ide of my heart, I attempted imitations of some other
animals, but with very inferior effect. My reverend friend, anxious for
my _fame_, with an air of the utmost gravity and earnestness, addressed
me thus: 'My dear sir, I would _confine_ myself to the _cow_.' BOSWELL.
Blair's advice was expressed more emphatically, and with a peculiar
_burr_--'_Stick to the cow_, mon.' WALTER SCOTT. Boswell's record, which
moreover is far more humorous, is much more trustworthy than Scott's
tradition.

[1097] Mme. de Sevigne in describing a death wrote:--'Cela nous fit voir
qu'on joue long-temps la comedie, et qu'a la mort on dit la verite.'
Letter of June 24, 1672. Addison says:--'The end of a man's life is
often compared to the winding up of a well-written play, where the
principal persons still act in character, whatever the fate is which
they undergo.... That innocent mirth which had been so conspicuous in
Sir Thomas More's life did not forsake him to the last. His death was of
a piece with his life. There was nothing in it new, forced, or
affected.' _The Spectator_, No. 349. Young also thought, or at least,
wrote differently.

'A death-bed's a detector of the heart.
Here tired dissimulation drops her mask.'

_Night Thoughts, ii._

'"Mirabeau dramatized his death" was the happy expression of the Bishop
of Autun (Talleyrand).' Dumont's _Mirabeau_, p. 251. See _ante_,
iii. 154.

[1098] See _ante_, i. 408, 447; and ii. 219, 329.

[1099] Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 291) says of Blair's conversation that
'it was so infantine that many people thought it impossible, at first
sight, that he could be a man of sense or genius. He was as eager about
a new paper to his wife's drawing-room, or his own new wig, as about a
new tragedy or a new epic poem.' He adds, that he was 'capable of the
most profound conversation, when circumstances led to it. He had not the
least desire to shine, but was delighted beyond measure to shew other
people in their best guise to his friends. "Did not I shew you the lion
well to-day?" used he to say after the exhibition of a remarkable
stranger.' He had no wit, and for humour hardly a relish. Robertson's
reputation for wisdom may have been easily won. Dr. A. Carlyle says
(_ib_. p. 287):--'Robertson's translations and paraphrases on other
people's thoughts were so beautiful and so harmless that I never saw
anybody lay claim to their own.' He may have flattered Johnson by
dexterously echoing his sen