It may be objected by some persons, as it has been by one of my friends, that he who has the power of thus exhibiting an exact transcript of conversations is not a desirable member of society.  I repeat the answer which I made to that friend:—­’Few, very few, need be afraid that their sayings will be recorded.  Can it be imagined that I would take the trouble to gather what grows on every hedge, because I have collected such fruits as the Nonpareil and the BON CHRETIEN[1146]?’

On the other hand, how useful is such a faculty, if well exercised!  To it we owe all those interesting apophthegms and memorabilia of the ancients, which Plutarch, Xenophon, and Valerius Maximus, have transmitted to us.  To it we owe all those instructive and entertaining collections which the French have made under the title of Ana, affixed to some celebrated name.  To it we owe the Table-Talk of Selden[1147], the Conversation between Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden, Spence’s Anecdotes of Pope[1148], and other valuable remains in our own language.  How delighted should we have been, if thus introduced into the company of Shakspeare and of Dryden[1149], of whom we know scarcely any thing but their admirable writings!  What pleasure would it have given us, to have known their petty habits, their characteristick manners, their modes of composition, and their genuine opinion of preceding writers and of their contemporaries!  All these are now irrecoverably lost.  Considering how many of the strongest and most brilliant effusions of exalted intellect must have perished, how much is it to be regretted that all men of distinguished wisdom and wit have not been attended by friends, of taste enough to relish, and abilities enough to register their conversation;

     ’Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
      Multi, sed omnes illacrymabiles
      Urgentur, ignotique longa
      Nocte, carent quia vate sacro[1150].’

They whose inferiour exertions are recorded, as serving to explain or illustrate the sayings of such men, may be proud of being thus associated, and of their names being transmitted to posterity, by being appended to an illustrious character.

Before I conclude, I think it proper to say, that I have suppressed[1151] every thing which I thought could really hurt any one now living.  Vanity and self-conceit indeed may sometimes suffer.  With respect to what is related, I considered it my duty to ’extenuate nothing, nor set down aught in malice[1152];’ and with those lighter strokes of Dr. Johnson’s satire, proceeding from a warmth and quickness of imagination, not from any malevolence of heart, and which, on account of their excellence, could not be omitted, I trust that they who are the subject of them have good sense and good temper enough not to be displeased.

I have only to add, that I shall ever reflect with great pleasure on a Tour, which has been the means of preserving so much of the enlightened and instructive conversation of one whose virtues will, I hope, ever be an object of imitation, and whose powers of mind were so extraordinary, that ages may revolve before such a man shall again appear.