Thrale's mother, who
said, "Sir, Dr. Johnson would learn to talk of runts"--meaning
that he was a man who would make the most of his situation,
whatever it was.
Johnson was of opinion that a man grew better as he grew older,
and that his nature mellowed with age. This is certainly a much
more cheerful view of human nature than that of Lord Chesterfield,
who saw life through the eyes of a cynic, and held that "the heart
never grows better by age: it only grows harder." But both
sayings may be true according to the point from which life is
viewed, and the temper by which a man is governed; for while the
good, profiting by experience, and disciplining themselves by
self-control, will grow better, the ill-conditioned, uninfluenced
by experience, will only grow worse.
Sir Walter Scott was a man full of the milk of human kindness.
Everybody loved him. He was never five minutes in a room ere the
little pets of the family, whether dumb or lisping, had found out
his kindness for all their generation. Scott related to Captain
Basil Hall an incident of his boyhood which showed the tenderness
of his nature. One day, a dog coming towards him, he took up a
big stone, threw it, and hit the dog. The poor creature had
strength enough left to crawl up to him and lick his feet,
although he saw its leg was broken. The incident, he said, had
given him the bitterest remorse in his after-life; but he added,
"An early circumstance of that kind, properly reflected on,
is calculated to have the best effect on one's character
throughout life.
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