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��were instructed to apologize for his lordship's treatment of him, and to make him tenders of his future friendship and. patronage. Sir Thomas, whose talent was flattery, was profuse in his commendations of Johnson and his writings, and declared that were his circumstances other than they were, himself would settle five hundred pounds a year on him. * And who are you,' asked Johnson, < that talk thus liberally ? ' ' I am,' said the other, ' Sir Thomas Robinson, a Yorkshire baronet.' ' Sir/ replied Johnson, * if the first peer of the realm were to make me such an offer, I would shew him the way down stairs V (Page 191.)

In these disputations [at the Ivy Lane Club 2 ] I had oppor tunities of observing what others have taken occasion to remark, viz. not only that in conversation Johnson made it a rule to talk his best 3, but that on many subjects he was not uniform in his opinions, contending as often for victory as for truth 4 : at one time good, at another evil was predominant in the moral constitu tion of the world. Upon one occasion, he would deplore the non-observance of Good-Friday, and on another deny, that among us of the present age there is any decline of public worship 5. He would sometimes contradict self-evident pro- would desire to be admitted to look with him. Life, i. 434. Dr. Maxwell at the clock, or to play with a monkey recorded how Johnson once told the that was kept in the hall, in hopes Baronet that * he talked the language of being sent for in to the earl. This of a savage.' Ib. ii. 130. he had so frequently done, that all Horace Walpole describes Robin-

in the house were tired of him. At son as* one of those men of temporary length it was concerted among the fame who are universally known in servants that he should receive a their own age, and rarely by any summary answer to his usual ques- other age. He was an indiscriminate tions, and accordingly at his next flatterer.' Philobiblon, x. iv. 57. coming, the porter as soon as he had 2 Ante, i. 388. 3 Life, iv. 183.

opened the gate and without waiting 4 Ib. ii. 238 ; iv. in ; ante, i. 452. for what he had to say, dismissed 5 'BOSWELL. "Is there not less him with these words, " Sir, his lord- religion in the nation now, Sir, than ship is gone out, the clock stands, there was formerly ? " JOHNSON. and the monkey is dead." ' Note by " I don't know, Sir, that there is." ' Hawkins. Life, ii. 96. * He lamented that all

For the Earl of Burlington, see serious and religious conversation Life, iii. 347 ; iv. 50, n. 4. was banished from the society of

1 He visited Johnson after this, for men.' Ib. ii. 124. in 1763 Boswell found him sitting I remarked, that one disadvantage

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