at
club to-morrow how he teized_ Johnson _at dinner to-day; this is all to
do himself_ honour.' _No, upon my word, (replied the other,') I see no_
honour _in it, whatever you may do. Well, Sir, (returned_ Mr. Johnson,
_sternly,) if you do not_ see _the honour, I am sure I_ feel _the
disgrace_."

'This is all sophisticated. Mr. Thrale was _not_ in the company, though
he might have related the story to Mrs. Thrale. A friend, from whom I
had the story, was present; and it was _not_ at the house of a nobleman.
On the observation being made by the master of the house on a
gentleman's contradicting Johnson, that he had talked for the honour,
&c., the gentleman muttered in a low voice, "I see no honour in it;" and
Dr. Johnson said nothing: so all the rest, (though _bien trouvee_) is
mere garnish.'

I have had occasion several times, in the course of this work, to point
out the incorrectness of Mrs. Thrale, as to particulars which consisted
with my own knowledge[1057]. But indeed she has, in flippant terms
enough, expressed her disapprobation of that anxious desire of
authenticity which prompts a person who is to record conversations, to
write them down _at the moment_[1058]. Unquestionably, if they are to be
recorded at all, the sooner it is done the better. This lady herself
says[1059],--

_'To recollect, however, and to repeat the sayings of_ Dr. Johnson, _is
almost all that can be done by the writers of his Life; as his life, at
least since my acquaintance with him, consisted in little else than
talking, when he was not [absolutely] employed in some serious piece
of work.'_

She boasts of her having kept a common-place book[1060]; and we find she
noted, at one time or other, in a very lively manner, specimens of the
conversation of Dr. Johnson, and of those who talked with him; but had
she done it recently, they probably would have been less erroneous; and
we should have been relieved from those disagreeable doubts of their
authenticity, with which we must now peruse them.

She says of him[1061],--

_'He was the most charitable of mortals, without being what we call an_
active friend. _Admirable at giving counsel; no man saw his way so
clearly; but he_ would not stir a finger _for the assistance of those to
whom he was willing enough to give advice.'_ And again on the same page,
_'If you wanted a slight favour, you must apply to people of other
dispositions; for_ not a step would Johnson move _to obtain a man a vot