ROBERTSON. 'He has
wit too.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; he never succeeds there. 'Tis low; 'tis
conceit. I used to say, Burke never once made a good joke[79]. What I
most envy Burke for, 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.' BOSWELL. 'Yet he can listen.' JOHNSON. 'No: I cannot say he
is good at that[80]. 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[81]. Now, you may be long enough with me, without finding any thing
extraordinary.' He said, he believed Burke was intended for the law; but
either had not money enough to follow it, or had not diligence
enough[82]. He said, he could not understand how a man could apply to
one thing, and not to another. ROBERTSON said, one man had more
judgment, another more imagination. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; it is only, one
man has more mind than another. He may direct it differently; he may, by
accident, see the success of one kind of study, and take a desire to
excel in it.
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