Johnson grown old, Johnson in the fulness of his fame and in the enjoyment of a competent fortune, is better known to us than any other man in history. Every thing about him, his coat, his wig, his figure, his face, his scrofula, his St. Vitus's dance, his rolling walk, his blinking eye, the outward signs which too clearly marked his approbation of his dinner, his insatiable appetite for fish-sauce and veal-pie with plums, his inextinguishable thirst for tea, his trick of touching the posts as he walked, his mysterious practice of treasuring up scraps of orange-peel, his morning slumbers, his mid-night disputations, his contortions, his mutterings, his gruntings, his puffings, his vigorous, acute, and ready eloquence, his sarcastic wit, his vehemence, his insolence, his fits of tempestuous rage, his queer inmates, old Mr. Levett and blind Mrs. Williams, the cat Hodge and the negro Frank, all are as familiar to us as the objects by which we have been surrounded from childhood. T. B. Macaulay. Two Londoners I I WISHED to make my chief residence in London, the great scene of ambition, instruction, and amusement: a scene which was to me, comparatively speaking, a heaven upon earth. Johnson. "Why, sir, I never knew any one who had such a gust for London as you have, and yet I cannot blame you for your wish to live there." I suggested a doubt, that if I were to reside in London, the exquisite zest with which I relished it in occasional visits might go off, and I might grow tired of it. Johnson. "Why, sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." II Johnson. "If a man walks out in the country, there is nobody to keep him from walking in again; but if a man walks out in London, he is not sure when he shall walk in again. A great city is, to be sure, the school for studying life; and 'The proper study of mankind is man,' as Pope observes." Boswell. "I fancy London is the best place for Society." III We dined tête-à-tête at the Mitre. I regretted much leaving London, where I had formed many agreeable connections. "Sir," said he, "I don't wonder at it: no man fond of letters leaves London without regret." IV Talking of a London life, he said, "The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it. I will venture to say, there is more learning and science within the circumference of ten miles from where we now sit, than in all the rest of the kingdom." Boswell. The only disadvantage is, the great distance at which people live from one another." Johnson. "Yes, sir; but that is occasioned by the largeness of it, which is the cause of all the other advantages." V It having been observed that there was little hospitality in London; Johnson. "Nay, sir, any man who has a name, or who has the power of pleasing, will be very generally invited in London." VI We walked in the evening in Greenwich Park. He asked me, I suppose by way of trying my disposition, "Is not this very fine?" Having no exquisite relish of the beauties of nature, and being more delighted with "the busy hum of men," I answered, "Yes, sir; but not equal to Fleet-street." Johnson. "You are right, sir." Johnson. 66 VII A man cannot know modes of life as well in Minorca as in London, but he may study mathematicks as well in Minorca." . ... Boswell. "I own, sir, the spirits which I have in London make me do everything with more readiness and vigour. I can talk twice as much in London as anywhere else." Johnson. 66 VIII Let us take a walk from Charingcross to White-chapel, through, I suppose, the greatest series of shops in the world. What is there in any of these shops (if you except gin-shops) that can do any human being any harm ?" Goldsmith. "Well, sir, I'll accept your challenge. The very next shop to Northumberland-house is a pickle-shop." Johnson. “Well, sir; do we not know that a maid |