For instance: if he is to shut himself up for a
year to study a science, it is better to look out to the fields, than
to an opposite wall. Then, if a man walks out in the country, there
is nobody to keep him from walking in again: but if a man walks out in
London, he is not sure when he shall walk in again. A great city is, to
be sure, the school for studying life; and "The proper study of mankind
is man," as Pope observes.' BOSWELL. 'I fancy London is the best place
for society; though I have heard that the very first society of Paris is
still beyond any thing that we have here.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I question
if in Paris such a company as is sitting round this table could be got
together in less than half a year. They talk in France of the felicity
of men and women living together: the truth is, that there the men are
not higher than the women, they know no more than the women do, and they
are not held down in their conversation by the presence of women.'
We talked of old age.
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