The King then talked of literary journals, mentioned particularly the Journal des Savants, and asked Johnson if it was well done.  Johnson said it was formerly very well done, and gave some account of the persons who began it, and carried it on for some years; enlarging at the same time on the nature and use of such works.  The King asked him if it was well done now.  Johnson answered he had no reason to think that it was.  The King then asked him if there were any other literary journals published in this kingdom except the Monthly and Critical Reviews; and on being answered there was no other, his Majesty asked which of them was the best.  Johnson answered that the Monthly Review was done with most care, the Critical upon the best principles; adding that the authors of the Monthly Review were enemies to the Church.  This the King said he was sorry to hear.

The conversation next turned on the Philosophical Transactions, when Johnson observed that they had now a better method of arranging their materials than formerly.  “Ay” (said the King), “they are obliged to Dr. Johnson for that;” for his Majesty had heard and remembered the circumstance, which Johnson himself had forgot.

His Majesty expressed a desire to have the literary biography of this country ably executed, and proposed to Dr. Johnson to undertake it.  Johnson signified his readiness to comply with his Majesty’s wishes.

During the whole of this interview, Johnson talked to his Majesty with profound respect, but still in his firm, manly manner, with a sonorous voice, and never in that subdued tone which is commonly used at the levee and in the drawing-room.  After the King withdrew, Johnson showed himself highly pleased with his Majesty’s conversation and gracious behavior.  He said to Mr. Barnard, “Sir, they may talk of the King as they will; but he is the finest gentleman that I have ever seen.”  And he afterwards observed to Mr. Langton, “Sir, his manners are those of as fine a gentleman as we may suppose Lewis the Fourteenth or Charles the Second.”

At Sir Joshua Reynolds’s, where a circle of Johnson’s friends were collected round him to hear his account of this memorable conversation, Dr. Joseph Warton, in his frank and lively manner, was very active in pressing him to mention the particulars.  “Come now, sir, this is an interesting matter; do favor us with it.”  Johnson, with great good humor, complied.

He told them:—­“I found his Majesty wished I should talk, and I made it my business to talk.  I find it does a man good to be talked to by his Sovereign.  In the first place, a man cannot be in a passion—­” Here some question interrupted him; which is to be regretted, as he certainly would have pointed out and illustrated many circumstances of advantage, from being in a situation where the powers of the mind are at once excited to vigorous exertion and tempered by reverential awe.