[771] 'The qualities which commonly make an army formidable are long habits of regularity, great exactness of discipline, and great confidence in the commander … But the English troops have none of these requisites in any eminent degree. Regularity is by no means part of their character.' Johnson's Works, vi. 150.
[772] See ante, i. 348.
[773] In the Marmor Norfolciense (Works, vi. 101) he describes the soldier as 'a red animal, that ranges uncontrolled over the country, and devours the labours of the trader and the husbandman; that carries with it corruption, rapine, pollution, and devastation; that threatens without courage, robs without fear, and is pampered without labour.' In The Idler, No. 21, he makes an imaginary correspondent say:—'I passed some years in the most contemptible of all human stations, that of a soldier in time of peace.' 'Soldiers, in time of peace,' he continues, 'long to be delivered from the tyranny of idleness, and restored to the dignity of active beings.' Ib. No. 30, he writes:—'Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth by the falsehoods which interest dictates, and credulity encourages. A peace will equally leave the warriour and relater of wars destitute of employment; and I know not whether more is to be dreaded from streets filled with soldiers accustomed to plunder, or from garrets filled with scribblers accustomed to lie.' Many years later he wrote (Works, viii. 396):—'West continued some time in the army; though it is reasonable to suppose that he never sunk into a mere soldier, nor ever lost the love, or much neglected the pursuit of learning.'
[774] See ante, p. 9.
[775] See post, March 21, 1783.
[776] The reference seems to be to a passage in Plutarch's Alcibiades, where Phaeax is thus described:—'He seemed fitter for soliciting and persuading in private than for stemming the torrent of a public debate; in short, he was one of those of whom Eupolis says:—"True he can talk, and yet he is no speaker."' Langhome's Plutarch, ed. 1809, ii. 137. How the quotation was applied is a matter only for conjecture.
[777] 'Was there,' asked Johnson, 'ever yet anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and The Pilgrim's Progress?' Piozzi's Anec. p. 281.
[778] See ante, i. 406.
[779] See ante, March 25, 1776.
[780] In the Gent. Mag. for 1776, p. 382, this hulk seems to be mentioned:—'The felons sentenced under the new convict-act began to work in clearing the bed of the Thames about two miles below Barking Creek. In the vessel wherein they work there is a room abaft in which they are to sleep, and in the forecastle a kind of cabin for the overseer.' Ib. p. 254, there is an admirable paper, very likely by Bentham, on the punishment of convicts, which Johnson might have read with advantage.