A man is to have part of his life to himself. If a soldier has fought a good many campaigns, he is not to be blamed if he retires to ease and tranquillity. A physician, who has practised long in a great city, may be excused if he retires to a small town, and takes less practice. Now, sir, the good I can do by my conversation bears the same proportion to the good I can do by my writings, that the practice of a physician, retired to a small town, does to his practice in a great city.

JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY.

Adams, This is a great work, sir. How are you to get all the etymologies? Johnson, Why, sir, here is a shelf with Junius, and Skinner, and others; and there is a Welsh gentleman who has published a collection of Welsh proverbs, who will help me with the Welsh. Adams, But, sir, how can you do this in three years? Johnson, Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three years. Adams, But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years to compile their dictionary. Johnson, Sir, thus it is. This is the

proportion. Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.

THE VANITY OF AUTHORSHIP.

A man who writes a book, thinks himself wiser or wittier than the rest of mankind; he supposes that he can instruct or amuse them, and the public, to whom he appeals, must, after all, be the judges of his pretensions.

IS THE PRACTICE OF THE LAW HURTFUL TO HONESTY?

Why, no, sir, if you act properly. You are not to deceive your clients with false representations of your opinion: you are not to tell lies to a judge. Boswell, But what do you think of supporting a cause which you know to be bad? Johnson, Sir, you do not know it to be good or bad till the judge determines it. I have said that you are to state facts fairly; so that your thinking, or what you call knowing, a cause to be bad, must be from reasoning, must be from your supposing your arguments to be weak and

inconclusive. But, sir, that is not enough. An argument which does not convince yourself, may convince the judge to whom you urge it : and if it does convince him, why, then, sir, your are wrong, and he is right. It is his business to judge; and you are not to be confident in your own opinion that a cause is bad, but to say all you can for your client, and then hear the judge's opinion. Boswell, But, sir, does not affecting a warmth when you have no warmth, and appearing to be clearly of one opinion when you are in reality of another opinion, does not such dissimulation impair one's honesty? Is there not some danger that a lawyer may put on the same mask in common life, in the intercourse with his friends? Johnson, Why, no, sir. Everybody knows you are paid for affecting warmth for your client; and it is, therefore, properly no dissimulation: the moment you come from the bar, you resume your usual behaviour. Sir, a man will no more carry the artifice of the bar into the common intercourse of society, than a man who is paid for tumbling upon his hands, will continue to tumble upon his hands when he should walk on his feet.

THE WRITINGS OF ADDISON.

What he attempted, he performed: he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetic; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: ́his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

PROMULGATION OF IGNORANCE.

He that voluntarily continues ignorant, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces; as to him that should extinguish thetapers of a lighthouse, might justly be imputedthe calamities of shipwrecks.

KNOWLEDGE.

Knowledge always desires increase; it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterward propagate itself.

NATURE AND MANNERS.

There is all the difference in the world between characters of nature and characters of manners; and there is the difference between the characters of Fielding and those of Richardson. Characters of manners are very entertaining; but they are to be understood, by a more superficial observer, than characters of nature, where a man must dive into the recesses of the human heart.

LOVE OF COUNTRY INNATE.

Mankind have a strong attachment to the habitations to which they have been accustomed. You see the inhabitants of Norway do not with one consent quit it, and go to some part of America, where there is a mild climate, and where they may have the same produce from land, with the tenth part of the labour. No, sir; their affection for their old dwellings, and the terror of a general change, keep them at home. Thus, we see many of the finest spots in the world thinly inhabited, and many rugged spots well inhabited.