publick occasion, he expressed much doubt of an enlightened decision;
and said, that perhaps there was not a member of it, who in the whole
course of his life, had ever spent an hour by himself in balancing
probabilities[44].'

'Goldsmith one day brought to the CLUB a printed Ode, which he, with
others, had been hearing read by its authour in a publick room at the
rate of five shillings each for admission[45]. One of the company having
read it aloud, Dr. Johnson said, "Bolder words and more timorous
meaning, I think never were brought together."'

'Talking of Gray's _Odes_, he said, "They are forced plants raised in a
hot-bed[46]; and they are poor plants; they are but cucumbers after
all." A gentleman present, who had been running down Ode-writing in
general, as a bad species of poetry, unluckily said, "Had they been
literally cucumbers, they had been better things than Odes."--"Yes, Sir,
(said Johnson,) for a _hog_."'

'His distinction of the different degrees of attainment of learning was
thus marked upon two occasions. Of Queen Elizabeth he said, "She had
learning enough to have given dignity to a bishop;" and of Mr. Thomas
Davies he said, "Sir, Davies has learning enough to give credit to a
clergyman[47]."'

'He used to quote, with great warmth, the saying of Aristotle recorded
by Diogenes Laertius[48]; that there was the same difference between one
learned and unlearned, as between the living and the dead.'

'It is very remarkable, that he retained in his memory very slight and
trivial, as well as important things[49]. As an instance of this, it