oney to persons in distress
was extraordinary. Yet there lurked about him a propensity to paultry
saving. One day I owned to him that 'I was occasionally troubled with
a fit of NARROWNESS.' 'Why, Sir, (said he,) so am I. BUT I DO NOT TELL
IT.' He has now and then borrowed a shilling of me; and when I asked for
it again, seemed to be rather out of humour. A droll little circumstance
once occurred: as if he meant to reprimand my minute exactness as a
creditor, he thus addressed me;--'Boswell, LEND me sixpence--NOT TO BE
REPAID.'

This great man's attention to small things was very remarkable. As an
instance of it, he one day said to me, 'Sir, when you get silver in
change for a guinea, look carefully at it; you may find some curious
piece of coin.'

Though a stern TRUE-BORN ENGLISHMAN, and fully prejudiced against all
other nations, he had discernment enough to see, and candour enough to
censure, the cold reserve too common among Englishmen towards strangers:
'Sir, (said he,) two men of any other nation who are shewn into a room
together, at a house where they are both visitors, will immediately
find some conversation. But two Englishmen will probably go each to a
different window, and remain in obstinate silence. Sir, we as yet do not
enough understand the common rights of humanity.'

Johnson, for sport perhaps, or from the spirit of contradiction, eagerly
maintained that Derrick had merit as a writer. Mr. Morgann* argued with
him directly, in vain. At length he had recourse to this device. 'Pray,
Sir, (said he,) whether do you reckon Derrick or Smart the best poet?'
Johnson at once felt himself roused; and answered, 'Sir, there is no
settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea.'

* Author of the Essay on the Character of Falstaff.--ED.

He was pleased to say to me one morning when we were left alone in
his study, 'Boswell, I think I am easier with you than with almost any
body.'

He would not allow Mr. David Hume any credit for his political
principles, though similar to his own; saying of him, 'Sir, he was a
Tory by chance.'

His acute observation of human life made him remark, 'Sir, there is
nothing by which a man exasperates most people more, than by displaying
a superiour ability or brilliancy in conversation. They seem pleased at
the time; but their envy makes them curse him in their hearts.'

Johnson's love of little children, which he discovered upon all
occasions, calling them 'pre