tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post4799534438471953412..comments2024-03-27T06:25:29.002-05:00Comments on Anecdotal Evidence: `Intelligence and the Grace of Blessed Temperament'Patrick Kurphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08436175583386298032noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-91445012899339368872013-09-26T12:40:47.551-05:002013-09-26T12:40:47.551-05:00"Robertson said, one man had more judgment, a..."Robertson said, one man had more judgment, another more imagination.<br />JOHNSON. 'No, sir; it is only, one man has more mind than another. He may direct it differently; he may, by accident, see the success of one kind of study, and take a desire to excel in it. I am persuaded that, had Sir Isaac Newton applied to poetry, he would have made a very fine epick poem. I could as easily apply to law as to tragick poetry.'<br />BOSWELL. 'Yet, sir, you did apply to tragick poetry, not to law.'<br />JOHNSON. 'Because, sir, I had not money to study law. Sir, the man who has vigour, may walk to the east, just as well as to the west, if he happens to tune his head that way.' <br />BOSWELL. 'But, sir, 'tis like walking up and down a hill; one man will naturally do the one better than the other. A hare will run up a hill best, from her fore-legs being short; a dog down.' <br />JOHNSON. 'Nay, sir; that is from mechanical powers. If you make mind mechanical, you may argue in that manner. One mind is a vice, and holds fast; there's a good memory. Another is a file; and he is a disputant, a ontroversialist. Another is a razor; and he is sarcastical.'<br />"<br /><br />Reported in Boswell's <i>Tour of the Hebrides</i>.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819154529261482038noreply@blogger.com