'What say you to Lord
------?' JOHNSON. 'I never but once heard him talk of what he had
seen, and that was of a large serpent in one of the Pyramids of Egypt.'
BOSWELL. 'Well, I happened to hear him tell the same thing, which made
me mention him.'
I talked of a country life. JOHNSON. 'Were I to live in the country, I
would not devote myself to the acquisition of popularity; I would live
in a much better way, much more happily; I would have my time at my own
command.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, is it not a sad thing to be at a distance
from all our literary friends?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, you will by and by have
enough of this conversation, which now delights you so much.'
As he was a zealous friend of subordination, he was at all times
watchful to repress the vulgar cant against the manners of the great;
'High people, Sir, (said he,) are the best; take a hundred ladies of
quality, you'll find them better wives, better mothers, more willing
to sacrifice their own pleasure to their children than a hundred other
women.
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