But I am AFRAID, (chuckling and laughing,) Monboddo
does NOT know that he is talking nonsense.' BOSWELL. 'Is it wrong then,
Sir, to affect singularity, in order to make people stare?' JOHNSON.
'Yes, if you do it by propagating errour: and, indeed, it is wrong in
any way. There is in human nature a general inclination to make people
stare; and every wise man has himself to cure of it, and does cure
himself. If you wish to make people stare by doing better than others,
why, make them stare till they stare their eyes out. But consider how
easy it is to make people stare by being absurd. I may do it by going
into a drawing-room without my shoes. You remember the gentleman in The
Spectator, who had a commission of lunacy taken out against him for his
extreme singularity, such as never wearing a wig, but a night-cap.
Now, Sir, abstractedly, the night-cap was best; but, relatively, the
advantage was overbalanced by his making the boys run after him.'
Talking of a London life, he said, 'The happiness of London is not to be
conceived but by those who have been in it.
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