��Mr. B has not forgotten, that though his friend one evening
in a gay humour talked in praise of wine as one of the blessings permitted by heaven, when used with moderation, to lighten the load of life, and give men strength to endure it ; yet, when in consequence of such talk he thought fit to make a Baccha nalian discourse in its favour, Mr. Johnson contradicted him somewhat roughly as I remember ; and when to assure himself of conquest he added these words, You must allow me, Sir, at least that it produces truth; in vino veritas^ you know, Sir ' That (replied Mr. Johnson) would be useless to a man who knew he was not a liar when he was sober V
When one talks of giving and taking the lie familiarly, it is impossible to forbear recollecting the transactions between the editor of Ossian and the author of the Journey to the Hebrides. It was most observable to me however, that Mr. Johnson never bore his antagonist the slightest degree of ill-will. He always kept those quarrels which belonged to him as a writer, separate from those which he had to do with as a man ; but I never did hear him say in private one malicious word of a public enemy ; and of Mr. Macpherson I once heard him speak respectfully 2 , though his reply to the friend who asked him if any man living could have written such a book, is well known, and has been often repeated : ' Yes, Sir ; many men, many women, and many children V
I enquired of him myself if this story was authentic, and he said it was. I made the same enquiry concerning his account of the state of literature in Scotland, which was repeated up and down at one time by every body ' How knowledge was divided
1 Bos well, after relating the genu- has represented it as a personality,
ine anecdote, adds in a note: and the true point has escaped her.'
'Mrs. Piozzi, in her Anecdotes, has Life, ii. 188.
given an erroneous account of this 2 He had written to him : ' I will
incident, as of many others. She not desist from detecting what I
pretends to relate it from recollec- think a cheat from any fear of the
tion, as if she herself had been pre- menaces of a ruffian.' Ib. ii. 297,
sent ; when the fact is that it was n. 2.
communicated to her by me. She 3 Ib. i. 396.
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