to keep up a spirit in the people, so as to preserve a balance against the crown.’  Johnson.  ’Sir, I perceive you are a vile Whig.  Why all this childish jealousy of the power of the crown?  The crown has not power enough.  When I say that all governments are alike, I consider that in no government power can be abused long.  Mankind will not bear it.  If a sovereign oppresses his people to a great degree, they will rise and cut off his head.  There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe under every form of government.  Had not the people of France thought themselves honoured as sharing in the brilliant actions of Lewis XIV, they would not have endured him; and we may say the same of the King of Prussia’s people.’  Sir Adam introduced the ancient Greeks and Romans.  Johnson.  ’Sir, the mass of both of them were barbarians.  The mass of every people must be barbarous where there is no printing, and consequently knowledge is not generally diffused.  Knowledge is diffused among our people by the news-papers.’  Sir Adam mentioned the orators, poets, and artists of Greece.  Johnson.  ’Sir, I am talking of the mass of the people.  We see even what the boasted Athenians were.  The little effect which Demosthenes’s orations had upon them, shews that they were barbarians.’

On Sunday, April 5, after attending divine service at St. Paul’s church, I found him alone.

He said, he went more frequently to church when there were prayers only, than when there was also a sermon, as the people required more an example for the one than the other; it being much easier for them to hear a sermon, than to fix their minds on prayer.

On Monday, April 6, I dined with him at Sir Alexander Macdonald’s, where was a young officer in the regimentals of the Scots Royal, who talked with a vivacity, fluency, and precision so uncommon, that he attracted particular attention.  He proved to be the Honourable Thomas Erskine, youngest brother to the Earl of Buchan, who has since risen into such brilliant reputation at the bar in Westminster-hall.

Fielding being mentioned, Johnson exclaimed, ‘he was a blockhead;’ and upon my expressing my astonishment at so strange an assertion, he said, ‘What I mean by his being a blockhead is that he was a barren rascal.’  Boswell.  ’Will you not allow, Sir, that he draws very natural pictures of human life?’ Johnson.  ’Why, Sir, it is of very low life.  Richardson used to say, that had he not known who Fielding was, he should have believed he was an ostler.  Sir, there is more knowledge of the heart in one letter of Richardson’s, than in all Tom Jones.  I, indeed, never read Joseph Andrews.’  Erskine.  ‘Surely, Sir, Richardson is very tedious.’  Johnson.  ’Why, Sir, if you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself.  But you must read him for the sentiment, and consider the story as only giving occasion to the sentiment.’