But, when he had got
money, he was very liberal.' I presumed to animadvert on his eulogy on
Garrick, in his Lives of the Poets. 'You say, Sir, his death eclipsed
the gaiety of nations.' JOHNSON. 'I could not have said more nor less.
It is the truth; ECLIPSED, not EXTINGUISHED; and his death DID eclipse;
it was like a storm.' BOSWELL. 'But why nations? Did his gaiety extend
farther than his own nation?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, some exaggeration must
be allowed. Besides, nations may be said--if we allow the Scotch to be a
nation, and to have gaiety,--which they have not. YOU are an exception,
though. Come, gentlemen, let us candidly admit that there is one
Scotchman who is cheerful.' BEAUCLERK. 'But he is a very unnatural
Scotchman.' I, however, continued to think the compliment to Garrick
hyperbolically untrue. His acting had ceased some time before his death;
at any rate he had acted in Ireland but a short time, at an early period
of his life, and never in Scotland. I objected also to what appears
an anticlimax of praise, when contrasted with the preceding
panegyrick,--'and diminished the public stock of harmless
pleasure!'--'Is not HARMLESS PLEASURE very tame?' JOHNSON.
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