Certainly, however, it was an arduous hazard to the feelings of the company to oppose, in the slightest degree, Dr. Johnson's opinions. His stentor lungs; that combination of wit, humour, and eloquence, which" could make the worse appear the better reason;" that sarcastic contempt of his antagonist, never suppressed or even softened by the due restraints of good-breeding, were sufficient to close the lips, in his presence, of men, who could have met him in fair argument, on any ground, literary or political, moral or characteristic.

Where Dr. Johnson was, Dr. Darwin had no chance of being heard, though at least his equal in genius, his superior in science; nor indeed, from his impeded utterance, in the company of any overbearing declaimer; and he was too intellectually great to be an humble listener to Johnson, therefore he shunned him, on having experienced what manner of man he was. The surly dictator felt the mortification and revenged it, by affecting to avow his disdain of powers too distinguished to be an object of genuine

scorn.

Dr. Darwin, in his turn, was not much more just to Dr. Johnson's genius. He uniformly spoke of him in terms, which, had they been deserved, would have justified Churchill's immane Pom poso," as an appellation of scorn; since, if his

person was huge, and his manners pompous and violent, so were his talents vast and powerful, in a degree from which only prejudice and resentment could withhold respect.

Though Dr. Darwin's hesitation in speaking precluded his flow of colloquial eloquence, it did not impede, or at all lessen, the force of that conciser quality, wit. Of satiric wit he possessed a very peculiar species. It was neither the dead-doing broadside of Dr. Johnson's satire, nor the aurora borealis of Gray, whose arch, yet coy and quiet fastidiousness of taste and feeling, as recorded by Mason, glanced bright and cold through his conversation, while it seemed difficult to define its nature; and while its effects were rather perceived than felt, exciting surprise more than mirth, and never awakening the pained sense of being the object of its ridicule. That unique in humorous verse, the Long Story is a complete and beautiful specimen of Gray's singular vein.

Darwinian wit is not more easy to be defined; instances will best convey an idea of its character to those who never conversed with its possessor. To give such as are recollected at this moment, it will be necessary to recall Mr. Robinson, already mentioned, as a choice spirit of Lichfield. His perpetual stream of frolic raillery was of a species so singular

as to have exclusively obtained, wherever he was known, the title of rector, "The Rector," as if there were no other. The odd excursions of his fancy were enriched by an exhaustless store of classic, historic, and theological learning, grotesquely applied to the passing subjects of conversation, and that with unrivaled ease and happiness. Itis to be regretted that no records remain of talents so uncommon, except in the fading traces of contemporary recollection, which time and mortality obliterate so soon....Frequently during his youth and middle life in the fashionable circles of Bath, London, and the summer public places, the whimsical sallies of the Rector's sportive imagination, which were never coarse or low, common place or ill-natured, had considerable publicity and eclat. They were like the lambent lightning of a calm summer evening, brilliant, but not dangerous. The sweetness of his temper was the security of every man's self-love; and, while his humorous gaiety "set the table in a roar," the company laughed at their ease.

But then good-nature was the only curb his wit could endure. Without the slightest taint of infidelity, Robinson could not resist the temptation of launching it even at the most serious objects and themes.

One evening, when he and Dr. Darwin were in company together, the Rector had, as usual, thrown the bridle upon, the neck of his fancy, and it was scampering over the church-yard, and into the chancel, when the Doctor exclaimed...." Ex"cellent! Mr. Robinson is not only a clever fellow, "but a d.......d clever fellow."

Soon after the subject of common swearing was introduced, Mr. R. made a mock eulogium upon its power to animate dullness and to season wit.... Dr. Darwin observed, "Christ says, Swear not at "all. St. Paul tells us we may swear occasionally. "Mr. Robinson advises us to swear incessantly. "Let us compromise between these counsellors, "and swear by non-en-ti-ties. I will swear by my im-pu-dence, and Mr. Robinson by his modest-y."

That gentleman, whose wit, where it met no equal resistance, kept an untired and sparkling course, could seldom recover its track when the jest and the laugh were with his adversary. So often was it thus when Dr. Darwin and he met, that Mr. R. rather shunned than sought the rencounter. was curious, that he, who met indulgence from his clerical and pious brethren for those frolic emanations, wont to play upon the themes his heart revered, should so often find himself reproved, with

It

cutting raillery, for the practice, by one not famous for holding religous subjects in veneration.

Dr. Darwin was conversing with a brother

Botanist, concerning the plant Kalmia, then just an imported stranger in our green-houses and gardens. A lady, who was present, concluding he had seen it, which in fact he had not, asked the Doctor what were the colours of the plant. He replied, "Madam, the Kalmia has precisely the colours of a seraph's wing." So fancifully did he express his want of consciousness respecting the appearance of a flower whose name and rareness were all he knew of the matter.

Dr. Darwin had a large company at tea. His servant announced a stranger lady, and gentleman. The female was a conspicuous figure, ruddy, corpulent, and tall. She held by the arm a little, meek-looking, pale, effeminate man, who from his close adherence to the side of the lady, seemed to consider himself as under her protection.

"Dr. Darwin, I seek you not as a physician, "but as a Belle Esprit. I make this husband of mine," and she looked down with a sideglance upon the animal "treat me every summer with a tour

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through one of the British counties, to explore "whatever it contains worth the attention of inge"nious people. On arriving at the several inns in