Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/230

 ��Sir Joshua Reynolds on

��him x. { If/ says he, ' I am understood, my labour is not lost. If it is above their comprehension, there is some gratification, though it is the admiration of ignorance ; ' and he said those were the most sincere admirers ; and quoted Baxter, who made it a rule never to preach a sermon without saying something which he knew was beyond the comprehension of his audience in order to inspire their admiration 2. Dr. Johnson, by this continual practice, made that a habit which was at first an exertion ; for every person who knew him must have observed that the moment he was left out of the conversation, whether from his deafness or from whatever cause, but a few minutes without speaking or listening, his mind appeared to be pre paring itself. He fell into a reverie accompanied with strange antic gestures ; but this he never did when his mind was engaged by the conversation. [These were] therefore improperly called by, as well as by others, convulsions 3 ,. which imply in voluntary contortions ; whereas, a word addressed to him, his attention was recovered. Sometimes, indeed, it would be near a minute before he would give an answer, looking as if he laboured to bring his mind to bear on the question.

In arguing he did not trouble himself with much circum-

��1 Ltfe,\v. 183.

2 ' Sir Joshua once observed to him that he had talked above the capacity of some people with whom they had been in company together. " No matter, Sir (said Johnson) ; they consider it as a compliment to be talked to, as if they were wiser than they are. So true is this, Sir, that Baxter made it a rule in every sermon that he preached to say something that was above the capacity of his audience.'" Ib. iv. 185.

' To talk intentionally in a manner above the comprehension of those whom we address is unquestionable pedantry ; but surely complaisance requires that no man should without proof conclude his company incapable of following him to the highest eleva tion of his fancy, or the utmost

��extent of his knowledge.' The Ram bler, No. 173.

Mr. Francis Darwin, writing of Charles Darwin, says: 'I have often heard him say that he got a kind of satisfaction in reading articles [in Nature] which (according to him self) he could not understand. I wish I could reproduce the manner in which he would laugh at himself for it.' Life of Charles Darwin, ed. 1887, i. 127.

3 Boswell in his Tour to the He brides had called them ' cramps, or convulsive contractions, of the nature of that distemper called St. Vitus's dance' Life, v. 18. In the Life, \. 144, he inserts Reynolds's contrary opinion. Tyers had called Johnson ' a convulsionary! See post, p. 338.

locution

�� �