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applied them, with unremitted attention, to those objects which he believed tended to the honour and welfare of his country; but it may not be so generally understood that he was ever assiduous in the more private duties of a benevolent nature, that he delighted to give encouragement to any promise of ability, and assistance to any appearance of desert; to what purposes he employed his pen, and with what eloquence he spake in the Senate, will be told by many, who yet may be ignorant of the solid instruction, as well as the fascinating pleasantry, found in his common conversation, among his friends, and his affectionate manners, amiable disposition, and zeal for their happiness, which he manifested in the hours of retirement with his family.
To this Gentleman I was indebted for my knowledge of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was as well known to his friends, for his perpetual fund of good humour, and his unceasing wishes to oblige, as he was to the public, for the extraordinary productions of his pencil and his pen: By him I was favoured with an introduction to Doctor Johnson, who honoured me with his notice, and assisted me, as Mr. Boswell (since Lord Auchinleck) has told, with Remarks and Emendations for a Poem I was about to publish:[1] The Doctor had been often wearied by applications, and did not readily comply with requests, for his opinion; not from any unwil-
- ↑ See the Life of S. Johnson, by J. Boswell, vol. iv, p. 185, 8vo. edit.
