particular gentlemen; but the rest will not trouble their heads about it" (warmly). BOSWELL. "Well, Sir, I cannot think so." JOHNSON. 66 Nay, Sir, there is no talking with a man who will dispute what every body knows (angrily). Don't you know this?" BOSWELL. "No, Sir; and I wish to think better of your country than you represent it. I knew in Scotland a gentleman obliged to leave it for debauching a lady; and in one of our counties an earl's brother lost his election because he had debauched the lady of another earl in that county, and destroyed the peace of a noble family."

Still he would not yield. He proceeded: "Will you not allow, Sir, that vice does not hurt a man's character so as to obstruct his prosperity in life, when you know that [Lord Clive] (1) was loaded with wealth and honours? a man who had acquired his fortune by such crimes, that his consciousness of them impelled him to cut his own throat." BosWELL. "You will recollect, Sir, that Dr. Robertson said he cut his throat because he was weary of still life; little things not being sufficient to move his great mind." JOHNSON (very angry). "Nay, Sir, what stuff is this! You had no more this opinion after Robertson said it than before. I know nothing more offensive than repeating what one knows to be foolish things, by way of continuing a dispute, to see what a man will answer, to make him your butt!" (angrier still.) BOSWELL. "My dear Sir, I had no such intention as you seem to suspect;

(1) See antè, p. 190.- C.

I had not indeed. Might not this nobleman have felt every thing' weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,' as Hamlet says?" JOHNSON." Nay, if you are to bring in gabble, I'll talk no more. I will not, upon my honour." My readers will decide upon this dispute.

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CHAPTER VII.

1778-1779.

Lord Kames. Sir George Villiers's Ghost. — - Innate Virtue.- Native Modesty.-Foreign Travel.-Lord Charlemont.-Country Life.-Manners of the Great. Horne's "Letter to Dunning." - Dr. Mead. — Rasselas and Candide.-Francis's Horace. - Modern Books of Travels. Lord Chatham. - Vows. -Education. - Milton's "Tractate."- Locke. Visit to Warley Camp. Dr. Burney. -Sir Joshua Reynolds's" Discourses."-Publication of the "Lives of the Poets."- Death of Garrick.- Correspondence.

-

NEXT morning I stated to Mrs. Thrale at break fast, before he came down, the dispute of last night as to the influence of character upon success in life. She said he was certainly wrong; and told me that a baronet lost an election in Wales because he had debauched the sister of a gentleman in the county, whom he made one of his daughters invite as her companion at his seat in the country, when his lady and his other children were in London. But she would not encounter Johnson upon the subject.

I staid all this day with him at Streatham. He talked a great deal in very good humour.

Looking at Messrs. Dilly's splendid edition of Lord Chesterfield's miscellaneous works, he laughed,

ÆTAT. 69. LORD KAMES.

INNATE VIRTUE.

215

and said, "Here are now two speeches ascribed to him, both of which were written by me: and the best of it is, they have found out that one is lik Demosthenes, and the other like Cicero."(1)

He censured Lord Kames's "Sketches of the History of Man," for misrepresenting Clarendon's account of the appearance of Sir George Villiers's ghost, as if Clarendon were weakly credulous; when the truth is, that Clarendon only says, that the story was upon a better foundation of credit than usually such discourses are founded upon; nay, speaks thus of the person who was reported to have seen the vision," the poor man, if he had been at all waking;" which Lord Kames has omitted. He added, "In this book it is maintained that virtue is natural to man, and that if we would but consult our own hearts we should be virtuous. Now, after consulting our own hearts all we can, and with all the helps we have, we find how few of us are virtuous. This is saying a thing which all mankind know not to be true." BOSWELL. "Is not modesty natural?" JOHNSON. "I cannot say, Sir, as we find no people quite in a state of nature; but, I think, the more they are taught, the more modest they are. The French are a gross, ill-bred, untaught people; a lady there will spit on the floor and rub it with her foot. What I gained by being in France was, learning to be better satisfied with my own country. Time may be employed to more advantage from nineteen to twenty-four, almost in

(1) See antè, Vol. I. p. 172.-C.

any way than in travelling. When you set travelling against mere negation, against doing nothing, it is better to be sure; but how much more would a young man improve were he to study during those years. Indeed, if a young man is wild, and must run after women and bad company, it is better this should be done abroad, as, on his return, he can break off such connections, and begin at home a new man, with a character to form, and acquaintance to make. How little does travelling supply to the conversation of any man who has travelled! how little to Beauclerk!" BOSWELL. "What say you to Lord ()" JOHNSON. "I never but once heard him talk of what he had seen, and that was of a large serpent in one of the pyramids of Egypt." BOSWELL. "Well, I happened to hear him tell the same thing, which made me mention him."

I talked of a country life. JOHNSON. "Were I to live in the country, I would not devote myself to the acquisition of popularity; I would live in a much better way, much more happily; I would have my time at my own command." BOSWELL. "But, Sir, is it not a sad thing to be at a distance from all our literary friends?" JOHNSON. "Sir, you will by-and-by have enough of this conversation, which now delights you so much."

As he was a zealous friend of subordination, he was at all times watchful to repress the vulgar cant against the manners of the great. High people,

66

(1) James, first earl of Charlemont. His lordship was, to the last, in the habit of telling the story alluded to rather too often.-C.