parts. For instance, if he had said Reynolds was the firs painters, he was capable enough of giving up, as objections m happen to be severally made, first his outline,-then the grad form, then the colouring, and lastly, to have owned that was such a mannerist, that the disposition of his pictures wa alike.' 'For hospitality, as formerly practised, there is no longer same reason; heretofore the poorer people were more numer and from want of commerce, their means of getting a livelih more difficult; therefore the supporting them was an act of I benevolence; now that the poor can find maintenance for th selves, and their labour is wanted, a general undiscer hospitality tends to ill, by withdrawing them from their wor idleness and drunkenness. Then, formerly rents were rece in kind, so that there was a great abundance of provision possession of the owners of the lands, which, since the plen money afforded by commerce, is no longer the case.' Hospitality to strangers and foreigners in our count now almost at an end, since, from the increase of them come to us, there have been a sufficient number of people have found an interest in providing inns and proper ac modations, which is in general a more expedient method fo entertainment of travellers. Where the travellers and stra are few, more of that hospitality subsists, as it has not worth while to provide places of accommodation. In Ir there is still hospitality to strangers, in some degree; in gary and Poland probably more.' 'Colman, in a note on his translation of Terence, talki Shakspeare's learning, asks, "What says Farmer to this? says Johnson'?" Upon this he observed, "Sir, let Farmer an for himself: I never engaged in this controversy. I always Shakspeare had Latin enough to grammaticise his English 1 Colman assumed that Johnson had maintained that Shakespeare was totally ignorant of the learned languages. He then quotes a line to prove 'that the author of The Taming of the Shrew had at least read Ovid ;' and continues:-"And what does Dr. Johnson say on this occasion ? Nothing. And what does Mr mer say on this occasion? No Colman's Terence, ii. 390. For mer, see ante, iii. 38. 2 'It is most likely that Shake had learned Latin sufficien make him acquainted with con tion, but that he never advan 'A clerg Aetat. 71.] THE OLD MAN'S WISH. 19 'A clergyman, whom he characterised as one who loved to say little oddities, was affecting one day, at a Bishop's table, a sort of slyness and freedom not in character, and repeated, as if part of The Old Man's Wish, a song by Dr. Walter Pope, a verse bordering on licentiousness. Johnson rebuked him in the finest manner, by first shewing him that he did not know the passage he was aiming at, and thus humbling him: "Sir, that is not the song: it is thus." And he gave it right. Then looking stedfastly on him, "Sir, there is a part of that song which I should wish to exemplify in my own life : "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"."" 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 an easy perusal of the Roman authors.' Johnson's Works, v. 129. 'The style of Shakespeare was in itself ungrammatical, perplexed, and obscure.' Ib. p. 135. May I govern my passion with an absolute sway, my strength wears away, The Old Man's Wish was sung to Sir Roger de Coverley by the fair one,' after the collation in which she ate a couple of chickens, and drank a full bottle of wine. Spectator, No. 410. 'What signifies our wishing?' wrote Dr. Franklin. 'I have sung that wishing song a thousand times when I was young, and now find at four-score that the three contraries have befallen me, being subject to the gout and the stone, and not being yet master of all my passions.' Franklin's Memoirs, iii. 185. * He uses the same image in The Life of Milton (Works, vii. 104):— Calamities of conversation 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 you and I?” 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 2."' 'Of Dodsley's Publick Virtue, a Poem, he said, "It was fine blank (meaning to express his usual contempt for blank verse 3); 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, let's go into the slaughter-house again, Lanky. But I am afraid there is more blood than brains." 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 Aetat. 71.] Snatches of reading. 21 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'.' 'Snatches of reading (said he) will not make a Bentley or a Clarke. They are, however, in a certain degree advantageous. I would put a child into a library (where no unfit books are) and let him read 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'.' '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.' '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 tried3. 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 tender ness.' BURNEY. He describes Ot- 3 Johnson, it seems, twice took up this study. In July, 1773, he recorded Mr. Burke 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 entirely different, he might have been very soon satisfied.' '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 horns, 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"."" 'Goldsmith had long a visionary project, that some time or other when his circumstances should be easier, 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 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 3." that between Easter and Whitsuntide, he attempted to learn the Low Dutch language. 'My application,' he continues, 'was very slight, and my memory very fallacious, though whether more than in my earlier years, I am not very certain.' Pr. and Med. p. 129, and ante, ii. 263. On his death-bed, he said to Mr. Hoole :-'About two years since I feared that I had neglected God, and that then I had not a mind to give him; on which I set about to read Thomas à Kempis in Low Dutch, which I accomplished, and thence I judged that my mind was not impaired, Low Dutch having no affinity with any of the languages which I knew.' Croker's Boswell, p. 844. See ante, iii. 235. See post, under July 5, 1783. 2 See ante, ii. 409, and iii. 197. 3 One of Goldsmith's friends 'remembered his relating [about the year 1756] a strange Quixotic scheme he had in contemplation of going to decipher the inscriptions on the written mountains, though he was altogether ignorant of Arabic, or the language in which they might be supposed to be written.' Goldsmith's Misc. Works, ed. 1801, i. 40. Percy says that Goldsmith applied to the prime minister, Lord Bute, for a salary to enable him to execute 'the visionary project' mentioned in the 'Greek, |