell.

Mrs. Macsweyn, who officiated as our landlady here (in one of the Scottish islands), had never been on the main-land. On hearing this, Dr. Johnson said to me, before her, "That is rather being behindhand with life. I would at least go and see Glenelg," Boswell: "You yourself, sir, have never seen anything but your native island." Johnson: “But, sir, by seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show." Boswell: "You have not seen Pekin." John

son:

"What is Pekin? Ten thousand Londoners would drive all the people of Pekin: they would drive them like deer."-Boswell.

Johnson: "The French, sir, are a very silly people. They have no common life-nothing but the two ends, beggary and nobility. Sir, they are made up in everything of two extremes. They have no common-sense, they have no common manners, no common learning. They are much

behindhand, stupid, ignorant creatures."- Miss Reynolds (abridged).

Johnson's prejudice against the French was especially bitter. He wrote to a friend soon after his return from the short visit which he made to France: "Their mode of common life is gross, and incommodious, and disgusting. I am come home convinced that no improvement of general use is to be found among them." He noted in his journal that their meals were gross, and spoke of them repeatedly as "ill-bred, untaught people." He contrived to indulge two of his most violent prejudices in one sentence when he said, "France is worse than Scotland in everything but climate. Nature has done more for the French, but they have done less for themselves than the Scotch have done." It is amusing to find his personal feelings displayed even in his Dictionary, as in the following definitions:

"Tory. One who adheres to the ancient constitution of the state, and the apostolic hierarchy of the Church of England: opposed to a Whig. "Whig. The name of a faction.

"Pension. An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.

"Pensioner. A slave of state, hired by a stipend to obey his master.

"Oats. A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

"Excise. A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but by wretches hired by those to whom the excise is paid."

Boswell had a talk with him about these definitions more than twenty years after the publication of the Dictionary, and says, "He mentioned a still stronger instance of the predominance of his private feelings in the composition of this work than any now to be found in it. 'You know, sir, Lord Gower forsook the old Jacobite interest. When I came to the word renegado, after telling that it meant "one who deserts to the enemy, a revolter," I added, "Sometimes we say

a GOWER." Thus it went to the press, but the printer had more wit than I, and struck it out."" Many other instances of Johnson's prejudices will be found scattered through this volume.-Editor.

Emigration was at this time a common topic of discourse. Dr. Johnson regretted it as hurtful to human happiness; "For," said he, "it spreads mankind, which weakens the defence of a nation, and lessens the comfort of living. Men, thinly scattered, make a shift, but a bad shift, without many things. A smith is ten miles off; they'll do without a nail or a staple. A tailor is far from them; they'll botch their own clothes. It is being concentrated which produces high convenience."-Boswell.

us."

At breakfast I asked, "What is the reason that we are angry at a trader's having opulence?" Johnson: "Why, sir, the reason is (though I don't undertake to prove that there is a reason), we see no qualities in trade that should entitle a man to superiority. We are not angry at a soldier's getting riches, because we see that he possesses qualities which we have not. If a man returns from a battle having lost one hand, and with the other full of gold, we feel that he deserves the gold; but we cannot think that a fellow by sitting all day at a desk is entitled to get above Boswell: "But, sir, may we not suppose a merchant to be a man of an enlarged mind, such as Addison in the 'Spectator' describes Sir Andrew Freeport to have been ?" Johnson: "Why, sir, we may suppose any fictitious character. We may suppose a philosophical day-laborer, who is happy in reflecting that, by his labor, he contributes to the fertility of the earth, and to the support of his fellowcreatures; but we find no such philosophical day-laborer. A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind; but there is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind."-Boswell.

Johnson called the East Indians barbarians. Boswell: "You will except the Chinese, sir?" Johnson: "No, sir." Boswell: "Have they not arts?" Johnson: "They have pottery." Boswell: "What do you say to the written characters of their language?" Johnson: "Sir, they have not an alphabet. They have not been able to form what all other nations have formed." Boswell: "There is more learning in their language than in any other, from the immense number of their characters." Johnson: "It is only more difficult from its rudeness; as there is more labor in hewing down a tree with a stone than with an axe.". Boswell.

Johnson: "Time may be employed to more advantage, from nineteen to twenty-four, almost in any way than in travelling when you set travelling against mere negation, against doing nothing, it is better, to be sure; but how much more would a young man improve were he to study during those years. Indeed, if a young man is wild, and must run after women and bad company, it is better this should be done abroad, as, on his return, he can break off such connections, and begin at home a new man, with a character to form and acquaintances to make. How little does travelling supply to the conversation of any man who has travelled; how little to Beauclerk?" Boswell: "What say you to Lord [Charlemont]?" Johnson: "I never but once heard him talk of what he had seen, and that was of a large serpent in one of the pyramids of Egypt."-Boswell.

INTOLERANCE.

SIR PHILIP CLERKE defended the Opposition to the American war ably and with temper, and I joined him. He said the majority of the nation was against the Ministry. Johnson: "I, sir, am against the Ministry; but it is for having too little of that of which Opposition thinks they have too much. Were I minister, if any man wagged his finger against me, he should be turned out; for that which it is in the power of Government to give at pleasure to one or to another, should be given to the supporters of Government."-Boswell.

Our next meeting at the Mitre was on Saturday, the 15th of February, when I presented to him my old and most intimate friend, the Rev. Mr. Temple, then of Cambridge. I having mentioned that I had passed some time with Rousseau in his wild retreat, and having quoted some remark made by Mr. Wilkes, with whom I had spent many pleasant. hours in Italy, Johnson said, sarcastically, "It seems, sir, you have kept very good company abroad-Rousseau and Wilkes!" Thinking it enough to defend one at a time, I said nothing as to my gay friend, but answered, with a smile, "My dear sir, you don't call Rousseau bad company. Do you really think him a bad man?" Johnson: "Sir, if you are talking jestingly of this, I don't talk with. you. If you mean to be serious, I think him one of the worst of men; a rascal, who ought to be hunted out of society, as he has been. Three or four nations have expelled him, and it is a shame that he is protected in this country."-Boswell.

We talked of the proper use of riches. Johnson: “If I were a man of a great estate, I would drive all the rascals whom I did not like out of the county at an election."Boswell.