'JAMES BOSWELL[809].'
'South Audley-street, April 25.'
On Monday, April 13, I dined with Johnson at Mr. Langton's, where were Dr. Porteus, then Bishop of Chester, now of London, and Dr. Stinton[810]. He was at first in a very silent mood. Before dinner he said nothing but 'Pretty baby,' to one of the children. Langton said very well to me afterwards, that he could repeat Johnson's conversation before dinner, as Johnson had said that he could repeat a complete chapter of The Natural History of Iceland, from the Danish of Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly thus:—
'CHAP. LXXII. Concerning snakes.
'There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island[811].'
At dinner we talked of another mode in the newspapers[812] of giving modern characters in sentences from the classicks, and of the passage
'Pareus deorum cultor, et infrequens,
Insanientis dum sapientiæ
Consultus erro, nunc retrorsùm
Vela dare, atque iterare cursus
Cogor relictos[813]:'
being well applied to Soame Jenyns; who, after having wandered in the wilds of infidelity, had returned to the Christian faith[814]. Mr. Langton asked Johnson as to the propriety of sapientiæ consultus. JOHNSON. 'Though consultus was primarily an adjective, like amicus it came to be used as a substantive. So we have Juris consultus, a consult in law.'
We talked of the styles of different painters, and how certainly a connoisseur could distinguish them; I asked, if there was as clear a difference of styles in language as in painting, or even as in hand-writing, so that the composition of every individual may be distinguished? JOHNSON. 'Yes. Those who have a style of eminent excellence, such as Dryden and Milton, can always be distinguished.' I had no doubt of this, but what I wanted to know was, whether there was really a peculiar style to every man whatever, as there is certainly a peculiar handwriting, a peculiar countenance, not widely different in many, yet always enough to be distinctive:—
'… facies non omnibus una, Nec diversa tamen[815].'