was near, and otherwise imperfect; yet his eyes, though of a light-gray colour, were fo wild, fo piercing, and at times fo fierce, that fear was, I believe, the first emotion in the hearts of all his beholders. His mind was fo comprehensive, that no language but that he used could have expreffed its contents; and fo ponderous was his language, that sentiments lefs lofty and less solid than his were, would have been encumbered, not adorned by it.

"Mr. Johnson was not intentionally, however, a pompous converfer: and though he was accused of ufing big words, as they are called, it was only when little ones could not express his meaning as clearly, or when, perhaps, the elevation of the thought would have been difgraced by a drefs lefs fuperb. He used to say, "that the fize of a man's understanding might always be justly meafured by his mirth ;" and his own was neyer contemptible. He would laugh at a

ftroke of genuine humour, or fudden fally of odd abfurdity, as heartily and freely as I ever yet saw any man; and though the jest was often fuch as few felt befides himself, yet his laugh was irrefiftible, and was observed immediately to produce that of the company, not merely from the notion that it was proper to laugh when he did, but purely out of want of power to forbear it. He was no enemy to fplendour of apparel, or pomp of equipage. Life," he would

fay, "is barren enough, furely, with all her trappings; let us therefore be cautious how we strip her."

"Of Mr. Johnson's erudition the world has been the judge; and we who produce each a score of his fayings, as proofs of that wit which in him was inexhaustible, resemble travellers, who, having visited Delhi or Golconda, bring home each a handful of oriental pearl, to evince the riches of the Great Mogul.

"As his purfe was ever open to almsgiving, fo was his heart tender to those who wanted relief, and his foul fufceptible of gratitude, and of every kind impression; yet, though he had refined his fenfibility, he had not endangered his quiet, by encou raging in himself a folicitude about trifles, which he treated with the contempt they deferve.

"Mr. Johnson had a roughness in his manner, which fubdued the faucy, and terrified the meek: this was, when I knew him, the prominent part of a character which few durft venture to approach fo nearly, and which was for that reason in many respects grofsly and frequently miftaken; and it was, perhaps, peculiar to him, that the lofty consciousness of his own fuperiority, which animated his looks, and raised his voice in conversation, cast likewife an impenetrable veil over him when he said nothing. His talk, therefore, had

commonly the complexion of arrogance, his filence of fupercilioufnefs. He was, however, feldom inclined to be filent when any moral or literary queftion was started; and it was on fuch occafions that, like the fage in Raffelas, he spoke, and attention watched his lips; he reasoned, and conviction closed his periods. If poetry was talked of, his quotations were the readiest; and had he not been eminent for more folid and brilliant qualities, mankind would have united to extol his extraordinary memory. His manner of repeating deferves to be described, though, at the fame time, it defeats all power of description; but whoever once heard him repeat an ode of Horace, would be long before they could endure to hear it repeated by another.

"His equity in giving the character of living acquaintance, ought not, undoubtedly, to be omitted in his own, whence partiality and prejudice were totally excluded,

and truth alone prefided in his tongue; a fteadiness of conduct the more to be com

mended, as no man had ftronger likings or averfions. His veracity was, indeed, from the most trivial to the most folemn occafions, ftrict, even to severity; he fcorned to embellish a story with fictitious circumftances, which (he used to say), took off from its real value. "A ftory," fays Johnson, "fhould be a fpecimen of life and manners; but if the furrounding circumstances are false, as it is no more a representation of reality, it is no longer worthy our attention."

"For the reft-That beneficence which, during his life, increased the comforts of so many, may, after his death, be, perhaps, ungratefully forgotten; but that piety which dictated the serious papers in the Rambler, will be for ever remembered, for ever, I think, revered. That ample repofitory of religious truth, moral wisdom, and accu