Hawk. p. 547.

metaphysical tailor. He was of a club in Old-street, with me and George Psalmanazar, and some others: but pray, sir, was he a good tailor?" Mr. Hoole having answered that he believed he was too mathematical, and used to draw squares and triangles on his shopboard, so that he did not excel in the cut of a coat,-"I am sorry for it," said Johnson, "for I would have every man to be master of his own business."

[This probably was the person to whom the following anecdote, told by Sir J. Hawkins, relates. Johnson would frequently adjourn with Psalmanazar from his lodgings to a neighbouring alehouse, and, in the common room, converse with him on subjects of importance. In one of these conversations, Johnson took occasion to remark on the human mind, that it had a necessary tendency to improvement, and that it would frequently anticipate instruction, and enable ingenious minds to acquire knowledge. "Sir," said a stranger that overheard him, "that I deny: I am a tailor, and have had many apprentices, but never one that could make a coat till I had taken great pains in teaching him."]

In pleasant reference to himself and Mr. Hoole, as brother authours, he often said, “Let you and I, sir, go together, and eat a beef-steak in Grub-street."

Sir William Chambers, that great architect, whose works show a sublimity1 of genius, and who is esteemed by all who know him, for his social, hospitable, and generous qualities, submitted the manuscript of his "Chinese Architecture" to Dr. Johnson's perusal. Johnson was much pleased with it, and said, "It wants no addition nor correction, but a few lines of

[The Editor does not recollect any work of Sir W. Chambers which can be said to exhibit "sublimity of genius."―ED.]

introduction;" which he furnished, and Sir William adopted 1.

He said to Sir William Scott, "The age is running mad after innovation; and all the business of the world is to be done in a new way; men are to be hanged in a new way; Tyburn itself is not safe from the fury of innovation." It having been argued that this was an improvement,-" No, sir," said he, eagerly, it is not an improvement; they object, that the old method drew together a number of spectators. Sir, executions are intended to draw spectators. If they do not draw spectators, they don't answer their purpose. The old method was most satisfactory to all parties; the publick was gratified by a procession; the criminal was supported by it. Why is all this to be swept away?" I perfectly agree with Dr. Johnson upon this head, and am persuaded that executions now, the solemn procession being discontinued, have not nearly the effect which they formerly had. Magistrates, both in London and elsewhere, have, I am afraid, in this had too much regard to their own ease.

Of Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, Johnson said

1 The Honourable Horace Walpole, now Earl of Orford, thus bears testimony to this gentleman's merit as a writer: "Mr. Chambers's Treatise on Civil Architecture' is the most sensible book, and the most exempt from prejudices, that ever was written on that science."-Preface to Anecdotes of Painting in England. The introductory lines are these: "It is difficult to avoid praising too little or too much. The boundless panegyricks which have been lavished upon the Chinese learning, policy, and arts, show with what power novelty attracts regard, and how naturally esteem swells into admiration.

"I am far from desiring to be numbered among the exaggerators of Chinese excellence. I consider them as great, or wise, only in comparison with the nations that surround them; and have no intention to place them in competition either with the ancients or with the moderns of this part of the world; yet they must be allowed to claim our notice as a distinct and very singular race of men; as the inhabitants of a region divided by its situation from all civilized countries, who have formed their own manners, and invented their own arts, without the assistance of example."-BOSWELL.

2 [What could Dr. Johnson have meant by saying, that the criminal was supported by a public procession? The reverse is obviously the truth. It must be recollected that Boswell had the mania of witnessing executions. -ED.]

to a friend," Hurd, sir, is one of a set of men who account for every thing systematically; for instance, it has been a fashion to wear scarlet breeches; these men would tell you, that according to causes and effects, no other wear could at that time have been chosen." He, however, said of him at another time to the same gentleman, "Hurd, sir, is a man whose acquaintance is a valuable acquisition.

That learned and ingenious prelate, it is well known, published at one period of his life "Moral and Political Dialogues," with a wofully whiggish cast. Afterwards, his lordship having thought better, came to see his error, and republished the work with a more constitutional spirit. Johnson, however, was unwilling to allow him full credit for his political conversion. I remember when his lordship declined the honour of being archbishop of Canterbury, Johnson said, “I am glad he did not go to Lambeth; for, after all, I fear he is a whig in his heart."

Johnson's attention to precision and clearness in expression was very remarkable. He disapproved of a parenthesis; and I believe in all his voluminous writings, not half a dozen of them will be found. He never used the phrases the former and the latter, having observed, that they often occasioned obscurity; he therefore contrived to construct his sentences so as not to have occasion for them, and would even rather repeat the same words, in order to avoid them. Nothing is more common than to mistake surnames, when we hear them carelessly uttered for the first time. To prevent this, he used not only to pronounce them slowly and distinctly, but to take the trouble of spelling them; a practice which I have often followed, and which I wish were general.

Such was the heat and irritability of his blood, that not only did he pare his nails to the quick, but scraped

the joints of his fingers with a penknife, till they seemed quite red and raw '.

The heterogeneous composition of human nature was remarkably exemplified in Johnson. His liberality in giving his money to persons in distress was extraordinary. Yet there lurked about him a propensity to paltry saving. One day I owned to him, that “I was occasionally troubled with a fit of narrowness." "Why, sir," said he, "so am I. But I do not tell it." He has now and then borrowed a shilling of me; and when I asked him for it again, seemed to be rather out of humour. A droll little circumstance once occurred; as if he meant to reprimand my minute exactness as a creditor, he thus addressed me ;---" Boswell, lend me sixpence-not to be repaid."

This great man's attention to small things was very remarkable. As an instance of it, he one day said to me, "Sir, when you get silver in change for a guinea, look carefully at it; you may find some curious piece of coin."

Though a stern true-born Englishman, and fully prejudiced against all other nations, he had discernment enough to see, and candour enough to censure, the cold reserve too common among Englishmen towards strangers: "Sir," said he, "two men of any other nation who are shown into a room together, at a house where they are both visitors, will immediately find some conversation. But two Englishmen will probably go each to a different window, and remain in obstinate silence. Sir, we as yet do not enough understand the common rights of humanity."

1

Johnson was at a certain period of his life a good

[This looks like what Mr. Partridge would call a non sequitur; at least, the Editor does not see how extreme heat and irritability of the blood should cause a man to pare his nails too close.-ED.]

deal with the Earl of Shelburne', now Marquis of Lansdown, as he doubtless could not but have a due value for that nobleman's activity of mind, and uncommon acquisitions of important knowledge, however much he might disapprove of other parts of his lordship's character, which were widely different from his own.

Maurice Morgann, Esq., author of the very ingenious "Essay on the Character of Falstaff," being a particular friend of his lordship, had once an opportunity of entertaining Johnson a day or two at Wycombe, when its lord was absent, and by him I have been favoured with two anecdotes.

One is not a little to the credit of Johnson's candour. Mr. Morgann and he had a dispute pretty late at night, in which Johnson would not give up, though he had the wrong side; and, in short, both kept the field. Next morning, when they met in the breakfasting-room, Dr. Johnson accosted Mr. Morgann thus: "Sir, I have been thinking on our dispute last night;-You were in the right."

The other was as follows: Johnson, for sport perhaps, or from the spirit of contradiction, eagerly maintained that Derrick had merit as a writer. Mr. Morgann argued with him directly, in vain. At length he had recourse to this device. "Pray, sir," said he, "whether do you reckon Derrick or Smart the best poet?" Johnson at once felt himself roused; and answered, "Sir, there is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea."

[It has been asserted (European Mag. 1796,

[The accuracy of this assertion seems doubtful; at which period of his life could Johnson "have been a good deal with Lord Shelburne ?" words that imply a familiar intercourse: of which neither in Mr. Boswell's detail of his life, nor in his letters, does any trace appear. See ante, vol. iv. p. 120, note.-ED.]

2 Johnson being asked his opinion of this Essay, answered, "Why, sir, we shall have the man come forth again; and as he has proved Falstaff to be no coward, he may prove Iago to be a very good character."