Johnson.  ’No, Sir; wine gives not light, gay, ideal hilarity; but tumultuous, noisy, clamorous merriment.  I have heard none of those drunken,—­nay, drunken is a coarse word,—­none of those vinous flights.’  Sir Joshua.  ’Because you have sat by, quite sober, and felt an envy of the happiness of those who were drinking.’  Johnson.  ’Perhaps, contempt.—­And, Sir, it is not necessary to be drunk one’s self, to relish the wit of drunkenness.  Do we not judge of the drunken wit, of the dialogue between Iago and Cassio, the most excellent in its kind, when we are quite sober?  Wit is wit, by whatever means it is produced; and, if good, will appear so at all times.  I admit that the spirits are raised by drinking, as by the common participation of any pleasure:  cock-fighting, or bear-baiting, will raise the spirits of a company, as drinking does, though surely they will not improve conversation.  I also admit, that there are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits which are not good till they are rotten.  There are such men, but they are medlars.  I indeed allow that there have been a very few men of talents who were improved by drinking; but I maintain that I am right as to the effects of drinking in general:  and let it be considered, that there is no position, however false in its universality, which is not true of some particular man.’  Sir William Forbes said, ’Might not a man warmed with wine be like a bottle of beer, which is made brisker by being set before the fire?’—­’Nay, (said Johnson, laughing,) I cannot answer that:  that is too much for me.’

I observed, that wine did some people harm, by inflaming, confusing, and irritating their minds; but that the experience of mankind had declared in favour of moderate drinking.  Johnson.  ’Sir, I do not say it is wrong to produce self complacency by drinking; I only deny that it improves the mind.  When I drank wine, I scorned to drink it when in company.  I have drunk many a bottle by myself; in the first place, because I had need of it to raise my spirits; in the second place, because I would have nobody to witness its effects upon me.’

He told us, ’almost all his Ramblers were written just as they were wanted for the press; that he sent a certain portion of the copy of an essay, and wrote the remainder, while the former part of it was printing.  When it was wanted, and he had fairly sat down to it, he was sure it would be done.’

He said, that for general improvement, a man should read whatever his immediate inclination prompts him to; though, to be sure, if a man has a science to learn, he must regularly and resolutely advance.  He added, ’what we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression.  If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.’  He told us, he read Fielding’s Amelia through without stopping.  He said, ’if a man begins to read in the middle of a book, and feels an inclination to go on, let him not quit it, to go to the beginning.  He may perhaps not feel again the inclination.’