Wit and Wisdom of Samuel Johnson. Arguments and Understanding: JOHNSON having argued for some time with a pertinacious gentleman; his opponent, who had talked in a very puzzling manner, happened to say, 'I don't understand you, Sir:' upon which Johnson observed, 'Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.' Boswell's Life of Johnson, iv. 313. Army: I DOUBT not but I shall hear on this occasion of the service of our troops in the suppression of riots; we shall be told by the next pompous orator who shall rise up in defence of the army that they have often dispersed the smugglers; that the colliers have been driven down by the terror of their appearance to their subterraneous fortifications; that the weavers in the midst of that rage which hunger and oppression excited fled at their approach; that they have at our markets bravely regulated the price of butter, and sometimes in the utmost exertion of heroic fury broken those eggs which they were not suffered to purchase on their own terms. Debates, x. 52. IT is not without compassion, compassion very far extended, that I consider the unhappy striplings doomed to a camp from whom the sun has hitherto been screened and the wind excluded, who have been taught by many tender lectures the unwholesomeness of the evening mists and the morning dews, who have been wrapt in furs in winter and cooled with fans in summer, who have lived without any fatigue Assertors of Truth. fatigue but that of dress, or any care but that of their com- Assertors of Uncontroverted Truth: TOM STEADY was a vehement assertor of uncontroverted truth; and by keeping himself out of the reach of contradiction, had acquired all the confidence which the consciousness of irresistible abilities could have given. I was once mentioning a man of eminence, and, after having recounted his virtues, endeavoured to represent him fully, by mentioning his faults. Sir, said Mr. Steady, that he has faults I can easily believe, for who is without them? No man, Sir, is now alive, among the innumerable multitudes that swarm upon the earth, however wise, or however good, who has not, in some degree, his failings and his faults. If there be any man faultless, bring him forth into public view, shew him openly, and let him be known; but I will venture to affirm, and, till the contrary be plainly shewn, shall always maintain, that no such man is to be found. Tell not me, Sir, of impeccability and perfection; such talk is for those that are strangers in the world: I I Wit and Wisdom of Samuel Johnson Wit and of Samuel Johnson. world: I have seen several nations, and conversed with all ranks of people: I have known the great and the mean, the learned and the ignorant, the old and the young, the clerical and the lay; but I have never found a man without a fault; and I suppose shall die in the opinion, that to be human is to be frail. To all this nothing could be opposed. I listened with a hanging head; Mr. Steady looked round on the hearers with triumph, and saw every eye congratulating his victory; he departed, and spent the next morning in following those who retired from the company, and telling them, with injunctions of secrecy, how poor Spritely began to take liberties with men wiser than himself; but that he suppressed him by a decisive argument, which put him totally to silence. Idler, No. 78. Attention: You are now retired, and have nothing to impede selfexamination or self-improvement. Endeavour to reform that instability of attention which your last letter has happened to betray. Perhaps it is natural for those that have much within to think little on things without; but whoever lives heedlessly lives but in a mist, perpetually deceived by false appearances of the past, without any certain reliance on recollection. Attorneys: Piozzi Letters, ii. 319. MUCH enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney. Boswell's Life of Johnson, ii. 126. Audacity Audacity the last Refuge of Guilt: To revenge reasonable incredulity by refusing evidence 1 is a degree of insolence with which the world is not yet acquainted; and stubborn audacity is the last refuge of guilt. Works, ix. 115. Wit and Wisdom of Samuel Johnson. Authority: It must always be the condition of a great part of mankind to reject and embrace tenets upon the authority of those whom they think wiser than themselves; and, therefore, the addition of every name to infidelity in some degree invalidates that argument upon which the religion of multitudes is necessarily founded. Ib. vi. 501. THE general story of mankind will evince that lawful and settled authority is very seldom resisted when it is well employed. Gross corruption or evident imbecility is necessary to the suppression of that reverence with which the majority of mankind look upon their governors, and on those whom they see surrounded by splendor and fortified by power. For though men are drawn by their passions into forgetfulness of invisible rewards and punishments, yet they are easily kept obedient to those who have temporal dominion in their hands till their veneration is dissipated by such wickedness and folly as can neither be defended nor concealed. Rambler, No. 50. 1 Johnson had challenged Macpherson to produce the original Erse manuscripts of the poems of Ossian. Authors: Wit and Wisdom of Samuel Authors: THERE seems to be a strange affectation in authors of Johnson. appearing to have done everything by chance. Works, viii. 24. My character as a man, a subject, or a trader, is under the protection of the law; but my reputation as an author is at the mercy of the reader who lies under no other obligations to do me justice than those of religion and morality. If a man calls me rebel or bankrupt I may prosecute and punish him; but if a man calls me idiot or plagiary I have no remedy; since by selling him the book I admit his privilege of judging and declaring his judgment, and can appeal only to other readers if I think myself injured. In different characters we are more or less protected; to hiss a pleader at the bar would perhaps be deemed illegal and punishable, but to hiss a dramatic writer is justifiable by custom. Ib. v. 463. THE writer who thinks his works formed for duration mistakes his interest when he mentions his enemies. He degrades his own dignity by shewing that he was affected by their censures, and gives lasting importance to names, which, left to themselves, would vanish from remembrance. Ib. vii. 294. THERE is nothing more dreadful to an author than neglect, compared with which, reproach, hatred, and opposition, are names of happiness. Rambler, No. 2. 'DR. JOHNSON |