In him were united a most logical head with a most fertile imagination, which gave him an extraordinary advantage in arguing:  for he could reason close or wide, as he saw best for the moment.  Exulting in his intellectual strength and dexterity, he could, when he pleased, be the greatest sophist that ever contended in the lists of declamation; and, from a spirit of contradiction and a delight in shewing his powers, he would often maintain the wrong side with equal warmth and ingenuity; so that, when there was an audience, his real opinions could seldom be gathered from his talk[1298]; though when he was in company with a single friend, he would discuss a subject with genuine fairness:  but he was too conscientious to make errour permanent and pernicious, by deliberately writing it; and, in all his numerous works, he earnestly inculcated what appeared to him to be the truth; his piety being constant, and the ruling principle of all his conduct[1299].

Such was SAMUEL JOHNSON, a man whose talents, acquirements, and virtues, were so extraordinary, that the more his character is considered, the more he will be regarded by the present age, and by posterity, with admiration and reverence[1300].

APPENDIX A.

(Page 115, note 4.)

There are at least three accounts of this altercation and three versions of the lines.  Two of these versions nearly agree.  The earliest is found in a letter by Richard Burke, senior, dated Jan. 6, 1773 (Burke Corres. i. 403); the second in The Annual Register for 1776, p. 223; and the third in Miss Reynolds’s Recollections (Croker’s Boswell, 8vo. p. 833).  R. Burke places the scene in Reynolds’s house.  Whether he himself was present is not clear.  ‘The dean,’ he says, ’asserted that after forty-five a man did not improve.  “I differ with you, Sir,” answered Johnson; “a man may improve, and you yourself have great room for improvement.”  The dean was confounded, and for the instant silent.  Recovering, he said, “On recollection I see no cause to alter my opinion, except I was to call it improvement for a man to grow (which I allow he may) positive, rude, and insolent, and save arguments by brutality."’ Neither the Annual Register nor Miss Reynolds reports the Dean’s speech.  But she says that ’soon after the ladies withdrew, Dr. Johnson followed them, and sitting down by the lady of the house [that is by herself, if they were at Sir Joshua’s] he said, “I am very sorry for having spoken so rudely to the Dean.”  “You very well may, Sir.”  “Yes,” he said, “it was highly improper to speak in that style to a minister of the gospel, and I am the more hurt on reflecting with what mild dignity he received it."’ If Johnson really spoke of the Dean’s mild dignity, it is clear that Richard Burke’s account is wrong.  But it was written just after the scene, and Boswell says there was ’a pretty