Talking of old Mr. Langton, of
whom he said, "Sir, you will seldom see such a gentleman, such are his
stores of literature, such his knowledge in divinity, and such his
exemplary life;" he added, "and Sir, he has no grimace, no
gesticulation, no bursts of admiration on trivial occasions; he never
embraces you with an overacted cordiality[90]."'
'Being in company with a gentleman who thought fit to maintain Dr.
Berkeley's ingenious philosophy, that nothing exists but as perceived by
some mind[91]; when the gentleman was going away, Johnson said to him,
"Pray, Sir, don't leave us; for we may perhaps forget to think of you,
and then you will cease to exist[92]."'
'Goldsmith, upon being visited by Johnson one day in the Temple, said to
him with a little jealousy of the appearance of his accommodation, "I
shall soon be in better chambers than these." Johnson at the same time
checked him and paid him a handsome compliment, implying that a man of
his talents should be above attention to such distinctions,--'Nay, Sir,
never mind that. _Nil te quaesiveris extra_[93].'
'At the time when his pension was granted to him, he said, with a noble
literary ambition, "Had this happened twenty years years ago, I should
have gone to Constantinople to learn Arabick, as Pococke did[94].
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