venience. He had no such prejudices himself[1], and with difficulty forgave them in another. ' Delicacy does not surely consist (says he) in impossibility to be pleased, and that is false dignity indeed which is content to depend upon others.'
The saying of the old philosopher, who observes, That he who wants least is most like the gods, who want nothing[2]; was a favourite sentence with Dr. Johnson, who on his own part required less attendance, sick or well, than ever I saw any human creature[3]. Conversation was all he required to make him happy; and when he would have tea made at two o'clock in the morning, it was only that there might be a certainty of detaining his companions round him[4]. On that principle it was that he preferred winter to summer, when the heat of the weather gave people an excuse to stroll about, and walk for pleasure in the shade, while he wished to sit still on a chair, and chat day after day, till some body proposed a drive in the coach; and that was the most delicious moment of his life[5]. ' But the carriage must stop sometime (as he said), and the people would come home at last ; ' so his pleasure was of short duration.
I asked him why he doated on a coach so ? and received for answer, 'That in the first place, the company was shut in with him there; and could not escape, as out of a room : in the next place, he heard all that was said in a carriage, where it was my turn to be deaf:' and very impatient was he at my occasional
- ↑ 'Johnson. I never felt any difference upon myself from eating one thing rather than another . . . There are people, I believe, who feel a difference; but I am not one of them. And as to regular meals, I have fasted from the Sunday's dinner to the Tuesday's dinner without any inconvenience. I believe it is best to eat just as one is hungry ; but a man who is in business, or a man who has a family, must have stated meals.' Life, iii. 305.
- ↑ Socrates. (
Greek characters) Memorabilia, i. 6. 10. 'Deum quern a teneris coluit cum primis imitatus est paucis egendo.' Epitaph on Dr. Barrow. Life of Seth Ward, p. 168.
- ↑ 'There is nothing,' he said, against which an old man should be so much upon his guard as putting himself to nurse.' Life, ii. 474.
- ↑ Ante, p. 231.
- ↑ Life, iii. 5, 162.
