d
them boldly print without a name; if they have written in order to get
money, I tell them to go to the booksellers, and make the best bargain
they can.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, if a bookseller should bring you
a manuscript to look at?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I would desire the
bookseller to take it away.'

I mentioned a friend of mine who had resided long in Spain, and was
unwilling to return to Britain. JOHNSON. 'Sir, he is attached to some
woman.' BOSWELL. 'I rather believe, Sir, it is the fine climate which
keeps him there.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, how can you talk so? What is
CLIMATE to happiness? Place me in the heart of Asia, should I not be
exiled? What proportion does climate bear to the complex system of human
life? You may advise me to go to live at Bologna to eat sausages.
The sausages there are the best in the world; they lose much by being
carried.'

On Saturday, May 9, Mr. Dempster and I had agreed to dine by ourselves
at the British Coffee-house. Johnson, on whom I happened to call in
the morning, said he would join us, which he did, and we spent a very
agreeable day, though I recollect but little of what passed.

He said, 'Walpole was a minister given by the King to the people: Pitt
was a minister given by the people to the King,--as an adjunct.'

'The misfortune of Goldsmith in conversation is this: he goes on without
knowing how he is to get off. His genius is great, but his knowledge is
small. As they say of a generous man, it is a pity he is not rich, we
may say of Goldsmith, it is a pity he is not knowing. He would not keep
his knowledge to himself.'

1773: AETAT. 64.]--In 1773 his only publication was an edition of his
folio Dictionary, with additions and corrections; nor did he, so far
as is known, furnish any productions of his fertile pen to any of his
numerous friends or dependants, except the Preface to his old amanuensis
Macbean's Dictionary of Ancient Geography.

'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

'DEAR SIR,-- . . . A new edition of my great Dictionary is printed, from
a copy which I was persuaded to revise; but having made no preparation,
I was able to do very little. Some superfluities I have expunged,
and some faults I have corrected, and here and there have scattered a
remark; but the main fabrick of the work remains as it was. I had looked
very little into it since I wrote it, and, I think, I found it full as
often better, as worse, than I expected.

'Baretti and Davies have had a furious quar