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fall; and corn is more plentiful now than ever it was."

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I had before dinner repeated a ridiculous story told me by an old man, who had been a passenger with me in the stage-coach to-day. Mrs. Thrale, having taken occasion to allude to it in talking to me, called it "The story told you by the old woman.” Now, madam," said I, "give me leave to catch you in the fact it was not an old woman, but an old man, whom I mentioned as having told me this." I presumed to take an opportunity, in the presence of Johnson, of showing this lively lady' how ready she was, unintentionally, to deviate from exact authenticity of narration.

Thomas à Kempis (he observed) must be a good book, as the world has opened its arms to receive it. It is said to have been printed, in one language or other, as many times as there have been months since it first came out 2. I always was struck with this sentence in it: "Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be 3."

He said, "I was angry with Hurd about Cowley for having published a selection of his works: but, upon better consideration, I think there is no impropriety in a man's publishing as much as he chooses of any authour, if he does not put the rest out of the way. A man, for instance, may print the Odes of

[If mistakes like this were all that Mr. Boswell could impute to Mrs. Thrale, he had better have spared his censures. The inaccuracy was evidently trifling; probably had no effect on the story, and might be involuntary, as Mrs. Thrale might not have distinctly heard whether Boswell had said old man or old woman. The editor notices these trifles to show the animus, the spirit in which Mr. Boswell is prone to distort Mrs. Thrale's character.-ED.]

2 The first edition was in 1492. Between that period and 1792, according to this account, there were three thousand six hundred editions. But this is very improbable.-MALONE.

The original passage is: Si non potes te talem facere, qualem vis, quomodo poteris alium ad tuum habere beneplacitum? De Imit. Christ. lib. i. cap. xvi.

J. BOSWELL.

VOL. IV.

G

Horace alone." He seemed to be in a more indulgent humour than when this subject was discussed between him and Mr. Murphy 1.

When we were at tea and coffee, there came in Lord Trimlestown, in whose family was an ancient Irish peerage, but it suffered by taking the generous side in the troubles of the last century. He was a man of pleasing conversation, and was accompanied by a young gentleman, his son.

I mentioned that I had in my possession the Life of Sir Robert Sibbald, the celebrated Scottish antiquary, and founder of the royal college of physicians at Edinburgh, in the original manuscript in his own hand writing; and that it was, I believed, the most natural and candid account of himself that ever was given by any man. As an instance, he tells that the Duke of Perth, then chancellor of Scotland, pressed him very much to come over to the Roman Catholick faith that he resisted all his grace's arguments for a considerable time, till one day he felt himself, as it were, instantaneously convinced, and with tears in his eyes ran into the duke's arms, and embraced the ancient religion; that he continued very steady in it for some time, and accompanied his grace to London one winter, and lived in his household; that there he found the rigid fasting prescribed by the church very severe upon him; that this disposed him to reconsider the controversy; and having then seen that

[See ante, vol. iii. p. 395.-ED.]

2 Since this was written, the attainder has been reversed; and Nicholas Barnewall is now a peer of Ireland with this title. The person mentioned in the text had studied physick, and prescribed gratis to the poor. Hence arose the subsequent conversation. MALONE. [We find in one of the magazines of the day, with the ironical title of "Remarkable Instance of Filial Affection," an advertisement dated 19th July, 1768, and signed "Thomas Barnewell," warning the public not to buy any timber trees which his father, Lord Trimlestown, is about to sell, as he is advised that his father is tenant for life, and has no right to sell such trees, and that the advertiser is resolved to put the law in force against any one who shall make a bargain contrary to his interest.-Repertory, vol. i. p. 118. Johnson's visitor must have been the dutiful son.-ED.]

he was in the wrong, he returned to Protestantism. I talked of some time or other publishing this curious life. MRS. THRALE. "I think you had as well let alone that publication. To discover such weakness exposes a man when he is gone." JOHNSON. "Nay, it is an honest picture of human nature. How often are the primary motives of our greatest actions as small as Sibbald's for his reconversion!" MRS. THRALE. "But may they not as well be forgotten?" JOHNSON. "No, madam; a man loves to review his own mind. That is the use of a diary or journal." LORD TRIMLESTOWN. "True, sir. As the ladies love to see themselves in a glass, so a man likes to see himself in his journal." Boswell. "A very pretty allusion." JOHNSON. "Yes, indeed." BOSWELL. "And as a lady adjusts' her dress before a mirrour, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal." I next year found the very same thought in Atterbury's "Funeral Sermon on Lady Cutts;" where, having mentioned her Diary, he says, "In this glass she every day dressed her mind." This is a proof of coincidence, and not of plagiarism; for I had never read that sermon before.

Next morning, while we were at breakfast, Johnson gave a very earnest recommendation of what he himself practised with the utmost conscientiousness: I mean a strict attention to truth, even in the most minute particulars. "Accustom your children," said

[Boswell seems much pleased with his own ingenuity, and the coincidence of thoughts between Bishop Atterbury and himself; but I don't quite understand his expression "a man adjusting his character." If he means that a man, by referring to his journal, as a lady to her looking-glass, improves his mind and conduct daily, I suspect there is more of fancy than truth in it. Men may consult their diaries and read their conduct in the day that is gone by; but, generally, to as little advantage as the person figured by St. James in a similar strain:-"He beholds his natural face in a glass; he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”— Chap. i. v. 23.—HALL.]

2

[See ante, v. iii. p. 321.-E».]

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he, "constantly to this: if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them: you do not know where deviation from truth will end." BOSWELL. "It may come to the door and when once an account is at all varied in one circumstance, it may by degrees be varied so as to be totally different from what really happened. Our lively hostess, whose fancy was impatient of the rein, fidgeted at this, and ventured to say, Nay, this is too much. If Dr. Johnson should forbid me to drink tea, I would comply, as I should feel the restraint only twice a day; but little variations in narrative must happen a thousand times a day, if one is not perpetually watching." JOHNSON. "Well, madam, and you ought to be perpetually watching. It is more from carelessness about truth, than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world."

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In his review of Dr. Warton's "Essay on the Writings and Genius of Pope," Johnson has given the following salutary caution upon this subject: Nothing but experience could evince the frequency of false information, or enable any man to conceive that so many groundless reports should be propagated as every man of eminence may hear of himself. Some men relate what they think as what they know; some men of confused memories and habitual inaccuracy ascribe to one man what belongs to another; and some talk on without thought or care. A few men are sufficient to broach falsehoods, which are afterwards innocently diffused by successive relaters '." Had he lived to read what Sir John Hawkins and

Literary Magazine, 1756, p. 37.—BOSWELL.

Mrs. Piozzi have related concerning himself, how much would he have found his observation illustrated'! He was indeed so much impressed with the prevalence of falsehood, voluntary or unintentional, that I never knew any person who, upon hearing an extraordinary circumstance told, discovered more of the incredulus odi. He would say with a significant look and decisive tone, "It is not so. Do not tell this again." He inculcated upon all his friends the importance of perpetual vigilance against the slightest degrees of falsehood; the effect of which, as Sir Joshua Reynolds observed to me, has been, that all who were of his school are distinguished for a love of truth and accuracy, which they would not have possessed in the same degree if they had not been acquainted with Johnson.

Talking of ghosts, he said, "It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it; but all belief is for it."

He said, "John Wesley's conversation is good, but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have out his talk, as I do."

[Sir John Hawkins has not, it is believed, stated any thing false, though he may have sometimes discoloured and misrepresented; and after all that Mr. Boswell and Mr. Malone have said of Mrs. Piozzi, nothing is proved indeed nothing is asserted-(and the assertions are often disproved)-but verbal inaccuracies, such as saying "old woman" for "old man," and so forth. A majority of Mrs. Piozzi's anecdotes are confirmed by Mr. Boswell's own account. -ED.]

The following plausible but over-prudent counsel on this subject is given by an Italian writer, quoted by "Rhedi de generatione insectarum," with the epithet of "divini poeta."

Sempre à quel ver ch' a faccia di menzogna
Dee l'uom chiudere le labbra quanto ei puote;
Peròche senza colpa fa vergogna."-BOSWELL.

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