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 246 Two Dialogues by

man's wish, can be no reproach to Garrick ; he who says he despises it knows he lies x. That Garrick husbanded his fame, the fame which he had justly acquired both at the theatre and at the table, is not denied ; but where is the blame, either in the one or the other, of leaving as little as he could to chance? Besides, Sir, consider what you have said ; you first deny Garrick's pretensions to fame, and then accuse him of too great an attention to preserve what he never possessed.

GIB. I don't understand

JOHNS. Sir, I can't help that 2.

GlB. Well, but Dr. Johnson, you will not vindicate him in his over and above attention to his fame, his inordinate desire to exhibit himself to new men, like a coquette, ever seeking after new conquests, to the total neglect of old friends and admirers ;

always looking out for new game.
 * He threw off his friends like a huntsman his pack V

JOHNS. When you quoted the line from Goldsmith, you ought, in fairness, to have given what followed :

' He knew when he pleased he could whistle them back ; '

which implies at least that he possessed a power over other men's minds approaching to fascination ; but consider, Sir, what is to be done : here is a man whom every other man desired to know. Garrick could not receive and cultivate all, according to each man's conception of his own value : we are all apt enough to consider ourselves as possessing a right to be excepted from the common crowd ; besides, Sir, I do not see why that should

1 ' When Johnson thought there Swinburne's Study of Ben Jonson, was intentional falsehood in the re- p. 175.

lator his expression was, " He lies, * A man who speaks audibly and

and he knows he lies." ' Life, iv. 49. intelligibly is not to be blamed for

2 ' Sir, I have found you an argu- not being heard ; nobody being ment ; but I am not obliged to find bound to find words and ears too.' you an understanding.' Ib. iv. 313. South's Sermons, iii. 229.

fero? Preface to Coleridge's Poems, huntsman his pack,
 * Intelligibilia, non intellectum ad- 3 'He cast off his friends as a

ed. 1859, p. 19. For he knew when he pleased

' I must neither find them ears he could whistle them back.'

nor mind.' Ben Jonson, quoted in Retaliation.

be

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