Boswell.  ‘Is not modesty natural?’ Johnson.  ’I cannot say, Sir, as we find no people quite in a state of nature; but I think the more they are taught, the more modest they are.  The French are a gross, ill-bred, untaught people; a lady there will spit on the floor and rub it with her foot.  What I gained by being in France was, learning to be better satisfied with my own country.  Time may be employed to more advantage from nineteen to twenty-four almost in any way than in travelling; when you set travelling against mere negation, against doing nothing, it is better to be sure; but how much more would a young man improve were he to study during those years.  Indeed, if a young man is wild, and must run after women and bad company, it is better this should be done abroad, as, on his return, he can break off such connections, and begin at home a new man, with a character to form, and acquaintances to make.  How little does travelling supply to the conversation of any man who has travelled; how little to Beauclerk!’ Boswell.  ’What say you to Lord ------?’ Johnson.  ’I never but once heard him talk of what he had seen, and that was of a large serpent in one of the Pyramids of Egypt.’  Boswell.  ’Well, I happened to hear him tell the same thing, which made me mention him.’

I talked of a country life.  Johnson.  ’Were I to live in the country, I would not devote myself to the acquisition of popularity; I would live in a much better way, much more happily; I would have my time at my own command.’  Boswell.  ’But, Sir, is it not a sad thing to be at a distance from all our literary friends?’ Johnson.  ’Sir, you will by and by have enough of this conversation, which now delights you so much.’

As he was a zealous friend of subordination, he was at all times watchful to repress the vulgar cant against the manners of the great; ’High people, Sir, (said he,) are the best; take a hundred ladies of quality, you’ll find them better wives, better mothers, more willing to sacrifice their own pleasure to their children than a hundred other women.  Tradeswomen (I mean the wives of tradesmen) in the city, who are worth from ten to fifteen thousand pounds, are the worst creatures upon the earth, grossly ignorant, and thinking viciousness fashionable.  Farmers, I think, are often worthless fellows.  Few lords will cheat; and, if they do, they’ll be ashamed of it:  farmers cheat and are not ashamed of it:  they have all the sensual vices too of the nobility, with cheating into the bargain.  There is as much fornication and adultery among farmers as amongst noblemen.’  Boswell.  ’The notion of the world, Sir, however is, that the morals of women of quality are worse than those in lower stations.’  Johnson.  ’Yes, Sir, the licentiousness of one woman of quality makes more noise than that of a number of women in lower stations; then, Sir, you are to consider the malignity of women in the city against women of quality, which will make them believe any thing of them, such as that they call their coachmen to bed.  No, Sir, so far as I have observed, the higher in rank, the richer ladies are, they are the better instructed and the more virtuous.’