[1261] See Boswell's Hebrides, Nov. 10, 1773.
[1262] Johnson would suffer none of his friends to fill up chasms in conversation with remarks on the weather: 'Let us not talk of the weather.' BURNEY.
[1263] See ante, p. 332.
[1264] Boswell wrote to Temple on Sept. 9, 1767:—'How unaccountable is it that my father and I should be so ill together! He is a man of sense and a man of worth; but from some unhappy turn in his disposition he is much dissatisfied with a son whom you know. I write to him with warmth, with an honest pride, wishing that he should think of me as I am; but my letters shock him, and every expression in them is interpreted unfavourably. To give you an instance, I send you a letter I had from him a few days ago. How galling is it to the friend of Paoli to be treated so! I have answered him in my own style; I will be myself.' Letters of Boswell, p. 110. In the following passage in one of his Hypochondriacks he certainly describes his father. 'I knew a father who was a violent Whig, and used to attack his son for being a Tory, upbraiding him with being deficient in "noble sentiments of liberty," while at the same time he made this son live under his roof in such bondage, that he was not only afraid to stir from home without leave, like a child, but durst scarcely open his mouth in his father's presence. This was sad living. Yet I would rather see such an excess of awe than a degree of familiarity between father and son by which all reverence is destroyed.' London Mag. 1781, p. 253.
[1265] Boswell, the day after this talk, wrote:—'I have had a long letter from my father, full of affection and good counsel. Honest man! he is now very happy: it is amazing to think how much he has had at heart, my pursuing the road of civil life.' Letters of Boswell, p. 25.
[1266] Gray, says Nicholls, 'disliked all poetry in blank verse, except Milton.' Gray's Works, ed. 1858, v. 36. Goldsmith, in his Present State of Polite Learning (ch. xi.), wrote in 1759:—'From a desire in the critic of grafting the spirit of ancient languages upon the English have proceeded of late several disagreeable instances of pedantry. Among the number, I think, we may reckon blank verse. Nothing but the greatest sublimity of subject can render such a measure pleasing; however, we now see it used upon the most trivial occasions.' On the same page he speaks of 'the tuneless flow of our blank verse.' See post, 1770, in Dr. Maxwell's Collectanea and the beginning of 1781, under The Life of Milton, for Johnson's opinion of blank verse.
[1267] 'Johnson told me, that one day in London, when Dr. Adam Smith was boasting of Glasgow, he turned to him and said, "Pray, Sir, have you ever seen Brentford?'" Boswell's Hebrides, Oct. 29, 1773. See post, April 29, 1778.
[1268] 'He advised me to read just as inclination prompted me, which alone, he said, would do me any good; for I had better go into company than read a set task. He said, too, that I should prescribe to myself five hours a day, and in these hours gratify whatever literary desires may spring up.' Letters of Boswell, p. 28. The Editor of these Letters compares Tranio's advice:—
'No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en:
In brief, Sir, study what you most affect.'
Taming of the Shrew, act i. sc. I.