One day Dr Johnson* was conversing with Mrs Williams, a blind friend of his. She was telling him where she had dined the day before. "There were several gentlemen there," said she, "and I found that there had been a great deal of hard drinking." She closed this observation with a moral reflection: "I wonder what pleasure men can take in making beasts of themselves."
Dr Johnson replied, "I wonder madam that you have not the penetration to see that he who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
* * *
When conversation in a company in which Dr Johnson was present had fallen upon rather a delicate topic, one of the ladies, with an expression of great displeasure, rose and left the room. "That woman," said the doctor, "is the most immodest of all the company."
有一天，約翰生博士*和他失明的朋友威廉斯太太閒談。威廉斯太太談到前一天去某處吃飯：「那兒有幾個男人，都喝了很多酒。」她的結語帶道德意味：「男人買醉，醉後只餘禽畜之性，真不知何樂之有。」
約翰生博士說：「奇怪，你怎麼看不到，只餘禽畜之性，就可擺脫做人的痛苦。」
* * *
一群人聚談，談到通常諱言的一件事，一個女士怫然站起，走出房間。約翰生博士在座，說話：「這個女人，是我們之中心靈最不純潔者。」
*約翰生是英國著名辭典編纂家，一七八四年去世。