done with patronage. In the infancy of learning, we find some great
man praised for it. This diffused it among others. When it becomes
general, an author leaves the great, and applies to the multitude.'
BOSWELL. 'It is a shame that authors are not now better patronized.'
JOHNSON. 'No, sir. If learning cannot support a man, if he must sit
with his hands across till somebody feeds him, it is as to him a bad
thing, and it is better as it is. With patronage, what flattery! What
falsehood! While a man is in equilibria, he throws truth among the
multitude, and lets them take it as they please: in patronage, he must
say what pleases his patron, and it is an equal chance whether that be
truth or falsehood.' WATSON. 'But is not the case now, that, instead
of flattering one person, we flatter the age?' JOHNSON. 'No, sir. The
world always lets a man tell what he thinks, his own way. I wonder
however, that so many people have written, who might have let it
alone. That people should endeavour to excel in conversation, I do not
wonder; because in conversation praise is instantly reverberated.'

We talked of change of manners. Dr Johnson observed, that our drinking
less than our ancestors was owing to the change from ale to wine. 'I
remember,' said he, 'when all the DECENT people in Lichfield got drunk
every night, and were not the worse thought of. Ale was cheap, so you
pressed strongly. When a man must bring a bottle of wine, he is not in
such haste. Smoking has gone out. To be sure, it is a shocking thing,
blowing smoke out of our mouths into other people's mouths, eyes, and
noses, and having the same thing done to us. Yet I cannot account, why
a thing which requires so little exertion, and yet preserves the mind
from total vacuity, should have gone out. Every man has something by
which he calms himself: beating with his feet, or so. [Footnote: Dr
Johnson used to practice this himself very much.] I remember when
people in England changed a shirt only once a week: a Pandour, when he