235 
JOHNSON. 
when his life was far in the decline he enjoyed a gleam 
©f fortune long withheld. Compare him with Garrick, 
his contemporary and countryman, and it will be one in- 
•ftance amongft many, that the man, who only brings the 
Mlife’s bantlings into the world, has a better lot in it 
than he who has the credit of begetting them.” 
The following defultory remarks on Dr. Johnfon’s ha¬ 
bits and character are alfo fele&ed from the fame fprightly 
writer, who was perfonally acquainted with him ; and 
who, (nice the recent publication of his own Life, has, we 
lament to fay, himfelf paid the debt of nature. 
“Who will fay that johnfon himfelf would have been 
fuch a champion in literature, fuch a front-rank foldier in 
the-field of fame, if lie had not been prefi'ed into the fer- 
vice, and driven on to glory with the bayonet of fliarp 
necelfity pointed at his back ? If fortune had turned him 
into a field of clover, he would have laid down and rolled 
in it. The mere manual labour of writing would not 
have allowed his lafiitude and love of eafe to have taken 
the pen out of the ink-horn, unlefs the cravings of hunger 
had reminded him that he mult fill the fheet before he law 
the table-cloth. He might indeed have knocked down 
Ofborn for a blockhead, but he would not have knocked 
him down with a folio of his own writing. He would 
erhaps have been the dictator of a club ; and, wherever 
e fat down to converfation, there muft have been that 
fpalh of llrong bold thought about him, that we might 
(till have a ColleCtanea after his death ; but of profe I 
guefs not much, of works of labour none, of fancy per¬ 
haps fomething more, efpeciallv of poetry, which, under fa¬ 
vour, I conceive was not his tower of ftrength. I think we 
Ihould have had his Raffelas at all events, for he was likely 
enough to have written at Voltaire, and brought the quef- 
tion to the tell, if infidelity is any aid to wit. An orator 
he muft have been ; and not improbably a parliamentarian ; 
and, if fuch, certainly an oppofitionift, for he preferred to 
talk againft the tide. He would indubitably have been 
no member of the whig-club, no partifan of Wilkes, no 
friend of Hume, no believer in Macpherfon. He would 
have put up prayers for early rifing, and laid in bed all 
day; and, with the mod a Clive refolutions poftible, been 
the molt indolent mortal living. He was a good man by 
nature, a great man by genius;—-we are now to enquire 
what he was by compulfion. Johnfon’s firft ftyle was na¬ 
turally energetic, his middle ftyle was turgid to a fault, 
his latter ftyle was foftened down and harmonized into 
periods more tuneful and more intelligible. His execu¬ 
tion was rapid, yet his ipind was not ealily provoked into 
exertion; the variety we find in his writings was not the 
variety of choice, a rifing from the impulfe of his proper 
genius 5 but talks impofed upon him by the dealers in ink, 
and contracts on his part fubmitted to in fatisfaCtion of 
the prefting calls of hungry want; for, painful as it is to 
relate, I have heard that illuftrious fcholar affert, (and he 
never varied from the truth of faCl,) that he fubfifted 
himfelf for a confiderable fpace of time upon the fcanty 
pittance of fourpence halfpenny per day. How melan¬ 
choly to refleCl, that his vaft trunk and Itimulating appe¬ 
tite were to be fupported by what will barely feed the 
weaned infant! Lels, much lefs, than mailer Betty has 
earned in one night, would have cheered the mighty mind 
and maintained the athletic body of Samuel Johnfon in 
comfort and abundance for a twelve-month. 
“ Alasj I am not fit to paint his character; nor is there 
need of it; Etiam mortuus loquitur-, every man, who can 
buy a b.ook, has bought, a Bofwell; Johnfon is known to 
all the reading world. I alfo knew him well, refpeCted 
him highly, loved him fincerely : it was never my chance 
to lee him in thofe moments of morofenefs and ill-humour 
which are imputed to him, perhaps with truth ; for who 
would Hander him ? But I am not warranted by any ex¬ 
perience of thofe humours to fpeak of him otherwife than 
as a friend, who always met me with kindnefs, and from 
whom I never feparated without regret. When I fought 
his company, he had no capricious excufes for withhold- 
Vol.XI. No. 74.8,- 
ing it, but lent himfelf to every invitation with cordiality, 
and brought good humour with him, that gave life to the 
circle he was in. He prefented himfelf always in his 
fafhion of apparel s a brown coat with metal buttons, black 
waillcoat and worlled ftockings, with a flowing bob-wig, 
was the ftyle of his wardrobe; but they were in perfectly 
good trim ; and with the ladies, which he generally met, 
he had nothing of the llovenly philofopher about him. 
He fed heartily, but not voracioully, and was extremely 
courteous in his commendations of any difn that plea fed 
his palate; he fulfered his next neighbour to fqueeze the 
oranges into his wine-glafs after dinner, which elfe per¬ 
chance had gone afide, and trickled into his fnoes, for the 
good man had neither ftraight fight nor fteady nerves. 
At the tea-table he had confiderable demands upon his fa¬ 
vourite beverage; and I remember, when fir Jofhua Rey¬ 
nolds at my houfe reminded him that he had drank eleven, 
cups,, he replied, Sir, I did not count your glafi'es of 
wine, why fliould you number lip my cups of tea ? And 
then, laughing, in perfect good humour, he added, Sir, 
I fliould have releafed the lady from any further trouble, 
if it had not been for your remark; but you have re¬ 
minded me that I want one of the dozen, and I muft re- 
queft Mrs. Cumberland to round up my number. When 
he faw the readinefs and complacency with which my 
wife obeyed his call, he turned a kind and cheerful look, 
upon her, and Laid, Madam, I muft tell you foryourcom- 
forc that you have efcaped much better than a certain 
lady did awhile ago, upon whofe patience I intruded 
greatly more than I have done upon your’s; but the lady 
afked me for no other purpofe but to make a zany of me, 
and fet me a gabbling to a parcel of people I knew no¬ 
thing of; fo, madam, I had my revenge of; for 11 wallowed, 
five and twenty cups of her tea, and did not treat her 
with as many words. I can only fay for her, that my wife 
would have made tea for him as long as the New River 
would have fupplied her with water. It was on fuch 
occafions he was to be feen in his happiett moments ; 
when animated by the cheering attention of friends 
whom he liked, he would give full fcope to thofe talents 
for narration, in which I verily think he was unri¬ 
valled, both in the brilliancy of his wit, the flow of his 
humour, and the energy of his language. Anecdotes of 
times paft, fcenes of his own life, and characters of hu- 
mourifts, enthufiaftics, crack-brained projectors, and a 
variety of ftrange beings that he had chanced upon, when 
detailed by him at length, and garnilhed with thofe epi- 
fodical remarks, fometimcs comic, fometimes grave, which 
he would throw in with infinite fertility of fancy, were a 
treat, which, though notralways to be purchafed by five and 
twenty cups of tea, I have often had the happinefs to en¬ 
joy for lefs than half the number. He was ealily led into 
topics; it was not eafy to turn him from them; but who 
would wilh it ? If a man wanted to (how himfelf off by 
getting up and riding upon him, he was fure to run ref- 
tive and throw him off; you might as fafely have backed 
Bucephalus before Alexander had lunged him. The 
expanfe of matter, which Johnfon had found room for in 
his intellectual ftore-houfe, the correClnefs with which he 
had. afforted it, and the readinefs with which he could 
turn to any article that he wanted to make prefent life of, 
were the properties in him which I contemplated with 
the moft admiration. Some have called him a favage: they 
were only fo far right in the refemblance, as that, like the 
favage, he never came into fufpicious company w-ithout 
his (pear in his hand and his bow and quiver at his back. 
“ In quicknefs of intellect few ever equalled him ; in 
profundity of erudition many have furpalled him. I do 
not think he had a pure and claflical talte, nor was apt to 
be belt pleafed with the beft authors; but as a general 
fcholar he ranks very high. When I would have con- 
fulted him upon certain points of literature, while I was 
making my collection from the Greek dramatifts for my 
effays in the Obferver, he candidly acknowledged that his 
ftudies had not lain amongft them; and certain it is there 
5 O is 
