LONDON.

LONDON (faid Johnson) is nothing to fome people; but to a man whose pleasure is intellectual, London is the place. And there is no place where economy can be fo well practised as in London. More can be had here for the money, even by ladies, than any where elfe, You cannot play tricks with your fortune in a small place; you must make an uniform appearance. Here a lady may have well furnished apartments, and elegant drefs, without any meat in her kitchen,"

Mr. Bofwell once expreffing much regret at leaving London, where he had formed many agrecable connexions," Sir (faid Johnson), I don't wonder at it, no man fond of letters leaves London without regret. But remember, Sir, you have feen and enjoyed a great deal; you have seen life in its highest decorations, and the world has nothing new to exhibit.-No man is fo well qualified to leave publick life as he who has long tried it, and known it well. We are always hankering after untried fituations, and imagining greater felicity from them than they can afford. Sir, knowledge and virtue may be acquired in all countries."

Talking of the little attachment which fubfifted between near relations in London, "Sir (faid Johnson), in a country fo commercial as ours, where every man can do for himself, there is not fo much occafion for that attachment. No man is thought the worse of here, whofe brother was hanged. In commercial countries, many of the branches of a family must depend on the ftock; fo in order to make the head of the family take care of them, they are reprefented as connected with his reputation, that, felf-love being interested, he may exert himself to promote their intereft. You have first large circles or clans; as commerce increases, the connection is confined to families. By degrees that too goes off as having become unneceffary, and there being few opportunities of intercourfe. One brother is a merchant in the city, and another is an officer in the guards. How little intercourfe can these two have !"

On the state of the poor in London, Johnson faid, "Saunders Welch, the Juftice, who was once high conftable of Holborn, and had the best opportunities of knowing the ftate of the poor, told me, that I under-rated the number, when I computed that twenty a week, that is above a thousand a year, died of hunger; not abfolutely of immediate hunger, but of the wafting and other

other diseases which are the confequences of hunger. This happens only in fo large a place as London, where people are not known. What we are told about the great fums got by begging is not true; the trade is overstocked: and you may depend upon it, there are many who cannot get work. A particular kind of manufacture fails: thofe who have been used to work at it can, for fome time, work at nothing elfe. You meet a man begging; you charge him with idleness: he fays, 'I'm willing to labour. Will you give me work ?'— "I cannot.'-'Why then you have no right to charge me with idlenefs."

Talking of living in the country, he said, "No wife man will go to live in the country, unless he has fomething to do which can be better done in the country. For instance; if he is to shut himself up for a year to study a science, it is better to look out to the fields, than to an oppofite wall. Then if a man walks out in the country there is nobody to keep him from walking in again; but if a man walks out in London, he is not fure when he fhall walk in again. A great city is to be fure the school for studying life; and The proper study of mankind is man,' as Pope obferves." BOSWELL. "I fancy London is the best

place for fociety; though I have heard that the very first fociety of Paris is ftill beyond any thing that we have here."-JOHNSON. "Sir, I queftion if in Paris fuch a company as is fitting round this table could be got together in lefs than half a year. They talk in France of the felicity of men and women living together; the truth is, that there the men are not higher than the women, they know no more than the women do, and they are not held down in their conversation by the presence of women." Mr. Ramfay faid, "Literature is upon the growth, it is in its fpring in France; here it is rather paffée."-7. "Literature was in France long before we had it. Paris was the fecond city for the revival of letters; Italy had it first to be fure. What have we done for literature, equal to what was done by the Stephani and others in France? Our literature came to us through France. Caxton printed only two books, Chaucer and Gower, that were not tranflations from the French; and Chaucer we know took much from the Italians. No, Sir, if literature be in its fpring in France, it is a fecond fpring; it is after a winter. We are now before the French in literature; but we had it long after them."

Johnson was always much attached to London; he obferved, that a man ftored his mind

better

better there than any where else; and that in remote fituations a man's body might be feasted, but his mind was ftarved, and his faculties apt to degenerate, from want of exercise and competition. No place (he faid) cured a man's vanity or arrogance fo well as London; for as no man was either great or good per se, but as compared with others not fo good or great, he was fure to find in the Metropolis many his equals, and fome his fuperiors. He obferved, that a man in London was in lefs danger of falling in love indifcreetly, than any where elfe; for there the difficulty of deciding between the conflicting pretenfions of a vaft variety of objects kept him fafe. He faid, that he had frequently been offered country preferment if he would confent to take orders; but he could not leave the improved fociety of the capital, or confent to exchange the exhilarating joys and fplendid decorations of public life, for the obscurity, infipidity, and uniformity of remote fituations.

At another time he obferved, "Sir, if you wish to have a juft notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be fatisfied with fecing its great ftreets and fquares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but

in