ner was publick.'

Sept. 18. 'I have three letters this day, all about the balloon, I could
have been content with one. Do not write about the balloon, whatever
else you may think proper to say.'

It may be observed, that his writing in every way, whether for the
publick, or privately to his friends, was by fits and starts; for we see
frequently, that many letters are written on the same day. When he had
once overcome his aversion to begin, he was, I suppose, desirous to go
on, in order to relieve his mind from the uneasy reflection of delaying
what he ought to do.

We now behold Johnson for the last time, in his native city, for which
he ever retained a warm affection, and which, by a sudden apostrophe,
under the word Lich, he introduces with reverence, into his immortal
Work, THE ENGLISH DICTIONARY:--Salve, magna parens! While here, he felt
a revival of all the tenderness of filial affection, an instance of
which appeared in his ordering the grave-stone and inscription over
Elizabeth Blaney* to be substantially and carefully renewed.

* His mother.--ED.

To Mr. Henry White, a young clergyman, with whom he now formed an
intimacy, so as to talk to him with great freedom, he mentioned that
he could not in general accuse himself of having been an undutiful son.
'Once, indeed, (said he,) I was disobedient; I refused to attend my
father to Uttoxeter-market. Pride was the source of that refusal, and
the remembrance of it was painful. A few years ago, I desired to atone
for this fault; I went to Uttoxeter in very bad weather, and stood for a
considerable time bareheaded in the rain, on the spot where my father's
stall used to stand. In contrition I stood, and I hope the penance was
expiatory.'

'I told him (says Miss Seward) in one of my latest visits to him, of a
wonderful learned pig, which I had seen at Nottingham; and which did all
that we have observed exhibited by dogs and horses. The subject amused
him. "Then, (said he,) the pigs are a race unjustly calumniated. PIG
has, it seems, not been wanting to MAN, but MAN to PIG. We do not allow
TIME for his education, we kill him at a year old." Mr. Henry White, who
was present, observed that if this instance had happened in or before
Pope's time, he would not have been justified in instancing the swine as
the lowest degree of groveling instinct. Dr. Johnson seemed pleased with
the observation, while the person who made it proceeded to remark, that
great torture mu