Johnson, as my preceptor and friend,
mixed with an affectionate regret that he was an old man, whom I should
probably lose in a short time. I thought I could defend him at the point
of my sword. My reverence and affection for him were in full glow. I
said to him, 'My dear Sir, we must meet every year, if you don't quarrel
with me.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, you are more likely to quarrel with me,
than I with you. My regard for you is greater almost than I have words
to express; but I do not choose to be always repeating it; write it down
in the first leaf of your pocket-book, and never doubt of it again.'
I talked to him of misery being 'the doom of man' in this life, as
displayed in his Vanity of Human Wishes. Yet I observed that things were
done upon the supposition of happiness; grand houses were built, fine
gardens were made, splendid places of publick amusement were contrived,
and crowded with company. JOHNSON. 'Alas, Sir, these are all only
struggles for happiness. When I first entered Ranelagh, it gave an
expansion and gay sensation to my mind, such as I never experienced any
where else.
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