162 Anecdotes of Johnson
Hedge-lane 1 ; who, after begging their pardon for the liberty of addressing them on the subject, told them 'that, at the bottom of the lane, he saw two or three suspicious-looking fellows, who appeared to be bailiffs, so that, if any of them were apprehensive of danger, he had better take a different route.' Not one of them waited to thank the man, but flew off, different ways, each conscious, from the embarrassments of his own affairs, that such a circumstance was very likely to happen to himself. (Page 27.)
Johnson, soon after the publication of his English Dictionary, made a proposal to a number of Booksellers convened for that purpose, of writing a Dictionary of Trade and Commerce 2 . This proposal went round the room without any answer, when a well- known son of the trade 3 since dead, remarkable for the abrupt ness of his manners, replied, ' Why, Doctor, what the D 1 do you know of trade and commerce 4 ? ' The Doctor very modestly answered, ' Why, Sir, not much I confess in the practical line but I believe I could glean, from different authors of authority on the subject, such materials as would answer the purpose very weliV (Page 34.)
When Cave got into affluence, it was usual with him, upon the
1 Hedge Lane was near Charing Dr. Smith, who had never been in Cross. Dodsley's London, iii. 178. trade, could not expect to write well For Johnson's visit to a poor man on that subject any more than a there see Life, iii. 324. lawyer upon physick,' he replied :
2 Johnson contributed the preface * He is mistaken, Sir : a man who to Rolt's Dictionary of Trade and has never been engaged in trade Commerce. Life, i. 358. See also himself may undoubtedly write well ante, i. 412. upon trade, and there is nothing
^ * As Physicians are called the which requires more to be illustrated
Faculty and Counsellors at Law the by philosophy than trade does.'
Profession, the Booksellers of London Life, ii. 430.
are denominated the Trade. Johnson Of those * in the practical line '
disapproved of these denominations.' Smith had a low opinion. ' People
Life, iii. 285. of the same trade,' he writes, ' seldom
4 Johnson did not receive a doctor's m eet together, even for merriment degree till many years later ; neither and diversion, but the conversation is it likely that he would have left ends in a conspiracy against the the form of the question unrebuked. public, or in some contrivance to
5 When Boswell told Johnson of raise prices.' Wealth of Nations, Sir John Pringle's observation ' that ed. 1811, i. 177. See also ib. i. 352.
receipt
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