JOHNSON AND BYRON ON BERKELEY. [TO THE EDITOR OF THE
" SPEOTATOR."] SIR,—In the interesting article on " Modern Materialism" which appeared in the last Spectator, it is said of the upholder of a cer- tain set of doctrines that, " to use Johnson's old play upon words, although he may assert that there is no matter, it is no matter what he asserts."
Is it, then, the case that Lord Byron's joke about Berkeley was not original ? I have always heard, and I am tolerably certain that I have seen it in either Lord Byron's Life or his Works, that he said something to this effect :—" When Bishop Berkeley said there was no matter, it was no matter what he said."—I am, Sir, &e., SWEVOLA. [We made a mistake in attributing to Dr. Johnson Byron's joke, which occurs, we believe, in "Don Juan."—ED. Spectator.]
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