��That natural roughness of his manner, so often mentioned, would, notwithstanding the regularity of his notions, burst through them all from time to time ; and he once bade a very celebrated lady, who praised him with too much zeal perhaps, or perhaps too strong an emphasis (which always offended him), 'con sider what her flattery was worth before she choaked him with it I / A few more winters passed in the talking world shewed him the value of that friend's commendations however, and he was very sorry for the disgusting speech he made her.
I used to think Mr. Johnson's determined preference of a cold monotonous talker over an emphatical and violent one, would make him quite a favourite among the men of ton, whose in sensibility, or affectation of perpetual calmness, certainly did not give to him the offence it does to many. He loved * con versation without effort (he said) ; ' and the encomiums I have heard him so often pronounce on the manners of Topham Beau- clerc in society, constantly ended in that peculiar praise, that * it was without effort" 2 !
We were talking of Richardson who wrote Clarissa : ' You think I love flattery (says Dr. Johnson), and so I do ; but a little too much always disgusts me : that fellow Richardson, on the contrary, could not be contented to sail quietly down the stream
1 For ' the genuine anecdote ' see it is not an effort of mind." ' Ib. v. Life, iv. 341. The lady was Hannah 76.
More. Macaulay wrote of Talleyrand :
2 He disliked a man to be in his ' There is a poignancy without effort talk ' a rapturist,' ' an enthusiast by in all that he says which reminded rule.' Ib. ii. 41, . ; iv. 33. 'The me a little of the character which the happiest conversation,' he said, 'is wits of Johnson's circle give of Beau- that of which nothing is distinctly clerk.' Trevelyan's Macaulay, ed. remembered but a general effect of 1877, i. 235.
pleasing impression.' Ib. iv. 50. Beauclerk, through Charles II, was
' BOSWELL. " Beauclerk has a descended from Henry IV of France,
keenness of mind which is very un- of whom ' Matthieu dit qu'aucun
common." JOHNSON. " Yes, Sir ; de ses courtisans n'entendait aussi
and everything comes from him so bien que lui a rendre un conte d'une
easily. It appears to me that I maniere plaisante.' Mtmoires de
labour, when I say a good thing." Sully, ed. 1788, viii. u, n. BOSWELL. " You are loud, Sir ; but
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