��Dr. Johnson, but that you contradict one every word one speaks, just like him.
Mr. Johnson told me the story : he was present at the giving of the reproof. It was however observable that with all his odd severity, he could not keep even indifferent people from teizing him with unaccountable confession of silly conduct which one would think they would scarcely have had inclination to reveal even to their tenderest and most intimate companions ; and it was from these unaccountable volunteers in sincerity that he learned to warn the world against follies little known, and seldom thought on by other moralists.
Much of his eloquence, and much of his logic have I heard him use to prevent men from making vows on trivial occasions I ; and when he saw a person oddly perplexed about a slight diffi culty, ' Let the man alone (he would say), and torment him no more about it ; there is a vow in the case. I am convinced ; but is it not very strange that people should be neither afraid nor ashamed of bringing in God Almighty thus at every turn between themselves and their dinner ? ' When I asked what ground he had for such imaginations, he informed me, ' That a young lady once told him in confidence, that she could never persuade herself to be dressed against the bell rung for dinner, till she had made a vow to heaven that she would never more be absent from the family meals.'
��1 ' BOSWELL. " But you would broken by some unforeseen necessity,
not have me to bind myself by They proceed commonly from a pre-
a solemn obligation?" JOHNSON. sumptuous confidence and a false
(much agitated) " What ! a vow estimate of human power.' John-
0, no, Sir, a vow is a horrible thing, son's Shakespeare, ed. 1765, ii. 118. it is a snare for sin." ' Life, iii. ' Lear, who is characterized as hot, 357. See also ib. ii. 21, and Letters, heady, and violent, is, with very just
1. 217. observation of life, made to entangle ' Biron amidst his extravagancies himself with vows, upon any sudden
speaks with great justness against provocation to vow revenge, and
the folly of vows. They are made then to plead the obligation of a
without sufficient regard to the va- vow in defence of implacability.' Ib.
nations of life, and are therefore vi. 12.
The
�� �
