He insisted on people praying
with him; and I'd as lief pray with Kit Smart as any one else. Another
charge was, that he did not love clean linen; and I have no passion for
it.'--Johnson continued. 'Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual
labour; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more
people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little
trouble to acquire it.'
Talking of Garrick, he said, 'He is the first man in the world for
sprightly conversation.'
When I rose a second time he again pressed me to stay, which I did.
He told me, that he generally went abroad at four in the afternoon, and
seldom came home till two in the morning. I took the liberty to ask if
he did not think it wrong to live thus, and not make more use of
his great talents. He owned it was a bad habit. On reviewing, at the
distance of many years, my journal of this period, I wonder how, at my
first visit, I ventured to talk to him so freely, and that he bore it
with so much indulgence.
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