fame. Great men, on whom she had gazed at a distance with humble
reverence, addressed her with admiration, tempered by the
tenderness due to her sex and age. Burke, Windham, Gibbon,
Reynolds, Sheridan, were among her most ardent eulogists.
Cumberland(15) acknowledged her merit, after his fashion, by
biting his lips and wriggling in his chair whenever her name was
mentioned. But it was at Streatham that she tasted, in the
highest perfection, the sweets of flattery mingled with the
sweets of friendship. Mrs. Thrale, then at the height of
prosperity and popularity-with gay spirits, quick wit, showy,
though superficial, acquirements, pleasing, though not refined,
manners, a singularly amiable temper and a loving heart-felt
towards Fanny as towards a younger sister. With the Thrales,
Johnson was domesticated. He was an old friend of Dr. Burney;
but he had probably taken little notice of Dr. Burney's daughters
; and Fanny, we imagine, had never in her life dared to speak to
him, unless to ask whether he wanted a nineteenth or a twentieth
cup of tea. He was charmed by her tale, and preferred it to the
novels of Fielding, to whom, indeed, he had always been grossly
unjust. He did not, indeed, carry his partiality so far as to
place "Evelina" by the side of "Clarissa" and "Sir Charles
Grandison"; yet he said that his little favourite had done enough
to have made even Richardson feel uneasy. With Johnson's cordial
approbation of the book was mingled a fondness, half gallant,
half paternal, for the writer; and this fondness his age and
character entitled him to show without restraint. He began by
putting her hand to his lips. But he soon clasped her in his
huge arms, and immediately implored her to be a good girl. She
was his pet, his dear love, his dear little Burney, his little
character-monger. At one time, he broke forth in praise of the