344 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
amusement x . ' Till this year,' said he to an intimate,- ' I have done tolerably well without sleep, for I have been able to read like Hercules 2 .' But he picked and culled his companions for his midnight hours ; ' and chose his author as he chose his friend 3 .' The mind is as fastidious about its intellectual meal as the appetite is as to its culinary one ; and it is observable, that the dish or the book that palls at one time is a banquet at another 4 . By his innumerable quotations you would suppose, with a great personage 5 , that he must have read more books than any man in England, and have been a mere book-worm : but he acknowledged that supposition was a mistake in his favour. He owned he had hardly ever read a book through 6 . The posthumous volumes of Mr. Harris of Salisbury (which treated of subjects that were congenial with his own professional studies) had attractions that engaged him to the end 7 . Churchill used to say, having heard perhaps of his confession, as a boast, that ( if Johnson had only read a few books, he could not be the author of his own works.' His opinion, however, was, that he who reads most, has the chance of knowing most ; but he declared, that the perpetual task of reading was as bad as the slavery in the mine, or the labour
1 On April 19, 1783, he wrote : Roscommon, Essay on Translated ' I can apply better to books than Verse, 1. 95.
I could in some more vigorous parts l> m Life, iii. 193.
of my life, at least than I did; and 5 Boswell describes George III as
I have one more reason for reading ; 'A GREAT PERSONAGE.' Ib. i. 219.
that time has, by taking away my Tyers exaggerates what the king
companions, left me less opportunity said. Ib. ii. 36.
of conversation.' Letters, ii. 289. 6 Ib. i. 71; ii. 226; ante, i. 332, 363.
See also Life, iv. 218, n. i, where he 7 Harris's last work, his Philo-
said to Malone : ' I have been con- logical Inquiries, was published in
fined this week past ; and here you 1781, the year after his death.
find me roasting apples and reading JOHNSON. " Harris is a sound
the History of Birmingham' sullen scholar; he does not like in-
2 ' He lamented much his inability terlopers. Harris, however, is a prig, to read during his hours of restless- and a bad prig. I looked into his ness. " I used formerly (he added) book [Hermes] and thought he did when sleepless in bed to read like not understand his own system."' a Turk:' ' Life, iv. 409. Life, iii. 245. See ib. v. 377, where
3 ' Then seek a Poet who your ' he thought Harris " a coxcomb."
Way does bend This he said of him not as a man but
And chuse an Author as you as an author.' See also ante, i. 187; chuse a Friend' ii. 70.
at
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