not to be wondered at, feeing that he was a pupil of Hutchefon, and that his were the opinions that prevailed at Glasgow, where he taught, and alfo at Leyden, whither Dyer and many of his fellow-ftudents in that university, removed. Akenfide and Dyfon, who were of the number, were deep in this scheme, and also abettors of that fanciful notion, that ridicule is the test of truth.

The topics above-mentioned were, not unfrequently, the fubjects of altercation between Johnfon and Dyer, in which it might be observed, as Johnson once did of two difputants, that the one had ball without powder, and the other powder without ball; for Dyer, though best skilled in the controverfy, was inferior to his adverfary in the power of reafoning, and Johnson, who was not always mafter of the question, was feldom at a lofs for fuch fophiftical arguments as the other was unable to answer.

In these difputations I had opportunities of obferving what others have taken occafion to remark, viz. not only that in converfation Johnfon made it a rule to talk his best, but that on many fubjects he was not uniform in his opinions, contending as often for victory as for truth: at one time good, at another evil was predominant in the moral constitution of the world. Upon one occafion, he would deplore the non-obfervance of Good-Friday, and on another deny, that among us of the prefent age there is any decline of public worship. He would fometimes contradict self-evident propofitions, fuch as, that the luxury of this country has increafed with its riches; and that the practice of card-playing is more general than hereVOL. I.

S

tofore.

tofore. At this verfatility of temper, none, however, took offence; as Alexander and Cæfar were born for conquest, so was Johnson for the office of a symposiarch, to prefide in all converfations; and I never yet faw the man who would venture to conteft his right.

Let it not, however, be imagined, that the members of this our club met together, with the temper of gladiators, or that there was wanting among us a difposition to yield to each other in all diverfities of opinion; and indeed, difputation was not, as in many affociations of this kind, the purpose of our meeting: nor were our converfations, like thofe of the Rota club, restrained to particular topics. On the contrary, it may be faid, that with our graveft difcourfes was intermingled

• Mirth, that after no repenting draws,'

MILTON.

for not only in Johnson's melancholy there were lucid intervals, but he was a great contributor to the mirth of conversation, by the many witty fayings he uttered, and the many excellent ftories which his memory had treasured up, and he would on occafion relate; fo that those are greatly mistaken who infer, either from the general tendency of his writings, or that appearance of hebetude which marked his countenance when living, and is difcernible in the pictures. and prints of him, that he could only reafon and difcufs, dictate and controul.

In the talent of humour there hardly ever was his equal, except perhaps among the old comedians,

fuch

fuch as Tarleton, and a few others mentioned by Cibber. By means of this he was enabled to give to any relation that required it, the graces and aids of expreflion, and to discriminate with the niceft exactness the characters of those whom it concerned. In aping this faculty I have feen Warburton difconcerted, and when he would' fain have been thought a man of pleasantry, not a little out of coun

tenance.

I have already mentioned, that Johnfon's motive for the inftitution of this fociety was, his love of conversation, and the neceffity he found himself under of seeking relief from the fatigue of compiling his dictionary: the fame neceffity operated still farther, and induced him to undertake, what most other men would have thought an additional fatigue, the publishing a periodical paper. The truth is, that not having now for a confiderable space committed to writing aught but words and their fignifications, his mind was become tumid, and laboured to be delivered of those many and great conceptions, which for years it had been forming. The ftudy of human life and manners, had been the chief employment of his thoughts, and to a knowledge of these, all his reading, all his converfation, and all his meditations tended. By these exercises, and the aid of an ima-' gination that was ever teeming with new ideas, he accumulated a fund of moral fcience, that was more than fufficient for fuch an undertaking, and became in a very eminent degree qualified for the office of an instructor of mankind in their greatest and most important concerns.

I am fenfible of the contempt and ridicule with which thofe authors are treated by lord Shaftesbury, who, differing from his favourites the ancients, have preferred to their method of writing in foliloquy and dialogue, the more authoritative and didactic form of effays; but who knows not that the ways by which intelligence and wifdom may be communicated are many and various, and that Johnfon has followed the best exemplars? What are the fapiential books in the Scriptures, and all collections of precepts and counfels, but moral effays, leffons of œconomical prudence, and rules for the conduct of human life?

In a full perfuafion of the utility of this mode of instruction, it undoubtedly was, that Montaigne, lord Bacon, Osborne, Cowley, Sir William Temple, and others, in thofe excellent difcourfes, which they have not fcrupled to term effays, have laid out their minds, and communicated to mankind that skill in worldly, and I will add, in heavenly prudence, which is fcarcely attainable but by long expérience, and an exercife both of the active and contemplative life; and to diffeminate and recommend the principles and practice of religion and virtue; as alfo, to correct the leffer foibles in behaviour, and to render human intercourfe eafy and delightful, was the avowed design of thofe periodical effays, which, in the beginning of this century, contributed to form the manners of the then rifing generation.

A long space had intervened fince the publication of the Tatlers, Guardians, and Spectators: it is true it had been filled up by The Lover, and The Reader, The Theatre, The Lay-monaftery, The Plain-dealer,

The

The Free-thinker, The Speculatift, The Cenfor, and other productions of the like kind; but of fome of these it may be faid, that they were nearly ftill-born, and of others, that they enjoyed a duration little more extended than that of the ephemeron: fo that Johnson had no competitors for applaufe; his way was open, and he had the choice of many paths. Add to this, that a period of near forty years, in a country where commerce and its concomitant luxury had been increafing, had given rife to new modes of living, and even to characters that had scarcely before been known to exist. The clergyman was now become an amphibious being, that is to fay, both an ecclefiaftic and a laic; the ftately ftalking fop, whofe gait, as Cibber describes it, refembled that of a peacock, was fucceeded by a coxcomb of another fpecies, a fidgetting, tripping animal, that for agility might oe compared to a grasshopper; the shopkeeper was transformed into a merchant, and the parfimonious ftock-broker into a man of gallantry; the apron, the badge of mechanic occupations, in all its varieties of ftuff and colour, was laid afide; physicians and lawyers were no longer distinguishable by their garb; the former had laid afide the great wig, and the latter ceafed to wear black, except in the actual exercife of their profeffions in short, a few years of public tranquillity had transformed a whole nation into gentlemen.

In female life the refinements were alfo to be noted. In confequence of a better education than it had been ufual to bestow on them, women were become proficients in literature, and a man might read a lady's letter without blushing at the fpelling. The convenience