as proud; I think, by your own account, you are the prouder man of the
two.' 'But mine (replied Johnson, instantly) was DEFENSIVE pride.' This,
as Dr. Adams well observed, was one of those happy turns for which he
was so remarkably ready.

Johnson having now explicitly avowed his opinion of Lord Chesterfield,
did not refrain from expressing himself concerning that nobleman with
pointed freedom: 'This man (said he) I thought had been a Lord among
wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords!' And when his Letters
to his natural son were published, he observed, that 'they teach the
morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master.'

On the 6th of March came out Lord Bolingbroke's works, published by
Mr. David Mallet. The wild and pernicious ravings, under the name of
Philosophy, which were thus ushered into the world, gave great offence
to all well-principled men. Johnson, hearing of their tendency, which
nobody disputed, was roused with a just indignation, and pronounced this
memorable sentence upon the noble authour and his editor. 'Sir, he was a
scoundrel, and a coward: a scoundrel, for charging a blunderbuss against
religion and morality; a coward, because he had not resolution to fire
it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman, to draw
the trigger after his death!'

Johnson this year found an interval of leisure to make an excursion to
Oxford, for the purpose of consulting the libraries there.

Of his conversation while at Oxford at this time, Mr. Warton preserved
and communicated to me the following memorial, which, though not written
with all the care and attention which that learned and elegant writer
bestowed on those compositions which he intended for the publick eye,