"No, Sir, I did not. Perhaps he might not mean what he said."
JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, if he lied, it is a different thing." Colman slily
said, (but it is believed Dr. Johnson did not hear him,) "Then the
proper expression should have been,--Sir, if you don't lie, you're a
rascal."'
'His affection for Topham Beauclerk was so great, that when Beauclerk
was labouring under that severe illness which at last occasioned his
death, Johnson said, (with a voice faultering with emotion,) "Sir,
I would walk to the extent of the diameter of the earth to save
Beauclerk."'
'Johnson was well acquainted with Mr. Dossie, authour of a treatise on
Agriculture; and said of him, "Sir, of the objects which the Society of
Arts have chiefly in view, the chymical effects of bodies operating upon
other bodies, he knows more than almost any man." Johnson, in order
to give Mr. Dossie his vote to be a member of this Society, paid up an
arrear which had run on for two years. On this occasion he mentioned
a circumstance as characteristick of the Scotch.
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