a stronger brand behind it than that of a soldier; and it
was the essence of a gentleman's character to bear the visible mark of no
profession whatever." He once named Mr. Berenger as the standard of true
elegance; but some one objecting that he too much resembled the gentleman
in Congreve's comedies, Mr. Johnson said, "We must fix them upon the
famous Thomas Hervey, whose manners were polished even to acuteness and
brilliancy, though he lost but little in solid power of reasoning, and in
genuine force of mind." Mr. Johnson had, however, an avowed and scarcely
limited partiality for all who bore the name or boasted the alliance of
an Aston or a Hervey; and when Mr. Thrale once asked him which had been
the happiest period of his past life? he replied, "It was that year in
which he spent one whole evening with M---y As--n. That, indeed," said
he, "was not happiness, it was rapture; but the thoughts of it sweetened
the whole year." I must add that the evening alluded to was not passed
tete-a-tete, but in a select company, of which the present Lord Killmorey
was one. "Molly," says Dr. Johnson, "was a beauty and a scholar, and a
wit and a Whig; and she talked all in praise of liberty: and so I made
this epigram upon her. She was the loveliest creature I ever saw!!!

"'Liber ut esse velim, suasisti pulchra Maria,
Ut maneam liber--pulchra Maria, vale!'"

"Will it do this way in English, sir?" said I.

"Persuasions to freedom fall oddly from you;
If freedom we seek--fair Maria, adieu!"

"It will do well enough," replied he, "but it is translated by a lady,
and the ladies never loved M---y As--n." I asked him what his wife
thought of this attachment? "She was jealous, to be sure," said he, "and
teased me sometimes when I would let her; and one day, as a
fortune-telling gipsy passed us when we were walking out in company with
two or three friends in the country, she made the wench look at my hand,
but soon repented her curiosity; 'for,' says the gipsy, 'your heart is
divided, sir, between a Betty and a Molly: Betty loves you best, but you
take most delight in Molly's company.' When I turned about to laugh, I
saw my wife was crying. Pretty charmer! she had no reason!"

It was, I believe, long after the currents of life had driven him to a
great distance from this lady, that he spent much of his time with Mrs. F-
tzh--b--t, of whom he always spoke with esteem and tenderness, and with a
veneration very dif