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 286 Recollections of Dr. Johnson

his defects of sight and of hearing, from receiving any grati fication from either the one or the other, he could have had no taste for them, no acquired Taste, at least for painting, his sight being much more defective than his hearing. A natural good Taste he certainly possess'd for all the fine Arts, and from an observation I remember to have heard him make, when expatiating in praise of Dr. Burney's history of music ' That that work evidently proved that the Author of it under stood the Philosophy of music better than any man who had ever written on that subject,' it must be supposed that he had felt its power, and that he had a taste for music x.

It is curious to observe the strong proofs that Dr. Burney gives throughout his Book almost, of the strict union of music with Painting, in using (when describing the excellence or the defects of a musical Composition) precisely the same words that a Painter must use in describing the excellence or the defects of a Picture.

It is with much regret that I reflect on my stupid negligence to write down some of Dr. Johnson's Discourses, his observations, precepts, &c. A few short sentences only did I ever take any account of in writing, and these I lately found in some old memorandum pocket-Books of ancient date, about the time of the commencement of my acquaintance with him. Those few indeed, relating to the character of the French, were taken viva voce the Day after his arrival from France, Novr. 14, -75 2, intending them, I find, for the subject of a letter to a Friend in the Country.

Also from the same motive perhaps I wrote down a long narration which Mr. Baretti gave of some Paris inn adventures

1 He heard the following passage other, with which they seem greatly

read aloud from the preface to Dr. delighted.' '"Sir," he cried, after

Burney's History of Music while it a little pause, " this assertion I be-

was yet in manuscript : ' The love lieve may be right." And then, see-

of lengthened tones and modulated sawing a minute or two on his

sounds seems a passion implanted in chair, he forcibly added : " All

human nature throughout the globe ; animated nature loves music except

as we hear of no people, however myself ! " ' Dr. Burney's Memoirs^

wild and savage in other particulars, ii. 77. who have not music of some kind or 2 Life, ii. 401.

&C.

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