246 Two Dialogues by
man's wish, can be no reproach to Garrick ; he who says he despises it knows he lies x . That Garrick husbanded his fame, the fame which he had justly acquired both at the theatre and at the table, is not denied ; but where is the blame, either in the one or the other, of leaving as little as he could to chance? Besides, Sir, consider what you have said ; you first deny Garrick's pretensions to fame, and then accuse him of too great an attention to preserve what he never possessed.
GIB. I don't understand
JOHNS. Sir, I can't help that 2 .
GlB. Well, but Dr. Johnson, you will not vindicate him in his over and above attention to his fame, his inordinate desire to exhibit himself to new men, like a coquette, ever seeking after new conquests, to the total neglect of old friends and admirers ;
- He threw off his friends like a huntsman his pack V
always looking out for new game.
JOHNS. When you quoted the line from Goldsmith, you ought, in fairness, to have given what followed :
' He knew when he pleased he could whistle them back ; '
which implies at least that he possessed a power over other men's minds approaching to fascination ; but consider, Sir, what is to be done : here is a man whom every other man desired to know. Garrick could not receive and cultivate all, according to each man's conception of his own value : we are all apt enough to consider ourselves as possessing a right to be excepted from the common crowd ; besides, Sir, I do not see why that should
1 ' When Johnson thought there Swinburne's Study of Ben Jonson, was intentional falsehood in the re- p. 175.
lator his expression was, " He lies, * A man who speaks audibly and
and he knows he lies." ' Life, iv. 49. intelligibly is not to be blamed for
2 ' Sir, I have found you an argu- not being heard ; nobody being ment ; but I am not obliged to find bound to find words and ears too.' you an understanding.' Ib. iv. 313. South's Sermons, iii. 229.
- Intelligibilia, non intellectum ad- 3 'He cast off his friends as a
fero? Preface to Coleridge's Poems, huntsman his pack,
ed. 1859, p. 19. For he knew when he pleased
' I must neither find them ears he could whistle them back.'
nor mind.' Ben Jonson, quoted in Retaliation.
be
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