He loved thus to keep things floating in conjecture:Omne ignotum pro magnifico est.I believe I ventured to dissipate the cloud,to unveil the mystery,more freely and frequently than any of his friends.We stopped again at Wirgman's,the well-known toy-shop,in St.James's-street,at the corner of St.James's-place,to which he had been directed,but not clearly,for he searched about some time,and could not find it at first;and said,'To direct one only to a corner shop is TOYING with one.'I suppose he meant this as a play upon the word toy:it was the first time that I knew him stoop to such sport.After he had been some time in the shop,he sent for me to come out of the coach,and help him to choose a pair of silver buckles,as those he had were too small.Probably this alteration in dress had been suggested by Mrs.Thrale,by associating with whom,his external appearance was much improved.
He got better cloaths;and the dark colour,from which he never deviated,was enlivened by metal buttons.His wigs,too,were much better;and during their travels in France,he was furnished with a Paris-made wig,of handsome construction.This choosing of silver buckles was a negociation:'Sir,(said he,)I will not have the ridiculous large ones now in fashion;and I will give no more than a guinea for a pair.'Such were the PRINCIPLES of the business;and,after some examination,he was fitted.As we drove along,Ifound him in a talking humour,of which I availed myself.BOSWELL.
'I was this morning in Ridley's shop,Sir;and was told,that the collection called Johnsoniana has sold very much.'JOHNSON.'Yet the Journey to the Hebrides has not had a great sale.'BOSWELL.
'That is strange.'JOHNSON.'Yes,Sir;for in that book I have told the world a great deal that they did not know before.'
BOSWELL.'I drank chocolate,Sir,this morning with Mr.Eld;and,to my no small surprize,found him to be a Staffordshire Whig,a being which I did not believe had existed.'JOHNSON.'Sir,there are rascals in all countries.'BOSWELL.'Eld said,a Tory was a creature generated between a non-juring parson and one's grandmother.'JOHNSON.'And I have always said,the first Whig was the Devil.'BOSWELL.'He certainly was,Sir.The Devil was impatient of subordination;he was the first who resisted power:--"Better to reign in Hell,than serve in Heaven."'
At General Paoli's were Sir Joshua Reynolds,Mr.Langton,Marchese Gherardi of Lombardy,and Mr.John Spottiswoode the younger,of Spottiswoode,the solicitor.
We talked of drinking wine.JOHNSON.'I require wine only when Iam alone.I have then often wished for it,and often taken it.'
SPOTTISWOODE.'What,by way of a companion,Sir?'JOHNSON.'To get rid of myself,to send myself away.Wine gives great pleasure;and every pleasure is of itself a good.It is a good,unless counterbalanced by evil.A man may have a strong reason not to drink wine;and that may be greater than the pleasure.Wine makes a man better pleased with himself.I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.Sometimes it does.But the danger is,that while a man grows better pleased with himself,he may be growing less pleasing to others.Wine gives a man nothing.It neither gives him knowledge nor wit;it only animates a man,and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company had repressed.
It only puts in motion what has been locked up in frost.But this may be good,or it may be bad.'SPOTTISWOODE.'So,Sir,wine is a key which opens a box;but this box may be either full or empty.'
JOHNSON.'Nay,Sir,conversation is the key:wine is a pick-lock,which forces open the box and injures it.A man should cultivate his mind so as to have that confidence and readiness without wine,which wine gives.'BOSWELL.'The great difficulty of resisting wine is from benevolence.For instance,a good worthy man asks you to taste his wine,which he has had twenty years in his cellar.'
JOHNSON.'Sir,all this notion about benevolence arises from a man's imagining himself to be of more importance to others,than he really is.They don't care a farthing whether he drinks wine or not.'SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.'Yes,they do for the time.'JOHNSON.
'For the time!--If they care this minute,they forget it the next.
And as for the good worthy man;how do you know he is good and worthy?No good and worthy man will insist upon another man's drinking wine.As to the wine twenty years in the cellar,--of ten men,three say this,merely because they must say something;--three are telling a lie,when they say they have had the wine twenty years;--three would rather save the wine;--one,perhaps,cares.Iallow it is something to please one's company:and people are always pleased with those who partake pleasure with them.But after a man has brought himself to relinquish the great personal pleasure which arises from drinking wine,any other consideration is a trifle.To please others by drinking wine,is something only,if there be nothing against it.I should,however,be sorry to offend worthy men:--"Curst be the verse,how well so e'er it flow,That tends to make one worthy man my foe."'
BOSWELL.'Curst be the SPRING,the WATER.'JOHNSON.'But let us consider what a sad thing it would be,if we were obliged to drink or do any thing else that may happen to be agreeable to the company where we are.'LANGTON.'By the same rule you must join with a gang of cut-purses.'JOHNSON.'Yes,Sir:but yet we must do justice to wine;we must allow it the power it possesses.To make a man pleased with himself,let me tell you,is doing a very great thing;"Si patriae volumus,si Nobis vivere cari."'
