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Article ANECDOTES OF DR. JOHNSON, &c. ← Page 6 of 8 →
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Anecdotes Of Dr. Johnson, &C.
improvement : they object that the old method drew together a number of spectators ; Sir , executions are intended to draw spectators . If they do not draw spectators , they don't answer their purpose . The old method was most satisfactoiy-to all parties : the publick was gratified by a procession , the criminal was supported by it . Why is all this . to be swept awajr ? " I perfectly agree with Dr . Johnson upon this head , and am persuaded that executions
now , the solemn procession being discontinued , have not nearly the effect which they formerly had . Magistrates both in London , and elsewhere , have , I am afraid , in this , had too much regard to their own ease . Johnson ' s attention to precision and clearness of expression was very remarkable . He disapproved of parentheses ; and I believe in all his voluminous writingsnot half a dozen of them will be found .
, He never used the phrases the former and the latter , having observed that they often occasioned obscurity ; he therefore contrived to construct his sentences so as not to have occasion for them , and would even rather repeat the same words , in order to avoid them . Nothing is more common than to mistake sirnames when we hear them carelessluttered for the first time . To prevent thishe used not
y , only to pronounce them slowly and ' distinctly , but to take the trouble of spelling them ; a practice which I have often followed , and which I wish were general . The heterogeneous composition of human nature was remarkably
exemplified in Johnson . His liberality in giving his money to persons in distress was extraordinary . Yet there lurked about him a propensity to paltry saving . One day I owned to him that " I was occasionally troubled with a fit of narrowness . " "Why , Sir , " said he , " so am I ; but I do not tell it . " He has now and then borrowed a shilling of me ; and when I asked it again , seemed to be rather out of humour . A droll little circumstance once occurred ;
as if he meant to reprimand my minute exactness as a creditor , he thus addressed me : " Boswell , lend me sixpence—not to be repaid . " Though astern true-born Englishman , and fully prejudiced against all other nations , he had discernment enough to see , and candour enough to censure , the cold reserve too common among Englishmen towards strangers : " Sir , " said he , " two men of any other
nation who are shewn into ' a room together , at a house where they are both visitors , will immediately find some conversation . But two Englishmen will probably go each to a different window , and remain in obstinate silence . Sir , we as yet do not enough understand the common rights of humanity . " Once when checking my boasting too frequentlof myself in
y company , he said to me , " Boswell , you often vaunt so much as to provoke ridicule . You put me in mind of a man who was standing in the kitchen of an inn with his back to the fire , and thus accosted the person next to him , " Do you know , Sir , who I am ? " " No , Sir , " said the other , " I have not that advantage . " " Sir , " said he , ' 1 am the great Twalmley , who invented the New Floodgate
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Anecdotes Of Dr. Johnson, &C.
improvement : they object that the old method drew together a number of spectators ; Sir , executions are intended to draw spectators . If they do not draw spectators , they don't answer their purpose . The old method was most satisfactoiy-to all parties : the publick was gratified by a procession , the criminal was supported by it . Why is all this . to be swept awajr ? " I perfectly agree with Dr . Johnson upon this head , and am persuaded that executions
now , the solemn procession being discontinued , have not nearly the effect which they formerly had . Magistrates both in London , and elsewhere , have , I am afraid , in this , had too much regard to their own ease . Johnson ' s attention to precision and clearness of expression was very remarkable . He disapproved of parentheses ; and I believe in all his voluminous writingsnot half a dozen of them will be found .
, He never used the phrases the former and the latter , having observed that they often occasioned obscurity ; he therefore contrived to construct his sentences so as not to have occasion for them , and would even rather repeat the same words , in order to avoid them . Nothing is more common than to mistake sirnames when we hear them carelessluttered for the first time . To prevent thishe used not
y , only to pronounce them slowly and ' distinctly , but to take the trouble of spelling them ; a practice which I have often followed , and which I wish were general . The heterogeneous composition of human nature was remarkably
exemplified in Johnson . His liberality in giving his money to persons in distress was extraordinary . Yet there lurked about him a propensity to paltry saving . One day I owned to him that " I was occasionally troubled with a fit of narrowness . " "Why , Sir , " said he , " so am I ; but I do not tell it . " He has now and then borrowed a shilling of me ; and when I asked it again , seemed to be rather out of humour . A droll little circumstance once occurred ;
as if he meant to reprimand my minute exactness as a creditor , he thus addressed me : " Boswell , lend me sixpence—not to be repaid . " Though astern true-born Englishman , and fully prejudiced against all other nations , he had discernment enough to see , and candour enough to censure , the cold reserve too common among Englishmen towards strangers : " Sir , " said he , " two men of any other
nation who are shewn into ' a room together , at a house where they are both visitors , will immediately find some conversation . But two Englishmen will probably go each to a different window , and remain in obstinate silence . Sir , we as yet do not enough understand the common rights of humanity . " Once when checking my boasting too frequentlof myself in
y company , he said to me , " Boswell , you often vaunt so much as to provoke ridicule . You put me in mind of a man who was standing in the kitchen of an inn with his back to the fire , and thus accosted the person next to him , " Do you know , Sir , who I am ? " " No , Sir , " said the other , " I have not that advantage . " " Sir , " said he , ' 1 am the great Twalmley , who invented the New Floodgate