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expect he would behave to me, were I a nobleman and he Sam. Johnfon. Sir, there is one Mrs. Macaulay in this town, a great republican. One day, when I was at her house, I put on a very grave countenance, and said to her, 'Madam, I am now become a convert to your way of thinking. I am convinced that all mankind are upon an equal footing; and to give you an unquestionable proof, Madam, that I am in earnest, here is a very sensible, civil, wellbehaved fellow-citizen, your footman; I defire that he may be allowed to fit down and dine with us.' I thus, Sir, shewed her the abfurdity of the levelling doctrine. She has never liked me fince. Sir, your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves. They would all have fome people under them; why not then have fome people above them?" A certain author was mentioned, who disgusted by his forwardness, and by shewing no deference to noblemen into whose company he was admitted. Johnson said, "Suppose a shoemaker should claim an equality with him, as he does with a lord, how would he stare! -'Why, Sir, do you stare (says the shoemaker) ? I do great service to society. 'Tis true, I am paid for doing it; but so are you, Sir: and I am forry to say it, better paid than I am, for doing something not

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necessary; for mankind could do better without your books, than without my shoes.' Thus there would be a perpetual ftruggle for precedence, were there no fixed invariable rules for the distinction of rank, which creates no jealousy, as it is allowed to be accidental."

On another occafion (says Mr. B.) we had talked of old families, and the respect due to them. Johnson said, "Sir, you have a right to that kind of respect, and are arguing for yourfelf. I am for fupporting the principle, and am disinterested in doing it, as I have no such right."-B. "Why, Sir, it is one more incitement to a man to do well."-7. "Yes, Sir, and it is a matter of opinion very neceffary to keep society together. What is it but opinion by which we have a respect for authority, that prevents us, who are the rabble, from rifing up, and pulling down you who are gentlemen from your places, and saying, 'We will be gentlemen in our turn!' Now, Sir, that respect for authority is much more eafily granted to a man whose father has had it, than to an upstart; and so society is more eafily supported."-B. " Perhaps, Sir, it might be done by the respect belonging to office, as among the Romans, where the dress, the toga, inspired reverence. - J. "Why, we know very little about the Romans. But, surely, it is much easier to respect a man who who has always had respect, than to respect a man who we know was last year no better than ourselves, and will be no better next year. In republics there is not a respect for authority, but a fear of power."-B. "At present, Sir, I think riches seem to gain most respect."-7. "No, Sir, riches do not gain hearty respect; they only procure external attention. A very rich man, from low beginnings, may buy his election in a borough; but, cæteris paribus, a man of family will be preferred. People will prefer a man for whose father their fathers have voted, though they should get no more money, or even less. This shews that the respect for family is not merely fanciful, but has an actual operation. If gentlemen of family would allow the rich upstarts to spend their money profusely, which they are ready enough to do, and not vie with them in expence, the upstarts would foon be at an end, and the gentlemen would remain: but if the gentlemen will vie in expence with the upstarts, which is very foolish, they must be ruined."

Johnson, indeed, though of no high extraction himself, had much respect for birth and family, especially among ladies. "Adventitious accomplishments (faid he) may be poffefsed by all ranks; but one may easily diftinguish the born gentlewoman."

One evening at Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Chambers's in the temple, he talked with a noble enthusiasm of keeping up the representation of refpectable families. His zeal on this fubject was a circumstance in his character exceedingly remarkable, when it is confidered that he had no pretenfions to blood. He himself once faid, "I have great merit in being zealous for fubordination and the honours of birth; for I can hardly tell who was my grandfather." He maintained the dignity and propriety of male fucceffion, in oppofition to the opinion of one who had that day employed Mr. Chambers to draw his will, devifing his eftate to his three fifters, in preference to a remote heir male. Johnfon called them ' three dowdies, and faid, with as high a spirit as the boldest Baron in the most perfect days of the feudal system, ancient efiate should always go to males. It is mighty foolish to let a stranger have it because he marries your daughter, and takes your name. As for an estate newly-acquired by trade, you may give it, if you will, to the dog Towfer, and let him keep his own name."

An

" Providence (he observed at another time) has wifely ordered that the more numerous men are, the more difficult it is for them to agree in any thing; and so they are governed. There is no doubt, that if the poor should reason,"We'll,

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We'll be the poor no longer, we'll make the rich take their turn, they could easily do it, were it not that they can't agree. So the common foldiers, though so much more numerous than their officers, are governed by them for the fame reafon."

Some one told him, that Mrs. Macaulay wondered how he could reconcile his political principles with his moral; his notions of inequality and fubordination with wishing well to the happiness of all mankind, who might live so agreeably, had they all their portions of land, and none to domineer over another. "Why, Sir (faid he), I reconcile my principles very well, because mankind are happier in a state of inequality and fubordination. Were they to be in this pretty state of equality, they would foon degenerate into brutes; they would become Monboddo's nation; their tails would grow. Sir, all would be losers, were all to work for all :-they would have no intellectual improvement. All intellectual improvement arises from leisure: all leisure arises from one working for another."

On another occasion he said, "So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident fuperiority over the other."