as far as I know, but he was not so in mine ; little things are great to little men x .
REY. I have heard you say, Dr. Johnson
JOHNS. Sir, you never heard me say that David Garrick was a great man 2 ; you may have heard me say that Garrick was a good repeater of other men's words words put into his mouth by other men ; this makes but a faint approach towards being a great man.
REY. But take Garrick upon the whole, now, in regard to conversation
JOHNS. Well, Sir, in regard to conversation, I never discovered in the conversation of David Garrick any intellectual energy, any wide grasp of thought, any extensive comprehension of mind, or that he possessed any of those powers to which great could, with any degree of propriety, be applied 3 .
REY. But still
JOHNS. Hold, Sir, I have not done there are, to be sure, in the laxity of colloquial speech, various kinds of greatness ; a man may be a great tobacconist, a man may be a great painter, he may be likewise a great mimic: now you may be the one, and Garrick the other, anxi yet neither of you be great men.
REY. But, Dr. Johnson
JOHNS. Hold, Sir, I have often lamented how dangerous it
��1 ' These little things are great to things. There is no solid meat in
little man.' it ; there is a want of sentiment in
Goldsmith, The Traveller, 1. 42. it." ' fb. ii. 464. Boswell wrote on
2 'Nay, Sir, a ballad-singer is a March 18, 1775 : ' Mr. Johnson, higher man, for he does two things ; when enumerating our Club, observed he repeats and he sings ; there is of spme of us, that they talked both recitation and music in his per- from books, Langton in particular, formance ; the player only recites.' " Garrick," he said, " would talk Life, iii. 184. from books, if he talked seriously."
3 ' Talking of Garrick, Johnspn " /," said he, " do not talk from said, "He is the first man in the books : you do not talk from books." world for sprightly conversation." ' This was a compliment to my Ib. i. 398. originality ; but I am afraid I have
' JOHNSON. " Garrick's conversa- not read books enough to be able to
tion is gay and grotesque. It is talk from them.' Letters of Boswell,
a dish of all sorts, but all good p. 181.
is
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