'Yes, Sir.
Property has been as well settled.'

Johnson, however, had a noble ambition floating in his mind, and had,
undoubtedly, often speculated on the possibility of his supereminent
powers being rewarded in this great and liberal country by the highest
honours of the state. Sir William Scott informs me, that upon the death
of the late Lord Lichfield, who was Chancellor of the University of
Oxford, he said to Johnson, 'What a pity it is, Sir, that you did not
follow the profession of the law. You might have been Lord Chancellor of
Great Britain, and attained to the dignity of the peerage; and now that
the title of Lichfleld, your native city, is extinct, you might have had
it.' Johnson, upon this, seemed much agitated; and, in an angry tone,
exclaimed, 'Why will you vex me by suggesting this, when it is too
late?'

But he did not repine at the prosperity of others. The late Dr. Thomas
Leland, told Mr. Courtenay, that when Mr. Edmund Burke shewed Johnson
his fine house and lands near Beaconsfield, Johnson coolly said, 'Non
equidem invideo; miror magis.'*

* I am not entirely without suspicion that Johnson may have
felt a little momentary envy; for no man loved the good
things of this life better than he did and he could not but
be conscious that he deserved a much larger share of them,
than he ever had.--BOSWELL.

Yet no man had a higher notion of the dignity of literature than
Johnson, or was more determined in maintaining the respect which he
justly considered as due to it. Of this, besides the general tenor
of his conduct in society, some characteristical instances may be
mentioned.

He told Sir Joshua Reynolds, that once when he dined in a numerous
company of booksellers, where the room being small, the head of the
table, at which he sat, was almost close to the fire, he persevered in
suffering a great deal of inconvenience from the heat, rather than quit
his place, and let one of them sit above him.

Goldsmith, in his diverting simplicity, complained one day, in a mixed
company, of Lord Camden. 'I met him (said he,) at Lord Clare's house
in the country, and he took no more notice of me than if I had been an
ordinary man. The company having laughed heartily, Johnson stood forth
in defence of his friend. 'Nay, Gentlemen, (said he,) Dr. Goldsmith
is in the right. A nobleman ought to have made up to such a man as
Goldsmith; and I think it is much against Lord Camden that he neglected