TABLE TALK.

CONVERSATION.

JOHNSON's usual phrase for conversation was talk; yet he made a distinction; for having once dined at a friend's house with what he termed " a very pretty company," and being asked if there was good conversation, he answered, "No, Sir; we had talk enough, but no conversation; there was nothing discussed."

He had a great aversion to gesticulation in company, and called once to a gentleman who offended him in that point, "Don't attitudenise." When another gentleman thought he was giving additional force to what he uttered, by expressive movements of his hands, Johnson fairly seized them, and held them down.

He also disapproved of introducing scripture phrases into secular discourse.

Mr. Boswell having on some occasion observed, that he thought it right to tell one man of a handsome thing which had been said of him by another, as tending to increase benevolence, Johnson answered," Undoubtedly it is right, Sir."

He thus defined the difference between physical and moral truth: "Physical truth is, when you tell a thing as it actually is. Moral truth is, when you tell a thing sincerely and precisely as it appears to you. I say such a one walked across the street; if he really did so, I told a physical truth. If I thought so, though I should have been mistaken, I told a moral truth."

"A man," he said, "should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage. People may be amused and laugh at the time; but they will be remembered, and brought out against him upon some subsequent occasion."

At another time he observed, "A man cannot with propriety speak of himself, except he relates simple facts; as, I was at Richmond:' or what depends on mensuration; as, ' I am six feet high.' He is sure he has been at Richmond; he is sure he is six feet high: but he cannot be sure he is wise, or that he has any other excellence. Then, all censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to shew how much he can spare. It has all the invidiousness of self-praise, and all the reproach of falsehood." Mr. Boswell however re

marks, that this may sometimes proceed from a man's strong consciousness of his faults being observed. He knows that others would throw him down, and therefore he had better lie down softly of his own accord.

Johnson used also to say, that if a man talked of his misfortunes, we might depend upon it there was something in them not disagreeable to himfor where there was nothing but pure misery, there never was any recourse to the mention of it.

Talking of an acquaintance, whose narratives, which abounded in curious and interesting topics, were unhappily found to be very fabulous, Mr. B. mentioned Lord Mansfield's having said, "Suppose we believe one half of what he tells."_ Aye," said Johnson," but we don't know which half to believe. By his lying we lose not only our reverence for him, but all comfort in his conversation."

Speaking of conversation, he said, "There must, in the first place, be knowledge, and there must be materials; in the second place, there must be a command of words; in the third place, there must be imagination, to place things in such views as they are not commonly seen in; and, in the fourth place, there must be presence of mind, and a resolution that is not to be overcome by failures: this last is an essential requisite; for want of it many people do not excel in conversa

tion. Now I want it: I throw up the game upon losing a trick *."

Of Charles Fox Johnson said, "Fox never talks in private company; not from any determination not to talk, but because he has not got the first motion. A man who is used to the applause of the House of Commons has no wish for that of a private company. A man accustomed to throw for a thousand pounds, if set down to throw for sixpence, would not be at the pains to count his dice. Burke's talk is the ebullition of his mind; he does not talk from a desire of distinction, but because his mind is full."

After musing for some time one day, Johnson said, "I wonder how I should have any enemies; for I do harm to nobody."-BOSWELL. "In the first place, Sir, you will be pleased to recollect, that you set out with attacking the Scotch; so you got a whole nation for your enemies."JOHNSON." Why, I own, that by my definition of oats I meant to vex them."-BoswELL. 66 Pray, Sir, can you trace the cause of your antipathy to the Scotch?"-J. "I cannot, Sir."-B. " Old Mr.

* "I wondered (says Mr. B.) to hear him talk thus of himself, and said, 'I don't know, Sir, how this may be; but I am sure you beat other people's cards out of their hands.' I doubt whether he heard this remark. While he went on talking triumphantly, I was fixed in admiration, and said to Mrs. Thrale, O, for shorthand to take this down!'- You'll carry it all in your head (said she); a long head is as good as short-hand."

Sheridan says, it was because they sold Charles the First."-J." Then, Sir, old Mr. Sheridan found out a very good reason."

He once took occasion to enlarge on the advantages of reading, and combated the idle superficial notion, that knowledge enough may be acquired in conversation. "The foundation (said he) must be laid by reading. General principles must be had from books, which, however, must be brought to the test of real life. In conversation you never get a system. What is said upon a subject is to be gathered from a hundred people. The parts of a truth which a man gets thus are at such a distance from each other, that he never attains to a full view."

His acute observation of human life made him remark," that there was nothing by which a man exasperated most people more, than by displaying a superior ability or brilliancy in conversation. They seem pleased at the time; but their envy makes them curse him in their hearts."

"Having once visited him on a Good Friday (says Mr. B.), and finding that we insensibly fell into a train of ridicule upon the foibles of one of our friends, a very worthy man; I, by way of a check, quoted some good admonition from "The Government of the Tongue," that very pious book. It happened also remarkably enough, that the subject of the sermon preached