Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies I.djvu/476

 458 Essay on

��Garrick's death he never talked of him without a tear in his eyes '. He offered, if Mrs. Garrick would desire it of him, to be the editor of his works and the historian of his life 2. It has been mentioned that on his death-bed he thought of writing a Latin inscription to the memory of his friend 3. Numbers are still living who know these facts, and still remember with gratitude the friendship which he shewed to them with unaltered affection for a number of years 4. His humanity and generosity, in proportion to his slender income, were unbounded. It has been truly said, that the lame, the blind, and the sorrowful, found in his house a sure retreat 5. A strict adherence to truth he considered as a sacred obligation, insomuch that, in relating the most minute anecdote, he would not allow himself the smallest addition to embellish his story 6. The late Mr. Tyers, who knew Dr. Johnson intimately, observed, 'that he always talked as if he was talking upon oath V After a long acquaint ance with this excellent man, and an attentive retrospect to his whole conduct, such is the light in which he appears to the writer of this essay. The following lines of Horace may be deemed his picture in miniature :

Iracundior est paulo; minus aptus acutis

Naribus horum hominum ; rideri possit, eo quod

Rusticius tonso toga defluit, et male laxus

In pede calceus hasret ; at est bonus, ut melior vir

Non alius quisquam ; at tibi amicus ; at ingenium ingens

Inculto latet hoc sub corpora 8.

and always more than he expected.' willing to pay that last tribute to the

See also Life, iii. 70, 264, 387. memory of a man I loved." ' Murphy

1 The statement allowing that one adds that he himself took care that

tear can be in two eyes like some Mrs. Garrick was informed of what

others of Murphy's about Johnson, is Johnson had said, but that no answer

an exaggeration. was ever received.

a Murphy (Life of Garrick, p. 374) 3 Ante, p. 445.

says : ' Shortly after Garrick's death 4 Ante, pp. 279, 421.

Johnson was told in a large company, 5 Ante, p. 205.

" You are recent from the Lives of 6 Ante, p. 225.

the Poets ; why not add your friend 7 Life, ii. 434 ; iii. 308.

Garrick to the number?" Johnson's 8 * Your friend is passionate ; per-

answer was, " I do not like to be haps unfit

officious; but if Mrs. Garrick will For the brisk petulance of modern

desire me to do it, I shall be very wit.

It

�� �