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Article ANECDOTES OF DR. JOHNSON, &c. ← Page 3 of 8 →
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Anecdotes Of Dr. Johnson, &C.
" Depend upon it , " said he , " that if a man talks of his misfortunes , there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him , for where there is nothing but pure misery , there never is any recourse to the mention of it . " " Many a man is mad in certain instances , and goes through life without haying it perceived ; for example , a madness has seized a of supposing himself obliged literally to pray continually ;
person had the madness turned the opposite way , and ( he person , thought it a crime ever to pray , it might not improbably have continued unobserved . " , " Supposing , " said he , " a wife to be of a studious or argumentative turn , it would be very troublesome ; for instance , if a woman should continually dwell upon the subject of the Arian Heresy . " _ is
"No man speaks concerning another , even suppose it be inji praise , if he thinks he does not hear him , exactly as he would if he thought he was within hearing . " " The applause of a single human being is of great consequence . " - —This he said to me with great earnestness of manner , very near the time of his decease , on occasion of having it desired me to read a letter addressed to him from some person in the North of England ;
which when 1 had done , and he asked me what the contents were ; as I thought being particular upon it mig ht fatigue him , it being of great length , I only told him in general that it was hi ghly in his praise , and then he expressed himself as above . He mentioned with an air of satisfaction what Baretti had told Mm ; that meeting , in the course of his studying English , with an excellent in the Spectatorone of four that were written by
paper , the respectable Dissenting Minister Mr . Grove , of Taunton , and observing the genius and energy of mind that it exhibits , it greatly quickened his curiosity to visit our country ; as he thought if such were the li g hter periodical essays of our authors , their productions on more wei g hty occasions must be wonderful indeed ! He observed once , at Sir Joshua Reynolds ' s , that a beggar in the
street will more readily ask alms from a man , though there should Ibe no marks of wealth in his appearance , than from even a welldressed woman *; which he accounted for from the greater degree of carefulness as to money that is to be found in women ; saying farther upon it , that the opportunities in general that they possess pf improving their condition are much fewer then men have ; an , d adding , as he looked round the company , which consisted of men only , " there is not one of us who does not think he mig ht be richer if he would use his endeavour . "
An observation of Bathurst ' s may be mentioned , which Johnson repeated , appearing to acknowledge it to be well-founded , namely , It was somewhat remarkable how seldom , on occasion of coming
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Anecdotes Of Dr. Johnson, &C.
" Depend upon it , " said he , " that if a man talks of his misfortunes , there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him , for where there is nothing but pure misery , there never is any recourse to the mention of it . " " Many a man is mad in certain instances , and goes through life without haying it perceived ; for example , a madness has seized a of supposing himself obliged literally to pray continually ;
person had the madness turned the opposite way , and ( he person , thought it a crime ever to pray , it might not improbably have continued unobserved . " , " Supposing , " said he , " a wife to be of a studious or argumentative turn , it would be very troublesome ; for instance , if a woman should continually dwell upon the subject of the Arian Heresy . " _ is
"No man speaks concerning another , even suppose it be inji praise , if he thinks he does not hear him , exactly as he would if he thought he was within hearing . " " The applause of a single human being is of great consequence . " - —This he said to me with great earnestness of manner , very near the time of his decease , on occasion of having it desired me to read a letter addressed to him from some person in the North of England ;
which when 1 had done , and he asked me what the contents were ; as I thought being particular upon it mig ht fatigue him , it being of great length , I only told him in general that it was hi ghly in his praise , and then he expressed himself as above . He mentioned with an air of satisfaction what Baretti had told Mm ; that meeting , in the course of his studying English , with an excellent in the Spectatorone of four that were written by
paper , the respectable Dissenting Minister Mr . Grove , of Taunton , and observing the genius and energy of mind that it exhibits , it greatly quickened his curiosity to visit our country ; as he thought if such were the li g hter periodical essays of our authors , their productions on more wei g hty occasions must be wonderful indeed ! He observed once , at Sir Joshua Reynolds ' s , that a beggar in the
street will more readily ask alms from a man , though there should Ibe no marks of wealth in his appearance , than from even a welldressed woman *; which he accounted for from the greater degree of carefulness as to money that is to be found in women ; saying farther upon it , that the opportunities in general that they possess pf improving their condition are much fewer then men have ; an , d adding , as he looked round the company , which consisted of men only , " there is not one of us who does not think he mig ht be richer if he would use his endeavour . "
An observation of Bathurst ' s may be mentioned , which Johnson repeated , appearing to acknowledge it to be well-founded , namely , It was somewhat remarkable how seldom , on occasion of coming