[26] In Macbeth.

[27] Mr. Longley was Recorder of Rochester, and father of Archbishop Longley.  To the kindness of his grand-daughter, Mrs. Newton Smart, I owe the following extract from his manuscript Autobiography:—­’Dr. Johnson and General Paoli came down to visit Mr. Langton, and I was asked to meet them, when the conversation took place mentioned by Boswell, in which Johnson gave me more credit for knowledge of the Greek metres than I deserved.  There was some question about anapaestics, concerning which I happened to remember what Foster used to tell us at Eton, that the whole line to the Basis Anapaestica was considered but as one verse, however divided in the printing, and consequently the syllables at the end of each line were not common, as in other metres.  This observation was new to Johnson, and struck him.  Had he examined me farther, I fear he would have found me ignorant.  Langton was a very good Greek scholar, much superior to Johnson, to whom nevertheless he paid profound deference, sometimes indeed I thought more than he deserved.  The next day I dined at Langton’s with Johnson, I remember Lady Rothes [Langton’s wife] spoke of the advantage children now derived from the little books published purposely for their instruction.  Johnson controverted it, asserting that at an early age it was better to gratify curiosity with wonders than to attempt planting truth, before the mind was prepared to receive it, and that therefore, Jack the Giant-Killer, Parisenus and Parismenus, and The Seven Champions of Christendom were fitter for them than Mrs. Barbauld and Mrs. Trimmer.’  Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 16) says:—­’Dr. Johnson used to condemn me for putting Newbery’s books into children’s hands.  “Babies do not want,” said he, “to hear about babies; they like to be told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and stimulate their little minds.”  When I would urge the numerous editions of Tommy Prudent or Goody Two Shoes; “Remember always,” said he, “that the parents buy the books, and that the children never read them.’” For Johnson’s visit to Rochester, see post, July, 1783.

[28] See post, beginning of 1781, after The Life of Swift, and Boswell’s Hebrides, Oct. 15.

[29] See ante, under Sept. 9, 1779.

[30] Johnson wrote of this grotto (Works, viii. 270):—­’It may be frequently remarked of the studious and speculative that they are proud of trifles, and that their amusements seem frivolous and childish.’

[31] See ante, i. 332.