232 CURSORY OBSERVATIONS 



whom he, otherwise, looked up to and venerated as the most 

 learned character and greatest mind of the age. He thought, and 

 perhaps justly, that if the Author of The Rambler had a due 

 perception of tlie beauties of historical and poetical painting, and of 

 the moral instruction which they convey, and had employed his 

 great powers to awaken the public to a sense of their excellence ; 

 the British arts would have been greatly benefited. In this I 

 agreed with him. And he seemed to think, that the known indif- 

 ference of so eminent an authority, had a considerable tendency to 

 keep the public apathy in countenance. I enquired of him if he 

 had heard a current story, that IXr. Johnson once said, " if a col- 

 lection of paintings were before him, with their faces turned to the 

 wall, he would not be at the trouble of turning them to look at 

 them ?" He said, he had heard it often, but could not say whether 

 it was true or not. There may be some exaggeration in this report, 

 and, after all, it may be destitute of foundation. The important 

 point to which I call attention, is the main fact, that, notwithstand- 

 ing his wonderful extent of mind and literary pre-eminence. Dr. 

 Johnson had but a slight or inferior opinion of the powers of histo- 

 rical painting, the highest class of the art. 



Boswell tells the following story : " When I informed him (Dr. 

 J.) that painting was so far inferior to poetry, that the story, or 

 even emblem, which it communicates must be known, and mention- 

 ed, as a natural and laughable instance of this, that a little Miss, 

 on seeing a picture of Justice with the scales, had exclaimed, " see, 

 there's a woman selling sweetmeats,' he (Dr. J.) replied, — ' Paint- 

 ing, Sir, can illustrate, but not inform.' " Boswell here intro- 

 duces himself as giving, not receiving, information ; a character very 

 unusual with him, when conversing with his illustrious friend: 

 but, probably, he ventured to take that liberty, on the subject, it 

 being one which, from long intimacy, he well knew the Doctor had 

 little studied. That a child, who probably had sweetmeats weighed 

 to her, should, on seeing the scales in the picture, mistake an alle- 

 gorical or emblematical figure of Justice for a woman selling those 

 dainties, is no way surprising; but that Boswell should cite this 

 solitary instance of a puerile mistake as an argument to prove the 

 inferiority of painting to poetry, is somewhat extraordinary. The 



