HKB
be so strictly decorous as I supposed. 'Why then, sir,' said I, 'according to your account, an English judge may just live like a gentleman.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, sir--if he CAN.'
At Mr Tytler's, I happened to tell that one evening, a great many years ago, when Dr Hugh Blair and I were sitting together in the pit of Drury-lane play-house, in a wild freak of youthful extravagance, I entertained the audience PRODIGIOUSLY, by imitating the lowing of a cow. A little while after I had told this story, I differed from Dr Johnson, I suppose too confidently, upon some point, which I now forget. He did not spare me. 'Nay, sir,' said he, 'if you cannot talk better as a man, I'd have you bellow like a cow.' [Footnote: As I have been scrupulously exact in relating anecdotes concerning other persons, I shall not withhold any part of this story, however ludicrous.--I was so successful in this boyish frolick, that the universal cry of the galleries was, 'Encore the cow! Encore the cow!' In the pride of my heart, I attempted imitations of some other animals, but with very inferior effect. My reverend friend, anxious for my fame, with an air of the utmost gravity and earnestness, addressed me thus: 'My dear sir, I would CONFINE myself to the COW!']
At Dr Webster's, he said, that he believed hardly any man died without affectation. This remark appears to me to be well founded, and will account for many of the celebrated death-bed sayings which are recorded.
On one of the evenings at my house, when he told that Lord Lovat boasted to an English nobleman, that though he had not his wealth, he had two thousand men whom he could at any time call into the field, the Honourable Alexander Gordon observed, that those two thousand men brought him to the block. 'True, sir,' said Dr Johnson: 'but you may just as well argue, concerning a man who has fallen over a precipice to which he has walked too near, "His two legs brought him to that"--is he not the better for having two legs?'
At Dr Blair's I left him, in order to attend a consultation, during which he and his amiable host were by themselves. I returned to supper, at which were Principal Robertson, Mr Nairne, and some other gentlemen. Dr Robertson and Dr Blair, I remember, talked well upon subordination and government; and, as my friend and I were walking home, he said to me, 'Sir, these two doctors are good men, and wise men.' I begged of Dr Blair to recollect what he could of the long conversation that passed between
Dr Johnson and him alone, this evening, and he obligingly wrote to me as follows:
March 3, 1785. Dear Sir,