oole having answered that he believed he was too mathematical, and
used to draw squares and triangles on his shop-board, so that he did not
excel in the cut of a coat;--'I am sorry for it (said Johnson,) for I
would have every man to be master of his own business.'

In pleasant reference to himself and Mr. Hoole, as brother authours, he
often said, 'Let you and I, Sir, go together, and eat a beef-steak in
Grub-street.'

He said to Sir William Scott, 'The age is running mad after innovation;
all the business of the world is to be done in a new way; men are to
be hanged in a new way; Tyburn itself is not safe from the fury of
innovation.' It having been argued that this was an improvement,--'No,
Sir, (said he, eagerly,) it is NOT an improvement: they object that the
old method drew together a number of spectators. Sir, executions are
intended to draw spectators. If they do not draw spectators they don't
answer their purpose. The old method was most satisfactory to all
parties; the publick was gratified by a procession; the criminal was
supported by it. Why is all this to be swept away?' I perfectly agree
with Dr. Johnson upon this head, and am persuaded that executions now,
the solemn procession being discontinued, have not nearly the effect
which they formerly had. Magistrates both in London, and elsewhere,
have, I am afraid, in this had too much regard to their own case.

Johnson's attention to precision and clearness in expression was very
remarkable. He disapproved of parentheses; and I believe in all his
voluminous writings, not half a dozen of them will be found. He never
used the phrases the former and the latter, having observed, that they
often occasioned obscurity; he therefore contrived to construct his
sentences so as not to have occasion for them, and would even rather
repeat the same words, in order to avoid them. Nothing is more common
than to mistake surnames when we hear them carelessly uttered for the
first time. To prevent this, he used not only to pronounce them slowly
and distinctly, but to take the trouble of spelling them; a practice
which I have often followed; and which I wish were general.

Such was the heat and irritability of his blood, that not only did he
pare his nails to the quick; but scraped the joints of his fingers with
a pen-knife, till they seemed quite red and raw.

The heterogeneous composition of human nature was remarkably exemplified
in Johnson. His liberality in giving his m