Beauclerk,which I shall endeavour to exhibit as well as I can in that gentleman's lively manner;and in justice to him it is proper to add,that Dr.Johnson told me I might rely both on the correctness of his memory,and the fidelity of his narrative.
'When Madame de Boufflers was first in England,(said Beauclerk,)she was desirous to see Johnson.I accordingly went with her to his chambers in the Temple,where she was entertained with his conversation for some time.When our visit was over,she and Ileft him,and were got into Inner Temple-lane,when all at once Iheard a noise like thunder.This was occasioned by Johnson,who it seems,upon a little recollection,had taken it into his head that he ought to have done the honours of his literary residence to a foreign lady of quality,and eager to shew himself a man of gallantry,was hurrying down the stair-case in violent agitation.
He overtook us before we reached the Temple-gate,and brushing in between me and Madame de Boufflers,seized her hand,and conducted her to her coach.His dress was a rusty brown morning suit,a pair of old shoes by way of slippers,a little shrivelled wig sticking on the top of his head,and the sleeves of his shirt and the knees of his breeches hanging loose.A considerable crowd of people gathered round,and were not a little struck by this singular appearance.'
He spoke Latin with wonderful fluency and elegance.When Pere Boscovich was in England,Johnson dined in company with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's,and at Dr.Douglas's,now Bishop of Salisbury.
Upon both occasions that celebrated foreigner expressed his astonishment at Johnson's Latin conversation.When at Paris,Johnson thus characterised Voltaire to Freron the Journalist:'Vir est acerrimi ingenii et paucarum literarum.'
In the course of this year Dr.Burney informs me that 'he very frequently met Dr.Johnson at Mr.Thrale's,at Streatham,where they had many long conversations,often sitting up as long as the fire and candles lasted,and much longer than the patience of the servants subsisted.'
A few of Johnson's sayings,which that gentleman recollects,shall here be inserted.
'I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night,and then the nap takes me.'
'The writer of an epitaph should not be considered as saying nothing but what is strictly true.Allowance must be made for some degree of exaggerated praise.In lapidary inions a man is not upon oath.'
'There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly,but then less is learned there;so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other.'
'More is learned in publick than in private schools,from emulation;there is the collision of mind with mind,or the radiation of many minds pointing to one centre.Though few boys make their own exercises,yet if a good exercise is given up,out of a great number of boys,it is made by somebody.'
'I hate by-roads in education.Education is as well known,and has long been as well known,as ever it can be.Endeavouring to make children prematurely wise is useless labour.Suppose they have more knowledge at five or six years old than other children,what use can be made of it?It will be lost before it is wanted,and the waste of so much time and labour of the teacher can never be repaid.Too much is expected from precocity,and too little performed.Miss ----was an instance of early cultivation,but in what did it terminate?In marrying a little Presbyterian parson,who keeps an infant boarding-school,so that all her employment now is,"To suckle fools,and chronicle small-beer."She tells the children,"This is a cat,and that is a dog,with four legs and a tail;see there!you are much better than a cat or a dog,for you can speak."If I had bestowed such an education on a daughter,and had discovered that she thought of marrying such a fellow,I would have sent her to the Congress.'
'After having talked slightingly of musick,he was observed to listen very attentively while Miss Thrale played on the harpsichord,and with eagerness he called to her,"Why don't you dash away like Burney?"Dr.Burney upon this said to him,"Ibelieve,Sir,we shall make a musician of you at last."Johnson with candid complacency replied,"Sir,I shall be glad to have a new sense given to me."'
'He had come down one morning to the breakfast-room,and been a considerable time by himself before any body appeared.When,on a subsequent day,he was twitted by Mrs.Thrale for being very late,which he generally was,he defended himself by alluding to the extraordinary morning,when he had been too early."Madame,I do not like to come down to VACUITY."'
'Dr.Burney having remarked that Mr.Garrick was beginning to look old,he said,"Why,Sir,you are not to wonder at that;no man's face has had more wear and tear."'
1776:AETAT.67.]--Having arrived in London late on Friday,the 15th of March,I hastened next morning to wait on Dr.Johnson,at his house;but found he was removed from Johnson's-court,No.7,to Bolt-court,No.8,still keeping to his favourite Fleet-street.My reflection at the time upon this change as marked in my Journal,is as follows:'I felt a foolish regret that he had left a court which bore his name;but it was not foolish to be affected with some tenderness of regard for a place in which I had seen him a great deal,from whence I had often issued a better and a happier man than when I went in,and which had often appeared to my imagination while I trod its pavements,in the solemn darkness of the night,to be sacred to wisdom and piety.'Being informed that he was at Mr.