Saturday, September 19, 2009

happy 300 to Samuel Johnson

He loved the poor as I never yet saw any one else do, with an earnest desire to make them happy.--What signifies, says some one, giving halfpence to common beggars? they only lay it out in gin or tobacco. "And why should they be denied such sweeteners of their existence?" says Johnson. "It is surely very savage to refuse them every possible avenue to pleasure, reckoned too coarse for our own acceptance. Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding; yet for the poor we delight in stripping it still barer, and are not ashamed to shew even visible displeasure, if ever the bitter taste is taken from their mouths..."

from Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes