With patronage, what flattery! what falsehood! While a
man is in equilibrio, he throws truth among the multitude, and lets them
take it as they please: in patronage, he must say what pleases his
patron, and it is an equal chance whether that be truth or falsehood.'
WATSON. 'But is not the case now, that, instead of flattering one
person, we flatter the age?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. The world always lets a
man tell what he thinks, his own way. I wonder, however, that so many
people have written, who might have let it alone. That people should
endeavour to excel in conversation, I do not wonder; because in
conversation praise is instantly reverberated[174].'
We talked of change of manners. Dr. Johnson observed, that our drinking
less than our ancestors was owing to the change from ale to wine.' I
remember, (said he,) when all the _decent_ people in Lichfield got drunk
every night, and were not the worse thought of[175]. Ale was cheap, so
you pressed strongly. When a man must bring a bottle of wine, he is not
in such haste. Smoking has gone out. To be sure, it is a shocking thing,
blowing smoke out of our mouths into other people's mouths, eyes, and
noses, and having the same thing done to us. Yet I cannot account, why a
thing which requires so little exertion, and yet preserves the mind from
total vacuity, should have gone out[176].
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