was his misfortune to fail: he was above those arts by which popularity is acquired, and had besides some personal defects and habits which stood in his way; a vacuity of countenance very unfavourable to an opinion of his learning or sagacity, and certain convulsive motions of the head and features that gave pain to the beholders, and drew off attention to all that he said. . . .
The sincere and lasting friendship that subsisted between Johnson and Levett, may serve to shew, that although a simi larity of dispositions and qualities has a tendency to beget affection, or something very nearly resembling it, it may be contracted and subsist where this inducement is wanting ; for 1 hardly were ever two men less like each other, in this respect, than were they. Levett had not an understanding capable of comprehending the talents of Johnson : the mind of Johnson was therefore, as to him, a blank ; and Johnson, had the eye of his mind been more penetrating than it was, could not discern, what did not exist, any particulars in Levett's character that at all resembled his own. He had no learning, and con sequently was an unfit companion for a learned man ; and though it may be said, that having lived for some years abroad, he must have seen and remarked many things that would have afforded entertainment in the relation, this advantage was counterbalanced by an utter inability for continued conversation, taciturnity being one of the most obvious features in his char acter x : the consideration of all which particulars almost impels me to say, that Levett admired Johnson because others admired him, and that Johnson in pity loved Levett, because few others could find any thing in him to love.
And here I cannot forbear remarking, that, almost throughout his life, poverty and distressed circumstances seemed to be the strongest of all recommendations to his favour. When asked by one of his most intimate friends, how he could bear to be
1 ' He was (says Boswell) of a to Mrs. Thrale : ' My house has lost
strange grotesque appearance, stiff Levett, a man who took interest in
and formal in his manner, and seldom everything, and therefore ready at
said a word while any company was conversation.' Letters, ii. 309. present.' Life> 1.243. Johnson wrote
VOL. II. I surrounded
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