Mrs. Wil- Ancient Geography," came in. He mentioned liams that he had been forty years absent from Scot land, "Ah, Boswell! (said Johnson, smiling,) what would you give to be forty years from Scotland?" I said, "I should not like to be so long absent from the seat of my ancestors.' This gentleman, Mrs. Williams, and Mr. Levett, dined with us.

Dr. Johnson made a remark, which both Mr. Macbean and I thought new. It was this: that "the law against usury is for the protection of creditors as well as debtors; for if there were no such check, people would be apt, from the temptation of great interest, to lend to desperate persons, by whom they would lose their money. Accordingly there are instances of ladies being ruined, by having injudiciously sunk their fortunes for high annuities, which, after a few years, ceased to be paid, in consequence of the ruined circumstances of the borrower."

Mrs. Williams was very peevish; and I wondered at Johnson's patience with her now, as I had often done on similar occasions. The truth is, that his humane consideration of the forlorn and indigent state in which this lady was left by her father, induced him to treat her with the utmost tenderness, and even to be desirous of procuring her amusement, so as sometimes to incommode many of his friends, by carrying her with him to their houses, where, from her manner of eating, in consequence of her blindness, she could not but offend the delicacy of persons of nice sensations.

After coffee, we went to afternoon service in St.

Clement's church. Observing some beggars in the Gloomy street as we walked along, I said to him, I sup- penitence posed there was no civilized country in the world, where the misery of want in the lowest classes of the people was prevented. JOHNSON. "I believe, Sir, there is not; but it is better that some should be unhappy, than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality."

When the service was ended, I went home with him, and we sat quietly by ourselves. He recommended Dr. Cheyne's books. I said, I thought Cheyne had been reckoned whimsical." So he was, (said he,) in some things; but there is no end of objections. There are few books to which some objection or other may not be made." He added, "I would not have you read any thing else of Cheyne, but his book on Health, and his English Malady.?" Jorjaiba ont list ode

Upon the question whether a man who had been guilty of vicious actions would do well to force himself into solitude and sadness? JOHNSON. "No, Sir, unless it prevent him from being vicious again. With some people, gloomy penitence is only madness turned upside down. A man may be gloomy, till, in order to be relieved from gloom, he has recourse again to criminal indulgencies."

On Wednesday, April 1o, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's where were Mr. Murphy and some other company. Before dinner, Dr. Johnson and I passed some time by ourselves. I was sorry to find it was now resolved that the proposed journey to Italy should not take place this year. He said, "I am disappointed, to be sure; but it is not a great disappointment." I wondered to see him

wat Mr. bear, with a philosophical calmness, what would Joseph have made most people peevish and fretful. Simpson I perceived, however, that he had so warmly

cherished the hope of enjoying classical scenes,
that he could not easily part with the scheme;
for he said, "I shall probably contrive to get to
Italy some other way.
But I won't mention it
to Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, as it might vex them."
I suggested, that going to Italy might have done
Mr. and Mrs. Thrale good. JOHNSON. "I rather
believe not, Sir. While grief is fresh, every attempt
to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief
be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the
remains of it." wat ge

At dinner, Mr. Murphy entertained us with the
history of Mr. Joseph Simpson, a schoolfellow of
Dr. Johnson's, a barrister at law, of good parts, but
who fell into a dissipated course of life, incom-
patible with that success in his profession which he
once had, and would otherwise have deservedly
maintained; yet he still preserved a dignity in his
deportment. He wrote a tragedy on the story of
Leonidas, entitled "The Patriot." He read it to
a company of lawyers, who found so many faults
that he wrote it over again so then there were
two tragedies on the same subject and with the
same title.
Dr. Johnson told us, that one of
them was still in his possession. This very piece
was, after his death, published by some person who
had been about him, and, for the sake of a little
hasty profit, was fallaciously advertised, so as to
make it be believed to have been written by John-
son himself.
„bong'oqquzib ots
I said, I disliked the custom which some people

had of bringing their children into company, because Flat-40 it in a manner forced us to pay foolish compliments man's to please their parents. JOHNSON. "You are right, poems Sir. We may be excused for not caring much about other people's children, for there are many who care very little about their own children. It may be observed, that men, who from being engaged in business, or from their course of life in whatever way, seldom see their children, do not care much about them. I myself should not have had much fondness for a child of my own." MRS. THRALE. "Nay, Sir, how can you talk so?" JOHNSON. "At least, I never wished to have a child."

Mr. Murphy mentioned Dr. Johnson's having a design to publish an edition of Cowley. Johnson said, he did not know but he should; and he expressed his disapprobation of Dr. Hurd, for having published a mutilated edition under the title of "Select Works of Abraham Cowley." Mr. Murphy thought it a bad precedent; observing, that any authour might be used in the same manner; and that it was pleasing to see the variety of an authour's compositions, at different periods.

We talked of Flatman's Poems; and Mrs. Thrale observed, that Pope had partly borrowed from him, "The dying Christian to his Soul." Johnson repeated Rochester's verses upon Flatman, which, I think, by much too severe :

"Nor that slow drudge in swift Pindarick strains, Flatman, who Cowley imitates with pains, And rides a jaded Muse, whipt with loose reins.

I like to recollect all the passages that I heard Johnson repeat: it stamps a value on them.

Cibber's

He told us, that the book entitled "The Lives of asm the Poets, by Mr. Cibber," was entirely compiled by Mr. Shiels, a Scotchman, one of his amanuenses,

:

1 In the Monthly Review for May, 1792, there is such a correction of the above passage, as I should think myself very culpable not to subjoin. This account is very inaccurate. The following statement of facts we know to be true, in every material circumstance:-Shiels was the principal collector and digester of the materials for the work but as he was very raw in authourship, an indifferent writer in prose, and his language full of Scotticisms, Cibber, who was a clever, lively fellow, and then soliciting employment among the booksellers, was engaged to correct the style and diction of the whole work, then intended to make only four volumes, with power to alter, expunge, or add, as he liked. He was also to supply notes, occasionally, especially concerning those dramatick poets with whom he had been chiefly conversant. He also engaged to write several of the Lives; which, (as we are told,) he, accordingly, performed. He was farther useful in striking out the Jacobitical and Tory sentiments, which Shiels had industriously interspersed wherever he could bring them in:-and as the success of the work appeared, after all, very doubtful, he was content with twenty-one pounds for his labour besides a few sets of the books, to disperse among his friends.-Shiels had nearly seventy pounds, beside the advantage of many of the best Lives in the work being communicated by friends to the undertaking; and for which Mr. Shiels had the same consideration as for the rest, being paid by the sheet for the whole. He was, however, so angry with his Whiggish supervisor, (THE. like his father, being a violent stickler for the political principles which prevailed in the reign of George the Second,) for so unmercifully mutilating his copy, and scouting his politicks, that he wrote Cibber a challenge: but was prevented from sending it, by the publisher, who fairly laughed him out of his fury. The proprietors, too, were discontented, in the end, on account of Mr. Cibber's unexpected industry; for his corrections and alterations in the proof-sheets were so numerous and considerable, that

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