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 3io Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S.

He was one day asked by Mr. Cator 1 what the Opposition meant by their flaming speeches and violent pamphlets against Lord North's administration. ' They mean, Sir, rebellion/ said he. ' they mean in spite to destroy that country which they are not permitted to govern 2 / Ib. p. 600.

Mrs. Cotterell 3 having one day asked him to introduce her to a celebrated writer ; ' Dearest Madam/ replied he, ' you had better let it alone ; the best part of every author is in general to be found in his book 4 / This idea he has dilated with his usual perspicuity and illustrated by one of the most appropriate similes in the English language : A transition from an author's book to his conversation is too often like an entrance into a large city after a distant prospect : remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples, and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendour, grandeur, and magnificence ; but when we have passed the gates we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstruc tions, and clouded with smoke 5. Ib. p. 600.

The learned and excellent Charles Cole 6 having once men tioned to him a book lately published on the Sacrament 7, he replied, ' Sir, I look upon the Sacrament as the palladium of religion ; I hope that no profane hands will venture to touch it.' Ib. p. 60 1.

On being asked in his last illness what physician he had sent

��1 Ante, i. 349 #. ; Life, iv. 313. Paris, says: 'Ceux qui pensent qu'il

2 Johnson said to Boswell in suffit de lire les livres qui s'y font se 1781 : ' Between ourselves, Sir, I do trompent ; on apprend beaucoup plus not like to give opposition the satis- dans la conversation des auteurs que faction of knowing how much I dis- dans leurs livres.' CEuvres, ed. 1782, approve of the ministry.' Life, iv. 100. ix. 238.

For his contempt of it, see also ib. iii. 5 Rambler, No. 14.

46, 356; iv. 8 1, 139; ante, i. 104. 6 Perhaps Charles Nalson Cole,

3 Letters, ii. 393. who edited Soame Jenyns's Works,

4 ' Admiration begins where ac- 1790.

quaintance ceases.' Rambler, No. 77. 7 Perhaps the book mentioned in

Rousseau, in Emile, speaking of Johnson's Letters, ii. 204.

for

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