whether he had been abroad that day." Don't talk so childishly (said he), you may as well ask if I hanged myself to-day." Mr. B. mentioned politicks.-J. “Sir, I'd as soon have a man to break my bones as talk to me of public affairs, internal or external. I have lived to see things all as bad as they can be." He some time. after observed, "That disease produces much selfishness. A man in pain is looking after ease; and lets most other things go as chance shall dispose of them.”

To Mr. Boswell he once said, "You are always complaining of melancholy, and I conclude, from those complaints, that you are fond of it. No man talks of that which he is desirous to conceal, and every man desires to conceal that of which he is ashamed. Do not pretend to deny it-manifestum habemus furem; make it an invariable and obligatory law to yourself never to mention your own mental diseases; if you are never to speak of them you will think on them but little; and if you think little of them they will molest you rarely. When you talk of them," it is plain that you want either praise or pity; for praise there is no room, and pity will do you no good; therefore, from this hour speak no more, think no more about them.”

"I one day asked him (says his Biographer) if he was not dissatisfied with having so small a

share of wealth, and none of those distinctions in the State which are the objects of ambition. He had only a pension of three hundred a year. Why was he not in such circumstances as to keep his coach? Why had he not some considerable office?"-J. "Sir, I have never complained of the world; nor do I think that I have reason to complain. It is rather to be wondered at that I have so much. My pension is more out of the usual course of things than any instance that I have known. Here, Sir, was a man avowedly no friend to government at the time, who got a pension without asking for it. I never courted the great; they sent for me; but I think they now give me up. They are satisfied; they have seen enough of me." Upon my observing, that I could not believe this, for they must certainly be highly pleased by his conversation; conscious of his own superiority, he answered, "No, Sir; great lords and great ladies don't love to have their mouths stopped." This was very expressive of the effect which the force of his understanding and brilliancy of his fancy could not but produce; and, to be sure, they must have found themselves strangely diminished in his company. When I warmly declared how happy I was at all times to hear him-"Yes, Sir (said he); but if you were lord chancellor it would not be so; you would then consider your own dignity.".

He found great fault with a certain gentleman for keeping a bad table. "Sir (said he), when a man is invited to dinner, he is disappointed if he does not get something good. I advised Mrs. Thrale, who has no card parties at her house, to give sweetmeats, and such good things, in an evening, as are not commonly given, and she would find company enough come to her; for every body loves to have things which please the palate put in their way, without trouble or preparation." Such was his attention to the minutia of life and

manners.

To the question, whether when a man knows that some of his intimate friends are invited to the house of another friend, with whom they are all equally intimate, he may join them without an invitation, Johnson answered, "No, Sir; he is not to go when he is not invited. They may be invited on purpose to abuse him" (smiling).

One of a company not being come at the appointed hour, Mr. Boswell proposed, as usual upon such occasions, to order dinner to be served; adding, "Ought six people to be kept waiting for one?"-" Why yes (answered Johnson, with a delicate humanity) if the one will suffer more by your sitting down, than the six will do by waiting."

Talking of the mode adopted by some to rise in the world by courting great men, and bein

asked whether he had ever submitted to it, he said, 66 Why, Sir, I never was near enough to great men to court them. You may be prudently attached to great men, and yet independent; you are not to do what you think wrong, and you are to.calculate, and not to pay too dear for what you get. You must not give a shilling's worth of court for sixpence worth of good; but if you can get a shilling's worth of good for sixpence worth of court, you are a fool if you do not pay court."

Being asked how far he thought wealth should be employed in hospitality, he answered, "You are to consider, that ancient hospitality, of which we hear so much, was in an uncommercial country, when men being idle were glad to be entertained at rich men's tables; but in a commercial country, in a busy country, time becomes precious, and therefore hospitality is not so much valued. No doubt there is still room for a certain degree of it; and a man has a satisfaction in seeing his friends eating and drinking around him: but promiscuous hospitality is not the way to gain real influence. You must help some people at table before others; you must ask some people how they like their wine oftener than others. You therefore offend more people than you please. You are like the French statesman who said when he granted a favour, J'ai fait dix mécontents

et un ingrat.' Besides, Sir, being entertained ever so well at a man's table, impresses no lasting regard or esteem. No, Sir, the way to make sure of power and influence is, by lending money confidentially to your neighbours at a small interest, or perhaps at no interest at all, and having their bonds in your possession.”—BoswELL. "May not a man, Sir, employ his riches to advantage in educating young men of merit ?"JOHNSON."Yes, Sir, if they fall in your way; but if it be understood that you patronize young men of merit, you will be harassed with solicitations. You will have numbers forced upon you who have no merit; some will force them upon you from mistaken partiality; and some from downright interested motives, without scruple; and you will be disgraced. For hospitality as formerly practised, there is no longer the same reason; heretofore the poorer people were more numerous, and, from want of commerce, their means of getting a livelihood more difficult; therefore the supporting them was an act of great benevolence; now that the poor can find maintenance for themselves, and their labour is wanted, a general undiscerning hospitality tends to ill, by withdrawing them from their work to idleness and drunkenness. Then formerly rents' were received in kind, so that there was a great abundance of provisions in possession of the own