He continued his importunities in frequent calls, and in one complained much that I would not give him it, as he had that morning got Henry Dundas's, Sir A. Macdonald's, and J. Anstruther's definitions. "Well, then," I said, "Boswell, we must have an end of this. Taste, according to my definition, is the judgment which Dundas, Macdonald, Anstruther, and you manifested when you determined to quit Scotland and to come into the south. You may publish this if you please."' Twiss's Eldon, i. 303. See post, April 10, 1778, note for Lord Eldon.
[562] Johnson (Works, viii. 220) says that 'Swift's delight was in simplicity. That he has in his works no metaphor, as has been said, is not true; but his few metaphors seem to be received rather by necessity than choice. He studied purity.... His style was well suited to his thoughts.... He pays no court to the passions; he excites neither surprise nor admiration; he always understands himself, and his reader always understands him; the peruser of Swift wants little previous knowledge; it will be sufficient that he is acquainted with common words and common things; ... [his style] instructs, but it does not persuade.' Hume describes Swift's style as one which he 'can approve, but surely can never admire. It has no harmony, no eloquence, no ornament, and not much correctness, whatever the English may imagine.' J. H. Burton's Hume, ii. 413.
[563] Johnson's Works, v. 146.
[564] Dr. Warton wrote on Jan. 22, 1766:--'Garrick is entirely off from Johnson, and cannot, he says, forgive him his insinuating that he withheld his old editions, which always were open to him; nor, I suppose, his never mentioning him in all his works.' Wooll's Warton, p. 313. Beauclerk wrote to Lord Charlemont in 1773:--'If you do not come here, I will bring all the club over to Ireland to live with you, and that will drive you here in your own defence, Johnson shall spoil your books, Goldsmith pull your flowers, and Boswell talk to you: stay then if you can.' Charlemont's Life, i. 347. Yet Garrick had lent Johnson some books, for Johnson wrote to him on Oct. 10, 1766:--'I return you thanks for the present of the Dictionary, and will take care to return you [qu. your] other books.' Garrick Corres, i. 245. Steevens, who had edited Johnson's Shakespeare, wrote to Garrick:--'I have taken the liberty to introduce your name, because I have found no reason to say that the possessors of the old quartos were not sufficiently communicative.' Ib p. 501. Mme. D'Arblay describes how 'Garrick, giving a thundering stamp on some mark on the carpet that struck his eye--not with passion or displeasure, but merely as if from singularity--took off Dr. Johnson's voice in a short dialogue with himself that had passed the preceding week. "David! Will you lend me your Petrarca?" "Y-e-s, Sir!" "David! you sigh?" "Sir--you shall have it certainly." "Accordingly," Mr. Garrick continued, "the book, stupendously bound, I sent to him that very evening. But scarcely had he taken it in his hands, when, as Boswell tells me, he poured forth a Greek ejaculation and a couplet or two from Horace, and then in one of those fits of enthusiasm which always seem to require that he should spread his arms aloft, he suddenly pounces my poor Petrarca over his head upon the floor. And then, standing for several minutes lost in abstraction, he forgot probably that he had ever seen it."' Dr. Burney's Memoirs, i. 352. See post, under Aug. 12, 1784.
[565] The gentleman most likely is Boswell (ante, ii. 14, note 1). I suspect that this anecdote belongs to ante, April 14, when 'Johnson was not in the most genial humour.' Boswell, while showing that Mrs. Piozzi misrepresented an incident of that evening 'as a personality,' would be afraid of weakening his case by letting it be seen that Johnson on that occasion was very personal. Since writing this I have noticed that Dr. T. Campbell records in his Diary, p. 53, that on April 1, 1775, he was dining at Mr. Thrale's with Boswell, when many of Johnson's 'bon-mots were retailed. Boswell arguing in favour of a cheerful glass, adduced the maxim in vino veritas. "Well," says Johnson, "and what then, unless a man has lived a lie." Boswell then urged that it made a man forget all his cares. "That to be sure," says Johnson, "might be of use, if a man sat by such a person as you."' Campbell's account confirms what Boswell asserts (ante, ii. 188) that Mrs. Piozzi had the anecdote from him.
[566] No. 150. The quotation is from Francis Osborne's Advice to a Son. Swift, in The Tatler, No. 230, ranks Osborne with some other authors, who 'being men of the Court, and affecting the phrases then in fashion, are often either not to be understood, or appear perfectly ridiculous.'
[567] See post, May 13, 1778, and June 30, 1784.
[568] Mrs. Piozzi, to whom I told this anecdote, has related it, as if the gentleman had given 'the natural history of the mouse.' Anec. p. 191. BOSWELL. The gentleman was very likely Dr. Vansittart, who is mentioned just before. (See ante, i.