Taylor's, where he
had dined.
He was very silent this evening; and read in a variety of books:
suddenly throwing down one, and taking up another.
He talked of going to Streatham that night. TAYLOR. 'You'll be robbed
if you do: or you must shoot a highwayman. Now I would rather be robbed
than do that; I would not shoot a highwayman.' JOHNSON. 'But I would
rather shoot him in the instant when he is attempting to rob me, than
afterwards swear against him at the Old-Bailey, to take away his life,
after he has robbed me. I am surer I am right in the one case than in
the other. I may be mistaken as to the man, when I swear: I cannot be
mistaken, if I shoot him in the act. Besides, we feel less reluctance to
take away a man's life, when we are heated by the injury, than to do it
at a distance of time by an oath, after we have cooled.' BOSWELL. 'So,
Sir, you would rather act from the motive of private passion, than that
of publick advantage.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, when I shoot the highwayman
I act from both.
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