ing, or rather indeed moving along; for his peculiar march is thus described in a very just and picturesque manner, in a short Life1 of him published very soon after his death:-"When he walked the streets, what with the constant roll of his head, and the concomitant motion of his body, he appeared to make his way by that motion, independent of his feet." That he was often much stared at while he advanced in this manner may easily be believed; but it was not safe to make sport of one so robust as he was. Mr. Langton saw him one day, in a fit of absence, by a sudden start, drive the load off a porter's back, and walk forward briskly, without being conscious of what he had done. The porter was very angry, but stood still, and eyed the huge figure with much earnestness, till he was satisfied that his wisest course was to be quiet, and take up his burthen again.

Our accidental meeting in the street after a long separation was a pleasing surprise to us both. He stepped aside with me into Falcon-court, and made kind inquiries about my family; and as we were in a hurry, going different ways, I promised to call on him next day. He said he was engaged to go out in the morning. "Early, sir?" said I. JOHNSON. Why, sir, a London morning does not go with the

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sun."

I waited on him next evening, and he gave me a great portion of his original manuscript of his "Lives of the Poets," which he had preserved for me.

I found on visiting his friend, Mr. Thrale, that

1 Published by Kearsley, with this well-chosen motto:

2

[See Miss Reynolds's Recollections, in the Appendix, for a fuller account of Johnson's extraordinary gestures.-ED.]

he was now very ill, and had removed, I suppose by the solicitation of Mrs. Thrale, to a house in Grosvenor-square. I was sorry to see him sadly changed

in his appearance.

He told me I might now have the pleasure to see Dr. Johnson drink wine again, for he had lately returned to it. When I mentioned this to Johnson, he said, "I drink it now sometimes, but not socially." The first evening that I was with him at Thrale's, I observed he poured a large quantity of it into a glass, and swallowed it greedily. Every thing about his character and manners was forcible and violent; there never was any moderation. Many a day did he fast, many a year did he refrain from wine: but when he did eat, it was voraciously; when he did drink wine, it was copiously. He could practise abstinence1, but not temperance.

Mrs. Thrale and I had a dispute whether Shakspeare or Milton had drawn the most admirable picture of a man. I was for Shakspeare, Mrs. Thrale

[See ante, vol. i. p. 480.-ED.]

2 Shakspeare makes Hamlet thus describe his father:

"See what a grace was seated on this brow:
Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself,
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald, Mercury,
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man.'

Milton thus portrays our first parent, Adam :

"His fair large front and eye sublime declared
Absolute rule; and hyacinthin locks

Round from his parted forelock manly hung

Clust'ring, but not beneath his shoulders broad."-BOSWELL.

The latter part of this description, "but not beneath," &c. may very probably be ascribed to Milton's prejudices in favour of the puritans, who had a great aversion to long hair.-MALONE. It is strange that the picture drawn by the unlearned Shakspeare should be full of classical images, and that by the learned Milton void of them. Milton's description appears to be more picturesque.KEARNEY. [Dr. Kearney seems to have forgotten that Milton is here a mere descriptive poet, giving a kind of abstract delineation of the first man, while Shakspeare is a dramatist, speaking in the character of an enthusiastic youth, fresh from his studies, and boiling with indignation and grief, which he endeavours to conceal, or at least to moderate by these classical and, what in any other case would be, pedantic allusions.-ED.]

for Milton; and, after a fair hearing, Johnson decided for my opinion.

I told him of one of Mr. Burke's playful sallies upon Dean Marlay1: "I don't like the Deanery of Ferns ; it sounds so like a barren title." "Dr. Heath should have it," said I. Johnson laughed, and, condescending to trifle in the same mode of conceit, suggested Dr. Moss.

He said, "Mrs. Montagu has dropt me3. Now, sir, there are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by." He certainly was vain of the society of ladies, and could make himself very agreeable to them when he chose it: Sir Joshua Reynolds agreed with me that he could. Mr. Gibbon, with his usual sneer, controverted it, perhaps in resentment of Johnson's having talked with some disgust of his ugliness, which one would think a philosopher would not mind. Dean Marlay wittily observed, " A lady may be vain when she can turn a wolf-dog into a lap-dog."

The election for Ayrshire, my own county, was this spring tried upon a petition before a committee of the house of commons. I was one of the counsel for the sitting member3, and took the liberty of previously stating different points to Johnson, who never failed to see them clearly, and to supply me with some good hints. He dictated to me the following note upon the registration of deeds:

1 Dr. Richard Marlay, afterwards Lord Bishop of Waterford; a very amiable, benevolent, and ingenious man. He was chosen a member of the Literary Club in 1777, and died in Dublin, July 2, 1802, in his seventy-fifth year.MALONE. [The Editor had, in very early life, the honour of the bishop's acquaintance and indulgent notice of his first attempts in literature. He was all that Mr. Malone says of him.ED.]

2 [Mrs. Montagu, with, perhaps, an over-nicety of feeling, dropped him on account of his Life of Lord Lyttelton. See ante, p. 427.—ED.]

3 [Hugh Montgomery, esq. The petitioner, however, William Macdowall, esq., was declared duly elected.-ED.]

"All laws are made for the convenience of the community. What is legally done should be legally recorded, that the state of things may be known, and that wherever evidence is requisite, evidence may be had. For this reason, the obligation to frame and establish a legal register is enforced by a legal penalty, which penalty is the want of that perfection and plenitude of right which a register would give. Thence it follows that this is not an objection merely legal; for the reason on which the law stands being equitable makes it an equitable objection.”

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"This," said he, you must enlarge on, when speaking to the committee. You must not argue there as if you were arguing in the schools; close reasoning will not fix their attention: you must say the same thing over and over again in different words. If you say it but once, they miss it in a moment of inattention. It is unjust, sir, to censure lawyers for multiplying words when they argue; it is often necessary for them to multiply words."

His notion of the duty of a member of parliament, sitting upon an election-committee, was very high; and when he was told of a gentleman upon one of those committees, who read the newspapers part of the time, and slept the rest, while the merits of a vote were examined by the counsel; and as an excuse, when challenged by the chairman for such behaviour, bluntly answered, "I had made up my mind upon that case;" Johnson, with an indignant contempt, said, "If he was such a rogue as to make up his mind upon a case without hearing it, he should not have been such a fool as to tell it." "I think," said Mr. Dudley Long1, now North," the doctor has pretty plainly made him out to be both rogue and fool."

Johnson's profound reverence for the hierarchy

[This ingenious and very pleasant gentleman died in 1829, after an illness which had for some years secluded him from society.-ED.]

made him expect from bishops the highest degree of decorum; he was offended even at their going to taverns: "A bishop," said he, " has nothing to do at a tippling-house. It is not indeed immoral in him to go to a tavern; neither would it be immoral in him to whip a top in Grosvenor-square: but, if he did, I hope the boys would fall upon him, and apply the whip to him. There are gradations in conduct; there is morality,-decency,-propriety. None of these should be violated by a bishop. A bishop should not go to a house where he may meet a young fellow leading out a wench." BOSWELL.

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But, sir, every tavern does not admit women.' JOHNSON. " Depend upon it, sir, any tavern will

admit a well-dressed man and a well-dressed woman. They will not perhaps admit a woman whom they see every night walking by their door in the street. But a well-dressed man may lead in a well-dressed woman to any tavern in London. Taverns sell meat and drink, and will sell them to any body who can eat and can drink. You may as well say that a mercer will not sell silks to a woman of the town."

1

He also disapproved of bishops going to routs ; at least of their staying at them longer than their presence commanded respect. He mentioned a particular bishop." Poh!" said Mrs. Thrale, " the Bishop of is never minded at a rout.' BosWELL."When a bishop places himself in a situation where he has no distinct character, and is of no consequence, he degrades the dignity of his order." JOHNSON. "Mr. Boswell, madam, has said it as correctly as it could be."

Nor was it only in the dignitaries of the church

[St. Asaph's. See ante, p. 313.-ED.]