JOHNSON. (fretted by pain,) 'Pr'ythee don't tease me. Stay till I
am well, and then you shall tell me how to cure myself.' He grew better,
and talked with a noble enthusiasm of keeping up the representation of
respectable families. His zeal on this subject was a circumstance in his
character exceedingly remarkable, when it is considered that he himself
had no pretensions to blood. I heard him once say, 'I have great merit
in being zealous for subordination and the honours of birth; for I
can hardly tell who was my grandfather.' He maintained the dignity and
propriety of male succession, in opposition to the opinion of one of
our friends, who had that day employed Mr. Chambers to draw his will,
devising his estate to his three sisters, in preference to a remote
heir male. Johnson called them 'three DOWDIES,' and said, with as high
a spirit as the boldest Baron in the most perfect days of the feudal
system, 'An ancient estate should always go to males. It is mighty
foolish to let a stranger have it because he marries your daughter, and
takes your name.
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