Page:Johnsonian Miscellanies II.djvu/375

 by Thomas Tyers.

��take liberties with him, nor flatly contradict him ; for fre could repell any attack, having always about him the weapons of ridicule, of wit, and of argument *. It must be owned, that some who had the desire to be admitted to him, thought him too dogmatical, and as exacting too much homage to his opinions, and came no more. For they said, while he presided in his library, surrounded by his admirers, he would, ' like Cato, give his little senate laws 2 .' He had great knowledge in the science of human nature, and of the fashions and customs of life, and knew the world well. He had often in his mouth this line of Pope,

' The proper study of mankind is man V

He was desirous of surveying life in all its modes and forms, and in all climates. Twenty years ago he offered to attend his friend Vansittart to India, who was invited there to make a fortune ; but it did not take place 4. He talked much of travelling into Poland, to observe the life of the Palatines 5, the

��grin.' Gentleman's Magazine, 1759, p. 52. See also ante, ii. 87, 141.

1 ' When exasperated by contra diction Johnson was apt to treat his opponents with too much acrimony, as " Sir, you don't see your way through that question." " Sir, you talk the language of ignorance.'" Life, ii. 122. Boswell records how Johnson, ' determined to be master of the field, had recourse to the de vice which Goldsmith imputed to him in the witty words of one of Gibber's comedies : " There is no arguing with Johnson ; for when his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it." ' Ib. ii. 100. See also ib. iv. 274; v. 292. Goldsmith referred to the following passage in The Refusal, Act i. sc. I (Colley Gibber's Plays, ed. 1777, iv. 22):-

does not thy Assurance sometimes meet with a Repartee, that only lights
 * GRANGER. "Pr'ythee, Witling,

��upon the Outside of thy Head?"

' WITLING. " O ! your Servant, Sir. What ! now your Fire's gone, you would knock me down with the Butt- end, would you ? " '

2 Pope, Prologue to the Satires, 1. 209.

3 Essay on Man, ii. 2.

4 See Life, iii. 20, where Johnson tells a story of a friend who 'got a considerable appointment [in the East Indies]. I had some intention of accompanying him. Had I thought then as I do now, I should have gone.' In 1769 Mr. Vansittart was sent to India with two others as Supervisors. Their ship was lost on the way and nothing was ever known of their fate. Annual Register, 1769,

i- 53 I 1773, i- 66.

5 'The Palatines and Castellans were governors of the palatinates or provinces, and held the office for life ; the palatine having the direc tion of the whole province, like our

account

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