, (said Johnson,) you talk of language, as if you had never done
any thing else but study it, instead of governing a nation.' The
General said, 'Questo e un troppo gran complimento;' this is too great
a compliment. Johnson answered, 'I should have thought so, Sir, if I
had not heard you talk.' The General asked him, what he thought of the
spirit of infidelity which was so prevalent. JOHNSON. 'Sir, this gloom
of infidelity, I hope, is only a transient cloud passing through the
hemisphere, which will soon be dissipated, and the sun break forth with
his usual splendour.' 'You think then, (said the General,) that they
will change their principles like their clothes.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, if
they bestow no more thought on principles than on dress, it must be so.'
The General said, that 'a great part of the fashionable infidelity was
owing to a desire of shewing courage. Men who have no opportunities of
shewing it as to things in this life, take death and futurity as objects
on which to display it.' JOHNSON. 'That is mighty foolish affectation.
Fear is one of the passions of human nature, of which it is impossible
to divest it. You remember that the Emperour Charles V, when he read
upon the tomb-stone of a Spanish nobleman, "Here lies one who never knew
fear," wittily said, "Then he never snuffed a candle with his fingers."'

Dr. Johnson went home with me, and drank tea till late in the night. He
said, 'General Paoli had the loftiest port of any man he had ever seen.'
He denied that military men were always the best bred men. 'Perfect good
breeding,' he observed, 'consists in having no particular mark of any
profession, but a general elegance of manners; whereas, in a military
man, you can commonly distinguish the BRAND of a soldier, l'homme
d'epee.'

Dr. Johnson shunned to-night any discussion of the perplexed question
of fate and free will, which I attempted to agitate. 'Sir, (said he,) we
KNOW our will is free, and THERE'S an end on't.'

He honoured me with his company at dinner on the 16th of October, at my
lodgings in Old Bond-street, with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Garrick, Dr.
Goldsmith, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Bickerstaff, and Mr. Thomas Davies. Garrick
played round him with a fond vivacity, taking hold of the breasts of his
coat, and, looking up in his face with a lively archness, complimented
him on the good health which he seemed then to enjoy; while the sage,
shaking his head, beheld him with a gentle complacency. One of th