Harris, however, is a prig, and a
bad prig[692]. I looked into his book[693], and thought he did not
understand his own system.' BOSWELL. 'He says plain things in a formal
and abstract way, to be sure: but his method is good: for to have clear
notions upon any subject, we must have recourse to analytick
arrangement.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is what every body does, whether they
will or no. But sometimes things may be made darker by definition. I see
a _cow_, I define her, _Animal quadrupes ruminans cornutum_. But a goat
ruminates, and a cow may have no horns. _Cow_ is plainer.' BOSWELL. 'I
think Dr. Franklin's definition of _Man_ a good one--"A tool-making
animal."' JOHNSON. 'But many a man never made a tool; and suppose a man
without arms, he could not make a tool.'
Talking of drinking wine, he said, 'I did not leave off wine, because I
could not bear it; I have drunk three bottles of port without being the
worse for it. University College has witnessed this[694].' BOSWELL. 'Why
then, Sir, did you leave it off?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, because it is so
much better for a man to be sure that he is never to be intoxicated,
never to lose the power over himself[695].
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