'I drank chocolate, Sir, this morning with Mr. Eld; and, to my
no small surprize, found him to be a Staffordshire Whig, a being which
I did not believe had existed.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, there are rascals in all
countries.' BOSWELL. 'Eld said, a Tory was a creature generated between
a non-juring parson and one's grandmother.' JOHNSON. 'And I have always
said, the first Whig was the Devil.' BOSWELL. 'He certainly was, Sir.
The Devil was impatient of subordination; he was the first who resisted
power:--
"Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven."'
At General Paoli's were Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Langton, Marchese
Gherardi of Lombardy, and Mr. John Spottiswoode the younger, of
Spottiswoode, the solicitor.
We talked of drinking wine. JOHNSON. 'I require wine only when I
am alone. I have then often wished for it, and often taken it.'
SPOTTISWOODE. 'What, by way of a companion, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'To get rid
of myself, to send myself away. Wine gives great pleasure; and every
pleasure is of itself a good.
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