JOHNSON. 'I little thought, when I had the honour to meet your Lordship
in London, that I should see you at Monboddo.'
After dinner, as the ladies[257] were going away, Dr. Johnson would
stand up. He insisted that politeness was of great consequence in
society. 'It is, (said he,) fictitious benevolence[258]. It supplies the
place of it amongst those who see each other only in publick, or but
little. Depend upon it, the want of it never fails to produce something
disagreeable to one or other. I have always applied to good breeding,
what Addison in his _Cato_[259] says of honour:--
"Honour's a sacred tie; the law of Kings;
The noble mind's distinguishing perfection,
That aids and strengthens Virtue where it meets her;
And imitates her actions where she is not."'
When he took up his large oak stick, he said, 'My lord, that's
_Homerick_[260];' thus pleasantly alluding to his lordship's
favourite writer.
Gory, my lord's black servant, was sent as our guide, to conduct us to
the high road. The circumstance of each of them having a black servant
was another point of similarity between Johnson and Monboddo. I
observed how curious it was to see an African in the North of Scotland,
with little or no difference of manners from those of the natives. Dr.
Johnson laughed to see Gory and Joseph riding together most cordially.
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