d such an eastern hyperbolical style of compliment, that part
of Dr. Johnson's character for rudeness of manners must be put to the
account of scrupulous adherence to truth. His obstinate silence, whilst
all the company were in raptures, vying with each other who should
pepper highest, was considered as rudeness or ill-nature.' Taylor's
_Reynolds_, ii. 458.

[686] 'The shame is to impose words for ideas upon ourselves or others.'
Johnson's _Works_, vi. 64. See _ante_, p.122, where he says: 'There is a
middle state of mind between conviction and hypocrisy.' Bacon, in his
_Essay of Truth_, says: 'It is not the lie that passeth through the
mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it, that doth
the hurt.'

[687] See _ante_, p. 204.

[688] 'I dined and lay at Harrison's, where I was received with that
old-fashioned breeding which is at once so honourable and so
troublesome.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 144. Mr. Pleydell, in _Guy
Mannering_, ed. 1860, iv. 96, says: 'You'll excuse my old-fashioned
importunity. I was born in a time when a Scotchman was thought
inhospitable if he left a guest alone a moment, except when he slept.'

[689] See _ante_, ii. 167.

[690] See _ante_, i. 387.

[691] In Johnson's _Works_, ed. 1787, xi. 197, it is recorded that
Johnson said, 'Sheridan's writings on elocution were a continual
renovation of hope, and an unvaried succession of disappointments.'
According to the _Gent. Mag._ 1785, p. 288, he continued:--'If we
should have a bad harvest this year, Mr. Sheridan would say:--"It was
owing to the neglect of oratory."' See _ante_, p. 206.

[692] Burke, no doubt, was this 'bottomless Whig.' When Johnson said 'so
they _all_ are now,' he was perhaps thinking of the Coalition Ministry
in which Lord North and his friends had places.

[693] No doubt Burke, who was Paymaster of the Forces. He is Boswell's
'eminent friend.' See _ante_ ii.222, and _post_, Dec. 24, 1783, and
Jan.8, 1784. In these two consecutive paragraphs, though two people seem
to be spoken of, yet only one is in reality.

[694] I believe that Burke himself was present part of the time, and
that he was the gentleman who 'talked of _retiring_. On May 19 and 21 he
had in Parliament defended his action in restoring to office two clerks,
Powell and Bembridge, who had been dismissed by his predecessor, and he
had justified his reforms in the Paymaster's office. 'He awaited,' he
said, the 'judgement of the House. ...If they so