Knowles;)he gets at the substance of a book directly;he tears out the heart of it.'He kept it wrapt up in the tablecloth in his lap during the time of dinner,from an avidity to have one entertainment in readiness when he should have finished another;resembling (if I may use so coarse a simile)a dog who holds a bone in his paws in reserve,while he eats something else which has been thrown to him.
The subject of cookery having been very naturally introduced at a table where Johnson,who boasted of the niceness of his palate,owned that 'he always found a good dinner,'he said,'I could write a better book of cookery than has ever yet been written;it should be a book upon philosophical principles.Pharmacy is now made much more simple.Cookery may be made so too.A preion which is now compounded of five ingredients,had formerly fifty in it.So in cookery,if the nature of the ingredients be well known,much fewer will do.Then as you cannot make bad meat good,I would tell what is the best butcher's meat,the best beef,the best pieces;how to choose young fowls;the proper seasons of different vegetables;and then how to roast and boil,and compound.'DILLY.
'Mrs.Glasse's Cookery,which is the best,was written by Dr.Hill.
Half the TRADE know this.'JOHNSON.'Well,Sir.This shews how much better the subject of cookery may be treated by a philosopher.
I doubt if the book be written by Dr.Hill;for,in Mrs.Glasse's Cookery,which I have looked into,salt-petre and sal-prunella are spoken of as different substances whereas sal-prunella is only salt-petre burnt on charcoal;and Hill could not be ignorant of this.However,as the greatest part of such a book is made by tranion,this mistake may have been carelessly adopted.But you shall see what a Book of Cookery I shall make!I shall agree with Mr.Dilly for the copy-right.'Miss SEWARD.'That would be Hercules with the distaff indeed.'JOHNSON.'No,Madam.Women can spin very well;but they cannot make a good book of Cookery.'
Mrs.Knowles affected to complain that men had much more liberty allowed them than women.JOHNSON.'Why,Madam,women have all the liberty they should wish to have.We have all the labour and the danger,and the women all the advantage.We go to sea,we build houses,we do everything,in short,to pay our court to the women.'
MRS.KNOWLES.'The Doctor reasons very wittily,but not convincingly.Now,take the instance of building;the mason's wife,if she is ever seen in liquor,is ruined;the mason may get himself drunk as often as he pleases,with little loss of character;nay,may let his wife and children starve.'JOHNSON.
'Madam,you must consider,if the mason does get himself drunk,and let his wife and children starve,the parish will oblige him to find security for their maintenance.We have different modes of restraining evil.Stocks for the men,a ducking-stool for women,and a pound for beasts.If we require more perfection from women than from ourselves,it is doing them honour.And women have not the same temptations that we have:they may always live in virtuous company;men must mix in the world indiscriminately.If a woman has no inclination to do what is wrong being secured from it is no restraint to her.I am at liberty to walk into the Thames;but if I were to try it,my friends would restrain me in Bedlam,and Ishould be obliged to them.'MRS.KNOWLES.'Still,Doctor,Icannot help thinking it a hardship that more indulgence is allowed to men than to women.It gives a superiority to men,to which I do not see how they are entitled.'JOHNSON.'It is plain,Madam,one or other must have the superiority.As Shakspeare says,"If two men ride on a horse,one must ride behind."'DILLY.'I suppose,Sir,Mrs.Knowles would have them to ride in panniers,one on each side.'JOHNSON.'Then,Sir,the horse would throw them both.'
MRS.KNOWLES.'Well,I hope that in another world the sexes will be equal.'BOSWELL.'That is being too ambitious,Madam.WEmight as well desire to be equal with the angels.We shall all,Ihope,be happy in a future state,but we must not expect to be all happy in the same degree.It is enough if we be happy according to our several capacities.A worthy carman will get to heaven as well as Sir Isaac Newton.Yet,though equally good,they will not have the same degrees of happiness.'JOHNSON.'Probably not.'
Dr.Mayo having asked Johnson's opinion of Soame Jenyns's View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion;--JOHNSON.'Ithink it a pretty book;not very theological indeed;and there seems to be an affectation of ease and carelessness,as if it were not suitable to his character to be very serious about the matter.'
BOSWELL.'He may have intended this to introduce his book the better among genteel people,who might be unwilling to read too grave a treatise.There is a general levity in the age.We have physicians now with bag-wigs;may we not have airy divines,at least somewhat less solemn in their appearance than they used to be?'JOHNSON.'Jenyns might mean as you say.'BOSWELL.'YOUshould like his book,Mrs.Knowles,as it maintains,as you FRIENDSdo,that courage is not a Christian virtue.'MRS.KNOWLES.'Yes,indeed,I like him there;but I cannot agree with him,that friendship is not a Christian virtue.'JOHNSON.'Why,Madam,strictly speaking,he is right.All friendship is preferring the interest of a friend,to the neglect,or,perhaps,against the interest of others;so that an old Greek said,"He that has FRIENDShas NO FRIEND."Now Christianity recommends universal benevolence,to consider all men as our brethren,which is contrary to the virtue of friendship,as described by the ancient philosophers.
Surely,Madam,your sect must approve of this;for,you call all men FRIENDS.'MRS.KNOWLES.'We are commanded to do good to all men,"but especially to them who are of the household of Faith."'
JOHNSON.'Well,Madam.The household of Faith is wide enough.'