have not mentioned the greatest of them all,--the want of law."

'Speaking of the _inward light_, to which some methodists pretended, he
said, it was a principle utterly incompatible with social or civil
security. "If a man (said he,) pretends to a principle of action of
which I can know nothing, nay, not so much as that he has it, but only
that he pretends to it; how can I tell what that person may be prompted
to do? When a person professes to be governed by a written ascertained
law, I can then know where to find him."

'The poem of _Fingal_[369], he said, was a mere unconnected rhapsody, a
tiresome repetition of the same images. "In vain shall we look for the
_lucidus ordo_'[370], where there is neither end or object, design or
moral, _nec certa recurrit imago_."

'Being asked by a young nobleman, what was become of the gallantry and
military spirit of the old English nobility, he replied, "Why, my Lord,
I'll tell you what is become of it; it is gone into the city to look for
a fortune."

'Speaking of a dull tiresome fellow, whom he chanced to meet, he said,
"That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong
one."

'Much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a
company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last
Johnson observed, that "he did not care to speak ill of any man behind
his back, but he believed the gentleman was an _attorney_[371]."

'He spoke with much contempt of the notice taken of Woodhouse, the