wondering at the delicacy and whiteness, till, with a smile, she asked,
"Will he give it to me again, when he has done with it?" The exteriors
of politeness did not belong to Johnson. Even that civility, which
proceeds, or ought to proceed, from the mind, was sometimes violated.
His morbid melancholy had an effect on his temper; his passions were
irritable; and the pride of science, as well as of a fierce independent
spirit, inflamed him, on some occasions, above all bounds of moderation.
Though not in the shade of academic bowers, he led a scholastic life;
and the habit of pronouncing decisions to his friends and visitors, gave
him a dictatorial manner, which was much enforced by a voice naturally
loud, and often overstretched. Metaphysical discussion, moral theory,
systems of religion, and anecdotes of literature, were his favourite
topics. General history had little of his regard. Biography was his
delight. The proper study of mankind is man. Sooner than hear of the
Punic war, he would be rude to the person that introduced the subject.

Johnson was born a logician; one of those, to whom only books of logic
are said to be of use. In consequence of his skill in that art, he loved
argumentation. No man thought more profoundly, nor with such acute
discernment. A fallacy could not stand before him; it was sure to be
refuted by strength of reasoning, and a precision, both in idea and
expression, almost unequalled. When he chose, by apt illustration, to
place the argument of his adversary in a ludicrous light, one was almost
inclined to think ridicule the test of truth. He was surprised to be
told, but it is certainly true, that, with great powers of mind, wit and
humour were his shining talents. That he often argued for the sake of
triumph over his adversary, cannot be dissembled. Dr. Rose, of Chiswick,
has been heard to tell of a friend of his, who thanked him for
introducing him to Dr. Johnson, as he had been convinced, in the course
of a long dispute, that an opinion, which he had embraced as a settled