The Life Of Johnson, Volume 3 of 6

Excerpt

Having left Ashbourne in the evening, we stopped to change horses at Derby, and availed ourselves of a moment to enjoy the conversation of my countryman, Dr. Butter, then physician there.  He was in great indignation because Lord Mountstuart’s bill for a Scotch militia[1] had been lost.  Dr. Johnson was as violent against it.  ’I am glad, (said he,) that Parliament has had the spirit to throw it out.  You wanted to take advantage of the timidity of our scoundrels;’ (meaning, I suppose, the ministry).  It may be observed, that he used the epithet scoundrel very commonly not quite in the sense in which it is generally understood, but as a strong term of disapprobation; as when he abruptly answered Mrs. Thrale, who had asked him how he did, ’Ready to become a scoundrel, Madam; with a little more spoiling you will, I think, make me a complete rascal[2]:’  he meant, easy to become a capricious and self-indulgent valetudinarian; a character for which I have heard him express great disgust.