Chief Justice ------, who loved a wench,
summed up favourably, and she was acquitted. After which Bet said, with
a gay and satisfied air, "Now that the counterpane is MY OWN, I shall
make a petticoat of it."'
Talking of oratory, Mr. Wilkes described it as accompanied with all the
charms of poetical expression. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; oratory is the power
of beating down your adversary's arguments, and putting better in their
place.' WILKES. 'But this does not move the passions.' JOHNSON. 'He
must be a weak man, who is to be so moved.' WILKES. (naming a celebrated
orator,) 'Amidst all the brilliancy of ------'s imagination, and the
exuberance of his wit, there is a strange want of TASTE. It was observed
of Apelles's Venus, that her flesh seemed as if she had been nourished
by roses: his oratory would sometimes make one suspect that he eats
potatoes and drinks whisky.'
Mr. Wilkes said to me, loud enough for Dr. Johnson to hear, 'Dr. Johnson
should make me a present of his Lives of the Poets, as I am a poor
patriot, who cannot afford to buy them.
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