He maintained that a boy at school was the happiest of human beings. I
supported a different opinion, from which I have never yet varied, that
a man is happier; and I enlarged upon the anxiety and sufferings which
are endured at school. JOHNSON. 'Ah! Sir, a boy's being flogged is not
so severe as a man's having the hiss of the world against him.'
On Tuesday, July 26, I found Mr. Johnson alone. It was a very wet day,
and I again complained of the disagreeable effects of such weather.
JOHNSON. 'Sir, this is all imagination, which physicians encourage; for
man lives in air, as a fish lives in water; so that if the atmosphere
press heavy from above, there is an equal resistance from below. To be
sure, bad weather is hard upon people who are obliged to be abroad; and
men cannot labour so well in the open air in bad weather, as in good:
but, Sir, a smith or a taylor, whose work is within doors, will surely
do as much in rainy weather, as in fair. Some very delicate frames,
indeed, may be affected by wet weather; but not common constitutions.
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