CHAP. VI.J IXTKODUCTIOXS AT TOM DAVIES'S.
" no," whispered Derrick, who knew Mm to be a wealthy 1702.
baker from the city, " only for a master of the rolls." Gold- 2Et. 34.
smith was not much of an orator; Doctor Kippis remembered
him making an attempt at a speech in the Society of Arts on
one occasion, and obliged to sit down in confusion ;* but till
Derrick went away to succeed Beau Nash at Bath, he
seems to have continued his visits, and even spoken occa-
sionally; for he figures in a flattering account of the
members published at about this time, as " a good orator
" and candid disputant, with a clear head and an honest heart,
" though, coming but seldom to the society." The honest
heart was worn upon his sleeve, whatever his society might
be. He could not even visit the three Cherokees, whom all
the world were at this time visiting, without leaving the savage
chiefs a trace of it. He gave them some " trifle " they did
not look for; and so did the gift, or the manner of it,
* "The great room of the society now mentioned," says Doctor Kippis, at the
close of his memoir of Mr. Gilbert Cooper, and referring to the Society of Aits,
'' was for several years the place where many persons chose to try, or to display,
" their oratorical abilities. Doctor Goldsmith, I remember, made an attempt at a
" speech, but was obliged to sit down in confusion. I once heard Doctor Johnson
" speak there, upon a subject relating to mechanics, with a propriety, perspicuity,
" and energy which excited general admiration." Bwg. Brit, (new edit.) iv. 266.
Against this, however, in so far as Johnson is concerned, we have to set off the express
and very interesting statement in Boswell's Life, iii. 157-8. "I remember it was ob-
" served by Mr. Flood, that Johnson, having been long used to sententious brevity,
'' and the short flights of conversation, might have failed in that continued and ex-
'' panded kind of argument which is requisite in stating complicated matters in public
'' speaking; and, as a proof of this, he mentioned the supposed speeches in parliament
" written by him for the magazine, none of which, in his opinion, were at all like
<f real debates. The opinion of one who was himself so eminent an orator, must
'' be allowed to have great weight. It was confirmed by Sir William Scott [Lord
' Stowell], who mentioned, that" Johnson had told him that he had several times
' tried to speak in the Society of Arts and Sciences, but had found he could not
' get on. From Mr. "William Gerard Hamilton I have heard, that Johnson, when
' observing to him that it was prudent for a man who had not been accustomed to
' speak in public to begin his speech in as simple a manner as possible,
' acknowledged that he rose in that society to deliver a speech which he had
'prepared; 'but,'said he, 'all my flowers of oratory forsook me.'"