1756.

Etat. 57.

the lines which he had furnished, which are only line 420,

"To stop too fearful, and too faint to go;"

and the concluding ten lines, except the last couplet but one, which I diftinguish by the Italick

character:

"How fmall of all that human hearts endure,
"That part which kings or laws can cause or cure.
"Still to ourselves in every place confign'd,
"Our own felicity we make or find,

* With fecret courfe, which no loud ftorms annoy,
"Glides the fmooth current of domestick joy.
"The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel,

"Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel,
"To men remote from power, but rarely known,
"Leave reason, faith, and conscience, all our own."

He added, "These are all of which I can be fure."
They bear a small proportion to the whole, which
confifts of four hundred and thirty-eight verfes.
Goldsmith, in the couplet which he inserted, men-
tions Luke as a person well known, and fuperficial
readers have passed it over quite smoothly; while
thofe of more attention have been as much per-
plexed by Luke, as by Lydiat, in "The Vanity of
human Wishes." The truth is, that Goldsmith
himself was in a mistake. In the "Refpublica
Hungarica," there is an account of a defperate re-
bellion in the year 1514, headed by two brothers,
of the name of Zeck, George and Luke. When
it was quelled, George, not Luke, was punished by

1766.

his head being encircled with a red hot iron crown: <corona candefcente ferreá coronatur." The fame Atat. 57. feverity of torture was exercised on the Earl of Athol, one of the murderers of King James I. of Scotland.

Dr. Johnson at the fame time favoured me by marking the lines which he furnished to Goldfmith's "Deferted Village," which are only the four last

That trade's proud empire haftes to fwift decay, "As ocean fweeps the labour'd mole away: "While felf-dependent power can time defy, "As rocks refift the billows and the fky."

Talking of education, "People have now a-days, (said he,) got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot fee that lectures can do fo much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be beft taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be fhewn. You may teach chymistry by lectures.-You might teach making of shoes by lectures!"

At night I fupped with him at the Mitre tavern, that we might renew our focial intimacy at the original place of meeting. But there was now a confiderable difference in his way of living. Having had an illness, in which he was advised to leave off wine, he had, from that period, continued to abstain from it, and drank only water, or lemonade.

I told him that a foreign friend of his, whom I had met with abroad, was fo wretchedly perverted to infidelity, that he treated the hopes of immortality Hh3

with

1766.

with brutal levity; and faid, " As man dies like a Etat. 57. dog, let him lie like a dog." JOHNSON. "If he

dies like a dog, let him lie like a dog." I added, that this man faid to me, "I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am." JOHNSON. "Sir, he must be very fingular in his opinion, if he thinks himfelf one of the beft of men; for none of his friends think him fo." He faid, "No honest man could be a Deift; for no man could be fo after a fair examination of the proofs of Christianity." I named Hume. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; Hume owned to a clergyman in the bishoprick of Durham, that he had never read the New Teftament with attention." I mentioned Hume's notion, that who are happy are equally happy; a little mifs with a new gown at a dancing-fchool-ball, a general at the head of a victorious army, and an orator, after having made an eloquent speech in a great affembly. JOHNSON." Sir, that all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true." A peasant and a philofopher may be equally fatisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness confifts in the multiplicity of agreeable conscioufnefs. A peafant has not capacity for having equal happiness with a philofopher." I remember this very queftion very happily illuftrated in oppofition to Hume, by the Reverend Mr. Robert Brown, at Utrecht. "A fmall drinking glafs and a large one, (faid he,) may be equally full; but the large one holds more than the fmall."

Dr. Johnson was very kind this evening, and faid to me, "You have now lived five-and-twenty

years,

Etat. 57.

years, and you have employed them well." 1766. "Alas, Sir, (faid I,) I fear not. Do I know hiftory? Do I know mathematicks? Do I know law?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, though you may know no fcience fo well as to be able to teach it, and no profeffion fo well as to be able to follow it, your general mafs of knowledge of books and men renders you very capable to make yourself mafter of any science, or fit yourfelf for any profeffion." I mentioned that a gay friend had advised me against being a lawyer, becaufe I fhould be excelled by plodding block heads. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, in the formulary and statutory part of law, a plodding block-head may excel; but in the ingenious and rational part of it a plodding blockhead can never excel."

SON.

I talked of the mode adopted by some to rife in the world, by courting great men, and asked him whether he had ever fubmitted to it. JOHN"Why, Sir, I never was near enough to great men to court them. You may be prudently attached to great men, and yet independent. You are not to do what you think wrong; and, Sir, you are to calculate, and not pay too dear for what you get. You must not give a fhilling's worth of court for fix-pence-worth of good. But if you can get a fhilling's worth of good for fixpence worth of court, you are a fool if you do not pay court."

He faid, "If convents should be allowed at all, they fhould only be retreats for perfons unable to ferve the publick, or who have ferved it. It is our first duty to serve society, and, after we have done Hh 4

that,

1766. that, we may attend wholly to the falvation of our own fouls. A youthful paffion for abstracted devotion should not be encouraged."

Etat. 57.

I introduced the fubject of fecond fight, and other mysterious manifeftations; the fulfilment of which, I suggested might happen by chance. JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; but they have happened so often, that mankind have agreed to think them noţ fortuitous."

I talked to him a great deal of what I had seen in Corfica, and of my intention to publish an account of it. He encouraged me by saying, "You cannot go to the bottom of the subject; but all that you tell us will be new to us. Give us as many anecdotes as you can."

Our next meeting at the Mitre was on Saturday the 15th of February, when I prefented to him my old and most intimate friend, the Reverend Mr. Temple, then of Cambridge. I having mentioned that I had passed some time with Rouffeau in his wild retreat, and having quoted fome remark made by Mr. Wilkes, with whom I had spent many pleasant hours in Italy, Johnfon faid, (farcaftically,)

It feems, Sir, you have kept very good company abroad, Rouffeau and Wilkes!" Thinking it enough to defend one at a time, I said nothing as to my gay friend, but anfwered with a fmile, "My dear Sir, you don't call Rouffeau bad company. Do you really think him a bad man?" JOHNSON. "Sir, if you are talking jeftingly of this, I don't talk with you. If you mean to be ferious, I think him one of the worft of men; a rascal, who ought to be hunted out of fociety, as he has been.