OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. [BOOK m.
1763. he had passed a very loose, odd, scrambling kind of life.
2BUJ5. " Six," said Johnson, " Goldsmith is one of the first men we
" now have as an author, and he is a very worthy man too. He
" lias "been, loose in his principles, but he is corning right." *
A first supper so successful would of course be soon
repeated, but few could have guessed how often. They
supped again at the Mitre on the 1st of July; they were
together in Inner Temple-lane on the 5th; they supped
a third time at the Mitre on the 6th; they met once more on
the 9th; the Mitre again received them on the 14th; t on the
19th they were talking again; they supped at Boswell's
chambers on the 20th ; they passed the 21st together, and
supped at the Turk's-head in the Strand; they were
discussing the weather and other themes on the 26th; they
had another supper at the Turk's-head on the 28th, and
were walking from it, arm in arm. down the Strand, when
Johnson gently put aside the enticing solicitations of wretch-
edness with No, no, my Girl, it won't do; I they sculled down
to Greenwich, read verses on the river, and closed the day
once more with supper at the Turk's-head, on the 30th ; on
the 31st they again saw each other ; they took tea together,
after a morning in Boswell's rooms, on the 2nd of August; on
the 3rd they had their last supper at the Turk's-head (Johnson
encouraged the house because the mistress of it was a good
civil woman, and had not much business) before Boswell's
* Boswell, ii. 184.
f That supper on the 14th might be memorable if only for the immortal thing
Johnson said when told of "an impudent fellow from Scotland," who maintained
that there was no distinction between virtue and vice. "Why, sir, if the
" fellow does not think as he speaks, he is lying ; and I see not what honour he
" can propose to himself from having the character of a liar. But if he does
" really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when
" he leaves our houses let us count the spoons." Boswdl, ii. 217.
t "He, however, did not treat her with harshness; and we talked of the
" wretched life of such women," BosweU, ii. 244.