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This was modest in Johnson, but there was more truth than he perhaps intended in it. In general, Burke's views were certainly the subtler and more able. He penetrated deeper into the principles of things, below common life and what is called good sense, than Johnson could. 'Is he 'like Burke,' asked Goldsmith, when some one seemed to exalt Johnson's talk too highly, 'who winds into a 'subject like a serpent?' On the other hand, there was a strength and clearness in Johnson's conversational expression which was all his own, and which originated Percy's likening of it, as contrasted with ordinary conversation, to an antique statue with every vein and muscle distinct and bold, by the side of an inferior cast. He had, beside, wit, often an incomparable humour, and a hundred other interesting qualities, which Burke had not; while his rough dictatorial manner, his loud voice, and slow deliberate utterance, so much oftener suggested an objection than gave help to what he said, that one may doubt the truth of Lord Pembroke's pleasantry to Boswell, that 'his sayings would not appear so extraordinary but for 'his bow-wow way.' Of the ordinary listener, at any rate, the bow-wow way exacted something too much; and was quite as likely to stun as to strike him. 'He's a tremen'dous companion,' said poor George Garrick, when urged to confess of him what he really thought. He brought, into common talk, too plain an anticipation of victory and triumph. He wore his determination not to be thrown or beaten, whatever side he might please to take,

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somewhat defiantly upon his sleeve; and startled peaceful society a little too much with his uncle Andrew's habits in the ring at Smithfield. It was a sense, on his own part, of this eagerness to make every subject a battle ground, which made him say, at a moment of illness and exhaustion, that if he were to see Burke then, it would kill him. From the first day of their meeting, now some years ago, at Garrick's dinner table, his desire had been to measure himself, on all occasions, with Burke. I suppose, 'Murphy,' he said to Arthur, as they came away from the dinner, you are proud of your countryman. Cum talis 'sit utinam noster esset. The Club was an opportunity for both, and promptly seized; to the occasional overshadowing, no doubt, of the comforts and opportunities of other members. Yet, for the most part, their wit-combats seem not only to have interested the rest, but to have improved the temper of the combatants, and made them more generous to each other. How very great Johnson 'has been to-night,' said Burke to Langton, as they left the Club together. Langton assented, but could have wished to hear more from another person. 'Oh, no!' replied Burke, 'it is enough for me to have rung the bell to him.'

Bennet Langton was, in his own person, an eminent example of the high and humane class who are content to ring the bell to their friends. Admiration of the Rambler made him seek admittance to its author, when he was himself, some eight years back, but a lad of eighteen ; and his ingenuous manners and mild enthusiasm at once

won Johnson's love. That he represented a great Lincolnshire family, still living at their ancient seat of Langton, had not abridged his merits in the philosopher's regard; and when he went up to Trinity College Oxford, Johnson took occasion to visit him there; and there made the acquaintance of his college chum, and junior by two years, Topham Beauclerc, grandson of the first Duke of St. Albans. These two young men had several qualities in common; ready intellect, perfect manners, great love of literature, and a thorough admiration of Johnson; but, with these, such striking points of difference, that Johnson could not comprehend their intimacy when first he saw them together. It was not till he discovered what a scorn of fools Beauclerc blended with his love of folly; what virtues of the mind he set off against his vices of the body, and with how much gaiety and wit he carried off his licentiousness; that he became as fond of the laughing rake as of his quiet contemplative companion. 'I shall 'have my old friend to bail out of the round house,' exclaimed Garrick, when he heard of it; and of an incident in connexion with it, that occurred in the next Oxford vacation. His old friend had turned out of his chambers, at three o'clock in the morning, to have a 'frisk' with the young 'dogs;' had gone to a tavern in Covent Garden, and roared out Lord Lansdowne's drinking song over a bowl of bishop; had taken a boat with them and rowed to Billingsgate; and (according to Boswell) had resolved, with Beauclerc, 'to persevere in dissipation for the rest of

'the day,' when Langton pleaded an engagement to breakfast with some young ladies, and was scolded by the sage for leaving social friends to go and sit with a set of wretched un-idea'd girls. It was on hearing of similar proposed extravagances, soon after, that Beauclerc's mother angrily rebuked Johnson himself, and told him an old man should not put such things in young people's heads; but the frisking philosopher had as little respect for Lady Sydney's anger as for Garrick's decorous alarm. 'She had no notion of a joke, sir,' he said; 'she had come late into life, and had a mighty unpliable under'standing. And as for Garrick, sir, he durst not do such 'a thing. His wife would not let him!'

The taste for un-idea'd girls was not laughed out of Langton, nevertheless; and to none did his gentle domesticities become dearer than to Johnson. He left Oxford with a first-rate knowledge of Greek, and, what is of rarer growth at Oxford, untiring and all-embracing tolerance. His manners endeared him to men from whom he differed most; he listened even better than he talked; and there is no figure at this memorable Club more pleasing, none that takes kinder or vivider shape in the fancy, than Bennet Langton's. He was six feet six inches high, very meagre, stooped very much, pulled out a snuff-box whenever he began to talk, and had a habit of sitting with one leg twisted round the other, as if fearing to occupy more space than was equitable. Beauclerc said he was like the stork standing on one leg, in Raffaelle's

cartoon; but goodnaturedly; for the still surviving affection of their college-days checked even Beauclerc's propensity to satire, and as freely still, as in those college-days, Johnson frisked and philosophised with his Lanky and his Beau. The man of fashion had changed as little as the easy kindly scholar. Alternating, as in his Oxford career, pleasure and literature, the tavern and the court, books and the gaming table, he had but widened the scene of his wit and folly, his reasoning and merriment, his polished manners and well-bred contempt, his acuteness and maliciousness. Between the men of letters at the Turk's Head, and the glittering loungers in St. James's Street, he was the solitary link of connexion; and with George Selwyn at White's, or at Strawberry Hill with Walpole, was as much at home as with Johnson in Gerrard Street. It gave him an influence, a sort of secret charm, among these lettered companions, which Johnson himself very frankly confessed to. 'Beauclerc could take more liberty 'with him,' says Boswell, 'than anybody with whom I 'ever saw him;' and when his friends were studying stately congratulations on his pension, and Beau simply hoped, with Falstaff, that he'd in future purge and live cleanly like a gentleman, he laughed at the advice and took it. Such, indeed, was the effect upon him of that kind of accomplishment in which he felt himself deficient, that he more than once instanced Beauclerc's talents as those which he was more disposed to envy than those of any whom he had known.

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