12 



AUTHORS. 



sir," said Johnson, " I believe you 

 have a great many. Norway, too, 

 has noble wild prospects, and Lap- 

 land is remarkable for prodigious 

 noble wild prospects. But, sir, let 

 me tell you, the noblest prospect 

 which a Scotsman ever sees is the 

 high road that leads him to Lon- 

 don." " I admit," rejoined Ogilvie, 

 " that the last prospect is a very 

 nolle one, but I deny that it is as 

 wild as any of those we have enu- 

 merated." (Scotsman's Library.) 



DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON URSA MAJOR. 



Oct. 13, 1845. On the 7th I left 

 town by express train to visit Mrs. 

 Gwatkin at Plymouth, to examine 

 Sir Joshua's private memorandum 

 concerning the Academy quarrel. 

 Mrs. Gwatkin was Miss Palmer, 

 sister to the Marchioness of Tho- 

 mond, and niece to Sir Joshua. . . 

 At twelve I called. Mr. Reynolds 

 Gwatkin came down and introduced 

 me. I went up with him, and found 

 on a sofa, leaning on pillows, a vener- 

 able aged lady, holding an ear- 

 trumpet, like Sir Joshua, showing 

 in her face great remains of regular 

 beauty, and evidently the model of 

 Sir Joshua in his Christian virtues 

 (a notion of mine which she after- 

 wards confirmed). After a few 

 minutes' chat, we entered on the 

 purport of my visit, which was to 

 examine Sir Joshua's private papers 

 relating to the Academy dispute 

 which produced his resignation. 

 Mrs. Gwatkin rose to give Orders ; 

 her figure was fine and elastic, up- 

 right as a dart, with nothing of de- 

 crepitude ; certainly extraordinary 

 for a woman in her eighty -ninth 

 year. . . . We had a delightful 

 chat about Burke, Johnson, Gold- 

 smith, Garrick, and Eeynolds. She 

 said she came to Sir Joshua quite 

 a little girl, and at the first grand 

 party Dr. Johnson staid, as he al- 

 ways did, after all were gone ; and 

 that she, being afraid of hurting her 

 new frock, went up stairs, and put 



on another, and came down to sit 

 with Dr. J. and Sir Joshua. John- 

 son thundered out at her, scolded 

 her for her disrespect to him, in 

 supposing he was not as worthy of 

 her best frock as fine folks. He 

 sent her crying to bed, and took a 

 dislike to her ever after. She had 

 a goldfinch, which she had left at 

 home. Her brother and sister 

 dropped water on it from a great 

 height, for fun. The bird died 

 from fright, and turned black. She 

 told Goldsmith, who was writing 

 his Animated Nature. Goldsmith 

 begged her to get the facts, and he 

 would allude to it. " Sir," roared 

 out Johnson, " if you do, you'll ruin 

 your work, for, depend upon it, it's 

 a lie." She said that after Sir 

 Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander 

 came from their voyage, at a grand 

 dinner at Sir Joshua's, Solander 

 was relating that in Iceland he had 

 seen a fowl boiled in a few minutes 

 in the hot springs. Johnson broke 

 up the whole party by roaring out, 

 " Sir, unless I saw it with my own 

 eyes I would not believe it." No- 

 body spoke after, and Banks and 

 Solander rose and left the dining- 

 room. (Taylor's Life of Haydon.) 



J. J. ROUSSEAU. 



When obliged to exert myself I 

 am ignorant what to do ! when 

 forced to speak I jam at a loss for 

 words ; and if any one looks at me 

 I am instantly out of countenance. 

 If animated with my subject I ex- 

 press my thoughts with ease, but 

 in ordinary conversations I can say 

 nothing absolutely nothing; and, 

 being obliged to speak, renders them, 

 insupportable. . . The timidity com- 

 mon to my age was heightened by 

 a natural benevolence, which made 

 me dread the idea of giving pain. 

 Though my mind had received some 

 cultivation, having seen nothing of 

 the world, I was an absolute stran- 

 ger to polite address, and my mental 

 acquisitions, so far from supplying 



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