easier, but better suited to the dignity of verse; as one may dance
with grace, whose motions, in ordinary walking--in the common
step--are awkward. He had a constitutional melancholy, the clouds of
which darkened the brightness of his fancy, and gave a gloomy cast to
his whole course of thinking: yet, though grave and awful in his
deportment, when he thought it necessary or proper, he frequently
indulged himself in pleasantry and sportive sallies. He was prone to
superstition, but not to credulity. Though his imagination might
incline him to a belief of the marvellous, and the mysterious, his
vigorous reason examined the evidence with jealousy. He had a loud
voice, and a slow deliberate utterance, which no doubt gave some
additional weight to the sterling metal of his conversation. Lord
Pembroke said once to me at Wilton, with a happy pleasantry, and some
truth, that 'Dr Johnson's sayings would not appear so extraordinary,
were it not for his bow-wow way': but I admit the truth of this only
on some occasions. The Messiah, played upon the Canterbury organ, is
more sublime than when played upon an inferior instrument: but very
slight musick will seem grand, when conveyed to the ear through that
majestick medium. WHILE THEREFORE DOCTOR JOHNSON'S SAYINGS ARE READ,
LET HIS MANNER BE TAKEN ALONG WITH THEM. Let it however be observed,
that the sayings themselves are generally great; that, though he might
be an ordinary composer at times, he was for the most part a Handel.
His person was large, robust, I may say approaching to the gigantick,
and grown unwieldy from corpulency. His countenance was naturally of
the craft of an ancient statue, but somewhat disfigured by the scars
of that evil, which, it was formerly imagined, the royal touch could
cure. He was now in his sixty-fourth year, and was become a little
dull of hearing. His sight had always been somewhat weak; yet, so much
does mind govern, and even supply the deficiency of organs, that his
perceptions were uncommonly quick and accurate. His head, and