truth firmly, a commendation of which he may afterwards avail himself."-7. " Very true, Sir. Therefore the man who is afked an author what he thinks of his work, is put to the torture, and is not obliged to speak the truth; fo that what he fays is not confidered. as his opinion; yet he has faid it, and cannot retract it; and this author, when mankind are hunting him with a cannifter at his tail, can fay, "I would not have published, had not Johnson, or Reynolds, or Mufgrave, or some other good judge, commended the work.' Yet I confider it as a very difficult queftion in confcience, whether one fhould advise a man not to publish a work, if profit be his object; for the man may fay, Had it not been for you, I should have had the money.' Now you cannot be fure; for you have only your own opinion, and the public may think very differently." SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. "You muft upon fuch an occafion have two judgments; one as to the real value of the work, the other as to what may please the general tafte at the time,"-7. "But you can be sure of neither; and therefore I fhould fcruple much to give a fuppreffive vote. Both Goldfmith's comedies were once refused; his first by Garrick, his fecond by Colman, who was prevailed on at laft by much folicitation, nay a

kind of force, to bring it on. His Vicar of, Wakefield' I myself did not think would have had much fuccefs. It was written, and fold to a bookfeller before his Traveller;' but published after; fo little expectation had the bookfeller from it. Had it been fold after the Traveller,' he might have had twice as much money for it, though fixty guineas was no mean price. The bookfeller had the advantage of Goldfinith's reputation from The Traveller' in the fale, though Goldsmith had it not in felling the copy."-S 7. R." The Beggar's Opera affords a proof how ftrangely people will differ in opinion about a literary performance. Burke thinks it has no merit."

-J. "It was refufed by one of the houses; but I fhould have thought it would fucceed, not from any great excellence in the writing, but from the novelty, and the general fpirit and gaiety of the picce, which keeps the audience always attentive, and difmifies them in good humour."

He once mentioned with an air of fatisfaction what Baretti had told him; that meeting, in the course of his ftudying English, with an excellent paper in the Spectator, one of four that were written by the refpectable diffenting minifter Mr. Grove of Taunton, and obferving the genius and energy of mind that it exhibits,

hibits, it greatly quickened his curiofity to vifit our country; as he thought if fuch were the lighter periodical effays of our authors, their productions on more weighty occafions must e wonderful indeed.

Mr. Bofwell expreffed a liking for Mr. Francis Ofborn's works, and afked Johnfon what he thought of that writer. He answered, "A conceited fellow. Were a man to write. fo now, the boys would throw stones at him." He however (fays Mr. B.) did not alter my opinion of a favourite author, to whom I was first directed by his being quoted in The Spectator,' and in whom I have found much fhrewd and lively fenfe, expreffed indeed in a ftyle fomewhat quaint, which however I do not diflike. His book has an air of originality. We figure to ourselves an ancient gentleman talking to us.

Johnfon once talked with approbation of an intended edition of The Spectator' with notes; two volumes of which had been prepared by a gentleman eminent in the literary world, and the materials which he had collected for the remainder had been transferred to another hand. He obferved, that all works which defcribe manners require notes in fixty or feventy years or lefs; and faid, he had communicated all he kaew that could throw light upon The Spec

tator.' He faid,

"Addifon had made his Sir

Andrew Freeport a true Whig, arguing against giving charity to beggars, and throwing out other fuch ungracious fentiments; but that he had thought better, and made amends by making him found an hofpital for decayed farmers." He called for the volume of The Spectator' in which that account is contained, and read it aloud. Indeed he read fo well, that every thing acquired additional weight and grace from his utterance.

Johnson on another occafion praised The Spectator,' particularly the character of Sir Roger de Coverley. He faid, "Sir Roger did not die a violent death as has been generally fancied. He was not killed; he died only because others were to die, and because his death afforded an opportunity to Addison for fome very fine writing. We have the example of Cervantes making Don Quixote die. I never could fee why Sir Roger is represented as a little cracked. It appears to me that the ftory of the widow was intended to have fomething fuperinduced upon it; but the fuperftructure did not come."

Johnson talked of its having been said that Addifon wrote fome of his beft papers in The Spectator' when warm with wine. He did not feem willing to admit this. Dr. Scott, as

a confir

a confirmation of it, related, that Blackstone, a fober man, compofed his Commentaries" with a bottle of port before him; and found his mind invigorated and fupported in the fatigue of his great work, by a temperate use of

it.

In another converfation on The Spectator,' he faid, "It is wonderful that there is fuch a proportion of bad papers, in the half of the work which was not written by Addison; for there was all the world to write that half, yet not a half of that half is good. One of the fineft pieces in the English language is the paper on Novelty, yet we do not hear it talked of. It was written by Mr. Grove, a diffenting teacher. Mr. Murphy faid, he remembered when there were feveral people alive in London, who enjoyed a confiderable reputation mercly from having written a paper in The Spectator.' He mentioned particularly Mr. Ince, who used to frequent Tom's coffeehoufe;" but (faid Johnson) you must confider how highly Steele fpeaks of Mr. Ince." He would not allow that the paper on carrying a boy to travel, figned Philip Homebred, which was reported to be written by the Lord Chancellor Hardwick, had merit. He faid, "It was quite vulgar, and had nothing luminous.'

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