ÆTAT. 63.

CAVE'S GHOST-STORY.

213

reciprocal satisfaction between the lord and them, he being kind in his authority over them, they being respectful and faithful to him.

On Thursday, April 9., I called on him to beg he would go and dine with me at the Mitre tavern. He had resolved not to dine at all this day, I know not for what reason; and I was so unwilling to be deprived of his company, that I was content to submit to suffer a want, which was at first somewhat painful; but he soon made me forget it: and a man is always pleased with himself, when he finds his intellectual inclinations predominate.

He observed, that to reason philosophically on the nature of prayer, was very unprofitable.

Talking of ghosts, he said, he knew one friend, who was an honest man and a sensible man, who told him he had seen a ghost; old Mr. Edward Cave, the printer at St. John's Gate. He said, Mr. Cave did not like to talk of it, and seemed to be in great horror whenever it was mentioned. BOSWELL. "Pray, Sir, what did he say was the appearance?' JOHNSON. Why, Sir, something of a shadowy being."

I mentioned witches, and asked him what they properly meant. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, they properly mean those who make use of the aid of evil spirits." BOSWELL. "There is no doubt, Sir, a general report and belief of their having existed." JOHNSON. "You have not only the general report and belief, but you have many voluntary solemn confessions." He did not affirm any thing positively

upon a subject which it is the fashion of the times to laugh at as a matter of absurd credulity. He only seemed willing, as a candid inquirer after truth, however strange and inexplicable, to show that he understood what might be urged for it. (')

(1) See this curious question treated by him with most acute ability, post, Aug. 16. 1773.

Duelling.

CHAPTER VIII.

1772-1773.

Dinner at General Oglethorpe's. — Armorial Bearings. ·Prince Eugene.— Siege of Belgrade. - Friendships. - Goldsmith's Natural History. Story of Prendergast.

Expulsion of Methodists from Oxford. "In Vino Veritas.". Education of

- Sense of Touch in the Blind. — Theory Taste in the Arts. Francis Osborne's

Works. Country Gentlemen. Long Stories.

Beattie and Robertson.

mate.

Advice to Authors.· Cli

Walpole and Pitt. Vicious Intromission. Beattie's Essay.

bourne.

Visit to Lichfield and Ash

On Friday, April 10., I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's, where we found Dr. Goldsmith.

Armorial bearings having been mentioned, Johnson said they were as ancient as the siege of Thebes, which he proved by a passage in one of the tragedies of Euripides. (1)

(1) The passage to which Johnson alluded is to be found (as I conjecture) in the "Phoenissæ," 1. 1120.

Καὶ πρῶτα μὲν προσῆγε, κ. τ. λ.

Ο τῆς κυναγοῦ Παρθενοπαῖος ἔκγονος,

ΕΠΙΣΗΜ' ἐχῶν ΟΙΚΕΙΟΝ ἐν μεσῷ σωκεί. — J. BOSWELL, Jun. The meaning is that "Parthenopaus had, in the centre of his shield, the domestic sign Atalanta killing the Ætolian boar: but this, admitting that the story of Atalanta was the "armorial bearing" of Parthenopaus, would only prove them to be as