CHAP, viii.] THE CLUB AND ITS FIRST MEMBERS.

such a man could be thought by Johnson one of the first i/t>3.
men of letters of the day, was hard to be understood; and JEt. 35.
harder yet to be borne, that such a man should be a privi-
leged man. "Doctor Goldsmith being a privileged man,
" went with him this night" (the first supper at the Mitre)
" strutting away, and calling to me with an air of superiority,
" like that of an esoteric over an esoteric disciple of a
" sage of antiquity, I go to Miss Williams" *

To be allowed to go to Miss Williams was decisive of
Johnson's favour. She was one of his pensioners,t blind and
old; was now living in a lodging in Bolt-court, provided by

probably account for much of this feeling. "It may also be observed, that Grold-
'' smith was sometimes content to be treated with an easy familiarity, but upon
" occasions would be consequential and important." iii. 301. We have but to imagine
Boswell suddenly discovering that Goldsmith might be treated with an easy
familiarity, to be quite certain that the familiarity would be carried to an extent
which in mere self-defence must have rendered necessary a resort to the consequential
and important. And Jiinc illie lachrymcE. * JBosicett, ii. 199.

-f- Others will appear in the course of this narrative, nor can I ever think of
Johnson without thinking of the wise, kind words, with which Mrs. Thrale tells us
he outraged all the laws of political economy in regard to the poor. " He loved
" the poor," she says, "as I never yet saw any one else do, with an earnest desire
'' to make them happy. What signifies, says some one, giving halfpence to common
" beggars ? they only lay it out in gin or tobacco. And why should they be
" denied such sweeteners of their existence, says Johnson : it is surely very savage
" to refuse them every possible avenue to pleasure, reckoned too coarse for our
" own acceptance. Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without
'' gilding ; yet for the poor we delight in stripping it still barer, and are not
'' ashamed to show even visible displeasure, if ever the bitter taste is taken from
'' their mouths." After telling us this, the lively little lady adds, that in consequence
of these principles he nursed "whole nests" of people in his house, where the lame,
the blind, the sick, and the sorrowful found a sure retreat from all the evils
whence his little income could secure them. Anecdotes, 84, 85. Mr. Maxwell
tells us also, in his collectanea, that "he frequently gave all the silver in his
" pocket to the poor, who watched him between his house and the tavern where he
"dined.'' Iloswett, iii. 133. We learn, too, from another authority, Mr. Harwood,
that when visiting Lichneld, towards the latter part of his life, he was accustomed,
on his arrival, to deposit with Miss Porter as much cash as would pay his
expenses back to London. He could not trust himself with his own money, as
he felt himself unable to resist the importunity of the numerous claimants on
his benevolence. Hid, ii. 146. Hawkins notes the same peculiarity, " He
" now practised a rule Avhich he often recommended to his friends, always to go
'' abroad with a quantity of loose money to give to beggars, imitating therein, thought that a man of the wrong side of fifty should find out another year