Mrs. Desmoulins made tea; and she and I talked before him upon a topick which he had once borne patiently from me when we were by ourselves[530],—­his not complaining of the world, because he was not called to some great office, nor had attained to great wealth.  He flew into a violent passion, I confess with some justice, and commanded us to have done.  ’Nobody, (said he) has a right to talk in this manner, to bring before a man his own character, and the events of his life, when he does not choose it should be done.  I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me.  It is rather wonderful that so much has been done for me.  All the complaints which are made of the world are unjust[531].  I never knew a man of merit neglected[532]:  it was generally by his own fault that he failed of success.  A man may hide his head in a hole:  he may go into the country, and publish a book now and then, which nobody reads, and then complain he is neglected[533].  There is no reason why any person should exert himself for a man who has written a good book:  he has not written it for any individual.  I may as well make a present to the postman who brings me a letter.  When patronage was limited, an authour expected to find a Maecenas, and complained if he did not find one.  Why should he complain?  This Maecenas has others as good as he, or others who have got the start of him.’  BOSWELL.  ’But surely, Sir, you will allow that there are men of merit at the bar, who never get practice.’  JOHNSON.  ’Sir, you are sure that practice is got from an opinion that the person employed deserves it best; so that if a man of merit at the bar does not get practice, it is from errour, not from injustice.  He is not neglected.  A horse that is brought to market may not be bought, though he is a very good horse:  but that is from ignorance, not from intention[534].’

There was in this discourse much novelty, ingenuity, and discrimination, such as is seldom to be found.  Yet I cannot help thinking that men of merit, who have no success in life, may be forgiven for lamenting, if they are not allowed to complain.  They may consider it as hard that their merit should not have its suitable distinction.  Though there is no intentional injustice towards them on the part of the world, their merit not having been perceived, they may yet repine against fortune, or fate, or by whatever name they choose to call the supposed mythological power of Destiny.  It has, however, occurred to me, as a consolatory thought, that men of merit should consider thus:-How much harder would it be if the same persons had both all the merit and all the prosperity.  Would not this be a miserable distribution for the poor dunces?  Would men of merit exchange their intellectual superiority, and the enjoyments arising from it, for external distinction and the pleasures of wealth?  If they would not, let them not envy others, who are poor where they are rich, a compensation which is made to them.  Let them look inwards and be satisfied; recollecting with conscious pride what Virgil finely says of the Corycius Senex, and which I have, in another place[535], with truth and sincerity applied to Mr. Burke:—­