Journal.
May 30.—To-day I dined at
Mr. William Vaughan's, the brother of
Mr. Benjamin Vaughan, of
Hallowell, and of
Mr. John Vaughan, of
Philadelphia, and as actively kind and benevolent as either of them.
Dr. Rees, the editor of the Cyclopaedia, was there, and, though now past seventy, and oppressed with the hydrothorax, he still retains so much of the vigor and vivacity of youth, that I think he may yet live to complete the great work he has undertaken.
He is a specimen, in excellent preservation, of the men of letters of the last century, and is full of stories in relation to them, which are very amusing.
He was present, and gave us a lively account of Dilly's famous dinner, when
Wilkes won his way, as
Boswell says, by his wit and good-humor, but, as
Dr. Rees says, by the grossest flattery, to
Dr. Johnson's heart.
Dr. Rees said, that long before
Johnson's death it was understood that
Boswell was to be his biographer, and that he always courted
Boswell more than anybody else, that he might be sure of the point of view in which he was to be exhibited to posterity.
Boswell, in his turn, ruined his fortune and alienated the affections of his wife, by living so much of his time—at considerable expense—in
London, that he might be near his subject and in good society.
June 6.—We dined at
Mr. Vaughan's with several men of letters, but I saw little of them, excepting
Mr. Sharp, formerly a Member of Parliament, and who, from his talents in society, has been called ‘Conversation Sharp.’
He has been made an associate of most of the literary clubs in
London, from the days of
Burke down to the present time.
He told me a great many amusing anecdotes of them, and particularly of
Burke,
Porson, and
Grattan, with whom he had been intimate; and occupied the dinner-time as pleasantly as the same number of hours have passed with me in
England.
He gave me a new reading in
Macbeth, from
Henderson, to whom
Mrs. Siddons once read her part for correction, when
Mr. Sharp was present.
The common pointing and emphasis is:—
