iked to speak, and the only passage I
ever heard him applaud as particularly tender in any common book was Jane
Shore's exclamation in the last act--

"Forgive me! _but_ forgive me!"

It was not, however, from the want of a susceptible heart that he hated
to cite tender expressions, for he was more strongly and more violently
affected by the force of words representing ideas capable of affecting
him at all than any other man in the world, I believe: and when he would
try to repeat the celebrated Prosa Ecclesiastica pro Mortuis, as it is
called, beginning "Dies irae, Dies illa," he could never pass the stanza
ending thus, "Tantus labor non sit cassus," without bursting into a flood
of tears; which sensibility I used to quote against him when he would
inveigh against devotional poetry, and protest that all religious verses
were cold and feeble, and unworthy the subject, which ought to be treated
with higher reverence, he said, than either poets or painters could
presume to excite or bestow. Nor can anything be a stronger proof of Dr.
Johnson's piety than such an expression; for his idea of poetry was
magnificent indeed, and very fully was he persuaded of its superiority
over every other talent bestowed by heaven on man. His chapter upon that
particular subject in his "Rasselas" is really written from the fulness
of his heart, and quite in his best manner, I think. I am not so sure
that this is the proper place to mention his writing that surprising
little volume in a week or ten days' time, in order to obtain money for
his journey to Lichfield when his mother lay upon her last sick-bed.

Promptitude of thought, indeed, and quickness of expression, were among
the peculiar felicities of Johnson; his notions rose up like the dragon's
teeth sowed by Cadmus all ready clothed, and in bright armour too, fit
for immediate battle. He was therefore (as somebody is said to have
expressed it) a tremendous converser, and few people ventured to try
their skill against an antagonist with whom contention was so hopeless.
One gentleman, however, who dined at a nobleman's house in his company,
and that of Mr. Thrale, to whom I was obliged for the anecdote, was
willing to enter the lists in defence of King William's character, and
having opposed and contradicted Johnson two or three times petulantly
enough, the master of the house began to feel uneasy, and expect
disagreeable consequences; to avoid which he said, loud enough for the