"We were all in fine spirits; and I whispered to Mrs Boscawen, 'I believe this is as much as can be made of life.' In addition to a splendid entertainment, we were regaled with Lichfield ale, which had a peculiar appropriate value. Sir Joshua, and Dr Burney, and I, drank cordially of it to Dr Johnson's health; and though he would not join us, he as cordially answered, 'Gentlemen, I wish you all as well as you do me.' "The general effect of this day dwells upon my mind in fond remembrance: but I do not find much conversation recorded. What I have preserved shall be faithfully given. "One of the company mentioned Mr Thomas Hollis, the strenuous Whig, who used to send over Europe, presents of democratical books, with their boards stamped with daggers and caps of liberty. Mrs Carter said, 'he was a bad man: he used to talk uncharitably.' _Johnson_: 'Poh! poh! Madam; who is the worse for being talked of uncharitably? Besides, he was a dull poor creature as ever lived: and I believe he would not have done harm to a man whom he knew to be of very opposite principles to his own. I remember once at the Society of Arts, when an advertisement was to be drawn up, he pointed me out as the man who could do it best. This, you will observe, was kindness to me. I, however, slipped away, and escaped it.' "Mrs Carter having said of the same person, 'I doubt he was an atheist.' _Johnson_: 'I don't know that. He might perhaps have become one, if he had time to ripen (_smiling_). He might have _exuberated_ into an atheist.' "Sir Joshua Reynolds praised _Mudge's Sermons_. _Johnson_: '_Mudge's Sermons_ are good but not practical. He grasps more corn than he can make into meal; he opens a wide prospect, but it is so distant, it is indistinct. I love _Blair's Sermons_. Though the dog is a Scotchman, and a Presbyterian, and everything he should not be, I was the first to praise them. Such was my candour' (_smiling_). _Mrs Boscawen_: 'Such his great merit, to get the better of all your prejudices.' _Johnson_: 'Why, Madam, let us compound the matter; let us ascribe it to my candour and his merit.' "In the evening we had a large company in the drawing-room; several ladies, the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Percy, Mr Chamberlayne of the Treasury, &c., &c. Somebody said, the life of a mere literary man could not be very entertaining. _Johnson_: 'But it certainly may. This is a remark which has been made, and repeated without justice; why should the life of a literary man be less entertaining than the life of any other man? Are there not as interesting varieties in such a life? As _a literary life_ it may be very entertaining.' _Boswell_: 'But it must be better surely, when it is diversified with a little active variety--such as his having gone to Jamaica; or--his having gone to the Hebrides.' Johnson was not displeased at this.