ord though, for Barnard
would not lie."

We had got a little French print among us at Brighthelmstone, in
November, 1782, of some people skating, with these lines written under:--

"Sur un mince chrystal l'hyver conduit leurs pas,
Le precipice est sous la glace;
Telle est de nos plaisirs la legere surface,
Glissez mortels; n'appayez pas."

And I begged translation from everybody. Dr. Johnson gave me this:--

"O'er ice the rapid skater flies,
With sport above and death below;
Where mischief lurks in gay disguise,
Thus lightly touch and quickly go."

He was, however, most exceedingly enraged when he knew that in the course
of the season I had asked half-a-dozen acquaintance to do the same thing;
and said, "it was a piece of treachery, and done to make everybody else
look little when compared to my favourite friends the _Pepyses_, whose
translations were unquestionably the best." I will insert them, because
he _did_ say so. This is the distich given me by Sir Lucas, to whom I
owe more solid obligations, no less than the power of thanking him for
the life he saved, and whose least valuable praise is the correctness of
his taste:--

"O'er the ice as o'er pleasure you lightly should glide,
Both have gulfs which their flattering surfaces hide."

This other more serious one was written by his brother:--

"Swift o'er the level how the skaters slide,
And skim the glitt'ring surface as they go:
Thus o'er life's specious pleasures lightly glide,
But pause not, press not on the gulf below."

Dr. Johnson seeing this last, and thinking a moment, repeated:--

"O'er crackling ice, o'er gulfs profound,
With nimble glide the skaters play;
O'er treacherous pleasure's flow'ry ground
Thus lightly skim, and haste away."

Though thus uncommonly ready both to give and take offence, Mr. Johnson
had many rigid maxims concerning the necessity of continued softness and
compliance of disposition: and when I once mentioned Shenstone's idea
that some little quarrel among lovers, relations, and friends was useful,
and contributed to their general happiness upon the whole, by making the
soul feel her elastic force, and return to the beloved object with
renewed delight: "Why, what a pernicious maxim is this now," cries
Johnson, "_all_ quarrels ought to be avoided studiously, particularly
conjugal ones, as no one can possibly tell where they may end; besides