ndred pounds, you may have
eighty-four square yards, which is very well. But when will you get the
value of two hundred pounds of walls, in fruit, in your climate? No,
Sir, such contention with Nature is not worth while. I would plant an
orchard, and have plenty of such fruit as ripen well in your country. My
friend, Dr. Madden, of Ireland, said, that "in an orchard there should
be enough to eat, enough to lay up, enough to be stolen, and enough to
rot upon the ground." Cherries are an early fruit, you may have them;
and you may have the early apples and pears.' BOSWELL. 'We cannot have
nonpareils.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, you can no more have nonpareils than you
can have grapes.' BOSWELL. 'We have them, Sir; but they are very bad.'
JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, never try to have a thing merely to shew that you
CANNOT have it. From ground that would let for forty shillings you may
have a large orchard; and you see it costs you only forty shillings.
Nay, you may graze the ground when the trees are grown up; you cannot
while they are young.' BOSWELL. 'Is not a good garden a very common
thing in England, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'Not so common, Sir, as you imagine.
In Lincolnshire there is hardly an orchard; in Staffordshire very little
fruit.' BOSWELL. 'Has Langton no orchard?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir.' BOSWELL.
'How so, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, from the general negligence of
the county. He has it not, because nobody else has it.' BOSWELL. 'A
hot-house is a certain thing; I may have that.' JOHNSON. 'A hot-house is
pretty certain; but you must first build it, then you must keep fires in
it, and you must have a gardener to take care of it.' BOSWELL. 'But if I
have a gardener at any rate ?--' JOHNSON. 'Why, yes.' BOSWELL. 'I'd have
it near my house; there is no need to have it in the orchard.' JOHNSON.
'Yes, I'd have it near my house. I would plant a great many currants;
the fruit is good, and they make a pretty sweetmeat.'

I record this minute detail, which some may think trifling, in order to
shew clearly how this great man, whose mind could grasp such large and
extensive subjects, as he has shewn in his literary labours, was yet
well-informed in the common affairs of life, and loved to illustrate
them.

Talking of the origin of language; JOHNSON. 'It must have come by
inspiration. A thousand, nay, a million of children could not invent
a language. While the organs are pliable, there is not understanding
enough to form a language; by the time that there