m.
He aimed at what has been called, by Swift, the "lesser morals," and by
Cicero, "minores virtutes." His endeavour, though new and late, gave
pleasure to all his acquaintance. Men were glad to see that he was
willing to be communicative on equal terms and reciprocal complacence.
The time was then expected, when he was to cease being what George
Garrick, brother to the celebrated actor, called him, the first time he
heard him converse, "a tremendous companion." He certainly wished to be
polite, and even thought himself so; but his civility still retained
something uncouth and harsh. His manners took a milder tone, but the
endeavour was too palpably seen. He laboured even in trifles. He was a
giant gaining a purchase to lift a feather.

It is observed, by the younger Pliny, that "in the confines of virtue
and great qualities, there are, generally, vices of an opposite nature."
In Dr. Johnson not one ingredient can take the name of vice. From his
attainments in literature, grew the pride of knowledge; and from his
powers of reasoning, the love of disputation and the vain glory of
superior vigour.--His piety, in some instances, bordered on
superstition. He was willing to believe in preternatural agency, and
thought it not more strange, that there should be evil spirits than evil
men. Even the question about second sight held him in suspense. "Second
sight," Mr. Pennant tells us, "is a power of seeing images impressed on
the organs of sight, by the power of fancy; or on the fancy, by the
disordered spirits operating on the mind. It is the faculty of seeing
spectres or visions, which represent an event actually passing at a
distance, or likely to happen at a future day. In 1771, a gentleman, the
last who was supposed to be possessed of this faculty, had a boat at
sea, in a tempestuous night, and, being anxious for his freight,
suddenly started up, and said his men would be drowned, for he had seen
them pass before him with wet garments and dropping locks. The event
corresponded with his disordered fancy. And thus," continues Mr.
Pennant, "a distempered imagination, clouded with anxiety, may make an
impression on the spirits; as persons, restless, and troubled with
indignation, see various forms and figures, while they lie awake in
bed." This is what Dr. Johnson was not willing to reject. He wished for
some positive proof of communications with another world. His
benevolence embraced the whole race of man, and yet was tinctu