THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. TOGETHER WITH A JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES, BY JAMES BOSWELL. A REPRINT OF THE FIRST EDITION. TO WHICH ARE ADDED MR. BOSWELL'S CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS, ISSUED OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTES FREPARED FOR THE THIRD: THE WHOLE EDITED, WITH NEW NOTES, BY PERCY FITZGERALD, M.A., F.S.A. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. THIRD EDITION WITH A NEW PREFACE BY THE EDITOR, AND A BOSWELL H. R. TEDDER, F.S.A., Librarian to the Athenæum Club, LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LTD. PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1900 Friedinan 10-17-27 15628 011-7-27Awe THE LIFE or SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. I SHALL here insert a few of Johnson's sayings, without the formality of dates, as they have no reference to any particular time or place. "The more a man extends and varies his acquaintance the better." This, however, was meant with a just restriction; for, he on another occasion said to me, "Sir, a man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of any thing." "Raising the wages of day-labourers is wrong; for it does not make them live better, but only makes them idler, and idleness is a very bad thing for human nature." "It is a very good custom to keep a journal for a man's own use; he may write upon a card a day all that is necessary to be written, after he has had experience of life. At first there is a great deal to be written, because there is a great deal of novelty. But when once a man has settled his opinions, there is seldom much to be set down." "There is nothing wonderful in the journal which we see Swift kept in London, for it contains slight topicks, and it might soon be written." I praised the accuracy of an account book of a private person whom I mentioned. JOHNSON. "Keeping accounts, Sir, is of no use when a man is spending his own money, and has nobody to whom he is to account. You won't eat less beef to-day, because you have written down what it cost yesterday." I mentioned a lady who thought as he did, so that her husband could not get her Cor. et Ad.-Line 19: For "private person” read "lady." Line 23: For “a read "another." VOL. III. I |