I had before dinner repeated a ridiculous story told me by an old man who had been a passenger with me in the stage-coach to-day.  Mrs. Thrale, having taken occasion to allude to it in talking to me, called it ’The story told you by the old woman.’—­’Now, Madam, (said I,) give me leave to catch you in the fact; it was not an old woman, but an old man, whom I mentioned as having told me this.’  I presumed to take an opportunity, in presence of Johnson, of shewing this lively lady how ready she was, unintentionally, to deviate from exact authenticity of narration.

Next morning, while we were at breakfast, Johnson gave a very earnest recommendation of what he himself practised with the utmost conscientiousness:  I mean a strict attention to truth, even in the most minute particulars.  ’Accustom your children (said he,) constantly to this; if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end.’  Boswell.  ’It may come to the door:  and when once an account is at all varied in one circumstance, it may by degrees be varied so as to be totally different from what really happened.’  Our lively hostess, whose fancy was impatient of the rein, fidgeted at this, and ventured to say, ’Nay, this is too much.  If Mr. Johnson should forbid me to drink tea, I would comply, as I should feel the restraint only twice a day; but little variations in narrative must happen a thousand times a day, if one is not perpetually watching.’  Johnson.  ’Well, Madam, and you ought to be perpetually watching.  It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world.’

He was indeed so much impressed with the prevalence of falsehood, voluntary or unintentional, that I never knew any person who upon hearing an extraordinary circumstance told, discovered more of the incredulus odi.  He would say, with a significant look and decisive tone, ‘It is not so.  Do not tell this again.’  He inculcated upon all his friends the importance of perpetual vigilance against the slightest degrees of falsehood; the effect of which, as Sir Joshua Reynolds observed to me, has been, that all who were of his school are distinguished for a love of truth and accuracy, which they would not have possessed in the same degree, if they had not been acquainted with Johnson.

Talking of ghosts, he said, ’It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death.  All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.’

He said, ’John Wesley’s conversation is good, but he is never at leisure.  He is always obliged to go at a certain hour.  This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have out his talk, as I do.’