nted liquors. To make
himself some amends, indeed, he took his chocolate liberally, pouring in
large quantities of cream, or even melted butter; and was so fond of
fruit, that though he usually ate seven or eight large peaches of a
morning before breakfast began, and treated them with proportionate
attention after dinner again, yet I have heard him protest that he never
had quite as much as he wished of wall-fruit, except once in his life,
and that was when we were all together at Ombersley, the seat of my Lord
Sandys. I was saying to a friend one day, that I did not like goose;
"one smells it so while it is roasting," said I. "But you, madam,"
replies the Doctor, "have been at all times a fortunate woman, having
always had your hunger so forestalled by indulgence, that you never
experienced the delight of smelling your dinner beforehand." "Which
pleasure," answered I pertly, "is to be enjoyed in perfection by such as
have the happiness to pass through Porridge Island of a morning." "Come,
come," says he, gravely, "let's have no sneering at what is serious to so
many. Hundreds of your fellow-creatures, dear lady, turn another way,
that they may not be tempted by the luxuries of Porridge Island to wish
for gratifications they are not able to obtain. You are certainly not
better than all of _them_; give God thanks that you are happier."

I received on another occasion as just a rebuke from Mr. Johnson, for an
offence of the same nature, and hope I took care never to provoke a
third; for after a very long summer, particularly hot and dry, I was
wishing naturally but thoughtlessly for some rain to lay the dust as we
drove along the Surrey roads. "I cannot bear," replied he, with much
asperity and an altered look, "when I know how many poor families will
perish next winter for want of that bread which the present drought will
deny them, to hear ladies sighing for rain, only that their complexions
may not suffer from the heat, or their clothes be incommoded by the dust.
For shame! leave off such foppish lamentations, and study to relieve
those whose distresses are real."

With advising others to be charitable, however, Dr. Johnson did not
content himself. He gave away all he had, and all he ever had gotten,
except the two thousand pounds he left behind; and the very small portion
of his income which he spent on himself, with all our calculation, we
never could make more than seventy, or at most four-score pounds a ye