'I do not care (said he,) on what subject
Johnson talks; but I love better to hear him talk than any body. He
either gives you new thoughts, or a new colouring. It is a shame to the
nation that he has not been more liberally rewarded. Had I been George
the Third, and thought as he did about America, I would have given
Johnson three hundred a year for his Taxation no Tyranny alone.' I
repeated this, and Johnson was much pleased with such praise from such a
man as Orme.
At Mr. Dilly's to-day were Mrs. Knowles, the ingenious Quaker lady, Miss
Seward, the poetess of Lichfield, the Reverend Dr. Mayo, and the Rev.
Mr. Beresford, Tutor to the Duke of Bedford. Before dinner Dr. Johnson
seized upon Mr. Charles Sheridan's Account of the late Revolution in
Sweden, and seemed to read it ravenously, as if he devoured it, which
was to all appearance his method of studying. 'He knows how to read
better than any one (said Mrs. Knowles;) he gets at the substance of a
book directly; he tears out the heart of it.
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