the trouble to write his eulogy, and dedicate 'MORTIMER' to him." Mr. Wilkes held a candle to show a fine print of a beautiful female figure which hung in the room, and pointed out the elegant contour of the bosom with the finger of an arch connoisseur. He afterwards in a conversation with me waggishly insisted, that all the time Johnson showed visible signs of a fervent admiration of the corresponding charms of the fair Quaker. This record, though by no means so perfect as I could wish, will serve to give a notion of a very curious interview, which was not only pleasing at the time, but had the agreeable and benignant effect of reconciling any animosity, and sweetening any acidity, which, in the various bustle of political contest, had been produced in the minds of two men, who, though widely different, had so many things in common— classical learning, modern literature, wit and humour, and ready repartee-that it would have been much to be regretted if they had been for ever at a distance from each other. Mr. Burke gave me much credit for this successful negotiation; and pleasantly said, "that there was nothing equal to it in the whole history of the corps diplomatique." I attended Dr. Johnson home, and had the satisfaction to hear him tell Mrs. Williams how much he had been pleased with Mr. Wilkes's company, and what an agreeable day he had passed. [The following is Dr. Johnson's own good-hu- Ed. moured account to Mrs. Thrale of this meeting. vol. i. p. 325. "For my part I begin to settle, and keep company with Letters, grave aldermen. I dined yesterday in the Poultry with Mr. Alderman Wilkes, and Mr. Alderman Lee, and Councillor Lee, his brother. There sat you the while thinking, 'What is John vol. i. p. 325. Letters, son doing?' What should he be doing? He is breaking jokes with Jack Wilkes upon the Scotch. Such, madam, are the vicissitudes of things! And there was Mrs. Knowles, the Quaker, that works the sutile pictures', who is a great admirer of your conversation."] Letters, vol. i. p. 324. I talked a good deal to him of the celebrated Margaret Caroline Rudd, whom I had visited, induced by the fame of her talents, address, and irresistible power of fascination 2. To a lady who disapproved of my visiting her, he said on a former occasion, " Nay, madam, Boswell is in the right; I should have visited her myself, were it not that they have now a trick of putting every thing into the newspapers." This evening he exclaimed, “I envy him his acquaintance with Mrs. Rudd." I mentioned a scheme which I had of making a tour to the Isle of Man, and giving a full account of it; and that Mr. Burke had playfully suggested as a motto, "The proper study of mankind is MAN." JOHNSON. " Sir, you will get more by the book than the jaunt will cost you; so you will have your diversion for nothing, and add to your reputation." ["TO MRS. THRALE. "14th May, 1776. "[Boswell] goes away on Thursday very well satisfied with his journey. Some great men have promised to obtain him a place; and then a fig for his father and his new wife *."] [Mrs. Piozzi had printed this "futile pictures." They were copies of pictures in needlework.ED.] 2 [See ante, p. 337. Her power of fascination was celebrated, because it was the fashion to suppose that she had fascinated her lover to the gallows.—ED.] 3 [This place he never obtained, and the critical reader will observe several passages in this work, the tone of which may be attributed to his disappointment in this point. See ante, p. 317.-ED.] 4 [Lord Auchinleck had lately married Elizabeth Boswell, sister of Claude Irvine Boswell, afterwards a lord of session, by the title of Lord Balmuto. She seems to have been the grand-niece of her husband. Of this marriage there was no issue. ED.] On the evening of the next day I took leave of him, being to set out for Scotland. I thanked him, with great warmth, for all his kindness. "Sir," said he, "you are very welcome. Nobody repays it with more." How very false is the notion that has gone round the world of the rough, and passionate, and harsh manners of this great and good man! That he had occasional sallies of heat of temper, and that he was sometimes, perhaps, too " easily provoked" by absurdity and folly, and sometimes too desirous of triumph in colloquial contest, must be allowed. The quickness both of his perception and sensibility disposed him to sudden explosions of satire; to which his extraordinary readiness of wit was a strong and almost irresistible incitement. To adopt one of the finest images in Mr. Home's " Douglas,' I admit that the beadle within him was often so eager to apply the lash, that the judge had not time to consider the case with sufficient deliberation. That he was occasionally remarkable for violence of temper may be granted; but let us ascertain the degree, and not let it be supposed that he was in a perpetual rage, and never without a club in his hand to knock down every one who approached him. On the contrary, the truth is, that by much the greatest part of his time he was civil, obliging, nay, polite in the true sense of the word; so much so, that many gentlemen who were long acquainted with him never received, or even heard a strong expression from him. ["DR. JOHNSON TO MRS. THRALE. "18th May, 1776. [Boswell] went away on Thursday night with no great in Letters, vol. i. p. 330. vol. i. p. 330. Letters, clination to travel northward; but who can contend with destiny? He says he had a very pleasant journey. He carries with him two or three good resolutions; I hope they will not mould on the road."] Letters, vol. i. p. 334. ED. [" TO MRS. THRALE. “22d May, 1776. "On Friday and Saturday I dined with Dr. Taylor, who is in discontent, but resolved not to stay much longer to hear the opinions of lawyers, who are all against him. On Sunday I dined at Sir Joshua's house on the hill [Richmond], with the Bishop of St. Asaph [Shipley]: the dinner was good, and the bishop is knowing and conversible."] [This praise of Sir Joshua's dinner was not a matter of course; for his table, though very agreeable, was not what is usually called a good one, as appears from the following description given of it by Mr. Courtenay (a frequent and favourite guest) to Sir James Mackintosh, and which is not, the editor hopes, misplaced in a work in which Sir Joshua and his society have so considerable a share. "There was something," said Courtenay, "singular in the style and economy of Sir Joshua's table that contributed to pleasantry and good-humour; a coarse inelegant plenty, without any regard to order and arrangement. A table, prepared for seven or eight, was often compelled to contain fifteen or sixteen. When this pressing difficulty was got over, a deficiency of knives, forks, plates, and glasses succeeded. The attendance was in the same style; and it was absolutely necessary to call instantly for beer, bread, or wine, that you might be supplied with them before the first course was over. He was once prevailed on to furnish the table with decanters and glasses at dinner, to save time, and prevent the tardy manœuvres of two or three occasional undisciplined domestics. As these accelerating utensils were demolished in the course of service, Sir Joshua could never be persuaded to replace them. But these trifling ED. embarrassments only served to enhance the hilarity and singular pleasure of the entertainment. The wine, cookery, and dishes were but little attended to; nor was the fish or venison ever talked of or recommended. Amidst this convivial, animated bustle among his guests, our host sat perfectly composed; always attentive to what was said, never minding what was eat or drank, but left every one at perfect liberty to scramble for himself. Temporal and spiritual peers, physicians, lawyers, actors, and musicians, composed the motley group, and played their parts without dissonance or discord. At five o'clock precisely dinner was served, whether all the invited guests were arrived or not. Sir Joshua was never so fashionably ill-bred as to wait an hour perhaps for two or three persons of rank or title, and put the rest of the company out of humour by this invidious diHis friends and intimate acquaintance will ever love his memory, and will long regret those social hours, and the cheerfulness of that irregular, convivial table, which no one has attempted to revive or imitate, or was indeed qualified to supply."] stinction. 66 ["TO HENRY THRALE, ESQ. "3d June, 1776. Letters, vol. i. p. 337. My Mistress writes as if she was afraid that I should make too much haste to see her. Pray tell her that there is no danger. The lameness of which I made mention in one of my notes has improved into a very serious and troublesome fit of the gout. I creep about and hang by both hands. I enjoy all the dignity of lameness. I receive ladies and dismiss them sitting. Painful pre-eminence!'"] 6 The following letters concerning an epitaph which he wrote for the monument of Dr. Goldsmith, in Westminster-abbey, afford at once a proof of his unaffected modesty, his carelessness as to his own writings, and of the great respect which he entertained |