File:Johnsoniana - or, Supplement to Boswell - being anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson - collected by Piozzi, Hawkins, Tyers (et al.). (1836) (14597004100).jpg

Identifier: johnsonianaorsup00bosw (find matches)
Title: Johnsoniana : or, Supplement to Boswell : being anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson / collected by Piozzi, Hawkins, Tyers ... (et al.).
Year: 1836 (1830s)
Authors: Boswell, James, 1740-1795. Life of Samuel Johnson
Subjects: Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784
Publisher: London : J. Murray
Contributing Library: UCLA Library, Preservation Department
Digitizing Sponsor: University of California, Los Angeles

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ary descent from possible splendour to painfulduty. (j. Dreams and Ghosts. I have heard him relate an odd thing of himself, but itis one which every body has heard as well as I : how,when he was about nine years old, having got the play ofHamlet in his hand, and reading it quietly in his fatherskitchen, he kept on steadily enough, till, coming to theghost scene, he suddenly hurried up stairs to the streetdoor that he might see people about him ; such an inci-dent, as he was not unwilling to relate it, is probably inevery ones possession now ; he told it as a testimony tothe merits of Shakspeare : but one day when my son wasgoing to school, and dear Dr. Johnson followed as far asthe garden gate, praying for his salvation, in a voicewhich those who listened attentively could hear plainenough, he said to me suddenly, Make your boy tellyou his dreams : the first corruption that entered into myheart was communicated in a dream. What was it,Sir ? said I. Do not ask me, replied he, with much
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*x piozzi. 5 violence, and walked away in apparent agitation. I neverdurst make any further inquiries. 7. Education of Children. Mr. Johnson was exceedingly disposed to the generalindulgence of children, and was even scrupulously andceremoniously attentive not to offend them: he had stronglypersuaded himself of the difficulty people always find toerase early impressions either of kindness or resentment,and said, he should never have so loved his motherwhen a man, had she not given him coffee she could illafford, to gratify his appetite when a boy/ If you had had children, Sir, said I, would youhave taught them any thing? I hope, replied he, that I should have willingly lived on bread and waterto obtain instruction for them ; but I would not have settheir future friendship to hazard, for the sake of thrustinginto their heads knowledge of things for which they mightnot perhaps have either taste or necessity. You teachyour daughters the diameters of the planets, and wonder,when you have

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