critically on the dishes which had been at table where he had dined or supped, and to recollect very minutely what he had liked. I remember when he was in Scotland, his praising Gordon's palates (a dish of palates at the Honourable Alexander Gordon's) with a warmth of expression which might have done honour to more important subjects. "As for Maclaurin's imitation of a made dish, it was a wretched attempt." He about the same time was so much displeased with the performances of a nobleman's French cook, that he exclaimed with vehemence, "I'd throw such a rascal into the river;" and he then proceeded to alarm a lady at whose house he was to sup, by the following manifesto of his skill; “I, Madam, who live at a variety of good tables, am a much better judge of cookery than any person who has a very tolerable cook, but lives much at home; for his palate is gradually adapted to the taste of his cook; whereas, Madam, in trying by a wider range, I can more exquisitely judge." When invited to dine, even with an intimate friend, he was not pleased if something better than a plain dinner was not prepared for him. I have heard him say on such an occasion, “This was a good dinner enough, to be sure; but it was not a dinner to ask a man to." On the other hand, he was wont to express, with great glee, his satisfaction when he had been entertained quite to his mind. One day when he had dined with his neighbour and landlord in Bolt Court, Mr. Allen,' the printer, whose old housekeeper, had studied his taste in everything, he pronounced this eulogy: "Sir, we could not have had a better dinner, had there been a Synod of Cooks." 2 1 Edward Allen was a very excellent printer in Bolt Court. His office united to Johnson's dwelling. He died in 1780.--NICHOLS. " Johnson's notions about eating, however, were nothing less than delicate; a leg of pork boiled till it dropped from the bone, a veal pie with plums and sugar, or the outside cut of a salt buttock of beef, were his favourite dainties; with regard to drink, his liking was for the strongest, as it was not the flavour, but the effect he sought for, and professed to desire; and when I first knew him, he used to pour capillaire into his port wine. For the last twelve years, however, he left off all fermented liquors. To make himself some amends, indeed, he took his chocolate liberally, pouring in large quantities of cream, or even melted butter; and was so fond of fruit, that though he would eat seven or eight large peaches of a morning before breakfast began, and treated them with proportionate attention after dinner again, yet I have heard him protest, that he never had quite as much as he wished of wall fruit, except once in his life, and that was when we were all together at Ombersley, the seat of my Lord Sandy's; and yet when his Irish friend Grierson, hearing him enumerate the qualities necessary to the formation of a poet, began a comical parody upon his ornamented harangue in praise of a cook, concluding with this observation, that he who dressed a good dinner was a more excellent and a more useful member of society than he who wrote a good poem. 'And in this While we were left by ourselves, after the Dutchman had gone to bed, Dr. Johnson talked of that studied behaviour which many have recommended and practised. He disapproved of it, and said, “I never consider whether I should be a grave man, or a merry man, but just let inclination, for the time, have its course." He flattered me with some hopes that he would, in the course of the following summer, come over to Holland, and accompany me in a tour through the Netherlands. I teased him with fanciful apprehensions of unhappiness. A moth having fluttered round the candle, and burnt itself, he laid hold of this little incident to admonish me; saying, with a sly look, and in a solemn but a quiet tone, "That creature was its own tormentor, and I believe its name was BoswELL." Next day we got to Harwich to dinner; and my passage in the packet-boat to Helvoetsluys being secured, and my baggage put on board, we dined at our inn by ourselves. I happened to say, it would be terrible if he should not find a speedy opportunity of returning to London, and be confined in so dull a place. JOHNSON. "Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.' It would not be terrible, though I were to be detained some time here." The practice of using words of disproportionate magnitude is, no doubt, too frequent every where; but, I think, most remarkable among the French, of which, all who have travelled in France must have been struck with innumerable instances. We went and looked at the church, and having gone into it and opinion," said Mr. Johnson, in reply, "all the dogs in the town will join you." He loved his dinner exceedingly, and has often said in my hearing, perhaps for my edification, "that wherever the dinner is ill got up there is poverty or there is avarice, or there is stupidity; in short, the family is somehow grossly wrong: for," continued he, "a man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner; and if he cannot get that well dressed, he should be suspected of inaccuracy in other things." One day, when he was speaking upon the subject, I asked him if he ever huffed his wife about his dinner? "So often," replied he, "that at last she called to me, when about to say grace, and said, ‘Nay, hold, Mr. Johnson, and do not make a farce of thanking God for a dinner which, in a few minutes, you will pronounce not eatable." "-Prozzi. 1 This advice comes drolly from the writer, who makes a young lady talk of "the cosmetic discipline," ,” “a regular lustration with bean-flower water, and the use of a pommade to discuss pimples and clear discoloration" (Rambler, No. 180); while a young gentleman tells us of "the flaccid sides of a foot-ball having swelled out into stiffness and extension." (No. 117.) And it is equally amusing to find Mr. Boswell, after his various defences of Johnson's grandiloquence, attacking the little inflations of French conversation; straining at a gnat after having swallowed a camel.-C. walked up to the altar, Johnson, whose piety was constant and fervent, sent me to my knees, saying, "Now that you are going to leave your native country, recommend yourself to the protection of your CREATOR and REDEEMER." 1 After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the nonexistence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, "I refute it thus." This was a stout exemplification of the first truths of Père Bouffier, or the original principles of Reid and of Beattie; without admitting which, we can no more argue in metaphysics, than we can argue in metaphysics without axioms. To me it is not conceivable how Berkeley can be answered by pure reasoning; but I know that the nice and difficult task was to have been undertaken by one of the most luminous minds of the present age, had not politics "turned him from calm philosophy aside." What an admirable display of subtlety, united with brilliance, might his contending with Berkeley have afforded us ! How must we, when we reflect on the loss of such an intellectual feast, regret that he should be characterised as the man 2 "" Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind?" My reverend friend walked down with me to the beach, where we embraced and parted with tenderness, and engaged to correspond 1 Dr. Johnson seems to have been imperfectly acquainted with Berkeley's doctrine; as his experiment only proves that we have the sensation of solidity, which Berkeley did not deny. He admitted that we had sensations or ideas that are usually called sensible qualities, one of which is solidity; he only denied the existence of matter, i. e., an inert senseless substance, in which they are supposed to subsist. Johnson's exemplification concurs with the vulgar notion, that solidity is matter.-KEARNEY. [When Zeno argued, that there was no such thing as motion, Diogenes walked across the room. Johnson's argument is in the same style, but not so satisfactory.-FONNEREAU.] 2 Mr. Burke.-C. 3 In the latter years of his life, Mr. Burke reversed the conduct which Goldsmith so elegantly reprehends, and gave up party for what he conceived to be the good of mankind.-C. by letters. I said, "I hope, Sir, you will not forget me in my ab sence." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, it is more likely that you should forget me, than that I should forget you." As the vessel put out to sea, I kept my eyes upon him for a considerable time, w' ile he remained rolling his majestic frame in his usual manner; and it last I perceived him walk back into the town, and he disappeare CHAPTER XIX. 1763-1765. 66 Boswell at Utrecht-Letter from Johnson-The Frisick Language-Johnson's Visit to Langton-Institution of "The Club "-Reynolds-Garrick-Dr. Nugent-Granger's Sugar Cane "-Hypochondriac Attack-Days of Abstraction-Odd Habits-Visit to Dr. Percy-Letter to Reynolds-Visit to Cambridge-Self-examination-Letter to, and from, Garrick— Johnson created LL.D. by Dublin University-Letter to Dr. Leland-Prayer on "Engaging in Politics"-William Gerard Hamilton. UTRECHT seeming at first very dull to me, after the animated scenes of London, my spirits were grievously affected; and I wrote to Johnson a plaintive and desponding letter, to which he paid no regard. Afterwards, when I had acquired a firmer tone of mind, I wrote him a second letter, expressing much anxiety to hear from him. At length I received the following epistle, which was of important service to me, and, I trust, will be so to many others. LETTER 87. À. M. M. BOSWELL, "LONDON, Dec. 8, 1763. "DEAR SIR,-You are not to think yourself forgotten, or criminally neglected, that you have had yet no letter from me. I love to see my friends, to hear from them, to talk to them, and to talk of them; but it is not without a considerable effort of resolution that I prevail upon myself to write. I would not, however, gratify my own indolence by the omission of any important duty, or any office of real kindness. "To tell you that I am or am not well, that I have or have not been in the country, that I drank your health in the room in which we last sat together, and that your acquaintance continue to speak of you with their former kindness, topics with which those letters are commonly filled which are written only for the sake of writing, I seldom shall think worth communicating; but if I can have it in my power to calm any harassing disquiet, to excite any virtuous desire, to rectify any important opinion, or fortify any generous resolu tion, you need not doubt but I shall at least wish to prefer the pleasure of |