'Don't talk so childishly, (said he.) You may as well ask if I hanged
myself to-day.' I mentioned politicks. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I'd as soon have
a man to break my bones as talk to me of publick affairs, internal or
external. I have lived to see things all as bad as they can be.'
He said, 'Goldsmith's blundering speech to Lord Shelburne, which has
been so often mentioned, and which he really did make to him, was only a
blunder in emphasis: "I wonder they should call your Lordship Malagrida,
for Malagrida was a very good man;" meant, I wonder they should use
Malagrida as a term of reproach.'
Soon after this time I had an opportunity of seeing, by means of one of
his friends, a proof that his talents, as well as his obliging service
to authours, were ready as ever. He had revised The Village, an
admirable poem, by the Reverend Mr. Crabbe. Its sentiments as to
the false notions of rustick happiness and rustick virtue were quite
congenial with his own; and he had taken the trouble not only to suggest
slight corrections and variations, but to furnish some lines, when he
thought he could give the writer's meaning better than in the words of
the manuscript.
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