JOHNSON. 85 



particular respecting his habits, as well as his more im- 

 portant qualities. 



He was friendly and actively so, in the greatest degree ; 

 he was charitable beyond what even prudential conside- 

 rations might justify ; as firmly as he believed the Gospel, 

 so constantly did he practise its divine maxim, " that it 

 is more blessed to give than to receive." His sense of 

 justice was strict and constant ; his love of truth was 

 steady and unbroken, in all matters as well little as 

 great ; nor did any man ever more peremptorily deny the 

 existence of what are sometimes so incorrectly termed 

 white lies ; for he justly thought that when a habit of 

 being careless of the truth in trifling things once has 

 been formed, it will become easily, nay, certainly, appli- 

 cable to things of moment. His habitual piety, his sense 

 of his own imperfections, his generally blameless conduct 

 in the various relations of life, has been already suffi- 

 ciently described, and has been illustrated in the pre- 

 ceding narrative. He was a good man, as he was a great 

 man ; and he had so firm a regard for virtue that he 

 wisely set much greater store by his worth than by his 

 fame.'* 



* The edition of Boswell by my able and learned friend Mr. 

 Croker, is a valuable accession to literature, and the well known 

 accuracy of that gentleman gives importance to his labours. I have 

 mentioned one instance of his having been misled by the narrative 

 of Sir Walter Scott from neither having attended to the dates. . 

 Supra, p. 58. 



