Johnson and Taylor were so different from each other, that I wondered at their preserving an intimacy.  Their having been at school and college together, might, in some degree, account for this; but Sir Joshua Reynolds has furnished me with a stronger reason; for Johnson mentioned to him, that he had been told by Taylor he was to be his heir.  I shall not take upon me to animadvert upon this; but certain it is, that Johnson paid great attention to Taylor.  He now, however, said to me, ’Sir, I love him; but I do not love him more; my regard for him does not increase.  As it is said in the Apocrypha, “his talk is of bullocks:”  I do not suppose he is very fond of my company.  His habits are by no means sufficiently clerical:  this he knows that I see; and no man likes to live under the eye of perpetual disapprobation.’

I have no doubt that a good many sermons were composed for Taylor by Johnson.  At this time I found, upon his table, a part of one which he had newly begun to write:  and Concio pro Tayloro appears in one of his diaries.  When to these circumstances we add the internal evidence from the power of thinking and style, in the collection which the Reverend Mr. Hayes has published, with the significant title of ’Sermons left for publication by the Reverend John Taylor, LL.D.,’ our conviction will be complete.

I, however, would not have it thought, that Dr. Taylor, though he could not write like Johnson, (as, indeed, who could?) did not sometimes compose sermons as good as those which we generally have from very respectable divines.  He shewed me one with notes on the margin in Johnson’s handwriting; and I was present when he read another to Johnson, that he might have his opinion of it, and Johnson said it was ‘very well.’  These, we may be sure, were not Johnson’s; for he was above little arts, or tricks of deception.

I mentioned to Johnson a respectable person of a very strong mind, who had little of that tenderness which is common to human nature; as an instance of which, when I suggested to him that he should invite his son, who had been settled ten years in foreign parts, to come home and pay him a visit, his answer was, ’No, no, let him mind his business.  Johnson.  ’I do not agree with him, Sir, in this.  Getting money is not all a man’s business:  to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.’

In the evening, Johnson, being in very good spirits, entertained us with several characteristical portraits.  I regret that any of them escaped my retention and diligence.  I found, from experience, that to collect my friend’s conversation so as to exhibit it with any degree of its original flavour, it was necessary to write it down without delay.  To record his sayings, after some distance of time, was like preserving or pickling long-kept and faded fruits, or other vegetables, which, when in that state, have little or nothing of their taste when fresh.