en him and his father, in which his father was to blame; because it
arose from the son's not allowing his wife to keep company with his
father's mistress. The old lord shewed his resentment in his
will[656],--leaving his library from his son, and assigning, as his
reason, that he could not make use of it.'

I mentioned the affectation of Orrery, in ending all his letters on the
_Life of Swift_ in studied varieties of phrase[657], and never in the
common mode of _'I am'_, &c., an observation which I remember to have
been made several years ago by old Mr. Sheridan. This species of
affectation in writing, as a foreign lady of distinguished talents once
remarked to me, is almost peculiar to the English. I took up a volume of
Dryden, containing the CONQUEST of GRANADA, and several other plays, of
which all the dedications had such studied conclusions. Dr. Johnson
said, such conclusions were more elegant, and in addressing persons of
high rank, (as when Dryden dedicated to the Duke of York[658],) they
were likewise more respectful. I agreed that _there_ it was much better:
it was making his escape from the Royal presence with a genteel sudden
timidity, in place of having the resolution to stand still, and make a
formal bow.

Lord Orrery's unkind treatment of his son in his will, led us to talk of
the dispositions a man should have when dying. I said, I did not see why
a man should act differently with respect to those of whom he thought
ill when in health, merely because he was dying. JOHNSON. 'I should not
scruple to speak against a party, when dying; but should not do it
against an individual. It is told of Sixtus Quintus, that on his
death-bed, in the intervals of his last pangs, he signed
death-warrants[659].' Mr. M'Queen said, he should not do so; he would
have more tenderness of heart. JOHNSON. 'I believe I should not either;
but Mr. M'Queen and I are cowards[660]. It would not be from tenderness
of heart; for the heart is as tender when a man is in health as when he
is sick, though his resolution may be stronger[661]. Sixtus Quintus was
a sovereign as well as a priest; and, if the criminals deserved death,
he was doing his duty to the last. You would not think a judge died ill,
who should be carried off by an apoplectick fit while pronouncing
sentence of death. Consider a class of men whose business it is to
distribute death:--soldiers, who die scattering bullets. Nobody thinks
they die ill on that account.'

Talkin