an old counting-house, where this great man was sat at his breakfast. The furniture of this room was a very large deal writing-desk, an old walnut-tree table, and five ragged chairs of four different sets. I was very much struck with Mr. Johnson's appearance, and could hardly help thinking him a madman for some time, as he sat waving over his breakfast like a lunatic.

He is a very large man, and was dressed in a dirty brown coat and waistcoat, with breeches that were brown also (though they had been crimson), and an old black wig: his shirt collar and sleeves were unbuttoned; his stockings were down about his feet, which had on them, by way of slippers, an old pair of shoes. He had not been up long when we called on him, which was near one o'clock: he seldom goes to bed till near two in the morning; and Mr. Reynolds tells me he generally drinks tea about an hour after he has supped. We had been some time with him before he began to talk, but at length he began, and, faith, to some purpose! every thing he says is as correct as a second edition: 't is almost impossible to argue with him, he is so sententious and so knowing.

408. Sir Joshua Reynolds.

I asked him, if he had seen Mr. Reynolds's pictures lately. "No, Sir." "He has painted many fine ones.” "I know he has," he said, 66 as I hear he has been fully employed." I told him, I imagined Mr. Reynolds was not much pleased to be overlooked by the court, as he must be conscious of his superior merit. "Not at all displeased," he said, " Mr. Reynolds has too much good sense to be affected by it: when he was younger he believed it would have been agreeable; but now he does not want their favour. It has ever been more profitable to be popular among the people than favoured by the King: it is no reflection on Mr. Reynolds not to be employed by them; but it will be a

reflection for ever on the court not to have employed him. The King, perhaps, knows nothing but that he employs the best painter; and as for the queen, I don't imagine she has any other idea of a picture, but that it is a thing composed of many colours."

409. Bath.

When Mr. Johnson understood that I had lived some time in Bath, he asked me many questions that led, indeed, to a general description of it. He seemed very well pleased; but remarked, that men and women bathing together, as they do at Bath, is an instance of barbarity, that he believed could not be paralleled in any part of the world. He entertained us about an hour and a half in this manner; then we took our leave. I must not omit to add, that I am informed he denies himself many conveniences, though he cannot well afford any, that he may have more in his power to give in charities.

PART XV.

ANECDOTES OF DR. JOHNSON,

BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. (1)

410. Johnson's Conversation.

- Sir Joshua Reynolds's

"Discourses."- Art of Thinking.

I REMEMBER Mr. Burke, speaking of the Essays of Sir Francis Bacon, said, he thought them the best of his works. Dr. Johnson was of opinion, that "their excellence and their value consisted in being the ob(1) [From an unfinished Discourse, found by Mr. Malone among Sir Joshua's loose papers. See Works, vol. i. p. 9.]

servations of a strong mind operating upon life; and in consequence you find there what you seldom find in other books." It is this kind of excellence which gives a value to the performances of artists also. It is the thoughts expressed in the works of Michael Angelo, Coreggio, Raffaelle, Parmegiano, and perhaps some of the old Gothic masters, and not the inventions of Pietro da Cortona, Carlo Marati, Luca Giordano, and others, that I might mention, which we seek after with avidity: from the former we learn to think originally.

May I presume to introduce myself on this occasion, and even to mention, as an instance of the truth of what I have remarked, the very Discourses which I have had the honour of delivering from this place? Whatever merit they have, must be imputed, in a great measure, to the education which I may be said to have had under Dr. Johnson. I do not mean to say, though it certainly would be to the credit of these Discourses, if I could say it with truth, that he contributed even a single sentiment to them; but he qualified my mind to think justly. No man had, like him, the faculty of teaching inferior minds the art of thinking. Perhaps other men might have equal knowledge; but few were so communicative. His great pleasure was to talk to those who looked up to him. It was here he exhibited his wonderful powers. In mixed company, and frequently in company that ought to have looked up to him, many, thinking they had a character for learning to support, considered it as beneath them to enlist in the train of his auditors; and to such persons he certainly did not appear to advantage, being often impetuous and overbearing.

The desire of shining in conversation was in him, indeed, a predominant passion; and if it must be attributed to vanity, let it at the same time be recollected, that it produced that loquaciousness from which his more intimate friends derived considerable advantage. The

observations which he made on poetry, on life, and on every thing about us, I applied to our art; with what success, others must judge. Perhaps an artist in his studies should pursue the same conduct; and, instead of patching up a particular work on the narrow plan of imitation, rather endeavour to acquire the art and power of thinking.

411. Johnson's Style of Conversation.

[The following jeu d'esprit was written by Sir Joshua Reynolds to illustrate a remark which he had made, that " Dr. Johnson considered Garrick as his property, and would never suffer any one to praise or abuse him but himself." In the first of these supposed dialogues, Sir Joshua himself, by high encomiums upon Garrick, is represented as drawing down upon him Johnson's censure; in the second, Mr. Gibbon, by taking the opposite side, calls forth his praise.]

TWO

DIALOGUES

IN IMITATION OF JOHNSON'S

STYLE OF CONVERSATION.

JOHNSON AGAINST GARRICK.

(1)

Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds, REYNOLDS. Let me alone, I'll bring him out. (Aside.) I have been thinking, Dr. Johnson, this morning, on a

(2) These dialogues were printed in 1816 from the MS. of Sir Joshua, by his niece, Lady Thomond: they were not published, but distributed by her ladyship to some friends of Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua. The copy which I have was spontaneously transmitted to me by Mrs. Gwynn, the friend of Goldsmith and of Johnson, whose early beauty is celebrated in the first part of this work (Vol. II. p. 191.), and who is still distinguished for her amiable character and high mental accomplishments. Lady Thomond, in the prefatory note, calls this a "jeu d'esprit," but I was informed by the late Sir George Beaumont, who knew all the parties, and to whom Reynolds himself gave a copy of it, that if the words jeu d'esprit were to be understood to imply that it was altogether an invention of Sir Joshua's, the term would be erroneous. The substance,

matter that has puzzled me very much; it is a subject that I dare say has often passed in your thoughts, and though I cannot, I dare say you have made up your mind upon it.

JOHNSON. Tilly fally! what is all this preparation, what is all this mighty matter?

REY. Why, it is a very weighty matter. The subject I have been thinking upon is, predestination and freewill, two things I cannot reconcile together for the life of me; in my opinion, Dr. Johnson, freewill and foreknowledge cannot be reconciled.

JOHNS. Sir, it is not of very great importance what your opinion is upon such a question.

REY. But I meant only, Dr. Johnson, to know your opinion.

JOHNS. No, Sir, you meant no such thing; you meant only to show these gentlemen that you are not the man they took you to be, but that you think of high matters sometimes, and that you may have the credit of having it said that you held an argument with Sam Johnson on predestination and freewill; a subject of that magnitude as to have engaged the attention of the world, to have perplexed the wisdom of man for these two thousand years; a subject on which the fallen angels, who had yet not lost their original brightness, find themselves in wandering mazes lost. That such a subject could be discussed in the levity of convivial conversation, is a degree of absurdity beyond what is easily conceivable.

REY. It is so, as you say, to be sure; I talked once to our friend Garrick upon this subject, but I remember we could make nothing of it.

and many of the expressions, of the dialogues did really occur; Sir Joshua did little more than collect, as if into two conversations, what had been uttered at many, and heighten the effect by the juxtaposition of such discordant opinions. — C.