Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/362

 ��Anecdotes.

��soul of Mr. Johnson deserves to be particularly described x. His stature was remarkably high, and his limbs exceedingly large : his strength was more than common I believe, and his activity had been greater I have heard than such a form gave one reason to expect : his features were strongly marked, and his countenance particularly rugged ; though the original complexion had certainly been fair, a circumstance somewhat unusual : his sight was near, and otherwise imperfect ; yet his eyes, though of a light-grey colour, were so wild, so piercing, and at times so fierce, that fear was I believe the first emotion in the hearts of all his beholders. His mind was so comprehensive, that no language but that he used could have expressed its contents ; and so ponderous was his language, that sentiments less lofty and less solid than his were, would have been encumbered, not adorned by it.

Mr. Johnson was not intentionally however a pompous con- verser ; and though he was accused of using big words as they are called, it was only when little ones would not express his meaning as clearly, or when perhaps the elevation of the thought would have been disgraced by a dress less superb 2. He used to

��1 In her Thraliana she records : tongue liberty to praise Mr. John son to his face, a favour he would not often allow me, he said, in high good humour, " Come, you shall draw up my character your own way, and shew it me, that I may see what you will say of me when I am gone." At night I wrote as follows : (Here follows the character in the text). When I shewed him his Character next day, for he would see it, he said, " It was a very fine piece of writing, and that I had improved upon Young" who he saw was my model, he said, " for my flattery was still stronger than his, and yet, some how or other, less hyperbolical." ' Hay ward's Piozzi, ist ed. ii. 345.
 * One evening as I was giving my

For her flattery of him see Life,

��ii. 349, and Letters, i. 200, 220, 221 ; ii. 308, and for Johnson's person, Life, i. 94 ; iv. 425 ; v. 18. How far Young could go in flattery is shown in the lines where, addressing the Deity, he says : ' 'Tis Thou that lead'st our pow'rful

armies forth, And giv'st Great Anne Thy sceptre

o'er the north.'

The Last Day, Book ii. 2 Boswell told Johnson that ' Lord Monboddo disapproved of the rich ness of his language, and of his frequent use of metaphorical ex pressions. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, this criticism would be just, if in my style, superfluous words, or words too big for the 'thoughts, could be pointed out ; but this I do not believe can be done.'" Life, iii. 173. 'Johnson

say,

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