Doing badly what should not be attempted?

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sat, 9 Sep 2006, Barbara Need wrote:

> I believe the original of the bear/dog version was Johnson's comment
> about women preaching. (Not at hand, of course, so the details are a
> little shaky.)

A woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs.  It is not
done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.
        Samuel Johnson, quoted in James Boswell, _Life of Samuel Johnson_
(1791) (entry for 31 July 1763)

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org