[Footnote 147:  In the opera of Hydaspes, presented at the Haymarket in 1710, the hero, whose part was taken by Signor Nicolini, kills a lion in the amphitheater.]

SAMUEL JOHNSON.

DETACHED PASSAGES FROM BOSWELL’S LIFE.

We talked of the education of children, and I asked him what he thought was best to teach them first. Johnson:  Sir, it is no matter what you teach them first, any more than what leg you shall put into your breeches first.  Sir, while you are considering which of two things you should teach your child first, another boy has learnt them both.

Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs.  It is not done well, but you are surprised to see it done at all.

A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage married immediately after his wife died.  Johnson said it was a triumph of hope over experience.

He would not allow Scotland to derive any credit from Lord Mansfield, for he was educated in England.  “Much,” said he, “may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young.” Johnson:  An old tutor of a college said to one of his pupils, “Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine strike it out.”  A gentleman who introduced his brother to Dr. Johnson was earnest to recommend him to the doctor’s notice, which he did by saying:  “When we have sat together some time you’ll find my brother grow very entertaining.”

“Sir,” said Johnson, “I can wait.”

“Greek, sir,” said he, “is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he can.”

Lord Lucan tells a very good story, that when the sale of Thrale’s brewery was going forward, Johnson appeared bustling about with an inkhorn and pen in his button-hole, like an exciseman, and on being asked what he really considered to be the value of the property which was to be disposed of, answered, “We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.”

Johnson:  My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.  You may talk as other people do; you may say to a man, “Sir, I am your most humble servant.”  You are not his most humble servant.  You may say, “These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times.”  You don’t mind the times.  You tell a man, “I am sorry you had such bad weather the last day of your journey and were so much wet.”  You don’t care sixpence whether he is wet or dry.  You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in society, but don’t think foolishly.

A lively saying of Dr. Johnson to Miss Hannah More, who had expressed a wonder that the poet who had written Paradise Lost should write such poor sonnets:  “Milton, madam, was a genius that could cut a colossus from a rock, but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones.”