��superiority, which animated his looks, and raised his voice in con versation r , cast likewise an impenetrable veil over him when he said nothing. His talk therefore had commonly the complexion of arrogance, his silence 2 of superciliousness. He was however seldom inclined to be silent when any moral or literary question was started : and it was on such occasions, that, like the sage in Rasselas, he spoke, and attention watched his lips ; he reasoned, and conviction closed his periods 3 : if poetry was talked of, his quotations were the readiest ; and had he not been eminent for more solid and brilliant qualities, mankind would have united to extol his extraordinary memory 4 . His manner of repeating deserves to be described, though at the same time it defeats all power of description ; but whoever once heard him repeat an ode of Horace, would be long before they could endure to hear it repeated by another 5 . ought not undoubtedly to be omitted in his own, whence par tiality and prejudice were totally excluded, and truth alone presided in his tongue : a steadiness of conduct the more to be commended, as no man had stronger likings or aversions. His
1 Miss Hawkins (Memoirs, i. 79), dotes] descriptive of Johnson's con- says that * Mrs. Piozzi [Mrs. Thrale, versation Mrs. Piozzi has written : she should have said], when living " We used to say to one another much with Johnson, had his tones, familiarly at Streatham Park, Come, which sat very ill on her little French let us go into the library, and make person.' Johnson speak Ramblers.'" Hay-
3 * Having taken the liberty, this ward's Piozzi, i. 297.
evening, to remark to Dr. Johnson, 4 Life, i. 39; Hi. 318, n. I.
that he very often sat quite silent for 5 ' His recitation was grand and
a long time, even when in company affecting, and, as Sir Joshua Reynolds
with only a single friend, which I has observed to me, had no more
myself had sometimes sadly ex- tone than it should have.' Ib. v. 115.
perienced, he smiled and said, "It is ' His manner of reciting verses was
true, Sir. Tom Tyers described me wonderfully impressive.' Murphy's
the best. He once said to me, ' Sir, Johnson, p. 145. See post in Anec-
you are like a ghost : you never speak dotes of W. Cooke.
till you are spoken to.' " ' Life, v. 73. 6 * The person with whom we are
See also ib. iii. 307, and ante, p. 290. acquainted. In this sense the plural
3 Rasselas, chap. xvii. This pas- is in some authours acquaintance,
sage is quoted in the Life, iv. 346. in others acquaintances' Johnson's
' Opposite a passage [in the Ante- Dictionary.
veracity
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