--'Nay, (said
Johnson,) I would have him to say,
"Mad Tom is come to see the world again[707]."'
He and I returned to town in the evening. Upon the road, I endeavoured
to maintain, in argument, that a landed gentleman is not under any
obligation to reside upon his estate; and that by living in London he
does no injury to his country. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, he does no injury to
his country in general, because the money which he draws from it gets
back again in circulation; but to his particular district, his
particular parish, he does an injury. All that he has to give away is
not given to those who have the first claim to it. And though I have
said that the money circulates back, it is a long time before that
happens. Then, Sir, a man of family and estate ought to consider himself
as having the charge of a district, over which he is to diffuse civility
and happiness[708].'
Next day I found him at home in the morning. He praised Delany's
_Observations on Swift_; said that his book and Lord Orrery's might both
be true, though one viewed Swift more, and the other less favourably;
and that, between both, we might have a complete notion of Swift[709].
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