s, as may
give to those who know him not a just idea of his character and manner of
thinking. To endeavour at adorning, or adding, or softening, or
meliorating such anecdotes, by any tricks my inexperienced pen could
play, would be weakness indeed; worse than the Frenchman who presides
over the porcelain manufactory at Seve, to whom, when some Greek vases
were given him as models, he lamented la tristesse de telles formes; and
endeavoured to assist them by clusters of flowers, while flying Cupids
served for the handles of urns originally intended to contain the ashes
of the dead. The misery is, that I can recollect so few anecdotes, and
that I have recorded no more axioms of a man whose every word merited
attention, and whose every sentiment did honour to human nature. Remote
from affectation as from error or falsehood, the comfort a reader has in
looking over these papers is the certainty that these were really the
opinions of Johnson, which are related as such.

Fear of what others may think is the great cause of affectation; and he
was not likely to disguise his notions out of cowardice. He hated
disguise, and nobody penetrated it so readily. I showed him a letter
written to a common friend, who was at some loss for the explanation of
it. "Whoever wrote it," says our doctor, "could, if he chose it, make
himself understood; but 'tis the letter of an _embarrassed man_ sir;" and
so the event proved it to be.

Mysteriousness in trifles offended him on every side. "It commonly ended
in guilt," he said; "for those who begin by concealment of innocent
things will soon have something to hide which they dare not bring to
light." He therefore encouraged an openness of conduct, in women
particularly, "who," he observed, "were often led away when children, by
their delight and power of surprising." He recommended, on something
like the same principle, that when one person meant to serve another, he
should not go about it slily, or as we say, underhand, out of a false
idea of delicacy, to surprise one's friend with an unexpected favour,
"which, ten to one," says he, "fails to oblige your acquaintance, who had
some reasons against such a mode of obligation, which you might have
known but for that superfluous cunning which you think an elegance. Oh!
never be seduced by such silly pretences," continued he; "if a wench
wants a good gown, do not give her a fine smelling-bottle, because that
is more delicate: as I once knew