done with
patronage[173]. In the infancy of learning, we find some great man
praised for it. This diffused it among others. When it becomes general,
an authour leaves the great, and applies to the multitude.' BOSWELL. 'It
is a shame that authours are not now better patronized.' JOHNSON. 'No,
Sir. If learning cannot support a man, if he must sit with his hands
across till somebody feeds him, it is as to him a bad thing, and it is
better as it is. With patronage, what flattery! what falsehood! While a
man is in equilibrio, he throws truth among the multitude, and lets them
take it as they please: in patronage, he must say what pleases his
patron, and it is an equal chance whether that be truth or falsehood.'
WATSON. 'But is not the case now, that, instead of flattering one
person, we flatter the age?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. The world always lets a
man tell what he thinks, his own way. I wonder, however, that so many
people have written, who might have let it alone. That people should
endeavour to excel in conversation, I do not wonder; because in
conversation praise is instantly reverberated[174].'

We talked of change of manners. Dr. Johnson observed, that our drinking
less than our ancestors was owing to the change from ale to wine.' I
remember, (said he,) when all the _decent_ people in Lichfield got drunk
every night, and were not the worse thought of[175]. Ale was cheap, so
you pressed strongly. When a man must bring a bottle of wine, he is not
in such haste. Smoking has gone out. To be sure, it is a shocking thing,
blowing smoke out of our mouths into other people's mouths, eyes, and
noses, and having the same thing done to us. Yet I cannot account, why a
thing which requires so little exertion, and yet preserves the mind from
total vacuity, should have gone out[176]. Every man has something by
which he calms himself: beating with his feet, or so[177]. I remember
when people in England changed a shirt only once a week[178]: a Pandour,
when he gets a shirt, greases it to make it last. Formerly, good
tradesmen had no fire but in the kitchen; never in the parlour, except
on Sunday. My father, who was a magistrate of Lichfield, lived thus.
They never began to have a fire in the parlour, but on leaving off
business, or some great revolution of their life.' Dr. Watson said, the
hall was as a kitchen, in old squires' houses. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. The
hall was for great occasions, and never was used for domestick
refection[179].'