They would
have both done honour to a better society[918], for they had that charity
which might well make their failings be forgotten, and with which the
whole Christian world might wish for communion. They were pure from all
the heresies of an age, to which every opinion is become a favourite
that the universal church has hitherto detested!
[Page 313: Johnson's defence of tea. AEtat 47.]
'This praise, the general interest of mankind requires to be given to
writers who please and do not corrupt, who instruct and do not weary.
But to them all human eulogies are vain, whom I believe applauded by
angels, and numbered with the just[919].'
[Page 314: Johnson's reply to Hanway's attack. A.D. 1756.]
His defence of tea against Mr. Jonas Hartway's violent attack upon that
elegant and popular beverage[920], shews how very well a man of genius can
write upon the slightest subject, when he writes, as the Italians say,
_con amore_: I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the
infusion of that fragrant leaf than Johnson[921]. The quantities which he
drank of it at all hours were so great, that his nerves must have been
uncommonly strong, not to have been extremely relaxed by such an
intemperate use of it[922]. He assured me, that he never felt the least
inconvenience from it; which is a proof that the fault of his
constitution was rather a too great tension of fibres, than the
contrary.
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