’Johnson was well acquainted with Mr. Dossie, authour of a treatise on Agriculture[38]; and said of him, “Sir, of the objects which the Society of Arts have chiefly in view, the chymical effects of bodies operating upon other bodies, he knows more than almost any man.”  Johnson, in order to give Mr. Dossie his vote to be a member of this Society, paid up an arrear which had run on for two years.  On this occasion he mentioned a circumstance as characteristick of the Scotch.  One of that nation, (said he,) who had been a candidate, against whom I had voted, came up to me with a civil salutation.  Now, Sir, this is their way.  An Englishman would have stomached it, and been sulky, and never have taken further notice of you; but a Scotchman, Sir, though you vote nineteen times against him, will accost you with equal complaisance after each time, and the twentieth time, Sir, he will get your vote.’

’Talking on the subject of toleration, one day when some friends were with him in his study, he made his usual remark, that the State has a right to regulate the religion of the people, who are the children of the State[39].  A clergyman having readily acquiesced in this, Johnson, who loved discussion, observed, “But, Sir, you must go round to other States than our own.  You do not know what a Bramin has to say for himself[40].  In short, Sir, I have got no further than this:  Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it.  Martyrdom is the test[41]."’

’A man, he observed, should begin to write soon; for, if he waits till his judgement is matured, his inability, through want of practice to express his conceptions, will make the disproportion so great between what he sees, and what he can attain, that he will probably be discouraged from writing at all[42].  As a proof of the justness of this remark, we may instance what is related of the great Lord Granville[43]; that after he had written his letter, giving an account of the battle of Dettingen, he said, “Here is a letter, expressed in terms not good enough for a tallow-chandler to have used.’”

’Talking of a Court-martial that was sitting upon a very momentous publick occasion, he expressed much doubt of an enlightened decision; and said, that perhaps there was not a member of it, who in the whole course of his life, had ever spent an hour by himself in balancing probabilities[44].’

’Goldsmith one day brought to the CLUB a printed Ode, which he, with others, had been hearing read by its authour in a publick room at the rate of five shillings each for admission[45].  One of the company having read it aloud, Dr. Johnson said, “Bolder words and more timorous meaning, I think never were brought together."’

’Talking of Gray’s Odes, he said, “They are forced plants raised in a hot-bed[46]; and they are poor plants; they are but cucumbers after all.”  A gentleman present, who had been running down Ode-writing in general, as a bad species of poetry, unluckily said, “Had they been literally cucumbers, they had been better things than Odes.”—­“Yes, Sir, (said Johnson,) for a hog."’