Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/193

 Anecdotes.

��across the spacious Atlantic, and settle in America itself, the sure consequences of our beloved whiggism.'

This I thought a thing so very particular, that I begged his leave to write it down directly, before any thing could intervene that might make me forget the force of the expressions 1 : a trick, which I have however seen played on common occasions, "of sitting steadily 2 down at the other end of the room to write at the moment what should be said in company, either by Dr. Johnson or to him, I never practised myself, nor approved of in another. There is something so ill-bred, and so inclining to treachery in this conduct, that were it commonly adopted, all confidence would soon be exiled from society, and a con- versation assembly-room would become tremendous as a court )f justice 3 . A set of acquaintance joined in familiar chat may say a thousand things, which (as the phrase is) pass well enough at the time, though they cannot stand the test of critical examination ; and as all talk beyond that which is necessary to the purposes of actual business is a kind of game 4, there will be ever found ways of playing fairly or unfairly at it, which distin-

��x ' Mrs. Thrale,' writes Boswell, ' has published as Johnson's a kind of parody or counterpart of a fine poetical passage in one of Mr. Burke's speeches on American Taxation. It is vigorously but somewhat coarsely executed ; and I am inclined to sup pose, is not quite correctly exhibited. I hope he did not use the words " vile agents " for the Americans in the House of Parliament ; and if he did so, in an extempore effusion, I wish the lady had not committed it to writing.' Life, iv. 317.

2 Perhaps Mrs. Piozzi wrote stealthily. Mr. Barclay said that 'he had seen Boswell lay down his knife and fork, and take out his tablets in order to register a good anecdote.' Post in Mr. Barclay's Anecdotes.

3 Bishop Percy in a note on Ander- sor^s Johnson^. 6, says of Boswell : ' It is surely an exception more than

��venial to violate one of the first and most sacred laws of society by pub lishing private and unguarded con versation of unsuspecting company into which he was accidentally ad mitted.' Percy had more than once suffered from this publication. Life, ii. 64; iii. 271.

4 ' Sir, a game of jokes is composed partly of skill, partly of chance, a man may be beat at times by one who has not the tenth part of his wit.' Ib. ii. 231. 'And then also for men's reputation ; and that either in point of wisdom or of wit. There is hardly anything which (for the most part) falls under a greater chance. . . . Nay, even where there is a real stock of wit, yet the wittiest sayings and sentences will be found in a great measure the issues of chance, and nothing else but so many lucky hits of a roving fancy.' South's Sermons, ed. 1823, i. 218-220.

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