Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/401

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the latter, who had been bred a Whig, to the acquaintance of the very learned and sensible Dr. Samuel Johnson. They had not been long together, before (the conversation leading to it) the Doctor, addressing himself to Mr. Arnold, said, ' Sir, you are a young man, but I have seen a great deal of the world, and take it upon my word and experience, that where you see a Whig you see a rascal V Mr. Farmer said he was startled, and rather uneasy that the Doctor had expressed himself so bluntly, and was apprehensive that Mr. Arnold might be shocked and take it ill. But they laughed it off, and were very good company.

��FROM WILLIAM COOKE'S LIFE OF SAMUEL FOOTE.

Dr. Johnson being asked by a lady why he so constantly gave money to beggars, replied with great feeling, * Madam, to enable them to beg on 2 .' Vol. ii. p. no.

Dr. Johnson being asked by a lady what love was, replied,

  • It was the wisdom of a fool and the folly of the wise.' Vol. ii.

P. 154.

In the recital of prayers and religious poems Dr. Johnson was awfully impressive 3 . One night at the Club 4 , a person quoting the nineteenth psalm, the Doctor caught fire ; and instantly taking off his hat began with great solemnity :

'The spacious firmament on high,' and went through that beautiful hymn 5 . Those who were

1 For rascal see ib. iii. I, and for 4 Most likely the Essex Head abuse of Whigs and Whiggism, vi. Club, of which Cooke was a member. 323. The autumn of this same year 5 Thackeray in his English Hu- (1774), just before the general elec- mourists (ed. 1858, p. 109) says of tion, Johnson said to Burke, ( I wish this hymn of Addison's : ' Listen to you all the success which ought to him ; from your childhood you have be wished you, which can possibly known the verses : but who can hear be wished you indeed by an honest their sacred music without love and man. 9 Ante, i. 309. awe ? ... It seems to me that these

2 Ante^ i. 204. verses shine like the stars. They

3 Ib. ii. 266. shine out of a great deep calm.'

acquainted

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