JOHNSON. 'Sir, I do not say it is wrong
to produce self complacency by drinking; I only deny that it improves
the mind. When I drank wine, I scorned to drink it when in company. I
have drunk many a bottle by myself; in the first place, because I had
need of it to raise my spirits; in the second place, because I would
have nobody to witness its effects upon me.'
He told us, 'almost all his Ramblers were written just as they were
wanted for the press; that he sent a certain portion of the copy of
an essay, and wrote the remainder, while the former part of it was
printing. When it was wanted, and he had fairly sat down to it, he was
sure it would be done.'
He said, that for general improvement, a man should read whatever his
immediate inclination prompts him to; though, to be sure, if a man has
a science to learn, he must regularly and resolutely advance. He added,
'what we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If
we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the
attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.
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