Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 10.djvu/242

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CHARACTER OF MRS. JOHNSON.

rather imputed to her great modesty, gentle behaviour, and inoffensiveness, than to her superiour virtues.

Although her knowledge, from books and company, was much more extensive than usually falls to the share of her sex; yet she was so far from making a parade of it, that her female visitants, on their first acquaintance, who expected to discover it by what they call hard words and deep discourse, would be sometimes disappointed, and say, "They found she was like other women." But wise men, through all her modesty, whatever they discoursed on, could easily observe that she understood them very well, by the judgment shown in her observations, as well as in her questions.