very rare faculty. Who can repeat Hamlet's soliloquy, 'To be, or not to be,' as Garrick does it?"-J. "Any body may. Jemmy there (a boy about eight years old, who was in the room) will do it as well in a week.”—B. “No, no, sir; and as a proof of the merit of great acting, and of the value which mankind set upon it, Garrick has got a hundred thousand pounds."--J. "Is getting a hundred thousand pounds a proof of excellence? That has been done by a scoundrel commissary. Garrick was no declaimer; there was not one of his own scene-shifters who could not have spoken 'To be, or not to be,' better than he did; yet he was the only actor I ever saw whom I could call a master both in tragedy and comedy; though I liked him best in comedy. A true conception of character, and natural expression of it, were his distinguishing excellencies." Having expatiated with his usual force and eloquence on Garrick's extraordinary eminence as an actor, he concluded with this compliment to his social talents: "And after all, I thought him less to be envied on the stage than at the head of a table."

MUSIC.

JOHNSON once, in a musical party, desired to have "Let Ambition fire thy Mind" played over again, and appeared to give a patient attention to it; though he owned that he was very insensible to the power of music. "I told him (says Mr. Boswell), that it affected me to such a degree, as often to agitate my nerves painfully, producing in my mind alternate sensations of pa

thetic dejection, so that I was ready to shed tears; and of daring resolution, so that I was inclined to rush into the thickest part of the battle." "Sir (said he), I should never hear it, if it made me such a fool."

66

Another time, after having talked slightingly of music, he was observed to listen very attentively while Miss Thrale played on the harpsichord, and with eagerness he called to her, Why don't you dash away like Burney?" Dr. Burney upon this said to him, "I believe, sir, we shall make a musician of you at last." Johnson, with candid complacency, replied, "Sir, I shall be glad to have a new sense given to me.'

Mr. Langton and Johnson having gone to see a Freemason's funeral procession at Rochester, and some solemn music being played on French horns, he said, "This is the first time that I have ever been affected by musical sounds;" adding, that the impression made upon him was of a melancholy kind. Mr. Langton said, that this effect was a fine one. J. "Yes, if it softens the mind so as to prepare it for the reception of salutary feelings, it may be good; but inasmuch as it is melancholy per se, it is bad.”

Talking of sounds, a gentleman in the company said there was no beauty in a simple sound, but only in an harmonious composition of sounds. Mr. Boswell differed from this opinion, and mentioned the soft and sweet sound of a fine woman's voice. Johnson. "No, sir; if a serpent or a toad uttered it, you would think it ugly.”—B. "So you would think, sir, were a beautiful tune to be uttered by one of those animals."-J. "No, sir, it would be admired. We have seen fine

fiddlers whom we liked as little as toads" (laughing).

LONDON.

"LONDON (said Johnson) is nothing to some people; but to a man whose pleasure is intellectual, London is the place. And there is no place where economy can be so well practised as in London. More can be had here for the money, even by ladies, than any where else. You cannot play tricks with your fortune in a small place; you must make an uniform appearance. Here a lady may have well furnished apartments, and elegant dress, without any meat in her kitchen."

Mr. Boswell once expressing much regret at leaving London, where he had formed any agreeable connexions, "Sir (said Johnson), I don't wonder at it; no man fond of letters leaves London without regret. But remember, sir, you have seen and enjoyed a great deal; you have seen life in its highest decorations, and the world has nothing new to exhibit. No man is so well qualified to leave public life, as he who has long tried it and known it well. We are always hankering after untried situations, and imagining greater felicity from them than they can afford. Sir, knowledge and virtue may be acquired in all countries."

Talking of the little attachment which subsisted between near relations in London, "Sir (said Johnson), in a country so commercial as ours, where every man can do for himself, there is not so much occasion for that attachment. No man is thought the worse of here, whose brother

was hanged. In commercial countries many of the branches of a family must depend on the stock; so in order to make the head of the family take care of them, they are represented as connected with his reputation, that, self-love being interested, he may exert himself to promote their interest. You have first large circles or clans: as commerce increases, the connexion is confined to families. By degrees that too goes off, as having become unnecessary, and there being few opportunities of intercourse. One brother is a merchant in the city, and another is an officer in the guards. How little intercourse can these two have!"

On the state of the poor in London, Johnson said, "Saunders Welch, the justice, who was once high constable of Holborn, and had the best opportunities of knowing the state of the poor, told me, that I under-rated the number, when I computed that twenty a week, that is above a thousand a year, died of hunger; not absolutely of immediate hunger, but of the wasting and other diseases which are the consequences of hunger. This happens only in so large a place as London, where people are not known. What we are told about the great sums got by begging, is not true: the trade is overstocked: and you may depend upon it, there are many who cannot' get work. A particular kind of manufacture fails those who have been used to work at it can, for some time, work at nothing else. You meet a man begging; you charge him with idleness: he says, I'm willing to labour. Will you give me work?'-'I cannot.'-'Why then you have no right to charge me with idleness." "

Talking of living in the country, he said, "No wise man will go to live in the country, unless he has something to do which can be better done in the country. For instance; if he is to shut himself up for a year to study a science, it is better to look out to the fields, than to an opposite wall. Then if a man walks out in the country, there is nobody to keep him from walking in again : but if a man walks out in London, he is not sure when he shall walk in again. A great city is to be sure the school for studying life; and The proper study of mankind is man,' as Pope observes.' Boswell. "I fancy London is the best place for society: though I have heard that the very first society of Paris is still beyond any thing that we have here."-J. "Sir, I question if in Paris such a company as is sitting round this table could be got together in less than half a year. They talk in France of the felicity of men and women living together; the truth is, that there the men are not higher than the women, they know no more than the women do, and they are not held down in their conversation by the presence of women." Mr. Ramsay said," Literature is upon the growth, it is in its spring in France; here it is rather passée."-J." Literature was in France long before we had it. Paris was the second city for the revival of letters; Italy had it first, to be sure. What have we done for literature, equal to what was done by the Stephani and others in France? Our literature came to us through France. Caxton printed only two books, Chaucer and Gower, that were not translations from the French; and Chaucer we know took much