cost but a penny.

On Saturday, March 27, I introduced to him Sir Alexander Macdonald,
with whom he had expressed a wish to be acquainted. He received him very
courteously.

SIR A. 'I think, Sir, almost all great lawyers, such at least as have
written upon law, have known only law, and nothing else.' JOHNSON. 'Why
no, Sir; Judge Hale was a great lawyer, and wrote upon law; and yet
he knew a great many other things; and has written upon other things.
Selden too.' SIR A. 'Very true, Sir; and Lord Bacon. But was not Lord
Coke a mere lawyer?' JOHNSON. 'Why, I am afraid he was; but he would
have taken it very ill if you had told him so. He would have prosecuted
you for scandal.' BOSWELL. 'Lord Mansfield is not a mere lawyer.
JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. I never was in Lord Mansfield's company; but Lord
Mansfield was distinguished at the University. Lord Mansfield, when he
first came to town, "drank champagne with the wits," as Prior says.
He was the friend of Pope.' SIR A. 'Barristers, I believe, are not so
abusive now as they were formerly. I fancy they had less law long ago,
and so were obliged to take to abuse, to fill up the time. Now they have
such a number of precedents, they have no occasion for abuse.' JOHNSON.
'Nay, Sir, they had more law long ago than they have now. As to
precedents, to be sure they will increase in course of time; but the
more precedents there are, the less occasion is there for law; that is
to say, the less occasion is there for investigating principles.' SIR A.
'I have been correcting several Scotch accents in my friend Boswell.
I doubt, Sir, if any Scotchman ever attains to a perfect English
pronunciation.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, few of them do, because they do not
persevere after acquiring a certain degree of it. But, Sir, there can
be no doubt that they may attain to a perfect English pronunciation, if
they will. We find how near they come to it; and certainly, a man
who conquers nineteen parts of the Scottish accent, may conquer the
twentieth. But, Sir, when a man has got the better of nine tenths he
grows weary, he relaxes his diligence, he finds he has corrected his
accent so far as not to be disagreeable, and he no longer desires his
friends to tell him when he is wrong; nor does he choose to be told.
Sir, when people watch me narrowly, and I do not watch myself, they will
find me out to be of a particular county. In the same manner, Dunning
may be found out to be a Devonshire man. So most Scotchmen