The detail of his domestick day, however minute or trifling it may appear at present, will, I am confident. at a future period not be unacceptable. He usually rose about eight o'clock, breakfasted at nine, and was in his painting-room before ten. Here he generally employed an hour on some study, or on the subordinate parts of whatever portrait happened to be in hand; and from eleven the following five hours were devoted to those who sat for their pictures: with occasionally short intervals, during which he sometimes admitted the visit of a friend. Such was his love of his art, and such his ardour to excel, that he often declared he had during the greater part of his life laboured as hard with his pencil, as any mechanick working at his trade for bread." About two

more methodically instituted in the early part of life, and had possessed more leisure for study and reflection, he would in my opinion have pursued this method with great success."

58 An observation made by Dr. Johnson on Pope, is extremely applicable to our author, when employed in his

days in the week, during the winter, he dined abroad; once, and sometimes oftner, The had company at home by invitation; and during the remainder of the week he dined. with his family, frequently with the addition. of two or three friends. It must not be understood that the days of every week were thus regularly distributed by a fixed plan; but this was the general course. In the evenings, when not engaged by the Academy, or in some publick or private assembly, or at the theatre, he was fond of collecting a few friends at home, and joining in a party at whist, which, was his favourite game. In consequence of being acquainted with a great variety of persons, he frequently collected a company of seven or eight at dinner, in the morning of the day on which they

painting-room. "He was one of those few whose labour is their pleasure he was never elevated into negligence, nor wearied to impatience; he never passed a fault un corrected by indifference, nor quitted it by despair. He laboured his works, first to gain reputation, and afterwards to keep it." LIVES OF THE POETS, iv. 163.

met as the greater part of his friends were men well known in the world, they seldom found themselves unacquainted with each other and these extemporaneous entertainments were often productive of greater conviviality than more formal and premedi-. tated invitations. The marked character of his table, I think, was, that though there was always an abundant supply of those elegancies which the season afforded, the variety of the courses, the excellence of the dishes, or the flavour of the Burgundy, made the least part of the conversation: though the appetite was gratified by the usual delicacies, and the glass imperceptibly and without solicitation was cheerfully circulated, every thing of this kind appeared secondary and subordinate; and there seemed to be a general, though tacit, agreement among the guests, that mind should predominate over body; that the honours of the turtle and the haunch should give place to the feast of wit, and that for a redundant flow of wine the flow of soul

should be substituted. Of a table thus constituted, with such a host and such guests, who would not wish to participate?

To enumerate all the eulogies which have been made on our author, would exceed the limits that I have prescribed to myself in this short narrative; but I ought not to omit the testimony borne to his worth by Dr. Johnson, who declared him to be "the most invulnerable man he knew; whom, if he should quarrel with him, he should find the most difficulty how to abuse." Johnson's well-known and rigid adherence to truth on all occasions, gives this encomium great additional value.

He has, however, one claim to praise, which I think it my duty particularly to mention, because otherwise his merit in this respect might perhaps be unknown to future ages; I mean, the praise to which he is en

66 Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson ;-Dedication.

titled for the rectitude of his judgement concerning those pernicious doctrines, that were made the basis of that Revolution which took place in France not long before his death. Before the publication of Mr. Burke's REFLECTIONS on that subject " he had been favoured with a perusal of that incomparable work, and was lavish in his encomiums upon it. He was indeed never weary of expressing his admiration of the profound sagacity which saw, in their em bryo state, all the evils with which this country was threatened by that tremendous convulsion; he well knew how eagerly all the wild and erroneous principles of government attempted to be established by the pretended philosophers of France, would be cherished and enforced by those turbulent and unruly spirits among us, whom no King could govern, nor no GOD could please; and

S7 October, 1790.

5 How justly may we apply the immediately following lines of the same great Poet, to those demagogues