his intimacy with Mr. Thrale’s family, though it no doubt contributed much to his comfort and enjoyment, was not without some degree of restraint:  not, as has been grossly suggested, that it was required of him as a task to talk for the entertainment of them and their company; but that he was not quite at his ease; which, however, might partly be owing to his own honest pride—­that dignity of mind which is always jealous of appearing too compliant.

On Sunday, March 31, I called on him, and shewed him as a curiosity which I had discovered, his Translation of Lobo’s Account of Abyssinia, which Sir John Pringle had lent me, it being then little known as one of his works.  He said, ‘Take no notice of it,’ or ‘don’t talk of it.’  He seemed to think it beneath him, though done at six-and-twenty.  I said to him, ‘Your style, Sir, is much improved since you translated this.’  He answered with a sort of triumphant smile, ‘Sir, I hope it is.’

On Wednesday, April 3, in the morning I found him very busy putting his books in order, and as they were generally very old ones, clouds of dust were flying around him.  He had on a pair of large gloves such as hedgers use.  His present appearance put me in mind of my uncle, Dr. Boswell’s description of him, ’A robust genius, born to grapple with whole libraries.’

He had been in company with Omai, a native of one of the South Sea Islands, after he had been some time in this country.  He was struck with the elegance of his behaviour, and accounted for it thus:  ’Sir, he had passed his time, while in England, only in the best company; so that all that he had acquired of our manners was genteel.  As a proof of this, Sir, Lord Mulgrave and he dined one day at Streatham; they sat with their backs to the light fronting me, so that I could not see distinctly; and there was so little of the savage in Omai, that I was afraid to speak to either, lest I should mistake one for the other.’

We agreed to dine to-day at the Mitre-tavern after the rising of the House of Lords, where a branch of the litigation concerning the Douglas Estate, in which I was one of the counsel, was to come on.

I introduced the topick, which is often ignorantly urged, that the Universities of England are too rich; so that learning does not flourish in them as it would do, if those who teach had smaller salaries, and depended on their assiduity for a great part of their income.  Johnson.  ’Sir, the very reverse of this is the truth; the English Universities are not rich enough.  Our fellowships are only sufficient to support a man during his studies to fit him for the world, and accordingly in general they are held no longer than till an opportunity offers of getting away.  Now and then, perhaps, there is a fellow who grows old in his college; but this is against his will, unless he be a man very indolent indeed.  A hundred a year is reckoned a good fellowship, and that is no more than is necessary to keep a man decently