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HIGH CHURCH ZEAL.

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On Wednesday, August 3rd, they had their last evening at the Turk's Head, Boswell being to leave England for the continent on Friday. Boswell happened to speak of the prevailing custom of telling absurd stories about Johnson's sayings and doings.

JOHNSON: "What do they make me say, sir?"

BOSWELL (laughing heartily): "Why, sir, as an instance very strange indeed, David Hume told me you said that you would stand before a battery of cannon to restore the Convocation to its full powers."

JOHNSON (with thundering voice and eyes flashing fire): "And would I not, sir? Shall the Presbyterian Kirk of Scotland have its General Assembly, and the Church of England be denied its Convocation ?”

His High Church zeal had got the better of him for the moment; still, that was the speech of a true "defender of the faith"-such as he believed it to be.

Johnson had arranged to see his friend out of England. On Friday, therefore, they set out together early in the morning in the Harwich coach. In the course of the journey, one of their fellow-travellers, a fat elderly lady, said that she had done her best to educate her children; and particularly, that she had never suffered them to be a moment idle.

JOHNSON: "I wish, madam, you would educate me too; for I have been an idle fellow all my life."

"I am sure, sir," said she, "you have not been idle."

JOHNSON: "Nay, madam, it is very true: and that gentleman there (pointing to Boswell) has been idle. He was idle at Edinburgh. His father sent him to Glasgow, where he continued to be idle. He then came to London, where he has been very idle; and now he is going to Utrecht, where he will be as idle as ever." Boswell asked the Doctor privately why he had exposed him in such a way?

JOHNSON: "Pooh, pooh! they know nothing about you, and will think of it no more."

Having observed at one of the stages that Boswell ostenta

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JOHNSON AT SUPPER.

tiously gave the coachman a shilling, though sixpence was the common fee, Johnson, with that strict care for rectitude which always influenced him, even in apparently trifling concerns, rated his friend soundly, on the ground that such conduct tended to make the coachman dissatisfied with all the rest of the passengers, who gave him only his due.

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They stopped a night at Colchester, a town of which Johnson spoke with reverence, as having stood a siege for Charles the First. At supper he made the following memorable deliverance: Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my own part, I mind my belly very studiously and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else."

Earnest in all things, our Author was peculiarly earnest in his feeding operations. Mr. Vincy's "portable theory" was also his : "Life wants padding." Eating was, with him, if not one of the fine arts, at least one of the great sciences. He threw his whole soul into his mouth. His looks seemed fastened to his plate while he ate; he would neither speak nor listen until the one business of the table was got over; the veins of his forehead swelled; and he actually perspired in the work of satisfying his appetite. Instead of ridiculing such coarseness, and expressing our disgust at gluttony and the rest, let us turn our eyes back to the impransus period of Johnson's life-his "dinnerless" days-and try to fancy the agony of being without a meal while such an appetite raged within.

Enjoying all meals thus heartily, Johnson, of course, looked for unusually great things from a special invitation-to dinner, for example. When disappointed in his expectations he had been heard to say, "This was a good dinner enough, to be sure; but it was not a dinner to ask a man to." When, on the other hand, all went gloriously, it was as good as a feast to see his delight: "Sir, we could not have had a better dinner had there been a Synod of Cooks."

After supper the conversation turned for a moment upon that studied behaviour which so many in all times have thought it

HATRED OF SENTIMENTALITY.、

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right to practise. Johnson expressed his disapproval of it, and said: "I never considered whether I should be a grave man, or a merry man, but just let inclination, for the time, have its course." In other words, Johnson had lived, while most people only torment themselves with arranging how to live.

Boswell, in his sentimental way, began to imagine whole hosts of possible miseries which might await him on the continent. While he was weaving his silly fancies, a moth fluttered into the flame of the candle and was burned; upon which Johnson slily but gravely remarked, "That creature was its own tormentor, and I believe its name was BOSWELL."

They arrived at Harwich next day, and dined at an inn by themselves. Boswell happened to say it would be "terrible" if his friend should be detained long in such a dull place.

JOHNSON: "Don't, sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters. It would not be terrible, though I were to be detained some time here."

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Johnson hated sentiment, as one of the sickliest of shams. These," he would say, "are the distresses of sentiment, which a man who is really to be pitied has no leisure to feel. The sight of people who want food and raiment is so common in great cities, that a surly fellow like me has no compassion to spare for wounds given only to vanity or softness." Speaking of a lady who had. been disappointed of an inheritance, some one remarked, “— will grieve at her friend's disappointment." Said Johnson, "She will suffer as much perhaps as your horse did when your cow miscarried." He's a plain-spoken man, this hero of ours!

The two friends visited the church, and, on approaching the altar, Johnson said: "Now that you are going to leave your native country, recommend yourself to the protection of your CREATOR and REDEEMER." Is it not, as we said once before, a species of grand moral training to trace the steps of this noble man? They walked down to the beach together; took a warm embrace; and parted.

BOSWELL: "I hope, sir, you will not forget me in my absence." JOHNSON: "Nay, sir, it is more likely you should forget me, than that I should forget you."

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The Doctor remained for some time standing on the beach, after the vessel had put out to sea-rolling his body in the usual fashion he then walked back into the town, and disappeared from the straining eyes of his devout worshipper on the deck.

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That Boswell's admiration of Dr. Johnson was sincere and deep cannot be doubted; and it is equally certain that the other's heart had been already touched with a real feeling of kindliness and esteem towards his reverential disciple. Had Boswell's reverence been more straight-backed, however, Johnson's kindliness would not have been the less, while his esteem would certainly have been much the greater.

VISIT TO THE LANGTONS.

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CHAPTER XV.

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LITERARY CLUB FOUNDED-HYPOCHONDRIA-JOHNSON'S SHAKESPEARE "-INTRODUCTION TO THE THRALES.

(1764-1765.)

One or two

EARLY in 1764, Johnson paid a visit to the Langtons, in Lincolnshire, where he spent a very pleasant time. memoranda of his visit have been preserved.

Speaking of a worthy clergyman in the district, Johnson observed: "This man, Sir, fills up the duties of his life well. I approve of him, but could not imitate him." So we see he did right in keeping out of the Church.

To a lady who kept aloof from her neighbours because she did not see what good she could do them by social intercourse, he said: "What good, Madam, do you expect to have it in your power to do them? It is showing them respect, and that is doing them good."

He and Mr. Langton drove out together in a coach one day; and, on Mr. Langton's complaining of a slight sickness, Johnson insisted upon their betaking themselves to the outside and sitting in the open air. When seated, he observed: "That countryman in the field there will probably be thinking, 'If these two madmen should come down, what would become of me?'"

But perhaps the most characteristic fact about this visit is, that Johnson argued with Mr. Langton, senior, so strongly in defence of the doctrines of the Romish Church, that the old gentleman went to his grave in the belief that the Doctor belonged to that Communion. Like all great talkers, Johnson could speak, and delighted to speak, on any side of a disputed question; and here is what he once said on the opposite side of this Romish question,

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