3io Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S.
He was one day asked by Mr. Cator 1 what the Opposition meant by their flaming speeches and violent pamphlets against Lord North's administration. ' They mean, Sir, rebellion/ said he. ' they mean in spite to destroy that country which they are not permitted to govern 2 / Ib. p. 600.
Mrs. Cotterell 3 having one day asked him to introduce her to a celebrated writer ; ' Dearest Madam/ replied he, ' you had better let it alone ; the best part of every author is in general to be found in his book 4 / This idea he has dilated with his usual perspicuity and illustrated by one of the most appropriate similes in the English language : A transition from an author's book to his conversation is too often like an entrance into a large city after a distant prospect : remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples, and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendour, grandeur, and magnificence ; but when we have passed the gates we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstruc tions, and clouded with smoke 5 . Ib. p. 600.
The learned and excellent Charles Cole 6 having once men tioned to him a book lately published on the Sacrament 7 , he replied, ' Sir, I look upon the Sacrament as the palladium of religion ; I hope that no profane hands will venture to touch it.' Ib. p. 60 1.
On being asked in his last illness what physician he had sent
��1 Ante, i. 349 #. ; Life, iv. 313. Paris, says: 'Ceux qui pensent qu'il
2 Johnson said to Boswell in suffit de lire les livres qui s'y font se 1781 : ' Between ourselves, Sir, I do trompent ; on apprend beaucoup plus not like to give opposition the satis- dans la conversation des auteurs que faction of knowing how much I dis- dans leurs livres.' CEuvres, ed. 1782, approve of the ministry.' Life, iv. 100. ix. 238.
For his contempt of it, see also ib. iii. 5 Rambler, No. 14.
46, 356; iv. 8 1, 139; ante, i. 104. 6 Perhaps Charles Nalson Cole,
3 Letters, ii. 393. who edited Soame Jenyns's Works,
4 ' Admiration begins where ac- 1790.
quaintance ceases.' Rambler, No. 77. 7 Perhaps the book mentioned in
Rousseau, in Emile, speaking of Johnson's Letters, ii. 204.
for
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