Anecdotes.
��Mr. Johnson was indeed unjustly supposed to be a lover of singularity. Few people had a more settled reverence for the world than he, or was less captivated by new modes of behaviour introduced, or innovations on the long-received customs of com mon life T . He hated the way of leaving a company without taking notice to the lady of the house that he was going ; and did not much like any of the contrivances by which ease has been lately introduced into society instead of ceremony, which had more of his approbation. Cards 2 , dress 3 , and dancing however, all found their advocates in Dr. Johnson, who incul cated, upon principle, the cultivation of those arts, which many a moralist thinks himself bound to reject, and many a Christian holds unfit to be practised. ' No person (said he one day) goes under-dressed till he thinks himself of consequence enough to forbear carrying the badge of his rank upon his back V And in
��Send her abroad, and let her see That all this mingled mass which
she,
Being forbidden, longs to know, Is a dull farce, an empty show, Powder, and pocket-glass and
beau.'
An English Padlock, 1. 55. Prior's Works, ed. 1858, p. 85.
1 See Life, ii. 75 for instances of Johnson's censure of singularity. In the Tatler, No. 103, it is thus at tacked : ' The bearing to be laughed at for singularities teaches us in sensibly an impertinent fortitude, and enables us to bear public censure for things which more substantially de serve it.'
Miss Byron says of Sir Charles Grandison's dress : ' He scruples not to modernize a little ; but then you see that it is in compliance with the fashion, and to avoid singularity; a fault to which great minds are per haps too often subject, tho' he is so much above it.' Sir C. Grandison, i. 324. ' Singularity is only pardon able in old age and retirement ; I may now be as singular as I please,
��but you may not.' Chesterfield's Letters to his Son, iv. 78.
2 ' He said, " I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life ; it generates kindness and consolidates society." ' Life, v. 404. See ib. iii. 23.
3 ' It is yet remembered of the learned and pious Nelson [the author of Fasts and Festivals} that he was remarkably elegant in his manners and splendid in his dress. He knew, that the eminence of his character drew many eyes upon him ; and he was careful not to drive the young or the gay away from religion, by repre senting it as an enemy to any dis tinction or enjoyment in which human nature may innocently delight.' Works, iv. 138.
The portrait of Nelson, at the top of the staircase in the Bodleian, is of a splendidly-dressed man.
4 'You find the King of Prussia dresses plain because the dignity of his character is sufficient.' Life, ii. 475. ' Whoever differs from any general custom is supposed both to think and to proclaim himself wiser than the
answer
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