debate, and recollect what has since happened, I cannot but be struck in a manner that delicacy forbids me to express. While I contended that she ought to be treated with an inflexible steadiness of displeasure, Mrs. Thrale was all for mildness and forgiveness, and, according to the vulgar phrase, "making the best of a bad bargain. JOHNSON : "Madam, we must distinguish. Were I a man of rank, I would not let a daughter starve who had made a mean marriage; but having voluntarily degraded herself from the station which she was originally entitled to hold, I would support her only in that which she herself had chosen ; and would not put her on a level with my other daughters. You are to consider, Madam, that it is our duty to maintain the subordination of civilized society; and when there is a gross and shameful deviation from rank, it should be punished so as to deter others from the same perversion.' After frequently considering this subject, I am more and more confirmed in what I then meant to express, and which was sanctioned by the authority, and illustrated by the wisdom, of Johnson; and I think it of the utmost consequence to the happiness of society, to which subordination is absolutely necessary. It is weak, and contemptible, and unworthy, in a parent to relax in such a case. It is sacrificing general advantage to private feelings. And let it be considered, that the claim of a daughter who has acted thus, to be restored to her former situation, is either fantastical or unjust. If there be no value in the distinction of rank, what does she suffer by being kept in the situation to which she has descended? If there be a value in that distinction, it ought to be steadily maintained. If indulgence be shown to such conduct, and the offenders know that in a longer or shorter time they shall be received as well as if they had not contaminated their blood by a base alliance, the great check upon that inordinate caprice which generally occasions low marriages will be removed, and the fair and comfortable order of improved life will be miserably disturbed. Lord Chesterfield's letters being mentioned, Johnson said, "It was not to be wondered at that they had so great a sale, considering that they were the letters of a statesman, a wit, one who had been so much in the mouths of mankind, one long accustomed virúm volitare per ora." 66 On Friday, March 31, I supped with him and some friends at a tavern.* One of the company† attempted, with too much forwardness, to rally him on his late appearance at the theatre; but had reason to repent of his temerity. "Why, Sir, did you go to Mrs. Abington's benefit? Did you see?" JOHNSON : No, Sir." "Did you hear?" JOHNSON: "No, Sir." "Why, then, Sir, did you go? JOHNSON: "Because, Sir, she is a favourite of the public; and when the public cares the thousandth part for you that it does for her, I will go to your benefit too." ?" Next morning I won a small bet from Lady Diana Beauclerk, by asking him as to one of his particularities, which her Ladyship laid I durst not do. It seems he had been frequently observed at the Club to put into his pocket the Seville oranges, after he had squeezed the juice of them into the drink which he made for himself. Beauclerk and Garrick talked of it to me, and seemed to think that he had a strange unwillingness to be discovered. We could not divine what he did with them; and this was the bold question to be put. I saw on his table the spoils of the preceding night, some fresh peels nicely scraped and cut into pieces. "O, Sir (said I), I now partly see what you do with the squeezed oranges which you put into your pocket at the Club." JOHNSON "I have a great love for them." Boswell : And From a mezzotint by Watson after the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. MRS. FRANCES ABINGTON (b. 1737, d. 1815) the daughter of a private soldier and cobbler named Barton. She was in succession flower seller ("Nosegay Fan"), street singer, cook-maid, and milliner. Married in 1759, she became one of the most attractive comedy actresses of the Garrick School. 66 pray, Sir, what do you do with them? You scrape them, it seems, very neatly, and what next?" JOHNSON: "Let them dry, Sir." BOSWELL" And what next?" JOHNSON: Nay, Sir, you shall know their fate no farther." BOSWELL: "Then the world must be left in the dark. It must be said (assuming a mock solemnity), he scraped them, and let them dry, but what he did with them next, he never could be prevailed upon to tell." JOHNSON: "Nay, Sir, you should say it more emphatically: he could not be prevailed upon, even by his dearest friends, to tell." ""* He had this morning received his Diploma as Doctor of Laws, from the University of Oxford. He did not vaunt of his new dignity, but I understood he was highly pleased with it. I shall here insert the progress and completion of that high academical honour, in the same manner as I have traced his obtaining that of Master of Arts. From an engraving by George Vertue JOHN DRYDEN (b. 1631, d. 1700) Johnson says in his "Life of Dryden": "Of his petty habits or slight amusements, tradition has retained little. Of the only two men whom I have found to whom he was personally known, one told me that at the house which he frequented, called Wills' coffee-house, the appeal upon any literary dispute was made to him and the other related that his armed chair, which in the winter had a settled and prescriptive place by the fire, was in the summer placed in the balcony, and that he called the two places his winter and his summer seat. This is all the intelligence which his two survivors afforded me." "To the Reverend Dr. FOTHERGILL, Vice- GENTLEMEN, "The honour of the degree of M.A. by diploma, formerly conferred upon Mr. SAMUEL JOHNSON, in consequence of his having eminently distinguished himself by the publication of a series of Essays, excellently calculated to form the manners of the people, and in which the cause of religion and morality has been maintained and recommended by the strongest powers of argument and elegance of language, reflected an equal degree of lustre upon the University itself. "The many learned labours which have since that time employed the attention and displayed the abilities of that great man, so much to the advancement of literature and the benefit of the community, render him worthy of more distinguished honours in the Republic of letters and I persuade myself that I shall act agreeably to the * [The following extract from one of his letters to Miss Boothby probably explains the use to which he put these orange peels: "Give me leave, who have thought so much on medicine, to propose to you an easy and, I think, very probable remedy for indigestion, etc. Take an ounce of dried orange peel, finely powdered, divide it into scruples, and take one scruple at a time in any manner. The best way is perhaps to drink it in a glass of hot red port, or to eat it first, and drink the wine after it," etc. Lett. Dec. 31, 1775.-Croker.] From a mezzotint by G. Marchi, dated 1773, after the picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. GEORGE COLMAN (b. 1732, d. 1794) playwright and manager, known as George Colman the elder, to distinguish him from his son, the author of the "Iron Chest." He produced Goldsmith's "She Stoops to Conquer" at Covent Garden Theatre. In 1776 he purchased the Haymarket from Foote for an annuity of £1,500. sentiments of the whole University, in desiring that it may be proposed in Convocation to confer on him the degree of Doctor in Civil Law by diploma, to which I readily give my consent; and am, "Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen, Downing Street, March 23, 1775." DIPLOMA. "NORTH.* "CANCELLARIUS, Magistri, et Scholares Universitatis Oxoniensis omnibus ad quos præsentes, Literæ pervenerint, salutem in Domino Sempiternam. 66 SCIATIS, virum illustrem, SAMUELEM JOHNSON, in omni humaniorum literarum genere eruditum, omniumque scientiarum comprehensione felicissimum, scriptis suis, ad popularium mores formandos summa verborum elegantia ac sententiarum gravitate compositis, ita olim inclaruisse, ut dignus videretur cui ab Academia sua eximia quædam laudis præmia deferrentur, quique in venerabilem Magistrorum Ordinem summa cum dignitate cooptaretur; "Cum vero eundem clarissimum virum tot postea tantique labores, in patria præsertim lingua ornanda et stabilienda feliciter impensi, ita insigniverint, ut in Literarum Republica PRINCEPS jam et PRIMARIUS jure habeatur ; Nos, CANCELLARIUS, Magistri, et Scholares Universitatis Oxoniensis, quo talis viri merita pari honoris remuneratione exæquentur, et perpetuum suæ simul laudis, nostræque erga literas propensissima voluntatis exstet monumentum, in solenni Convocatione Doctorum et Magistrorum Regentium, et non Regentium, prædictum SAMUELEM JOHNSON Doctorem in Jure Civili renunciavimus et constituimus, eumque virtute præsentis Diplomatis singulis juribus, privilegiis, et honoribus, ad istum gradum quaqua pertinentibus, frui et gaudere jussimus. In cujus rei testimonium commune Universitatis Oxoniensis sigillum præsentibus apponi fecimus. "Datum in Domo nostræ Convocationis die tricesimo Mensis Martii, Anno Domini Millesimo septingentesimo, septuagesimo quinto." † "Viro Reverendo THOME FOTHERGILL, S.T.P., Vice-Cancellario. FLEET STREET IN 1775 Temple Bar is seen to the right, Chancery Lane, with Izaak Walton's house, to the left. Universitatis Oxoniensis "S. P. D. "SAM. JOHNSON. "MULTIS non est opus, ut testimonium, quo, te præside, Oxoni enses nomen meum posteris commendarunt, quali animo acceperim compertum faciam. Nemo sibi placens non lætatur; nemo sibi non placet, qui vobis, *Extracted from the Convocation Register, Oxford. †The original is in my possession. He showed me the Diploma, and allowed me to read it, but would |