Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/336

 ��Anecdotes.

��Madam (replies Johnson), but Belle grows old' His reason for hating the dog was, ' because she was a professed favourite (he said), and because her Lady ordered her from time to time to be washed and combed : a foolish trick (said he) and an assumption of superiority that every one's nature revolts at ; so because one must not wish ill to the Lady in such cases (continued he), one curses the cur.' The truth is, Belle was not well behaved, and being a large spaniel, was troublesome enough at dinner with frequent solicitations to be fed. ' This animal (said Dr. Johnson one day) would have been of extraordinary merit and value in the state of Lycurgus ; for she condemns one to the exertion of perpetual vigilance.'

He had indeed that strong aversion felt by all the lower ranks of people towards four-footed companions very completely % not withstanding he had for many years a cat which he called Hodge, that kept always in his room at Fleet-street ; but so exact was he not to offend the human species by superfluous attention to brutes, that when the creature was grown sick and old, and could eat nothing but oysters, Mr. Johnson always went out himself to buy Hodge's dinner, that Francis the Black's delicacy might not be hurt, at seeing himself employed for the convenience of a quadruped 2.

No one was indeed so attentive not to offend in all such sort of things as Dr. Johnson ; nor so careful to maintain the ceremonies of life : and though he told Mr. Thrale once, that he had never sought to please till past thirty years old, considering the matter

\ as hopeless, he had been always studious not to make enemies,

by apparent preference of himself 3. It happened very comically, that the moment this curious conversation past, of which I was a silent auditress, was in the coach, in some distant province, either Shropshire or Derbyshire I believe 4 ; and as soon as it was over, Mr. Johnson took out of his pocket a little book and

��1 If this was once true how great a change came over 'the lower ranks ' in the next hundred years.

a Life, iv. 197.

��3 Ante, p. 169.

4 They passed through these coun ties on their tour to Wales in 1774. Life, v. 427-460.

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