I heard him once say, ’Though the proverb Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia[563], does not always prove true, we may be certain of the converse of it, Nullum numen adest, si sit imprudentia_.’

Once, when Mr. Seward was going to Bath, and asked his commands, he said, ’Tell Dr. Harrington that I wish he would publish another volume of the Nugae antiquae[564]; it is a very pretty book[565].’  Mr. Seward seconded this wish, and recommended to Dr. Harrington to dedicate it to Johnson, and take for his motto, what Catullus says to Cornelius Nepos:—­

     ’——­namque tu solebas,
      Meas esse aliquid putare NUGAS[566].’

As a small proof of his kindliness and delicacy of feeling, the following circumstance may be mentioned:  One evening when we were in the street together, and I told him I was going to sup at Mr. Beauclerk’s, he said, ‘I’ll go with you.’  After having walked part of the way, seeming to recollect something, he suddenly stopped and said, ’I cannot go,—­but I do not love Beauclerk the less.’

On the frame of his portrait, Mr. Beauclerk had inscribed,—­

     ’——­Ingenium ingens
      Inculto latet hoc sub corpore[567].’

After Mr. Beauclerk’s death, when it became Mr. Langton’s property, he made the inscription be defaced.  Johnson said complacently, ’It was kind in you to take it off;’ and then after a short pause, added, ’and not unkind in him to put it on.’

He said, ‘How few of his friends’ houses would a man choose to be at when he is sick.’  He mentioned one or two.  I recollect only Thrale’s[568].

He observed, ’There is a wicked inclination in most people to suppose an old man decayed in his intellects.  If a young or middle-aged man, when leaving a company, does not recollect where he laid his hat, it is nothing; but if the same inattention is discovered in an old man, people will shrug up their shoulders, and say, ‘His memory is going[569].’

When I once talked to him of some of the sayings which every body repeats, but nobody knows where to find, such as Quos DEUS vult perdere, prius dementat[570]; he told me that he was once offered ten guineas to point out from whence Semel insanivimus omnes was taken.  He could not do it; but many years afterwards met with it by chance in Johannes Baptista Mantuanus[571].

I am very sorry that I did not take a note of an eloquent argument in which he maintained that the situation of Prince of Wales was the happiest of any person’s in the kingdom, even beyond that of the Sovereign.  I recollect only—­the enjoyment of hope[572],—­the high superiority of rank, without the anxious cares of government,—­and a great degree of power, both from natural influence wisely used, and from the sanguine expectations of those who look forward to the chance of future favour.

Sir Joshua Reynolds communicated to me the following particulars:—­