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diff --git a/old/11031-8.txt b/old/11031-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a831ea --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11031-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5914 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Samuel Johnson, by Leslie Stephen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Samuel Johnson + +Author: Leslie Stephen + +Release Date: February 11, 2004 [EBook #11031] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMUEL JOHNSON *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Linda Cantoni and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +SAMUEL JOHNSON + + +BY + +LESLIE STEPHEN + + +NEW YORK + +1878 + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. +CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE + +CHAPTER II. +LITERARY CAREER + +CHAPTER III. +JOHNSON AND HIS FRIENDS + +CHAPTER IV. +JOHNSON AS A LITERARY DICTATOR + +CHAPTER V. +THE CLOSING YEARS OF JOHNSON'S LIFE + +CHAPTER VI. +JOHNSON'S WRITINGS + + + + +SAMUEL JOHNSON. + + +CHAPTER I. + + +CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. + + +Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield in 1709. His father, Michael +Johnson, was a bookseller, highly respected by the cathedral clergy, and +for a time sufficiently prosperous to be a magistrate of the town, and, +in the year of his son's birth, sheriff of the county. He opened a +bookstall on market-days at neighbouring towns, including Birmingham, +which was as yet unable to maintain a separate bookseller. The tradesman +often exaggerates the prejudices of the class whose wants he supplies, +and Michael Johnson was probably a more devoted High Churchman and Tory +than many of the cathedral clergy themselves. He reconciled himself with +difficulty to taking the oaths against the exiled dynasty. He was a man +of considerable mental and physical power, but tormented by +hypochondriacal tendencies. His son inherited a share both of his +constitution and of his principles. Long afterwards Samuel associated +with his childish days a faint but solemn recollection of a lady in +diamonds and long black hood. The lady was Queen Anne, to whom, in +compliance with a superstition just dying a natural death, he had been +taken by his mother to be touched for the king's evil. The touch was +ineffectual. Perhaps, as Boswell suggested, he ought to have been +presented to the genuine heirs of the Stuarts in Rome. Disease and +superstition had thus stood by his cradle, and they never quitted him +during life. The demon of hypochondria was always lying in wait for him, +and could be exorcised for a time only by hard work or social +excitement. Of this we shall hear enough; but it may be as well to sum +up at once some of the physical characteristics which marked him through +life and greatly influenced his career. + +The disease had scarred and disfigured features otherwise regular and +always impressive. It had seriously injured his eyes, entirely +destroying, it seems, the sight of one. He could not, it is said, +distinguish a friend's face half a yard off, and pictures were to him +meaningless patches, in which he could never see the resemblance to +their objects. The statement is perhaps exaggerated; for he could see +enough to condemn a portrait of himself. He expressed some annoyance +when Reynolds had painted him with a pen held close to his eye; and +protested that he would not be handed down to posterity as "blinking +Sam." It seems that habits of minute attention atoned in some degree for +this natural defect. Boswell tells us how Johnson once corrected him as +to the precise shape of a mountain; and Mrs. Thrale says that he was a +close and exacting critic of ladies' dress, even to the accidental +position of a riband. He could even lay down aesthetical canons upon +such matters. He reproved her for wearing a dark dress as unsuitable to +a "little creature." "What," he asked, "have not all insects gay +colours?" His insensibility to music was even more pronounced than his +dulness of sight. On hearing it said, in praise of a musical +performance, that it was in any case difficult, his feeling comment was, +"I wish it had been impossible!" + +The queer convulsions by which he amazed all beholders were probably +connected with his disease, though he and Reynolds ascribed them simply +to habit. When entering a doorway with his blind companion, Miss +Williams, he would suddenly desert her on the step in order to "whirl +and twist about" in strange gesticulations. The performance partook of +the nature of a superstitious ceremonial. He would stop in a street or +the middle of a room to go through it correctly. Once he collected a +laughing mob in Twickenham meadows by his antics; his hands imitating +the motions of a jockey riding at full speed and his feet twisting in +and out to make heels and toes touch alternately. He presently sat down +and took out a _Grotius De Veritate_, over which he "seesawed" so +violently that the mob ran back to see what was the matter. Once in such +a fit he suddenly twisted off the shoe of a lady who sat by him. +Sometimes he seemed to be obeying some hidden impulse, which commanded +him to touch every post in a street or tread on the centre of every +paving-stone, and would return if his task had not been accurately +performed. + +In spite of such oddities, he was not only possessed of physical power +corresponding to his great height and massive stature, but was something +of a proficient at athletic exercises. He was conversant with the +theory, at least, of boxing; a knowledge probably acquired from an uncle +who kept the ring at Smithfield for a year, and was never beaten in +boxing or wrestling. His constitutional fearlessness would have made him +a formidable antagonist. Hawkins describes the oak staff, six feet in +length and increasing from one to three inches in diameter, which lay +ready to his hand when he expected an attack from Macpherson of Ossian +celebrity. Once he is said to have taken up a chair at the theatre upon +which a man had seated himself during his temporary absence, and to have +tossed it and its occupant bodily into the pit. He would swim into pools +said to be dangerous, beat huge dogs into peace, climb trees, and even +run races and jump gates. Once at least he went out foxhunting, and +though he despised the amusement, was deeply touched by the +complimentary assertion that he rode as well as the most illiterate +fellow in England. Perhaps the most whimsical of his performances was +when, in his fifty-fifth year, he went to the top of a high hill with +his friend Langton. "I have not had a roll for a long time," said the +great lexicographer suddenly, and, after deliberately emptying his +pockets, he laid himself parallel to the edge of the hill, and +descended, turning over and over till he came to the bottom. We may +believe, as Mrs. Thrale remarks upon his jumping over a stool to show +that he was not tired by his hunting, that his performances in this kind +were so strange and uncouth that a fear for the safety of his bones +quenched the spectator's tendency to laugh. + +In such a strange case was imprisoned one of the most vigorous +intellects of the time. Vast strength hampered by clumsiness and +associated with grievous disease, deep and massive powers of feeling +limited by narrow though acute perceptions, were characteristic both of +soul and body. These peculiarities were manifested from his early +infancy. Miss Seward, a typical specimen of the provincial _précieuse_, +attempted to trace them in an epitaph which he was said to have written +at the age of three. + + Here lies good master duck + Whom Samuel Johnson trod on; + If it had lived, it had been good luck, + For then we had had an odd one. + +The verses, however, were really made by his father, who passed them off +as the child's, and illustrate nothing but the paternal vanity. In fact +the boy was regarded as something of an infant prodigy. His great powers +of memory, characteristic of a mind singularly retentive of all +impressions, were early developed. He seemed to learn by intuition. +Indolence, as in his after life, alternated with brief efforts of +strenuous exertion. His want of sight prevented him from sharing in the +ordinary childish sports; and one of his great pleasures was in reading +old romances--a taste which he retained through life. Boys of this +temperament are generally despised by their fellows; but Johnson seems +to have had the power of enforcing the respect of his companions. Three +of the lads used to come for him in the morning and carry him in triumph +to school, seated upon the shoulders of one and supported on each side +by his companions. + +After learning to read at a dame-school, and from a certain Tom Brown, +of whom it is only recorded that he published a spelling-book and +dedicated it to the Universe, young Samuel was sent to the Lichfield +Grammar School, and was afterwards, for a short time, apparently in the +character of pupil-teacher, at the school of Stourbridge, in +Worcestershire. A good deal of Latin was "whipped into him," and though +he complained of the excessive severity of two of his teachers, he was +always a believer in the virtues of the rod. A child, he said, who is +flogged, "gets his task, and there's an end on't; whereas by exciting +emulation and comparisons of superiority, you lay the foundations of +lasting mischief; you make brothers and sisters hate each other." In +practice, indeed, this stern disciplinarian seems to have been specially +indulgent to children. The memory of his own sorrows made him value +their happiness, and he rejoiced greatly when he at last persuaded a +schoolmaster to remit the old-fashioned holiday-task. + +Johnson left school at sixteen and spent two years at home, probably in +learning his father's business. This seems to have been the chief period +of his studies. Long afterwards he said that he knew almost as much at +eighteen as he did at the age of fifty-three--the date of the remark. +His father's shop would give him many opportunities, and he devoured +what came in his way with the undiscriminating eagerness of a young +student. His intellectual resembled his physical appetite. He gorged +books. He tore the hearts out of them, but did not study systematically. +Do you read books through? he asked indignantly of some one who expected +from him such supererogatory labour. His memory enabled him to +accumulate great stores of a desultory and unsystematic knowledge. +Somehow he became a fine Latin scholar, though never first-rate as a +Grecian. The direction of his studies was partly determined by the +discovery of a folio of Petrarch, lying on a shelf where he was looking +for apples; and one of his earliest literary plans, never carried out, +was an edition of Politian, with a history of Latin poetry from the time +of Petrarch. When he went to the University at the end of this period, +he was in possession of a very unusual amount of reading. + +Meanwhile he was beginning to feel the pressure of poverty. His father's +affairs were probably getting into disorder. One anecdote--it is one +which it is difficult to read without emotion--refers to this period. +Many years afterwards, Johnson, worn by disease and the hard struggle of +life, was staying at Lichfield, where a few old friends still survived, +but in which every street must have revived the memories of the many who +had long since gone over to the majority. He was missed one morning at +breakfast, and did not return till supper-time. Then he told how his +time had been passed. On that day fifty years before, his father, +confined by illness, had begged him to take his place to sell books at a +stall at Uttoxeter. Pride made him refuse. "To do away with the sin of +this disobedience, I this day went in a post-chaise to Uttoxeter, and +going into the market at the time of high business, uncovered my head +and stood with it bare an hour before the stall which my father had +formerly used, exposed to the sneers of the standers-by and the +inclemency of the weather; a penance by which I trust I have propitiated +Heaven for this only instance, I believe, of contumacy to my father." If +the anecdote illustrates the touch of superstition in Johnson's mind, it +reveals too that sacred depth of tenderness which ennobled his +character. No repentance can ever wipe out the past or make it be as +though it had not been; but the remorse of a fine character may be +transmuted into a permanent source of nobler views of life and the +world. + +There are difficulties in determining the circumstances and duration of +Johnson's stay at Oxford. He began residence at Pembroke College in +1728. It seems probable that he received some assistance from a +gentleman whose son took him as companion, and from the clergy of +Lichfield, to whom his father was known, and who were aware of the son's +talents. Possibly his college assisted him during part of the time. It +is certain that he left without taking a degree, though he probably +resided for nearly three years. It is certain, also, that his father's +bankruptcy made his stay difficult, and that the period must have been +one of trial. + +The effect of the Oxford residence upon Johnson's mind was +characteristic. The lad already suffered from the attacks of melancholy, +which sometimes drove him to the borders of insanity. At Oxford, Law's +_Serious Call_ gave him the strong religious impressions which remained +through life. But he does not seem to have been regarded as a gloomy or +a religious youth by his contemporaries. When told in after years that +he had been described as a "gay and frolicsome fellow," he replied, "Ah! +sir, I was mad and violent. It was bitterness which they mistook for +frolic. I was miserably poor, and I thought to fight my way by my +literature and my wit; so I disregarded all power and all authority." +Though a hearty supporter of authority in principle, Johnson was +distinguished through life by the strongest spirit of personal +independence and self-respect. He held, too, the sound doctrine, +deplored by his respectable biographer Hawkins, that the scholar's life, +like the Christian's, levelled all distinctions of rank. When an +officious benefactor put a pair of new shoes at his door, he threw them +away with indignation. He seems to have treated his tutors with a +contempt which Boswell politely attributed to "great fortitude of mind," +but Johnson himself set down as "stark insensibility." The life of a +poor student is not, one may fear, even yet exempt from much bitterness, +and in those days the position was far more servile than at present. The +servitors and sizars had much to bear from richer companions. A proud +melancholy lad, conscious of great powers, had to meet with hard +rebuffs, and tried to meet them by returning scorn for scorn. + +Such distresses, however, did not shake Johnson's rooted Toryism. He +fully imbibed, if he did not already share, the strongest prejudices of +the place, and his misery never produced a revolt against the system, +though it may have fostered insolence to individuals. Three of the most +eminent men with whom Johnson came in contact in later life, had also +been students at Oxford. Wesley, his senior by six years, was a fellow +of Lincoln whilst Johnson was an undergraduate, and was learning at +Oxford the necessity of rousing his countrymen from the religious +lethargy into which they had sunk. "Have not pride and haughtiness of +spirit, impatience, and peevishness, sloth and indolence, gluttony and +sensuality, and even a proverbial uselessness been objected to us, +perhaps not always by our enemies nor wholly without ground?" So said +Wesley, preaching before the University of Oxford in 1744, and the words +in his mouth imply more than the preacher's formality. Adam Smith, +Johnson's junior by fourteen years, was so impressed by the utter +indifference of Oxford authorities to their duties, as to find in it an +admirable illustration of the consequences of the neglect of the true +principles of supply and demand implied in the endowment of learning. +Gibbon, his junior by twenty-eight years, passed at Oxford the "most +idle and unprofitable" months of his whole life; and was, he said, as +willing to disclaim the university for a mother, as she could be to +renounce him for a son. Oxford, as judged by these men, was remarkable +as an illustration of the spiritual and intellectual decadence of a body +which at other times has been a centre of great movements of thought. +Johnson, though his experience was rougher than any of the three, loved +Oxford as though she had not been a harsh stepmother to his youth. Sir, +he said fondly of his college, "we are a nest of singing-birds." Most of +the strains are now pretty well forgotten, and some of them must at all +times have been such as we scarcely associate with the nightingale. +Johnson, however, cherished his college friendships, delighted in paying +visits to his old university, and was deeply touched by the academical +honours by which Oxford long afterwards recognized an eminence scarcely +fostered by its protection. Far from sharing the doctrines of Adam +Smith, he only regretted that the universities were not richer, and +expressed a desire which will be understood by advocates of the +"endowment of research," that there were many places of a thousand a +year at Oxford. + +On leaving the University, in 1731, the world was all before him. His +father died in the end of the year, and Johnson's whole immediate +inheritance was twenty pounds. Where was he to turn for daily bread? +Even in those days, most gates were barred with gold and opened but to +golden keys. The greatest chance for a poor man was probably through the +Church. The career of Warburton, who rose from a similar position to a +bishopric might have been rivalled by Johnson, and his connexions with +Lichfield might, one would suppose, have helped him to a start. It would +be easy to speculate upon causes which might have hindered such a +career. In later life, he more than once refused to take orders upon the +promise of a living. Johnson, as we know him, was a man of the world; +though a religious man of the world. He represents the secular rather +than the ecclesiastical type. So far as his mode of teaching goes, he is +rather a disciple of Socrates than of St. Paul or Wesley. According to +him, a "tavern-chair" was "the throne of human felicity," and supplied +a better arena than the pulpit for the utterance of his message to +mankind. And, though his external circumstances doubtless determined his +method, there was much in his character which made it congenial. +Johnson's religious emotions were such as to make habitual reserve +almost a sanitary necessity. They were deeply coloured by his +constitutional melancholy. Fear of death and hell were prominent in his +personal creed. To trade upon his feelings like a charlatan would have +been abhorrent to his masculine character; and to give them full and +frequent utterance like a genuine teacher of mankind would have been to +imperil his sanity. If he had gone through the excitement of a Methodist +conversion, he would probably have ended his days in a madhouse. + +Such considerations, however, were not, one may guess, distinctly +present to Johnson himself; and the offer of a college fellowship or of +private patronage might probably have altered his career. He might have +become a learned recluse or a struggling Parson Adams. College +fellowships were less open to talent then than now, and patrons were +never too propitious to the uncouth giant, who had to force his way by +sheer labour, and fight for his own hand. Accordingly, the young scholar +tried to coin his brains into money by the most depressing and least +hopeful of employments. By becoming an usher in a school, he could at +least turn his talents to account with little delay, and that was the +most pressing consideration. By one schoolmaster he was rejected on the +ground that his infirmities would excite the ridicule of the boys. Under +another he passed some months of "complicated misery," and could never +think of the school without horror and aversion. Finding this situation +intolerable, he settled in Birmingham, in 1733, to be near an old +schoolfellow, named Hector, who was apparently beginning to practise as +a surgeon. Johnson seems to have had some acquaintances among the +comfortable families in the neighbourhood; but his means of living are +obscure. Some small literary work came in his way. He contributed essays +to a local paper, and translated a book of Travels in Abyssinia. For +this, his first publication, he received five guineas. In 1734 he made +certain overtures to Cave, a London publisher, of the result of which I +shall have to speak presently. For the present it is pretty clear that +the great problem of self-support had been very inadequately solved. + +Having no money and no prospects, Johnson naturally married. The +attractions of the lady were not very manifest to others than her +husband. She was the widow of a Birmingham mercer named Porter. Her age +at the time (1735) of the second marriage was forty-eight, the +bridegroom being not quite twenty-six. The biographer's eye was not +fixed upon Johnson till after his wife's death, and we have little in +the way of authentic description of her person and character. Garrick, +who had known her, said that she was very fat, with cheeks coloured both +by paint and cordials, flimsy and fantastic in dress and affected in her +manners. She is said to have treated her husband with some contempt, +adopting the airs of an antiquated beauty, which he returned by +elaborate deference. Garrick used his wonderful powers of mimicry to +make fun of the uncouth caresses of the husband, and the courtly +Beauclerc used to provoke the smiles of his audience by repeating +Johnson's assertion that "it was a love-match on both sides." One +incident of the wedding-day was ominous. As the newly-married couple +rode back from church, Mrs. Johnson showed her spirit by reproaching +her husband for riding too fast, and then for lagging behind. Resolved +"not to be made the slave of caprice," he pushed on briskly till he was +fairly out of sight. When she rejoined him, as he, of course, took care +that she should soon do, she was in tears. Mrs. Johnson apparently knew +how to regain supremacy; but, at any rate, Johnson loved her devotedly +during life, and clung to her memory during a widowhood of more than +thirty years, as fondly as if they had been the most pattern hero and +heroine of romantic fiction. + +Whatever Mrs. Johnson's charms, she seems to have been a woman of good +sense and some literary judgment. Johnson's grotesque appearance did not +prevent her from saying to her daughter on their first introduction, +"This is the most sensible man I ever met." Her praises were, we may +believe, sweeter to him than those of the severest critics, or the most +fervent of personal flatterers. Like all good men, Johnson loved good +women, and liked to have on hand a flirtation or two, as warm as might +be within the bounds of due decorum. But nothing affected his fidelity +to his Letty or displaced her image in his mind. He remembered her in +many solemn prayers, and such words as "this was dear Letty's book:" or, +"this was a prayer which dear Letty was accustomed to say," were found +written by him in many of her books of devotion. + +Mrs. Johnson had one other recommendation--a fortune, namely, of +£800--little enough, even then, as a provision for the support of the +married pair, but enough to help Johnson to make a fresh start. In 1736, +there appeared an advertisement in the _Gentleman's Magazine_. "At +Edial, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, young gentlemen are boarded and +taught the Latin and Greek languages by Samuel Johnson." If, as seems +probable, Mrs. Johnson's money supplied the funds for this venture, it +was an unlucky speculation. + +Johnson was not fitted to be a pedagogue. Success in that profession +implies skill in the management of pupils, but perhaps still more +decidedly in the management of parents. Johnson had little +qualifications in either way. As a teacher he would probably have been +alternately despotic and over-indulgent; and, on the other hand, at a +single glance the rough Dominie Sampson would be enough to frighten the +ordinary parent off his premises. Very few pupils came, and they seem to +have profited little, if a story as told of two of his pupils refers to +this time. After some months of instruction in English history, he asked +them who had destroyed the monasteries? One of them gave no answer; the +other replied "Jesus Christ." Johnson, however, could boast of one +eminent pupil in David Garrick, though, by Garrick's account, his master +was of little service except as affording an excellent mark for his +early powers of ridicule. The school, or "academy," failed after a year +and a half; and Johnson, once more at a loss for employment, resolved to +try the great experiment, made so often and so often unsuccessfully. He +left Lichfield to seek his fortune in London. Garrick accompanied him, +and the two brought a common letter of introduction to the master of an +academy from Gilbert Walmsley, registrar of the Prerogative Court in +Lichfield. Long afterwards Johnson took an opportunity in the _Lives of +the Poets_, of expressing his warm regard for the memory of his early +friend, to whom he had been recommended by a community of literary +tastes, in spite of party differences and great inequality of age. +Walmsley says in his letter, that "one Johnson" is about to accompany +Garrick to London, in order to try his fate with a tragedy and get +himself employed in translation. Johnson, he adds, "is a very good +scholar and poet, and I have great hopes will turn out a fine tragedy +writer." + +The letter is dated March 2nd, 1737. Before recording what is known of +his early career thus started, it will be well to take a glance at the +general condition of the profession of Literature in England at this +period. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +LITERARY CAREER. + + +"No man but a blockhead," said Johnson, "ever wrote except for money." +The doctrine is, of course, perfectly outrageous, and specially +calculated to shock people who like to keep it for their private use, +instead of proclaiming it in public. But it is a good expression of that +huge contempt for the foppery of high-flown sentiment which, as is not +uncommon with Johnson, passes into something which would be cynical if +it were not half-humorous. In this case it implies also the contempt of +the professional for the amateur. Johnson despised gentlemen who dabbled +in his craft, as a man whose life is devoted to music or painting +despises the ladies and gentlemen who treat those arts as fashionable +accomplishments. An author was, according to him, a man who turned out +books as a bricklayer turns out houses or a tailor coats. So long as he +supplied a good article and got a fair price, he was a fool to grumble, +and a humbug to affect loftier motives. + +Johnson was not the first professional author, in this sense, but +perhaps the first man who made the profession respectable. The principal +habitat of authors, in his age, was Grub Street--a region which, in +later years, has ceased to be ashamed of itself, and has adopted the +more pretentious name Bohemia. The original Grub Street, it is said, +first became associated with authorship during the increase of pamphlet +literature, produced by the civil wars. Fox, the martyrologist, was one +of its original inhabitants. Another of its heroes was a certain Mr. +Welby, of whom the sole record is, that he "lived there forty years +without being seen of any." In fact, it was a region of holes and +corners, calculated to illustrate that great advantage of London life, +which a friend of Boswell's described by saying, that a man could there +be always "close to his burrow." The "burrow" which received the +luckless wight, was indeed no pleasant refuge. Since poor Green, in the +earliest generation of dramatists, bought his "groat'sworth of wit with +a million of repentance," too many of his brethren had trodden the path +which led to hopeless misery or death in a tavern brawl. The history of +men who had to support themselves by their pens, is a record of almost +universal gloom. The names of Spenser, of Butler, and of Otway, are +enough to remind us that even warm contemporary recognition was not +enough to raise an author above the fear of dying in want of +necessaries. The two great dictators of literature, Ben Jonson in the +earlier and Dryden in the later part of the century, only kept their +heads above water by help of the laureate's pittance, though reckless +imprudence, encouraged by the precarious life, was the cause of much of +their sufferings. Patronage gave but a fitful resource, and the author +could hope at most but an occasional crust, flung to him from better +provided tables. + +In the happy days of Queen Anne, it is true, there had been a gleam of +prosperity. Many authors, Addison, Congreve, Swift, and others of less +name, had won by their pens not only temporary profits but permanent +places. The class which came into power at the Revolution was willing +for a time, to share some of the public patronage with men distinguished +for intellectual eminence. Patronage was liberal when the funds came out +of other men's pockets. But, as the system of party government +developed, it soon became evident that this involved a waste of power. +There were enough political partisans to absorb all the comfortable +sinecures to be had; and such money as was still spent upon literature, +was given in return for services equally degrading to giver and +receiver. Nor did the patronage of literature reach the poor inhabitants +of Grub Street. Addison's poetical power might suggest or justify the +gift of a place from his elegant friends; but a man like De Foe, who +really looked to his pen for great part of his daily subsistence, was +below the region of such prizes, and was obliged in later years not only +to write inferior books for money, but to sell himself and act as a spy +upon his fellows. One great man, it is true, made an independence by +literature. Pope received some £8000 for his translation of Homer, by +the then popular mode of subscription--a kind of compromise between the +systems of patronage and public support. But his success caused little +pleasure in Grub Street. No love was lost between the poet and the +dwellers in this dismal region. Pope was its deadliest enemy, and +carried on an internecine warfare with its inmates, which has enriched +our language with a great satire, but which wasted his powers upon low +objects, and tempted him into disgraceful artifices. The life of the +unfortunate victims, pilloried in the _Dunciad_ and accused of the +unpardonable sins of poverty and dependence, was too often one which +might have extorted sympathy even from a thin-skinned poet and critic. + +Illustrations of the manners and customs of that Grub Street of which +Johnson was to become an inmate are only too abundant. The best writers +of the day could tell of hardships endured in that dismal region. +Richardson went on the sound principle of keeping his shop that his shop +might keep him. But the other great novelists of the century have +painted from life the miseries of an author's existence. Fielding, +Smollett, and Goldsmith have described the poor wretches with a vivid +force which gives sadness to the reflection that each of those great men +was drawing upon his own experience, and that they each died in +distress. The _Case of Authors by Profession_ to quote the title of a +pamphlet by Ralph, was indeed a wretched one, when the greatest of their +number had an incessant struggle to keep the wolf from the door. The +life of an author resembled the proverbial existence of the flying-fish, +chased by enemies in sea and in air; he only escaped from the slavery of +the bookseller's garret, to fly from the bailiff or rot in the debtor's +ward or the spunging-house. Many strange half-pathetic and +half-ludicrous anecdotes survive to recall the sorrows and the +recklessness of the luckless scribblers who, like one of Johnson's +acquaintance, "lived in London and hung loose upon society." + +There was Samuel Boyse, for example, whose poem on the _Deity_ is quoted +with high praise by Fielding. Once Johnson had generously exerted +himself for his comrade in misery, and collected enough money by +sixpences to get the poet's clothes out of pawn. Two days afterwards, +Boyse had spent the money and was found in bed, covered only with a +blanket, through two holes in which he passed his arms to write. Boyse, +it appears, when still in this position would lay out his last +half-guinea to buy truffles and mushrooms for his last scrap of beef. Of +another scribbler Johnson said, "I honour Derrick for his strength of +mind. One night when Floyd (another poor author) was wandering about +the streets at night, he found Derrick fast asleep upon a bulk. Upon +being suddenly awaked, Derrick started up; 'My dear Floyd, I am sorry to +see you in this destitute state; will you go home with me to my +_lodgings_?'" Authors in such circumstances might be forced into such a +wonderful contract as that which is reported to have been drawn up by +one Gardner with Rolt and Christopher Smart. They were to write a +monthly miscellany, sold at sixpence, and to have a third of the +profits; but they were to write nothing else, and the contract was to +last for ninety-nine years. Johnson himself summed up the trade upon +earth by the lines in which Virgil describes the entrance to hell; thus +translated by Dryden:-- + + Just in the gate and in the jaws of hell, + Revengeful cares and sullen sorrows dwell. + And pale diseases and repining age, + Want, fear, and famine's unresisted rage: + Here toils and Death and Death's half-brother, Sleep-- + Forms, terrible to view, their sentry keep. + +"Now," said Johnson, "almost all these apply exactly to an author; these +are the concomitants of a printing-house." + +Judicious authors, indeed, were learning how to make literature pay. +Some of them belonged to the class who understood the great truth that +the scissors are a very superior implement to the pen considered as a +tool of literary trade. Such, for example, was that respectable Dr. John +Campbell, whose parties Johnson ceased to frequent lest Scotchmen should +say of any good bits of work, "Ay, ay, he has learnt this of Cawmell." +Campbell, he said quaintly, was a good man, a pious man. "I am afraid he +has not been in the inside of a church for many years; but he never +passes a church without pulling off his hat. This shows he has good +principles,"--of which in fact there seems to be some less questionable +evidence. Campbell supported himself by writings chiefly of the +Encyclopedia or Gazetteer kind; and became, still in Johnson's phrase, +"the richest author that ever grazed the common of literature." A more +singular and less reputable character was that impudent quack, Sir John +Hill, who, with his insolent attacks upon the Royal Society, pretentious +botanical and medical compilations, plays, novels, and magazine +articles, has long sunk into utter oblivion. It is said of him that he +pursued every branch of literary quackery with greater contempt of +character than any man of his time, and that he made as much as £1500 in +a year;--three times as much, it is added, as any one writer ever made +in the same period. + +The political scribblers--the Arnalls, Gordons, Trenchards, Guthries, +Ralphs, and Amhersts, whose names meet us in the notes to the _Dunciad_ +and in contemporary pamphlets and newspapers--form another variety of +the class. Their general character may be estimated from Johnson's +classification of the "Scribbler for a Party" with the "Commissioner of +Excise," as the "two lowest of all human beings." "Ralph," says one of +the notes to the _Dunciad_, "ended in the common sink of all such +writers, a political newspaper." The prejudice against such employment +has scarcely died out in our own day, and may be still traced in the +account of Pendennis and his friend Warrington. People who do dirty work +must be paid for it; and the Secret Committee which inquired into +Walpole's administration reported that in ten years, from 1731 to 1741, +a sum of £50,077 18_s_. had been paid to writers and printers of +newspapers. Arnall, now remembered chiefly by Pope's line,-- + + Spirit of Arnall, aid me whilst I lie! + +had received, in four years, £10,997 6_s_. 8_d_. of this amount. The +more successful writers might look to pensions or preferment. Francis, +for example, the translator of Horace, and the father, in all +probability, of the most formidable of the whole tribe of such literary +gladiators, received, it is said, 900_l_. a year for his work, besides +being appointed to a rectory and the chaplaincy of Chelsea. + +It must, moreover, be observed that the price of literary work was +rising during the century, and that, in the latter half, considerable +sums were received by successful writers. Religious as well as dramatic +literature had begun to be commercially valuable. Baxter, in the +previous century, made from 60_l_. to 80_l_. a year by his pen. The +copyright of Tillotson's _Sermons_ was sold, it is said, upon his death +for £2500. Considerable sums were made by the plan of publishing by +subscription. It is said that 4600 people subscribed to the two +posthumous volumes of Conybeare's _Sermons_. A few poets trod in Pope's +steps. Young made more than £3000 for the Satires called the _Universal +Passion_, published, I think, on the same plan; and the Duke of Wharton +is said, though the report is doubtful, to have given him £2000 for the +same work. Gay made £1000 by his _Poems_; £400 for the copyright of the +_Beggar's Opera_, and three times as much for its second part, _Polly_. +Among historians, Hume seems to have received £700 a volume; Smollett +made £2000 by his catchpenny rival publication; Henry made £3300 by his +history; and Robertson, after the booksellers had made £6000 by his +_History of Scotland_, sold his _Charles V._ for £4500. Amongst the +novelists, Fielding received £700 for _Tom Jones_ and £1000 for +_Amelia_; Sterne, for the second edition of the first part of _Tristram +Shandy_ and for two additional volumes, received £650; besides which +Lord Fauconberg gave him a living (most inappropriate acknowledgment, +one would say!), and Warburton a purse of gold. Goldsmith received 60 +guineas for the immortal _Vicar_, a fair price, according to Johnson, +for a work by a then unknown author. By each of his plays he made about +£500, and for the eight volumes of his _Natural History_ he received 800 +guineas. Towards the end of the century, Mrs. Radcliffe got £500 for the +_Mysteries of Udolpho_, and £800 for her last work, the _Italian_. +Perhaps the largest sum given for a single book was £6000 paid to +Hawkesworth for his account of the South Sea Expeditions. Horne Tooke +received from £4000 to £5000 for the _Diversions of Purley_; and it is +added by his biographer, though it seems to be incredible, that Hayley +received no less than £11,000 for the _Life of Cowper_. This was, of +course, in the present century, when we are already approaching the +period of Scott and Byron. + +Such sums prove that some few authors might achieve independence by a +successful work; and it is well to remember them in considering +Johnson's life from the business point of view. Though he never grumbled +at the booksellers, and on the contrary, was always ready to defend them +as liberal men, he certainly failed, whether from carelessness or want +of skill, to turn them to as much profit as many less celebrated rivals. +Meanwhile, pecuniary success of this kind was beyond any reasonable +hopes. A man who has to work like his own dependent Levett, and to make +the "modest toil of every day" supply "the wants of every day," must +discount his talents until he can secure leisure for some more +sustained effort. Johnson, coming up from the country to seek for work, +could have but a slender prospect of rising above the ordinary level of +his Grub Street companions and rivals. One publisher to whom he applied +suggested to him that it would be his wisest course to buy a porter's +knot and carry trunks; and, in the struggle which followed, Johnson must +sometimes have been tempted to regret that the advice was not taken. + +The details of the ordeal through which he was now to pass have +naturally vanished. Johnson, long afterwards, burst into tears on +recalling the trials of this period. But, at the time, no one was +interested in noting the history of an obscure literary drudge, and it +has not been described by the sufferer himself. What we know is derived +from a few letters and incidental references of Johnson in later days. +On first arriving in London he was almost destitute, and had to join +with Garrick in raising a loan of five pounds, which, we are glad to +say, was repaid. He dined for eightpence at an ordinary: a cut of meat +for sixpence, bread for a penny, and a penny to the waiter, making out +the charge. One of his acquaintance had told him that a man might live +in London for thirty pounds a year. Ten pounds would pay for clothes; a +garret might be hired for eighteen-pence a week; if any one asked for an +address, it was easy to reply, "I am to be found at such a place." +Threepence laid out at a coffee-house would enable him to pass some +hours a day in good company; dinner might be had for sixpence, a +bread-and-milk breakfast for a penny, and supper was superfluous. On +clean shirt day you might go abroad and pay visits. This leaves a +surplus of nearly one pound from the thirty. + +Johnson, however, had a wife to support; and to raise funds for even so +ascetic a mode of existence required steady labour. Often, it seems, his +purse was at the very lowest ebb. One of his letters to his employer is +signed _impransus_; and whether or not the dinnerless condition was in +this case accidental, or significant of absolute impecuniosity, the less +pleasant interpretation is not improbable. He would walk the streets all +night with his friend, Savage, when their combined funds could not pay +for a lodging. One night, as he told Sir Joshua Reynolds in later years, +they thus perambulated St. James's Square, warming themselves by +declaiming against Walpole, and nobly resolved that they would stand by +their country. + +Patriotic enthusiasm, however, as no one knew better than Johnson, is a +poor substitute for bed and supper. Johnson suffered acutely and made +some attempts to escape from his misery. To the end of his life, he was +grateful to those who had lent him a helping hand. "Harry Hervey," he +said of one of them shortly before his death, "was a vicious man, but +very kind to me. If you call a dog Hervey, I shall love him." Pope was +impressed by the excellence of his first poem, _London_, and induced +Lord Gower to write to a friend to beg Swift to obtain a degree for +Johnson from the University of Dublin. The terms of this circuitous +application, curious, as bringing into connexion three of the most +eminent men of letters of the day, prove that the youngest of them was +at the time (1739) in deep distress. The object of the degree was to +qualify Johnson for a mastership of £60 a year, which would make him +happy for life. He would rather, said Lord Gower, die upon the road to +Dublin if an examination were necessary, "than be starved to death in +translating for booksellers, which has been his only subsistence for +some time past." The application failed, however, and the want of a +degree was equally fatal to another application to be admitted to +practise at Doctor's Commons. + +Literature was thus perforce Johnson's sole support; and by literature +was meant, for the most part, drudgery of the kind indicated by the +phrase, "translating for booksellers." While still in Lichfield, Johnson +had, as I have said, written to Cave, proposing to become a contributor +to the _Gentleman's Magazine_. The letter was one of those which a +modern editor receives by the dozen, and answers as perfunctorily as his +conscience will allow. It seems, however, to have made some impression +upon Cave, and possibly led to Johnson's employment by him on his first +arrival in London. From 1738 he was employed both on the Magazine and in +some jobs of translation. + +Edward Cave, to whom we are thus introduced, was a man of some mark in +the history of literature. Johnson always spoke of him with affection +and afterwards wrote his life in complimentary terms. Cave, though a +clumsy, phlegmatic person of little cultivation, seems to have been one +of those men who, whilst destitute of real critical powers, have a +certain instinct for recognizing the commercial value of literary wares. +He had become by this time well-known as the publisher of a magazine +which survives to this day. Journals containing summaries of passing +events had already been started. Boyer's _Political State of Great +Britain_ began in 1711. _The Historical Register_, which added to a +chronicle some literary notices, was started in 1716. _The Grub Street +Journal_ was another journal with fuller critical notices, which first +appeared in 1730; and these two seem to have been superseded by the +_Gentleman's Magazine_, started by Cave in the next year. Johnson saw +in it an opening for the employment of his literary talents; and +regarded its contributions with that awe so natural in youthful +aspirants, and at once so comic and pathetic to writers of a little +experience. The names of many of Cave's staff are preserved in a note to +Hawkins. One or two of them, such as Birch and Akenside, have still a +certain interest for students of literature; but few have heard of the +great Moses Browne, who was regarded as the great poetical light of the +magazine. Johnson looked up to him as a leader in his craft, and was +graciously taken by Cave to an alehouse in Clerkenwell, where, wrapped +in a horseman's coat, and "a great bushy uncombed wig," he saw Mr. +Browne sitting at the end of a long table, in a cloud of tobacco-smoke, +and felt the satisfaction of a true hero-worshipper. + +It is needless to describe in detail the literary task-work done by +Johnson at this period, the Latin poems which he contributed in praise +of Cave, and of Cave's friends, or the Jacobite squibs by which he +relieved his anti-ministerialist feelings. One incident of the period +doubtless refreshed the soul of many authors, who have shared Campbell's +gratitude to Napoleon for the sole redeeming action of his life--the +shooting of a bookseller. Johnson was employed by Osborne, a rough +specimen of the trade, to make a catalogue of the Harleian Library. +Osborne offensively reproved him for negligence, and Johnson knocked him +down with a folio. The book with which the feat was performed (_Biblia +Graeca Septuaginta, fol._ 1594, Frankfort) was in existence in a +bookseller's shop at Cambridge in 1812, and should surely have been +placed in some safe author's museum. + +The most remarkable of Johnson's performances as a hack writer deserves +a brief notice. He was one of the first of reporters. Cave published +such reports of the debates in Parliament as were then allowed by the +jealousy of the Legislature, under the title of _The Senate of +Lilliput_. Johnson was the author of the debates from Nov. 1740 to +February 1742. Persons were employed to attend in the two Houses, who +brought home notes of the speeches, which were then put into shape by +Johnson. Long afterwards, at a dinner at Foote's, Francis (the father of +Junius) mentioned a speech of Pitt's as the best he had ever read, and +superior to anything in Demosthenes. Hereupon Johnson replied, "I wrote +that speech in a garret in Exeter Street." When the company applauded +not only his eloquence but his impartiality, Johnson replied, "That is +not quite true; I saved appearances tolerably well, but I took care that +the Whig dogs should not have the best of it." The speeches passed for a +time as accurate; though, in truth, it has been proved and it is easy to +observe, that they are, in fact, very vague reflections of the original. +The editors of Chesterfield's Works published two of the speeches, and, +to Johnson's considerable amusement, declared that one of them resembled +Demosthenes and the other Cicero. It is plain enough to the modern +reader that, if so, both of the ancient orators must have written true +Johnsonese; and, in fact, the style of the true author is often as +plainly marked in many of these compositions as in the _Rambler_ or +_Rasselas_. For this deception, such as it was, Johnson expressed +penitence at the end of his life, though he said that he had ceased to +write when he found that they were taken as genuine. He would not be +"accessory to the propagation of falsehood." + +Another of Johnson's works which appeared in 1744 requires notice both +for its intrinsic merit, and its autobiographical interest. The most +remarkable of his Grub-Street companions was the Richard Savage already +mentioned. Johnson's life of him written soon after his death is one of +his most forcible performances, and the best extant illustration of the +life of the struggling authors of the time. Savage claimed to be the +illegitimate son of the Countess of Macclesfield, who was divorced from +her husband in the year of his birth on account of her connexion with +his supposed father, Lord Rivers. According to the story, believed by +Johnson, and published without her contradiction in the mother's +lifetime, she not only disavowed her son, but cherished an unnatural +hatred for him. She told his father that he was dead, in order that he +might not be benefited by the father's will; she tried to have him +kidnapped and sent to the plantations; and she did her best to prevent +him from receiving a pardon when he had been sentenced to death for +killing a man in a tavern brawl. However this may be, and there are +reasons for doubt, the story was generally believed, and caused much +sympathy for the supposed victim. Savage was at one time protected by +the kindness of Steele, who published his story, and sometimes employed +him as a literary assistant. When Steele became disgusted with him, he +received generous help from the actor Wilks and from Mrs. Oldfield, to +whom he had been introduced by some dramatic efforts. Then he was taken +up by Lord Tyrconnel, but abandoned by him after a violent quarrel; he +afterwards called himself a volunteer laureate, and received a pension +of 50_l_. a year from Queen Caroline; on her death he was thrown into +deep distress, and helped by a subscription to which Pope was the chief +contributor, on condition of retiring to the country. Ultimately he +quarrelled with his last protectors, and ended by dying in a debtor's +prison. Various poetical works, now utterly forgotten, obtained for him +scanty profit. This career sufficiently reveals the character. Savage +belonged to the very common type of men, who seem to employ their whole +talents to throw away their chances in life, and to disgust every one +who offers them a helping hand. He was, however, a man of some talent, +though his poems are now hopelessly unreadable, and seems to have had a +singular attraction for Johnson. The biography is curiously marked by +Johnson's constant effort to put the best face upon faults, which he has +too much love of truth to conceal. The explanation is, partly, that +Johnson conceived himself to be avenging a victim of cruel oppression. +"This mother," he says, after recording her vindictiveness, "is still +alive, and may perhaps even yet, though her malice was often defeated, +enjoy the pleasure of reflecting that the life, which she often +endeavoured to destroy, was at last shortened by her maternal offices; +that though she could not transport her son to the plantations, bury him +in the shop of a mechanic, or hasten the hand of the public executioner, +she has yet had the satisfaction of embittering all his hours, and +forcing him into exigencies that hurried on his death." + +But it is also probable that Savage had a strong influence upon +Johnson's mind at a very impressible part of his career. The young man, +still ignorant of life and full of reverent enthusiasm for the literary +magnates of his time, was impressed by the varied experience of his +companion, and, it may be, flattered by his intimacy. Savage, he says +admiringly, had enjoyed great opportunities of seeing the most +conspicuous men of the day in their private life. He was shrewd and +inquisitive enough to use his opportunities well. "More circumstances to +constitute a critic on human life could not easily concur." The only +phrase which survives to justify this remark is Savage's statement +about Walpole, that "the whole range of his mind was from obscenity to +politics, and from politics to obscenity." We may, however, guess what +was the special charm of the intercourse to Johnson. Savage was an +expert in that science of human nature, learnt from experience not from +books, upon which Johnson set so high a value, and of which he was +destined to become the authorized expositor. There were, moreover, +resemblances between the two men. They were both admired and sought out +for their conversational powers. Savage, indeed, seems to have lived +chiefly by the people who entertained him for talk, till he had +disgusted them by his insolence and his utter disregard of time and +propriety. He would, like Johnson, sit up talking beyond midnight, and +next day decline to rise till dinner-time, though his favourite drink +was not, like Johnson's, free from intoxicating properties. Both of them +had a lofty pride, which Johnson heartily commends in Savage, though he +has difficulty in palliating some of its manifestations. One of the +stories reminds us of an anecdote already related of Johnson himself. +Some clothes had been left for Savage at a coffee-house by a person who, +out of delicacy, concealed his name. Savage, however, resented some want +of ceremony, and refused to enter the house again till the clothes had +been removed. + +What was honourable pride in Johnson was, indeed, simple arrogance in +Savage. He asked favours, his biographer says, without submission, and +resented refusal as an insult. He had too much pride to acknowledge, not +not too much to receive, obligations; enough to quarrel with his +charitable benefactors, but not enough to make him rise to independence +of their charity. His pension would have sufficed to keep him, only that +as soon as he received it he retired from the sight of all his +acquaintance, and came back before long as penniless as before. This +conduct, observes his biographer, was "very particular." It was hardly +so singular as objectionable; and we are not surprised to be told that +he was rather a "friend of goodness" than himself a good man. In short, +we may say of him as Beauclerk said of a friend of Boswell's that, if he +had excellent principles, he did not wear them out in practice. + +There is something quaint about this picture of a thorough-paced scamp, +admiringly painted by a virtuous man; forced, in spite of himself, to +make it a likeness, and striving in vain to make it attractive. But it +is also pathetic when we remember that Johnson shared some part at least +of his hero's miseries. "On a bulk, in a cellar, or in a glass-house, +among thieves and beggars, was to be found the author of _The Wanderer_, +the man of exalted sentiments, extensive views, and curious +observations; the man whose remarks on life might have assisted the +statesman, whose ideas of virtue might have enlightened the moralist, +whose eloquence might have influenced senators, and whose delicacy might +have polished courts." Very shocking, no doubt, and yet hardly +surprising under the circumstances! To us it is more interesting to +remember that the author of the _Rambler_ was not only a sympathizer, +but a fellow-sufferer with the author of the _Wanderer_, and shared the +queer "lodgings" of his friend, as Floyd shared the lodgings of Derrick. +Johnson happily came unscathed through the ordeal which was too much for +poor Savage, and could boast with perfect truth in later life that "no +man, who ever lived by literature, had lived more independently than I +have done." It was in so strange a school, and under such questionable +teaching that Johnson formed his character of the world and of the +conduct befitting its inmates. One characteristic conclusion is +indicated in the opening passage of the life. It has always been +observed, he says, that men eminent by nature or fortune are not +generally happy: "whether it be that apparent superiority incites great +designs, and great designs are naturally liable to fatal miscarriages; +or that the general lot of mankind is misery, and the misfortunes of +those, whose eminence drew upon them an universal attention, have been +more carefully recorded because they were more generally observed, and +have in reality been only more conspicuous than those of others, not +more frequent or more severe." + +The last explanation was that which really commended itself to Johnson. +Nobody had better reason to know that obscurity might conceal a misery +as bitter as any that fell to the lot of the most eminent. The gloom due +to his constitutional temperament was intensified by the sense that he +and his wife were dependent upon the goodwill of a narrow and ignorant +tradesman for the scantiest maintenance. How was he to reach some solid +standing-ground above the hopeless mire of Grub Street? As a journeyman +author he could make both ends meet, but only on condition of incessant +labour. Illness and misfortune would mean constant dependence upon +charity or bondage to creditors. To get ahead of the world it was +necessary to distinguish himself in some way from the herd of needy +competitors. He had come up from Lichfield with a play in his pocket, +but the play did not seem at present to have much chance of emerging. +Meanwhile he published a poem which did something to give him a general +reputation. + +_London_--an imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal--was published in +May, 1738. The plan was doubtless suggested by Pope's imitations of +Horace, which had recently appeared. Though necessarily following the +lines of Juvenal's poem, and conforming to the conventional fashion of +the time, both in sentiment and versification, the poem has a +biographical significance. It is indeed odd to find Johnson, who +afterwards thought of London as a lover of his mistress, and who +despised nothing more heartily than the cant of Rousseau and the +sentimentalists, adopting in this poem the ordinary denunciations of the +corruption of towns, and singing the praises of an innocent country +life. Doubtless, the young writer was like other young men, taking up a +strain still imitative and artificial. He has a quiet smile at Savage in +the life, because in his retreat to Wales, that enthusiast declared that +he "could not debar himself from the happiness which was to be found in +the calm of a cottage, or lose the opportunity of listening without +intermission to the melody of the nightingale, which he believed was to +be heard from every bramble, and which he did not fail to mention as a +very important part of the happiness of a country life." In _London_, +this insincere cockney adopts Savage's view. Thales, who is generally +supposed to represent Savage (and this coincidence seems to confirm the +opinion), is to retire "from the dungeons of the Strand," and to end a +healthy life in pruning walks and twining bowers in his garden. + + There every bush with nature's music rings, + There every breeze bears health upon its wings. + +Johnson had not yet learnt the value of perfect sincerity even in +poetry. But it must also be admitted that London, as seen by the poor +drudge from a Grub Street garret, probably presented a prospect gloomy +enough to make even Johnson long at times for rural solitude. The poem +reflects, too, the ordinary talk of the heterogeneous band of patriots, +Jacobites, and disappointed Whigs, who were beginning to gather enough +strength to threaten Walpole's long tenure of power. Many references to +contemporary politics illustrate Johnson's sympathy with the inhabitants +of the contemporary Cave of Adullam. + +This poem, as already stated, attracted Pope's notice, who made a +curious note on a scrap of paper sent with it to a friend. Johnson is +described as "a man afflicted with an infirmity of the convulsive kind, +that attacks him sometimes so as to make him a sad spectacle." This +seems to have been the chief information obtained by Pope about the +anonymous author, of whom he had said, on first reading the poem, this +man will soon be _déterré_. _London_ made a certain noise; it reached a +second edition in a week, and attracted various patrons, among others, +General Oglethorpe, celebrated by Pope, and through a long life the warm +friend of Johnson. One line, however, in the poem printed in capital +letters, gives the moral which was doubtless most deeply felt by the +author, and which did not lose its meaning in the years to come. This +mournful truth, he says,-- + + Is everywhere confess'd, + Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd. + +Ten years later (in January, 1749) appeared the _Vanity of Human +Wishes_, an imitation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal. The difference in +tone shows how deeply this and similar truths had been impressed upon +its author in the interval. Though still an imitation, it is as +significant as the most original work could be of Johnson's settled +views of life. It was written at a white heat, as indeed Johnson wrote +all his best work. Its strong Stoical morality, its profound and +melancholy illustrations of the old and ever new sentiment, _Vanitas +Vanitatum_, make it perhaps the most impressive poem of the kind in the +language. The lines on the scholar's fate show that the iron had entered +his soul in the interval. Should the scholar succeed beyond expectation +in his labours and escape melancholy and disease, yet, he says,-- + + Yet hope not life from grief and danger free, + Nor think the doom of man reversed on thee; + Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes + And pause awhile from letters, to be wise; + There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, + Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail; + See nations, slowly wise and meanly just, + To buried merit raise the tardy bust. + If dreams yet flatter, once again attend. + Hear Lydiat's life and Galileo's end. + +For the "patron," Johnson had originally written the "garret." The +change was made after an experience of patronage to be presently +described in connexion with the _Dictionary_. + +For _London_ Johnson received ten guineas, and for the _Vanity of Human +Wishes_ fifteen. Though indirectly valuable, as increasing his +reputation, such work was not very profitable. The most promising career +in a pecuniary sense was still to be found on the stage. Novelists were +not yet the rivals of dramatists, and many authors had made enough by a +successful play to float them through a year or two. Johnson had +probably been determined by his knowledge of this fact to write the +tragedy of _Irene_. No other excuse at least can be given for the +composition of one of the heaviest and most unreadable of dramatic +performances, interesting now, if interesting at all, solely as a +curious example of the result of bestowing great powers upon a totally +uncongenial task. Young men, however, may be pardoned for such blunders +if they are not repeated, and Johnson, though he seems to have retained +a fondness for his unlucky performance, never indulged in play writing +after leaving Lichfield. The best thing connected with the play was +Johnson's retort to his friend Walmsley, the Lichfield registrar. "How," +asked Walmsley, "can you contrive to plunge your heroine into deeper +calamity?" "Sir," said Johnson, "I can put her into the spiritual +court." Even Boswell can only say for _Irene_ that it is "entitled to +the praise of superior excellence," and admits its entire absence of +dramatic power. Garrick, who had become manager of Drury Lane, produced +his friend's work in 1749. The play was carried through nine nights by +Garrick's friendly zeal, so that the author had his three nights' +profits. For this he received £195 17_s_. and for the copy he had £100. +People probably attended, as they attend modern representations of +legitimate drama, rather from a sense of duty, than in the hope of +pleasure. The heroine originally had to speak two lines with a bowstring +round her neck. The situation produced cries of murder, and she had to +go off the stage alive. The objectionable passage was removed, but +_Irene_ was on the whole a failure, and has never, I imagine, made +another appearance. When asked how he felt upon his ill-success, he +replied "like the monument," and indeed he made it a principle +throughout life to accept the decision of the public like a sensible man +without murmurs. + +Meanwhile, Johnson was already embarked upon an undertaking of a very +different kind. In 1747 he had put forth a plan for an English +Dictionary, addressed at the suggestion of Dodsley, to Lord +Chesterfield, then Secretary of State, and the great contemporary +Maecenas. Johnson had apparently been maturing the scheme for some +time. "I know," he says in the "plan," that "the work in which I engaged +is generally considered as drudgery for the blind, as the proper toil of +artless industry, a book that requires neither the light of learning nor +the activity of genius, but may be successfully performed without any +higher quality than that of bearing burdens with dull patience, and +beating the track of the alphabet with sluggish resolution." He adds in +a sub-sarcastic tone, that although princes and statesmen had once +thought it honourable to patronize dictionaries, he had considered such +benevolent acts to be "prodigies, recorded rather to raise wonder than +expectation," and he was accordingly pleased and surprised to find that +Chesterfield took an interest in his undertaking. He proceeds to lay +down the general principles upon which he intends to frame his work, in +order to invite timely suggestions and repress unreasonable +expectations. At this time, humble as his aspirations might be, he took +a view of the possibilities open to him which had to be lowered before +the publication of the dictionary. He shared the illusion that a +language might be "fixed" by making a catalogue of its words. In the +preface which appeared with the completed work, he explains very +sensibly the vanity of any such expectation. Whilst all human affairs +are changing, it is, as he says, absurd to imagine that the language +which repeats all human thoughts and feelings can remain unaltered. + +A dictionary, as Johnson conceived it, was in fact work for a "harmless +drudge," the definition of a lexicographer given in the book itself. +Etymology in a scientific sense was as yet non-existent, and Johnson was +not in this respect ahead of his contemporaries. To collect all the +words in the language, to define their meanings as accurately as might +be, to give the obvious or whimsical guesses at Etymology suggested by +previous writers, and to append a good collection of illustrative +passages was the sum of his ambition. Any systematic training of the +historical processes by which a particular language had been developed +was unknown, and of course the result could not be anticipated. The +work, indeed, required a keen logical faculty of definition, and wide +reading of the English literature of the two preceding centuries; but it +could of course give no play either for the higher literary faculties on +points of scientific investigation. A dictionary in Johnson's sense was +the highest kind of work to which a literary journeyman could be set, +but it was still work for a journeyman, not for an artist. He was not +adding to literature, but providing a useful implement for future men of +letters. + +Johnson had thus got on hand the biggest job that could be well +undertaken by a good workman in his humble craft. He was to receive +fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds for the whole, and he expected +to finish it in three years. The money, it is to be observed, was to +satisfy not only Johnson but several copyists employed in the mechanical +part of the work. It was advanced by instalments, and came to an end +before the conclusion of the book. Indeed, it appeared when accounts +were settled, that he had received a hundred pounds more than was due. +He could, however, pay his way for the time, and would gain a reputation +enough to ensure work in future. The period of extreme poverty had +probably ended when Johnson got permanent employment on the _Gentleman's +Magazine_. He was not elevated above the need of drudgery and economy, +but he might at least be free from the dread of neglect. He could +command his market--such as it was. The necessity of steady labour was +probably unfelt in repelling his fits of melancholy. His name was +beginning to be known, and men of reputation were seeking his +acquaintance. In the winter of 1749 he formed a club, which met weekly +at a "famous beef-steak house" in Ivy Lane. Among its members were +Hawkins, afterwards his biographer, and two friends, Bathurst a +physician, and Hawkesworth an author, for the first of whom he +entertained an unusually strong affection. The Club, like its more +famous successor, gave Johnson an opportunity of displaying and +improving his great conversational powers. He was already dreaded for +his prowess in argument, his dictatorial manners and vivid flashes of +wit and humour, the more effective from the habitual gloom and apparent +heaviness of the discourser. + +The talk of this society probably suggested topics for the _Rambler_, +which appeared at this time, and caused Johnson's fame to spread further +beyond the literary circles of London. The wit and humour have, indeed, +left few traces upon its ponderous pages, for the _Rambler_ marks the +culminating period of Johnson's worst qualities of style. The pompous +and involved language seems indeed to be a fit clothing for the +melancholy reflections which are its chief staple, and in spite of its +unmistakable power it is as heavy reading as the heavy class of +lay-sermonizing to which it belongs. Such literature, however, is often +strangely popular in England, and the _Rambler_, though its circulation +was limited, gave to Johnson his position as a great practical moralist. +He took his literary title, one may say, from the _Rambler_, as the more +familiar title was derived from the _Dictionary_. + +The _Rambler_ was published twice a week from March 20th, 1750, to +March 17th, 1752. In five numbers alone he received assistance from +friends, and one of these, written by Richardson, is said to have been +the only number which had a large sale. The circulation rarely exceeded +500, though ten English editions were published in the author's +lifetime, besides Scotch and Irish editions. The payment, however, +namely, two guineas a number, must have been welcome to Johnson, and the +friendship of many distinguished men of the time was a still more +valuable reward. A quaint story illustrates the hero-worship of which +Johnson now became the object. Dr. Burney, afterwards an intimate +friend, had introduced himself to Johnson by letter in consequence of +the _Rambler_, and the plan of the _Dictionary_. The admiration was +shared by a friend of Burney's, a Mr. Bewley, known--in Norfolk at +least--as the "philosopher of Massingham." When Burney at last gained +the honour of a personal interview, he wished to procure some "relic" of +Johnson for his friend. He cut off some bristles from a hearth-broom in +the doctor's chambers, and sent them in a letter to his +fellow-enthusiast. Long afterwards Johnson was pleased to hear of this +simple-minded homage, and not only sent a copy of the _Lives of the +Poets_ to the rural philosopher, but deigned to grant him a personal +interview. + +Dearer than any such praise was the approval of Johnson's wife. She told +him that, well as she had thought of him before, she had not considered +him equal to such a performance. The voice that so charmed him was soon +to be silenced for ever. Mrs. Johnson died (March 17th, 1752) three days +after the appearance of the last _Rambler_. The man who has passed +through such a trial knows well that, whatever may be in store for him +in the dark future, fate can have no heavier blow in reserve. Though +Johnson once acknowledged to Boswell, when in a placid humour, that +happier days had come to him in his old age than in his early life, he +would probably have added that though fame and friendship and freedom +from the harrowing cares of poverty might cause his life to be more +equably happy, yet their rewards could represent but a faint and mocking +reflection of the best moments of a happy marriage. His strong mind and +tender nature reeled under the blow. Here is one pathetic little note +written to the friend, Dr. Taylor, who had come to him in his distress. +That which first announced the calamity, and which, said Taylor, +"expressed grief in the strongest manner he had ever read," is lost. + +"Dear Sir,--Let me have your company and instruction. Do not live away +from me. My distress is great. + +"Pray desire Mrs. Taylor to inform me what mourning I should buy for my +mother and Miss Porter, and bring a note in writing with you. + +"Remember me in your prayers, for vain is the help of man. + +"I am, dear sir, + +"SAM. JOHNSON." + +We need not regret that a veil is drawn over the details of the bitter +agony of his passage through the valley of the shadow of death. It is +enough to put down the wails which he wrote long afterwards when visibly +approaching the close of all human emotions and interests:-- + +"This is the day on which, in 1752, dear Letty died. I have now uttered +a prayer of repentance and contrition; perhaps Letty knows that I prayed +for her. Perhaps Letty is now praying for me. God help me. Thou, God, +art merciful, hear my prayers and enable me to trust in Thee. + +"We were married almost seventeen years, and have now been parted +thirty." + +It seems half profane, even at this distance of time, to pry into grief +so deep and so lasting. Johnson turned for relief to that which all +sufferers know to be the only remedy for sorrow--hard labour. He set to +work in his garret, an inconvenient room, "because," he said, "in that +room only I never saw Mrs. Johnson." He helped his friend Hawkesworth in +the _Adventurer_, a new periodical of the _Rambler_ kind; but his main +work was the _Dictionary_, which came out at last in 1755. Its +appearance was the occasion of an explosion of wrath which marks an +epoch in our literature. Johnson, as we have seen, had dedicated the +Plan to Lord Chesterfield; and his language implies that they had been +to some extent in personal communication. Chesterfield's fame is in +curious antithesis to Johnson's. He was a man of great abilities, and +seems to have deserved high credit for some parts of his statesmanship. +As a Viceroy in Ireland in particular he showed qualities rare in his +generation. To Johnson he was known as the nobleman who had a wide +social influence as an acknowledged _arbiter elegantiarum_, and who +reckoned among his claims some of that literary polish in which the +earlier generation of nobles had certainly been superior to their +successors. The art of life expounded in his _Letters_ differs from +Johnson as much as the elegant diplomatist differs from the rough +intellectual gladiator of Grub Street. Johnson spoke his mind of his +rival without reserve. "I thought," he said, "that this man had been a +Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords." And of the +_Letters_ he said more keenly that they taught the morals of a harlot +and the manners of a dancing-master. Chesterfield's opinion of Johnson +is indicated by the description in his _Letters_ of a "respectable +Hottentot, who throws his meat anywhere but down his throat. This absurd +person," said Chesterfield, "was not only uncouth in manners and warm in +dispute, but behaved exactly in the same way to superiors, equals, and +inferiors; and therefore, by a necessary consequence, absurdly to two of +the three. _Hinc illae lacrymae!_" + +Johnson, in my opinion, was not far wrong in his judgment, though it +would be a gross injustice to regard Chesterfield as nothing but a +fribble. But men representing two such antithetic types were not likely +to admire each other's good qualities. Whatever had been the intercourse +between them, Johnson was naturally annoyed when the dignified noble +published two articles in the _World_--a periodical supported by such +polite personages as himself and Horace Walpole--in which the need of a +dictionary was set forth, and various courtly compliments described +Johnson's fitness for a dictatorship over the language. Nothing could be +more prettily turned; but it meant, and Johnson took it to mean, I +should like to have the dictionary dedicated to me: such a compliment +would add a feather to my cap, and enable me to appear to the world as a +patron of literature as well as an authority upon manners. "After making +pert professions," as Johnson said, "he had, for many years, taken no +notice of me; but when my _Dictionary_ was coming out, he fell a +scribbling in the _World_ about it." Johnson therefore bestowed upon the +noble earl a piece of his mind in a letter which was not published till +it came out in Boswell's biography. + +"My Lord,--I have been lately informed by the proprietor of the _World_ +that two papers, in which my _Dictionary_ is recommended to the public, +were written by your lordship. To be so distinguished is an honour +which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know +not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. + +"When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I +was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your +address; and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself, _le +vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre_--that I might obtain that regard for +which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little +encouraged that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue +it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in public, I had exhausted +all the arts of pleasing which a wearied and uncourtly scholar can +possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have +his all neglected, be it ever so little. + +"Seven years, my lord, have now passed, since I waited in your outward +rooms and was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been +pushing on my work through difficulties of which it is useless to +complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication +without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, and one smile +of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron +before. + +"The shepherd in _Virgil_ grew at last acquainted with Love, and found +him a native of the rocks. + +"Is not a patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man +struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached the ground +encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take +of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed +till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and +cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no +very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has +been received, or to be unwilling that the public should consider me as +owing that to a patron which Providence has enabled me to do for myself. + +"Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any +favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should +conclude it, should loss be possible, with loss; for I have been long +wakened from that dream of hope in which I once boasted myself with so +much exultation, my Lord, + +"Your Lordship's most humble, most obedient servant, + +"SAM. JOHNSON." + +The letter is one of those knock-down blows to which no answer is +possible, and upon which comment is superfluous. It was, as Mr. Carlyle +calls it, "the far-famed blast of doom proclaiming into the ear of Lord +Chesterfield and through him, of the listening world, that patronage +should be no more." + +That is all that can be said; yet perhaps it should be added that +Johnson remarked that he had once received £10 from Chesterfield, though +he thought the assistance too inconsiderable to be mentioned in such a +letter. Hawkins also states that Chesterfield sent overtures to Johnson +through two friends, one of whom, long Sir Thomas Robinson, stated that, +if he were rich enough (a judicious clause) he would himself settle £500 +a year upon Johnson. Johnson replied that if the first peer of the realm +made such an offer, he would show him the way downstairs. Hawkins is +startled at this insolence, and at Johnson's uniform assertion that an +offer of money was an insult. We cannot tell what was the history of the +£10; but Johnson, in spite of Hawkins's righteous indignation, was in +fact too proud to be a beggar, and owed to his pride his escape from +the fate of Savage. + +The appearance of the _Dictionary_ placed Johnson in the position +described soon afterwards by Smollett. He was henceforth "the great Cham +of Literature"--a monarch sitting in the chair previously occupied by +his namesake, Ben, by Dryden, and by Pope; but which has since that time +been vacant. The world of literature has become too large for such +authority. Complaints were not seldom uttered at the time. Goldsmith has +urged that Boswell wished to make a monarchy of what ought to be a +republic. Goldsmith, who would have been the last man to find serious +fault with the dictator, thought the dictatorship objectionable. Some +time indeed was still to elapse before we can say that Johnson was +firmly seated on the throne; but the _Dictionary_ and the _Rambler_ had +given him a position not altogether easy to appreciate, now that the +_Dictionary_ has been superseded and the _Rambler_ gone out of fashion. +His name was the highest at this time (1755) in the ranks of pure +literature. The fame of Warburton possibly bulked larger for the moment, +and one of his flatterers was comparing him to the Colossus which +bestrides the petty world of contemporaries. But Warburton had subsided +into episcopal repose, and literature had been for him a stepping-stone +rather than an ultimate aim. Hume had written works of far more enduring +influence than Johnson; but they were little read though generally +abused, and scarcely belong to the purely literary history. The first +volume of his _History of England_ had appeared (1754), but had not +succeeded. The second was just coming out. Richardson was still giving +laws to his little seraglio of adoring women; Fielding had died (1754), +worn out by labour and dissipation; Smollett was active in the literary +trade, but not in such a way as to increase his own dignity or that of +his employment; Gray was slowly writing a few lines of exquisite verse +in his retirement at Cambridge; two young Irish adventurers, Burke and +Goldsmith, were just coming to London to try their fortune; Adam Smith +made his first experiment as an author by reviewing the _Dictionary_ in +the _Edinburgh Review_; Robertson had not yet appeared as a historian; +Gibbon was at Lausanne repenting of his old brief lapse into Catholicism +as an act of undergraduate's folly; and Cowper, after three years of +"giggling and making giggle" with Thurlow in an attorney's office, was +now entered at the Temple and amusing himself at times with literature +in company with such small men of letters as Colman, Bonnell Thornton, +and Lloyd. It was a slack tide of literature; the generation of Pope had +passed away and left no successors, and no writer of the time could be +put in competition with the giant now known as "Dictionary Johnson." + +When the last sheet of the _Dictionary_ had been carried to the +publisher, Millar, Johnson asked the messenger, "What did he say?" +"Sir," said the messenger, "he said, 'Thank God I have done with him.'" +"I am glad," replied Johnson, "that he thanks God for anything." +Thankfulness for relief from seven years' toil seems to have been +Johnson's predominant feeling: and he was not anxious for a time to take +any new labours upon his shoulders. Some years passed which have left +few traces either upon his personal or his literary history. He +contributed a good many reviews in 1756-7 to the _Literary Magazine_, +one of which, a review of Soame Jenyns, is amongst his best +performances. To a weekly paper he contributed for two years, from +April, 1758, to April, 1760, a set of essays called the _Idler_, on the +old _Rambler_ plan. He did some small literary cobbler's work, +receiving a guinea for a prospectus to a newspaper and ten pounds for +correcting a volume of poetry. He had advertised in 1756 a new edition +of Shakspeare which was to appear by Christmas, 1757: but he dawdled +over it so unconscionably that it did not appear for nine years; and +then only in consequence of taunts from Churchill, who accused him with +too much plausibility of cheating his subscribers. + + He for subscribers baits his hook; + And takes your cash: but where's the book? + No matter where; wise fear, you know + Forbids the robbing of a foe; + But what to serve our private ends + Forbids the cheating of our friends? + +In truth, his constitutional indolence seems to have gained advantages +over him, when the stimulus of a heavy task was removed. In his +meditations, there are many complaints of his "sluggishness" and +resolutions of amendment. "A kind of strange oblivion has spread over +me," he says in April, 1764, "so that I know not what has become of the +last years, and perceive that incidents and intelligence pass over me +without leaving any impression." + +It seems, however, that he was still frequently in difficulties. Letters +are preserved showing that in the beginning of 1756, Richardson became +surety for him for a debt, and lent him six guineas to release him from +arrest. An event which happened three years later illustrates his +position and character. In January, 1759, his mother died at the age of +ninety. Johnson was unable to come to Lichfield, and some deeply +pathetic letters to her and her stepdaughter, who lived with her, record +his emotions. Here is the last sad farewell upon the snapping of the +most sacred of human ties. + +"Dear Honoured Mother," he says in a letter enclosed to Lucy Porter, +the step-daughter, "neither your condition nor your character make it +fit for me to say much. You have been the best mother, and I believe the +best woman in the world. I thank you for your indulgence to me, and beg +forgiveness of all that I have done ill, and of all that I have omitted +to do well. God grant you His Holy Spirit, and receive you to +everlasting happiness for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. Lord Jesus receive +your spirit. I am, dear, dear mother, + +"Your dutiful son, + +"SAMUEL JOHNSON." + +Johnson managed to raise twelve guineas, six of them borrowed from his +printer, to send to his dying mother. In order to gain money for her +funeral expenses and some small debts, he wrote the story of _Rasselas_. +It was composed in the evenings of a single week, and sent to press as +it was written. He received £100 for this, perhaps the most successful +of his minor writings, and £25 for a second edition. It was widely +translated and universally admired. One of the strangest of literary +coincidences is the contemporary appearance of this work and Voltaire's +_Candide_; to which, indeed, it bears in some respects so strong a +resemblance that, but for Johnson's apparent contradiction, we would +suppose that he had at least heard some description of its design. The +two stories, though widely differing in tone and style, are among the +most powerful expressions of the melancholy produced in strong +intellects by the sadness and sorrows of the world. The literary +excellence of _Candide_ has secured for it a wider and more enduring +popularity than has fallen to the lot of Johnson's far heavier +production. But _Rasselas_ is a book of singular force, and bears the +most characteristic impression of Johnson's peculiar temperament. + +A great change was approaching in Johnson's circumstances. When George +III. came to the throne, it struck some of his advisers that it would be +well, as Boswell puts it, to open "a new and brighter prospect to men of +literary merit." This commendable design was carried out by offering to +Johnson a pension of three hundred a year. Considering that such men as +Horace Walpole and his like were enjoying sinecures of more than twice +as many thousands for being their father's sons, the bounty does not +strike one as excessively liberal. It seems to have been really intended +as some set-off against other pensions bestowed upon various hangers-on +of the Scotch prime minister, Bute. Johnson was coupled with the +contemptible scribbler, Shebbeare, who had lately been in the pillory +for a Jacobite libel (a "he-bear" and a "she-bear," said the facetious +newspapers), and when a few months afterwards a pension of £200 a year +was given to the old actor, Sheridan, Johnson growled out that it was +time for him to resign his own. Somebody kindly repeated the remark to +Sheridan, who would never afterwards speak to Johnson. + +The pension, though very welcome to Johnson, who seems to have been in +real distress at the time, suggested some difficulty. Johnson had +unluckily spoken of a pension in his _Dictionary_ as "generally +understood to mean pay given to a State hireling for treason to his +country." He was assured, however, that he did not come within the +definition; and that the reward was given for what he had done, not for +anything that he was expected to do. After some hesitation, Johnson +consented to accept the payment thus offered without the direct +suggestion of any obligation, though it was probably calculated that he +would in case of need, be the more ready, as actually happened, to use +his pen in defence of authority. He had not compromised his independence +and might fairly laugh at angry comments. "I wish," he said afterwards, +"that my pension were twice as large, that they might make twice as much +noise." "I cannot now curse the House of Hanover," was his phrase on +another occasion: "but I think that the pleasure of cursing the House of +Hanover and drinking King James's health, all amply overbalanced by +three hundred pounds a year." In truth, his Jacobitism was by this time, +whatever it had once been, nothing more than a humorous crotchet, giving +opportunity for the expression of Tory prejudice. + +"I hope you will now purge and live cleanly like a gentleman," was +Beauclerk's comment upon hearing of his friend's accession of fortune, +and as Johnson is now emerging from Grub Street, it is desirable to +consider what manner of man was to be presented to the wider circles +that were opening to receive him. + + + +CHAPTER III + + +JOHNSON AND HIS FRIENDS. + + +It is not till some time after Johnson had come into the enjoyment of +his pension, that we first see him through the eyes of competent +observers. The Johnson of our knowledge, the most familiar figure to all +students of English literary history had already long passed the prime +of life, and done the greatest part of his literary work. His character, +in the common phrase, had been "formed" years before; as, indeed, +people's characters are chiefly formed in the cradle; and, not only his +character, but the habits which are learnt in the great schoolroom of +the world were fixed beyond any possibility of change. The strange +eccentricities which had now become a second nature, amazed the society +in which he was for over twenty years a prominent figure. Unsympathetic +observers, those especially to whom the Chesterfield type represented +the ideal of humanity, were simply disgusted or repelled. The man, they +thought, might be in his place at a Grub Street pot-house; but had no +business in a lady's drawing-room. If he had been modest and retiring, +they might have put up with his defects; but Johnson was not a person +whose qualities, good or bad, were of a kind to be ignored. Naturally +enough, the fashionable world cared little for the rugged old giant. +"The great," said Johnson, "had tried him and given him up; they had +seen enough of him;" and his reason was pretty much to the purpose. +"Great lords and great ladies don't love to have their mouths stopped," +especially not, one may add, by an unwashed fist. + +It is easy to blame them now. Everybody can see that a saint in beggar's +rags is intrinsically better than a sinner in gold lace. But the +principle is one of those which serves us for judging the dead, much +more than for regulating our own conduct. Those, at any rate, may throw +the first stone at the Horace Walpoles and Chesterfields, who are quite +certain that they would ask a modern Johnson to their houses. The trial +would be severe. Poor Mrs. Boswell complained grievously of her +husband's idolatry. "I have seen many a bear led by a man," she said; +"but I never before saw a man led by a bear." The truth is, as Boswell +explains, that the sage's uncouth habits, such as turning the candles' +heads downwards to make them burn more brightly, and letting the wax +drop upon the carpet, "could not but be disagreeable to a lady." + +He had other habits still more annoying to people of delicate +perceptions. A hearty despiser of all affectations, he despised +especially the affectation of indifference to the pleasures of the +table. "For my part," he said, "I mind my belly very studiously and very +carefully, for I look upon it that he who does not mind his belly will +hardly mind anything else." Avowing this principle he would innocently +give himself the airs of a scientific epicure. "I, madam," he said to +the terror of a lady with whom he was about to sup, "who live at a +variety of good tables, am a much better judge of cookery than any +person who has a very tolerable cook, but lives much at home, for his +palate is gradually adapted to the taste of his cook, whereas, madam, +in trying by a wider range, I can more exquisitely judge." But his +pretensions to exquisite taste are by no means borne out by independent +witnesses. "He laughs," said Tom Davies, "like a rhinoceros," and he +seems to have eaten like a wolf--savagely, silently, and with +undiscriminating fury. He was not a pleasant object during this +performance. He was totally absorbed in the business of the moment, a +strong perspiration came out, and the veins of his forehead swelled. He +liked coarse satisfying dishes--boiled pork and veal-pie stuffed with +plums and sugar; and in regard to wine, he seems to have accepted the +doctrines of the critic of a certain fluid professing to be port, who +asked, "What more can you want? It is black, and it is thick, and it +makes you drunk." Claret, as Johnson put it, "is the liquor for boys, +and port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy." He +could, however, refrain, though he could not be moderate, and for all +the latter part of his life, from 1766, he was a total abstainer. Nor, +it should be added, does he ever appear to have sought for more than +exhilaration from wine. His earliest intimate friend, Hector, said that +he had never but once seen him drunk. + +His appetite for more innocent kinds of food was equally excessive. He +would eat seven or eight peaches before breakfast, and declared that he +had only once in his life had as much wall-fruit as he wished. His +consumption of tea was prodigious, beyond all precedent. Hawkins quotes +Bishop Burnet as having drunk sixteen large cups every morning, a feat +which would entitle him to be reckoned as a rival. "A hardened and +shameless tea-drinker," Johnson called himself, who "with tea amuses the +evenings, with tea solaces the midnights, and with tea welcomes the +mornings." One of his teapots, preserved by a relic-hunter, contained +two quarts, and he professed to have consumed five and twenty cups at a +sitting. Poor Mrs. Thrale complains that he often kept her up making tea +for him till four in the morning. His reluctance to go to bed was due to +the fact that his nights were periods of intense misery; but the vast +potations of tea can scarcely have tended to improve them. + +The huge frame was clad in the raggedest of garments, until his +acquaintance with the Thrales led to a partial reform. His wigs were +generally burnt in front, from his shortsighted knack of reading with +his head close to the candle; and at the Thrales, the butler stood ready +to effect a change of wigs as he passed into the dining-room. Once or +twice we have accounts of his bursting into unusual splendour. He +appeared at the first representation of _Irene_ in a scarlet waistcoat +laced with gold; and on one of his first interviews with Goldsmith he +took the trouble to array himself decently, because Goldsmith was +reported to have justified slovenly habits by the precedent of the +leader of his craft. Goldsmith, judging by certain famous suits, seems +to have profited by the hint more than his preceptor. As a rule, +Johnson's appearance, before he became a pensioner, was worthy of the +proverbial manner of Grub Street. Beauclerk used to describe how he had +once taken a French lady of distinction to see Johnson in his chambers. +On descending the staircase they heard a noise like thunder. Johnson was +pursuing them, struck by a sudden sense of the demands upon his +gallantry. He brushed in between Beauclerk and the lady, and seizing her +hand conducted her to her coach. A crowd of people collected to stare at +the sage, dressed in rusty brown, with a pair of old shoes for slippers, +a shrivelled wig on the top of his head, and with shirtsleeves and the +knees of his breeches hanging loose. In those days, clergymen and +physicians were only just abandoning the use of their official costume +in the streets, and Johnson's slovenly habits were even more marked than +they would be at present. "I have no passion for clean linen," he once +remarked, and it is to be feared that he must sometimes have offended +more senses than one. + +In spite of his uncouth habits of dress and manners, Johnson claimed +and, in a sense, with justice, to be a polite man. "I look upon myself," +he said once to Boswell, "as a very polite man." He could show the +stately courtesy of a sound Tory, who cordially accepts the principle of +social distinction, but has far too strong a sense of self-respect to +fancy that compliance with the ordinary conventions can possibly lower +his own position. Rank of the spiritual kind was especially venerable to +him. "I should as soon have thought of contradicting a bishop," was a +phrase which marked the highest conceivable degree of deference to a man +whom he respected. Nobody, again, could pay more effective compliments, +when he pleased; and the many female friends who have written of him +agree, that he could be singularly attractive to women. Women are, +perhaps, more inclined than men to forgive external roughness in +consideration of the great charm of deep tenderness in a thoroughly +masculine nature. A characteristic phrase was his remark to Miss +Monckton. She had declared, in opposition to one of Johnson's +prejudices, that Sterne's writings were pathetic: "I am sure," she said, +"they have affected me." "Why," said Johnson, smiling and rolling +himself about, "that is because, dearest, you are a dunce!" When she +mentioned this to him some time afterwards he replied: "Madam, if I had +thought so, I certainly should not have said it." The truth could not be +more neatly put. + +Boswell notes, with some surprise, that when Johnson dined with Lord +Monboddo he insisted upon rising when the ladies left the table, and +took occasion to observe that politeness was "fictitious benevolence," +and equally useful in common intercourse. Boswell's surprise seems to +indicate that Scotchmen in those days were even greater bears than +Johnson. He always insisted, as Miss Reynolds tells us, upon showing +ladies to their carriages through Bolt Court, though his dress was such +that her readers would, she thinks, be astonished that any man in his +senses should have shown himself in it abroad or even at home. Another +odd indication of Johnson's regard for good manners, so far as his +lights would take him, was the extreme disgust with which he often +referred to a certain footman in Paris, who used his fingers in place of +sugar-tongs. So far as Johnson could recognize bad manners he was polite +enough, though unluckily the limitation is one of considerable +importance. + +Johnson's claims to politeness were sometimes, it is true, put in a +rather startling form. "Every man of any education," he once said to the +amazement of his hearers, "would rather be called a rascal than accused +of deficiency in the graces." Gibbon, who was present, slily inquired of +a lady whether among all her acquaintance she could not find _one_ +exception. According to Mrs. Thrale, he went even further. Dr. Barnard, +he said, was the only man who had ever done justice to his good +breeding; "and you may observe," he added, "that I am well-bred to a +degree of needless scrupulosity." He proceeded, according to Mrs. +Thrale, but the report a little taxes our faith, to claim the virtues +not only of respecting ceremony, but of never contradicting or +interrupting his hearers. It is rather odd that Dr. Barnard had once a +sharp altercation with Johnson, and avenged himself by a sarcastic copy +of verses in which, after professing to learn perfectness from different +friends, he says,-- + + Johnson shall teach me how to place, + In varied light, each borrow'd grace; + From him I'll learn to write; + Copy his clear familiar style, + And by the roughness of his file, + Grow, like himself, polite. + +Johnson, on this as on many occasions, repented of the blow as soon as +it was struck, and sat down by Barnard, "literally smoothing down his +arms and knees," and beseeching pardon. Barnard accepted his apologies, +but went home and wrote his little copy of verses. + +Johnson's shortcomings in civility were no doubt due, in part, to the +narrowness of his faculties of perception. He did not know, for he could +not see, that his uncouth gestures and slovenly dress were offensive; +and he was not so well able to observe others as to shake off the +manners contracted in Grub Street. It is hard to study a manual of +etiquette late in life, and for a man of Johnson's imperfect faculties +it was probably impossible. Errors of this kind were always pardonable, +and are now simply ludicrous. But Johnson often shocked his companions +by more indefensible conduct. He was irascible, overbearing, and, when +angry, vehement beyond all propriety. He was a "tremendous companion," +said Garrick's brother; and men of gentle nature, like Charles Fox, +often shrank from his company, and perhaps exaggerated his brutality. + +Johnson, who had long regarded conversation as the chief amusement, came +in later years to regard it as almost the chief employment of life; and +he had studied the art with the zeal of a man pursuing a favourite +hobby. He had always, as he told Sir Joshua Reynolds, made it a +principle to talk on all occasions as well as he could. He had thus +obtained a mastery over his weapons which made him one of the most +accomplished of conversational gladiators. He had one advantage which +has pretty well disappeared from modern society, and the disappearance +of which has been destructive to excellence of talk. A good talker, even +more than a good orator, implies a good audience. Modern society is too +vast and too restless to give a conversationalist a fair chance. For the +formation of real proficiency in the art, friends should meet often, sit +long, and be thoroughly at ease. A modern audience generally breaks up +before it is well warmed through, and includes enough strangers to break +the magic circle of social electricity. The clubs in which Johnson +delighted were excellently adapted to foster his peculiar talent. There +a man could "fold his legs and have his talk out"--a pleasure hardly to +be enjoyed now. And there a set of friends meeting regularly, and +meeting to talk, learnt to sharpen each other's skill in all dialectic +manoeuvres. Conversation may be pleasantest, as Johnson admitted, when +two friends meet quietly to exchange their minds without any thought of +display. But conversation considered as a game, as a bout of +intellectual sword-play, has also charms which Johnson intensely +appreciated. His talk was not of the encyclopaedia variety, like that of +some more modern celebrities; but it was full of apposite illustrations +and unrivalled in keen argument, rapid flashes of wit and humour, +scornful retort and dexterous sophistry. Sometimes he would fell his +adversary at a blow; his sword, as Boswell said, would be through your +body in an instant without preliminary flourishes; and in the +excitement of talking for victory, he would use any device that came to +hand. "There is no arguing with Johnson," said Goldsmith, quoting a +phrase from Cibber, "for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down +with the butt-end of it." + +Johnson's view of conversation is indicated by his remark about Burke. +"That fellow," he said at a time of illness, "calls forth all my powers. +Were I to see Burke now, it would kill me." "It is when you come close +to a man in conversation," he said on another occasion, "that you +discover what his real abilities are. To make a speech in an assembly is +a knack. Now I honour Thurlow, sir; Thurlow is a fine fellow, he fairly +puts his mind to yours." + +Johnson's retorts were fair play under the conditions of the game, as it +is fair play to kick an opponent's shins at football. But of course a +man who had, as it were, become the acknowledged champion of the ring, +and who had an irascible and thoroughly dogmatic temper, was tempted to +become unduly imperious. In the company of which Savage was a +distinguished member, one may guess that the conversational fervour +sometimes degenerated into horse-play. Want of arguments would be +supplied by personality, and the champion would avenge himself by +brutality on an opponent who happened for once to be getting the best of +him. Johnson, as he grew older and got into more polished society, +became milder in his manners; but he had enough of the old spirit left +in him to break forth at times with ungovernable fury, and astonish the +well-regulated minds of respectable ladies and gentlemen. + +Anecdotes illustrative of this ferocity abound, and his best +friends--except, perhaps, Reynolds and Burke--had all to suffer in turn. +On one occasion, when he had made a rude speech even to Reynolds, +Boswell states, though with some hesitation, his belief that Johnson +actually blushed. The records of his contests in this kind fill a large +space in Boswell's pages. That they did not lead to worse consequences +shows his absence of rancour. He was always ready and anxious for a +reconciliation, though he would not press for one if his first overtures +were rejected. There was no venom in the wounds he inflicted, for there +was no ill-nature; he was rough in the heat of the struggle, and in such +cases careless in distributing blows; but he never enjoyed giving pain. +None of his tiffs ripened into permanent quarrels, and he seems scarcely +to have lost a friend. He is a pleasant contrast in this, as in much +else, to Horace Walpole, who succeeded, in the course of a long life, in +breaking with almost all his old friends. No man set a higher value upon +friendship than Johnson. "A man," he said to Reynolds, "ought to keep +his friendship in constant repair;" or he would find himself left alone +as he grew older. "I look upon a day as lost," he said later in life, +"in which I do not make a new acquaintance." Making new acquaintances +did not involve dropping the old. The list of his friends is a long one, +and includes, as it were, successive layers, superposed upon each other, +from the earliest period of his life. + +This is so marked a feature in Johnson's character, that it will be as +well at this point to notice some of the friendships from which he +derived the greatest part of his happiness. Two of his schoolfellows, +Hector and Taylor, remained his intimates through life. Hector survived +to give information to Boswell, and Taylor, then a prebendary of +Westminster, read the funeral service over his old friend in the Abbey. +He showed, said some of the bystanders, too little feeling. The relation +between the two men was not one of special tenderness; indeed they were +so little congenial that Boswell rather gratuitously suspected his +venerable teacher of having an eye to Taylor's will. It seems fairer to +regard the acquaintance as an illustration of that curious adhesiveness +which made Johnson cling to less attractive persons. At any rate, he did +not show the complacence of the proper will-hunter. Taylor was rector of +Bosworth and squire of Ashbourne. He was a fine specimen of the +squire-parson; a justice of the peace, a warm politician, and what was +worse, a warm Whig. He raised gigantic bulls, bragged of selling cows +for 120 guineas and more, and kept a noble butler in purple clothes and +a large white wig. Johnson respected Taylor as a sensible man, but was +ready to have a round with him on occasion. He snorted contempt when +Taylor talked of breaking some small vessels if he took an emetic. +"Bah," said the doctor, who regarded a valetudinarian as a "scoundrel," +"if you have so many things that will break, you had better break your +neck at once, and there's an end on't." Nay, if he did not condemn +Taylor's cows, he criticized his bulldog with cruel acuteness. "No, sir, +he is not well shaped; for there is not the quick transition from the +thickness of the fore-part to the _tenuity_--the thin part--behind, +which a bulldog ought to have." On the more serious topic of politics +his Jacobite fulminations roused Taylor "to a pitch of bellowing." +Johnson roared out that if the people of England were fairly polled +(this was in 1777) the present king would be sent away to-night, and his +adherents hanged to-morrow. Johnson, however, rendered Taylor the +substantial service of writing sermons for him, two volumes of which +were published after they were both dead; and Taylor must have been a +bold man, if it be true, as has been said, that he refused to preach a +sermon written by Johnson upon Mrs. Johnson's death, on the ground that +it spoke too favourably of the character of the deceased. + +Johnson paid frequent visits to Lichfield, to keep up his old friends. +One of them was Lucy Porter, his wife's daughter, with whom, according +to Miss Seward, he had been in love before he married her mother. He was +at least tenderly attached to her through life. And, for the most part, +the good people of Lichfield seem to have been proud of their +fellow-townsman, and gave him a substantial proof of their sympathy by +continuing to him, on favourable terms, the lease of a house originally +granted to his father. There was, indeed, one remarkable exception in +Miss Seward, who belonged to a genus specially contemptible to the old +doctor. She was one of the fine ladies who dabbled in poetry, and aimed +at being the centre of a small literary circle at Lichfield. Her letters +are amongst the most amusing illustrations of the petty affectations and +squabbles characteristic of such a provincial clique. She evidently +hated Johnson at the bottom of her small soul; and, indeed, though +Johnson once paid her a preposterous compliment--a weakness of which +this stern moralist was apt to be guilty in the company of ladies--he no +doubt trod pretty roughly upon some of her pet vanities. + +By far the most celebrated of Johnson's Lichfield friends was David +Garrick, in regard to whom his relations were somewhat peculiar. +Reynolds said that Johnson considered Garrick to be his own property, +and would never allow him to be praised or blamed by any one else +without contradiction. Reynolds composed a pair of imaginary dialogues +to illustrate the proposition, in one of which Johnson attacks Garrick +in answer to Reynolds, and in the other defends him in answer to Gibbon. +The dialogues seem to be very good reproductions of the Johnsonian +manner, though perhaps the courteous Reynolds was a little too much +impressed by its roughness; and they probably include many genuine +remarks of Johnson's. It is remarkable that the praise is far more +pointed and elaborate than the blame, which turns chiefly upon the +general inferiority of an actor's position. And, in fact, this seems to +have corresponded to Johnson's opinion about Garrick as gathered from +Boswell. + +The two men had at bottom a considerable regard for each other, founded +upon old association, mutual services, and reciprocal respect for +talents of very different orders. But they were so widely separated by +circumstances, as well as by a radical opposition of temperament, that +any close intimacy could hardly be expected. The bear and the monkey are +not likely to be intimate friends. Garrick's rapid elevation in fame and +fortune seems to have produced a certain degree of envy in his old +schoolmaster. A grave moral philosopher has, of course, no right to look +askance at the rewards which fashion lavishes upon men of lighter and +less lasting merit, and which he professes to despise. Johnson, however, +was troubled with a rather excessive allowance of human nature. Moreover +he had the good old-fashioned contempt for players, characteristic both +of the Tory and the inartistic mind. He asserted roundly that he looked +upon players as no better than dancing-dogs. "But, sir, you will allow +that some players are better than others?" "Yes, sir, as some dogs dance +better than others." So when Goldsmith accused Garrick of grossly +flattering the queen, Johnson exclaimed, "And as to meanness--how is it +mean in a player, a showman, a fellow who exhibits himself for a +shilling, to flatter his queen?" At another time Boswell suggested that +we might respect a great player. "What! sir," exclaimed Johnson, "a +fellow who claps a hump upon his back and a lump on his leg and cries, +'_I am Richard III._'? Nay, sir, a ballad-singer is a higher man, for he +does two things: he repeats and he sings; there is both recitation and +music in his performance--the player only recites." + +Such sentiments were not very likely to remain unknown to Garrick nor to +put him at ease with Johnson, whom, indeed, he always suspected of +laughing at him. They had a little tiff on account of Johnson's Edition +of Shakspeare. From some misunderstanding, Johnson did not make use of +Garrick's collection of old plays. Johnson, it seems, thought that +Garrick should have courted him more, and perhaps sent the plays to his +house; whereas Garrick, knowing that Johnson treated books with a +roughness ill-suited to their constitution, thought that he had done +quite enough by asking Johnson to come to his library. The revenge--if +it was revenge--taken by Johnson was to say nothing of Garrick in his +Preface, and to glance obliquely at his non-communication of his +rarities. He seems to have thought that it would be a lowering of +Shakspeare to admit that his fame owed anything to Garrick's exertions. + +Boswell innocently communicated to Garrick a criticism of Johnson's upon +one of his poems-- + + I'd smile with the simple and feed with the poor. + +"Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich," was Johnson's +tolerably harmless remark. Garrick, however, did not like it, and when +Boswell tried to console him by saying that Johnson gored everybody in +turn, and added, "_foenum habet in cornu_." "Ay," said Garrick +vehemently, "he has a whole mow of it." The most unpleasant incident +was when Garrick proposed rather too freely to be a member of the Club. +Johnson said that the first duke in England had no right to use such +language, and said, according to Mrs. Thrale, "If Garrick does apply, +I'll blackball him. Surely we ought to be able to sit in a society like +ours-- + + 'Unelbowed by a gamester, pimp, or player!'" + +Nearly ten years afterwards, however, Johnson favoured his election, and +when he died, declared that the Club should have a year's widowhood. No +successor to Garrick was elected during that time. + +Johnson sometimes ventured to criticise Garrick's acting, but here +Garrick could take his full revenge. The purblind Johnson was not, we +may imagine, much of a critic in such matters. Garrick reports him to +have said of an actor at Lichfield, "There is a courtly vivacity about +the fellow;" when, in fact, said Garrick, "he was the most vulgar +ruffian that ever went upon boards." + +In spite of such collisions of opinion and mutual criticism, Johnson +seems to have spoken in the highest terms of Garrick's good qualities, +and they had many pleasant meetings. Garrick takes a prominent part in +two or three of the best conversations in Boswell, and seems to have put +his interlocutors in specially good temper. Johnson declared him to be +"the first man in the world for sprightly conversation." He said that +Dryden had written much better prologues than any of Garrick's, but that +Garrick had written more good prologues than Dryden. He declared that it +was wonderful how little Garrick had been spoilt by all the flattery +that he had received. No wonder if he was a little vain: "a man who is +perpetually flattered in every mode that can be conceived: so many +bellows have blown the fuel, that one wonders he is not by this time +become a cinder!" "If all this had happened to me," he said on another +occasion, "I should have had a couple of fellows with long poles walking +before me, to knock down everybody that stood in the way. Consider, if +all this had happened to Cibber and Quin, they'd have jumped over the +moon. Yet Garrick speaks to us," smiling. He admitted at the same time +that Garrick had raised the profession of a player. He defended Garrick, +too, against the common charge of avarice. Garrick, as he pointed out, +had been brought up in a family whose study it was to make fourpence go +as far as fourpence-halfpenny. Johnson remembered in early days drinking +tea with Garrick when Peg Woffington made it, and made it, as Garrick +grumbled, "as red as blood." But when Garrick became rich he became +liberal. He had, so Johnson declared, given away more money than any man +in England. + +After Garrick's death, Johnson took occasion to say, in the _Lives of +the Poets_, that the death "had eclipsed the gaiety of nations and +diminished the public stock of harmless pleasures." Boswell ventured to +criticise the observation rather spitefully. "Why _nations_? Did his +gaiety extend further than his own nation?" "Why, sir," replied Johnson, +"some imagination must be allowed. Besides, we may say _nations_ if we +allow the Scotch to be a nation, and to have gaiety--which they have +not." On the whole, in spite of various drawbacks, Johnson's reported +observations upon Garrick will appear to be discriminative, and yet, on +the whole, strongly favourable to his character. Yet we are not quite +surprised that Mrs. Garrick did not respond to a hint thrown out by +Johnson, that he would be glad to write the life of his friend. + +At Oxford, Johnson acquired the friendship of Dr. Adams, afterwards +Master of Pembroke and author of a once well-known reply to Hume's +argument upon miracles. He was an amiable man, and was proud to do the +honours of the university to his old friend, when, in later years, +Johnson revisited the much-loved scenes of his neglected youth. The +warmth of Johnson's regard for old days is oddly illustrated by an +interview recorded by Boswell with one Edwards, a fellow-student whom he +met again in 1778, not having previously seen him since 1729. They had +lived in London for forty years without once meeting, a fact more +surprising then than now. Boswell eagerly gathered up the little scraps +of college anecdote which the meeting produced, but perhaps his best +find was a phrase of Edwards himself. "You are a philosopher, Dr. +Johnson," he said; "I have tried, too, in my time to be a philosopher; +but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in." The phrase, +as Boswell truly says, records an exquisite trait of character. + +Of the friends who gathered round Johnson during his period of struggle, +many had vanished before he became well known. The best loved of all +seems to have been Dr. Bathurst, a physician, who, failing to obtain +practice, joined the expedition to Havannah, and fell a victim to the +climate (1762). Upon him Johnson pronounced a panegyric which has +contributed a proverbial phrase to the language. "Dear Bathurst," he +said, "was a man to my very heart's content: he hated a fool and he +hated a rogue, and he hated a Whig; he was a _very good hater_." Johnson +remembered Bathurst in his prayers for years after his loss, and +received from him a peculiar legacy. Francis Barker had been the negro +slave of Bathurst's father, who left him his liberty by will. Dr. +Bathurst allowed him to enter Johnson's service; and Johnson sent him +to school at considerable expense, and afterwards retained him in his +service with little interruption till his own death. Once Barker ran +away to sea, and was discharged, oddly enough, by the good offices of +Wilkes, to whom Smollett applied on Johnson's behalf. Barker became an +important member of Johnson's family, some of whom reproached him for +his liberality to the nigger. No one ever solved the great problem as to +what services were rendered by Barker to his master, whose wig was "as +impenetrable by a comb as a quickset hedge," and whose clothes were +never touched by the brush. + +Among the other friends of this period must be reckoned his biographer, +Hawkins, an attorney who was afterwards Chairman of the Middlesex +Justices, and knighted on presenting an address to the King. Boswell +regarded poor Sir John Hawkins with all the animosity of a rival author, +and with some spice of wounded vanity. He was grievously offended, so at +least says Sir John's daughter, on being described in the _Life of +Johnson_ as "Mr. James Boswell" without a solitary epithet such as +celebrated or well-known. If that was really his feeling, he had his +revenge; for no one book ever so suppressed another as Boswell's Life +suppressed Hawkins's. In truth, Hawkins was a solemn prig, remarkable +chiefly for the unusual intensity of his conviction that all virtue +consists in respectability. He had a special aversion to "goodness of +heart," which he regarded as another name for a quality properly called +extravagance or vice. Johnson's tenacity of old acquaintance introduced +him into the Club, where he made himself so disagreeable, especially, as +it seems, by rudeness to Burke, that he found it expedient to invent a +pretext for resignation. Johnson called him a "very unclubable man," +and may perhaps have intended him in the quaint description: "I really +believe him to be an honest man at the bottom; though, to be sure, he is +rather penurious, and he is somewhat mean; and it must be owned he has +some degree of brutality, and is not without a tendency to savageness +that cannot well be defended." + +In a list of Johnson's friends it is proper to mention Richardson and +Hawkesworth. Richardson seems to have given him substantial help, and +was repaid by favourable comparisons with Fielding, scarcely borne out +by the verdict of posterity. "Fielding," said Johnson, "could tell the +hour by looking at the clock; whilst Richardson knew how the clock was +made." "There is more knowledge of the heart," he said at another time, +"in one letter of Richardson's than in all _Tom Jones_." Johnson's +preference of the sentimentalist to the man whose humour and strong +sense were so like his own, shows how much his criticism was biassed by +his prejudices; though, of course, Richardson's external decency was a +recommendation to the moralist. Hawkesworth's intimacy with Johnson +seems to have been chiefly in the period between the _Dictionary_ and +the pension. He was considered to be Johnson's best imitator; and has +vanished like other imitators. His fate, very doubtful if the story +believed at the time be true, was a curious one for a friend of +Johnson's. He had made some sceptical remarks as to the efficacy of +prayer in his preface to the South Sea Voyages; and was so bitterly +attacked by a "Christian" in the papers, that he destroyed himself by a +dose of opium. + +Two younger friends, who became disciples of the sage soon after the +appearance of the _Rambler_, are prominent figures in the later circle. +One of these was Bennet Langton, a man of good family, fine scholarship, +and very amiable character. His exceedingly tall and slender figure was +compared by Best to the stork in Raphael's cartoon of the Miraculous +Draught of Fishes. Miss Hawkins describes him sitting with one leg +twisted round the other as though to occupy the smallest possible space, +and playing with his gold snuff-box with a mild countenance and sweet +smile. The gentle, modest creature was loved by Johnson, who could warm +into unusual eloquence in singing his praises. The doctor, however, was +rather fond of discussing with Boswell the faults of his friend. They +seem to have chiefly consisted in a certain languor or sluggishness of +temperament which allowed his affairs to get into perplexity. Once, when +arguing the delicate question as to the propriety of telling a friend of +his wife's unfaithfulness, Boswell, after his peculiar fashion, chose to +enliven the abstract statement by the purely imaginary hypothesis of Mr. +and Mrs. Langton being in this position. Johnson said that it would be +useless to tell Langton, because he would be too sluggish to get a +divorce. Once Langton was the unconscious cause of one of Johnson's +oddest performances. Langton had employed Chambers, a common friend of +his and Johnson's, to draw his will. Johnson, talking to Chambers and +Boswell, was suddenly struck by the absurdity of his friend's appearing +in the character of testator. His companions, however, were utterly +unable to see in what the joke consisted; but Johnson laughed +obstreperously and irrepressibly: he laughed till he reached the Temple +Gate; and when in Fleet Street went almost into convulsions of hilarity. +Holding on by one of the posts in the street, he sent forth such peals +of laughter that they seemed in the silence of the night to resound from +Temple Bar to Fleet Ditch. + +Not long before his death, Johnson applied to Langton for spiritual +advice. "I desired him to tell me sincerely in what he thought my life +was faulty." Langton wrote upon a sheet of paper certain texts +recommending Christian charity; and explained, upon inquiry, that he was +pointing at Johnson's habit of contradiction. The old doctor began by +thanking him earnestly for his kindness; but gradually waxed savage and +asked Langton, "in a loud and angry tone, What is your drift, sir?" He +complained of the well-meant advice to Boswell, with a sense that he had +been unjustly treated. It was a scene for a comedy, as Reynolds +observed, to see a penitent get into a passion and belabour his +confessor. + +Through Langton, Johnson became acquainted with the friend whose manner +was in the strongest contrast to his own. Topham Beauclerk was a man of +fashion. He was commended to Johnson by a likeness to Charles II., from +whom he was descended, being the grandson of the first Duke of St. +Alban's. Beauclerk was a man of literary and scientific tastes. He +inherited some of the moral laxity which Johnson chose to pardon in his +ancestor. Some years after his acquaintance with Boswell he married Lady +Diana Spencer, a lady who had been divorced upon his account from her +husband, Lord Bolingbroke. But he took care not to obtrude his faults of +life, whatever they may have been, upon the old moralist, who +entertained for him a peculiar affection. He specially admired +Beauclerk's skill in the use of a more polished, if less vigorous, style +of conversation than his own. He envied the ease with which Beauclerk +brought out his sly incisive retorts. "No man," he said, "ever was so +free when he was going to say a good thing, from a look that expressed +that it was coming; or, when he had said it, from a look that expressed +that it had come." When Beauclerk was dying (in 1780), Johnson said, +with a faltering voice, that he would walk to the extremity of the +diameter of the earth to save him. Two little anecdotes are expressive +of his tender feeling for this incongruous friend. Boswell had asked him +to sup at Beauclerk's. He started, but, on the way, recollecting +himself, said, "I cannot go; but _I do not love Beauclerk the less_." +Beauclerk had put upon a portrait of Johnson the inscription,-- + + Ingenium ingens + Inculto latet hoc sub corpore. + +Langton, who bought the portrait, had the inscription removed. "It was +kind in you to take it off," said Johnson; and, after a short pause, +"not unkind in him to put it on." + +Early in their acquaintance, the two young men, Beau and Lanky, as +Johnson called them, had sat up one night at a tavern till three in the +morning. The courageous thought struck them that they would knock up the +old philosopher. He came to the door of his chambers, poker in hand, +with an old wig for a nightcap. On hearing their errand, the sage +exclaimed, "What! is it you, you dogs? I'll have a frisk with you." And +so Johnson with the two youths, his juniors by about thirty years, +proceeded to make a night of it. They amazed the fruiterers in Covent +Garden; they brewed a bowl of bishop in a tavern, while Johnson quoted +the poet's address to Sleep,-- + + "Short, O short, be then thy reign, + And give us to the world again!" + +They took a boat to Billingsgate, and Johnson, with Beauclerk, kept up +their amusement for the following day, when Langton deserted them to go +to breakfast with some young ladies, and Johnson scolded him for +leaving his friends "to go and sit with a parcel of wretched _unidea'd_ +girls." "I shall have my old friend to bail out of the round-house," +said Garrick when he heard of this queer alliance; and he told Johnson +that he would be in the _Chronicle_ for his frolic. "He _durst_ not do +such a thing. His wife would not let him," was the moralist's retort. + +Some friends, known to fame by other titles than their connexion with +Johnson, had by this time gathered round them. Among them was one, whose +art he was unable to appreciate, but whose fine social qualities and +dignified equability of temper made him a valued and respected +companion. Reynolds had settled in London at the end of 1752. Johnson +met him at the house of Miss Cotterell. Reynolds had specially admired +Johnson's _Life of Savage_, and, on their first meeting, happened to +make a remark which delighted Johnson. The ladies were regretting the +loss of a friend to whom they were under obligations. "You have, +however," said Reynolds, "the comfort of being relieved from a burden of +gratitude." The saying is a little too much like Rochefoucauld, and too +true to be pleasant; but it was one of those keen remarks which Johnson +appreciated because they prick a bubble of commonplace moralizing +without demanding too literal an acceptation. He went home to sup with +Reynolds and became his intimate friend. On another occasion, Johnson +was offended by two ladies of rank at the same house, and by way of +taking down their pride, asked Reynolds in a loud voice, "How much do +you think you and I could get in a week, if we both worked as hard as we +could?" "His appearance," says Sir Joshua's sister, Miss Reynolds, +"might suggest the poor author: as he was not likely in that place to be +a blacksmith or a porter." Poor Miss Reynolds, who tells this story, +was another attraction to Reynolds' house. She was a shy, retiring +maiden lady, who vexed her famous brother by following in his steps +without his talents, and was deeply hurt by his annoyance at the +unintentional mockery. Johnson was through life a kind and judicious +friend to her; and had attracted her on their first meeting by a +significant indication of his character. He said that when going home to +his lodgings at one or two in the morning, he often saw poor children +asleep on thresholds and stalls--the wretched "street Arabs" of the +day--and that he used to put pennies into their hands that they might +buy a breakfast. + +Two friends, who deserve to be placed beside Reynolds, came from Ireland +to seek their fortunes in London. Edmund Burke, incomparably the +greatest writer upon political philosophy in English literature, the +master of a style unrivalled for richness, flexibility, and vigour, was +radically opposed to Johnson on party questions, though his language +upon the French Revolution, after Johnson's death, would have satisfied +even the strongest prejudices of his old friend. But he had qualities +which commended him even to the man who called him a "bottomless Whig," +and who generally spoke of Whigs as rascals, and maintained that the +first Whig was the devil. If his intellect was wider, his heart was as +warm as Johnson's, and in conversation he merited the generous applause +and warm emulation of his friends. Johnson was never tired of praising +the extraordinary readiness and spontaneity of Burke's conversation. "If +a man," he said, "went under a shed at the same time with Burke to avoid +a shower, he would say, 'This is an extraordinary man.' Or if Burke went +into a stable to see his horse dressed, the ostler would say, 'We have +had an extraordinary man here.'" When Burke was first going into +Parliament, Johnson said in answer to Hawkins, who wondered that such a +man should get a seat, "We who know Mr. Burke, know that he will be one +of the first men in the country." Speaking of certain other members of +Parliament, more after the heart of Sir John Hawkins, he said that he +grudged success to a man who made a figure by a knowledge of a few +forms, though his mind was "as narrow as the neck of a vinegar cruet;" +but then he did not grudge Burke's being the first man in the House of +Commons, for he would be the first man everywhere. And Burke equally +admitted Johnson's supremacy in conversation. "It is enough for me," he +said to some one who regretted Johnson's monopoly of the talk on a +particular occasion, "to have rung the bell for him." + +The other Irish adventurer, whose career was more nearly moulded upon +that of Johnson, came to London in 1756, and made Johnson's +acquaintance. Some time afterwards (in or before 1761) Goldsmith, like +Johnson, had tasted the bitterness of an usher's life, and escaped into +the scarcely more tolerable regions of Grub Street. After some years of +trial, he was becoming known to the booksellers as a serviceable hand, +and had two works in his desk destined to lasting celebrity. His +landlady (apparently 1764) one day arrested him for debt. Johnson, +summoned to his assistance, sent him a guinea and speedily followed. The +guinea had already been changed, and Goldsmith was consoling himself +with a bottle of Madeira. Johnson corked the bottle, and a discussion of +ways and means brought out the manuscript of the _Vicar of Wakefield_. +Johnson looked into it, took it to a bookseller, got sixty pounds for +it, and returned to Goldsmith, who paid his rent and administered a +sound rating to his landlady. + +The relation thus indicated is characteristic; Johnson was as a rough +but helpful elder brother to poor Goldsmith, gave him advice, sympathy, +and applause, and at times criticised him pretty sharply, or brought +down his conversational bludgeon upon his sensitive friend. "He has +nothing of the bear but his skin," was Goldsmith's comment upon his +clumsy friend, and the two men appreciated each other at bottom. Some of +their readers may be inclined to resent Johnson's attitude of +superiority. The admirably pure and tender heart, and the exquisite +intellectual refinement implied in the _Vicar_ and the _Traveller_, +force us to love Goldsmith in spite of superficial foibles, and when +Johnson prunes or interpolates lines in the _Traveller_, we feel as +though a woodman's axe was hacking at a most delicate piece of carving. +The evidence of contemporary observers, however, must force impartial +readers to admit that poor Goldsmith's foibles were real, however amply +compensated by rare and admirable qualities. Garrick's assertion, that +he "wrote like an angel but talked like poor Poll," expresses the +unanimous opinion of all who had actually seen him. Undoubtedly some of +the stories of his childlike vanity, his frankly expressed envy, and his +general capacity for blundering, owe something to Boswell's feeling that +he was a rival near the throne, and sometimes poor Goldsmith's humorous +self-assertion may have been taken too seriously by blunt English wits. +One may doubt, for example, whether he was really jealous of a puppet +tossing a pike, and unconscious of his absurdity in saying "Pshaw! I +could do it better myself!" Boswell, however, was too good an observer +to misrepresent at random, and he has, in fact, explained very well the +true meaning of his remarks. Goldsmith was an excitable Irishman of +genius, who tumbled out whatever came uppermost, and revealed the +feelings of the moment with utter want of reserve. His self-controlled +companions wondered, ridiculed, misinterpreted, and made fewer hits as +well as fewer misses. His anxiety to "get in and share," made him, +according to Johnson, an "unsocial" companion. "Goldsmith," he said, +"had not temper enough for the game he played. He staked too much. A man +might always get a fall from his inferior in the chances of talk, and +Goldsmith felt his falls too keenly." He had certainly some trials of +temper in Johnson's company. "Stay, stay," said a German, stopping him +in the full flow of his eloquence, "Toctor Johnson is going to say +something." An Eton Master called Graham, who was supping with the two +doctors, and had got to the pitch of looking at one person, and talking +to another, said, "Doctor, I shall be glad to see _you_ at Eton." "I +shall be glad to wait on you," said Goldsmith. "No," replied Graham, +"'tis not you I mean, Doctor Minor; 'tis Doctor Major there." Poor +Goldsmith said afterwards, "Graham is a fellow to make one commit +suicide." + +Boswell who attributes some of Goldsmith's sayings about Johnson to +envy, said with probable truth that Goldsmith had not more envy than +others, but only spoke of it more freely. Johnson argued that we must be +angry with a man who had so much of an odious quality that he could not +keep it to himself, but let it "boil over." The feeling, at any rate, +was momentary and totally free from malice; and Goldsmith's criticisms +upon Johnson and his idolators seem to have been fair enough. His +objection to Boswell's substituting a monarchy for a republic has +already been mentioned. At another time he checked Boswell's flow of +panegyric by asking, "Is he like Burke, who winds into a subject like a +serpent?" To which Boswell replied with charming irrelevance, "Johnson +is the Hercules who strangled serpents in his cradle." The last of +Goldsmith's hits was suggested by Johnson's shaking his sides with +laughter because Goldsmith admired the skill with which the little +fishes in the fable were made to talk in character. "Why, Dr. Johnson, +this is not so easy as you seem to think," was the retort, "for if you +were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales." + +In spite of sundry little sparrings, Johnson fully appreciated +Goldsmith's genius. Possibly his authority hastened the spread of public +appreciation, as he seemed to claim, whilst repudiating Boswell's too +flattering theory that it had materially raised Goldsmith's position. +When Reynolds quoted the authority of Fox in favour of the _Traveller_, +saying that his friends might suspect that they had been too partial, +Johnson replied very truly that the _Traveller_ was beyond the need of +Fox's praise, and that the partiality of Goldsmith's friends had always +been against him. They would hardly give him a hearing. "Goldsmith," he +added, "was a man who, whatever he wrote, always did it better than any +other man could do." Johnson's settled opinion in fact was that embodied +in the famous epitaph with its "nihil tetigit quod non ornavit," and, +though dedications are perhaps the only literary product more generally +insincere than epitaphs, we may believe that Goldsmith too meant what he +said in the dedication of _She Stoops to Conquer_. "It may do me some +honour to inform the public that I have lived many years in intimacy +with you. It may serve the interests of mankind also to inform them that +the greatest wit may be found in a character, without impairing the most +unaffected piety." + +Though Johnson was thus rich in friendship, two connexions have still +to be noticed which had an exceptional bearing upon his fame and +happiness. In January, 1765, he made the acquaintance of the Thrales. +Mr. Thrale was the proprietor of the brewery which afterwards became +that of Barclay and Perkins. He was married in 1763 to a Miss Hester +Lynch Salisbury, who has become celebrated from her friendship with +Johnson.[1] She was a woman of great vivacity and independence of +character. She had a sensitive and passionate, if not a very tender +nature, and enough literary culture to appreciate Johnson's intellectual +power, and on occasion to play a very respectable part in conversation. +She had far more Latin and English scholarship than fell to the lot of +most ladies of her day, and wit enough to preserve her from degenerating +like some of the "blues," into that most offensive of beings--a feminine +prig. Her marriage had been one of convenience, and her husband's want +of sympathy, and jealousy of any interference in business matters, +forced her, she says, to take to literature as her sole resource. "No +wonder," she adds, "if I loved my books and children." It is, perhaps, +more to be wondered at that her children seem to have had a rather +subordinate place in her affections. The marriage, however, though not +of the happiest, was perfectly decorous. Mrs. Thrale discharged her +domestic duties irreproachably, even when she seems to have had some +real cause of complaint. To the world she eclipsed her husband, a solid +respectable man, whose mind, according to Johnson, struck the hours very +regularly, though it did not mark the minutes. + +[Footnote 1: Mrs. Thrale was born in 1740 or 1741, probably the latter. +Thrale was born in 1724.] + +The Thrales were introduced to Johnson by their common friend, Arthur +Murphy, an actor and dramatist, who afterwards became the editor of +Johnson's works. One day, when calling upon Johnson, they found him in +such a fit of despair that Thrale tried to stop his mouth by placing his +hand before it. The pair then joined in begging Johnson to leave his +solitary abode, and come to them at their country-house at Streatham. He +complied, and for the next sixteen years a room was set apart for him, +both at Streatham and in their house in Southwark. He passed a large +part of his time with them, and derived from the intimacy most of the +comfort of his later years. He treated Mrs. Thrale with a kind of +paternal gallantry, her age at the time of their acquaintance being +about twenty-four, and his fifty-five. He generally called her by the +playful name of "my mistress," addressed little poems to her, gave her +solid advice, and gradually came to confide to her his miseries and +ailments with rather surprising frankness. She flattered and amused him, +and soothed his sufferings and did something towards humanizing his +rugged exterior. There was one little grievance between them which +requires notice. Johnson's pet virtue in private life was a rigid regard +for truth. He spoke, it was said of him, as if he was always on oath. He +would not, for example, allow his servant to use the phrase "not at +home," and even in the heat of conversation resisted the temptation to +give point to an anecdote. The lively Mrs. Thrale rather fretted against +the restraint, and Johnson admonished her in vain. He complained to +Boswell that she was willing to have that said of her, which the best of +mankind had died rather than have said of them. Boswell, the faithful +imitator of his master in this respect, delighted in taking up the +parable. "Now, madam, give me leave to catch you in the fact," he said +on one occasion; "it was not an old woman, but an old man whom I +mentioned, as having told me this," and he recounts his check to the +"lively lady" with intense complacency. As may be imagined, Boswell and +Mrs. Thrale did not love each other, in spite of the well-meant efforts +of the sage to bring about a friendly feeling between his disciples. + +It is time to close this list of friends with the inimitable Boswell. +James Boswell, born in 1740, was the eldest son of a Whig laird and lord +of sessions. He had acquired some English friends at the Scotch +universities, among whom must be mentioned Mr. Temple, an English +clergyman. Boswell's correspondence with Temple, discovered years after +his death by a singular chance, and published in 1857, is, after the +Life of Johnson, one of the most curious exhibitions of character in the +language. Boswell was intended for the Scotch bar, and studied civil law +at Utrecht in the winter of 1762. It was in the following summer that he +made Johnson's acquaintance. + +Perhaps the fundamental quality in Boswell's character was his intense +capacity for enjoyment. He was, as Mr. Carlyle puts it, "gluttonously +fond of whatever would yield him a little solacement, were it only of a +stomachic character." His love of good living and good drink would have +made him a hearty admirer of his countryman, Burns, had Burns been +famous in Boswell's youth. Nobody could have joined with more thorough +abandonment in the chorus to the poet's liveliest songs in praise of +love and wine. He would have made an excellent fourth when "Willie +brewed a peck of malt, and Rab and Allan came to see," and the drinking +contest for the Whistle commemorated in another lyric would have excited +his keenest interest. He was always delighted when he could get Johnson +to discuss the ethics and statistics of drinking. "I am myself," he +says, "a lover of wine, and therefore curious to hear whatever is +remarkable concerning drinking." The remark is _à propos_ to a story of +Dr. Campbell drinking thirteen bottles of port at a sitting. Lest this +should seem incredible, he quotes Johnson's dictum. "Sir, if a man +drinks very slowly and lets one glass evaporate before he takes another, +I know not how long he may drink." Boswell's faculty for making love was +as great as his power of drinking. His letters to Temple record with +amusing frankness the vicissitudes of some of his courtships and the +versatility of his passions. + +Boswell's tastes, however, were by no means limited to sensual or +frivolous enjoyments. His appreciation of the bottle was combined with +an equally hearty sensibility to more intellectual pleasures. He had not +a spark of philosophic or poetic power, but within the ordinary range of +such topics as can be discussed at a dinner-party, he had an abundant +share of liveliness and intelligence. His palate was as keen for good +talk as for good wine. He was an admirable recipient, if not an +originator, of shrewd or humorous remarks upon life and manners. What in +regard to sensual enjoyment was mere gluttony, appeared in higher +matters as an insatiable curiosity. At times this faculty became +intolerable to his neighbours. "I will not be baited with what and why," +said poor Johnson, one day in desperation. "Why is a cow's tail long? +Why is a fox's tail bushy?" "Sir," said Johnson on another occasion, +when Boswell was cross-examining a third person about him in his +presence. "You have but two subjects, yourself and me. I am sick of +both." Boswell, however, was not to be repelled by such a retort as +this, or even by ruder rebuffs. Once when discussing the means of +getting a friend to leave London, Johnson said in revenge for a previous +offence, "Nay, sir, we'll send you to him. If your presence doesn't +drive a man out of his house, nothing will." Boswell was "horribly +shocked," but he still stuck to his victim like a leech, and pried into +the minutest details of his life and manners. He observed with +conscientious accuracy that though Johnson abstained from milk one +fast-day, he did not reject it when put in his cup. He notes the +whistlings and puffings, the trick of saying "too-too-too" of his idol: +and it was a proud day when he won a bet by venturing to ask Johnson +what he did with certain scraped bits of orange-peel. His curiosity was +not satisfied on this occasion; but it would have made him the prince of +interviewers in these days. Nothing delighted him so much as rubbing +shoulders with any famous or notorious person. He scraped acquaintance +with Voltaire, Wesley, Rousseau, and Paoli, as well as with Mrs. Rudd, a +forgotten heroine of the _Newgate Calendar_. He was as eager to talk to +Hume the sceptic, or Wilkes the demagogue, as to the orthodox Tory, +Johnson; and, if repelled, it was from no deficiency in daring. In 1767, +he took advantage of his travels in Corsica to introduce himself to Lord +Chatham, then Prime Minister. The letter moderately ends by asking, +"_Could your lordship find time to honour me now and then with a +letter?_ I have been told how favourably your lordship has spoken of me. +To correspond with a Paoli and with a Chatham is enough to keep a young +man ever ardent in the pursuit of virtuous fame." No other young man of +the day, we may be sure, would have dared to make such a proposal to the +majestic orator. + +His absurd vanity, and the greedy craving for notoriety at any cost, +would have made Boswell the most offensive of mortals, had not his +unfeigned good-humour disarmed enmity. Nobody could help laughing, or be +inclined to take offence at his harmless absurdities. Burke said of him +that he had so much good-humour naturally, that it was scarcely a +virtue. His vanity, in fact, did not generate affectation. Most vain men +are vain of qualities which they do not really possess, or possess in a +lower degree than they fancy. They are always acting a part, and become +touchy from a half-conscious sense of the imposture. But Boswell seems +to have had few such illusions. He thoroughly and unfeignedly enjoyed +his own peculiarities, and thought his real self much too charming an +object to be in need of any disguise. No man, therefore, was ever less +embarrassed by any regard for his own dignity. He was as ready to join +in a laugh at himself as in a laugh at his neighbours. He reveals his +own absurdities to the world at large as frankly as Pepys confided them +to a journal in cypher. He tells us how drunk he got one night in Skye, +and how he cured his headache with brandy next morning; and what an +intolerable fool he made of himself at an evening party in London after +a dinner with the Duke of Montrose, and how Johnson in vain did his best +to keep him quiet. His motive for the concession is partly the wish to +illustrate Johnson's indulgence, and, in the last case, to introduce a +copy of apologetic verses to the lady whose guest he had been. He +reveals other weaknesses with equal frankness. One day, he says, "I +owned to Johnson that I was occasionally troubled with a fit of +narrowness." "Why, sir," said he, "so am I. _But I do not tell it_." +Boswell enjoys the joke far too heartily to act upon the advice. + +There is nothing, however, which Boswell seems to have enjoyed more +heartily than his own good impulses. He looks upon his virtuous +resolution with a sort of aesthetic satisfaction, and with the glow of a +virtuous man contemplating a promising penitent. Whilst suffering +severely from the consequences of imprudent conduct, he gets a letter of +virtuous advice from his friend Temple. He instantly sees himself +reformed for the rest of his days. "My warm imagination," he says, +"looks forward with great complacency on the sobriety, the +healthfulness, and worth of my future life." "Every instance of our +doing those things which we ought not to have done, and leaving undone +those things which we ought to have done, is attended," as he elsewhere +sagely observes, "with more or less of what is truly remorse;" but he +seems rather to have enjoyed even the remorse. It is needless to say +that the complacency was its own reward, and that the resolution +vanished like other more eccentric impulses. Music, he once told +Johnson, affected him intensely, producing in his mind "alternate +sensations of pathetic dejection, so that I was ready to shed tears, and +of daring resolution so that I was inclined to rush into the thickest of +the [purely hypothetical] battle." "Sir," replied Johnson, "I should +never hear it, if it made me such a fool." Elsewhere he expresses a wish +to "fly to the woods," or retire into a desert, a disposition which +Johnson checked by one of his habitual gibes at the quantity of easily +accessible desert in Scotland. Boswell is equally frank in describing +himself in situations more provocative of contempt than even drunkenness +in a drawing-room. He tells us how dreadfully frightened he was by a +storm at sea in the Hebrides, and how one of his companions, "with a +happy readiness," made him lay hold of a rope fastened to the masthead, +and told him to pull it when he was ordered. Boswell was thus kept +quiet in mind and harmless in body. + +This extreme simplicity of character makes poor Boswell loveable in his +way. If he sought notoriety, he did not so far mistake his powers as to +set up for independent notoriety.[1] He was content to shine in +reflected light: and the affectations with which he is charged seem to +have been unconscious imitations of his great idol. Miss Burney traced +some likeness even in his dress. In the later part of the _Life_ we meet +phrases in which Boswell is evidently aping the true Johnsonian style. +So, for example, when somebody distinguishes between "moral" and +"physical necessity;" Boswell exclaims, "Alas, sir, they come both to +the same thing. You may be as hard bound by chains when covered by +leather, as when the iron appears." But he specially emulates the +profound melancholy of his hero. He seems to have taken pride in his +sufferings from hypochondria; though, in truth, his melancholy diverges +from Johnson's by as great a difference as that which divides any two +varieties in Jaques's classification. Boswell's was the melancholy of a +man who spends too much, drinks too much, falls in love too often, and +is forced to live in the country in dependence upon a stern old parent, +when he is longing for a jovial life in London taverns. Still he was +excusably vexed when Johnson refused to believe in the reality of his +complaints, and showed scant sympathy to his noisy would-be +fellow-sufferer. Some of Boswell's freaks were, in fact, very trying. +Once he gave up writing letters for a long time, to see whether Johnson +would be induced to write first. Johnson became anxious, though he +half-guessed the truth, and in reference to Boswell's confession gave +his disciple a piece of his mind. "Remember that all tricks are either +knavish or childish, and that it is as foolish to make experiments upon +the constancy of a friend as upon the chastity of a wife." + +[Footnote 1: The story is often told how Boswell appeared at the +Stratford Jubilee with "Corsica Boswell" in large letters on his hat. +The account given apparently by himself is sufficiently amusing, but the +statement is not quite fair. Boswell not unnaturally appeared at a +masquerade in the dress of a Corsican chief, and the inscription on his +hat seems to have been "Viva la Libertà."] + +In other ways Boswell was more successful in aping his friend's +peculiarities. When in company with Johnson, he became delightfully +pious. "My dear sir," he exclaimed once with unrestrained fervour, "I +would fain be a good man, and I am very good now. I fear God and honour +the king; I wish to do no ill and to be benevolent to all mankind." +Boswell hopes, "for the felicity of human nature," that many experience +this mood; though Johnson judiciously suggested that he should not trust +too much to impressions. In some matters Boswell showed a touch of +independence by outvying the Johnsonian prejudices. He was a warm +admirer of feudal principles, and especially held to the propriety of +entailing property upon heirs male. Johnson had great difficulty in +persuading him to yield to his father's wishes, in a settlement of the +estate which contravened this theory. But Boswell takes care to declare +that his opinion was not shaken. "Yet let me not be thought," he adds, +"harsh or unkind to daughters; for my notion is that they should be +treated with great affection and tenderness, and always participate of +the prosperity of the family." His estimate of female rights is +indicated in another phrase. When Mrs. Knowles, the Quaker, expressed a +hope that the sexes would be equal in another world, Boswell replied, +"That is too ambitious, madam. _We_ might as well desire to be equal +with the angels." Boswell, again, differed from Johnson--who, in spite +of his love of authority, had a righteous hatred for all recognized +tyranny--by advocating the slave-trade. To abolish that trade would, he +says, be robbery of the masters and cruelty to the African savages. Nay, +he declares, to abolish it would be + +To shut the gates of mercy on mankind! + +Boswell was, according to Johnson, "the best travelling companion in the +world." In fact, for such purposes, unfailing good-humour and readiness +to make talk at all hazards are high recommendations. "If, sir, you were +shut up in a castle and a new-born baby with you, what would you do?" is +one of his questions to Johnson,--_à propos_ of nothing. That is +exquisitely ludicrous, no doubt; but a man capable of preferring such a +remark to silence helps at any rate to keep the ball rolling. A more +objectionable trick was his habit not only of asking preposterous or +indiscreet questions, but of setting people by the ears out of sheer +curiosity. The appearance of so queer a satellite excited astonishment +among Johnson's friends. "Who is this Scotch cur at Johnson's heels?" +asked some one. "He is not a cur," replied Goldsmith; "he is only a bur. +Tom Davies flung him at Johnson in sport, and he has the faculty of +sticking." The bur stuck till the end of Johnson's life. Boswell visited +London whenever he could, and soon began taking careful notes of +Johnson's talk. His appearance, when engaged in this task long +afterwards, is described by Miss Burney. Boswell, she says, concentrated +his whole attention upon his idol, not even answering questions from +others. When Johnson spoke, his eyes goggled with eagerness; he leant +his ear almost on the Doctor's shoulder; his mouth dropped open to +catch every syllable; and he seemed to listen even to Johnson's +breathings as though they had some mystical significance. He took every +opportunity of edging himself close to Johnson's side even at +meal-times, and was sometimes ordered imperiously back to his place like +a faithful but over-obtrusive spaniel. + +It is hardly surprising that Johnson should have been touched by the +fidelity of this queer follower. Boswell, modestly enough, attributes +Johnson's easy welcome to his interest in all manifestations of the +human mind, and his pleasure in an undisguised display of its workings. +The last pleasure was certainly to be obtained in Boswell's society. But +in fact Boswell, though his qualities were too much those of the +ordinary "good fellow," was not without virtues, and still less without +remarkable talents. He was, to all appearance, a man of really generous +sympathies, and capable of appreciating proofs of a warm heart and a +vigorous understanding. Foolish, vain, and absurd in every way, he was +yet a far kindlier and more genuine man than many who laughed at him. +His singular gifts as an observer could only escape notice from a +careless or inexperienced reader. Boswell has a little of the true +Shaksperian secret. He lets his characters show themselves without +obtruding unnecessary comment. He never misses the point of a story, +though he does not ostentatiously call our attention to it. He gives +just what is wanted to indicate character, or to explain the full +meaning of a repartee. It is not till we compare his reports with those +of less skilful hearers, that we can appreciate the skill with which the +essence of a conversation is extracted, and the whole scene indicated by +a few telling touches. We are tempted to fancy that we have heard the +very thing, and rashly infer that Boswell was simply the mechanical +transmitter of the good things uttered. Any one who will try to put +down the pith of a brilliant conversation within the same space, may +soon satisfy himself of the absurdity of such an hypothesis, and will +learn to appreciate Boswell's powers not only of memory but artistic +representation. Such a feat implies not only admirable quickness of +appreciation, but a rare literary faculty. Boswell's accuracy is +remarkable; but it is the least part of his merit. + +The book which so faithfully reflects the peculiarities of its hero and +its author became the first specimen of a new literary type. Johnson +himself was a master in one kind of biography; that which sets forth a +condensed and vigorous statement of the essentials of a man's life and +character. Other biographers had given excellent memoirs of men +considered in relation to the chief historical currents of the time. But +a full-length portrait of a man's domestic life with enough picturesque +detail to enable us to see him through the eyes of private friendship +did not exist in the language. Boswell's originality and merit may be +tested by comparing his book to the ponderous performance of Sir John +Hawkins, or to the dreary dissertations, falsely called lives, of which +Dugald Stewart's _Life of Robertson_ may be taken for a type. The writer +is so anxious to be dignified and philosophical that the despairing +reader seeks in vain for a single vivid touch, and discovers even the +main facts of the hero's life by some indirect allusion. Boswell's +example has been more or less followed by innumerable successors; and we +owe it in some degree to his example that we have such delightful books +as Lockhart's _Life of Scott_ or Mr. Trevelyan's _Life of Macaulay_. Yet +no later biographer has been quite as fortunate in a subject; and +Boswell remains as not only the first, but the best of his class. + +One special merit implies something like genius. Macaulay has given to +the usual complaint which distorts the vision of most biographers the +name of _lues Boswelliana_. It is true that Boswell's adoration of his +hero is a typical example of the feeling. But that which distinguishes +Boswell, and renders the phrase unjust, is that in him adoration never +hindered accuracy of portraiture. "I will not make my tiger a cat to +please anybody," was his answer to well-meaning entreaties of Hannah +More to soften his accounts of Johnson's asperities. He saw +instinctively that a man who is worth anything loses far more than he +gains by such posthumous flattery. The whole picture is toned down, and +the lights are depressed as well as the shadows. The truth is that it is +unscientific to consider a man as a bundle of separate good and bad +qualities, of which one half may be concealed without injury to the +rest. Johnson's fits of bad temper, like Goldsmith's blundering, must be +unsparingly revealed by a biographer, because they are in fact +expressions of the whole character. It is necessary to take them into +account in order really to understand either the merits or the +shortcomings. When they are softened or omitted, the whole story becomes +an enigma, and we are often tempted to substitute some less creditable +explanation of errors for the true one. We should not do justice to +Johnson's intense tenderness, if we did not see how often it was masked +by an irritability pardonable in itself, and not affecting the deeper +springs of action. To bring out the beauty of a character by means of +its external oddities is the triumph of a kindly humourist; and Boswell +would have acted as absurdly in suppressing Johnson's weaknesses, as +Sterne would have done had he made Uncle Toby a perfectly sound and +rational person. But to see this required an insight so rare that it is +wanting in nearly all the biographers who have followed Boswell's +steps, and is the most conclusive proof that Boswell was a man of a +higher intellectual capacity than has been generally admitted. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +JOHNSON AS A LITERARY DICTATOR. + + +We have now reached the point at which Johnson's life becomes distinctly +visible through the eyes of a competent observer. The last twenty years +are those which are really familiar to us; and little remains but to +give some brief selection of Boswell's anecdotes. The task, however, is +a difficult one. It is easy enough to make a selection of the gems of +Boswell's narrative; but it is also inevitable that, taken from their +setting, they should lose the greatest part of their brilliance. We lose +all the quaint semiconscious touches of character which make the +original so fascinating; and Boswell's absurdities become less amusing +when we are able to forget for an instant that the perpetrator is also +the narrator. The effort, however, must be made; and it will be best to +premise a brief statement of the external conditions of the life. + +From the time of the pension until his death, Johnson was elevated above +the fear of poverty. He had a pleasant refuge at the Thrales', where +much of his time was spent; and many friends gathered round him and +regarded his utterances with even excessive admiration. He had still +frequent periods of profound depression. His diaries reveal an inner +life tormented by gloomy forebodings, by remorse for past indolence and +futile resolutions of amendment; but he could always escape from himself +to a society of friends and admirers. His abandonment of wine seems to +have improved his health and diminished the intensity of his melancholy +fits. His literary activity, however, nearly ceased. He wrote a few +political pamphlets in defence of Government, and after a long period of +indolence managed to complete his last conspicuous work--the _Lives of +the Poets_, which was published in 1779 and 1781. One other book of some +interest appeared in 1775. It was an account of the journey made with +Boswell to the Hebrides in 1773. This journey was in fact the chief +interruption to the even tenour of his life. He made a tour to Wales +with the Thrales in 1774; and spent a month with them in Paris in 1775. +For the rest of the period he lived chiefly in London or at Streatham, +making occasional trips to Lichfield and Oxford, or paying visits to +Taylor, Langton, and one or two other friends. It was, however, in the +London which he loved so ardently ("a man," he said once, "who is tired +of London is tired of life"), that he was chiefly conspicuous. There he +talked and drank tea illimitably at his friends' houses, or argued and +laid down the law to his disciples collected in a tavern instead of +Academic groves. Especially he was in all his glory at the Club, which +began its meetings in February, 1764, and was afterwards known as the +Literary Club. This Club was founded by Sir Joshua Reynolds, "our +Romulus," as Johnson called him. The original members were Reynolds, +Johnson, Burke, Nugent, Beauclerk, Langton, Goldsmith, Chamier, and +Hawkins. They met weekly at the Turk's Head, in Gerard Street, Soho, at +seven o'clock, and the talk generally continued till a late hour. The +Club was afterwards increased in numbers, and the weekly supper changed +to a fortnightly dinner. It continued to thrive, and election to it came +to be as great an honour in certain circles as election to a membership +of Parliament. Among the members elected in Johnson's lifetime were +Percy of the _Reliques_, Garrick, Sir W. Jones, Boswell, Fox, Steevens, +Gibbon, Adam Smith, the Wartons, Sheridan, Dunning, Sir Joseph Banks, +Windham, Lord Stowell, Malone, and Dr. Burney. What was best in the +conversation at the time was doubtless to be found at its meetings. + +Johnson's habitual mode of life is described by Dr. Maxwell, one of +Boswell's friends, who made his acquaintance in 1754. Maxwell generally +called upon him about twelve, and found him in bed or declaiming over +his tea. A levée, chiefly of literary men, surrounded him; and he seemed +to be regarded as a kind of oracle to whom every one might resort for +advice or instruction. After talking all the morning, he dined at a +tavern, staying late and then going to some friend's house for tea, over +which he again loitered for a long time. Maxwell is puzzled to know when +he could have read or written. The answer seems to be pretty obvious; +namely, that after the publication of the _Dictionary_ he wrote very +little, and that, when he did write, it was generally in a brief spasm +of feverish energy. One may understand that Johnson should have +frequently reproached himself for his indolence; though he seems to have +occasionally comforted himself by thinking that he could do good by +talking as well as by writing. He said that a man should have a part of +his life to himself; and compared himself to a physician retired to a +small town from practice in a great city. Boswell, in spite of this, +said that he still wondered that Johnson had not more pleasure in +writing than in not writing. "Sir," replied the oracle, "you _may_ +wonder." + +I will now endeavour, with Boswell's guidance, to describe a few of the +characteristic scenes which can be fully enjoyed in his pages alone. +The first must be the introduction of Boswell to the sage. Boswell had +come to London eager for the acquaintance of literary magnates. He +already knew Goldsmith, who had inflamed his desire for an introduction +to Johnson. Once when Boswell spoke of Levett, one of Johnson's +dependents, Goldsmith had said, "he is poor and honest, which is +recommendation enough to Johnson." Another time, when Boswell had +wondered at Johnson's kindness to a man of bad character, Goldsmith had +replied, "He is now become miserable, and that insures the protection of +Johnson." Boswell had hoped for an introduction through the elder +Sheridan; but Sheridan never forgot the contemptuous phrase in which +Johnson had referred to his fellow-pensioner. Possibly Sheridan had +heard of one other Johnsonian remark. "Why, sir," he had said, "Sherry +is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of +pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, sir, +is not in Nature." At another time he said, "Sheridan cannot bear me; I +bring his declamation to a point." "What influence can Mr. Sheridan have +upon the language of this great country by his narrow exertions? Sir, it +is burning a farthing candle at Dover to show light at Calais." Boswell, +however, was acquainted with Davies, an actor turned bookseller, now +chiefly remembered by a line in Churchill's _Rosciad_ which is said to +have driven him from the stage-- + + He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone. + +Boswell was drinking tea with Davies and his wife in their back parlour +when Johnson came into the shop. Davies, seeing him through the +glass-door, announced his approach to Boswell in the spirit of Horatio +addressing Hamlet: "Look, my Lord, it comes!" Davies introduced the +young Scotchman, who remembered Johnson's proverbial prejudices. "Don't +tell him where I come from!" cried Boswell. "From Scotland," said Davies +roguishly. "Mr. Johnson," said Boswell, "I do indeed come from Scotland; +but I cannot help it!" "That, sir," was the first of Johnson's many +retorts to his worshipper, "is what a great many of your countrymen +cannot help." + +Poor Boswell was stunned; but he recovered when Johnson observed to +Davies, "What do you think of Garrick? He has refused me an order for +the play for Miss Williams because he knows the house will be full, and +that an order would be worth three shillings." "O, sir," intruded the +unlucky Boswell, "I cannot think Mr. Garrick would grudge such a trifle +to you." "Sir," replied Johnson sternly, "I have known David Garrick +longer than you have done, and I know no right you have to talk to me on +the subject." The second blow might have crushed a less intrepid +curiosity. Boswell, though silenced, gradually recovered sufficiently to +listen, and afterwards to note down parts of the conversation. As the +interview went on, he even ventured to make a remark or two, which were +very civilly received; Davies consoled him at his departure by assuring +him that the great man liked him very well. "I cannot conceive a more +humiliating position," said Beauclerk on another occasion, "than to be +clapped on the back by Tom Davies." For the present, however, even Tom +Davies was a welcome encourager to one who, for the rest, was not easily +rebuffed. A few days afterwards Boswell ventured a call, was kindly +received and detained for some time by "the giant in his den." He was +still a little afraid of the said giant, who had shortly before +administered a vigorous retort to his countryman Blair. Blair had asked +Johnson whether he thought that any man of a modern age could have +written _Ossian_. "Yes, sir," replied Johnson, "many men, many women, +and many children." Boswell, however, got on very well, and before long +had the high honour of drinking a bottle of port with Johnson at the +Mitre, and receiving, after a little autobiographical sketch, the +emphatic approval, "Give me your hand, I have taken a liking to you." + +In a very short time Boswell was on sufficiently easy terms with +Johnson, not merely to frequent his levées but to ask him to dinner at +the Mitre. He gathered up, though without the skill of his later +performances, some fragments of the conversational feast. The great man +aimed another blow or two at Scotch prejudices. To an unlucky compatriot +of Boswell's, who claimed for his country a great many "noble wild +prospects," Johnson replied, "I believe, sir, you have a great many, +Norway, too, has noble wild prospects; and Lapland is remarkable for +prodigious noble wild prospects. But, sir, let me tell you the noblest +prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to +England." Though Boswell makes a slight remonstrance about the "rude +grandeur of Nature" as seen in "Caledonia," he sympathized in this with +his teacher. Johnson said afterwards, that he never knew any one with +"such a gust for London." Before long he was trying Boswell's tastes by +asking him in Greenwich Park, "Is not this very fine?" "Yes, sir," +replied the promising disciple, "but not equal to Fleet Street." "You +are right, sir," said the sage; and Boswell illustrates his dictum by +the authority of a "very fashionable baronet," and, moreover, a baronet +from Rydal, who declared that the fragrance of a May evening in the +country might be very well, but that he preferred the smell of a +flambeau at the playhouse. In more serious moods Johnson delighted his +new disciple by discussions upon theological, social, and literary +topics. He argued with an unfortunate friend of Boswell's, whose mind, +it appears, had been poisoned by Hume, and who was, moreover, rash +enough to undertake the defence of principles of political equality. +Johnson's view of all propagators of new opinions was tolerably simple. +"Hume, and other sceptical innovators," he said, "are vain men, and will +gratify themselves at any expense. Truth will not afford sufficient food +to their vanity; so they have betaken themselves to error. Truth, sir, +is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone +to milk the bull." On another occasion poor Boswell, not yet acquainted +with the master's prejudices, quoted with hearty laughter a "very +strange" story which Hume had told him of Johnson. According to Hume, +Johnson had said that he would stand before a battery of cannon to +restore Convocation to its full powers. "And would I not, sir?" +thundered out the sage with flashing eyes and threatening gestures. +Boswell judiciously bowed to the storm, and diverted Johnson's +attention. Another manifestation of orthodox prejudice was less +terrible. Boswell told Johnson that he had heard a Quaker woman preach. +"A woman's preaching," said Johnson, "is like a dog's walking on his +hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at +all." + +So friendly had the pair become, that when Boswell left England to +continue his studies at Utrecht, Johnson accompanied him in the +stage-coach to Harwich, amusing him on the way by his frankness of +address to fellow-passengers, and by the voracity of his appetite. He +gave him some excellent advice, remarking of a moth which fluttered +into a candle, "that creature was its own tormentor, and I believe its +name was Boswell." He refuted Berkeley by striking his foot with mighty +force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it. As the ship put +out to sea Boswell watched him from the deck, whilst he remained +"rolling his majestic frame in his usual manner." And so the friendship +was cemented, though Boswell disappeared for a time from the scene, +travelled on the Continent, and visited Paoli in Corsica. A friendly +letter or two kept up the connexion till Boswell returned in 1766, with +his head full of Corsica and a projected book of travels. + +In the next year, 1767, occurred an incident upon which Boswell dwells +with extreme complacency. Johnson was in the habit of sometimes reading +in the King's Library, and it came into the head of his majesty that he +should like to see the uncouth monster upon whom he had bestowed a +pension. In spite of his semi-humorous Jacobitism, there was probably +not a more loyal subject in his majesty's dominions. Loyalty is a word +too often used to designate a sentiment worthy only of valets, +advertising tradesmen, and writers of claptrap articles. But it deserves +all respect when it reposes, as in Johnson's case, upon a profound +conviction of the value of political subordination, and an acceptance of +the king as the authorized representative of a great principle. There +was no touch of servility in Johnson's respect for his sovereign, a +respect fully reconcilable with a sense of his own personal dignity. +Johnson spoke of his interview with an unfeigned satisfaction, which it +would be difficult in these days to preserve from the taint of +snobbishness. He described it frequently to his friends, and Boswell +with pious care ascertained the details from Johnson himself, and from +various secondary sources. He contrived afterwards to get his minute +submitted to the King himself, who graciously authorized its +publication. When he was preparing his biography, he published this +account with the letter to Chesterfield in a small pamphlet sold at a +prohibitory price, in order to secure the copyright. + +"I find," said Johnson afterwards, "that it does a man good to be talked +to by his sovereign. In the first place a man cannot be in a passion." +What other advantages he perceived must be unknown, for here the oracle +was interrupted. But whatever the advantages, it could hardly be +reckoned amongst them, that there would be room for the hearty cut and +thrust retorts which enlivened his ordinary talk. To us accordingly the +conversation is chiefly interesting as illustrating what Johnson meant +by his politeness. He found that the King wanted him to talk, and he +talked accordingly. He spoke in a "firm manly manner, with a sonorous +voice," and not in the subdued tone customary at formal receptions. He +dilated upon various literary topics, on the libraries of Oxford and +Cambridge, on some contemporary controversies, on the quack Dr. Hill, +and upon the reviews of the day. All that is worth repeating is a +complimentary passage which shows Johnson's possession of that courtesy +which rests upon sense and self-respect. The King asked whether he was +writing anything, and Johnson excused himself by saying that he had told +the world what he knew for the present, and had "done his part as a +writer." "I should have thought so too," said the King, "if you had not +written so well." "No man," said Johnson, "could have paid a higher +compliment; and it was fit for a King to pay--it was decisive." When +asked if he had replied, he said, "No, sir. When the King had said it, +it was to be. It was not for me to bandy civilities with my sovereign." +Johnson was not the less delighted. "Sir," he said to the librarian, +"they may talk of the King as they will, but he is the finest gentleman +I have ever seen." And he afterwards compared his manners to those of +Louis XIV., and his favourite, Charles II. Goldsmith, says Boswell, was +silent during the narrative, because (so his kind friend supposed) he +was jealous of the honour paid to the dictator. But his natural +simplicity prevailed. He ran to Johnson, and exclaimed in 'a kind of +flutter,' "Well, you acquitted yourself in this conversation better than +I should have done, for I should have bowed and stammered through the +whole of it." + +The years 1768 and 1769 were a period of great excitement for Boswell. +He was carrying on various love affairs, which ended with his marriage +in the end of 1769. He was publishing his book upon Corsica and paying +homage to Paoli, who arrived in England in the autumn of the same year. +The book appeared in the beginning of 1768, and he begs his friend +Temple to report all that is said about it, but with the restriction +that he is to conceal _all censure_. He particularly wanted Gray's +opinion, as Gray was a friend of Temple's. Gray's opinion, not conveyed +to Boswell, was expressed by his calling it "a dialogue between a green +goose and a hero." Boswell, who was cultivating the society of various +eminent people, exclaims triumphantly in a letter to Temple (April 26, +1768), "I am really the great man now." Johnson and Hume had called upon +him on the same day, and Garrick, Franklin, and Oglethorpe also partook +of his "admirable dinners and good claret." "This," he says, with the +sense that he deserved his honours, "is enjoying the fruit of my +labours, and appearing like the friend of Paoli." Johnson in vain +expressed a wish that he would "empty his head of Corsica, which had +filled it too long." "Empty my head of Corsica! Empty it of honour, +empty it of friendship, empty it of piety!" exclaims the ardent youth. +The next year accordingly saw Boswell's appearance at the Stratford +Jubilee, where he paraded to the admiration of all beholders in a +costume described by himself (apparently) in a glowing article in the +_London Magazine_. "Is it wrong, sir," he took speedy opportunity of +inquiring from the oracle, "to affect singularity in order to make +people stare?" "Yes," replied Johnson, "if you do it by propagating +error, and indeed it is wrong in any way. There is in human nature a +general inclination to make people stare, and every wise man has himself +to cure of it, and does cure himself. If you wish to make people stare +by doing better than others, why make them stare till they stare their +eyes out. But consider how easy it is to make people stare by being +absurd"--a proposition which he proceeds to illustrate by examples +perhaps less telling than Boswell's recent performance. + +The sage was less communicative on the question of marriage, though +Boswell had anticipated some "instructive conversation" upon that topic. +His sole remark was one from which Boswell "humbly differed." Johnson +maintained that a wife was not the worse for being learned. Boswell, on +the other hand, defined the proper degree of intelligence to be desired +in a female companion by some verses in which Sir Thomas Overbury says +that a wife should have some knowledge, and be "by nature wise, not +learned much by art." Johnson said afterwards that Mrs. Boswell was in a +proper degree inferior to her husband. So far as we can tell, she seems +to have been a really sensible, and good woman, who kept her husband's +absurdities in check, and was, in her way, a better wife than he +deserved. So, happily, are most wives. + +Johnson and Boswell had several meetings in 1769. Boswell had the honour +of introducing the two objects of his idolatry, Johnson and Paoli, and +on another occasion entertained a party including Goldsmith and Garrick +and Reynolds, at his lodgings in Old Bond Street. We can still see the +meeting more distinctly than many that have been swallowed by a few days +of oblivion. They waited for one of the party, Johnson kindly +maintaining that six ought to be kept waiting for one, if the one would +suffer more by the others sitting down than the six by waiting. +Meanwhile Garrick "played round Johnson with a fond vivacity, taking +hold of the breasts of his coat, looking up in his face with a lively +archness," and complimenting him on his good health. Goldsmith strutted +about bragging of his dress, of which Boswell, in the serene +consciousness of superiority to such weakness, thought him seriously +vain. "Let me tell you," said Goldsmith, "when my tailor brought home my +bloom-coloured coat, he said, 'Sir, I have a favour to beg of you; when +anybody asks you who made your clothes, be pleased to mention John +Filby, at the Harrow, Water Lane.'" "Why, sir," said Johnson, "that was +because he knew that the strange colour would attract crowds to gaze at +it, and thus they might hear of him, and see how well he could make a +coat even of so absurd a colour." Mr. Filby has gone the way of all +tailors and bloom-coloured coats, but some of his bills are preserved. +On the day of this dinner he had delivered to Goldsmith a half-dress +suit of ratteen lined with satin, costing twelve guineas, a pair of silk +stocking-breeches for £2 5_s_. and a pair of bloom-coloured ditto for £1 +4_s_. 6_d_. The bill, including other items, was paid, it is +satisfactory to add, in February, 1771. + +The conversation was chiefly literary. Johnson repeated the concluding +lines of the _Dunciad_; upon which some one (probably Boswell) ventured +to say that they were "too fine for such a poem--a poem on what?" "Why," +said Johnson, "on dunces! It was worth while being a dunce then. Ah, +sir, hadst _thou_ lived in those days!" Johnson previously uttered a +criticism which has led some people to think that he had a touch of the +dunce in him. He declared that a description of a temple in Congreve's +_Mourning Bride_ was the finest he knew--finer than anything in +Shakspeare. Garrick vainly protested; but Johnson was inexorable. He +compared Congreve to a man who had only ten guineas in the world, but +all in one coin; whereas Shakspeare might have ten thousand separate +guineas. The principle of the criticism is rather curious. "What I mean +is," said Johnson, "that you can show me no passage where there is +simply a description of material objects, without any admixture of moral +notions, which produces such an effect." The description of the night +before Agincourt was rejected because there were men in it; and the +description of Dover Cliff because the boats and the crows "impede yon +fall." They do "not impress your mind at once with the horrible idea of +immense height. The impression is divided; you pass on by computation +from one stage of the tremendous space to another." + +Probably most people will think that the passage in question deserves a +very slight fraction of the praise bestowed upon it; but the criticism, +like most of Johnson's, has a meaning which might be worth examining +abstractedly from the special application which shocks the idolaters of +Shakspeare. Presently the party discussed Mrs. Montagu, whose Essay upon +Shakspeare had made some noise. Johnson had a respect for her, caused in +great measure by a sense of her liberality to his friend Miss Williams, +of whom more must be said hereafter. He paid her some tremendous +compliments, observing that some China plates which had belonged to +Queen Elizabeth and to her, had no reason to be ashamed of a possessor +so little inferior to the first. But he had his usual professional +contempt for her amateur performances in literature. Her defence of +Shakspeare against Voltaire did her honour, he admitted, but it would do +nobody else honour. "No, sir, there is no real criticism in it: none +showing the beauty of thought, as formed on the workings of the human +heart." Mrs. Montagu was reported once to have complimented a modern +tragedian, probably Jephson, by saying, "I tremble for Shakspeare." +"When Shakspeare," said Johnson, "has got Jephson for his rival and Mrs. +Montagu for his defender, he is in a poor state indeed." The +conversation went on to a recently published book, _Kames's Elements of +Criticism_, which Johnson praised, whilst Goldsmith said more truly, "It +is easier to write that book than to read it." Johnson went on to speak +of other critics. "There is no great merit," he said, "in telling how +many plays have ghosts in them, and how this ghost is better than that. +You must show how terror is impressed on the human heart. In the +description of night in _Macbeth_ the beetle and the bat detract from +the general idea of darkness--inspissated gloom." + +After Boswell's marriage he disappeared for some time from London, and +his correspondence with Johnson dropped, as he says, without coldness, +from pure procrastination. He did not return to London till 1772. In the +spring of that and the following year he renewed his old habits of +intimacy, and inquired into Johnson's opinion upon various subjects +ranging from ghosts to literary criticism. The height to which he had +risen in the doctor's good opinion was marked by several symptoms. He +was asked to dine at Johnson's house upon Easter day, 1773; and observes +that his curiosity was as much gratified as by a previous dinner with +Rousseau in the "wilds of Neufchatel." He was now able to report, to the +amazement of many inquirers, that Johnson's establishment was quite +orderly. The meal consisted of very good soup, a boiled leg of lamb with +spinach, a veal pie, and a rice pudding. A stronger testimony of +good-will was his election, by Johnson's influence, into the Club. It +ought apparently to be said that Johnson forced him upon the Club by +letting it be understood that, till Boswell was admitted, no other +candidate would have a chance. Boswell, however, was, as his proposer +said, a thoroughly "clubable" man, and once a member, his good humour +secured his popularity. On the important evening Boswell dined at +Beauclerk's with his proposer and some other members. The talk turned +upon Goldsmith's merits; and Johnson not only defended his poetry, but +preferred him as a historian to Robertson. Such a judgment could be +explained in Boswell's opinion by nothing but Johnson's dislike to the +Scotch. Once before, when Boswell had mentioned Robertson in order to +meet Johnson's condemnation of Scotch literature in general, Johnson had +evaded him; "Sir, I love Robertson, and I won't talk of his book." On +the present occasion he said that he would give to Robertson the advice +offered by an old college tutor to a pupil; "read over your +compositions, and whenever you meet with a passage which you think +particularly fine, strike it out." A good anecdote of Goldsmith +followed. Johnson had said to him once in the Poet's Corner at +Westminster,-- + + Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis. + +When they got to Temple Bar Goldsmith pointed to the heads of the +Jacobites upon it and slily suggested,-- + + Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur _istis_. + +Johnson next pronounced a critical judgment which should be set against +many sins of that kind. He praised the _Pilgrim's Progress_ very warmly, +and suggested that Bunyan had probably read Spenser. + +After more talk the gentlemen went to the Club; and poor Boswell +remained trembling with an anxiety which even the claims of Lady Di +Beauclerk's conversation could not dissipate. The welcome news of his +election was brought; and Boswell went to see Burke for the first time, +and to receive a humorous charge from Johnson, pointing out the conduct +expected from him as a good member. Perhaps some hints were given as to +betrayal of confidence. Boswell seems at any rate to have had a certain +reserve in repeating Club talk. + +This intimacy with Johnson was about to receive a more public and even +more impressive stamp. The antipathy to Scotland and the Scotch already +noticed was one of Johnson's most notorious crotchets. The origin of the +prejudice was forgotten by Johnson himself, though he was willing to +accept a theory started by old Sheridan that it was resentment for the +betrayal of Charles I. There is, however, nothing surprising in +Johnson's partaking a prejudice common enough from the days of his +youth, when each people supposed itself to have been cheated by the +Union, and Englishmen resented the advent of swarms of needy +adventurers, talking with a strange accent and hanging together with +honourable but vexatious persistence. Johnson was irritated by what was, +after all, a natural defence against English prejudice. He declared that +the Scotch were always ready to lie on each other's behalf. "The Irish," +he said, "are not in a conspiracy to cheat the world by false +representations of the merits of their countrymen. No, sir, the Irish +are a fair people; they never speak well of one another." There was +another difference. He always expressed a generous resentment against +the tyranny exercised by English rulers over the Irish people. To some +one who defended the restriction of Irish trade for the good of English +merchants, he said, "Sir, you talk the language of a savage. What! sir, +would you prevent any people from feeding themselves, if by any honest +means they can do it?" It was "better to hang or drown people at once," +than weaken them by unrelenting persecution. He felt some tenderness for +Catholics, especially when oppressed, and a hearty antipathy towards +prosperous Presbyterians. The Lowland Scotch were typified by John Knox, +in regard to whom he expressed a hope, after viewing the ruins of St. +Andrew's, that he was buried "in the highway." + +This sturdy British and High Church prejudice did not prevent the worthy +doctor from having many warm friendships with Scotchmen, and helping +many distressed Scotchmen in London. Most of the amanuenses employed for +his _Dictionary_ were Scotch. But he nourished the prejudice the more as +giving an excellent pretext for many keen gibes. "Scotch learning," he +said, for example, "is like bread in a besieged town. Every man gets a +mouthful, but no man a bellyful." Once Strahan said in answer to some +abusive remarks, "Well, sir, God made Scotland." "Certainly," replied +Johnson, "but we must always remember that He made it for Scotchmen; and +comparisons are odious, Mr. Strahan, but God made hell." + +Boswell, therefore, had reason to feel both triumph and alarm when he +induced the great man to accompany him in a Scotch tour. Boswell's +journal of the tour appeared soon after Johnson's death. Johnson himself +wrote an account of it, which is not without interest, though it is in +his dignified style, which does not condescend to Boswellian touches of +character. In 1773 the Scotch Highlands were still a little known +region, justifying a book descriptive of manners and customs, and +touching upon antiquities now the commonplaces of innumerable guide +books. Scott was still an infant, and the day of enthusiasm, real or +affected, for mountain scenery had not yet dawned. Neither of the +travellers, as Boswell remarks, cared much for "rural beauties." Johnson +says quaintly on the shores of Loch Ness, "It will very readily occur +that this uniformity of barrenness can afford very little amusement to +the traveller; that it is easy to sit at home and conceive rocks and +heath and waterfalls; and that these journeys are useless labours, which +neither impregnate the imagination nor enlarge the understanding." And +though he shortly afterwards sits down on a bank "such as a writer of +romance might have delighted to feign," and there conceived the thought +of his book, he does not seem to have felt much enthusiasm. He checked +Boswell for describing a hill as "immense," and told him that it was +only a "considerable protuberance." Indeed it is not surprising if he +sometimes grew weary in long rides upon Highland ponies, or if, when +weatherbound in a remote village in Skye, he declared that this was a +"waste of life." + +On the whole, however, Johnson bore his fatigues well, preserved his +temper, and made sensible remarks upon men and things. The pair started +from Edinburgh in the middle of August, 1773; they went north along the +eastern coast, through St. Andrew's, Aberdeen, Banff, Fort George, and +Inverness. There they took to horses, rode to Glenelg, and took boat for +Skye, where they landed on the 2nd of September. They visited Rothsay, +Col, Mull, and Iona, and after some dangerous sailing got to the +mainland at Oban on October 2nd. Thence they proceeded by Inverary and +Loch Lomond to Glasgow; and after paying a visit to Boswell's paternal +mansion at Auchinleck in Ayrshire, returned to Edinburgh in November. It +were too long to narrate their adventures at length, or to describe in +detail how Johnson grieved over traces of the iconoclastic zeal of +Knox's disciples, seriously investigated stories of second-sight, +cross-examined and brow-beat credulous believers in the authenticity of +_Ossian_, and felt his piety grow warm among the ruins of Iona. Once or +twice, when the temper of the travellers was tried by the various +worries incident to their position, poor Boswell came in for some severe +blows. But he was happy, feeling, as he remarks, like a dog who has run +away with a large piece of meat, and is devouring it peacefully in a +corner by himself. Boswell's spirits were irrepressible. On hearing a +drum beat for dinner at Fort George, he says, with a Pepys-like touch, +"I for a little while fancied myself a military man, and it pleased me." +He got scandalously drunk on one occasion, and showed reprehensible +levity on others. He bored Johnson by inquiring too curiously into his +reasons for not wearing a nightcap--a subject which seems to have +interested him profoundly; he permitted himself to say in his journal +that he was so much pleased with some pretty ladies' maids at the Duke +of Argyll's, that he felt he could "have been a knight-errant for them," +and his "venerable fellow-traveller" read the passage without censuring +his levity. The great man himself could be equally volatile. "I _have +often thought_," he observed one day, to Boswell's amusement, "that if I +kept a seraglio, the ladies should all wear linen gowns"--as more +cleanly. The pair agreed in trying to stimulate the feudal zeal of +various Highland chiefs with whom they came in contact, and who were +unreasonable enough to show a hankering after the luxuries of +civilization. + +Though Johnson seems to have been generally on his best behaviour, he +had a rough encounter or two with some of the more civilized natives. +Boswell piloted him safely through a visit to Lord Monboddo, a man of +real ability, though the proprietor of crochets as eccentric as +Johnson's, and consequently divided from him by strong mutual +prejudices. At Auchinleck he was less fortunate. The old laird, who was +the staunchest of Whigs, had not relished his son's hero-worship. "There +is nae hope for Jamie, mon; Jamie is gaen clean gyte. What do you think, +mon? He's done wi' Paoli--he's off wi' the land-louping scoundrel of a +Corsican, and who's tail do you think he's pinned himself to now, mon?" +"Here," says Sir Walter Scott, the authority for the story, "the old +judge summoned up a sneer of most sovereign contempt. 'A dominie, +mon--an auld dominie--he keeped a schule and caauld it an acaademy.'" +The two managed to keep the peace till, one day during Johnson's visit, +they got upon Oliver Cromwell. Boswell suppresses the scene with obvious +reluctance, his openness being checked for once by filial respect. Scott +has fortunately preserved the climax of Old Boswell's argument. "What +had Cromwell done for his country?" asked Johnson. "God, doctor, he gart +Kings ken that they had a _lith_ in their necks" retorted the laird, in +a phrase worthy of Mr. Carlyle himself. Scott reports one other scene, +at which respectable commentators, like Croker, hold up their hands in +horror. Should we regret or rejoice to say that it involves an obvious +inaccuracy? The authority, however, is too good to allow us to suppose +that it was without some foundation. Adam Smith, it is said, met Johnson +at Glasgow and had an altercation with him about the well-known account +of Hume's death. As Hume did not die till three years later, there must +be some error in this. The dispute, however, whatever its date or +subject, ended by Johnson saying to Smith, "_You lie_." "And what did +you reply?" was asked of Smith. "I said, 'you are a son of a -----.'" +"On such terms," says Scott, "did these two great moralists meet and +part, and such was the classical dialogue between these two great +teachers of morality." + +In the year 1774 Boswell found it expedient to atone for his long +absence in the previous year by staying at home. Johnson managed to +complete his account of the _Scotch Tour_, which was published at the +end of the year. Among other consequences was a violent controversy with +the lovers of _Ossian_. Johnson was a thorough sceptic as to the +authenticity of the book. His scepticism did not repose upon the +philological or antiquarian reasonings, which would be applicable in the +controversy from internal evidence. It was to some extent the expression +of a general incredulity which astonished his friends, especially when +contrasted with his tenderness for many puerile superstitions. He could +scarcely be induced to admit the truth of any narrative which struck +him as odd, and it was long, for example, before he would believe even +in the Lisbon earthquake. Yet he seriously discussed the truth of +second-sight; he carefully investigated the Cock-lane ghost--a goblin +who anticipated some of the modern phenomena of so-called +"spiritualism," and with almost equal absurdity; he told stories to +Boswell about a "shadowy being" which had once been seen by Cave, and +declared that he had once heard his mother call "Sam" when he was at +Oxford and she at Lichfield. The apparent inconsistency was in truth +natural enough. Any man who clings with unreasonable pertinacity to the +prejudices of his childhood, must be alternately credulous and sceptical +in excess. In both cases, he judges by his fancies in defiance of +evidence; and accepts and rejects according to his likes and dislikes, +instead of his estimates of logical proof. _Ossian_ would be naturally +offensive to Johnson, as one of the earliest and most remarkable +manifestations of that growing taste for what was called "Nature," as +opposed to civilization, of which Rousseau was the great mouthpiece. +Nobody more heartily despised this form of "cant" than Johnson. A man +who utterly despised the scenery of the Hebrides as compared with +Greenwich Park or Charing Cross, would hardly take kindly to the +Ossianesque version of the mountain passion. The book struck him as +sheer rubbish. I have already quoted the retort about "many men, many +women, and many children." "A man," he said, on another occasion, "might +write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it." + +The precise point, however, upon which he rested his case, was the +tangible one of the inability of Macpherson to produce the manuscripts +of which he had affirmed the existence. MacPherson wrote a furious +letter to Johnson, of which the purport can only be inferred from +Johnson's smashing retort,-- + +"Mr. James MacPherson, I have received your foolish and impudent letter. +Any violence offered me I shall do my best to repel; and what I cannot +do for myself, the law shall do for me. I hope I shall never be deterred +from detecting what I think a cheat by the menaces of a ruffian. + +"What would you have me retract? I thought your book an imposture: I +think it an imposture still. For this opinion I have given my reasons to +the public, which I here dare you to refute. Your rage I defy. Your +abilities, since your _Homer_, are not so formidable; and what I hear of +your morals inclines me to pay regard not to what you shall say, but to +what you shall prove. You may print this if you will. + +"SAM. JOHNSON." + +And so laying in a tremendous cudgel, the old gentleman (he was now +sixty-six) awaited the assault, which, however, was not delivered. + +In 1775 Boswell again came to London, and renewed some of the Scotch +discussions. He attended a meeting of the Literary Club, and found the +members disposed to laugh at Johnson's tenderness to the stories about +second-sight. Boswell heroically avowed his own belief. "The evidence," +he said, "is enough for me, though not for his great mind. What will not +fill a quart bottle, will fill a pint bottle. I am filled with belief." +"Are you?" said Colman; "then cork it up." + +It was during this and the next few years that Boswell laboured most +successfully in gathering materials for his book. In 1777 he only met +Johnson in the country. In 1779, for some unexplained reason, he was +lazy in making notes; in 1780 and 1781 he was absent from London; and in +the following year, Johnson was visibly declining. The tenour of +Johnson's life was interrupted during this period by no remarkable +incidents, and his literary activity was not great, although the +composition of the _Lives of the Poets_ falls between 1777 and 1780. His +mind, however, as represented by his talk, was in full vigour. I will +take in order of time a few of the passages recorded by Boswell, which +may serve for various reasons to afford the best illustration of his +character. Yet it may be worth while once more to repeat the warning +that such fragments moved from their context must lose most of their +charm. + +On March 26th (1775), Boswell met Johnson at the house of the publisher, +Strahan. Strahan reminded Johnson of a characteristic remark which he +had formerly made, that there are "few ways in which a man can be more +innocently employed than in getting money." On another occasion Johnson +observed with equal truth, if less originality, that cultivating +kindness was an important part of life, as well as money-making. Johnson +then asked to see a country lad whom he had recommended to Strahan as an +apprentice. He asked for five guineas on account, that he might give one +to the boy. "Nay, if a man recommends a boy and does nothing for him, it +is sad work." A "little, thick short-legged boy" was accordingly brought +into the courtyard, whither Johnson and Boswell descended, and the +lexicographer bending himself down administered some good advice to the +awestruck lad with "slow and sonorous solemnity," ending by the +presentation of the guinea. + +In the evening the pair formed part of a corps of party "wits," led by +Sir Joshua Reynolds, to the benefit of Mrs. Abingdon, who had been a +frequent model of the painter. Johnson praised Garrick's prologues, and +Boswell kindly reported the eulogy to Garrick, with whom he supped at +Beauclerk's. Garrick treated him to a mimicry of Johnson, repeating, +"with pauses and half-whistling," the lines,-- + + Os homini sublime dedit--coelumque tueri + Jussit--et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus: + +looking downwards, and at the end touching the ground with a contorted +gesticulation. Garrick was generally jealous of Johnson's light opinion +of him, and used to take off his old master, saying, "Davy has some +convivial pleasantry about him, but 'tis a futile fellow." + +Next day, at Thrales', Johnson fell foul of Gray, one of his pet +aversions. Boswell denied that Gray was dull in poetry. "Sir," replied +Johnson, "he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull everywhere. +He was dull in a new way, and that made people think him great. He was a +mechanical poet." He proceeded to say that there were only two good +stanzas in the _Elegy_. Johnson's criticism was perverse; but if we were +to collect a few of the judgments passed by contemporaries upon each +other, it would be scarcely exceptional in its want of appreciation. It +is rather odd to remark that Gray was generally condemned for +obscurity--a charge which seems strangely out of place when he is +measured by more recent standards. + +A day or two afterwards some one rallied Johnson on his appearance at +Mrs. Abingdon's benefit. "Why did you go?" he asked. "Did you see?" "No, +sir." "Did you hear?" "No, sir." "Why, then, sir, did you go?" +"Because, sir, she is a favourite of the public; and when the public +cares the thousandth part for you that it does for her, I will go to +your benefit too." + +The day after, Boswell won a bet from Lady Di Beauclerk by venturing to +ask Johnson what he did with the orange-peel which he used to pocket. +Johnson received the question amicably, but did not clear the mystery. +"Then," said Boswell, "the world must be left in the dark. It must be +said, he scraped them, and he let them dry, but what he did with them +next he never could be prevailed upon to tell." "Nay, sir," replied +Johnson, "you should say it more emphatically--he could not be prevailed +upon, even by his dearest friends to tell." + +This year Johnson received the degree of LL.D. from Oxford. He had +previously (in 1765) received the same honour from Dublin. It is +remarkable, however, that familiar as the title has become, Johnson +called himself plain Mr. to the end of his days, and was generally so +called by his intimates. On April 2nd, at a dinner at Hoole's, Johnson +made another assault upon Gray and Mason. When Boswell said that there +were good passages in Mason's _Elfrida_, he conceded that there were +"now and then some good imitations of Milton's bad manner." After some +more talk, Boswell spoke of the cheerfulness of Fleet Street. "Why, +sir," said Johnson, "Fleet Street has a very animated appearance, but I +think that the full tide of human existence is at Charing Cross." He +added a story of an eminent tallow-chandler who had made a fortune in +London, and was foolish enough to retire to the country. He grew so +tired of his retreat, that he begged to know the melting-days of his +successor, that he might be present at the operation. + +On April 7th, they dined at a tavern, where the talk turned upon +_Ossian_. Some one mentioned as an objection to its authenticity that no +mention of wolves occurred in it. Johnson fell into a reverie upon wild +beasts, and, whilst Reynolds and Langton were discussing something, he +broke out, "Pennant tells of bears." What Pennant told is unknown. The +company continued to talk, whilst Johnson continued his monologue, the +word "bear" occurring at intervals, like a word in a catch. At last, +when a pause came, he was going on: "We are told that the black bear is +innocent, but I should not like to trust myself with him." Gibbon +muttered in a low tone, "I should not like to trust myself with +_you_"--a prudent resolution, says honest Boswell who hated Gibbon, if +it referred to a competition of abilities. + +The talk went on to patriotism, and Johnson laid down an apophthegm, at +"which many will start," many people, in fact, having little sense of +humour. Such persons may be reminded for their comfort that at this +period patriot had a technical meaning. "Patriotism is the last refuge +of a scoundrel." On the 10th of April, he laid down another dogma, +calculated to offend the weaker brethren. He defended Pope's line-- + + Man never _is_ but always _to be_ blest. + +And being asked if man did not sometimes enjoy a momentary happiness, +replied, "Never, but when he is drunk." It would be useless to defend +these and other such utterances to any one who cannot enjoy them without +defence. + +On April 11th, the pair went in Reynolds's coach to dine with Cambridge, +at Twickenham. Johnson was in high spirits. He remarked as they drove +down, upon the rarity of good humour in life. One friend mentioned by +Boswell was, he said, _acid_, and another _muddy_. At last, stretching +himself and turning with complacency, he observed, "I look upon myself +as a good-humoured fellow"--a bit of self-esteem against which Boswell +protested. Johnson, he admitted, was good-natured; but was too irascible +and impatient to be good-humoured. On reaching Cambridge's house, +Johnson ran to look at the books. "Mr. Johnson," said Cambridge +politely, "I am going with your pardon to accuse myself, for I have the +same custom which I perceive you have. But it seems odd that one should +have such a desire to look at the backs of books." "Sir," replied +Johnson, wheeling about at the words, "the reason is very plain. +Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where +we can find information upon it. When we inquire into any subject, the +first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This +leads us to look at catalogues, and the backs of books in libraries." + +A pleasant talk followed. Johnson denied the value attributed to +historical reading, on the ground that we know very little except a few +facts and dates. All the colouring, he said, was conjectural. Boswell +chuckles over the reflection that Gibbon, who was present, did not take +up the cudgels for his favourite study, though the first-fruits of his +labours were to appear in the following year. "Probably he did not like +to trust himself with Johnson." + +The conversation presently turned upon the _Beggar's Opera_, and Johnson +sensibly refused to believe that any man had been made a rogue by seeing +it. Yet the moralist felt bound to utter some condemnation of such a +performance, and at last, amidst the smothered amusement of the company, +collected himself to give a heavy stroke: "there is in it," he said, +"such a _labefactation_ of all principles as may he dangerous to +morality." + +A discussion followed as to whether Sheridan was right for refusing to +allow his wife to continue as a public singer. Johnson defended him +"with all the high spirit of a Roman senator." "He resolved wisely and +nobly, to be sure. He is a brave man. Would not a gentleman be disgraced +by having his wife sing publicly for hire? No, sir, there can be no +doubt here. I know not if I should not prepare myself for a public +singer as readily as let my wife be one." + +The stout old supporter of social authority went on to denounce the +politics of the day. He asserted that politics had come to mean nothing +but the art of rising in the world. He contrasted the absence of any +principles with the state of the national mind during the stormy days of +the seventeenth century. This gives the pith of Johnston's political +prejudices. He hated Whigs blindly from his cradle; but he justified his +hatred on the ground that they were now all "bottomless Whigs," that is +to say, that pierce where you would, you came upon no definite creed, +but only upon hollow formulae, intended as a cloak for private interest. +If Burke and one or two of his friends be excepted, the remark had but +too much justice. + +In 1776, Boswell found Johnson rejoicing in the prospect of a journey to +Italy with the Thrales. Before starting he was to take a trip to the +country, in which Boswell agreed to join. Boswell gathered up various +bits of advice before their departure. One seems to have commended +itself to him as specially available for practice. "A man who had been +drinking freely," said the moralist, "should never go into a new +company. He would probably strike them as ridiculous, though he might +be in unison with those who had been drinking with him." Johnson +propounded another favourite theory. "A ship," he said, "was worse than +a gaol. There is in a gaol better air, better company, better +conveniency of every kind; and a ship has the additional disadvantage of +being in danger." + +On March 19th, they went by coach to the Angel at Oxford; and next +morning visited the Master of University College, who chose with Boswell +to act in opposition to a very sound bit of advice given by Johnson soon +afterwards--perhaps with some reference to the proceeding. "Never speak +of a man in his own presence; it is always indelicate and may be +offensive." The two, however, discussed Johnson without reserve. The +Master said that he would have given Johnson a hundred pounds for a +discourse on the British Constitution; and Boswell suggested that +Johnson should write two volumes of no great bulk upon Church and State, +which should comprise the whole substance of the argument. "He should +erect a fort on the confines of each." Johnson was not unnaturally +displeased with the dialogue, and growled out, "Why should I be always +writing?" + +Presently, they went to see Dr. Adams, the doctor's old friend, who had +been answering Hume. Boswell, who had done his best to court the +acquaintance of Voltaire, Rousseau, Wilkes, and Hume himself, felt it +desirable to reprove Adams for having met Hume with civility. He aired +his admirable sentiments in a long speech, observing upon the connexion +between theory and practice, and remarking, by way of practical +application, that, if an infidel were at once vain and ugly, he might be +compared to "Cicero's beautiful image of Virtue"--which would, as he +seems to think, be a crushing retort. Boswell always delighted in +fighting with his gigantic backer close behind him. Johnson, as he had +doubtless expected, chimed in with the argument. "You should do your +best," said Johnson, "to diminish the authority, as well as dispute the +arguments of your adversary, because most people are biased more by +personal respect than by reasoning." "You would not jostle a +chimney-sweeper," said Adams. "Yes," replied Johnson, "if it were +necessary to jostle him down." + +The pair proceeded by post-chaise past Blenheim, and dined at a good inn +at Chapelhouse. Johnston boasted of the superiority, long since vanished +if it ever existed, of English to French inns, and quoted with great +emotion Shenstone's lines-- + + Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, + Where'er his stages may have been, + Must sigh to think he still has found + The warmest welcome at an inn. + +As they drove along rapidly in the post-chaise, he exclaimed, "Life has +not many better things than this." On another occasion he said that he +should like to spend his life driving briskly in a post-chaise with a +pretty woman, clever enough to add to the conversation. The pleasure was +partly owing to the fact that his deafness was less troublesome in a +carriage. But he admitted that there were drawbacks even to this +pleasure. Boswell asked him whether he would not add a post-chaise +journey to the other sole cause of happiness--namely, drunkenness. "No, +sir," said Johnson, "you are driving rapidly _from_ something or _to_ +something." + +They went to Birmingham, where Boswell pumped Hector about Johnson's +early days, and saw the works of Boulton, Watt's partner, who said to +him, "I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have--_power_." +Thence they went to Lichfield, and met more of the rapidly thinning +circle of Johnson's oldest friends. Here Boswell was a little +scandalized by Johnson's warm exclamation on opening a letter--"One of +the most dreadful things that has happened in my time!" This turned out +to be the death of Thrale's only son. Boswell thought the phrase too big +for the event, and was some time before he could feel a proper concern. +He was, however, "curious to observe how Dr. Johnson would be affected," +and was again a little scandalized by the reply to his consolatory +remark that the Thrales still had daughters. "Sir," said Johnson, "don't +you know how you yourself think? Sir, he wishes to propagate his name." +The great man was actually putting the family sentiment of a brewer in +the same category with the sentiments of the heir of Auchinleck. +Johnson, however, calmed down, but resolved to hurry back to London. +They stayed a night at Taylor's, who remarked that he had fought a good +many battles for a physician, one of their common friends. "But you +should consider, sir," said Johnson, "that by every one of your +victories he is a loser; for every man of whom you get the better will +be very angry, and resolve not to employ him, whereas if people get the +better of you in argument about him, they will think 'We'll send for Dr. +---- nevertheless!'" + +It was after their return to London that Boswell won the greatest +triumph of his friendship. He carried through a negotiation, to which, +as Burke pleasantly said, there was nothing equal in the whole history +of the _corps diplomatique_. At some moment of enthusiasm it had +occurred to him to bring Johnson into company with Wilkes. The infidel +demagogue was probably in the mind of the Tory High Churchman, when he +threw out that pleasant little apophthegm about patriotism. To bring +together two such opposites without provoking a collision would be the +crowning triumph of Boswell's curiosity. He was ready to run all hazards +as a chemist might try some new experiment at the risk of a destructive +explosion; but being resolved, he took every precaution with admirable +foresight. + +Boswell had been invited by the Dillys, well-known booksellers of the +day, to meet Wilkes. "Let us have Johnson," suggested the gallant +Boswell. "Not for the world!" exclaimed Dilly. But, on Boswell's +undertaking the negotiation, he consented to the experiment. Boswell +went off to Johnson and politely invited him in Dilly's name. "I will +wait upon him," said Johnson. "Provided, sir, I suppose," said the +diplomatic Boswell, "that the company which he is to have is agreeable +to you." "What do you mean, sir?" exclaimed Johnson. "What do you take +me for? Do you think I am so ignorant of the world as to prescribe to a +gentleman what company he is to have at his table?" Boswell worked the +point a little farther, till, by judicious manipulation, he had got +Johnson to commit himself to meeting anybody--even Jack Wilkes, to make +a wild hypothesis--at the Dillys' table. Boswell retired, hoping to +think that he had fixed the discussion in Johnson's mind. + +The great day arrived, and Boswell, like a consummate general who leaves +nothing to chance, went himself to fetch Johnson to the dinner. The +great man had forgotten the engagement, and was "buffeting his books" in +a dirty shirt and amidst clouds of dust. When reminded of his promise, +he said that he had ordered dinner at home with Mrs. Williams. +Entreaties of the warmest kind from Boswell softened the peevish old +lady, to whose pleasure Johnson had referred him. Boswell flew back, +announced Mrs. Williams's consent, and Johnson roared, "Frank, a clean +shirt!" and was soon in a hackney-coach. Boswell rejoiced like a +"fortune-hunter who has got an heiress into a post-chaise with him to +set out for Gretna Green." Yet the joy was with trembling. Arrived at +Dillys', Johnson found himself amongst strangers, and Boswell watched +anxiously from a corner. "Who is that gentleman?" whispered Johnson to +Dilly. "Mr. Arthur Lee." Johnson whistled "too-too-too" doubtfully, for +Lee was a patriot and an American. "And who is the gentleman in lace?" +"Mr. Wilkes, sir." Johnson subsided into a window-seat and fixed his eye +on a book. He was fairly in the toils. His reproof of Boswell was recent +enough to prevent him from exhibiting his displeasure, and he resolved +to restrain himself. + +At dinner Wilkes, placed next to Johnson, took up his part in the +performance. He pacified the sturdy moralist by delicate attentions to +his needs. He helped him carefully to some fine veal. "Pray give me +leave, sir; it is better here--a little of the brown--some fat, sir--a +little of the stuffing--some gravy--let me have the pleasure of giving +you some butter. Allow me to recommend a squeeze of this orange; or the +lemon, perhaps, may have more zest." "Sir, sir," cried Johnson, "I am +obliged to you, sir," bowing and turning to him, with a look for some +time of "surly virtue," and soon of complacency. + +Gradually the conversation became cordial. Johnson told of the +fascination exercised by Foote, who, like Wilkes, had succeeded in +pleasing him against his will. Foote once took to selling beer, and it +was so bad that the servants of Fitzherbert, one of his customers, +resolved to protest. They chose a little black boy to carry their +remonstrance; but the boy waited at table one day when Foote was +present, and returning to his companions, said, "This is the finest man +I have ever seen. I will not deliver your message; I will drink his +beer." From Foote the transition was easy to Garrick, whom Johnson, as +usual, defended against the attacks of others. He maintained that +Garrick's reputation for avarice, though unfounded, had been rather +useful than otherwise. "You despise a man for avarice, but you do not +hate him." The clamour would have been more effectual, had it been +directed against his living with splendour too great for a player. +Johnson went on to speak of the difficulty of getting biographical +information. When he had wished to write a life of Dryden, he applied to +two living men who remembered him. One could only tell him that Dryden +had a chair by the fire at Will's Coffee-house in winter, which was +moved to the balcony in summer. The other (Cibber) could only report +that he remembered Dryden as a "decent old man, arbiter of critical +disputes at Will's." + +Johnson and Wilkes had one point in common--a vigorous prejudice against +the Scotch, and upon this topic they cracked their jokes in friendly +emulation. When they met upon a later occasion (1781), they still +pursued this inexhaustible subject. Wilkes told how a privateer had +completely plundered seven Scotch islands, and re-embarked with three +and sixpence. Johnson now remarked in answer to somebody who said "Poor +old England is lost!" "Sir, it is not so much to be lamented that old +England is lost, as that the Scotch have found it." "You must know, +sir," he said to Wilkes, "that I lately took my friend Boswell and +showed him genuine civilized life in an English provincial town. I +turned him loose at Lichfield, that he might see for once real civility, +for you know he lives among savages in Scotland and among rakes in +London." "Except," said Wilkes, "when he is with grave, sober, decent +people like you and me." "And we ashamed of him," added Johnson, +smiling. + +Boswell had to bear some jokes against himself and his countrymen from +the pair; but he had triumphed, and rejoiced greatly when he went home +with Johnson, and heard the great man speak of his pleasant dinner to +Mrs. Williams. Johnson seems to have been permanently reconciled to his +foe. "Did we not hear so much said of Jack Wilkes," he remarked next +year, "we should think more highly of his conversation. Jack has a great +variety of talk, Jack is a scholar, and Jack has the manners of a +gentleman. But, after hearing his name sounded from pole to pole as the +phoenix of convivial felicity, we are disappointed in his company. He +has always been at _me_, but I would do Jack a kindness rather than not. +The contest is now over." + +In fact, Wilkes had ceased to play any part in public life. When Johnson +met him next (in 1781) they joked about such dangerous topics as some of +Wilkes's political performances. Johnson sent him a copy of the _Lives_, +and they were seen conversing _tête-à-tête_ in confidential whispers +about George II. and the King of Prussia. To Boswell's mind it suggested +the happy days when the lion should lie down with the kid, or, as Dr. +Barnard suggested, the goat. + +In the year 1777 Johnson began the _Lives of the Poets_, in compliance +with a request from the booksellers, who wished for prefaces to a large +collection of English poetry. Johnson asked for this work the extremely +modest sum of 200 guineas, when he might easily, according to Malone, +have received 1000 or 1500. He did not meet Boswell till September, when +they spent ten days together at Dr. Taylor's. The subject which +specially interested Boswell at this time was the fate of the unlucky +Dr. Dodd, hanged for forgery in the previous June. Dodd seems to have +been a worthless charlatan of the popular preacher variety. His crime +would not in our days have been thought worthy of so severe a +punishment; but his contemporaries were less shocked by the fact of +death being inflicted for such a fault, than by the fact of its being +inflicted on a clergyman. Johnson exerted himself to procure a remission +of the sentence by writing various letters and petitions on Dodd's +behalf. He seems to have been deeply moved by the man's appeal, and +could "not bear the thought" that any negligence of his should lead to +the death of a fellow-creature; but he said that if he had himself been +in authority he would have signed the death-warrant, and for the man +himself, he had as little respect as might be. He said, indeed, that +Dodd was right in not joining in the "cant" about leaving a wretched +world. "No, no," said the poor rogue, "it has been a very agreeable +world to me." Dodd had allowed to pass for his own one of the papers +composed for him by Johnson, and the Doctor was not quite pleased. When, +however, Seward expressed a doubt as to Dodd's power of writing so +forcibly, Johnson felt bound not to expose him. "Why should you think +so? Depend upon it, sir, when any man knows he is to be hanged in a +fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." On another occasion, +Johnson expressed a doubt himself as to whether Dodd had really +composed a certain prayer on the night before his execution. "Sir, do +you think that a man the night before he is to be hanged cares for the +succession of the royal family? Though he _may_ have composed this +prayer then. A man who has been canting all his life may cant to the +last; and yet a man who has been refused a pardon after so much +petitioning, would hardly be praying thus fervently for the king." + +The last day at Taylor's was characteristic. Johnson was very cordial to +his disciple, and Boswell fancied that he could defend his master at +"the point of his sword." "My regard for you," said Johnson, "is greater +almost than I have words to express, but I do not choose to be always +repeating it. Write it down in the first leaf of your pocket-book, and +never doubt of it again." They became sentimental, and talked of the +misery of human life. Boswell spoke of the pleasures of society. "Alas, +sir," replied Johnson, like a true pessimist, "these are only struggles +for happiness!" He felt exhilarated, he said, when he first went to +Ranelagh, but he changed to the mood of Xerxes weeping at the sight of +his army. "It went to my heart to consider that there was not one in all +that brilliant circle that was not afraid to go home and think; but that +the thoughts of each individual would be distressing when alone." Some +years before he had gone with Boswell to the Pantheon and taken a more +cheerful view. When Boswell doubted whether there were many happy people +present, he said, "Yes, sir, there are many happy people here. There are +many people here who are watching hundreds, and who think hundreds are +watching them." The more permanent feeling was that which he expressed +in the "serene autumn night" in Taylor's garden. He was willing, +however, to talk calmly about eternal punishment, and to admit the +possibility of a "mitigated interpretation." + +After supper he dictated to Boswell an argument in favour of the negro +who was then claiming his liberty in Scotland. He hated slavery with a +zeal which the excellent Boswell thought to be "without knowledge;" and +on one occasion gave as a toast to some "very grave men" at Oxford, +"Here's to the next insurrection of negroes in the West Indies." The +hatred was combined with as hearty a dislike for American independence. +"How is it," he said, "that we always hear the loudest yelps for liberty +amongst the drivers of negroes?" The harmony of the evening was +unluckily spoilt by an explosion of this prejudice. Boswell undertook +the defence of the colonists, and the discussion became so fierce that +though Johnson had expressed a willingness to sit up all night with him, +they were glad to part after an hour or two, and go to bed. + +In 1778, Boswell came to London and found Johnson absorbed, to an extent +which apparently excited his jealousy, by his intimacy with the Thrales. +They had, however, several agreeable meetings. One was at the club, and +Boswell's report of the conversation is the fullest that we have of any +of its meetings. A certain reserve is indicated by his using initials +for the interlocutors, of whom, however, one can be easily identified as +Burke. The talk began by a discussion of an antique statue, said to be +the dog of Alcibiades, and valued at 1000_l_. Burke said that the +representation of no animal could be worth so much. Johnson, whose taste +for art was a vanishing quantity, said that the value was proportional +to the difficulty. A statue, as he argued on another occasion, would be +worth nothing if it were cut out of a carrot. Everything, he now said, +was valuable which "enlarged the sphere of human powers." The first man +who balanced a straw upon his nose, or rode upon three horses at once, +deserved the applause of mankind; and so statues of animals should be +preserved as a proof of dexterity, though men should not continue such +fruitless labours. + +The conversation became more instructive under the guidance of Burke. He +maintained what seemed to his hearers a paradox, though it would be +interesting to hear his arguments from some profounder economist than +Boswell, that a country would be made more populous by emigration. +"There are bulls enough in Ireland," he remarked incidentally in the +course of the argument. "So, sir, I should think from your argument," +said Johnson, for once condescending to an irresistible pun. It is +recorded, too, that he once made a bull himself, observing that a horse +was so slow that when it went up hill, it stood still. If he now failed +to appreciate Burke's argument, he made one good remark. Another speaker +said that unhealthy countries were the most populous. "Countries which +are the most populous," replied Johnson, "have the most destructive +diseases. That is the true state of the proposition;" and indeed, the +remark applies to the case of emigration. + +A discussion then took place as to whether it would be worth while for +Burke to take so much trouble with speeches which never decided a vote. +Burke replied that a speech, though it did not gain one vote, would have +an influence, and maintained that the House of Commons was not wholly +corrupt. "We are all more or less governed by interest," was Johnson's +comment. "But interest will not do everything. In a case which admits of +doubt, we try to think on the side which is for our interest, and +generally bring ourselves to act accordingly. But the subject must admit +of diversity of colouring; it must receive a colour on that side. In the +House of Commons there are members enough who will not vote what is +grossly absurd and unjust. No, sir, there must always be right enough, +or appearance of right, to keep wrong in countenance." After some +deviations, the conversation returned to this point. Johnson and Burke +agreed on a characteristic statement. Burke said that from his +experience he had learnt to think better of mankind. "From my +experience," replied Johnson, "I have found them worse on commercial +dealings, more disposed to cheat than I had any notion of; but more +disposed to do one another good than I had conceived." "Less just, and +more beneficent," as another speaker suggested. Johnson proceeded to say +that considering the pressure of want, it was wonderful that men would +do so much for each other. The greatest liar is said to speak more truth +than falsehood, and perhaps the worst man might do more good than not. +But when Boswell suggested that perhaps experience might increase our +estimate of human happiness, Johnson returned to his habitual pessimism. +"No, sir, the more we inquire, the more we shall find men less happy." +The talk soon wandered off into a disquisition upon the folly of +deliberately testing the strength of our friend's affection. + +The evening ended by Johnson accepting a commission to write to a friend +who had given to the Club a hogshead of claret, and to request another, +with "a happy ambiguity of expression," in the hopes that it might also +be a present. + +Some days afterwards, another conversation took place, which has a +certain celebrity in Boswellian literature. The scene was at Dilly's, +and the guests included Miss Seward and Mrs. Knowles, a well-known +Quaker Lady. Before dinner Johnson seized upon a book which he kept in +his lap during dinner, wrapped up in the table-cloth. His attention was +not distracted from the various business of the hour, but he hit upon a +topic which happily combined the two appropriate veins of thought. He +boasted that he would write a cookery-book upon philosophical +principles; and declared in opposition to Miss Seward that such a task +was beyond the sphere of woman. Perhaps this led to a discussion upon +the privileges of men, in which Johnson put down Mrs. Knowles, who had +some hankering for women's rights, by the Shakspearian maxim that if two +men ride on a horse, one must ride behind. Driven from her position in +this world, poor Mrs. Knowles hoped that sexes might be equal in the +next. Boswell reproved her by the remark already quoted, that men might +as well expect to be equal to angels. He enforces this view by an +illustration suggested by the "Rev. Mr. Brown of Utrecht," who had +observed that a great or small glass might be equally full, though not +holding equal quantities. Mr. Brown intended this for a confutation of +Hume, who has said that a little Miss, dressed for a ball, may be as +happy as an orator who has won some triumphant success.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Boswell remarks as a curious coincidence that the same +illustration had been used by a Dr. King, a dissenting minister. +Doubtless it has been used often enough. For one instance see _Donne's +Sermons_ (Alford's Edition), vol. i., p. 5.] + +The conversation thus took a theological turn, and Mrs. Knowles was +fortunate enough to win Johnson's high approval. He defended a doctrine +maintained by Soame Jenyns, that friendship is a Christian virtue. Mrs. +Knowles remarked that Jesus had twelve disciples, but there was _one_ +whom he _loved_. Johnson, "with eyes sparkling benignantly," exclaimed, +"Very well indeed, madam; you have said very well!" + +So far all had gone smoothly; but here, for some inexplicable reason, +Johnson burst into a sudden fury against the American rebels, whom he +described as "rascals, robbers, pirates," and roared out a tremendous +volley, which might almost have been audible across the Atlantic. +Boswell sat and trembled, but gradually diverted the sage to less +exciting topics. The name of Jonathan Edwards suggested a discussion +upon free will and necessity, upon which poor Boswell was much given to +worry himself. Some time afterwards Johnson wrote to him, in answer to +one of his lamentations: "I hoped you had got rid of all this hypocrisy +of misery. What have you to do with liberty and necessity? Or what more +than to hold your tongue about it?" Boswell could never take this +sensible advice; but he got little comfort from his oracle. "We know +that we are all free, and there's an end on't," was his statement on one +occasion, and now he could only say, "All theory is against the freedom +of the will, and all experience for it." + +Some familiar topics followed, which play a great part in Boswell's +reports. Among the favourite topics of the sentimentalists of the day +was the denunciation of "luxury," and of civilized life in general. +There was a disposition to find in the South Sea savages or American +Indians an embodiment of the fancied state of nature. Johnson heartily +despised the affectation. He was told of an American woman who had to be +bound in order to keep her from savage life. "She must have been an +animal, a beast," said Boswell. "Sir," said Johnson, "she was a speaking +cat." Somebody quoted to him with admiration the soliloquy of an +officer who had lived in the wilds of America: "Here am I, free and +unrestrained, amidst the rude magnificence of nature, with the Indian +woman by my side, and this gun, with which I can procure food when I +want it! What more can be desired for human happiness?" "Do not allow +yourself, sir," replied Johnson, "to be imposed upon by such gross +absurdity. It is sad stuff; it is brutish. If a bull could speak, he +might as well exclaim, 'Here am I with this cow and this grass; what +being can enjoy greater felicity?'" When Johnson implored Boswell to +"clear his mind of cant," he was attacking his disciple for affecting a +serious depression about public affairs; but the cant which he hated +would certainly have included as its first article an admiration for the +state of nature. + +On the present occasion Johnson defended luxury, and said that he had +learnt much from Mandeville--a shrewd cynic, in whom Johnson's hatred +for humbug is exaggerated into a general disbelief in real as well as +sham nobleness of sentiment. As the conversation proceeded, Johnson +expressed his habitual horror of death, and caused Miss Seward's +ridicule by talking seriously of ghosts and the importance of the +question of their reality; and then followed an explosion, which seems +to have closed this characteristic evening. A young woman had become a +Quaker under the influence of Mrs. Knowles, who now proceeded to +deprecate Johnson's wrath at what he regarded as an apostasy. "Madam," +he said, "she is an odious wench," and he proceeded to denounce her +audacity in presuming to choose a religion for herself. "She knew no +more of the points of difference," he said, "than of the difference +between the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems." When Mrs. Knowles said +that she had the New Testament before her, he said that it was the +"most difficult book in the world," and he proceeded to attack the +unlucky proselyte with a fury which shocked the two ladies. Mrs. Knowles +afterwards published a report of this conversation, and obtained another +report, with which, however, she was not satisfied, from Miss Seward. +Both of them represent the poor doctor as hopelessly confuted by the +mild dignity and calm reason of Mrs. Knowles, though the triumph is +painted in far the brightest colours by Mrs. Knowles herself. Unluckily, +there is not a trace of Johnson's manner, except in one phrase, in +either report, and they are chiefly curious as an indirect testimony to +Boswell's superior powers. The passage, in which both the ladies agree, +is that Johnson, on the expression of Mrs. Knowles's hope that he would +meet the young lady in another world, retorted that he was not fond of +meeting fools anywhere. + +Poor Boswell was at this time a water-drinker by Johnson's +recommendation, though unluckily for himself he never broke off his +drinking habits for long. They had a conversation at Paoli's, in which +Boswell argued against his present practice. Johnson remarked "that wine +gave a man nothing, but only put in motion what had been locked up in +frost." It was a key, suggested some one, which opened a box, but the +box might be full or empty. "Nay, sir," said Johnson, "conversation is +the key, wine is a picklock, which forces open the box and injures it. A +man should cultivate his mind, so as to have that confidence and +readiness without wine which wine gives." Boswell characteristically +said that the great difficulty was from "benevolence." It was hard to +refuse "a good, worthy man" who asked you to try his cellar. This, +according to Johnson, was mere conceit, implying an exaggerated +estimate of your importance to your entertainer. Reynolds gallantly took +up the opposite side, and produced the one recorded instance of a +Johnsonian blush. "I won't argue any more with you, sir," said Johnson, +who thought every man to be elevated who drank wine, "you are too far +gone." "I should have thought so indeed, sir, had I made such a speech +as you have now done," said Reynolds; and Johnson apologized with the +aforesaid blush. + +The explosion was soon over on this occasion. Not long afterwards, +Johnson attacked Boswell so fiercely at a dinner at Reynolds's, that the +poor disciple kept away for a week. They made it up when they met next, +and Johnson solaced Boswell's wounded vanity by highly commending an +image made by him to express his feelings. "I don't care how often or +how high Johnson tosses me, when only friends are present, for then I +fall upon soft ground; but I do not like falling on stones, which is the +case when enemies are present." The phrase may recall one of Johnson's +happiest illustrations. When some one said in his presence that a _congé +d'élire_ might be considered as only a strong recommendation: "Sir," +replied Johnson, "it is such a recommendation as if I should throw you +out of a two-pair of stairs window, and recommend you to fall soft." + +It is perhaps time to cease these extracts from Boswell's reports. The +next two years were less fruitful. In 1779 Boswell was careless, though +twice in London, and in 1780, he did not pay his annual visit. Boswell +has partly filled up the gap by a collection of sayings made by Langton, +some passages from which have been quoted, and his correspondence gives +various details. Garrick died in January of 1779, and Beauclerk in +March, 1780. Johnson himself seems to have shown few symptoms of +increasing age; but a change was approaching, and the last years of his +life were destined to be clouded, not merely by physical weakness, but +by a change of circumstances which had great influence upon his +happiness. + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +THE CLOSING YEARS OF JOHNSON'S LIFE. + + +In following Boswell's guidance we have necessarily seen only one side +of Johnson's life; and probably that side which had least significance +for the man himself. + +Boswell saw in him chiefly the great dictator of conversation; and +though the reports of Johnson's talk represent his character in spite of +some qualifications with unusual fulness, there were many traits very +inadequately revealed at the Mitre or the Club, at Mrs. Thrale's, or in +meetings with Wilkes or Reynolds. We may catch some glimpses from his +letters and diaries of that inward life which consisted generally in a +long succession of struggles against an oppressive and often paralysing +melancholy. Another most noteworthy side to his character is revealed in +his relations to persons too humble for admission to the tables at which +he exerted a despotic sway. Upon this side Johnson was almost entirely +loveable. We often have to regret the imperfection of the records of + + That best portion of a good man's life, + His little, nameless, unremembered acts + Of kindness and of love. + +Everywhere in Johnson's letters and in the occasional anecdotes, we come +upon indications of a tenderness and untiring benevolence which would +make us forgive far worse faults than have ever been laid to his +charge. Nay, the very asperity of the man's outside becomes endeared to +us by the association. His irritability never vented itself against the +helpless, and his rough impatience of fanciful troubles implied no want +of sympathy for real sorrow. One of Mrs. Thrale's anecdotes is intended +to show Johnson's harshness:--"When I one day lamented the loss of a +first cousin killed in America, 'Pr'ythee, my dear,' said he, 'have done +with canting; how would the world be the worse for it, I may ask, if all +your relations were at once spitted like larks and roasted for Presto's +supper?' Presto was the dog that lay under the table while we talked." +The counter version, given by Boswell is, that Mrs. Thrale related her +cousin's death in the midst of a hearty supper, and that Johnson, +shocked at her want of feeling, said, "Madam, it would give _you_ very +little concern if all your relations were spitted like those larks, and +roasted for Presto's supper." Taking the most unfavourable version, we +may judge how much real indifference to human sorrow was implied by +seeing how Johnson was affected by a loss of one of his humblest +friends. It is but one case of many. In 1767, he took leave, as he notes +in his diary, of his "dear old friend, Catherine Chambers," who had been +for about forty-three years in the service of his family. "I desired all +to withdraw," he says, "then told her that we were to part for ever, +and, as Christians, we should part with prayer, and that I would, if she +was willing, say a short prayer beside her. She expressed great desire +to hear me, and held up her poor hands as she lay in bed, with great +fervour, while I prayed, kneeling by her, in nearly the following +words"--which shall not be repeated here--"I then kissed her," he adds. +"She told me that to part was the greatest pain that she had ever felt, +and that she hoped we should meet again in a better place. I expressed, +with swelled eyes, and great emotion of kindness, the same hopes. We +kissed and parted--I humbly hope to meet again and part no more." + +A man with so true and tender a heart could say serenely, what with some +men would be a mere excuse for want of sympathy, that he "hated to hear +people whine about metaphysical distresses when there was so much want +and hunger in the world." He had a sound and righteous contempt for all +affectation of excessive sensibility. Suppose, said Boswell to him, +whilst their common friend Baretti was lying under a charge of murder, +"that one of your intimate friends were apprehended for an offence for +which he might be hanged." "I should do what I could," replied Johnson, +"to bail him, and give him any other assistance; but if he were once +fairly hanged, I should not suffer." "Would you eat your dinner that +day, sir?" asks Boswell. "Yes, sir; and eat it as if he were eating with +me. Why there's Baretti, who's to be tried for his life to-morrow. +Friends have risen up for him upon every side; yet if he should be +hanged, none of them will eat a slice of plum-pudding the less. Sir, +that sympathetic feeling goes a very little way in depressing the mind." +Boswell illustrated the subject by saying that Tom Davies had just +written a letter to Foote, telling him that he could not sleep from +concern about Baretti, and at the same time recommending a young man who +kept a pickle-shop. Johnson summed up by the remark: "You will find +these very feeling people are not very ready to do you good. They _pay_ +you by _feeling_." Johnson never objected to feeling, but to the waste +of feeling. + +In a similar vein he told Mrs. Thrale that a "surly fellow" like +himself had no compassion to spare for "wounds given to vanity and +softness," whilst witnessing the common sight of actual want in great +cities. On Lady Tavistock's death, said to have been caused by grief for +her husband's loss, he observed that her life might have been saved if +she had been put into a small chandler's shop, with a child to nurse. +When Mrs. Thrale suggested that a lady would be grieved because her +friend had lost the chance of a fortune, "She will suffer as much, +perhaps," he replied, "as your horse did when your cow miscarried." Mrs. +Thrale testifies that he once reproached her sternly for complaining of +the dust. When he knew, he said, how many poor families would perish +next winter for want of the bread which the drought would deny, he could +not bear to hear ladies sighing for rain on account of their complexions +or their clothes. While reporting such sayings, she adds, that he loved +the poor as she never saw any one else love them, with an earnest desire +to make them happy. His charity was unbounded; he proposed to allow +himself one hundred a year out of the three hundred of his pension; but +the Thrales could never discover that he really spent upon himself more +than 70_l_., or at most 80_l_. He had numerous dependants, abroad as +well as at home, who "did not like to see him latterly, unless he +brought 'em money." He filled his pockets with small cash which he +distributed to beggars in defiance of political economy. When told that +the recipients only laid it out upon gin or tobacco, he replied that it +was savage to deny them the few coarse pleasures which the richer +disdained. Numerous instances are given of more judicious charity. When, +for example, a Benedictine monk, whom he had seen in Paris, became a +Protestant, Johnson supported him for some months in London, till he +could get a living. Once coming home late at night, he found a poor +woman lying in the street. He carried her to his house on his back, and +found that she was reduced to the lowest stage of want, poverty, and +disease. He took care of her at his own charge, with all tenderness, +until she was restored to health, and tried to have her put into a +virtuous way of living. His house, in his later years, was filled with +various waifs and strays, to whom he gave hospitality and sometimes +support, defending himself by saying that if he did not help them nobody +else would. The head of his household was Miss Williams, who had been a +friend of his wife's, and after coming to stay with him, in order to +undergo an operation for cataract, became a permanent inmate of his +house. She had a small income of some 40_l_. a year, partly from the +charity of connexions of her father's, and partly arising from a little +book of miscellanies published by subscription. She was a woman of some +sense and cultivation, and when she died (in 1783) Johnson said that for +thirty years she had been to him as a sister. Boswell's jealousy was +excited during the first period of his acquaintance, when Goldsmith one +night went home with Johnson, crying "I go to Miss Williams"--a phrase +which implied admission to an intimacy from which Boswell was as yet +excluded. Boswell soon obtained the coveted privilege, and testifies to +the respect with which Johnson always treated the inmates of his family. +Before leaving her to dine with Boswell at the hotel, he asked her what +little delicacy should be sent to her from the tavern. Poor Miss +Williams, however, was peevish, and, according to Hawkins, had been +known to drive Johnson out of the room by her reproaches, and Boswell's +delicacy was shocked by the supposition that she tested the fulness of +cups of tea, by putting her finger inside. We are glad to know that +this was a false impression, and, in fact, Miss Williams, however +unfortunate in temper and circumstances, seems to have been a lady by +manners and education. + +The next inmate of this queer household was Robert Levett, a man who had +been a waiter at a coffee-house in Paris frequented by surgeons. They +had enabled him to pick up some of their art, and he set up as an +"obscure practiser in physic amongst the lower people" in London. He +took from them such fees as he could get, including provisions, +sometimes, unfortunately for him, of the potable kind. He was once +entrapped into a queer marriage, and Johnson had to arrange a separation +from his wife. Johnson, it seems, had a good opinion of his medical +skill, and more or less employed his services in that capacity. He +attended his patron at his breakfast; breakfasting, said Percy, "on the +crust of a roll, which Johnson threw to him after tearing out the +crumb." The phrase, it is said, goes too far; Johnson always took pains +that Levett should be treated rather as a friend than as a dependant. + +Besides these humble friends, there was a Mrs. Desmoulins, the daughter +of a Lichfield physician. Johnson had had some quarrel with the father +in his youth for revealing a confession of the mental disease which +tortured him from early years. He supported Mrs. Desmoulins none the +less, giving house-room to her and her daughter, and making her an +allowance of half-a-guinea a week, a sum equal to a twelfth part of his +pension. Francis Barker has already been mentioned, and we have a dim +vision of a Miss Carmichael, who completed what he facetiously called +his "seraglio." It was anything but a happy family. He summed up their +relations in a letter to Mrs. Thrale. "Williams," he says, "hates +everybody; Levett hates Desmoulins, and does not love Williams; +Desmoulins hates them both; Poll (Miss Carmichael) loves none of them." +Frank Barker complained of Miss Williams's authority, and Miss Williams +of Frank's insubordination. Intruders who had taken refuge under his +roof, brought their children there in his absence, and grumbled if their +dinners were ill-dressed. The old man bore it all, relieving himself by +an occasional growl, but reproaching any who ventured to join in the +growl for their indifference to the sufferings of poverty. Levett died +in January, 1782; Miss Williams died, after a lingering illness, in +1783, and Johnson grieved in solitude for the loss of his testy +companions. A poem, composed upon Levett's death, records his feelings +in language which wants the refinement of Goldsmith or the intensity of +Cowper's pathos, but which is yet so sincere and tender as to be more +impressive than far more elegant compositions. It will be a fitting +close to this brief indication of one side of Johnson's character, too +easily overlooked in Boswell's pages, to quote part of what Thackeray +truly calls the "sacred verses" upon Levett:-- + + Well tried through many a varying year + See Levett to the grave descend, + Officious, innocent, sincere, + Of every friendless name the friend. + + In misery's darkest cavern known, + His ready help was ever nigh; + Where hopeless anguish pour'd his groan, + And lonely want retired to die. + + No summons mock'd by dull delay, + No petty gains disdain'd by pride; + The modest wants of every day, + The toil of every day supplied. + + His virtues walk'd their narrow round, + Nor made a pause, nor left a void; + And sure the eternal Master found + His single talent well employed. + + The busy day, the peaceful night, + Unfelt, uncounted, glided by; + His frame was firm, his eye was bright, + Though now his eightieth year was nigh. + + Then, with no throbs of fiery pain, + No cold gradations of decay, + Death broke at once the vital chain, + And freed his soul the easiest way. + +The last stanza smells somewhat of the country tombstone; but to read +the whole and to realize the deep, manly sentiment which it implies, +without tears in one's eyes is to me at least impossible. + +There is one little touch which may be added before we proceed to the +closing years of this tender-hearted old moralist. Johnson loved little +children, calling them "little dears," and cramming them with +sweetmeats, though we regret to add that he once snubbed a little child +rather severely for a want of acquaintance with the _Pilgrim's +Progress_. His cat, Hodge, should be famous amongst the lovers of the +race. He used to go out and buy oysters for Hodge, that the servants +might not take a dislike to the animal from having to serve it +themselves. He reproached his wife for beating a cat before the maid, +lest she should give a precedent for cruelty. Boswell, who cherished an +antipathy to cats, suffered at seeing Hodge scrambling up Johnson's +breast, whilst he smiled and rubbed the beast's back and pulled its +tail. Bozzy remarked that he was a fine cat. "Why, yes, sir," said +Johnson; "but I have had cats whom I liked better than this," and then, +lest Hodge should be put out of countenance, he added, "but he is a very +fine cat, a very fine cat indeed." He told Langton once of a young +gentleman who, when last heard of, was "running about town shooting +cats; but," he murmured in a kindly reverie, "Hodge shan't be shot; no, +no, Hodge shall not be shot!" Once, when Johnson was staying at a house +in Wales, the gardener brought in a hare which had been caught in the +potatoes. The order was given to take it to the cook. Johnson asked to +have it placed in his arms. He took it to the window and let it go, +shouting to increase its speed. When his host complained that he had +perhaps spoilt the dinner, Johnson replied by insisting that the rights +of hospitality included an animal which had thus placed itself under the +protection of the master of the garden. + +We must proceed, however, to a more serious event. The year 1781 brought +with it a catastrophe which profoundly affected the brief remainder of +Johnson's life. Mr. Thrale, whose health had been shaken by fits, died +suddenly on the 4th of April. The ultimate consequence was Johnson's +loss of the second home, in which he had so often found refuge from +melancholy, alleviation of physical suffering, and pleasure in social +converse. The change did not follow at once, but as the catastrophe of a +little social drama, upon the rights and wrongs of which a good deal of +controversy has been expended. + +Johnson was deeply affected by the loss of a friend whose face, as he +said, "had never been turned upon him through fifteen years but with +respect and benignity." He wrote solemn and affecting letters to the +widow, and busied himself strenuously in her service. Thrale had made +him one of his executors, leaving him a small legacy; and Johnson took, +it seems, a rather simple-minded pleasure in dealing with important +commercial affairs and signing cheques for large sums of money. The old +man of letters, to whom three hundred a year had been superabundant +wealth, was amused at finding himself in the position of a man of +business, regulating what was then regarded as a princely fortune. The +brewery was sold after a time, and Johnson bustled about with an +ink-horn and pen in his button-hole. When asked what was the value of +the property, he replied magniloquently, "We are not here to sell a +parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond +the dreams of avarice." The brewery was in fact sold to Barclay, +Perkins, and Co. for the sum of 135,000_l_., and some years afterwards +it was the largest concern of the kind in the world. + +The first effect of the change was probably rather to tighten than to +relax the bond of union with the Thrale family. During the winter of +1781-2, Johnson's infirmities were growing upon him. In the beginning of +1782 he was suffering from an illness which excited serious +apprehensions, and he went to Mrs. Thrale's, as the only house where he +could use "all the freedom that sickness requires." She nursed him +carefully, and expressed her feelings with characteristic vehemence in a +curious journal which he had encouraged her to keep. It records her +opinions about her affairs and her family, with a frankness remarkable +even in writing intended for no eye but her own. "Here is Mr. Johnson +very ill," she writes on the 1st of February;.... "What shall we do for +him? If I lose _him_, I am more than undone--friend, father, guardian, +confidant! God give me health and patience! What shall I do?" There is +no reason to doubt the sincerity of these sentiments, though they seem +to represent a mood of excitement. They show that for ten months after +Thrale's death Mrs. Thrale was keenly sensitive to the value of +Johnson's friendship. + +A change, however, was approaching. Towards the end of 1780 Mrs. Thrale +had made the acquaintance of an Italian musician named Piozzi, a man of +amiable and honourable character, making an independent income by his +profession, but to the eyes of most people rather inoffensive than +specially attractive. The friendship between Mrs. Thrale and Piozzi +rapidly became closer, and by the end of 1781 she was on very intimate +terms with the gentleman whom she calls "my Piozzi." He had been making +a professional trip to the Continent during part of the period since her +husband's death, and upon his return in November, Johnson congratulated +her upon having two friends who loved her, in terms which suggest no +existing feeling of jealousy. During 1782 the mutual affection of the +lady and the musician became stronger, and in the autumn they had avowed +it to each other, and were discussing the question of marriage. + +No one who has had some experience of life will be inclined to condemn +Mrs. Thrale for her passion. Rather the capacity for a passion not +excited by an intrinsically unworthy object should increase our esteem +for her. Her marriage with Thrale had been, as has been said, one of +convenience; and, though she bore him many children and did her duty +faithfully, she never loved him. Towards the end of his life he had made +her jealous by very marked attentions to the pretty and sentimental +Sophy Streatfield, which once caused a scene at his table; and during +the last two years his mind had been weakened, and his conduct had +caused her anxiety and discomfort. It is not surprising that she should +welcome the warm and simple devotion of her new lover, though she was of +a ripe age and the mother of grown-up daughters. + +It is, however, equally plain that an alliance with a foreign fiddler +was certain to shock British respectability. It is the old story of the +quarrel between Philistia and Bohemia. Nor was respectability without +much to say for itself. Piozzi was a Catholic as well as a foreigner; to +marry him was in all probability to break with daughters just growing +into womanhood, whom it was obviously her first duty to protect. The +marriage, therefore, might be regarded as not merely a revolt against +conventional morality, but as leading to a desertion of country, +religion, and family. Her children, her husband's friends, and her whole +circle were certain to look upon the match with feelings of the +strongest disapproval, and she admitted to herself that the objections +were founded upon something more weighty than a fear of the world's +censure. + +Johnson, in particular, among whose virtues one cannot reckon a +superiority to British prejudice, would inevitably consider the marriage +as simply degrading. Foreseeing this, and wishing to avoid the pain of +rejecting advice which she felt unable to accept, she refrained from +retaining her "friend, father, and guardian" in the position of +"confidant." Her situation in the summer of 1782 was therefore +exceedingly trying. She was unhappy at home. Her children, she +complains, did not love her; her servants "devoured" her; her friends +censured her; and her expenses were excessive, whilst the loss of a +lawsuit strained her resources. Johnson, sickly, suffering and +descending into the gloom of approaching decay, was present like a +charged thunder-cloud ready to burst at any moment, if she allowed him +to approach the chief subject of her thoughts. Though not in love with +Mrs. Thrale, he had a very intelligible feeling of jealousy towards any +one who threatened to distract her allegiance. Under such circumstances +we might expect the state of things which Miss Burney described long +afterwards (though with some confusion of dates). Mrs. Thrale, she says, +was absent and agitated, restless in manner, and hurried in speech, +forcing smiles, and averting her eyes from her friends; neglecting every +one, including Johnson and excepting only Miss Burney herself, to whom +the secret was confided, and the situation therefore explained. +Gradually, according to Miss Burney, she became more petulant to Johnson +than she was herself aware, gave palpable hints of being worried by his +company, and finally excited his resentment and suspicion. In one or two +utterances, though he doubtless felt the expedience of reserve, he +intrusted his forebodings to Miss Burney, and declared that Streatham +was lost to him for ever. + +At last, in the end of August, the crisis came. Mrs. Thrale's lawsuit +had gone against her. She thought it desirable to go abroad and save +money. It had moreover been "long her dearest wish" to see Italy, with +Piozzi for a guide. The one difficulty (as she says in her journal at +the time), was that it seemed equally hard to part with Johnson or to +take him with her till he had regained strength. At last, however she +took courage to confide to him her plans for travel. To her extreme +annoyance he fully approved of them. He advised her to go; anticipated +her return in two or three years; and told her daughter that he should +not accompany them, even if invited. No behaviour, it may be admitted, +could be more provoking than this unforeseen reasonableness. To nerve +oneself to part with a friend, and to find the friend perfectly ready, +and all your battery of argument thrown away is most vexatious. The poor +man should have begged her to stay with him, or to take him with her; he +should have made the scene which she professed to dread, but which would +have been the best proof of her power. The only conclusion which could +really have satisfied her--though she, in all probability, did not know +it--would have been an outburst which would have justified a rupture, +and allowed her to protest against his tyranny as she now proceeded to +protest against his complacency. + +Johnson wished to go to Italy two years later; and his present +willingness to be left was probably caused by a growing sense of the +dangers which threatened their friendship. Mrs. Thrale's anger appears +in her journal. He had never really loved her, she declares; his +affection for her had been interested, though even in her wrath she +admits that he really loved her husband; he cared less for her +conversation, which she had fancied necessary to his existence, than for +her "roast beef and plumb pudden," which he now devours too "dirtily for +endurance." She was fully resolved to go, and yet she could not bear +that her going should fail to torture the friend whom for eighteen years +she had loved and cherished so kindly. + +No one has a right at once to insist upon the compliance of his friends, +and to insist that it should be a painful compliance. Still Mrs. +Thrale's petulant outburst was natural enough. It requires notice +because her subsequent account of the rupture has given rise to attacks +on Johnson's character. Her "Anecdotes," written in 1785, show that her +real affection for Johnson was still coloured by resentment for his +conduct at this and a later period. They have an apologetic character +which shows itself in a statement as to the origin of the quarrel, +curiously different from the contemporary accounts in the diary. She +says substantially, and the whole book is written so as to give +probability to the assertion, that Johnson's bearishness and demands +upon her indulgence had become intolerable, when he was no longer under +restraint from her husband's presence. She therefore "took advantage" of +her lost lawsuit and other troubles to leave London, and thus escape +from his domestic tyranny. He no longer, as she adds, suffered from +anything but "old age and general infirmity" (a tolerably wide +exception!), and did not require her nursing. She therefore withdrew +from the yoke to which she had contentedly submitted during her +husband's life, but which was intolerable when her "coadjutor was no +more." + +Johnson's society was, we may easily believe, very trying to a widow in +such a position; and it seems to be true that Thrale was better able +than Mrs. Thrale to restrain his oddities, little as the lady shrunk at +times from reasonable plain-speaking. But the later account involves +something more than a bare suppression of the truth. The excuse about +his health is, perhaps, the worst part of her case, because obviously +insincere. Nobody could be more fully aware than Mrs. Thrale that +Johnson's infirmities were rapidly gathering, and that another winter or +two must in all probability be fatal to him. She knew, therefore, that +he was never more in want of the care which, as she seems to imply, had +saved him from the specific tendency to something like madness. She +knew, in fact, that she was throwing him upon the care of his other +friends, zealous and affectionate enough, it is true, but yet unable to +supply him with the domestic comforts of Streatham. She clearly felt +that this was a real injury, inevitable it might be under the +circumstances, but certainly not to be extenuated by the paltry evasion +as to his improved health. So far from Johnson's health being now +established, she had not dared to speak until his temporary recovery +from a dangerous illness, which had provoked her at the time to the +strongest expressions of anxious regret. She had (according to the +diary) regarded a possible breaking of the yoke in the early part of +1782 as a terrible evil, which would "more than ruin her." Even when +resolved to leave Streatham, her one great difficulty is the dread of +parting with Johnson, and the pecuniary troubles are the solid and +conclusive reason. In the later account the money question is the mere +pretext; the desire to leave Johnson the true motive; and the +long-cherished desire to see Italy with Piozzi is judiciously dropped +out of notice altogether. + +The truth is plain enough. Mrs. Thrale was torn by conflicting feelings. +She still loved Johnson, and yet dreaded his certain disapproval of her +strongest wishes. She respected him, but was resolved not to follow his +advice. She wished to treat him with kindness and to be repaid with +gratitude, and yet his presence and his affection were full of +intolerable inconveniences. When an old friendship becomes a burden, the +smaller infirmities of manner and temper to which we once submitted +willingly, become intolerable. She had borne with Johnson's modes of +eating and with his rough reproofs to herself and her friends during +sixteen years of her married life; and for nearly a year of her +widowhood she still clung to him as the wisest and kindest of monitors. +His manners had undergone no spasmodic change. They became intolerable +when, for other reasons, she resented his possible interference, and +wanted a very different guardian and confidant; and, therefore, she +wished to part, and yet wished that the initiative should come from him. + +The decision to leave Streatham was taken. Johnson parted with deep +regret from the house; he read a chapter of the Testament in the +library; he took leave of the church with a kiss; he composed a prayer +commending the family to the protection of Heaven; and he did not forget +to note in his journal the details of the last dinner of which he +partook. This quaint observation may have been due to some valetudinary +motive, or, more probably, to some odd freak of association. Once, when +eating an omelette, he was deeply affected because it recalled his old +friend Nugent. "Ah, my dear friend," he said "in an agony," "I shall +never eat omelette with thee again!" And in the present case there is an +obscure reference to some funeral connected in his mind with a meal. The +unlucky entry has caused some ridicule, but need hardly convince us that +his love of the family in which for so many years he had been an +honoured and honour-giving inmate was, as Miss Seward amiably suggests, +in great measure "kitchen-love." + +No immediate rupture followed the abandonment of the Streatham +establishment. Johnson spent some weeks at Brighton with Mrs. Thrale, +during which a crisis was taking place, without his knowledge, in her +relations to Piozzi. After vehement altercations with her daughters, +whom she criticizes with great bitterness for their utter want of heart, +she resolved to break with Piozzi for at least a time. Her plan was to +go to Bath, and there to retrench her expenses, in the hopes of being +able to recall her lover at some future period. Meanwhile he left her +and returned to Italy. After another winter in London, during which +Johnson was still a frequent inmate of her house, she went to Bath with +her daughters in April, 1783. A melancholy period followed for both the +friends. Mrs. Thrale lost a younger daughter, and Johnson had a +paralytic stroke in June. Death was sending preliminary warnings. A +correspondence was kept up, which implies that the old terms were not +ostensibly broken. Mrs. Thrale speaks tartly more than once; and +Johnson's letters go into medical details with his customary plainness +of speech, and he occasionally indulges in laments over the supposed +change in her feelings. The gloom is thickening, and the old playful +gallantry has died out. The old man evidently felt himself deserted, and +suffered from the breaking-up of the asylum he had loved so well. The +final catastrophe came in 1784, less than six months before Johnson's +death. + +After much suffering in mind and body, Mrs. Thrale had at last induced +her daughters to consent to her marriage with Piozzi. She sent for him +at once, and they were married in June, 1784. A painful correspondence +followed. Mrs. Thrale announced her marriage in a friendly letter to +Johnson, excusing her previous silence on the ground that discussion +could only have caused them pain. The revelation, though Johnson could +not have been quite unprepared, produced one of his bursts of fury. +"Madam, if I interpret your letter rightly," wrote the old man, "you are +ignominiously married. If it is yet undone, let us once more talk +together. If you have abandoned your children and your religion, God +forgive your wickedness! If you have forfeited your fame and your +country, may your folly do no further mischief! If the last act is yet +to do, I, who have loved you, esteemed you, reverenced you, and served +you--I, who long thought you the first of womankind--entreat that before +your fate is irrevocable, I may once more see you! I was, I once was, +madam, most truly yours, Sam. Johnson." + +Mrs. Thrale replied with spirit and dignity to this cry of blind +indignation, speaking of her husband with becoming pride, and resenting +the unfortunate phrase about her loss of "fame." She ended by declining +further intercourse till Johnson could change his opinion of Piozzi. +Johnson admitted in his reply that he had no right to resent her +conduct; expressed his gratitude for the kindness which had "soothed +twenty years of a life radically wretched," and implored her +("superfluously," as she says) to induce Piozzi to settle in England. He +then took leave of her with an expression of sad forebodings. Mrs. +Thrale, now Mrs. Piozzi, says that she replied affectionately; but the +letter is missing. The friendship was broken off, and during the brief +remainder of Johnson's life, the Piozzis were absent from England. + +Of her there is little more to be said. After passing some time in +Italy, where she became a light of that wretched little Della Cruscan +society of which some faint memory is preserved by Gifford's ridicule, +now pretty nearly forgotten with its objects, she returned with her +husband to England. Her anecdotes of Johnson, published soon after his +death, had a success which, in spite of much ridicule, encouraged her to +some further literary efforts of a sprightly but ephemeral kind. She +lived happily with Piozzi, and never had cause to regret her marriage. +She was reconciled to her daughters sufficiently to renew a friendly +intercourse; but the elder ones set up a separate establishment. Piozzi +died not long afterwards. She was still a vivacious old lady, who +celebrated her 80th birthday by a ball, and is supposed at that ripe +age to have made an offer of marriage to a young actor. She died in May, +1821, leaving all that she could dispose of to a nephew of Piozzi's, who +had been naturalised in England. + +Meanwhile Johnson was rapidly approaching the grave. His old inmates, +Levett and Miss Williams, had gone before him; Goldsmith and Garrick and +Beauclerk had become memories of the past; and the gloom gathered +thickly around him. The old man clung to life with pathetic earnestness. +Though life had been often melancholy, he never affected to conceal the +horror with which he regarded death. He frequently declared that death +must be dreadful to every reasonable man. "Death, my dear, is very +dreadful," he says simply in a letter to Lucy Porter in the last year of +his life. Still later he shocked a pious friend by admitting that the +fear oppressed him. Dr. Adams tried the ordinary consolation of the +divine goodness, and went so far as to suggest that hell might not imply +much positive suffering. Johnson's religious views were of a different +colour. "I am afraid," he said, "I may be one of those who shall be +damned." "What do you mean by damned?" asked Adams. Johnson replied +passionately and loudly, "Sent to hell, sir, and punished +everlastingly." Remonstrances only deepened his melancholy, and he +silenced his friends by exclaiming in gloomy agitation, "I'll have no +more on't!" Often in these last years he was heard muttering to himself +the passionate complaint of Claudio, "Ah, but to die and go we know not +whither!" At other times he was speaking of some lost friend, and +saying, "Poor man--and then he died!" The peculiar horror of death, +which seems to indicate a tinge of insanity, was combined with utter +fearlessness of pain. He called to the surgeons to cut deeper when +performing a painful operation, and shortly before his death inflicted +such wounds upon himself in hopes of obtaining relief as, very +erroneously, to suggest the idea of suicide. Whilst his strength +remained, he endeavoured to disperse melancholy by some of the old +methods. In the winter of 1783-4 he got together the few surviving +members of the old Ivy Lane Club, which had flourished when he was +composing the _Dictionary_; but the old place of meeting had vanished, +most of the original members were dead, and the gathering can have been +but melancholy. He started another club at the Essex Head, whose members +were to meet twice a week, with the modest fine of threepence for +non-attendance. It appears to have included a rather "strange mixture" +of people, and thereby to have given some scandal to Sir John Hawkins +and even to Reynolds. They thought that his craving for society, +increased by his loss of Streatham, was leading him to undignified +concessions. + +Amongst the members of the club, however, were such men as Horsley and +Windham. Windham seems to have attracted more personal regard than most +politicians, by a generous warmth of enthusiasm not too common in the +class. In politics he was an ardent disciple of Burke's, whom he +afterwards followed in his separation from the new Whigs. But, though +adhering to the principles which Johnson detested, he knew, like his +preceptor, how to win Johnson's warmest regard. He was the most eminent +of the younger generation who now looked up to Johnson as a venerable +relic from the past. Another was young Burke, that very priggish and +silly young man as he seems to have been, whose loss, none the less, +broke the tender heart of his father. Friendships, now more +interesting, were those with two of the most distinguished authoresses +of the day. One of them was Hannah More, who was about this time coming +to the conclusion that the talents which had gained her distinction in +the literary and even in the dramatic world, should be consecrated to +less secular employment. Her vivacity during the earlier years of their +acquaintance exposed her to an occasional rebuff. "She does not gain +upon me, sir; I think her empty-headed," was one of his remarks; and it +was to her that he said, according to Mrs. Thrale, though Boswell +reports a softened version of the remark, that she should "consider what +her flattery was worth, before she choked him with it." More frequently, +he seems to have repaid it in kind. "There was no name in poetry," he +said, "which might not be glad to own her poem"--the _Bas Bleu_. +Certainly Johnson did not stick at trifles in intercourse with his +female friends. He was delighted, shortly before his death, to "gallant +it about" with her at Oxford, and in serious moments showed a respectful +regard for her merits. Hannah More, who thus sat at the feet of Johnson, +encouraged the juvenile ambition of Macaulay, and did not die till the +historian had grown into manhood and fame. The other friendship noticed +was with Fanny Burney, who also lived to our own time. Johnson's +affection for this daughter of his friend seems to have been amongst the +tenderest of his old age. When she was first introduced to him at the +Thrales, she was overpowered and indeed had her head a little turned by +flattery of the most agreeable kind that an author can receive. The +"great literary Leviathan" showed himself to have the recently published +_Evelina_ at his fingers' ends. He quoted, and almost acted passages. +"La! Polly!" he exclaimed in a pert feminine accent, "only think! Miss +has danced with a lord!" How many modern readers can assign its place to +that quotation, or answer the question which poor Boswell asked in +despair and amidst general ridicule for his ignorance, "What is a +Brangton?" There is something pleasant in the enthusiasm with which men +like Johnson and Burke welcomed the literary achievements of the young +lady, whose first novels seem to have made a sensation almost as lively +as that produced by Miss Brontë, and far superior to anything that fell +to the lot of Miss Austen. Johnson seems also to have regarded her with +personal affection. He had a tender interview with her shortly before +his death; he begged her with solemn energy to remember him in her +prayers; he apologized pathetically for being unable to see her, as his +weakness increased; and sent her tender messages from his deathbed. + +As the end drew near, Johnson accepted the inevitable like a man. After +spending most of the latter months of 1784 in the country with the +friends who, after the loss of the Thrales, could give him most domestic +comfort, he came back to London to die. He made his will, and settled a +few matters of business, and was pleased to be told that he would be +buried in Westminster Abbey. He uttered a few words of solemn advice to +those who came near him, and took affecting leave of his friends. +Langton, so warmly loved, was in close attendance. Johnson said to him +tenderly, _Te teneam moriens deficiente manu_. Windham broke from +political occupations to sit by the dying man; once Langton found Burke +sitting by his bedside with three or four friends. "I am afraid," said +Burke, "that so many of us must be oppressive to you." "No, sir, it is +not so," replied Johnson, "and I must be in a wretched state indeed +when your company would not be a delight to me." "My dear sir," said +Burke, with a breaking voice, "you have always been too good to me;" and +parted from his old friend for the last time. Of Reynolds, he begged +three things: to forgive a debt of thirty pounds, to read the Bible, and +never to paint on Sundays. A few flashes of the old humour broke +through. He said of a man who sat up with him: "Sir, the fellow's an +idiot; he's as awkward as a turnspit when first put into the wheel, and +as sleepy as a dormouse." His last recorded words were to a young lady +who had begged for his blessing: "God bless you, my dear." The same day, +December 13th, 1784, he gradually sank and died peacefully. He was laid +in the Abbey by the side of Goldsmith, and the playful prediction has +been amply fulfilled:-- + + Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis. + +The names of many greater writers are inscribed upon the walls of +Westminster Abbey; but scarcely any one lies there whose heart was more +acutely responsive during life to the deepest and tenderest of human +emotions. In visiting that strange gathering of departed heroes and +statesmen and philanthropists and poets, there are many whose words and +deeds have a far greater influence upon our imaginations; but there are +very few whom, when all has been said, we can love so heartily as Samuel +Johnson. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +JOHNSON'S WRITINGS. + + +It remains to speak of Johnson's position in literature. For reasons +sufficiently obvious, few men whose lives have been devoted to letters +for an equal period, have left behind them such scanty and inadequate +remains. Johnson, as we have seen, worked only under the pressure of +circumstances; a very small proportion of his latter life was devoted to +literary employment. The working hours of his earlier years were spent +for the most part in productions which can hardly be called literary. +Seven years were devoted to the _Dictionary_, which, whatever its +merits, could be a book only in the material sense of the word, and was +of course destined to be soon superseded. Much of his hack-work has +doubtless passed into oblivion, and though the ordinary relic-worship +has gathered together fragments enough to fill twelve decent octavo +volumes (to which may be added the two volumes of parliamentary +reports), the part which can be called alive may be compressed into very +moderate compass. Johnson may be considered as a poet, an essayist, a +pamphleteer, a traveller, a critic, and a biographer. Among his poems, +the two imitations of Juvenal, especially the _Vanity of Human Wishes_, +and a minor fragment or two, probably deserve more respect than would be +conceded to them by adherents of modern schools. His most ambitious +work, _Irene_, can be read by men in whom a sense of duty has been +abnormally developed. Among the two hundred and odd essays of the +_Rambler_, there is a fair proportion which will deserve, but will +hardly obtain, respectful attention. _Rasselas_, one of the +philosophical tales popular in the last century, gives the essence of +much of the _Rambler_ in a different form, and to these may be added the +essay upon Soame Jenyns, which deals with the same absorbing question of +human happiness. The political pamphlets, and the _Journey to the +Hebrides_, have a certain historical interest; but are otherwise +readable only in particular passages. Much of his criticism is pretty +nearly obsolete; but the child of his old age--the _Lives of the +Poets_--a book in which criticism and biography are combined, is an +admirable performance in spite of serious defects. It is the work that +best reflects his mind, and intelligent readers who have once made its +acquaintance, will be apt to turn it into a familiar companion. + +If it is easy to assign the causes which limited the quantity of +Johnson's work, it is more curious to inquire what was the quality which +once gained for it so much authority, and which now seems to have so far +lost its savour. The peculiar style which is associated with Johnson's +name must count for something in both processes. The mannerism is +strongly marked, and of course offensive; for by "mannerism," as I +understand the word, is meant the repetition of certain forms of +language in obedience to blind habit and without reference to their +propriety in the particular case. Johnson's sentences seem to be +contorted, as his gigantic limbs used to twitch, by a kind of mechanical +spasmodic action. The most obvious peculiarity is the tendency which he +noticed himself, to "use too big words and too many of them." He had to +explain to Miss Reynolds that the Shakesperian line,-- + + You must borrow me Garagantua's mouth, + +had been applied to him because he used "big words, which require the +mouth of a giant to pronounce them." It was not, however, the mere +bigness of the words that distinguished his style, but a peculiar love +of putting the abstract for the concrete, of using awkward inversions, +and of balancing his sentences in a monotonous rhythm, which gives the +appearance, as it sometimes corresponds to the reality, of elaborate +logical discrimination. With all its faults the style has the merits of +masculine directness. The inversions are not such as to complicate the +construction. As Boswell remarks, he never uses a parenthesis; and his +style, though ponderous and wearisome, is as transparent as the smarter +snip-snap of Macaulay. + +This singular mannerism appears in his earliest writings; it is most +marked at the time of the _Rambler_; whilst in the _Lives of the Poets_, +although I think that the trick of inversion has become commoner, the +other peculiarities have been so far softened as (in my judgment, at +least), to be inoffensive. It is perhaps needless to give examples of a +tendency which marks almost every page of his writing. A passage or two +from the _Rambler_ may illustrate the quality of the style, and the +oddity of the effect produced, when it is applied to topics of a trivial +kind. The author of the _Rambler_ is supposed to receive a remonstrance +upon his excessive gravity from the lively Flirtilla, who wishes him to +write in defence of masquerades. Conscious of his own incapacity, he +applies to a man of "high reputation in gay life;" who, on the fifth +perusal of Flirtilla's letter breaks into a rapture, and declares that +he is ready to devote himself to her service. Here is part of the +apostrophe put into the mouth of this brilliant rake. "Behold, +Flirtilla, at thy feet a man grown gray in the study of those noble arts +by which right and wrong may be confounded; by which reason may be +blinded, when we have a mind to escape from her inspection, and caprice +and appetite instated in uncontrolled command and boundless dominion! +Such a casuist may surely engage with certainty of success in +vindication of an entertainment which in an instant gives confidence to +the timorous and kindles ardour in the cold, an entertainment where the +vigilance of jealousy has so often been clouded, and the virgin is set +free from the necessity of languishing in silence; where all the +outworks of chastity are at once demolished; where the heart is laid +open without a blush; where bashfulness may survive virtue, and no wish +is crushed under the frown of modesty." + +Here is another passage, in which Johnson is speaking upon a topic more +within his proper province; and which contains sound sense under its +weight of words. A man, he says, who reads a printed book, is often +contented to be pleased without critical examination. "But," he adds, +"if the same man be called to consider the merit of a production yet +unpublished, he brings an imagination heated with objections to passages +which he has never yet heard; he invokes all the powers of criticism, +and stores his memory with Taste and Grace, Purity and Delicacy, Manners +and Unities, sounds which having been once uttered by those that +understood them, have been since re-echoed without meaning, and kept up +to the disturbance of the world by constant repercussion from one +coxcomb to another. He considers himself as obliged to show by some +proof of his abilities, that he is not consulted to no purpose, and +therefore watches every opening for objection, and looks round for every +opportunity to propose some specious alteration. Such opportunities a +very small degree of sagacity will enable him to find, for in every work +of imagination, the disposition of parts, the insertion of incidents, +and use of decorations may be varied in a thousand ways with equal +propriety; and, as in things nearly equal that will always seem best to +every man which he himself produces, the critic, whose business is only +to propose without the care of execution, can never want the +satisfaction of believing that he has suggested very important +improvements, nor the power of enforcing his advice by arguments, which, +as they appear convincing to himself, either his kindness or his vanity +will press obstinately and importunately, without suspicion that he may +possibly judge too hastily in favour of his own advice or inquiry +whether the advantage of the new scheme be proportionate to the labour." +We may still notice a "repercussion" of words from one coxcomb to +another; though somehow the words have been changed or translated. + +Johnson's style is characteristic of the individual and of the epoch. +The preceding generation had exhibited the final triumph of common sense +over the pedantry of a decaying scholasticism. The movements represented +by Locke's philosophy, by the rationalizing school in theology, and by +the so-called classicism of Pope and his followers, are different phases +of the same impulse. The quality valued above all others in philosophy, +literature, and art was clear, bright, common sense. To expel the +mystery which had served as a cloak for charlatans was the great aim of +the time, and the method was to appeal from the professors of exploded +technicalities to the judgment of cultivated men of the world. Berkeley +places his Utopia in happy climes,-- + + Where nature guides, and virtue rules, + _Where men shall not impose for truth and sense + The pedantry of courts and schools_. + +Simplicity, clearness, directness are, therefore, the great virtues of +thought and style. Berkeley, Addison, Pope, and Swift are the great +models of such excellence in various departments of literature. + +In the succeeding generation we become aware of a certain leaven of +dissatisfaction with the aesthetic and intellectual code thus inherited. +The supremacy of common sense, the superlative importance of clearness, +is still fully acknowledged, but there is a growing undertone of dissent +in form and substance. Attempts are made to restore philosophical +conceptions assailed by Locke and his followers; the rationalism, of the +deistic or semi-deistic writers is declared to be superficial; their +optimistic theories disregard the dark side of nature, and provide no +sufficient utterance for the sadness caused by the contemplation of +human suffering; and the polished monotony of Pope's verses begins to +fall upon those who shall tread in his steps. Some daring sceptics are +even inquiring whether he is a poet at all. And simultaneously, though +Addison is still a kind of sacred model, the best prose writers are +beginning to aim at a more complex structure of sentence, fitted for the +expression of a wider range of thought and emotion. + +Johnson, though no conscious revolutionist, shares this growing +discontent. The _Spectator_ is written in the language of the +drawing-room and the coffee-house. Nothing is ever said which might not +pass in conversation between a couple of "wits," with, at most, some +graceful indulgence in passing moods of solemn or tender sentiment. +Johnson, though devoted to society in his own way, was anything but a +producer of small talk. Society meant to him an escape from the gloom +which beset him whenever he was abandoned to his thoughts. Neither his +education nor the manners acquired in Grub Street had qualified him to +be an observer of those lighter foibles which were touched by Addison +with so dexterous a hand. When he ventures upon such topics he flounders +dreadfully, and rather reminds us of an artist who should attempt to +paint miniatures with a mop. No man, indeed, took more of interest in +what is called the science of human nature; and, when roused by the +stimulus of argument, he could talk, as has been shown, with almost +unrivalled vigour and point. But his favourite topics are the deeper +springs of character, rather than superficial peculiarities; and his +vigorous sayings are concentrated essence of strong sense and deep +feeling, not dainty epigrams or graceful embodiments of delicate +observation. Johnson was not, like some contemporary antiquarians, a +systematic student of the English literature of the preceding centuries, +but he had a strong affection for some of its chief masterpieces. +Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_ was, he declared, the only book which +ever got him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished. Sir Thomas +Browne was another congenial writer, who is supposed to have had some +influence upon his style. He never seems to have directly imitated any +one, though some nonsense has been talked about his "forming a style;" +but it is probable that he felt a closer affinity to those old scholars, +with their elaborate and ornate language and their deep and solemn tone +of sentiment, than to the brilliant but comparatively superficial +writers of Queen Anne's time. He was, one may say, a scholar of the old +type, forced by circumstances upon the world, but always retaining a +sympathy for the scholar's life and temper. Accordingly, his style +acquired something of the old elaboration, though the attempt to conform +to the canons of a later age renders the structure disagreeably +monotonous. His tendency to pomposity is not redeemed by the _naïveté_ +and spontaneity of his masters. + +The inferiority of Johnson's written to his spoken utterances is +indicative of his divided life. There are moments at which his writing +takes the terse, vigorous tone of his talk. In his letters, such as +those to Chesterfield and Macpherson and in occasional passages of his +pamphlets, we see that he could be pithy enough when he chose to descend +from his Latinized abstractions to good concrete English; but that is +only when he becomes excited. His face when in repose, we are told, +appeared to be almost imbecile; he was constantly sunk in reveries, from +which he was only roused by a challenge to conversation. In his +writings, for the most part, we seem to be listening to the reverie +rather than the talk; we are overhearing a soliloquy in his study, not a +vigorous discussion over the twentieth cup of tea; he is not fairly put +upon his mettle, and is content to expound without enforcing. We seem to +see a man, heavy-eyed, ponderous in his gestures, like some huge +mechanism which grinds out a ponderous tissue of verbiage as heavy as it +is certainly solid. + +The substance corresponds to the style. Johnson has something in common +with the fashionable pessimism of modern times. No sentimentalist of +to-day could be more convinced that life is in the main miserable. It +was his favourite theory, according to Mrs. Thrale, that all human +action was prompted by the "vacuity of life." Men act solely in the hope +of escaping from themselves. Evil, as a follower of Schopenhauer would +assert, is the positive, and good merely the negative of evil. All +desire is at bottom an attempt to escape from pain. The doctrine neither +resulted from, nor generated, a philosophical theory in Johnson's case, +and was in the main a generalization of his own experience. Not the +less, the aim of most of his writing is to express this sentiment in one +form or other. He differs, indeed, from most modern sentimentalists, in +having the most hearty contempt for useless whining. If he dwells upon +human misery, it is because he feels that it is as futile to join with +the optimist in ignoring, as with the pessimist in howling over the +evil. We are in a sad world, full of pain, but we have to make the best +of it. Stubborn patience and hard work are the sole remedies, or rather +the sole means of temporary escape. Much of the _Rambler_ is occupied +with variations upon this theme, and expresses the kind of dogged +resolution with which he would have us plod through this weary world. +Take for example this passage:--"The controversy about the reality of +external evils is now at an end. That life has many miseries, and that +those miseries are sometimes at least equal to all the powers of +fortitude is now universally confessed; and, therefore, it is useful to +consider not only how we may escape them, but by what means those which +either the accidents of affairs or the infirmities of nature must bring +upon us may be mitigated and lightened, and how we may make those hours +less wretched which the condition of our present existence will not +allow to be very happy. + +"The cure for the greatest part of human miseries is not radical, but +palliative. Infelicity is involved in corporeal nature, and interwoven +with our being; all attempts, therefore, to decline it wholly are +useless and vain; the armies of pain send their arrows against us on +every side, the choice is only between those which are more or less +sharp, or tinged with poison of greater or less malignity; and the +strongest armour which reason can supply will only blunt their points, +but cannot repel them. + +"The great remedy which Heaven has put in our hands is patience, by +which, though we cannot lessen the torments of the body, we can in a +great measure preserve the peace of the mind, and shall suffer only the +natural and genuine force of an evil, without heightening its acrimony +or prolonging its effects." + +It is hardly desirable for a moralist to aim at originality in his +precepts. We must be content if he enforces old truths in such a manner +as to convince us of the depth and sincerity of his feeling. Johnson, it +must be confessed, rather abuses the moralist's privilege of being +commonplace. He descants not unfrequently upon propositions so trite +that even the most earnest enforcement can give them little interest. +With all drawbacks, however, the moralizing is the best part of the +_Rambler_. Many of the papers follow the precedent set by Addison in the +_Spectator_, but without Addison's felicity. Like Addison, he indulges +in allegory, which, in his hands, becomes unendurably frigid and clumsy; +he tries light social satire, and is fain to confess that we can spy a +beard under the muffler of his feminine characters; he treats us to +criticism which, like Addison's, goes upon exploded principles, but +unlike Addison's, is apt to be almost wilfully outrageous. His odd +remarks upon Milton's versification are the worst example of this +weakness. The result is what one might expect from the attempt of a +writer without an ear to sit in judgment upon the greatest master of +harmony in the language. + +These defects have consigned the _Rambler_ to the dustiest shelves of +libraries, and account for the wonder expressed by such a critic as M. +Taine at the English love of Johnson. Certainly if that love were +nourished, as he seems to fancy, by assiduous study of the _Rambler_, it +would be a curious phenomenon. And yet with all its faults, the reader +who can plod through its pages will at least feel respect for the +author. It is not unworthy of the man whose great lesson is "clear your +mind of cant;"[1] who felt most deeply the misery of the world, but from +the bottom of his heart despised querulous and sentimental complaints on +one side, and optimist glasses upon the other. To him, as to some others +of his temperament, the affectation of looking at the bright side of +things seems to have presented itself as the bitterest of mockeries; and +nothing would tempt him to let fine words pass themselves off for +genuine sense. Here are some remarks upon the vanity in which some +authors seek for consolation, which may illustrate this love of +realities and conclude our quotations from the _Rambler_. + +[Footnote 1: Of this well-known sentiment it may be said, as of some +other familiar quotations, that its direct meaning has been slightly +modified in use. The emphasis is changed. Johnson's words were "Clear +your _mind_ of cant. You may talk as other people do; you may say to a +man, sir, I am your humble servant; you are _not_ his most humble +servant.... You may _talk_ in this manner; it is a mode of talking in +society; but don't _think_ foolishly."] + +"By such acts of voluntary delusion does every man endeavour to conceal +his own unimportance from himself. It is long before we are convinced of +the small proportion which every individual bears to the collective body +of mankind; or learn how few can be interested in the fortune of any +single man; how little vacancy is left in the world for any new object +of attention; to how small extent the brightest blaze of merit can be +spread amidst the mists of business and of folly; and how soon it is +clouded by the intervention of other novelties. Not only the writer of +books, but the commander of armies, and the deliverer of nations, will +easily outlive all noisy and popular reputation: he may be celebrated +for a time by the public voice, but his actions and his name will soon +be considered as remote and unaffecting, and be rarely mentioned but by +those whose alliance gives them some vanity to gratify by frequent +commemoration. It seems not to be sufficiently considered how little +renown can be admitted in the world. Mankind are kept perpetually busy +by their fears or desires, and have not more leisure from their own +affairs than to acquaint themselves with the accidents of the current +day. Engaged in contriving some refuge from calamity, or in shortening +their way to some new possession, they seldom suffer their thoughts to +wander to the past or future; none but a few solitary students have +leisure to inquire into the claims of ancient heroes or sages; and names +which hoped to range over kingdoms and continents shrink at last into +cloisters and colleges. Nor is it certain that even of these dark and +narrow habitations, these last retreats of fame, the possession will be +long kept. Of men devoted to literature very few extend their views +beyond some particular science, and the greater part seldom inquire, +even in their own profession, for any authors but those whom the present +mode of study happens to force upon their notice; they desire not to +fill their minds with unfashionable knowledge, but contentedly resign to +oblivion those books which they now find censured or neglected." + +The most remarkable of Johnson's utterances upon his favourite topic of +the Vanity of Human Wishes is the story of _Rasselas_. The plan of the +book is simple, and recalls certain parts of Voltaire's simultaneous but +incomparably more brilliant attack upon Optimism in _Candide_. There is +supposed to be a happy valley in Abyssinia where the royal princes are +confined in total seclusion, but with ample supplies for every +conceivable want. Rasselas, who has been thus educated, becomes curious +as to the outside world, and at last makes his escape with his sister, +her attendant, and the ancient sage and poet, Imlac. Under Imlac's +guidance they survey life and manners in various stations; they make the +acquaintance of philosophers, statesmen, men of the world, and recluses; +they discuss the results of their experience pretty much in the style of +the _Rambler_; they agree to pronounce the sentence "Vanity of +Vanities!" and finally, in a "conclusion where nothing is concluded," +they resolve to return to the happy valley. The book is little more than +a set of essays upon life, with just story enough to hold it together. +It is wanting in those brilliant flashes of epigram, which illustrate +Voltaire's pages so as to blind some readers to its real force of +sentiment, and yet it leaves a peculiar and powerful impression upon the +reader. + +The general tone may be collected from a few passages. Here is a +fragment, the conclusion of which is perhaps the most familiar of +quotations from Johnson's writings. Imlac in narrating his life +describes his attempts to become a poet. + +"The business of a poet," said Imlac, "is to examine not the individual, +but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances; he +does not number the streaks of the tulip or describe the different +shades in the verdure of the forest. He is to exhibit in his portraits +of nature such prominent and striking features as recall the original to +every mind; and must neglect the minute discriminations which one may +have remarked, and another have neglected for those characteristics +which are alike obvious to vigilance and carelessness." + +"But the knowledge of nature is only half the task of a poet; he must be +acquainted likewise with all the modes of life. His character requires +that he estimate the happiness and misery of every condition; observe +the power of all the passions in all their combinations, and know the +changes of the human mind as they are modified by various institutions, +and accidental influences of climate or custom, from the sprightliness +of infancy to the despondency of decrepitude. He must divest himself of +the prejudices of his age or country; he must consider right and wrong +in their abstracted and invariable state; he must disregard present laws +and opinions, and rise to general and transcendental truths, which will +always be the same; he must therefore content himself with the slow +progress of his name; contemn the applause of his own time, and commit +his claims to the justice of posterity. He must write as the interpreter +of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as +presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations, as a +being superior to time and place. + +"His labours are not yet at an end; he must know many languages and many +sciences; and that his style may be worthy of his thoughts, must by +incessant practice familiarize to himself every delicacy of speech and +grace of harmony." + +Imlac now felt the enthusiastic fit and was proceeding to aggrandize his +profession, when the prince cried out, "Enough, thou hast convinced me +that no human being can ever be a poet." + +Indeed, Johnson's conception of poetry is not the one which is now +fashionable, and which would rather seem to imply that philosophical +power and moral sensibility are so far disqualifications to the true +poet. + +Here, again, is a view of the superfine system of moral philosophy. A +meeting of learned men is discussing the ever-recurring problem of +happiness, and one of them speaks as follows:-- + +"The way to be happy is to live according to nature, in obedience to +that universal and unalterable law with which every heart is originally +impressed; which is not written on it by precept, but engraven by +destiny, not instilled by education, but infused at our nativity. He +that lives according to nature will suffer nothing from the delusions of +hope, or importunities of desire; he will receive and reject with +equability of temper, and act or suffer as the reason of things shall +alternately prescribe. Other men may amuse themselves with subtle +definitions or intricate ratiocinations. Let him learn to be wise by +easier means: let him observe the hind of the forest, and the linnet of +the grove; let him consider the life of animals whose motions are +regulated by instinct; they obey their guide and are happy. + +"Let us, therefore, at length cease to dispute, and learn to live; throw +away the incumbrance of precepts, which they who utter them with so much +pride and pomp do not understand, and carry with us this simple and +intelligible maxim, that deviation from nature is deviation from +happiness." + +The prince modestly inquires what is the precise meaning of the advice +just given. + +"When I find young men so humble and so docile," said the philosopher, +"I can deny them no information which my studies have enabled me to +afford. To live according to nature, is to act always with due regard to +the fitness arising from the relations and qualities of causes and +effects, to concur with the great and unchangeable scheme of universal +felicity; to co-operate with the general disposition and tendency of the +present system of things. + +"The prince soon found that this was one of the sages, whom he should +understand less as he heard him longer." + +Here, finally, is a characteristic reflection upon the right mode of +meeting sorrow. + +"The state of a mind oppressed with a sudden calamity," said Imlac, "is +like that of the fabulous inhabitants of the new created earth, who, +when the first night came upon them, supposed that day would never +return. When the clouds of sorrow gather over us, we see nothing beyond +them, nor can imagine how they will be dispelled; yet a new day +succeeded to the night, and sorrow is never long without a dawn of ease. +But as they who restrain themselves from receiving comfort, do as the +savages would have done, had they put out their eyes when it was dark. +Our minds, like our bodies, are in continual flux; something is hourly +lost, and something acquired. To lose much at once is inconvenient to +either, but while the vital powers remain uninjured, nature will find +the means of reparation. + +"Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye, and while we +glide along the stream of time, whatever we leave behind us is always +lessening, and that which we approach increasing in magnitude. Do not +suffer life to stagnate; it will grow muddy for want of motion; commit +yourself again to the current of the world; Pekuah will vanish by +degrees; you will meet in your way some other favourite, or learn to +diffuse yourself in general conversation." + +In one respect _Rasselas_ is curiously contrasted with _Candide_. +Voltaire's story is aimed at the doctrine of theological optimism, and, +whether that doctrine be well or ill understood, has therefore an openly +sceptical tendency. Johnson, to whom nothing could be more abhorrent +than an alliance with any assailant of orthodoxy, draws no inference +from his pessimism. He is content to state the fact of human misery +without perplexing himself with the resulting problem as to the final +cause of human existence. If the question had been explicitly brought +before him, he would, doubtless, have replied that the mystery was +insoluble. To answer either in the sceptical or the optimistic sense was +equally presumptuous. Johnson's religious beliefs in fact were not such +as to suggest that kind of comfort which is to be obtained by explaining +away the existence of evil. If he, too, would have said that in some +sense all must be for the best in a world ruled by a perfect Creator, +the sense must be one which would allow of the eternal misery of +indefinite multitudes of his creatures. + +But, in truth, it was characteristic of Johnson to turn away his mind +from such topics. He was interested in ethical speculations, but on the +practical side, in the application to life, not in the philosophy on +which it might be grounded. In that direction, he could see nothing but +a "milking of the bull"--a fruitless or rather a pernicious waste of +intellect. An intense conviction of the supreme importance of a moral +guidance in this difficult world, made him abhor any rash inquiries by +which the basis of existing authority might be endangered. + +This sentiment is involved in many of those prejudices which have been +so much, and in some sense justifiably ridiculed. Man has been wretched +and foolish since the race began, and will be till it ends; one chorus +of lamentation has ever been rising, in countless dialects but with a +single meaning; the plausible schemes of philosophers give no solution +to the everlasting riddle; the nostrums of politicians touch only the +surface of the deeply-rooted evil; it is folly to be querulous, and as +silly to fancy that men are growing worse, as that they are much better +than they used to be. The evils under which we suffer are not skin-deep, +to be eradicated by changing the old physicians for new quacks. What is +to be done under such conditions, but to hold fast as vigorously as we +can to the rules of life and faith which have served our ancestors, and +which, whatever their justifications, are at least the only consolation, +because they supply the only guidance through this labyrinth of +troubles? Macaulay has ridiculed Johnson for what he takes to be the +ludicrous inconsistency of his intense political prejudice, combined +with his assertion of the indifference of all forms of government. +"If," says Macaulay, "the difference between two forms of government be +not worth half a guinea, it is not easy to see how Whiggism can be viler +than Toryism, or the Crown can have too little power." The answer is +surely obvious. Whiggism is vile, according to the doctor's phrase, +because Whiggism is a "negation of all principle;" it is in his view, +not so much the preference of one form to another, as an attack upon the +vital condition of all government. He called Burke a "bottomless Whig" +in this sense, implying that Whiggism meant anarchy; and in the next +generation a good many people were led, rightly or wrongly, to agree +with him by the experience of the French revolution. + +This dogged conservatism has both its value and its grotesque side. When +Johnson came to write political pamphlets in his later years, and to +deal with subjects little familiar to his mind, the results were +grotesque enough. Loving authority, and holding one authority to be as +good as another, he defended with uncompromising zeal the most +preposterous and tyrannical measures. The pamphlets against the Wilkite +agitators and the American rebels are little more than a huge +"rhinoceros" snort of contempt against all who are fools enough or +wicked enough to promote war and disturbance in order to change one form +of authority for another. Here is a characteristic passage, giving his +view of the value of such demonstrators:-- + +"The progress of a petition is well known. An ejected placeman goes down +to his county or his borough, tells his friends of his inability to +serve them and his constituents, of the corruption of the government. +His friends readily understand that he who can get nothing, will have +nothing to give. They agree to proclaim a meeting. Meat and drink are +plentifully provided, a crowd is easily brought together, and those who +think that they know the reason of the meeting undertake to tell those +who know it not. Ale and clamour unite their powers; the crowd, +condensed and heated, begins to ferment with the leaven of sedition. All +see a thousand evils, though they cannot show them, and grow impatient +for a remedy, though they know not what. + +"A speech is then made by the Cicero of the day; he says much and +suppresses more, and credit is equally given to what he tells and what +he conceals. The petition is heard and universally approved. Those who +are sober enough to write, add their names, and the rest would sign it +if they could. + +"Every man goes home and tells his neighbour of the glories of the day; +how he was consulted, and what he advised; how he was invited into the +great room, where his lordship caressed him by his name; how he was +caressed by Sir Francis, Sir Joseph, and Sir George; how he ate turtle +and venison, and drank unanimity to the three brothers. + +"The poor loiterer, whose shop had confined him or whose wife had locked +him up, hears the tale of luxury with envy, and at last inquires what +was their petition. Of the petition nothing is remembered by the +narrator, but that it spoke much of fears and apprehensions and +something very alarming, but that he is sure it is against the +government. + +"The other is convinced that it must be right, and wishes he had been +there, for he loves wine and venison, and resolves as long as he lives +to be against the government. + +"The petition is then handed from town to town, and from house to house; +and wherever it comes, the inhabitants flock together that they may see +that which must be sent to the king. Names are easily collected. One man +signs because he hates the papists; another because he has vowed +destruction to the turnpikes; one because it will vex the parson; +another because he owes his landlord nothing; one because he is rich; +another because he is poor; one to show that he is not afraid; and +another to show that he can write." + +The only writing in which we see a distinct reflection of Johnson's talk +is the _Lives of the Poets_. The excellence of that book is of the same +kind as the excellence of his conversation. Johnson wrote it under +pressure, and it has suffered from his characteristic indolence. Modern +authors would fill as many pages as Johnson has filled lines, with the +biographies of some of his heroes. By industriously sweeping together +all the rubbish which is in any way connected with the great man, by +elaborately discussing the possible significance of infinitesimal bits +of evidence, and by disquisition upon general principles or the whole +mass of contemporary literature, it is easy to swell volumes to any +desired extent. The result is sometimes highly interesting and valuable, +as it is sometimes a new contribution to the dust-heaps; but in any case +the design is something quite different from Johnson's. He has left much +to be supplied and corrected by later scholars. His aim is simply to +give a vigorous summary of the main facts of his heroes' lives, a pithy +analysis of their character, and a short criticism of their productions. +The strong sense which is everywhere displayed, the massive style, which +is yet easier and less cumbrous than in his earlier work, and the +uprightness and independence of the judgments, make the book agreeable +even where we are most inclined to dissent from its conclusions. + +The criticism is that of a school which has died out under the great +revolution of modern taste. The booksellers decided that English poetry +began for their purposes with Cowley, and Johnson has, therefore, +nothing to say about some of the greatest names in our literature. The +loss is little to be regretted, since the biographical part of earlier +memoirs must have been scanty, and the criticism inappreciative. +Johnson, it may be said, like most of his contemporaries, considered +poetry almost exclusively from the didactic and logical point of view. +He always inquires what is the moral of a work of art. If he does not +precisely ask "what it proves," he pays excessive attention to the +logical solidity and coherence of its sentiments. He condemns not only +insincerity and affectation of feeling, but all such poetic imagery as +does not correspond to the actual prosaic belief of the writer. For the +purely musical effects of poetry he has little or no feeling, and allows +little deviation from the alternate long and short syllables neatly +bound in Pope's couplets. + +To many readers this would imply that Johnson omits precisely the poetic +element in poetry. I must be here content to say that in my opinion it +implies rather a limitation than a fundamental error. Johnson errs in +supposing that his logical tests are at all adequate; but it is, I +think, a still greater error to assume that poetry has no connexion, +because it has not this kind of connexion, with philosophy. His +criticism has always a meaning, and in the case of works belonging to +his own school a very sound meaning. When he is speaking of other +poetry, we can only reply that his remarks may be true, but that they +are not to the purpose. + +The remarks on the poetry of Dryden, Addison, and Pope are generally +excellent, and always give the genuine expression of an independent +judgment. Whoever thinks for himself, and says plainly what he thinks, +has some merit as a critic. This, it is true, is about all that can be +said for such criticism as that on _Lycidas_, which is a delicious +example of the wrong way of applying strong sense to inappropriate +topics. Nothing can be truer in a sense, and nothing less relevant. + +"In this poem," he says, "there is no nature, for there is no truth; +there is no art, for there is nothing new. Its form is that of a +pastoral, easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting; whatever images it can +supply are easily exhausted, and its inherent improbability always +forces dissatisfaction on the mind. When Cowley tells of Hervey that +they studied together, it is easy to suppose how much he must miss the +companion of his labours and the partner of his discoveries; but what +image of tenderness can be excited by these lines?-- + + We drove afield, and both together heard + What time the gray fly winds her sultry horn, + Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night. + +We know that they never drove a-field and had no flocks to batten; and +though it be allowed that the representation may be allegorical, the +true meaning is so uncertain and remote that it is never sought, because +it cannot be known when it is found. + +"Among the flocks and copses and flowers appear the heathen deities: +Jove and Phoebus, Neptune and Aeolus, with a long train of mythological +imagery such as a college easily supplies. Nothing can less display +knowledge or less exercise invention than to tell how a shepherd has +lost his companion, and must now feed his flocks alone, without any +judge of his skill in piping; how one god asks another god what has +become of Lycidas, and neither god can tell. He who thus grieves will +excite no sympathy; he who thus praises will confer no honour." + +This is of course utterly outrageous, and yet much of it is undeniably +true. To explain why, in spite of truth, _Lycidas_ is a wonderful poem, +would be to go pretty deeply into the theory of poetic expression. Most +critics prefer simply to shriek, being at any rate safe from the errors +of independent judgment. + +The general effect of the book, however, is not to be inferred from this +or some other passages of antiquated and eccentric criticism. It is the +shrewd sense everywhere cropping up which is really delightful. The keen +remarks upon life and character, though, perhaps, rather too severe in +tone, are worthy of a vigorous mind, stored with much experience of many +classes, and braced by constant exercise in the conversational arena. +Passages everywhere abound which, though a little more formal in +expression, have the forcible touch of his best conversational sallies. +Some of the prejudices, which are expressed more pithily in _Boswell_, +are defended by a reasoned exposition in the _Lives_. Sentence is passed +with the true judicial air; and if he does not convince us of his +complete impartiality, he at least bases his decisions upon solid and +worthy grounds. It would be too much, for example, to expect that +Johnson should sympathize with the grand republicanism of Milton, or +pardon a man who defended the execution of the blessed Martyr. He +failed, therefore, to satisfy the ardent admirers of the great poet. Yet +his judgment is not harsh or ungenerous, but, at worst, the judgment of +a man striving to be just, in spite of some inevitable want of sympathy. + +The quality of Johnson's incidental remarks may be inferred from one or +two brief extracts. Here is an observation which Johnson must have had +many chances of verifying. Speaking of Dryden's money difficulties, he +says, "It is well known that he seldom lives frugally who lives by +chance. Hope is always liberal, and they that trust her promises, make +little scruple of revelling to-day on the profits of the morrow." + +Here is another shrewd comment upon the compliments paid to Halifax, of +whom Pope says in the character of Bufo,-- + + Fed with soft dedications all day long, + Horace and he went hand and hand in song. + +"To charge all unmerited praise with the guilt of flattery, or to +suppose that the encomiast always knows and feels the falsehoods of his +assertions, is surely to discover great ignorance of human nature and of +human life. In determinations depending not on rules, but on reference +and comparison, judgment is always in some degree subject to affection. +Very near to admiration is the wish to admire. + +"Every man willingly gives value to the praise which he receives, and +considers the sentence passed in his favour as the sentence of +discernment. We admire in a friend that understanding that selected us +for confidence; we admire more in a patron that bounty which, instead of +scattering bounty indiscriminately, directed it to us; and if the patron +be an author, those performances which gratitude forbids us to blame, +affection will easily dispose us to exalt. + +"To these prejudices, hardly culpable, interest adds a power always +operating, though not always, because not willingly, perceived. The +modesty of praise gradually wears away; and, perhaps, the pride of +patronage may be in time so increased that modest praise will no longer +please. + +"Many a blandishment was practised upon Halifax, which he would never +have known had he no other attractions than those of his poetry, of +which a short time has withered the beauties. It would now be esteemed +no honour by a contributor to the monthly bundles of verses, to be told +that, in strains either familiar or solemn, he sings like Halifax." + +I will venture to make a longer quotation from the life of Pope, which +gives, I think, a good impression of his manner:-- + +"Of his social qualities, if an estimate be made from his letters, an +opinion too favourable cannot easily be formed; they exhibit a perpetual +and unclouded effulgence of general benevolence and particular fondness. +There is nothing but liberality, gratitude, constancy, and tenderness. +It has been so long said as to be commonly believed, that the true +characters of men may be found in their letters, and that he who writes +to his friend lays his heart open before him. + +"But the truth is, that such were the simple friendships of the Golden +Age, and are now the friendships only of children. Very few can boast of +hearts which they dare lay open to themselves, and of which, by whatever +accident exposed, they do not shun a distinct and continued view; and +certainly what we hide from ourselves, we do not show to our friends. +There is, indeed, no transaction which offers stronger temptations to +fallacy and sophistication than epistolary intercourse. + +"In the eagerness of conversation, the first emotions of the mind often +burst out before they are considered. In the tumult of business, +interest and passion have their genuine effect; but a friendly letter is +a calm and deliberate performance in the cool of leisure, in the +stillness of solitude, and surely no man sits down by design to +depreciate his own character. + +"Friendship has no tendency to secure veracity; for by whom can a man so +much wish to be thought better than he is, as by him whose kindness he +desires to gain or keep? Even in writing to the world there is less +constraint; the author is not confronted with his reader, and takes his +chance of approbation among the different dispositions of mankind; but a +letter is addressed to a single mind, of which the prejudices and +partialities are known, and must therefore please, if not by favouring +them, by forbearing to oppose them. To charge those favourable +representations which men give of their own minds, with the guilt of +hypocritical falsehood, would show more severity than knowledge. The +writer commonly believes himself. Almost every man's thoughts while they +are general are right, and most hearts are pure while temptation is +away. It is easy to awaken generous sentiments in privacy; to despise +death when there is no danger; to glow with benevolence when there is +nothing to be given. While such ideas are formed they are felt, and +self-love does not suspect the gleam of virtue to be the meteor of +fancy. + +"If the letters of Pope are considered merely as compositions, they seem +to be premeditated and artificial. It is one thing to write, because +there is something which the mind wishes to discharge; and another to +solicit the imagination, because ceremony or vanity requires something +to be written. Pope confesses his early letters to be vitiated with +_affectation and ambition_. To know whether he disentangles himself +from these perverters of epistolary integrity, his book and his life +must be set in comparison. One of his favourite topics is contempt of +his own poetry. For this, if it had been real, he would deserve no +commendation; and in this he was certainly not sincere, for his high +value of himself was sufficiently observed; and of what could he be +proud but of his poetry? He writes, he says, when 'he has just nothing +else to do,' yet Swift complains that he was never at leisure for +conversation, because he 'had always some poetical scheme in his head.' +It was punctually required that his writing-box should be set upon his +bed before he rose; and Lord Oxford's domestic related that, in the +dreadful winter of '40, she was called from her bed by him four times in +one night, to supply him with paper lest he should lose a thought. + +"He pretends insensibility to censure and criticism, though it was +observed by all who knew him that every pamphlet disturbed his quiet, +and that his extreme irritability laid him open to perpetual vexation; +but he wished to despise his critics, and therefore hoped he did despise +them. As he happened to live in two reigns when the court paid little +attention to poetry, he nursed in his mind a foolish disesteem of kings, +and proclaims that 'he never sees courts.' Yet a little regard shown him +by the Prince of Wales melted his obduracy; and he had not much to say +when he was asked by his Royal Highness, 'How he could love a prince +while he disliked kings.'" + +Johnson's best poetry is the versified expression of the tone of +sentiment with which we are already familiar. The _Vanity of Human +Wishes_ is, perhaps, the finest poem written since Pope's time and in +Pope's manner, with the exception of Goldsmith's still finer +performances. Johnson, it need hardly be said, has not Goldsmith's +exquisite fineness of touch and delicacy of sentiment. He is often +ponderous and verbose, and one feels that the mode of expression is not +that which is most congenial; and yet the vigour of thought makes itself +felt through rather clumsy modes of utterance. Here is one of the best +passages, in which he illustrates the vanity of military glory:-- + + On what foundation stands the warrior's pride, + How just his hopes let Swedish Charles decide; + A frame of adamant, a soul of fire, + No dangers fright him and no labours tire; + O'er love, o'er fear, extends his wide domain, + Unconquer'd lord of pleasure and of pain; + No joys to him pacific sceptres yield, + War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field; + Behold surrounding kings their powers combine, + And one capitulate, and one resign: + Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain. + "Think nothing gain'd," he cries, "till nought remain; + On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly, + And all be mine beneath the polar sky?" + The march begins in military state, + And nations on his eye suspended wait; + Stern Famine guards the solitary coast, + And Winter barricades the realms of Frost. + He comes, nor want nor cold his course delay-- + Hide, blushing glory, hide Pultowa's day! + The vanquish'd hero leaves his broken bands, + And shows his miseries in distant lands; + Condemn'd a needy supplicant to wait, + While ladies interpose and slaves debate-- + But did not Chance at length her error mend? + Did no subverted empire mark his end? + Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound? + Or hostile millions press him to the ground? + His fall was destined to a barren strand, + A petty fortress and a dubious hand; + He left the name at which the world grew pale, + To point a moral and adorn a tale. + +The concluding passage may also fitly conclude this survey of Johnson's +writings. The sentiment is less gloomy than is usual, but it gives the +answer which he would have given in his calmer moods to the perplexed +riddle of life; and, in some form or other, it is, perhaps, the best or +the only answer that can be given:-- + + Where, then, shall Hope and Fear their objects find? + Must dull suspense corrupt the stagnant mind? + Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, + Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate? + Must no dislike alarm, no wishes rise? + No cries invoke the mercies of the skies? + Inquirer cease; petitions yet remain + Which Heaven may hear, nor deem religion vain; + Still raise for good the supplicating voice, + But leave to Heaven the measure and the choice + Safe in His power whose eyes discern afar + The secret ambush of a specious prayer. + Implore His aid, in His decisions rest, + Secure whate'er He gives--He gives the best. + Yet when the scene of sacred presence fires, + And strong devotion to the skies aspires, + Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind, + Obedient passions and a will resign'd; + For Love, which scarce collective men can fill; + For Patience, sovereign o'er transmuted ill; + For Faith, that panting for a happier seat, + Counts Death kind nature's signal of retreat. + These goods for man the laws of Heaven ordain, + These goods He grants who grants the power to gain; + With these Celestial Wisdom calms the mind, + And makes the happiness she does not find. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Samuel Johnson, by Leslie Stephen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMUEL JOHNSON *** + +***** This file should be named 11031-8.txt or 11031-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/0/3/11031/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Linda Cantoni and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/11031-8.zip b/old/11031-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9baca4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11031-8.zip diff --git a/old/11031.txt b/old/11031.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06633f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11031.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5914 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Samuel Johnson, by Leslie Stephen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Samuel Johnson + +Author: Leslie Stephen + +Release Date: February 11, 2004 [EBook #11031] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMUEL JOHNSON *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Linda Cantoni and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +SAMUEL JOHNSON + + +BY + +LESLIE STEPHEN + + +NEW YORK + +1878 + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. +CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE + +CHAPTER II. +LITERARY CAREER + +CHAPTER III. +JOHNSON AND HIS FRIENDS + +CHAPTER IV. +JOHNSON AS A LITERARY DICTATOR + +CHAPTER V. +THE CLOSING YEARS OF JOHNSON'S LIFE + +CHAPTER VI. +JOHNSON'S WRITINGS + + + + +SAMUEL JOHNSON. + + +CHAPTER I. + + +CHILDHOOD AND EARLY LIFE. + + +Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield in 1709. His father, Michael +Johnson, was a bookseller, highly respected by the cathedral clergy, and +for a time sufficiently prosperous to be a magistrate of the town, and, +in the year of his son's birth, sheriff of the county. He opened a +bookstall on market-days at neighbouring towns, including Birmingham, +which was as yet unable to maintain a separate bookseller. The tradesman +often exaggerates the prejudices of the class whose wants he supplies, +and Michael Johnson was probably a more devoted High Churchman and Tory +than many of the cathedral clergy themselves. He reconciled himself with +difficulty to taking the oaths against the exiled dynasty. He was a man +of considerable mental and physical power, but tormented by +hypochondriacal tendencies. His son inherited a share both of his +constitution and of his principles. Long afterwards Samuel associated +with his childish days a faint but solemn recollection of a lady in +diamonds and long black hood. The lady was Queen Anne, to whom, in +compliance with a superstition just dying a natural death, he had been +taken by his mother to be touched for the king's evil. The touch was +ineffectual. Perhaps, as Boswell suggested, he ought to have been +presented to the genuine heirs of the Stuarts in Rome. Disease and +superstition had thus stood by his cradle, and they never quitted him +during life. The demon of hypochondria was always lying in wait for him, +and could be exorcised for a time only by hard work or social +excitement. Of this we shall hear enough; but it may be as well to sum +up at once some of the physical characteristics which marked him through +life and greatly influenced his career. + +The disease had scarred and disfigured features otherwise regular and +always impressive. It had seriously injured his eyes, entirely +destroying, it seems, the sight of one. He could not, it is said, +distinguish a friend's face half a yard off, and pictures were to him +meaningless patches, in which he could never see the resemblance to +their objects. The statement is perhaps exaggerated; for he could see +enough to condemn a portrait of himself. He expressed some annoyance +when Reynolds had painted him with a pen held close to his eye; and +protested that he would not be handed down to posterity as "blinking +Sam." It seems that habits of minute attention atoned in some degree for +this natural defect. Boswell tells us how Johnson once corrected him as +to the precise shape of a mountain; and Mrs. Thrale says that he was a +close and exacting critic of ladies' dress, even to the accidental +position of a riband. He could even lay down aesthetical canons upon +such matters. He reproved her for wearing a dark dress as unsuitable to +a "little creature." "What," he asked, "have not all insects gay +colours?" His insensibility to music was even more pronounced than his +dulness of sight. On hearing it said, in praise of a musical +performance, that it was in any case difficult, his feeling comment was, +"I wish it had been impossible!" + +The queer convulsions by which he amazed all beholders were probably +connected with his disease, though he and Reynolds ascribed them simply +to habit. When entering a doorway with his blind companion, Miss +Williams, he would suddenly desert her on the step in order to "whirl +and twist about" in strange gesticulations. The performance partook of +the nature of a superstitious ceremonial. He would stop in a street or +the middle of a room to go through it correctly. Once he collected a +laughing mob in Twickenham meadows by his antics; his hands imitating +the motions of a jockey riding at full speed and his feet twisting in +and out to make heels and toes touch alternately. He presently sat down +and took out a _Grotius De Veritate_, over which he "seesawed" so +violently that the mob ran back to see what was the matter. Once in such +a fit he suddenly twisted off the shoe of a lady who sat by him. +Sometimes he seemed to be obeying some hidden impulse, which commanded +him to touch every post in a street or tread on the centre of every +paving-stone, and would return if his task had not been accurately +performed. + +In spite of such oddities, he was not only possessed of physical power +corresponding to his great height and massive stature, but was something +of a proficient at athletic exercises. He was conversant with the +theory, at least, of boxing; a knowledge probably acquired from an uncle +who kept the ring at Smithfield for a year, and was never beaten in +boxing or wrestling. His constitutional fearlessness would have made him +a formidable antagonist. Hawkins describes the oak staff, six feet in +length and increasing from one to three inches in diameter, which lay +ready to his hand when he expected an attack from Macpherson of Ossian +celebrity. Once he is said to have taken up a chair at the theatre upon +which a man had seated himself during his temporary absence, and to have +tossed it and its occupant bodily into the pit. He would swim into pools +said to be dangerous, beat huge dogs into peace, climb trees, and even +run races and jump gates. Once at least he went out foxhunting, and +though he despised the amusement, was deeply touched by the +complimentary assertion that he rode as well as the most illiterate +fellow in England. Perhaps the most whimsical of his performances was +when, in his fifty-fifth year, he went to the top of a high hill with +his friend Langton. "I have not had a roll for a long time," said the +great lexicographer suddenly, and, after deliberately emptying his +pockets, he laid himself parallel to the edge of the hill, and +descended, turning over and over till he came to the bottom. We may +believe, as Mrs. Thrale remarks upon his jumping over a stool to show +that he was not tired by his hunting, that his performances in this kind +were so strange and uncouth that a fear for the safety of his bones +quenched the spectator's tendency to laugh. + +In such a strange case was imprisoned one of the most vigorous +intellects of the time. Vast strength hampered by clumsiness and +associated with grievous disease, deep and massive powers of feeling +limited by narrow though acute perceptions, were characteristic both of +soul and body. These peculiarities were manifested from his early +infancy. Miss Seward, a typical specimen of the provincial _precieuse_, +attempted to trace them in an epitaph which he was said to have written +at the age of three. + + Here lies good master duck + Whom Samuel Johnson trod on; + If it had lived, it had been good luck, + For then we had had an odd one. + +The verses, however, were really made by his father, who passed them off +as the child's, and illustrate nothing but the paternal vanity. In fact +the boy was regarded as something of an infant prodigy. His great powers +of memory, characteristic of a mind singularly retentive of all +impressions, were early developed. He seemed to learn by intuition. +Indolence, as in his after life, alternated with brief efforts of +strenuous exertion. His want of sight prevented him from sharing in the +ordinary childish sports; and one of his great pleasures was in reading +old romances--a taste which he retained through life. Boys of this +temperament are generally despised by their fellows; but Johnson seems +to have had the power of enforcing the respect of his companions. Three +of the lads used to come for him in the morning and carry him in triumph +to school, seated upon the shoulders of one and supported on each side +by his companions. + +After learning to read at a dame-school, and from a certain Tom Brown, +of whom it is only recorded that he published a spelling-book and +dedicated it to the Universe, young Samuel was sent to the Lichfield +Grammar School, and was afterwards, for a short time, apparently in the +character of pupil-teacher, at the school of Stourbridge, in +Worcestershire. A good deal of Latin was "whipped into him," and though +he complained of the excessive severity of two of his teachers, he was +always a believer in the virtues of the rod. A child, he said, who is +flogged, "gets his task, and there's an end on't; whereas by exciting +emulation and comparisons of superiority, you lay the foundations of +lasting mischief; you make brothers and sisters hate each other." In +practice, indeed, this stern disciplinarian seems to have been specially +indulgent to children. The memory of his own sorrows made him value +their happiness, and he rejoiced greatly when he at last persuaded a +schoolmaster to remit the old-fashioned holiday-task. + +Johnson left school at sixteen and spent two years at home, probably in +learning his father's business. This seems to have been the chief period +of his studies. Long afterwards he said that he knew almost as much at +eighteen as he did at the age of fifty-three--the date of the remark. +His father's shop would give him many opportunities, and he devoured +what came in his way with the undiscriminating eagerness of a young +student. His intellectual resembled his physical appetite. He gorged +books. He tore the hearts out of them, but did not study systematically. +Do you read books through? he asked indignantly of some one who expected +from him such supererogatory labour. His memory enabled him to +accumulate great stores of a desultory and unsystematic knowledge. +Somehow he became a fine Latin scholar, though never first-rate as a +Grecian. The direction of his studies was partly determined by the +discovery of a folio of Petrarch, lying on a shelf where he was looking +for apples; and one of his earliest literary plans, never carried out, +was an edition of Politian, with a history of Latin poetry from the time +of Petrarch. When he went to the University at the end of this period, +he was in possession of a very unusual amount of reading. + +Meanwhile he was beginning to feel the pressure of poverty. His father's +affairs were probably getting into disorder. One anecdote--it is one +which it is difficult to read without emotion--refers to this period. +Many years afterwards, Johnson, worn by disease and the hard struggle of +life, was staying at Lichfield, where a few old friends still survived, +but in which every street must have revived the memories of the many who +had long since gone over to the majority. He was missed one morning at +breakfast, and did not return till supper-time. Then he told how his +time had been passed. On that day fifty years before, his father, +confined by illness, had begged him to take his place to sell books at a +stall at Uttoxeter. Pride made him refuse. "To do away with the sin of +this disobedience, I this day went in a post-chaise to Uttoxeter, and +going into the market at the time of high business, uncovered my head +and stood with it bare an hour before the stall which my father had +formerly used, exposed to the sneers of the standers-by and the +inclemency of the weather; a penance by which I trust I have propitiated +Heaven for this only instance, I believe, of contumacy to my father." If +the anecdote illustrates the touch of superstition in Johnson's mind, it +reveals too that sacred depth of tenderness which ennobled his +character. No repentance can ever wipe out the past or make it be as +though it had not been; but the remorse of a fine character may be +transmuted into a permanent source of nobler views of life and the +world. + +There are difficulties in determining the circumstances and duration of +Johnson's stay at Oxford. He began residence at Pembroke College in +1728. It seems probable that he received some assistance from a +gentleman whose son took him as companion, and from the clergy of +Lichfield, to whom his father was known, and who were aware of the son's +talents. Possibly his college assisted him during part of the time. It +is certain that he left without taking a degree, though he probably +resided for nearly three years. It is certain, also, that his father's +bankruptcy made his stay difficult, and that the period must have been +one of trial. + +The effect of the Oxford residence upon Johnson's mind was +characteristic. The lad already suffered from the attacks of melancholy, +which sometimes drove him to the borders of insanity. At Oxford, Law's +_Serious Call_ gave him the strong religious impressions which remained +through life. But he does not seem to have been regarded as a gloomy or +a religious youth by his contemporaries. When told in after years that +he had been described as a "gay and frolicsome fellow," he replied, "Ah! +sir, I was mad and violent. It was bitterness which they mistook for +frolic. I was miserably poor, and I thought to fight my way by my +literature and my wit; so I disregarded all power and all authority." +Though a hearty supporter of authority in principle, Johnson was +distinguished through life by the strongest spirit of personal +independence and self-respect. He held, too, the sound doctrine, +deplored by his respectable biographer Hawkins, that the scholar's life, +like the Christian's, levelled all distinctions of rank. When an +officious benefactor put a pair of new shoes at his door, he threw them +away with indignation. He seems to have treated his tutors with a +contempt which Boswell politely attributed to "great fortitude of mind," +but Johnson himself set down as "stark insensibility." The life of a +poor student is not, one may fear, even yet exempt from much bitterness, +and in those days the position was far more servile than at present. The +servitors and sizars had much to bear from richer companions. A proud +melancholy lad, conscious of great powers, had to meet with hard +rebuffs, and tried to meet them by returning scorn for scorn. + +Such distresses, however, did not shake Johnson's rooted Toryism. He +fully imbibed, if he did not already share, the strongest prejudices of +the place, and his misery never produced a revolt against the system, +though it may have fostered insolence to individuals. Three of the most +eminent men with whom Johnson came in contact in later life, had also +been students at Oxford. Wesley, his senior by six years, was a fellow +of Lincoln whilst Johnson was an undergraduate, and was learning at +Oxford the necessity of rousing his countrymen from the religious +lethargy into which they had sunk. "Have not pride and haughtiness of +spirit, impatience, and peevishness, sloth and indolence, gluttony and +sensuality, and even a proverbial uselessness been objected to us, +perhaps not always by our enemies nor wholly without ground?" So said +Wesley, preaching before the University of Oxford in 1744, and the words +in his mouth imply more than the preacher's formality. Adam Smith, +Johnson's junior by fourteen years, was so impressed by the utter +indifference of Oxford authorities to their duties, as to find in it an +admirable illustration of the consequences of the neglect of the true +principles of supply and demand implied in the endowment of learning. +Gibbon, his junior by twenty-eight years, passed at Oxford the "most +idle and unprofitable" months of his whole life; and was, he said, as +willing to disclaim the university for a mother, as she could be to +renounce him for a son. Oxford, as judged by these men, was remarkable +as an illustration of the spiritual and intellectual decadence of a body +which at other times has been a centre of great movements of thought. +Johnson, though his experience was rougher than any of the three, loved +Oxford as though she had not been a harsh stepmother to his youth. Sir, +he said fondly of his college, "we are a nest of singing-birds." Most of +the strains are now pretty well forgotten, and some of them must at all +times have been such as we scarcely associate with the nightingale. +Johnson, however, cherished his college friendships, delighted in paying +visits to his old university, and was deeply touched by the academical +honours by which Oxford long afterwards recognized an eminence scarcely +fostered by its protection. Far from sharing the doctrines of Adam +Smith, he only regretted that the universities were not richer, and +expressed a desire which will be understood by advocates of the +"endowment of research," that there were many places of a thousand a +year at Oxford. + +On leaving the University, in 1731, the world was all before him. His +father died in the end of the year, and Johnson's whole immediate +inheritance was twenty pounds. Where was he to turn for daily bread? +Even in those days, most gates were barred with gold and opened but to +golden keys. The greatest chance for a poor man was probably through the +Church. The career of Warburton, who rose from a similar position to a +bishopric might have been rivalled by Johnson, and his connexions with +Lichfield might, one would suppose, have helped him to a start. It would +be easy to speculate upon causes which might have hindered such a +career. In later life, he more than once refused to take orders upon the +promise of a living. Johnson, as we know him, was a man of the world; +though a religious man of the world. He represents the secular rather +than the ecclesiastical type. So far as his mode of teaching goes, he is +rather a disciple of Socrates than of St. Paul or Wesley. According to +him, a "tavern-chair" was "the throne of human felicity," and supplied +a better arena than the pulpit for the utterance of his message to +mankind. And, though his external circumstances doubtless determined his +method, there was much in his character which made it congenial. +Johnson's religious emotions were such as to make habitual reserve +almost a sanitary necessity. They were deeply coloured by his +constitutional melancholy. Fear of death and hell were prominent in his +personal creed. To trade upon his feelings like a charlatan would have +been abhorrent to his masculine character; and to give them full and +frequent utterance like a genuine teacher of mankind would have been to +imperil his sanity. If he had gone through the excitement of a Methodist +conversion, he would probably have ended his days in a madhouse. + +Such considerations, however, were not, one may guess, distinctly +present to Johnson himself; and the offer of a college fellowship or of +private patronage might probably have altered his career. He might have +become a learned recluse or a struggling Parson Adams. College +fellowships were less open to talent then than now, and patrons were +never too propitious to the uncouth giant, who had to force his way by +sheer labour, and fight for his own hand. Accordingly, the young scholar +tried to coin his brains into money by the most depressing and least +hopeful of employments. By becoming an usher in a school, he could at +least turn his talents to account with little delay, and that was the +most pressing consideration. By one schoolmaster he was rejected on the +ground that his infirmities would excite the ridicule of the boys. Under +another he passed some months of "complicated misery," and could never +think of the school without horror and aversion. Finding this situation +intolerable, he settled in Birmingham, in 1733, to be near an old +schoolfellow, named Hector, who was apparently beginning to practise as +a surgeon. Johnson seems to have had some acquaintances among the +comfortable families in the neighbourhood; but his means of living are +obscure. Some small literary work came in his way. He contributed essays +to a local paper, and translated a book of Travels in Abyssinia. For +this, his first publication, he received five guineas. In 1734 he made +certain overtures to Cave, a London publisher, of the result of which I +shall have to speak presently. For the present it is pretty clear that +the great problem of self-support had been very inadequately solved. + +Having no money and no prospects, Johnson naturally married. The +attractions of the lady were not very manifest to others than her +husband. She was the widow of a Birmingham mercer named Porter. Her age +at the time (1735) of the second marriage was forty-eight, the +bridegroom being not quite twenty-six. The biographer's eye was not +fixed upon Johnson till after his wife's death, and we have little in +the way of authentic description of her person and character. Garrick, +who had known her, said that she was very fat, with cheeks coloured both +by paint and cordials, flimsy and fantastic in dress and affected in her +manners. She is said to have treated her husband with some contempt, +adopting the airs of an antiquated beauty, which he returned by +elaborate deference. Garrick used his wonderful powers of mimicry to +make fun of the uncouth caresses of the husband, and the courtly +Beauclerc used to provoke the smiles of his audience by repeating +Johnson's assertion that "it was a love-match on both sides." One +incident of the wedding-day was ominous. As the newly-married couple +rode back from church, Mrs. Johnson showed her spirit by reproaching +her husband for riding too fast, and then for lagging behind. Resolved +"not to be made the slave of caprice," he pushed on briskly till he was +fairly out of sight. When she rejoined him, as he, of course, took care +that she should soon do, she was in tears. Mrs. Johnson apparently knew +how to regain supremacy; but, at any rate, Johnson loved her devotedly +during life, and clung to her memory during a widowhood of more than +thirty years, as fondly as if they had been the most pattern hero and +heroine of romantic fiction. + +Whatever Mrs. Johnson's charms, she seems to have been a woman of good +sense and some literary judgment. Johnson's grotesque appearance did not +prevent her from saying to her daughter on their first introduction, +"This is the most sensible man I ever met." Her praises were, we may +believe, sweeter to him than those of the severest critics, or the most +fervent of personal flatterers. Like all good men, Johnson loved good +women, and liked to have on hand a flirtation or two, as warm as might +be within the bounds of due decorum. But nothing affected his fidelity +to his Letty or displaced her image in his mind. He remembered her in +many solemn prayers, and such words as "this was dear Letty's book:" or, +"this was a prayer which dear Letty was accustomed to say," were found +written by him in many of her books of devotion. + +Mrs. Johnson had one other recommendation--a fortune, namely, of +L800--little enough, even then, as a provision for the support of the +married pair, but enough to help Johnson to make a fresh start. In 1736, +there appeared an advertisement in the _Gentleman's Magazine_. "At +Edial, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, young gentlemen are boarded and +taught the Latin and Greek languages by Samuel Johnson." If, as seems +probable, Mrs. Johnson's money supplied the funds for this venture, it +was an unlucky speculation. + +Johnson was not fitted to be a pedagogue. Success in that profession +implies skill in the management of pupils, but perhaps still more +decidedly in the management of parents. Johnson had little +qualifications in either way. As a teacher he would probably have been +alternately despotic and over-indulgent; and, on the other hand, at a +single glance the rough Dominie Sampson would be enough to frighten the +ordinary parent off his premises. Very few pupils came, and they seem to +have profited little, if a story as told of two of his pupils refers to +this time. After some months of instruction in English history, he asked +them who had destroyed the monasteries? One of them gave no answer; the +other replied "Jesus Christ." Johnson, however, could boast of one +eminent pupil in David Garrick, though, by Garrick's account, his master +was of little service except as affording an excellent mark for his +early powers of ridicule. The school, or "academy," failed after a year +and a half; and Johnson, once more at a loss for employment, resolved to +try the great experiment, made so often and so often unsuccessfully. He +left Lichfield to seek his fortune in London. Garrick accompanied him, +and the two brought a common letter of introduction to the master of an +academy from Gilbert Walmsley, registrar of the Prerogative Court in +Lichfield. Long afterwards Johnson took an opportunity in the _Lives of +the Poets_, of expressing his warm regard for the memory of his early +friend, to whom he had been recommended by a community of literary +tastes, in spite of party differences and great inequality of age. +Walmsley says in his letter, that "one Johnson" is about to accompany +Garrick to London, in order to try his fate with a tragedy and get +himself employed in translation. Johnson, he adds, "is a very good +scholar and poet, and I have great hopes will turn out a fine tragedy +writer." + +The letter is dated March 2nd, 1737. Before recording what is known of +his early career thus started, it will be well to take a glance at the +general condition of the profession of Literature in England at this +period. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +LITERARY CAREER. + + +"No man but a blockhead," said Johnson, "ever wrote except for money." +The doctrine is, of course, perfectly outrageous, and specially +calculated to shock people who like to keep it for their private use, +instead of proclaiming it in public. But it is a good expression of that +huge contempt for the foppery of high-flown sentiment which, as is not +uncommon with Johnson, passes into something which would be cynical if +it were not half-humorous. In this case it implies also the contempt of +the professional for the amateur. Johnson despised gentlemen who dabbled +in his craft, as a man whose life is devoted to music or painting +despises the ladies and gentlemen who treat those arts as fashionable +accomplishments. An author was, according to him, a man who turned out +books as a bricklayer turns out houses or a tailor coats. So long as he +supplied a good article and got a fair price, he was a fool to grumble, +and a humbug to affect loftier motives. + +Johnson was not the first professional author, in this sense, but +perhaps the first man who made the profession respectable. The principal +habitat of authors, in his age, was Grub Street--a region which, in +later years, has ceased to be ashamed of itself, and has adopted the +more pretentious name Bohemia. The original Grub Street, it is said, +first became associated with authorship during the increase of pamphlet +literature, produced by the civil wars. Fox, the martyrologist, was one +of its original inhabitants. Another of its heroes was a certain Mr. +Welby, of whom the sole record is, that he "lived there forty years +without being seen of any." In fact, it was a region of holes and +corners, calculated to illustrate that great advantage of London life, +which a friend of Boswell's described by saying, that a man could there +be always "close to his burrow." The "burrow" which received the +luckless wight, was indeed no pleasant refuge. Since poor Green, in the +earliest generation of dramatists, bought his "groat'sworth of wit with +a million of repentance," too many of his brethren had trodden the path +which led to hopeless misery or death in a tavern brawl. The history of +men who had to support themselves by their pens, is a record of almost +universal gloom. The names of Spenser, of Butler, and of Otway, are +enough to remind us that even warm contemporary recognition was not +enough to raise an author above the fear of dying in want of +necessaries. The two great dictators of literature, Ben Jonson in the +earlier and Dryden in the later part of the century, only kept their +heads above water by help of the laureate's pittance, though reckless +imprudence, encouraged by the precarious life, was the cause of much of +their sufferings. Patronage gave but a fitful resource, and the author +could hope at most but an occasional crust, flung to him from better +provided tables. + +In the happy days of Queen Anne, it is true, there had been a gleam of +prosperity. Many authors, Addison, Congreve, Swift, and others of less +name, had won by their pens not only temporary profits but permanent +places. The class which came into power at the Revolution was willing +for a time, to share some of the public patronage with men distinguished +for intellectual eminence. Patronage was liberal when the funds came out +of other men's pockets. But, as the system of party government +developed, it soon became evident that this involved a waste of power. +There were enough political partisans to absorb all the comfortable +sinecures to be had; and such money as was still spent upon literature, +was given in return for services equally degrading to giver and +receiver. Nor did the patronage of literature reach the poor inhabitants +of Grub Street. Addison's poetical power might suggest or justify the +gift of a place from his elegant friends; but a man like De Foe, who +really looked to his pen for great part of his daily subsistence, was +below the region of such prizes, and was obliged in later years not only +to write inferior books for money, but to sell himself and act as a spy +upon his fellows. One great man, it is true, made an independence by +literature. Pope received some L8000 for his translation of Homer, by +the then popular mode of subscription--a kind of compromise between the +systems of patronage and public support. But his success caused little +pleasure in Grub Street. No love was lost between the poet and the +dwellers in this dismal region. Pope was its deadliest enemy, and +carried on an internecine warfare with its inmates, which has enriched +our language with a great satire, but which wasted his powers upon low +objects, and tempted him into disgraceful artifices. The life of the +unfortunate victims, pilloried in the _Dunciad_ and accused of the +unpardonable sins of poverty and dependence, was too often one which +might have extorted sympathy even from a thin-skinned poet and critic. + +Illustrations of the manners and customs of that Grub Street of which +Johnson was to become an inmate are only too abundant. The best writers +of the day could tell of hardships endured in that dismal region. +Richardson went on the sound principle of keeping his shop that his shop +might keep him. But the other great novelists of the century have +painted from life the miseries of an author's existence. Fielding, +Smollett, and Goldsmith have described the poor wretches with a vivid +force which gives sadness to the reflection that each of those great men +was drawing upon his own experience, and that they each died in +distress. The _Case of Authors by Profession_ to quote the title of a +pamphlet by Ralph, was indeed a wretched one, when the greatest of their +number had an incessant struggle to keep the wolf from the door. The +life of an author resembled the proverbial existence of the flying-fish, +chased by enemies in sea and in air; he only escaped from the slavery of +the bookseller's garret, to fly from the bailiff or rot in the debtor's +ward or the spunging-house. Many strange half-pathetic and +half-ludicrous anecdotes survive to recall the sorrows and the +recklessness of the luckless scribblers who, like one of Johnson's +acquaintance, "lived in London and hung loose upon society." + +There was Samuel Boyse, for example, whose poem on the _Deity_ is quoted +with high praise by Fielding. Once Johnson had generously exerted +himself for his comrade in misery, and collected enough money by +sixpences to get the poet's clothes out of pawn. Two days afterwards, +Boyse had spent the money and was found in bed, covered only with a +blanket, through two holes in which he passed his arms to write. Boyse, +it appears, when still in this position would lay out his last +half-guinea to buy truffles and mushrooms for his last scrap of beef. Of +another scribbler Johnson said, "I honour Derrick for his strength of +mind. One night when Floyd (another poor author) was wandering about +the streets at night, he found Derrick fast asleep upon a bulk. Upon +being suddenly awaked, Derrick started up; 'My dear Floyd, I am sorry to +see you in this destitute state; will you go home with me to my +_lodgings_?'" Authors in such circumstances might be forced into such a +wonderful contract as that which is reported to have been drawn up by +one Gardner with Rolt and Christopher Smart. They were to write a +monthly miscellany, sold at sixpence, and to have a third of the +profits; but they were to write nothing else, and the contract was to +last for ninety-nine years. Johnson himself summed up the trade upon +earth by the lines in which Virgil describes the entrance to hell; thus +translated by Dryden:-- + + Just in the gate and in the jaws of hell, + Revengeful cares and sullen sorrows dwell. + And pale diseases and repining age, + Want, fear, and famine's unresisted rage: + Here toils and Death and Death's half-brother, Sleep-- + Forms, terrible to view, their sentry keep. + +"Now," said Johnson, "almost all these apply exactly to an author; these +are the concomitants of a printing-house." + +Judicious authors, indeed, were learning how to make literature pay. +Some of them belonged to the class who understood the great truth that +the scissors are a very superior implement to the pen considered as a +tool of literary trade. Such, for example, was that respectable Dr. John +Campbell, whose parties Johnson ceased to frequent lest Scotchmen should +say of any good bits of work, "Ay, ay, he has learnt this of Cawmell." +Campbell, he said quaintly, was a good man, a pious man. "I am afraid he +has not been in the inside of a church for many years; but he never +passes a church without pulling off his hat. This shows he has good +principles,"--of which in fact there seems to be some less questionable +evidence. Campbell supported himself by writings chiefly of the +Encyclopedia or Gazetteer kind; and became, still in Johnson's phrase, +"the richest author that ever grazed the common of literature." A more +singular and less reputable character was that impudent quack, Sir John +Hill, who, with his insolent attacks upon the Royal Society, pretentious +botanical and medical compilations, plays, novels, and magazine +articles, has long sunk into utter oblivion. It is said of him that he +pursued every branch of literary quackery with greater contempt of +character than any man of his time, and that he made as much as L1500 in +a year;--three times as much, it is added, as any one writer ever made +in the same period. + +The political scribblers--the Arnalls, Gordons, Trenchards, Guthries, +Ralphs, and Amhersts, whose names meet us in the notes to the _Dunciad_ +and in contemporary pamphlets and newspapers--form another variety of +the class. Their general character may be estimated from Johnson's +classification of the "Scribbler for a Party" with the "Commissioner of +Excise," as the "two lowest of all human beings." "Ralph," says one of +the notes to the _Dunciad_, "ended in the common sink of all such +writers, a political newspaper." The prejudice against such employment +has scarcely died out in our own day, and may be still traced in the +account of Pendennis and his friend Warrington. People who do dirty work +must be paid for it; and the Secret Committee which inquired into +Walpole's administration reported that in ten years, from 1731 to 1741, +a sum of L50,077 18_s_. had been paid to writers and printers of +newspapers. Arnall, now remembered chiefly by Pope's line,-- + + Spirit of Arnall, aid me whilst I lie! + +had received, in four years, L10,997 6_s_. 8_d_. of this amount. The +more successful writers might look to pensions or preferment. Francis, +for example, the translator of Horace, and the father, in all +probability, of the most formidable of the whole tribe of such literary +gladiators, received, it is said, 900_l_. a year for his work, besides +being appointed to a rectory and the chaplaincy of Chelsea. + +It must, moreover, be observed that the price of literary work was +rising during the century, and that, in the latter half, considerable +sums were received by successful writers. Religious as well as dramatic +literature had begun to be commercially valuable. Baxter, in the +previous century, made from 60_l_. to 80_l_. a year by his pen. The +copyright of Tillotson's _Sermons_ was sold, it is said, upon his death +for L2500. Considerable sums were made by the plan of publishing by +subscription. It is said that 4600 people subscribed to the two +posthumous volumes of Conybeare's _Sermons_. A few poets trod in Pope's +steps. Young made more than L3000 for the Satires called the _Universal +Passion_, published, I think, on the same plan; and the Duke of Wharton +is said, though the report is doubtful, to have given him L2000 for the +same work. Gay made L1000 by his _Poems_; L400 for the copyright of the +_Beggar's Opera_, and three times as much for its second part, _Polly_. +Among historians, Hume seems to have received L700 a volume; Smollett +made L2000 by his catchpenny rival publication; Henry made L3300 by his +history; and Robertson, after the booksellers had made L6000 by his +_History of Scotland_, sold his _Charles V._ for L4500. Amongst the +novelists, Fielding received L700 for _Tom Jones_ and L1000 for +_Amelia_; Sterne, for the second edition of the first part of _Tristram +Shandy_ and for two additional volumes, received L650; besides which +Lord Fauconberg gave him a living (most inappropriate acknowledgment, +one would say!), and Warburton a purse of gold. Goldsmith received 60 +guineas for the immortal _Vicar_, a fair price, according to Johnson, +for a work by a then unknown author. By each of his plays he made about +L500, and for the eight volumes of his _Natural History_ he received 800 +guineas. Towards the end of the century, Mrs. Radcliffe got L500 for the +_Mysteries of Udolpho_, and L800 for her last work, the _Italian_. +Perhaps the largest sum given for a single book was L6000 paid to +Hawkesworth for his account of the South Sea Expeditions. Horne Tooke +received from L4000 to L5000 for the _Diversions of Purley_; and it is +added by his biographer, though it seems to be incredible, that Hayley +received no less than L11,000 for the _Life of Cowper_. This was, of +course, in the present century, when we are already approaching the +period of Scott and Byron. + +Such sums prove that some few authors might achieve independence by a +successful work; and it is well to remember them in considering +Johnson's life from the business point of view. Though he never grumbled +at the booksellers, and on the contrary, was always ready to defend them +as liberal men, he certainly failed, whether from carelessness or want +of skill, to turn them to as much profit as many less celebrated rivals. +Meanwhile, pecuniary success of this kind was beyond any reasonable +hopes. A man who has to work like his own dependent Levett, and to make +the "modest toil of every day" supply "the wants of every day," must +discount his talents until he can secure leisure for some more +sustained effort. Johnson, coming up from the country to seek for work, +could have but a slender prospect of rising above the ordinary level of +his Grub Street companions and rivals. One publisher to whom he applied +suggested to him that it would be his wisest course to buy a porter's +knot and carry trunks; and, in the struggle which followed, Johnson must +sometimes have been tempted to regret that the advice was not taken. + +The details of the ordeal through which he was now to pass have +naturally vanished. Johnson, long afterwards, burst into tears on +recalling the trials of this period. But, at the time, no one was +interested in noting the history of an obscure literary drudge, and it +has not been described by the sufferer himself. What we know is derived +from a few letters and incidental references of Johnson in later days. +On first arriving in London he was almost destitute, and had to join +with Garrick in raising a loan of five pounds, which, we are glad to +say, was repaid. He dined for eightpence at an ordinary: a cut of meat +for sixpence, bread for a penny, and a penny to the waiter, making out +the charge. One of his acquaintance had told him that a man might live +in London for thirty pounds a year. Ten pounds would pay for clothes; a +garret might be hired for eighteen-pence a week; if any one asked for an +address, it was easy to reply, "I am to be found at such a place." +Threepence laid out at a coffee-house would enable him to pass some +hours a day in good company; dinner might be had for sixpence, a +bread-and-milk breakfast for a penny, and supper was superfluous. On +clean shirt day you might go abroad and pay visits. This leaves a +surplus of nearly one pound from the thirty. + +Johnson, however, had a wife to support; and to raise funds for even so +ascetic a mode of existence required steady labour. Often, it seems, his +purse was at the very lowest ebb. One of his letters to his employer is +signed _impransus_; and whether or not the dinnerless condition was in +this case accidental, or significant of absolute impecuniosity, the less +pleasant interpretation is not improbable. He would walk the streets all +night with his friend, Savage, when their combined funds could not pay +for a lodging. One night, as he told Sir Joshua Reynolds in later years, +they thus perambulated St. James's Square, warming themselves by +declaiming against Walpole, and nobly resolved that they would stand by +their country. + +Patriotic enthusiasm, however, as no one knew better than Johnson, is a +poor substitute for bed and supper. Johnson suffered acutely and made +some attempts to escape from his misery. To the end of his life, he was +grateful to those who had lent him a helping hand. "Harry Hervey," he +said of one of them shortly before his death, "was a vicious man, but +very kind to me. If you call a dog Hervey, I shall love him." Pope was +impressed by the excellence of his first poem, _London_, and induced +Lord Gower to write to a friend to beg Swift to obtain a degree for +Johnson from the University of Dublin. The terms of this circuitous +application, curious, as bringing into connexion three of the most +eminent men of letters of the day, prove that the youngest of them was +at the time (1739) in deep distress. The object of the degree was to +qualify Johnson for a mastership of L60 a year, which would make him +happy for life. He would rather, said Lord Gower, die upon the road to +Dublin if an examination were necessary, "than be starved to death in +translating for booksellers, which has been his only subsistence for +some time past." The application failed, however, and the want of a +degree was equally fatal to another application to be admitted to +practise at Doctor's Commons. + +Literature was thus perforce Johnson's sole support; and by literature +was meant, for the most part, drudgery of the kind indicated by the +phrase, "translating for booksellers." While still in Lichfield, Johnson +had, as I have said, written to Cave, proposing to become a contributor +to the _Gentleman's Magazine_. The letter was one of those which a +modern editor receives by the dozen, and answers as perfunctorily as his +conscience will allow. It seems, however, to have made some impression +upon Cave, and possibly led to Johnson's employment by him on his first +arrival in London. From 1738 he was employed both on the Magazine and in +some jobs of translation. + +Edward Cave, to whom we are thus introduced, was a man of some mark in +the history of literature. Johnson always spoke of him with affection +and afterwards wrote his life in complimentary terms. Cave, though a +clumsy, phlegmatic person of little cultivation, seems to have been one +of those men who, whilst destitute of real critical powers, have a +certain instinct for recognizing the commercial value of literary wares. +He had become by this time well-known as the publisher of a magazine +which survives to this day. Journals containing summaries of passing +events had already been started. Boyer's _Political State of Great +Britain_ began in 1711. _The Historical Register_, which added to a +chronicle some literary notices, was started in 1716. _The Grub Street +Journal_ was another journal with fuller critical notices, which first +appeared in 1730; and these two seem to have been superseded by the +_Gentleman's Magazine_, started by Cave in the next year. Johnson saw +in it an opening for the employment of his literary talents; and +regarded its contributions with that awe so natural in youthful +aspirants, and at once so comic and pathetic to writers of a little +experience. The names of many of Cave's staff are preserved in a note to +Hawkins. One or two of them, such as Birch and Akenside, have still a +certain interest for students of literature; but few have heard of the +great Moses Browne, who was regarded as the great poetical light of the +magazine. Johnson looked up to him as a leader in his craft, and was +graciously taken by Cave to an alehouse in Clerkenwell, where, wrapped +in a horseman's coat, and "a great bushy uncombed wig," he saw Mr. +Browne sitting at the end of a long table, in a cloud of tobacco-smoke, +and felt the satisfaction of a true hero-worshipper. + +It is needless to describe in detail the literary task-work done by +Johnson at this period, the Latin poems which he contributed in praise +of Cave, and of Cave's friends, or the Jacobite squibs by which he +relieved his anti-ministerialist feelings. One incident of the period +doubtless refreshed the soul of many authors, who have shared Campbell's +gratitude to Napoleon for the sole redeeming action of his life--the +shooting of a bookseller. Johnson was employed by Osborne, a rough +specimen of the trade, to make a catalogue of the Harleian Library. +Osborne offensively reproved him for negligence, and Johnson knocked him +down with a folio. The book with which the feat was performed (_Biblia +Graeca Septuaginta, fol._ 1594, Frankfort) was in existence in a +bookseller's shop at Cambridge in 1812, and should surely have been +placed in some safe author's museum. + +The most remarkable of Johnson's performances as a hack writer deserves +a brief notice. He was one of the first of reporters. Cave published +such reports of the debates in Parliament as were then allowed by the +jealousy of the Legislature, under the title of _The Senate of +Lilliput_. Johnson was the author of the debates from Nov. 1740 to +February 1742. Persons were employed to attend in the two Houses, who +brought home notes of the speeches, which were then put into shape by +Johnson. Long afterwards, at a dinner at Foote's, Francis (the father of +Junius) mentioned a speech of Pitt's as the best he had ever read, and +superior to anything in Demosthenes. Hereupon Johnson replied, "I wrote +that speech in a garret in Exeter Street." When the company applauded +not only his eloquence but his impartiality, Johnson replied, "That is +not quite true; I saved appearances tolerably well, but I took care that +the Whig dogs should not have the best of it." The speeches passed for a +time as accurate; though, in truth, it has been proved and it is easy to +observe, that they are, in fact, very vague reflections of the original. +The editors of Chesterfield's Works published two of the speeches, and, +to Johnson's considerable amusement, declared that one of them resembled +Demosthenes and the other Cicero. It is plain enough to the modern +reader that, if so, both of the ancient orators must have written true +Johnsonese; and, in fact, the style of the true author is often as +plainly marked in many of these compositions as in the _Rambler_ or +_Rasselas_. For this deception, such as it was, Johnson expressed +penitence at the end of his life, though he said that he had ceased to +write when he found that they were taken as genuine. He would not be +"accessory to the propagation of falsehood." + +Another of Johnson's works which appeared in 1744 requires notice both +for its intrinsic merit, and its autobiographical interest. The most +remarkable of his Grub-Street companions was the Richard Savage already +mentioned. Johnson's life of him written soon after his death is one of +his most forcible performances, and the best extant illustration of the +life of the struggling authors of the time. Savage claimed to be the +illegitimate son of the Countess of Macclesfield, who was divorced from +her husband in the year of his birth on account of her connexion with +his supposed father, Lord Rivers. According to the story, believed by +Johnson, and published without her contradiction in the mother's +lifetime, she not only disavowed her son, but cherished an unnatural +hatred for him. She told his father that he was dead, in order that he +might not be benefited by the father's will; she tried to have him +kidnapped and sent to the plantations; and she did her best to prevent +him from receiving a pardon when he had been sentenced to death for +killing a man in a tavern brawl. However this may be, and there are +reasons for doubt, the story was generally believed, and caused much +sympathy for the supposed victim. Savage was at one time protected by +the kindness of Steele, who published his story, and sometimes employed +him as a literary assistant. When Steele became disgusted with him, he +received generous help from the actor Wilks and from Mrs. Oldfield, to +whom he had been introduced by some dramatic efforts. Then he was taken +up by Lord Tyrconnel, but abandoned by him after a violent quarrel; he +afterwards called himself a volunteer laureate, and received a pension +of 50_l_. a year from Queen Caroline; on her death he was thrown into +deep distress, and helped by a subscription to which Pope was the chief +contributor, on condition of retiring to the country. Ultimately he +quarrelled with his last protectors, and ended by dying in a debtor's +prison. Various poetical works, now utterly forgotten, obtained for him +scanty profit. This career sufficiently reveals the character. Savage +belonged to the very common type of men, who seem to employ their whole +talents to throw away their chances in life, and to disgust every one +who offers them a helping hand. He was, however, a man of some talent, +though his poems are now hopelessly unreadable, and seems to have had a +singular attraction for Johnson. The biography is curiously marked by +Johnson's constant effort to put the best face upon faults, which he has +too much love of truth to conceal. The explanation is, partly, that +Johnson conceived himself to be avenging a victim of cruel oppression. +"This mother," he says, after recording her vindictiveness, "is still +alive, and may perhaps even yet, though her malice was often defeated, +enjoy the pleasure of reflecting that the life, which she often +endeavoured to destroy, was at last shortened by her maternal offices; +that though she could not transport her son to the plantations, bury him +in the shop of a mechanic, or hasten the hand of the public executioner, +she has yet had the satisfaction of embittering all his hours, and +forcing him into exigencies that hurried on his death." + +But it is also probable that Savage had a strong influence upon +Johnson's mind at a very impressible part of his career. The young man, +still ignorant of life and full of reverent enthusiasm for the literary +magnates of his time, was impressed by the varied experience of his +companion, and, it may be, flattered by his intimacy. Savage, he says +admiringly, had enjoyed great opportunities of seeing the most +conspicuous men of the day in their private life. He was shrewd and +inquisitive enough to use his opportunities well. "More circumstances to +constitute a critic on human life could not easily concur." The only +phrase which survives to justify this remark is Savage's statement +about Walpole, that "the whole range of his mind was from obscenity to +politics, and from politics to obscenity." We may, however, guess what +was the special charm of the intercourse to Johnson. Savage was an +expert in that science of human nature, learnt from experience not from +books, upon which Johnson set so high a value, and of which he was +destined to become the authorized expositor. There were, moreover, +resemblances between the two men. They were both admired and sought out +for their conversational powers. Savage, indeed, seems to have lived +chiefly by the people who entertained him for talk, till he had +disgusted them by his insolence and his utter disregard of time and +propriety. He would, like Johnson, sit up talking beyond midnight, and +next day decline to rise till dinner-time, though his favourite drink +was not, like Johnson's, free from intoxicating properties. Both of them +had a lofty pride, which Johnson heartily commends in Savage, though he +has difficulty in palliating some of its manifestations. One of the +stories reminds us of an anecdote already related of Johnson himself. +Some clothes had been left for Savage at a coffee-house by a person who, +out of delicacy, concealed his name. Savage, however, resented some want +of ceremony, and refused to enter the house again till the clothes had +been removed. + +What was honourable pride in Johnson was, indeed, simple arrogance in +Savage. He asked favours, his biographer says, without submission, and +resented refusal as an insult. He had too much pride to acknowledge, not +not too much to receive, obligations; enough to quarrel with his +charitable benefactors, but not enough to make him rise to independence +of their charity. His pension would have sufficed to keep him, only that +as soon as he received it he retired from the sight of all his +acquaintance, and came back before long as penniless as before. This +conduct, observes his biographer, was "very particular." It was hardly +so singular as objectionable; and we are not surprised to be told that +he was rather a "friend of goodness" than himself a good man. In short, +we may say of him as Beauclerk said of a friend of Boswell's that, if he +had excellent principles, he did not wear them out in practice. + +There is something quaint about this picture of a thorough-paced scamp, +admiringly painted by a virtuous man; forced, in spite of himself, to +make it a likeness, and striving in vain to make it attractive. But it +is also pathetic when we remember that Johnson shared some part at least +of his hero's miseries. "On a bulk, in a cellar, or in a glass-house, +among thieves and beggars, was to be found the author of _The Wanderer_, +the man of exalted sentiments, extensive views, and curious +observations; the man whose remarks on life might have assisted the +statesman, whose ideas of virtue might have enlightened the moralist, +whose eloquence might have influenced senators, and whose delicacy might +have polished courts." Very shocking, no doubt, and yet hardly +surprising under the circumstances! To us it is more interesting to +remember that the author of the _Rambler_ was not only a sympathizer, +but a fellow-sufferer with the author of the _Wanderer_, and shared the +queer "lodgings" of his friend, as Floyd shared the lodgings of Derrick. +Johnson happily came unscathed through the ordeal which was too much for +poor Savage, and could boast with perfect truth in later life that "no +man, who ever lived by literature, had lived more independently than I +have done." It was in so strange a school, and under such questionable +teaching that Johnson formed his character of the world and of the +conduct befitting its inmates. One characteristic conclusion is +indicated in the opening passage of the life. It has always been +observed, he says, that men eminent by nature or fortune are not +generally happy: "whether it be that apparent superiority incites great +designs, and great designs are naturally liable to fatal miscarriages; +or that the general lot of mankind is misery, and the misfortunes of +those, whose eminence drew upon them an universal attention, have been +more carefully recorded because they were more generally observed, and +have in reality been only more conspicuous than those of others, not +more frequent or more severe." + +The last explanation was that which really commended itself to Johnson. +Nobody had better reason to know that obscurity might conceal a misery +as bitter as any that fell to the lot of the most eminent. The gloom due +to his constitutional temperament was intensified by the sense that he +and his wife were dependent upon the goodwill of a narrow and ignorant +tradesman for the scantiest maintenance. How was he to reach some solid +standing-ground above the hopeless mire of Grub Street? As a journeyman +author he could make both ends meet, but only on condition of incessant +labour. Illness and misfortune would mean constant dependence upon +charity or bondage to creditors. To get ahead of the world it was +necessary to distinguish himself in some way from the herd of needy +competitors. He had come up from Lichfield with a play in his pocket, +but the play did not seem at present to have much chance of emerging. +Meanwhile he published a poem which did something to give him a general +reputation. + +_London_--an imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal--was published in +May, 1738. The plan was doubtless suggested by Pope's imitations of +Horace, which had recently appeared. Though necessarily following the +lines of Juvenal's poem, and conforming to the conventional fashion of +the time, both in sentiment and versification, the poem has a +biographical significance. It is indeed odd to find Johnson, who +afterwards thought of London as a lover of his mistress, and who +despised nothing more heartily than the cant of Rousseau and the +sentimentalists, adopting in this poem the ordinary denunciations of the +corruption of towns, and singing the praises of an innocent country +life. Doubtless, the young writer was like other young men, taking up a +strain still imitative and artificial. He has a quiet smile at Savage in +the life, because in his retreat to Wales, that enthusiast declared that +he "could not debar himself from the happiness which was to be found in +the calm of a cottage, or lose the opportunity of listening without +intermission to the melody of the nightingale, which he believed was to +be heard from every bramble, and which he did not fail to mention as a +very important part of the happiness of a country life." In _London_, +this insincere cockney adopts Savage's view. Thales, who is generally +supposed to represent Savage (and this coincidence seems to confirm the +opinion), is to retire "from the dungeons of the Strand," and to end a +healthy life in pruning walks and twining bowers in his garden. + + There every bush with nature's music rings, + There every breeze bears health upon its wings. + +Johnson had not yet learnt the value of perfect sincerity even in +poetry. But it must also be admitted that London, as seen by the poor +drudge from a Grub Street garret, probably presented a prospect gloomy +enough to make even Johnson long at times for rural solitude. The poem +reflects, too, the ordinary talk of the heterogeneous band of patriots, +Jacobites, and disappointed Whigs, who were beginning to gather enough +strength to threaten Walpole's long tenure of power. Many references to +contemporary politics illustrate Johnson's sympathy with the inhabitants +of the contemporary Cave of Adullam. + +This poem, as already stated, attracted Pope's notice, who made a +curious note on a scrap of paper sent with it to a friend. Johnson is +described as "a man afflicted with an infirmity of the convulsive kind, +that attacks him sometimes so as to make him a sad spectacle." This +seems to have been the chief information obtained by Pope about the +anonymous author, of whom he had said, on first reading the poem, this +man will soon be _deterre_. _London_ made a certain noise; it reached a +second edition in a week, and attracted various patrons, among others, +General Oglethorpe, celebrated by Pope, and through a long life the warm +friend of Johnson. One line, however, in the poem printed in capital +letters, gives the moral which was doubtless most deeply felt by the +author, and which did not lose its meaning in the years to come. This +mournful truth, he says,-- + + Is everywhere confess'd, + Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd. + +Ten years later (in January, 1749) appeared the _Vanity of Human +Wishes_, an imitation of the Tenth Satire of Juvenal. The difference in +tone shows how deeply this and similar truths had been impressed upon +its author in the interval. Though still an imitation, it is as +significant as the most original work could be of Johnson's settled +views of life. It was written at a white heat, as indeed Johnson wrote +all his best work. Its strong Stoical morality, its profound and +melancholy illustrations of the old and ever new sentiment, _Vanitas +Vanitatum_, make it perhaps the most impressive poem of the kind in the +language. The lines on the scholar's fate show that the iron had entered +his soul in the interval. Should the scholar succeed beyond expectation +in his labours and escape melancholy and disease, yet, he says,-- + + Yet hope not life from grief and danger free, + Nor think the doom of man reversed on thee; + Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes + And pause awhile from letters, to be wise; + There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, + Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail; + See nations, slowly wise and meanly just, + To buried merit raise the tardy bust. + If dreams yet flatter, once again attend. + Hear Lydiat's life and Galileo's end. + +For the "patron," Johnson had originally written the "garret." The +change was made after an experience of patronage to be presently +described in connexion with the _Dictionary_. + +For _London_ Johnson received ten guineas, and for the _Vanity of Human +Wishes_ fifteen. Though indirectly valuable, as increasing his +reputation, such work was not very profitable. The most promising career +in a pecuniary sense was still to be found on the stage. Novelists were +not yet the rivals of dramatists, and many authors had made enough by a +successful play to float them through a year or two. Johnson had +probably been determined by his knowledge of this fact to write the +tragedy of _Irene_. No other excuse at least can be given for the +composition of one of the heaviest and most unreadable of dramatic +performances, interesting now, if interesting at all, solely as a +curious example of the result of bestowing great powers upon a totally +uncongenial task. Young men, however, may be pardoned for such blunders +if they are not repeated, and Johnson, though he seems to have retained +a fondness for his unlucky performance, never indulged in play writing +after leaving Lichfield. The best thing connected with the play was +Johnson's retort to his friend Walmsley, the Lichfield registrar. "How," +asked Walmsley, "can you contrive to plunge your heroine into deeper +calamity?" "Sir," said Johnson, "I can put her into the spiritual +court." Even Boswell can only say for _Irene_ that it is "entitled to +the praise of superior excellence," and admits its entire absence of +dramatic power. Garrick, who had become manager of Drury Lane, produced +his friend's work in 1749. The play was carried through nine nights by +Garrick's friendly zeal, so that the author had his three nights' +profits. For this he received L195 17_s_. and for the copy he had L100. +People probably attended, as they attend modern representations of +legitimate drama, rather from a sense of duty, than in the hope of +pleasure. The heroine originally had to speak two lines with a bowstring +round her neck. The situation produced cries of murder, and she had to +go off the stage alive. The objectionable passage was removed, but +_Irene_ was on the whole a failure, and has never, I imagine, made +another appearance. When asked how he felt upon his ill-success, he +replied "like the monument," and indeed he made it a principle +throughout life to accept the decision of the public like a sensible man +without murmurs. + +Meanwhile, Johnson was already embarked upon an undertaking of a very +different kind. In 1747 he had put forth a plan for an English +Dictionary, addressed at the suggestion of Dodsley, to Lord +Chesterfield, then Secretary of State, and the great contemporary +Maecenas. Johnson had apparently been maturing the scheme for some +time. "I know," he says in the "plan," that "the work in which I engaged +is generally considered as drudgery for the blind, as the proper toil of +artless industry, a book that requires neither the light of learning nor +the activity of genius, but may be successfully performed without any +higher quality than that of bearing burdens with dull patience, and +beating the track of the alphabet with sluggish resolution." He adds in +a sub-sarcastic tone, that although princes and statesmen had once +thought it honourable to patronize dictionaries, he had considered such +benevolent acts to be "prodigies, recorded rather to raise wonder than +expectation," and he was accordingly pleased and surprised to find that +Chesterfield took an interest in his undertaking. He proceeds to lay +down the general principles upon which he intends to frame his work, in +order to invite timely suggestions and repress unreasonable +expectations. At this time, humble as his aspirations might be, he took +a view of the possibilities open to him which had to be lowered before +the publication of the dictionary. He shared the illusion that a +language might be "fixed" by making a catalogue of its words. In the +preface which appeared with the completed work, he explains very +sensibly the vanity of any such expectation. Whilst all human affairs +are changing, it is, as he says, absurd to imagine that the language +which repeats all human thoughts and feelings can remain unaltered. + +A dictionary, as Johnson conceived it, was in fact work for a "harmless +drudge," the definition of a lexicographer given in the book itself. +Etymology in a scientific sense was as yet non-existent, and Johnson was +not in this respect ahead of his contemporaries. To collect all the +words in the language, to define their meanings as accurately as might +be, to give the obvious or whimsical guesses at Etymology suggested by +previous writers, and to append a good collection of illustrative +passages was the sum of his ambition. Any systematic training of the +historical processes by which a particular language had been developed +was unknown, and of course the result could not be anticipated. The +work, indeed, required a keen logical faculty of definition, and wide +reading of the English literature of the two preceding centuries; but it +could of course give no play either for the higher literary faculties on +points of scientific investigation. A dictionary in Johnson's sense was +the highest kind of work to which a literary journeyman could be set, +but it was still work for a journeyman, not for an artist. He was not +adding to literature, but providing a useful implement for future men of +letters. + +Johnson had thus got on hand the biggest job that could be well +undertaken by a good workman in his humble craft. He was to receive +fifteen hundred and seventy-five pounds for the whole, and he expected +to finish it in three years. The money, it is to be observed, was to +satisfy not only Johnson but several copyists employed in the mechanical +part of the work. It was advanced by instalments, and came to an end +before the conclusion of the book. Indeed, it appeared when accounts +were settled, that he had received a hundred pounds more than was due. +He could, however, pay his way for the time, and would gain a reputation +enough to ensure work in future. The period of extreme poverty had +probably ended when Johnson got permanent employment on the _Gentleman's +Magazine_. He was not elevated above the need of drudgery and economy, +but he might at least be free from the dread of neglect. He could +command his market--such as it was. The necessity of steady labour was +probably unfelt in repelling his fits of melancholy. His name was +beginning to be known, and men of reputation were seeking his +acquaintance. In the winter of 1749 he formed a club, which met weekly +at a "famous beef-steak house" in Ivy Lane. Among its members were +Hawkins, afterwards his biographer, and two friends, Bathurst a +physician, and Hawkesworth an author, for the first of whom he +entertained an unusually strong affection. The Club, like its more +famous successor, gave Johnson an opportunity of displaying and +improving his great conversational powers. He was already dreaded for +his prowess in argument, his dictatorial manners and vivid flashes of +wit and humour, the more effective from the habitual gloom and apparent +heaviness of the discourser. + +The talk of this society probably suggested topics for the _Rambler_, +which appeared at this time, and caused Johnson's fame to spread further +beyond the literary circles of London. The wit and humour have, indeed, +left few traces upon its ponderous pages, for the _Rambler_ marks the +culminating period of Johnson's worst qualities of style. The pompous +and involved language seems indeed to be a fit clothing for the +melancholy reflections which are its chief staple, and in spite of its +unmistakable power it is as heavy reading as the heavy class of +lay-sermonizing to which it belongs. Such literature, however, is often +strangely popular in England, and the _Rambler_, though its circulation +was limited, gave to Johnson his position as a great practical moralist. +He took his literary title, one may say, from the _Rambler_, as the more +familiar title was derived from the _Dictionary_. + +The _Rambler_ was published twice a week from March 20th, 1750, to +March 17th, 1752. In five numbers alone he received assistance from +friends, and one of these, written by Richardson, is said to have been +the only number which had a large sale. The circulation rarely exceeded +500, though ten English editions were published in the author's +lifetime, besides Scotch and Irish editions. The payment, however, +namely, two guineas a number, must have been welcome to Johnson, and the +friendship of many distinguished men of the time was a still more +valuable reward. A quaint story illustrates the hero-worship of which +Johnson now became the object. Dr. Burney, afterwards an intimate +friend, had introduced himself to Johnson by letter in consequence of +the _Rambler_, and the plan of the _Dictionary_. The admiration was +shared by a friend of Burney's, a Mr. Bewley, known--in Norfolk at +least--as the "philosopher of Massingham." When Burney at last gained +the honour of a personal interview, he wished to procure some "relic" of +Johnson for his friend. He cut off some bristles from a hearth-broom in +the doctor's chambers, and sent them in a letter to his +fellow-enthusiast. Long afterwards Johnson was pleased to hear of this +simple-minded homage, and not only sent a copy of the _Lives of the +Poets_ to the rural philosopher, but deigned to grant him a personal +interview. + +Dearer than any such praise was the approval of Johnson's wife. She told +him that, well as she had thought of him before, she had not considered +him equal to such a performance. The voice that so charmed him was soon +to be silenced for ever. Mrs. Johnson died (March 17th, 1752) three days +after the appearance of the last _Rambler_. The man who has passed +through such a trial knows well that, whatever may be in store for him +in the dark future, fate can have no heavier blow in reserve. Though +Johnson once acknowledged to Boswell, when in a placid humour, that +happier days had come to him in his old age than in his early life, he +would probably have added that though fame and friendship and freedom +from the harrowing cares of poverty might cause his life to be more +equably happy, yet their rewards could represent but a faint and mocking +reflection of the best moments of a happy marriage. His strong mind and +tender nature reeled under the blow. Here is one pathetic little note +written to the friend, Dr. Taylor, who had come to him in his distress. +That which first announced the calamity, and which, said Taylor, +"expressed grief in the strongest manner he had ever read," is lost. + +"Dear Sir,--Let me have your company and instruction. Do not live away +from me. My distress is great. + +"Pray desire Mrs. Taylor to inform me what mourning I should buy for my +mother and Miss Porter, and bring a note in writing with you. + +"Remember me in your prayers, for vain is the help of man. + +"I am, dear sir, + +"SAM. JOHNSON." + +We need not regret that a veil is drawn over the details of the bitter +agony of his passage through the valley of the shadow of death. It is +enough to put down the wails which he wrote long afterwards when visibly +approaching the close of all human emotions and interests:-- + +"This is the day on which, in 1752, dear Letty died. I have now uttered +a prayer of repentance and contrition; perhaps Letty knows that I prayed +for her. Perhaps Letty is now praying for me. God help me. Thou, God, +art merciful, hear my prayers and enable me to trust in Thee. + +"We were married almost seventeen years, and have now been parted +thirty." + +It seems half profane, even at this distance of time, to pry into grief +so deep and so lasting. Johnson turned for relief to that which all +sufferers know to be the only remedy for sorrow--hard labour. He set to +work in his garret, an inconvenient room, "because," he said, "in that +room only I never saw Mrs. Johnson." He helped his friend Hawkesworth in +the _Adventurer_, a new periodical of the _Rambler_ kind; but his main +work was the _Dictionary_, which came out at last in 1755. Its +appearance was the occasion of an explosion of wrath which marks an +epoch in our literature. Johnson, as we have seen, had dedicated the +Plan to Lord Chesterfield; and his language implies that they had been +to some extent in personal communication. Chesterfield's fame is in +curious antithesis to Johnson's. He was a man of great abilities, and +seems to have deserved high credit for some parts of his statesmanship. +As a Viceroy in Ireland in particular he showed qualities rare in his +generation. To Johnson he was known as the nobleman who had a wide +social influence as an acknowledged _arbiter elegantiarum_, and who +reckoned among his claims some of that literary polish in which the +earlier generation of nobles had certainly been superior to their +successors. The art of life expounded in his _Letters_ differs from +Johnson as much as the elegant diplomatist differs from the rough +intellectual gladiator of Grub Street. Johnson spoke his mind of his +rival without reserve. "I thought," he said, "that this man had been a +Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords." And of the +_Letters_ he said more keenly that they taught the morals of a harlot +and the manners of a dancing-master. Chesterfield's opinion of Johnson +is indicated by the description in his _Letters_ of a "respectable +Hottentot, who throws his meat anywhere but down his throat. This absurd +person," said Chesterfield, "was not only uncouth in manners and warm in +dispute, but behaved exactly in the same way to superiors, equals, and +inferiors; and therefore, by a necessary consequence, absurdly to two of +the three. _Hinc illae lacrymae!_" + +Johnson, in my opinion, was not far wrong in his judgment, though it +would be a gross injustice to regard Chesterfield as nothing but a +fribble. But men representing two such antithetic types were not likely +to admire each other's good qualities. Whatever had been the intercourse +between them, Johnson was naturally annoyed when the dignified noble +published two articles in the _World_--a periodical supported by such +polite personages as himself and Horace Walpole--in which the need of a +dictionary was set forth, and various courtly compliments described +Johnson's fitness for a dictatorship over the language. Nothing could be +more prettily turned; but it meant, and Johnson took it to mean, I +should like to have the dictionary dedicated to me: such a compliment +would add a feather to my cap, and enable me to appear to the world as a +patron of literature as well as an authority upon manners. "After making +pert professions," as Johnson said, "he had, for many years, taken no +notice of me; but when my _Dictionary_ was coming out, he fell a +scribbling in the _World_ about it." Johnson therefore bestowed upon the +noble earl a piece of his mind in a letter which was not published till +it came out in Boswell's biography. + +"My Lord,--I have been lately informed by the proprietor of the _World_ +that two papers, in which my _Dictionary_ is recommended to the public, +were written by your lordship. To be so distinguished is an honour +which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know +not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge. + +"When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I +was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your +address; and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself, _le +vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre_--that I might obtain that regard for +which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little +encouraged that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue +it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in public, I had exhausted +all the arts of pleasing which a wearied and uncourtly scholar can +possess. I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have +his all neglected, be it ever so little. + +"Seven years, my lord, have now passed, since I waited in your outward +rooms and was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been +pushing on my work through difficulties of which it is useless to +complain, and have brought it at last to the verge of publication +without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, and one smile +of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron +before. + +"The shepherd in _Virgil_ grew at last acquainted with Love, and found +him a native of the rocks. + +"Is not a patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man +struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached the ground +encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take +of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed +till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and +cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no +very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has +been received, or to be unwilling that the public should consider me as +owing that to a patron which Providence has enabled me to do for myself. + +"Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any +favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should +conclude it, should loss be possible, with loss; for I have been long +wakened from that dream of hope in which I once boasted myself with so +much exultation, my Lord, + +"Your Lordship's most humble, most obedient servant, + +"SAM. JOHNSON." + +The letter is one of those knock-down blows to which no answer is +possible, and upon which comment is superfluous. It was, as Mr. Carlyle +calls it, "the far-famed blast of doom proclaiming into the ear of Lord +Chesterfield and through him, of the listening world, that patronage +should be no more." + +That is all that can be said; yet perhaps it should be added that +Johnson remarked that he had once received L10 from Chesterfield, though +he thought the assistance too inconsiderable to be mentioned in such a +letter. Hawkins also states that Chesterfield sent overtures to Johnson +through two friends, one of whom, long Sir Thomas Robinson, stated that, +if he were rich enough (a judicious clause) he would himself settle L500 +a year upon Johnson. Johnson replied that if the first peer of the realm +made such an offer, he would show him the way downstairs. Hawkins is +startled at this insolence, and at Johnson's uniform assertion that an +offer of money was an insult. We cannot tell what was the history of the +L10; but Johnson, in spite of Hawkins's righteous indignation, was in +fact too proud to be a beggar, and owed to his pride his escape from +the fate of Savage. + +The appearance of the _Dictionary_ placed Johnson in the position +described soon afterwards by Smollett. He was henceforth "the great Cham +of Literature"--a monarch sitting in the chair previously occupied by +his namesake, Ben, by Dryden, and by Pope; but which has since that time +been vacant. The world of literature has become too large for such +authority. Complaints were not seldom uttered at the time. Goldsmith has +urged that Boswell wished to make a monarchy of what ought to be a +republic. Goldsmith, who would have been the last man to find serious +fault with the dictator, thought the dictatorship objectionable. Some +time indeed was still to elapse before we can say that Johnson was +firmly seated on the throne; but the _Dictionary_ and the _Rambler_ had +given him a position not altogether easy to appreciate, now that the +_Dictionary_ has been superseded and the _Rambler_ gone out of fashion. +His name was the highest at this time (1755) in the ranks of pure +literature. The fame of Warburton possibly bulked larger for the moment, +and one of his flatterers was comparing him to the Colossus which +bestrides the petty world of contemporaries. But Warburton had subsided +into episcopal repose, and literature had been for him a stepping-stone +rather than an ultimate aim. Hume had written works of far more enduring +influence than Johnson; but they were little read though generally +abused, and scarcely belong to the purely literary history. The first +volume of his _History of England_ had appeared (1754), but had not +succeeded. The second was just coming out. Richardson was still giving +laws to his little seraglio of adoring women; Fielding had died (1754), +worn out by labour and dissipation; Smollett was active in the literary +trade, but not in such a way as to increase his own dignity or that of +his employment; Gray was slowly writing a few lines of exquisite verse +in his retirement at Cambridge; two young Irish adventurers, Burke and +Goldsmith, were just coming to London to try their fortune; Adam Smith +made his first experiment as an author by reviewing the _Dictionary_ in +the _Edinburgh Review_; Robertson had not yet appeared as a historian; +Gibbon was at Lausanne repenting of his old brief lapse into Catholicism +as an act of undergraduate's folly; and Cowper, after three years of +"giggling and making giggle" with Thurlow in an attorney's office, was +now entered at the Temple and amusing himself at times with literature +in company with such small men of letters as Colman, Bonnell Thornton, +and Lloyd. It was a slack tide of literature; the generation of Pope had +passed away and left no successors, and no writer of the time could be +put in competition with the giant now known as "Dictionary Johnson." + +When the last sheet of the _Dictionary_ had been carried to the +publisher, Millar, Johnson asked the messenger, "What did he say?" +"Sir," said the messenger, "he said, 'Thank God I have done with him.'" +"I am glad," replied Johnson, "that he thanks God for anything." +Thankfulness for relief from seven years' toil seems to have been +Johnson's predominant feeling: and he was not anxious for a time to take +any new labours upon his shoulders. Some years passed which have left +few traces either upon his personal or his literary history. He +contributed a good many reviews in 1756-7 to the _Literary Magazine_, +one of which, a review of Soame Jenyns, is amongst his best +performances. To a weekly paper he contributed for two years, from +April, 1758, to April, 1760, a set of essays called the _Idler_, on the +old _Rambler_ plan. He did some small literary cobbler's work, +receiving a guinea for a prospectus to a newspaper and ten pounds for +correcting a volume of poetry. He had advertised in 1756 a new edition +of Shakspeare which was to appear by Christmas, 1757: but he dawdled +over it so unconscionably that it did not appear for nine years; and +then only in consequence of taunts from Churchill, who accused him with +too much plausibility of cheating his subscribers. + + He for subscribers baits his hook; + And takes your cash: but where's the book? + No matter where; wise fear, you know + Forbids the robbing of a foe; + But what to serve our private ends + Forbids the cheating of our friends? + +In truth, his constitutional indolence seems to have gained advantages +over him, when the stimulus of a heavy task was removed. In his +meditations, there are many complaints of his "sluggishness" and +resolutions of amendment. "A kind of strange oblivion has spread over +me," he says in April, 1764, "so that I know not what has become of the +last years, and perceive that incidents and intelligence pass over me +without leaving any impression." + +It seems, however, that he was still frequently in difficulties. Letters +are preserved showing that in the beginning of 1756, Richardson became +surety for him for a debt, and lent him six guineas to release him from +arrest. An event which happened three years later illustrates his +position and character. In January, 1759, his mother died at the age of +ninety. Johnson was unable to come to Lichfield, and some deeply +pathetic letters to her and her stepdaughter, who lived with her, record +his emotions. Here is the last sad farewell upon the snapping of the +most sacred of human ties. + +"Dear Honoured Mother," he says in a letter enclosed to Lucy Porter, +the step-daughter, "neither your condition nor your character make it +fit for me to say much. You have been the best mother, and I believe the +best woman in the world. I thank you for your indulgence to me, and beg +forgiveness of all that I have done ill, and of all that I have omitted +to do well. God grant you His Holy Spirit, and receive you to +everlasting happiness for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. Lord Jesus receive +your spirit. I am, dear, dear mother, + +"Your dutiful son, + +"SAMUEL JOHNSON." + +Johnson managed to raise twelve guineas, six of them borrowed from his +printer, to send to his dying mother. In order to gain money for her +funeral expenses and some small debts, he wrote the story of _Rasselas_. +It was composed in the evenings of a single week, and sent to press as +it was written. He received L100 for this, perhaps the most successful +of his minor writings, and L25 for a second edition. It was widely +translated and universally admired. One of the strangest of literary +coincidences is the contemporary appearance of this work and Voltaire's +_Candide_; to which, indeed, it bears in some respects so strong a +resemblance that, but for Johnson's apparent contradiction, we would +suppose that he had at least heard some description of its design. The +two stories, though widely differing in tone and style, are among the +most powerful expressions of the melancholy produced in strong +intellects by the sadness and sorrows of the world. The literary +excellence of _Candide_ has secured for it a wider and more enduring +popularity than has fallen to the lot of Johnson's far heavier +production. But _Rasselas_ is a book of singular force, and bears the +most characteristic impression of Johnson's peculiar temperament. + +A great change was approaching in Johnson's circumstances. When George +III. came to the throne, it struck some of his advisers that it would be +well, as Boswell puts it, to open "a new and brighter prospect to men of +literary merit." This commendable design was carried out by offering to +Johnson a pension of three hundred a year. Considering that such men as +Horace Walpole and his like were enjoying sinecures of more than twice +as many thousands for being their father's sons, the bounty does not +strike one as excessively liberal. It seems to have been really intended +as some set-off against other pensions bestowed upon various hangers-on +of the Scotch prime minister, Bute. Johnson was coupled with the +contemptible scribbler, Shebbeare, who had lately been in the pillory +for a Jacobite libel (a "he-bear" and a "she-bear," said the facetious +newspapers), and when a few months afterwards a pension of L200 a year +was given to the old actor, Sheridan, Johnson growled out that it was +time for him to resign his own. Somebody kindly repeated the remark to +Sheridan, who would never afterwards speak to Johnson. + +The pension, though very welcome to Johnson, who seems to have been in +real distress at the time, suggested some difficulty. Johnson had +unluckily spoken of a pension in his _Dictionary_ as "generally +understood to mean pay given to a State hireling for treason to his +country." He was assured, however, that he did not come within the +definition; and that the reward was given for what he had done, not for +anything that he was expected to do. After some hesitation, Johnson +consented to accept the payment thus offered without the direct +suggestion of any obligation, though it was probably calculated that he +would in case of need, be the more ready, as actually happened, to use +his pen in defence of authority. He had not compromised his independence +and might fairly laugh at angry comments. "I wish," he said afterwards, +"that my pension were twice as large, that they might make twice as much +noise." "I cannot now curse the House of Hanover," was his phrase on +another occasion: "but I think that the pleasure of cursing the House of +Hanover and drinking King James's health, all amply overbalanced by +three hundred pounds a year." In truth, his Jacobitism was by this time, +whatever it had once been, nothing more than a humorous crotchet, giving +opportunity for the expression of Tory prejudice. + +"I hope you will now purge and live cleanly like a gentleman," was +Beauclerk's comment upon hearing of his friend's accession of fortune, +and as Johnson is now emerging from Grub Street, it is desirable to +consider what manner of man was to be presented to the wider circles +that were opening to receive him. + + + +CHAPTER III + + +JOHNSON AND HIS FRIENDS. + + +It is not till some time after Johnson had come into the enjoyment of +his pension, that we first see him through the eyes of competent +observers. The Johnson of our knowledge, the most familiar figure to all +students of English literary history had already long passed the prime +of life, and done the greatest part of his literary work. His character, +in the common phrase, had been "formed" years before; as, indeed, +people's characters are chiefly formed in the cradle; and, not only his +character, but the habits which are learnt in the great schoolroom of +the world were fixed beyond any possibility of change. The strange +eccentricities which had now become a second nature, amazed the society +in which he was for over twenty years a prominent figure. Unsympathetic +observers, those especially to whom the Chesterfield type represented +the ideal of humanity, were simply disgusted or repelled. The man, they +thought, might be in his place at a Grub Street pot-house; but had no +business in a lady's drawing-room. If he had been modest and retiring, +they might have put up with his defects; but Johnson was not a person +whose qualities, good or bad, were of a kind to be ignored. Naturally +enough, the fashionable world cared little for the rugged old giant. +"The great," said Johnson, "had tried him and given him up; they had +seen enough of him;" and his reason was pretty much to the purpose. +"Great lords and great ladies don't love to have their mouths stopped," +especially not, one may add, by an unwashed fist. + +It is easy to blame them now. Everybody can see that a saint in beggar's +rags is intrinsically better than a sinner in gold lace. But the +principle is one of those which serves us for judging the dead, much +more than for regulating our own conduct. Those, at any rate, may throw +the first stone at the Horace Walpoles and Chesterfields, who are quite +certain that they would ask a modern Johnson to their houses. The trial +would be severe. Poor Mrs. Boswell complained grievously of her +husband's idolatry. "I have seen many a bear led by a man," she said; +"but I never before saw a man led by a bear." The truth is, as Boswell +explains, that the sage's uncouth habits, such as turning the candles' +heads downwards to make them burn more brightly, and letting the wax +drop upon the carpet, "could not but be disagreeable to a lady." + +He had other habits still more annoying to people of delicate +perceptions. A hearty despiser of all affectations, he despised +especially the affectation of indifference to the pleasures of the +table. "For my part," he said, "I mind my belly very studiously and very +carefully, for I look upon it that he who does not mind his belly will +hardly mind anything else." Avowing this principle he would innocently +give himself the airs of a scientific epicure. "I, madam," he said to +the terror of a lady with whom he was about to sup, "who live at a +variety of good tables, am a much better judge of cookery than any +person who has a very tolerable cook, but lives much at home, for his +palate is gradually adapted to the taste of his cook, whereas, madam, +in trying by a wider range, I can more exquisitely judge." But his +pretensions to exquisite taste are by no means borne out by independent +witnesses. "He laughs," said Tom Davies, "like a rhinoceros," and he +seems to have eaten like a wolf--savagely, silently, and with +undiscriminating fury. He was not a pleasant object during this +performance. He was totally absorbed in the business of the moment, a +strong perspiration came out, and the veins of his forehead swelled. He +liked coarse satisfying dishes--boiled pork and veal-pie stuffed with +plums and sugar; and in regard to wine, he seems to have accepted the +doctrines of the critic of a certain fluid professing to be port, who +asked, "What more can you want? It is black, and it is thick, and it +makes you drunk." Claret, as Johnson put it, "is the liquor for boys, +and port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy." He +could, however, refrain, though he could not be moderate, and for all +the latter part of his life, from 1766, he was a total abstainer. Nor, +it should be added, does he ever appear to have sought for more than +exhilaration from wine. His earliest intimate friend, Hector, said that +he had never but once seen him drunk. + +His appetite for more innocent kinds of food was equally excessive. He +would eat seven or eight peaches before breakfast, and declared that he +had only once in his life had as much wall-fruit as he wished. His +consumption of tea was prodigious, beyond all precedent. Hawkins quotes +Bishop Burnet as having drunk sixteen large cups every morning, a feat +which would entitle him to be reckoned as a rival. "A hardened and +shameless tea-drinker," Johnson called himself, who "with tea amuses the +evenings, with tea solaces the midnights, and with tea welcomes the +mornings." One of his teapots, preserved by a relic-hunter, contained +two quarts, and he professed to have consumed five and twenty cups at a +sitting. Poor Mrs. Thrale complains that he often kept her up making tea +for him till four in the morning. His reluctance to go to bed was due to +the fact that his nights were periods of intense misery; but the vast +potations of tea can scarcely have tended to improve them. + +The huge frame was clad in the raggedest of garments, until his +acquaintance with the Thrales led to a partial reform. His wigs were +generally burnt in front, from his shortsighted knack of reading with +his head close to the candle; and at the Thrales, the butler stood ready +to effect a change of wigs as he passed into the dining-room. Once or +twice we have accounts of his bursting into unusual splendour. He +appeared at the first representation of _Irene_ in a scarlet waistcoat +laced with gold; and on one of his first interviews with Goldsmith he +took the trouble to array himself decently, because Goldsmith was +reported to have justified slovenly habits by the precedent of the +leader of his craft. Goldsmith, judging by certain famous suits, seems +to have profited by the hint more than his preceptor. As a rule, +Johnson's appearance, before he became a pensioner, was worthy of the +proverbial manner of Grub Street. Beauclerk used to describe how he had +once taken a French lady of distinction to see Johnson in his chambers. +On descending the staircase they heard a noise like thunder. Johnson was +pursuing them, struck by a sudden sense of the demands upon his +gallantry. He brushed in between Beauclerk and the lady, and seizing her +hand conducted her to her coach. A crowd of people collected to stare at +the sage, dressed in rusty brown, with a pair of old shoes for slippers, +a shrivelled wig on the top of his head, and with shirtsleeves and the +knees of his breeches hanging loose. In those days, clergymen and +physicians were only just abandoning the use of their official costume +in the streets, and Johnson's slovenly habits were even more marked than +they would be at present. "I have no passion for clean linen," he once +remarked, and it is to be feared that he must sometimes have offended +more senses than one. + +In spite of his uncouth habits of dress and manners, Johnson claimed +and, in a sense, with justice, to be a polite man. "I look upon myself," +he said once to Boswell, "as a very polite man." He could show the +stately courtesy of a sound Tory, who cordially accepts the principle of +social distinction, but has far too strong a sense of self-respect to +fancy that compliance with the ordinary conventions can possibly lower +his own position. Rank of the spiritual kind was especially venerable to +him. "I should as soon have thought of contradicting a bishop," was a +phrase which marked the highest conceivable degree of deference to a man +whom he respected. Nobody, again, could pay more effective compliments, +when he pleased; and the many female friends who have written of him +agree, that he could be singularly attractive to women. Women are, +perhaps, more inclined than men to forgive external roughness in +consideration of the great charm of deep tenderness in a thoroughly +masculine nature. A characteristic phrase was his remark to Miss +Monckton. She had declared, in opposition to one of Johnson's +prejudices, that Sterne's writings were pathetic: "I am sure," she said, +"they have affected me." "Why," said Johnson, smiling and rolling +himself about, "that is because, dearest, you are a dunce!" When she +mentioned this to him some time afterwards he replied: "Madam, if I had +thought so, I certainly should not have said it." The truth could not be +more neatly put. + +Boswell notes, with some surprise, that when Johnson dined with Lord +Monboddo he insisted upon rising when the ladies left the table, and +took occasion to observe that politeness was "fictitious benevolence," +and equally useful in common intercourse. Boswell's surprise seems to +indicate that Scotchmen in those days were even greater bears than +Johnson. He always insisted, as Miss Reynolds tells us, upon showing +ladies to their carriages through Bolt Court, though his dress was such +that her readers would, she thinks, be astonished that any man in his +senses should have shown himself in it abroad or even at home. Another +odd indication of Johnson's regard for good manners, so far as his +lights would take him, was the extreme disgust with which he often +referred to a certain footman in Paris, who used his fingers in place of +sugar-tongs. So far as Johnson could recognize bad manners he was polite +enough, though unluckily the limitation is one of considerable +importance. + +Johnson's claims to politeness were sometimes, it is true, put in a +rather startling form. "Every man of any education," he once said to the +amazement of his hearers, "would rather be called a rascal than accused +of deficiency in the graces." Gibbon, who was present, slily inquired of +a lady whether among all her acquaintance she could not find _one_ +exception. According to Mrs. Thrale, he went even further. Dr. Barnard, +he said, was the only man who had ever done justice to his good +breeding; "and you may observe," he added, "that I am well-bred to a +degree of needless scrupulosity." He proceeded, according to Mrs. +Thrale, but the report a little taxes our faith, to claim the virtues +not only of respecting ceremony, but of never contradicting or +interrupting his hearers. It is rather odd that Dr. Barnard had once a +sharp altercation with Johnson, and avenged himself by a sarcastic copy +of verses in which, after professing to learn perfectness from different +friends, he says,-- + + Johnson shall teach me how to place, + In varied light, each borrow'd grace; + From him I'll learn to write; + Copy his clear familiar style, + And by the roughness of his file, + Grow, like himself, polite. + +Johnson, on this as on many occasions, repented of the blow as soon as +it was struck, and sat down by Barnard, "literally smoothing down his +arms and knees," and beseeching pardon. Barnard accepted his apologies, +but went home and wrote his little copy of verses. + +Johnson's shortcomings in civility were no doubt due, in part, to the +narrowness of his faculties of perception. He did not know, for he could +not see, that his uncouth gestures and slovenly dress were offensive; +and he was not so well able to observe others as to shake off the +manners contracted in Grub Street. It is hard to study a manual of +etiquette late in life, and for a man of Johnson's imperfect faculties +it was probably impossible. Errors of this kind were always pardonable, +and are now simply ludicrous. But Johnson often shocked his companions +by more indefensible conduct. He was irascible, overbearing, and, when +angry, vehement beyond all propriety. He was a "tremendous companion," +said Garrick's brother; and men of gentle nature, like Charles Fox, +often shrank from his company, and perhaps exaggerated his brutality. + +Johnson, who had long regarded conversation as the chief amusement, came +in later years to regard it as almost the chief employment of life; and +he had studied the art with the zeal of a man pursuing a favourite +hobby. He had always, as he told Sir Joshua Reynolds, made it a +principle to talk on all occasions as well as he could. He had thus +obtained a mastery over his weapons which made him one of the most +accomplished of conversational gladiators. He had one advantage which +has pretty well disappeared from modern society, and the disappearance +of which has been destructive to excellence of talk. A good talker, even +more than a good orator, implies a good audience. Modern society is too +vast and too restless to give a conversationalist a fair chance. For the +formation of real proficiency in the art, friends should meet often, sit +long, and be thoroughly at ease. A modern audience generally breaks up +before it is well warmed through, and includes enough strangers to break +the magic circle of social electricity. The clubs in which Johnson +delighted were excellently adapted to foster his peculiar talent. There +a man could "fold his legs and have his talk out"--a pleasure hardly to +be enjoyed now. And there a set of friends meeting regularly, and +meeting to talk, learnt to sharpen each other's skill in all dialectic +manoeuvres. Conversation may be pleasantest, as Johnson admitted, when +two friends meet quietly to exchange their minds without any thought of +display. But conversation considered as a game, as a bout of +intellectual sword-play, has also charms which Johnson intensely +appreciated. His talk was not of the encyclopaedia variety, like that of +some more modern celebrities; but it was full of apposite illustrations +and unrivalled in keen argument, rapid flashes of wit and humour, +scornful retort and dexterous sophistry. Sometimes he would fell his +adversary at a blow; his sword, as Boswell said, would be through your +body in an instant without preliminary flourishes; and in the +excitement of talking for victory, he would use any device that came to +hand. "There is no arguing with Johnson," said Goldsmith, quoting a +phrase from Cibber, "for if his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down +with the butt-end of it." + +Johnson's view of conversation is indicated by his remark about Burke. +"That fellow," he said at a time of illness, "calls forth all my powers. +Were I to see Burke now, it would kill me." "It is when you come close +to a man in conversation," he said on another occasion, "that you +discover what his real abilities are. To make a speech in an assembly is +a knack. Now I honour Thurlow, sir; Thurlow is a fine fellow, he fairly +puts his mind to yours." + +Johnson's retorts were fair play under the conditions of the game, as it +is fair play to kick an opponent's shins at football. But of course a +man who had, as it were, become the acknowledged champion of the ring, +and who had an irascible and thoroughly dogmatic temper, was tempted to +become unduly imperious. In the company of which Savage was a +distinguished member, one may guess that the conversational fervour +sometimes degenerated into horse-play. Want of arguments would be +supplied by personality, and the champion would avenge himself by +brutality on an opponent who happened for once to be getting the best of +him. Johnson, as he grew older and got into more polished society, +became milder in his manners; but he had enough of the old spirit left +in him to break forth at times with ungovernable fury, and astonish the +well-regulated minds of respectable ladies and gentlemen. + +Anecdotes illustrative of this ferocity abound, and his best +friends--except, perhaps, Reynolds and Burke--had all to suffer in turn. +On one occasion, when he had made a rude speech even to Reynolds, +Boswell states, though with some hesitation, his belief that Johnson +actually blushed. The records of his contests in this kind fill a large +space in Boswell's pages. That they did not lead to worse consequences +shows his absence of rancour. He was always ready and anxious for a +reconciliation, though he would not press for one if his first overtures +were rejected. There was no venom in the wounds he inflicted, for there +was no ill-nature; he was rough in the heat of the struggle, and in such +cases careless in distributing blows; but he never enjoyed giving pain. +None of his tiffs ripened into permanent quarrels, and he seems scarcely +to have lost a friend. He is a pleasant contrast in this, as in much +else, to Horace Walpole, who succeeded, in the course of a long life, in +breaking with almost all his old friends. No man set a higher value upon +friendship than Johnson. "A man," he said to Reynolds, "ought to keep +his friendship in constant repair;" or he would find himself left alone +as he grew older. "I look upon a day as lost," he said later in life, +"in which I do not make a new acquaintance." Making new acquaintances +did not involve dropping the old. The list of his friends is a long one, +and includes, as it were, successive layers, superposed upon each other, +from the earliest period of his life. + +This is so marked a feature in Johnson's character, that it will be as +well at this point to notice some of the friendships from which he +derived the greatest part of his happiness. Two of his schoolfellows, +Hector and Taylor, remained his intimates through life. Hector survived +to give information to Boswell, and Taylor, then a prebendary of +Westminster, read the funeral service over his old friend in the Abbey. +He showed, said some of the bystanders, too little feeling. The relation +between the two men was not one of special tenderness; indeed they were +so little congenial that Boswell rather gratuitously suspected his +venerable teacher of having an eye to Taylor's will. It seems fairer to +regard the acquaintance as an illustration of that curious adhesiveness +which made Johnson cling to less attractive persons. At any rate, he did +not show the complacence of the proper will-hunter. Taylor was rector of +Bosworth and squire of Ashbourne. He was a fine specimen of the +squire-parson; a justice of the peace, a warm politician, and what was +worse, a warm Whig. He raised gigantic bulls, bragged of selling cows +for 120 guineas and more, and kept a noble butler in purple clothes and +a large white wig. Johnson respected Taylor as a sensible man, but was +ready to have a round with him on occasion. He snorted contempt when +Taylor talked of breaking some small vessels if he took an emetic. +"Bah," said the doctor, who regarded a valetudinarian as a "scoundrel," +"if you have so many things that will break, you had better break your +neck at once, and there's an end on't." Nay, if he did not condemn +Taylor's cows, he criticized his bulldog with cruel acuteness. "No, sir, +he is not well shaped; for there is not the quick transition from the +thickness of the fore-part to the _tenuity_--the thin part--behind, +which a bulldog ought to have." On the more serious topic of politics +his Jacobite fulminations roused Taylor "to a pitch of bellowing." +Johnson roared out that if the people of England were fairly polled +(this was in 1777) the present king would be sent away to-night, and his +adherents hanged to-morrow. Johnson, however, rendered Taylor the +substantial service of writing sermons for him, two volumes of which +were published after they were both dead; and Taylor must have been a +bold man, if it be true, as has been said, that he refused to preach a +sermon written by Johnson upon Mrs. Johnson's death, on the ground that +it spoke too favourably of the character of the deceased. + +Johnson paid frequent visits to Lichfield, to keep up his old friends. +One of them was Lucy Porter, his wife's daughter, with whom, according +to Miss Seward, he had been in love before he married her mother. He was +at least tenderly attached to her through life. And, for the most part, +the good people of Lichfield seem to have been proud of their +fellow-townsman, and gave him a substantial proof of their sympathy by +continuing to him, on favourable terms, the lease of a house originally +granted to his father. There was, indeed, one remarkable exception in +Miss Seward, who belonged to a genus specially contemptible to the old +doctor. She was one of the fine ladies who dabbled in poetry, and aimed +at being the centre of a small literary circle at Lichfield. Her letters +are amongst the most amusing illustrations of the petty affectations and +squabbles characteristic of such a provincial clique. She evidently +hated Johnson at the bottom of her small soul; and, indeed, though +Johnson once paid her a preposterous compliment--a weakness of which +this stern moralist was apt to be guilty in the company of ladies--he no +doubt trod pretty roughly upon some of her pet vanities. + +By far the most celebrated of Johnson's Lichfield friends was David +Garrick, in regard to whom his relations were somewhat peculiar. +Reynolds said that Johnson considered Garrick to be his own property, +and would never allow him to be praised or blamed by any one else +without contradiction. Reynolds composed a pair of imaginary dialogues +to illustrate the proposition, in one of which Johnson attacks Garrick +in answer to Reynolds, and in the other defends him in answer to Gibbon. +The dialogues seem to be very good reproductions of the Johnsonian +manner, though perhaps the courteous Reynolds was a little too much +impressed by its roughness; and they probably include many genuine +remarks of Johnson's. It is remarkable that the praise is far more +pointed and elaborate than the blame, which turns chiefly upon the +general inferiority of an actor's position. And, in fact, this seems to +have corresponded to Johnson's opinion about Garrick as gathered from +Boswell. + +The two men had at bottom a considerable regard for each other, founded +upon old association, mutual services, and reciprocal respect for +talents of very different orders. But they were so widely separated by +circumstances, as well as by a radical opposition of temperament, that +any close intimacy could hardly be expected. The bear and the monkey are +not likely to be intimate friends. Garrick's rapid elevation in fame and +fortune seems to have produced a certain degree of envy in his old +schoolmaster. A grave moral philosopher has, of course, no right to look +askance at the rewards which fashion lavishes upon men of lighter and +less lasting merit, and which he professes to despise. Johnson, however, +was troubled with a rather excessive allowance of human nature. Moreover +he had the good old-fashioned contempt for players, characteristic both +of the Tory and the inartistic mind. He asserted roundly that he looked +upon players as no better than dancing-dogs. "But, sir, you will allow +that some players are better than others?" "Yes, sir, as some dogs dance +better than others." So when Goldsmith accused Garrick of grossly +flattering the queen, Johnson exclaimed, "And as to meanness--how is it +mean in a player, a showman, a fellow who exhibits himself for a +shilling, to flatter his queen?" At another time Boswell suggested that +we might respect a great player. "What! sir," exclaimed Johnson, "a +fellow who claps a hump upon his back and a lump on his leg and cries, +'_I am Richard III._'? Nay, sir, a ballad-singer is a higher man, for he +does two things: he repeats and he sings; there is both recitation and +music in his performance--the player only recites." + +Such sentiments were not very likely to remain unknown to Garrick nor to +put him at ease with Johnson, whom, indeed, he always suspected of +laughing at him. They had a little tiff on account of Johnson's Edition +of Shakspeare. From some misunderstanding, Johnson did not make use of +Garrick's collection of old plays. Johnson, it seems, thought that +Garrick should have courted him more, and perhaps sent the plays to his +house; whereas Garrick, knowing that Johnson treated books with a +roughness ill-suited to their constitution, thought that he had done +quite enough by asking Johnson to come to his library. The revenge--if +it was revenge--taken by Johnson was to say nothing of Garrick in his +Preface, and to glance obliquely at his non-communication of his +rarities. He seems to have thought that it would be a lowering of +Shakspeare to admit that his fame owed anything to Garrick's exertions. + +Boswell innocently communicated to Garrick a criticism of Johnson's upon +one of his poems-- + + I'd smile with the simple and feed with the poor. + +"Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich," was Johnson's +tolerably harmless remark. Garrick, however, did not like it, and when +Boswell tried to console him by saying that Johnson gored everybody in +turn, and added, "_foenum habet in cornu_." "Ay," said Garrick +vehemently, "he has a whole mow of it." The most unpleasant incident +was when Garrick proposed rather too freely to be a member of the Club. +Johnson said that the first duke in England had no right to use such +language, and said, according to Mrs. Thrale, "If Garrick does apply, +I'll blackball him. Surely we ought to be able to sit in a society like +ours-- + + 'Unelbowed by a gamester, pimp, or player!'" + +Nearly ten years afterwards, however, Johnson favoured his election, and +when he died, declared that the Club should have a year's widowhood. No +successor to Garrick was elected during that time. + +Johnson sometimes ventured to criticise Garrick's acting, but here +Garrick could take his full revenge. The purblind Johnson was not, we +may imagine, much of a critic in such matters. Garrick reports him to +have said of an actor at Lichfield, "There is a courtly vivacity about +the fellow;" when, in fact, said Garrick, "he was the most vulgar +ruffian that ever went upon boards." + +In spite of such collisions of opinion and mutual criticism, Johnson +seems to have spoken in the highest terms of Garrick's good qualities, +and they had many pleasant meetings. Garrick takes a prominent part in +two or three of the best conversations in Boswell, and seems to have put +his interlocutors in specially good temper. Johnson declared him to be +"the first man in the world for sprightly conversation." He said that +Dryden had written much better prologues than any of Garrick's, but that +Garrick had written more good prologues than Dryden. He declared that it +was wonderful how little Garrick had been spoilt by all the flattery +that he had received. No wonder if he was a little vain: "a man who is +perpetually flattered in every mode that can be conceived: so many +bellows have blown the fuel, that one wonders he is not by this time +become a cinder!" "If all this had happened to me," he said on another +occasion, "I should have had a couple of fellows with long poles walking +before me, to knock down everybody that stood in the way. Consider, if +all this had happened to Cibber and Quin, they'd have jumped over the +moon. Yet Garrick speaks to us," smiling. He admitted at the same time +that Garrick had raised the profession of a player. He defended Garrick, +too, against the common charge of avarice. Garrick, as he pointed out, +had been brought up in a family whose study it was to make fourpence go +as far as fourpence-halfpenny. Johnson remembered in early days drinking +tea with Garrick when Peg Woffington made it, and made it, as Garrick +grumbled, "as red as blood." But when Garrick became rich he became +liberal. He had, so Johnson declared, given away more money than any man +in England. + +After Garrick's death, Johnson took occasion to say, in the _Lives of +the Poets_, that the death "had eclipsed the gaiety of nations and +diminished the public stock of harmless pleasures." Boswell ventured to +criticise the observation rather spitefully. "Why _nations_? Did his +gaiety extend further than his own nation?" "Why, sir," replied Johnson, +"some imagination must be allowed. Besides, we may say _nations_ if we +allow the Scotch to be a nation, and to have gaiety--which they have +not." On the whole, in spite of various drawbacks, Johnson's reported +observations upon Garrick will appear to be discriminative, and yet, on +the whole, strongly favourable to his character. Yet we are not quite +surprised that Mrs. Garrick did not respond to a hint thrown out by +Johnson, that he would be glad to write the life of his friend. + +At Oxford, Johnson acquired the friendship of Dr. Adams, afterwards +Master of Pembroke and author of a once well-known reply to Hume's +argument upon miracles. He was an amiable man, and was proud to do the +honours of the university to his old friend, when, in later years, +Johnson revisited the much-loved scenes of his neglected youth. The +warmth of Johnson's regard for old days is oddly illustrated by an +interview recorded by Boswell with one Edwards, a fellow-student whom he +met again in 1778, not having previously seen him since 1729. They had +lived in London for forty years without once meeting, a fact more +surprising then than now. Boswell eagerly gathered up the little scraps +of college anecdote which the meeting produced, but perhaps his best +find was a phrase of Edwards himself. "You are a philosopher, Dr. +Johnson," he said; "I have tried, too, in my time to be a philosopher; +but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in." The phrase, +as Boswell truly says, records an exquisite trait of character. + +Of the friends who gathered round Johnson during his period of struggle, +many had vanished before he became well known. The best loved of all +seems to have been Dr. Bathurst, a physician, who, failing to obtain +practice, joined the expedition to Havannah, and fell a victim to the +climate (1762). Upon him Johnson pronounced a panegyric which has +contributed a proverbial phrase to the language. "Dear Bathurst," he +said, "was a man to my very heart's content: he hated a fool and he +hated a rogue, and he hated a Whig; he was a _very good hater_." Johnson +remembered Bathurst in his prayers for years after his loss, and +received from him a peculiar legacy. Francis Barker had been the negro +slave of Bathurst's father, who left him his liberty by will. Dr. +Bathurst allowed him to enter Johnson's service; and Johnson sent him +to school at considerable expense, and afterwards retained him in his +service with little interruption till his own death. Once Barker ran +away to sea, and was discharged, oddly enough, by the good offices of +Wilkes, to whom Smollett applied on Johnson's behalf. Barker became an +important member of Johnson's family, some of whom reproached him for +his liberality to the nigger. No one ever solved the great problem as to +what services were rendered by Barker to his master, whose wig was "as +impenetrable by a comb as a quickset hedge," and whose clothes were +never touched by the brush. + +Among the other friends of this period must be reckoned his biographer, +Hawkins, an attorney who was afterwards Chairman of the Middlesex +Justices, and knighted on presenting an address to the King. Boswell +regarded poor Sir John Hawkins with all the animosity of a rival author, +and with some spice of wounded vanity. He was grievously offended, so at +least says Sir John's daughter, on being described in the _Life of +Johnson_ as "Mr. James Boswell" without a solitary epithet such as +celebrated or well-known. If that was really his feeling, he had his +revenge; for no one book ever so suppressed another as Boswell's Life +suppressed Hawkins's. In truth, Hawkins was a solemn prig, remarkable +chiefly for the unusual intensity of his conviction that all virtue +consists in respectability. He had a special aversion to "goodness of +heart," which he regarded as another name for a quality properly called +extravagance or vice. Johnson's tenacity of old acquaintance introduced +him into the Club, where he made himself so disagreeable, especially, as +it seems, by rudeness to Burke, that he found it expedient to invent a +pretext for resignation. Johnson called him a "very unclubable man," +and may perhaps have intended him in the quaint description: "I really +believe him to be an honest man at the bottom; though, to be sure, he is +rather penurious, and he is somewhat mean; and it must be owned he has +some degree of brutality, and is not without a tendency to savageness +that cannot well be defended." + +In a list of Johnson's friends it is proper to mention Richardson and +Hawkesworth. Richardson seems to have given him substantial help, and +was repaid by favourable comparisons with Fielding, scarcely borne out +by the verdict of posterity. "Fielding," said Johnson, "could tell the +hour by looking at the clock; whilst Richardson knew how the clock was +made." "There is more knowledge of the heart," he said at another time, +"in one letter of Richardson's than in all _Tom Jones_." Johnson's +preference of the sentimentalist to the man whose humour and strong +sense were so like his own, shows how much his criticism was biassed by +his prejudices; though, of course, Richardson's external decency was a +recommendation to the moralist. Hawkesworth's intimacy with Johnson +seems to have been chiefly in the period between the _Dictionary_ and +the pension. He was considered to be Johnson's best imitator; and has +vanished like other imitators. His fate, very doubtful if the story +believed at the time be true, was a curious one for a friend of +Johnson's. He had made some sceptical remarks as to the efficacy of +prayer in his preface to the South Sea Voyages; and was so bitterly +attacked by a "Christian" in the papers, that he destroyed himself by a +dose of opium. + +Two younger friends, who became disciples of the sage soon after the +appearance of the _Rambler_, are prominent figures in the later circle. +One of these was Bennet Langton, a man of good family, fine scholarship, +and very amiable character. His exceedingly tall and slender figure was +compared by Best to the stork in Raphael's cartoon of the Miraculous +Draught of Fishes. Miss Hawkins describes him sitting with one leg +twisted round the other as though to occupy the smallest possible space, +and playing with his gold snuff-box with a mild countenance and sweet +smile. The gentle, modest creature was loved by Johnson, who could warm +into unusual eloquence in singing his praises. The doctor, however, was +rather fond of discussing with Boswell the faults of his friend. They +seem to have chiefly consisted in a certain languor or sluggishness of +temperament which allowed his affairs to get into perplexity. Once, when +arguing the delicate question as to the propriety of telling a friend of +his wife's unfaithfulness, Boswell, after his peculiar fashion, chose to +enliven the abstract statement by the purely imaginary hypothesis of Mr. +and Mrs. Langton being in this position. Johnson said that it would be +useless to tell Langton, because he would be too sluggish to get a +divorce. Once Langton was the unconscious cause of one of Johnson's +oddest performances. Langton had employed Chambers, a common friend of +his and Johnson's, to draw his will. Johnson, talking to Chambers and +Boswell, was suddenly struck by the absurdity of his friend's appearing +in the character of testator. His companions, however, were utterly +unable to see in what the joke consisted; but Johnson laughed +obstreperously and irrepressibly: he laughed till he reached the Temple +Gate; and when in Fleet Street went almost into convulsions of hilarity. +Holding on by one of the posts in the street, he sent forth such peals +of laughter that they seemed in the silence of the night to resound from +Temple Bar to Fleet Ditch. + +Not long before his death, Johnson applied to Langton for spiritual +advice. "I desired him to tell me sincerely in what he thought my life +was faulty." Langton wrote upon a sheet of paper certain texts +recommending Christian charity; and explained, upon inquiry, that he was +pointing at Johnson's habit of contradiction. The old doctor began by +thanking him earnestly for his kindness; but gradually waxed savage and +asked Langton, "in a loud and angry tone, What is your drift, sir?" He +complained of the well-meant advice to Boswell, with a sense that he had +been unjustly treated. It was a scene for a comedy, as Reynolds +observed, to see a penitent get into a passion and belabour his +confessor. + +Through Langton, Johnson became acquainted with the friend whose manner +was in the strongest contrast to his own. Topham Beauclerk was a man of +fashion. He was commended to Johnson by a likeness to Charles II., from +whom he was descended, being the grandson of the first Duke of St. +Alban's. Beauclerk was a man of literary and scientific tastes. He +inherited some of the moral laxity which Johnson chose to pardon in his +ancestor. Some years after his acquaintance with Boswell he married Lady +Diana Spencer, a lady who had been divorced upon his account from her +husband, Lord Bolingbroke. But he took care not to obtrude his faults of +life, whatever they may have been, upon the old moralist, who +entertained for him a peculiar affection. He specially admired +Beauclerk's skill in the use of a more polished, if less vigorous, style +of conversation than his own. He envied the ease with which Beauclerk +brought out his sly incisive retorts. "No man," he said, "ever was so +free when he was going to say a good thing, from a look that expressed +that it was coming; or, when he had said it, from a look that expressed +that it had come." When Beauclerk was dying (in 1780), Johnson said, +with a faltering voice, that he would walk to the extremity of the +diameter of the earth to save him. Two little anecdotes are expressive +of his tender feeling for this incongruous friend. Boswell had asked him +to sup at Beauclerk's. He started, but, on the way, recollecting +himself, said, "I cannot go; but _I do not love Beauclerk the less_." +Beauclerk had put upon a portrait of Johnson the inscription,-- + + Ingenium ingens + Inculto latet hoc sub corpore. + +Langton, who bought the portrait, had the inscription removed. "It was +kind in you to take it off," said Johnson; and, after a short pause, +"not unkind in him to put it on." + +Early in their acquaintance, the two young men, Beau and Lanky, as +Johnson called them, had sat up one night at a tavern till three in the +morning. The courageous thought struck them that they would knock up the +old philosopher. He came to the door of his chambers, poker in hand, +with an old wig for a nightcap. On hearing their errand, the sage +exclaimed, "What! is it you, you dogs? I'll have a frisk with you." And +so Johnson with the two youths, his juniors by about thirty years, +proceeded to make a night of it. They amazed the fruiterers in Covent +Garden; they brewed a bowl of bishop in a tavern, while Johnson quoted +the poet's address to Sleep,-- + + "Short, O short, be then thy reign, + And give us to the world again!" + +They took a boat to Billingsgate, and Johnson, with Beauclerk, kept up +their amusement for the following day, when Langton deserted them to go +to breakfast with some young ladies, and Johnson scolded him for +leaving his friends "to go and sit with a parcel of wretched _unidea'd_ +girls." "I shall have my old friend to bail out of the round-house," +said Garrick when he heard of this queer alliance; and he told Johnson +that he would be in the _Chronicle_ for his frolic. "He _durst_ not do +such a thing. His wife would not let him," was the moralist's retort. + +Some friends, known to fame by other titles than their connexion with +Johnson, had by this time gathered round them. Among them was one, whose +art he was unable to appreciate, but whose fine social qualities and +dignified equability of temper made him a valued and respected +companion. Reynolds had settled in London at the end of 1752. Johnson +met him at the house of Miss Cotterell. Reynolds had specially admired +Johnson's _Life of Savage_, and, on their first meeting, happened to +make a remark which delighted Johnson. The ladies were regretting the +loss of a friend to whom they were under obligations. "You have, +however," said Reynolds, "the comfort of being relieved from a burden of +gratitude." The saying is a little too much like Rochefoucauld, and too +true to be pleasant; but it was one of those keen remarks which Johnson +appreciated because they prick a bubble of commonplace moralizing +without demanding too literal an acceptation. He went home to sup with +Reynolds and became his intimate friend. On another occasion, Johnson +was offended by two ladies of rank at the same house, and by way of +taking down their pride, asked Reynolds in a loud voice, "How much do +you think you and I could get in a week, if we both worked as hard as we +could?" "His appearance," says Sir Joshua's sister, Miss Reynolds, +"might suggest the poor author: as he was not likely in that place to be +a blacksmith or a porter." Poor Miss Reynolds, who tells this story, +was another attraction to Reynolds' house. She was a shy, retiring +maiden lady, who vexed her famous brother by following in his steps +without his talents, and was deeply hurt by his annoyance at the +unintentional mockery. Johnson was through life a kind and judicious +friend to her; and had attracted her on their first meeting by a +significant indication of his character. He said that when going home to +his lodgings at one or two in the morning, he often saw poor children +asleep on thresholds and stalls--the wretched "street Arabs" of the +day--and that he used to put pennies into their hands that they might +buy a breakfast. + +Two friends, who deserve to be placed beside Reynolds, came from Ireland +to seek their fortunes in London. Edmund Burke, incomparably the +greatest writer upon political philosophy in English literature, the +master of a style unrivalled for richness, flexibility, and vigour, was +radically opposed to Johnson on party questions, though his language +upon the French Revolution, after Johnson's death, would have satisfied +even the strongest prejudices of his old friend. But he had qualities +which commended him even to the man who called him a "bottomless Whig," +and who generally spoke of Whigs as rascals, and maintained that the +first Whig was the devil. If his intellect was wider, his heart was as +warm as Johnson's, and in conversation he merited the generous applause +and warm emulation of his friends. Johnson was never tired of praising +the extraordinary readiness and spontaneity of Burke's conversation. "If +a man," he said, "went under a shed at the same time with Burke to avoid +a shower, he would say, 'This is an extraordinary man.' Or if Burke went +into a stable to see his horse dressed, the ostler would say, 'We have +had an extraordinary man here.'" When Burke was first going into +Parliament, Johnson said in answer to Hawkins, who wondered that such a +man should get a seat, "We who know Mr. Burke, know that he will be one +of the first men in the country." Speaking of certain other members of +Parliament, more after the heart of Sir John Hawkins, he said that he +grudged success to a man who made a figure by a knowledge of a few +forms, though his mind was "as narrow as the neck of a vinegar cruet;" +but then he did not grudge Burke's being the first man in the House of +Commons, for he would be the first man everywhere. And Burke equally +admitted Johnson's supremacy in conversation. "It is enough for me," he +said to some one who regretted Johnson's monopoly of the talk on a +particular occasion, "to have rung the bell for him." + +The other Irish adventurer, whose career was more nearly moulded upon +that of Johnson, came to London in 1756, and made Johnson's +acquaintance. Some time afterwards (in or before 1761) Goldsmith, like +Johnson, had tasted the bitterness of an usher's life, and escaped into +the scarcely more tolerable regions of Grub Street. After some years of +trial, he was becoming known to the booksellers as a serviceable hand, +and had two works in his desk destined to lasting celebrity. His +landlady (apparently 1764) one day arrested him for debt. Johnson, +summoned to his assistance, sent him a guinea and speedily followed. The +guinea had already been changed, and Goldsmith was consoling himself +with a bottle of Madeira. Johnson corked the bottle, and a discussion of +ways and means brought out the manuscript of the _Vicar of Wakefield_. +Johnson looked into it, took it to a bookseller, got sixty pounds for +it, and returned to Goldsmith, who paid his rent and administered a +sound rating to his landlady. + +The relation thus indicated is characteristic; Johnson was as a rough +but helpful elder brother to poor Goldsmith, gave him advice, sympathy, +and applause, and at times criticised him pretty sharply, or brought +down his conversational bludgeon upon his sensitive friend. "He has +nothing of the bear but his skin," was Goldsmith's comment upon his +clumsy friend, and the two men appreciated each other at bottom. Some of +their readers may be inclined to resent Johnson's attitude of +superiority. The admirably pure and tender heart, and the exquisite +intellectual refinement implied in the _Vicar_ and the _Traveller_, +force us to love Goldsmith in spite of superficial foibles, and when +Johnson prunes or interpolates lines in the _Traveller_, we feel as +though a woodman's axe was hacking at a most delicate piece of carving. +The evidence of contemporary observers, however, must force impartial +readers to admit that poor Goldsmith's foibles were real, however amply +compensated by rare and admirable qualities. Garrick's assertion, that +he "wrote like an angel but talked like poor Poll," expresses the +unanimous opinion of all who had actually seen him. Undoubtedly some of +the stories of his childlike vanity, his frankly expressed envy, and his +general capacity for blundering, owe something to Boswell's feeling that +he was a rival near the throne, and sometimes poor Goldsmith's humorous +self-assertion may have been taken too seriously by blunt English wits. +One may doubt, for example, whether he was really jealous of a puppet +tossing a pike, and unconscious of his absurdity in saying "Pshaw! I +could do it better myself!" Boswell, however, was too good an observer +to misrepresent at random, and he has, in fact, explained very well the +true meaning of his remarks. Goldsmith was an excitable Irishman of +genius, who tumbled out whatever came uppermost, and revealed the +feelings of the moment with utter want of reserve. His self-controlled +companions wondered, ridiculed, misinterpreted, and made fewer hits as +well as fewer misses. His anxiety to "get in and share," made him, +according to Johnson, an "unsocial" companion. "Goldsmith," he said, +"had not temper enough for the game he played. He staked too much. A man +might always get a fall from his inferior in the chances of talk, and +Goldsmith felt his falls too keenly." He had certainly some trials of +temper in Johnson's company. "Stay, stay," said a German, stopping him +in the full flow of his eloquence, "Toctor Johnson is going to say +something." An Eton Master called Graham, who was supping with the two +doctors, and had got to the pitch of looking at one person, and talking +to another, said, "Doctor, I shall be glad to see _you_ at Eton." "I +shall be glad to wait on you," said Goldsmith. "No," replied Graham, +"'tis not you I mean, Doctor Minor; 'tis Doctor Major there." Poor +Goldsmith said afterwards, "Graham is a fellow to make one commit +suicide." + +Boswell who attributes some of Goldsmith's sayings about Johnson to +envy, said with probable truth that Goldsmith had not more envy than +others, but only spoke of it more freely. Johnson argued that we must be +angry with a man who had so much of an odious quality that he could not +keep it to himself, but let it "boil over." The feeling, at any rate, +was momentary and totally free from malice; and Goldsmith's criticisms +upon Johnson and his idolators seem to have been fair enough. His +objection to Boswell's substituting a monarchy for a republic has +already been mentioned. At another time he checked Boswell's flow of +panegyric by asking, "Is he like Burke, who winds into a subject like a +serpent?" To which Boswell replied with charming irrelevance, "Johnson +is the Hercules who strangled serpents in his cradle." The last of +Goldsmith's hits was suggested by Johnson's shaking his sides with +laughter because Goldsmith admired the skill with which the little +fishes in the fable were made to talk in character. "Why, Dr. Johnson, +this is not so easy as you seem to think," was the retort, "for if you +were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales." + +In spite of sundry little sparrings, Johnson fully appreciated +Goldsmith's genius. Possibly his authority hastened the spread of public +appreciation, as he seemed to claim, whilst repudiating Boswell's too +flattering theory that it had materially raised Goldsmith's position. +When Reynolds quoted the authority of Fox in favour of the _Traveller_, +saying that his friends might suspect that they had been too partial, +Johnson replied very truly that the _Traveller_ was beyond the need of +Fox's praise, and that the partiality of Goldsmith's friends had always +been against him. They would hardly give him a hearing. "Goldsmith," he +added, "was a man who, whatever he wrote, always did it better than any +other man could do." Johnson's settled opinion in fact was that embodied +in the famous epitaph with its "nihil tetigit quod non ornavit," and, +though dedications are perhaps the only literary product more generally +insincere than epitaphs, we may believe that Goldsmith too meant what he +said in the dedication of _She Stoops to Conquer_. "It may do me some +honour to inform the public that I have lived many years in intimacy +with you. It may serve the interests of mankind also to inform them that +the greatest wit may be found in a character, without impairing the most +unaffected piety." + +Though Johnson was thus rich in friendship, two connexions have still +to be noticed which had an exceptional bearing upon his fame and +happiness. In January, 1765, he made the acquaintance of the Thrales. +Mr. Thrale was the proprietor of the brewery which afterwards became +that of Barclay and Perkins. He was married in 1763 to a Miss Hester +Lynch Salisbury, who has become celebrated from her friendship with +Johnson.[1] She was a woman of great vivacity and independence of +character. She had a sensitive and passionate, if not a very tender +nature, and enough literary culture to appreciate Johnson's intellectual +power, and on occasion to play a very respectable part in conversation. +She had far more Latin and English scholarship than fell to the lot of +most ladies of her day, and wit enough to preserve her from degenerating +like some of the "blues," into that most offensive of beings--a feminine +prig. Her marriage had been one of convenience, and her husband's want +of sympathy, and jealousy of any interference in business matters, +forced her, she says, to take to literature as her sole resource. "No +wonder," she adds, "if I loved my books and children." It is, perhaps, +more to be wondered at that her children seem to have had a rather +subordinate place in her affections. The marriage, however, though not +of the happiest, was perfectly decorous. Mrs. Thrale discharged her +domestic duties irreproachably, even when she seems to have had some +real cause of complaint. To the world she eclipsed her husband, a solid +respectable man, whose mind, according to Johnson, struck the hours very +regularly, though it did not mark the minutes. + +[Footnote 1: Mrs. Thrale was born in 1740 or 1741, probably the latter. +Thrale was born in 1724.] + +The Thrales were introduced to Johnson by their common friend, Arthur +Murphy, an actor and dramatist, who afterwards became the editor of +Johnson's works. One day, when calling upon Johnson, they found him in +such a fit of despair that Thrale tried to stop his mouth by placing his +hand before it. The pair then joined in begging Johnson to leave his +solitary abode, and come to them at their country-house at Streatham. He +complied, and for the next sixteen years a room was set apart for him, +both at Streatham and in their house in Southwark. He passed a large +part of his time with them, and derived from the intimacy most of the +comfort of his later years. He treated Mrs. Thrale with a kind of +paternal gallantry, her age at the time of their acquaintance being +about twenty-four, and his fifty-five. He generally called her by the +playful name of "my mistress," addressed little poems to her, gave her +solid advice, and gradually came to confide to her his miseries and +ailments with rather surprising frankness. She flattered and amused him, +and soothed his sufferings and did something towards humanizing his +rugged exterior. There was one little grievance between them which +requires notice. Johnson's pet virtue in private life was a rigid regard +for truth. He spoke, it was said of him, as if he was always on oath. He +would not, for example, allow his servant to use the phrase "not at +home," and even in the heat of conversation resisted the temptation to +give point to an anecdote. The lively Mrs. Thrale rather fretted against +the restraint, and Johnson admonished her in vain. He complained to +Boswell that she was willing to have that said of her, which the best of +mankind had died rather than have said of them. Boswell, the faithful +imitator of his master in this respect, delighted in taking up the +parable. "Now, madam, give me leave to catch you in the fact," he said +on one occasion; "it was not an old woman, but an old man whom I +mentioned, as having told me this," and he recounts his check to the +"lively lady" with intense complacency. As may be imagined, Boswell and +Mrs. Thrale did not love each other, in spite of the well-meant efforts +of the sage to bring about a friendly feeling between his disciples. + +It is time to close this list of friends with the inimitable Boswell. +James Boswell, born in 1740, was the eldest son of a Whig laird and lord +of sessions. He had acquired some English friends at the Scotch +universities, among whom must be mentioned Mr. Temple, an English +clergyman. Boswell's correspondence with Temple, discovered years after +his death by a singular chance, and published in 1857, is, after the +Life of Johnson, one of the most curious exhibitions of character in the +language. Boswell was intended for the Scotch bar, and studied civil law +at Utrecht in the winter of 1762. It was in the following summer that he +made Johnson's acquaintance. + +Perhaps the fundamental quality in Boswell's character was his intense +capacity for enjoyment. He was, as Mr. Carlyle puts it, "gluttonously +fond of whatever would yield him a little solacement, were it only of a +stomachic character." His love of good living and good drink would have +made him a hearty admirer of his countryman, Burns, had Burns been +famous in Boswell's youth. Nobody could have joined with more thorough +abandonment in the chorus to the poet's liveliest songs in praise of +love and wine. He would have made an excellent fourth when "Willie +brewed a peck of malt, and Rab and Allan came to see," and the drinking +contest for the Whistle commemorated in another lyric would have excited +his keenest interest. He was always delighted when he could get Johnson +to discuss the ethics and statistics of drinking. "I am myself," he +says, "a lover of wine, and therefore curious to hear whatever is +remarkable concerning drinking." The remark is _a propos_ to a story of +Dr. Campbell drinking thirteen bottles of port at a sitting. Lest this +should seem incredible, he quotes Johnson's dictum. "Sir, if a man +drinks very slowly and lets one glass evaporate before he takes another, +I know not how long he may drink." Boswell's faculty for making love was +as great as his power of drinking. His letters to Temple record with +amusing frankness the vicissitudes of some of his courtships and the +versatility of his passions. + +Boswell's tastes, however, were by no means limited to sensual or +frivolous enjoyments. His appreciation of the bottle was combined with +an equally hearty sensibility to more intellectual pleasures. He had not +a spark of philosophic or poetic power, but within the ordinary range of +such topics as can be discussed at a dinner-party, he had an abundant +share of liveliness and intelligence. His palate was as keen for good +talk as for good wine. He was an admirable recipient, if not an +originator, of shrewd or humorous remarks upon life and manners. What in +regard to sensual enjoyment was mere gluttony, appeared in higher +matters as an insatiable curiosity. At times this faculty became +intolerable to his neighbours. "I will not be baited with what and why," +said poor Johnson, one day in desperation. "Why is a cow's tail long? +Why is a fox's tail bushy?" "Sir," said Johnson on another occasion, +when Boswell was cross-examining a third person about him in his +presence. "You have but two subjects, yourself and me. I am sick of +both." Boswell, however, was not to be repelled by such a retort as +this, or even by ruder rebuffs. Once when discussing the means of +getting a friend to leave London, Johnson said in revenge for a previous +offence, "Nay, sir, we'll send you to him. If your presence doesn't +drive a man out of his house, nothing will." Boswell was "horribly +shocked," but he still stuck to his victim like a leech, and pried into +the minutest details of his life and manners. He observed with +conscientious accuracy that though Johnson abstained from milk one +fast-day, he did not reject it when put in his cup. He notes the +whistlings and puffings, the trick of saying "too-too-too" of his idol: +and it was a proud day when he won a bet by venturing to ask Johnson +what he did with certain scraped bits of orange-peel. His curiosity was +not satisfied on this occasion; but it would have made him the prince of +interviewers in these days. Nothing delighted him so much as rubbing +shoulders with any famous or notorious person. He scraped acquaintance +with Voltaire, Wesley, Rousseau, and Paoli, as well as with Mrs. Rudd, a +forgotten heroine of the _Newgate Calendar_. He was as eager to talk to +Hume the sceptic, or Wilkes the demagogue, as to the orthodox Tory, +Johnson; and, if repelled, it was from no deficiency in daring. In 1767, +he took advantage of his travels in Corsica to introduce himself to Lord +Chatham, then Prime Minister. The letter moderately ends by asking, +"_Could your lordship find time to honour me now and then with a +letter?_ I have been told how favourably your lordship has spoken of me. +To correspond with a Paoli and with a Chatham is enough to keep a young +man ever ardent in the pursuit of virtuous fame." No other young man of +the day, we may be sure, would have dared to make such a proposal to the +majestic orator. + +His absurd vanity, and the greedy craving for notoriety at any cost, +would have made Boswell the most offensive of mortals, had not his +unfeigned good-humour disarmed enmity. Nobody could help laughing, or be +inclined to take offence at his harmless absurdities. Burke said of him +that he had so much good-humour naturally, that it was scarcely a +virtue. His vanity, in fact, did not generate affectation. Most vain men +are vain of qualities which they do not really possess, or possess in a +lower degree than they fancy. They are always acting a part, and become +touchy from a half-conscious sense of the imposture. But Boswell seems +to have had few such illusions. He thoroughly and unfeignedly enjoyed +his own peculiarities, and thought his real self much too charming an +object to be in need of any disguise. No man, therefore, was ever less +embarrassed by any regard for his own dignity. He was as ready to join +in a laugh at himself as in a laugh at his neighbours. He reveals his +own absurdities to the world at large as frankly as Pepys confided them +to a journal in cypher. He tells us how drunk he got one night in Skye, +and how he cured his headache with brandy next morning; and what an +intolerable fool he made of himself at an evening party in London after +a dinner with the Duke of Montrose, and how Johnson in vain did his best +to keep him quiet. His motive for the concession is partly the wish to +illustrate Johnson's indulgence, and, in the last case, to introduce a +copy of apologetic verses to the lady whose guest he had been. He +reveals other weaknesses with equal frankness. One day, he says, "I +owned to Johnson that I was occasionally troubled with a fit of +narrowness." "Why, sir," said he, "so am I. _But I do not tell it_." +Boswell enjoys the joke far too heartily to act upon the advice. + +There is nothing, however, which Boswell seems to have enjoyed more +heartily than his own good impulses. He looks upon his virtuous +resolution with a sort of aesthetic satisfaction, and with the glow of a +virtuous man contemplating a promising penitent. Whilst suffering +severely from the consequences of imprudent conduct, he gets a letter of +virtuous advice from his friend Temple. He instantly sees himself +reformed for the rest of his days. "My warm imagination," he says, +"looks forward with great complacency on the sobriety, the +healthfulness, and worth of my future life." "Every instance of our +doing those things which we ought not to have done, and leaving undone +those things which we ought to have done, is attended," as he elsewhere +sagely observes, "with more or less of what is truly remorse;" but he +seems rather to have enjoyed even the remorse. It is needless to say +that the complacency was its own reward, and that the resolution +vanished like other more eccentric impulses. Music, he once told +Johnson, affected him intensely, producing in his mind "alternate +sensations of pathetic dejection, so that I was ready to shed tears, and +of daring resolution so that I was inclined to rush into the thickest of +the [purely hypothetical] battle." "Sir," replied Johnson, "I should +never hear it, if it made me such a fool." Elsewhere he expresses a wish +to "fly to the woods," or retire into a desert, a disposition which +Johnson checked by one of his habitual gibes at the quantity of easily +accessible desert in Scotland. Boswell is equally frank in describing +himself in situations more provocative of contempt than even drunkenness +in a drawing-room. He tells us how dreadfully frightened he was by a +storm at sea in the Hebrides, and how one of his companions, "with a +happy readiness," made him lay hold of a rope fastened to the masthead, +and told him to pull it when he was ordered. Boswell was thus kept +quiet in mind and harmless in body. + +This extreme simplicity of character makes poor Boswell loveable in his +way. If he sought notoriety, he did not so far mistake his powers as to +set up for independent notoriety.[1] He was content to shine in +reflected light: and the affectations with which he is charged seem to +have been unconscious imitations of his great idol. Miss Burney traced +some likeness even in his dress. In the later part of the _Life_ we meet +phrases in which Boswell is evidently aping the true Johnsonian style. +So, for example, when somebody distinguishes between "moral" and +"physical necessity;" Boswell exclaims, "Alas, sir, they come both to +the same thing. You may be as hard bound by chains when covered by +leather, as when the iron appears." But he specially emulates the +profound melancholy of his hero. He seems to have taken pride in his +sufferings from hypochondria; though, in truth, his melancholy diverges +from Johnson's by as great a difference as that which divides any two +varieties in Jaques's classification. Boswell's was the melancholy of a +man who spends too much, drinks too much, falls in love too often, and +is forced to live in the country in dependence upon a stern old parent, +when he is longing for a jovial life in London taverns. Still he was +excusably vexed when Johnson refused to believe in the reality of his +complaints, and showed scant sympathy to his noisy would-be +fellow-sufferer. Some of Boswell's freaks were, in fact, very trying. +Once he gave up writing letters for a long time, to see whether Johnson +would be induced to write first. Johnson became anxious, though he +half-guessed the truth, and in reference to Boswell's confession gave +his disciple a piece of his mind. "Remember that all tricks are either +knavish or childish, and that it is as foolish to make experiments upon +the constancy of a friend as upon the chastity of a wife." + +[Footnote 1: The story is often told how Boswell appeared at the +Stratford Jubilee with "Corsica Boswell" in large letters on his hat. +The account given apparently by himself is sufficiently amusing, but the +statement is not quite fair. Boswell not unnaturally appeared at a +masquerade in the dress of a Corsican chief, and the inscription on his +hat seems to have been "Viva la Liberta."] + +In other ways Boswell was more successful in aping his friend's +peculiarities. When in company with Johnson, he became delightfully +pious. "My dear sir," he exclaimed once with unrestrained fervour, "I +would fain be a good man, and I am very good now. I fear God and honour +the king; I wish to do no ill and to be benevolent to all mankind." +Boswell hopes, "for the felicity of human nature," that many experience +this mood; though Johnson judiciously suggested that he should not trust +too much to impressions. In some matters Boswell showed a touch of +independence by outvying the Johnsonian prejudices. He was a warm +admirer of feudal principles, and especially held to the propriety of +entailing property upon heirs male. Johnson had great difficulty in +persuading him to yield to his father's wishes, in a settlement of the +estate which contravened this theory. But Boswell takes care to declare +that his opinion was not shaken. "Yet let me not be thought," he adds, +"harsh or unkind to daughters; for my notion is that they should be +treated with great affection and tenderness, and always participate of +the prosperity of the family." His estimate of female rights is +indicated in another phrase. When Mrs. Knowles, the Quaker, expressed a +hope that the sexes would be equal in another world, Boswell replied, +"That is too ambitious, madam. _We_ might as well desire to be equal +with the angels." Boswell, again, differed from Johnson--who, in spite +of his love of authority, had a righteous hatred for all recognized +tyranny--by advocating the slave-trade. To abolish that trade would, he +says, be robbery of the masters and cruelty to the African savages. Nay, +he declares, to abolish it would be + +To shut the gates of mercy on mankind! + +Boswell was, according to Johnson, "the best travelling companion in the +world." In fact, for such purposes, unfailing good-humour and readiness +to make talk at all hazards are high recommendations. "If, sir, you were +shut up in a castle and a new-born baby with you, what would you do?" is +one of his questions to Johnson,--_a propos_ of nothing. That is +exquisitely ludicrous, no doubt; but a man capable of preferring such a +remark to silence helps at any rate to keep the ball rolling. A more +objectionable trick was his habit not only of asking preposterous or +indiscreet questions, but of setting people by the ears out of sheer +curiosity. The appearance of so queer a satellite excited astonishment +among Johnson's friends. "Who is this Scotch cur at Johnson's heels?" +asked some one. "He is not a cur," replied Goldsmith; "he is only a bur. +Tom Davies flung him at Johnson in sport, and he has the faculty of +sticking." The bur stuck till the end of Johnson's life. Boswell visited +London whenever he could, and soon began taking careful notes of +Johnson's talk. His appearance, when engaged in this task long +afterwards, is described by Miss Burney. Boswell, she says, concentrated +his whole attention upon his idol, not even answering questions from +others. When Johnson spoke, his eyes goggled with eagerness; he leant +his ear almost on the Doctor's shoulder; his mouth dropped open to +catch every syllable; and he seemed to listen even to Johnson's +breathings as though they had some mystical significance. He took every +opportunity of edging himself close to Johnson's side even at +meal-times, and was sometimes ordered imperiously back to his place like +a faithful but over-obtrusive spaniel. + +It is hardly surprising that Johnson should have been touched by the +fidelity of this queer follower. Boswell, modestly enough, attributes +Johnson's easy welcome to his interest in all manifestations of the +human mind, and his pleasure in an undisguised display of its workings. +The last pleasure was certainly to be obtained in Boswell's society. But +in fact Boswell, though his qualities were too much those of the +ordinary "good fellow," was not without virtues, and still less without +remarkable talents. He was, to all appearance, a man of really generous +sympathies, and capable of appreciating proofs of a warm heart and a +vigorous understanding. Foolish, vain, and absurd in every way, he was +yet a far kindlier and more genuine man than many who laughed at him. +His singular gifts as an observer could only escape notice from a +careless or inexperienced reader. Boswell has a little of the true +Shaksperian secret. He lets his characters show themselves without +obtruding unnecessary comment. He never misses the point of a story, +though he does not ostentatiously call our attention to it. He gives +just what is wanted to indicate character, or to explain the full +meaning of a repartee. It is not till we compare his reports with those +of less skilful hearers, that we can appreciate the skill with which the +essence of a conversation is extracted, and the whole scene indicated by +a few telling touches. We are tempted to fancy that we have heard the +very thing, and rashly infer that Boswell was simply the mechanical +transmitter of the good things uttered. Any one who will try to put +down the pith of a brilliant conversation within the same space, may +soon satisfy himself of the absurdity of such an hypothesis, and will +learn to appreciate Boswell's powers not only of memory but artistic +representation. Such a feat implies not only admirable quickness of +appreciation, but a rare literary faculty. Boswell's accuracy is +remarkable; but it is the least part of his merit. + +The book which so faithfully reflects the peculiarities of its hero and +its author became the first specimen of a new literary type. Johnson +himself was a master in one kind of biography; that which sets forth a +condensed and vigorous statement of the essentials of a man's life and +character. Other biographers had given excellent memoirs of men +considered in relation to the chief historical currents of the time. But +a full-length portrait of a man's domestic life with enough picturesque +detail to enable us to see him through the eyes of private friendship +did not exist in the language. Boswell's originality and merit may be +tested by comparing his book to the ponderous performance of Sir John +Hawkins, or to the dreary dissertations, falsely called lives, of which +Dugald Stewart's _Life of Robertson_ may be taken for a type. The writer +is so anxious to be dignified and philosophical that the despairing +reader seeks in vain for a single vivid touch, and discovers even the +main facts of the hero's life by some indirect allusion. Boswell's +example has been more or less followed by innumerable successors; and we +owe it in some degree to his example that we have such delightful books +as Lockhart's _Life of Scott_ or Mr. Trevelyan's _Life of Macaulay_. Yet +no later biographer has been quite as fortunate in a subject; and +Boswell remains as not only the first, but the best of his class. + +One special merit implies something like genius. Macaulay has given to +the usual complaint which distorts the vision of most biographers the +name of _lues Boswelliana_. It is true that Boswell's adoration of his +hero is a typical example of the feeling. But that which distinguishes +Boswell, and renders the phrase unjust, is that in him adoration never +hindered accuracy of portraiture. "I will not make my tiger a cat to +please anybody," was his answer to well-meaning entreaties of Hannah +More to soften his accounts of Johnson's asperities. He saw +instinctively that a man who is worth anything loses far more than he +gains by such posthumous flattery. The whole picture is toned down, and +the lights are depressed as well as the shadows. The truth is that it is +unscientific to consider a man as a bundle of separate good and bad +qualities, of which one half may be concealed without injury to the +rest. Johnson's fits of bad temper, like Goldsmith's blundering, must be +unsparingly revealed by a biographer, because they are in fact +expressions of the whole character. It is necessary to take them into +account in order really to understand either the merits or the +shortcomings. When they are softened or omitted, the whole story becomes +an enigma, and we are often tempted to substitute some less creditable +explanation of errors for the true one. We should not do justice to +Johnson's intense tenderness, if we did not see how often it was masked +by an irritability pardonable in itself, and not affecting the deeper +springs of action. To bring out the beauty of a character by means of +its external oddities is the triumph of a kindly humourist; and Boswell +would have acted as absurdly in suppressing Johnson's weaknesses, as +Sterne would have done had he made Uncle Toby a perfectly sound and +rational person. But to see this required an insight so rare that it is +wanting in nearly all the biographers who have followed Boswell's +steps, and is the most conclusive proof that Boswell was a man of a +higher intellectual capacity than has been generally admitted. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +JOHNSON AS A LITERARY DICTATOR. + + +We have now reached the point at which Johnson's life becomes distinctly +visible through the eyes of a competent observer. The last twenty years +are those which are really familiar to us; and little remains but to +give some brief selection of Boswell's anecdotes. The task, however, is +a difficult one. It is easy enough to make a selection of the gems of +Boswell's narrative; but it is also inevitable that, taken from their +setting, they should lose the greatest part of their brilliance. We lose +all the quaint semiconscious touches of character which make the +original so fascinating; and Boswell's absurdities become less amusing +when we are able to forget for an instant that the perpetrator is also +the narrator. The effort, however, must be made; and it will be best to +premise a brief statement of the external conditions of the life. + +From the time of the pension until his death, Johnson was elevated above +the fear of poverty. He had a pleasant refuge at the Thrales', where +much of his time was spent; and many friends gathered round him and +regarded his utterances with even excessive admiration. He had still +frequent periods of profound depression. His diaries reveal an inner +life tormented by gloomy forebodings, by remorse for past indolence and +futile resolutions of amendment; but he could always escape from himself +to a society of friends and admirers. His abandonment of wine seems to +have improved his health and diminished the intensity of his melancholy +fits. His literary activity, however, nearly ceased. He wrote a few +political pamphlets in defence of Government, and after a long period of +indolence managed to complete his last conspicuous work--the _Lives of +the Poets_, which was published in 1779 and 1781. One other book of some +interest appeared in 1775. It was an account of the journey made with +Boswell to the Hebrides in 1773. This journey was in fact the chief +interruption to the even tenour of his life. He made a tour to Wales +with the Thrales in 1774; and spent a month with them in Paris in 1775. +For the rest of the period he lived chiefly in London or at Streatham, +making occasional trips to Lichfield and Oxford, or paying visits to +Taylor, Langton, and one or two other friends. It was, however, in the +London which he loved so ardently ("a man," he said once, "who is tired +of London is tired of life"), that he was chiefly conspicuous. There he +talked and drank tea illimitably at his friends' houses, or argued and +laid down the law to his disciples collected in a tavern instead of +Academic groves. Especially he was in all his glory at the Club, which +began its meetings in February, 1764, and was afterwards known as the +Literary Club. This Club was founded by Sir Joshua Reynolds, "our +Romulus," as Johnson called him. The original members were Reynolds, +Johnson, Burke, Nugent, Beauclerk, Langton, Goldsmith, Chamier, and +Hawkins. They met weekly at the Turk's Head, in Gerard Street, Soho, at +seven o'clock, and the talk generally continued till a late hour. The +Club was afterwards increased in numbers, and the weekly supper changed +to a fortnightly dinner. It continued to thrive, and election to it came +to be as great an honour in certain circles as election to a membership +of Parliament. Among the members elected in Johnson's lifetime were +Percy of the _Reliques_, Garrick, Sir W. Jones, Boswell, Fox, Steevens, +Gibbon, Adam Smith, the Wartons, Sheridan, Dunning, Sir Joseph Banks, +Windham, Lord Stowell, Malone, and Dr. Burney. What was best in the +conversation at the time was doubtless to be found at its meetings. + +Johnson's habitual mode of life is described by Dr. Maxwell, one of +Boswell's friends, who made his acquaintance in 1754. Maxwell generally +called upon him about twelve, and found him in bed or declaiming over +his tea. A levee, chiefly of literary men, surrounded him; and he seemed +to be regarded as a kind of oracle to whom every one might resort for +advice or instruction. After talking all the morning, he dined at a +tavern, staying late and then going to some friend's house for tea, over +which he again loitered for a long time. Maxwell is puzzled to know when +he could have read or written. The answer seems to be pretty obvious; +namely, that after the publication of the _Dictionary_ he wrote very +little, and that, when he did write, it was generally in a brief spasm +of feverish energy. One may understand that Johnson should have +frequently reproached himself for his indolence; though he seems to have +occasionally comforted himself by thinking that he could do good by +talking as well as by writing. He said that a man should have a part of +his life to himself; and compared himself to a physician retired to a +small town from practice in a great city. Boswell, in spite of this, +said that he still wondered that Johnson had not more pleasure in +writing than in not writing. "Sir," replied the oracle, "you _may_ +wonder." + +I will now endeavour, with Boswell's guidance, to describe a few of the +characteristic scenes which can be fully enjoyed in his pages alone. +The first must be the introduction of Boswell to the sage. Boswell had +come to London eager for the acquaintance of literary magnates. He +already knew Goldsmith, who had inflamed his desire for an introduction +to Johnson. Once when Boswell spoke of Levett, one of Johnson's +dependents, Goldsmith had said, "he is poor and honest, which is +recommendation enough to Johnson." Another time, when Boswell had +wondered at Johnson's kindness to a man of bad character, Goldsmith had +replied, "He is now become miserable, and that insures the protection of +Johnson." Boswell had hoped for an introduction through the elder +Sheridan; but Sheridan never forgot the contemptuous phrase in which +Johnson had referred to his fellow-pensioner. Possibly Sheridan had +heard of one other Johnsonian remark. "Why, sir," he had said, "Sherry +is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of +pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, sir, +is not in Nature." At another time he said, "Sheridan cannot bear me; I +bring his declamation to a point." "What influence can Mr. Sheridan have +upon the language of this great country by his narrow exertions? Sir, it +is burning a farthing candle at Dover to show light at Calais." Boswell, +however, was acquainted with Davies, an actor turned bookseller, now +chiefly remembered by a line in Churchill's _Rosciad_ which is said to +have driven him from the stage-- + + He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone. + +Boswell was drinking tea with Davies and his wife in their back parlour +when Johnson came into the shop. Davies, seeing him through the +glass-door, announced his approach to Boswell in the spirit of Horatio +addressing Hamlet: "Look, my Lord, it comes!" Davies introduced the +young Scotchman, who remembered Johnson's proverbial prejudices. "Don't +tell him where I come from!" cried Boswell. "From Scotland," said Davies +roguishly. "Mr. Johnson," said Boswell, "I do indeed come from Scotland; +but I cannot help it!" "That, sir," was the first of Johnson's many +retorts to his worshipper, "is what a great many of your countrymen +cannot help." + +Poor Boswell was stunned; but he recovered when Johnson observed to +Davies, "What do you think of Garrick? He has refused me an order for +the play for Miss Williams because he knows the house will be full, and +that an order would be worth three shillings." "O, sir," intruded the +unlucky Boswell, "I cannot think Mr. Garrick would grudge such a trifle +to you." "Sir," replied Johnson sternly, "I have known David Garrick +longer than you have done, and I know no right you have to talk to me on +the subject." The second blow might have crushed a less intrepid +curiosity. Boswell, though silenced, gradually recovered sufficiently to +listen, and afterwards to note down parts of the conversation. As the +interview went on, he even ventured to make a remark or two, which were +very civilly received; Davies consoled him at his departure by assuring +him that the great man liked him very well. "I cannot conceive a more +humiliating position," said Beauclerk on another occasion, "than to be +clapped on the back by Tom Davies." For the present, however, even Tom +Davies was a welcome encourager to one who, for the rest, was not easily +rebuffed. A few days afterwards Boswell ventured a call, was kindly +received and detained for some time by "the giant in his den." He was +still a little afraid of the said giant, who had shortly before +administered a vigorous retort to his countryman Blair. Blair had asked +Johnson whether he thought that any man of a modern age could have +written _Ossian_. "Yes, sir," replied Johnson, "many men, many women, +and many children." Boswell, however, got on very well, and before long +had the high honour of drinking a bottle of port with Johnson at the +Mitre, and receiving, after a little autobiographical sketch, the +emphatic approval, "Give me your hand, I have taken a liking to you." + +In a very short time Boswell was on sufficiently easy terms with +Johnson, not merely to frequent his levees but to ask him to dinner at +the Mitre. He gathered up, though without the skill of his later +performances, some fragments of the conversational feast. The great man +aimed another blow or two at Scotch prejudices. To an unlucky compatriot +of Boswell's, who claimed for his country a great many "noble wild +prospects," Johnson replied, "I believe, sir, you have a great many, +Norway, too, has noble wild prospects; and Lapland is remarkable for +prodigious noble wild prospects. But, sir, let me tell you the noblest +prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to +England." Though Boswell makes a slight remonstrance about the "rude +grandeur of Nature" as seen in "Caledonia," he sympathized in this with +his teacher. Johnson said afterwards, that he never knew any one with +"such a gust for London." Before long he was trying Boswell's tastes by +asking him in Greenwich Park, "Is not this very fine?" "Yes, sir," +replied the promising disciple, "but not equal to Fleet Street." "You +are right, sir," said the sage; and Boswell illustrates his dictum by +the authority of a "very fashionable baronet," and, moreover, a baronet +from Rydal, who declared that the fragrance of a May evening in the +country might be very well, but that he preferred the smell of a +flambeau at the playhouse. In more serious moods Johnson delighted his +new disciple by discussions upon theological, social, and literary +topics. He argued with an unfortunate friend of Boswell's, whose mind, +it appears, had been poisoned by Hume, and who was, moreover, rash +enough to undertake the defence of principles of political equality. +Johnson's view of all propagators of new opinions was tolerably simple. +"Hume, and other sceptical innovators," he said, "are vain men, and will +gratify themselves at any expense. Truth will not afford sufficient food +to their vanity; so they have betaken themselves to error. Truth, sir, +is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone +to milk the bull." On another occasion poor Boswell, not yet acquainted +with the master's prejudices, quoted with hearty laughter a "very +strange" story which Hume had told him of Johnson. According to Hume, +Johnson had said that he would stand before a battery of cannon to +restore Convocation to its full powers. "And would I not, sir?" +thundered out the sage with flashing eyes and threatening gestures. +Boswell judiciously bowed to the storm, and diverted Johnson's +attention. Another manifestation of orthodox prejudice was less +terrible. Boswell told Johnson that he had heard a Quaker woman preach. +"A woman's preaching," said Johnson, "is like a dog's walking on his +hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at +all." + +So friendly had the pair become, that when Boswell left England to +continue his studies at Utrecht, Johnson accompanied him in the +stage-coach to Harwich, amusing him on the way by his frankness of +address to fellow-passengers, and by the voracity of his appetite. He +gave him some excellent advice, remarking of a moth which fluttered +into a candle, "that creature was its own tormentor, and I believe its +name was Boswell." He refuted Berkeley by striking his foot with mighty +force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it. As the ship put +out to sea Boswell watched him from the deck, whilst he remained +"rolling his majestic frame in his usual manner." And so the friendship +was cemented, though Boswell disappeared for a time from the scene, +travelled on the Continent, and visited Paoli in Corsica. A friendly +letter or two kept up the connexion till Boswell returned in 1766, with +his head full of Corsica and a projected book of travels. + +In the next year, 1767, occurred an incident upon which Boswell dwells +with extreme complacency. Johnson was in the habit of sometimes reading +in the King's Library, and it came into the head of his majesty that he +should like to see the uncouth monster upon whom he had bestowed a +pension. In spite of his semi-humorous Jacobitism, there was probably +not a more loyal subject in his majesty's dominions. Loyalty is a word +too often used to designate a sentiment worthy only of valets, +advertising tradesmen, and writers of claptrap articles. But it deserves +all respect when it reposes, as in Johnson's case, upon a profound +conviction of the value of political subordination, and an acceptance of +the king as the authorized representative of a great principle. There +was no touch of servility in Johnson's respect for his sovereign, a +respect fully reconcilable with a sense of his own personal dignity. +Johnson spoke of his interview with an unfeigned satisfaction, which it +would be difficult in these days to preserve from the taint of +snobbishness. He described it frequently to his friends, and Boswell +with pious care ascertained the details from Johnson himself, and from +various secondary sources. He contrived afterwards to get his minute +submitted to the King himself, who graciously authorized its +publication. When he was preparing his biography, he published this +account with the letter to Chesterfield in a small pamphlet sold at a +prohibitory price, in order to secure the copyright. + +"I find," said Johnson afterwards, "that it does a man good to be talked +to by his sovereign. In the first place a man cannot be in a passion." +What other advantages he perceived must be unknown, for here the oracle +was interrupted. But whatever the advantages, it could hardly be +reckoned amongst them, that there would be room for the hearty cut and +thrust retorts which enlivened his ordinary talk. To us accordingly the +conversation is chiefly interesting as illustrating what Johnson meant +by his politeness. He found that the King wanted him to talk, and he +talked accordingly. He spoke in a "firm manly manner, with a sonorous +voice," and not in the subdued tone customary at formal receptions. He +dilated upon various literary topics, on the libraries of Oxford and +Cambridge, on some contemporary controversies, on the quack Dr. Hill, +and upon the reviews of the day. All that is worth repeating is a +complimentary passage which shows Johnson's possession of that courtesy +which rests upon sense and self-respect. The King asked whether he was +writing anything, and Johnson excused himself by saying that he had told +the world what he knew for the present, and had "done his part as a +writer." "I should have thought so too," said the King, "if you had not +written so well." "No man," said Johnson, "could have paid a higher +compliment; and it was fit for a King to pay--it was decisive." When +asked if he had replied, he said, "No, sir. When the King had said it, +it was to be. It was not for me to bandy civilities with my sovereign." +Johnson was not the less delighted. "Sir," he said to the librarian, +"they may talk of the King as they will, but he is the finest gentleman +I have ever seen." And he afterwards compared his manners to those of +Louis XIV., and his favourite, Charles II. Goldsmith, says Boswell, was +silent during the narrative, because (so his kind friend supposed) he +was jealous of the honour paid to the dictator. But his natural +simplicity prevailed. He ran to Johnson, and exclaimed in 'a kind of +flutter,' "Well, you acquitted yourself in this conversation better than +I should have done, for I should have bowed and stammered through the +whole of it." + +The years 1768 and 1769 were a period of great excitement for Boswell. +He was carrying on various love affairs, which ended with his marriage +in the end of 1769. He was publishing his book upon Corsica and paying +homage to Paoli, who arrived in England in the autumn of the same year. +The book appeared in the beginning of 1768, and he begs his friend +Temple to report all that is said about it, but with the restriction +that he is to conceal _all censure_. He particularly wanted Gray's +opinion, as Gray was a friend of Temple's. Gray's opinion, not conveyed +to Boswell, was expressed by his calling it "a dialogue between a green +goose and a hero." Boswell, who was cultivating the society of various +eminent people, exclaims triumphantly in a letter to Temple (April 26, +1768), "I am really the great man now." Johnson and Hume had called upon +him on the same day, and Garrick, Franklin, and Oglethorpe also partook +of his "admirable dinners and good claret." "This," he says, with the +sense that he deserved his honours, "is enjoying the fruit of my +labours, and appearing like the friend of Paoli." Johnson in vain +expressed a wish that he would "empty his head of Corsica, which had +filled it too long." "Empty my head of Corsica! Empty it of honour, +empty it of friendship, empty it of piety!" exclaims the ardent youth. +The next year accordingly saw Boswell's appearance at the Stratford +Jubilee, where he paraded to the admiration of all beholders in a +costume described by himself (apparently) in a glowing article in the +_London Magazine_. "Is it wrong, sir," he took speedy opportunity of +inquiring from the oracle, "to affect singularity in order to make +people stare?" "Yes," replied Johnson, "if you do it by propagating +error, and indeed it is wrong in any way. There is in human nature a +general inclination to make people stare, and every wise man has himself +to cure of it, and does cure himself. If you wish to make people stare +by doing better than others, why make them stare till they stare their +eyes out. But consider how easy it is to make people stare by being +absurd"--a proposition which he proceeds to illustrate by examples +perhaps less telling than Boswell's recent performance. + +The sage was less communicative on the question of marriage, though +Boswell had anticipated some "instructive conversation" upon that topic. +His sole remark was one from which Boswell "humbly differed." Johnson +maintained that a wife was not the worse for being learned. Boswell, on +the other hand, defined the proper degree of intelligence to be desired +in a female companion by some verses in which Sir Thomas Overbury says +that a wife should have some knowledge, and be "by nature wise, not +learned much by art." Johnson said afterwards that Mrs. Boswell was in a +proper degree inferior to her husband. So far as we can tell, she seems +to have been a really sensible, and good woman, who kept her husband's +absurdities in check, and was, in her way, a better wife than he +deserved. So, happily, are most wives. + +Johnson and Boswell had several meetings in 1769. Boswell had the honour +of introducing the two objects of his idolatry, Johnson and Paoli, and +on another occasion entertained a party including Goldsmith and Garrick +and Reynolds, at his lodgings in Old Bond Street. We can still see the +meeting more distinctly than many that have been swallowed by a few days +of oblivion. They waited for one of the party, Johnson kindly +maintaining that six ought to be kept waiting for one, if the one would +suffer more by the others sitting down than the six by waiting. +Meanwhile Garrick "played round Johnson with a fond vivacity, taking +hold of the breasts of his coat, looking up in his face with a lively +archness," and complimenting him on his good health. Goldsmith strutted +about bragging of his dress, of which Boswell, in the serene +consciousness of superiority to such weakness, thought him seriously +vain. "Let me tell you," said Goldsmith, "when my tailor brought home my +bloom-coloured coat, he said, 'Sir, I have a favour to beg of you; when +anybody asks you who made your clothes, be pleased to mention John +Filby, at the Harrow, Water Lane.'" "Why, sir," said Johnson, "that was +because he knew that the strange colour would attract crowds to gaze at +it, and thus they might hear of him, and see how well he could make a +coat even of so absurd a colour." Mr. Filby has gone the way of all +tailors and bloom-coloured coats, but some of his bills are preserved. +On the day of this dinner he had delivered to Goldsmith a half-dress +suit of ratteen lined with satin, costing twelve guineas, a pair of silk +stocking-breeches for L2 5_s_. and a pair of bloom-coloured ditto for L1 +4_s_. 6_d_. The bill, including other items, was paid, it is +satisfactory to add, in February, 1771. + +The conversation was chiefly literary. Johnson repeated the concluding +lines of the _Dunciad_; upon which some one (probably Boswell) ventured +to say that they were "too fine for such a poem--a poem on what?" "Why," +said Johnson, "on dunces! It was worth while being a dunce then. Ah, +sir, hadst _thou_ lived in those days!" Johnson previously uttered a +criticism which has led some people to think that he had a touch of the +dunce in him. He declared that a description of a temple in Congreve's +_Mourning Bride_ was the finest he knew--finer than anything in +Shakspeare. Garrick vainly protested; but Johnson was inexorable. He +compared Congreve to a man who had only ten guineas in the world, but +all in one coin; whereas Shakspeare might have ten thousand separate +guineas. The principle of the criticism is rather curious. "What I mean +is," said Johnson, "that you can show me no passage where there is +simply a description of material objects, without any admixture of moral +notions, which produces such an effect." The description of the night +before Agincourt was rejected because there were men in it; and the +description of Dover Cliff because the boats and the crows "impede yon +fall." They do "not impress your mind at once with the horrible idea of +immense height. The impression is divided; you pass on by computation +from one stage of the tremendous space to another." + +Probably most people will think that the passage in question deserves a +very slight fraction of the praise bestowed upon it; but the criticism, +like most of Johnson's, has a meaning which might be worth examining +abstractedly from the special application which shocks the idolaters of +Shakspeare. Presently the party discussed Mrs. Montagu, whose Essay upon +Shakspeare had made some noise. Johnson had a respect for her, caused in +great measure by a sense of her liberality to his friend Miss Williams, +of whom more must be said hereafter. He paid her some tremendous +compliments, observing that some China plates which had belonged to +Queen Elizabeth and to her, had no reason to be ashamed of a possessor +so little inferior to the first. But he had his usual professional +contempt for her amateur performances in literature. Her defence of +Shakspeare against Voltaire did her honour, he admitted, but it would do +nobody else honour. "No, sir, there is no real criticism in it: none +showing the beauty of thought, as formed on the workings of the human +heart." Mrs. Montagu was reported once to have complimented a modern +tragedian, probably Jephson, by saying, "I tremble for Shakspeare." +"When Shakspeare," said Johnson, "has got Jephson for his rival and Mrs. +Montagu for his defender, he is in a poor state indeed." The +conversation went on to a recently published book, _Kames's Elements of +Criticism_, which Johnson praised, whilst Goldsmith said more truly, "It +is easier to write that book than to read it." Johnson went on to speak +of other critics. "There is no great merit," he said, "in telling how +many plays have ghosts in them, and how this ghost is better than that. +You must show how terror is impressed on the human heart. In the +description of night in _Macbeth_ the beetle and the bat detract from +the general idea of darkness--inspissated gloom." + +After Boswell's marriage he disappeared for some time from London, and +his correspondence with Johnson dropped, as he says, without coldness, +from pure procrastination. He did not return to London till 1772. In the +spring of that and the following year he renewed his old habits of +intimacy, and inquired into Johnson's opinion upon various subjects +ranging from ghosts to literary criticism. The height to which he had +risen in the doctor's good opinion was marked by several symptoms. He +was asked to dine at Johnson's house upon Easter day, 1773; and observes +that his curiosity was as much gratified as by a previous dinner with +Rousseau in the "wilds of Neufchatel." He was now able to report, to the +amazement of many inquirers, that Johnson's establishment was quite +orderly. The meal consisted of very good soup, a boiled leg of lamb with +spinach, a veal pie, and a rice pudding. A stronger testimony of +good-will was his election, by Johnson's influence, into the Club. It +ought apparently to be said that Johnson forced him upon the Club by +letting it be understood that, till Boswell was admitted, no other +candidate would have a chance. Boswell, however, was, as his proposer +said, a thoroughly "clubable" man, and once a member, his good humour +secured his popularity. On the important evening Boswell dined at +Beauclerk's with his proposer and some other members. The talk turned +upon Goldsmith's merits; and Johnson not only defended his poetry, but +preferred him as a historian to Robertson. Such a judgment could be +explained in Boswell's opinion by nothing but Johnson's dislike to the +Scotch. Once before, when Boswell had mentioned Robertson in order to +meet Johnson's condemnation of Scotch literature in general, Johnson had +evaded him; "Sir, I love Robertson, and I won't talk of his book." On +the present occasion he said that he would give to Robertson the advice +offered by an old college tutor to a pupil; "read over your +compositions, and whenever you meet with a passage which you think +particularly fine, strike it out." A good anecdote of Goldsmith +followed. Johnson had said to him once in the Poet's Corner at +Westminster,-- + + Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis. + +When they got to Temple Bar Goldsmith pointed to the heads of the +Jacobites upon it and slily suggested,-- + + Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur _istis_. + +Johnson next pronounced a critical judgment which should be set against +many sins of that kind. He praised the _Pilgrim's Progress_ very warmly, +and suggested that Bunyan had probably read Spenser. + +After more talk the gentlemen went to the Club; and poor Boswell +remained trembling with an anxiety which even the claims of Lady Di +Beauclerk's conversation could not dissipate. The welcome news of his +election was brought; and Boswell went to see Burke for the first time, +and to receive a humorous charge from Johnson, pointing out the conduct +expected from him as a good member. Perhaps some hints were given as to +betrayal of confidence. Boswell seems at any rate to have had a certain +reserve in repeating Club talk. + +This intimacy with Johnson was about to receive a more public and even +more impressive stamp. The antipathy to Scotland and the Scotch already +noticed was one of Johnson's most notorious crotchets. The origin of the +prejudice was forgotten by Johnson himself, though he was willing to +accept a theory started by old Sheridan that it was resentment for the +betrayal of Charles I. There is, however, nothing surprising in +Johnson's partaking a prejudice common enough from the days of his +youth, when each people supposed itself to have been cheated by the +Union, and Englishmen resented the advent of swarms of needy +adventurers, talking with a strange accent and hanging together with +honourable but vexatious persistence. Johnson was irritated by what was, +after all, a natural defence against English prejudice. He declared that +the Scotch were always ready to lie on each other's behalf. "The Irish," +he said, "are not in a conspiracy to cheat the world by false +representations of the merits of their countrymen. No, sir, the Irish +are a fair people; they never speak well of one another." There was +another difference. He always expressed a generous resentment against +the tyranny exercised by English rulers over the Irish people. To some +one who defended the restriction of Irish trade for the good of English +merchants, he said, "Sir, you talk the language of a savage. What! sir, +would you prevent any people from feeding themselves, if by any honest +means they can do it?" It was "better to hang or drown people at once," +than weaken them by unrelenting persecution. He felt some tenderness for +Catholics, especially when oppressed, and a hearty antipathy towards +prosperous Presbyterians. The Lowland Scotch were typified by John Knox, +in regard to whom he expressed a hope, after viewing the ruins of St. +Andrew's, that he was buried "in the highway." + +This sturdy British and High Church prejudice did not prevent the worthy +doctor from having many warm friendships with Scotchmen, and helping +many distressed Scotchmen in London. Most of the amanuenses employed for +his _Dictionary_ were Scotch. But he nourished the prejudice the more as +giving an excellent pretext for many keen gibes. "Scotch learning," he +said, for example, "is like bread in a besieged town. Every man gets a +mouthful, but no man a bellyful." Once Strahan said in answer to some +abusive remarks, "Well, sir, God made Scotland." "Certainly," replied +Johnson, "but we must always remember that He made it for Scotchmen; and +comparisons are odious, Mr. Strahan, but God made hell." + +Boswell, therefore, had reason to feel both triumph and alarm when he +induced the great man to accompany him in a Scotch tour. Boswell's +journal of the tour appeared soon after Johnson's death. Johnson himself +wrote an account of it, which is not without interest, though it is in +his dignified style, which does not condescend to Boswellian touches of +character. In 1773 the Scotch Highlands were still a little known +region, justifying a book descriptive of manners and customs, and +touching upon antiquities now the commonplaces of innumerable guide +books. Scott was still an infant, and the day of enthusiasm, real or +affected, for mountain scenery had not yet dawned. Neither of the +travellers, as Boswell remarks, cared much for "rural beauties." Johnson +says quaintly on the shores of Loch Ness, "It will very readily occur +that this uniformity of barrenness can afford very little amusement to +the traveller; that it is easy to sit at home and conceive rocks and +heath and waterfalls; and that these journeys are useless labours, which +neither impregnate the imagination nor enlarge the understanding." And +though he shortly afterwards sits down on a bank "such as a writer of +romance might have delighted to feign," and there conceived the thought +of his book, he does not seem to have felt much enthusiasm. He checked +Boswell for describing a hill as "immense," and told him that it was +only a "considerable protuberance." Indeed it is not surprising if he +sometimes grew weary in long rides upon Highland ponies, or if, when +weatherbound in a remote village in Skye, he declared that this was a +"waste of life." + +On the whole, however, Johnson bore his fatigues well, preserved his +temper, and made sensible remarks upon men and things. The pair started +from Edinburgh in the middle of August, 1773; they went north along the +eastern coast, through St. Andrew's, Aberdeen, Banff, Fort George, and +Inverness. There they took to horses, rode to Glenelg, and took boat for +Skye, where they landed on the 2nd of September. They visited Rothsay, +Col, Mull, and Iona, and after some dangerous sailing got to the +mainland at Oban on October 2nd. Thence they proceeded by Inverary and +Loch Lomond to Glasgow; and after paying a visit to Boswell's paternal +mansion at Auchinleck in Ayrshire, returned to Edinburgh in November. It +were too long to narrate their adventures at length, or to describe in +detail how Johnson grieved over traces of the iconoclastic zeal of +Knox's disciples, seriously investigated stories of second-sight, +cross-examined and brow-beat credulous believers in the authenticity of +_Ossian_, and felt his piety grow warm among the ruins of Iona. Once or +twice, when the temper of the travellers was tried by the various +worries incident to their position, poor Boswell came in for some severe +blows. But he was happy, feeling, as he remarks, like a dog who has run +away with a large piece of meat, and is devouring it peacefully in a +corner by himself. Boswell's spirits were irrepressible. On hearing a +drum beat for dinner at Fort George, he says, with a Pepys-like touch, +"I for a little while fancied myself a military man, and it pleased me." +He got scandalously drunk on one occasion, and showed reprehensible +levity on others. He bored Johnson by inquiring too curiously into his +reasons for not wearing a nightcap--a subject which seems to have +interested him profoundly; he permitted himself to say in his journal +that he was so much pleased with some pretty ladies' maids at the Duke +of Argyll's, that he felt he could "have been a knight-errant for them," +and his "venerable fellow-traveller" read the passage without censuring +his levity. The great man himself could be equally volatile. "I _have +often thought_," he observed one day, to Boswell's amusement, "that if I +kept a seraglio, the ladies should all wear linen gowns"--as more +cleanly. The pair agreed in trying to stimulate the feudal zeal of +various Highland chiefs with whom they came in contact, and who were +unreasonable enough to show a hankering after the luxuries of +civilization. + +Though Johnson seems to have been generally on his best behaviour, he +had a rough encounter or two with some of the more civilized natives. +Boswell piloted him safely through a visit to Lord Monboddo, a man of +real ability, though the proprietor of crochets as eccentric as +Johnson's, and consequently divided from him by strong mutual +prejudices. At Auchinleck he was less fortunate. The old laird, who was +the staunchest of Whigs, had not relished his son's hero-worship. "There +is nae hope for Jamie, mon; Jamie is gaen clean gyte. What do you think, +mon? He's done wi' Paoli--he's off wi' the land-louping scoundrel of a +Corsican, and who's tail do you think he's pinned himself to now, mon?" +"Here," says Sir Walter Scott, the authority for the story, "the old +judge summoned up a sneer of most sovereign contempt. 'A dominie, +mon--an auld dominie--he keeped a schule and caauld it an acaademy.'" +The two managed to keep the peace till, one day during Johnson's visit, +they got upon Oliver Cromwell. Boswell suppresses the scene with obvious +reluctance, his openness being checked for once by filial respect. Scott +has fortunately preserved the climax of Old Boswell's argument. "What +had Cromwell done for his country?" asked Johnson. "God, doctor, he gart +Kings ken that they had a _lith_ in their necks" retorted the laird, in +a phrase worthy of Mr. Carlyle himself. Scott reports one other scene, +at which respectable commentators, like Croker, hold up their hands in +horror. Should we regret or rejoice to say that it involves an obvious +inaccuracy? The authority, however, is too good to allow us to suppose +that it was without some foundation. Adam Smith, it is said, met Johnson +at Glasgow and had an altercation with him about the well-known account +of Hume's death. As Hume did not die till three years later, there must +be some error in this. The dispute, however, whatever its date or +subject, ended by Johnson saying to Smith, "_You lie_." "And what did +you reply?" was asked of Smith. "I said, 'you are a son of a -----.'" +"On such terms," says Scott, "did these two great moralists meet and +part, and such was the classical dialogue between these two great +teachers of morality." + +In the year 1774 Boswell found it expedient to atone for his long +absence in the previous year by staying at home. Johnson managed to +complete his account of the _Scotch Tour_, which was published at the +end of the year. Among other consequences was a violent controversy with +the lovers of _Ossian_. Johnson was a thorough sceptic as to the +authenticity of the book. His scepticism did not repose upon the +philological or antiquarian reasonings, which would be applicable in the +controversy from internal evidence. It was to some extent the expression +of a general incredulity which astonished his friends, especially when +contrasted with his tenderness for many puerile superstitions. He could +scarcely be induced to admit the truth of any narrative which struck +him as odd, and it was long, for example, before he would believe even +in the Lisbon earthquake. Yet he seriously discussed the truth of +second-sight; he carefully investigated the Cock-lane ghost--a goblin +who anticipated some of the modern phenomena of so-called +"spiritualism," and with almost equal absurdity; he told stories to +Boswell about a "shadowy being" which had once been seen by Cave, and +declared that he had once heard his mother call "Sam" when he was at +Oxford and she at Lichfield. The apparent inconsistency was in truth +natural enough. Any man who clings with unreasonable pertinacity to the +prejudices of his childhood, must be alternately credulous and sceptical +in excess. In both cases, he judges by his fancies in defiance of +evidence; and accepts and rejects according to his likes and dislikes, +instead of his estimates of logical proof. _Ossian_ would be naturally +offensive to Johnson, as one of the earliest and most remarkable +manifestations of that growing taste for what was called "Nature," as +opposed to civilization, of which Rousseau was the great mouthpiece. +Nobody more heartily despised this form of "cant" than Johnson. A man +who utterly despised the scenery of the Hebrides as compared with +Greenwich Park or Charing Cross, would hardly take kindly to the +Ossianesque version of the mountain passion. The book struck him as +sheer rubbish. I have already quoted the retort about "many men, many +women, and many children." "A man," he said, on another occasion, "might +write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it." + +The precise point, however, upon which he rested his case, was the +tangible one of the inability of Macpherson to produce the manuscripts +of which he had affirmed the existence. MacPherson wrote a furious +letter to Johnson, of which the purport can only be inferred from +Johnson's smashing retort,-- + +"Mr. James MacPherson, I have received your foolish and impudent letter. +Any violence offered me I shall do my best to repel; and what I cannot +do for myself, the law shall do for me. I hope I shall never be deterred +from detecting what I think a cheat by the menaces of a ruffian. + +"What would you have me retract? I thought your book an imposture: I +think it an imposture still. For this opinion I have given my reasons to +the public, which I here dare you to refute. Your rage I defy. Your +abilities, since your _Homer_, are not so formidable; and what I hear of +your morals inclines me to pay regard not to what you shall say, but to +what you shall prove. You may print this if you will. + +"SAM. JOHNSON." + +And so laying in a tremendous cudgel, the old gentleman (he was now +sixty-six) awaited the assault, which, however, was not delivered. + +In 1775 Boswell again came to London, and renewed some of the Scotch +discussions. He attended a meeting of the Literary Club, and found the +members disposed to laugh at Johnson's tenderness to the stories about +second-sight. Boswell heroically avowed his own belief. "The evidence," +he said, "is enough for me, though not for his great mind. What will not +fill a quart bottle, will fill a pint bottle. I am filled with belief." +"Are you?" said Colman; "then cork it up." + +It was during this and the next few years that Boswell laboured most +successfully in gathering materials for his book. In 1777 he only met +Johnson in the country. In 1779, for some unexplained reason, he was +lazy in making notes; in 1780 and 1781 he was absent from London; and in +the following year, Johnson was visibly declining. The tenour of +Johnson's life was interrupted during this period by no remarkable +incidents, and his literary activity was not great, although the +composition of the _Lives of the Poets_ falls between 1777 and 1780. His +mind, however, as represented by his talk, was in full vigour. I will +take in order of time a few of the passages recorded by Boswell, which +may serve for various reasons to afford the best illustration of his +character. Yet it may be worth while once more to repeat the warning +that such fragments moved from their context must lose most of their +charm. + +On March 26th (1775), Boswell met Johnson at the house of the publisher, +Strahan. Strahan reminded Johnson of a characteristic remark which he +had formerly made, that there are "few ways in which a man can be more +innocently employed than in getting money." On another occasion Johnson +observed with equal truth, if less originality, that cultivating +kindness was an important part of life, as well as money-making. Johnson +then asked to see a country lad whom he had recommended to Strahan as an +apprentice. He asked for five guineas on account, that he might give one +to the boy. "Nay, if a man recommends a boy and does nothing for him, it +is sad work." A "little, thick short-legged boy" was accordingly brought +into the courtyard, whither Johnson and Boswell descended, and the +lexicographer bending himself down administered some good advice to the +awestruck lad with "slow and sonorous solemnity," ending by the +presentation of the guinea. + +In the evening the pair formed part of a corps of party "wits," led by +Sir Joshua Reynolds, to the benefit of Mrs. Abingdon, who had been a +frequent model of the painter. Johnson praised Garrick's prologues, and +Boswell kindly reported the eulogy to Garrick, with whom he supped at +Beauclerk's. Garrick treated him to a mimicry of Johnson, repeating, +"with pauses and half-whistling," the lines,-- + + Os homini sublime dedit--coelumque tueri + Jussit--et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus: + +looking downwards, and at the end touching the ground with a contorted +gesticulation. Garrick was generally jealous of Johnson's light opinion +of him, and used to take off his old master, saying, "Davy has some +convivial pleasantry about him, but 'tis a futile fellow." + +Next day, at Thrales', Johnson fell foul of Gray, one of his pet +aversions. Boswell denied that Gray was dull in poetry. "Sir," replied +Johnson, "he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull everywhere. +He was dull in a new way, and that made people think him great. He was a +mechanical poet." He proceeded to say that there were only two good +stanzas in the _Elegy_. Johnson's criticism was perverse; but if we were +to collect a few of the judgments passed by contemporaries upon each +other, it would be scarcely exceptional in its want of appreciation. It +is rather odd to remark that Gray was generally condemned for +obscurity--a charge which seems strangely out of place when he is +measured by more recent standards. + +A day or two afterwards some one rallied Johnson on his appearance at +Mrs. Abingdon's benefit. "Why did you go?" he asked. "Did you see?" "No, +sir." "Did you hear?" "No, sir." "Why, then, sir, did you go?" +"Because, sir, she is a favourite of the public; and when the public +cares the thousandth part for you that it does for her, I will go to +your benefit too." + +The day after, Boswell won a bet from Lady Di Beauclerk by venturing to +ask Johnson what he did with the orange-peel which he used to pocket. +Johnson received the question amicably, but did not clear the mystery. +"Then," said Boswell, "the world must be left in the dark. It must be +said, he scraped them, and he let them dry, but what he did with them +next he never could be prevailed upon to tell." "Nay, sir," replied +Johnson, "you should say it more emphatically--he could not be prevailed +upon, even by his dearest friends to tell." + +This year Johnson received the degree of LL.D. from Oxford. He had +previously (in 1765) received the same honour from Dublin. It is +remarkable, however, that familiar as the title has become, Johnson +called himself plain Mr. to the end of his days, and was generally so +called by his intimates. On April 2nd, at a dinner at Hoole's, Johnson +made another assault upon Gray and Mason. When Boswell said that there +were good passages in Mason's _Elfrida_, he conceded that there were +"now and then some good imitations of Milton's bad manner." After some +more talk, Boswell spoke of the cheerfulness of Fleet Street. "Why, +sir," said Johnson, "Fleet Street has a very animated appearance, but I +think that the full tide of human existence is at Charing Cross." He +added a story of an eminent tallow-chandler who had made a fortune in +London, and was foolish enough to retire to the country. He grew so +tired of his retreat, that he begged to know the melting-days of his +successor, that he might be present at the operation. + +On April 7th, they dined at a tavern, where the talk turned upon +_Ossian_. Some one mentioned as an objection to its authenticity that no +mention of wolves occurred in it. Johnson fell into a reverie upon wild +beasts, and, whilst Reynolds and Langton were discussing something, he +broke out, "Pennant tells of bears." What Pennant told is unknown. The +company continued to talk, whilst Johnson continued his monologue, the +word "bear" occurring at intervals, like a word in a catch. At last, +when a pause came, he was going on: "We are told that the black bear is +innocent, but I should not like to trust myself with him." Gibbon +muttered in a low tone, "I should not like to trust myself with +_you_"--a prudent resolution, says honest Boswell who hated Gibbon, if +it referred to a competition of abilities. + +The talk went on to patriotism, and Johnson laid down an apophthegm, at +"which many will start," many people, in fact, having little sense of +humour. Such persons may be reminded for their comfort that at this +period patriot had a technical meaning. "Patriotism is the last refuge +of a scoundrel." On the 10th of April, he laid down another dogma, +calculated to offend the weaker brethren. He defended Pope's line-- + + Man never _is_ but always _to be_ blest. + +And being asked if man did not sometimes enjoy a momentary happiness, +replied, "Never, but when he is drunk." It would be useless to defend +these and other such utterances to any one who cannot enjoy them without +defence. + +On April 11th, the pair went in Reynolds's coach to dine with Cambridge, +at Twickenham. Johnson was in high spirits. He remarked as they drove +down, upon the rarity of good humour in life. One friend mentioned by +Boswell was, he said, _acid_, and another _muddy_. At last, stretching +himself and turning with complacency, he observed, "I look upon myself +as a good-humoured fellow"--a bit of self-esteem against which Boswell +protested. Johnson, he admitted, was good-natured; but was too irascible +and impatient to be good-humoured. On reaching Cambridge's house, +Johnson ran to look at the books. "Mr. Johnson," said Cambridge +politely, "I am going with your pardon to accuse myself, for I have the +same custom which I perceive you have. But it seems odd that one should +have such a desire to look at the backs of books." "Sir," replied +Johnson, wheeling about at the words, "the reason is very plain. +Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where +we can find information upon it. When we inquire into any subject, the +first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This +leads us to look at catalogues, and the backs of books in libraries." + +A pleasant talk followed. Johnson denied the value attributed to +historical reading, on the ground that we know very little except a few +facts and dates. All the colouring, he said, was conjectural. Boswell +chuckles over the reflection that Gibbon, who was present, did not take +up the cudgels for his favourite study, though the first-fruits of his +labours were to appear in the following year. "Probably he did not like +to trust himself with Johnson." + +The conversation presently turned upon the _Beggar's Opera_, and Johnson +sensibly refused to believe that any man had been made a rogue by seeing +it. Yet the moralist felt bound to utter some condemnation of such a +performance, and at last, amidst the smothered amusement of the company, +collected himself to give a heavy stroke: "there is in it," he said, +"such a _labefactation_ of all principles as may he dangerous to +morality." + +A discussion followed as to whether Sheridan was right for refusing to +allow his wife to continue as a public singer. Johnson defended him +"with all the high spirit of a Roman senator." "He resolved wisely and +nobly, to be sure. He is a brave man. Would not a gentleman be disgraced +by having his wife sing publicly for hire? No, sir, there can be no +doubt here. I know not if I should not prepare myself for a public +singer as readily as let my wife be one." + +The stout old supporter of social authority went on to denounce the +politics of the day. He asserted that politics had come to mean nothing +but the art of rising in the world. He contrasted the absence of any +principles with the state of the national mind during the stormy days of +the seventeenth century. This gives the pith of Johnston's political +prejudices. He hated Whigs blindly from his cradle; but he justified his +hatred on the ground that they were now all "bottomless Whigs," that is +to say, that pierce where you would, you came upon no definite creed, +but only upon hollow formulae, intended as a cloak for private interest. +If Burke and one or two of his friends be excepted, the remark had but +too much justice. + +In 1776, Boswell found Johnson rejoicing in the prospect of a journey to +Italy with the Thrales. Before starting he was to take a trip to the +country, in which Boswell agreed to join. Boswell gathered up various +bits of advice before their departure. One seems to have commended +itself to him as specially available for practice. "A man who had been +drinking freely," said the moralist, "should never go into a new +company. He would probably strike them as ridiculous, though he might +be in unison with those who had been drinking with him." Johnson +propounded another favourite theory. "A ship," he said, "was worse than +a gaol. There is in a gaol better air, better company, better +conveniency of every kind; and a ship has the additional disadvantage of +being in danger." + +On March 19th, they went by coach to the Angel at Oxford; and next +morning visited the Master of University College, who chose with Boswell +to act in opposition to a very sound bit of advice given by Johnson soon +afterwards--perhaps with some reference to the proceeding. "Never speak +of a man in his own presence; it is always indelicate and may be +offensive." The two, however, discussed Johnson without reserve. The +Master said that he would have given Johnson a hundred pounds for a +discourse on the British Constitution; and Boswell suggested that +Johnson should write two volumes of no great bulk upon Church and State, +which should comprise the whole substance of the argument. "He should +erect a fort on the confines of each." Johnson was not unnaturally +displeased with the dialogue, and growled out, "Why should I be always +writing?" + +Presently, they went to see Dr. Adams, the doctor's old friend, who had +been answering Hume. Boswell, who had done his best to court the +acquaintance of Voltaire, Rousseau, Wilkes, and Hume himself, felt it +desirable to reprove Adams for having met Hume with civility. He aired +his admirable sentiments in a long speech, observing upon the connexion +between theory and practice, and remarking, by way of practical +application, that, if an infidel were at once vain and ugly, he might be +compared to "Cicero's beautiful image of Virtue"--which would, as he +seems to think, be a crushing retort. Boswell always delighted in +fighting with his gigantic backer close behind him. Johnson, as he had +doubtless expected, chimed in with the argument. "You should do your +best," said Johnson, "to diminish the authority, as well as dispute the +arguments of your adversary, because most people are biased more by +personal respect than by reasoning." "You would not jostle a +chimney-sweeper," said Adams. "Yes," replied Johnson, "if it were +necessary to jostle him down." + +The pair proceeded by post-chaise past Blenheim, and dined at a good inn +at Chapelhouse. Johnston boasted of the superiority, long since vanished +if it ever existed, of English to French inns, and quoted with great +emotion Shenstone's lines-- + + Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, + Where'er his stages may have been, + Must sigh to think he still has found + The warmest welcome at an inn. + +As they drove along rapidly in the post-chaise, he exclaimed, "Life has +not many better things than this." On another occasion he said that he +should like to spend his life driving briskly in a post-chaise with a +pretty woman, clever enough to add to the conversation. The pleasure was +partly owing to the fact that his deafness was less troublesome in a +carriage. But he admitted that there were drawbacks even to this +pleasure. Boswell asked him whether he would not add a post-chaise +journey to the other sole cause of happiness--namely, drunkenness. "No, +sir," said Johnson, "you are driving rapidly _from_ something or _to_ +something." + +They went to Birmingham, where Boswell pumped Hector about Johnson's +early days, and saw the works of Boulton, Watt's partner, who said to +him, "I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have--_power_." +Thence they went to Lichfield, and met more of the rapidly thinning +circle of Johnson's oldest friends. Here Boswell was a little +scandalized by Johnson's warm exclamation on opening a letter--"One of +the most dreadful things that has happened in my time!" This turned out +to be the death of Thrale's only son. Boswell thought the phrase too big +for the event, and was some time before he could feel a proper concern. +He was, however, "curious to observe how Dr. Johnson would be affected," +and was again a little scandalized by the reply to his consolatory +remark that the Thrales still had daughters. "Sir," said Johnson, "don't +you know how you yourself think? Sir, he wishes to propagate his name." +The great man was actually putting the family sentiment of a brewer in +the same category with the sentiments of the heir of Auchinleck. +Johnson, however, calmed down, but resolved to hurry back to London. +They stayed a night at Taylor's, who remarked that he had fought a good +many battles for a physician, one of their common friends. "But you +should consider, sir," said Johnson, "that by every one of your +victories he is a loser; for every man of whom you get the better will +be very angry, and resolve not to employ him, whereas if people get the +better of you in argument about him, they will think 'We'll send for Dr. +---- nevertheless!'" + +It was after their return to London that Boswell won the greatest +triumph of his friendship. He carried through a negotiation, to which, +as Burke pleasantly said, there was nothing equal in the whole history +of the _corps diplomatique_. At some moment of enthusiasm it had +occurred to him to bring Johnson into company with Wilkes. The infidel +demagogue was probably in the mind of the Tory High Churchman, when he +threw out that pleasant little apophthegm about patriotism. To bring +together two such opposites without provoking a collision would be the +crowning triumph of Boswell's curiosity. He was ready to run all hazards +as a chemist might try some new experiment at the risk of a destructive +explosion; but being resolved, he took every precaution with admirable +foresight. + +Boswell had been invited by the Dillys, well-known booksellers of the +day, to meet Wilkes. "Let us have Johnson," suggested the gallant +Boswell. "Not for the world!" exclaimed Dilly. But, on Boswell's +undertaking the negotiation, he consented to the experiment. Boswell +went off to Johnson and politely invited him in Dilly's name. "I will +wait upon him," said Johnson. "Provided, sir, I suppose," said the +diplomatic Boswell, "that the company which he is to have is agreeable +to you." "What do you mean, sir?" exclaimed Johnson. "What do you take +me for? Do you think I am so ignorant of the world as to prescribe to a +gentleman what company he is to have at his table?" Boswell worked the +point a little farther, till, by judicious manipulation, he had got +Johnson to commit himself to meeting anybody--even Jack Wilkes, to make +a wild hypothesis--at the Dillys' table. Boswell retired, hoping to +think that he had fixed the discussion in Johnson's mind. + +The great day arrived, and Boswell, like a consummate general who leaves +nothing to chance, went himself to fetch Johnson to the dinner. The +great man had forgotten the engagement, and was "buffeting his books" in +a dirty shirt and amidst clouds of dust. When reminded of his promise, +he said that he had ordered dinner at home with Mrs. Williams. +Entreaties of the warmest kind from Boswell softened the peevish old +lady, to whose pleasure Johnson had referred him. Boswell flew back, +announced Mrs. Williams's consent, and Johnson roared, "Frank, a clean +shirt!" and was soon in a hackney-coach. Boswell rejoiced like a +"fortune-hunter who has got an heiress into a post-chaise with him to +set out for Gretna Green." Yet the joy was with trembling. Arrived at +Dillys', Johnson found himself amongst strangers, and Boswell watched +anxiously from a corner. "Who is that gentleman?" whispered Johnson to +Dilly. "Mr. Arthur Lee." Johnson whistled "too-too-too" doubtfully, for +Lee was a patriot and an American. "And who is the gentleman in lace?" +"Mr. Wilkes, sir." Johnson subsided into a window-seat and fixed his eye +on a book. He was fairly in the toils. His reproof of Boswell was recent +enough to prevent him from exhibiting his displeasure, and he resolved +to restrain himself. + +At dinner Wilkes, placed next to Johnson, took up his part in the +performance. He pacified the sturdy moralist by delicate attentions to +his needs. He helped him carefully to some fine veal. "Pray give me +leave, sir; it is better here--a little of the brown--some fat, sir--a +little of the stuffing--some gravy--let me have the pleasure of giving +you some butter. Allow me to recommend a squeeze of this orange; or the +lemon, perhaps, may have more zest." "Sir, sir," cried Johnson, "I am +obliged to you, sir," bowing and turning to him, with a look for some +time of "surly virtue," and soon of complacency. + +Gradually the conversation became cordial. Johnson told of the +fascination exercised by Foote, who, like Wilkes, had succeeded in +pleasing him against his will. Foote once took to selling beer, and it +was so bad that the servants of Fitzherbert, one of his customers, +resolved to protest. They chose a little black boy to carry their +remonstrance; but the boy waited at table one day when Foote was +present, and returning to his companions, said, "This is the finest man +I have ever seen. I will not deliver your message; I will drink his +beer." From Foote the transition was easy to Garrick, whom Johnson, as +usual, defended against the attacks of others. He maintained that +Garrick's reputation for avarice, though unfounded, had been rather +useful than otherwise. "You despise a man for avarice, but you do not +hate him." The clamour would have been more effectual, had it been +directed against his living with splendour too great for a player. +Johnson went on to speak of the difficulty of getting biographical +information. When he had wished to write a life of Dryden, he applied to +two living men who remembered him. One could only tell him that Dryden +had a chair by the fire at Will's Coffee-house in winter, which was +moved to the balcony in summer. The other (Cibber) could only report +that he remembered Dryden as a "decent old man, arbiter of critical +disputes at Will's." + +Johnson and Wilkes had one point in common--a vigorous prejudice against +the Scotch, and upon this topic they cracked their jokes in friendly +emulation. When they met upon a later occasion (1781), they still +pursued this inexhaustible subject. Wilkes told how a privateer had +completely plundered seven Scotch islands, and re-embarked with three +and sixpence. Johnson now remarked in answer to somebody who said "Poor +old England is lost!" "Sir, it is not so much to be lamented that old +England is lost, as that the Scotch have found it." "You must know, +sir," he said to Wilkes, "that I lately took my friend Boswell and +showed him genuine civilized life in an English provincial town. I +turned him loose at Lichfield, that he might see for once real civility, +for you know he lives among savages in Scotland and among rakes in +London." "Except," said Wilkes, "when he is with grave, sober, decent +people like you and me." "And we ashamed of him," added Johnson, +smiling. + +Boswell had to bear some jokes against himself and his countrymen from +the pair; but he had triumphed, and rejoiced greatly when he went home +with Johnson, and heard the great man speak of his pleasant dinner to +Mrs. Williams. Johnson seems to have been permanently reconciled to his +foe. "Did we not hear so much said of Jack Wilkes," he remarked next +year, "we should think more highly of his conversation. Jack has a great +variety of talk, Jack is a scholar, and Jack has the manners of a +gentleman. But, after hearing his name sounded from pole to pole as the +phoenix of convivial felicity, we are disappointed in his company. He +has always been at _me_, but I would do Jack a kindness rather than not. +The contest is now over." + +In fact, Wilkes had ceased to play any part in public life. When Johnson +met him next (in 1781) they joked about such dangerous topics as some of +Wilkes's political performances. Johnson sent him a copy of the _Lives_, +and they were seen conversing _tete-a-tete_ in confidential whispers +about George II. and the King of Prussia. To Boswell's mind it suggested +the happy days when the lion should lie down with the kid, or, as Dr. +Barnard suggested, the goat. + +In the year 1777 Johnson began the _Lives of the Poets_, in compliance +with a request from the booksellers, who wished for prefaces to a large +collection of English poetry. Johnson asked for this work the extremely +modest sum of 200 guineas, when he might easily, according to Malone, +have received 1000 or 1500. He did not meet Boswell till September, when +they spent ten days together at Dr. Taylor's. The subject which +specially interested Boswell at this time was the fate of the unlucky +Dr. Dodd, hanged for forgery in the previous June. Dodd seems to have +been a worthless charlatan of the popular preacher variety. His crime +would not in our days have been thought worthy of so severe a +punishment; but his contemporaries were less shocked by the fact of +death being inflicted for such a fault, than by the fact of its being +inflicted on a clergyman. Johnson exerted himself to procure a remission +of the sentence by writing various letters and petitions on Dodd's +behalf. He seems to have been deeply moved by the man's appeal, and +could "not bear the thought" that any negligence of his should lead to +the death of a fellow-creature; but he said that if he had himself been +in authority he would have signed the death-warrant, and for the man +himself, he had as little respect as might be. He said, indeed, that +Dodd was right in not joining in the "cant" about leaving a wretched +world. "No, no," said the poor rogue, "it has been a very agreeable +world to me." Dodd had allowed to pass for his own one of the papers +composed for him by Johnson, and the Doctor was not quite pleased. When, +however, Seward expressed a doubt as to Dodd's power of writing so +forcibly, Johnson felt bound not to expose him. "Why should you think +so? Depend upon it, sir, when any man knows he is to be hanged in a +fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." On another occasion, +Johnson expressed a doubt himself as to whether Dodd had really +composed a certain prayer on the night before his execution. "Sir, do +you think that a man the night before he is to be hanged cares for the +succession of the royal family? Though he _may_ have composed this +prayer then. A man who has been canting all his life may cant to the +last; and yet a man who has been refused a pardon after so much +petitioning, would hardly be praying thus fervently for the king." + +The last day at Taylor's was characteristic. Johnson was very cordial to +his disciple, and Boswell fancied that he could defend his master at +"the point of his sword." "My regard for you," said Johnson, "is greater +almost than I have words to express, but I do not choose to be always +repeating it. Write it down in the first leaf of your pocket-book, and +never doubt of it again." They became sentimental, and talked of the +misery of human life. Boswell spoke of the pleasures of society. "Alas, +sir," replied Johnson, like a true pessimist, "these are only struggles +for happiness!" He felt exhilarated, he said, when he first went to +Ranelagh, but he changed to the mood of Xerxes weeping at the sight of +his army. "It went to my heart to consider that there was not one in all +that brilliant circle that was not afraid to go home and think; but that +the thoughts of each individual would be distressing when alone." Some +years before he had gone with Boswell to the Pantheon and taken a more +cheerful view. When Boswell doubted whether there were many happy people +present, he said, "Yes, sir, there are many happy people here. There are +many people here who are watching hundreds, and who think hundreds are +watching them." The more permanent feeling was that which he expressed +in the "serene autumn night" in Taylor's garden. He was willing, +however, to talk calmly about eternal punishment, and to admit the +possibility of a "mitigated interpretation." + +After supper he dictated to Boswell an argument in favour of the negro +who was then claiming his liberty in Scotland. He hated slavery with a +zeal which the excellent Boswell thought to be "without knowledge;" and +on one occasion gave as a toast to some "very grave men" at Oxford, +"Here's to the next insurrection of negroes in the West Indies." The +hatred was combined with as hearty a dislike for American independence. +"How is it," he said, "that we always hear the loudest yelps for liberty +amongst the drivers of negroes?" The harmony of the evening was +unluckily spoilt by an explosion of this prejudice. Boswell undertook +the defence of the colonists, and the discussion became so fierce that +though Johnson had expressed a willingness to sit up all night with him, +they were glad to part after an hour or two, and go to bed. + +In 1778, Boswell came to London and found Johnson absorbed, to an extent +which apparently excited his jealousy, by his intimacy with the Thrales. +They had, however, several agreeable meetings. One was at the club, and +Boswell's report of the conversation is the fullest that we have of any +of its meetings. A certain reserve is indicated by his using initials +for the interlocutors, of whom, however, one can be easily identified as +Burke. The talk began by a discussion of an antique statue, said to be +the dog of Alcibiades, and valued at 1000_l_. Burke said that the +representation of no animal could be worth so much. Johnson, whose taste +for art was a vanishing quantity, said that the value was proportional +to the difficulty. A statue, as he argued on another occasion, would be +worth nothing if it were cut out of a carrot. Everything, he now said, +was valuable which "enlarged the sphere of human powers." The first man +who balanced a straw upon his nose, or rode upon three horses at once, +deserved the applause of mankind; and so statues of animals should be +preserved as a proof of dexterity, though men should not continue such +fruitless labours. + +The conversation became more instructive under the guidance of Burke. He +maintained what seemed to his hearers a paradox, though it would be +interesting to hear his arguments from some profounder economist than +Boswell, that a country would be made more populous by emigration. +"There are bulls enough in Ireland," he remarked incidentally in the +course of the argument. "So, sir, I should think from your argument," +said Johnson, for once condescending to an irresistible pun. It is +recorded, too, that he once made a bull himself, observing that a horse +was so slow that when it went up hill, it stood still. If he now failed +to appreciate Burke's argument, he made one good remark. Another speaker +said that unhealthy countries were the most populous. "Countries which +are the most populous," replied Johnson, "have the most destructive +diseases. That is the true state of the proposition;" and indeed, the +remark applies to the case of emigration. + +A discussion then took place as to whether it would be worth while for +Burke to take so much trouble with speeches which never decided a vote. +Burke replied that a speech, though it did not gain one vote, would have +an influence, and maintained that the House of Commons was not wholly +corrupt. "We are all more or less governed by interest," was Johnson's +comment. "But interest will not do everything. In a case which admits of +doubt, we try to think on the side which is for our interest, and +generally bring ourselves to act accordingly. But the subject must admit +of diversity of colouring; it must receive a colour on that side. In the +House of Commons there are members enough who will not vote what is +grossly absurd and unjust. No, sir, there must always be right enough, +or appearance of right, to keep wrong in countenance." After some +deviations, the conversation returned to this point. Johnson and Burke +agreed on a characteristic statement. Burke said that from his +experience he had learnt to think better of mankind. "From my +experience," replied Johnson, "I have found them worse on commercial +dealings, more disposed to cheat than I had any notion of; but more +disposed to do one another good than I had conceived." "Less just, and +more beneficent," as another speaker suggested. Johnson proceeded to say +that considering the pressure of want, it was wonderful that men would +do so much for each other. The greatest liar is said to speak more truth +than falsehood, and perhaps the worst man might do more good than not. +But when Boswell suggested that perhaps experience might increase our +estimate of human happiness, Johnson returned to his habitual pessimism. +"No, sir, the more we inquire, the more we shall find men less happy." +The talk soon wandered off into a disquisition upon the folly of +deliberately testing the strength of our friend's affection. + +The evening ended by Johnson accepting a commission to write to a friend +who had given to the Club a hogshead of claret, and to request another, +with "a happy ambiguity of expression," in the hopes that it might also +be a present. + +Some days afterwards, another conversation took place, which has a +certain celebrity in Boswellian literature. The scene was at Dilly's, +and the guests included Miss Seward and Mrs. Knowles, a well-known +Quaker Lady. Before dinner Johnson seized upon a book which he kept in +his lap during dinner, wrapped up in the table-cloth. His attention was +not distracted from the various business of the hour, but he hit upon a +topic which happily combined the two appropriate veins of thought. He +boasted that he would write a cookery-book upon philosophical +principles; and declared in opposition to Miss Seward that such a task +was beyond the sphere of woman. Perhaps this led to a discussion upon +the privileges of men, in which Johnson put down Mrs. Knowles, who had +some hankering for women's rights, by the Shakspearian maxim that if two +men ride on a horse, one must ride behind. Driven from her position in +this world, poor Mrs. Knowles hoped that sexes might be equal in the +next. Boswell reproved her by the remark already quoted, that men might +as well expect to be equal to angels. He enforces this view by an +illustration suggested by the "Rev. Mr. Brown of Utrecht," who had +observed that a great or small glass might be equally full, though not +holding equal quantities. Mr. Brown intended this for a confutation of +Hume, who has said that a little Miss, dressed for a ball, may be as +happy as an orator who has won some triumphant success.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Boswell remarks as a curious coincidence that the same +illustration had been used by a Dr. King, a dissenting minister. +Doubtless it has been used often enough. For one instance see _Donne's +Sermons_ (Alford's Edition), vol. i., p. 5.] + +The conversation thus took a theological turn, and Mrs. Knowles was +fortunate enough to win Johnson's high approval. He defended a doctrine +maintained by Soame Jenyns, that friendship is a Christian virtue. Mrs. +Knowles remarked that Jesus had twelve disciples, but there was _one_ +whom he _loved_. Johnson, "with eyes sparkling benignantly," exclaimed, +"Very well indeed, madam; you have said very well!" + +So far all had gone smoothly; but here, for some inexplicable reason, +Johnson burst into a sudden fury against the American rebels, whom he +described as "rascals, robbers, pirates," and roared out a tremendous +volley, which might almost have been audible across the Atlantic. +Boswell sat and trembled, but gradually diverted the sage to less +exciting topics. The name of Jonathan Edwards suggested a discussion +upon free will and necessity, upon which poor Boswell was much given to +worry himself. Some time afterwards Johnson wrote to him, in answer to +one of his lamentations: "I hoped you had got rid of all this hypocrisy +of misery. What have you to do with liberty and necessity? Or what more +than to hold your tongue about it?" Boswell could never take this +sensible advice; but he got little comfort from his oracle. "We know +that we are all free, and there's an end on't," was his statement on one +occasion, and now he could only say, "All theory is against the freedom +of the will, and all experience for it." + +Some familiar topics followed, which play a great part in Boswell's +reports. Among the favourite topics of the sentimentalists of the day +was the denunciation of "luxury," and of civilized life in general. +There was a disposition to find in the South Sea savages or American +Indians an embodiment of the fancied state of nature. Johnson heartily +despised the affectation. He was told of an American woman who had to be +bound in order to keep her from savage life. "She must have been an +animal, a beast," said Boswell. "Sir," said Johnson, "she was a speaking +cat." Somebody quoted to him with admiration the soliloquy of an +officer who had lived in the wilds of America: "Here am I, free and +unrestrained, amidst the rude magnificence of nature, with the Indian +woman by my side, and this gun, with which I can procure food when I +want it! What more can be desired for human happiness?" "Do not allow +yourself, sir," replied Johnson, "to be imposed upon by such gross +absurdity. It is sad stuff; it is brutish. If a bull could speak, he +might as well exclaim, 'Here am I with this cow and this grass; what +being can enjoy greater felicity?'" When Johnson implored Boswell to +"clear his mind of cant," he was attacking his disciple for affecting a +serious depression about public affairs; but the cant which he hated +would certainly have included as its first article an admiration for the +state of nature. + +On the present occasion Johnson defended luxury, and said that he had +learnt much from Mandeville--a shrewd cynic, in whom Johnson's hatred +for humbug is exaggerated into a general disbelief in real as well as +sham nobleness of sentiment. As the conversation proceeded, Johnson +expressed his habitual horror of death, and caused Miss Seward's +ridicule by talking seriously of ghosts and the importance of the +question of their reality; and then followed an explosion, which seems +to have closed this characteristic evening. A young woman had become a +Quaker under the influence of Mrs. Knowles, who now proceeded to +deprecate Johnson's wrath at what he regarded as an apostasy. "Madam," +he said, "she is an odious wench," and he proceeded to denounce her +audacity in presuming to choose a religion for herself. "She knew no +more of the points of difference," he said, "than of the difference +between the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems." When Mrs. Knowles said +that she had the New Testament before her, he said that it was the +"most difficult book in the world," and he proceeded to attack the +unlucky proselyte with a fury which shocked the two ladies. Mrs. Knowles +afterwards published a report of this conversation, and obtained another +report, with which, however, she was not satisfied, from Miss Seward. +Both of them represent the poor doctor as hopelessly confuted by the +mild dignity and calm reason of Mrs. Knowles, though the triumph is +painted in far the brightest colours by Mrs. Knowles herself. Unluckily, +there is not a trace of Johnson's manner, except in one phrase, in +either report, and they are chiefly curious as an indirect testimony to +Boswell's superior powers. The passage, in which both the ladies agree, +is that Johnson, on the expression of Mrs. Knowles's hope that he would +meet the young lady in another world, retorted that he was not fond of +meeting fools anywhere. + +Poor Boswell was at this time a water-drinker by Johnson's +recommendation, though unluckily for himself he never broke off his +drinking habits for long. They had a conversation at Paoli's, in which +Boswell argued against his present practice. Johnson remarked "that wine +gave a man nothing, but only put in motion what had been locked up in +frost." It was a key, suggested some one, which opened a box, but the +box might be full or empty. "Nay, sir," said Johnson, "conversation is +the key, wine is a picklock, which forces open the box and injures it. A +man should cultivate his mind, so as to have that confidence and +readiness without wine which wine gives." Boswell characteristically +said that the great difficulty was from "benevolence." It was hard to +refuse "a good, worthy man" who asked you to try his cellar. This, +according to Johnson, was mere conceit, implying an exaggerated +estimate of your importance to your entertainer. Reynolds gallantly took +up the opposite side, and produced the one recorded instance of a +Johnsonian blush. "I won't argue any more with you, sir," said Johnson, +who thought every man to be elevated who drank wine, "you are too far +gone." "I should have thought so indeed, sir, had I made such a speech +as you have now done," said Reynolds; and Johnson apologized with the +aforesaid blush. + +The explosion was soon over on this occasion. Not long afterwards, +Johnson attacked Boswell so fiercely at a dinner at Reynolds's, that the +poor disciple kept away for a week. They made it up when they met next, +and Johnson solaced Boswell's wounded vanity by highly commending an +image made by him to express his feelings. "I don't care how often or +how high Johnson tosses me, when only friends are present, for then I +fall upon soft ground; but I do not like falling on stones, which is the +case when enemies are present." The phrase may recall one of Johnson's +happiest illustrations. When some one said in his presence that a _conge +d'elire_ might be considered as only a strong recommendation: "Sir," +replied Johnson, "it is such a recommendation as if I should throw you +out of a two-pair of stairs window, and recommend you to fall soft." + +It is perhaps time to cease these extracts from Boswell's reports. The +next two years were less fruitful. In 1779 Boswell was careless, though +twice in London, and in 1780, he did not pay his annual visit. Boswell +has partly filled up the gap by a collection of sayings made by Langton, +some passages from which have been quoted, and his correspondence gives +various details. Garrick died in January of 1779, and Beauclerk in +March, 1780. Johnson himself seems to have shown few symptoms of +increasing age; but a change was approaching, and the last years of his +life were destined to be clouded, not merely by physical weakness, but +by a change of circumstances which had great influence upon his +happiness. + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +THE CLOSING YEARS OF JOHNSON'S LIFE. + + +In following Boswell's guidance we have necessarily seen only one side +of Johnson's life; and probably that side which had least significance +for the man himself. + +Boswell saw in him chiefly the great dictator of conversation; and +though the reports of Johnson's talk represent his character in spite of +some qualifications with unusual fulness, there were many traits very +inadequately revealed at the Mitre or the Club, at Mrs. Thrale's, or in +meetings with Wilkes or Reynolds. We may catch some glimpses from his +letters and diaries of that inward life which consisted generally in a +long succession of struggles against an oppressive and often paralysing +melancholy. Another most noteworthy side to his character is revealed in +his relations to persons too humble for admission to the tables at which +he exerted a despotic sway. Upon this side Johnson was almost entirely +loveable. We often have to regret the imperfection of the records of + + That best portion of a good man's life, + His little, nameless, unremembered acts + Of kindness and of love. + +Everywhere in Johnson's letters and in the occasional anecdotes, we come +upon indications of a tenderness and untiring benevolence which would +make us forgive far worse faults than have ever been laid to his +charge. Nay, the very asperity of the man's outside becomes endeared to +us by the association. His irritability never vented itself against the +helpless, and his rough impatience of fanciful troubles implied no want +of sympathy for real sorrow. One of Mrs. Thrale's anecdotes is intended +to show Johnson's harshness:--"When I one day lamented the loss of a +first cousin killed in America, 'Pr'ythee, my dear,' said he, 'have done +with canting; how would the world be the worse for it, I may ask, if all +your relations were at once spitted like larks and roasted for Presto's +supper?' Presto was the dog that lay under the table while we talked." +The counter version, given by Boswell is, that Mrs. Thrale related her +cousin's death in the midst of a hearty supper, and that Johnson, +shocked at her want of feeling, said, "Madam, it would give _you_ very +little concern if all your relations were spitted like those larks, and +roasted for Presto's supper." Taking the most unfavourable version, we +may judge how much real indifference to human sorrow was implied by +seeing how Johnson was affected by a loss of one of his humblest +friends. It is but one case of many. In 1767, he took leave, as he notes +in his diary, of his "dear old friend, Catherine Chambers," who had been +for about forty-three years in the service of his family. "I desired all +to withdraw," he says, "then told her that we were to part for ever, +and, as Christians, we should part with prayer, and that I would, if she +was willing, say a short prayer beside her. She expressed great desire +to hear me, and held up her poor hands as she lay in bed, with great +fervour, while I prayed, kneeling by her, in nearly the following +words"--which shall not be repeated here--"I then kissed her," he adds. +"She told me that to part was the greatest pain that she had ever felt, +and that she hoped we should meet again in a better place. I expressed, +with swelled eyes, and great emotion of kindness, the same hopes. We +kissed and parted--I humbly hope to meet again and part no more." + +A man with so true and tender a heart could say serenely, what with some +men would be a mere excuse for want of sympathy, that he "hated to hear +people whine about metaphysical distresses when there was so much want +and hunger in the world." He had a sound and righteous contempt for all +affectation of excessive sensibility. Suppose, said Boswell to him, +whilst their common friend Baretti was lying under a charge of murder, +"that one of your intimate friends were apprehended for an offence for +which he might be hanged." "I should do what I could," replied Johnson, +"to bail him, and give him any other assistance; but if he were once +fairly hanged, I should not suffer." "Would you eat your dinner that +day, sir?" asks Boswell. "Yes, sir; and eat it as if he were eating with +me. Why there's Baretti, who's to be tried for his life to-morrow. +Friends have risen up for him upon every side; yet if he should be +hanged, none of them will eat a slice of plum-pudding the less. Sir, +that sympathetic feeling goes a very little way in depressing the mind." +Boswell illustrated the subject by saying that Tom Davies had just +written a letter to Foote, telling him that he could not sleep from +concern about Baretti, and at the same time recommending a young man who +kept a pickle-shop. Johnson summed up by the remark: "You will find +these very feeling people are not very ready to do you good. They _pay_ +you by _feeling_." Johnson never objected to feeling, but to the waste +of feeling. + +In a similar vein he told Mrs. Thrale that a "surly fellow" like +himself had no compassion to spare for "wounds given to vanity and +softness," whilst witnessing the common sight of actual want in great +cities. On Lady Tavistock's death, said to have been caused by grief for +her husband's loss, he observed that her life might have been saved if +she had been put into a small chandler's shop, with a child to nurse. +When Mrs. Thrale suggested that a lady would be grieved because her +friend had lost the chance of a fortune, "She will suffer as much, +perhaps," he replied, "as your horse did when your cow miscarried." Mrs. +Thrale testifies that he once reproached her sternly for complaining of +the dust. When he knew, he said, how many poor families would perish +next winter for want of the bread which the drought would deny, he could +not bear to hear ladies sighing for rain on account of their complexions +or their clothes. While reporting such sayings, she adds, that he loved +the poor as she never saw any one else love them, with an earnest desire +to make them happy. His charity was unbounded; he proposed to allow +himself one hundred a year out of the three hundred of his pension; but +the Thrales could never discover that he really spent upon himself more +than 70_l_., or at most 80_l_. He had numerous dependants, abroad as +well as at home, who "did not like to see him latterly, unless he +brought 'em money." He filled his pockets with small cash which he +distributed to beggars in defiance of political economy. When told that +the recipients only laid it out upon gin or tobacco, he replied that it +was savage to deny them the few coarse pleasures which the richer +disdained. Numerous instances are given of more judicious charity. When, +for example, a Benedictine monk, whom he had seen in Paris, became a +Protestant, Johnson supported him for some months in London, till he +could get a living. Once coming home late at night, he found a poor +woman lying in the street. He carried her to his house on his back, and +found that she was reduced to the lowest stage of want, poverty, and +disease. He took care of her at his own charge, with all tenderness, +until she was restored to health, and tried to have her put into a +virtuous way of living. His house, in his later years, was filled with +various waifs and strays, to whom he gave hospitality and sometimes +support, defending himself by saying that if he did not help them nobody +else would. The head of his household was Miss Williams, who had been a +friend of his wife's, and after coming to stay with him, in order to +undergo an operation for cataract, became a permanent inmate of his +house. She had a small income of some 40_l_. a year, partly from the +charity of connexions of her father's, and partly arising from a little +book of miscellanies published by subscription. She was a woman of some +sense and cultivation, and when she died (in 1783) Johnson said that for +thirty years she had been to him as a sister. Boswell's jealousy was +excited during the first period of his acquaintance, when Goldsmith one +night went home with Johnson, crying "I go to Miss Williams"--a phrase +which implied admission to an intimacy from which Boswell was as yet +excluded. Boswell soon obtained the coveted privilege, and testifies to +the respect with which Johnson always treated the inmates of his family. +Before leaving her to dine with Boswell at the hotel, he asked her what +little delicacy should be sent to her from the tavern. Poor Miss +Williams, however, was peevish, and, according to Hawkins, had been +known to drive Johnson out of the room by her reproaches, and Boswell's +delicacy was shocked by the supposition that she tested the fulness of +cups of tea, by putting her finger inside. We are glad to know that +this was a false impression, and, in fact, Miss Williams, however +unfortunate in temper and circumstances, seems to have been a lady by +manners and education. + +The next inmate of this queer household was Robert Levett, a man who had +been a waiter at a coffee-house in Paris frequented by surgeons. They +had enabled him to pick up some of their art, and he set up as an +"obscure practiser in physic amongst the lower people" in London. He +took from them such fees as he could get, including provisions, +sometimes, unfortunately for him, of the potable kind. He was once +entrapped into a queer marriage, and Johnson had to arrange a separation +from his wife. Johnson, it seems, had a good opinion of his medical +skill, and more or less employed his services in that capacity. He +attended his patron at his breakfast; breakfasting, said Percy, "on the +crust of a roll, which Johnson threw to him after tearing out the +crumb." The phrase, it is said, goes too far; Johnson always took pains +that Levett should be treated rather as a friend than as a dependant. + +Besides these humble friends, there was a Mrs. Desmoulins, the daughter +of a Lichfield physician. Johnson had had some quarrel with the father +in his youth for revealing a confession of the mental disease which +tortured him from early years. He supported Mrs. Desmoulins none the +less, giving house-room to her and her daughter, and making her an +allowance of half-a-guinea a week, a sum equal to a twelfth part of his +pension. Francis Barker has already been mentioned, and we have a dim +vision of a Miss Carmichael, who completed what he facetiously called +his "seraglio." It was anything but a happy family. He summed up their +relations in a letter to Mrs. Thrale. "Williams," he says, "hates +everybody; Levett hates Desmoulins, and does not love Williams; +Desmoulins hates them both; Poll (Miss Carmichael) loves none of them." +Frank Barker complained of Miss Williams's authority, and Miss Williams +of Frank's insubordination. Intruders who had taken refuge under his +roof, brought their children there in his absence, and grumbled if their +dinners were ill-dressed. The old man bore it all, relieving himself by +an occasional growl, but reproaching any who ventured to join in the +growl for their indifference to the sufferings of poverty. Levett died +in January, 1782; Miss Williams died, after a lingering illness, in +1783, and Johnson grieved in solitude for the loss of his testy +companions. A poem, composed upon Levett's death, records his feelings +in language which wants the refinement of Goldsmith or the intensity of +Cowper's pathos, but which is yet so sincere and tender as to be more +impressive than far more elegant compositions. It will be a fitting +close to this brief indication of one side of Johnson's character, too +easily overlooked in Boswell's pages, to quote part of what Thackeray +truly calls the "sacred verses" upon Levett:-- + + Well tried through many a varying year + See Levett to the grave descend, + Officious, innocent, sincere, + Of every friendless name the friend. + + In misery's darkest cavern known, + His ready help was ever nigh; + Where hopeless anguish pour'd his groan, + And lonely want retired to die. + + No summons mock'd by dull delay, + No petty gains disdain'd by pride; + The modest wants of every day, + The toil of every day supplied. + + His virtues walk'd their narrow round, + Nor made a pause, nor left a void; + And sure the eternal Master found + His single talent well employed. + + The busy day, the peaceful night, + Unfelt, uncounted, glided by; + His frame was firm, his eye was bright, + Though now his eightieth year was nigh. + + Then, with no throbs of fiery pain, + No cold gradations of decay, + Death broke at once the vital chain, + And freed his soul the easiest way. + +The last stanza smells somewhat of the country tombstone; but to read +the whole and to realize the deep, manly sentiment which it implies, +without tears in one's eyes is to me at least impossible. + +There is one little touch which may be added before we proceed to the +closing years of this tender-hearted old moralist. Johnson loved little +children, calling them "little dears," and cramming them with +sweetmeats, though we regret to add that he once snubbed a little child +rather severely for a want of acquaintance with the _Pilgrim's +Progress_. His cat, Hodge, should be famous amongst the lovers of the +race. He used to go out and buy oysters for Hodge, that the servants +might not take a dislike to the animal from having to serve it +themselves. He reproached his wife for beating a cat before the maid, +lest she should give a precedent for cruelty. Boswell, who cherished an +antipathy to cats, suffered at seeing Hodge scrambling up Johnson's +breast, whilst he smiled and rubbed the beast's back and pulled its +tail. Bozzy remarked that he was a fine cat. "Why, yes, sir," said +Johnson; "but I have had cats whom I liked better than this," and then, +lest Hodge should be put out of countenance, he added, "but he is a very +fine cat, a very fine cat indeed." He told Langton once of a young +gentleman who, when last heard of, was "running about town shooting +cats; but," he murmured in a kindly reverie, "Hodge shan't be shot; no, +no, Hodge shall not be shot!" Once, when Johnson was staying at a house +in Wales, the gardener brought in a hare which had been caught in the +potatoes. The order was given to take it to the cook. Johnson asked to +have it placed in his arms. He took it to the window and let it go, +shouting to increase its speed. When his host complained that he had +perhaps spoilt the dinner, Johnson replied by insisting that the rights +of hospitality included an animal which had thus placed itself under the +protection of the master of the garden. + +We must proceed, however, to a more serious event. The year 1781 brought +with it a catastrophe which profoundly affected the brief remainder of +Johnson's life. Mr. Thrale, whose health had been shaken by fits, died +suddenly on the 4th of April. The ultimate consequence was Johnson's +loss of the second home, in which he had so often found refuge from +melancholy, alleviation of physical suffering, and pleasure in social +converse. The change did not follow at once, but as the catastrophe of a +little social drama, upon the rights and wrongs of which a good deal of +controversy has been expended. + +Johnson was deeply affected by the loss of a friend whose face, as he +said, "had never been turned upon him through fifteen years but with +respect and benignity." He wrote solemn and affecting letters to the +widow, and busied himself strenuously in her service. Thrale had made +him one of his executors, leaving him a small legacy; and Johnson took, +it seems, a rather simple-minded pleasure in dealing with important +commercial affairs and signing cheques for large sums of money. The old +man of letters, to whom three hundred a year had been superabundant +wealth, was amused at finding himself in the position of a man of +business, regulating what was then regarded as a princely fortune. The +brewery was sold after a time, and Johnson bustled about with an +ink-horn and pen in his button-hole. When asked what was the value of +the property, he replied magniloquently, "We are not here to sell a +parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond +the dreams of avarice." The brewery was in fact sold to Barclay, +Perkins, and Co. for the sum of 135,000_l_., and some years afterwards +it was the largest concern of the kind in the world. + +The first effect of the change was probably rather to tighten than to +relax the bond of union with the Thrale family. During the winter of +1781-2, Johnson's infirmities were growing upon him. In the beginning of +1782 he was suffering from an illness which excited serious +apprehensions, and he went to Mrs. Thrale's, as the only house where he +could use "all the freedom that sickness requires." She nursed him +carefully, and expressed her feelings with characteristic vehemence in a +curious journal which he had encouraged her to keep. It records her +opinions about her affairs and her family, with a frankness remarkable +even in writing intended for no eye but her own. "Here is Mr. Johnson +very ill," she writes on the 1st of February;.... "What shall we do for +him? If I lose _him_, I am more than undone--friend, father, guardian, +confidant! God give me health and patience! What shall I do?" There is +no reason to doubt the sincerity of these sentiments, though they seem +to represent a mood of excitement. They show that for ten months after +Thrale's death Mrs. Thrale was keenly sensitive to the value of +Johnson's friendship. + +A change, however, was approaching. Towards the end of 1780 Mrs. Thrale +had made the acquaintance of an Italian musician named Piozzi, a man of +amiable and honourable character, making an independent income by his +profession, but to the eyes of most people rather inoffensive than +specially attractive. The friendship between Mrs. Thrale and Piozzi +rapidly became closer, and by the end of 1781 she was on very intimate +terms with the gentleman whom she calls "my Piozzi." He had been making +a professional trip to the Continent during part of the period since her +husband's death, and upon his return in November, Johnson congratulated +her upon having two friends who loved her, in terms which suggest no +existing feeling of jealousy. During 1782 the mutual affection of the +lady and the musician became stronger, and in the autumn they had avowed +it to each other, and were discussing the question of marriage. + +No one who has had some experience of life will be inclined to condemn +Mrs. Thrale for her passion. Rather the capacity for a passion not +excited by an intrinsically unworthy object should increase our esteem +for her. Her marriage with Thrale had been, as has been said, one of +convenience; and, though she bore him many children and did her duty +faithfully, she never loved him. Towards the end of his life he had made +her jealous by very marked attentions to the pretty and sentimental +Sophy Streatfield, which once caused a scene at his table; and during +the last two years his mind had been weakened, and his conduct had +caused her anxiety and discomfort. It is not surprising that she should +welcome the warm and simple devotion of her new lover, though she was of +a ripe age and the mother of grown-up daughters. + +It is, however, equally plain that an alliance with a foreign fiddler +was certain to shock British respectability. It is the old story of the +quarrel between Philistia and Bohemia. Nor was respectability without +much to say for itself. Piozzi was a Catholic as well as a foreigner; to +marry him was in all probability to break with daughters just growing +into womanhood, whom it was obviously her first duty to protect. The +marriage, therefore, might be regarded as not merely a revolt against +conventional morality, but as leading to a desertion of country, +religion, and family. Her children, her husband's friends, and her whole +circle were certain to look upon the match with feelings of the +strongest disapproval, and she admitted to herself that the objections +were founded upon something more weighty than a fear of the world's +censure. + +Johnson, in particular, among whose virtues one cannot reckon a +superiority to British prejudice, would inevitably consider the marriage +as simply degrading. Foreseeing this, and wishing to avoid the pain of +rejecting advice which she felt unable to accept, she refrained from +retaining her "friend, father, and guardian" in the position of +"confidant." Her situation in the summer of 1782 was therefore +exceedingly trying. She was unhappy at home. Her children, she +complains, did not love her; her servants "devoured" her; her friends +censured her; and her expenses were excessive, whilst the loss of a +lawsuit strained her resources. Johnson, sickly, suffering and +descending into the gloom of approaching decay, was present like a +charged thunder-cloud ready to burst at any moment, if she allowed him +to approach the chief subject of her thoughts. Though not in love with +Mrs. Thrale, he had a very intelligible feeling of jealousy towards any +one who threatened to distract her allegiance. Under such circumstances +we might expect the state of things which Miss Burney described long +afterwards (though with some confusion of dates). Mrs. Thrale, she says, +was absent and agitated, restless in manner, and hurried in speech, +forcing smiles, and averting her eyes from her friends; neglecting every +one, including Johnson and excepting only Miss Burney herself, to whom +the secret was confided, and the situation therefore explained. +Gradually, according to Miss Burney, she became more petulant to Johnson +than she was herself aware, gave palpable hints of being worried by his +company, and finally excited his resentment and suspicion. In one or two +utterances, though he doubtless felt the expedience of reserve, he +intrusted his forebodings to Miss Burney, and declared that Streatham +was lost to him for ever. + +At last, in the end of August, the crisis came. Mrs. Thrale's lawsuit +had gone against her. She thought it desirable to go abroad and save +money. It had moreover been "long her dearest wish" to see Italy, with +Piozzi for a guide. The one difficulty (as she says in her journal at +the time), was that it seemed equally hard to part with Johnson or to +take him with her till he had regained strength. At last, however she +took courage to confide to him her plans for travel. To her extreme +annoyance he fully approved of them. He advised her to go; anticipated +her return in two or three years; and told her daughter that he should +not accompany them, even if invited. No behaviour, it may be admitted, +could be more provoking than this unforeseen reasonableness. To nerve +oneself to part with a friend, and to find the friend perfectly ready, +and all your battery of argument thrown away is most vexatious. The poor +man should have begged her to stay with him, or to take him with her; he +should have made the scene which she professed to dread, but which would +have been the best proof of her power. The only conclusion which could +really have satisfied her--though she, in all probability, did not know +it--would have been an outburst which would have justified a rupture, +and allowed her to protest against his tyranny as she now proceeded to +protest against his complacency. + +Johnson wished to go to Italy two years later; and his present +willingness to be left was probably caused by a growing sense of the +dangers which threatened their friendship. Mrs. Thrale's anger appears +in her journal. He had never really loved her, she declares; his +affection for her had been interested, though even in her wrath she +admits that he really loved her husband; he cared less for her +conversation, which she had fancied necessary to his existence, than for +her "roast beef and plumb pudden," which he now devours too "dirtily for +endurance." She was fully resolved to go, and yet she could not bear +that her going should fail to torture the friend whom for eighteen years +she had loved and cherished so kindly. + +No one has a right at once to insist upon the compliance of his friends, +and to insist that it should be a painful compliance. Still Mrs. +Thrale's petulant outburst was natural enough. It requires notice +because her subsequent account of the rupture has given rise to attacks +on Johnson's character. Her "Anecdotes," written in 1785, show that her +real affection for Johnson was still coloured by resentment for his +conduct at this and a later period. They have an apologetic character +which shows itself in a statement as to the origin of the quarrel, +curiously different from the contemporary accounts in the diary. She +says substantially, and the whole book is written so as to give +probability to the assertion, that Johnson's bearishness and demands +upon her indulgence had become intolerable, when he was no longer under +restraint from her husband's presence. She therefore "took advantage" of +her lost lawsuit and other troubles to leave London, and thus escape +from his domestic tyranny. He no longer, as she adds, suffered from +anything but "old age and general infirmity" (a tolerably wide +exception!), and did not require her nursing. She therefore withdrew +from the yoke to which she had contentedly submitted during her +husband's life, but which was intolerable when her "coadjutor was no +more." + +Johnson's society was, we may easily believe, very trying to a widow in +such a position; and it seems to be true that Thrale was better able +than Mrs. Thrale to restrain his oddities, little as the lady shrunk at +times from reasonable plain-speaking. But the later account involves +something more than a bare suppression of the truth. The excuse about +his health is, perhaps, the worst part of her case, because obviously +insincere. Nobody could be more fully aware than Mrs. Thrale that +Johnson's infirmities were rapidly gathering, and that another winter or +two must in all probability be fatal to him. She knew, therefore, that +he was never more in want of the care which, as she seems to imply, had +saved him from the specific tendency to something like madness. She +knew, in fact, that she was throwing him upon the care of his other +friends, zealous and affectionate enough, it is true, but yet unable to +supply him with the domestic comforts of Streatham. She clearly felt +that this was a real injury, inevitable it might be under the +circumstances, but certainly not to be extenuated by the paltry evasion +as to his improved health. So far from Johnson's health being now +established, she had not dared to speak until his temporary recovery +from a dangerous illness, which had provoked her at the time to the +strongest expressions of anxious regret. She had (according to the +diary) regarded a possible breaking of the yoke in the early part of +1782 as a terrible evil, which would "more than ruin her." Even when +resolved to leave Streatham, her one great difficulty is the dread of +parting with Johnson, and the pecuniary troubles are the solid and +conclusive reason. In the later account the money question is the mere +pretext; the desire to leave Johnson the true motive; and the +long-cherished desire to see Italy with Piozzi is judiciously dropped +out of notice altogether. + +The truth is plain enough. Mrs. Thrale was torn by conflicting feelings. +She still loved Johnson, and yet dreaded his certain disapproval of her +strongest wishes. She respected him, but was resolved not to follow his +advice. She wished to treat him with kindness and to be repaid with +gratitude, and yet his presence and his affection were full of +intolerable inconveniences. When an old friendship becomes a burden, the +smaller infirmities of manner and temper to which we once submitted +willingly, become intolerable. She had borne with Johnson's modes of +eating and with his rough reproofs to herself and her friends during +sixteen years of her married life; and for nearly a year of her +widowhood she still clung to him as the wisest and kindest of monitors. +His manners had undergone no spasmodic change. They became intolerable +when, for other reasons, she resented his possible interference, and +wanted a very different guardian and confidant; and, therefore, she +wished to part, and yet wished that the initiative should come from him. + +The decision to leave Streatham was taken. Johnson parted with deep +regret from the house; he read a chapter of the Testament in the +library; he took leave of the church with a kiss; he composed a prayer +commending the family to the protection of Heaven; and he did not forget +to note in his journal the details of the last dinner of which he +partook. This quaint observation may have been due to some valetudinary +motive, or, more probably, to some odd freak of association. Once, when +eating an omelette, he was deeply affected because it recalled his old +friend Nugent. "Ah, my dear friend," he said "in an agony," "I shall +never eat omelette with thee again!" And in the present case there is an +obscure reference to some funeral connected in his mind with a meal. The +unlucky entry has caused some ridicule, but need hardly convince us that +his love of the family in which for so many years he had been an +honoured and honour-giving inmate was, as Miss Seward amiably suggests, +in great measure "kitchen-love." + +No immediate rupture followed the abandonment of the Streatham +establishment. Johnson spent some weeks at Brighton with Mrs. Thrale, +during which a crisis was taking place, without his knowledge, in her +relations to Piozzi. After vehement altercations with her daughters, +whom she criticizes with great bitterness for their utter want of heart, +she resolved to break with Piozzi for at least a time. Her plan was to +go to Bath, and there to retrench her expenses, in the hopes of being +able to recall her lover at some future period. Meanwhile he left her +and returned to Italy. After another winter in London, during which +Johnson was still a frequent inmate of her house, she went to Bath with +her daughters in April, 1783. A melancholy period followed for both the +friends. Mrs. Thrale lost a younger daughter, and Johnson had a +paralytic stroke in June. Death was sending preliminary warnings. A +correspondence was kept up, which implies that the old terms were not +ostensibly broken. Mrs. Thrale speaks tartly more than once; and +Johnson's letters go into medical details with his customary plainness +of speech, and he occasionally indulges in laments over the supposed +change in her feelings. The gloom is thickening, and the old playful +gallantry has died out. The old man evidently felt himself deserted, and +suffered from the breaking-up of the asylum he had loved so well. The +final catastrophe came in 1784, less than six months before Johnson's +death. + +After much suffering in mind and body, Mrs. Thrale had at last induced +her daughters to consent to her marriage with Piozzi. She sent for him +at once, and they were married in June, 1784. A painful correspondence +followed. Mrs. Thrale announced her marriage in a friendly letter to +Johnson, excusing her previous silence on the ground that discussion +could only have caused them pain. The revelation, though Johnson could +not have been quite unprepared, produced one of his bursts of fury. +"Madam, if I interpret your letter rightly," wrote the old man, "you are +ignominiously married. If it is yet undone, let us once more talk +together. If you have abandoned your children and your religion, God +forgive your wickedness! If you have forfeited your fame and your +country, may your folly do no further mischief! If the last act is yet +to do, I, who have loved you, esteemed you, reverenced you, and served +you--I, who long thought you the first of womankind--entreat that before +your fate is irrevocable, I may once more see you! I was, I once was, +madam, most truly yours, Sam. Johnson." + +Mrs. Thrale replied with spirit and dignity to this cry of blind +indignation, speaking of her husband with becoming pride, and resenting +the unfortunate phrase about her loss of "fame." She ended by declining +further intercourse till Johnson could change his opinion of Piozzi. +Johnson admitted in his reply that he had no right to resent her +conduct; expressed his gratitude for the kindness which had "soothed +twenty years of a life radically wretched," and implored her +("superfluously," as she says) to induce Piozzi to settle in England. He +then took leave of her with an expression of sad forebodings. Mrs. +Thrale, now Mrs. Piozzi, says that she replied affectionately; but the +letter is missing. The friendship was broken off, and during the brief +remainder of Johnson's life, the Piozzis were absent from England. + +Of her there is little more to be said. After passing some time in +Italy, where she became a light of that wretched little Della Cruscan +society of which some faint memory is preserved by Gifford's ridicule, +now pretty nearly forgotten with its objects, she returned with her +husband to England. Her anecdotes of Johnson, published soon after his +death, had a success which, in spite of much ridicule, encouraged her to +some further literary efforts of a sprightly but ephemeral kind. She +lived happily with Piozzi, and never had cause to regret her marriage. +She was reconciled to her daughters sufficiently to renew a friendly +intercourse; but the elder ones set up a separate establishment. Piozzi +died not long afterwards. She was still a vivacious old lady, who +celebrated her 80th birthday by a ball, and is supposed at that ripe +age to have made an offer of marriage to a young actor. She died in May, +1821, leaving all that she could dispose of to a nephew of Piozzi's, who +had been naturalised in England. + +Meanwhile Johnson was rapidly approaching the grave. His old inmates, +Levett and Miss Williams, had gone before him; Goldsmith and Garrick and +Beauclerk had become memories of the past; and the gloom gathered +thickly around him. The old man clung to life with pathetic earnestness. +Though life had been often melancholy, he never affected to conceal the +horror with which he regarded death. He frequently declared that death +must be dreadful to every reasonable man. "Death, my dear, is very +dreadful," he says simply in a letter to Lucy Porter in the last year of +his life. Still later he shocked a pious friend by admitting that the +fear oppressed him. Dr. Adams tried the ordinary consolation of the +divine goodness, and went so far as to suggest that hell might not imply +much positive suffering. Johnson's religious views were of a different +colour. "I am afraid," he said, "I may be one of those who shall be +damned." "What do you mean by damned?" asked Adams. Johnson replied +passionately and loudly, "Sent to hell, sir, and punished +everlastingly." Remonstrances only deepened his melancholy, and he +silenced his friends by exclaiming in gloomy agitation, "I'll have no +more on't!" Often in these last years he was heard muttering to himself +the passionate complaint of Claudio, "Ah, but to die and go we know not +whither!" At other times he was speaking of some lost friend, and +saying, "Poor man--and then he died!" The peculiar horror of death, +which seems to indicate a tinge of insanity, was combined with utter +fearlessness of pain. He called to the surgeons to cut deeper when +performing a painful operation, and shortly before his death inflicted +such wounds upon himself in hopes of obtaining relief as, very +erroneously, to suggest the idea of suicide. Whilst his strength +remained, he endeavoured to disperse melancholy by some of the old +methods. In the winter of 1783-4 he got together the few surviving +members of the old Ivy Lane Club, which had flourished when he was +composing the _Dictionary_; but the old place of meeting had vanished, +most of the original members were dead, and the gathering can have been +but melancholy. He started another club at the Essex Head, whose members +were to meet twice a week, with the modest fine of threepence for +non-attendance. It appears to have included a rather "strange mixture" +of people, and thereby to have given some scandal to Sir John Hawkins +and even to Reynolds. They thought that his craving for society, +increased by his loss of Streatham, was leading him to undignified +concessions. + +Amongst the members of the club, however, were such men as Horsley and +Windham. Windham seems to have attracted more personal regard than most +politicians, by a generous warmth of enthusiasm not too common in the +class. In politics he was an ardent disciple of Burke's, whom he +afterwards followed in his separation from the new Whigs. But, though +adhering to the principles which Johnson detested, he knew, like his +preceptor, how to win Johnson's warmest regard. He was the most eminent +of the younger generation who now looked up to Johnson as a venerable +relic from the past. Another was young Burke, that very priggish and +silly young man as he seems to have been, whose loss, none the less, +broke the tender heart of his father. Friendships, now more +interesting, were those with two of the most distinguished authoresses +of the day. One of them was Hannah More, who was about this time coming +to the conclusion that the talents which had gained her distinction in +the literary and even in the dramatic world, should be consecrated to +less secular employment. Her vivacity during the earlier years of their +acquaintance exposed her to an occasional rebuff. "She does not gain +upon me, sir; I think her empty-headed," was one of his remarks; and it +was to her that he said, according to Mrs. Thrale, though Boswell +reports a softened version of the remark, that she should "consider what +her flattery was worth, before she choked him with it." More frequently, +he seems to have repaid it in kind. "There was no name in poetry," he +said, "which might not be glad to own her poem"--the _Bas Bleu_. +Certainly Johnson did not stick at trifles in intercourse with his +female friends. He was delighted, shortly before his death, to "gallant +it about" with her at Oxford, and in serious moments showed a respectful +regard for her merits. Hannah More, who thus sat at the feet of Johnson, +encouraged the juvenile ambition of Macaulay, and did not die till the +historian had grown into manhood and fame. The other friendship noticed +was with Fanny Burney, who also lived to our own time. Johnson's +affection for this daughter of his friend seems to have been amongst the +tenderest of his old age. When she was first introduced to him at the +Thrales, she was overpowered and indeed had her head a little turned by +flattery of the most agreeable kind that an author can receive. The +"great literary Leviathan" showed himself to have the recently published +_Evelina_ at his fingers' ends. He quoted, and almost acted passages. +"La! Polly!" he exclaimed in a pert feminine accent, "only think! Miss +has danced with a lord!" How many modern readers can assign its place to +that quotation, or answer the question which poor Boswell asked in +despair and amidst general ridicule for his ignorance, "What is a +Brangton?" There is something pleasant in the enthusiasm with which men +like Johnson and Burke welcomed the literary achievements of the young +lady, whose first novels seem to have made a sensation almost as lively +as that produced by Miss Bronte, and far superior to anything that fell +to the lot of Miss Austen. Johnson seems also to have regarded her with +personal affection. He had a tender interview with her shortly before +his death; he begged her with solemn energy to remember him in her +prayers; he apologized pathetically for being unable to see her, as his +weakness increased; and sent her tender messages from his deathbed. + +As the end drew near, Johnson accepted the inevitable like a man. After +spending most of the latter months of 1784 in the country with the +friends who, after the loss of the Thrales, could give him most domestic +comfort, he came back to London to die. He made his will, and settled a +few matters of business, and was pleased to be told that he would be +buried in Westminster Abbey. He uttered a few words of solemn advice to +those who came near him, and took affecting leave of his friends. +Langton, so warmly loved, was in close attendance. Johnson said to him +tenderly, _Te teneam moriens deficiente manu_. Windham broke from +political occupations to sit by the dying man; once Langton found Burke +sitting by his bedside with three or four friends. "I am afraid," said +Burke, "that so many of us must be oppressive to you." "No, sir, it is +not so," replied Johnson, "and I must be in a wretched state indeed +when your company would not be a delight to me." "My dear sir," said +Burke, with a breaking voice, "you have always been too good to me;" and +parted from his old friend for the last time. Of Reynolds, he begged +three things: to forgive a debt of thirty pounds, to read the Bible, and +never to paint on Sundays. A few flashes of the old humour broke +through. He said of a man who sat up with him: "Sir, the fellow's an +idiot; he's as awkward as a turnspit when first put into the wheel, and +as sleepy as a dormouse." His last recorded words were to a young lady +who had begged for his blessing: "God bless you, my dear." The same day, +December 13th, 1784, he gradually sank and died peacefully. He was laid +in the Abbey by the side of Goldsmith, and the playful prediction has +been amply fulfilled:-- + + Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis. + +The names of many greater writers are inscribed upon the walls of +Westminster Abbey; but scarcely any one lies there whose heart was more +acutely responsive during life to the deepest and tenderest of human +emotions. In visiting that strange gathering of departed heroes and +statesmen and philanthropists and poets, there are many whose words and +deeds have a far greater influence upon our imaginations; but there are +very few whom, when all has been said, we can love so heartily as Samuel +Johnson. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +JOHNSON'S WRITINGS. + + +It remains to speak of Johnson's position in literature. For reasons +sufficiently obvious, few men whose lives have been devoted to letters +for an equal period, have left behind them such scanty and inadequate +remains. Johnson, as we have seen, worked only under the pressure of +circumstances; a very small proportion of his latter life was devoted to +literary employment. The working hours of his earlier years were spent +for the most part in productions which can hardly be called literary. +Seven years were devoted to the _Dictionary_, which, whatever its +merits, could be a book only in the material sense of the word, and was +of course destined to be soon superseded. Much of his hack-work has +doubtless passed into oblivion, and though the ordinary relic-worship +has gathered together fragments enough to fill twelve decent octavo +volumes (to which may be added the two volumes of parliamentary +reports), the part which can be called alive may be compressed into very +moderate compass. Johnson may be considered as a poet, an essayist, a +pamphleteer, a traveller, a critic, and a biographer. Among his poems, +the two imitations of Juvenal, especially the _Vanity of Human Wishes_, +and a minor fragment or two, probably deserve more respect than would be +conceded to them by adherents of modern schools. His most ambitious +work, _Irene_, can be read by men in whom a sense of duty has been +abnormally developed. Among the two hundred and odd essays of the +_Rambler_, there is a fair proportion which will deserve, but will +hardly obtain, respectful attention. _Rasselas_, one of the +philosophical tales popular in the last century, gives the essence of +much of the _Rambler_ in a different form, and to these may be added the +essay upon Soame Jenyns, which deals with the same absorbing question of +human happiness. The political pamphlets, and the _Journey to the +Hebrides_, have a certain historical interest; but are otherwise +readable only in particular passages. Much of his criticism is pretty +nearly obsolete; but the child of his old age--the _Lives of the +Poets_--a book in which criticism and biography are combined, is an +admirable performance in spite of serious defects. It is the work that +best reflects his mind, and intelligent readers who have once made its +acquaintance, will be apt to turn it into a familiar companion. + +If it is easy to assign the causes which limited the quantity of +Johnson's work, it is more curious to inquire what was the quality which +once gained for it so much authority, and which now seems to have so far +lost its savour. The peculiar style which is associated with Johnson's +name must count for something in both processes. The mannerism is +strongly marked, and of course offensive; for by "mannerism," as I +understand the word, is meant the repetition of certain forms of +language in obedience to blind habit and without reference to their +propriety in the particular case. Johnson's sentences seem to be +contorted, as his gigantic limbs used to twitch, by a kind of mechanical +spasmodic action. The most obvious peculiarity is the tendency which he +noticed himself, to "use too big words and too many of them." He had to +explain to Miss Reynolds that the Shakesperian line,-- + + You must borrow me Garagantua's mouth, + +had been applied to him because he used "big words, which require the +mouth of a giant to pronounce them." It was not, however, the mere +bigness of the words that distinguished his style, but a peculiar love +of putting the abstract for the concrete, of using awkward inversions, +and of balancing his sentences in a monotonous rhythm, which gives the +appearance, as it sometimes corresponds to the reality, of elaborate +logical discrimination. With all its faults the style has the merits of +masculine directness. The inversions are not such as to complicate the +construction. As Boswell remarks, he never uses a parenthesis; and his +style, though ponderous and wearisome, is as transparent as the smarter +snip-snap of Macaulay. + +This singular mannerism appears in his earliest writings; it is most +marked at the time of the _Rambler_; whilst in the _Lives of the Poets_, +although I think that the trick of inversion has become commoner, the +other peculiarities have been so far softened as (in my judgment, at +least), to be inoffensive. It is perhaps needless to give examples of a +tendency which marks almost every page of his writing. A passage or two +from the _Rambler_ may illustrate the quality of the style, and the +oddity of the effect produced, when it is applied to topics of a trivial +kind. The author of the _Rambler_ is supposed to receive a remonstrance +upon his excessive gravity from the lively Flirtilla, who wishes him to +write in defence of masquerades. Conscious of his own incapacity, he +applies to a man of "high reputation in gay life;" who, on the fifth +perusal of Flirtilla's letter breaks into a rapture, and declares that +he is ready to devote himself to her service. Here is part of the +apostrophe put into the mouth of this brilliant rake. "Behold, +Flirtilla, at thy feet a man grown gray in the study of those noble arts +by which right and wrong may be confounded; by which reason may be +blinded, when we have a mind to escape from her inspection, and caprice +and appetite instated in uncontrolled command and boundless dominion! +Such a casuist may surely engage with certainty of success in +vindication of an entertainment which in an instant gives confidence to +the timorous and kindles ardour in the cold, an entertainment where the +vigilance of jealousy has so often been clouded, and the virgin is set +free from the necessity of languishing in silence; where all the +outworks of chastity are at once demolished; where the heart is laid +open without a blush; where bashfulness may survive virtue, and no wish +is crushed under the frown of modesty." + +Here is another passage, in which Johnson is speaking upon a topic more +within his proper province; and which contains sound sense under its +weight of words. A man, he says, who reads a printed book, is often +contented to be pleased without critical examination. "But," he adds, +"if the same man be called to consider the merit of a production yet +unpublished, he brings an imagination heated with objections to passages +which he has never yet heard; he invokes all the powers of criticism, +and stores his memory with Taste and Grace, Purity and Delicacy, Manners +and Unities, sounds which having been once uttered by those that +understood them, have been since re-echoed without meaning, and kept up +to the disturbance of the world by constant repercussion from one +coxcomb to another. He considers himself as obliged to show by some +proof of his abilities, that he is not consulted to no purpose, and +therefore watches every opening for objection, and looks round for every +opportunity to propose some specious alteration. Such opportunities a +very small degree of sagacity will enable him to find, for in every work +of imagination, the disposition of parts, the insertion of incidents, +and use of decorations may be varied in a thousand ways with equal +propriety; and, as in things nearly equal that will always seem best to +every man which he himself produces, the critic, whose business is only +to propose without the care of execution, can never want the +satisfaction of believing that he has suggested very important +improvements, nor the power of enforcing his advice by arguments, which, +as they appear convincing to himself, either his kindness or his vanity +will press obstinately and importunately, without suspicion that he may +possibly judge too hastily in favour of his own advice or inquiry +whether the advantage of the new scheme be proportionate to the labour." +We may still notice a "repercussion" of words from one coxcomb to +another; though somehow the words have been changed or translated. + +Johnson's style is characteristic of the individual and of the epoch. +The preceding generation had exhibited the final triumph of common sense +over the pedantry of a decaying scholasticism. The movements represented +by Locke's philosophy, by the rationalizing school in theology, and by +the so-called classicism of Pope and his followers, are different phases +of the same impulse. The quality valued above all others in philosophy, +literature, and art was clear, bright, common sense. To expel the +mystery which had served as a cloak for charlatans was the great aim of +the time, and the method was to appeal from the professors of exploded +technicalities to the judgment of cultivated men of the world. Berkeley +places his Utopia in happy climes,-- + + Where nature guides, and virtue rules, + _Where men shall not impose for truth and sense + The pedantry of courts and schools_. + +Simplicity, clearness, directness are, therefore, the great virtues of +thought and style. Berkeley, Addison, Pope, and Swift are the great +models of such excellence in various departments of literature. + +In the succeeding generation we become aware of a certain leaven of +dissatisfaction with the aesthetic and intellectual code thus inherited. +The supremacy of common sense, the superlative importance of clearness, +is still fully acknowledged, but there is a growing undertone of dissent +in form and substance. Attempts are made to restore philosophical +conceptions assailed by Locke and his followers; the rationalism, of the +deistic or semi-deistic writers is declared to be superficial; their +optimistic theories disregard the dark side of nature, and provide no +sufficient utterance for the sadness caused by the contemplation of +human suffering; and the polished monotony of Pope's verses begins to +fall upon those who shall tread in his steps. Some daring sceptics are +even inquiring whether he is a poet at all. And simultaneously, though +Addison is still a kind of sacred model, the best prose writers are +beginning to aim at a more complex structure of sentence, fitted for the +expression of a wider range of thought and emotion. + +Johnson, though no conscious revolutionist, shares this growing +discontent. The _Spectator_ is written in the language of the +drawing-room and the coffee-house. Nothing is ever said which might not +pass in conversation between a couple of "wits," with, at most, some +graceful indulgence in passing moods of solemn or tender sentiment. +Johnson, though devoted to society in his own way, was anything but a +producer of small talk. Society meant to him an escape from the gloom +which beset him whenever he was abandoned to his thoughts. Neither his +education nor the manners acquired in Grub Street had qualified him to +be an observer of those lighter foibles which were touched by Addison +with so dexterous a hand. When he ventures upon such topics he flounders +dreadfully, and rather reminds us of an artist who should attempt to +paint miniatures with a mop. No man, indeed, took more of interest in +what is called the science of human nature; and, when roused by the +stimulus of argument, he could talk, as has been shown, with almost +unrivalled vigour and point. But his favourite topics are the deeper +springs of character, rather than superficial peculiarities; and his +vigorous sayings are concentrated essence of strong sense and deep +feeling, not dainty epigrams or graceful embodiments of delicate +observation. Johnson was not, like some contemporary antiquarians, a +systematic student of the English literature of the preceding centuries, +but he had a strong affection for some of its chief masterpieces. +Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_ was, he declared, the only book which +ever got him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished. Sir Thomas +Browne was another congenial writer, who is supposed to have had some +influence upon his style. He never seems to have directly imitated any +one, though some nonsense has been talked about his "forming a style;" +but it is probable that he felt a closer affinity to those old scholars, +with their elaborate and ornate language and their deep and solemn tone +of sentiment, than to the brilliant but comparatively superficial +writers of Queen Anne's time. He was, one may say, a scholar of the old +type, forced by circumstances upon the world, but always retaining a +sympathy for the scholar's life and temper. Accordingly, his style +acquired something of the old elaboration, though the attempt to conform +to the canons of a later age renders the structure disagreeably +monotonous. His tendency to pomposity is not redeemed by the _naivete_ +and spontaneity of his masters. + +The inferiority of Johnson's written to his spoken utterances is +indicative of his divided life. There are moments at which his writing +takes the terse, vigorous tone of his talk. In his letters, such as +those to Chesterfield and Macpherson and in occasional passages of his +pamphlets, we see that he could be pithy enough when he chose to descend +from his Latinized abstractions to good concrete English; but that is +only when he becomes excited. His face when in repose, we are told, +appeared to be almost imbecile; he was constantly sunk in reveries, from +which he was only roused by a challenge to conversation. In his +writings, for the most part, we seem to be listening to the reverie +rather than the talk; we are overhearing a soliloquy in his study, not a +vigorous discussion over the twentieth cup of tea; he is not fairly put +upon his mettle, and is content to expound without enforcing. We seem to +see a man, heavy-eyed, ponderous in his gestures, like some huge +mechanism which grinds out a ponderous tissue of verbiage as heavy as it +is certainly solid. + +The substance corresponds to the style. Johnson has something in common +with the fashionable pessimism of modern times. No sentimentalist of +to-day could be more convinced that life is in the main miserable. It +was his favourite theory, according to Mrs. Thrale, that all human +action was prompted by the "vacuity of life." Men act solely in the hope +of escaping from themselves. Evil, as a follower of Schopenhauer would +assert, is the positive, and good merely the negative of evil. All +desire is at bottom an attempt to escape from pain. The doctrine neither +resulted from, nor generated, a philosophical theory in Johnson's case, +and was in the main a generalization of his own experience. Not the +less, the aim of most of his writing is to express this sentiment in one +form or other. He differs, indeed, from most modern sentimentalists, in +having the most hearty contempt for useless whining. If he dwells upon +human misery, it is because he feels that it is as futile to join with +the optimist in ignoring, as with the pessimist in howling over the +evil. We are in a sad world, full of pain, but we have to make the best +of it. Stubborn patience and hard work are the sole remedies, or rather +the sole means of temporary escape. Much of the _Rambler_ is occupied +with variations upon this theme, and expresses the kind of dogged +resolution with which he would have us plod through this weary world. +Take for example this passage:--"The controversy about the reality of +external evils is now at an end. That life has many miseries, and that +those miseries are sometimes at least equal to all the powers of +fortitude is now universally confessed; and, therefore, it is useful to +consider not only how we may escape them, but by what means those which +either the accidents of affairs or the infirmities of nature must bring +upon us may be mitigated and lightened, and how we may make those hours +less wretched which the condition of our present existence will not +allow to be very happy. + +"The cure for the greatest part of human miseries is not radical, but +palliative. Infelicity is involved in corporeal nature, and interwoven +with our being; all attempts, therefore, to decline it wholly are +useless and vain; the armies of pain send their arrows against us on +every side, the choice is only between those which are more or less +sharp, or tinged with poison of greater or less malignity; and the +strongest armour which reason can supply will only blunt their points, +but cannot repel them. + +"The great remedy which Heaven has put in our hands is patience, by +which, though we cannot lessen the torments of the body, we can in a +great measure preserve the peace of the mind, and shall suffer only the +natural and genuine force of an evil, without heightening its acrimony +or prolonging its effects." + +It is hardly desirable for a moralist to aim at originality in his +precepts. We must be content if he enforces old truths in such a manner +as to convince us of the depth and sincerity of his feeling. Johnson, it +must be confessed, rather abuses the moralist's privilege of being +commonplace. He descants not unfrequently upon propositions so trite +that even the most earnest enforcement can give them little interest. +With all drawbacks, however, the moralizing is the best part of the +_Rambler_. Many of the papers follow the precedent set by Addison in the +_Spectator_, but without Addison's felicity. Like Addison, he indulges +in allegory, which, in his hands, becomes unendurably frigid and clumsy; +he tries light social satire, and is fain to confess that we can spy a +beard under the muffler of his feminine characters; he treats us to +criticism which, like Addison's, goes upon exploded principles, but +unlike Addison's, is apt to be almost wilfully outrageous. His odd +remarks upon Milton's versification are the worst example of this +weakness. The result is what one might expect from the attempt of a +writer without an ear to sit in judgment upon the greatest master of +harmony in the language. + +These defects have consigned the _Rambler_ to the dustiest shelves of +libraries, and account for the wonder expressed by such a critic as M. +Taine at the English love of Johnson. Certainly if that love were +nourished, as he seems to fancy, by assiduous study of the _Rambler_, it +would be a curious phenomenon. And yet with all its faults, the reader +who can plod through its pages will at least feel respect for the +author. It is not unworthy of the man whose great lesson is "clear your +mind of cant;"[1] who felt most deeply the misery of the world, but from +the bottom of his heart despised querulous and sentimental complaints on +one side, and optimist glasses upon the other. To him, as to some others +of his temperament, the affectation of looking at the bright side of +things seems to have presented itself as the bitterest of mockeries; and +nothing would tempt him to let fine words pass themselves off for +genuine sense. Here are some remarks upon the vanity in which some +authors seek for consolation, which may illustrate this love of +realities and conclude our quotations from the _Rambler_. + +[Footnote 1: Of this well-known sentiment it may be said, as of some +other familiar quotations, that its direct meaning has been slightly +modified in use. The emphasis is changed. Johnson's words were "Clear +your _mind_ of cant. You may talk as other people do; you may say to a +man, sir, I am your humble servant; you are _not_ his most humble +servant.... You may _talk_ in this manner; it is a mode of talking in +society; but don't _think_ foolishly."] + +"By such acts of voluntary delusion does every man endeavour to conceal +his own unimportance from himself. It is long before we are convinced of +the small proportion which every individual bears to the collective body +of mankind; or learn how few can be interested in the fortune of any +single man; how little vacancy is left in the world for any new object +of attention; to how small extent the brightest blaze of merit can be +spread amidst the mists of business and of folly; and how soon it is +clouded by the intervention of other novelties. Not only the writer of +books, but the commander of armies, and the deliverer of nations, will +easily outlive all noisy and popular reputation: he may be celebrated +for a time by the public voice, but his actions and his name will soon +be considered as remote and unaffecting, and be rarely mentioned but by +those whose alliance gives them some vanity to gratify by frequent +commemoration. It seems not to be sufficiently considered how little +renown can be admitted in the world. Mankind are kept perpetually busy +by their fears or desires, and have not more leisure from their own +affairs than to acquaint themselves with the accidents of the current +day. Engaged in contriving some refuge from calamity, or in shortening +their way to some new possession, they seldom suffer their thoughts to +wander to the past or future; none but a few solitary students have +leisure to inquire into the claims of ancient heroes or sages; and names +which hoped to range over kingdoms and continents shrink at last into +cloisters and colleges. Nor is it certain that even of these dark and +narrow habitations, these last retreats of fame, the possession will be +long kept. Of men devoted to literature very few extend their views +beyond some particular science, and the greater part seldom inquire, +even in their own profession, for any authors but those whom the present +mode of study happens to force upon their notice; they desire not to +fill their minds with unfashionable knowledge, but contentedly resign to +oblivion those books which they now find censured or neglected." + +The most remarkable of Johnson's utterances upon his favourite topic of +the Vanity of Human Wishes is the story of _Rasselas_. The plan of the +book is simple, and recalls certain parts of Voltaire's simultaneous but +incomparably more brilliant attack upon Optimism in _Candide_. There is +supposed to be a happy valley in Abyssinia where the royal princes are +confined in total seclusion, but with ample supplies for every +conceivable want. Rasselas, who has been thus educated, becomes curious +as to the outside world, and at last makes his escape with his sister, +her attendant, and the ancient sage and poet, Imlac. Under Imlac's +guidance they survey life and manners in various stations; they make the +acquaintance of philosophers, statesmen, men of the world, and recluses; +they discuss the results of their experience pretty much in the style of +the _Rambler_; they agree to pronounce the sentence "Vanity of +Vanities!" and finally, in a "conclusion where nothing is concluded," +they resolve to return to the happy valley. The book is little more than +a set of essays upon life, with just story enough to hold it together. +It is wanting in those brilliant flashes of epigram, which illustrate +Voltaire's pages so as to blind some readers to its real force of +sentiment, and yet it leaves a peculiar and powerful impression upon the +reader. + +The general tone may be collected from a few passages. Here is a +fragment, the conclusion of which is perhaps the most familiar of +quotations from Johnson's writings. Imlac in narrating his life +describes his attempts to become a poet. + +"The business of a poet," said Imlac, "is to examine not the individual, +but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances; he +does not number the streaks of the tulip or describe the different +shades in the verdure of the forest. He is to exhibit in his portraits +of nature such prominent and striking features as recall the original to +every mind; and must neglect the minute discriminations which one may +have remarked, and another have neglected for those characteristics +which are alike obvious to vigilance and carelessness." + +"But the knowledge of nature is only half the task of a poet; he must be +acquainted likewise with all the modes of life. His character requires +that he estimate the happiness and misery of every condition; observe +the power of all the passions in all their combinations, and know the +changes of the human mind as they are modified by various institutions, +and accidental influences of climate or custom, from the sprightliness +of infancy to the despondency of decrepitude. He must divest himself of +the prejudices of his age or country; he must consider right and wrong +in their abstracted and invariable state; he must disregard present laws +and opinions, and rise to general and transcendental truths, which will +always be the same; he must therefore content himself with the slow +progress of his name; contemn the applause of his own time, and commit +his claims to the justice of posterity. He must write as the interpreter +of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as +presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations, as a +being superior to time and place. + +"His labours are not yet at an end; he must know many languages and many +sciences; and that his style may be worthy of his thoughts, must by +incessant practice familiarize to himself every delicacy of speech and +grace of harmony." + +Imlac now felt the enthusiastic fit and was proceeding to aggrandize his +profession, when the prince cried out, "Enough, thou hast convinced me +that no human being can ever be a poet." + +Indeed, Johnson's conception of poetry is not the one which is now +fashionable, and which would rather seem to imply that philosophical +power and moral sensibility are so far disqualifications to the true +poet. + +Here, again, is a view of the superfine system of moral philosophy. A +meeting of learned men is discussing the ever-recurring problem of +happiness, and one of them speaks as follows:-- + +"The way to be happy is to live according to nature, in obedience to +that universal and unalterable law with which every heart is originally +impressed; which is not written on it by precept, but engraven by +destiny, not instilled by education, but infused at our nativity. He +that lives according to nature will suffer nothing from the delusions of +hope, or importunities of desire; he will receive and reject with +equability of temper, and act or suffer as the reason of things shall +alternately prescribe. Other men may amuse themselves with subtle +definitions or intricate ratiocinations. Let him learn to be wise by +easier means: let him observe the hind of the forest, and the linnet of +the grove; let him consider the life of animals whose motions are +regulated by instinct; they obey their guide and are happy. + +"Let us, therefore, at length cease to dispute, and learn to live; throw +away the incumbrance of precepts, which they who utter them with so much +pride and pomp do not understand, and carry with us this simple and +intelligible maxim, that deviation from nature is deviation from +happiness." + +The prince modestly inquires what is the precise meaning of the advice +just given. + +"When I find young men so humble and so docile," said the philosopher, +"I can deny them no information which my studies have enabled me to +afford. To live according to nature, is to act always with due regard to +the fitness arising from the relations and qualities of causes and +effects, to concur with the great and unchangeable scheme of universal +felicity; to co-operate with the general disposition and tendency of the +present system of things. + +"The prince soon found that this was one of the sages, whom he should +understand less as he heard him longer." + +Here, finally, is a characteristic reflection upon the right mode of +meeting sorrow. + +"The state of a mind oppressed with a sudden calamity," said Imlac, "is +like that of the fabulous inhabitants of the new created earth, who, +when the first night came upon them, supposed that day would never +return. When the clouds of sorrow gather over us, we see nothing beyond +them, nor can imagine how they will be dispelled; yet a new day +succeeded to the night, and sorrow is never long without a dawn of ease. +But as they who restrain themselves from receiving comfort, do as the +savages would have done, had they put out their eyes when it was dark. +Our minds, like our bodies, are in continual flux; something is hourly +lost, and something acquired. To lose much at once is inconvenient to +either, but while the vital powers remain uninjured, nature will find +the means of reparation. + +"Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye, and while we +glide along the stream of time, whatever we leave behind us is always +lessening, and that which we approach increasing in magnitude. Do not +suffer life to stagnate; it will grow muddy for want of motion; commit +yourself again to the current of the world; Pekuah will vanish by +degrees; you will meet in your way some other favourite, or learn to +diffuse yourself in general conversation." + +In one respect _Rasselas_ is curiously contrasted with _Candide_. +Voltaire's story is aimed at the doctrine of theological optimism, and, +whether that doctrine be well or ill understood, has therefore an openly +sceptical tendency. Johnson, to whom nothing could be more abhorrent +than an alliance with any assailant of orthodoxy, draws no inference +from his pessimism. He is content to state the fact of human misery +without perplexing himself with the resulting problem as to the final +cause of human existence. If the question had been explicitly brought +before him, he would, doubtless, have replied that the mystery was +insoluble. To answer either in the sceptical or the optimistic sense was +equally presumptuous. Johnson's religious beliefs in fact were not such +as to suggest that kind of comfort which is to be obtained by explaining +away the existence of evil. If he, too, would have said that in some +sense all must be for the best in a world ruled by a perfect Creator, +the sense must be one which would allow of the eternal misery of +indefinite multitudes of his creatures. + +But, in truth, it was characteristic of Johnson to turn away his mind +from such topics. He was interested in ethical speculations, but on the +practical side, in the application to life, not in the philosophy on +which it might be grounded. In that direction, he could see nothing but +a "milking of the bull"--a fruitless or rather a pernicious waste of +intellect. An intense conviction of the supreme importance of a moral +guidance in this difficult world, made him abhor any rash inquiries by +which the basis of existing authority might be endangered. + +This sentiment is involved in many of those prejudices which have been +so much, and in some sense justifiably ridiculed. Man has been wretched +and foolish since the race began, and will be till it ends; one chorus +of lamentation has ever been rising, in countless dialects but with a +single meaning; the plausible schemes of philosophers give no solution +to the everlasting riddle; the nostrums of politicians touch only the +surface of the deeply-rooted evil; it is folly to be querulous, and as +silly to fancy that men are growing worse, as that they are much better +than they used to be. The evils under which we suffer are not skin-deep, +to be eradicated by changing the old physicians for new quacks. What is +to be done under such conditions, but to hold fast as vigorously as we +can to the rules of life and faith which have served our ancestors, and +which, whatever their justifications, are at least the only consolation, +because they supply the only guidance through this labyrinth of +troubles? Macaulay has ridiculed Johnson for what he takes to be the +ludicrous inconsistency of his intense political prejudice, combined +with his assertion of the indifference of all forms of government. +"If," says Macaulay, "the difference between two forms of government be +not worth half a guinea, it is not easy to see how Whiggism can be viler +than Toryism, or the Crown can have too little power." The answer is +surely obvious. Whiggism is vile, according to the doctor's phrase, +because Whiggism is a "negation of all principle;" it is in his view, +not so much the preference of one form to another, as an attack upon the +vital condition of all government. He called Burke a "bottomless Whig" +in this sense, implying that Whiggism meant anarchy; and in the next +generation a good many people were led, rightly or wrongly, to agree +with him by the experience of the French revolution. + +This dogged conservatism has both its value and its grotesque side. When +Johnson came to write political pamphlets in his later years, and to +deal with subjects little familiar to his mind, the results were +grotesque enough. Loving authority, and holding one authority to be as +good as another, he defended with uncompromising zeal the most +preposterous and tyrannical measures. The pamphlets against the Wilkite +agitators and the American rebels are little more than a huge +"rhinoceros" snort of contempt against all who are fools enough or +wicked enough to promote war and disturbance in order to change one form +of authority for another. Here is a characteristic passage, giving his +view of the value of such demonstrators:-- + +"The progress of a petition is well known. An ejected placeman goes down +to his county or his borough, tells his friends of his inability to +serve them and his constituents, of the corruption of the government. +His friends readily understand that he who can get nothing, will have +nothing to give. They agree to proclaim a meeting. Meat and drink are +plentifully provided, a crowd is easily brought together, and those who +think that they know the reason of the meeting undertake to tell those +who know it not. Ale and clamour unite their powers; the crowd, +condensed and heated, begins to ferment with the leaven of sedition. All +see a thousand evils, though they cannot show them, and grow impatient +for a remedy, though they know not what. + +"A speech is then made by the Cicero of the day; he says much and +suppresses more, and credit is equally given to what he tells and what +he conceals. The petition is heard and universally approved. Those who +are sober enough to write, add their names, and the rest would sign it +if they could. + +"Every man goes home and tells his neighbour of the glories of the day; +how he was consulted, and what he advised; how he was invited into the +great room, where his lordship caressed him by his name; how he was +caressed by Sir Francis, Sir Joseph, and Sir George; how he ate turtle +and venison, and drank unanimity to the three brothers. + +"The poor loiterer, whose shop had confined him or whose wife had locked +him up, hears the tale of luxury with envy, and at last inquires what +was their petition. Of the petition nothing is remembered by the +narrator, but that it spoke much of fears and apprehensions and +something very alarming, but that he is sure it is against the +government. + +"The other is convinced that it must be right, and wishes he had been +there, for he loves wine and venison, and resolves as long as he lives +to be against the government. + +"The petition is then handed from town to town, and from house to house; +and wherever it comes, the inhabitants flock together that they may see +that which must be sent to the king. Names are easily collected. One man +signs because he hates the papists; another because he has vowed +destruction to the turnpikes; one because it will vex the parson; +another because he owes his landlord nothing; one because he is rich; +another because he is poor; one to show that he is not afraid; and +another to show that he can write." + +The only writing in which we see a distinct reflection of Johnson's talk +is the _Lives of the Poets_. The excellence of that book is of the same +kind as the excellence of his conversation. Johnson wrote it under +pressure, and it has suffered from his characteristic indolence. Modern +authors would fill as many pages as Johnson has filled lines, with the +biographies of some of his heroes. By industriously sweeping together +all the rubbish which is in any way connected with the great man, by +elaborately discussing the possible significance of infinitesimal bits +of evidence, and by disquisition upon general principles or the whole +mass of contemporary literature, it is easy to swell volumes to any +desired extent. The result is sometimes highly interesting and valuable, +as it is sometimes a new contribution to the dust-heaps; but in any case +the design is something quite different from Johnson's. He has left much +to be supplied and corrected by later scholars. His aim is simply to +give a vigorous summary of the main facts of his heroes' lives, a pithy +analysis of their character, and a short criticism of their productions. +The strong sense which is everywhere displayed, the massive style, which +is yet easier and less cumbrous than in his earlier work, and the +uprightness and independence of the judgments, make the book agreeable +even where we are most inclined to dissent from its conclusions. + +The criticism is that of a school which has died out under the great +revolution of modern taste. The booksellers decided that English poetry +began for their purposes with Cowley, and Johnson has, therefore, +nothing to say about some of the greatest names in our literature. The +loss is little to be regretted, since the biographical part of earlier +memoirs must have been scanty, and the criticism inappreciative. +Johnson, it may be said, like most of his contemporaries, considered +poetry almost exclusively from the didactic and logical point of view. +He always inquires what is the moral of a work of art. If he does not +precisely ask "what it proves," he pays excessive attention to the +logical solidity and coherence of its sentiments. He condemns not only +insincerity and affectation of feeling, but all such poetic imagery as +does not correspond to the actual prosaic belief of the writer. For the +purely musical effects of poetry he has little or no feeling, and allows +little deviation from the alternate long and short syllables neatly +bound in Pope's couplets. + +To many readers this would imply that Johnson omits precisely the poetic +element in poetry. I must be here content to say that in my opinion it +implies rather a limitation than a fundamental error. Johnson errs in +supposing that his logical tests are at all adequate; but it is, I +think, a still greater error to assume that poetry has no connexion, +because it has not this kind of connexion, with philosophy. His +criticism has always a meaning, and in the case of works belonging to +his own school a very sound meaning. When he is speaking of other +poetry, we can only reply that his remarks may be true, but that they +are not to the purpose. + +The remarks on the poetry of Dryden, Addison, and Pope are generally +excellent, and always give the genuine expression of an independent +judgment. Whoever thinks for himself, and says plainly what he thinks, +has some merit as a critic. This, it is true, is about all that can be +said for such criticism as that on _Lycidas_, which is a delicious +example of the wrong way of applying strong sense to inappropriate +topics. Nothing can be truer in a sense, and nothing less relevant. + +"In this poem," he says, "there is no nature, for there is no truth; +there is no art, for there is nothing new. Its form is that of a +pastoral, easy, vulgar, and therefore disgusting; whatever images it can +supply are easily exhausted, and its inherent improbability always +forces dissatisfaction on the mind. When Cowley tells of Hervey that +they studied together, it is easy to suppose how much he must miss the +companion of his labours and the partner of his discoveries; but what +image of tenderness can be excited by these lines?-- + + We drove afield, and both together heard + What time the gray fly winds her sultry horn, + Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night. + +We know that they never drove a-field and had no flocks to batten; and +though it be allowed that the representation may be allegorical, the +true meaning is so uncertain and remote that it is never sought, because +it cannot be known when it is found. + +"Among the flocks and copses and flowers appear the heathen deities: +Jove and Phoebus, Neptune and Aeolus, with a long train of mythological +imagery such as a college easily supplies. Nothing can less display +knowledge or less exercise invention than to tell how a shepherd has +lost his companion, and must now feed his flocks alone, without any +judge of his skill in piping; how one god asks another god what has +become of Lycidas, and neither god can tell. He who thus grieves will +excite no sympathy; he who thus praises will confer no honour." + +This is of course utterly outrageous, and yet much of it is undeniably +true. To explain why, in spite of truth, _Lycidas_ is a wonderful poem, +would be to go pretty deeply into the theory of poetic expression. Most +critics prefer simply to shriek, being at any rate safe from the errors +of independent judgment. + +The general effect of the book, however, is not to be inferred from this +or some other passages of antiquated and eccentric criticism. It is the +shrewd sense everywhere cropping up which is really delightful. The keen +remarks upon life and character, though, perhaps, rather too severe in +tone, are worthy of a vigorous mind, stored with much experience of many +classes, and braced by constant exercise in the conversational arena. +Passages everywhere abound which, though a little more formal in +expression, have the forcible touch of his best conversational sallies. +Some of the prejudices, which are expressed more pithily in _Boswell_, +are defended by a reasoned exposition in the _Lives_. Sentence is passed +with the true judicial air; and if he does not convince us of his +complete impartiality, he at least bases his decisions upon solid and +worthy grounds. It would be too much, for example, to expect that +Johnson should sympathize with the grand republicanism of Milton, or +pardon a man who defended the execution of the blessed Martyr. He +failed, therefore, to satisfy the ardent admirers of the great poet. Yet +his judgment is not harsh or ungenerous, but, at worst, the judgment of +a man striving to be just, in spite of some inevitable want of sympathy. + +The quality of Johnson's incidental remarks may be inferred from one or +two brief extracts. Here is an observation which Johnson must have had +many chances of verifying. Speaking of Dryden's money difficulties, he +says, "It is well known that he seldom lives frugally who lives by +chance. Hope is always liberal, and they that trust her promises, make +little scruple of revelling to-day on the profits of the morrow." + +Here is another shrewd comment upon the compliments paid to Halifax, of +whom Pope says in the character of Bufo,-- + + Fed with soft dedications all day long, + Horace and he went hand and hand in song. + +"To charge all unmerited praise with the guilt of flattery, or to +suppose that the encomiast always knows and feels the falsehoods of his +assertions, is surely to discover great ignorance of human nature and of +human life. In determinations depending not on rules, but on reference +and comparison, judgment is always in some degree subject to affection. +Very near to admiration is the wish to admire. + +"Every man willingly gives value to the praise which he receives, and +considers the sentence passed in his favour as the sentence of +discernment. We admire in a friend that understanding that selected us +for confidence; we admire more in a patron that bounty which, instead of +scattering bounty indiscriminately, directed it to us; and if the patron +be an author, those performances which gratitude forbids us to blame, +affection will easily dispose us to exalt. + +"To these prejudices, hardly culpable, interest adds a power always +operating, though not always, because not willingly, perceived. The +modesty of praise gradually wears away; and, perhaps, the pride of +patronage may be in time so increased that modest praise will no longer +please. + +"Many a blandishment was practised upon Halifax, which he would never +have known had he no other attractions than those of his poetry, of +which a short time has withered the beauties. It would now be esteemed +no honour by a contributor to the monthly bundles of verses, to be told +that, in strains either familiar or solemn, he sings like Halifax." + +I will venture to make a longer quotation from the life of Pope, which +gives, I think, a good impression of his manner:-- + +"Of his social qualities, if an estimate be made from his letters, an +opinion too favourable cannot easily be formed; they exhibit a perpetual +and unclouded effulgence of general benevolence and particular fondness. +There is nothing but liberality, gratitude, constancy, and tenderness. +It has been so long said as to be commonly believed, that the true +characters of men may be found in their letters, and that he who writes +to his friend lays his heart open before him. + +"But the truth is, that such were the simple friendships of the Golden +Age, and are now the friendships only of children. Very few can boast of +hearts which they dare lay open to themselves, and of which, by whatever +accident exposed, they do not shun a distinct and continued view; and +certainly what we hide from ourselves, we do not show to our friends. +There is, indeed, no transaction which offers stronger temptations to +fallacy and sophistication than epistolary intercourse. + +"In the eagerness of conversation, the first emotions of the mind often +burst out before they are considered. In the tumult of business, +interest and passion have their genuine effect; but a friendly letter is +a calm and deliberate performance in the cool of leisure, in the +stillness of solitude, and surely no man sits down by design to +depreciate his own character. + +"Friendship has no tendency to secure veracity; for by whom can a man so +much wish to be thought better than he is, as by him whose kindness he +desires to gain or keep? Even in writing to the world there is less +constraint; the author is not confronted with his reader, and takes his +chance of approbation among the different dispositions of mankind; but a +letter is addressed to a single mind, of which the prejudices and +partialities are known, and must therefore please, if not by favouring +them, by forbearing to oppose them. To charge those favourable +representations which men give of their own minds, with the guilt of +hypocritical falsehood, would show more severity than knowledge. The +writer commonly believes himself. Almost every man's thoughts while they +are general are right, and most hearts are pure while temptation is +away. It is easy to awaken generous sentiments in privacy; to despise +death when there is no danger; to glow with benevolence when there is +nothing to be given. While such ideas are formed they are felt, and +self-love does not suspect the gleam of virtue to be the meteor of +fancy. + +"If the letters of Pope are considered merely as compositions, they seem +to be premeditated and artificial. It is one thing to write, because +there is something which the mind wishes to discharge; and another to +solicit the imagination, because ceremony or vanity requires something +to be written. Pope confesses his early letters to be vitiated with +_affectation and ambition_. To know whether he disentangles himself +from these perverters of epistolary integrity, his book and his life +must be set in comparison. One of his favourite topics is contempt of +his own poetry. For this, if it had been real, he would deserve no +commendation; and in this he was certainly not sincere, for his high +value of himself was sufficiently observed; and of what could he be +proud but of his poetry? He writes, he says, when 'he has just nothing +else to do,' yet Swift complains that he was never at leisure for +conversation, because he 'had always some poetical scheme in his head.' +It was punctually required that his writing-box should be set upon his +bed before he rose; and Lord Oxford's domestic related that, in the +dreadful winter of '40, she was called from her bed by him four times in +one night, to supply him with paper lest he should lose a thought. + +"He pretends insensibility to censure and criticism, though it was +observed by all who knew him that every pamphlet disturbed his quiet, +and that his extreme irritability laid him open to perpetual vexation; +but he wished to despise his critics, and therefore hoped he did despise +them. As he happened to live in two reigns when the court paid little +attention to poetry, he nursed in his mind a foolish disesteem of kings, +and proclaims that 'he never sees courts.' Yet a little regard shown him +by the Prince of Wales melted his obduracy; and he had not much to say +when he was asked by his Royal Highness, 'How he could love a prince +while he disliked kings.'" + +Johnson's best poetry is the versified expression of the tone of +sentiment with which we are already familiar. The _Vanity of Human +Wishes_ is, perhaps, the finest poem written since Pope's time and in +Pope's manner, with the exception of Goldsmith's still finer +performances. Johnson, it need hardly be said, has not Goldsmith's +exquisite fineness of touch and delicacy of sentiment. He is often +ponderous and verbose, and one feels that the mode of expression is not +that which is most congenial; and yet the vigour of thought makes itself +felt through rather clumsy modes of utterance. Here is one of the best +passages, in which he illustrates the vanity of military glory:-- + + On what foundation stands the warrior's pride, + How just his hopes let Swedish Charles decide; + A frame of adamant, a soul of fire, + No dangers fright him and no labours tire; + O'er love, o'er fear, extends his wide domain, + Unconquer'd lord of pleasure and of pain; + No joys to him pacific sceptres yield, + War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field; + Behold surrounding kings their powers combine, + And one capitulate, and one resign: + Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain. + "Think nothing gain'd," he cries, "till nought remain; + On Moscow's walls till Gothic standards fly, + And all be mine beneath the polar sky?" + The march begins in military state, + And nations on his eye suspended wait; + Stern Famine guards the solitary coast, + And Winter barricades the realms of Frost. + He comes, nor want nor cold his course delay-- + Hide, blushing glory, hide Pultowa's day! + The vanquish'd hero leaves his broken bands, + And shows his miseries in distant lands; + Condemn'd a needy supplicant to wait, + While ladies interpose and slaves debate-- + But did not Chance at length her error mend? + Did no subverted empire mark his end? + Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound? + Or hostile millions press him to the ground? + His fall was destined to a barren strand, + A petty fortress and a dubious hand; + He left the name at which the world grew pale, + To point a moral and adorn a tale. + +The concluding passage may also fitly conclude this survey of Johnson's +writings. The sentiment is less gloomy than is usual, but it gives the +answer which he would have given in his calmer moods to the perplexed +riddle of life; and, in some form or other, it is, perhaps, the best or +the only answer that can be given:-- + + Where, then, shall Hope and Fear their objects find? + Must dull suspense corrupt the stagnant mind? + Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, + Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate? + Must no dislike alarm, no wishes rise? + No cries invoke the mercies of the skies? + Inquirer cease; petitions yet remain + Which Heaven may hear, nor deem religion vain; + Still raise for good the supplicating voice, + But leave to Heaven the measure and the choice + Safe in His power whose eyes discern afar + The secret ambush of a specious prayer. + Implore His aid, in His decisions rest, + Secure whate'er He gives--He gives the best. + Yet when the scene of sacred presence fires, + And strong devotion to the skies aspires, + Pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind, + Obedient passions and a will resign'd; + For Love, which scarce collective men can fill; + For Patience, sovereign o'er transmuted ill; + For Faith, that panting for a happier seat, + Counts Death kind nature's signal of retreat. + These goods for man the laws of Heaven ordain, + These goods He grants who grants the power to gain; + With these Celestial Wisdom calms the mind, + And makes the happiness she does not find. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Samuel Johnson, by Leslie Stephen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SAMUEL JOHNSON *** + +***** This file should be named 11031.txt or 11031.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/0/3/11031/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Linda Cantoni and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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