276 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
particularly ', so seeming as he did to be stone-blind to his own 1 . One day as his man Frank was waiting at Sir Joshua's table, he observed with some emotion that he had the salver under his arm. Nor would the behaviour of the company on some occa sions escape his animadversions ; particularly for their perversion of the idea of refinement in the use of a water-glass, a very strange perversion indeed he thought it, as some people use it. He had also a great dislike to the use of a pocket-handkerchief at meals, when, if he wanted one, I have seen him rise from his Chair, and go at some distance with his back towards the company, performing the operation as silently as possible.
Dr. Johnson's sight was so very defective that he could scarcely distinguish the Face of his most intimate acquaintance at a half yard's distance from him, and, in general, it was observable that his critical remarks on dress, &c. were the result of a very close inspection of the object 2 ; partly, perhaps, excited by curiosity, and partly from a desire of exacting admiration of his perspicacity, of which it was remarkable he was not a little ambitious.
That Dr. Johnson possessed the essential principles of polite ness and of good taste, which I suppose are the same, at least concomitant, none who knew his virtues and his genius will, I imagine, be inclined to dispute 3 . But why they remained with him, like gold in the ore, unfashioned and unseen, except in his literary capacity, no person that I know of has made any enquiry, tho' in general it has been spoken of as an unaccountable incon sistency in his character. But a little reflection on the dis- < qualifying influence of blindness and deafness would suggest many apologies for Dr. Johnson's want of politeness. The particular instance I have just mentioned, of his inability to discriminate the features of any one's face, deserves perhaps more
1 The words italicized have been fewest persons uneasy is the best scored through. bred in the company.' Swift's Works,
2 Ante, \. 337. ed. 1803, xiv. 182. ' Courts,' he said,
- Politeness he one day defined as ' are the worst of all schools to teach
- fictitious benevolence.' Life, v. 82. good manners.' Ib. p. 189. 'A
See ante, i. 169. Swift looked upon Court is the best school for manners.* good manners as * a sort of artificial Chesterfield's Letters to his Godson, good sense.' The Tatler, No. 20. p. 392. 'Whoever/ he said, 'makes the
than
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