at this, because I believe it has been frequently practised on myself."

I cannot help thinking, that there is much weight in the opinion of those who have held, that Truth, as an eternal and immutable principle, ought, upon no account whatever, to be violated, from supposed previous or superiour obligations, of which every man being the judge for himself, there is great danger that we may too often, from partial motives, persuade ourselves that they exist; and probably whatever extraordinary instances may sometimes occur, where some evil may be prevented by violating this noble principle, it would be found that human happiness would, upon the whole, be more perfect were Truth universally preserved.

In the Notes to the "Dunciad" we find the following elegant and pathetick verses, addressed to Pope:"

on a name.

"While malice, Pope, denies thy page

Its own celestial fire;

While criticks, and while bards in rage
Admiring, won't admire :

"While wayward pens thy worth assail,

And envious tongues decry;

These times, though many a friend bewail,
These times bewail not I.

"But when the world's loud praise is thine,
And spleen no more shall blame;
When with thy Homer thou shalt shine
In one establish'd fame;

"When none shall rail, and every lay

Devote a wreath to thee:

That day (for come it will) that day

Shall I lament to see."

It is surely not a little remarkable, that they should appear withMiss Seward, knowing Dr. Johnson's almost universal and minute literary information, signified a desire that I should ask him who was the authour. He was prompt with his answer :— "Why, Sir, they were written by one Lewis, an under-master or usher of Westminster school, who published a miscellany, in which 'Grongar Hill' first came out." Johnson praised them highly

The annotator calls them "amiable verses.'
Cor. et Ad.-Line 1: For "at" read “of."

"

1

and repeated them with a noble animation. In the twelfth line, instead of "one established fame," he repeated one unclouded flame," which he thought was the reading in former editions; but I believe was a flash of his own genius. It is much more poetical

than the other.

On Monday 14, and Tuesday, June 15, Dr. Johnson and I dined on one of them, I forget which, with Mr. Mickle, translator of the "Lusiad," at Wheatley, a very pretty country place a few miles from Oxford; and on the other with Dr. Wetherell, Master of University-College. From Dr. Wetherell's he went to visit Mr. Sackville Parker the bookseller; and when he returned to us, gave the following account of his visit, saying, "I have been to see my old friend, Sack. Parker; I find he has married his maid; he has done right. She had lived with him many years in great confidence, and they had mingled minds; I do not think he could have found any wife that would have made him so happy. The woman was very attentive and civil to me; she pressed me to fix a day for dining with them, and to say what I liked, and she would be sure to get it for me. Poor Sack! He is very ill, indeed. We parted as never to meet again. It has quite broke me down." This pathetick narrative was strangely diversified with the grave and earnest defence of a man's having married his maid. I could not but feel it as in some degree ludicrous.

In the morning of Tuesday, June 15, while we sat at Dr. Adams's, we talked of a printed letter from the Reverend Herbert Croft, to a young gentleman who had been his pupil, in which he advised him to read to the end of whatever books he should begin to read. JOHNSON. "This is surely a strange advice; you may as well resolve that whatever men you happen to get acquainted with, you are to keep to them for life. A book may be good for nothing; or there may be only one thing in it worth knowing; are we to read it all through? These Voyages (pointing to the three large volumes of 'Voyages to the South Sea,' which were just come out) who will read them through ? A man had better work his way before the mast, than read them through; they will be eaten by rats and mice, before they are read through. There can be little entertainment in such books; one set of Savages is like another." BOSWELL. "I do not think the people of Otaheite can be reckoned Savages." JOHNSON. "Don't cant in defence of Savages." Bos"They have the art of navigation." JOHNSON. "A dog or a cat can swim." BOSWELL. "They carve very ingeniously." JOHNSON. "A cat can scratch, and a child with a nail can scratch." I perceive this was none of the mollia tempora fandi, so desisted.

WELL.

Upon his mentioning that when he came to College he wrote his first exercise twice over; but never did so afterwards, Miss ADAMS. "I suppose, Sir, you could not make them better." JOHNSON. "Yes, Madam, to be sure, I could make them better. Thought is better than no thought." MISS ADAMS. "Do you think, Sir, you could make your Ramblers better?" JOHNSON. "Certainly I could." BOSWELL. "I'll lay a bet, Sir, you cannot." JOHNSON. "But I will, Sir, if I choose. I shall make the best of them you shall pick out, better." BOSWELL. "But you may add to them. I will not allow of that." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, there are three ways of making them better;-putting out-adding—or correcting."

During our visit at Oxford, the following conversation passed between him and me on the subject of my trying my fortune at the English bar: Having asked whether a very extensive acquaintance in London, which was very valuable, and of great advantage to a man at large, might not be prejudicial to a lawyer, by preventing him from giving sufficient attention to business. JOHNSON. "Sir, you will attend to business as business lays hold of you. When not actually employed, you may see your friends as much as you do now. You may dine at a Club every day, and sup with one of the members every night, and you may be as much at publick places as one who has seen them all would wish to be. But you must take care to attend constantly in Westminster-Hall; both to mind your business, as it is almost all learnt there, (for nobody reads now ;) and to shew that you want to have business. And you must not be too often seen at publick places, that competitors may not have it to say, 'He is always at the Playhouse or at Ranelagh, and never to be found at his chambers.' And, Sir, there must be a kind of solemnity in the manner of a professional man. I have nothing particular to say to you on the subject. All this I should say to any one; I should have said it to Lord Thurlow twenty years ago."

THE PROFESSION may probably think this representation of what is required in a Barrister who would hope for success, to be by much too indulgent; but certain it is, that as

"The wits of Charles found easier ways to fame,"

some of the lawyers of this age who have risen high, have by no means thought it absolutely necessary to submit to that long and painful course of study which a Plowden, a Coke, a Hale considered as requisite. My respected friend, Mr. Langton, has shewn me in the hand-writing of his grandfather, a curious account of a conversation which he had with Lord Chief Justice Hale, in

which that great man tells him, "That for two years after he came to the inn of court, he studied sixteen hours a day; however (his Lordship added) that by this intense application he almost brought himself to his grave, though he were of a very strong constitution, and after reduced himself to eight hours; but that he would not advise any body to so much; that he thought six hours a day, with attention and constancy was sufficient; that a man must use his body as he would his horse, and his stomach; not tire him at once, but rise with an appetite."

On Wednesday, June 19, Dr. Johnson and I returned to London; he was not well to-day, and said very little, employing himself chiefly in reading Euripides. He expressed some displeasure at me, for not observing sufficiently the various objects upon the road. "If I had your eyes, Sir, (said he) I should count the passengers." It was wonderful how accurate his observations of visual objects was, notwithstanding his imperfect eyesight, owing to a habit of attention. That he was much satisfied with the respect paid to him at Dr. Adams's, is thus attested by himself: "I returned last night from Oxford, after a fortnight's abode with Dr. Adams, who treated me as well as I could expect or wish; and he that contents a sick man, a man whom it is impossible to please, has surely done his part well."

a

After his return to London from this excursion, I saw him frequently, but have few memorandums; I shall therefore here insert some particulars which I collected at various times.

"Letters to Mrs. Thrale," Vol. II. page 372.

Having unexpectedly by the favour of Mr. Stone, of London-Field, Hackney, seen the original in Johnson's hand-writing, of "The Petition of the City of London to his Majesty, in favour of Dr. Dodd," I now present it to my readers, with such passages as were omitted, inclosed in crotchets, and the additions or variations marked in Italicks.

"That William Dodd, Doctor of Laws, now lying under sentence of death in your Majesty's gaol of Newgate, for the crime of forgery, has for a great part of his life set an useful and laudable example of diligence in his calling, [and as we have reason to believe, has exercised his ministry with great fidelity and effacacy,] which in many instances has produced the most happy effect.

"That he has been the first institutor, [or] and a very earnest and active promoter of several modes of useful charity, and [that] therefore [he] may be considered as having been on many occasions a benefactor to the publick.

"[That when they consider his past life, they are willing to suppose his late crime to have been not the consequence of habitual depravity, but the suggestion of some sudden and violent temptation.]

“[That] Your Petitioners, therefore considering his case as in some of its circumstances unprecedented and peculiar, and encouraged by your Majesty's known clemency [they] most humbly recommend the said William Dodd to [his] your Majesty's most gracious consideration, in hope that he will be found not altogether [unfit] unworthy to stand an example of royal mercy."

Second Edition.-Above note shifted back to p. 198, Vol. II., and put on the words "they mended it."

The Reverend Mr. Astle, of Ashbourne in Derbyshire, brother to the learned and ingenious Thomas Astle, Esq. was from his early years known to Dr. Johnson, who obligingly advised him as to his studies, and recommended to him the following books, of which a list which he has been pleased to communicate, lyes before me in Johnson's own hand-writing.-Universal History (ancient).-Rollin's Ancient History.-Puffendorf's Introduction to History.-Vertot's History of Knights of Malta.-Vertot's Revolution of Portugal.— Vertot's Revolutions of Sweden.-Carte's History of England.-Present State of England.—Geographical Grammar.-Prideaux's Connection.-Nelson's Feasts and Fasts.-Duty of Man.-Gentleman's Religion.-Clarendon's History.-Watts's Improvement of the Mind.— Watts's Logick.-Nature Displayed.-Lowth's English Grammar.Blackwal on the Classicks.-Sherlock's Sermons.-Burnet's Life of Hale-Dupin's History of the Church.-Shuckford's Connections.— Law's Serious Call-Walton's Complete Angler.-Sandys's Travels. -Sprat's History of the Royal Society.-England's Gazetteer.-Goldsmith's Roman History.-Some Commentaries on the Bible.

It having been mentioned to Dr. Johnson that a gentleman who had a son whom he imagined to have an extreme degree of timidity, resolved to send him to a public school, that he might acquire confidence. "Sir, (said Johnson) this is a preposterous expedient for removing his infirmity; such a disposition should be cultivated in the shade. Placing him at a publick school is forcing an owl upon day."

Speaking of a gentleman whose house was much fréquented by low company; "Rags, sir, (said he,) will always make their appearance where they have a right to do it."

Of the same gentleman's mode of living, he said, "Sir, the servants, instead of doing what they are bid, stand round the table in idle clusters, gaping upon the guests; and seem as unfit to attend a company, as to steer a man of war."

A dull country magistrate gave Johnson a long tedious account of his exercising his criminal jurisdiction, the result of which was his having sentenced four convicts to transportation. Johnson, in an agony of impatience to get rid of such a companion, exclaimed, "I heartily wish, Sir, that I were a fifth."

Johnson was present when a tragedy was read, in which there occurred this line:

"Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free."

The company having admired it much, "I cannot agree with you (said Johnson): It might as well be said,