CHAPTER VII. 



THE DRUID'S " ECCENTRICITIES AND ABSENCE 

 OF MIND. 



N the essay upon Dr. Johnson's 

 life and character, contributed 

 by Lord Macaulay to Adam 

 Black's " Encyclopaedia Bri- 

 tannica " (which is, to my thinking, the best 

 article of the kind that ever came from the 

 great essayist's pen), it is said that " eccentrici- 

 ties less strange than those of Dr. Johnson 

 have often been thought grounds sufficient 

 for absolving felons, and for setting aside 

 wills. His grimaces, his gestures, his 

 muttering, sometimes diverted and some- 

 times terrified people who did not know him. 

 At a dinner-table he would, in a fit of 



