y, but gave him a key for a harp, which was
finely ornamented with gold and silver, and with a precious stone, and
was worth eighty or a hundred guineas. He did not know the value of it;
and when he came to know it, he would fain have had it back; but O'Kane
took care that he should not. JOHNSON. 'They exaggerate the value; every
body is so desirous that he should be fleeced. I am very willing it
should be worth eighty or a hundred guineas; but I do not believe it.'
BOSWELL. 'I do not think O'Kane was obliged to give it back.' JOHNSON.
'No, Sir. If a man with his eyes open, and without any means used to
deceive him, gives me a thing, I am not to let him have it again when he
grows wiser. I like to see how avarice defeats itself: how, when
avoiding to part with money, the miser gives something more valuable.'
Col said, the gentleman's relations were angry at his giving away the
harp-key, for it had been long in the family. JOHNSON. 'Sir, he values a
new guinea more than an old friend.'

Col also told us, that the same person having come up with a serjeant
and twenty men, working on the high road, he entered into discourse with
the serjeant, and then gave him sixpence for the men to drink. The
serjeant asked, 'Who is this fellow?'. Upon being informed, he said, 'If
I had known who he was, I should have thrown it in his face.' JOHNSON.
'There is much want of sense in all this. He had no business to speak
with the serjeant. He might have been in haste, and trotted on. He has
not learnt to be a miser: I believe we must take him apprentice.'
BOSWELL. 'He would grudge giving half a guinea to be taught.' JOHNSON.
'Nay, Sir, you must teach him _gratis_. You must give him an opportunity
to practice your precepts.'

Let me now go back, and glean _Johnsoniana_. The Saturday before we
sailed from Slate, I sat awhile in the afternoon, with Dr. Johnson in
his room, in a quiet serious frame. I observed, that hardly any man was
accurately prepared for dying; but almost every one left something
undone, something in confusion; that my father, indeed, told me he knew
one man, (Carlisle of Limekilns,) after whose death all his papers were
found in exact order; and nothing was omitted in his will. JOHNSON.
'Sir, I had an uncle who died so; but such attention requires great
leisure, and great firmness of mind. If one was to think constantly of
death, the business of life would stand still. I am no friend to making
religion appear too hard. M