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running, does not make observations on what he meets with, and consequently is not impressed by them; but he has, nevertheless, the power of stopping and informing himself."

347. Conscience and Shame.

A gentleman was mentioning it as a remark of an acquaintance of his, "that he never knew but one person that was completely wicked." JOHNSON. "Sir, I don't know what you mean by a person completely wicked." GENTLEMAN. Why, any one that has entirely got rid of all shame." JOHNSON. "How is he, then, completely wicked? He must get rid, too, of all conscience." GENTLEMAN. "I think conscience and shame the same thing." JOHNSON. "I am surprised to hear you say so; they spring from two different sources, and are distinct perceptions: one respects this world, the other the next." A LADY. "I think, however, that a person who has got rid of shame is in a fair way to get rid of conscience." JOHNSON. "Yes, 'tis a part of the way, I grant; but there are degrees at which men stop, some for the fear of men, some for the fear of God: shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God."

348. Bennet Langton.

Dr. Johnson seemed to delight in drawing characters; and when he did so con amore, delighted every one that heard him. Indeed, I cannot say I ever heard him draw any con odio, though he professed himself to be, or at least to love, a good hater. But I have remarked that his dislike of any one seldom prompted him to say much more than that the fellow is a blockhead, a poor creature, or some such epithet. I shall never forget the exalted character he drew of his friend Mr. Langton, nor with what energy, what fond delight, he expatiated in his praise, giving him every excellence that nature could bestow, and every perfection that

humanity could acquire. (1) A literary lady was present, Miss Hannah More, who perhaps inspired him with an unusual ardour to shine, which indeed he did with redoubled lustre, deserving himself the praises he bestowed not but I have often heard him speak in terms equally high of Mr. Langton, though more concisely expressed.

349. Mrs. Thrale.

On the praises of Mrs. Thrale he used to dwell with a peculiar delight, a paternal fondness, expressive of conscious exultation in being so intimately acquainted with her. One day, in speaking of her to Mr. Harris, author of " Hermes," and expatiating on her various perfections, the solidity of her virtues, the brilliancy of her wit, and the strength of her understanding, &c. he quoted some lines (a stanza, I believe, but from what author I know not), with which he concluded his most eloquent eulogium, and of these I retained but the two last lines (2):

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350. Johnson's Benevolence.

It will doubtless appear highly paradoxical to the generality of the world to say, that few men, in his ordinary disposition, or common frame of mind, could be more inoffensive than Dr. Johnson; yet surely those who knew his uniform benevolence, and its actuating principles-steady virtue, and true holiness - will readily agree with me, that peace and good-will towards man were the natural emanations of his heart.

I shall never forgot the impression I felt in Dr. Johnson's favour, the first time I was in his company,

(1) See antè, Vol. VIII. p. 279.-C.

(2) Being so particularly engaged as not to be able to attend to them sufficiently. MISS REYNOLDS.

on his saying, that as he returned to his lodgings, at one or two o'clock in the morning, he often saw poor children asleep on thresholds and stalls, and that he used to put pennies into their hands to buy them a breakfast. (1)

351. Sunday.

He always carried a religious treatise in his pocket on a Sunday, and he used to encourage me to relate to him the particular parts of Scripture I did not understand, and to write them down as they occurred to me in reading the Bible.

352. Johnson's Recitation.

When repeating to me one day Grainger's "Ode on Solitude," I shall never forget the concordance of the sound of his voice with the grandeur of those images ; nor, indeed, the gothic dignity of his aspect, his look and manner, when repeating sublime passages. But what was very remarkable, though his cadence in reading poetry was so judiciously emphatical as to give additional force to the words uttered, yet in reading prose, particularly on common or familiar subjects, narrations, essays, letters, &c., nothing could be more injudicious than his manner, beginning every period with a pompous accent, and reading it with a whine, or with a kind of spasmodic struggle for utterance; and this, not from any natural infirmity, but from a strange singularity, in reading on, in one breath, as if he had made a resolution not to respire till he had closed the sentence.

353. Johnson's Gesticulations.

I believe no one has described his extraordinary gestures or antics (2) with his hands and feet, particularly

(1) And this at a time when he himself was living on pennies. C.

(2) Mr. Boswell frequently (Vol. I. p. 161.; Vol. IV. p. 9.), and Mr. Whyte (antè, Vol. II. p. 280.; Vol. V. p. 263.), have

when passing over the threshold of a door, or rather before he would venture to pass through any doorway. On entering Sir Joshua's house with poor Mrs. Williams, a blind lady who lived with him, he would quit her hand, or else whirl her about on the steps as he whirled and twisted about to perform his gesticulations; and as soon as he had finished, he would give a sudden spring, and make such an extensive stride over the threshold, as if he was trying for a wager how far he could stride, Mrs. Williams standing groping about outside the door, unless the servant took hold of her hand to conduct her in, leaving Dr. Johnson to perform at the parlour door much the same exercise over again.

But it was not only at the entrance of a door that he exhibited such strange manoeuvres, but across a room or in the street with company, he has stopped on a sudden, as if he had recollected his task, and began to perform it there, gathering a mob round him; and when he had finished would hasten to his companion (who probably had walked on before) with an air of great satisfaction that he had done his duty.

One Sunday morning, as I was walking with him in Twickenham meadows, he began his antics both with his feet and hands, with the latter as if he was holding the reins of a horse like a jockey on full speed. But to describe the strange positions of his feet is a difficult task; sometimes he would make the back part of his heels to touch, sometimes his toes, as if he was aiming at making the form of a triangle, at least the two sides of one. Though indeed, whether these were his gestures on this particular occasion in Twickenham mea. dows I do not recollect, it is so long since; but I well remember that they were so extraordinary that men,

described his gestures very strikingly, though not quite in so much detail as Miss Reynolds. Mr. Boswell's descriptions she must have seen. - - C.

women, and children gathered round him, laughing. At last we sat down on some logs of wood by the river side, and they nearly dispersed; when he pulled out of his pocket Grotius "De Veritate Religionis," over which he seesawed at such a violent rate as to excite the curiosity of some people at a distance to come and see what was the matter with him.

We drank tea that afternoon at Sir John Hawkins's, and on our return I was surprised to hear Dr. Johnson's minute criticism on Lady Hawkins's dress, with every part of which almost he found fault. It was amazing, so short-sighted as he was, how very observant he was of appearances in dress and behaviour, nay, even of the deportment of servants while waiting at table. One day, as his man Frank was attending at Sir Joshua Reynolds's table, he observed, with some emotion, that he had placed the salver under his arm. Nor would the conduct of the company, blind as he was to his own many and strange peculiarities, escape his animadversion on some occasions. He thought the use of water-glasses a strange perversion of the idea of refinement, and had a great dislike to the use of a pocket-handkerchief at meals, when, if he happened to have occasion for one, he would rise from his chair and go to some distance, with his back to the company, and perform the operation as silently as possible.

354. Carving. Johnson at Table.

Few people, I have heard him say, understood the art of carving better than himself; but that it would be highly indecorous in him to attempt it in company, being so near-sighted, that it required a suspension of his breath during the operation.

It must be owned, indeed, that it was to be regretted that he did not practise a little of that delicacy in eating, for he appeared to want breath more at that time than usual. It is certain that he did not appear to the best ad

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