'Johnson was much attached to London:he observed,that a man stored his mind better there,than any where else;and that in remote situations a man's body might be feasted,but his mind was starved,and his faculties apt to degenerate,from want of exercise and competition.No place,(he said,)cured a man's vanity or arrogance so well as London;for as no man was either great or good per se,but as compared with others not so good or great,he was sure to find in the metropolis many his equals,and some his superiours.He observed,that a man in London was in less danger of falling in love indiscreetly,than any where else;for there the difficulty of deciding between the conflicting pretensions of a vast variety of objects,kept him safe.He told me,that he had frequently been offered country preferment,if he would consent to take orders;but he could not leave the improved society of the capital,or consent to exchange the exhilarating joys and splendid decorations of publick life,for the obscurity,insipidity,and uniformity of remote situations.
'Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy,he said,was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise.
'When exasperated by contradiction,he was apt to treat his opponents with too much acrimony:as,"Sir,you don't see your way through that question:"--"Sir,you talk the language of ignorance."On my observing to him that a certain gentleman had remained silent the whole evening,in the midst of a very brilliant and learned society,"Sir,(said he,)the conversation overflowed,and drowned him."'He observed,that the established clergy in general did not preach plain enough;and that polished periods and glittering sentences flew over the heads of the common people,without any impression upon their hearts.Something might be necessary,he observed,to excite the affections of the common people,who were sunk in languor and lethargy,and therefore he supposed that the new concomitants of methodism might probably produce so desirable an effect.The mind,like the body,he observed,delighted in change and novelty,and even in religion itself,courted new appearances and modifications.Whatever might be thought of some methodist teachers,he said,he could scarcely doubt the sincerity of that man,who travelled nine hundred miles in a month,and preached twelve times a week;for no adequate reward,merely temporal,could be given for such indefatigable labour.
'In a Latin conversation with the Pere Boscovitch,at the house of Mrs.Cholmondeley,I heard him maintain the superiority of Sir Isaac Newton over all foreign philosophers,with a dignity and eloquence that surprized that learned foreigner.It being observed to him,that a rage for every thing English prevailed much in France after Lord Chatham's glorious war,he said,he did not wonder at it,for that we had drubbed those fellows into a proper reverence for us,and that their national petulance required periodical chastisement.
'Speaking of a dull tiresome fellow,whom he chanced to meet,he said,"That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea,and that is a wrong one."'Much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman,who had quitted a company where Johnson was,and no information being obtained;at last Johnson observed,that "he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back,but he believed the gentleman was an ATTORNEY."'A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage,married immediately after his wife died:Johnson said,it was the triumph of hope over experience.
'He observed,that a man of sense and education should meet a suitable companion in a wife.It was a miserable thing when the conversation could only be such as,whether the mutton should be boiled or roasted,and probably a dispute about that.
'He did not approve of late marriages,observing that more was lost in point of time,than compensated for by any possible advantages.
Even ill assorted marriages were preferable to cheerless celibacy.
'He said,foppery was never cured;it was the bad stamina of the mind,which,like those of the body,were never rectified:once a coxcomb,and always a coxcomb.
'Being told that Gilbert Cowper called him the Caliban of literature;"Well,(said he,)I must dub him the Punchinello."'He said few people had intellectual resources sufficient to forego the pleasures of wine.They could not otherwise contrive how to fill the interval between dinner and supper.
'One evening at Mrs.Montagu's,where a splendid company was assembled,consisting of the most eminent literary characters,Ithought he seemed highly pleased with the respect and attention that were shewn him,and asked him on our return home if he was not highly gratified by his visit.