6 6 sup Piozzi Anec. 'Why, the men are thinking on their money, I pose, and the women are thinking of their mops.' "I have mentioned before, that old age had very p. 197. little of Dr. Johnson's reverence: A man commonly grew wickeder as he grew older,' he said, at least he but changed the vices of youth, headstrong passion and wild temerity, for treacherous caution and desire to circumvent. I am always,' said he,on the young people's side, when there is a dispute between them and the old ones; for you have at least a chance for virtue till age has withered its very root.' While we were talking, my mother's spaniel, whom he never loved, stole our toast and butter: Fie, Belle said. I, you used to be upon honour, honour.' 'Yes, madam, replied Johnson, but Belle grows old.' His reason for hating the dog was, a professed favourite,' he said, and because her lady ordered her from time to time to be washed and combed: a foolish trick,' said he, and an assumption of superiority that every one's nature revolts at; so because one must not wish ill to the lady in such cases, continued he, one curses the cur. The truth is, Belle was not well-behaved, and being a large spaniel, was troublesome enough at dinner with frequent solicitations to be fed. This animal,' said Dr. Johnson, one day, would have been of extraordinary merit and value in the state of Lycurgus; for she condemns one to the exertion of perpetual vigilance.' " 6 Pecause she was "Though apt enough to take sudden likings or p. 150. aversions to people he occasionally met, he would never hastily pronounce upon their character; and when, seeing him justly delighted with Dr. Solander's1 conversation, I observed once that he was a man of Piozzi Anec. P. 108. p. 158. great parts, who talked from a full mind-It ma may be so,' said Dr. Johnson, but you cannot know it yet, nor I neither the pump works well, to be sure; J but how, I wonder, are we to decide in so very short "Among the numberless people, however, whom I heard him grossly and flatly contradict, I never yet saw any one who did not take it patiently excepting Dr. Burney, from whose habitual softness of manners I little expected such an exertion of spirit: the event was as little to be expected. Dr. Johnson asked sked his pardon generously and genteelly, and when he left the room rose up to shake hands with him, that they might part in peace. "When Dr. Johnson had a mind to compliment any one, he did it with more dignity to himself, and better effect upon the company, than any man. I can recollect but few instances indeed, though perhaps that may be more my fault than his. When Sir Joshua Reynolds left the room one day, he said, There goes a man not to be spoiled by prosperity.' "He was not at all offended, when, comparing all our acquaintance to some animal or other, we pitched upon the elephant for his resemblance, adding, that the proboscis of that creature was like his mind most exactly-strong to buffet even the tiger, and pliable to pick up even the pin. The truth is, Dr. Johnson was often good-humouredly willing to join in childish Anec. P. 89. amusements, and hated to to be left out of any in- Piozzi nocent merriment that was going forward. He mozudol 10 be ́likeď p a frolicop a jest well enough; though TIME IN strange 9001 97 916 Tobnow I MOI very had serious rules about it too: and body offered to be merry 00779397 when he was disposed to be grave. You have an Mill-founded notion,' said he, that it is clever to turn matters 'off with a joke, as the phrase is; whereas ngproduces an eroti voi. Jasmimg person's showing a disposition to be merry when another is inclined to be either serious or displeased." 92 likewise remember that he pronounced one p. 158. I day at my house a most lofty panegyric upon Jones1, the orientalist, who seemed little pleased with the praise, for what cause I know not. An Irish trader at our house one day heard Dr. p. 186. Johnson launch out into very great and greatly-deserved praises of Mr. Edmund Burke: delighted to e find his countryman stood so high in the opinion of a man he had been told so much of, Sir,' said he, Vgive me leave to tell something of Mr. Burke now.' We were all silent, and the honest Hibernian began to relate how Mr. Burke went to see the collieries in a distant province: and he would go down into the bowels of the earth (in a bag), and he would examine every thing; he went in a bag, sir, and ventured his health and his life for knowledge; but he took care of his clothes, that they should not be spoiled, for he went down in a bag. Well, sir,' said Dr. Johnson, good-humouredly, if our friend Mund should die in any of these hazardous exploits, you and I would write his life and panegyric together; and your chapter of it should be entitled thus-Burke in a bag!' ' [Sir William Jones.-ED.] Piozzi Anec. p. 62. p. 37. P. 46. p. 59. p. 145. “Mr. Thrale was one time extolling the character of a statesman, and expatiating on the skill required to: direct the different currents, reconcile the jarring interests, &c. Thus, replied Johnson, a milli is av complicated piece of mechanism enough, but the water is no part of the workmanship! qld til 77 Andre! "On another occasion, when some one lamented. the weakness of the then minister, and complained that he was dull and tardy, and knew little of affairs -You may as well complain, sir,' said Johnson, 'that the accounts of time are kept by the clock; for he certainly does stand still upon the stair-head and we all know that he is no great chronologer,' animis "He told me that the character of Sober in the 'Idler' was by himself intended as his own portrait; and that he had his own outset into life in his eye when he wrote the eastern story of Gelaleddin. bho me "Of a much-admired poem, when extolled as beautiful, he replied, That it had indeed the beauty of a bubble: the colours are gay,' said he, but the substance slight.' "When Dr. Johnson felt, or fancied he felt, his fancy disordered, his constant recurrence was to the study of arithmetic: and one day that he was totally confined to his chamber, and I inquired what he had been doing to divert himself, he showed me a calculation which I could scarce be made to understand, so vast was the plan of it, and so very intricate were the figures; no other indeed than that the national debt, computing it at one hundred and eighty millions sterling, would, if converted into silver, serve to make a meridian of that metal, I forget how broad, for the globe of the whole earth, the real globe. "I told him of a friend who suffered grievously with the gout. He will live a vast many years for all that,' replied he, and then what signifies how 6 Anec. much he suffers? but he will die at last, poor fellow, Piozzi there's the misery; gout seldom takes the fort by a coup-de-main, but turning the siege into a blockade, obliges it to surrender at discretion.' ... "A lady he thought well of was disordered in her health. 'What help hasleshencalled in?? inquired Johnson. Dr. James, sir,' was the reply. What ish her disease? Oh, nothing positive; rather a gradual and gentle decline. She will die then, pretty dear!' answered he: when death's pale horse runs away with a person on full speed, an active physician may possibly give them a turn; but if he carries them on an even slow pace, down hill too, no care nor skill can save them out one bio: 911 1 H "Sir William Browne, the physician, who lived to p. 29. a very extraordinary age, and was in other respects an odd mortal, with more genius than understanding, and more self-sufficiency than wit, was the only person who ventured to oppose Dr. Johnson, when he had a mind to shine by exalting his favourite university, and to express his contempt of the whiggish notions which prevail at Cambridge. He did it once, however, with surprising felicity: his antagonist having repeated with an air of triumph the famous epigram written by Dr. Trapp, But books to Cambridge gave, as, well discerning, ནོན། That that right loyal body wanted learning.(1480) 34. 27069 X 1567 Patits Which, says Sir William, might well be answered [He died in March 1774, at the age of eighty-two. It is nowhere stated, that the editor knows of, that this epigram was made extemporaneously on a provocation from Dr. Johnson. See an account of Sir William Browne, and a more accurate version of the two epigrams, in the Biog. Dict.—ED.] |