MINOR ANECDOTES OF DR. JOHNSON
��BY ROBERT BARCLAY.
[FROM Croker's Boswell, x. 122. For Robert Barclay, who with John Perkins bought Thrale's Brewery, see Life> iv. 118, n. i ; Letters, ii. 216 n.
He was the great-grandson of the author of the Apology. He must not be confused with his cousin and contemporary Robert Barclay, the banker of Lombard Street.]
Mr. Barclay, from his connexion with Mr. Thrale, had several opportunities of meeting and conversing with Dr. Johnson. On his becoming a partner in the brewery, Johnson advised him not to allow his commercial pursuits to divert his attention from his studies. ( A mere literary man/ said the Doctor, ' is a dull man ; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man ; but when literature and commerce are united, they make a respectable man V
Mr. Barclay had never observed any rudeness or violence on the part of Johnson. He has seen Boswell lay down his knife and fork, and take out his tablets, in order to register a good anecdote 2 . When Johnson proceeded to the dining-room, one of Mr. Thrale's servants handed him a wig of a smarter de scription than the one he wore in the morning ; the exchange
1 ' Domi inter mille mercaturae Thrale. Ante, i. 238 ; ii. 13, 309. negotia literarum elegantiam minime For respectable see Life, iii. 241, n. 2. neglexit.' Johnson's epitaph on Mr. 2 Ante, i. 175.
took
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