aid, 'We must have Mr. Dilly's leave. We
cannot go from your house, Sir, without your permission.' We all went,
and were well satisfied with our visit. I however remember nothing
particular, except a nice distinction which Dr. Johnson made with
respect to the power of memory, maintaining that forgetfulness was a
man's own fault[409]. 'To remember and to recollect (said he) are
different things. A man has not the power to recollect what is not in
his mind; but when a thing is in his mind he may remember it.' The
remark was occasioned by my leaning back on a chair, which a little
before I had perceived to be broken, and pleading forgetfulness as an
excuse. 'Sir, (said he,) its being broken was certainly in your
mind[410].'

When I observed that a housebreaker was in general very timorous;
JOHNSON. 'No wonder, Sir; he is afraid of being shot getting _into_ a
house, or hanged when he has got _out_ of it.'

He told us, that he had in one day written six sheets of a translation
from the French[411], adding, 'I should be glad to see it now. I wish
that I had copies of all the pamphlets written against me, as it is said
Pope had. Had I known that I should make so much noise in the world, I
should have been at pains to collect them. I believe there is hardly a
day in which there is not something about me in the newspapers.'

On Monday, June 4, we all went to Luton-Hoe, to see Lord Bute's
magnificent seat[412], for which I had obtained a ticket. As we entered
the park, I talked in a high style of my old friendship with Lord
Mountstuart[413], and said, 'I shall probably be much at this place.'
The Sage, aware of human vicissitudes, gently checked me: 'Don't you be
too sure of that.' He made two or three peculiar observations; as when
shewn the botanical garden, 'Is not every garden a botanical garden?'
When told that there was a shrubbery to the extent of several miles:
'That is making a very foolish use of the ground; a little of it is very
well.' When it was proposed that we should walk on the pleasure-ground;
'Don't let us fatigue ourselves. Why should we walk there? Here's a fine
tree, let's get to the top of it.' But upon the whole, he was very much
pleased. He said, 'This is one of the places I do not regret having come
to see. It is a very stately place, indeed; in the house magnificence is
not sacrificed to convenience, nor convenience to magnificence. The
library is very splendid: the dignity of the rooms is very great;