Grampian Club > Boswelliana

250 BOSWELLIANA.
" It has often occurred to me that artificial passions are
stronger than real ones, just as a wall built with good mortar is
found to be harder and worse to separate than the natural rock.
A passion for pageantry, and many more of the passions generated
in civilized life, often influence men more than the real genuine
passions natural to man."
" Cullen, the mimic,* had a wretched manner of his own. He
was one forenoon reading Lord Mansfield's admirable speech on
the Privilege Bill. Several of our brother advocates were
listenmg to him. I could not help laughing, for I said hearing
Lord Mansfield's speech read by Cullen was like hearing a
piece of Handel's music played on a (trump) Jew's harp."
" I have observed that business has a different effect on the
spirits of different men. It sinks the spirits of some and raises
the spirits of others. To the spirits of some, a variety of affairs
are like stones put into a pool of water, which make the water
rise in proportion to the quantity of stones ; to the spirits of
others, affairs {des affaires) are like sponges put into a pool of
water, which suck it up. Men of great firmness can retain their
vivacity amidst a multiplicity of business. The King of Prussia
is a distinguished example."!
* Robert Cullen, advocate, was eldest son of William Cullen, M.D,,
the celebrated physician. He was called to the Scottish bar in 1764,
and was early noted for hiij foi'eusic talents. Contrary to the estimate
formed of him by Boswell, he was held in general esteem for his
courteous manners, while his powers of mimicry were of a first order.
He was appointed a Lord of Session in 1796, by the title of Lord
Cullen. He died at Edinburgh on the 28th November, 1810.
t Boswell's allusion to Frederick the Great is evidently founded on
a remark of Dr. Johnson's. Conversing with Dr. Ptobertson, the his-
torian, in 1778, Johnson remarked, " The true strong and sound mind
is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small. Now
I am told the King of Prussia will say to a servant, ' Bring me a bottle
of such a wine, which came in such a year ; it lies in such a corner of
the cellar.' I would have a man great in great things, and elegant in
little things."