308 Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S.
Dr. Johnson was observed by a musical friend of his to be extremely inattentive at a concert, whilst a celebrated solo player was running up the divisions and subdivisions of notes upon his violin. His friend, to induce him to take greater notice of what was going on, told him how extremely difficult it was. ( Difficult do you call it, Sir?' replied the Doctor;
- I wish it were impossible V Ib. p. 267.
Dr. Johnson told Voltaire's antagonist Freron, that vir erat acerrimi ingenii ac paucarum literarum 2 ; and Bishop War- burton says of him, ' that he writes indifferently well upon every thing 3 .' Ib. p. 274.
To some one who was complaining of his want of memory Johnson said, ' Pray, Sir, do you ever forget what money you are worth, or who gave you the last kick on your shins that you had ? Now, if you would pay the same attention to what you read as you do to your temporal concerns and your bodily feelings, you would impress it as deeply in your memory 4 .' Seward's Biographiana, p. 58.
Dr. Johnson said one day, in talking of the difference between English and Scotch education, ' that if from the first he did not come out a scholar, he was fit for nothing at all ; whereas (added he) in the last a boy is always taught something that may be of use to him ; and he who is not able to read a page of Tully will
1 Life, ii. 409 ; ante, ii. 103. Spiritual Europe : let him live, love ' La musique aujourd'hui n'est plus him, as he was and could not but
que Tart de exe'cuter des choses be ! Pitiable it is, no doubt, that
difficiles, et ce qui n'est que difficile a Samuel Johnson . . . should see
ne plait point a la longue.' Candide, nothing in the great Frederick but
ch. 25. " Voltaire's lackey ; " in Voltaire him-
2 Life, ii. 406. Johnson recorded self but a man acerrimi ingenii, pau- at Paris on Oct. 14, 1775 : 'In the .carwn literarum! Carlyle's Misc. afternoon I visited Mr. Freron the Works, n.d. iii. 102.
journalist. He spoke Latin very 3 In a letter to Kurd, Warburton
scantily, but seemed to understand says, * Voltaire has fine parts and is
me.' Ib. p. 392. a real genius.' Letters from a late
'Johnson's culture is wholly Eng- Eminent Prelate, ist ed. p. 79.
lish ; that not of a Thinker but of 4 ' The true art of memory is the
a " Scholar": his interests are wholly art of attention.' The Idler, No. 74.
English ; he sees and knows nothing See Life, iii. 191 ; v. 68. but England ; he is the John Bull of
be
�� �
