Life of Johnson, Volume 4 - 1780-1784 by James Boswell
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page 23 of 741 (03%)
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meant Mr. Burke.) "O, no (said Mr. Burke) it is enough for me to have
rung the bell to him[88]."' 'Beauclerk having observed to him of one of their friends, that he was aukward at counting money, "Why, Sir, said Johnson, I am likewise aukward at counting money. But then, Sir, the reason is plain; I have had very little money to count."' 'He had an abhorrence of affectation[89]. Talking of old Mr. Langton, of whom he said, "Sir, you will seldom see such a gentleman, such are his stores of literature, such his knowledge in divinity, and such his exemplary life;" he added, "and Sir, he has no grimace, no gesticulation, no bursts of admiration on trivial occasions; he never embraces you with an overacted cordiality[90]."' 'Being in company with a gentleman who thought fit to maintain Dr. Berkeley's ingenious philosophy, that nothing exists but as perceived by some mind[91]; when the gentleman was going away, Johnson said to him, "Pray, Sir, don't leave us; for we may perhaps forget to think of you, and then you will cease to exist[92]."' 'Goldsmith, upon being visited by Johnson one day in the Temple, said to him with a little jealousy of the appearance of his accommodation, "I shall soon be in better chambers than these." Johnson at the same time checked him and paid him a handsome compliment, implying that a man of his talents should be above attention to such distinctions,--'Nay, Sir, never mind that. _Nil te quaesiveris extra_[93].' 'At the time when his pension was granted to him, he said, with a noble literary ambition, "Had this happened twenty years years ago, I should |
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