who commended the following line:

Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free.

"To be fure (faid Dr. Johnson),

Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat."

This readiness of finding a parallel, or making one, was shewn by him perpetually in the course of conversation.When the French verses of a certain pantomime were quoted thus,

Je Suis Caffandre defcendüe des cieux,
Pour vous faire entendre, mesdames et messieurs,
Que je fuis Caffandre descendüe des cieux ;

he cried out gaily and fuddenly, almost in a moment,

I am Caffandra come down from the sky,
To tell each by-ftander what none can deny,
That I am Caffandra come down from the sky.

The pretty Italian verses too, at the end of Baretti's book, called "Easy Phraseology," he did all' improviso, in the fame

Viva! viva la padrona!
Tutta bella, e tutta buona,
La padrona è un angiolella
Tutta buona e tutta bella ;
Tutta bella e tutta buona;
Viva! viva la padrona !

Long may live my lovely Hetty!
Always young and always pretty,
Always pretty, always young,
Live my lovely Hetty long!
Always young and always pretty;
Long may live my lovely Hetty!

The famous distich too, of an Italian improvisatore, who, when the duke of Modena ran away from the comet in the year 1742 or 1743,

Se al venir veftro i principi fen vanno
Deh venga ogni di durate un anno ;

" which (faid he) would do just as well in our language thus :

If at your coming princes disappear,

Comets! come every day-and stay a year."

When some one in company commended the verses of M. de Benserade à son Lit

Theatre des ris et des pleurs,
Lit! ou je nais, et ou je meurs,
Tu nous fais voir comment voisins,
Sont nos plaisirs, et nos chagrins.

To which he replied without hesitating,

" In bed we laugh, in bed we cry,
And born in bed, in bed we die;
The near approach a bed may shew
Of human bliss to human woe."

The inscription on the collar of Sir Joseph Banks's goat which had been on two of his adventurous expeditions with him, and was then, by the humanity of her amiable master, turned out to graze in Kent, as a recompence for her utility and faithful service, was given me by Johnson in the year 1777 I think, and I have never yet seen it printed.

Perpetui, ambita, bis terrâ, premia lactis,
Hæc habet altrici Capra fecunda Jovis,

The epigram written at Lord Anfon's house many years ago, "where (says Mr. Johnfon) I was well received and kindly treated, and with the true gratitude of a wit ridiculed the master of the house before I had left it an hour," has been falsely printed in many papers fince his death, I wrote it down from his own lips one evening in August 1772, not neglecting the little preface, accusing himself of making so graceless a return for the civilities shewn him. He had, among other elegancies about the park and gardens, been made to observe a temple to the winds, when this thought naturally presented itself to a wit.

Gratum animum laudo; Qui debuit omnia ventis, Quam bene ventorum, furgere templa jubet!

A translation of Dryden's epigram too, I used to fancy I had to myfelf,

Quos laudet vates, Graius, Romanus, et Anglus,
Tres tria temporibus fecla dedere fuis:
Sublime ingenium Graius, Romanus habebat
Carmen grande fonans, Anglus utrumque tulit.
Nil majus natura capit; clarare priores
Quæ potuere duos, tertius unus habet :

from the famous lines written under Milton's picture :

Three poets in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn :
The first in loftiness of thought furpaft,
The next in majesty; in both the last.
The force of Nature could no further go,
To make a third the join'd the former two.

One evening in the oratorio season of the year 1771, Mr. Johnson went with me to Covent-Garden theatre; and though he was for the most part an exceedingly bad playhouse companion, as his person drew people's eyes upon the box, and the loudness of his voice made it difficult for me to hear any body but himself; he fat surprisingly quiet, and I flattered myself that he was listening