[743] See ante, i. 489.
[744] 'In England,' wrote Burke, 'the Roman Catholics are a sect; in Ireland they are a nation.' Burke's Corres. iv. 89.
[745] 'The celebrated number of ten persecutions has been determined by the ecclesiastical writers of the fifth century, who possessed a more distinct view of the prosperous or adverse fortunes of the church, from the age of Nero to that of Diocletian. The ingenious parallels of the ten plagues of Egypt, and of the ten horns of the Apocalypse, first suggested this calculation to their minds.' Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. xvi, ed. 1807, ii. 370.
[746] See ante, ii. 121, 130.
[747] See ante, ii. 105.
[748] Reynolds said:—'Johnson had one virtue which I hold one of the most difficult to practise. After the heat of contest was over, if he had been informed that his antagonist resented his rudeness, he was the first to seek after a reconciliation.' Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 457. He wrote to Dr. Taylor in 1756:—'When I am musing alone, I feel a pang for every moment that any human being has by my peevishness or obstinacy spent in uneasiness.' Notes and Queries, 6th S., v. 324. More than twenty years later he said in Miss Burney's hearing:—'I am always sorry when I make bitter speeches, and I never do it but when I am insufferably vexed.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, i. 131. 'When the fray was over,' writes Murphy (Life, p. 140), 'he generally softened into repentance, and, by conciliating measures, took care that no animosity should be left rankling in the breast of the antagonist.' See ante, ii. 109.
[749] Johnson had offended Langton as well as Goldsmith this day, yet of Goldsmith only did he ask pardon. Perhaps this fact increased Langton's resentment, which lasted certainly more than a year. See post, July 5, 1774, and Jan. 21, 1775.
[750] 'Addison, speaking of his own deficiency in conversation, used to say of himself, that with respect to intellectual wealth he could draw bills for a thousand pounds, though he had not a guinea in his pocket.' Johnson's Works, vii. 446. Somewhat the same thought may be found in The Tatler, No. 30, where it is said that 'a man endowed with great perfections without good-breeding, is like one who has his pockets full of gold, but always wants change for his ordinary occasions.' I have traced it still earlier, for Burnet in his History of his own Times, i. 210, says, that 'Bishop Wilkins used to say Lloyd had the most learning in ready cash of any he ever knew.' Later authors have used the same image. Lord Chesterfield (Letters, ii. 291) in 1749 wrote of Lord Bolingbroke:—'He has an infinite fund of various and almost universal knowledge, which, from the clearest and quickest conception and happiest memory that ever man was blessed with, he always carries about him. It is his pocket-money, and he never has occasion to draw upon a book for any sum.' Southey wrote in 1816 (Life and Corres. iv. 206):—'I wish to avoid a conference which will only sink me in Lord Liverpool's judgment; what there may be in me is not payable at sight; give me leisure and I feel my strength.' Rousseau was in want of readiness like Addison:—'Je fais d'excellens impromptus à loisir; mais sur le temps je n'ai jamais rien fait ni dit qui vaille. Je ferais une fort jolie conversation par la poste, comme on dit que les Espagnols jouent aux échecs. Quand je lus le trait d'un Duc de Savoye qui se retourna, faisant route, pour crier; à votre gorge, marchand de Paris, je dis, me voilà .' Les Confessions, Livre iii. See also post, May 8, 1778.
[751] 'Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces, or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings; and Milton, in a letter to a learned stranger, by whom he had been visited, with great reason congratulates himself upon the consciousness of being found equal to his own character, and having preserved in a private and familiar interview that reputation which his works had procured him.' The Rambler, No. 14.
[752] Prior (Life of Goldsmith, ii. 459) says that it was not a German who interrupted Goldsmith but a Swiss, Mr. Moser, the keeper of the Royal Academy (post, June 2, 1783). He adds that at a Royal Academy dinner Moser interrupted another person in the same way, when Johnson seemed preparing to speak, whereupon Goldsmith said, 'Are you sure that you can comprehend what he says?'