OLIVEE GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. [BOOK m.
1763. and then. " In my own mind I am convinced," says Miss
$1*35. Hawkins, " however he might persuade himself, that iny
" father was disgusted with the overpowering deportment of
" Burke, and his monopoly of the conversation, which made
" all the other members, excepting his antagonist Johnson,
" merely his auditors." Something of the same sort was
said by that antagonist ten years after the present date,
though in a more generous way. " What I most envy Burke
" for," said Johnson, after admitting the astonishing range of
his resources, but denying him the faculty of wit, "is, his being
" constantly the same. He is never what we call hum-drum;
" never unwilling to begin to talk, nor in haste to leave off."
(" Take up whatever topic you please," he said on another
occasion, "he is ready to meet you. .His stream of mind
" is perpetual.") " I cannot say he is good at listening. So
" desirous is he to talk, that if one is speaking at this end of
" the table, he'll speak to somebody at the other end. Burke,
'•' sir, is such a man, that if you met him for the first time in
" the street, where you were stopped by a drove of oxen, and
" you and he stepped aside to take shelter but for five
" minutes, he'd talk to you in such a manner, that, when you
" parted, you would say, This is an extraordinary man.*
" Now, you may be long enough with me, without finding
" anything extraordinary." t
* Over and over again Johnson repeated this illustration. Bos WELL. "Mr. Burke
' has a constant stream of conversation." JOHNSON. '' Yes, sir; if a man were to
' go by chance at the same time "with Burke under a shed, to shun a shower, he
' would say, This is an extraordinary man ! If Burke should go into a stable
' to see his horse dressed, the ostler would say, We have had an extraordinary
' man here !" Life, iv. 301. He goes on to say, "When Burke does not descend'
' to be merry, his conversation is very superior indeed. There is no proportion
' between the powers which he shows in serious talk and in jocularity. When
' he lets himself down to that, he is in the kennel." Not quite ; as the reader
perhaps will also think, who reads a note which he will find in Book iv.
Chap.vi.
t Boswell, Life, viii. 273; and see iv. 23, vii. 366-7, viii. 155.