Nature as there exhibited. BOSWELL: “You must see me kilted on the mountain-tops, sir.” JOHNSON: “If that is your primary inducement to the enterprise, I would as willingly remain in town.” Truly, the spectacle of this man, so exuberant, so hyperbolic, so volatile, while a mild stimulant, viewed on level ground and clothed after the modes prescribed by a high civilisation, must have become at once intoxicating, bewildering, and perhaps disgusting, if displayed, as he suggested, within the barbarous circumference of a Highlander’s petticoat upon some conspicuous elevation in the Isles of Skye or Mull. He talked of various matters, uttered no word whose original wisdom or exceptional folly rendered it worthy of commemoration, and then took his leave. _Thursday._--I saw nothing of Mr. Boswell, and was none the worse. _Friday._--He carried me to Drury Lane Theatre, where Mr. Garrick was playing to an audience of the scantiest possible dimensions. The piece, a wretched one, accounted for this, and we witnessed it upon the final evening of its representation. Langton and Beauclerk joined us in the pit, and Boswell loudly animadverted on Garrick’s lack of perspicuity in lending his genius to such a poor poet. I pointed out that, so far as Garrick was concerned, the piece was very well, in that he had the lion’s share of heroic passages, and, indeed, all that there was worthy an actor’s attention. JOHNSON: “His ability lends a meretricious significance to a creation which, if examined in the closet, would be found poverty-stricken as to ideas, futile and faulty in construction, and remote from art or nature as truth is remote from falsehood.” Forgetting that we were in a public place, I made this assertion with greater sonority of intonation than the occasion demanded; and some person in the gallery flung half an orange, which was unquestionably designed for myself, but struck Mr. Boswell. BOSWELL: “Zounds! this passes belief, that a clown should dare--I will go up this instant and chastise the rascal!” JOHNSON: “Nay, sir, he was in the right. He has paid, as we have, for his entertainment; and be it noted that the fellow expended his money in order to obtain a view and enjoy a hearing of Mr. Garrick, not you.” BOSWELL: “He meant to hit you, sir; that is what enrages me.” JOHNSON: “Ay, and had the correctness of his aim equalled the ardour of his indignation, I----” BEAUCLERK (_interrupting me_): “Nay, sir; let me pray silence. The players are bending sour looks upon us.” JOHNSON: “They have reason on their side. Silence! Silence!” We then turned our attention to the drama, followed tragic circumstances of death and disaster with all proper sobriety of demeanour, and upon the completion of the act, went within the precincts of the stage to see Mr. Garrick. I observed without difficulty that he suffered from a mighty ill-humour; and, indeed, his first remark, addressed to myself, left us in no doubt as to his irascibility.