I would advise you to command: when you have
drunk out that glass, don't drink another.' Here was exemplified what
Goldsmith said of him, with the aid of a very witty image from one of
Cibber's Comedies: 'There is no arguing with Johnson; for if his pistol
misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.' Another was
this: when a gentleman of eminence in the literary world was violently
censured for attacking people by anonymous paragraphs in news-papers;
he, from the spirit of contradiction as I thought, took up his defence,
and said, 'Come, come, this is not so terrible a crime; he means only
to vex them a little. I do not say that I should do it; but there is a
great difference between him and me; what is fit for Hephaestion is not
fit for Alexander.' Another, when I told him that a young and handsome
Countess had said to me, 'I should think that to be praised by Dr.
Johnson would make one a fool all one's life;' and that I answered,
'Madam, I shall make him a fool to-day, by repeating this to him,' he
said, 'I am too old to be made a fool; but if you say I am made a fool,
I shall not deny it. I am much pleased with a compliment, especially
from a pretty woman.'

* Boswell himself, likely enough.--HILL.

On the evening of Saturday, May 15, he was in fine spirits, at our
Essex-Head Club. He told us, 'I dined yesterday at Mrs. Garrick's, with
Mrs. Carter, Miss Hannah More, and Miss Fanny Burney. Three such women
are not to be found: I know not where I could find a fourth, except Mrs.
Lennox, who is superiour to them all.' BOSWELL. 'What! had you them all
to yourself, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'I had them all as much as they were had;
but it might have been better had there been more company there.'
BOSWELL. 'Might not Mrs. Montagu have been a fourth?' JOHNSON. 'Sir,
Mrs. Montagu does not make a trade of her wit; but Mrs. Montagu is a
very extraordinary woman; she has a constant stream of conversation, and
it is always impregnated; it has always meaning.' BOSWELL. 'Mr. Burke
has a constant stream of conversation.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; if a man
were to go by chance at the same time with Burke under a shed, to shun a
shower, he would say--"this is an extraordinary man." If Burke should go
into a stable to see his horse drest, the ostler would say--"we have had
an extraordinary man here."' BOSWELL. 'Foote was a man who never failed
in conversation. If he had gone into a stable--' JOHNSON. 'Sir, if he
had gone into a sta