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diff --git a/9072.txt b/9072.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a45616 --- /dev/null +++ b/9072.txt @@ -0,0 +1,24439 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2, by Boswell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + +Title: Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2 + +Author: Boswell + +Editor: Birkbeck Hill + +Posting: September 7, 2014 [EBook #9072] +Release Date: October, 2005 +[This file was first posted on September 2, 2003] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JOHNSON, VOL. 2 *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David King and the Online +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + +BOSWELL'S + +LIFE OF JOHNSON + +INCLUDING BOSWELL'S JOURNAL OF A TOUR TO THE HEBRIDES, +AND JOHNSON'S DIARY OF A JOURNEY INTO NORTH WALES + +EDITED BY + +GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L. + +PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD + +IN SIX VOLUMES + +VOLUME II.--LIFE (1765-1776) + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. II. + +LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. (NOVEMBER, 1765-MARCH, 1776) + +APPENDICES: + +A. AUTOGRAPH RECORDS BY JOHNSON (1766) IN THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY + +B. JOHNSON'S SENTIMENTS TOWARDS HIS FELLOW-SUBJECTS IN AMERICA + + + + +THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL.D. + + +In 1764 and 1765 it should seem that Dr. Johnson was so busily employed +with his edition of Shakspeare, as to have had little leisure for any +other literary exertion, or, indeed, even for private correspondence[1]. +He did not favour me with a single letter for more than two years, for +which it will appear that he afterwards apologised. + +He was, however, at all times ready to give assistance to his friends, +and others, in revising their works, and in writing for them, or greatly +improving their Dedications. In that courtly species of composition no +man excelled Dr. Johnson. Though the loftiness of his mind prevented him +from ever dedicating in his own person[2], he wrote a very great number +of Dedications for others. Some of these, the persons who were favoured +with them are unwilling should be mentioned, from a too anxious +apprehension, as I think, that they might be suspected of having +received larger assistance[3]; and some, after all the diligence I have +bestowed, have escaped my enquiries. He told me, a great many years ago, +'he believed he had dedicated to all the Royal Family round[4];' and it +was indifferent to him what was the subject of the work dedicated, +provided it were innocent. He once dedicated some Musick for the German +Flute to Edward, Duke of York. In writing Dedications for others, he +considered himself as by no means speaking his own sentiments. + +Notwithstanding his long silence, I never omitted to write to him when I +had any thing worthy of communicating. I generally kept copies of my +letters to him, that I might have a full view of our correspondence, and +never be at a loss to understand any reference in his letters[5]. He +kept the greater part of mine very carefully; and a short time before +his death was attentive enough to seal them up in bundles, and order +them to be delivered to me, which was accordingly done. Amongst them I +found one, of which I had not made a copy, and which I own I read with +pleasure at the distance of almost twenty years. It is dated November, +1765, at the palace of Pascal Paoli, in Corte, the capital of Corsica, +and is full of generous enthusiasm[6]. After giving a sketch of what I +had seen and heard in that island, it proceeded thus: 'I dare to call +this a spirited tour. I dare, to challenge your approbation.' + +This letter produced the following answer, which I found on my arrival +at Paris. + +A Mr. Mr. BOSWELL, chez Mr. WATERS, Banquier, A Paris. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Apologies are seldom of any use. We will delay till your arrival the +reasons, good or bad, which have made me such a sparing and ungrateful +correspondent. Be assured, for the present, that nothing has lessened +either the esteem or love with which I dismissed you at Harwich. Both +have been increased by all that I have been told of you by yourself or +others; and[7] when you return, you will return to an unaltered, and, I +hope, unalterable friend. + +'All that you have to fear from me is the vexation of disappointing me. +No man loves to frustrate expectations which have been formed in his +favour; and the pleasure which I promise myself from your journals and +remarks is so great, that perhaps no degree of attention or discernment +will be sufficient to afford it. + +'Come home, however, and take your chance. I long to see you, and to +hear you; and hope that we shall not be so long separated again. Come +home, and expect such a welcome as is due to him whom a wise and noble +curiosity has led, where perhaps no native of this country ever was +before[8]. + +'I have no news to tell you that can deserve your notice; nor would I +willingly lessen the pleasure that any novelty may give you at your +return. I am afraid we shall find it difficult to keep among us a mind +which has been so long feasted with variety. But let us try what esteem +and kindness can effect. + +'As your father's liberality has indulged you with so long a ramble, I +doubt not but you will think his sickness, or even his desire to see +you, a sufficient reason for hastening your return. The longer we live, +and the more we think, the higher value we learn to put on the +friendship and tenderness of parents and of friends. Parents we can have +but once; and he promises himself too much, who enters life with the +expectation of finding many friends. Upon some motive, I hope, that you +will be here soon; and am willing to think that it will be an inducement +to your return, that it is sincerely desired by, dear Sir, + +'Your affectionate humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Johnson's Court, Fleet-street, +January 14, 1766.' + +I returned to London in February, and found Dr. Johnson in a good house +in Johnson's Court, Fleet-street[9], in which he had accommodated Miss +Williams with an apartment on the ground floor, while Mr. Levett +occupied his post in the garret: his faithful Francis was still +attending upon him. He received me with much kindness. The fragments of +our first conversation, which I have preserved, are these: I told him +that Voltaire, in a conversation with me, had distinguished Pope and +Dryden thus:--'Pope drives a handsome chariot, with a couple of neat +trim nags; Dryden a coach, and six stately horses.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, +the truth is, they both drive coaches and six; but Dryden's horses are +either galloping or stumbling: Pope's go at a steady even trot[10].' He +said of Goldsmith's _Traveller_, which had been published in my absence, +'There has not been so fine a poem since Pope's time.' + +And here it is proper to settle, with authentick precision, what has +long floated in publick report, as to Johnson's being himself the +authour of a considerable part of that poem. Much, no doubt, both of the +sentiments and expression, were derived from conversation with him; and +it was certainly submitted to his friendly revision: but in the year +1783, he, at my request, marked with a pencil the lines which he had +furnished, which are only line 420th, + +'To stop too fearful, and too faint to go;' + +and the concluding ten lines, except the last couplet but one, which I +distinguish by the Italick character: + +'How small of all that human hearts endure, +That part which kings or laws[11] can cause or cure. +Still to ourselves in every place consign'd, +Our own felicity we make or find[12]; +With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, +Glides the smooth current of domestick joy: +_The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel, +Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel_, +To men remote from power, but rarely known, +Leave reason, faith, and conscience, all our own.' + +He added, 'These are all of which I can be sure[13].' They bear a small +proportion to the whole, which consists of four hundred and thirty-eight +verses. Goldsmith, in the couplet which he inserted, mentions Luke as a +person well known, and superficial readers have passed it over quite +smoothly; while those of more attention have been as much perplexed by +_Luke_, as by _Lydiat_[14], in _The Vanity of Human Wishes_. The truth +is, that Goldsmith himself was in a mistake. In the _Respublica +Hungarian_[15], there is an account of a desperate rebellion in the year +1514, headed by two brothers, of the name of _Zeck_, George and Luke. +When it was quelled, _George_, not _Luke_, was punished by his head +being encircled with a red-hot iron crown: '_coronAc candescente ferreAc +coronatur_[16].' The same severity of torture was exercised on the Earl +of Athol, one of the murderers of King James I. of Scotland. + +Dr. Johnson at the same time favoured me by marking the lines which he +furnished to Goldsmith's _Deserted Village_, which are only the last +four: + +'That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay, +As ocean sweeps the labour'd mole away: +While self-dependent power can time defy, +As rocks resist the billows and the sky.' + +Talking of education, 'People have now a days, (said he,) got a strange +opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see +that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which the +lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be best taught by +lectures[17], except where experiments are to be shewn. You may teach +chymistry by lectures.--You might teach making of shoes by lectures[18]!' + +At night I supped with him at the Mitre tavern, that we might renew our +social intimacy at the original place of meeting. But there was now a +considerable difference in his way of living. Having had an illness, in +which he was advised to leave off wine, he had, from that period, +continued to abstain from it, and drank only water, or lemonade[19]. + +I told him that a foreign friend of his[20], whom I had met with abroad, +was so wretchedly perverted to infidelity, that he treated the hopes of +immortality with brutal levity; and said, 'As man dies like a dog, let +him lie like a dog.' JOHNSON. '_If_ he dies like a dog, _let_ him lie +like a dog.' I added, that this man said to me, 'I hate mankind, for I +think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.' JOHNSON. +'Sir, he must be very singular in his opinion, if he thinks himself one +of the best of men; for none of his friends think him so.'--He said, 'no +honest man could be a Deist; for no man could be so after a fair +examination of the proofs of Christianity.' I named Hume[21]. JOHNSON. +'No, Sir; Hume owned to a clergyman in the bishoprick of Durham, that he +had never read the New Testament with attention.' I mentioned Hume's +notion[22], that all who are happy are equally happy; a little miss with +a new gown at a dancing school ball, a general at the head of a +victorious army, and an orator, after having made an eloquent speech in +a great assembly. JOHNSON. 'Sir, that all who are happy, are equally +happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally +_satisfied_, but not equally _happy_. Happiness consists in the +multiplicity of agreeable consciousness. A peasant has not capacity for +having equal happiness with a philosopher.' I remember this very +question very happily illustrated in opposition to Hume, by the Reverend +Mr. Robert Brown[23], at Utrecht. 'A small drinking-glass and a large +one, (said he,) may be equally full; but the large one holds more than +the small.' + +Dr. Johnson was very kind this evening, and said to me, 'You have now +lived five-and-twenty years, and you have employed them well.' 'Alas, +Sir, (said I,) I fear not. Do I know history? Do I know mathematicks? Do +I know law?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, though you may know no science so well +as to be able to teach it, and no profession so well as to be able to +follow it, your general mass of knowledge of books and men renders you +very capable to make yourself master of any science, or fit yourself for +any profession.' I mentioned that a gay friend had advised me against +being a lawyer, because I should be excelled by plodding block-heads. +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, in the formulary and statutory part of law, a +plodding block-head may excel; but in the ingenious and rational part of +it a plodding block-head can never excel.' + +I talked of the mode adopted by some to rise in the world, by courting +great men, and asked him whether he had ever submitted to it. JOHNSON. +'Why, Sir, I never was near enough to great men, to court them. You may +be prudently attached to great men and yet independent. You are not to +do what you think wrong; and, Sir, you are to calculate, and not pay too +dear for what you get. You must not give a shilling's worth of court for +six-pence worth of good. But if you can get a shilling's worth of good +for six-pence worth of court, you are a fool if you do not pay +court[24].' + +He said, 'If convents should be allowed at all, they should only be +retreats for persons unable to serve the publick, or who have served it. +It is our first duty to serve society, and, after we have done that, we +may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls. A youthful passion +for abstracted devotion should not be encouraged[25].' + +I introduced the subject of second sight, and other mysterious +manifestations; the fulfilment of which, I suggested, might happen by +chance. JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; but they have happened so often, that +mankind have agreed to think them not fortuitous[26].' + +I talked to him a great deal of what I had seen in Corsica, and of my +intention to publish an account of it. He encouraged me by saying, 'You +cannot go to the bottom of the subject; but all that you tell us will be +new to us. Give us as many anecdotes as you can[27].' + +Our next meeting at the Mitre was on Saturday the 15th of February, when +I presented to him my old and most intimate friend, the Reverend Mr. +Temple[28], then of Cambridge. I having mentioned that I had passed some +time with Rousseau in his wild retreat[29], and having quoted some remark +made by Mr. Wilkes, with whom I had spent many pleasant hours in Italy, +Johnson said (sarcastically,) 'It seems, Sir, you have kept very good +company abroad, Rousseau and Wilkes!' Thinking it enough to defend one +at a time, I said nothing as to my gay friend, but answered with a +smile, 'My dear Sir, you don't call Rousseau bad company. Do you really +think him a bad man?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, if you are talking jestingly of +this, I don't talk with you. If you mean to be serious, I think him one +of the worst of men; a rascal who ought to be hunted out of society, as +he has been. Three or four nations have expelled him; and it is a shame +that he is protected in this country[30].' BOSWELL. 'I don't deny, Sir, +but that his novel[31] may, perhaps, do harm; but I cannot think his +intention was bad.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, that will not do. We cannot prove any +man's intention to be bad. You may shoot a man through the head, and say +you intended to miss him; but the Judge will order you to be hanged. An +alleged want of intention, when evil is committed, will not be allowed +in a court of justice. Rousseau, Sir, is a very bad man. I would sooner +sign a sentence for his transportation, than that of any felon who has +gone from the Old Bailey these many years. Yes, I should like to have +him work in the plantations[32].' BOSWELL. 'Sir, do you think him as bad +a man as Voltaire?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, it is difficult to settle the +proportion of iniquity between them[33].' + +This violence seemed very strange to me, who had read many of Rousseau's +animated writings with great pleasure, and even edification, had been +much pleased with his society[34], and was just come from the Continent, +where he was very generally admired. Nor can I yet allow that he +deserves the very severe censure which Johnson pronounced upon him. His +absurd preference of savage to civilised life[35], and other +singularities, are proofs rather of a defect in his understanding, than +of any depravity in his heart. And notwithstanding the unfavourable +opinion which many worthy men have expressed of his '_Profession de Foi +du Vicaire Savoyard_', I cannot help admiring it as the performance of a +man full of sincere reverential submission to Divine Mystery, though +beset with perplexing doubts; a state of mind to be viewed with pity +rather than with anger. + +On his favourite subject of subordination, Johnson said, 'So far is it +from being true that men are naturally equal[36], that no two people can +be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority +over the other.' + +I mentioned the advice given us by philosophers, to console ourselves, +when distressed or embarrassed, by thinking of those who are in a worse +situation than ourselves. This, I observed, could not apply to all, for +there must be some who have nobody worse than they are. JOHNSON. 'Why, +to be sure, Sir, there are; but they don't know it. There is no being so +poor and so contemptible, who does not think there is somebody still +poorer, and still more contemptible.' + +As my stay in London at this time was very short, I had not many +opportunities of being with Dr. Johnson; but I felt my veneration for +him in no degree lessened, by my having seen _mullorum hominum mores et +urbes_[37]. On the contrary, by having it in my power to compare him with +many of the most celebrated persons of other countries[38], my admiration +of his extraordinary mind was increased and confirmed. + +The roughness, indeed, which sometimes appeared in his manners, was more +striking to me now, from my having been accustomed to the studied smooth +complying habits of the Continent; and I clearly recognised in him, not +without respect for his honest conscientious zeal, the same indignant +and sarcastical mode of treating every attempt to unhinge or weaken good +principles. + +One evening when a young gentleman[39] teized him with an account of the +infidelity of his servant, who, he said, would not believe the +scriptures, because he could not read them in the original tongues, and +be sure that they were not invented. 'Why, foolish fellow, (said +Johnson,) has he any better authority for almost every thing that he +believes?' BOSWELL. 'Then the vulgar, Sir, never can know they are +right, but must submit themselves to the learned.' JOHNSON. 'To be sure, +Sir. The vulgar are the children of the State, and must be taught like +children[40].' BOSWELL. 'Then, Sir, a poor Turk must be a Mahometan, just +as a poor Englishman must be a Christian[41]?' JOHNSON. 'Why, yes, Sir; +and what then? This now is such stuff as I used to talk to my mother, +when I first began to think myself a clever fellow; and she ought to +have whipt me for it.' + +Another evening Dr. Goldsmith and I called on him, with the hope of +prevailing on him to sup with us at the Mitre. We found him indisposed, +and resolved not to go abroad. 'Come then, (said Goldsmith,) we will not +go to the Mitre to-night, since we cannot have the big man[42] with us.' +Johnson then called for a bottle of port, of which Goldsmith and I +partook, while our friend, now a water-drinker, sat by us. GOLDSMITH. 'I +think, Mr. Johnson, you don't go near the theatres now. You give +yourself no more concern about a new play, than if you had never had any +thing to do with the stage.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, our tastes greatly +alter. The lad does not care for the child's rattle, and the old man +does not care for the young man's whore.' GOLDSMITH. 'Nay, Sir, but your +Muse was not a whore.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I do not think she was. But as we +advance in the journey of life, we drop some of the things which have +pleased us; whether it be that we are fatigued and don't choose to carry +so many things any farther, or that we find other things which we like +better.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, why don't you give us something in some +other way?' GOLDSMITH. 'Ay, Sir, we have a claim upon you[43].' JOHNSON. +'No, Sir, I am not obliged to do any more. No man is obliged to do as +much as he can do. A man is to have part of his life to himself. If a +soldier has fought a good many campaigns, he is not to be blamed if he +retires to ease and tranquillity. A physician, who has practised long in +a great city, may be excused if he retires to a small town, and takes +less practice. Now, Sir, the good I can do by my conversation bears the +same proportion to the good I can do by my writings, that the practice +of a physician, retired to a small town, does to his practice in a great +city[44].' BOSWELL. 'But I wonder, Sir, you have not more pleasure in +writing than in not writing.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, you _may_ wonder.' + +He talked of making verses, and observed, 'The great difficulty is to +know when you have made good ones. When composing, I have generally had +them in my mind, perhaps fifty at a time, walking up and down in my +room; and then I have written them down, and often, from laziness, have +written only half lines. I have written a hundred lines in a day. I +remember I wrote a hundred lines of _The Vanity of Human Wishes_ in a +day[45]. Doctor, (turning to Goldsmith,) I am not quite idle; I have one +line t'other day; but I made no more.' + +GOLDSMITH. 'Let us hear it; we'll put a bad one to it.. + +JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, I have forgot it.[46]' + +Such specimens of the easy and playful conversation of the great Dr. +Samuel Johnson are, I think, to be prized; as exhibiting the little +varieties of a mind so enlarged and so powerful when objects of +consequence required its exertions, and as giving us a minute knowledge +of his character and modes of thinking. + + +'To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'What your friends have done, that from your departure till now nothing +has been heard of you, none of us are able to inform the rest; but as we +are all neglected alike, no one thinks himself entitled to the privilege +of complaint. + +'I should have known nothing of you or of Langton, from the time that +dear Miss Langton left us, had not I met Mr. Simpson, of Lincoln, one +day in the street, by whom I was informed that Mr. Langton, your Mamma, +and yourself, had been all ill, but that you were all recovered. + +'That sickness should suspend your correspondence, I did not wonder; but +hoped that it would be renewed at your recovery. + +'Since you will not inform us where you are, or how you live, I know not +whether you desire to know any thing of us. However, I will tell you +that THE CLUB subsists; but we have the loss of Burke's company since he +has been engaged in publick business[47], in which he has gained more +reputation than perhaps any man at his [first] appearance ever gained +before. He made two speeches in the House for repealing the Stamp-act, +which were publickly commended by Mr. Pitt, and have filled the town +with wonder[48]. + +'Burke is a great man by nature, and is expected soon to attain civil +greatness[49]. I am grown greater too, for I have maintained the +newspapers these many weeks[50]; and what is greater still, I have risen +every morning since New-year's day, at about eight; when I was up, I +have indeed done but little; yet it is no slight advancement to obtain +for so many hours more, the consciousness of being. + +'I wish you were in my new study[51]; I am now writing the first letter +in it. I think it looks very pretty about me. + +'Dyer[52] is constant at THE CLUB; Hawkins is remiss; I am not over +diligent. Dr. Nugent, Dr. Goldsmith, and Mr. Reynolds, are very +constant. Mr. Lye is printing his Saxon and Gothick Dictionary[53]; all +THE CLUB subscribes. + +'You will pay my respects to all my Lincolnshire friends. I am, dear +Sir, + +'Most affectionately your's, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'March 9, 1766. +Johnson's-court, Fleet-street[54].' + + +'To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'In supposing that I should be more than commonly affected by the death +of Peregrine Langton[55], you were not mistaken; he was one of those whom +I loved at once by instinct and by reason. I have seldom indulged more +hope of any thing than of being able to improve our acquaintance to +friendship. Many a time have I placed myself again at Langton, and +imagined the pleasure with which I should walk to Partney[56] in a summer +morning; but this is no longer possible. We must now endeavour to +preserve what is left us,--his example of piety and oeconomy. I hope you +make what enquiries you can, and write down what is told you. The little +things which distinguish domestick characters are soon forgotten: if you +delay to enquire, you will have no information; if you neglect to write, +information will be vain[57]. + +'His art of life certainly deserves to be known and studied. He lived in +plenty and elegance upon an income which, to many would appear indigent, +and to most, scanty. How he lived, therefore, every man has an interest +in knowing. His death, I hope, was peaceful; it was surely happy. + +'I wish I had written sooner, lest, writing now, I should renew your +grief; but I would not forbear saying what I have now said. + +'This loss is, I hope, the only misfortune of a family to whom no +misfortune at all should happen, if my wishes could avert it. Let me +know how you all go on. Has Mr. Langton got him the little horse that I +recommended? It would do him good to ride about his estate in fine +weather. + +'Be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs. Langton, and to dear Miss +Langton, and Miss Di, and Miss Juliet, and to every body else. + +'The wonder, with most that hear an account of his oeconomy, will be, +how he was able, with such an income, to do so much, especially when it +is considered that he paid for everything he had; he had no land, except +the two or three small fields which I have said he rented; and, instead +of gaining any thing by their produce, I have reason to think he lost by +them; however, they furnished him with no further assistance towards his +housekeeping, than grass for his horses, (not hay, for that I know he +bought,) and for two cows. Every Monday morning he settled his family +accounts, and so kept up a constant attention to the confining his +expences within his income; and to do it more exactly, compared those +expences with a computation he had made, how much that income would +afford him every week and day of the year. One of his oeconomical +practices was, as soon as any repair was wanting in or about his house, +to have it immediately performed. When he had money to spare, he chose +to lay in a provision of linen or clothes, or any other necessaries; as +then, he said, he could afford it, which he might not be so well able to +do when the actual want came; in consequence of which method, he had a +considerable supply of necessary articles lying by him, beside what was +in use. + +'But the main particular that seems to have enabled him to do so much +with his income, was, that he paid for every thing as soon as he had it, +except, alone, what were current accounts, such as rent for his house +and servants' wages; and these he paid at the stated times with the +utmost exactness. He gave notice to the tradesmen of the neighbouring +market-towns that they should no longer have his custom, if they let any +of his servants have anything without their paying for it. Thus he put +it out of his power to commit those imprudences to which those are +liable that defer their payments by using their money some other way +than where it ought to go. And whatever money he had by him, he knew +that it was not demanded elsewhere, but that he might safely employ it +as he pleased. + +'His example was confined, by the sequestered place of his abode, to the +observation of few, though his prudence and virtue would have made it +valuable to all who could have known it.--These few particulars, which I +knew myself, or have obtained from those who lived with him, may afford +instruction, and be an incentive to that wise art of living, which he so +successfully practised.' BOSWELL. + +'THE CLUB holds very well together. Monday is my night[58]. I continue to +rise tolerably well, and read more than I did. I hope something will yet +come on it[59]. I am, Sir, + +'Your most affectionate servant, +'SAM JOHNSON' + +'May 10, 1766, +Johnson's-court, Fleet-street.' + +After I had been some time in Scotland, I mentioned to him in a letter +that 'On my first return to my native country, after some years of +absence, I was told of a vast number of my acquaintance who were all +gone to the land of forgetfulness, and I found myself like a man +stalking over a field of battle, who every moment perceives some one +lying dead.' I complained of irresolution, and mentioned my having made +a vow as a security for good conduct. I wrote to him again, without +being able to move his indolence; nor did I hear from him till he had +received a copy of my inaugural Exercise, or Thesis in Civil Law, which +I published at my admission as an Advocate, as is the custom in +Scotland. He then wrote to me as follows: + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'The reception of your Thesis put me in mind of my debt to you Why did +you ----[60]. I will punish you for it, by telling you that your Latin +wants correction[61]. In the beginning, _Spei alterae_, not to urge that +it should be _prima_, is not grammatical: _alterae_ should be _alteri_. +In the next line you seem to use _genus_ absolutely, for what we call +_family_, that is, for _illustrious extraction_, I doubt without +authority. _Homines nullius originis_, for _Nullis orti majoribus_, or, +_Nullo loco nati_, is, I am afraid, barbarous.--Ruddiman is dead[62]. + +'I have now vexed you enough, and will try to please you. Your +resolution to obey your father I sincerely approve; but do not accustom +yourself to enchain your volatility by vows: they will sometime leave a +thorn in your mind, which you will, perhaps, never be able to extract or +eject. Take this warning, it is of great importance[63]. + +'The study of the law is what you very justly term it, copious and +generous[64]; and in adding your name to its professors, you have done +exactly what I always wished, when I wished you best. I hope that you +will continue to pursue it vigorously and constantly[65]. You gain, at +least, what is no small advantage, security from those troublesome and +wearisome discontents, which are always obtruding themselves upon a mind +vacant, unemployed, and undetermined. + +'You ought to think it no small inducement to diligence and +perseverance, that they will please your father. We all live upon the +hope of pleasing somebody; and the pleasure of pleasing ought to be +greatest, and at last always will be greatest, when our endeavours are +exerted in consequence of our duty. + +'Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation +how it shall be spent; deliberation, which those who begin it by +prudence, and continue it with subtilty, must, after long expence of +thought, conclude by chance[66]. To prefer one future mode of life to +another, upon just reasons, requires faculties which it has not pleased +our Creator to give us. + +'If, therefore, the profession you have chosen has some unexpected +inconveniencies, console yourself by reflecting that no profession is +without them; and that all the importunities and perplexities of +business are softness and luxury, compared with the incessant cravings +of vacancy, and the unsatisfactory expedients of idleness. + +"_Haec sunt quce nostra polui te voce monere[67]; +Vade, age_." + +'As to your _History of Corsica_, you have no materials which others +have not, or may not have. You have, somehow, or other, warmed your +imagination. I wish there were some cure, like the lover's leap, for all +heads of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable and +irregular possession. Mind your own affairs, and leave the Corsicans to +theirs. I am, dear Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' +'London, Aug. 21, 1766.' + + +'To DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. + +'Auchinleck, Nov. 6, 1766. +'MUCH ESTEEMED AND DEAR SIR, + +'I plead not guilty to[68]---- + +'Having thus, I hope, cleared myself of the charge brought against me, I +presume you will not be displeased if I escape the punishment which you +have decreed for me unheard. If you have discharged the arrows of +criticism against an innocent man, you must rejoice to find they have +missed him, or have not been pointed so as to wound him. + +'To talk no longer in allegory, I am, with all deference, going to offer +a few observations in defence of my Latin, which you have found fault +with. + +'You think I should have used _spei primA|_, instead of _spei alterA|_. +_Spes_ is, indeed, often used to express something on which we have a +future dependence, as in Virg. Eclog. i. l. 14, + +".... _modo namque gemellos_ +Spem _gregis ah silice in nudAi connixa reliquit_." + +and in Georg. iii. l. 473, + +"Spemque _gregemque simul_," + +for the lambs and the sheep. Yet it is also used to express any thing on +which we have a present dependence, and is well applied to a man of +distinguished influence, our support, our refuge, our _prA|sidium_, as +Horace calls MA|cenas. So, A†neid xii. l. 57, Queen Amata addresses her +son-in-law Turnus:--"Spes _tu nunc una_:" and he was then no future +hope, for she adds, + +"... _decus imperiumque Latini +Te penes_;" + +which might have been said of my Lord Bute some years ago. Now I +consider the present Earl of Bute to be '_ExcelsA| familiA| de Bute_ spes +prima;' and my Lord Mountstuart, as his eldest son, to be '_spes +altera_.' So in A†neid xii. l. 168, after having mentioned Pater A†neas, +who was the _present_ spes, the _reigning_ spes, as my German friends +would say, the _spes prima_, the poet adds, + +"_Et juxta Ascanius, magnae_ spes altera _RomA|_." + +'You think _alterA|_ ungrammatical, and you tell me it should have been +_alteri_. You must recollect, that in old times _alter_ was declined +regularly; and when the ancient fragments preserved in the _Juris +Civilis Fontes_ were written, it was certainly declined in the way that +I use it. This, I should think, may protect a lawyer who writes _alterA|_ +in a dissertation upon part of his own science. But as I could hardly +venture to quote fragments of old law to so classical a man as Mr. +Johnson, I have not made an accurate search into these remains, to find +examples of what I am able to produce in poetical composition. We find +in Plaut. Rudens, act iii. scene 4, + +"_Nam Jiuic alters patria qua: sit profecto nescio_." + +Plautus is, to be sure, an old comick writer: but in the days of Scipio +and Lelius, we find, Terent. Heautontim. act ii. scene 3, + +".... hoc ipsa in itinere alterA| +Dum narrat, forte audivi." + +'You doubt my having authority for using _genus_ absolutely, for what we +call _family_, that is, for _illustrious extraction_. Now I take _genus_ +in Latin, to have much the same signification with _birth_ in English; +both in their primary meaning expressing simply descent, but both made +to stand [Greek: kat exochaen] noble descent. _Genus_ is thus used in +Hor. lib. ii. Sat. v. 1. 8, + +"_Et genus et virtus, nisi cum re, vilior alga est_." + +'And in lib. i. Epist. vi. 1. 37, + +"_Et genus et forinam Regina pecunia donat_." + +'And in the celebrated contest between Ajax and Ulysses, Ovid's +Metamorph. lib. xiii. 1. 140, + +"_Nam genus et proavos, et quA|--non fecimus ipsi +Vix ea nostra voco_." + +'_Homines nullius originis_, for _nullis orti majoribus_, or _nullo loco +nati_, is, you are "afraid, barbarous." + +'_Origo_ is used to signify extraction, as in Virg. A†neid i. 1. 286, + +"_Nascetur pulchrd Trojanus_ origine _CA|sar_." + +And in A†neid x. 1. 618, + +"_Ille tamen nostrAc deducit_ origine _nomen_" + +And as _nullus_ is used for obscure, is it not in the genius of the +Latin language to write _nullius originis_, for obscure extraction? + +'I have defended myself as well as I could. + +'Might I venture to differ from you with regard to the utility of vows? +I am sensible that it would be very dangerous to make vows rashly, and +without a due consideration. But I cannot help thinking that they may +often be of great advantage to one of a variable judgement and irregular +inclinations. I always remember a passage in one of your letters to our +Italian friend Baretti; where talking of the monastick life, you say you +do not wonder that serious men should put themselves under the +protection of a religious order, when they have found how unable they +are to take care of themselves.[69] For my own part, without affecting to +be a Socrates, I am sure I have a more than ordinary struggle to +maintain with _the Evil Principle_; and all the methods I can devise are +little enough to keep me tolerably steady in the paths of rectitude. + + * * * * * + +'I am ever, with the highest veneration, +'Your affectionate humble servant, +'JAMES BOSWELL.' + +It appears from Johnson's diary, that he was this year at Mr. Thrale's, +from before Midsummer till after Michaelmas, and that he afterwards +passed a month at Oxford. He had then contracted a great intimacy with +Mr. Chambers of that University, afterwards Sir Robert Chambers, one of +the Judges in India.[70] + +He published nothing this year in his own name; but the noble +dedication[71][*] to the King, of Gwyn's _London and Westminster +Improved_, was written by him; and he furnished the Preface,[Dagger] and +several of the pieces, which compose a volume of _Miscellanies_ by Mrs. +Anna Williams, the blind lady who had an asylum in his house. Of these, +there are his 'Epitaph on Philips,'[72][*] 'Translation of a Latin +Epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer,'[73][Dagger] 'Friendship, an Ode,'[74][*] +and, 'The Ant,'[*] a paraphrase from the Proverbs, of which I have a +copy in his own hand-writing; and, from internal evidence, I ascribe to +him, 'To Miss ----, on her giving the Authour a gold and silk net-work +Purse of her own weaving'[75]; [Dagger] and, 'The happy Life.'[76][Dagger] + +Most of the pieces in this volume have evidently received additions from +his superiour pen, particularly 'Verses to Mr. Richardson, on his Sir +Charles Grandison;' 'The Excursion;' 'Reflections on a Grave digging in +Westminster Abbey.'[77] There is in this collection a poem 'On the Death +of Stephen Grey, the Electrician;'[*] which, on reading it, appeared to +me to be undoubtedly Johnson's. I asked Mrs. Williams whether it was not +his. 'Sir, (said she, with some warmth,) I wrote that poem before I had +the honour of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance.' I, however, was so much +impressed with my first notion, that I mentioned it to Johnson, +repeating, at the same time, what Mrs. Williams had said. His answer +was, 'It is true, Sir, that she wrote it before she was acquainted with +me; but she has not told you that I wrote it all over again, except two +lines.'[78] 'The Fountains,'[dagger] a beautiful little Fairy tale in +prose, written with exquisite simplicity, is one of Johnson's +productions; and I cannot with-hold from Mrs. Thrale the praise of being +the authour of that admirable poem, 'The Three Warnings.' + +He wrote this year a letter, not intended for publication, which has, +perhaps, as strong marks of his sentiment and style, as any of his +compositions. The original is in my possession. It is addressed to the +late Mr. William Drummond, bookseller in Edinburgh, a gentleman of good +family, but small estate, who took arms for the house of Stuart in 1745; +and during his concealment in London till the act of general pardon came +out obtained the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson, who justly esteemed him as +a very worthy man. It seems, some of the members of the society in +Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge, had opposed the scheme of +translating the holy scriptures into the Erse or Gaelick language, from +political considerations of the disadvantage of keeping up the +distinction between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of +North-Britain. Dr. Johnson being informed of this, I suppose by Mr. +Drummond, wrote with a generous indignation as follows: + +'To MR. WILLIAM DRUMMOND. + +'SIR, + +'I did not expect to hear that it could be, in an assembly convened for +the propagation of Christian knowledge, a question whether any nation +uninstructed in religion should receive instruction; or whether that +instruction should be imparted to them by a translation of the holy +books into their own language. If obedience to the will of God be +necessary to happiness, and knowledge of his will be necessary to +obedience, I know not how he that with-holds this knowledge, or delays +it, can be said to love his neighbour as himself. He that voluntarily +continues ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance +produces; as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a light-house, +might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwrecks. Christianity is +the highest perfection of humanity; and as no man is good but as he +wishes the good of others, no man can be good in the highest degree who +wishes not to others the largest measures of the greatest good. To omit +for a year, or for a day, the most efficacious method of advancing +Christianity, in compliance with any purposes that terminate on this +side of the grave, is a crime of which I know not that the world has yet +had an example, except in the practice of the planters of America,[79] a +race of mortals whom, I suppose, no other man wishes to resemble.[80] + +'The Papists have, indeed, denied to the laity the use of the bible; but +this prohibition, in few places now very rigorously enforced, is +defended by arguments, which have for their foundation the care of +souls. To obscure, upon motives merely political, the light of +revelation, is a practice reserved for the reformed; and, surely, the +blackest midnight of popery is meridian sunshine to such a reformation. +I am not very willing that any language should be totally extinguished. +The similitude and derivation of languages afford the most indubitable +proof of the traduction of nations, and the genealogy of mankind.[81] +They add often physical certainty to historical evidence; and often +supply the only evidence of ancient migrations, and of the revolutions +of ages which left no written monuments behind them. + +'Every man's opinions, at least his desires, are a little influenced by +his favourite studies. My zeal for languages may seem, perhaps, rather +over-heated, even to those by whom I desire to be well-esteemed. To +those who have nothing in their thoughts but trade or policy, present +power, or present money, I should not think it necessary to defend my +opinions; but with men of letters I would not unwillingly compound, by +wishing the continuance of every language, however narrow in its extent, +or however incommodious for common purposes, till it is reposited in +some version of a known book, that it may be always hereafter examined +and compared with other languages, and then permitting its disuse. For +this purpose, the translation of the bible is most to be desired. It is +not certain that the same method will not preserve the Highland +language, for the purposes of learning, and abolish it from daily use. +When the Highlanders read the Bible, they will naturally wish to have +its obscurities cleared, and to know the history, collateral or +appendant. Knowledge always desires increase: it is like fire, which +must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards +propagate itself. When they once desire to learn, they will naturally +have recourse to the nearest language by which that desire can be +gratified; and one will tell another that if he would attain knowledge, +he must learn English. + +'This speculation may, perhaps, be thought more subtle than the +grossness of real life will easily admit. Let it, however, be +remembered, that the efficacy of ignorance has been long tried, and has +not produced the consequence expected. Let knowledge, therefore, take +its turn; and let the patrons of privation stand awhile aside, and admit +the operation of positive principles. + +'You will be pleased, Sir, to assure the worthy man who is employed in +the new translation,[82] that he has my wishes for his success; and if +here or at Oxford I can be of any use, that I shall think it more than +honour to promote his undertaking. + +'I am sorry that I delayed so long to write. +'I am, Sir, +'Your most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, +Aug. 13, 1766.' + +The opponents of this pious scheme being made ashamed of their conduct, +the benevolent undertaking was allowed to go on[83]. + +The following letters, though not written till the year after, being +chiefly upon the same subject, are here inserted. + +'TO MR. WILLIAM DRUMMOND. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'That my letter should have had such effects as you mention, gives me +great pleasure. I hope you do not flatter me by imputing to me more good +than I have really done. Those whom my arguments have persuaded to +change their opinion, shew such modesty and candour as deserve great +praise. + +'I hope the worthy translator goes diligently forward. He has a higher +reward in prospect than any honours which this world can bestow. I wish +I could be useful to him. + +'The publication of my letter, if it could be of use in a cause to which +all other causes are nothing, I should not prohibit. But first, I would +have you consider whether the publication will really do any good; next, +whether by printing and distributing a very small number, you may not +attain all that you propose; and, what perhaps I should have said first, +whether the letter, which I do not now perfectly remember, be fit to be +printed. + +'If you can consult Dr. Robertson, to whom I am a little known, I shall +be satisfied about the propriety of whatever he shall direct. If he +thinks that it should be printed, I entreat him to revise it; there may, +perhaps, be some negligent lines written, and whatever is amiss, he +knows very well how to rectify[84]. + +'Be pleased to let me know, from time to time, how this excellent design +goes forward. + +'Make my compliments to young Mr. Drummond, whom I hope you will live to +see such as you desire him. + +'I have not lately seen Mr. Elphinston[85], but believe him to be +prosperous. I shall be glad to hear the same of you, for I am, Sir, + +'Your affectionate humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, +April 21, 1767.' + + +'TO THE SAME. + +'SIR, + +'I returned this week from the country, after an absence of near six +months, and found your letter with many others, which I should have +answered sooner, if I had sooner seen them. + +'Dr. Robertson's opinion was surely right. Men should not be told of the +faults which they have mended. I am glad the old language is taught, and +honour the translator as a man whom GOD has distinguished by the high +office of propagating his word. + +'I must take the liberty of engaging you in an office of charity. Mrs. +Heely, the wife of Mr. Heely, who had lately some office in your +theatre, is my near relation, and now in great distress. They wrote me +word of their situation some time ago, to which I returned them an +answer which raised hopes of more than it is proper for me to give them. +Their representation of their affairs I have discovered to be such as +cannot be trusted; and at this distance, though their case requires +haste, I know not how to act. She, or her daughters, may be heard of at +Canongate Head. I must beg, Sir, that you will enquire after them, and +let me know what is to be done. I am willing to go to ten pounds, and +will transmit you such a sum, if upon examination you find it likely to +be of use. If they are in immediate want, advance them what you think +proper. What I could do, I would do for the women, having no great +reason to pay much regard to Heely himself[86]. + +'I believe you may receive some intelligence from Mrs. Baker, of the +theatre, whose letter I received at the same time with yours; and to +whom, if you see her, you will make my excuse for the seeming neglect of +answering her. + +'Whatever you advance within ten pounds shall be immediately returned to +you, or paid as you shall order. I trust wholly to your judgement. + +'I am, Sir, &c. +'SAM. JOHNSON.' +'London, Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, +Oct. 24, 1767.' + +Mr. Cuthbert Shaw[87], alike distinguished by his genius, misfortunes, +and misconduct, published this year a poem, called _The Race_, by +'Mercurius Spur, Esq.[88],' in which he whimsically made the living poets +of England contend for pre-eminence of fame by running: + +'Prove by their heels the prowess of the head.' + +In this poem there was the following portrait of Johnson: + +'Here Johnson comes,--unblest with outward grace, +His rigid morals stamp'd upon his face. +While strong conceptions struggle in his brain; +(For even wit is brought to bed with pain:) +To view him, porters with their loads would rest, +And babes cling frighted to the nurse's breast. +With looks convuls'd he roars in pompous strain, +And, like an angry lion, shakes his mane. +The Nine, with terrour struck, who ne'er had seen, +Aught human with so horrible a mien, +Debating whether they should stay or run, +Virtue steps forth, and claims him for her son: +With gentle speech she warns him now to yield, +Nor stain his glories in the doubtful field; +But wrapt in conscious worth, content sit down, +Since Fame, resolv'd his various pleas to crown, +Though forc'd his present claim to disavow, +Had long reserv'd a chaplet for his brow. +He bows, obeys; for time shall first expire, +Ere Johnson stay, when Virtue bids retire.' + +The Honourable Thomas Hervey[89] and his lady having unhappily disagreed, +and being about to separate, Johnson interfered as their friend, and +wrote him a letter of expostulation, which I have not been able to find; +but the substance of it is ascertained by a letter to Johnson in answer +to it, which Mr. Hervey printed. The occasion of this correspondence +between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Hervey, was thus related to me by Mr. +Beauclerk[90]. 'Tom Hervey had a great liking for Johnson, and in his +will had left him a legacy of fifty pounds. One day he said to me, +"Johnson may want this money now, more than afterwards. I have a mind to +give it him directly. Will you be so good as to carry a fifty pound note +from me to him?" This I positively refused to do, as he might, perhaps, +have knocked me down for insulting him, and have afterwards put the note +in his pocket. But I said, if Hervey would write him a letter, and +enclose a fifty pound note, I should take care to deliver it. He +accordingly did write him a letter, mentioning that he was only paying a +legacy a little sooner. To his letter he added, "_P.S. I am going to +part with my wife_." Johnson then wrote to him, saying nothing of the +note, but remonstrating with him against parting with his wife.' + +When I mentioned to Johnson this story, in as delicate terms as I could, +he told me that the fifty pound note was given to him by Mr. Hervey in +consideration of his having written for him a pamphlet against Sir +Charles Hanbury Williams, who, Mr. Hervey imagined, was the authour of +an attack upon him; but that it was afterwards discovered to be the work +of a garreteer who wrote _The Fool_[91]: the pamphlet therefore against +Sir Charles was not printed.[92] + +In February, 1767, there happened one of the most remarkable incidents +of Johnson's life, which gratified his monarchical enthusiasm, and which +he loved to relate with all its circumstances, when requested by his +friends. This was his being honoured by a private conversation with his +Majesty, in the library at the Queen's house[93]. He had frequently +visited those splendid rooms and noble collection of books[94], which he +used to say was more numerous and curious than he supposed any person +could have made in the time which the King had employed. Mr. Barnard, +the librarian, took care that he should have every accommodation that +could contribute to his ease and convenience, while indulging his +literary taste in that place; so that he had here a very agreeable +resource at leisure hours. + +His Majesty having been informed of his occasional visits, was pleased +to signify a desire that he should be told when Dr. Johnson came next to +the library. Accordingly, the next time that Johnson did come, as soon +as he was fairly engaged with a book, on which, while he sat by the +fire, he seemed quite intent, Mr. Barnard stole round to the apartment +where the King was, and, in obedience to his Majesty's commands, +mentioned that Dr. Johnson was then in the library. His Majesty said he +was at leisure, and would go to him; upon which Mr. Barnard took one of +the candles that stood on the King's table, and lighted his Majesty +through a suite of rooms, till they came to a private door into the +library, of which his Majesty had the key. Being entered, Mr. Barnard +stepped forward hastily to Dr. Johnson, who was still in a profound +study, and whispered him, 'Sir, here is the King.' Johnson started up, +and stood still. His Majesty approached him, and at once was courteously +easy[95]. + +His Majesty began by observing, that he understood he came sometimes to +the library; and then mentioning his having heard that the Doctor had +been lately at Oxford[96], asked him if he was not fond of going thither. +To which Johnson answered, that he was indeed fond of going to Oxford +sometimes, but was likewise glad to come back again. The King then asked +him what they were doing at Oxford. Johnson answered, he could not much +commend their diligence, but that in some respects they were mended, for +they had put their press under better regulations, and were at that time +printing Polybius. He was then asked whether there were better libraries +at Oxford or Cambridge. He answered, he believed the Bodleian was larger +than any they had at Cambridge; at the same time adding, 'I hope, +whether we have more books or not than they have at Cambridge, we shall +make as good use of them as they do.' Being asked whether All-Souls or +Christ-Church library[97] was the largest, he answered, 'All-Souls +library is the largest we have, except the Bodleian.' 'Aye, (said the +King,) that is the publick library.' + +His Majesty enquired if he was then writing any thing. He answered, he +was not, for he had pretty well told the world what he knew, and must +now read to acquire more knowledge[98]. The King, as it should seem with +a view to urge him to rely on his own stores as an original writer, and +to continue his labours[99], then said 'I do not think you borrow much +from any body.' Johnson said, he thought he had already done his part as +a writer. 'I should have thought so too, (said the King,) if you had not +written so well.'--Johnson observed to me, upon this, that 'No man could +have paid a handsomer compliment; and it was fit for a King to pay. It +was decisive.' When asked by another friend, at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, +whether he made any reply to this high compliment, he answered, 'No, +Sir. When the King had said it, it was to be so. It was not for me to +bandy civilities with my Sovereign[100].' Perhaps no man who had spent his +whole life in courts could have shewn a more nice and dignified sense of +true politeness, than Johnson did in this instance. + +His Majesty having observed to him that he supposed he must have read a +great deal; Johnson answered, that he thought more than he read[101]; that +he had read a great deal in the early part of his life, but having +fallen into ill health, he had not been able to read much, compared with +others: for instance, he said he had not read much, compared with Dr. +Warburton[102]. Upon which the King said, that he heard Dr. Warburton was +a man of such general knowledge, that you could scarce talk with him on +any subject on which he was not qualified to speak; and that his +learning resembled Garrick's acting, in its universality[103]. His Majesty +then talked of the controversy between Warburton and Lowth, which he +seemed to have read, and asked Johnson what he thought of it. Johnson +answered, 'Warburton has most general, most scholastick learning; Lowth +is the more correct scholar. I do not know which of them calls names +best.' The King was pleased to say he was of the same opinion; adding, +'You do not think, then, Dr. Johnson, that there was much argument in +the case.' Johnson said, he did not think there was[104]. 'Why truly, +(said the King,) when once it comes to calling names, argument is pretty +well at an end.' + +His Majesty then asked him what he thought of Lord Lyttelton's +_History_, which was then just published[105]. Johnson said, he thought +his style pretty good, but that he had blamed Henry the Second rather +too much. 'Why, (said the King), they seldom do these things by halves.' +'No, Sir, (answered Johnson), not to Kings.' But fearing to be +misunderstood, he proceeded to explain himself; and immediately +subjoined, 'That for those who spoke worse of Kings than they deserved, +he could find no excuse; but that he could more easily conceive how some +might speak better of them than they deserved, without any ill +intention; for, as Kings had much in their power to give, those who were +favoured by them would frequently, from gratitude, exaggerate their +praises; and as this proceeded from a good motive, it was certainly +excusable, as far as errour could be excusable.' + +The King then asked him what he thought of Dr. Hill[106]. Johnson +answered, that he was an ingenious man, but had no veracity; and +immediately mentioned, as an instance of it, an assertion of that +writer, that he had seen objects magnified to a much greater degree by +using three or four microscopes at a time, than by using one. 'Now, +(added Johnson,) every one acquainted with microscopes knows, that the +more of them he looks through, the less the object will appear.' 'Why, +(replied the King,) this is not only telling an untruth, but telling it +clumsily; for, if that be the case, every one who can look through a +microscope will be able to detect him[107].' + +'I now, (said Johnson to his friends, when relating what had passed) +began to consider that I was depreciating this man in the estimation of +his Sovereign, and thought it was time for me to say something that +might be more favourable.' He added, therefore, that Dr. Hill was, +notwithstanding, a very curious observer; and if he would have been +contented to tell the world no more than he knew, he might have been a +very considerable man, and needed not to have recourse to such mean +expedients to raise his reputation[108]. + +The King then talked of literary journals, mentioned particularly the +_Journal des Savans_, and asked Johnson if it was well done. Johnson +said, it was formerly very well done, and gave some account of the +persons who began it, and carried it on for some years; enlarging, at +the same time, on the nature and use of such works. The King asked him +if it was well done now. Johnson answered, he had no reason to think +that it was[109]. The King then asked him if there were any other literary +journals published in this kingdom, except the _Monthly_ and _Critical +Reviews_[110]; and on being answered there were no other, his Majesty +asked which of them was the best: Johnson answered, that the _Monthly +Review_ was done with most care, the _Critical_ upon the best +principles; adding that the authours of the _Monthly Review_ were +enemies to the Church[111]. This the King said he was sorry to hear. + +The conversation next turned on the Philosophical Transactions, when +Johnson observed, that they had now a better method of arranging their +materials than formerly. 'Aye, (said the King,) they are obliged to Dr. +Johnson for that;' for his Majesty had heard and remembered the +circumstance, which Johnson himself had forgot[112]. + +His Majesty expressed a desire to have the literary biography of this +country ably executed, and proposed to Dr. Johnson to undertake it. +Johnson signified his readiness to comply with his Majesty's wishes. + +During the whole of this interview, Johnson talked to his Majesty with +profound respect, but still in his firm manly manner, with a sonorous +voice, and never in that subdued tone which is commonly used at the +levee and in the drawing-room[113]. After the King withdrew, Johnson +shewed himself highly pleased with his Majesty's conversation, and +gracious behaviour. He said to Mr. Barnard, 'Sir, they may talk of the +King as they will; but he is the finest gentleman I have ever seen[114].' +And he afterwards observed to Mr. Langton, 'Sir, his manners are those +of as fine a gentleman as we may suppose Lewis the Fourteenth or Charles +the Second.' + +At Sir Joshua Reynolds's, where a circle of Johnson's friends was +collected round him to hear his account of this memorable conversation, +Dr. Joseph Warton, in his frank and lively manner[115], was very active in +pressing him to mention the particulars. 'Come now, Sir, this is an +interesting matter; do favour us with it.' Johnson, with great good +humour, complied. + +He told them, 'I found his Majesty wished I should talk, and I made it +my business to talk. I find it does a man good to be talked to by his +Sovereign. In the first place, a man cannot be in a passion--.' Here +some question interrupted him, which is to be regretted, as he certainly +would have pointed out and illustrated many circumstances of advantage, +from being in a situation, where the powers of the mind are at once +excited to vigorous exertion, and tempered by reverential awe. + +During all the time in which Dr. Johnson was employed in relating to the +circle at Sir Joshua Reynolds's the particulars of what passed between +the King and him, Dr. Goldsmith remained unmoved upon a sopha at some +distance, affecting not to join in the least in the eager curiosity of +the company. He assigned as a reason for his gloom and seeming +inattention, that he apprehended Johnson had relinquished his purpose of +furnishing him with a Prologue to his play[116], with the hopes of which +he had been flattered; but it was strongly suspected that he was +fretting with chagrin and envy at the singular honour Dr. Johnson had +lately enjoyed. At length, the frankness and simplicity of his natural +character prevailed. He sprung from the sopha, advanced to Johnson, and +in a kind of flutter, from imagining himself in the situation which he +had just been hearing described, exclaimed, '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[117].' + +I received no letter from Johnson this year; nor have I discovered any +of the correspondence[118] he had, except the two letters to Mr. Drummond, +which have been inserted, for the sake of connection with that to the +same gentleman in 1766. His diary affords no light as to his employment +at this time. He passed three months at Lichfield[119]; and I cannot omit +an affecting and solemn scene there, as related by himself[120]: + +'Sunday, Oct. 18, 1767. Yesterday, Oct. 17, at about ten in the morning, +I took my leave for ever of my dear old friend, Catharine Chambers, who +came to live with my mother about 1724, and has been but little parted +from us since. She buried my father, my brother, and my mother. She is +now fifty-eight years old. + +'I desired all to withdraw, then told her that we were to part for ever; +that 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, nearly in the following words: + +'Almighty and most merciful Father, whose loving kindness is over all +thy works, behold, visit, and relieve this thy servant, who is grieved +with sickness. Grant that the sense of her weakness may add strength to +her faith, and seriousness to her repentance. And grant that by the help +of thy Holy Spirit, after the pains and labours of this short life, we +may all obtain everlasting happiness, through JESUS CHRIST our Lord; for +whose sake hear our prayers. Amen. Our Father, &c. + +'I then kissed her. 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 tenderness, +the same hopes. We kissed, and parted. I humbly hope to meet again, and +to part no more[121].' + +By those who have been taught to look upon Johnson as a man of a harsh +and stern character, let this tender and affectionate scene be candidly +read; and let them then judge whether more warmth of heart, and grateful +kindness, is often found in human nature. + +We have the following notice in his devotional record: + +'August 2, 1767. I have been disturbed and unsettled for a long time, +and have been without resolution to apply to study or to business, being +hindered by sudden snatches[122].' + +He, however, furnished Mr. Adams with a Dedication[*] to the King of +that ingenious gentleman's _Treatise on the Globes_, conceived and +expressed in such a manner as could not fail to be very grateful to a +Monarch, distinguished for his love of the sciences. + +This year was published a ridicule of his style, under the title of +_Lexiphanes_. Sir John Hawkins ascribes it to Dr. Kenrick[123]; but its +authour was one Campbell, a Scotch purser in the navy. The ridicule +consisted in applying Johnson's 'words of large meaning[124]' to +insignificant matters, as if one should put the armour of Goliath upon a +dwarf. The contrast might be laughable; but the dignity of the armour +must remain the same in all considerate minds. This malicious drollery, +therefore, it may easily be supposed, could do no harm to its +illustrious object[125]. + + + +'To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT MR. ROTHWELL'S, PERFUMER, IN NEW +BOND-STREET, LONDON. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'That you have been all summer in London, is one more reason for which I +regret my long stay in the country. I hope that you will not leave the +town before my return. We have here only the chance of vacancies in the +passing carriages, and I have bespoken one that may, if it happens, +bring me to town on the fourteenth of this month; but this is not +certain. + +'It will be a favour if you communicate this to Mrs. Williams: I long to +see all my friends. + +'I am, dear Sir, +'Your most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Lichfield, Oct. 10, 1767.' + + +1768: AETAT. 59.--It appears from his notes of the state of his mind[126], +that he suffered great perturbation and distraction in 1768. Nothing of +his writing was given to the publick this year, except the Prologue[*] +to his friend Goldsmith's comedy of _The Good-natured Man_[127]. The first +lines of this Prologue are strongly characteristical of the dismal gloom +of his mind; which in his case, as in the case of all who are distressed +with the same malady of imagination, transfers to others its own +feelings. Who could suppose it was to introduce a comedy, when Mr. +Bensley solemnly began, + +'Press'd with[128] the load of life, the weary mind + Surveys the general toil of human kind.' + +But this dark ground might make Goldsmith's humour shine the more. + +In the spring of this year, having published my _Account of Corsica_, +with the _Journal of a Tour to that Island_[129], I returned to London +[130], very desirous to see Dr. Johnson, and hear him upon the subject. +I found he was at Oxford, with his friend Mr. Chambers[131], who was now +Vinerian Professor, and lived in New Inn Hall. Having had no letter from +him since that in which he criticised the Latinity of my Thesis, and +having been told by somebody that he was offended at my having put into +my Book an extract of his letter to me at Paris[132], I was impatient to +be with him, and therefore followed him to Oxford, where I was +entertained by Mr. Chambers, with a civility which I shall ever +gratefully remember. I found that Dr. Johnson had sent a letter to me to +Scotland, and that I had nothing to complain of but his being more +indifferent to my anxiety than I wished him to be. Instead of giving, +with the circumstances of time and place, such fragments of his +conversation as I preserved during this visit to Oxford, I shall throw +them together in continuation[133]. + +I asked him whether, as a moralist, he did not think that the practice +of the law, in some degree, hurt the nice feeling of honesty. JOHNSON. +'Why no, Sir, if you act properly. You are not to deceive your clients +with false representations of your opinion: you are not to tell lies to +a judge.' BOSWELL. 'But what do you think of supporting a cause which +you know to be bad?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, you do not know it to be good or bad +till the Judge determines it. I have said that you are to state facts +fairly; so that your thinking, or what you call knowing, a cause to be +bad, must be from reasoning, must be from your supposing your arguments +to be weak and inconclusive. But, Sir, that is not enough. An argument +which does not convince yourself, may convince the Judge to whom you +urge it: and if it does convince him, why, then, Sir, you are wrong, and +he is right. It is his business to judge; and you are not to be +confident in your own opinion that a cause is bad, but to say all you +can for your client, and then hear the Judge's opinion.' BOSWELL. 'But, +Sir, does not affecting a warmth when you have no warmth, and appearing +to be clearly of one opinion when you are in reality of another opinion, +does not such dissimulation impair one's honesty? Is there not some +danger that a lawyer may put on the same mask in common life, in the +intercourse with his friends?' JOHNSON. 'Why no, Sir. Everybody knows +you are paid for affecting warmth for your client; and it is, therefore, +properly no dissimulation: the moment you come from the bar you resume +your usual behaviour. Sir, a man will no more carry the artifice of the +bar into the common intercourse of society, than a man who is paid for +tumbling upon his hands will continue to tumble upon his hands when he +should walk on his feet[134].' + +Talking of some of the modern plays, he said _False Delicacy_ was +totally void of character[135]. He praised Goldsmith's _Good-natured Man_; +said, it was the best comedy that had appeared since _The Provoked +Husband_[136], and that there had not been of late any such character +exhibited on the stage as that of Croaker. I observed it was the +Suspirius of his Rambler. He said, Goldsmith had owned he had borrowed +it from thence[137]. 'Sir, (continued he,) there is all the difference in +the world between characters of nature and characters of manners; and +_there_ is the difference between the characters of Fielding and those +of Richardson. Characters of manners are very entertaining; but they are +to be understood, by a more superficial observer, than characters of +nature, where a man must dive into the recesses of the human heart.' + +It always appeared to me that he estimated the compositions of +Richardson too highly, and that he had an unreasonable prejudice against +Fielding[138]. In comparing those two writers, he used this expression: +'that there was as great a difference between them as between a man who +knew how a watch was made, and a man who could tell the hour by looking +on the dial-plate[139].' This was a short and figurative state of his +distinction between drawing characters of nature and characters only of +manners. But I cannot help being of opinion, that the neat watches of +Fielding are as well constructed as the large clocks of Richardson, and +that his dial-plates are brighter. Fielding's characters, though they do +not expand themselves so widely in dissertation, are as just pictures of +human nature, and I will venture to say, have more striking features, +and nicer touches of the pencil; and though Johnson used to quote with +approbation a saying of Richardson's, 'that the virtues of Fielding's +heroes were the vices of a truly good man,' I will venture to add, that +the moral tendency of Fielding's writings, though it does not encourage +a strained and rarely possible virtue, is ever favourable to honour and +honesty, and cherishes the benevolent and generous affections. He who is +as good as Fielding would make him, is an amiable member of society, and +may be led on by more regulated instructors, to a higher state of +ethical perfection. + +Johnson proceeded: 'Even Sir Francis Wronghead is a character of +manners, though drawn with great humour.' He then repeated, very +happily, all Sir Francis's credulous account to Manly of his being with +'the great man,' and securing a place[140]. I asked him, if _The +Suspicious Husband_[141] did not furnish a well-drawn character, that of +Ranger. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; Ranger is just a rake, a mere rake[142], and a +lively young fellow, but no _character_'. + +The great Douglas Cause[143] was at this time a very general subject of +discussion. I found he had not studied it with much attention, but had +only heard parts of it occasionally. He, however, talked of it, and +said, 'I am of opinion that positive proof of fraud should not be +required of the plaintiff, but that the Judges should decide according +as probability shall appear to preponderate, granting to the defendant +the presumption of filiation to be strong in his favour. And I think +too, that a good deal of weight should be allowed to the dying +declarations, because they were spontaneous. There is a great difference +between what is said without our being urged to it, and what is said +from a kind of compulsion. If I praise a man's book without being asked +my opinion of it, that is honest praise, to which one may trust. But if +an authour asks me if I like his book, and I give him something like +praise, it must not be taken as my real opinion.' + +'I have not been troubled for a long time with authours desiring my +opinion of their works[144]. I used once to be sadly plagued with a man +who wrote verses, but who literally had no other notion of a verse, but +that it consisted of ten syllables. _Lay your knife and your fork, +across your plate_, was to him a verse: + +'Lay your knife and your fork, across your plate. + +'As he wrote a great number of verses, he sometimes by chance made good +ones, though he did not know it.' + +He renewed his promise of coming to Scotland, and going with me to the +Hebrides, but said he would now content himself with seeing one or two +of the most curious of them. He said, 'Macaulay[145], who writes the +account of St. Kilda, set out with a prejudice against prejudices, and +wanted to be a smart modern thinker; and yet he affirms for a truth, +that when a ship arrives there, all the inhabitants are seized with a +cold[146].' + +Dr. John Campbell[147], the celebrated writer, took a great deal of pains +to ascertain this fact, and attempted to account for it on physical +principles, from the effect of effluvia from human bodies. Johnson, at +another time[148], praised Macaulay for his '_magnanimity_' in asserting +this wonderful story, because it was well attested. A Lady of Norfolk, +by a letter to my friend Dr. Burney, has favoured me with the following +solution: 'Now for the explication of this seeming mystery, which is so +very obvious as, for that reason, to have escaped the penetration of Dr. +Johnson and his friend, as well as that of the authour. Reading the book +with my ingenious friend, the late Reverend Mr. Christian, of Docking-- +after ruminating a little, "The cause, (says he,) is a natural one. The +situation of St. Kilda renders a North-East Wind indispensably necessary +before a stranger can land[149]. The wind, not the stranger, occasions an +epidemic cold." If I am not mistaken, Mr. Macaulay is dead; if living, +this solution might please him, as I hope it will Mr. Boswell, in return +for the many agreeable hours his works have afforded us.' + +Johnson expatiated on the advantages of Oxford for learning[150]. 'There +is here, Sir, (said he,) such a progressive emulation. The students are +anxious to appear well to their tutors; the tutors are anxious to have +their pupils appear well in the college; the colleges are anxious to +have their students appear well in the University; and there are +excellent rules of discipline in every college. That the rules are +sometimes ill observed, may be true; but is nothing against the system. +The members of an University may, for a season, be unmindful of their +duty. I am arguing for the excellency of the institution[151].' + +Of Guthrie[152], he said, 'Sir, he is a man of parts. He has no great +regular fund of knowledge; but by reading so long, and writing so long, +he no doubt has picked up a good deal.' + +He said he had lately been a long while at Lichfield, but had grown very +weary before he left it. BOSWELL. 'I wonder at that, Sir; it is your +native place.' JOHNSON. 'Why, so is Scotland _your_ native place.' + +His prejudice against Scotland appeared remarkably strong at this time. +When I talked of our advancement in literature[153], 'Sir, (said he,) you +have learnt a little from us, and you think yourselves very great men. +Hume would never have written History, had not Voltaire written it +before him[154]. He is an echo of Voltaire.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, we have +Lord Kames[155].' + +JOHNSON. 'You _have_ Lord Kames. Keep him; ha, ha, ha! We don't envy you +him. Do you ever see Dr. Robertson?' + +BOSWELL. 'Yes, Sir.' JOHNSON. 'Does the dog talk of me?' + +BOSWELL. 'Indeed, Sir, he does, and loves you.' Thinking that I now had +him in a corner, and being solicitous for the literary fame of my +country, I pressed him for his opinion on the merit of Dr. Robertson's +_History of Scotland_. But, to my surprize, he escaped.--'Sir, I love +Robertson, and I won't talk of his book[156].' + +It is but justice both to him and Dr. Robertson to add, that though he +indulged himself in this sally of wit, he had too good taste not to be +fully sensible of the merits of that admirable work. + +An essay, written by Mr. Deane, a divine of the Church of England, +maintaining the future life of brutes, by an explication of certain +parts of the scriptures[157], was mentioned, and the doctrine insisted on +by a gentleman who seemed fond of curious speculation. Johnson, who did +not like to hear of any thing concerning a future state which was not +authorised by the regular canons of orthodoxy, discouraged this talk; +and being offended at its continuation, he watched an opportunity to +give the gentleman a blow of reprehension. So, when the poor +speculatist, with a serious metaphysical pensive face, addressed him, +'But really, Sir, when we see a very sensible dog, we don't know what to +think of him;' Johnson, rolling with joy at the thought which beamed in +his eye, turned quickly round, and replied, 'True, Sir: and when we see +a very foolish _fellow_, we don't know what to think of _him_.' He then +rose up, strided to the fire, and stood for some time laughing and +exulting. + +I told him that I had several times, when in Italy, seen the experiment +of placing a scorpion within a circle of burning coals; that it ran +round and round in extreme pain; and finding no way to escape, retired +to the centre, and like a true Stoick philosopher, darted its sting into +its head, and thus at once freed itself from its woes. 'This must end +'em[158].' I said, this was a curious fact, as it shewed deliberate +suicide in a reptile. Johnson would not admit the fact. He said, +Maupertuis[159] was of opinion that it does not kill itself, but dies of +the heat; that it gets to the centre of the circle, as the coolest +place; that its turning its tail in upon its head is merely a +convulsion, and that it does not sting itself. He said he would be +satisfied if the great anatomist Morgagni, after dissecting a scorpion +on which the experiment had been tried, should certify that its sting +had penetrated into its head. + +He seemed pleased to talk of natural philosophy. 'That woodcocks, (said +he,) fly over to the northern countries is proved, because they have +been observed at sea. Swallows certainly sleep all the winter. A number +of them conglobulate together[160], by flying round and round, and then +all in a heap throw themselves under water, and lye in the bed of a +river[161].' He told us, one of his first essays was a Latin poem upon the +glow-worm. I am sorry I did not ask where it was to be found. + +Talking of the Russians and the Chinese, he advised me to read Bell's +travels[162]. I asked him whether I should read Du Halde's account of +China[163]. 'Why yes, (said he) as one reads such a book; that is to say, +consult it.' + +He talked of the heinousness of the crime of adultery, by which the +peace of families was destroyed. He said, 'Confusion of progeny +constitutes the essence of the crime; and therefore a woman who breaks +her marriage vows is much more criminal than a man who does it.[164] A +man, to be sure, is criminal in the sight of God: but he does not do his +wife a very material injury, if he does not insult her; if, for +instance, from mere wantonness of appetite, he steals privately to her +chambermaid. Sir, a wife ought not greatly to resent this. I would not +receive home a daughter who had run away from her husband on that +account. A wife should study to reclaim her husband by more attention to +please him. Sir, a man will not, once in a hundred instances, leave his +wife and go to a harlot, if his wife has not been negligent of +pleasing.' + +Here he discovered that acute discrimination, that solid judgement, and +that knowledge of human nature, for which he was upon all occasions +remarkable. Taking care to keep in view then moral and religious duty, +as understood in our nation, he shewed clearly from reason and good +sense, the greater degree of culpability in the one sex deviating from +it than the other; and, at the same time, inculcated a very useful +lesson as to _the way to keep him_. + +I asked him if it was not hard that one deviation from chastity should +so absolutely ruin a young woman. JOHNSON. 'Why, no, Sir; it is the +great principle which she is taught. When she has given up that +principle, she has given up every notion of female honour and virtue, +which are all included in chastity.' + +A gentleman[165] talked to him of a lady whom he greatly admired and +wished to marry, but was afraid of her superiority of talents. 'Sir, +(said he) you need not be afraid; marry her. Before a year goes about, +you'll find that reason much weaker, and that wit not so bright.' Yet +the gentleman may be justified in his apprehension by one of Dr. +Johnson's admirable sentences in his life of Waller: 'He doubtless +praised many[166] whom he would have been afraid to marry; and, perhaps, +married one whom he would have been ashamed to praise. Many qualities +contribute to domestic happiness, upon which poetry has no colours to +bestow; and many airs and sallies may delight imagination, which he who +flatters them never can approve.' + +He praised Signor Baretti. 'His account of Italy is a very entertaining +book[167]; and, Sir, I know no man who carries his head higher in +conversation than Baretti[168]. There are strong powers in his mind. He +has not, indeed, many hooks; but with what hooks he has, he grapples +very forcibly.' + +At this time I observed upon the dial-plate of his watch[169] a short +Greek inscription, taken from the New Testament, _Nux gar erchetai_[170], +being the first words of our SAVIOUR'S solemn admonition to the +improvement of that time which is allowed us to prepare for eternity: +'the night cometh, when no man can work.' He sometime afterwards laid +aside this dial-plate; and when I asked him the reason, he said, 'It +might do very well upon a clock which a man keeps in his closet; but to +have it upon his watch which he carries about with him, and which is +often looked at by others, might be censured as ostentatious.' Mr. +Steevens is now possessed of the dial-plate inscribed as above. + +He remained at Oxford a considerable time[171]; I was obliged to go to +London, where I received his letter, which had been returned from +Scotland. + + + +'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'MY DEAR BOSWELL, + +'I have omitted a long time to write to you, without knowing very well +why. I could now tell why I should not write; for who would write to men +who publish the letters of their friends, without their leave[172]? Yet I +write to you in spite of my caution, to tell you that I shall be glad to +see you, and that I wish you would empty your head of Corsica, which I +think has filled it rather too long. But, at all events, I shall be +glad, very glad to see you. + +'I am, Sir, +'Yours affectionately, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' +'Oxford, March 23, 1768.' + + +I answered thus: + +'TO MR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. + +'London, 26th April, 1768[173]. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'I have received your last letter, which, though very short, and by no +means complimentary, yet gave me real pleasure, because it contains +these words, "I shall be glad, very glad to see you." Surely you have no +reason to complain of my publishing a single paragraph of one of your +letters; the temptation to it was so strong. An irrevocable grant of +your friendship, and your dignifying my desire of visiting Corsica with +the epithet of "a wise and noble curiosity," are to me more valuable +than many of the grants of kings. + +'But how can you bid me "empty my head of Corsica[174]?" My noble-minded +friend, do you not feel for an oppressed nation bravely struggling to be +free? Consider fairly what is the case. The Corsicans never received any +kindness from the Genoese[175]. They never agreed to be subject to them. +They owe them nothing; and when reduced to an abject state of slavery, +by force, shall they not rise in the great cause of liberty, and break +the galling yoke? And shall not every liberal soul be warm for them? +Empty my head of Corsica! Empty it of honour, empty it of humanity, +empty it of friendship, empty it of piety. No! while I live, Corsica and +the cause of the brave islanders shall ever employ much of my attention, +shall ever interest me in the sincerest manner. + +'I am, &c. + +'JAMES BOSWELL.' + +Upon his arrival in London in May, he surprized me one morning with a +visit at my lodgings in Half-Moon-street[176], was quite satisfied with my +explanation, and was in the kindest and most agreeable frame of mind. As +he had objected to a part of one of his letters being published, I +thought it right to take this opportunity of asking him explicitly +whether it would be improper to publish his letters after his death. His +answer was, 'Nay, Sir, when I am dead, you may do as you will[177].' + +He talked in his usual style with a rough contempt of popular +liberty[178]. 'They make a rout about _universal_ liberty, without +considering that all that is to be valued, or indeed can be enjoyed by +individuals, is _private_ liberty. Political liberty is good only so far +as it produces private liberty. Now, Sir, there is the liberty of the +press, which you know is a constant topick[179]. Suppose you and I and two +hundred more were restrained from printing our thoughts: what then? What +proportion would that restraint upon us bear to the private happiness of +the nation[180]?' + +This mode of representing the inconveniences of restraint as light and +insignificant, was a kind of sophistry in which he delighted to indulge +himself, in opposition to the extreme laxity for which it has been +fashionable for too many to argue, when it is evident, upon reflection, +that the very essence of government is restraint; and certain it is, +that as government produces rational happiness, too much restraint is +better than too little. But when restraint is unnecessary, and so close +as to gall those who are subject to it, the people may and ought to +remonstrate; and, if relief is not granted, to resist. Of this manly and +spirited principle, no man was more convinced than Johnson himself[181]. + +About this time Dr. Kenrick[182] attacked him, through my sides, in a +pamphlet, entitled _An Epistle to James Boswell, Esq., occasioned by his +having transmitted the moral Writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson to Pascal +Paoli, General of the Corsicans_[183]. I was at first inclined to answer +this pamphlet; but Johnson, who knew that my doing so would only gratify +Kenrick, by keeping alive what would soon die away of itself, would not +suffer me to take any notice of it[184]. + +His sincere regard for Francis Barber, his faithful negro servant, made +him so desirous of his further improvement, that he now placed him at a +school at Bishop Stortford, in Hertfordshire. This humane attention does +Johnson's heart much honour. Out of many letters which Mr. Barber +received from his master, he has preserved three, which he kindly gave +me, and which I shall insert according to their dates. + +'To MR. FRANCIS BARBER. + +'DEAR FRANCIS, + +'I have been very much out of order. I am glad to hear that you are +well, and design to come soon to see you. I would have you stay at Mrs. +Clapp's for the present, till I can determine what we shall do. Be a +good boy[185]. + + 'My compliments to Mrs. Clapp and to Mr. Fowler. I am, + 'Your's affectionately, + 'SAM. JOHNSON'. + 'May 28, 1768.' + +Soon afterwards, he supped at the Crown and Anchor tavern, in the +Strand, with a company whom I collected to meet him. They were Dr. +Percy, now Bishop of Dromore, Dr. Douglas, now Bishop of Salisbury, Mr. +Langton, Dr. Robertson the Historian[186], Dr. Hugh Blair, and Mr. Thomas +Davies, who wished much to be introduced to these eminent Scotch +_literati_; but on the present occasion he had very little opportunity +of hearing them talk, for with an excess of prudence, for which Johnson +afterwards found fault with them, they hardly opened their lips, and +that only to say something which they were certain would not expose them +to the sword of Goliath; such was their anxiety for their fame when in +the presence of Johnson[187]. He was this evening in remarkable vigour of +mind, and eager to exert himself in conversation, which he did with +great readiness and fluency; but I am sorry to find that I have +preserved but a small part of what passed. + +He allowed high praise to Thomson as a poet[188]; but when one of the +company said he was also a very good man, our moralist contested this +with great warmth, accusing him of gross sensuality and licentiousness +of manners. I was very much afraid that in writing Thomson's _Life_, Dr. +Johnson would have treated his private character with a stern severity, +but I was agreeably disappointed; and I may claim a little merit in it, +from my having been at pains to send him authentick accounts of the +affectionate and generous conduct of that poet to his sisters, one of +whom, the wife of Mr. Thomson, schoolmaster at Lanark, I knew, and was +presented by her with three of his letters, one of which Dr. Johnson has +inserted in his _Life_[189]. + +He was vehement against old Dr. Mounsey, of Chelsea College[190], as 'a +fellow who swore and talked bawdy.' 'I have been often in his company, +(said Dr. Percy,) and never heard him swear or talk bawdy.' Mr. Davies, +who sat next to Dr. Percy, having after this had some conversation aside +with him, made a discovery which, in his zeal to pay court to Dr. +Johnson, he eagerly proclaimed aloud from the foot of the table: 'O, +Sir, I have found out a very good reason why Dr. Percy never heard +Mounsey swear or talk bawdy; for he tells me, he never saw him but at +the Duke of Northumberland's table.' 'And so, Sir, (said Johnson loudly, +to Dr. Percy,) you would shield this man from the charge of swearing and +talking bawdy, because he did not do so at the Duke of Northumberland's +table. Sir, you might as well tell us that you had seen him hold up his +hand at the Old Bailey, and he neither swore nor talked bawdy; or that +you had seen him in the cart at Tyburn, and he neither swore nor talked +bawdy. And is it thus, Sir, that you presume to controvert what I have +related?' Dr. Johnson's animadversion was uttered in such a manner, that +Dr. Percy seemed to be displeased, and soon afterwards left the company, +of which Johnson did not at that time take any notice. + +Swift having been mentioned, Johnson, as usual, treated him with little +respect as an authour[191]. Some of us endeavoured to support the Dean of +St. Patrick's by various arguments. One in particular praised his +_Conduct of the Allies_. JOHNSON. 'Sir, his _Conduct of the Allies_ is a +performance of very little ability.' 'Surely, Sir, (said Dr. Douglas,) +you must allow it has strong facts[192].' JOHNSON. 'Why yes, Sir; but what +is that to the merit of the composition? In the Sessions-paper of the +Old Bailey there are strong facts. Housebreaking is a strong fact; +robbery is a strong fact; and murder is a _mighty_ strong fact; but is +great praise due to the historian of those strong facts? No, Sir. Swift +has told what he had to tell distinctly enough, but that is all. He had +to count ten, and he has counted it right[193].' Then recollecting that +Mr. Davies, by acting as an _informer_, had been the occasion of his +talking somewhat too harshly to his friend[194] Dr. Percy, for which, +probably, when the first ebullition was over, he felt some compunction, +he took an opportunity to give him a hit; so added, with a preparatory +laugh, 'Why, Sir, Tom Davies might have written _The Conduct of the +Allies_.' Poor Tom being thus suddenly dragged into ludicrous notice in +presence of the Scottish Doctors, to whom he was ambitious of appearing +to advantage, was grievously mortified. Nor did his punishment rest +here; for upon subsequent occasions, whenever he, 'statesman all +over[195],' assumed a strutting importance, I used to hail him--'the +Authour of _The Conduct of the Allies_.' + +When I called upon Dr. Johnson next morning, I found him highly +satisfied with his colloquial prowess the preceding evening. 'Well, +(said he,) we had good talk[196].' BOSWELL. 'Yes, Sir; you tossed and +gored several persons[197].' + +The late Alexander, Earl of Eglintoune[198], who loved wit more than wine, +and men of genius more than sycophants, had a great admiration of +Johnson; but from the remarkable elegance of his own manners, was, +perhaps, too delicately sensible of the roughness which sometimes +appeared in Johnson's behaviour. One evening about this time, when his +Lordship did me the honour to sup at my lodgings with Dr. Robertson and +several other men of literary distinction, he regretted that Johnson had +not been educated with more refinement, and lived more in polished +society. 'No, no, my Lord, (said Signor Baretti,) do with him what you +would, he would always have been a bear.' 'True, (answered the Earl, +with a smile,) but he would have been a _dancing_ bear.' + +To obviate all the reflections which have gone round the world to +Johnson's prejudice, by applying to him the epithet of a _bear_[199], let +me impress upon my readers a just and happy saying of my friend +Goldsmith, who knew him well: 'Johnson, to be sure, has a roughness in +his manner; but no man alive has a more tender heart. _He has nothing of +the bear but his skin_.' + +1769: AETAT. 60.--In 1769, so far as I can discover, the publick was +favoured with nothing of Johnson's composition, either for himself or +any of his friends[200]. His _Meditations_[201] too strongly prove that +he suffered much both in body and mind; yet was he perpetually striving +against _evil_, and nobly endeavouring to advance his intellectual and +devotional improvement. Every generous and grateful heart must feel for +the distresses of so eminent a benefactor to mankind; and now that his +unhappiness is certainly known, must respect that dignity of character +which prevented him from complaining. + +His Majesty having the preceding year instituted the Royal Academy of +Arts in London, Johnson had now the honour of being appointed Professor +in Ancient Literature[202]. In the course of the year he wrote some +letters to Mrs. Thrale, passed some part of the summer at Oxford and at +Lichfield, and when at Oxford wrote the following letter: + +'To THE REVEREND MR. THOMAS WARTON. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Many years ago, when I used to read in the library of your College, I +promised to recompence the College for that permission, by adding to +their books a Baskerville's _Virgil_. I have now sent it, and desire you +to reposit it on the shelves in my name[203]. + +'If you will be pleased to let me know when you have an hour of leisure, +I will drink tea with you. I am engaged for the afternoon, to-morrow and +on Friday: all my mornings are my own[204]. + +'I am, &c., + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'May 31, 1769.' + +I came to London in the autumn, and having informed him that I was going +to be married in a few months, I wished to have as much of his +conversation as I could before engaging in a state of life which would +probably keep me more in Scotland, and prevent me seeing him so often as +when I was a single man; but I found he was at Brighthelmstone with Mr. +and Mrs. Thrale. I was very sorry that I had not his company with me at +the Jubilee, in honour of Shakspeare, at Stratford-upon-Avon, the great +poet's native town[205]. Johnson's connection both with Shakspeare and +Garrick founded a double claim to his presence; and it would have been +highly gratifying to Mr. Garrick. Upon this occasion I particularly +lamented that he had not that warmth of friendship for his brilliant +pupil, which we may suppose would have had a benignant effect on +both[206]. When almost every man of eminence in the literary world was +happy to partake in this festival of genius, the absence of Johnson +could not but be wondered at and regretted. The only trace of him there, +was in the whimsical advertisement of a haberdasher, who sold +_Shakspearian ribbands_ of various dyes; and, by way of illustrating +their appropriation to the bard, introduced a line from the celebrated +Prologue[207] at the opening of Drury-lane theatre: + +'Each change of many-colour'd life he drew.' + +From Brighthelmstone Dr. Johnson wrote me the following letter, which +they who may think that I ought to have suppressed, must have less +ardent feelings than I have always avowed[208]. + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Why do you charge me with unkindness? I have omitted nothing that could +do you good, or give you pleasure, unless it be that I have forborne to +tell you my opinion of your _Account of Corsica_. I believe my opinion, +if you think well of my judgement, might have given you pleasure; but +when it is considered how much vanity is excited by praise, I am not +sure that it would have done you good. Your History is like other +histories, but your Journal is in a very high degree curious and +delightful. There is between the History and the Journal that difference +which there will always be found between notions borrowed from without, +and notions generated within. Your History was copied from books; your +Journal rose out of your own experience and observation. You express +images which operated strongly upon yourself, and you have impressed +them with great force upon your readers. I know not whether I could name +any narrative by which curiosity is better excited, or better gratified. + +'I am glad that you are going to be married; and as I wish you well in +things of less importance, wish you well with proportionate ardour in +this crisis of your life. What I can contribute to your happiness, I +should be very unwilling to with-hold; for I have always loved and +valued you, and shall love you and value you still more, as you become +more regular and useful: effects which a happy marriage will hardly fail +to produce. + +'I do not find that I am likely to come back very soon from this place. +I shall, perhaps, stay a fortnight longer; and a fortnight is a long +time to a lover absent from his mistress. Would a fortnight ever have an +end? + +'I am, dear Sir, +'Your most affectionate humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Brighthelmstone, +Sept. 9, 1769.' + +After his return to town, we met frequently, and I continued the +practice of making notes of his conversation, though not with so much +assiduity as I wish I had done. At this time, indeed, I had a sufficient +excuse for not being able to appropriate so much time to my Journal; for +General Paoli[209], after Corsica had been overpowered by the monarchy of +France, was now no longer at the head of his brave countrymen, but +having with difficulty escaped from his native island, had sought an +asylum in Great Britain; and it was my duty, as well as my pleasure, to +attend much upon him[210]. Such particulars of Johnson's conversation at +this period as I have committed to writing, I shall here introduce, +without any strict attention to methodical arrangement. Sometimes short +notes of different days shall be blended together, and sometimes a day +may seem important enough to be separately distinguished. + +He said, he would not have Sunday kept with rigid severity and gloom, +but with a gravity and simplicity of behaviour[211]. + +I told him that David Hume had made a short collection of +Scotticisms[212]. 'I wonder, (said Johnson,) that _he_ should find them.' + +He would not admit the importance of the question concerning the +legality of general warrants[213]. 'Such a power' (he observed,) 'must be +vested in every government, to answer particular cases of necessity; and +there can be no just complaint but when it is abused, for which those +who administer government must be answerable. It is a matter of such +indifference, a matter about which the people care so very little, that +were a man to be sent over Britain to offer them an exemption from it at +a halfpenny a piece, very few would purchase it.' This was a specimen of +that laxity of talking, which I have heard him fairly acknowledge[214]; +for, surely, while the power of granting general warrants was supposed +to be legal, and the apprehension of them hung over our heads, we did +not possess that security of freedom, congenial to our happy +constitution, and which, by the intrepid exertions of Mr. Wilkes, has +been happily established. + +He said, 'The duration of Parliament, whether for seven years or the +life of the King, appears to me so immaterial, that I would not give +half a crown to turn the scale one way or the other[215]. The _habeas +corpus_ is the single advantage which our government has over that of +other countries.' + +On the 30th of September we dined together at the Mitre. I attempted to +argue for the superior happiness of the savage life, upon the usual +fanciful topicks. JOHNSON. 'Sir, there can be nothing more false. The +savages have no bodily advantages beyond those of civilised men. They +have not better health; and as to care or mental uneasiness, they are +not above it, but below it, like bears. No, Sir; you are not to talk +such paradox[216]: let me have no more on't. It cannot entertain, far less +can it instruct. Lord Monboddo[217], one of your Scotch Judges, talked a +great deal of such nonsense. I suffered _him_; but I will not suffer +_you_.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, does not Rousseau talk such nonsense?' +JOHNSON. 'True, Sir, but Rousseau _knows_ he is talking nonsense, and +laughs at the world for staring at him.' BOSWELL. 'How so, Sir?' +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, a man who talks nonsense so well, must know that he +is talking nonsense. But I am _afraid_, (chuckling and laughing,) +Monboddo does _not_ know that he is talking nonsense[218].' BOSWELL. 'Is +it wrong then, Sir, to affect singularity, in order to make people +stare?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, if you do it by propagating errour: 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[219]. 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. I may do +it by going into a drawing-room without my shoes. You remember the +gentleman in _The Spectator_, who had a commission of lunacy taken out +against him for his extreme singularity, such as never wearing a wig, +but a night-cap. Now, Sir, abstractedly, the night-cap was best; but, +relatively, the advantage was overbalanced by his making the boys run +after him[220].' + +Talking of a London life, he said, 'The happiness of London is not to be +conceived but by those who have been in it. I will venture to say, there +is more learning and science within the circumference of ten miles from +where we now sit, than in all the rest of the kingdom.' BOSWELL. 'The +only disadvantage is the great distance at which people live from one +another.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; but that is occasioned by the largeness of +it, which is the cause of all the other advantages.' BOSWELL. 'Sometimes +I have been in the humour of wishing to retire to a desart.' JOHNSON. +'Sir, you have desart enough in Scotland.' + +Although I had promised myself a great deal of instructive conversation +with him on the conduct of the married state, of which I had then a near +prospect, he did not say much upon that topick. Mr. Seward[221] heard him +once say, that 'a man has a very bad chance for happiness in that state, +unless he marries a woman of very strong and fixed principles of +religion.' He maintained to me, contrary to the common notion, that a +woman would not be the worse wife for being learned[222]; in which, from +all that I have observed of Artemisias[223], I humbly differed from him. +That a woman should be sensible and well informed, I allow to be a great +advantage; and think that Sir Thomas Overbury[224], in his rude +versification, has very judiciously pointed out that degree of +intelligence which is to be desired in a female companion: + +'Give me, next _good_, an _understanding wife_, +By Nature _wise_, not _learned_ by much art; +Some _knowledge_ on her side will all my life +More scope of conversation impart; +Besides, her inborne virtue fortifie; +They are most firmly good, who[225] best know why.' + +When I censured a gentleman of my acquaintance for marrying a second +time, as it shewed a disregard of his first wife, he said, 'Not at all, +Sir. On the contrary, were he not to marry again, it might be concluded +that his first wife had given him a disgust to marriage; but by taking a +second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by shewing that +she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second +time[226].' + +So ingenious a turn did he give to this delicate question. And yet, on +another occasion, he owned that he once had almost asked a promise of +Mrs. Johnson that she would not marry again, but had checked himself. +Indeed, I cannot help thinking, that in his case the request would have +been unreasonable; for if Mrs. Johnson forgot, or thought it no injury +to the memory of her first love,--the husband of her youth and the +father of her children,--to make a second marriage, why should she be +precluded from a third, should she be so inclined? In Johnson's +persevering fond appropriation of his _Tetty_, even after her decease, +he seems totally to have overlooked the prior claim of the honest +Birmingham trader. I presume that her having been married before had, at +times, given him some uneasiness; for I remember his observing upon the +marriage of one of our common friends, 'He has done a very foolish +thing, Sir; he has married a widow, when he might have had a maid[227].' + +We drank tea with Mrs. Williams. I had last year the pleasure of seeing +Mrs. Thrale at Dr. Johnson's one morning, and had conversation enough +with her to admire her talents, and to shew her that I was as Johnsonian +as herself. Dr. Johnson had probably been kind enough to speak well of +me, for this evening he delivered me a very polite card from Mr. Thrale +and her, inviting me to Streatham. + +On the 6th of October I complied with this obliging invitation, and +found, at an elegant villa, six miles from town, every circumstance that +can make society pleasing. Johnson, though quite at home, was yet looked +up to with an awe, tempered by affection, and seemed to be equally the +care of his host and hostess. I rejoiced at seeing him so happy. + +He played off his wit against Scotland with a good humoured pleasantry, +which gave me, though no bigot to national prejudices, an opportunity +for a little contest with him. I having said that England was obliged to +us for gardeners, almost all their good gardeners being Scotchmen. +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, that is because gardening is much more necessary +amongst you than with us, which makes so many of your people learn it. +It is _all_ gardening with you. Things which grow wild here, must be +cultivated with great care in Scotland. Pray now (throwing himself back +in his chair, and laughing,) are you ever able to bring the _sloe_ to +perfection?' + +I boasted that we had the honour of being the first to abolish the +unhospitable, troublesome, and ungracious custom of giving vails to +servants[228]. JOHNSON. 'Sir, you abolished vails, because you were too +poor to be able to give them.' + +Mrs. Thrale disputed with him on the merit of Prior. He attacked him +powerfully; said he wrote of love like a man who had never felt it: his +love verses were college verses; and he repeated the song 'Alexis +shunn'd his fellow swains[229],' &c., in so ludicrous a manner, as to make +us all wonder how any one could have been pleased with such fantastical +stuff. Mrs. Thrale stood to her gun with great courage, in defence of +amorous ditties, which Johnson despised, till he at last silenced her by +saying, 'My dear Lady, talk no more of this. Nonsense can be defended +but by nonsense[230].' + +Mrs. Thrale then praised Garrick's talent for light gay poetry; and, as +a specimen, repeated his song in _Florizel and Perdita_, and dwelt with +peculiar pleasure on this line: + +'I'd smile with the simple, and feed with the poor[231].' + +JOHNSON. 'Nay, my dear Lady, this will never do. Poor David! Smile with +the simple;--What folly is that? And who would feed with the poor that +can help it? No, no; let me smile with the wise, and feed with the +rich.' I repeated this sally to Garrick, and wondered to find his +sensibility as a writer not a little irritated by it. To sooth him, I +observed, that Johnson spared none of us; and I quoted the passage in +Horace[232], in which he compares one who attacks his friends for the sake +of a laugh, to a pushing ox[233], that is marked by a bunch of hay put +upon his horns: '_fA|num habet in cornu_.' 'Ay, (said Garrick +vehemently,) he has a whole _mow_ of it.' + +Talking of history, Johnson said, 'We may know historical facts to be +true, as we may know facts in common life to be true. Motives are +generally unknown. We cannot trust to the characters we find in history, +unless when they are drawn by those who knew the persons; as those, for +instance, by Sallust and by Lord Clarendon[234].' + +He would not allow much merit to Whitefield's oratory. 'His popularity, +Sir (said he,) is chiefly owing to the peculiarity of his manner. He +would be followed by crowds were he to wear a night-cap in the pulpit, +or were he to preach from a tree[235].' I know not from what spirit of +contradiction he burst out into a violent declamation against the +Corsicans, of whose heroism I talked in high terms. 'Sir (said he,) what +is all this rout about the Corsicans? They have been at war with the +Genoese for upwards of twenty years, and have never yet taken their +fortified towns. They might have battered down their walls, and reduced +them to powder in twenty years. They might have pulled the walls in +pieces, and cracked the stones with their teeth in twenty years.' It was +in vain to argue with him upon the want of artillery: he was not to be +resisted for the moment. + +On the evening of October 10, I presented Dr. Johnson to General Paoli. +I had greatly wished that two men, for whom I had the highest esteem, +should meet[236]. They met with a manly ease, mutually conscious of their +own abilities, and of the abilities of each other. The General spoke +Italian, and Dr. Johnson English, and understood one another very well, +with a little aid of interpretation from me, in which I compared myself +to an isthmus which joins two great continents. Upon Johnson's approach, +the General said, 'From what I have read of your works, Sir, and from +what Mr. Boswell has told me of you, I have long held you in great +veneration.' The General talked of languages being formed on the +particular notions and manners of a people, without knowing which, we +cannot know the language. We may know the direct signification of single +words; but by these no beauty of expression, no sally of genius, no wit +is conveyed to the mind. All this must be by allusion to other ideas. +'Sir, (said Johnson,) you talk of language, as if you had never done any +thing else but study it, instead of governing a nation.' The General +said, '_Questo e un troppo gran complimento_;' this is too great a +compliment. Johnson answered. 'I should have thought so, Sir, if I had +not heard you talk.' The General asked him, what he thought of the +spirit of infidelity which was so prevalent[237]. JOHNSON. 'Sir, this +gloom of infidelity, I hope, is only a transient cloud passing through +the hemisphere[238], which will soon be dissipated, and the sun break +forth with his usual splendour.' 'You think then, (said the General,) +that they will change their principles like their clothes.' + +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, if they bestow no more thought on principles than on +dress, it must be so.' The General said, that 'a great part of the +fashionable infidelity was owing to a desire of shewing courage. Men who +have no opportunities of shewing it as to things in this life, take +death and futurity as objects on which to display it.' JOHNSON. 'That is +mighty foolish affectation. Fear is one of the passions of human nature, +of which it is impossible to divest it. You remember that the Emperour +Charles V, when he read upon the tomb-stone of a Spanish nobleman, "Here +lies one who never knew fear," wittily said, "Then he never snuffed a +candle with his fingers."' + +He talked a few words of French[239] to the General; but finding he did +not do it with facility, he asked for pen, ink, and paper, and wrote the +following note:-- + +'J'ai lu dans la geographie de Lucas de Linda un Pater-noster A(C)crit dans +une langue tout A -fait differente de l'Italienne, et de toutes autres +lesquelles se derivent du Latin. L'auteur l'appelle _linguam Corsicae +rusticam_; elle a peut-etre passA(C) peu A peu; mais elle a certainement +prevalue autrefois dans les montagnes et dans la campagne. Le mA(C)me +auteur dit la mA(C)me chose en parlant de Sardaigne; qu'il y a deux langues +dans l'Isle, une des villes, l'autre de la campagne.' + +The General immediately informed him that the _lingua rustica_ was only +in Sardinia. + +Dr. Johnson went home with me, and drank tea till late in the night. He +said, 'General Paoli had the loftiest port of any man he had ever +seen[240].' He denied that military men were always the best bred men. +'Perfect good breeding, he observed, consists in having no particular +mark of any profession, but a general elegance of manners; whereas, in a +military man, you can commonly distinguish the _brand_ of a soldier, +_l'homme d'A(C)pA(C)e_.' + +Dr. Johnson shunned to-night any discussion of the perplexed question of +fate and free will, which I attempted to agitate. 'Sir, (said he,) we +_know_ our will is free, and _there's_ an end on't[241].' + +He honoured me with his company at dinner on the 16th of October, at my +lodgings in Old Bond-street, with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Garrick, Dr. +Goldsmith, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Bickerstaff[242], and Mr. Thomas Davies. +Garrick played round him with a fond vivacity, taking hold of the +breasts of his coat, and, looking up in his face with a lively archness, +complimented him on the good health which he seemed then to enjoy; while +the sage, shaking his head, beheld him with a gentle complacency. One of +the company not being come at the appointed hour, I proposed, as usual +upon such occasions, to order dinner to be served; adding, 'Ought six +people to be kept waiting for one?' 'Why, yes, (answered Johnson, with a +delicate humanity,) if the one will suffer more by your sitting down, +than the six will do by waiting.' Goldsmith, to divert the tedious +minutes, strutted about, bragging of his dress, and I believe was +seriously vain of it, for his mind was wonderfully prone to such +impressions[243]. 'Come, come, (said Garrick,) talk no more of that. You +are, perhaps, the worst--eh, eh!'--Goldsmith was eagerly attempting to +interrupt him, when Garrick went on, laughing ironically, 'Nay, you will +always _look_ like a gentleman[244]; but I am talking of being well or +_ill drest_.' 'Well, 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 any body asks you who made your clothes, be pleased to +mention John Filby, at the Harrow, in Water-lane.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, +that was because he knew 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[245].' + +After dinner our conversation first turned upon Pope. Johnson said, his +characters of men were admirably drawn, those of women not so well[246]. +He repeated to us, in his forcible melodious manner, the concluding +lines of the _Dunciad_[247]. While he was talking loudly in praise of +those lines, one of the company[248] ventured to say, 'Too fine for such a +poem:--a poem on what?' JOHNSON, (with a disdainful look,) 'Why, on +_dunces_. It was worth while being a dunce then. Ah, Sir, hadst _thou_ +lived in those days! It is not worth while being a dunce now, when there +are no wits[249].' Bickerstaff observed, as a peculiar circumstance, that +Pope's fame was higher when he was alive than it was then[250]. Johnson +said, his Pastorals were poor things, though the versification was +fine[251]. He told us, with high satisfaction, the anecdote of Pope's +inquiring who was the authour of his _London_, and saying, he will be +soon _dA(C)terrA(C)_[252]. He observed, that in Dryden's poetry there were +passages drawn from a profundity which Pope could never reach[253]. He +repeated some fine lines on love, by the former, (which I have now +forgotten[254],) and gave great applause to the character of Zimri[255]. +Goldsmith said, that Pope's character of Addison[256] shewed a deep +knowledge of the human heart. Johnson said, that the description of the +temple, in the _Mourning Bride_[257], was the finest poetical passage he +had ever read; he recollected none in Shakspeare equal to it. 'But, +(said Garrick, all alarmed for the "God of his idolatry[258],") we know +not the extent and variety of his powers.' + +'We are to suppose there are such passages in his works. Shakspeare must +not suffer from the badness of our memories.' Johnson, diverted by this +enthusiastick jealousy, went on with greater ardour: 'No, Sir; Congreve +has _nature_;' (smiling on the tragick eagerness of Garrick;) but +composing himself, he added, 'Sir, this is not comparing Congreve on the +whole, with Shakspeare on the whole; but only maintaining that Congreve +has one finer passage than any that can be found in Shakspeare. Sir, a +man may have no more than ten guineas in the world, but he may have +those ten guineas in one piece; and so may have a finer piece than a man +who has ten thousand pounds: but then he has only one ten-guinea piece. +What I mean is, that you can shew me no passage where there is simply a +description of material objects, without any intermixture of moral +notions, which produces such an effect[259].' Mr. Murphy mentioned +Shakspeare's description of the night before the battle of Agincourt[260]; +but it was observed, it had _men_ in it. Mr. Davies suggested the speech +of Juliet, in which she figures herself awaking in the tomb of her +ancestors[261]. Some one mentioned the description of Dover Cliff[262]. +JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; it should be all precipice,--all vacuum. The crows +impede your fall. The diminished appearance of the boats, and other +circumstances, are all very good description; but do not impress the +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. Had the girl in _The Mourning Bride_ said, she could +not cast her shoe to the top of one of the pillars in the temple, it +would not have aided the idea, but weakened it.' + +Talking of a Barrister who had a bad utterance, some one, (to rouse +Johnson,) wickedly said, that he was unfortunate in not having been +taught oratory by Sheridan[263]. JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, if he had been taught +by Sheridan, he would have cleared the room.' GARRICK. 'Sheridan has too +much vanity to be a good man.' We shall now see Johnson's mode of +_defending_ a man; taking him into his own hands, and discriminating. +JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. There is, to be sure, in Sheridan, something to +reprehend, and every thing to laugh at; but, Sir, he is not a bad man. +No, Sir; were mankind to be divided into good and bad, he would stand +considerably within the ranks of good. And, Sir, it must be allowed that +Sheridan excels in plain declamation, though he can exhibit no +character.' + +I should, perhaps, have suppressed this disquisition concerning a person +of whose merit and worth I think with respect, had he not attacked +Johnson so outrageously in his _Life of Swift_, and, at the same time, +treated us, his admirers, as a set of pigmies[264]. He who has provoked +the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it. + +Mrs. Montagu, a lady distinguished for having written an Essay on +Shakspeare, being mentioned. REYNOLDS. 'I think that essay does her +honour.' JOHNSON, 'Yes, Sir; it does _her_ honour, but it would do +nobody else honour. I have, indeed, not read it all. But when I take up +the end of a web, and find it packthread, I do not expect, by looking +further, to find embroidery. Sir, I will venture to say, there is not +one sentence of true criticism in her book.' GARRICK. 'But, Sir, surely +it shews how much Voltaire has mistaken Shakspeare, which nobody else +has done[265].' JOHNSON. 'Sir, nobody else has thought it worth while. And +what merit is there in that? You may as well praise a schoolmaster for +whipping a boy who has construed ill. No, Sir, there is no real +criticism in it: none shewing the beauty of thought, as formed on the +workings of the human heart.' + +The admirers of this Essay[266] may be offended at the slighting manner in +which Johnson spoke of it; but let it be remembered, that he gave his +honest opinion unbiased by any prejudice, or any proud jealousy of a +woman intruding herself into the chair of criticism; for Sir Joshua +Reynolds has told me, that when the Essay first came out, and it was not +known who had written it, Johnson wondered how Sir Joshua could like +it[267]. At this time Sir Joshua himself had received no information +concerning the authour, except being assured by one of our most eminent +literati, that it was clear its authour did not know the Greek tragedies +in the original. One day at Sir Joshua's table, when it was related that +Mrs. Montagu, in an excess of compliment to the authour of a modern +tragedy, had exclaimed, 'I tremble for Shakspeare;' Johnson said, 'When +Shakspeare has got ---- for his rival, and Mrs. Montagu for his +defender, he is in a poor state indeed.' + +Johnson proceeded: 'The Scotchman[268] has taken the right method in his +_Elements of Criticism_. I do not mean that he has taught us any thing; +but he has told us old things in a new way.' MURPHY. 'He seems to have +read a great deal of French criticism, and wants to make it his own; as +if he had been for years anatomising the heart of man, and peeping into +every cranny of it.' GOLDSMITH. 'It is easier to write that book, than +to read it[269].' JOHNSON. 'We have an example of true criticism in +Burke's _Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful_; and, if I recollect, there +is also Du Bos[270]; and Bouhours[271], who shews all beauty to depend on +truth. There is no great merit in telling how many plays have ghosts in +them, and how this Ghost is better than that. You must shew how terrour +is impressed on the human heart. In the description of night in +_Macbeth_[272], the beetle and the bat detract from the general idea of +darkness,--inspissated gloom.' + +Politicks being mentioned, he said, 'This petitioning is a new mode of +distressing government, and a mighty easy one. I will undertake to get +petitions either against quarter-guineas or half-guineas, with the help +of a little hot wine. There must be no yielding to encourage this. The +object is not important enough. We are not to blow up half a dozen +palaces, because one cottage is burning[273].' + +The conversation then took another turn. JOHNSON. 'It is amazing what +ignorance of certain points one sometimes finds in men of eminence. A +wit about town, who wrote Latin bawdy verses, asked me, how it happened +that England and Scotland, which were once two kingdoms, were now +one:--and Sir Fletcher Norton[274] did not seem to know that there were +such publications as the Reviews.' + +'The ballad of Hardyknute[275] has no great merit, if it be really +ancient. People talk of nature. But mere obvious nature may be exhibited +with very little power of mind.' + +On Thursday, October 19, I passed the evening with him at his house. He +advised me to complete a Dictionary of words peculiar to Scotland, of +which I shewed him a specimen. 'Sir, (said he,) Ray has made a +collection of north-country words[276]. By collecting those of your +country, you will do a useful thing towards the history of the +language.' He bade me also go on with collections which I was making +upon the antiquities of Scotland. 'Make a large book; a folio.' BOSWELL. +'But of what use will it be, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'Never mind the use; do it.' + +I complained that he had not mentioned Garrick in his Preface to +Shakspeare[277]; and asked him if he did not admire him. JOHNSON. 'Yes, as +"a poor player, who frets and struts his hour upon the stage;"--as a +shadow[278].' BOSWELL, 'But has he not brought Shakspeare into notice?' +[279] JOHNSON. 'Sir, to allow that, would be to lampoon the age. Many of +Shakspeare's plays are the worse for being acted: _Macbeth_, for +instance[280].' BOSWELL. 'What, Sir, is nothing gained by decoration and +action? Indeed, I do wish that you had mentioned Garrick.' JOHNSON. 'My +dear Sir, had I mentioned him, I must have mentioned many more: Mrs. +Pritchard, Mrs. Cibber,--nay, and Mr. Cibber too; he too altered +Shakspeare.' BOSWELL. 'You have read his apology, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, +it is very entertaining. But as for Cibber himself, taking from his +conversation all that he ought not to have said[281], he was a poor +creature. I remember when he brought me one of his Odes to have my +opinion of it[282]; I could not bear such nonsense, and would not let him +read it to the end; so little respect had I for _that great man_! +(laughing.) Yet I remember Richardson wondering that I could treat him +with familiarity[283].' + +I mentioned to him that I had seen the execution of several convicts at +Tyburn[284], two days before, and that none of them seemed to be under any +concern. JOHNSON. 'Most of them, Sir, have never thought at all.' +BOSWELL. 'But is not the fear of death natural to man?' JOHNSON. 'So +much so, Sir, that the whole of life is but keeping away the thoughts of +it[285].' He then, in a low and earnest tone, talked of his meditating +upon the aweful hour of his own dissolution, and in what manner he +should conduct himself upon that occasion: 'I know not (said he,) +whether I should wish to have a friend by me, or have it all between GOD +and myself.' + +Talking of our feeling for the distresses of others;--JOHNSON. 'Why, +Sir, there is much noise made about it, but it is greatly exaggerated. +No, Sir, we have a certain degree of feeling to prompt us to do good: +more than that, Providence does not intend. It would be misery to no +purpose[286].' BOSWELL. 'But suppose now, Sir, that one of your intimate +friends were apprehended for an offence for which he might be hanged.' +JOHNSON. 'I should do what I could to bail him, and give him any other +assistance; but if he were once fairly hanged, I should not suffer.' +BOSWELL. 'Would you eat your dinner that day, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; +and eat it as if he were eating it with me. Why, there's Baretti, who is +to be tried for his life to-morrow, friends have risen up for him on +every side; yet if he should be hanged, none of them will eat a slice of +plumb-pudding the less. Sir, that sympathetic feeling goes a very little +way in depressing the mind[287].' + +I told him that I had dined lately at Foote's, who shewed me a letter +which he had received from Tom Davies, telling him that he had not been +able to sleep from the concern which he felt on account of '_This sad +affair of Baretti_[288],' begging of him to try if he could suggest any +thing that might be of service; and, at the same time, recommending to +him an industrious young man who kept a pickle-shop. JOHNSON. 'Ay, Sir, +here you have a specimen of human sympathy; a friend hanged, and a +cucumber pickled. We know not whether Baretti or the pickle-man has kept +Davies from sleep; nor does he know himself. And as to his not sleeping, +Sir; Tom Davies is a very great man; Tom has been upon the stage, and +knows how to do those things. I have not been upon the stage, and cannot +do those things.' BOSWELL. 'I have often blamed myself, Sir, for not +feeling for others as sensibly as many say they do.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, +don't be duped by them any more. You will find these very feeling people +are not very ready to do you good. They _pay_ you by _feeling_.' + +BOSWELL. 'Foote has a great deal of humour?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir.' +BOSWELL. 'He has a singular talent of exhibiting character.' JOHNSON. +'Sir, it is not a talent; it is a vice; it is what others abstain from. +It is not comedy, which exhibits the character of a species, as that of +a miser gathered from many misers: it is farce, which exhibits +individuals.' BOSWELL. 'Did not he think of exhibiting you, Sir?' +JOHNSON. 'Sir, fear restrained him; he knew I would have broken his +bones. I would have saved him the trouble of cutting off a leg; I would +not have left him a leg to cut off[289].' BOSWELL. 'Pray, Sir, is not +Foote an infidel?' JOHNSON. 'I do not know, Sir, that the fellow is an +infidel; but if he be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an +infidel; that is to say, he has never thought upon the subject[290].' +BOSWELL. 'I suppose, Sir, he has thought superficially, and seized the +first notions which occurred to his mind.' JOHNSON. 'Why then, Sir, +still he is like a dog, that snatches the piece next him. Did you never +observe that dogs have not the power of comparing? A dog will take a +small bit of meat as readily as a large, when both are before him.' + +'Buchanan (he observed,) has fewer _centos_[291] than any modern Latin +poet. He not only had great knowledge of the Latin language, but was a +great poetical genius. Both the Scaligers praise him.' + +He again talked of the passage in _Congreve_ with high commendation, and +said, 'Shakspeare never has six lines together without a fault. Perhaps +you may find seven, but this does not refute my general assertion. If I +come to an orchard, and say there's no fruit here, and then comes a +poring man, who finds two apples and three pears, and tells me, "Sir, +you are mistaken, I have found both apples and pears," I should laugh at +him: what would that be to the purpose?' + +BOSWELL. 'What do you think of Dr. Young's _Night Thoughts_, Sir?' +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, there are very fine things in them[292].' BOSWELL. 'Is +there not less religion in the nation now, Sir, than there was +formerly?' JOHNSON. 'I don't know, Sir, that there is.' BOSWELL. 'For +instance, there used to be a chaplain in every great family[293], which we +do not find now.' JOHNSON. 'Neither do you find any of the state +servants which great families used formerly to have. There is a change +of modes in the whole department of life.' + +Next day, October 20, he appeared, for the only time I suppose in his +life, as a witness in a Court of Justice, being called to give evidence +to the character of Mr. Baretti, who having stabbed a man in the street, +was arraigned at the Old Bailey for murder[294]. Never did such a +constellation of genius enlighten the aweful Sessions-House, +emphatically called JUSTICE HALL; Mr. Burke, Mr. Garrick, Mr. Beauclerk, +and Dr. Johnson; and undoubtedly their favourable testimony had due +weight with the Court and Jury. Johnson gave his evidence in a slow, +deliberate, and distinct manner, which was uncommonly impressive. It is +well known that Mr. Baretti was acquitted. + +On the 26th of October, we dined together at the Mitre tavern. I found +fault with Foote for indulging his talent of ridicule at the expence of +his visitors, which I colloquially termed making fools of his company. +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, when you go to see Foote, you do not go to see a +saint: you go to see a man who will be entertained at your house, and +then bring you on a publick stage; who will entertain you at his house, +for the very purpose of bringing you on a publick stage. Sir, he does +not make fools of his company; they whom he exposes are fools already: +he only brings them into action.' + +Talking of trade, he observed, 'It is a mistaken notion that a vast deal +of money is brought into a nation by trade. It is not so. Commodities +come from commodities; but trade produces no capital accession of +wealth. However, though there should be little profit in money, there is +a considerable profit in pleasure, as it gives to one nation the +productions of another; as we have wines and fruits, and many other +foreign articles, brought to us.' BOSWELL. 'Yes, Sir, and there is a +profit in pleasure, by its furnishing occupation to such numbers of +mankind.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you cannot call that pleasure to which all +are averse, and which none begin but with the hope of leaving off; a +thing which men dislike before they have tried it, and when they have +tried it.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, the mind must be employed, and we grow +weary when idle.' JOHNSON. 'That is, Sir, because, others being busy, we +want company; but if we were all idle, there would be no growing weary; +we should all entertain one another. There is, indeed, this in +trade:--it gives men an opportunity of improving their situation. If +there were no trade, many who are poor would always remain poor. But no +man loves labour for itself.' BOSWELL. 'Yes, Sir, I know a person who +does. He is a very laborious Judge, and he loves the labour[295].' +JOHNSON. 'Sir, that is because he loves respect and distinction. Could +he have them without labour, he would like it less.' BOSWELL. 'He tells +me he likes it for itself.'--'Why, Sir, he fancies so, because he is not +accustomed to abstract.' + +We went home to his house to tea. Mrs. Williams made it with sufficient +dexterity, notwithstanding her blindness, though her manner of +satisfying herself that the cups were full enough appeared to me a +little aukward; for I fancied she put her finger down a certain way, +till she felt the tea touch it[296]. In my first elation at being allowed +the privilege of attending Dr. Johnson at his late visits to this lady, +which was like being _A" secretioribus consiliis_[297], I willingly drank +cup after cup, as if it had been the Heliconian spring. But as the charm +of novelty went off, I grew more fastidious; and besides, I discovered +that she was of a peevish temper[298]. + +There was a pretty large circle this evening. Dr. Johnson was in very +good humour, lively, and ready to talk upon all subjects. Mr. Fergusson, +the self-taught philosopher, told him of a new-invented machine which +went without horses: a man who sat in it turned a handle, which worked a +spring that drove it forward. 'Then, Sir, (said Johnson,) what is gained +is, the man has his choice whether he will move himself alone, or +himself and the machine too.' Dominicetti[299] being mentioned, he would +not allow him any merit. 'There is nothing in all this boasted system. +No, Sir; medicated baths can be no better than warm water: their only +effect can be that of tepid moisture.' One of the company took the other +side, maintaining that medicines of various sorts, and some too of most +powerful effect, are introduced into the human frame by the medium of +the pores; and, therefore, when warm water is impregnated with +salutiferous substances, it may produce great effects as a bath. This +appeared to me very satisfactory. Johnson did not answer it; but talking +for victory, and determined to be master of the field, he had recourse +to the device which Goldsmith imputed to him in the witty words of one +of Cibber's comedies: 'There is no arguing with Johnson; for when his +pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it[300].' He +turned to the gentleman, 'Well, Sir, go to Dominicetti, and get thyself +fumigated; but be sure that the steam be directed to thy _head_, for +_that_ is the _peccant part_'. This produced a triumphant roar of +laughter from the motley assembly of philosophers, printers, and +dependents, male and female. + +I know not how so whimsical a thought came into my mind, but I asked, +'If, Sir, you were shut up in a castle, and a newborn child with you, +what would you do?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I should not much like my +company.' BOSWELL. 'But would you take the trouble of rearing it?' He +seemed, as may well be supposed, unwilling to pursue the subject: but +upon my persevering in my question, replied, 'Why yes, Sir, I would; but +I must have all conveniencies. If I had no garden, I would make a shed +on the roof, and take it there for fresh air. I should feed it, and wash +it much, and with warm water to please it, not with cold water to give +it pain.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, does not heat relax?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, you +are not to imagine the water is to be very hot. I would not _coddle_ the +child. No, Sir, the hardy method of treating children does no good. I'll +take you five children from London, who shall cuff five Highland +children. Sir, a man bred in London will carry a burthen, or run, or +wrestle, as well as a man brought up in the hardiest manner in the +country.' BOSWELL. 'Good living, I suppose, makes the Londoners strong.' +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I don't know that it does. Our Chairmen from +Ireland, who are as strong men as any, have been brought up upon +potatoes. Quantity makes up for quality.' BOSWELL. 'Would you teach this +child that I have furnished you with, any thing?' JOHNSON. 'No, I should +not be apt to teach it.' BOSWELL. 'Would not you have a pleasure in +teaching it?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, I should _not_ have a pleasure in +teaching it.' BOSWELL. 'Have you not a pleasure in teaching +men?--_There_ I have you. You have the same pleasure in teaching men, +that I should have in teaching children.' JOHNSON. 'Why, something about +that.' BOSWELL. 'Do you think, Sir, that what is called natural +affection is born with us? It seems to me to be the effect of habit, or +of gratitude for kindness. No child has it for a parent whom it has not +seen.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I think there is an instinctive natural +affection in parents towards their children.' + +Russia being mentioned as likely to become a great empire, by the rapid +increase of population:--JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I see no prospect of their +propagating more. They can have no more children than they can get. I +know of no way to make them breed more than they do. It is not from +reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination. A man is +poor; he thinks, "I cannot be worse, and so I'll e'en take Peggy."' +BOSWELL. 'But have not nations been more populous at one period than +another?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; but that has been owing to the people +being less thinned at one period than another, whether by emigrations, +war, or pestilence, not by their being more or less prolifick. Births at +all times bear the same proportion to the same number of people.' +BOSWELL. 'But, to consider the state of our own country;--does not +throwing a number of farms into one hand hurt population?' JOHNSON. 'Why +no, Sir; the same quantity of food being produced, will be consumed by +the same number of mouths, though the people may be disposed of in +different ways. We see, if corn be dear, and butchers' meat cheap, the +farmers all apply themselves to the raising of corn, till it becomes +plentiful and cheap, and then butchers' meat becomes dear; so that an +equality is always preserved. No, Sir, let fanciful men do as they will, +depend upon it, it is difficult to disturb the system of life.' BOSWELL. +'But, Sir, is it not a very bad thing for landlords to oppress their +tenants, by raising their rents?' JOHNSON. 'Very bad. But, Sir, it never +can have any general influence; it may distress some individuals. For, +consider this: landlords cannot do without tenants. Now tenants will not +give more for land, than land is worth. If they can make more of their +money by keeping a shop, or any other way, they'll do it, and so oblige +landlords to let land come back to a reasonable rent, in order that they +may get tenants. Land, in England, is an article of commerce. A tenant +who pays his landlord his rent, thinks himself no more obliged to him +than you think yourself obliged to a man in whose shop you buy a piece +of goods. He knows the landlord does not let him have his land for less +than he can get from others, in the same manner as the shopkeeper sells +his goods. No shopkeeper sells a yard of ribband for sixpence when +seven-pence is the current price.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, is it not better +that tenants should be dependant on landlords?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, as +there are many more tenants than landlords, perhaps, strictly speaking, +we should wish not. But if you please you may let your lands cheap, and +so get the value, part in money and part in homage. I should agree with +you in that.' BOSWELL. 'So, Sir, you laugh at schemes of political +improvement.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement +are very laughable things.' + +He observed, 'Providence has wisely ordered that the more numerous men +are, the more difficult it is for them to agree in any thing, and so +they are governed. There is no doubt, that if the poor should reason, +"We'll be the poor no longer, we'll make the rich take their turn," they +could easily do it, were it not that they can't agree. So the common +soldiers, though so much more numerous than their officers, are governed +by them for the same reason.' + +He said, 'Mankind have a strong attachment to the habitations to which +they have been accustomed. You see the inhabitants of Norway do not with +one consent quit it, and go to some part of America, where there is a +mild climate, and where they may have the same produce from land, with +the tenth part of the labour. No, Sir; their affection for their old +dwellings, and the terrour of a general change, keep them at home. Thus, +we see many of the finest spots in the world thinly inhabited, and many +rugged spots well inhabited.' + +_The London Chronicle_[301], which was the only news-paper he constantly +took in, being brought, the office of reading it aloud was assigned to +me. I was diverted by his impatience. He made me pass over so many parts +of it, that my task was very easy. He would not suffer one of the +petitions to the King about the Middlesex election to be read[302]. + +I had hired a Bohemian as my servant[303] while I remained in London, and +being much pleased with him, I asked Dr. Johnson whether his being a +Roman Catholick should prevent my taking him with me to Scotland. +JOHNSON. 'Why no, Sir, if _he_ has no objection, you can have none.' +BOSWELL. 'So, Sir, you are no great enemy to the Roman Catholick +religion.' JOHNSON. 'No more, Sir, than to the Presbyterian religion.' +BOSWELL. 'You are joking.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, I really think so. Nay, +Sir, of the two, I prefer the Popish[304].' BOSWELL. 'How so, Sir?' +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, the Presbyterians have no church, no apostolical +ordination.' BOSWELL. 'And do you think that absolutely essential, Sir?' +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, as it was an apostolical institution, I think it is +dangerous to be without it. And, Sir, the Presbyterians have no public +worship: they have no form of prayer in which they know they are to +join. They go to hear a man pray, and are to judge whether they will +join with him.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, their doctrine is the same with that +of the Church of England. Their confession of faith, and the thirty-nine +articles, contain the same points, even the doctrine of predestination.' +JOHNSON. 'Why yes, Sir, predestination was a part of the clamour of the +times, so it is mentioned in our articles, but with as little +positiveness as could be.' BOSWELL. 'Is it necessary, Sir, to believe +all the thirty-nine articles?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, that is a question +which has been much agitated. Some have thought it necessary that they +should all be believed; others have considered them to be only articles +of peace, that is to say, you are not to preach against them[305].' +BOSWELL. 'It appears to me, Sir, that predestination, or what is +equivalent to it, cannot be avoided, if we hold an universal prescience +in the Deity.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, does not GOD every day see things +going on without preventing them?' BOSWELL. 'True, Sir; but if a thing +be _certainly_ foreseen, it must be fixed, and cannot happen otherwise; +and if we apply this consideration to the human mind, there is no free +will, nor do I see how prayer can be of any avail.' He mentioned Dr. +Clarke, and Bishop Bramhall on _Liberty and Necessity_, and bid me read +South's _Sermons on Prayer_; but avoided the question which has +excruciated philosophers and divines, beyond any other. I did not press +it further, when I perceived that he was displeased[306], and shrunk from +any abridgement of an attribute usually ascribed to the Divinity, +however irreconcilable in its full extent with the grand system of +moral government. His supposed orthodoxy here cramped the vigorous +powers of his understanding. He was confined by a chain which early +imagination and long habit made him think massy and strong, but which, +had he ventured to try, he could at once have snapt asunder. + +I proceeded: 'What do you think, Sir, of Purgatory[307], as believed by +the Roman Catholicks?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, it is a very harmless +doctrine. They are of opinion that the generality of mankind are neither +so obstinately wicked as to deserve everlasting punishment, nor so good +as to merit being admitted into the society of blessed spirits; and +therefore that God is graciously pleased to allow of a middle state, +where they may be purified by certain degrees of suffering. You see, +Sir, there is nothing unreasonable in this.' BOSWELL. 'But then, Sir, +their masses for the dead?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, if it be once +established that there are souls in purgatory, it is as proper to pray +for _them_, as for our brethren of mankind who are yet in this life.' +BOSWELL. 'The idolatry of the Mass?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, there is no idolatry +in the Mass. They believe GOD to be there, and they adore him.' BOSWELL. +'The worship of Saints?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, they do not worship saints; they +invoke them; they only ask their prayers[308]. I am talking all this time +of the _doctrines_ of the Church of Rome. I grant you that in +_practice_, Purgatory is made a lucrative imposition, and that the +people do become idolatrous as they recommend themselves to the tutelary +protection of particular saints. I think their giving the sacrament only +in one kind is criminal, because it is contrary to the express +institution of CHRIST, and I wonder how the Council of Trent admitted +it.' BOSWELL. 'Confession?' JOHNSON. 'Why, I don't know but that is a +good thing. The scripture says, "Confess your faults one to another[309]," +and the priests confess as well as the laity. Then it must be considered +that their absolution is only upon repentance, and often upon penance +also. You think your sins may be forgiven without penance, upon +repentance alone.' + +I thus ventured to mention all the common objections against the Roman +Catholick Church, that I might hear so great a man upon them. What he +said is here accurately recorded. But it is not improbable that if one +had taken the other side, he might have reasoned differently. + +I must however mention, that he had a respect for '_the old religion_,' +as the mild Melancthon[310] called that of the Roman Catholick Church, +even while he was exerting himself for its reformation in some +particulars. Sir William Scott informs me, that he heard Johnson say, 'A +man who is converted from Protestantism to Popery may be sincere: he +parts with nothing: he is only superadding to what he already had. But a +convert from Popery to Protestantism gives up so much of what he has +held as sacred as any thing that he retains; there is so much +_laceration of mind_[311] in such a conversion, that it can hardly be +sincere and lasting[312].' The truth of this reflection may be confirmed +by many and eminent instances, some of which will occur to most of my +readers. + +When we were alone, I introduced the subject of death, and endeavoured +to maintain that the fear of it might be got over. I told him that David +Hume said to me, he was no more uneasy to think he should _not be_ after +this life, than that he _had not been_ before he began to exist. +JOHNSON: 'Sir, if he really thinks so, his perceptions are disturbed; he +is mad: if he does not think so, he lies. He may tell you, he holds his +finger in the flame of a candle, without feeling pain; would you believe +him? When he dies, he at least gives up all he has.' BOSWELL: 'Foote, +Sir, told me, that when he was very ill he was not afraid to die.' +JOHNSON: 'It is not true, Sir[313]. Hold a pistol to Foote's breast, or to +Hume's breast, and threaten to kill them, and you'll see how they +behave.' BOSWELL: 'But may we not fortify our minds for the approach of +death?' Here I am sensible I was in the wrong, to bring before his view +what he ever looked upon with horrour; for although when in a celestial +frame, in his _Vanity of human wishes_, he has supposed death to be +'kind Nature's signal for retreat,' from this state of being to 'a +happier seat[314],' his thoughts upon this aweful change were in general +full of dismal apprehensions. His mind resembled the vast amphitheatre, +the Colisaeum at Rome. In the centre stood his judgement, which, like a +mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that, like the wild +beasts of the _Arena_, were all around in cells, ready to be let out +upon him. After a conflict, he drives them back into their dens; but not +killing them, they were still assailing him. To my question, whether we +might not fortify our minds for the approach of death, he answered, in a +passion, 'No, Sir, let it alone. It matters not how a man dies, but how +he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a +time[315].' He added, (with an earnest look,) 'A man knows it must be so, +and submits. It will do him no good to whine.' + +I attempted to continue the conversation. He was so provoked, that he +said, 'Give us no more of this;' and was thrown into such a state of +agitation, that he expressed himself in a way that alarmed and +distressed me; shewed an impatience that I should leave him, and when I +was going away, called to me sternly, 'Don't let us meet to-morrow.' + +I went home exceedingly uneasy. All the harsh observations which I had +ever heard made upon his character, crowded into my mind; and I seemed +to myself like the man who had put his head into the lion's mouth a +great many times with perfect safety, but at last had it bit off. + +Next morning I sent him a note, stating, that I might have been in the +wrong, but it was not intentionally; he was therefore, I could not help +thinking, too severe upon me. That notwithstanding our agreement not to +meet that day, I would call on him in my way to the city, and stay five +minutes by my watch. 'You are, (said I,) in my mind, since last night, +surrounded with cloud and storm. Let me have a glimpse of sunshine, and +go about my affairs in serenity and chearfulness.' + +Upon entering his study, I was glad that he was not alone, which would +have made our meeting more awkward. There were with him, Mr. Steevens[316] +and Mr. Tyers[317], both of whom I now saw for the first time. My note +had, on[318] his own reflection, softened him, for he received me very +complacently; so that I unexpectedly found myself at ease, and joined in +the conversation. + +He said, the criticks had done too much honour to Sir Richard Blackmore, +by writing so much against him[319]. That in his _Creation_ he had been +helped by various wits, a line by Phillips and a line by Tickell; so +that by their aid, and that of others, the poem had been made out[320]. + +I defended Blackmore's supposed lines, which have been ridiculed as +absolute nonsense:-- + +'A painted vest Prince Voltiger had on, +Which from a naked Pict his grandsire won[321].' + +I maintained it to be a poetical conceit. A Pict being painted, if he is +slain in battle, and a vest is made of his skin, it is a painted vest +won from him, though he was naked[322]. + +Johnson spoke unfavourably of a certain pretty voluminous authour, +saying, 'He used to write anonymous books, and then other books +commending those books, in which there was something of rascality.' + +I whispered him, 'Well, Sir, you are now in good humour.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, +Sir.' I was going to leave him, and had got as far as the staircase. He +stopped me, and smiling, said, 'Get you gone _in_;' a curious mode of +inviting me to stay, which I accordingly did for some time longer. + +This little incidental quarrel and reconciliation, which, perhaps, I may +be thought to have detailed too minutely, must be esteemed as one of +many proofs which his friends had, that though he might be charged with +_bad humour_ at times, he was always a _good-natured_ man; and I have +heard Sir Joshua Reynolds[323], a nice and delicate observer of manners, +particularly remark, that when upon any occasion Johnson had been rough +to any person in company, he took the first opportunity of +reconciliation, by drinking to him, or addressing his discourse to +him[324]; but if he found his dignified indirect overtures sullenly +neglected, he was quite indifferent, and considered himself as having +done all that he ought to do, and the other as now in the wrong. + +Being to set out for Scotland on the 10th of November, I wrote to him at +Streatham, begging that he would meet me in town on the 9th; but if this +should be very inconvenient to him, I would go thither. His answer was +as follows:-- + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Upon balancing the inconveniences of both parties, I find it will less +incommode you to spend your night here, than me to come to town. I wish +to see you, and am ordered by the lady of this house to invite you +hither. Whether you can come or not, I shall not have any occasion of +writing to you again before your marriage, and therefore tell you now, +that with great sincerity I wish you happiness. + +'I am, dear Sir, +'Your most affectionate humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Nov. 9, 1769.' + +I was detained in town till it was too late on the ninth, so went to him +early on the morning of the tenth of November. 'Now (said he,) that you +are going to marry, do not expect more from life, than life will afford. +You may often find yourself out of humour, and you may often think your +wife not studious enough to please you; and yet you may have reason to +consider yourself as upon the whole very happily married.' + +Talking of marriage in general, he observed, 'Our marriage service is +too refined. It is calculated only for the best kind of marriages; +whereas, we should have a form for matches of convenience, of which +there are many.' He agreed with me that there was no absolute necessity +for having the marriage ceremony performed by a regular clergyman, for +this was not commanded in scripture. + +I was volatile enough to repeat to him a little epigrammatick song of +mine, on matrimony, which Mr. Garrick had a few days before procured to +be set to musick by the very ingenious Mr. Dibden. + +'A MATRIMONIAL THOUGHT. + +'In the blithe days of honey-moon, +With Kate's allurements smitten, +I lov'd her late, I lov'd her soon, +And call'd her dearest kitten. +But now my kitten's grown a cat, +And cross like other wives, +O! by my soul, my honest Mat, +I fear she has nine lives.' + +My illustrious friend said, 'It is very well, Sir; but you should not +swear.' Upon which I altered 'O! by my soul,' to 'alas, alas!' + +He was so good as to accompany me to London, and see me into the +post-chaise which was to carry me on my road to Scotland. And sure I am, +that, however inconsiderable many of the particulars recorded at this +time may appear to some, they will be esteemed by the best part of my +readers as genuine traits of his character, contributing together to +give a full, fair, and distinct view of it. + +1770: A†TAT. 61.--In 1770 he published a political pamphlet, entitled +_The False Alarm_[325], intended to justify the conduct of ministry and +their majority in the House of Commons, for having virtually assumed it +as an axiom, that the expulsion of a Member of Parliament was equivalent +to exclusion, and thus having declared Colonel Lutterel to be duly +elected for the county of Middlesex, notwithstanding Mr. Wilkes had a +great majority of votes[326]. This being justly considered as a gross +violation of the right of election, an alarm for the constitution +extended itself all over the kingdom. To prove this alarm to be false, +was the purpose of Johnson's pamphlet; but even his vast powers were +inadequate to cope with constitutional truth and reason, and his +argument failed of effect; and the House of Commons have since expunged +the offensive resolution from their Journals[327]. That the House of +Commons might have expelled Mr. Wilkes repeatedly, and as often as he +should be re-chosen, was not denied; but incapacitation cannot be but by +an act of the whole legislature. It was wonderful to see how a prejudice +in favour of government in general, and an aversion to popular clamour, +could blind and contract such an understanding as Johnson's, in this +particular case; yet the wit, the sarcasm, the eloquent vivacity which +this pamphlet displayed, made it be read with great avidity at the time, +and it will ever be read with pleasure, for the sake of its composition. +That it endeavoured to infuse a narcotick indifference, as to publick +concerns, into the minds of the people, and that it broke out sometimes +into an extreme coarseness of contemptuous abuse, is but too evident. + +It must not, however, be omitted, that when the storm of his violence +subsides, he takes a fair opportunity to pay a grateful compliment to +the King, who had rewarded his merit: 'These low-born rulers[328] have +endeavoured, surely without effect, to alienate the affections of the +people from the only King who for almost a century has much appeared to +desire, or much endeavoured to deserve them.' And, 'Every honest man +must lament, that the faction has been regarded with frigid neutrality +by the Tories, who being long accustomed to signalise their principles +by opposition to the Court, do not yet consider, that they have at last +a King who knows not the name of party, and who wishes to be the common +father of all his people.' + +To this pamphlet, which was at once discovered to be Johnson's, several +answers came out, in which, care was taken to remind the publick of his +former attacks upon government, and of his now being a pensioner, +without allowing for the honourable terms upon which Johnson's pension +was granted and accepted, or the change of system which the British +court had undergone upon the accession of his present Majesty[329]. He +was, however, soothed[330] in the highest strain of panegyrick, in a poem +called _The Remonstrance_, by the Rev. Mr. Stockdale[331], to whom he was, +upon many occasions, a kind protector. + +The following admirable minute made by him describes so well his own +state, and that of numbers to whom self-examination is habitual, that I +cannot omit it:-- + +'June 1, 1770. Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep +his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of +time and frequency of experiment[332]. This opinion of our own constancy +is so prevalent, that we always despise him who suffers his general and +settled purpose to be overpowered by an occasional desire. They, +therefore, whom frequent failures have made desperate, cease to form +resolutions; and they who are become cunning, do not tell them. Those +who do not make them are very few, but of their effect little is +perceived; for scarcely any man persists in a course of life planned by +choice, but as he is restrained from deviation by some external power. +He who may live as he will, seldom lives long in the observation of his +own rules[333].' + +Of this year I have obtained the following letters:-- + + +'To THE REVEREND DR. FARMER[334], CAMBRIDGE. + +'SIR, + +'As no man ought to keep wholly to himself any possession that may be +useful to the publick, I hope you will not think me unreasonably +intrusive, if I have recourse to you for such information as you are +more able to give me than any other man. + +'In support of an opinion which you have already placed above the need +of any more support, Mr. Steevens, a very ingenious gentleman, lately of +King's College, has collected an account of all the translations which +Shakspeare might have seen and used. He wishes his catalogue to be +perfect, and therefore intreats that you will favour him by the +insertion of such additions as the accuracy of your inquiries has +enabled you to make. To this request, I take the liberty of adding my +own solicitation. + +'We have no immediate use for this catalogue, and therefore do not +desire that it should interrupt or hinder your more important +employments. But it will be kind to let us know that you receive it. + +'I am, Sir, &c. +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, +March 21, 1770.' + +'To THE REVEREND MR. THOMAS WARTON. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'The readiness with which you were pleased to promise me some notes on +Shakspeare, was a new instance of your friendship. I shall not hurry +you; but am desired by Mr. Steevens, who helps me in this edition, to +let you know, that we shall print the tragedies first, and shall +therefore want first the notes which belong to them. We think not to +incommode the readers with a supplement; and therefore, what we cannot +put into its proper place, will do us no good. We shall not begin to +print before the end of six weeks, perhaps not so soon. + +'I am, &c. +'SAM. JOHNSON.' +'London, June 23, 1770.' + + +'To THE REV. DR. JOSEPH WARTON. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I am revising my edition of _Shakspeare_, and remember that I formerly +misrepresented your opinion of Lear. Be pleased to write the paragraph +as you would have it, and send it[335]. If you have any remarks of your +own upon that or any other play, I shall gladly receive them. + +'Make my compliments to Mrs. Warton. I sometimes think of wandering for +a few days to Winchester, but am apt to delay. I am, Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Sept. 27, 1770.' + + +'To MR. FRANCIS BARBER, AT MRS. CLAPP'S, BISHOP-STORTFORD, +HERTFORDSHIRE. + +'DEAR FRANCIS, + +'I am at last sat down to write to you, and should very much blame +myself for having neglected you so long, if I did not impute that and +many other failings to want of health[336]. I hope not to be so long +silent again. I am very well satisfied with your progress, if you can +really perform the exercises which you are set; and I hope Mr. Ellis +does not suffer you to impose on him, or on yourself. + +'Make my compliments to Mr. Ellis, and to Mrs. Clapp, and Mr. Smith. + +'Let me know what English books you read for your entertainment. You can +never be wise unless you love reading. + +'Do not imagine that I shall forget or forsake you; for if, when I +examine you, I find that you have not lost your time, you shall want no +encouragement from + +'Yours affectionately, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'London, Sept. 25, 1770.' + +'TO THE SAME. + +'DEAR FRANCIS, + +'I hope you mind your business. I design you shall stay with Mrs. Clapp +these holidays. If you are invited out you may go, if Mr. Ellis gives +leave. I have ordered you some clothes, which you will receive, I +believe, next week. My compliments to Mrs. Clapp and to Mr. Ellis, and +Mr. Smith, &c. + +'I am + +'Your affectionate, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'December 7, 1770.' + +During this year there was a total cessation of all correspondence +between Dr. Johnson and me, without any coldness on either side, but +merely from procrastination, continued from day to day; and as I was not +in London, I had no opportunity of enjoying his company and recording +his conversation. To supply this blank, I shall present my readers with +some _Collectanea_, obligingly furnished to me by the Rev. Dr. Maxwell, +of Falkland, in Ireland, some time assistant preacher at the Temple, and +for many years the social friend of Johnson, who spoke of him with a +very kind regard. + +'My acquaintance with that great and venerable character commenced in +the year 1754. I was introduced to him by Mr. Grierson[337], his Majesty's +printer at Dublin, a gentleman of uncommon learning, and great wit and +vivacity. Mr. Grierson died in Germany, at the age of twenty-seven. Dr. +Johnson highly respected his abilities, and often observed, that he +possessed more extensive knowledge than any man of his years he had ever +known. His industry was equal to his talents; and he particularly +excelled in every species of philological learning, and was, perhaps, +the best critick of the age he lived in. + +'I must always remember with gratitude my obligation to Mr. Grierson, +for the honour and happiness of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance and +friendship, which continued uninterrupted and undiminished to his death: +a connection, that was at once the pride and happiness of my life. + +'What pity it is, that so much wit and good sense as he continually +exhibited in conversation, should perish unrecorded! Few persons quitted +his company without perceiving themselves wiser and better than they +were before. On serious subjects he flashed the most interesting +conviction upon his auditors; and upon lighter topicks, you might have +supposed--_Albano musas de monte locutas_[338]. + +'Though I can hope to add but little to the celebrity of so exalted a +character, by any communications I can furnish, yet out of pure respect +to his memory, I will venture to transmit to you some anecdotes +concerning him, which fell under my own observation. The very +_minutiae_. of such a character must be interesting, and may be compared +to the filings of diamonds. + +'In politicks he was deemed a Tory, but certainly was not so in the +obnoxious or party sense of the term; for while he asserted the legal +and salutary prerogatives of the crown, he no less respected the +constitutional liberties of the people. Whiggism, at the time of the +Revolution, he said, was accompanied with certain principles; but +latterly, as a mere party distinction under Walpole[339] and the Pelhams +was no better than the politicks of stock-jobbers, and the religion of +infidels. + +'He detested the idea of governing by parliamentary corruption, and +asserted most strenuously, that a prince steadily and conspicuously +pursuing the interests of his people, could not fail of parliamentary +concurrence. A prince of ability, he contended, might and should be the +directing soul and spirit of his own administration; in short, his own +minister, and not the mere head of a party: and then, and not till then, +would the royal dignity be sincerely respected. + +'Johnson seemed to think, that a certain degree of crown influence over +the Houses of Parliament, (not meaning a corrupt and shameful +dependence,) was very salutary, nay, even necessary, in our mixed +government[340]. "For, (said he,) if the members were under no crown +influence, and disqualified from receiving any gratification from Court, +and resembled, as they possibly might, Pym and Haslerig, and other +stubborn and sturdy members of the long Parliament, the wheels of +government would be totally obstructed. Such men would oppose, merely to +shew their power, from envy, jealousy, and perversity of disposition; +and not gaining themselves, would hate and oppose all who did: not +loving the person of the prince, and conceiving they owed him little +gratitude, from the mere spirit of insolence and contradiction, they +would oppose and thwart him upon all occasions." + +'The inseparable imperfection annexed to all human governments +consisted, he said, in not being able to create a sufficient fund of +virtue and principle to carry the laws into due and effectual execution. +Wisdom might plan, but virtue alone could execute. And where could +sufficient virtue be found? A variety of delegated, and often +discretionary, powers must be entrusted somewhere; which, if not +governed by integrity and conscience, would necessarily be abused, till +at last the constable would sell his for a shilling. + +'This excellent person was sometimes charged with abetting slavish and +arbitrary principles of government. Nothing in my opinion could be a +grosser calumny and misrepresentation; for how can it be rationally +supposed, that he should adopt such pernicious and absurd opinions, who +supported his philosophical character with so much dignity, was +extremely jealous of his personal liberty and independence, and could +not brook the smallest appearance of neglect or insult, even from the +highest personages? + +'But let us view him in some instances of more familiar life. + +'His general mode of life, during my acquaintance, seemed to be pretty +uniform. About twelve o'clock I commonly visited him, and frequently +found him in bed, or declaiming over his tea, which he drank very +plentifully. He generally had a levee of morning visitors, chiefly men +of letters[341]; Hawkesworth, Goldsmith, Murphy, Langton, Steevens, +Beauclerk, &c. &c., and sometimes learned ladies, particularly I +remember a French lady[342] of wit and fashion doing him the honour of a +visit. He seemed to me to be considered as a kind of publick oracle, +whom every body thought they had a right to visit and consult[343]; and +doubtless they were well rewarded. I never could discover how he found +time for his compositions[344]. He declaimed all the morning, then went to +dinner at a tavern, where he commonly staid late, and then drank his tea +at some friend's house, over which he loitered a great while, but seldom +took supper. I fancy he must have read and wrote chiefly in the night, +for I can scarcely recollect that he ever refused going with me to a +tavern, and he often went to Ranelagh[345], which he deemed a place of +innocent recreation. + +'He frequently gave all the silver in his pocket to the poor, who +watched him, between his house and the tavern where he dined[346]. He +walked the streets at all hours, and said he was never robbed[347], for +the rogues knew he had little money, nor had the appearance of having +much. + +'Though the most accessible and communicative man alive; yet when he +suspected he was invited to be exhibited, he constantly spurned the +invitation. + +'Two young women from Staffordshire visited him when I was present, to +consult him on the subject of Methodism, to which they were inclined. +"Come, (said he,) you pretty fools, dine with Maxwell and me at the +Mitre, and we will talk over that subject;" which they did, and after +dinner he took one of them upon his knee, and fondled her for half an +hour together. + +'Upon a visit to me at a country lodging near Twickenham, he asked what +sort of society I had there. I told him, but indifferent; as they +chiefly consisted of opulent traders, retired from business. He said, he +never much liked that class of people; "For, Sir (said he,) they have +lost the civility of tradesmen, without acquiring the manners of +gentlemen[348]." + +'Johnson was much attached to London: he observed, that a man stored his +mind better there, than any where else; and that in remote situations a +man's body might be feasted, but his mind was starved, and his faculties +apt to degenerate, from want of exercise and competition. No place, (he +said,) cured a man's vanity or arrogance so well as London; for as no +man was either great or good _per se_, but as compared with others not +so good or great, he was sure to find in the metropolis many his equals, +and some his superiours. He observed, that a man in London was in less +danger of falling in love indiscreetly, than any where else; for there +the difficulty of deciding between the conflicting pretensions of a vast +variety of objects, kept him safe. He told me, that he had frequently +been offered country preferment, if he would consent to take orders[349]; +but he could not leave the improved society of the capital, or consent +to exchange the exhilarating joys and splendid decorations of publick +life, for the obscurity, insipidity, and uniformity of remote +situations. + +'Speaking of Mr. Harte[350], Canon of Windsor, and writer of _The History +of Gustavus Adolphus_, he much commended him as a scholar, and a man of +the most companionable talents he had ever known. He said, the defects +in his history proceeded not from imbecility, but from foppery. + +'He loved, he said, the old black letter books; they were rich in +matter, though their style was inelegant; wonderfully so, considering +how conversant the writers were with the best models of antiquity. + +'Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_, he said, was the only book that ever +took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise. + +'He frequently exhorted me to set about writing a History of Ireland, +and archly remarked, there had been some good Irish writers, and that +one Irishman might at least aspire to be equal to another. He had great +compassion for the miseries and distresses of the Irish nation, +particularly the Papists; and severely reprobated the barbarous +debilitating policy of the British government, which, he said, was the +most detestable mode of persecution. To a gentleman, who hinted such +policy might be necessary to support the authority of the English +government, he replied by saying, "Let the authority of the English +government perish, rather than be maintained by iniquity. Better would +it be to restrain the turbulence of the natives by the authority of the +sword, and to make them amenable to law and justice by an effectual and +vigorous police, than to grind them to powder by all manner of +disabilities and incapacities. Better (said he,) to hang or drown people +at once, than by an unrelenting persecution to beggar and starve +them.[351]" The moderation and humanity of the present times have, in some +measure, justified the wisdom of his observations. + +'Dr. Johnson was often accused of prejudices, nay, antipathy, with +regard to the natives of Scotland. Surely, so illiberal a prejudice +never entered his mind: and it is well known, many natives of that +respectable country possessed a large share in his esteem; nor were any +of them ever excluded from his good offices, as far as opportunity +permitted. True it is, he considered the Scotch, nationally, as a +crafty, designing people, eagerly attentive to their own interest, and +too apt to overlook the claims and pretentions of other people. "While +they confine their benevolence, in a manner, exclusively to those of +their own country, they expect to share in the good offices of other +people. Now (said Johnson,) this principle is either right or wrong; if +right, we should do well to imitate such conduct; if wrong, we cannot +too much detest it."[352] + +'Being solicited to compose a funeral sermon for the daughter of a +tradesman, he naturally enquired into the character of the deceased; and +being told she was remarkable for her humility and condescension to +inferiours, he observed, that those were very laudable qualities, but it +might not be so easy to discover who the lady's inferiours were. + +'Of a certain player[353] he remarked, that his conversation usually +threatened and announced more than it performed; that he fed you with a +continual renovation of hope, to end in a constant succession of +disappointment. + +'When exasperated by contradiction, he was apt to treat his opponents +with too much acrimony: as, "Sir, you don't see your way through that +question:"--"Sir, you talk the language of ignorance." On my observing +to him that a certain gentleman had remained silent the whole evening, +in the midst of a very brilliant and learned society, "Sir, (said he,) +the conversation overflowed, and drowned him." + +'His philosophy, though austere and solemn, was by no means morose and +cynical, and never blunted the laudable sensibilities of his character, +or exempted him from the influence of the tender passions. Want of +tenderness, he always alledged, was want of parts, and was no less a +proof of stupidity than depravity. + +'Speaking of Mr. Hanway, who published _An Eight Days' Journey from +London to Portsmouth_, "Jonas, (said he,) acquired some reputation by +travelling abroad[354], but lost it all by travelling at home.[355]" + +'Of the passion of love he remarked, that its violence and ill effects +were much exaggerated; for who knows any real sufferings on that head, +more than from the exorbitancy of any other passion? + +'He much commended _Law's Serious Call_, which he said was the finest +piece of hortatory theology in any language[356]. "Law, (said he,) fell +latterly into the reveries of Jacob Behmen[357], whom Law alledged to have +been somewhat in the same state with St. Paul, and to have seen +_unutterable things[358]--he would have resembled St. Paul still more, by +not attempting to utter them." + +'He observed, that the established clergy in general did not preach +plain enough; and that polished periods and glittering sentences flew +over the heads of the common people, without any impression upon their +hearts. Something might be necessary, he observed, to excite the +affections of the common people, who were sunk in languor and lethargy, +and therefore he supposed that the new concomitants of methodism might +probably produce so desirable an effect.[359] The mind, like the body, he +observed, delighted in change and novelty, and even in religion itself, +courted new appearances and modifications. Whatever might be thought of +some methodist teachers, he said, he could scarcely doubt the sincerity +of that man, who travelled nine hundred miles in a month, and preached +twelve times a week; for no adequate reward, merely temporal, could be +given for such indefatigable labour.[360] + +'Of Dr. Priestley's theological works, he remarked, that they tended to +unsettle every thing, and yet settled nothing. + +'He was much affected by the death of his mother, and wrote to me to +come and assist him to compose his mind, which indeed I found extremely +agitated. He lamented that all serious and religious conversation was +banished from the society of men, and yet great advantages might be +derived from it. All acknowledged, he said, what hardly any body +practised, the obligation we were under of making the concerns of +eternity the governing principles of our lives. Every man, he observed, +at last wishes for retreat: he sees his expectations frustrated in the +world, and begins to wean himself from it, and to prepare for +everlasting separation. + +'He observed, that the influence of London now extended every where, and +that from all manner of communication being opened, there shortly would +be no remains of the ancient simplicity, or places of cheap retreat to +be found. + +'He was no admirer of blank-verse, and said it always failed, unless +sustained by the dignity of the subject. In blank-verse, he said, the +language suffered more distortion, to keep it out of prose, than any +inconvenience or limitation to be apprehended from the shackles and +circumspection of rhyme[361]. + +'He reproved me once for saying grace without mention of the name of our +LORD JESUS CHRIST, and hoped in future I would be more mindful of the +apostolical injunction[362]. + +'He refused to go out of a room before me at Mr. Langton's house, +saying, he hoped he knew his rank better than to presume to take place +of a Doctor in Divinity. I mention such little anecdotes, merely to shew +the peculiar turn and habit of his mind. + +'He used frequently to observe, that there was more to be endured than +enjoyed, in the general condition of human life; and frequently quoted +those lines of Dryden: + +"Strange cozenage! none would live past years again, +Yet all hope pleasure from what still remain[363]." + +For his part, he said, he never passed that week in his life which he +would wish to repeat, were an angel to make the proposal to him. + +'He was of opinion, that the English nation cultivated both their soil +and their reason better than any other people: but admitted that the +French, though not the highest, perhaps, in any department of +literature, yet in every department were very high[364]. Intellectual +pre-eminence, he observed, was the highest superiority; and that every +nation derived their highest reputation from the splendour and dignity +of their writers[365]. Voltaire, he said, was a good narrator, and that +his principal merit consisted in a happy selection and arrangement of +circumstances. + +'Speaking of the French novels, compared with Richardson's, he said, +they might be pretty baubles, but a wren was not an eagle. + +'In a Latin conversation with the PA"re Boscovitch, at the house of Mrs. +Cholmondeley, I heard him maintain the superiority of Sir Isaac Newton +over all foreign philosophers[366], with a dignity and eloquence that +surprized that learned foreigner[367]. It being observed to him, that a +rage for every thing English prevailed much in France after Lord +Chatham's glorious war, he said, he did not wonder at it, for that we +had drubbed those fellows into a proper reverence for us, and that their +national petulance required periodical chastisement. + +'Lord Lyttelton's Dialogues, he deemed a nugatory performance. "That +man, (said he,) sat down to write a book, to tell the world what the +world had all his life been telling him[368]." + +'Somebody observing that the Scotch Highlanders, in the year 1745, had +made surprising efforts, considering their numerous wants and +disadvantages: "Yes, Sir, (said he,) their wants were numerous; but you +have not mentioned the greatest of them all,--the want of law." + +'Speaking of the _inward light_, to which some methodists pretended, he +said, it was a principle utterly incompatible with social or civil +security. "If a man (said he,) pretends to a principle of action of +which I can know nothing, nay, not so much as that he has it, but only +that he pretends to it; how can I tell what that person may be prompted +to do? When a person professes to be governed by a written ascertained +law, I can then know where to find him." + +'The poem of _Fingal_[369], he said, was a mere unconnected rhapsody, a +tiresome repetition of the same images. "In vain shall we look for the +_lucidus ordo_'[370], where there is neither end or object, design or +moral, _nec certa recurrit imago_." + +'Being asked by a young nobleman, what was become of the gallantry and +military spirit of the old English nobility, he replied, "Why, my Lord, +I'll tell you what is become of it; it is gone into the city to look for +a fortune." + +'Speaking of a dull tiresome fellow, whom he chanced to meet, he said, +"That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong +one." + +'Much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a +company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last +Johnson observed, that "he did not care to speak ill of any man behind +his back, but he believed the gentleman was an _attorney_[371]." + +'He spoke with much contempt of the notice taken of Woodhouse, the +poetical shoemaker[372]. He said, it was all vanity and childishness: and +that such objects were, to those who patronised them, mere mirrours of +their own superiority. "They had better (said he,) furnish the man with +good implements for his trade, than raise subscriptions for his poems. +He may make an excellent shoemaker, but can never make a good poet. A +school-boy's exercise may be a pretty thing for a school-boy; but it is +no treat for a man." + +'Speaking of Boetius, who was the favourite writer of the middle +ages[373], he said it was very surprizing, that upon such a subject, and +in such a situation, he should be _magis philosophius quA m Christianus_. + +'Speaking of Arthur Murphy, whom he very much loved, "I don't know (said +he,) that Arthur can be classed with the very first dramatick writers; +yet at present I doubt much whether we have any thing superiour to +Arthur[374]." + +'Speaking of the national debt, he said, it was an idle dream to suppose +that the country could sink under it. Let the public creditors be ever +so clamorous, the interest of millions must ever prevail over that of +thousands[375]. + +'Of Dr. Kennicott's Collations, he observed, that though the text should +not be much mended thereby, yet it was no small advantage to know, that +we had as good a text as the most consummate industry and diligence +could procure[376]. + +'Johnson observed, that so many objections might be made to every thing, +that nothing could overcome them but the necessity of doing something. +No man would be of any profession, as simply opposed to not being of it: +but every one must do something. + +'He remarked, that a London parish was a very comfortless thing; for the +clergyman seldom knew the face of one out of ten of his parishioners. + +'Of the late Mr. Mallet he spoke with no great respect: said, he was +ready for any dirty job: that he had wrote against Byng at the +instigation of the ministry[377], and was equally ready to write for him, +provided he found his account in it. + +'A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately +after his wife died: Johnson said, it was the triumph of hope over +experience. + +'He observed, that a man of sense and education should meet a suitable +companion in a wife[378]. It was a miserable thing when the conversation +could only be such as, whether the mutton should be boiled or roasted, +and probably a dispute about that. + +'He did not approve of late marriages, observing that more was lost in +point of time, than compensated for by any possible advantages[379]. Even +ill assorted marriages were preferable to cheerless celibacy. + +'Of old Sheridan he remarked, that he neither wanted parts nor +literature; but that his vanity and Quixotism obscured his merits. + +'He said, foppery was never cured; it was the bad stamina of the mind, +which, like those of the body, were never rectified: once a coxcomb, and +always a coxcomb. + +'Being told that Gilbert Cowper called him the Caliban of literature; +"Well, (said he,) I must dub him the Punchinello[380]." + +'Speaking of the old Earl of Corke and Orrery, he said, "that man spent +his life in catching at an object, [literary eminence,] which he had not +power to grasp[381]." + +'To find a substitution for violated morality, he said, was the leading +feature in all perversions of religion.' + +'He often used to quote, with great pathos, those fine lines of Virgil: + +'Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi +Prima fugit[382]; subeunt morbi, tristisque senectus, +Et labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis[383].' + +'Speaking of Homer, whom he venerated as the prince of poets, Johnson +remarked that the advice given to Diomed[384] by his father, when he sent +him to the Trojan war, was the noblest exhortation that could be +instanced in any heathen writer, and comprised in a single line: + +[Greek: Aien aristeuein, kai hupeirochon emmenai allon ] + +which, if I recollect well, is translated by Dr. Clarke thus: _semper +appetere praestantissima, et omnibus aliis antecellere_. + +'He observed, "it was a most mortifying reflexion for any man to +consider, _what he had done_, compared with what _he might have done_." + +'He said few people had intellectual resources sufficient to forego the +pleasures of wine. They could not otherwise contrive how to fill the +interval between dinner and supper. + +'He went with me, one Sunday, to hear my old Master, Gregory Sharpe[385], +preach at the Temple. In the prefatory prayer, Sharpe ranted about +_Liberty_, as a blessing most fervently to be implored, and its +continuance prayed for. Johnson observed, that our _liberty_ was in no +sort of danger:--he would have done much better, to pray against our +_licentiousness_. + +'One evening at Mrs. Montagu's, where a splendid company was assembled, +consisting of the most eminent literary characters, I thought he seemed +highly pleased with the respect and attention that were shewn him, and +asked him on our return home if he was not highly _gratified_ by his +visit: "No, Sir, (said he) not highly _gratified_; yet I do not +recollect to have passed many evenings _with fewer objections_." + +'Though of no high extraction himself, he had much respect for birth and +family, especially among ladies. He said, "adventitious accomplishments +may be possessed by all ranks; but one may easily distinguish the _born +gentlewoman_." + +'He said, "the poor in England[386] were better provided for, than in any +other country of the same extent: he did not mean little Cantons, or +petty Republicks. Where a great proportion of the people (said he,) are +suffered to languish in helpless misery, that country must be ill +policed, and wretchedly governed: a decent provision for the poor, is +the true test of civilization.--Gentlemen of education, he observed, +were pretty much the same in all countries; the condition of the lower +orders, the poor especially, was the true mark of national +discrimination." + +'When the corn laws were in agitation in Ireland, by which that country +has been enabled not only to feed itself, but to export corn to a large +amount[387]; Sir Thomas Robinson[388] observed, that those laws might be +prejudicial to the corn-trade of England. "Sir Thomas, (said he,) 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[389]." + +'It being mentioned, that Garrick assisted Dr. Brown, the authour of the +_Estimate_[390], in some dramatick composition, "No, Sir, (said Johnson,) +he would no more suffer Garrick to write a line in his play, than he +would suffer him to mount his pulpit." + +'Speaking of Burke, he said, "It was commonly observed, he spoke too +often in parliament; but nobody could say he did not speak well, though +too frequently and too familiarly[391]." + +'Speaking of economy, he remarked, it was hardly worth while to save +anxiously twenty pounds a year. If a man could save to that degree, so +as to enable him to assume a different rank in society, then indeed, it +might answer some purpose. + +'He observed, a principal source of erroneous judgement was, viewing +things partially and only on _one side_: as for instance, +_fortune-hunters_, when they contemplated the fortunes _singly_ and +_separately_, it was a dazzling and tempting object; but when they came +to possess the wives and their fortunes _together_, they began to +suspect that they had not made quite so good a bargain. + +'Speaking of the late Duke of Northumberland living very magnificently +when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, somebody remarked it would be difficult +to find a suitable successor to him: then exclaimed Johnson, _he is only +fit to succeed himself_[392]. + +'He advised me, if possible, to have a good orchard. He knew, he said, a +clergyman of small income, who brought up a family very reputably which +he chiefly fed with apple dumplings. + +'He said, he had known several good scholars among the Irish gentlemen; +but scarcely any of them correct in _quantity_. He extended the same +observation to Scotland. + +'Speaking of a certain Prelate, who exerted himself very laudably in +building churches and parsonage-houses; "however, said he, I do not find +that he is esteemed a man of much professional learning, or a liberal +patron of it;--yet, it is well, where a man possesses any strong +positive excellence.--Few have all kinds of merit belonging to their +character. We must not examine matters too deeply--No, Sir, a _fallible +being will fail somewhere_." + +'Talking of the Irish clergy, he said, Swift was a man of great parts, +and the instrument of much good to his country[393].--Berkeley was a +profound scholar, as well as a man of fine imagination; but Usher, he +said, was the great luminary of the Irish church; and a greater, he +added, no church could boast of; at least in modern times. + +'We dined _tAªte A tAªte_ at the Mitre, as I was preparing to return to +Ireland, after an absence of many years. I regretted much leaving +London, where I had formed many agreeable connexions: "Sir, (said he,) I +don't wonder at it; no man, fond of letters, leaves London without +regret. But remember, Sir, you have seen and enjoyed a great deal;--you +have seen life in its highest decorations, and the world has nothing new +to exhibit. No man is so well qualifyed to leave publick life as he who +has long tried it and known it well. We are always hankering after +untried situations, and imagining greater felicity from them than they +can afford. No, Sir, knowledge and virtue may be acquired in all +countries, and your local consequence will make you some amends for the +intellectual gratifications you relinquish." Then he quoted the +following lines with great pathos:-- + +"He who has early known the pomps of state, +(For things unknown, 'tis ignorance to condemn;) +And after having viewed the gaudy bait, +Can boldly say, the trifle I contemn; +With such a one contented could I live, +Contented could I die[394];"-- + +'He then took a most affecting leave of me; said, he knew, it was a +point of _duty_ that called me away. "We shall all be sorry to lose +you," said he: "_laudo tamen_[395]."' + +1771: AETAT. 62.--In 1771 he published another political pamphlet, +entitled _Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's +Islands_[396], in which, upon materials furnished to him by ministry, and +upon general topicks expanded in his richest style, he successfully +endeavoured to persuade the nation that it was wise and laudable to +suffer the question of right to remain undecided, rather than involve +our country in another war. It has been suggested by some, with what +truth I shall not take upon me to decide, that he rated the consequence +of those islands to Great-Britain too low[397]. But however this may be, +every humane mind must surely applaud the earnestness with which he +averted the calamity of war; a calamity so dreadful, that it is +astonishing how civilised, nay, Christian nations, can deliberately +continue to renew it. His description of its miseries in this pamphlet, +is one of the finest pieces of eloquence in the English language[398]. +Upon this occasion, too, we find Johnson lashing the party in opposition +with unbounded severity, and making the fullest use of what he ever +reckoned a most effectual argumentative instrument,--contempt[399]. His +character of their very able mysterious champion, JUNIUS, is executed +with all the force of his genius, and finished with the highest care. He +seems to have exulted in sallying forth to single combat against the +boasted and formidable hero, who bade defiance to 'principalities and +powers, and the rulers of this world.'[400] + +This pamphlet, it is observable, was softened in one particular, after +the first edition[401]; for the conclusion of Mr. George Grenville's +character stood thus: 'Let him not, however, be depreciated in his +grave. He had powers not universally possessed: could he have enforced +payment of the Manilla ransom, _he could have counted it_[402].' Which, +instead of retaining its sly sharp point, was reduced to a mere flat +unmeaning expression, or, if I may use the word,--_truism_: 'He had +powers not universally possessed: and if he sometimes erred, he was +likewise sometimes right.' + + +'To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'After much lingering of my own, and much of the ministry, I have at +length got out my paper[403]. But delay is not yet at an end: Not many had +been dispersed, before Lord North ordered the sale to stop. His reasons +I do not distinctly know. You may try to find them in the perusal[404]. +Before his order, a sufficient number were dispersed to do all the +mischief, though, perhaps, not to make all the sport that might be +expected from it. + +'Soon after your departure, I had the pleasure of finding all the danger +past with which your navigation[405] was threatened. I hope nothing +happens at home to abate your satisfaction; but that Lady Rothes[406], and +Mrs. Langton, and the young ladies, are all well. + +'I was last night at THE CLUB. Dr. Percy has written a long ballad[407] in +many _fits_; it is pretty enough. He has printed, and will soon publish +it. Goldsmith is at Bath, with Lord Clare[408]. At Mr. Thrale's, where I +am now writing, all are well. I am, dear Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'March 20, 1771.' + + +Mr. Strahan[409], the printer, who had been long in intimacy with Johnson, +in the course of his literary labours, who was at once his friendly +agent in receiving his pension for him[410], and his banker in supplying +him with money when he wanted it; who was himself now a Member of +Parliament, and who loved much to be employed in political +negociation[411]; thought he should do eminent service both to government +and Johnson, if he could be the means of his getting a seat in the House +of Commons[412]. With this view, he wrote a letter to one of the +Secretaries of the Treasury, of which he gave me a copy in his own +hand-writing, which is as follows:-- + + + +'SIR, + +'You will easily recollect, when I had the honour of waiting upon you +some time ago, I took the liberty to observe to you, that Dr. Johnson +would make an excellent figure in the House of Commons, and heartily +wished he had a seat there. My reasons are briefly these: + +'I know his perfect good affection to his Majesty, and his government, +which I am certain he wishes to support by every means in his power. + +'He possesses a great share of manly, nervous, and ready eloquence; is +quick in discerning the strength and weakness of an argument; can +express himself with clearness and precision, and fears the face of no +man alive. + +'His known character, as a man of extraordinary sense and unimpeached +virtue, would secure him the attention of the House, and could not fail +to give him a proper weight there. + +'He is capable of the greatest application, and can undergo any degree +of labour, where he sees it necessary, and where his heart and +affections are strongly engaged. His Majesty's ministers might therefore +securely depend on his doing, upon every proper occasion, the utmost +that could be expected from him. They would find him ready to vindicate +such measures as tended to promote the stability of government, and +resolute and steady in carrying them into execution. Nor is any thing to +be apprehended from the supposed impetuosity of his temper. To the +friends of the King you will find him a lamb, to his enemies a lion. + +'For these reasons, I humbly apprehend that he would be a very able and +useful member. And I will venture to say, the employment would not be +disagreeable to him; and knowing, as I do, his strong affection to the +King, his ability to serve him in that capacity, and the extreme ardour +with which I am convinced he would engage in that service, I must +repeat, that I wish most heartily to see him in the House. + +'If you think this worthy of attention, you will be pleased to take a +convenient opportunity of mentioning it to Lord North. If his Lordship +should happily approve of it, I shall have the satisfaction of having +been, in some degree, the humble instrument of doing my country, in my +opinion, a very essential service. I know your good-nature, and your +zeal for the publick welfare, will plead my excuse for giving you this +trouble. I am, with the greatest respect, Sir, + +'Your most obedient and humble servant, + +'WILLIAM STRAHAN.' + +'New-street, +March 30, 1771.' + + +This recommendation, we know, was not effectual; but how, or for what +reason, can only be conjectured. It is not to be believed that Mr. +Strahan would have applied, unless Johnson had approved of it. I never +heard him mention the subject; but at a later period of his life, when +Sir Joshua Reynolds told him that Mr. Edmund Burke had said, that if he +had come early into parliament, he certainly would have been the +greatest speaker that ever was there, Johnson exclaimed, 'I should like +to try my hand now.' + +It has been much agitated among his friends and others, whether he would +have been a powerful speaker in Parliament, had he been brought in when +advanced in life. I am inclined to think that his extensive knowledge, +his quickness and force of mind, his vivacity and richness of +expression, his wit and humour, and above all his poignancy of sarcasm, +would have had great effect in a popular assembly; and that the +magnitude of his figure, and striking peculiarity of his manner, would +have aided the effect. But I remember it was observed by Mr. Flood, that +Johnson, having been long used to sententious brevity and the short +flights of conversation, might have failed in that continued and +expanded kind of argument, which is requisite in stating complicated +matters in publick speaking; and as a proof of this he mentioned the +supposed speeches in Parliament written by him for the magazine, none of +which, in his opinion, were at all like real debates. The opinion of one +who was himself so eminent an orator, must be allowed to have great +weight. It was confirmed by Sir William Scott, who mentioned that +Johnson had told him that he had several times tried to speak in the +Society of Arts and Sciences, but 'had found he could not get on.' From +Mr. William Gerrard Hamilton I have heard that Johnson, when observing +to him that it was prudent for a man who had not been accustomed to +speak in publick, to begin his speech in as simple a manner as possible, +acknowledged that he rose in that society to deliver a speech which he +had prepared; 'but (said he), all my flowers of oratory forsook me.' I +however cannot help wishing, that he _had_ 'tried his hand' in +Parliament; and I wonder that ministry did not make the experiment. + +I at length renewed a correspondence which had been too long +discontinued:-- + +'To DR. JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, April 18, 1771. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'I can now fully understand those intervals of silence in your +correspondence with me, which have often given me anxiety and +uneasiness; for although I am conscious that my veneration and love for +Mr. Johnson have never in the least abated, yet I have deferred for +almost a year and a half to write to him.' + +In the subsequent part of this letter, I gave him an account of my +comfortable life as a married man[413], and a lawyer in practice at the +Scotch bar; invited him to Scotland, and promised to attend him to the +Highlands, and Hebrides. + + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'If you are now able to comprehend that I might neglect to write without +diminution of affection, you have taught me, likewise, how that neglect +may be uneasily felt without resentment. I wished for your letter a long +time, and when it came, it amply recompensed the delay. I never was so +much pleased as now with your account of yourself; and sincerely hope, +that between publick business, improving studies, and domestick +pleasures, neither melancholy nor caprice will find any place for +entrance. Whatever philosophy may determine of material nature, it is +certainly true of intellectual nature, that it _abhors a vacuum_: our +minds cannot be empty; and evil will break in upon them, if they are not +pre-occupied by good. My dear Sir, mind your studies, mind your +business, make your lady happy, and be a good Christian. After this, + +'tristitiam et metus + Trades protervis in mare Creticum + Portare ventis[414].' + +'If we perform our duty, we shall be safe and steady, "_Sive per_[415]," +&c., whether we climb the Highlands, or are tost among the Hebrides; and +I hope the time will come when we may try our powers both with cliffs +and water. I see but little of Lord Elibank[416], I know not why; perhaps +by my own fault. I am this day going into Staffordshire and Derbyshire +for six weeks[417]. + +'I am, dear Sir, +'Your most affectionate, +'And most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' +'London, June 20, 1771.' + +'To SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, IN LEICESTER-FIELDS. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'When I came to Lichfield, I found that my portrait[418] had been much +visited, and much admired. Every man has a lurking wish to appear +considerable in his native place; and I was pleased with the dignity +conferred by such a testimony of your regard. + +'Be pleased, therefore, to accept the thanks of, Sir, your most obliged + +'And most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Ashbourn in Derbyshire, + July 17, 1771. +'Compliments to Miss Reynolds,' + +'To DR. JOHNSON. +'Edinburgh, July 27, 1771. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'The bearer of this, Mr. Beattie[419], Professor of Moral Philosophy at +Aberdeen, is desirous of being introduced to your acquaintance. + +'His genius and learning, and labours in the service of virtue and +religion, render him very worthy of it; and as he has a high esteem of +your character, I hope you will give him a favourable reception. I ever +am, &c. + +'JAMES BOSWELL.' + + +'To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I am lately returned from Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The last letter +mentions two others which you have written to me since you received my +pamphlet. Of these two I never had but one, in which you mentioned a +design of visiting Scotland, and, by consequence, put my journey to +Langton out of my thoughts. My summer wanderings are now over, and I am +engaging in a very great work, the revision of my Dictionary[420]; from +which I know not, at present, how to get loose. + +'If you have observed, or been told, any errours or omissions, you will +do me a great favour by letting me know them. + +'Lady Rothes, I find, has disappointed you and herself. Ladies will have +these tricks. The Queen and Mrs. Thrale, both ladies of experience, yet +both missed their reckoning this summer. I hope, a few months will +recompence your uneasiness. + +'Please to tell Lady Rothes how highly I value the honour of her +invitation, which it is my purpose to obey as soon as I have disengaged +myself. In the mean time I shall hope to hear often of her Ladyship, and +every day better news and better, till I hear that you have both the +happiness, which to both is very sincerely wished, by, Sir, + +'Your most affectionate, and +'Most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'August 29, 1771.' + +In October I again wrote to him, thanking him for his last letter, and +his obliging reception of Mr. Beattie; informing him that I had been at +Alnwick lately, and had good accounts of him from Dr. Percy. + +In his religious record of this year, we observe that he was better than +usual, both in body and mind, and better satisfied with the regularity +of his conduct[421]. But he is still 'trying his ways'[422] too rigorously. +He charges himself with not rising early enough; yet he mentions what +was surely a sufficient excuse for this, supposing it to be a duty +seriously required, as he all his life appears to have thought it. 'One +great hindrance is want of rest; my nocturnal complaints grow less +troublesome towards morning; and I am tempted to repair the deficiencies +of the night[423].' Alas! how hard would it be if this indulgence were to +be imputed to a sick man as a crime. In his retrospect on the following +Easter-Eve, he says, 'When I review the last year, I am able to +recollect so little done, that shame and sorrow, though perhaps too +weakly, come upon me.' Had he been judging of any one else in the same +circumstances, how clear would he have been on the favourable side. How +very difficult, and in my opinion almost constitutionally impossible it +was for him to be raised early, even by the strongest resolutions, +appears from a note in one of his little paper-books, (containing words +arranged for his _Dictionary_,) written, I suppose, about 1753: 'I do +not remember that since I left Oxford I ever rose early by mere choice, +but once or twice at Edial, and two or three times for the _Rambler_.' I +think he had fair ground enough to have quieted his mind on this +subject, by concluding that he was physically incapable of what is at +best but a commodious regulation. + +In 1772 he was altogether quiescent as an authour[424]; but it will be +found from the various evidences which I shall bring together that his +mind was acute, lively, and vigorous. + + +'To SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Be pleased to send to Mr. Banks, whose place of residence I do not +know, this note, which I have sent open, that, if you please, you may +read it. + +'When you send it, do not use your own seal. +'I am, Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Feb. 27, 1772.' + +'To JOSEPH BANKS, ESQ. + +'Perpetua ambitAc his terrAi prA|mia lactis +Hac habet altrici Capra secunda Jovis[425].' + + +'Sir, + +'I return thanks to you and to Dr. Solander for the pleasure which I +received in yesterday's conversation. I could not recollect a motto for +your Goat, but have given her one. You, Sir, may perhaps have an epick +poem from some happier pen than, Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, +February 27, 1772.' + +'To DR. JOHNSON. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'It is hard that I cannot prevail on you to write to me oftener. But I +am convinced that it is in vain to expect from you a private +correspondence with any regularity. I must, therefore, look upon you as +a fountain of wisdom, from whence few rills are communicated to a +distance, and which must be approached at its source, to partake fully +of its virtues. + + * * * * * + +'I am coming to London soon, and am to appear in an appeal from the +Court of Session in the House of Lords. A schoolmaster in Scotland was, +by a court of inferiour jurisdiction, deprived of his office, for being +somewhat severe in the chastisement of his scholars[426]. The Court of +Session, considering it to be dangerous to the interest of learning and +education, to lessen the dignity of teachers, and make them afraid of +too indulgent parents, instigated by the complaints of their children, +restored him. His enemies have appealed to the House of Lords, though +the salary is only twenty pounds a year. I was Counsel for him here. I +hope there will be little fear of a reversal; but I must beg to have +your aid in my plan of supporting the decree. It is a general question, +and not a point of particular law. + + * * * * * + +'I am, &c., +'JAMES BOSWELL.' + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. +'DEAR SIR, + +'That you are coming so soon to town I am very glad; and still more glad +that you are coming as an advocate. I think nothing more likely to make +your life pass happily away, than that consciousness of your own value, +which eminence in your profession will certainly confer. If I can give +you any collateral help, I hope you do not suspect that it will be +wanting. My kindness for you has neither the merit of singular virtue, +nor the reproach of singular prejudice. Whether to love you be right or +wrong, I have many on my side: Mrs. Thrale loves you, and Mrs. Williams +loves you, and what would have inclined me to love you, if I had been +neutral before, you are a great favourite of Dr. Beattie. + +'Of Dr. Beattie I should have thought much, but that his lady puts him +out of my head; she is a very lovely woman. + +'The ejection which you come hither to oppose, appears very cruel, +unreasonable, and oppressive. I should think there could not be much +doubt of your success. + +'My health grows better, yet I am not fully recovered. I believe it is +held, that men do not recover very fast after threescore. I hope yet to +see Beattie's College: and have not given up the western voyage. But +however all this may be or not, let us try to make each other happy when +we meet, and not refer our pleasure to distant times or distant places. + +'How comes it that you tell me nothing of your lady? I hope to see her +some time, and till then shall be glad to hear of her. + +'I am, dear Sir, &c. + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'March 15, 1772.' + +'To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I congratulate you and Lady Rothes[427] on your little man, and hope you +will all be many years happy together. + +'Poor Miss Langton can have little part in the joy of her family. She +this day called her aunt Langton to receive the sacrament with her; and +made me talk yesterday on such subjects as suit her condition. It will +probably be her _viaticum_. I surely need not mention again that she +wishes to see her mother. I am, Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'March 14, 1772.' + +On the 21st of March, I was happy to find myself again in my friend's +study, and was glad to see my old acquaintance, Mr. Francis Barber, who +was now returned home[428]. Dr. Johnson received me with a hearty welcome; +saying, 'I am glad you are come, and glad you are come upon such an +errand:' (alluding to the cause of the schoolmaster.) BOSWELL. 'I hope, +Sir, he will be in no danger. It is a very delicate matter to interfere +between a master and his scholars: nor do I see how you can fix the +degree of severity that a master may use.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, till you +can fix the degree of obstinacy and negligence of the scholars, you +cannot fix the degree of severity of the master. Severity must be +continued until obstinacy be subdued, and negligence be cured.' He +mentioned the severity of Hunter, his own Master[429]. 'Sir, (said I,) +Hunter is a Scotch name: so it should seem this schoolmaster who beat +you so severely was a Scotchman. I can now account for your prejudice +against the Scotch.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, he was not Scotch; and abating his +brutality, he was a very good master[430].' + +We talked of his two political pamphlets, _The False Alarm_, and +_Thoughts concerning Falkland's Islands_. JOHNSON. 'Well, Sir, which of +them did you think the best?' BOSWELL. 'I liked the second best.' +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I liked the first best; and Beattie liked the first +best. Sir, there is a subtlety of disquisition in the first, that is +worth all the fire of the second.' BOSWELL. 'Pray, Sir, is it true that +Lord North paid you a visit, and that you got two hundred a year in +addition to your pension?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. Except what I had from the +bookseller, I did not get a farthing by them[431]. And, between you and +me, I believe Lord North is no friend to me.' BOSWELL. 'How so, Sir?' +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you cannot account for the fancies of men. Well, how +does Lord Elibank? and how does Lord Monboddo?' BOSWELL. 'Very well, +Sir. Lord Monboddo still maintains the superiority of the savage +life[432].' JOHNSON. 'What strange narrowness of mind now is that, to +think the things we have not known, are better than the things which we +have known.' BOSWELL. 'Why, Sir, that is a common prejudice.' JOHNSON. +'Yes, Sir, but a common prejudice should not be found in one whose trade +it is to rectify errour.' + +A gentleman having come in who was to go as a mate in the ship along +with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, Dr. Johnson asked what were the names +of the ships destined for the expedition. The gentleman answered, they +were once to be called the Drake and the Ralegh, but now they were to be +called the Resolution and the Adventure[433]. JOHNSON. 'Much better; for +had the Ralegh[434] returned without going round the world, it would have +been ridiculous. To give them the names of the Drake and the Ralegh was +laying a trap for satire.' BOSWELL. 'Had not you some desire to go upon +this expedition, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'Why yes, but I soon laid it aside. Sir, +there is very little of intellectual, in the course. Besides, I see but +at a small distance. So it was not worth my while to go to see birds +fly, which I should not have seen fly; and fishes swim, which I should +not have seen swim.' + +The gentleman being gone, and Dr. Johnson having left the room for some +time, a debate arose between the Reverend Mr. Stockdale and Mrs. +Desmoulins, whether Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander were entitled to any +share of glory from their expedition. When Dr. Johnson returned to us, I +told him the subject of their dispute. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, it was +properly for botany that they went out: I believe they thought only of +culling of simples[435].' + +I thanked him for showing civilities to Beattie. 'Sir, (said he,) I +should thank _you_. We all love Beattie. Mrs. Thrale says, if ever she +has another husband, she'll have Beattie. He sunk upon us[436] that he was +married; else we should have shewn his lady more civilities. She is a +very fine woman. But how can you shew civilities to a non-entity? I did +not think he had been married. Nay, I did not think about it one way or +other; but he did not tell us of his lady till late.' + +He then spoke of St. Kilda[437], the most remote of the Hebrides. I told +him, I thought of buying it. JOHNSON. 'Pray do, Sir. We will go and pass +a winter amid the blasts there. We shall have fine fish, and we will +take some dried tongues with us, and some books. We will have a strong +built vessel, and some Orkney men to navigate her. We must build a +tolerable house: but we may carry with us a wooden house ready made, and +requiring nothing but to be put up. Consider, Sir, by buying St. Kilda, +you may keep the people from falling into worse hands. We must give them +a clergyman, and he shall be one of Beattie's choosing. He shall be +educated at Marischal College. I'll be your Lord Chancellor, or what you +please.' BOSWELL. 'Are you serious, Sir, in advising me to buy St. +Kilda? for if you should advise me to go to Japan, I believe I should do +it.' JOHNSON. 'Why yes, Sir, I am serious.' BOSWELL. 'Why then, I'll see +what can be done.' + +I gave him an account of the two parties in the Church of Scotland, +those for supporting the rights of patrons, independent of the people, +and those against it. JOHNSON. 'It should be settled one way or other. I +cannot wish well to a popular election of the clergy, when I consider +that it occasions such animosities, such unworthy courting of the +people, such slanders between the contending parties, and other +disadvantages. It is enough to allow the people to remonstrate against +the nomination of a minister for solid reasons.' (I suppose he meant +heresy or immorality.) + +He was engaged to dine abroad, and asked me to return to him in the +evening, at nine, which I accordingly did. + +We drank tea with Mrs. Williams, who told us a story of second sight[438], +which happened in Wales where she was born. He listened to it very +attentively, and said he should be glad to have some instances of that +faculty well authenticated. His elevated wish for more and more evidence +for spirit[439], in opposition to the groveling belief of materialism, led +him to a love of such mysterious disquisitions. He again[440] justly +observed, that we could have no certainty of the truth of supernatural +appearances, unless something was told us which we could not know by +ordinary means, or something done which could not be done but by +supernatural power; that Pharaoh in reason and justice required such +evidence from Moses; nay, that our Saviour said, 'If I had not done +among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin[441].' +He had said in the morning, that Macaulay's _History of St. Kilda_, was +very well written, except some foppery about liberty and slavery. I +mentioned to him that Macaulay told me, he was advised to leave out of +his book the wonderful story that upon the approach of a stranger all +the inhabitants catch cold[442]; but that it had been so well +authenticated, he determined to retain it. JOHNSON. 'Sir, to leave +things out of a book, merely because people tell you they will not be +believed, is meanness. Macaulay acted with more magnanimity.' + +We talked of the Roman Catholick religion, and how little difference +there was in essential matters between ours and it. JOHNSON. 'True, Sir; +all denominations of Christians have really little difference in point +of doctrine, though they may differ widely in external forms. There is a +prodigious difference between the external form of one of your +Presbyterian churches in Scotland, and a church in Italy; yet the +doctrine taught is essentially the same[443].' + +I mentioned the petition to Parliament for removing the subscription to +the Thirty-nine Articles[444]. JOHNSON. 'It was soon thrown out. Sir, they +talk of not making boys at the University subscribe to what they do not +understand[445]; but they ought to consider, that our Universities were +founded to bring up members for the Church of England, and we must not +supply our enemies with arms from our arsenal. No, Sir, the meaning of +subscribing is, not that they fully understand all the articles, but +that they will adhere to the Church of England[446]. Now take it in this +way, and suppose that they should only subscribe their adherence to the +Church of England, there would be still the same difficulty; for still +the young men would be subscribing to what they do not understand. For +if you should ask them, what do you mean by the Church of England? Do +you know in what it differs from the Presbyterian Church? from the +Romish Church? from the Greek Church? from the Coptick Church? they +could not tell you. So, Sir, it comes to the same thing.' BOSWELL. 'But, +would it not be sufficient to subscribe the Bible[447]?' JOHNSON. 'Why no, +Sir; for all sects will subscribe the Bible; nay, the Mahometans will +subscribe the Bible; for the Mahometans acknowledge JESUS CHRIST, as +well as Moses, but maintain that GOD sent Mahomet as a still greater +prophet than either.' + +I mentioned the motion which had been made in the House of Commons, to +abolish the fast of the 30th of January[448]. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I could +have wished that it had been a temporary act, perhaps, to have expired +with the century. I am against abolishing it; because that would be +declaring it wrong to establish it; but I should have no objection to +make an act, continuing it for another century, and then letting it +expire.' + +He disapproved of the Royal Marriage Bill; 'Because (said he) I would +not have the people think that the validity of marriage depends on the +will of man, or that the right of a King depends on the will of man. I +should not have been against making the marriage of any of the royal +family without the approbation of King and Parliament, highly +criminal[449].' + +In the morning we had talked of old families, and the respect due to +them. JOHNSON. 'Sir, you have a right to that kind of respect, and are +arguing for yourself. I am for supporting the principle, and am +disinterested in doing it, as I have no such right[450].' BOSWELL. 'Why, +Sir, it is one more incitement to a man to do well.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, +and it is a matter of opinion, very necessary to keep society together. +What is it but opinion, by which we have a respect for authority, that +prevents us, who are the rabble, from rising up and pulling down you who +are gentlemen from your places, and saying "We will be gentlemen in our +turn"? Now, Sir, that respect for authority is much more easily granted +to a man whose father has had it, than to an upstart[451], and so Society +is more easily supported.' BOSWELL. 'Perhaps, Sir, it might be done by +the respect belonging to office, as among the Romans, where the dress, +the toga, inspired reverence.' JOHNSON. 'Why, we know very little about +the Romans. But, surely, it is much easier to respect a man who has +always had respect, than to respect a man who we know was last year no +better than ourselves, and will be no better next year. In republicks +there is not a respect for authority, but a fear of power.' BOSWELL. 'At +present, Sir, I think riches seem to gain most respect.' JOHNSON. 'No, +Sir, riches do not gain hearty respect; they only procure external +attention. A very rich man, from low beginnings, may buy his election in +a borough; but, _caeteris paribus_, a man of family will be preferred. +People will prefer a man for whose father their fathers have voted, +though they should get no more money, or even less. That shows that the +respect for family is not merely fanciful, but has an actual operation. +If gentlemen of family would allow the rich upstarts to spend their +money profusely, which they are ready enough to do, and not vie with +them in expence, the upstarts would soon be at an end, and the gentlemen +would remain: but if the gentlemen will vie in expence with the +upstarts, which is very foolish, they must be ruined.' + +I gave him an account of the excellent mimickry of a friend of mine in +Scotland[452]; observing, at the same time, that some people thought it a +very mean thing. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, it is making a very mean use of a +man's powers. But to be a good mimick, requires great powers; great +acuteness of observation, great retention of what is observed, and great +pliancy of organs, to represent what is observed. I remember a lady of +quality in this town, Lady ---- ----, who was a wonderful mimick, and +used to make me laugh immoderately. I have heard she is now gone mad.' +BOSWELL. 'It is amazing how a mimick can not only give you the gestures +and voice of a person whom he represents; but even what a person would +say on any particular subject.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you are to consider +that the manner and some particular phrases of a person do much to +impress you with an idea of him, and you are not sure that he would say +what the mimick says in his character.' BOSWELL. 'I don't think Foote[453] +a good mimick, Sir.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; his imitations are not like. He +gives you something different from himself, but not the character which +he means to assume. He goes out of himself, without going into other +people. He cannot take off any person unless he is strongly marked, such +as George Faulkner[454]. He is like a painter, who can draw the portrait +of a man who has a wen upon his face, and who, therefore, is easily +known. If a man hops upon one leg, Foote can hop upon one leg[455]. But he +has not that nice discrimination which your friend seems to possess. +Foote is, however, very entertaining, with a kind of conversation +between wit and buffoonery[456].' + +On Monday, March 23, I found him busy, preparing a fourth edition of his +folio Dictionary. Mr. Peyton, one of his original amanuenses, was +writing for him. I put him in mind of a meaning of the word _side_, +which he had omitted, viz. relationship; as father's side, mother's +side. He inserted it. I asked him if _humiliating_ was a good word. He +said, he had seen it frequently used, but he did not know it to be +legitimate English. He would not admit _civilization_, but only +_civility_[457]. With great deference to him, I thought _civilization_, +from _to civilize_ better in the sense opposed to _barbarity_, than +_civility_; as it is better to have a distinct word for each sense, than +one word with two senses, which _civility_ is, in his way of using it. + +He seemed also to be intent on some sort of chymical operation. I was +entertained by observing how he contrived to send Mr. Peyton on an +errand, without seeming to degrade him. 'Mr. Peyton,--Mr. Peyton, will +you be so good as to take a walk to Temple-Bar? You will there see a +chymist's shop; at which you will be pleased to buy for me an ounce of +oil of vitriol; not spirit of vitriol, but oil of vitriol. It will cost +three half-pence.' Peyton immediately went, and returned with it, and +told him it cost but a penny. + +I then reminded him of the schoolmaster's cause, and proposed to read to +him the printed papers concerning it. 'No, Sir, (said he,) I can read +quicker than I can hear.' So he read them to himself. + +After he had read for some time, we were interrupted by the entrance of +Mr. Kristrom, a Swede, who was tutor to some young gentlemen in the +city. He told me, that there was a very good History of Sweden, by +Daline. Having at that time an intention of writing the history of that +country[458], I asked Dr. Johnson whether one might write a history of +Sweden, without going thither. 'Yes, Sir, (said he,) one for common +use.' + +We talked of languages. Johnson observed, that Leibnitz had made some +progress in a work, tracing all languages up to the Hebrew. 'Why, Sir, +(said he,) you would not imagine that the French _jour_, day, is derived +from the Latin _dies_, and yet nothing is more certain; and the +intermediate steps are very clear. From _dies_, comes _diurnus_. _Diu_ +is, by inaccurate ears, or inaccurate pronunciation, easily confounded +with _giu_; then the Italians form a substantive of the ablative of an +adjective, and thence _giurno_, or, as they make it, _giorno_; which is +readily contracted into _giour_, or _jour_' He observed, that the +Bohemian language was true Sclavonick. The Swede said, it had some +similarity with the German. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, to be sure, such parts +of Sclavonia as confine with Germany, will borrow German words; and such +parts as confine with Tartary will borrow Tartar words.' + +He said, he never had it properly ascertained that the Scotch +Highlanders and the Irish understood each other[459]. I told him that my +cousin Colonel Graham, of the Royal Highlanders, whom I met at +Drogheda[460], told me they did. JOHNSON. 'Sir, if the Highlanders +understood Irish, why translate the New Testament into Erse, as was done +lately at Edinburgh, when there is an Irish translation?' BOSWELL. +'Although the Erse and Irish are both dialects of the same language, +there may be a good deal of diversity between them, as between the +different dialects in Italy.'--The Swede went away, and Mr. Johnson +continued his reading of the papers. I said, 'I am afraid, Sir, it is +troublesome.' 'Why, Sir, (said he,) I do not take much delight in it; +but I'll go through it.' + +We went to the Mitre, and dined in the room where he and I first supped +together. He gave me great hopes of my cause. 'Sir, (said he,) the +government of a schoolmaster is somewhat of the nature of military +government; that is to say, it must be arbitrary, it must be exercised +by the will of one man, according to particular circumstances. You must +shew some learning upon this occasion. You must shew, that a +schoolmaster has a prescriptive right to beat; and that an action of +assault and battery cannot be admitted against him, unless there is some +great excess, some barbarity. This man has maimed none of his boys. They +are all left with the full exercise of their corporeal faculties. In our +schools in England, many boys have been maimed; yet I never heard of an +action against a schoolmaster on that account. Puffendorf, I think, +maintains the right of a schoolmaster to beat his scholars[461].' + +On Saturday, March 27, I introduced to him Sir Alexander Macdonald[462], +with whom he had expressed a wish to be acquainted. He received him very +courteously. + +Sir Alexander observed, that the Chancellors in England are chosen from +views much inferiour to the office, being chosen from temporary +political views. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, in such a government as ours, no +man is appointed to an office because he is the fittest for it, nor +hardly in any other government; because there are so many connections +and dependencies to be studied[463]. A despotick prince may choose a man +to an office, merely because he is the fittest for it. The King of +Prussia may do it.' SIR A. 'I think, Sir, almost all great lawyers, such +at least as have written upon law, have known only law, and nothing +else.' JOHNSON. 'Why no, Sir; Judge Hale was a great lawyer, and wrote +upon law; and yet he knew a great many other things, and has written +upon other things. Selden too.' SIR A. 'Very true, Sir; and Lord Bacon. +But was not Lord Coke a mere lawyer?' JOHNSON. 'Why, I am afraid he was; +but he would have taken it very ill if you had told him so. He would +have prosecuted you for scandal.' BOSWELL. 'Lord Mansfield is not a mere +lawyer.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. I never was in Lord Mansfield's company; but +Lord Mansfield was distinguished at the University. Lord Mansfield, when +he first came to town, "drank champagne with the wits," as Prior +says[464]. He was the friend of Pope[465].' SIR A. 'Barristers, I believe, +are not so abusive now as they were formerly. I fancy they had less law +long ago, and so were obliged to take to abuse, to fill up the time. Now +they have such a number of precedents, they have no occasion for abuse.' +JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, they had more law long ago than they have now. As to +precedents, to be sure they will increase in course of time; but the +more precedents there are, the less occasion is there for law; that is +to say, the less occasion is there for investigating principles.' SIR A. +'I have been correcting several Scotch accents[466] in my friend Boswell. +I doubt, Sir, if any Scotchman ever attains to a perfect English +pronunciation.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, few of them do, because they do not +persevere after acquiring a certain degree of it. But, Sir, there can be +no doubt that they may attain to a perfect English pronunciation, if +they will. We find how near they come to it; and certainly, a man who +conquers nineteen parts of the Scottish accent, may conquer the +twentieth. But, Sir, when a man has got the better of nine tenths he +grows weary, he relaxes his diligence, he finds he has corrected his +accent so far as not to be disagreeable, and he no longer desires his +friends to tell him when he is wrong; nor does he choose to be told. +Sir, when people watch me narrowly, and I do not watch myself, they will +find me out to be of a particular county[467]. In the same manner, +Dunning[468] may be found out to be a Devonshire man. So most Scotchmen +may be found out. But, Sir, little aberrations are of no disadvantage. I +never catched Mallet in a Scotch accent[469]; and yet Mallet, I suppose, +was past five-and-twenty before he came to London.' + +Upon another occasion I talked to him on this subject, having myself +taken some pains to improve my pronunciation, by the aid of the late Mr. +Love[470], of Drury-lane theatre, when he was a player at Edinburgh, and +also of old Mr. Sheridan. Johnson said to me, 'Sir, your pronunciation +is not offensive.' With this concession I was pretty well satisfied; and +let me give my countrymen of North-Britain an advice not to aim at +absolute perfection in this respect; not to speak _High English_, as we +are apt to call what is far removed from the _Scotch_, but which is by +no means _good English_, and makes, 'the fools who use it[471],' truly +ridiculous[472]. Good English is plain, easy, and smooth in the mouth of +an unaffected English Gentleman. A studied and factitious pronunciation, +which requires perpetual attention and imposes perpetual constraint, is +exceedingly disgusting. A small intermixture of provincial peculiarities +may, perhaps, have an agreeable effect, as the notes of different birds +concur in the harmony of the grove, and please more than if they were +all exactly alike. I could name some gentlemen of Ireland, to whom a +slight proportion of the accent and recitative of that country is an +advantage. The same observation will apply to the gentlemen of Scotland. +I do not mean that we should speak as broad as a certain prosperous +member of Parliament from that country[473]; though it has been well +observed, that 'it has been of no small use to him; as it rouses the +attention of the House by its uncommonness; and is equal to tropes and +figures in a good English speaker.' I would give as an instance of what +I mean to recommend to my countrymen, the pronunciation of the late Sir +Gilbert Elliot[474]; and may I presume to add that of the present Earl of +Marchmont[475], who told me, with great good humour, that the master of a +shop in London, where he was not known, said to him, 'I suppose, Sir, +you are an American.' 'Why so, Sir?' (said his Lordship.) 'Because, Sir, +(replied the shopkeeper,) you speak neither English nor Scotch, but +something different from both, which I conclude is the language of +America.' + +BOSWELL. 'It may be of use, Sir, to have a Dictionary to ascertain the +pronunciation.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, my Dictionary shows you the accents +of words, if you can but remember them.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, we want +marks to ascertain the pronunciation of the vowels. Sheridan, I believe, +has finished such a work.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, consider how much easier +it is to learn a language by the ear, than by any marks. Sheridan's +Dictionary may do very well; but you cannot always carry it about with +you: and, when you want the word, you have not the Dictionary. It is +like a man who has a sword that will not draw. It is an admirable sword, +to be sure: but while your enemy is cutting your throat, you are unable +to use it. Besides, Sir, what entitles Sheridan to fix the pronunciation +of English? He has, in the first place, the disadvantage of being an +Irishman: and if he says he will fix it after the example of the best +company, why they differ among themselves. I remember an instance: when +I published the Plan for my Dictionary, Lord Chesterfield told me that +the word _great_ should be pronounced so as to rhyme to _state_; and Sir +William Yonge sent me word that it should be pronounced so as to rhyme +to _seat_, and that none but an Irishman would pronounce it _grait_[476]. +Now here were two men of the highest rank, the one, the best speaker in +the House of Lords, the other, the best speaker in the House of Commons, +differing entirely.' + +I again visited him at night. Finding him in a very good humour, I +ventured to lead him to the subject of our situation in a future state, +having much curiosity to know his notions on that point. JOHNSON. 'Why, +Sir, the happiness of an unembodied spirit will consist in a +consciousness of the favour of GOD, in the contemplation of truth, and +in the possession of felicitating ideas.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, is there +any harm in our forming to ourselves conjectures as to the particulars +of our happiness, though the scripture has said but very little on the +subject? "We know not what we shall be."' JOHNSON. 'Sir, there is no +harm. What philosophy suggests to us on this topick is probable: what +scripture tells us is certain. Dr. Henry More[477] has carried it as far +as philosophy can. You may buy both his theological and philosophical +works in two volumes folio, for about eight shillings.' BOSWELL. 'One of +the most pleasing thoughts is, that we shall see our friends again.' +JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; but you must consider, that when we are become +purely rational, many of our friendships will be cut off. Many +friendships are formed by a community of sensual pleasures: all these +will be cut off. We form many friendships with bad men, because they +have agreeable qualities, and they can be useful to us; but, after +death, they can no longer be of use to us. We form many friendships by +mistake, imagining people to be different from what they really are. +After death, we shall see every one in a true light. Then, Sir, they +talk of our meeting our relations: but then all relationship is +dissolved; and we shall have no regard for one person more than another, +but for their real value. However, we shall either have the satisfaction +of meeting our friends, or be satisfied without meeting them[478].' +BOSWELL. 'Yet, Sir, we see in scripture, that Dives still retained an +anxious concern about his brethren.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, we must either +suppose that passage to be metaphorical, or hold with many divines, and +all the Purgatorians that departed souls do not all at once arrive at +the utmost perfection of which they are capable.' BOSWELL. 'I think, +Sir, that is a very rational supposition.' JOHNSON. 'Why, yes, Sir; but +we do not know it is a true one. There is no harm in believing it: but +you must not compel others to make it an article of faith; for it is not +revealed.' BOSWELL. 'Do you think, Sir, it is wrong in a man who holds +the doctrine of purgatory, to pray for the souls of his deceased +friends?' JOHNSON. 'Why, no, Sir[479].' BOSWELL. 'I have been told, that +in the Liturgy of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, there was a form of +prayer for the dead.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is not in the liturgy which Laud +framed for the Episcopal Church of Scotland: if there is a liturgy older +than that, I should be glad to see it.' BOSWELL. 'As to our employment +in a future state, the sacred writings say little. The Revelation, +however, of St. John gives us many ideas, and particularly mentions +musick[480].' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, ideas must be given you by means of +something which you know[481]: and as to musick there are some +philosophers and divines who have maintained that we shall not be +spiritualized to such a degree, but that something of matter, very much +refined, will remain. In that case, musick may make a part of our future +felicity.' + +BOSWELL. 'I do not know whether there are any well-attested stories of +the appearance of ghosts. You know there is a famous story of the +appearance of Mrs. Veal, prefixed to _Drelincourt on Death_.' JOHNSON. +'I believe, Sir, that is given up. I believe the woman declared upon her +death-bed that it was a lie[482].' BOSWELL. 'This objection is made +against the truth of ghosts appearing: that if they are in a state of +happiness, it would be a punishment to them to return to this world; and +if they are in a state of misery, it would be giving them a respite.' +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, as the happiness or misery of embodied spirits does +not depend upon place, but is intellectual, we cannot say that they are +less happy or less miserable by appearing upon earth.' + +We went down between twelve and one to Mrs. Williams's room, and drank +tea. I mentioned that we were to have the remains of Mr. Gray, in prose +and verse, published by Mr. Mason[483]. JOHNSON. 'I think we have had +enough of Gray. I see they have published a splendid edition of +Akenside's works. One bad ode may be suffered; but a number of them +together makes one sick[484].' BOSWELL. 'Akenside's distinguished poem is +his _Pleasures of Imagination_: but for my part, I never could admire it +so much as most people do.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I could not read it through.' +BOSWELL. 'I have read it through; but I did not find any great power in +it.' + +I mentioned Elwal, the heretick, whose trial Sir John Pringle[485] had +given me to read. JOHNSON. 'Sir, Mr. Elwal was, I think, an ironmonger +at Wolverhampton; and he had a mind to make himself famous, by being the +founder of a new sect, which he wished much should be called +_Elwallians_. He held, that every thing in the Old Testament that was +not typical, was to be of perpetual observance; and so he wore a ribband +in the plaits of his coat, and he also wore a beard. I remember I had +the honour of dining in company with Mr. Elwal. There was one Barter, a +miller, who wrote against him; and you had the controversy between Mr. +ELWAL and Mr. BARTER. To try to make himself distinguished, he wrote a +letter to King George the Second, challenging him to dispute with him, +in which he said, "George, if you be afraid to come by yourself, to +dispute with a poor old man, you may bring a thousand of your +_black_-guards with you; and if you should still be afraid, you may +bring a thousand of your _red_-guards." The letter had something of the +impudence of Junius to our present King. But the men of Wolverhampton +were not so inflammable as the Common-Council of London[486]; so Mr. Elwal +failed in his scheme of making himself a man of great consequence[487].' + +On Tuesday, March 31, he and I dined at General Paoli's. A question was +started, whether the state of marriage was natural to man. JOHNSON. +'Sir, it is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live in a +state of marriage, that we find all the motives which they have for +remaining in that connection, and the restraints which civilized society +imposes to prevent separation, are hardly sufficient to keep them +together.' The General said, that in a state of nature a man and woman +uniting together, would form a strong and constant affection, by the +mutual pleasure each would receive; and that the same causes of +dissention would not arise between them, as occur between husband and +wife in a civilized state. JOHNSON. 'Sir, they would have dissentions +enough, though of another kind. One would choose to go a hunting in this +wood, the other in that; one would choose to go a fishing in this lake, +the other in that; or, perhaps, one would choose to go a hunting, when +the other would choose to go a fishing; and so they would part. Besides, +Sir, a savage man and a savage woman meet by chance; and when the man +sees another woman that pleases him better, he will leave the first.' + +We then fell into a disquisition whether there is any beauty independent +of utility. The General maintained there was not. Dr. Johnson maintained +that there was; and he instanced a coffee-cup which he held in his hand, +the painting of which was of no real use, as the cup would hold the +coffee equally well if plain; yet the painting was beautiful. + +We talked of the strange custom of swearing in conversation[488]. The +General said, that all barbarous nations swore from a certain violence +of temper, that could not be confined to earth, but was always reaching +at the powers above. He said, too, that there was greater variety of +swearing, in proportion as there was a greater variety of religious +ceremonies. + +Dr. Johnson went home with me to my lodgings in Conduit-street and drank +tea, previous to our going to the Pantheon, which neither of us had seen +before. + +He said, 'Goldsmith's _Life of Parnell_[489] is poor; not that it is +poorly written, but that he had poor materials; for nobody can write the +life of a man, but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social +intercourse with him.' + +I said, that if it was not troublesome and presuming too much, I would +request him to tell me all the little circumstances of his life; what +schools he attended, when he came to Oxford, when he came to London, &c. +&c. He did not disapprove of my curiosity as to these particulars; but +said, 'They'll come out by degrees as we talk together[490].' + +He censured Ruffhead's _Life of Pope_[491]; and said, 'he knew nothing of +Pope, and nothing of poetry.' He praised Dr. Joseph Warton's Essay on +Pope[492]; but said, he supposed we should have no more of it, as the +authour had not been able to persuade the world to think of Pope as he +did. BOSWELL. 'Why, Sir, should that prevent him from continuing his +work? He is an ingenious Counsel, who has made the most of his cause: he +is not obliged to gain it.' JOHNSON. 'But, Sir, there is a difference +when the cause is of a man's own making.' + +We talked of the proper use of riches. JOHNSON. 'If I were a man of a +great estate, I would drive all the rascals whom I did not like out of +the county at an election[493].' + +I asked him how far he thought wealth should be employed in hospitality. +JOHNSON. 'You are to consider that ancient hospitality, of which we hear +so much, was in an uncommercial country, when men being idle, were glad +to be entertained at rich men's tables. But in a commercial country, a +busy country, time becomes precious, and therefore hospitality is not so +much valued. No doubt there is still room for a certain degree of it; +and a man has a satisfaction in seeing his friends eating and drinking +around him. But promiscuous hospitality is not the way to gain real +influence. You must help some people at table before others; you must +ask some people how they like their wine oftener than others. You +therefore offend more people than you please. You are like the French +statesman, who said, when he granted a favour, '_J' ai fait dix +mecontents et un ingrat_[494].' Besides, Sir, being entertained ever so +well at a man's table, impresses no lasting regard or esteem. No, Sir, +the way to make sure of power and influence is, by lending money +confidentially to your neighbours at a small interest, or, perhaps, at +no interest at all, and having their bonds in your possession[495].' +BOSWELL. 'May not a man, Sir, employ his riches to advantage in +educating young men of merit?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, if they fall in your +way; but if it be understood that you patronize young men of merit, you +will be harassed with solicitations. You will have numbers forced upon +you who have no merit; some will force them upon you from mistaken +partiality; and some from downright interested motives, without scruple; +and you will be disgraced.' + +'Were I a rich man, I would propagate all kinds of trees that will grow +in the open air. A greenhouse is childish. I would introduce foreign +animals into the country; for instance the reindeer[496].' + +The conversation now turned on critical subjects. JOHNSON. 'Bayes, in +_The Rehearsal_, is a mighty silly character. If it was intended to be +like a particular man, it could only be diverting while that man was +remembered. But I question whether it was meant for Dryden, as has been +reported; for we know some of the passages said to be ridiculed, were +written since _The Rehearsal_; at least a passage mentioned in the +Preface[497] is of a later date.' I maintained that it had merit as a +general satire on the self-importance of dramatick authours. But even in +this light he held it very cheap. + +We then walked to the Pantheon. The first view of it did not strike us +so much as Ranelagh, of which he said, the '_coup d'oeil_ was the finest +thing he had ever seen.' The truth is, Ranelagh is of a more beautiful +form; more of it, or rather indeed the whole _rotunda_, appears at once, +and it is better lighted. However, as Johnson observed, we saw the +Pantheon in time of mourning, when there was a dull uniformity; whereas +we had seen Ranelagh when the view was enlivened with a gay profusion of +colours[498]. Mrs. Bosville[499], of Gunthwait, in Yorkshire, joined us, +and entered into conversation with us. Johnson said to me afterwards, +'Sir, this is a mighty intelligent lady.' + +I said there was not half a guinea's worth of pleasure in seeing this +place. JOHNSON. 'But, Sir, there is half a guinea's worth of inferiority +to other people in not having seen it.' BOSWELL. 'I doubt, Sir, whether +there are many happy people here.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, there are many +happy people here. There are many people here who are watching hundreds, +and who think hundreds are watching them[500].' + +Happening to meet Sir Adam Fergusson[501], I presented him to Dr. Johnson. +Sir Adam expressed some apprehension that the Pantheon would encourage +luxury. 'Sir, (said Johnson,) I am a great friend to publick amusements; +for they keep people from vice. You now (addressing himself to me,) +would have been with a wench, had you not been here.--O! I forgot you +were married.' + +Sir Adam suggested, that luxury corrupts a people, and destroys the +spirit of liberty. JOHNSON. 'Sir, that is all visionary. I would not +give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than +another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual[502]. Sir, +the danger of the abuse of power is nothing to a private man. What +Frenchman is prevented from passing his life as he pleases?' SIR ADAM. +'But, Sir, in the British constitution it is surely of importance to +keep up a spirit in the people, so as to preserve a balance against the +crown.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I perceive you are a vile Whig. Why all this +childish jealousy of the power of the crown? The crown has not power +enough. When I say that all governments are alike, I consider that in no +government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it. If a +sovereign oppresses his people to a great degree, they will rise and cut +off his head. There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that +will keep us safe under every form of government[503]. Had not the people +of France thought themselves honoured as sharing in the brilliant +actions of Lewis XIV, they would not have endured him; and we may say +the same of the King of Prussia's people.' Sir Adam introduced the +ancient Greeks and Romans. JOHNSON. 'Sir, the mass of both of them were +barbarians. The mass of every people must be barbarous where there is no +printing, and consequently knowledge is not generally diffused. +Knowledge is diffused among our people by the news-papers[504].' Sir Adam +mentioned the orators, poets, and artists of Greece. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I am +talking of the mass of the people. We see even what the boasted +Athenians were. The little effect which Demosthenes's orations had upon +them, shews that they were barbarians[505].' + +Sir Adam was unlucky in his topicks; for he suggested a doubt of the +propriety of Bishops having seats in the House of Lords. JOHNSON. 'How +so, Sir? Who is more proper for having the dignity of a peer, than a +Bishop, provided a Bishop be what he ought to be; and if improper +Bishops be made, that is not the fault of the Bishops, but of those who +make them.' + +On Sunday, April 5, after attending divine service at St. Paul's church, +I found him alone. Of a schoolmaster[506] of his acquaintance, a native of +Scotland, he said, 'He has a great deal of good about him; but he is +also very defective in some respects. His inner part is good, but his +outer part is mighty aukward. You in Scotland do not attain that nice +critical skill in languages, which we get in our schools in England. I +would not put a boy to him, whom I intended for a man of learning. But +for the sons of citizens, who are to learn a little, get good morals, +and then go to trade, he may do very well.' + +I mentioned a cause in which I had appeared as counsel at the bar of the +General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, where a _Probationer_[507], +(as one licensed to preach, but not yet ordained, is called,) was +opposed in his application to be inducted, because it was alledged that +he had been guilty of fornication five years before. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, +if he has repented, it is not a sufficient objection. A man who is good +enough to go to heaven, is good enough to be a clergyman.' This was a +humane and liberal sentiment. But the character of a clergyman is more +sacred than that of an ordinary Christian. As he is to instruct with +authority, he should be regarded with reverence, as one upon whom divine +truth has had the effect to set him above such transgressions, as men +less exalted by spiritual habits, and yet upon the whole not to be +excluded from heaven, have been betrayed into by the predominance of +passion. That clergymen may be considered as sinners in general, as all +men are, cannot be denied; but this reflection will not counteract their +good precepts so much, as the absolute knowledge of their having been +guilty of certain specifick immoral acts. I told him, that by the rules +of the Church of Scotland, in their _Book of Discipline_, if a +_scandal_, as it is called, is not prosecuted for five years, it cannot +afterwards be proceeded upon, 'unless it be of a _heinous nature_, or +again become flagrant;' and that hence a question arose, whether +fornication was a sin of a heinous nature; and that I had maintained, +that it did not deserve that epithet, in as much as it was not one of +those sins which argue very great depravity of heart: in short, was not, +in the general acceptation of mankind, a heinous sin. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, +it is not a heinous sin. A heinous sin is that for which a man is +punished with death or banishment[508].' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, after I had +argued that it was not an heinous sin, an old clergyman rose up, and +repeating the text of scripture denouncing judgement against +whoremongers[509], asked, whether, considering this, there could be any +doubt of fornication being a heinous sin.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, observe +the word _whoremonger_. Every sin, if persisted in, will become heinous. +Whoremonger is a dealer in whores[510], as ironmonger is a dealer in iron. +But as you don't call a man an ironmonger for buying and selling a +pen-knife; so you don't call a man a whoremonger for getting one wench +with child[511].' + +I spoke of the inequality of the livings of the clergy in England, and +the scanty provisions of some of the Curates. JOHNSON. 'Why yes, Sir; +but it cannot be helped. You must consider, that the revenues of the +clergy are not at the disposal of the state, like the pay of the army. +Different men have founded different churches; and some are better +endowed, some worse. The State cannot interfere and make an equal +division of what has been particularly appropriated. Now when a +clergyman has but a small living, or even two small livings, he can +afford very little to a curate.' + +He said, he went more frequently to church when there were prayers only, +than when there was also a sermon, as the people required more an +example for the one than the other; it being much easier for them to +hear a sermon, than to fix their minds on prayer. + +On Monday, April 6, I dined with him at Sir Alexander Macdonald's, where +was a young officer in the regimentals of the Scots Royal, who talked +with a vivacity, fluency, and precision so uncommon, that he attracted +particular attention. He proved to be the Honourable Thomas Erskine, +youngest brother to the Earl of Buchan, who has since risen into such +brilliant reputation at the bar in Westminster-hall[512]. + +Fielding being mentioned, Johnson exclaimed, 'he was a blockhead[513];' +and upon my expressing my astonishment at so strange an assertion, he +said, 'What I mean by his being a blockhead is that he was a barren +rascal.' BOSWELL. 'Will you not allow, Sir, that he draws very natural +pictures of human life?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, it is of very low life. +Richardson used to say, that had he not known who Fielding was, he +should have believed he was an ostler[514]. Sir, there is more knowledge +of the heart in one letter of Richardson's, than in all _Tom Jones_[515]. +I, indeed, never read _Joseph Andrews_[516].' ERSKINE, 'Surely, Sir, +Richardson is very tedious.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, if you were to read +Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that +you would hang yourself[517]. But you must read him for the sentiment, and +consider the story as only giving occasion to the sentiment.'--I have +already given my opinion of Fielding; but I cannot refrain from +repeating here my wonder at Johnson's excessive and unaccountable +depreciation of one of the best writers that England has produced. _Tom +Jones_ has stood the test of publick opinion with such success, as to +have established its great merit, both for the story, the sentiments, +and the manners, and also the varieties of diction, so as to leave no +doubt of its having an animated truth of execution throughout[518]. + +A book of travels, lately published under the title of _Coriat Junior_, +and written by Mr. Paterson[519], was mentioned. Johnson said, this book +was an imitation of Sterne[520], and not of Coriat, whose name Paterson +had chosen as a whimsical one. 'Tom Coriat, (said he,) was a humourist +about the court of James the First. He had a mixture of learning, of +wit, and of buffoonery. He first travelled through Europe, and published +his travels[521]. He afterwards travelled on foot through Asia, and had +made many remarks; but he died at Mandoa, and his remarks were lost.' + +We talked of gaming, and animadverted on it with severity. JOHNSON. +'Nay, gentlemen, let us not aggravate the matter. It is not roguery to +play with a man who is ignorant of the game, while you are master of it, +and so win his money; for he thinks he can play better than you, as you +think you can play better than he; and the superiour skill carries it.' +ERSKINE. 'He is a fool, but you are not a rogue.' JOHNSON. 'That's much +about the truth, Sir. It must be considered, that a man who only does +what every one of the society to which he belongs would do, is not a +dishonest man. In the republick of Sparta, it was agreed, that stealing +was not dishonourable, if not discovered. I do not commend a society +where there is an agreement that what would not otherwise be fair, shall +be fair; but I maintain, that an individual of any society, who +practises what is allowed, is not a dishonest man.' BOSWELL. 'So then, +Sir, you do not think ill of a man who wins perhaps forty thousand +pounds in a winter?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest +man; but I call him an unsocial man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a +mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good. +Trade gives employment to numbers, and so produces intermediate good.' + +Mr. Erskine told us, that when he was in the island of Minorca, he not +only read prayers, but preached two sermons to the regiment[522]. He +seemed to object to the passage in scripture where we are told that the +angel of the Lord smote in one night forty thousand Assyrians[523]. 'Sir, +(said Johnson,) you should recollect that there was a supernatural +interposition; they were destroyed by pestilence. You are not to suppose +that the angel of the LORD went about and stabbed each of them with a +dagger, or knocked them on the head, man by man.' + +After Mr. Erskine was gone, a discussion took place, whether the present +Earl of Buchan, when Lord Cardross, did right to refuse to go Secretary +of the Embassy to Spain, when Sir James Gray, a man of inferiour rank, +went Ambassadour[524]. Dr. Johnson said, that perhaps in point of interest +he did wrong; but in point of dignity he did well. Sir Alexander +insisted that he was wrong; and said that Mr. Pitt intended it as an +advantageous thing for him. 'Why, Sir, (said Johnson,) Mr. Pitt might +think it an advantageous thing for him to make him a vintner, and get +him all the Portugal trade; but he would have demeaned himself strangely +had he accepted of such a situation. Sir, had he gone Secretary while +his inferiour was Ambassadour, he would have been a traitor to his rank +and family.' + +I talked of the little attachment which subsisted between near relations +in London. 'Sir, (said Johnson,) in a country so commercial as ours, +where every man can do for himself, there is not so much occasion for +that attachment. No man is thought the worse of here, whose brother was +hanged. In uncommercial countries, many of the branches of a family must +depend on the stock; so, in order to make the head of the family take +care of them, they are represented as connected with his reputation, +that, self-love being interested, he may exert himself to promote their +interest. You have first large circles, or clans; as commerce increases, +the connection is confined to families. By degrees, that too goes off, +as having become unnecessary, and there being few opportunities of +intercourse. One brother is a merchant in the city, and another is an +officer in the guards. How little intercourse can these two have!' + +I argued warmly for the old feudal system[525]. Sir Alexander opposed it, +and talked of the pleasure of seeing all men free and independent. +JOHNSON. 'I agree with Mr. Boswell that there must be a high +satisfaction in being a feudal Lord; but we are to consider, that we +ought not to wish to have a number of men unhappy for the satisfaction +of one[526].'--I maintained that numbers, namely, the vassals or +followers, were not unhappy; for that there was a reciprocal +satisfaction between the Lord and them: he being kind in his authority +over them; they being respectful and faithful to him. + +On Thursday, April 9, I called on him to beg he would go and dine with +me at the Mitre tavern. He had resolved not to dine at all this day, I +know not for what reason; and I was so unwilling to be deprived of his +company, that I was content to submit to suffer a want, which was at +first somewhat painful, but he soon made me forget it; and a man is +always pleased with himself when he finds his intellectual inclinations +predominate. + +He observed, that to reason philosophically on the nature of prayer, was +very unprofitable. + +Talking of ghosts[527], he said, he knew one friend, who was an honest man +and a sensible man, who told him he had seen a ghost, old Mr. Edward +Cave, the printer at St. John's Gate. He said, Mr. Cave did not like to +talk of it, and seemed to be in great horrour whenever it was mentioned. +BOSWELL. 'Pray, Sir, what did he say was the appearance?' JOHNSON. 'Why, +Sir, something of a shadowy being.' + +I mentioned witches, and asked him what they properly meant. JOHNSON. +'Why, Sir, they properly mean those who make use of the aid of evil +spirits.' BOSWELL. 'There is no doubt, Sir, a general report and belief +of their having existed[528].' JOHNSON. 'You have not only the general +report and belief, but you have many voluntary solemn confessions.' He +did not affirm anything positively upon a subject which it is the +fashion of the times to laugh at as a matter of absurd credulity. He +only seemed willing, as a candid enquirer after truth, however strange +and inexplicable, to shew that he understood what might be urged for +it[529]. + +On Friday, April 10, I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's, where we +found Dr. Goldsmith. + +Armorial bearings having been mentioned, Johnson said they were as +ancient as the siege of Thebes, which he proved by a passage in one of +the tragedies of Euripides[530]. + +I started the question whether duelling was consistent with moral duty. +The brave old General fired at this, and said, with a lofty air, +'Undoubtedly a man has a right to defend his honour.' GOLDSMITH, +(turning to me.) 'I ask you first, Sir, what would you do if you were +affronted?' I answered I should think it necessary to fight[531]. 'Why +then, (replied Goldsmith,) that solves the question.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, +it does not solve the question. It does not follow that what a man would +do is therefore right.' I said, I wished to have it settled, whether +duelling was contrary to the laws of Christianity. Johnson immediately +entered on the subject, and treated it in a masterly manner; and so far +as I have been able to recollect, his thoughts were these: 'Sir, as men +become in a high degree refined, various causes of offence arise; which +are considered to be of such importance, that life must be staked to +atone for them, though in reality they are not so. A body that has +received a very fine polish may be easily hurt. Before men arrive at +this artificial refinement, if one tells his neighbour he lies, his +neighbour tells him he lies; if one gives his neighbour a blow, his +neighbour gives him a blow: but in a state of highly polished society, +an affront is held to be a serious injury. It must therefore be +resented, or rather a duel must be fought upon it; as men have agreed to +banish from their society one who puts up with an affront without +fighting a duel. Now, Sir, it is never unlawful to fight in +self-defence. He, then, who fights a duel, does not fight from passion +against his antagonist, but out of self-defence; to avert the stigma of +the world, and to prevent himself from being driven out of society. I +could wish there was not that superfluity of refinement; but while such +notions prevail, no doubt a man may lawfully fight a duel[532].' + +Let it be remembered, that this justification is applicable only to the +person who _receives_ an affront. All mankind must condemn the +aggressor. + +The General told us, that when he was a very young man, I think only +fifteen[533], serving under Prince Eugene of Savoy, he was sitting in a +company at table with a Prince of Wirtemberg, The Prince took up a glass +of wine, and, by a fillip, made some of it fly in Oglethorpe's face. +Here was a nice dilemma. To have challenged him instantly, might have +fixed a quarrelsome character upon the young soldier: to have taken no +notice of it might have been considered as cowardice. Oglethorpe, +therefore, keeping his eye upon the Prince, and smiling all the time, as +if he took what his Highness had done in jest, said 'Man Prince,--'(I +forget the French words he used, the purport however was.) 'That's a +good joke; but we do it much better in England;' and threw a whole glass +of wine in the Prince's face. An old General who sat by, said, '_Il a +bien fait, mon Prince, vous l'avez commencA(C)_:' and thus all ended in +good humour.' + +Dr. Johnson said, 'Pray, General, give us an account of the siege of +Belgrade[534].' Upon which the General, pouring a little wine upon the +table, described every thing with a wet finger: 'Here we were, here were +the Turks,' &c. &c. Johnson listened with the closest attention. + +A question was started, how far people who disagree in a capital point +can live in friendship together. Johnson said they might. Goldsmith said +they could not, as they had not the _idem velle atque idem nolle_[535]-- +the same likings and the same aversions. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you must +shun the subject as to which you disagree. For instance, I can live very +well with Burke: I love his knowledge, his genius, his diffusion, and +affluence of conversation; but I would not talk to him of the Rockingham +party.' GOLDSMITH. 'But, Sir, when people live together who have +something as to which they disagree, and which they want to shun, they +will be in the situation mentioned in the story of Bluebeard: "You may +look into all the chambers but one." But we should have the greatest +inclination to look into that chamber, to talk of that subject.' +JOHNSON, (with a loud voice.) 'Sir, I am not saying that _you_ could +live in friendship with a man from whom you differ as to some point: I +am only saying that _I_ could do it. You put me in mind of Sappho in +Ovid[536].' + +Goldsmith told us, that he was now busy in writing a natural history[537], +and, that he might have full leisure for it, he had taken lodgings, at a +farmer's house, near to the six mile-stone, on the Edgeware road, and +had carried down his books in two returned post-chaises. He said, he +believed the farmer's family thought him an odd character, similar to +that in which the _Spectator_ appeared to his landlady and her children: +he was _The Gentleman_[538]. Mr. Mickle, the translator of _The +Lusiad_[539], and I went to visit him at this place a few days afterwards. +He was not at home; but having a curiosity to see his apartment, we went +in and found curious scraps of descriptions of animals, scrawled upon +the wall with a black lead pencil[540]. + +The subject of ghosts being introduced, Johnson repeated what he had +told me of a friend of his, an honest man, and a man of sense, having +asserted to him, that he had seen an apparition[541]. Goldsmith told us, +he was assured by his brother, the Reverend Mr. Goldsmith, that he also +had seen one. General Oglethorpe told us, that Prendergast, an officer +in the Duke of Marlborough's army, had mentioned to many of his friends, +that he should die on a particular day. That upon that day a battle took +place with the French; that after it was over, and Prendergast was still +alive, his brother officers, while they were yet in the field, jestingly +asked him, where was his prophecy now. Prendergast gravely answered. 'I +shall die, notwithstanding what you see.' Soon afterwards, there came a +shot from a French battery, to which the orders for a cessation of arms +had not yet reached, and he was killed upon the spot. Colonel Cecil, who +took possession of his effects, found in his pocket-book the following +solemn entry: + +[Here the date.] 'Dreamt--or ----.[542] Sir John Friend meets me:' (here +the very day on which he was killed, was mentioned.) Prendergast had +been connected with Sir John Friend, who was executed for high treason. +General Oglethorpe said, he was with Colonel Cecil when Pope came and +enquired into the truth of this story, which made a great noise at the +time, and was then confirmed by the Colonel. + +On Saturday, April 11, he appointed me to come to him in the evening, +when he should be at leisure to give me some assistance for the defence +of Hastie, the schoolmaster of Campbelltown, for whom I was to appear in +the House of Lords. When I came, I found him unwilling to exert himself. +I pressed him to write down his thoughts upon the subject. He said, +'There's no occasion for my writing. I'll talk to you.' He was, however, +at last prevailed on to dictate to me, while I wrote as follows:-- + +'The charge is, that he has used immoderate and cruel correction. +Correction, in itself, is not cruel; children, being not reasonable, can +be governed only by fear. To impress this fear, is therefore one of the +first duties of those who have the care of children. It is the duty of a +parent; and has never been thought inconsistent with parental +tenderness. It is the duty of a master, who is in his highest exaltation +when he is _loco parentis_. Yet, as good things become evil by excess, +correction, by being immoderate, may become cruel. But when is +correction immoderate? When it is more frequent or more severe than is +required _ad monendum et docendum_, for reformation and instruction. No +severity is cruel which obstinacy makes necessary; for the greatest +cruelty would be to desist, and leave the scholar too careless for +instruction, and too much hardened for reproof. Locke, in his treatise +of Education, mentions a mother, with applause, who whipped an infant +eight times before she had subdued it; for had she stopped at the +seventh act of correction, her daughter, says he, would have been +ruined[543]. The degrees of obstinacy in young minds, are very different; +as different must be the degrees of persevering severity. A stubborn +scholar must be corrected till he is subdued. The discipline of a school +is military. There must be either unbounded licence or absolute +authority. The master, who punishes, not only consults the future +happiness of him who is the immediate subject of correction; but he +propagates obedience through the whole school; and establishes +regularity by exemplary justice. The victorious obstinacy of a single +boy would make his future endeavours of reformation or instruction +totally ineffectual. Obstinacy, therefore, must never be victorious. +Yet, it is well known, that there sometimes occurs a sullen and hardy +resolution, that laughs at all common punishment, and bids defiance to +all common degrees of pain. Correction must be proportioned to +occasions. The flexible will be reformed by gentle discipline, and the +refractory must be subdued by harsher methods. The degrees of +scholastick, as of military punishment, no stated rules can ascertain. +It must be enforced till it overpowers temptation; till stubbornness +becomes flexible, and perverseness regular. Custom and reason have, +indeed, set some bounds to scholastick penalties. The schoolmaster +inflicts no capital punishments; nor enforces his edicts by either death +or mutilation. The civil law has wisely determined, that a master who +strikes at a scholar's eye shall be considered as criminal. But +punishments, however severe, that produce no lasting evil, may be just +and reasonable, because they may be necessary. Such have been the +punishments used by the respondent. No scholar has gone from him either +blind or lame, or with any of his limbs or powers injured or impaired. +They were irregular, and he punished them: they were obstinate, and he +enforced his punishment. But, however provoked, he never exceeded the +limits of moderation, for he inflicted nothing beyond present pain; and +how much of that was required, no man is so little able to determine as +those who have determined against him;--the parents of the offenders. It +has been said, that he used unprecedented and improper instruments of +correction. Of this accusation the meaning is not very easy to be found. +No instrument of correction is more proper than another, but as it is +better adapted to produce present pain without lasting mischief. +Whatever were his instruments, no lasting mischief has ensued; and +therefore, however unusual, in hands so cautious they were proper. It +has been objected, that the respondent admits the charge of cruelty, by +producing no evidence to confute it. Let it be considered, that his +scholars are either dispersed at large in the world, or continue to +inhabit the place in which they were bred. Those who are dispersed +cannot be found; those who remain are the sons of his persecutors, and +are not likely to support a man to whom their fathers are enemies. If it +be supposed that the enmity of their fathers proves the justice of the +charge, it must be considered how often experience shews us, that men +who are angry on one ground will accuse on another; with how little +kindness, in a town of low trade, a man who lives by learning is +regarded; and how implicitly, where the inhabitants are not very rich, a +rich man is hearkened to and followed. In a place like Campbelltown, it +is easy for one of the principal inhabitants to make a party. It is easy +for that party to heat themselves with imaginary grievances. It is easy +for them to oppress a man poorer than themselves; and natural to assert +the dignity of riches, by persisting in oppression. The argument which +attempts to prove the impropriety of restoring him to the school, by +alledging that he has lost the confidence of the people, is not the +subject of juridical consideration; for he is to suffer, if he must +suffer, not for their judgement, but for his own actions. It may be +convenient for them to have another master; but it is a convenience of +their own making. It would be likewise convenient for him to find +another school; but this convenience he cannot obtain. The question is +not what is now convenient, but what is generally right. If the people +of Campbelltown be distressed by the restoration of the respondent, they +are distressed only by their own fault; by turbulent passions and +unreasonable desires; by tyranny, which law has defeated, and by malice, +which virtue has surmounted.' + +'This, Sir, (said he,) you are to turn in your mind, and make the best +use of it you can in your speech.' + +Of our friend, Goldsmith, he said, 'Sir, he is so much afraid of being +unnoticed, that he often talks merely lest you should forget that he is +in the company.' BOSWELL. 'Yes, he stands forward.' JOHNSON. 'True, Sir; +but if a man is to stand forward, he should wish to do it not in an +aukward posture, not in rags, not so as that he shall only be exposed to +ridicule.' BOSWELL. 'For my part, I like very well to hear honest +Goldsmith talk away carelessly.' JOHNSON. 'Why yes, Sir; but he should +not like to hear himself.' + +On Tuesday, April 14, the decree of the Court of Session in the +schoolmaster's cause was reversed in the House of Lords, after a very +eloquent speech by Lord Mansfield, who shewed himself an adept in school +discipline, but I thought was too rigorous towards my client[544]. On the +evening of the next day I supped with Dr. Johnson, at the Crown and +Anchor tavern, in the Strand, in company with Mr. Langton and his +brother-in-law, Lord Binning. I repeated a sentence of Lord Mansfield's +speech, of which, by the aid of Mr. Longlands, the solicitor on the +other side, who obligingly allowed me to compare his note with my own, I +have a full copy: 'My Lords, severity is not the way to govern either +boys or men.' 'Nay, (said Johnson,) it is the way to _govern_ them. I +know not whether it be the way to _mend_ them.' + +I talked of the recent expulsion of six students from the University of +Oxford, who were methodists and would not desist from publickly praying +and exhorting[545]. JOHNSON. 'Sir, that expulsion was extremely just and +proper[546]. What have they to do at an University who are not willing to +be taught, but will presume to teach? Where is religion to be learnt but +at an University? Sir, they were examined, and found to be mighty +ignorant fellows.' BOSWELL. 'But, was it not hard, Sir, to expel them, +for I am told they were good beings?' JOHNSON. 'I believe they might be +good beings; but they were not fit to be in the University of Oxford[547]. +A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a +garden.' Lord Elibank used to repeat this as an illustration uncommonly +happy. + +Desirous of calling Johnson forth to talk, and exercise his wit, though +I should myself be the object of it, I resolutely ventured to undertake +the defence of convivial indulgence in wine, though he was not to-night +in the most genial humour[548]. After urging the common plausible topicks, +I at last had recourse to the maxim, _in vino veritas_, a man who is +well warmed with wine will speak truth[549]. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, that may +be an argument for drinking, if you suppose men in general to be liars. +But, Sir, I would not keep company with a fellow, who lyes as long as he +is sober, and whom you must make drunk before you can get a word of +truth out of him[550].' + +Mr. Langton told us he was about to establish a school upon his estate, +but it had been suggested to him, that it might have a tendency to make +the people less industrious. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. While learning to read +and write is a distinction, the few who have that distinction may be the +less inclined to work; but when every body learns to read and write, it +is no longer a distinction[551]. A man who has a laced waistcoat is too +fine a man to work; but if every body had laced waistcoats, we should +have people working in laced waistcoats. There are no people whatever +more industrious, none who work more, than our manufacturers[552]; yet +they have all learnt to read and write. Sir, you must not neglect doing +a thing immediately good, from fear of remote evil;--from fear of its +being abused[553]. A man who has candles may sit up too late, which he +would not do if he had not candles; but nobody will deny that the art of +making candles, by which light is continued to us beyond the time that +the sun gives us light, is a valuable art, and ought to be preserved.' +BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, would it not be better to follow Nature; and go to +bed and rise just as nature gives us light or with-holds it?' JOHNSON. +'No, Sir; for then we should have no kind of equality in the partition +of our time between sleeping and waking. It would be very different in +different seasons and in different places. In some of the northern parts +of Scotland how little light is there in the depth of winter!' + +We talked of Tacitus[554], and I hazarded an opinion, that with all his +merit for penetration, shrewdness of judgement, and terseness of +expression, he was too compact, too much broken into hints, as it were, +and therefore too difficult to be understood. To my great satisfaction, +Dr. Johnson sanctioned this opinion. 'Tacitus, Sir, seems to me rather +to have made notes for an historical work, than to have written a +history[555].' + +At this time it appears from his _Prayers and Meditations_, that he had +been more than commonly diligent in religious duties, particularly in +reading the Holy Scriptures. It was Passion Week, that solemn season +which the Christian world has appropriated to the commemoration of the +mysteries of our redemption, and during which, whatever embers of +religion are in our breasts, will be kindled into pious warmth. + +I paid him short visits both on Friday and Saturday, and seeing his +large folio Greek Testament before him, beheld him with a reverential +awe, and would not intrude upon his time[556]. While he was thus employed +to such good purpose, and while his friends in their intercourse with +him constantly found a vigorous intellect and a lively imagination, it +is melancholy to read in his private register, 'My mind is unsettled and +my memory confused. I have of late turned my thoughts with a very +useless earnestness upon past incidents. I have yet got no command over +my thoughts; an unpleasing incident is almost certain to hinder my +rest[557].' What philosophick heroism was it in him to appear with such +manly fortitude to the world, while he was inwardly so distressed! We +may surely believe that the mysterious principle of being 'made perfect +through suffering[558]' was to be strongly exemplified in him. + +On Sunday, April 19, being Easter-day, General Paoli and I paid him a +visit before dinner. We talked of the notion that blind persons can +distinguish colours by the touch. Johnson said, that Professor +Sanderson[559] mentions his having attempted to do it, but that he found +he was aiming at an impossibility; that to be sure a difference in the +surface makes the difference of colours; but that difference is so fine, +that it is not sensible to the touch. The General mentioned jugglers and +fraudulent gamesters, who could know cards by the touch. Dr. Johnson +said, 'the cards used by such persons must be less polished than ours +commonly are.' + +We talked of sounds. The General said, there was no beauty in a simple +sound, but only in an harmonious composition of sounds. I presumed to +differ from this opinion, and mentioned the soft and sweet sound of a +fine woman's voice. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, if a serpent or a toad uttered +it, you would think it ugly.' BOSWELL. 'So you would think, Sir, were a +beautiful tune to be uttered by one of those animals.' JOHNSON. 'No, +Sir, it would be admired. We have seen fine fiddlers whom we liked as +little as toads.' (laughing.) + +Talking on the subject of taste in the arts, he said, that difference of +taste was, in truth, difference of skill[560]. BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, is +there not a quality called taste[561], which consists merely in perception +or in liking? For instance, we find people differ much as to what is the +best style of English composition. Some think Swift's the best; others +prefer a fuller and grander way of writing.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, you must +first define what you mean by style, before you can judge who has a good +taste in style, and who has a bad. The two classes of persons whom you +have mentioned don't differ as to good and bad. They both agree that +Swift has a good neat style[562]; but one loves a neat style, another +loves a style of more splendour. In like manner, one loves a plain coat, +another loves a laced coat; but neither will deny that each is good in +its kind.' + +While I remained in London this spring, I was with him at several other +times, both by himself and in company. I dined with him one day at the +Crown and Anchor tavern, in the Strand, with Lord Elibank, Mr. Langton, +and Dr. Vansittart of Oxford. Without specifying each particular day, I +have preserved the following memorable things. + +I regretted the reflection in his Preface to Shakspeare against Garrick, +to whom we cannot but apply the following passage: 'I collated such +copies as I could procure, and wished for more, but have not found the +collectors of these rarities very communicative[563].' I told him, that +Garrick had complained to me of it, and had vindicated himself by +assuring me, that Johnson was made welcome to the full use of his +collection, and that he left the key of it with a servant, with orders +to have a fire and every convenience for him. I found Johnson's notion +was, that Garrick wanted to be courted for them, and that, on the +contrary, Garrick should have courted him, and sent him the plays of his +own accord. But, indeed, considering the slovenly and careless manner in +which books were treated by Johnson, it could not be expected that +scarce and valuable editions should have been lent to him[564]. + +A gentleman[565] having to some of the usual arguments for drinking added +this: 'You know, Sir, drinking drives away care, and makes us forget +whatever is disagreeable. Would not you allow a man to drink for that +reason?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, if he sat next _you_.' + +I expressed a liking for Mr. Francis Osborne's works, and asked him what +he thought of that writer. He answered, 'A conceited fellow. Were a man +to write so now, the boys would throw stones at him.' He, however, did +not alter my opinion of a favourite authour, to whom I was first +directed by his being quoted in The Spectator[566], and in whom I have +found much shrewd and lively sense, expressed indeed in a style somewhat +quaint, which, however, I do not dislike. His book has an air of +originality. We figure to ourselves an ancient gentleman talking to us. + +When one of his friends endeavoured to maintain that a country gentleman +might contrive to pass his life very agreeably, 'Sir (said he,) you +cannot give me an instance of any man who is permitted to lay out his +own time, contriving not to have tedious hours[567].' This observation, +however, is equally applicable to gentlemen who live in cities, and are +of no profession. + +He said, 'there is no permanent national character; it varies according +to circumstances. Alexander the Great swept India: now the Turks sweep +Greece.' + +A learned gentleman who in the course of conversation wished to inform +us of this simple fact, that the Counsel upon the circuit at Shrewsbury +were much bitten by fleas, took, I suppose, seven or eight minutes in +relating it circumstantially. He in a plenitude of phrase told us, that +large bales of woollen cloth were lodged in the town-hall;--that by +reason of this, fleas nestled there in prodigious numbers; that the +lodgings of the counsel were near to the town-hall;--and that those +little animals moved from place to place with wonderful agility. Johnson +sat in great impatience till the gentleman had finished his tedious +narrative, and then burst out (playfully however,) 'It is a pity, Sir, +that you have not seen a lion; for a flea has taken you such a time, +that a lion must have served you a twelve-month[568].' + +He would not allow Scotland to derive any credit from Lord Mansfield; +for he was educated in England. 'Much (said he,) may be made of a +Scotchman, if he be _caught_ young[569].' + +Talking of a modern historian and a modern moralist, he said, 'There is +more thought in the moralist than in the historian. There is but a +shallow stream of thought in history.' BOSWELL. 'But surely, Sir, an +historian has reflection.' JOHNSON. 'Why yes, Sir; and so has a cat when +she catches a mouse for her kitten. But she cannot write like ****; +neither can ****.'[570] + +He said, 'I am very unwilling to read the manuscripts of authours, and +give them my opinion[571]. If the authours who apply to me have money, I +bid them boldly print without a name; if they have written in order to +get money, I tell them to go to the booksellers, and make the best +bargain they can.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, if a bookseller should bring you +a manuscript to look at?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I would desire the +bookseller to take it away.' + +I mentioned a friend of mine who had resided long in Spain, and was +unwilling to return to Britain. JOHNSON. 'Sir, he is attached to some +woman.' BOSWELL. 'I rather believe, Sir, it is the fine climate which +keeps him there.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, how can you talk so? What is +climate to happiness[572]? Place me in the heart of Asia, should I not be +exiled? What proportion does climate bear to the complex system of human +life? You may advise me to go to live at Bologna to eat sausages. The +sausages there are the best in the world; they lose much by being +carried.' + +On Saturday, May 9, Mr. Dempster[573] and I had agreed to dine by +ourselves at the British Coffee-house. Johnson, on whom I happened to +call in the morning, said he would join us, which he did, and we spent a +very agreeable day, though I recollect but little of what passed. + +He said, 'Walpole was a minister given by the King to the people: Pitt +was a minister given by the people to the King,--as an adjunct.' + +'The misfortune of Goldsmith in conversation is this: he goes on without +knowing how he is to get off. His genius is great, but his knowledge is +small. As they say of a generous man, it is a pity he is not rich, we +may say of Goldsmith, it is a pity he is not knowing. He would not keep +his knowledge to himself.' + +Before leaving London this year, I consulted him upon a question purely +of Scotch law. It was held of old, and continued for a long period, to +be an established principle in that law, that whoever intermeddled with +the effects of a person deceased, without the interposition of legal +authority to guard against embezzlement, should be subjected to pay all +the debts of the deceased, as having been guilty of what was technically +called _vicious intromission_. The Court of Session had gradually +relaxed the strictness of this principle, where the interference proved +had been inconsiderable. In a case[574] which came before that Court the +preceding winter, I had laboured to persuade the Judges to return to the +ancient law. It was my own sincere opinion, that they ought to adhere to +it; but I had exhausted all my powers of reasoning in vain. Johnson +thought as I did; and in order to assist me in my application to the +Court for a revision and alteration of the judgement, he dictated to me +the following argument:-- + +'This, we are told, is a law which has its force only from the long +practice of the Court: and may, therefore, be suspended or modified as +the Court shall think proper. + +'Concerning the power of the Court to make or to suspend a law, we have +no intention to inquire. It is sufficient for our purpose that every +just law is dictated by reason; and that the practice of every legal +Court is regulated by equity. It is the quality of reason to be +invariable and constant; and of equity, to give to one man what, in the +same case, is given to another. The advantage which humanity derives +from law is this: that the law gives every man a rule of action, and +prescribes a mode of conduct which shall entitle him to the support and +protection of society. That the law may be a rule of action, it is +necessary that it be known; it is necessary that it be permanent and +stable. The law is the measure of civil right; but if the measure be +changeable, the extent of the thing measured never can be settled. + +'To permit a law to be modified at discretion, is to leave the community +without law. It is to withdraw the direction of that publick wisdom, by +which the deficiencies of private understanding are to be supplied. It +is to suffer the rash and ignorant to act at discretion, and then to +depend for the legality of that action on the sentence of the Judge. He +that is thus governed, lives not by law, but by opinion: not by a +certain rule to which he can apply his intention before he acts, but by +an uncertain and variable opinion, which he can never know but after he +has committed the act on which that opinion shall be passed. He lives by +a law, (if a law it be,) which he can never know before he has offended +it. To this case may be justly applied that important principle, _misera +est servitus ubi jus est aut incognitum aut vagum_. If Intromission be +not criminal till it exceeds a certain point, and that point be +unsettled, and consequently different in different minds, the right of +Intromission, and the right of the Creditor arising from it, are all +_jura vaga_, and, by consequence, are _jura incognita_; and the result +can be no other than a _misera servitus_, an uncertainty concerning the +event of action, a servile dependence on private opinion. + +'It may be urged, and with great plausibility, that there may be +Intromission without fraud; which, however true, will by no means +justify an occasional and arbitrary relaxation of the law. The end of +law is protection as well as vengeance. Indeed, vengeance is never used +but to strengthen protection. That society only is well governed, where +life is freed from danger and from suspicion; where possession is so +sheltered by salutary prohibitions, that violation is prevented more +frequently than punished. Such a prohibition was this, while it operated +with its original force. The creditor of the deceased was not only +without loss, but without fear. He was not to seek a remedy for an +injury suffered; for, injury was warded off. + +'As the law has been sometimes administered, it lays us open to wounds, +because it is imagined to have the power of healing. To punish fraud +when it is detected, is the proper act of vindictive justice; but to +prevent frauds, and make punishment unnecessary, is the great employment +of legislative wisdom. To permit Intromission, and to punish fraud, is +to make law no better than a pitfall. To tread upon the brink is safe; +but to come a step further is destruction. But, surely, it is better to +enclose the gulf, and hinder all access, than by encouraging us to +advance a little, to entice us afterwards a little further, and let us +perceive our folly only by our destruction. + +'As law supplies the weak with adventitious strength, it likewise +enlightens the ignorant with extrinsick understanding. Law teaches us to +know when we commit injury, and when we suffer it. It fixes certain +marks upon actions, by which we are admonished to do or to forbear them. +_Qui sibi bene temperat in licitis_, says one of the fathers, _nunquam +cadet in illicita_. He who never intromits at all, will never intromit +with fraudulent intentions. + +'The relaxation of the law against vicious intromission has been very +favourably represented by a great master of jurisprudence[575], whose +words have been exhibited with unnecessary pomp, and seem to be +considered as irresistibly decisive. The great moment of his authority +makes it necessary to examine his position. "Some ages ago, (says he,) +before the ferocity of the inhabitants of this part of the island was +subdued, the utmost severity of the civil law was necessary, to restrain +individuals from plundering each other. Thus, the man who intermeddled +irregularly with the moveables of a person deceased, was subjected to +all the debts of the deceased without limitation. This makes a branch of +the law of Scotland, known by the name of _vicious intromission_; and so +rigidly was this regulation applied in our Courts of Law, that the most +trifling moveable abstracted _mala fide_, subjected the intermeddler to +the foregoing consequences, which proved in many instances a most +rigorous punishment. But this severity was necessary, in order to subdue +the undisciplined nature of our people. It is extremely remarkable, that +in proportion to our improvement in manners, this regulation has been +gradually softened, and applied by our sovereign Court with a sparing +hand." + +'I find myself under a necessity of observing, that this learned and +judicious writer has not accurately distinguished the deficiencies and +demands of the different conditions of human life, which, from a degree +of savageness and independence, in which all laws are vain, passes or +may pass, by innumerable gradations, to a state of reciprocal benignity, +in which laws shall be no longer necessary. Men are first wild and +unsocial, living each man to himself, taking from the weak, and losing +to the strong. In their first coalitions of society, much of this +original savageness is retained. Of general happiness, the product of +general confidence, there is yet no thought. Men continue to prosecute +their own advantages by the nearest way; and the utmost severity of the +civil law is necessary to restrain individuals from plundering each +other. The restraints then necessary, are restraints from plunder, from +acts of publick violence, and undisguised oppression. The ferocity of +our ancestors, as of all other nations, produced not fraud, but rapine. +They had not yet learned to cheat, and attempted only to rob. As manners +grow more polished, with the knowledge of good, men attain likewise +dexterity in evil. Open rapine becomes less frequent, and violence gives +way to cunning. Those who before invaded pastures and stormed houses, +now begin to enrich themselves by unequal contracts and fraudulent +intromissions. It is not against the violence of ferocity, but the +circumventions of deceit, that this law was framed; and I am afraid the +increase of commerce, and the incessant struggle for riches which +commerce excites, give us no prospect of an end speedily to be expected +of artifice and fraud. It therefore seems to be no very conclusive +reasoning, which connects those two propositions;--"the nation is become +less ferocious, and therefore the laws against fraud and _covin_[576] +shall be relaxed." + +'Whatever reason may have influenced the Judges to a relaxation of the +law, it was not that the nation was grown less fierce; and, I am afraid, +it cannot be affirmed, that it is grown less fraudulent. + +'Since this law has been represented as rigorously and unreasonably +penal, it seems not improper to consider what are the conditions and +qualities that make the justice or propriety of a penal law. + +'To make a penal law reasonable and just, two conditions are necessary, +and two proper. It is necessary that the law should be adequate to its +end; that, if it be observed, it shall prevent the evil against which it +is directed. It is, secondly, necessary that the end of the law be of +such importance, as to deserve the security of a penal sanction. The +other conditions of a penal law, which though not absolutely necessary, +are to a very high degree fit, are, that to the moral violation of the +law there are many temptations, and that of the physical observance +there is great facility. + +'All these conditions apparently concur to justify the law which we are +now considering. Its end is the security of property; and property very +often of great value. The method by which it effects the security is +efficacious, because it admits, in its original rigour, no gradations of +injury; but keeps guilt and innocence apart, by a distinct and definite +limitation. He that intromits, is criminal; he that intromits not, is +innocent. Of the two secondary considerations it cannot be denied that +both are in our favour. The temptation to intromit is frequent and +strong; so strong and so frequent, as to require the utmost activity of +justice, and vigilance of caution, to withstand its prevalence; and the +method by which a man may entitle himself to legal intromission, is so +open and so facile, that to neglect it is a proof of fraudulent +intention: for why should a man omit to do (but for reasons which he +will not confess,) that which he can do so easily, and that which he +knows to be required by the law? If temptation were rare, a penal law +might be deemed unnecessary. If the duty enjoined by the law were of +difficult performance, omission, though it could not be justified, might +be pitied. But in the present case, neither equity nor compassion +operate against it. A useful, a necessary law is broken, not only +without a reasonable motive, but with all the inducements to obedience +that can be derived from safety and facility. + +'I therefore return to my original position, that a law, to have its +effect, must be permanent and stable. It may be said, in the language of +the schools, _Lex non recipit majus et minus_,--we may have a law, or we +may have no law, but we cannot have half a law. We must either have a +rule of action, or be permitted to act by discretion and by chance. +Deviations from the law must be uniformly punished, or no man can be +certain when he shall be safe. + +'That from the rigour of the original institution this Court has +sometimes departed, cannot be denied. But, as it is evident that such +deviations, as they make law uncertain, make life unsafe, I hope, that +of departing from it there will now be an end; that the wisdom of our +ancestors will be treated with due reverence; and that consistent and +steady decisions will furnish the people with a rule of action, and +leave fraud and fraudulent intromission no future hope of impunity or +escape.' + +With such comprehension of mind, and such clearness of penetration, did +he thus treat a subject altogether new to him, without any other +preparation than my having stated to him the arguments which had been +used on each side of the question. His intellectual powers appeared with +peculiar lustre, when tried against those of a writer of so much fame as +Lord Kames, and that too in his Lordship's own department[577]. + +This masterly argument, after being prefaced and concluded with some +sentences of my own, and garnished with the usual formularies, was +actually printed and laid before the Lords of Session[578], but without +success. My respected friend Lord Hailes, however, one of that +honourable body, had critical sagacity enough to discover a more than +ordinary hand in the _Petition_. I told him Dr. Johnson had favoured me +with his pen. His Lordship, with wonderful _acumen_, pointed out exactly +where his composition began, and where it ended[579]. But that I may do +impartial justice, and conform to the great rule of Courts, _Suum cuique +tribuito_, I must add, that their Lordships in general, though they were +pleased to call this 'a well-drawn paper,' preferred the former very +inferiour petition which I had written; thus confirming the truth of an +observation made to me by one of their number, in a merry mood: 'My dear +Sir, give yourself no trouble in the composition of the papers you +present to us; for, indeed, it is casting pearls before swine.' + +I renewed my solicitations that Dr. Johnson would this year accomplish +his long-intended visit to Scotland. + + +'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'The regret has not been little with which I have missed a journey so +pregnant with pleasing expectations, as that in which I could promise +myself not only the gratification of curiosity, both rational and +fanciful, but the delight of seeing those whom I love and esteem. But +such has been the course of things, that I could not come; and such has +been, I am afraid, the state of my body, that it would not well have +seconded my inclination. My body, I think, grows better, and I refer my +hopes to another year; for I am very sincere in my design to pay the +visit, and take the ramble. In the mean time, do not omit any +opportunity of keeping up a favourable opinion of me in the minds of any +of my friends. Beattie's book[580] is, I believe, every day more liked; at +least, I like it more, as I look more upon it. + +'I am glad if you got credit by your cause, and am yet of opinion, that +our cause was good, and that the determination ought to have been in +your favour. Poor Hastie[581], I think, had but his deserts. + +'You promised to get me a little _Pindar_, you may add to it a little +_Anacreon_. + +'The leisure which I cannot enjoy, it will be a pleasure to hear that +you employ upon the antiquities of the feudal establishment. The whole +system of ancient tenures is gradually passing away; and I wish to have +the knowledge of it preserved adequate and complete. For such an +institution makes a very important part of the history of mankind. Do +not forget a design so worthy of a scholar who studies the laws of his +country, and of a gentleman who may naturally be curious to know the +condition of his own ancestors. + +'I am, dear Sir, + +'Yours with great affection, + +'SAM JOHNSON.' + +'August 31, 1772[582].' + + + +'TO DR. JOHNSON. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'Edinburgh, Dec. 25, 1772. + + * * * * * + +'I was much disappointed that you did not come to Scotland last autumn. +However, I must own that your letter prevents me from complaining; not +only because I am sensible that the state of your health was but too +good an excuse, but because you write in a strain which shews that you +have agreeable views of the scheme which we have so long proposed. + + * * * * * + +'I communicated to Beattie what you said of his book in your last letter +to me. He writes to me thus:--"You judge very rightly in supposing that +Dr. Johnson's favourable opinion of any book must give me great delight. +Indeed it is impossible for me to say how much I am gratified by it; for +there is not a man upon earth whose good opinion I would be more +ambitious to cultivate. His talents and his virtues I reverence more +than any words can express. The extraordinary civilities[583] (the +paternal attentions I should rather say,) and the many instructions I +have had the honour to receive from him, will to me be a perpetual +source of pleasure in the recollection, + +'"_Dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus has reget artus_[584]. + +'"I had still some thoughts, while the summer lasted, of being obliged +to go to London on some little business; otherwise I should certainly +have troubled him with a letter several months ago, and given some vent +to my gratitude and admiration. This I intend to do, as soon as I am +left a little at leisure. Mean time, if you have occasion to write to +him, I beg you will offer him my most respectful compliments, and assure +him of the sincerity of my attachment and the warmth of my gratitude." + + * * * * * + +'I am, &c. +'JAMES BOSWELL.' + +1773: AETAT. 64.--In 1773 his only publication was an edition of his +folio _Dictionary_, with additions and corrections[585]; nor did he, so +far as is known, furnish any productions of his fertile pen to any of +his numerous friends or dependants, except the Preface[586] to his old +amanuensis Macbean's _Dictionary of Ancient Geography_.[587] His +_Shakspeare_, indeed, which had been received with high approbation by +the publick, and gone through several editions, was this year +re-published by George Steevens, Esq., a gentleman not only deeply +skilled in ancient learning, and of very extensive reading in English +literature, especially the early writers, but at the same time of acute +discernment and elegant taste.[588] It is almost unnecessary to say, that +by his great and valuable additions to Dr. Johnson's work, he justly +obtained considerable reputation: + +'_Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet_.'[589] + + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I have read your kind letter much more than the elegant _Pindar_ which +it accompanied. I am always glad to find myself not forgotten; and to be +forgotten by you would give me great uneasiness. My northern friends +have never been unkind to me: I have from you, dear Sir, testimonies of +affection, which I have not often been able to excite; and Dr. Beattie +rates the testimony which I was desirous of paying to his merit, much +higher than I should have thought it reasonable to expect. + +'I have heard of your masquerade[590]. What says your synod to such +innovations? I am not studiously scrupulous, nor do I think a masquerade +either evil in itself, or very likely to be the occasion of evil; yet as +the world thinks it a very licentious relaxation of manners, I would not +have been one of the _first_ masquers in a country where no masquerade +had ever been before[591]. + +'A new edition of my great _Dictionary_ is printed, from a copy which I +was persuaded to revise; but having made no preparation, I was able to +do very little. Some superfluities I have expunged, and some faults I +have corrected, and here and there have scattered a remark; but the main +fabrick of the work remains as it was. I had looked very little into it +since I wrote it, and, I think, I found it full as often better, as +worse, than I expected. + +'Baretti and Davies have had a furious quarrel[592]; a quarrel, I think, +irreconcileable. Dr. Goldsmith has a new comedy, which is expected in +the spring. No name is yet given it[593]. The chief diversion arises from +a stratagem by which a lover is made to mistake his future +father-in-law's house for an inn. This, you see, borders upon farce. The +dialogue is quick and gay, and the incidents are so prepared as not to +seem improbable. + +'I am sorry that you lost your cause of Intromission, because I yet +think the arguments on your side unanswerable. But you seem, I think, to +say that you gained reputation even by your defeat; and reputation you +will daily gain, if you keep Lord Auchinleck's precept in your mind, and +endeavour to consolidate in your mind a firm and regular system of law, +instead of picking up occasional fragments. + +'My health seems in general to improve; but I have been troubled for +many weeks with a vexatious catarrh, which is sometimes sufficiently +distressful. I have not found any great effects from bleeding and +physick; and am afraid, that I must expect help from brighter days and +softer air. + +'Write to me now and then; and whenever any good befalls you, make haste +to let me know it, for no one will rejoice at it more than, dear Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' +'London, Feb. 24, 1773.' + +'You continue to stand very high in the favour of Mrs. Thrale.' + +While a former edition of my work was passing through the press, I was +unexpectedly favoured with a packet from Philadelphia, from Mr. James +Abercrombie, a gentleman of that country, who is pleased to honour me +with very high praise of my _Life of Dr. Johnson_. To have the fame of +my illustrious friend, and his faithful biographer, echoed from the New +World is extremely flattering; and my grateful acknowledgements shall be +wafted across the Atlantick. Mr. Abercrombie has politely conferred on +me a considerable additional obligation, by transmitting to me copies of +two letters from Dr. Johnson to American gentlemen. 'Gladly, Sir, (says +he,) would I have sent you the originals; but being the only relicks of +the kind in America, they are considered by the possessors of such +inestimable value, that no possible consideration would induce them to +part with them. In some future publication of yours relative to that +great and good man, they may perhaps be thought worthy of insertion.' + +'To MR. B---D[594]. + +'SIR, + +'That in the hurry of a sudden departure you should yet find leisure to +consult my convenience, is a degree of kindness, and an instance of +regard, not only beyond my claims, but above my expectation. You are not +mistaken in supposing that I set a high value on my American friends, +and that you should confer a very valuable favour upon me by giving me +an opportunity of keeping myself in their memory. + +'I have taken the liberty of troubling you with a packet, to which I +wish a safe and speedy conveyance, because I wish a safe and speedy +voyage to him that conveys it. I am, Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'London, Johnson's-court, +Fleet street, March 4, 1773.' + +'To THE REVEREND MR. WHITE[595]. + + + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Your kindness for your friends accompanies you across the Atlantick. It +was long since observed by Horace[596], that no ship could leave care +behind; you have been attended in your voyage by other powers,--by +benevolence and constancy; and I hope care did not often shew her face +in their company. + +'I received the copy of _Rasselas_. The impression is not magnificent, +but it flatters an authour, because the printer seems to have expected +that it would be scattered among the people. The little book has been +well received, and is translated into Italian[597], French[598], German, +and Dutch[599]. It has now one honour more by an American edition. + +'I know not that much has happened since your departure that can engage +your curiosity. Of all publick transactions the whole world is now +informed by the newspapers. Opposition seems to despond; and the +dissenters, though they have taken advantage of unsettled times, and a +government much enfeebled, seem not likely to gain any immunities[600]. + +'Dr. Goldsmith has a new comedy in rehearsal at Covent-Garden, to which +the manager predicts ill success[601]. I hope he will be mistaken. I think +it deserves a very kind reception. + +'I shall soon publish a new edition of my large _Dictionary_; I have +been persuaded to revise it, and have mended some faults, but added +little to its usefulness. + +'No book has been published since your departure, of which much notice +is taken. Faction only fills the town with pamphlets, and greater +subjects are forgotten in the noise of discord. + +'Thus have I written, only to tell you how little I have to tell. Of +myself I can only add, that having been afflicted many weeks with a very +troublesome cough, I am now recovered. + +'I take the liberty which you give me of troubling you with a letter, of +which you will please to fill up the direction. I am, Sir, + + 'Your most humble servant, + 'SAM JOHNSON.' + + 'Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, + London, March 4, 1773.' + +On Saturday, April 3, the day after my arrival in London this year, I +went to his house late in the evening, and sat with Mrs. Williams till +he came home. I found in the _London Chronicle_, Dr. Goldsmith's +apology[602] to the publick for beating Evans, a bookseller, on account of +a paragraph in a newspaper published by him, which Goldsmith thought +impertinent to him and to a lady of his acquaintance[603]. The apology was +written so much in Dr. Johnson's manner, that both Mrs. Williams and I +supposed it to be his; but when he came home, he soon undeceived us. +When he said to Mrs. Williams, 'Well, Dr. Goldsmith's _manifesto_ has +got into your paper[604];' I asked him if Dr. Goldsmith had written it, +with an air that made him see I suspected it was his, though subscribed +by Goldsmith. JOHNSON. 'Sir, Dr. Goldsmith would no more have asked me +to write such a thing as that for him, than he would have asked me to +feed him with a spoon, or to do anything else that denoted his +imbecility. I as much believe that he wrote it, as if I had seen him do +it. Sir, had he shewn it to any one friend, he would not have been +allowed to publish it. He has, indeed, done it very well; but it is a +foolish thing well done. I suppose he has been so much elated with the +success of his new comedy, that he has thought every thing that +concerned him must be of importance to the publick.' BOSWELL. 'I fancy, +Sir, this is the first time that he has been engaged in such an +adventure.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I believe it is the first time he has +_beat_; he may have _been beaten_ before[605]. This, Sir, is a new plume +to him.' + +I mentioned Sir John Dalrymple's _Memoirs of Great-Britain and Ireland_, +and his discoveries to the prejudice of Lord Russel and Algernon Sydney. +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, every body who had just notions of government +thought them rascals before. It is well that all mankind now see them to +be rascals.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, may not those discoveries be true +without their being rascals?' JOHNSON. 'Consider, Sir; would any of them +have been willing to have had it known that they intrigued with France? +Depend upon it, Sir, he who does what he is afraid should be known, has +something rotten about him. This Dalrymple seems to be an honest +fellow[606]; for he tells equally what makes against both sides. But +nothing can be poorer than his mode of writing, it is the mere bouncing +of a school-boy. Great He! but greater She! and such stuff[607].' + +I could not agree with him in this criticism; for though Sir John +Dalrymple's style is not regularly formed in any respect, and one cannot +help smiling sometimes at his affected _grandiloquence_, there is in his +writing a pointed vivacity, and much of a gentlemanly spirit. + +At Mr. Thrale's, in the evening, he repeated his usual paradoxical +declamation against action in publick speaking[608]. 'Action can have no +effect upon reasonable minds. It may augment noise, but it never can +enforce argument. If you speak to a dog, you use action; you hold up +your hand thus, because he is a brute; and in proportion as men are +removed from brutes, action will have the less influence upon them.' +MRS. THRALE. 'What then, Sir, becomes of Demosthenes's saying? "Action, +action, action!"' JOHNSON. 'Demosthenes, Madam, spoke to an assembly of +brutes; to a barbarous people[609].' + +I thought it extraordinary, that he should deny the power of rhetorical +action upon human nature, when it is proved by innumerable facts in all +stages of society. Reasonable beings are not solely reasonable. They +have fancies which may be pleased, passions which may be roused. + +Lord Chesterfield being mentioned, Johnson remarked, that almost all of +that celebrated nobleman's witty sayings were puns[610]. He, however, +allowed the merit of good wit to his Lordship's saying of Lord +Tyrawley[611] and himself, when both very old and infirm: 'Tyrawley and I +have been dead these two years; but we don't choose to have it known.' + +He talked with approbation of an intended edition of _The_ Spectator, +with notes; two volumes of which had been prepared by a gentleman +eminent in the literary world, and the materials which he had collected +for the remainder had been transferred to another hand[612]. He observed, +that all works which describe manners, require notes in sixty or seventy +years, or less; and told us, he had communicated all he knew that could +throw light upon _The Spectator_. He said, 'Addison had made his Sir +Andrew Freeport a true Whig, arguing against giving charity to beggars, +and throwing out other such ungracious sentiments; but that he had +thought better, and made amends by making him found an hospital for +decayed farmers[613].' He called for the volume of _The Spectator_, in +which that account is contained, and read it aloud to us. He read so +well, that every thing acquired additional weight and grace from his +utterance[614]. + +The conversation having turned on modern imitations of ancient ballads, +and some one having praised their simplicity, he treated them with that +ridicule which he always displayed when that subject was mentioned[615]. + +He disapproved of introducing scripture phrases into secular discourse. +This seemed to me a question of some difficulty. A scripture expression +may be used, like a highly classical phrase, to produce an instantaneous +strong impression; and it may be done without being at all improper. Yet +I own there is danger, that applying the language of our sacred book to +ordinary subjects may tend to lessen our reverence for it. If therefore +it be introduced at all, it should be with very great caution. + +On Thursday, April 8, I sat a good part of the evening with him, but he +was very silent. He said, 'Burnet's _History of his own times_ is very +entertaining[616]. The style, indeed, is mere chitchat[617]. I do not +believe that Burnet intentionally lyed; but he was so much prejudiced, +that he took no pains to find out the truth. He was like a man who +resolves to regulate his time by a certain watch; but will not inquire +whether the watch is right or not[618].' + +Though he was not disposed to talk, he was unwilling that I should leave +him; and when I looked at my watch, and told him it was twelve o'clock, +he cried, 'What's that to you and me?' and ordered Frank to tell Mrs. +Williams that we were coming to drink tea with her, which we did. It was +settled that we should go to church together next day. + +On the 9th of April, being Good Friday, I breakfasted with him on tea +and cross-buns[619]; _Doctor_ Levet, as Frank called him, making the tea. +He carried me with him to the church of St. Clement Danes, where he had +his seat; and his behaviour was, as I had imaged to myself, solemnly +devout[620]. I never shall forget the tremulous earnestness with which he +pronounced the awful petition in the Litany: 'In the hour of death, and +at[621] the day of judgement, good LORD deliver us.' + +We went to church both in the morning and evening. In the interval +between the two services we did not dine; but he read in the Greek New +Testament, and I turned over several of his books. + +In Archbishop Laud's Diary, I found the following passage, which I read +to Dr. Johnson:-- + +'1623. February 1, Sunday. I stood by the most illustrious Prince +Charles[622], at dinner. He was then very merry, and talked occasionally +of many things with his attendants. Among other things, he said, that if +he were necessitated to take any particular profession of life, he could +not be a lawyer, adding his reasons: "I cannot (saith he,) defend a bad, +nor yield in a good cause."' + +JOHNSON. 'Sir, this is false reasoning; because every cause has a bad +side[623]; and a lawyer is not overcome, though the cause which he has +endeavoured to support be determined against him.' + +I told him that Goldsmith had said to me a few days before, 'As I take +my shoes from the shoemaker, and my coat from the taylor, so I take my +religion from the priest.' I regretted this loose way of talking. +JOHNSON. 'Sir, he knows nothing; he has made up his mind about +nothing[624].' + +To my great surprize he asked me to dine with him on Easter-day. I never +supposed that he had a dinner at his house; for I had not then heard of +any one of his friends having been entertained at his table. He told me, +'I generally have a meat pye on Sunday: it is baked at a publick oven, +which is very properly allowed, because one man can attend it; and thus +the advantage is obtained of not keeping servants from church to dress +dinners[625].' + +April 11, being Easter-Sunday, after having attended Divine Service at +St. Paul's, I repaired to Dr. Johnson's. I had gratified my curiosity +much in dining with JEAN JAQUES ROUSSEAU[626], while he lived in the wilds +of Neufchatel: I had as great a curiosity to dine with DR. SAMUEL +JOHNSON, in the dusky recess of a court in Fleet-street. I supposed we +should scarcely have knives and forks, and only some strange, uncouth, +ill-drest dish: but I found every thing in very good order. We had no +other company but Mrs. Williams and a young woman whom I did not know. +As a dinner here was considered as a singular phenomenon, and as I was +frequently interrogated on the subject, my readers may perhaps be +desirous to know our bill of fare. Foote, I remember, in allusion to +Francis, the _negro_, was willing to suppose that our repast was _black +broth_. But the fact was, that we had a very good soup, a boiled leg of +lamb and spinach, a veal pye, and a rice pudding[627]. + +Of Dr. John Campbell, the authour, he said, 'He is a very inquisitive +and a very able man, and a man of good religious principles, though I am +afraid he has been deficient in practice. Campbell is radically right; +and we may hope, that in time there will be good practice[628].' + +He owned that he thought Hawkesworth was one of his imitators[629], but he +did not think Goldsmith was. Goldsmith, he said, had great merit. +BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, he is much indebted to you for his getting so high +in the publick estimation.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, he has perhaps got +_sooner_ to it by his intimacy with me.' + +Goldsmith, though his vanity often excited him to occasional +competition, had a very high regard for Johnson, which he at this time +expressed in the strongest manner in the Dedication of his comedy, +entitled, _She Stoops to Conquer_.[630] + +Johnson observed, that there were very few books printed in Scotland +before the Union. He had seen a complete collection of them in the +possession of the Hon. Archibald Campbell, a non-juring Bishop[631]. I +wish this collection had been kept entire. Many of them are in the +library of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh. I told Dr. Johnson +that I had some intention to write the life of the learned and worthy +Thomas Ruddiman[632]. He said, 'I should take pleasure in helping you to +do honour to him. But his farewell letter to the Faculty of Advocates, +when he resigned the office of their Librarian, should have been in +Latin.' + +I put a question to him upon a fact in common life, which he could not +answer, nor have I found any one else who could. What is the reason that +women servants, though obliged to be at the expense of purchasing their +own clothes, have much lower wages than men servants, to whom a great +proportion of that article is furnished, and when in fact our female +house servants work much harder than the male[633]? + +He told me that he had twelve or fourteen times attempted to keep a +journal of his life, but never could persevere[634]. He advised me to do +it. 'The great thing to be recorded, (said he), is the state of your own +mind[635]; and you should write down every thing that you remember, for +you cannot judge at first what is good or bad; and write immediately +while the impression is fresh, for it will not be the same a week +afterwards[636].' + +I again solicited him to communicate to me the particulars of his early +life. He said, 'You shall have them all for twopence. I hope you shall +know a great deal more of me before you write my Life.' He mentioned to +me this day many circumstances, which I wrote down when I went home, and +have interwoven in the former part of this narrative. + +On Tuesday, April 13, he and Dr. Goldsmith and I dined at General +Oglethorpe's. Goldsmith expatiated on the common topick, that the race +of our people was degenerated, and that this was owing to luxury. +JOHNSON. 'Sir, in the first place, I doubt the fact[637]. I believe there +are as many tall men in England now, as ever there were. But, secondly, +supposing the stature of our people to be diminished, that is not owing +to luxury; for, Sir, consider to how very small a proportion of our +people luxury can reach. Our soldiery, surely, are not luxurious, who +live on six-pence a day[638]; and the same remark will apply to almost all +the other classes. Luxury, so far as it reaches the poor, will do good +to the race of people; it will strengthen and multiply them. Sir, no +nation was ever hurt by luxury; for, as I said before, it can reach but +to a very few. I admit that the great increase of commerce and +manufactures hurts the military spirit of a people; because it produces +a competition for something else than martial honours,--a competition +for riches. It also hurts the bodies of the people; for you will +observe, there is no man who works at any particular trade, but you may +know him from his appearance to do so. One part or other of his body +being more used than the rest, he is in some degree deformed: but, Sir, +that is not luxury. A tailor sits cross-legged; but that is not luxury.' +GOLDSMITH. 'Come, you're just going to the same place by another road.' +JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, I say that is not _luxury_. Let us take a walk from +Charing-cross to White-chapel, through, I suppose, the greatest series +of shops in the world; what is there in any of these shops (if you +except gin-shops,) that can do any human being any harm?' GOLDSMITH. +'Well, Sir, I'll accept your challenge. The very next shop to +Northumberland-house is a pickle-shop.' JOHNSON. 'Well, Sir: do we not +know that a maid can in one afternoon make pickles sufficient to serve a +whole family for a year? nay, that five pickle-shops can serve all the +kingdom? Besides, Sir, there is no harm done to any body by the making +of pickles, or the eating of pickles.' + +We drank tea with the ladies; and Goldsmith sung Tony Lumpkin's song in +his comedy, _She Stoops to Conquer_, and a very pretty one, to an Irish +tune[639], which he had designed for Miss Hardcastle; but as Mrs. +Bulkeley, who played the part, could not sing, it was left out. He +afterwards wrote it down for me, by which means it was preserved, and +now appears amongst his poems[640]. Dr. Johnson, in his way home, stopped +at my lodgings in Piccadilly, and sat with me, drinking tea a second +time, till a late hour. + +I told him that Mrs. Macaulay said, she wondered how he could reconcile +his political principles with his moral; his notions of inequality and +subordination with wishing well to the happiness of all mankind, who +might live so agreeably, had they all their portions of land, and none +to domineer over another. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I reconcile my principles +very well, because mankind are happier in a state of inequality and +subordination[641]. Were they to be in this pretty state of equality, they +would soon degenerate into brutes;--they would become Monboddo's +nation[642];--their tails would grow. Sir, all would be losers were all to +work for all:--they would have no intellectual improvement. All +intellectual improvement arises from leisure; all leisure arises from +one working for another.' + +Talking of the family of Stuart[643], he said, 'It should seem that the +family at present on the throne has now established as good a right as +the former family, by the long consent of the people; and that to +disturb this right might be considered as culpable. At the same time I +own, that it is a very difficult question, when considered with respect +to the house of Stuart. To oblige people to take oaths as to the +disputed right, is wrong. I know not whether I could take them: but I do +not blame those who do.' So conscientious and so delicate was he upon +this subject, which has occasioned so much clamour against him. + +Talking of law cases, he said, 'The English reports, in general, are +very poor: only the half of what has been said is taken down; and of +that half, much is mistaken. Whereas, in Scotland, the arguments on each +side are deliberately put in writing, to be considered by the Court. I +think a collection of your cases upon subjects of importance, with the +opinions of the Judges upon them, would be valuable.' + +On Thursday, April 15, I dined with him and Dr. Goldsmith at General +Paoli's. We found here Signor Martinelli, of Florence, authour of a +_History of England_, in Italian, printed at London. + +I spoke of Allan Ramsay's _Gentle Shepherd_, in the Scottish dialect, as +the best pastoral that had ever been written; not only abounding with +beautiful rural imagery, and just and pleasing sentiments, but being a +real picture of manners; and I offered to teach Dr. Johnson to +understand it. 'No, Sir (said he,) I won't learn it. You shall retain +your superiority by my not knowing it.' + +This brought on a question whether one man is lessened by another's +acquiring an equal degree of knowledge with him[644]. Johnson asserted the +affirmative. I maintained that the position might be true in those kinds +of knowledge which produce wisdom, power, and force, so as to enable one +man to have the government of others; but that a man is not in any +degree lessened by others knowing as well as he what ends in mere +pleasure:--eating fine fruits, drinking delicious wines, reading +exquisite poetry. + +The General observed, that Martinelli was a Whig. JOHNSON. 'I am sorry +for it. It shows the spirit of the times: he is obliged to temporise.' +BOSWELL. 'I rather think, Sir, that Toryism prevails in this reign.' +JOHNSON. 'I know not why you should think so, Sir. You see your friend +Lord Lyttelton[645], a nobleman, is obliged in his _History_ to write the +most vulgar Whiggism.' + +An animated debate took place whether Martinelli should continue his +_History of England_ to the present day. GOLDSMITH. 'To be sure he +should.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; he would give great offence. He would have +to tell of almost all the living great what they do not wish told.' +GOLDSMITH. 'It may, perhaps, be necessary for a native to be more +cautious; but a foreigner who comes among us without prejudice, may be +considered as holding the place of a Judge, and may speak his mind +freely.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, a foreigner, when he sends a work from the +press, ought to be on his guard against catching the errour and mistaken +enthusiasm of the people among whom he happens to be.' GOLDSMITH. 'Sir, +he wants only to sell his history, and to tell truth; one an honest, the +other a laudable motive.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, they are both laudable motives. +It is laudable in a man to wish to live by his labours; but he should +write so as he may _live_ by them, not so as he may be knocked on the +head. I would advise him to be at Calais before he publishes his history +of the present age. A foreigner who attaches himself to a political +party in this country, is in the worst state that can be imagined: he is +looked upon as a mere intermeddler. A native may do it from interest.' +BOSWELL. 'Or principle.' GOLDSMITH. 'There are people who tell a hundred +political lies every day, and are not hurt by it. Surely, then, one may +tell truth with safety.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, in the first place, he who +tells a hundred lies has disarmed the force of his lies[646]. But besides; +a man had rather have a hundred lies told of him, than one truth which +he does not wish should be told.' GOLDSMITH. 'For my part, I'd tell +truth, and shame the devil.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; but the devil will be +angry. I wish to shame the devil as much you do, but I should choose to +be out of the reach of his claws.' GOLDSMITH. 'His claws can do you no +harm, when you have the shield of truth.' + +It having been observed that there was little hospitality in +London;--JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, any man who has a name, or who has the +power of pleasing, will be very generally invited in London. The man, +Sterne, I have been told, has had engagements for three months[647].' +GOLDSMITH. 'And a very dull fellow.' JOHNSON. 'Why, no, Sir[648].' + +Martinelli told us, that for several years he lived much with Charles +Townshend, and that he ventured to tell him he was a bad joker. JOHNSON. +'Why, Sir, thus much I can say upon the subject. One day he and a few +more agreed to go and dine in the country, and each of them was to bring +a friend in his carriage with him. Charles Townshend asked Fitzherbert +to go with him, but told him, 'You must find somebody to bring you back: +I can only carry you there.' Fitzherbert did not much like this +arrangement. He however consented, observing sarcastically, 'It will do +very well; for then the same jokes will serve you in returning as in +going[649].' + +An eminent publick character[650] being mentioned;--JOHNSON. 'I remember +being present when he shewed himself to be so corrupted, or at least +something so different from what I think right, as to maintain, that a +member of parliament should go along with his party right or wrong. Now, +Sir, this is so remote from native virtue, from scholastick virtue, that +a good man must have undergone a great change before he can reconcile +himself to such a doctrine. It is maintaining that you may lie to the +publick; for you lie when you call that right which you think wrong, or +the reverse[651]. A friend of ours, who is too much an echo of that +gentleman, observed, that a man who does not stick uniformly to a party, +is only waiting to be bought. Why then, said I, he is only waiting to be +what that gentleman is already.' + +We talked of the King's coming to see Goldsmith's new play.--'I wish he +would[652],' said Goldsmith; adding, however, with an affected +indifference, 'Not that it would do me the least good.' JOHNSON. 'Well +then, Sir, let us say it would do _him_ good, (laughing). No, Sir, this +affectation will not pass;--it is mighty idle. In such a state as ours, +who would not wish to please the Chief Magistrate?' GOLDSMITH. 'I _do_ +wish to please him. I remember a line in Dryden,-- + +"And every poet is the monarch's friend." + +It ought to be reversed.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, there are finer lines in Dryden +on this subject:-- + +"For colleges on bounteous Kings depend, +And never rebel was to arts a friend[653]."' + +General Paoli observed, that 'successful rebels might[654].' MARTINELLI. +'Happy rebellions.' GOLDSMITH. 'We have no such phrase.' GENERAL PAOLI. +'But have you not the _thing_?' GOLDSMITH. 'Yes; all our _happy_ +revolutions. They have hurt our constitution, and will hurt it, till we +mend it by another HAPPY REVOLUTION.' I never before discovered that my +friend Goldsmith had so much of the old prejudice in him. + +General Paoli, talking of Goldsmith's new play, said, 'Il a fait un +compliment trA"s gracieux A une certaine grande dame;' meaning a Duchess +of the first rank[655]. + +I expressed a doubt whether Goldsmith intended it, in order that I might +hear the truth from himself. It, perhaps, was not quite fair to +endeavour to bring him to a confession, as he might not wish to avow +positively his taking part against the Court. He smiled and hesitated. +The General at once relieved him, by this beautiful image: '_Monsieur +Goldsmith est comme la mer, qui jette des perles et beau-coup d'autres +belle choses, sans s'en appercevoir_.' GOLDSMITH. '_TrA"s bien dit et +trA"s elegamment_.' + +A person was mentioned, who it was said could take down in short hand +the speeches in parliament with perfect exactness. JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is +impossible. I remember one, Angel, who came to me to write for him a +Preface or Dedication to a book upon short hand[656], and he professed to +write as fast as a man could speak. In order to try him, I took down a +book, and read while he wrote; and I favoured him, for I read more +deliberately than usual. I had proceeded but a very little way, when he +begged I would desist, for he could not follow me[657].' Hearing now for +the first time of this Preface or Dedication, I said, 'What an expense, +Sir, do you put us to in buying books, to which you have written +Prefaces or Dedications.' JOHNSON. 'Why I have dedicated to the Royal +family all round; that is to say, to the last generation of the Royal +family[658].' GOLDSMITH. 'And perhaps, Sir, not one sentence of wit in a +whole Dedication.' JOHNSON. 'Perhaps not, Sir.' BOSWELL. 'What then is +the reason for applying to a particular person to do that which any one +may do as well?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, one man has greater readiness at +doing it than another.' + +I spoke of Mr. Harris[659], of Salisbury, as being a very learned man, and +in particular an eminent Grecian. JOHNSON. 'I am not sure of that. His +friends give him out as such, but I know not who of his friends are able +to judge of it.' GOLDSMITH. 'He is what is much better: he is a worthy +humane man.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, that is not to the purpose of our +argument[660]: that will as much prove that he can play upon the fiddle as +well as Giardini, as that he is an eminent Grecian.' GOLDSMITH. 'The +greatest musical performers have but small emoluments. Giardini, I am +told, does not get above seven hundred a year.' JOHNSON. 'That is indeed +but little for a man to get, who does best that which so many endeavour +to do. There is nothing, I think, in which the power of art is shown so +much as in playing on the fiddle. In all other things we can do +something at first. Any man will forge a bar of iron, if you give him a +hammer; not so well as a smith, but tolerably. A man will saw a piece of +wood, and make a box, though a clumsy one; but give him a fiddle and a +fiddle-stick, and he can do nothing.' + +On Monday, April 19, he called on me with Mrs. Williams, in Mr. +Strahan's coach, and carried me out to dine with Mr. Elphinston[661], at +his academy at Kensington. A printer having acquired a fortune +sufficient to keep his coach, was a good topick for the credit of +literature[662]. Mrs. Williams said, that another printer, Mr. Hamilton, +had not waited so long as Mr. Strahan, but had kept his coach several +years sooner[663]. JOHNSON. 'He was in the right. Life is short. The +sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better.' + +Mr. Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired, and asked Dr. +Johnson if he had read it. JOHNSON. 'I have looked into it.' 'What (said +Elphinston,) have you not read it through?' Johnson, offended at being +thus pressed, and so obliged to own his cursory mode of reading, +answered tartly, 'No, Sir, do _you_ read books _through_[664]?' + +He this day again defended duelling[665], and put his argument upon what I +have ever thought the most solid basis; that if publick war be allowed +to be consistent with morality, private war must be equally so. Indeed +we may observe what strained arguments are used, to reconcile war with +the Christian religion. But, in my opinion, it is exceedingly clear that +duelling, having better reasons for its barbarous violence, is more +justifiable than war, in which thousands go forth without any cause of +personal quarrel, and massacre each other. + +On Wednesday, April 21, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's. A gentleman[666] +attacked Garrick for being vain. JOHNSON. 'No wonder, Sir, that he is +vain; a man who is perpetually flattered in every mode that can be +conceived. So many bellows have blown the fire, that one wonders he is +not by this time become a cinder.' BOSWELL. 'And such bellows too. Lord +Mansfield with his cheeks like to burst: Lord Chatham like an A†olus. I +have read such notes from them to him, as were enough to turn his +head[667].' JOHNSON. 'True. When he whom every body else flatters, +flatters me, I then am truely happy.' MRS. THRALE. 'The sentiment is in +Congreve, I think.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Madam, in _The Way of the World_: + +"If there's delight in love, 'tis when I see + That heart which others bleed for, bleed for me[668]." + +'No, Sir, I should not be surprised though Garrick chained the ocean, +and lashed the winds.' BOSWELL. 'Should it not be, Sir, lashed the ocean +and chained the winds?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, recollect the original: + +"In Corum atque Eurum solitus saevire flagellis Barbarus, A†olio nunquam +hoc in carcere passos, Ipsum compedibus qui viscxerat Ennosigoeum[669]." + +'This does very well, when both the winds and the sea are personified, +and mentioned by their mythological names, as in Juvenal; but when they +are mentioned in plain language, the application of the epithets +suggested by me, is the most obvious; and accordingly my friend himself, +in his imitation of the passage which describes Xerxes, has + +"The waves he lashes, and enchains the wind."' + +The modes of living in different countries, and the various views with +which men travel in quest of new scenes, having been talked of, a +learned gentleman[670] who holds a considerable office in the law, +expatiated on the happiness of a savage life[671]; and mentioned an +instance of an officer who had actually lived for some time in the wilds +of America, of whom, when in that state, he quoted this reflection with +an air of admiration, as if it had been deeply philosophical: 'Here am +I, free and unrestrained, amidst the rude magnificence of Nature, with +this 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?' It did +not require much sagacity to foresee that such a sentiment would not be +permitted to pass without due animadversion. JOHNSON. 'Do not allow +yourself, Sir, 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?' + +We talked of the melancholy end of a gentleman[672] who had destroyed +himself. JOHNSON. 'It was owing to imaginary difficulties in his +affairs, which, had he talked with any friend, would soon have +vanished.' BOSWELL. 'Do you think, Sir, that all who commit suicide are +mad?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, they are often not universally disordered in their +intellects, but one passion presses so upon them, that they yield to it, +and commit suicide, as a passionate man will stab another.' He added, 'I +have often thought, that after a man has taken the resolution to kill +himself, it is not courage in him to do any thing, however desperate, +because he has nothing to fear.' GOLDSMITH. 'I don't see that.' JOHNSON. +'Nay, but my dear Sir, why should not you see what every one else sees?' +GOLDSMITH. 'It is for fear of something that he has resolved to kill +himself; and will not that timid disposition restrain him?' JOHNSON. 'It +does not signify that the fear of something made him resolve; it is upon +the state of his mind, after the resolution is taken, that I argue. +Suppose a man, either from fear, or pride, or conscience, or whatever +motive, has resolved to kill himself; when once the resolution is taken, +he has nothing to fear. He may then go and take the King of Prussia by +the nose, at the head of his army. He cannot fear the rack, who is +resolved to kill himself. When Eustace Budgel[673] was walking down to the +Thames, determined to drown himself, he might, if he pleased, without +any apprehension of danger, have turned aside, and first set fire to St. +James's palace.' + +On Tuesday, April 27, Mr. Beauclerk and I called on him in the morning. +As we walked up Johnson's-court, I said, 'I have a veneration for this +court;' and was glad to find that Beauclerk had the same reverential +enthusiasm[674]. We found him alone. We talked of Mr. Andrew Stuart's +elegant and plausible Letters to Lord Mansfield[675]: a copy of which had +been sent by the authour to Dr. Johnson. JOHNSON. 'They have not +answered the end. They have not been talked of; I have never heard of +them. This is owing to their not being sold. People seldom read a book +which is given to them; and few are given. The way to spread a work is +to sell it at a low price. No man will send to buy a thing that costs +even sixpence, without an intention to read it.' BOSWELL. 'May it not be +doubted, Sir, whether it be proper to publish letters, arraigning the +ultimate decision of an important cause by the supreme judicature of the +nation?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, I do not think it was wrong to publish these +letters. If they are thought to do harm, why not answer them? But they +will do no harm; if Mr. Douglas be indeed the son of Lady Jane, he +cannot be hurt: if he be not her son, and yet has the great estate of +the family of Douglas, he may well submit to have a pamphlet against him +by Andrew Stuart. Sir, I think such a publication does good, as it does +good to show us the possibilities of human life. And Sir, you will not +say that the Douglas cause was a cause of easy decision, when it divided +your Court as much as it could do, to be determined at all. When your +Judges were seven and seven, the casting vote of the President must be +given on one side or other: no matter, for my argument, on which; one or +the other _must_ be taken: as when I am to move, there is no matter +which leg I move first. And then, Sir, it was otherwise determined here. +No, Sir, a more dubious determination of any question cannot be +imagined[676].' + +He said, 'Goldsmith should not be for ever attempting to shine in +conversation: he has not temper for it, he is so much mortified when he +fails. Sir, a game of jokes is composed partly of skill, partly of +chance, a man may be beat at times by one who has not the tenth part of +his wit. Now Goldsmith's putting himself against another, is like a man +laying a hundred to one who cannot spare the hundred. It is not worth a +man's while. A man should not lay a hundred to one, unless he can easily +spare it, though he has a hundred chances for him: he can get but a +guinea, and he may lose a hundred. Goldsmith is in this state. When he +contends, if he gets the better, it is a very little addition to a man +of his literary reputation: if he does not get the better, he is +miserably vexed.' + +Johnson's own superlative powers of wit set him above any risk of such +uneasiness. Garrick had remarked to me of him, a few days before, +'Rabelais and all other wits are nothing compared with him. You may be +diverted by them; but Johnson gives you a forcible hug, and shakes +laughter out of you, whether you will or no.' + +Goldsmith, however, was often very fortunate in his witty contests, even +when he entered the lists with Johnson himself. Sir Joshua Reynolds was +in company with them one day, when Goldsmith said, that he thought he +could write a good fable, mentioned the simplicity which that kind of +composition requires, and observed, that in most fables the animals +introduced seldom talk in character. 'For instance, (said he,) the fable +of the little fishes, who saw birds fly over their heads, and envying +them, petitioned Jupiter to be changed into birds. The skill (continued +he,) consists in making them talk like little fishes.' While he indulged +himself in this fanciful reverie, he observed Johnson shaking his sides, +and laughing. Upon which he smartly proceeded, 'Why, Dr. Johnson, this +is not so easy as you seem to think; for if you were to make little +fishes talk, they would talk like WHALES.' + +Johnson, though remarkable for his great variety of composition, never +exercised his talents in fable, except we allow his beautiful tale[677] +published in Mrs. Williams's _Miscellanies_[678] to be of that species. I +have, however, found among his manuscript collections the following +sketch of one: + +'Glow-worm[679] lying in the garden saw a candle in a neighbouring +palace,--and complained of the littleness of his own light;--another +observed--wait a little;--soon dark,--have outlasted [Greek: poll] +[_many_] of these glaring lights which are only brighter as they haste +to nothing.' + +On Thursday, April 29, I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's, where +were Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Langton, Dr. Goldsmith, and Mr. Thrale. I +was very desirous to get Dr. Johnson absolutely fixed in his resolution +to go with me to the Hebrides this year; and I told him that I had +received a letter from Dr. Robertson the historian, upon the subject, +with which he was much pleased; and now talked in such a manner of his +long-intended tour, that I was satisfied he meant to fulfil his +engagement. + +The custom of eating dogs at Otaheite being mentioned, Goldsmith +observed, that this was also a custom in China; that a dog-butcher is as +common there as any other butcher; and that when he walks abroad all the +dogs fall on him. JOHNSON. 'That is not owing to his killing dogs, Sir. +I remember a butcher at Lichfield, whom a dog that was in the house +where I lived, always attacked. It is the smell of carnage which +provokes this, let the animals he has killed be what they may.' +GOLDSMITH. 'Yes, there is a general abhorrence in animals at the signs +of massacre. If you put a tub full of blood into a stable, the horses +are like to go mad.' JOHNSON. 'I doubt that.' GOLDSMITH. 'Nay, Sir, it +is a fact well authenticated.' THRALE. 'You had better prove it before +you put it into your book on natural history. You may do it in my stable +if you will.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, I would not have him prove it. If he +is content to take his information from others, he may get through his +book with little trouble, and without much endangering his reputation. +But if he makes experiments for so comprehensive a book as his, there +would be no end to them: his erroneous assertions would then fall upon +himself, and he might be blamed for not having made experiments as to +every particular.' + +The character of Mallet having been introduced, and spoken of +slightingly by Goldsmith; JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, Mallet had talents enough +to keep his literary reputation alive as long as he himself lived[680]; +and that, let me tell you, is a good deal.' GOLDSMITH. 'But I cannot +agree that it was so. His literary reputation was dead long before his +natural death. I consider an authour's literary reputation to be alive +only while his name will ensure a good price for his copy from the +booksellers. I will get you (to Johnson,) a hundred guineas for any +thing whatever that you shall write, if you put your name to it[681].' + +Dr. Goldmith's new play, _She Stoops to Conquer_, being mentioned; +JOHNSON. 'I know of no comedy for many years that has so much +exhilarated an audience, that has answered so much the great end of +comedy--making an audience merry[682].' + +Goldsmith having said, that Garrick's compliment to the Queen, which he +introduced into the play of _The Chances_[683], which he had altered and +revised this year, was mean and gross flattery;--JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I +would not _write_, I would not give solemnly under my hand, a character +beyond what I thought really true; but a speech on the stage, let it +flatter ever so extravagantly, is formular[684]. It has always been +formular to flatter Kings and Queens; so much so, that even in our +church-service we have "our most religious King," used indiscriminately, +whoever is King. Nay, they even flatter themselves;--"we have been +graciously pleased to grant." No modern flattery, however, is so gross +as that of the Augustan age, where the Emperour was deified. "_Praesens +Divus habebitur Augustus_[685]." And as to meanness, (rising into warmth,) +how is it mean in a player,--a showman,--a fellow who exhibits himself +for a shilling, to flatter his Queen[686]? The attempt, indeed, was +dangerous; for if it had missed, what became of Garrick, and what became +of the Queen? As Sir William Temple says of a great General, it is +necessary not only that his designs be formed in a masterly manner, but +that they should be attended with success[687]. Sir, it is right, at a +time when the Royal Family is not generally liked[688], to let it be seen +that the people like at least one of them.' SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 'I do +not perceive why the profession of a player should be despised[689]; for +the great and ultimate end of all the employments of mankind is to +produce amusement. Garrick produces more amusement than any body.' +BOSWELL. 'You say, Dr. Johnson, that Garrick exhibits himself for a +shilling. In this respect he is only on a footing with a lawyer who +exhibits himself for his fee, and even will maintain any nonsense or +absurdity, if the case requires it. Garrick refuses a play or a part +which he does not like; a lawyer never refuses.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, +what does this prove? only that a lawyer is worse. Boswell is now like +Jack in _The Tale of a Tub_[690], who, when he is puzzled by an argument, +hangs himself. He thinks I shall cut him down, but I'll let him hang' +(laughing vociferously). SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 'Mr. Boswell thinks that +the profession of a lawyer being unquestionably honourable, if he can +show the profession of a player to be more honourable, he proves his +argument.' + +On Friday, April 30, I dined with him at Mr. Beauclerk's, where were +Lord Charlemont, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and some more members of the +LITERARY CLUB, whom he had obligingly invited to meet me, as I was this +evening to be balloted for as candidate for admission into that +distinguished society. Johnson had done me the honour to propose me[691], +and Beauclerk was very zealous for me. + +Goldsmith being mentioned; JOHNSON. 'It is amazing how little Goldsmith +knows. He seldom comes where he is not more ignorant than any one else.' +SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 'Yet there is no man whose company is more liked.' +JOHNSON. 'To be sure, Sir. When people find a man of the most +distinguished abilities as a writer, their inferiour while he is with +them, it must be highly gratifying to them. What Goldsmith comically +says of himself is very true,--he always gets the better when he argues +alone; meaning, that he is master of a subject in his study, and can +write well upon it; but when he comes into company, grows confused, and +unable to talk[692]. Take him as a poet, his _Traveller_ is a very fine +performance; ay, and so is his _Deserted Village_, were it not sometimes +too much the echo of his _Traveller_. Whether, indeed, we take him as a +poet,--as a comick writer,--or as an historian, he stands in the first +class.' BOSWELL. 'An historian! My dear Sir, you surely will not rank +his compilation of the Roman History with the works of other historians +of this age?' JOHNSON. 'Why, who are before him[693]?' BOSWELL. 'Hume,-- +Robertson[694],--Lord Lyttelton.' JOHNSON (his antipathy to the Scotch +beginning to rise). 'I have not read Hume; but, doubtless, Goldsmith's +_History_ is better than the _verbiage_ of Robertson[695], or the foppery +of Dalrymple[696].' BOSWELL. 'Will you not admit the superiority of +Robertson, in whose _History_ we find such penetration--such painting?' +JOHNSON. 'Sir, you must consider how that penetration and that painting +are employed. It is not history, it is imagination. He who describes +what he never saw, draws from fancy. Robertson paints minds as Sir +Joshua paints faces in a history-piece: he imagines an heroic +countenance. You must look upon Robertson's work as romance, and try it +by that standard[697].History it is not. Besides, Sir, it is the great +excellence of a writer to put into his book as much as his book will +hold. Goldsmith has done this in his _History_. Now Robertson might have +put twice as much into his book. Robertson is like a man who has packed +gold in wool: the wool takes up more room than the gold. No, Sir; I +always thought Robertson would be crushed by his own weight,--would be +buried under his own ornaments. Goldsmith tells you shortly all you want +to know: Robertson detains you a great deal too long. No man will read +Robertson's cumbrous detail a second time; but Goldsmith's plain +narrative will please again and again. I would say to Robertson what an +old tutor of a college said to one of his pupils: "Read over your +compositions, and where ever you meet with a passage which you think is +particularly fine, strike it out." Goldsmith's abridgement is better +than that of Lucius Florus or Eutropius; and I will venture to say, that +if you compare him with Vertot[698], in the same places of the Roman +History, you will find that he excels Vertot. Sir, he has the art of +compiling, and of saying every thing he has to say in a pleasing +manner[699]. He is now writing a Natural History and will make it as +entertaining as a Persian Tale.' + +I cannot dismiss the present topick without observing, that it is +probable that Dr. Johnson, who owned that he often 'talked for victory,' +rather urged plausible objections to Dr. Robertson's excellent +historical works, in the ardour of contest, than expressed his real and +decided opinion; for it is not easy to suppose, that he should so widely +differ from the rest of the literary world[700]. + +JOHNSON. 'I remember once being with Goldsmith in Westminster-abbey. +While we surveyed the Poets' Corner, I said to him, + +"_Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis_[701]." + +When we got to Temple-bar he stopped me, pointed to the heads upon +it[702], and slily whispered me, + +"_Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur_ ISTIS[703]."'. + +Johnson praised John Bunyan highly. 'His _Pilgrim's Progress_ has great +merit, both for invention, imagination, and the conduct of the story; +and it has had the best evidence of its merit, the general and continued +approbation of mankind. Few books, I believe, have had a more extensive +sale. It is remarkable, that it begins very much like the poem of Dante; +yet there was no translation of Dante when Bunyan wrote. There is reason +to think that he had read Spenser[704].' + +A proposition which had been agitated, that monuments to eminent persons +should, for the time to come, be erected in St. Paul's church as well as +in Westminster-abbey, was mentioned; and it was asked, who should be +honoured by having his monument first erected there[705]. Somebody +suggested Pope. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, as Pope was a Roman Catholick, I +would not have his to be first. I think Milton's rather should have the +precedence[706]. I think more highly of him now than I did at twenty[707]. +There is more thinking in him and in Butler, than in any of our poets.' + +Some of the company expressed a wonder why the authour of so excellent a +book as _The Whole Duty of Man_[708] should conceal himself. JOHNSON. +'There may be different reasons assigned for this, any one of which +would be very sufficient. He may have been a clergyman, and may have +thought that his religious counsels would have less weight when known to +come from a man whose profession was Theology. He may have been a man +whose practice was not suitable to his principles, so that his character +might injure the effect of his book, which he had written in a season of +penitence. Or he may have been a man of rigid self-denial, so that he +would have no reward for his pious labours while in this world, but +refer it all to a future state.' + +The gentlemen went away to their club, and I was left at Beauclerk's +till the fate of my election should be announced to me. I sat in a state +of anxiety which even the charming conversation of Lady Di Beauclerk +could not entirely dissipate. In a short time I received the agreeable +intelligence that I was chosen[709]. I hastened to the place of meeting, +and was introduced to such a society as can seldom be found. Mr. Edmund +Burke, whom I then saw for the first time, and whose splendid talents +had long made me ardently wish for his acquaintance; Dr. Nugent, Mr. +Garrick, Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Jones[710], and the +company with whom I had dined. Upon my entrance, Johnson placed himself +behind a chair, on which he leaned as on a desk or pulpit, and with +humorous formality gave me a _Charge_, pointing out the conduct expected +from me as a good member of this club. + +Goldsmith produced some very absurd verses which had been publickly +recited to an audience for money[711]. JOHNSON. 'I can match this +nonsense. There was a poem called _Eugenio_, which came out some years +ago, and concludes thus: + +"And now, ye trifling, self-assuming elves, + Brimful of pride, of nothing, of yourselves, + Survey Eugenio, view him o'er and o'er, + Then sink into yourselves, and be no more[712]." + +'Nay, Dryden in his poem on the Royal Society[713], has these lines: + +"Then we upon our globe's last verge shall go, + And see the ocean leaning on the sky; + From thence our rolling neighbours we shall know, + And on the lunar world securely pry."' + +Talking of puns, Johnson, who had a great contempt for that species of +wit[714], deigned to allow that there was one good pun in _Menagiana_, I +think on the word _corps_[715]. + +Much pleasant conversation passed, which Johnson relished with great +good humour. But his conversation alone, or what led to it, or was +interwoven with it, is the business of this work[716]. + +On Saturday, May 1, we dined by ourselves at our old rendezvous, the +Mitre tavern. He was placid, but not much disposed to talk. He observed +that 'The Irish mix better with the English than the Scotch do; their +language is nearer to English; as a proof of which, they succeed very +well as players, which Scotchmen do not. Then, Sir, they have not that +extreme nationality which we find in the Scotch. I will do you, Boswell, +the justice to say, that you are the most _unscottified_ of your +countrymen. You are almost the only instance of a Scotchman that I have +known, who did not at every other sentence bring in some other +Scotchman[717].' + +We drank tea with Mrs. Williams. I introduced a question which has been +much agitated in the Church of Scotland, whether the claim of +lay-patrons to present ministers to parishes be well founded; and +supposing it to be well founded, whether it ought to be exercised +without the concurrence of the people? That Church is composed of a +series of judicatures: a Presbytery, a Synod, and finally, a General +Assembly; before all of which, this matter may be contended: and in some +cases the Presbytery having refused to induct or _settle_, as they call +it, the person presented by the patron, it has been found necessary to +appeal to the General Assembly. He said, I might see the subject well +treated in the _Defence of Pluralities_[718]; and although he thought that +a patron should exercise his right with tenderness to the inclinations +of the people of a parish, he was very clear as to his right. Then +supposing the question to be pleaded before the General Assembly, he +dictated to me what follows: + +'Against the right of patrons is commonly opposed, by the inferiour +judicatures, the plea of conscience. Their conscience tells them, that +the people ought to choose their pastor; their conscience tells them +that they ought not to impose upon a congregation a minister ungrateful +and unacceptable to his auditors. Conscience is nothing more than a +conviction felt by ourselves of something to be done, or something to be +avoided; and in questions of simple unperplexed morality, conscience is +very often a guide that may be trusted. But before conscience can +determine, the state of the question is supposed to be completely known. +In questions of law, or of fact, conscience is very often confounded +with opinion. No man's conscience can tell him the right of another +man[719]; they must be known by rational investigation or historical +enquiry. Opinion, which he that holds it may call his conscience, may +teach some men that religion would be promoted, and quiet preserved, by +granting to the people universally the choice of their ministers. But it +is a conscience very ill informed that violates the rights of one man, +for the convenience of another. Religion cannot be promoted by +injustice: and it was never yet found that a popular election was very +quietly transacted. + +'That justice would be violated by transferring to the people the right +of patronage, is apparent to all who know whence that right had its +original. The right of patronage was not at first a privilege torn by +power from unresisting poverty. It is not an authority at first usurped +in times of ignorance, and established only by succession and by +precedents. It is not a grant capriciously made from a higher tyrant to +a lower. It is a right dearly purchased by the first possessors, and +justly inherited by those that succeeded them. When Christianity was +established in this island, a regular mode of publick worship was +prescribed. Publick worship requires a publick place; and the +proprietors of lands, as they were converted, built churches for their +families and their vassals. For the maintenance of ministers, they +settled a certain portion of their lands; and a district, through which +each minister was required to extend his care, was, by that +circumscription, constituted a parish. This is a position so generally +received in England, that the extent of a manor and of a parish are +regularly received for each other. The churches which the proprietors of +lands had thus built and thus endowed, they justly thought themselves +entitled to provide with ministers; and where the episcopal government +prevails, the Bishop has no power to reject a man nominated by the +patron, but for some crime that might exclude him from the priesthood. +For the endowment of the church being the gift of the landlord, he was +consequently at liberty to give it according to his choice, to any man +capable of performing the holy offices. The people did not choose him, +because the people did not pay him. + +'We hear it sometimes urged, that this original right is passed out of +memory, and is obliterated and obscured by many translations of property +and changes of government; that scarce any church is now in the hands of +the heirs of the builders; and that the present persons have entered +subsequently upon the pretended rights by a thousand accidental and +unknown causes. Much of this, perhaps, is true. But how is the right of +patronage extinguished? If the right followed the lands, it is possessed +by the same equity by which the lands are possessed. It is, in effect, +part of the manor, and protected by the same laws with every other +privilege. Let us suppose an estate forfeited by treason, and granted by +the Crown to a new family. With the lands were forfeited all the rights +appendant to those lands; by the same power that grants the lands, the +rights also are granted. The right lost to the patron falls not to the +people, but is either retained by the Crown, or what to the people is +the same thing, is by the Crown given away. Let it change hands ever so +often, it is possessed by him that receives it with the same right as it +was conveyed. It may, indeed, like all our possessions, be forcibly +seized or fraudulently obtained. But no injury is still done to the +people; for what they never had, they have never lost. Caius may usurp +the right of Titius; but neither Caius nor Titius injure the people; and +no man's conscience, however tender or however active, can prompt him to +restore what may be proved to have been never taken away. Supposing, +what I think cannot be proved, that a popular election of ministers were +to be desired, our desires are not the measure of equity. It were to be +desired that power should be only in the hands of the merciful, and +riches in the possession of the generous; but the law must leave both +riches and power where it finds them: and must often leave riches with +the covetous, and power with the cruel. Convenience may be a rule in +little things, where no other rule has been established. But as the +great end of government is to give every man his own, no inconvenience +is greater than that of making right uncertain. Nor is any man more an +enemy to publick peace, than he who fills weak heads with imaginary +claims, and breaks the series of civil subordination, by inciting the +lower classes of mankind to encroach upon the higher. + +'Having thus shown that the right of patronage, being originally +purchased, may be legally transferred, and that it is now in the hands +of lawful possessors, at least as certainly as any other right;--we have +left to the advocates of the people no other plea than that of +convenience. Let us, therefore, now consider what the people would +really gain by a general abolition of the right of patronage. What is +most to be desired by such a change is, that the country should be +supplied with better ministers. But why should we suppose that the +parish will make a wiser choice than the patron? If we suppose mankind +actuated by interest, the patron is more likely to choose with caution, +because he will suffer more by choosing wrong. By the deficiencies of +his minister, or by his vices, he is equally offended with the rest of +the congregation; but he will have this reason more to lament them, that +they will be imputed to his absurdity or corruption. The qualifications +of a minister are well known to be learning and piety. Of his learning +the patron is probably the only judge in the parish; and of his piety +not less a judge than others; and is more likely to enquire minutely and +diligently before he gives a presentation, than one of the parochial +rabble, who can give nothing but a vote. It may be urged, that though +the parish might not choose better ministers, they would at least choose +ministers whom they like better, and who would therefore officiate with +greater efficacy. That ignorance and perverseness should always obtain +what they like, was never considered as the end of government; of which +it is the great and standing benefit, that the wise see for the simple, +and the regular act for the capricious. But that this argument supposes +the people capable of judging, and resolute to act according to their +best judgments, though this be sufficiently absurd, it is not all its +absurdity. It supposes not only wisdom, but unanimity in those, who upon +no other occasions are unanimous or wise. If by some strange concurrence +all the voices of a parish should unite in the choice of any single man, +though I could not charge the patron with injustice for presenting a +minister, I should censure him as unkind and injudicious. But, it is +evident, that as in all other popular elections there will be +contrariety of judgment and acrimony of passion, a parish upon every +vacancy would break into factions, and the contest for the choice of a +minister would set neighbours at variance, and bring discord into +families. The minister would be taught all the arts of a candidate, +would flatter some, and bribe others; and the electors, as in all other +cases, would call for holidays and ale, and break the heads of each +other during the jollity of the canvas. The time must, however, come at +last, when one of the factions must prevail, and one of the ministers +get possession of the church. On what terms does he enter upon his +ministry but those of enmity with half his parish? By what prudence or +what diligence can he hope to conciliate the affections of that party by +whose defeat he has obtained his living? Every man who voted against him +will enter the church with hanging head and downcast eyes, afraid to +encounter that neighbour by whose vote and influence he has been +overpowered. He will hate his neighbour for opposing him, and his +minister for having prospered by the opposition; and as he will never +see him but with pain, he will never see him but with hatred. Of a +minister presented by the patron, the parish has seldom any thing worse +to say than that they do not know him. Of a minister chosen by a popular +contest, all those who do not favour him, have nursed up in their bosoms +principles of hatred and reasons of rejection. Anger is excited +principally by pride. The pride of a common man is very little +exasperated by the supposed usurpation of an acknowledged superiour. He +bears only his little share of a general evil, and suffers in common +with the whole parish; but when the contest is between equals, the +defeat has many aggravations; and he that is defeated by his next +neighbour, is seldom satisfied without some revenge; and it is hard to +say what bitterness of malignity would prevail in a parish where these +elections should happen to be frequent, and the enmity of opposition +should be re-kindled before it had cooled.' + +Though I present to my readers Dr. Johnson's masterly thoughts on the +subject, I think it proper to declare, that notwithstanding I am myself +a lay patron, I do not entirely subscribe to his opinion. + +On Friday, May 7, I breakfasted with him at Mr. Thrale's in the Borough. +While we were alone, I endeavoured as well as I could to apologise for a +lady[720] who had been divorced from her husband by act of Parliament. I +said, that he had used her very ill, had behaved brutally to her, and +that she could not continue to live with him without having her delicacy +contaminated; that all affection for him was thus destroyed; that the +essence of conjugal union being gone, there remained only a cold form, a +mere civil obligation; that she was in the prime of life, with qualities +to produce happiness; that these ought not to be lost; and, that the +gentleman on whose account she was divorced had gained her heart while +thus unhappily situated. Seduced, perhaps, by the charms of the lady in +question, I thus attempted to palliate what I was sensible could not be +justified; for when I had finished my harangue, my venerable friend gave +me a proper check: 'My dear Sir, never accustom your mind to mingle +virtue and vice. The woman's a whore, and there's an end on't.' + +He described the father[721] of one of his friends thus: 'Sir, he was so +exuberant a talker at publick meeting, that the gentlemen of his county +were afraid of him. No business could be done for his declamation.' + +He did not give me full credit when I mentioned that I had carried on a +short conversation by signs with some Esquimaux who were then in London, +particularly with one of them who was a priest. He thought I could not +make them understand me. No man was more incredulous as to particular +facts, which were at all extraordinary[722]; and therefore no man was more +scrupulously inquisitive, in order to discover the truth. + +I dined with him this day at the house of my friends, Messieurs Edward +and Charles Dilly[723], booksellers in the Poultry: there were present, +their elder brother Mr. Dilly of Bedfordshire, Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. +Langton, Mr. Claxton, Reverend Dr. Mayo a dissenting minister, the +Reverend Mr. Toplady[724], and my friend the Reverend Mr. Temple. + +Hawkesworth's compilation of the voyages to the South Sea being +mentioned;--JOHNSON. 'Sir, if you talk of it as a subject of commerce, +it will be gainful[725]; if as a book that is to increase human knowledge, +I believe there will not be much of that. Hawkesworth can tell only what +the voyagers have told him; and they have found very little, only one +new animal, I think.' BOSWELL. 'But many insects, Sir.' JOHNSON. 'Why, +Sir, as to insects, Ray reckons of British insects twenty thousand +species. They might have staid at home and discovered enough in that +way.' + +Talking of birds, I mentioned Mr. Daines Barrington's ingenious Essay +against the received notion of their migration. JOHNSON. 'I think we +have as good evidence for the migration of woodcocks as can be desired. +We find they disappear at a certain time of the year, and appear again +at a certain time of the year; and some of them, when weary in their +flight, have been known to alight on the rigging of ships far out at +sea.' One of the company observed, that there had been instances of some +of them found in summer in Essex. JOHNSON. 'Sir, that strengthens our +argument. _Exceptio probat regulam_. Some being found shews, that, if +all remained, many would be found. A few sick or lame ones may be +found.' GOLDSMITH. 'There is a partial migration of the swallows; the +stronger ones migrate, the others do not[726].' + +BOSWELL. 'I am well assured that the people of Otaheite who have the +bread tree, the fruit of which serves them for bread, laughed heartily +when they were informed of the tedious process necessary with us to have +bread;--plowing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, threshing, grinding, +baking.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, all ignorant savages will laugh when they +are told of the advantages of civilized life. Were you to tell men who +live without houses, how we pile brick upon brick, and rafter upon +rafter, and that after a house is raised to a certain height, a man +tumbles off a scaffold, and breaks his neck; he would laugh heartily at +our folly in building; but it does not follow that men are better +without houses. No, Sir, (holding up a slice of a good loaf,) this is +better than the bread tree[727].' + +He repeated an argument, which is to be found in his _Rambler_[728], +against the notion that the brute creation is endowed with the faculty +of reason: 'birds build by instinct; they never improve; they build +their first nest as well as any one they ever build.' GOLDSMITH. 'Yet we +see if you take away a bird's nest with the eggs in it, she will make a +slighter nest and lay again.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, that is because at first +she has full time and makes her nest deliberately. In the case you +mention she is pressed to lay, and must therefore make her nest quickly, +and consequently it will be slight.' GOLDSMITH. 'The identification of +birds is what is least known in natural history, though one of the most +curious things in it.' + +I introduced the subject of toleration[729]. JOHNSON. 'Every society has a +right to preserve publick peace and order, and therefore has a good +right to prohibit the propagation of opinions which have a dangerous +tendency. To say the _magistrate_ has this right, is using an inadequate +word: it is the _society_ for which the magistrate is agent. He may be +morally or theologically wrong in restraining the propagation of +opinions which he thinks dangerous, but he is politically right.' MAYO. +'I am of opinion, Sir, that every man is entitled to liberty of +conscience in religion; and that the magistrate cannot restrain that +right.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I agree with you. Every man has a right to +liberty of conscience, and with that the magistrate cannot interfere. +People confound liberty of thinking with liberty of talking; nay, with +liberty of preaching. Every man has a physical right to think as he +pleases; for it cannot be discovered how he thinks. He has not a moral +right, for he ought to inform himself, and think justly. But, Sir, no +member of a society has a right to _teach_ any doctrine contrary to what +the society holds to be true. The magistrate, I say, may be wrong in +what he thinks: but while he thinks himself right, he may and ought to +enforce what he thinks[730].' MAYO. 'Then, Sir, we are to remain always in +errour, and truth never can prevail; and the magistrate was right in +persecuting the first Christians.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, the only method by +which religious truth can be established is by martyrdom. The magistrate +has a right to enforce what he thinks; and he who is conscious of the +truth has a right to suffer. I am afraid there is no other way of +ascertaining the truth, but by persecution on the one hand and enduring +it on the other[731].' GOLDSMITH. 'But how is a man to act, Sir? Though +firmly convinced of the truth of his doctrine, may he not think it wrong +to expose himself to persecution? Has he a right to do so? Is it not, as +it were, committing voluntary suicide?' JOHNSON. 'Sir, as to voluntary +suicide, as you call it, there are twenty thousand men in an army who +will go without scruple to be shot at, and mount a breach for five-pence +a day.' GOLDSMITH. 'But have they a moral right to do this?' JOHNSON. +'Nay, Sir, if you will not take the universal opinion of mankind, I have +nothing to say. If mankind cannot defend their own way of thinking, I +cannot defend it. Sir, if a man is in doubt whether it would be better +for him to expose himself to martyrdom or not, he should not do it. He +must be convinced that he has a delegation from heaven.' GOLDSMITH. 'I +would consider whether there is the greater chance of good or evil upon +the whole. If I see a man who had fallen into a well, I would wish to +help him out; but if there is a greater probability that he shall pull +me in, than that I shall pull him out, I would not attempt it. So were I +to go to Turkey, I might wish to convert the Grand Signor to the +Christian faith; but when I considered that I should probably be put to +death without effectuating my purpose in any degree, I should keep +myself quiet.' JOHNSON. 'Sir you must consider that we have perfect and +imperfect obligations. Perfect obligations, which are generally not to +do something, are clear and positive; as, 'thou shalt not kill.' But +charity, for instance, is not definable by limits. It is a duty to give +to the poor; but no man can say how much another should give to the +poor, or when a man has given too little to save his soul. In the same +manner it is a duty to instruct the ignorant, and of consequence to +convert infidels to Christianity; but no man in the common course of +things is obliged to carry this to such a degree as to incur the danger +of martyrdom, as no man is obliged to strip himself to the shirt in +order to give charity. I have said, that a man must be persuaded that he +has a particular delegation from heaven.' GOLDSMITH. 'How is this to be +known? Our first reformers, who were burnt for not believing bread and +wine to be CHRIST'--JOHNSON, (interrupting him,) 'Sir, they were not +burnt for not believing bread and wine to be CHRIST, but for insulting +those who did believe it. And, Sir, when the first reformers began, they +did not intend to be martyred: as many of them ran away as could.' +BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, there was your countryman, Elwal[732], who you told me +challenged King George with his black-guards, and his red-guards.' +JOHNSON. 'My countryman, Elwal, Sir, should have been put in the stocks; +a proper pulpit for him; and he'd have had a numerous audience. A man +who preaches in the stocks will always have hearers enough.' BOSWELL. +'But Elwal thought himself in the right.' JOHNSON. 'We are not providing +for mad people; there are places for them in the neighbourhood' (meaning +Moorfields). MAYO. 'But, Sir, is it not very hard that I should not be +allowed to teach my children what I really believe to be the truth?' +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you might contrive to teach your children _extrA +scandalum_; but, Sir, the magistrate, if he knows it, has a right to +restrain you. Suppose you teach your children to be thieves?' MAYO. +'This is making a joke of the subject.' JOHNSON.' 'Nay, Sir, take it +thus:--that you teach them the community of goods; for which there are +as many plausible arguments as for most erroneous doctrines. You teach +them that all things at first were in common, and that no man had a +right to any thing but as he laid his hands upon it; and that this still +is, or ought to be, the rule amongst mankind. Here, Sir, you sap a great +principle in society,--property. And don't you think the magistrate +would have a right to prevent you? Or, suppose you should teach your +children the notion of the Adamites, and they should run naked into the +streets, would not the magistrate have a right to flog 'em into their +doublets?' MAYO. 'I think the magistrate has no right to interfere till +there is some overt act.' BOSWELL. 'So, Sir, though he sees an enemy to +the state charging a blunderbuss, he is not to interfere till it is +fired off?' MAYO. 'He must be sure of its direction against the state.' +JOHNSON. 'The magistrate is to judge of that.--He has no right to +restrain your thinking, because the evil centers in yourself. If a man +were sitting at this table, and chopping off his fingers, the +magistrate, as guardian of the community, has no authority to restrain +him, however he might do it from kindness as a parent.--Though, indeed, +upon more consideration, I think he may; as it is probable, that he who +is chopping off his own fingers, may soon proceed to chop off those of +other people. If I think it right to steal Mr. Dilly's plate, I am a bad +man; but he can say nothing to me. If I make an open declaration that I +think so, he will keep me out of his house. If I put forth my hand, I +shall be sent to Newgate. This is the gradation of thinking, preaching, +and acting: if a man thinks erroneously, he may keep his thoughts to +himself, and nobody will trouble him; if he preaches erroneous doctrine, +society may expel him; if he acts in consequence of it, the law takes +place, and he is hanged[733].' MAYO. 'But, Sir, ought not Christians to +have liberty of conscience?' JOHNSON. 'I have already told you so, Sir. +You are coming back to where you were,' BOSWELL. 'Dr. Mayo is always +taking a return post-chaise, and going the stage over again. He has it +at half price.' JOHNSON. 'Dr. Mayo, like other champions for unlimited +toleration, has got a set of words[734]. Sir, it is no matter, +politically, whether the magistrate be right or wrong. Suppose a club +were to be formed, to drink confusion to King George the Third, and a +happy restoration to Charles the Third[735], this would be very bad with +respect to the State; but every member of that club must either conform +to its rules, or be turned out of it. Old Baxter, I remember, maintains, +that the magistrate should "tolerate all things that are tolerable." +This is no good definition of toleration upon any principle; but it +shews that he thought some things were not tolerable.' TOPLADY. 'Sir, +you have untwisted this difficult subject with great dexterity[736].' + +During this argument, Goldsmith sat in restless agitation, from a wish +to get in and _shine_[737]. Finding himself excluded, he had taken his hat +to go away[738], but remained for some time with it in his hand, like a +gamester, who at the close of a long night, lingers for a little while, +to see if he can have a favourable opening to finish with success. Once +when he was beginning to speak, he found himself overpowered by the loud +voice of Johnson, who was at the opposite end of the table, and did not +perceive Goldsmith's attempt. Thus disappointed of his wish to obtain +the attention of the company, Goldsmith in a passion threw down his hat, +looking angrily at Johnson, and exclaiming in a bitter tone, '_Take +it_.' When Toplady was going to speak, Johnson uttered some sound, which +led Goldsmith to think that he was beginning again, and taking the words +from Toplady. Upon which, he seized this opportunity of venting his own +envy and spleen, under the pretext of supporting another person: 'Sir, +(said he to Johnson,) the gentleman has heard you patiently for an hour; +pray allow us now to hear him[739].' JOHNSON. (sternly,) 'Sir, I was not +interrupting the gentleman. I was only giving him a signal of my +attention. Sir, you are impertinent.' Goldsmith made no reply, but +continued in the company for some time. + +A gentleman present[740] ventured to ask Dr. Johnson if there was not a +material difference as to toleration of opinions which lead to action, +and opinions merely speculative; for instance, would it be wrong in the +magistrate to tolerate those who preach against the doctrine of the +TRINITY? Johnson was highly offended, and said, 'I wonder, Sir, how a +gentleman of your piety can introduce this subject in a mixed company.' +He told me afterwards, that the impropriety was, that perhaps some of +the company might have talked on the subject in such terms as might have +shocked him[741]; or he might have been forced to appear in their eyes a +narrow-minded man. The gentleman, with submissive deference, said, he +had only hinted at the question from a desire to hear Dr. Johnson's +opinion upon it. JOHNSON. 'Why then, Sir, I think that permitting men to +preach any opinion contrary to the doctrine of the established church +tends, in a certain degree, to lessen the authority of the church, and +consequently, to lessen the influence of religion.' 'It may be +considered, (said the gentleman,) whether it would not be politick to +tolerate in such a case.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, we have been talking of +_right_: this is another question. I think it is _not_ politick to +tolerate in such a case.' + +Though he did not think it fit that so aweful a subject should be +introduced in a mixed company, and therefore at this time waved the +theological question; yet his own orthodox belief in the sacred mystery +of the TRINITY is evinced beyond doubt, by the following passage in his +private devotions: + +'O LORD, hear my prayer [prayers], for JESUS CHRIST'S sake; to whom with +thee and the HOLY GHOST, _three persons and one_ GOD, be all honour and +glory, world without end, Amen[742].' + +BOSWELL. 'Pray, Mr. Dilly, how does Dr. Leland's[743] _History of Ireland_ +sell?' JOHNSON, (bursting forth with a generous indignation,) 'The Irish +are in a most unnatural state; for we see there the minority prevailing +over the majority[744]. There is no instance, even in the ten +persecutions[745], of such severity as that which the protestants of +Ireland have exercised against the Catholicks. Did we tell them we have +conquered them, it would be above board: to punish them by confiscation +and other penalties, as rebels, was monstrous injustice[746]. King William +was not their lawful sovereign: he had not been acknowledged by the +Parliament of Ireland, when they appeared in arms against him.' + +I here suggested something favourable of the Roman Catholicks. TOPLADY. +'Does not their invocation of saints suppose omnipresence in the +saints?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; it supposes only pluri-presence, and when +spirits are divested of matter, it seems probable that they should see +with more extent than when in an embodied state. There is, therefore, no +approach to an invasion of any of the divine attributes, in the +invocation of saints. But I think it is will-worship, and presumption. I +see no command for it, and therefore think it is safer not to practise +it[747].' + +He and Mr. Langton and I went together to THE CLUB, where we found Mr. +Burke, Mr. Garrick, and some other members, and amongst them our friend +Goldsmith, who sat silently brooding over Johnson's reprimand to him +after dinner. Johnson perceived this, and said aside to some of us, +'I'll make Goldsmith forgive me;' and then called to him in a loud +voice, 'Dr. Goldsmith,--something passed to-day where you and I dined; I +ask your pardon[748].' Goldsmith answered placidly, 'It must be much from +you, Sir, that I take ill.' And so at once the difference was over, and +they were on as easy terms as ever, and Goldsmith rattled away as +usual[749]. + +In our way to the club to-night, when I regretted that Goldsmith would, +upon every occasion, endeavour to shine, by which he often exposed +himself, Mr. Langton observed, that he was not like Addison, who was +content with the fame of his writings, and did not aim also at +excellency in conversation, for which he found himself unfit; and that +he said to a lady who complained of his having talked little in company, +'Madam, I have but nine-pence in ready money, but I can draw for a +thousand pound[750].' I observed, that Goldsmith had a great deal of gold +in his cabinet, but, not content with that, was always taking out his +purse. JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, and that so often an empty purse!' + +Goldsmith's incessant desire of being conspicuous in company, was the +occasion of his sometimes appearing to such disadvantage as one should +hardly have supposed possible in a man of his genius[751]. When his +literary reputation had risen deservedly high, and his society was much +courted, he became very jealous of the extraordinary attention which was +every where paid to Johnson. One evening, in a circle of wits, he found +fault with me for talking of Johnson as entitled to the honour of +unquestionable superiority. 'Sir, (said he,) you are for making a +monarchy of what should be a republick.' + +He was still more mortified, when talking in a company with fluent +vivacity, and, as he flattered himself, to the admiration of all who +were present; a German who sat next him, and perceived Johnson rolling +himself, as if about to speak, suddenly stopped him, saying, 'Stay, +stay,--Toctor Shonson is going to say something.' This was, no doubt, +very provoking, especially to one so irritable as Goldsmith, who +frequently mentioned it with strong expressions of indignation[752]. + +It may also be observed, that Goldsmith was sometimes content to be +treated with an easy familiarity, but, upon occasions, would be +consequential and important. An instance of this occurred in a small +particular. Johnson had a way of contracting the names of his friends; +as Beauclerk, Beau; Boswell, Bozzy; Langton, Lanky; Murphy, Mur; +Sheridan, Sherry[753]. I remember one day, when Tom Davies was telling +that Dr. Johnson said, 'We are all in labour for a name to _Goldy's_ +play,' Goldsmith seemed displeased that such a liberty should be taken +with his name, and said, 'I have often desired him not to call me +_Goldy_[754].' Tom was remarkably attentive to the most minute +circumstance about Johnson. I recollect his telling me once, on my +arrival in London, 'Sir, our great friend has made an improvement on his +appellation of old Mr. Sheridan. He calls him now _Sherry derry_.' + + + +'To THE REVEREND MR. BAGSHAW, AT BROMLEY[755]. + +'SIR, + +'I return you my sincere thanks for your additions to my _Dictionary_; +but the new edition has been published some time, and therefore I cannot +now make use of them. Whether I shall ever revise it more, I know not. +If many readers had been as judicious, as diligent, and as communicative +as yourself, my work had been better. The world must at present take it +as it is. I am, Sir, + +'Your most obliged + +'And most humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'May 8, 1773.' + +On Sunday, May 8[756], I dined with Johnson at Mr. Langton's[757] with Dr. +Beattie and some other company. He descanted on the subject of Literary +Property. 'There seems (said he,) to be in authours a stronger right of +property than that by occupancy; a metaphysical[758] right, a right, as it +were, of creation, which should from its nature be perpetual; but the +consent of nations is against it, and indeed reason and the interests of +learning are against it; for were it to be perpetual, no book, however +useful, could be universally diffused amongst mankind, should the +proprietor take it into his head to restrain its circulation. No book +could have the advantage of being edited with notes, however necessary +to its elucidation, should the proprietor perversely oppose it. For the +general good of the world, therefore, whatever valuable work has once +been created by an authour, and issued out by him, should be understood +as no longer in his power, but as belonging to the publick; at the same +time the authour is entitled to an adequate reward. This he should have +by an exclusive right to his work for a considerable number of +years[759].' + +He attacked Lord Monboddo's strange speculation on the primitive state +of human nature[760]; observing, 'Sir, it is all conjecture about a thing +useless, even were it known to be true. Knowledge of all kinds is good. +Conjecture, as to things useful, is good; but conjecture as to what it +would be useless to know, such as whether men went upon all four, is +very idle.' + +On Monday, May 9[761], as I was to set out on my return to Scotland next +morning, I was desirous to see as much of Dr. Johnson as I could. But I +first called on Goldsmith to take leave of him. The jealousy and envy +which, though possessed of many most amiable qualities, he frankly +avowed, broke out violently at this interview. Upon another occasion, +when Goldsmith confessed himself to be of an envious disposition, I +contended with Johnson that we ought not to be angry with him, he was so +candid in owning it. 'Nay, Sir, (said Johnson,) we must be angry that a +man has such a superabundance of an odious quality, that he cannot keep +it within his own breast, but it boils over.' In my opinion, however, +Goldsmith had not more of it than other people have, but only talked of +it freely[762]. + +He now seemed very angry that Johnson was going to be a traveller; said +'he would be a dead weight for me to carry, and that I should never be +able to lug him along through the Highlands and Hebrides.' Nor would he +patiently allow me to enlarge upon Johnson's wonderful abilities; but +exclaimed, 'Is he like Burke, who winds into a subject like a serpent?' +'But, (said I,) Johnson is the Hercules who strangled serpents in his +cradle.' + +I dined with Dr. Johnson at General Paoli's. He was obliged, by +indisposition, to leave the company early; he appointed me, however, to +meet him in the evening at Mr. (now Sir Robert) Chambers's in the +Temple, where he accordingly came, though he continued to be very ill. +Chambers, as is common on such occasions, prescribed various remedies to +him. JOHNSON. (fretted by pain,) 'Pr'ythee don't tease me. Stay till I +am well, and then you shall tell me how to cure myself.' He grew better, +and talked with a noble enthusiasm of keeping up the representation of +respectable families. His zeal on this subject was a circumstance in his +character exceedingly remarkable, when it is considered that he himself +had no pretensions to blood. I heard him once say, 'I have great merit +in being zealous for subordination and the honours of birth; for I can +hardly tell who was my grandfather[763].' He maintained the dignity and +propriety of male succession, in opposition to the opinion of one of our +friends[764], who had that day employed Mr. Chambers to draw his will, +devising his estate to his three sisters, in preference to a remote heir +male. Johnson called them 'three _dowdies_,' and said, with as high a +spirit as the boldest Baron in the most perfect days of the feudal +system, 'An ancient estate should always go to males. It is mighty +foolish to let a stranger have it because he marries your daughter, and +takes your name. As for an estate newly acquired by trade, you may give +it, if you will, to the dog _Towser_, and let him keep his _own_ name.' + +I have known him at times exceedingly diverted at what seemed to others +a very small sport[765]. He now laughed immoderately, without any reason +that we could perceive, at our friend's making his will; called him the +_testator_, and added, 'I dare say, he thinks he has done a mighty +thing. He won't stay till he gets home to his seat in the country, to +produce this wonderful deed: he'll call up the landlord of the first inn +on the road; and, after a suitable preface upon mortality and the +uncertainty of life, will tell him that he should not delay making his +will; and here, Sir, will he say, is my will, which I have just made, +with the assistance of one of the ablest lawyers in the kingdom; and he +will read it to him (laughing all the time). He believes he has made +this will; but he did not make it: you, Chambers, made it for him. I +trust you have had more conscience than to make him say, "being of sound +understanding;" ha, ha, ha! I hope he has left me a legacy. I'd have his +will turned into verse, like a ballad.' + +In this playful manner did he run on, exulting in his own pleasantry, +which certainly was not such as might be expected from the authour of +_The Rambler_, but which is here preserved, that my readers may be +acquainted even with the slightest occasional characteristicks of so +eminent a man. + +Mr. Chambers did not by any means relish this jocularity upon a matter +of which _pars magna fuit_[766], and seemed impatient till he got rid of +us. Johnson could not stop his merriment, but continued it all the way +till we got without the Temple-gate. He then burst into such a fit of +laughter, that he appeared to be almost in a convulsion; and, in order +to support himself, laid hold of one of the posts at the side of the +foot pavement, and sent forth peals so loud, that in the silence of the +night his voice seemed to resound from Temple-bar to Fleet-ditch. + +This most ludicrous exhibition of the aweful, melancholy, and venerable +Johnson[767], happened well to counteract the feelings of sadness which I +used to experience when parting with him for a considerable time. I +accompanied him to his door, where he gave me his blessing. + +He records of himself this year, 'Between Easter and Whitsuntide, having +always considered that time as propitious to study, I attempted to learn +the Low Dutch language[768].' It is to be observed, that he here admits an +opinion of the human mind being influenced by seasons, which he +ridicules in his writings[769]. His progress, he says, was interrupted by +a fever, 'which, by the imprudent use of a small print, left an +inflammation in his useful eye[770].' We cannot but admire his spirit when +we know, that amidst a complication of bodily and mental distress, he +was still animated with the desire of intellectual improvement[771]. +Various notes of his studies appear on different days, in his manuscript +diary of this year, such as, + +'Inchoavi lectionem Pentateuchi--Finivi lectionem Conf. Fab. +Burdonum[772].--Legi primum actum Troadum.--Legi Dissertationem Clerici +postremam de Pent.--2 of Clark's Sermons.--L. Appolonii pugnam +Betriciam.--L. centum versus Homeri.' + +Let this serve as a specimen of what accessions of literature he was +perpetually infusing into his mind, while he charged himself with +idleness. + +This year died Mrs. Salusbury, (mother of Mrs. Thrale,) a lady whom he +appears to have esteemed much, and whose memory he honoured with an +Epitaph[773]. + +In a letter from Edinburgh, dated the 29th of May, I pressed him to +persevere in his resolution to make this year the projected visit to the +Hebrides, of which he and I had talked for many years, and which I was +confident would afford us much entertainment. + + +'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'When your letter came to me, I was so darkened by an inflammation in my +eye, that I could not for some time read it. I can now write without +trouble, and can read large prints. My eye is gradually growing +stronger; and I hope will be able to take some delight in the survey of +a Caledonian loch. + +'Chambers is going a Judge, with six thousand a year, to Bengal[774]. He +and I shall come down together as far as Newcastle, and thence I shall +easily get to Edinburgh. Let me know the exact time when your Courts +intermit. I must conform a little to Chambers's occasions, and he must +conform a little to mine. The time which you shall fix, must be the +common point to which we will come as near as we can. Except this eye, I +am very well. + +'Beattie is so caressed, and invited, and treated, and liked, and +flattered, by the great, that I can see nothing of him. I am in great +hope that he will be well provided for, and then we will live upon him +at the Marischal College, without pity or modesty[775]. + +'----[776] left the town without taking leave of me, and is gone in deep +dudgeon to ----[777]. Is not this very childish? Where is now my +legacy[778]? + +'I hope your dear lady and her dear baby are both well. I shall see them +too when I come; and I have that opinion of your choice, as to suspect +that when I have seen Mrs. Boswell, I shall be less willing to go away. +I am, dear Sir, + +'Your affectionate humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, + +July 5, 1773.' + +'Write to me as soon as you can. Chambers is now at Oxford.' + +I again wrote to him, informing him that the Court of Session rose on +the twelfth of August, hoping to see him before that time, and +expressing perhaps in too extravagant terms, my admiration of him, and +my expectation of pleasure from our intended tour. + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I shall set out from London on Friday the sixth [779] of this month, and +purpose not to loiter much by the way. Which day I shall be at +Edinburgh, I cannot exactly tell. I suppose I must drive to an inn, and +send a porter to find you. + +'I am afraid Beattie will not be at his College soon enough for us, and +I shall be sorry to miss him; but there is no staying for the +concurrence of all conveniences. We will do as well as we can. + +'I am, Sir, +'Your most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + + +'August 3, 1773.' + +TO THE SAME. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Not being at Mr. Thrale's when your letter came, I had written the +enclosed paper and sealed it; bringing it hither for a frank, I found +yours. If any thing could repress my ardour, it would be such a letter +as yours. To disappoint a friend is unpleasing; and he that forms +expectations like yours, must be disappointed. Think only when you see +me, that you see a man who loves you, and is proud and glad that you +love him. + +'I am, Sir, +'Your most affectionate +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + + +'August 3, 1773.' + +TO THE SAME. +'Newcastle, Aug. 11, 1771. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I came hither last night, and hope, but do not absolutely promise, to +be in Edinburgh on Saturday. Beattie will not come so soon. + +I am, Sir, +'Your most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'My compliments to your lady.' + + +TO THE SAME. + +'Mr. Johnson sends his compliments to Mr. Boswell, being just arrived at +Boyd's,' + +'Saturday night.' + +His stay in Scotland was from the 18th of August[780], on which day he +arrived, till the 22nd of November, when he set out on his return to +London; and I believe ninety-four days[781] were never passed by any man +in a more vigorous exertion. + +He came by the way of Berwick upon Tweed to Edinburgh, where he remained +a few days, and then went by St. Andrew's, Aberdeen, Inverness, and Fort +Augustus, to the Hebrides, to visit which was the principal object he +had in view. He visited the isles of Sky, Rasay, Col, Mull, Inchkenneth, +and Icolmkill. He travelled through Argyleshire by Inverary, and from +thence by Lochlomond and Dumbarton to Glasgow, then by Loudon to +Auchinleck in Ayrshire, the seat of my family, and then by Hamilton, +back to Edinburgh, where he again spent some time. He thus saw the four +Universities of Scotland[782], its three principal cities, and as much of +the Highland and insular life as was sufficient for his philosophical +contemplation. I had the pleasure of accompanying him during the whole +of this journey. He was respectfully entertained by the great, the +learned, and the elegant, wherever he went; nor was he less delighted +with the hospitality which he experienced in humbler life[783]. + +His various adventures, and the force and vivacity of his mind, as +exercised during this peregrination, upon innumerable topicks, have been +faithfully, and to the best of my abilities, displayed in my _Journal of +a Tour to the Hebrides_, to which, as the publick has been pleased to +honour it by a very extensive circulation[784], I beg leave to refer, as +to a separate and remarkable portion of his life[785], which may be there +seen in detail, and which exhibits as striking a view of his powers in +conversation, as his works do of his excellence in writing. Nor can I +deny to myself the very flattering gratification of inserting here the +character which my friend Mr. Courtenay has been pleased to give of that +work: + +'With Reynolds' pencil, vivid, bold, and true, +So fervent Boswell gives him to our view: +In every trait we see his mind expand; +The master rises by the pupil's hand; +We love the writer, praise his happy vein, +Grac'd with the naivetA(C) of the sage Montaigne. +Hence not alone are brighter parts display'd, +But e'en the specks of character pourtray'd: +We _see_ the Rambler with fastidious smile +Mark the lone tree, and note the heath-clad isle; +But when th' heroick tale of Flora's[786] charms, +Deck'd in a kilt, he wields a chieftain's arms: +The tuneful piper sounds a martial strain, +And Samuel sings, "The King shall have his _ain_."' + +During his stay at Edinburgh, after his return from the Hebrides, he was +at great pains to obtain information concerning Scotland; and it will +appear from his subsequent letters, that he was not less solicitous for +intelligence on this subject after his return to London. + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I came home last night, without any incommodity, danger, or weariness, +and am ready to begin a new journey. I shall go to Oxford on Monday[787]. +I know Mrs. Boswell wished me well to go[788]; her wishes have not been +disappointed. Mrs. Williams has received Sir A's[789] letter. + +'Make my compliments to all those to whom my compliments may be welcome. + +'Let the box[790] be sent as soon as it can, and let me know when to +expect it. + +'Enquire, if you can, the order of the Clans: Macdonald is first, +Maclean second; further I cannot go. Quicken Dr. Webster[791]. + +'I am, Sir, +'Yours affectionately, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Nov. 27, 1773.' + + +'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, Dec. 2, 1773. + +'You shall have what information I can procure as to the order of the +Clans. A gentleman of the name of Grant tells me, that there is no +settled order among them; and he says, that the Macdonalds were not +placed upon the right of the army at Culloden[792]; the Stuarts were. I +shall, however, examine witnesses of every name that I can find here. +Dr. Webster shall be quickened too. I like your little memorandums; they +are symptoms of your being in earnest with your book of northern +travels. + +'Your box shall be sent next week by sea. You will find in it some +pieces of the broom bush, which you saw growing on the old castle of +Auchinleck. The wood has a curious appearance when sawn across. You may +either have a little writing-stand made of it, or get it formed into +boards for a treatise on witchcraft, by way of a suitable binding.' + + * * * * * + +'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. +'Edinburgh, Dec. 18, 1773. + + * * * * * + +'You promised me an inscription for a print to be taken from an +historical picture of Mary Queen of Scots being forced to resign her +crown, which Mr. Hamilton at Rome has painted for me. The two following +have been sent to me: + +"_Maria Scotorum Regina meliori seculo digna, jus regiitm civibus +seditiosis invita resignat_." + +"_Cives seditiosi Mariam Scotorum Reginam sese muneri abdicare invitam +cogunt_." + +'Be so good as to read the passage in Robertson, and see if you cannot +give me a better inscription. I must have it both in Latin and English; +so if you should not give me another Latin one, you will at least choose +the best of these two, and send a translation of it.' + + * * * * * + +His humane forgiving disposition was put to a pretty strong test on his +return to London, by a liberty which Mr. Thomas Davies had taken with +him in his absence, which was, to publish two volumes, entitled, +_Miscellaneous and fugitive Pieces_, which he advertised in the +news-papers, 'By the Authour of the Rambler.' In this collection, +several of Dr. Johnson's acknowledged writings, several of his anonymous +performances, and some which he had written for others, were inserted; +but there were also some in which he had no concern whatever[793]. He was +at first very angry, as he had good reason to be. But, upon +consideration of his poor friend's narrow circumstances, and that he had +only a little profit in view, and meant no harm, he soon relented, and +continued his kindness to him as formerly[794]. + +In the course of his self-examination with retrospect to this year, he +seems to have been much dejected; for he says, January 1, 1774, 'This +year has passed with so little improvement, that I doubt whether I have +not rather impaired than increased my learning';[795] and yet we have seen +how he _read_, and we know how he _talked_ during that period. + +He was now seriously engaged in writing an account of our travels in the +Hebrides, in consequence of which I had the pleasure of a more frequent +correspondence with him. + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'My operations have been hindered by a cough; at least I flatter myself, +that if my cough had not come, I should have been further advanced. But +I have had no intelligence from Dr. W----, [Webster,] nor from the +Excise-office, nor from you. No account of the little borough[796]. +Nothing of the Erse language. I have yet heard nothing of my box. + +'You must make haste and gather me all you can, and do it quickly, or I +will and shall do without it. + +'Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, and tell her that I do not love +her the less for wishing me away. I gave her trouble enough, and shall +be glad, in recompense, to give her any pleasure. + +'I would send some porter into the Hebrides, if I knew which way it +could be got to my kind friends there. Enquire, and let me know. + +'Make my compliments to all the Doctors of Edinburgh, and to all my +friends, from one end of Scotland to the other. + +'Write to me, and send me what intelligence you can: and if any thing is +too bulky for the post, let me have it by the carrier. I do not like +trusting winds and waves. + +'I am, dear Sir, +'Your most, &c. +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + + +'Jan. 29, 1774.' + +To THE SAME. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'In a day or two after I had written the last discontented letter, I +received my box, which was very welcome. But still I must entreat you to +hasten Dr. Webster, and continue to pick up what you can that may be +useful. + +'Mr. Oglethorpe was with me this morning, you know his errand. He was +not unwelcome. + +'Tell Mrs. Boswell that my good intentions towards her still continue I +should be glad to do any thing that would either benefit or please her. + +'Chambers is not yet gone, but so hurried, or so negligent, or so proud, +that I rarely see him. I have, indeed, for some weeks past, been very +ill of a cold and cough, and have been at Mrs. Thrale's, that I might be +taken care of. I am much better: _novae redeunt in praelia vires_[797]; +but I am yet tender, and easily disordered. How happy it was that +neither of us were ill in the Hebrides. + +'The question of Literary Property is this day before the Lords[798]. +Murphy[799] drew up the Appellants' case, that is, the plea against the +perpetual right. I have not seen it, nor heard the decision. I would not +have the right perpetual. + +'I will write to you as any thing occurs, and do you send me something +about my Scottish friends. I have very great kindness for them. Let me +know likewise how fees come in, and when we are to see you. + +'I am. Sir, +Yours affectionately, +SAM. JOHNSON. +London, Feb. 7, 1774. + +He at this time wrote the following letters to Mr. Steevens, his able +associate in editing Shakspeare: + +To George Steevens, Esq., in Hampstead. + +'Sir, + +'If I am asked when I have seen Mr. Steevens, you know what answer I +must give; if I am asked when I shall see him, I wish you would tell me +what to say. + +'If you have Lesley's _History of Scotland_, or any other book about +Scotland, except Boetius and Buchanan, it will be a kindness if you send +them to, Sir, + +'Your humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON. +'Feb. 7, 1774.' + + +To the same. + +'Sir, + +'We are thinking to augment our club, and I am desirous of nominating +you, if you care to stand the ballot, and can attend on Friday nights at +least twice in five weeks: less than this is too little, and rather more +will be expected. Be pleased to let me know before Friday. + +'I am, Sir, +'Your most, &c., +'SAM. JOHNSON. +'Feb. 21, 1774. + +To the same. + +'Sir, + +'Last night you became a member of the club; if you call on me on +Friday, I will introduce you. A gentleman, proposed after you, was +rejected. + +'I thank you for _Neander_, but wish he were not so fine.[800] I will take +care of him. + +'I am, Sir, + +'Your humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'March 5, 1774.' + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Dr. Webster's informations were much less exact and much less +determinate than I expected: they are, indeed, much less positive than, +if he can trust his own book[801] which he laid before me, he is able to +give. But I believe it will always be found, that he who calls much for +information will advance his work but slowly. + +'I am, however, obliged to you, dear Sir, for your endeavours to help +me, and hope, that between us something will some time be done, if not +on this, on some occasion. + +'Chambers is either married, or almost married, to Miss Wilton, a girl +of sixteen, exquisitely beautiful, whom he has, with his lawyer's +tongue, persuaded to take her chance with him in the East. + +'We have added to the club[802], Charles Fox[803], Sir Charles Bunbury +[804], Dr. Fordyce[805], and Mr. Steevens[806]. + +'Return my thanks to Dr. Webster. Tell Dr. Robertson I have not much to +reply to his censure of my negligence; and tell Dr. Blair, that since he +has written hither what I said to him, we must now consider ourselves as +even, forgive one another, and begin again[807]. I care not how soon, for +he is a very pleasing man. Pay my compliments to all my friends, and +remind Lord Elibank of his promise to give me all his works. + +'I hope Mrs. Boswell and little Miss are well.--When shall I see them +again? She is a sweet lady, only she was so glad to see me go, that I +have almost a mind to come again, that she may again have the same +pleasure. + +'Enquire if it be practicable to send a small present of a cask of +porter to Dunvegan, Rasay, and Col. I would not wish to be thought +forgetful of civilities. + +'I am, Sir, +'Your humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'March 5, 1774.' + +On the 5th of March I wrote to him, requesting his counsel whether I +should this spring come to London. I stated to him on the one hand some +pecuniary embarrassments, which, together with my wife's situation at +that time, made me hesitate; and, on the other, the pleasure and +improvement which my annual visit to the metropolis always afforded me; +and particularly mentioned a peculiar satisfaction which I experienced +in celebrating the festival of Easter in St. Paul's cathedral; that to +my fancy it appeared like going up to Jerusalem at the feast of the +Passover; and that the strong devotion which I felt on that occasion +diffused its influence on my mind through the rest of the year[808]. + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. +[Not dated[809], but written about the 15th of March.] + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I am ashamed to think that since I received your letter I have passed +so many days without answering it. + +'I think there is no great difficulty in resolving your doubts. The +reasons for which you are inclined to visit London, are, I think, not of +sufficient strength to answer the objections. That you should delight to +come once a year to the fountain of intelligence and pleasure, is very +natural; but both information and pleasure must be regulated by +propriety. Pleasure, which cannot be obtained but by unseasonable or +unsuitable expence, must always end in pain; and pleasure, which must be +enjoyed at the expence of another's pain, can never be such as a worthy +mind can fully delight in. + +'What improvement you might gain by coming to London, you may easily +supply, or easily compensate, by enjoining yourself some particular +study at home, or opening some new avenue to information. Edinburgh is +not yet exhausted; and I am sure you will find no pleasure here which +can deserve either that you should anticipate any part of your future +fortune, or that you should condemn yourself and your lady to penurious +frugality for the rest of the year. + +'I need not tell you what regard you owe to Mrs. Boswell's entreaties; +or how much you ought to study the happiness of her who studies yours +with so much diligence, and of whose kindness you enjoy such good +effects. Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions. +She permitted you to ramble last year, you must permit her now to keep +you at home. + +'Your last reason is so serious, that I am unwilling to oppose it. Yet +you must remember, that your image of worshipping once a year in a +certain place, in imitation of the Jews, is but a comparison; and +_simile non est idem_; if the annual resort to Jerusalem was a duty to +the Jews, it was a duty because it was commanded; and you have no such +command, therefore no such duty. It may be dangerous to receive too +readily, and indulge too fondly, opinions, from which, perhaps, no pious +mind is wholly disengaged, of local sanctity and local devotion. You +know what strange effects they have produced over a great part of the +Christian world. I am now writing, and you, when you read this, are +reading under the Eye of Omnipresence. + +'To what degree fancy is to be admitted into religious offices, it would +require much deliberation to determine. I am far from intending totally +to exclude it. Fancy is a faculty bestowed by our Creator, and it is +reasonable that all His gifts should be used to His glory, that all our +faculties should co-operate in His worship; but they are to co-operate +according to the will of Him that gave them, according to the order +which His wisdom has established. As ceremonies prudential or convenient +are less obligatory than positive ordinances, as bodily worship is only +the token to others or ourselves of mental adoration, so Fancy is always +to act in subordination to Reason. We may take Fancy for a companion, +but must follow Reason as our guide. We may allow Fancy to suggest +certain ideas in certain places; but Reason must always be heard, when +she tells us, that those ideas and those places have no natural or +necessary relation. When we enter a church we habitually recall to mind +the duty of adoration, but we must not omit adoration for want of a +temple; because we know, and ought to remember, that the Universal Lord +is every where present; and that, therefore, to come to Jona[810], or to +Jerusalem, though it may be useful, cannot be necessary. + +'Thus I have answered your letter, and have not answered it negligently. +I love you too well to be careless when you are serious. + +'I think I shall be very diligent next week about our travels, which I +have too long neglected. + +'I am, dear Sir, + +'Your most, &c., + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Compliments to Madam and Miss.' + + +To The Same. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'The lady who delivers this has a lawsuit, in which she desires to make +use of your skill and eloquence, and she seems to think that she shall +have something more of both for a recommendation from me; which, though +I know how little you want any external incitement to your duty, I could +not refuse her, because I know that at least it will not hurt her, to +tell you that I wish her well. + +'I am, Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'May 10, 1774.' + + +'MR, BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, May 12, 1774. + +'Lord Hailes has begged of me to offer you his best respects, and to +transmit to you specimens of _Annals of Scotland, from the Accession of +Malcolm Kenmore to the Death of James V_,' in drawing up which, his +Lordship has been engaged for some time. His Lordship writes to me thus: +"If I could procure Dr. Johnson's criticisms, they would be of great use +to me in the prosecution of my work, as they would be judicious and +true. I have no right to ask that favour of him. If you could, it would +highly oblige me." + +'Dr. Blair requests you may be assured that he did not write to London +what you said to him, and that neither by word nor letter has he made +the least complaint of you; but, on the contrary, has a high respect for +you, and loves you much more since he saw you in Scotland. It would both +divert and please you to see his eagerness about this matter.' + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'Streatham, June 21, 1774. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Yesterday I put the first sheets of the _Journey to the Hebrides_ to +the press. I have endeavoured to do you some justice in the first +paragraph[811]. It will be one volume in octavo, not thick. + +'It will be proper to make some presents in Scotland. You shall tell me +to whom I shall give; and I have stipulated twenty-five for you to give +in your own name[812]. Some will take the present better from me, others +better from you. In this, you who are to live in the place ought to +direct. Consider it. Whatever you can get for my purpose send me; and +make my compliments to your lady and both the young ones. + +'I am, Sir, your, &c., +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + + +'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, June 24, 1774. + +'You do not acknowledge the receipt of the various packets which I have +sent to you. Neither can I prevail with you to _answer_ my letters, +though you honour me with _returns_[813]. You have said nothing to me +about poor Goldsmith[814], nothing about Langton[815]. + +'I have received for you, from the Society for propagating Christian +Knowledge in Scotland[816], the following Erse books:--_The New Testament; +Baxter's Call; The Confession of Faith of the Assembly of Divines at +Westminster; The Mother's Catechism; A Gaelick and English +Vocabulary_[817]. + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I wish you could have looked over my book before the printer, but it +could not easily be. I suspect some mistakes; but as I deal, perhaps, +more in notions than in facts, the matter is not great, and the second +edition will be mended, if any such there be. The press will go on +slowly for a time, because I am going into Wales to-morrow. + +'I should be very sorry if I appeared to treat such a character as Lord +Hailes otherwise than with high respect. I return the sheets[818], to +which I have done what mischief I could; and finding it so little, +thought not much of sending them. The narrative is clear, lively, and +short. + +'I have done worse to Lord Hailes than by neglecting his sheets: I have +run him in debt. Dr. Horne, the President of Magdalen College in Oxford, +wrote to me about three months ago, that he purposed to reprint +_Walton's Lives_, and desired me to contribute to the work: my answer +was, that Lord Hailes intended the same publication; and Dr. Home has +resigned it to him[819]. His Lordship must now think seriously about it. + +'Of poor dear Dr. Goldsmith there is little to be told, more than the +papers have made publick. He died of a fever, made, I am afraid, more +violent by uneasiness of mind. His debts began to be heavy, and all his +resources were exhausted. Sir Joshua[820] is of opinion that he owed not +less than two thousand pounds[821]. Was ever poet so trusted before? + +'You may, if you please, put the inscription thus:-- + +"_Maria Scotorum Regina nata_ 15--, _a suis in exilium acta_ 15--, _ab +hospitAi neci data_ 15--." You must find the years. + +'Of your second daughter you certainly gave the account yourself, though +you have forgotten it. While Mrs. Boswell is well, never doubt of a boy. +Mrs. Thrale brought, I think, five girls running, but while I was with +you she had a boy. + +'I am obliged to you for all your pamphlets, and of the last I hope to +make some use. I made some of the former. + +'I am, dear Sir, +'Your most affectionate servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + + +'July 4, 1774.' + +'My compliments to all the three ladies.' + +'TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'You have reason to reproach me that I have left your last letter so +long unanswered, but I had nothing particular to say. Chambers, you +find, is gone far, and poor Goldsmith is gone much further. He died of a +fever, exasperated, as I believe, by the fear of distress. He had raised +money and squandered it, by every artifice of acquisition, and folly of +expence. But let not his frailties be remembered; he was a very great +man[822]. + +'I have just begun to print my _Journey to the Hebrides_, and am leaving +the press to take another journey into Wales, whither Mr. Thrale is +going, to take possession of, at least, five hundred a year, fallen to +his lady. All at Streatham, that are alive[823], are well. + +'I have never recovered from the last dreadful illness[824], but flatter +myself that I grow gradually better; much, however, yet remains to mend. +[Greek: Kurie eleaeson][825]. + +'If you have the Latin version of _Busy, curious, thirsty fly_[826], be so +kind as to transcribe and send it; but you need not be in haste, for I +shall be I know not where, for at least five weeks. I wrote the +following tetastrick on poor Goldsmith:-- + +[Greek: +'Ton taphon eisoraas ton Olibaroio koniaen + Aphrosi mae semnaen, Xeine, podessi patei +Oisi memaele phusis, metron charis, erga palaion, + Klaiete posaetaen, istorikon, phusikon.][827] + +'Please to make my most respectful compliments to all the ladies, and +remember me to young George and his sisters. I reckon George begins to +shew a pair of heels. + +'Do not be sullen now[828], but let me find a letter when I come back. + +'I am, dear Sir, + +'Your affectionate, humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'July 5, 1774.' + + +'To MR. ROBERT LEVET. + +'Llewenny[829], in Denbighshire, Aug. 16, 1774. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Mr. Thrale's affairs have kept him here a great while, nor do I know +exactly when we shall come hence. I have sent you a bill upon Mr. +Strahan. + +'I have made nothing of the Ipecacuanha, but have taken abundance of +pills, and hope that they have done me good. + +'Wales, so far as I have yet seen of it, is a very beautiful and rich +country, all enclosed, and planted. Denbigh is not a mean town. Make my +compliments to all my friends, and tell Frank I hope he remembers my +advice. When his money is out, let him have more. + +'I am, Sir, +'Your humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + + +'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, Aug. 30, 1774. + +'You have given me an inscription for a portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, +in which you, in a short and striking manner, point out her hard fate. +But you will be pleased to keep in mind, that my picture is a +representation of a particular scene in her history; her being forced to +resign her crown, while she was imprisoned in the castle of Lochlevin. I +must, therefore, beg that you will be kind enough to give me an +inscription suited to that particular scene; or determine which of the +two formerly transmitted to you is the best; and, at any rate, favour me +with an English translation. It will be doubly kind if you comply with +my request speedily. + +'Your critical notes on the specimen of Lord Hailes's _Annals of +Scotland_ are excellent, I agreed with you in every one of them. He +himself objected only to the alteration of _free to brave_, in the +passage where he says that Edward "departed with the glory due to the +conquerour of a free people." He says, "to call the Scots brave would +only add to the glory of their conquerour." You will make allowance for +the national zeal of our annalist. I now send a few more leaves of the +_Annals_, which I hope you will peruse, and return with observations, as +you did upon the former occasion. Lord Hailes writes to me thus:--"Mr. +Boswell will be pleased to express the grateful sense which Sir David +Dalrymple[830] has of Dr. Johnson's attention to his little specimen. The +further specimen will show, that + +"Even in an Edward he can see desert[831]." + +'It gives me much pleasure to hear that a republication of _Isaac +Walton's Lives_ is intended. You have been in a mistake in thinking that +Lord Hailes had it in view. I remember one morning[832], while he sat with +you in my house, he said, that there should be a new edition of +_Walton's Lives_; and you said that "they should be benoted a little." +This was all that passed on that subject. You must, therefore, inform +Dr. Horne, that he may resume his plan, I enclose a note concerning it; +and if Dr. Horne will write to me, all the attention that I can give +shall be cheerfully bestowed, upon what I think a pious work, the +preservation and elucidation of Walton, by whose writings I have been +most pleasingly edified.' + + * * * * * + +'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, Sept. 16, 1774. + +'Wales has probably detained you longer than I supposed. You will have +become quite a mountaineer, by visiting Scotland one year and Wales +another. You must next go to Switzerland. Cambria will complain, if you +do not honour her also with some remarks. And I find _concessere +columnA|_[833], the booksellers expect another book. I am impatient to see +your _Tour to Scotland and the Hebrides_[834]. Might you not send me a +copy by the post as soon as it is printed off?' + + * * * * * + +'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Yesterday I returned from my Welch journey, I was sorry to leave my +book suspended so long; but having an opportunity of seeing, with so +much convenience, a new part of the island, I could not reject it. I +have been in five of the six counties of North Wales; and have seen St. +Asaph and Bangor, the two seats of their Bishops; have been upon +Penmanmaur[835] and Snowden[836], and passed over into Anglesea. But Wales +is so little different from England, that it offers nothing to the +speculation of the traveller. + +'When I came home, I found several of your papers, with some pages of +Lord Hailes's _Annals_, which I will consider. I am in haste to give you +some account of myself, lest you should suspect me of negligence in the +pressing business which I find recommended to my care, and which I knew +nothing of till now, when all care is vain[837]. + +'In the distribution of my books I purpose to follow your advice, adding +such as shall occur to me. I am not pleased with your notes of +remembrance added to your names, for I hope I shall not easily forget +them. + +'I have received four Erse books, without any direction, and suspect +that they are intended for the Oxford library. If that is the intention, +I think it will be proper to add the metrical psalms, and whatever else +is printed in _Erse_, that the present may be complete. The donor's name +should be told. + +'I wish you could have read the book before it was printed, but our +distance does not easily permit it. + +'I am sorry Lord Hailes does not intend to publish _Walton_; I am afraid +it will not be done so well, if it be done at all. + +'I purpose now to drive the book forward. Make my compliments to Mrs. +Boswell, and let me hear often from you. + +'I am, dear Sir, +'Your affectionate humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'London, Octob. 1, 1774.' + + +This tour to Wales, which was made in company with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, +though it no doubt contributed to his health and amusement, did not give +an occasion to such a discursive exercise of his mind as our tour to the +Hebrides. I do not find that he kept any journal or notes of what he saw +there[838]. All that I heard him say of it was, that 'instead of bleak and +barren mountains, there were green and fertile ones; and that one of the +castles in Wales would contain all the castles that he had seen in +Scotland.' + +Parliament having been dissolved[839], and his friend Mr. Thrale, who was +a steady supporter of government, having again to encounter the storm of +a contested election, he wrote a short political pamphlet, entitled _The +Patriot_, addressed to the electors of Great-Britain; a title which, to +factious men, who consider a patriot only as an opposer of the measures +of government, will appear strangely misapplied. It was, however, +written with energetick vivacity; and, except those passages in which it +endeavours to vindicate the glaring outrage of the House of Commons in +the case of the Middlesex election, and to justify the attempt to reduce +our fellow-subjects in America to unconditional submission, it contained +an admirable display of the properties of a real patriot, in the +original and genuine sense;--a sincere, steady, rational, and unbiassed +friend to the interests and prosperity of his King and country. It must +be acknowledged, however, that both in this and his two former +pamphlets, there was, amidst many powerful arguments, not only a +considerable portion of sophistry, but a contemptuous ridicule of his +opponents, which was very provoking. + + +'To MR. PERKINS[840]. + +'SIR, + +'You may do me a very great favour. Mrs. Williams, a gentlewoman whom +you may have seen at Mr. Thrale's, is a petitioner for Mr. +Hetherington's charity: petitions are this day issued at Christ's +Hospital. + +'I am a bad manager of business in a crowd; and if I should send a mean +man, he may be put away without his errand. I must therefore intreat +that you will go, and ask for a petition for Anna Williams, whose paper +of enquiries was delivered with answers at the counting-house of the +hospital on Thursday the 20th. My servant will attend you thither, and +bring the petition home when you have it. + +'The petition, which they are to give us, is a form which they deliver +to every petitioner, and which the petitioner is afterwards to fill up, +and return to them again. This we must have, or we cannot proceed +according to their directions. You need, I believe, only ask for a +petition; if they enquire for whom you ask, you can tell them. + +'I beg pardon for giving you this trouble; but it is a matter of great +importance. + +'I am, Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, + +'SAM JOHNSON.' + +'October 25, 1774.' + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'There has appeared lately in the papers an account of a boat overset +between Mull and Ulva, in which many passengers were lost, and among +them Maclean of Col. We, you know, were once drowned[841]; I hope, +therefore, that the story is either wantonly or erroneously told. Pray +satisfy me by the next post. + +'I have printed two hundred and forty pages. I am able to do nothing +much worth doing to dear Lord Hailes's book. I will, however, send back +the sheets; and hope, by degrees, to answer all your reasonable +expectations. + +'Mr. Thrale has happily surmounted a very violent and acrimonious +opposition[842]; but all joys have their abatement: Mrs. Thrale has fallen +from her horse, and hurt herself very much. The rest of our friends, I +believe, are well. My compliments to Mrs. Boswell. + +'I am, Sir, + +Your most affectionate servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'London, October. 27, 1774.' + + +This letter, which shows his tender concern for an amiable young +gentleman to whom he had been very much obliged in the Hebrides, I have +inserted according to its date, though before receiving it I had +informed him of the melancholy event that the young Laird of Col was +unfortunately drowned[843]. + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Last night I corrected the last page of our _Journey to the Hebrides_. +The printer has detained it all this time, for I had, before I went into +Wales, written all except two sheets. _The Patriot_ was called for by my +political friends on Friday, was written on Saturday, and I have heard +little of it. So vague are conjectures at a distance[844]. As soon as I +can, I will take care that copies be sent to you, for I would wish that +they might be given before they are bought; but I am afraid that Mr. +Strahan will send to you and to the booksellers at the same time. Trade +is as diligent as courtesy. I have mentioned all that you recommended. +Pray make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell and the younglings. The club +has, I think, not yet met. + +'Tell me, and tell me honestly, what you think and what others say of +our travels. Shall we touch the continent[845]? + +'I am, dear Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Nov. 26, 1774.' + +In his manuscript diary of this year, there is the following entry:-- + +'Nov. 27. Advent Sunday. I considered that this day, being the beginning +of the ecclesiastical year, was a proper time for a new course of life. +I began to read the Greek Testament regularly at 160 verses every +Sunday. This day I began the Acts. + +'In this week I read Virgil's _Pastorals_. I learned to repeat the +_Pollio_ and _Gallus_. I read carelessly the first _Georgick_.' + +Such evidences of his unceasing ardour, both for 'divine and human +lore,' when advanced into his sixty-fifth year, and notwithstanding his +many disturbances from disease, must make us at once honour his spirit, +and lament that it should be so grievously clogged by its material +tegument. It is remarkable, that he was very fond of the precision which +calculation produces[846]. Thus we find in one of his manuscript diaries, +'12 pages in 4to. Gr. Test, and 30 pages in Beza's folio, comprize the +whole in 40 days.' + + +'DR. JOHNSON TO JOHN HOOLE, Esq.[847] + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I have returned your play[848], which you will find underscored with red, +where there was a word which I did not like. The red will be washed off +with a little water. + +'The plot is so well framed, the intricacy so artful, and the +disentanglement so easy, the suspense so affecting, and the passionate +parts so properly interposed, that I have no doubt of its success. + +'I am, Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'December 19, 1774.' + + +1775: AETAT. 66.--The first effort of his pen in 1775 was, 'Proposals +for publishing the Works of Mrs. Charlotte Lennox[849],'[Dagger] in three +volumes quarto. In his diary, January 2, I find this entry: 'Wrote +Charlotte's Proposals.' But, indeed, the internal evidence would have +been quite sufficient. Her claim to the favour of the public was thus +enforced:-- + +'Most of the pieces, as they appeared singly, have been read with +approbation, perhaps above their merits, but of no great advantage to +the writer. She hopes, therefore, that she shall not be considered as +too indulgent to vanity, or too studious of interest, if, from that +labour which has hitherto been chiefly gainful to others, she endeavours +to obtain at last some profit for herself and her children. She cannot +decently enforce her claim by the praise of her own performances; nor +can she suppose, that, by the most artful and laboured address, any +additional notice could be procured to a publication, of which Her +MAJESTY has condescended to be the PATRONESS.' + +He this year also wrote the Preface to Baretti's _Easy Lessons in +Italian and English_[850]. + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'You never did ask for a book by the post till now, and I did not think +on it. You see now it is done. I sent one to the King, and I hear he +likes it[851]. + +'I shall send a parcel into Scotland for presents, and intend to give to +many of my friends. In your catalogue you left out Lord Auchinleck. + +'Let me know, as fast as you read it, how you like it; and let me know +if any mistake is committed, or any thing important left out. I wish you +could have seen the sheets. My compliments to Mrs. Boswell, and to +Veronica[852], and to all my friends. + +'I am, Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'January 14, 1775. + + +'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, Jan. 19, 1775. + +'Be pleased to accept of my best thanks for your _Journey to the +Hebrides_, which came to me by last night's post. I did really ask the +favour twice; but you have been even with me by granting it so speedily. +_Bis dat qui cito dat_[853]. Though ill of a bad cold, you kept me up the +greatest part of the last night; for I did not stop till I had read +every word of your book. I looked back to our first talking of a visit a +visit to the Hebrides, which was many years ago, when sitting by +ourselves in the Mitre tavern[854], in London, I think about _witching +time o' night_[855]; and then exulted in contemplating our scheme +fulfilled, and a _monumentum perenne_[856] of it erected by your superiour +abilities. I shall only say, that your book has afforded me a high +gratification. I shall afterwards give you my thoughts on particular +passages. In the mean time, I hasten to tell you of your having mistaken +two names, which you will correct in London, as I shall do here, that +the gentlemen who deserve the valuable compliments which you have paid +them, may enjoy their honours. In page 106, for _Gordon_ read +_Murchison_; and in page 357, for _Maclean_ read _Macleod_[857]. + + * * * * * + +'But I am now to apply to you for immediate aid in my profession, which +you have never refused to grant when I requested it. I enclose you a +petition for Dr. Memis, a physician at Aberdeen, in which Sir John +Dalrymple has exerted his talents, and which I am to answer as Counsel +for the managers of the Royal Infirmary in that city. Mr. Jopp, the +Provost, who delivered to you your freedom[858], is one of my clients, +and, _as a citizen of Aberdeen_, you will support him. + +'The fact is shortly this. In a translation of the charter of the +Infirmary from Latin into English, made under the authority of the +managers, the same phrase in the original is in one place rendered +_Physician_, but when applied to Dr. Memis is rendered _Doctor of +Medicine_. Dr. Memis complained of this before the translation was +printed, but was not indulged with having it altered; and he has brought +an action for damages, on account of a supposed injury, as if the +designation given to him was an inferiour one, tending to make it be +supposed he is _not a Physician_, and, consequently, to hurt his +practice. My father has dismissed the action as groundless, and now he +has appealed to the whole Court[859].' + + +'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I long to hear how you like the book; it is, I think, much liked here. +But Macpherson is very furious[860]; can you give me any more intelligence +about him, or his Fingal? Do what you can and do it quickly. Is Lord +Hailes on our side? + +'Pray let me know what I owed you when I left you, that I may send it to +you. + +'I am going to write about the Americans[861]. If you have picked up any +hints among your lawyers, who are great masters of the law of nations, +or if your own mind suggests any thing, let me know. But mum, it is a +secret. + +'I will send your parcel of books as soon as I can; but I cannot do as I +wish. However, you find every thing mentioned in the book which you +recommended. + +'Langton is here; we are all that ever we were[862]. He is a worthy +fellow, without malice, though not without resentment. + +'Poor Beauclerk is so ill, that his life is thought to be in danger[863]. +Lady Di nurses him with very great assiduity. + +'Reynolds has taken too much to strong liquor[864], and seems to delight +in his new character. + +'This is all the news that I have; but as you love verses, I will send +you a few which I made upon Inchkenneth[865]; but remember the condition, +you shall not show them, except to Lord Hailes, whom I love better than +any man whom I know so little. If he asks you to transcribe them for +him, you may do it, but I think he must promise not to let them be +copied again, nor to show them as mine. + +'I have at last sent back Lord Hailes's sheets. I never think about +returning them, because I alter nothing. You will see that I might as +well have kept them. However, I am ashamed of my delay; and if I have +the honour of receiving any more, promise punctually to return them by +the next post. Make my compliments to dear Mrs. Boswell, and to Miss +Veronica. + +'I am, dear Sir, + +'Yours most faithfully, + +'SAM. JOHNSON[866].' + + +'Jan. 21, 1775. + +'MR, BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, Jan. 27, 1775. + + * * * * * + +'You rate our lawyers here too high, when you call them great masters of +the law of nations. + + * * * * * + +'As for myself, I am ashamed to say I have read little and thought +little on the subject of America. I will be much obliged to you, if you +will direct me where I shall find the best information of what is to be +said on both sides. It is a subject vast in its present extent and +future consequences. The imperfect hints which now float in my mind, +tend rather to the formation of an opinion that our government has been +precipitant and severe in the resolutions taken against the +Bostonians[867]. Well do you know that I have no kindness for that race. +But nations, or bodies of men, should, as well as individuals, have a +fair trial, and not be condemned on character alone. Have we not express +contracts with our colonies, which afford a more certain foundation of +judgement, than general political speculations on the mutual rights of +States and their provinces or colonies? Pray let me know immediately +what to read, and I shall diligently endeavour to gather for you any +thing that I can find. Is Burke's speech on American taxation published +by himself? Is it authentick? I remember to have heard you say, that you +had never considered East-Indian affairs; though, surely, they are of +much importance to Great-Britain. Under the recollection of this, I +shelter myself from the reproach of ignorance about the Americans. If +you write upon the subject I shall certainly understand it. But, since +you seem to expect that I should know something of it, without your +instruction, and that my own mind should suggest something, I trust you +will put me in the way. + + * * * * * + +'What does Becket[868] mean by the _Originals_ of Fingal and other poems +of Ossian, which he advertises to have lain in his shop?' + + * * * * * + +'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'You sent me a case to consider, in which I have no facts but what are +against us, nor any principles on which to reason. It is vain to try to +write thus without materials. The fact seems to be against you; at least +I cannot know nor say any thing to the contrary. I am glad that you like +the book so well. I hear no more of Macpherson. I shall long to know +what Lord Hailes says of it. Lend it him privately. I shall send the +parcel as soon as I can. Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell. + +'I am, Sir, &c., + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Jan. 28, 1775.' + + +'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, Feb. 2, 1775 + + * * * * * + +'As to Macpherson, I am anxious to have from yourself a full and pointed +account of what has passed between you and him. It is confidently told +here, that before your book came out he sent to you, to let you know +that he understood you meant to deny the authenticity of Ossian's poems; +that the originals were in his possession; that you might have +inspection of them, and might take the evidence of people skilled in the +Erse language; and that he hoped, after this fair offer, you would not +be so uncandid as to assert that he had refused reasonable proof. That +you paid no regard to his message, but published your strong attack upon +him; and then he wrote a letter to you, in such terms as he thought +suited to one who had not acted as a man of veracity. You may believe it +gives me pain to hear your conduct represented as unfavourable, while I +can only deny what is said, on the ground that your character refutes +it, without having any information to oppose. Let me, I beg it of you, +be furnished with a sufficient answer to any calumny upon this occasion. + +'Lord Hailes writes to me, (for we correspond more than we talk +together,) "As to Fingal, I see a controversy arising, and purpose to +keep out of its way. There is no doubt that I might mention some +circumstances; but I do not choose to commit them to paper[869]." What his +opinion is, I do not know. He says, "I am singularly obliged to Dr. +Johnson for his accurate and useful criticisms. Had he given some +strictures on the general plan of the work, it would have added much to +his favours." He is charmed with your verses on Inchkenneth, says they +are very elegant, but bids me tell you he doubts whether be according to +the rubrick; but that is your concern; for, you know, he is a +Presbyterian.' + +"Legitimas faciunt pectora pura preces.[870]" + + * * * * * + +'To DR. LAWRENCE[871]. + +'Feb. 7, 1775. + +'SIR, + +'One of the Scotch physicians is now prosecuting a corporation that in +some publick instrument have stiled him _Doctor of Medicine_ instead of +_Physician_. Boswell desires, being advocate for the corporation, to +know whether _Doctor of Medicine_ is not a legitimate title, and whether +it may be considered as a disadvantageous distinction. I am to write +to-night; be pleased to tell me. + +'I am, Sir, your most, &c., + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'My DEAR BOSWELL, + +'I am surprised that, knowing as you do the disposition of your +countrymen to tell lies in favour of each other[872], you can be at all +affected by any reports that circulate among them. Macpherson never in +his life offered me a sight of any original or of any evidence of any +kind; but thought only of intimidating me by noise and threats, till my +last answer,--that I would not be deterred from detecting what I thought +a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian--put an end to our correspondence. + +'The state of the question is this. He, and Dr. Blair, whom I consider +as deceived, say, that he copied the poem from old manuscripts. His +copies, if he had them, and I believe him to have none, are nothing. +Where are the manuscripts? They can be shown if they exist, but they +were never shown. _De non existentibus et non apparentibus_, says our +law, _eadem est ratio_. No man has a claim to credit upon his own word, +when better evidence, if he had it, may be easily produced. But, so far +as we can find, the Erse language was never written till very lately for +the purposes of religion. A nation that cannot write, or a language that +was never written, has no manuscripts. + +'But whatever he has he never offered to show. If old manuscripts should +now be mentioned, I should, unless there were more evidence than can be +easily had, suppose them another proof of Scotch conspiracy in national +falsehood. + +'Do not censure the expression; you know it to be true. + +'Dr. Memis's question is so narrow as to allow no speculation; and I +have no facts before me but those which his advocate has produced +against you. + +'I consulted this morning the President of the London College of +Physicians[873], who says, that with us, _Doctor of Physick_ (we do not +say _Doctor of Medicine_) is the highest title that a practicer of +physick can have; that _Doctor_ implies not only _Physician_, but +teacher of physick; that every _Doctor_ is legally a _Physician_; but no +man, not a _Doctor_, can _practice physick_ but by _licence_ +particularly granted. The Doctorate is a licence of itself. It seems to +us a very slender cause of prosecution. + + * * * * * + +'I am now engaged, but in a little time I hope to do all you would have. +My compliments to Madam and Veronica. + +'I am, Sir, +'Your most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'February 7, 1775.' + +What words were used by Mr. Macpherson in his letter to the venerable +Sage, I have never heard; but they are generally said to have been of a +nature very different from the language of literary contest. Dr. +Johnson's answer appeared in the newspapers of the day, and has since +been frequently re-published; but not with perfect accuracy. I give it +as dictated to me by himself, written down in his presence, and +authenticated by a note in his own hand-writing, '_This, I think, is a +true copy_[874].' + +'MR. JAMES MACPHERSON, + +'I 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 publick, which I here dare you to refute. Your rage I defy. Your +abilities, since your Homer[875], 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[876].' + +Mr. Macpherson little knew the character of Dr. Johnson, if he supposed +that he could be easily intimidated; for no man was ever more remarkable +for personal courage. He had, indeed, an aweful dread of death, or +rather, 'of something after death[877];' and what rational man, who +seriously thinks of quitting all that he has ever known, and going into +a new and unknown state of being, can be without that dread? But his +fear was from reflection; his courage natural. His fear, in that one +instance, was the result of philosophical and religious consideration. +He feared death, but he feared nothing else, not even what might +occasion death[878]. Many instances of his resolution may be mentioned. +One day, at Mr. Beauclerk's house in the country, when two large dogs +were fighting, he went up to them, and beat them till they separated[879]; +and at another time, when told of the danger there was that a gun might +burst if charged with many balls, he put in six or seven, and fired it +off against a wall. Mr. Langton told me, that when they were swimming +together near Oxford, he cautioned Dr. Johnson against a pool, which was +reckoned particularly dangerous; upon which Johnson directly swam into +it. He told me himself that one night he was attacked in the street by +four men, to whom he would not yield, but kept them all at bay, till the +watch came up, and carried both him and them to the round-house[880]. In +the playhouse at Lichfield, as Mr. Garrick informed me, Johnson having +for a moment quitted a chair which was placed for him between the +side-scenes, a gentleman took possession of it, and when Johnson on his +return civilly demanded his seat, rudely refused to give it up; upon +which Johnson laid hold of it, and tossed him and the chair into the +pit. Foote, who so successfully revived the old comedy, by exhibiting +living characters, had resolved to imitate Johnson on the stage, +expecting great profits from his ridicule of so celebrated a man. +Johnson being informed of his intention, and being at dinner at Mr. +Thomas Davies's the bookseller, from whom I had the story, he asked Mr. +Davies 'what was the common price of an oak stick;' and being answered +six-pence, 'Why then, Sir, (said he,) give me leave to send your servant +to purchase me a shilling one. I'll have a double quantity; for I am +told Foote means to _take me off_, as he calls it, and I am determined +the fellow shall not do it with impunity.' Davies took care to acquaint +Foote of this, which effectually checked the wantonness of the +mimick[881]. Mr. Macpherson's menaces made Johnson provide himself with +the same implement of defence[882]; and had he been attacked, I have no +doubt that, old as he was, he would have made his corporal prowess be +felt as much as his intellectual. + +His _Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_[883] is a most valuable +performance. It abounds in extensive philosophical views of society, and +in ingenious sentiment and lively description. A considerable part of +it, indeed, consists of speculations, which many years before he saw the +wild regions which we visited together, probably had employed his +attention, though the actual sight of those scenes undoubtedly quickened +and augmented them. Mr. Orme, the very able historian[884], agreed with me +in this opinion, which he thus strongly expressed:--'There are in that +book thoughts, which, by long revolution in the great mind of Johnson, +have been formed and polished like pebbles rolled in the ocean!' + +That he was to some degree of excess a _true-born Englishman_[885], so as +to have entertained an undue prejudice against both the country and the +people of Scotland, must be allowed[886]. But it was a prejudice of the +head, and not of the heart. He had no ill-will to the Scotch; for, if he +had been conscious of that, he would never have thrown himself into the +bosom of their country, and trusted to the protection of its remote +inhabitants with a fearless confidence. His remark upon the nakedness of +the country, from its being denuded of trees[887], was made after having +travelled two hundred miles along the eastern coast, where certainly +trees are not to be found near the road; and he said it was 'a map of +the road[888]' which he gave. His disbelief of the authenticity of the +poems ascribed to Ossian, a Highland bard, was confirmed in the course +of his journey, by a very strict examination of the evidence offered for +it; and although their authenticity was made too much a national point +by the Scotch, there were many respectable persons in that country, who +did not concur in this; so that his judgement upon the question ought +not to be decried, even by those who differ from him. As to myself, I +can only say, upon a subject now become very uninteresting, that when +the fragments of Highland poetry first came out, I was much pleased with +their wild peculiarity, and was one of those who subscribed to enable +their editor, Mr. Macpherson, then a young man, to make a search in the +Highlands and Hebrides for a long poem in the Erse language, which was +reported to be preserved somewhere in those regions. But when there came +forth an Epick Poem in six books, with all the common circumstances of +former compositions of that nature; and when, upon an attentive +examination of it, there was found a perpetual recurrence of the same +images which appear in the fragments; and when no ancient manuscript, to +authenticate the work, was deposited in any publick library, though that +was insisted on as a reasonable proof, _who_ could forbear to doubt[889]? + +Johnson's grateful acknowledgements of kindnesses received in the course +of this tour, completely refute the brutal reflections which have been +thrown out against him, as if he had made an ungrateful return; and his +delicacy in sparing in his book those who we find from his letters to +Mrs. Thrale were just objects of censure[890], is much to be admired. His +candour and amiable disposition is conspicuous from his conduct, when +informed by Mr. Macleod, of Rasay, that he had committed a mistake, +which gave that gentleman some uneasiness. He wrote him a courteous and +kind letter, and inserted in the news-papers an advertisement, +correcting the mistake[891]. + +The observations of my friend Mr. Dempster in a letter[892] written to me, +soon after he had read Dr. Johnson's book, are so just and liberal, that +they cannot be too often repeated: + +'There is nothing in the book, from beginning to end, that a Scotchman +need to take amiss. What he says of the country is true; and his +observations on the people are what must naturally occur to a sensible, +observing, and reflecting inhabitant of a convenient metropolis, where a +man on thirty pounds a year may be better accommodated with all the +little wants of life, than Col or Sir Allan. + +'I am charmed with his researches concerning the Erse language, and the +antiquity of their manuscripts. I am quite convinced; and I shall rank +Ossian and his Fingals and Oscars amongst the nursery tales, not the +true history of our country, in all time to come. + +'Upon the whole, the book cannot displease, for it has no pretensions. +The authour neither says he is a geographer, nor an antiquarian, nor +very learned in the history of Scotland, nor a naturalist, nor a +fossilist[893]. The manners of the people, and the face of the country, +are all he attempts to describe, or seems to have thought of. Much were +it to be wished, that they who have travelled into more remote, and of +course more curious regions, had all possessed his good sense. Of the +state of learning, his observations on Glasgow University show he has +formed a very sound judgement. He understands our climate too; and he +has accurately observed the changes, however slow and imperceptible to +us, which Scotland has undergone, in consequence of the blessings of +liberty and internal peace.' + + * * * * * + +Mr. Knox, another native of Scotland, who has since made the same tour, +and published an account of it, is equally liberal. + +'I have read (says he,) his book again and again, travelled with him +from Berwick to Glenelg, through countries with which I am well +acquainted; sailed with him from Glenelg to Rasay, Sky, Rum, Col, Mull, +and Icolmkill, but have not been able to correct him in any matter of +consequence. I have often admired the accuracy, the precision, and the +justness of what he advances, respecting both the country and the +people. + +'The Doctor has every where delivered his sentiments with freedom, and +in many instances with a seeming regard for the benefit of the +inhabitants and the ornament of the country. His remarks on the want of +trees and hedges for shade, as well as for shelter to the cattle, are +well founded, and merit the thanks, not the illiberal censure of the +natives. He also felt for the distresses of the Highlanders, and +explodes with great propriety the bad management of the grounds, and the +neglect of timber in the Hebrides.' + +Having quoted Johnson's just compliments on the Rasay family[894], he +says, + +'On the other hand, I found this family equally lavish in their +encomiums upon the Doctor's conversation, and his subsequent civilities +to a young gentleman of that country, who, upon waiting upon him at +London, was well received, and experienced all the attention and regard +that a warm friend could bestow. Mr. Macleod having also been in London, +waited upon the Doctor, who provided a magnificent and expensive +entertainment in honour of his old Hebridean acquaintance.' + +And talking of the military road by Fort Augustus, he says, + +'By this road, though one of the most rugged in Great Britain, the +celebrated Dr. Johnson passed from Inverness to the Hebride Isles. His +observations on the country and people are extremely correct, judicious, +and instructive[895].' + +Mr. Tytler, the acute and able vindicator of Mary Queen of Scots, in one +of his letters to Mr. James Elphinstone, published in that gentleman's +_Forty Years' Correspondence_, says, + +'I read Dr. Johnson's Tour with very great pleasure. Some few errours he +has fallen into, but of no great importance, and those are lost in the +numberless beauties of his work. + +'If I had leisure, I could perhaps point out the most exceptionable +places; but at present I am in the country, and have not his book at +hand. It is plain he meant to speak well of Scotland; and he has in my +apprehension done us great honour in the most capital article, the +character of the inhabitants.' + +His private letters to Mrs. Thrale, written during the course of his +journey, which therefore may be supposed to convey his genuine feelings +at the time, abound in such benignant sentiments towards the people who +showed him civilities[896], that no man whose temper is not very harsh and +sour, can retain a doubt of the goodness of his heart. + +It is painful to recollect with what rancour he was assailed by numbers +of shallow irritable North Britons, on account of his supposed injurious +treatment of their country and countrymen, in his _Journey_. Had there +been any just ground for such a charge, would the virtuous and candid +Dempster[897] have given his opinion of the book, in the terms which I +have quoted? Would the patriotick Knox[898] have spoken of it as he has +done? Would Mr. Tytler, surely + +'--a Scot, if ever Scot there were,' + +have expressed himself thus? And let me add, that, citizen of the world +as I hold myself to be, I have that degree of predilection for my +_natale solum_, nay, I have that just sense of the merit of an ancient +nation, which has been ever renowned for its valour, which in former +times maintained its independence against a powerful neighbour, and in +modern times has been equally distinguished for its ingenuity and +industry in civilized life, that I should have felt a generous +indignation at any injustice done to it. Johnson treated Scotland no +worse than he did even his best friends, whose characters he used to +give as they appeared to him, both in light and shade. Some people, who +had not exercised their minds sufficiently, condemned him for censuring +his friends. But Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose philosophical penetration +and justness of thinking were not less known to those who lived with +him, than his genius in his art is admired by the world, explained his +conduct thus: 'He was fond of discrimination, which he could not show +without pointing out the bad as well as the good in every character; and +as his friends were those whose characters he knew best, they afforded +him the best opportunity for showing the acuteness of his judgement.' + +He expressed to his friend Mr. Windham of Norfolk, his wonder at the +extreme jealousy of the Scotch, and their resentment at having their +country described by him as it really was; when, to say that it was a +country as good as England, would have been a gross falsehood. 'None of +us, (said he), would be offended if a foreigner who has travelled here +should say, that vines and olives don't grow in England.' And as to his +prejudice against the Scotch, which I always ascribed to that +nationality which he observed in _them_, he said to the same gentleman, +'When I find a Scotchman, to whom an Englishman is as a Scotchman, that +Scotchman shall be as an Englishman to me[899].' His intimacy with many +gentlemen of Scotland, and his employing so many natives of that country +as his amanuenses[900], prove that his prejudice was not virulent; and I +have deposited in the British Museum, amongst other pieces of his +writing, the following note in answer to one from me, asking if he would +meet me at dinner at the Mitre, though a friend of mine, a Scotchman, +was to be there:-- + +'Mr. Johnson does not see why Mr. Boswell should suppose a Scotchman +less acceptable than any other man. He will be at the Mitre.' + +My much-valued friend Dr. Barnard, now Bishop of Killaloe, having once +expressed to him an apprehension, that if he should visit Ireland he +might treat the people of that country more unfavourably than he had +done the Scotch; he answered, with strong pointed double-edged wit, +'Sir, you have no reason to be afraid of me. The Irish are not in a +conspiracy to cheat the world by false representations of the merits of +their countrymen[901]. No, Sir; the Irish are a FAIR PEOPLE;--they never +speak well of one another.' + +Johnson told me of an instance of Scottish nationality, which made a +very unfavourable impression upon his mind. A Scotchman, of some +consideration in London, solicited him to recommend, by the weight of +his learned authority, to be master of an English school, a person of +whom he who recommended him confessed he knew no more but that he was +his countryman. Johnson was shocked at this unconscientious conduct[902]. + +All the miserable cavillings against his _Journey_, in news-papers[903], +magazines, and other fugitive publications, I can speak from certain +knowledge, only furnished him with sport. At last there came out a +scurrilous volume, larger than Johnson's own, filled with malignant +abuse, under a name, real or fictitious, of some low man in an obscure +corner of Scotland, though supposed to be the work of another Scotchman, +who has found means to make himself well known both in Scotland and +England. The effect which it had upon Johnson was, to produce this +pleasant observation to Mr. Seward, to whom he lent the book: 'This +fellow must be a blockhead. They don't know how to go about their abuse. +Who will read a five shilling book against me? No, Sir, if they had wit, +they should have kept pelting me with pamphlets[904].' + +'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. +'Edinburgh, Feb. 18, 1775. + +'You would have been very well pleased if you had dined with me to-day. +I had for my guests, Macquharrie, young Maclean of Col, the successor of +our friend, a very amiable man, though not marked with such active +qualities as his brother; Mr. Maclean of Torloisk in Mull, a gentleman +of Sir Allan's family; and two of the clan Grant; so that the Highland +and Hebridean genius reigned. We had a great deal of conversation about +you, and drank your health in a bumper. The toast was not proposed by +me, which is a circumstance to be remarked, for I am now so connected +with you, that any thing that I can say or do to your honour has not the +value of an additional compliment. It is only giving you a guinea out of +that treasure of admiration which already belongs to you, and which is +no hidden treasure; for I suppose my admiration of you is co-existent +with the knowledge of my character. + +'I find that the Highlanders and Hebrideans in general are much fonder +of your _Journey_ than the low-country or _hither_ Scots. One of the +Grants said to-day, that he was sure you were a man of a good heart, and +a candid man, and seemed to hope he should be able to convince you of +the antiquity of a good proportion of the poems of Ossian. After all +that has passed, I think the matter is capable of being proved to a +certain degree. I am told that Macpherson got one old Erse MS. from +Clanranald, for the restitution of which he executed a formal +obligation; and it is affirmed, that the Gaelick (call it Erse or call +it Irish,) has been written in the Highlands and Hebrides for many +centuries. It is reasonable to suppose, that such of the inhabitants as +acquired any learning, possessed the art of writing as well as their +Irish neighbours, and Celtick cousins; and the question is, can +sufficient evidence be shewn of this? + +'Those who are skilled in ancient writings can determine the age of MSS. +or at least can ascertain the century in which they were written; and if +men of veracity, who are so skilled, shall tell us that MSS. in the +possession of families in the Highlands and isles are the works of a +remote age, I think we should be convinced by their testimony. + +'There is now come to this city, Ranald Macdonald from the Isle of Egg, +who has several MSS. of Erse poetry, which he wishes to publish by +subscription. I have engaged to take three copies of the book, the price +of which is to be six shillings, as I would subscribe for all the Erse +that can be printed be it old or new, that the language may be +preserved. This man says, that some of his manuscripts are ancient; and, +to be sure, one of them which was shewn to me does appear to have the +duskyness of antiquity. + + * * * * * + +'The enquiry is not yet quite hopeless, and I should think that the +exact truth may be discovered, if proper means be used. I am, &c. + +'JAMES BOSWELL.' + + +To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I am sorry that I could get no books for my friends in Scotland. Mr. +Strahan has at last promised to send two dozen to you. If they come, put +the names of my friends into them; you may cut them out[905], and paste +them with a little starch in the book. + +'You then are going wild about Ossian. Why do you think any part can be +proved? The dusky manuscript of Egg is probably not fifty years old; if +it be an hundred, it proves nothing. The tale of Clanranald is no proof. +Has Clanranald told it? Can he prove it? There are, I believe, no Erse +manuscripts. None of the old families had a single letter in Erse that +we heard of. You say it is likely that they could write. The learned, if +any learned there were, could; but knowing by that learning, some +written language, in that language they wrote, as letters had never been +applied to their own. If there are manuscripts, let them be shewn, with +some proof that they are not forged for the occasion. You say many can +remember parts of Ossian. I believe all those parts are versions of the +English; at least there is no proof of their antiquity. + +'Macpherson is said to have made some translations himself; and having +taught a boy to write it, ordered him to say that he had learnt it of +his grandmother. The boy, when he grew up, told the story. This Mrs. +Williams heard at Mr. Strahan's table. Don't be credulous; you know how +little a Highlander can be trusted.[906] Macpherson is, so far as I know, +very quiet. Is not that proof enough? Every thing is against him. No +visible manuscript; no inscription in the language: no correspondence +among friends: no transaction of business, of which a single scrap +remains in the ancient families. Macpherson's pretence is, that the +character was Saxon. If he had not talked unskilfully of _manuscripts_, +he might have fought with oral tradition much longer. As to Mr. Grant's +information, I suppose he knows much less of the matter than ourselves. + +'In the mean time, the bookseller says that the sale[907] is sufficiently +quick. They printed four thousand. Correct your copy wherever it is +wrong, and bring it up. Your friends will all be glad to see you. I +think of going myself into the country about May. + +'I am sorry that I have not managed to send the book sooner. I have left +four for you, and do not restrict you absolutely to follow my directions +in the distribution. You must use your own discretion. + +'Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell: I suppose she is now just +beginning to forgive me. + +'I am, dear Sir, your humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' +'Feb. 25, 1775.' + +On Tuesday, March 21, I arrived in London[908]; and on repairing to Dr. +Johnson's before dinner, found him in his study, sitting with Mr. Peter +Garrick, the elder brother of David, strongly resembling him in +countenance and voice, but of more sedate and placid manners[909]. Johnson +informed me, that 'though Mr. Beauclerk was in great pain, it was hoped +he was not in danger[910], and that he now wished to consult Dr. Heberden +to try the effect of a _new understanding_.' Both at this interview, and +in the evening at Mr. Thrale's, where he and Mr. Peter Garrick and I met +again, he was vehement on the subject of the Ossian controversy; +observing, 'We do not know that there are any ancient Erse manuscripts; +and we have no other reason to disbelieve that there are men with three +heads, but that we do not know that there are any such men.' He also was +outrageous, upon his supposition that my countrymen 'loved Scotland +better than truth[911],' saying, 'All of them,--nay not all,--but _droves_ +of them, would come up, and attest any thing for the honour of +Scotland.' He also persevered in his wild allegation, that he questioned +if there was a tree between Edinburgh and the English border older than +himself[912]. I assured him he was mistaken, and suggested that the proper +punishment would be that he should receive a stripe at every tree above +a hundred years old, that was found within that space. He laughed, and +said, 'I believe I might submit to it for a _banbee_!' + +The doubts which, in my correspondence with him, I had ventured to state +as to the justice and wisdom of the conduct of Great-Britain towards the +American colonies, while I at the same time requested that he would +enable me to inform myself upon that momentous subject, he had +altogether disregarded; and had recently published a pamphlet, entitled, +_Taxation no Tyranny; an answer to the Resolutions and Address of the +American Congress_.[913] + +He had long before indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our +fellow-subjects in America.[914] For, as early as 1769, I was told by Dr. +John Campbell, that he had said of them, 'Sir, they are a race of +convicts,[915] and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short +of hanging.' + +Of this performance I avoided to talk with him; for I had now formed a +clear and settled opinion,[916] that the people of America were well +warranted to resist a claim that their fellow-subjects in the +mother-country should have the entire command of their fortunes, by +taxing them without their own consent; and the extreme violence which it +breathed, appeared to me so unsuitable to the mildness of a Christian +philosopher, and so directly opposite to the principles of peace which +he had so beautifully recommended in his pamphlet respecting Falkland's +Islands,[917] that I was sorry to see him appear in so unfavourable a +light. Besides, I could not perceive in it that ability of argument, or +that felicity of expression, for which he was, upon other occasions, so +eminent. Positive assertion, sarcastical severity, and extravagant +ridicule, which he himself reprobated as a test of truth, were united in +this rhapsody. + +That this pamphlet was written at the desire of those who were then in +power, I have no doubt; and, indeed, he owned to me, that it had been +revised and curtailed by some of them. He told me, that they had struck +out one passage, which was to this effect:-- + +'That the Colonists could with no solidity argue from their not having +been taxed while in their infancy, that they should not now he taxed. We +do not put a calf into the plow; we wait till he is an ox.' + +He said, 'They struck it out either critically as too ludicrous, or +politically as too exasperating. I care not which. It was their +business. If an architect says, I will build five stories, and the man +who employs him says, I will have only three, the employer is to +decide.' 'Yes, Sir, (said I,) in ordinary cases. But should it be so +when the architect gives his skill and labour _gratis_?' + +Unfavourable as I am constrained to say my opinion of this pamphlet was, +yet, since it was congenial with the sentiments of numbers at that time, +and as everything relating to the writings of Dr. Johnson is of +importance in literary history, I shall therefore insert some passages +which were struck out, it does not appear why, either by himself or +those who revised it. They appear printed in a few proof leaves of it in +my possession, marked with corrections in his own hand-writing. I shall +distinguish them by _Italicks_. + +In the paragraph where he says the Americans were incited to resistance +by European intelligence from + +'Men whom they thought their friends, but who were friends only to +themselves[918],' + +there followed,-- + +'_and made by their selfishness, the enemies of their country_' + +And the next paragraph ran thus:-- + +'On the original contrivers of mischief, _rather than on those whom they +have deluded_, let an insulted nation pour out its vengeance.' + +The paragraph which came next was in these words:-- + +'_Unhappy is that country in which men can hope for advancement by +favouring its enemies. The tranquillity of stable government is not +always easily preserved against the machinations of single innovators; +but what can be the hope of quiet, when factions hostile to the +legislature can be openly formed and openly avowed?_' + +After the paragraph which now concludes the pamphlet, there followed +this, in which he certainly means the great Earl of Chatham[919], and +glances at a certain popular Lord Chancellor[920].' + +'_If, by the fortune of war, they drive us utterly away, what they will +do next can only be conjectured. If a new monarchy is erected, they will +want a KING. He who first takes into his hand the sceptre of America, +should have a name of good omen. WILLIAM has been known both as +conqueror and deliverer; and perhaps England, however contemned, might +yet supply them with ANOTHER WILLIAM. Whigs, indeed, are not willing to +be governed; and it is possible that KING WILLIAM may be strongly +inclined to guide their measures: but Whigs have been cheated like other +mortals, and suffered their leader to become their tyrant, under the +name of their PROTECTOR. What more they will receive from England, no +man can tell. In their rudiments of empire they may want a CHANCELLOR_.' + +Then came this paragraph:-- + +'_Their numbers are, at present, not quite sufficient for the greatness +which, in some form of government or other, is to rival the ancient +monarchies; but by Dr. Franklin's rule of progression[921], they will, in +a century and a quarter, be more than equal to the inhabitants of +Europe. When the Whigs of America are thus multiplied, let the Princes +of the earth tremble in their palaces. If they should continue to double +and to double, their own hemisphere would not contain them. But let not +our boldest oppugners of authority look forward with delight to this +futurity of Whiggism_.' + +How it ended I know not, as it is cut off abruptly at the foot of the +last of these proof pages[922]. + +His pamphlets in support of the measures of administration were +published on his own account, and he afterwards collected them into a +volume, with the title of _Political Tracts, by the Authour of the +Rambler_, with this motto:-- + +'Fallitur egregio quisquis sub Principe credit +Servitium; nunquam libertas gratior extat +Quam sub Rege pio.' CLAUDIANUS[923]. + +These pamphlets drew upon him numerous attacks[924]. Against the common +weapons of literary warfare he was hardened; but there were two +instances of animadversion which I communicated to him, and from what I +could judge, both from his silence and his looks, appeared to me to +impress him much. + +One was, _A Letter to Dr. Samuel Johnson, occasioned by his late +political Publications_. It appeared previous to his _Taxation no +Tyranny_, and was written by Dr. Joseph Towers[925]. In that performance, +Dr. Johnson was treated with the respect due to so eminent a man, while +his conduct as a political writer was boldly and pointedly arraigned, as +inconsistent with the character of one, who, if he did employ his pen +upon politics, + +'It might reasonably be expected should distinguish himself, not by +party violence and rancour, but by moderation and by wisdom.' + +It concluded thus:-- + +'I would, however, wish you to remember, should you again address the +publick under the character of a political writer, that luxuriance of +imagination or energy of language will ill compensate for the want of +candour, of justice, and of truth. And I shall only add, that should I +hereafter be disposed to read, as I heretofore have done, the most +excellent of all your performances, _The Rambler_, the pleasure which I +have been accustomed to find in it will be much diminished by the +reflection that the writer of so moral, so elegant, and so valuable a +work, was capable of prostituting his talents in such productions as +_The False Alarm_, the _Thoughts on the Transactions respecting +Falkland's Islands_, and _The Patriot_' + +I am willing to do justice to the merit of Dr. Towers, of whom I will +say, that although I abhor his Whiggish democratical notions and +propensities, (for I will not call them principles,) I esteem him as an +ingenious, knowing, and very convivial man. + +The other instance was a paragraph of a letter to me, from my old and +most intimate friend, the Reverend Mr. Temple, who wrote the character +of Gray, which has had the honour to be adopted both by Mr. Mason and +Dr. Johnson in their accounts of that poet[927]. The words were,-- + +'How can your great, I will not say your _pious_, but your _moral_ +friend, support the barbarous measures of administration, which they +have not the face to ask even their infidel pensioner Hume to +defend[926].' + +However confident of the rectitude of his own mind, Johnson may have +felt sincere uneasiness that his conduct should be erroneously imputed +to unworthy motives, by good men; and that the influence of his valuable +writings should on that account be in any degree obstructed or +lessened[928]. + +He complained to a Right Honourable friend[929] of distinguished talents +and very elegant manners, with whom he maintained a long intimacy, and +whose generosity towards him will afterwards appear[930], that his pension +having been given to him as a literary character, he had been applied to +by administration to write political pamphlets; and he was even so much +irritated, that he declared his resolution to resign his pension. His +friend shewed him the impropriety of such a measure, and he afterwards +expressed his gratitude, and said he had received good advice. To that +friend he once signified a wish to have his pension secured to him for +his life; but he neither asked nor received from government any reward +whatsoever for his political labours[931]. + +On Friday, March 24, I met him at the LITERARY CLUB, where were Mr. +Beauclerk, Mr. Langton, Mr. Colman, Dr. Percy, Mr. Vesey, Sir Charles +Bunbury, Dr. George Fordyce, Mr. Steevens, and Mr. Charles Fox. Before +he came in, we talked of his _Journey to the Western Islands_, and of +his coming away 'willing to believe the second sight[932],' which seemed +to excite some ridicule. I was then so impressed with the truth of many +of the stories of it which I had been told, that I avowed my conviction, +saying, 'He is only _willing_ to believe: I _do_ believe. The evidence +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[933].' 'Are +you? (said Colman,) then cork it up.' + +I found his _Journey_ the common topick of conversation in London at +this time, wherever I happened to be. At one of Lord Mansfield's formal +Sunday evening conversations, strangely called _LevA(C)es_, his Lordship +addressed me, 'We have all been reading your travels, Mr. Boswell.' I +answered, 'I was but the humble attendant of Dr. Johnson.' The Chief +Justice replied, with that air and manner which none, who ever saw and +heard him, can forget, 'He speaks ill of nobody but Ossian.' + +Johnson was in high spirits this evening at the club, and talked with +great animation and success. He attacked Swift, as he used to do upon +all occasions. The _Tale of a Tub_ is so much superiour to his other +writings, that one can hardly believe he was the authour of it[934]: +'there is in it such a vigour of mind, such a swarm of thoughts, so much +of nature, and art, and life[935].' I wondered to hear him say of +_Gulliver's Travels_, 'When once you have thought of big men and little +men, it is very easy to do all the rest.' I endeavoured to make a stand +for Swift, and tried to rouse those who were much more able to defend +him; but in vain. Johnson at last, of his own accord, allowed very great +merit to the inventory of articles found in the pocket of the Man +Mountain, particularly the description of his watch, which it was +conjectured was his GOD, as he consulted it upon all occasions. He +observed, that 'Swift put his name to but two things, (after he had a +name to put,) _The Plan for the Improvement of the English Language_, +and the last _Drapier's Letter_[936].' + +From Swift, there was an easy transition to Mr. Thomas +Sheridan.--JOHNSON. 'Sheridan is a wonderful admirer of the tragedy of +_Douglas_, and presented its authour with a gold medal. Some years ago, +at a coffee-house in Oxford, I called to him, "Mr. Sheridan, Mr. +Sheridan, how came you to give a gold medal to Home, for writing that +foolish play[937]?" This, you see, was wanton and insolent; but I _meant_ +to be wanton and insolent. A medal has no value but as a stamp of merit. +And was Sheridan to assume to himself the right of giving that stamp? If +Sheridan was magnificent enough to bestow a gold medal as an honorary +reward of dramatick excellence, he should have requested one of the +Universities to choose the person on whom it should be conferred. +Sheridan had no right to give a stamp of merit: it was counterfeiting +Apollo's coin[938].' + +On Monday, March 27, I breakfasted with him at Mr. Strahan's. He told +us, that he was engaged to go that evening to Mrs. Abington's benefit. +'She was visiting some ladies whom I was visiting, and begged that I +would come to her benefit. I told her I could not hear: but she insisted +so much on my coming, that it would have been brutal to have refused +her.' This was a speech quite characteristical. He loved to bring +forward his having been in the gay circles of life; and he was, perhaps, +a little vain of the solicitations of this elegant and fashionable +actress. He told us, the play was to be _The Hypocrite_, altered from +Cibber's _Nonjuror_[939], so as to satirize the Methodists. 'I do not +think (said he,) the character of _The Hypocrite_ justly applicable to +the Methodists, but it was very applicable to the Nonjurors[940]. I once +said to Dr. Madan[941], a clergyman of Ireland, who was a great Whig, that +perhaps a Nonjuror would have been less criminal in taking the oaths +imposed by the ruling power, than refusing them; because refusing them, +necessarily laid him under almost an irresistible temptation to be more +criminal; for, a man _must_ live, and if he precludes himself from the +support furnished by the establishment, will probably be reduced to very +wicked shifts to maintain himself[942].' BOSWELL. 'I should think, Sir, +that a man who took the oaths contrary to his principles, was a +determined wicked man, because he was sure he was committing perjury; +whereas a Nonjuror might be insensibly led to do what was wrong, without +being so directly conscious of it.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, a man who goes +to bed to his patron's wife is pretty sure that he is committing +wickedness.' BOSWELL. 'Did the nonjuring clergymen do so, Sir?' JOHNSON. +'I am afraid many of them did.' + +I was startled at his argument, and could by no means think it +convincing. Had not his own father complied with the requisition of +government[943], (as to which he once observed to me, when I pressed him +upon it, '_That_, Sir, he was to settle with himself,') he would +probably have thought more unfavourably of a Jacobite who took the +oaths: + +'--had he not resembled +My father as he _swore_--[944].' + +Mr. Strahan talked of launching into the great ocean of London, in order +to have a chance for rising into eminence; and, observing that many men +were kept back from trying their fortunes there, because they were born +to a competency, said, 'Small certainties are the bane of men of +talents[945];' which Johnson confirmed. Mr. Strahan put Johnson in mind of +a remark which he had made to him; 'There are few ways in which a man +can be more innocently employed than in getting money.' 'The more one +thinks of this, (said Strahan,) the juster it will appear.' + +Mr. Strahan had taken a poor boy from the country as an apprentice, upon +Johnson's recommendation. Johnson having enquired after him, said, 'Mr. +Strahan, let me have five guineas on account, and I'll give this boy +one. Nay, if a man recommends a boy, and does nothing for him, it is sad +work. Call him down.' + +I followed him into the court-yard[946], behind Mr. Strahan's house; and +there I had a proof of what I had heard him profess, that he talked +alike to all. 'Some people tell you that they let themselves down to the +capacity of their hearers. I never do that. I speak uniformly, in as +intelligible a manner as I can[947].' + +'Well, my boy, how do you go on?' 'Pretty well, Sir; but they are afraid +I an't strong enough for some parts of the business.' JOHNSON. 'Why I +shall be sorry for it; for when you consider with how little mental +power and corporeal labour a printer can get a guinea a week, it is a +very desirable occupation for you. Do you hear,--take all the pains you +can; and if this does not do, we must think of some other way of life +for you. There's a guinea.' + +Here was one of the many, many instances of his active benevolence. At +the same time, the slow and sonorous solemnity with which, while he bent +himself down, he addressed a little thick short-legged boy, contrasted +with the boy's aukwardness and awe, could not but excite some ludicrous +emotions[948]. + +I met him at Drury-lane play-house in the evening. Sir Joshua Reynolds, +at Mrs. Abington's request, had promised to bring a body of wits to her +benefit; and having secured forty places in the front boxes, had done me +the honour to put me in the group. Johnson sat on the seat directly +behind me[949]; and as he could neither see nor hear at such a distance +from the stage, he was wrapped up in grave abstraction, and seemed quite +a cloud, amidst all the sunshine of glitter and gaiety[950]. + +I wondered at his patience in sitting out a play of five acts, and a +farce of two. He said very little; but after the prologue to Bon Ton[951] +had been spoken, which he could hear pretty well from the more slow and +distinct utterance, he talked of prologue-writing, and observed, 'Dryden +has written prologues superiour to any that David Garrick has written; +but David Garrick has written more good prologues than Dryden has done. +It is wonderful that he has been able to write such variety of them[952].' + +At Mr. Beauclerk's, where I supped, was Mr. Garrick, whom I made happy +with Johnson's praise of his prologues; and I suppose, in gratitude to +him, he took up one of his favourite topicks, the nationality of the +Scotch, which he maintained in a pleasant manner, with the aid of a +little poetical fiction. 'Come, come, don't deny it: they are really +national. Why, now, the Adams[953] are as liberal-minded men as any in the +world: but, I don't know how it is, all their workmen are Scotch. You +are, to be sure, wonderfully free from that nationality: but so it +happens, that you employ the only Scotch shoe-black in London.' He +imitated the manner of his old master with ludicrous exaggeration; +repeating, with pauses and half-whistlings interjected, + +'_Os homini sublime dedit,--calumque tueri +Jussit,--et erectos ad sidera--tollere vultus_[954]'; + +looking downwards all the time, and, while pronouncing the four last +words, absolutely touching the ground with a kind of contorted +gesticulation. + +Garrick, however, when he pleased, could imitate Johnson very +exactly[955]; for that great actor, with his distinguished powers of +expression which were so universally admired, possessed also an +admirable talent of mimickry. He was always jealous that Johnson spoke +lightly of him[956]. I recollect his exhibiting him to me one day, as if +saying, 'Davy has some convivial pleasantry about him, but 'tis a futile +fellow[957];' which he uttered perfectly with the tone and air of Johnson. + +I cannot too frequently request of my readers, while they peruse my +account of Johnson's conversation, to endeavour to keep in mind his +deliberate and strong utterance. His mode of speaking was indeed very +impressive[958]; and I wish it could be preserved as musick is written, +according to the very ingenious method of Mr. Steele[959], who has shown +how the recitation of Mr. Garrick, and other eminent speakers, might be +transmitted to posterity in score[960]. + +Next day I dined with Johnson at Mr. Thrale's. He attacked Gray, calling +him 'a dull fellow.' BOSWELL. 'I understand he was reserved, and might +appear dull in company; but surely he was not dull in poetry.' JOHNSON. +'Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull every where.[961] +He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him GREAT. He +was a mechanical poet.' He then repeated some ludicrous lines, which +have escaped my memory, and said, 'Is not that GREAT, like his Odes?' +Mrs. Thrale maintained that his Odes were melodious; upon which he +exclaimed, + +'Weave the warp, and weave the woof;'--I added, in a solemn tone, + +'The winding-sheet of Edward's race.' + +'_There_ is a good line.' 'Ay, (said he), and the next line is a good +one,' (pronouncing it contemptuously;) 'Give ample verge and room +enough.'--[962] + +'No, Sir, there are but two good[963] stanzas in Gray's poetry, which are +in his _Elegy in a Country Church-yard_.' He then repeated the stanza, + +'For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey,' &c. + +mistaking one word; for instead of _precincts_ he said _confines_. He +added, 'The other stanza I forget[964].' + +A young lady[965] who had married a man much her inferiour in rank being +mentioned, a question arose how a woman's relations should behave to her +in such a situation; and, while I recapitulate the debate, and recollect +what has since happened[966], I cannot but be struck in a manner that +delicacy forbids me to express. While I contended that she ought to be +treated with an inflexible steadiness of displeasure, Mrs. Thrale was +all for mildness and forgiveness, and, according to the vulgar phrase, +'making the best of a bad bargain.' JOHNSON. 'Madam, we must +distinguish. Were I a man of rank, I would not let a daughter starve who +had made a mean marriage; but having voluntarily degraded herself from +the station which she was originally entitled to hold, I would support +her only in that which she herself had chosen; and would not put her on +a level with my other daughters. You are to consider, Madam, that it is +our duty to maintain the subordination of civilized society; and when +there is a gross and shameful deviation from rank, it should be punished +so as to deter others from the same perversion.' + +After frequently considering this subject, I am more and more confirmed +in what I then meant to express, and which was sanctioned by the +authority, and illustrated by the wisdom, of Johnson; and I think it of +the utmost consequence to the happiness of Society, to which +subordination is absolutely necessary[967]. It is weak, and contemptible, +and unworthy, in a parent to relax in such a case. It is sacrificing +general advantage to private feelings. And let it be considered, that +the claim of a daughter who has acted thus, to be restored to her former +situation, is either fantastical or unjust. If there be no value in the +distinction of rank, what does she suffer by being kept in the situation +to which she has descended? If there be a value in that distinction, it +ought to be steadily maintained. If indulgence be shewn to such conduct, +and the offenders know that in a longer or shorter time they shall be +received as well as if they had not contaminated their blood by a base +alliance, the great check upon that inordinate caprice which generally +occasions low marriages will be removed, and the fair and comfortable +order of improved life will be miserably disturbed[968]. + +Lord Chesterfield's Letters being mentioned, Johnson said, 'It was not +to be wondered at that they had so great a sale, considering that they +were the letters of a statesman, a wit, one who had been so much in the +mouths of mankind, one long accustomed _virA"m volitare per ora_[969].' + +On Friday, March 31, I supped with him and some friends at a tavern[970]. +One of the company[971] attempted, with too much forwardness, to rally him +on his late appearance at the theatre; but had reason to repent of his +temerity. 'Why, Sir, did you go to Mrs. Abington's benefit? Did you +see?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir.' 'Did you hear?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir.' 'Why then, +Sir, did you go?' JOHNSON. 'Because, Sir, she is a favourite of the +publick; and when the publick cares the thousandth part for you that it +does for her, I will go to your benefit too[972].' + +Next morning I won a small bet from lady Diana Beauclerk, by asking him +as to one of his particularities, which her Ladyship laid I durst not +do. It seems he had been frequently observed at the Club to put into his +pocket the Seville oranges, after he had squeezed the juice of them into +the drink which he made for himself. Beauclerk and Garrick talked of it +to me, and seemed to think that he had a strange unwillingness to be +discovered. We could not divine what he did with them; and this was the +bold question to be put. I saw on his table the spoils of the preceding +night, some fresh peels nicely scraped and cut into pieces. 'O, Sir, +(said I,) I now partly see what you do with the squeezed oranges which +you put into your pocket at the Club.' JOHNSON. 'I have a great love for +them.' BOSWELL. 'And pray, Sir, what do you do with them? You scrape +them, it seems, very neatly, and what next?' JOHNSON. 'Let them dry, +Sir.' BOSWELL. 'And what next?' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, you shall know their +fate no further.' BOSWELL. 'Then the world must be left in the dark. It +must be said (assuming a mock solemnity,) he scraped them, and let them +dry, but what he did with them next, he never could be prevailed upon to +tell.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, you should say it more emphatically:--he +could not be prevailed upon, even by his dearest friends, to tell[973].' + +He had this morning received his Diploma as Doctor of Laws from the +University of Oxford. He did not vaunt of his new dignity, but I +understood he was highly pleased with it. I shall here insert the +progress and completion of that high academical honour, in the same +manner as I have traced his obtaining that of Master of Arts. + +To the Reverend Dr. FOTHERGILL, Vice-Chancellor of the University of +Oxford, to be communicated to the Heads of Houses, and proposed in +Convocation. + +'MR. VICE-CHANCELLOR AND GENTLEMEN[974], + +'The honour of the degree of M.A. by diploma, formerly conferred upon +MR. SAMUEL JOHNSON, in consequence of his having eminently distinguished +himself by the publication of a series of Essays, excellently calculated +to form the manners of the people, and in which the cause of religion +and morality has been maintained and recommended by the strongest powers +of argument and elegance of language, reflected an equal degree of +lustre upon the University itself. + +'The many learned labours which have since that time employed the +attention and displayed the abilities of that great man, so much to the +advancement of literature and the benefit of the community, render him +worthy of more distinguished honours in the Republick of letters: and I +persuade myself, that I shall act agreeably to the sentiments of the +whole University, in desiring that it may be proposed in Convocation to +confer on him the degree of Doctor in Civil Law by diploma, to which I +readily give my consent; and am, + +'Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen, + +'Your affectionate friend and servant, + +'NORTH[975].' + +'Downing-street, + +March 23, 1775.' + +DIPLOMA. + +'CANCELLARIUS, Magistri, et Scholares Universitatis Oxoniensis omnibus +ad quos presentes Literae pervenerint, salutem in Domino Sempiternam. + +'SCIATIS, virum illustrem, SAMUELEM JOHNSON, in omni humaniorum +literarum genere eruditum, omniumque scientiarum comprehensione +felicissimum, scriptis suis, ad popularium mores formandos summAi +verborum elegantiAi ac sententiarum gravitate compositis, ita olim +inclaruisse, ut dignus videretur cui ab AcademiAi suAi eximia quaedam +laudis praemia deferentur [deferrentur] quique [in] venerabilem +Magistrorum Ordinem summAi cum dignitate cooptaretur: + +'Cum verA squared eundem clarissimum virum tot posteA tantique labores, in +patriAi praesertim linguAi ornandAi et stabiliendAi feliciter impensi, ita +insigniverint, ut in Literarum RepublicAi PRINCEPS jam et PRIMARIUS jure +habeatur; Nos CANCELLARIUS, Magistri, et Scholares Universitatis +Oxoniensis, quo talis viri merita pari honoris remuneratione +exaequentur, et perpetuum suae simul laudis, nostraeque ergA literas +propensissimae voluntatis extet monumentum, in solenni Convocatione +Doctorum et Magistrorum Regentium, et non Regentium, praedictum SAMUELEM +JOHNSON Doctorem in Jure Civili renunciavimus et constituimus, eumque +virtute praesentis Diplomatis singulis juribus, privilegiis et +honoribus, ad istum gradum quA quA pertinentibus, frui et gaudere +jussimus. In cujus rei testimonium commune Universitatis Oxoniensis +sigillum praesentibus apponi fecimus. + +'Datum in Domo nostrae Convocationis die tricesimo Mensis Martii, Anno +Domini Millesimo septingentesimo, septuagesimo quinto[976].' + +'_Viro Reverendo_ Thomae Fothergill, S.T.P. _Universitatis Oxoniensis +Vice-Cancellario_. + +'S. P. D. + +'Sam Johnson. + +'MULTIS non est opus, ut testimonium quo, te praeside, Oxonienses nomen +meum posteris commendAcrunt, quali animo acceperim compertum faciam. Nemo +sibi placens non laetatur[977]; nemo sibi non placet, qui vobis, literarum +arbitris, placere potuit. Hoc tamen habet incommodi tantum beneficium, +quod mihi nunquam posthAcc sine vestrae famae detrimento vel labi liceat +vel cessare; semperque sit timendum, ne quod mihi tam eximiae laudi est, +vobis aliquando fiat opprobrio. Vale[978].' + +'7 Id. Apr., 1775.' + +He revised some sheets of Lord Hailes's _Annals of Scotland_, and wrote +a few notes on the margin with red ink, which he bade me tell his +Lordship did not sink into the paper, and might be wiped off with a wet +sponge, so that he did not spoil his manuscript. I observed to him that +there were very few of his friends so accurate as that I could venture +to put down in writing what they told me as his sayings. Johnson. 'Why +should you write down my sayings?' Boswell. 'I write them when they are +good.' Johnson. 'Nay, you may as well write down the sayings of any one +else that are good.' But _where_, I might with great propriety have +added, can I find such? + +I visited him by appointment in the evening, and we drank tea with Mrs. +Williams. He told me that he had been in the company of a gentleman[979] +whose extraordinary travels had been much the subject of conversation. +But I found that he had not listened to him with that full confidence, +without which there is little satisfaction in the society of travellers. +I was curious to hear what opinion so able a judge as Johnson had formed +of his abilities, and I asked if he was not a man of sense. Johnson. +'Why, Sir, he is not a distinct relater; and I should say, he is neither +abounding nor deficient in sense. I did not perceive any superiority of +understanding.' BOSWELL. 'But will you not allow him a nobleness of +resolution, in penetrating into distant regions?' JOHNSON. 'That, Sir, +is not to the present purpose. We are talking of his sense. A fighting +cock has a nobleness of resolution.' + +Next day, Sunday, April 2, I dined with him at Mr. Hoole's. We talked of +Pope. JOHNSON. 'He wrote his _Dunciad_ for fame. That was his primary +motive. Had it not been for that, the dunces might have railed against +him till they were weary, without his troubling himself about them. He +delighted to vex them, no doubt; but he had more delight in seeing how +well he could vex them.'[980] + +The _Odes to Obscurity and Oblivion_, in ridicule of 'cool Mason and +warm Gray,'[981] being mentioned, Johnson said, 'They are Colman's best +things.' Upon its being observed that it was believed these Odes were +made by Colman and Lloyd jointly;--JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, how can two +people make an Ode? Perhaps one made one of them, and one the other.'[982] +I observed that two people had made a play, and quoted the anecdote of +Beaumont and Fletcher, who were brought under suspicion of treason, +because while concerting the plan of a tragedy when sitting together at +a tavern, one of them was overheard saying to the other, 'I'll kill the +King.' JOHNSON. 'The first of these Odes is the best: but they are both +good. They exposed a very bad kind of writing.' BOSWELL. 'Surely, Sir, +Mr. Mason's _Elfrida_ is a fine Poem: at least you will allow there are +some good passages in it.' JOHNSON. 'There are now and then some good +imitations of Milton's bad manner.' + +I often wondered at his low estimation of the writings of Gray and +Mason. Of Gray's poetry I have in a former part of this work[983] +expressed my high opinion; and for that of Mr. Mason I have ever +entertained a warm admiration[984]. His _Elfrida_ is exquisite, both in +poetical description and moral sentiment; and his _Caractacus_ is a +noble drama[985]. Nor can I omit paying my tribute of praise to some of +his smaller poems, which I have read with pleasure, and which no +criticism shall persuade me not to like. If I wondered at Johnson's not +tasting the works of Mason and Gray, still more have I wondered at their +not tasting his works; that they should be insensible to his energy of +diction, to his splendour of images, and comprehension of thought. +Tastes may differ as to the violin, the flute, the hautboy, in short all +the lesser instruments: but who can be insensible to the powerful +impressions of the majestick organ? + +His _Taxation no Tyranny_ being mentioned, he said, 'I think I have not +been attacked enough for it. Attack is the re-action; I never think I +have hit hard, unless it rebounds[986].' BOSWELL. 'I don't know, Sir, what +you would be at. Five or six shots of small arms in every newspaper, and +repeated cannonading in pamphlets, might, I think, satisfy you[987]. But, +Sir, you'll never make out this match, of which we have talked, with a +certain, political lady, since you are so severe against her +principles[988].' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, I have the better chance for that. +She is like the Amazons of old; she must be courted by the sword. But I +have not been severe upon her.' BOSWELL. 'Yes, Sir, you have made her +ridiculous.' JOHNSON. 'That was already done, Sir. To endeavour to make +_her_ ridiculous, is like blacking the chimney.' + +I put him in mind that the landlord at Ellon[989] in Scotland said, that +he heard he was the greatest man in England,--next to Lord Mansfield. +'Ay, Sir, (said he,) the exception defined the idea. A Scotchman could +go no farther: + +"The force of Nature could no farther go[990]."' + +Lady Miller's collection of verses by fashionable people, which were put +into her Vase at Batheaston villa[991], near Bath, in competition for +honorary prizes, being mentioned, he held them very cheap: '_Bouts +rimA(C)s_ (said he,) is a mere conceit, and an _old_ conceit now, I wonder +how people were persuaded to write in that manner for this lady[992].' I +named a gentleman of his acquaintance who wrote for the Vase. JOHNSON. +'He was a blockhead for his pains.' BOSWELL. 'The Duchess of +Northumberland wrote[993].' JOHNSON. 'Sir, the Duchess of Northumberland +may do what she pleases: nobody will say anything to a lady of her high +rank. But I should be apt to throw ----'s[994] verses in his face.' + +I talked of the chearfulness of Fleet-street, owing to the constant +quick succession of people which we perceive passing through it. +JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, Fleet-street has a very animated appearance; but I +think the full tide of human existence is at Charing-cross[995].' + +He made the common remark on the unhappiness which men who have led a +busy life experience, when they retire in expectation of enjoying +themselves at ease, and that they generally languish for want of their +habitual occupation, and wish to return to it. He mentioned as strong an +instance of this as can well be imagined. 'An eminent tallow-chandler in +London, who had acquired a considerable fortune, gave up the trade in +favour of his foreman, and went to live at a country-house near town. He +soon grew weary, and paid frequent visits to his old shop, where he +desired they might let him know their _melting-days_, and he would come +and assist them; which he accordingly did. Here, Sir, was a man, to whom +the most disgusting circumstance in the business to which he had been +used was a relief from idleness[996].' + +On Wednesday, April 5, I dined with him at Messieurs Dilly's, with Mr. +John Scott of Amwell[997], the Quaker, Mr. Langton, Mr. Miller, (now Sir +John,) and Dr. Thomas Campbell[998], an Irish Clergyman, whom I took the +liberty of inviting to Mr. Billy's table, having seen him at Mr. +Thrale's, and been told that he had come to England chiefly with a view +to see Dr. Johnson, for whom he entertained the highest veneration. He +has since published _A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland_, a +very entertaining book, which has, however, one fault;--that it assumes +the fictitious character of an Englishman. + +We talked of publick speaking.--JOHNSON. 'We must not estimate a man's +powers by his being able or not able to deliver his sentiments in +publick. Isaac Hawkins Browne[999], one of the first wits of this country, +got into Parliament, and never opened his mouth. For my own part, I +think it is more disgraceful never to try to speak, than to try it and +fail; as it is more disgraceful not to fight, than to fight and be +beaten.' This argument appeared to me fallacious; for if a man has not +spoken, it may be said that he would have done very well if he had +tried; whereas, if he has tried and failed, there is nothing to be said +for him. 'Why then, (I asked,) is it thought disgraceful for a man not +to fight, and not disgraceful not to speak in publick?' JOHNSON. +'Because there may be other reasons for a man's not speaking in publick +than want of resolution: he may have nothing to say, (laughing.) +Whereas, Sir, you know courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; +because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving +any other.' + +He observed, that 'the statutes against bribery were intended to prevent +upstarts with money from getting into Parliament[1000];' adding, that 'if +he were a gentleman of landed property, he would turn out all his +tenants who did not vote for the candidate whom he supported[1001].' +LANGTON. 'Would not that, Sir, be checking the freedom of election?' +JOHNSON. 'Sir, the law does not mean that the privilege of voting should +be independent of old family interest; of the permanent property of the +country.' + +On Thursday, April 6, I dined with him at Mr. Thomas Davies's, with Mr. +Hicky[1002], the painter, and my old acquaintance Mr. Moody, the player. + +Dr. Johnson, as usual, spoke contemptuously of Colley Cibber. 'It is +wonderful that a man, who for forty years had lived with the great and +the witty, should have acquired so ill the talents of conversation: and +he had but half to furnish; for one half of what he said was oaths[1003].' +He, however, allowed considerable merit to some of his comedies, and +said there was no reason to believe that the _Careless Husband_ was not +written by himself[1004]. Davies said, he was the first dramatick writer +who introduced genteel ladies upon the stage. Johnson refuted this +observation by instancing several such characters in comedies before his +time. DAVIES (trying to defend himself from a charge of ignorance,) 'I +mean genteel moral characters.' 'I think (said Hicky,) gentility and +morality are inseparable.' BOSWELL. 'By no means, Sir. The genteelest +characters are often the most immoral. Does not Lord Chesterfield give +precepts for uniting wickedness and the graces? A man, indeed, is not +genteel when he gets drunk; but most vices may be committed very +genteelly: a man may debauch his friend's wife genteely: he may cheat at +cards genteelly.' HICKY. 'I do not think _that_ is genteel.' BOSWELL. +'Sir, it may not be like a gentleman, but it may be genteel.' JOHNSON. +'You are meaning two different things. One means exteriour grace; the +other honour. It is certain that a man may be very immoral with +exteriour grace. Lovelace, in _Clarissa_, is a very genteel and a very +wicked character. Tom Hervey[1005], who died t'other day, though a vicious +man, was one of the genteelest men that ever lived.' Tom Davies +instanced Charles the Second. JOHNSON, (taking fire at any attack upon +that Prince, for whom he had an extraordinary partiality[1006],) 'Charles +the Second was licentious in his practice; but he always had a reverence +for what was good. Charles the Second knew his people, and rewarded +merit[1007]. The Church was at no time better filled than in his reign. He +was the best King we have had from his time till the reign of his +present Majesty, except James the Second, who was a very good King, but +unhappily believed that it was necessary for the salvation of his +subjects that they should be Roman Catholicks. _He_ had the merit of +endeavouring to do what he thought was for the salvation of the souls of +his subjects, till he lost a great Empire. _We_, who thought that we +should _not_ be saved if we were Roman Catholicks, had the merit of +maintaining our religion, at the experience of submitting ourselves to +the government of King William[1008], (for it could not be done +otherwise,)--to the government of one of the most worthless scoundrels +that ever existed. No; Charles the Second was not such a man as ----, +(naming another King). He did not destroy his father's will[1009]. He took +money, indeed, from France: but he did not betray those over whom he +ruled[1010]: He did not let the French fleet pass ours. George the First +knew nothing, and desired to know nothing; did nothing, and desired to +do nothing: and the only good thing that is told of him is, that he +wished to restore the crown to its hereditary successor[1011].' He roared +with prodigious violence against George the Second. When he ceased, +Moody interjected, in an Irish tone, and with a comick look, 'Ah! poor +George the Second.' + +I mentioned that Dr. Thomas Campbell had come from Ireland to London, +principally to see Dr. Johnson. He seemed angry at this observation. +DAVIES. 'Why, you know, Sir, there came a man from Spain to see Livy[1012]; +and Corelli came to England to see Purcell[1013], and when he heard he was +dead, went directly back again to Italy.' JOHNSON. 'I should not have +wished to be dead to disappoint Campbell, had he been so foolish as you +represent him; but I should have wished to have been a hundred miles +off.' This was apparently perverse; and I do believe it was not his real +way of thinking: he could not but like a man who came so far to see him. +He laughed with some complacency, when I told him Campbell's odd +expression to me concerning him: 'That having seen such a man, was a +thing to talk of a century hence,'--as if he could live so long[1014]. + +We got into an argument whether the Judges who went to India might with +propriety engage in trade. Johnson warmly maintained that they might. +'For why (he urged) should not Judges get riches, as well as those who +deserve them less?' I said, they should have sufficient salaries, and +have nothing to take off their attention from the affairs of the +publick. JOHNSON. 'No Judge, Sir, can give his whole attention to his +office; and it is very proper that he should employ what time he has to +himself, to his own advantage, in the most profitable manner.' 'Then, +Sir, (said Davies, who enlivened the dispute by making it somewhat +dramatick,) he may become an insurer; and when he is going to the bench, +he may be stopped,--"Your Lordship cannot go yet: here is a bunch of +invoices: several ships are about to sail."' JOHNSON. 'Sir, you may as +well say a Judge should not have a house; for they may come and tell +him, "Your Lordship's house is on fire;" and so, instead of minding the +business of his Court, he is to be occupied in getting the engine with +the greatest speed. There is no end of this. Every Judge who has land, +trades to a certain extent in corn or in cattle; and in the land itself, +undoubtedly. His steward acts for him, and so do clerks for a great +merchant. A Judge may be a farmer; but he is not to geld his own +pigs[1015]. A Judge may play a little at cards for his amusement; but he is +not to play at marbles, or at chuck-farthing in the Piazza. No, Sir; +there is no profession to which a man gives a very great proportion of +his time. It is wonderful, when a calculation is made, how little the +mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession. No man +would be a Judge, upon the condition of being totally a Judge. The best +employed lawyer has his mind at work but for a small proportion of his +time: a great deal of his occupation is merely mechanical[1016]. I once +wrote for a magazine: I made a calculation, that if I should write but a +page a day, at the same rate, I should, in ten years, write nine volumes +in folio, of an ordinary size and print.' BOSWELL. 'Such as Carte's +_History_?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir. When a man writes from his own mind, he +writes very rapidly[1017]. The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in +reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make +one book.' + +I argued warmly against the Judges trading, and mentioned Hale as an +instance of a perfect Judge, who devoted himself entirely to his office. +JOHNSON. 'Hale, Sir, attended to other things besides law: he left a +great estate.' BOSWELL. 'That was, because what he got, accumulated +without any exertion and anxiety on his part.' + +While the dispute went on, Moody once tried to say something upon our +side. Tom Davies clapped him on the back, to encourage him. Beauclerk, +to whom I mentioned this circumstance, said, 'that he could not conceive +a more humiliating situation than to be clapped on the back by Tom +Davies.' + +We spoke of Rolt, to whose _Dictionary of Commerce_ Dr. Johnson wrote +the Preface[1018]. JOHNSON. 'Old Gardner the bookseller employed Rolt and +Smart to write a monthly miscellany, called _The Universal Visitor_[1019]. +There was a formal written contract, which Allen the printer saw. +Gardner thought as you do of the Judge. They were bound to write nothing +else; they were to have, I think, a third of the profits of this +sixpenny pamphlet; and the contract was for ninety-nine years. I wish I +had thought of giving this to Thurlow, in the cause about Literary +Property. What an excellent instance would it have been of the +oppression of booksellers towards poor authours[1020]!' (smiling)! Davies, +zealous for the honour of _the Trade_[1021], said, Gardner was not properly +a bookseller. JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir; he certainly was a bookseller. He had +served his time regularly, was a member of the Stationers' company, kept +a shop in the face of mankind, purchased copyright, and was a +_bibliopole_[1022], Sir, in every sense. I wrote for some months in _The +Universal Visitor_, for poor Smart, while he was mad, not then knowing +the terms on which he was engaged to write, and thinking I was doing him +good. I hoped his wits would soon return to him. Mine returned to me, +and I wrote in _The Universal Visitor_ no longer.' + +Friday, April 7, I dined with him at a Tavern, with a numerous +company[1023]. JOHNSON. 'I have been reading Twiss's _Travels in Spain_, +which are just come out. They are as good as the first book of travels +that you will take up. They are as good as those of Keysler[1024] or +Blainville[1025]; nay, as Addison's, if you except the learning. They are +not so good as Brydone's[1026], but they are better than Pococke's[1027]. I +have not, indeed, cut the leaves yet; but I have read in them where the +pages are open, and I do not suppose that what is in the pages which are +closed is worse than what is in the open pages. It would seem (he +added,) that Addison had not acquired much Italian learning, for we do +not find it introduced into his writings[1028]. The only instance that I +recollect, is his quoting "_Stavo bene; per star meglio, sto qui_[1029]."' + +I mentioned Addison's having borrowed many of his classical remarks from +Leandro Alberti[1030]. Mr. Beauclerk said, 'It was alledged that he had +borrowed also from another Italian authour.' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, all who +go to look for what the Classicks have said of Italy, must find the same +passages; and I should think it would be one of the first things the +Italians would do on the revival of learning, to collect all that the +Roman authors have said of their country.' + +Ossian being mentioned;--JOHNSON. 'Supposing the Irish and Erse +languages to be the same, which I do not believe[1031], yet as there is no +reason to suppose that the inhabitants of the Highlands and Hebrides +ever wrote their native language, it is not to be credited that a long +poem was preserved among them. If we had no evidence of the art of +writing being practised in one of the counties of England, we should not +believe that a long poem was preserved _there_, though in the +neighbouring counties, where the same language was spoken, the +inhabitants could write.' BEAUCLERK. 'The ballad of _Lilliburlero_ was +once in the mouths of all the people of this country, and is said to +have had a great effect in bringing about the Revolution[1032]. Yet I +question whether any body can repeat it now; which shews how improbable +it is that much poetry should be preserved by tradition.' + +One of the company suggested an internal objection to the antiquity of +the poetry said to be Ossian's, that we do not find the wolf in it, +which must have been the case had it been of that age. + +The mention of the wolf had led Johnson to think of other wild beasts; +and while Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Langton were carrying on a +dialogue about something which engaged them earnestly, he, in the midst +of it, broke out, 'Pennant tells of Bears--'[what he added, I have +forgotten.] They went on, which he being dull of hearing, did not +perceive, or, if he did, was not willing to break off his talk; so he +continued to vociferate his remarks, and _Bear_ ('like a word in a +catch' as Beauclerk said,) was repeatedly heard at intervals, which +coming from him who, by those who did not know him, had been so often +assimilated to that ferocious animal[1033], while we who were sitting +around could hardly stifle laughter, produced a very ludicrous effect. +Silence having ensued, he proceeded: 'We are told, that the black bear +is innocent; but I should not like to trust myself with him.' Mr. Gibbon +muttered, in a low tone of voice. 'I should not like to trust myself +with _you_.' This piece of sarcastick pleasantry was a prudent +resolution, if applied to a competition of abilities[1034]. + +Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, +in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: +'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel[1035].' But let it be +considered, that he did not mean a real and generous love of our +country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and +countries, have made a cloak for self-interest. I maintain, that +certainly all patriots were not scoundrels. Being urged, (not by +Johnson) to name one exception, I mentioned an eminent person[1036], whom +we all greatly admired. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I do not say that he is _not_ +honest; but we have no reason to conclude from his political conduct +that he _is_ honest. Were he to accept of a place from this ministry, he +would lose that character of firmness which he has, and might be turned +out of his place in a year. This ministry is neither stable[1037], nor +grateful to their friends, as Sir Robert Walpole was, so that he may +think it more for his interest to take his chance of his party coming +in.' + +Mrs. Prichard being mentioned, he said, 'Her playing was quite +mechanical. It is wonderful how little mind she had. Sir, she had never +read the tragedy of _Macbeth_ all through. She no more thought of the +play out of which her part was taken, than a shoemaker thinks of the +skin, out of which the piece of leather, of which he is making a pair of +shoes, is cut[1038].' + +On Saturday, May 8[1039], I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's, where we met +the Irish Dr. Campbell[1040]. Johnson had supped the night before at Mrs. +Abington's, with some fashionable people whom he named; and he seemed +much pleased with having made one in so elegant a circle. Nor did he +omit to pique his _mistress_[1041] a little with jealousy of her +housewifery; for he said, (with a smile,) 'Mrs. Abington's jelly, my +dear Lady, was better than yours.' + +Mrs. Thrale, who frequently practised a coarse mode of flattery, by +repeating his _bon-mots_ in his hearing[1042], told us that he had said, a +certain celebrated actor was just fit to stand at the door of an +auction-room with a long pole, and cry 'Pray gentlemen, walk in;' and +that a certain authour, upon hearing this, had said, that another still +more celebrated actor was fit for nothing better than that, and would +pick your pocket after you came out[1043]. JOHNSON. 'Nay, my dear lady, +there is no wit in what our friend added; there is only abuse. You may +as well say of any man that he will pick a pocket. Besides, the man who +is stationed at the door does not pick people's pockets; that is done +within, by the auctioneer.' + +Mrs. Thrale told us, that Tom Davies repeated, in a very bald manner, +the story of Dr. Johnson's first repartee to me, which I have related +exactly[1044]. He made me say, 'I was _born_ in Scotland,' instead of 'I +_come from_ Scotland;' so that Johnson saying, 'That, Sir, is what a +great many of your countrymen cannot help,' had no point, or even +meaning: and that upon this being mentioned to Mr. Fitzherbert, he +observed, 'It is not every man that can _carry_ a _bon mot_.' + +On Monday, April 10, I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's, with Mr. +Langton and the Irish Dr. Campbell, whom the General had obligingly +given me leave to bring with me. This learned gentleman was thus +gratified with a very high intellectual feast, by not only being in +company with Dr. Johnson, but with General Oglethorpe, who had been so +long a celebrated name both at home and abroad[1045]. + +I must, again and again, intreat of my readers not to suppose that my +imperfect record of conversation contains the whole of what was said by +Johnson, or other eminent persons who lived with him. What I have +preserved, however, has the value of the most perfect authenticity. + +He this day enlarged upon Pope's melancholy remark, + +'Man never _is_, but always _to be_ blest[1046].' + +He asserted that _the present_ was never a happy state to any human +being; but that, as every part of life, of which we are conscious, was +at some point of time a period yet to come, in which felicity was +expected, there was some happiness produced by hope[1047]. Being pressed +upon this subject, and asked if he really was of opinion, that though, +in general, happiness was very rare in human life, a man was not +sometimes happy in the moment that was present, he answered, 'Never, but +when he is drunk[1048].' + +He urged General Oglethorpe to give the world his Life. He said, 'I know +no man whose Life would be more interesting. If I were furnished with +materials, I should be very glad to write it[1049].' + +Mr. Scott[1050] of Amwell's _Elegies_ were lying in the room. Dr. Johnson +observed, 'They are very well; but such as twenty people might write.' +Upon this I took occasion to controvert Horace's maxim, + +'--mediocribus esse poetis +Non Di, non homines, non concessA(C)re columnA|.[1051]' + +For here, (I observed,) was a very middle-rate poet, who pleased many +readers, and therefore poetry of a middle sort was entitled to some +esteem; nor could I see why poetry should not, like every thing else, +have different gradations of excellence, and consequently of value. +Johnson repeated the common remark, that, 'as there is no necessity for +our having poetry at all, it being merely a luxury, an instrument of +pleasure, it can have no value, unless when exquisite in its kind.' I +declared myself not satisfied. 'Why then, Sir, (said he,) Horace and you +must settle it.' He was not much in the humour of talking. + +No more of his conversation for some days appears in my journal[1052], +except that when a gentleman told him he had bought a suit of lace for +his lady, he said, 'Well, Sir, you have done a good thing and a wise +thing.' 'I have done a good thing, (said the gentleman,) but I do not +know that I have done a wise thing.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir; no money is +better spent than what is laid out for domestick satisfaction. A man is +pleased that his wife is drest as well as other people; and a wife is +pleased that she is drest.' + +On Friday, April 14, being Good-Friday, I repaired to him in the +morning, according to my usual custom on that day, and breakfasted with +him. I observed that he fasted so very strictly[1053], that he did not even +taste bread, and took no milk with his tea; I suppose because it is a +kind of animal food. + +He entered upon the state of the nation, and thus discoursed: 'Sir, the +great misfortune now is, that government has too little power. All that +it has to bestow must of necessity be given to support itself; so that +it cannot reward merit. No man, for instance, can now be made a Bishop +for his learning and piety[1054]; his only chance for promotion is his +being connected with somebody who has parliamentary interest. Our +several ministries in this reign have outbid each other in concessions +to the people. Lord Bute, though a very honourable man,--a man who meant +well,--a man who had his blood full of prerogative,--was a theoretical +statesman,--a book-minister[1055],--and thought this country could be +governed by the influence of the Crown alone. Then, Sir, he gave up a +great deal. He advised the King to agree that the Judges should hold +their places for life, instead of losing them at the accession of a new +King. Lord Bute, I suppose, thought to make the King popular by this +concession; but the people never minded it; and it was a most impolitick +measure. There is no reason why a Judge should hold his office for life, +more than any other person in publick trust. A Judge may be partial +otherwise than to the Crown: we have seen Judges partial to the +populace[1056]. A Judge may become corrupt, and yet there may not be legal +evidence against him. A Judge may become froward from age. A Judge may +grow unfit for his office in many ways. It was desirable that there +should be a possibility of being delivered from him by a new King. That +is now gone by an act of Parliament _ex gratiAc_ of the Crown[1057]. Lord +Bute advised the King to give up a very large sum of money[1058], for which +nobody thanked him. It was of consequence to the King, but nothing to +the publick, among whom it was divided. When I say Lord Bute advised, I +mean, that such acts were done when he was minister, and we are to +suppose that he advised them.--Lord Bute shewed an undue partiality to +Scotchmen. He turned out Dr. Nichols[1059], a very eminent man, from being +physician to the King, to make room for one of his countrymen, a man +very low in his profession[1060]. He had ----[1061] and ----[1062] to go on +errands for him. He had occasion for people to go on errands for him; +but he should not have had Scotchmen; and, certainly, he should not have +suffered them to have access to him before the first people in England.' + +I told him, that the admission of one of them before the first people in +England, which had given the greatest offence, was no more than what +happens at every minister's levee, where those who attend are admitted +in the order that they have come, which is better than admitting them +according to their rank; for if that were to be the rule, a man who has +waited all the morning might have the mortification to see a peer, newly +come, go in before him, and keep him waiting still. JOHNSON. 'True, Sir; +but ---- should not have come to the levee, to be in the way of people +of consequence. He saw Lord Bute at all times; and could have said what +he had to say at any time, as well as at the levee. There is now no +Prime Minister: there is only an agent for government in the House of +Commons[1063]. We are governed by the Cabinet: but there is no one head +there since Sir Robert Walpole's time.' BOSWELL. 'What then, Sir, is the +use of Parliament?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, Parliament is a larger council +to the King; and the advantage of such a council is, having a great +number of men of property concerned in the legislature, who, for their +own interest, will not consent to bad laws. And you must have observed, +Sir, that administration is feeble and timid, and cannot act with that +authority and resolution which is necessary. Were I in power, I would +turn out every man who dared to oppose me. Government has the +distribution of offices, that it may be enabled to maintain its +authority[1064].' + +'Lord Bute (he added,) took down too fast, without building up something +new.' BOSWELL. 'Because, Sir, he found a rotten building. The political +coach was drawn by a set of bad horses: it was necessary to change +them.' JOHNSON. 'But he should have changed them one by one.' + +I told him that I had been informed by Mr. Orme[1065], that many parts of +the East-Indies were better mapped than the Highlands of Scotland. +JOHNSON. 'That a country may be mapped, it must be travelled over.' +'Nay, (said I, meaning to laugh with him at one of his prejudices,) +can't you say, it is not _worth_ mapping?' + +As we walked to St. Clement's church, and saw several shops open upon +this most solemn fast-day of the Christian world, I remarked, that one +disadvantage arising from the immensity of London, was, that nobody was +heeded by his neighbour; there was no fear of censure for not observing +Good Friday, as it ought to be kept, and as it is kept in country-towns. +He said, it was, upon the whole, very well observed even in London. He, +however, owned, that London was too large; but added, 'It is nonsense to +say the head is too big for the body. It would be as much too big, +though the body were ever so large; that is to say, though the country +were ever so extensive. It has no similarity to a head connected with a +body.' + +Dr. Wetherell, Master of University College, Oxford, accompanied us home +from church; and after he was gone, there came two other gentlemen, one +of whom uttered the common-place complaints, that by the increase of +taxes, labour would be dear, other nations would undersell us, and our +commerce would be ruined. JOHNSON (smiling). 'Never fear, Sir. Our +commerce is in a very good state; and suppose we had no commerce at all, +we could live very well on the produce of our own country.' I cannot +omit to mention, that I never knew any man who was less disposed to be +querulous than Johnson. Whether the subject was his own situation, or +the state of the publick, or the state of human nature in general, +though he saw the evils, his mind was turned to resolution, and never to +whining or complaint[1066]. + +We went again to St. Clement's in the afternoon. He had found fault with +the preacher in the morning for not choosing a text adapted to the day. +The preacher in the afternoon had chosen one extremely proper: 'It is +finished.' + +After the evening service, he said, 'Come, you shall go home with me, +and sit just an hour.' But he was better than his word; for after we had +drunk tea[1067] with Mrs. Williams, he asked me to go up to his study with +him, where we sat a long while together in a serene undisturbed frame of +mind, sometimes in silence, and sometimes conversing, as we felt +ourselves inclined, or more properly speaking, as _he_ was inclined; for +during all the course of my long intimacy with him, my respectful +attention never abated, and my wish to hear him was such, that I +constantly watched every dawning of communication from that great and +illuminated mind. + +He observed, 'All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing +so minute or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not. +In the same manner, all power, of whatever sort, is of itself desirable. +A man would not submit to learn to hem a ruffle, of his wife, or his +wife's maid; but if a mere wish could attain it, he would rather wish to +be able to hem a ruffle.' + +He again advised me to keep a journal[1068] fully and minutely, but not to +mention such trifles as, that meat was too much or too little done, or +that the weather was fair or rainy. He had, till very near his death, a +contempt for the notion that the weather affects the human frame[1069]. + +I told him that our friend Goldsmith had said to me, that he had come +too late into the world, for that Pope and other poets had taken up the +places in the Temple of Fame; so that, as but a few at any period can +possess poetical reputation, a man of genius can now hardly acquire it. +JOHNSON. 'That is one of the most sensible things I have ever heard of +Goldsmith[1070]. It is difficult to get literary fame, and it is every day +growing more difficult. Ah, Sir, that should make a man think of +securing happiness in another world, which all who try sincerely for it +may attain. In comparison of that, how little are all other things! The +belief of immortality is impressed upon all men, and all men act under +an impression of it, however they may talk, and though, perhaps, they +may be scarcely sensible of it.' I said, it appeared to me that some +people had not the least notion of immortality; and I mentioned a +distinguished gentleman of our acquaintance. JOHNSON. 'Sir, if it were +not for the notion of immortality, he would cut a throat to fill his +pockets.' When I quoted this to Beauclerk, who knew much more of the +gentleman than we did, he said, in his acid manner, 'He would cut a +throat to fill his pockets, if it were not for fear of being hanged.' + +Dr. Johnson proceeded: 'Sir, there is a great cry about infidelity[1071]; +but there are, in reality, very few infidels. I have heard a person, +originally a Quaker, but now, I am afraid, a Deist, say, that he did not +believe there were, in all England, above two hundred infidels.' + +He was pleased to say, 'If you come to settle here, we will have one day +in the week on which we will meet by ourselves. That is the happiest +conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm quiet +interchange of sentiments[1072].' In his private register this evening is +thus marked, 'Boswell sat with me till night; we had some serious +talk[1073].' It also appears from the same record, that after I left him he +was occupied in religious duties, in 'giving Francis, his servant, some +directions for preparation to communicate; in reviewing his life, and +resolving on better conduct[1074].' The humility and piety which he +discovers on such occasions, is truely edifying. No saint, however, in +the course of his religious warfare, was more sensible of the unhappy +failure of pious resolves, than Johnson. He said one day, talking to an +acquaintance on this subject, 'Sir, Hell is paved with good +intentions[1075].' + +On Sunday, April 16, being Easter Day, after having attended the solemn +service at St. Paul's[1076], I dined with Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Williams. I +maintained that Horace was wrong in placing happiness in _Nil +admirari_[1077], for that I thought admiration one of the most agreeable of +all our feelings[1078]; and I regretted that I had lost much of my +disposition to admire, which people generally do as they advance in +life. JOHNSON. 'Sir, as a man advances in life, he gets what is better +than admiration--judgement, to estimate things at their true value.' I +still insisted that admiration was more pleasing than judgement, as love +is more pleasing than friendship. The feeling of friendship is like that +of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened +with champagne. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; admiration and love are like being +intoxicated with champagne; judgement and friendship like being +enlivened. Waller has hit upon the same thought with you[1079]: but I don't +believe you have borrowed from Waller. I wish you would enable yourself +to borrow more[1080].' + +He then took occasion to enlarge on the advantages of reading, and +combated the idle superficial notion, that knowledge enough may be +acquired in conversation. 'The foundation (said he,) must be laid by +reading. General principles must be had from books, which, however, must +be brought to the test of real life. In conversation you never get a +system. What is said upon a subject is to be gathered from a hundred +people. The parts of a truth, which a man gets thus, are at such a +distance from each other that he never attains to a full view.' + +'To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I have enquired more minutely about the medicine for the rheumatism, +which I am sorry to hear that you still want. The receipt is this: + +'Take equal quantities of flour of sulphur, and _flour_ of mustard-seed, +make them an electuary with honey or treacle; and take a bolus as big as +a nutmeg several times a day, as you can bear it: drinking after it a +quarter of a pint of the infusion of the root of Lovage. + +'Lovage, in Ray's _Nomenclature_, is Levisticum: perhaps the Botanists +may know the Latin name. + +'Of this medicine I pretend not to judge. There is all the appearance of +its efficacy, which a single instance can afford: the patient was very +old, the pain very violent, and the relief, I think, speedy and lasting. + +'My opinion of alterative medicine is not high, but _quid tentasse +nocebit_? if it does harm, or does no good, it may be omitted; but that +it may do good, you have, I hope, reason to think is desired by, + +'Sir, your most affectionate, +Humble servant, +SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'April 17, 1775.' + +On Tuesday, April 18, he and I were engaged to go with Sir Joshua +Reynolds to dine with Mr. Cambridge[1081], at his beautiful villa on the +banks of the Thames, near Twickenham. Dr. Johnson's tardiness was such, +that Sir Joshua, who had an appointment at Richmond, early in the day, +was obliged to go by himself on horseback, leaving his coach to Johnson +and me. Johnson was in such good spirits, that every thing seemed to +please him as we drove along. + +Our conversation turned on a variety of subjects. He thought +portrait-painting an improper employment for a woman[1082]. 'Publick +practice of any art, (he observed,) and staring in men's faces, is very +indelicate in a female.' I happened to start a question, whether, when a +man knows that some of his intimate friends are invited to the house of +another friend, with whom they are all equally intimate, he may join +them without an invitation. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; he is not to go when he +is not invited. They may be invited on purpose to abuse him' (smiling). + +As a curious instance how little a man knows, or wishes to know, his own +character in the world, or, rather, as a convincing proof that Johnson's +roughness was only external, and did not proceed from his heart, I +insert the following dialogue. JOHNSON. 'It is wonderful, Sir, how rare +a quality good humour is in life. We meet with very few good humoured +men.' I mentioned four of our friends[1083], none of whom he would allow to +be good humoured. One was _acid_, another was _muddy_[1084], and to the +others he had objections which have escaped me. Then, shaking his head +and stretching himself at ease in the coach, and smiling with much +complacency, he turned to me and said, 'I look upon _myself_ as a good +humoured fellow.' The epithet _fellow_, applied to the great +Lexicographer, the stately Moralist, the masterly Critick, as if he had +been Sam Johnson, a mere pleasant companion, was highly diverting; and +this light notion of himself struck me with wonder. I answered, also +smiling, 'No, no, Sir; that will _not_ do. You are good natured, but not +good humoured[1085]: you are irascible. You have not patience with folly +and absurdity. I believe you would pardon them, if there were time to +deprecate your vengeance; but punishment follows so quick after +sentence, that they cannot escape.' + +I had brought with me a great bundle of Scotch magazines and +news-papers, in which his _Journey to the Western Islands_ was attacked +in every mode; and I read a great part of them to him, knowing they +would afford him entertainment. I wish the writers of them had been +present: they would have been sufficiently vexed. One ludicrous +imitation of his style, by Mr. Maclaurin[1086], now one of the Scotch +Judges, with the title of Lord Dreghorn, was distinguished by him from +the rude mass. 'This (said he,) is the best. But I could caricature my +own style much better myself.' He defended his remark upon the general +insufficiency of education in Scotland; and confirmed to me the +authenticity of his witty saying on the learning of the Scotch;--'Their +learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a little, but +no man gets a full meal[1087].' 'There is (said he,) in Scotland, a +diffusion of learning, a certain portion of it widely and thinly spread. +A merchant there has as much learning as one of their clergy[1088].' + +He talked of Isaac Walton's _Lives_, which was one of his most favourite +books. Dr. Donne's _Life_, he said, was the most perfect of them. He +observed, that 'it was wonderful that Walton, who was in a very low +situation in life, should have been familiarly received by so many great +men, and that at a time when the ranks of society were kept more +separate than they are now.' He supposed that Walton had then given up +his business as a linen draper and sempster, and was only an authour[1089]; +and added, 'that he was a great panegyrist.' BOSWELL. 'No quality will +get a man more friends than a disposition to admire the qualities of +others. I do not mean flattery, but a sincere admiration.' JOHNSON. +'Nay, Sir, flattery pleases very generally[1090]. In the first place, the +flatterer may think what he says to be true: but, in the second place, +whether he thinks so or not, he certainly thinks those whom he flatters +of consequence enough to be flattered.' + +No sooner had we made our bow to Mr. Cambridge, in his library, than +Johnson ran eagerly to one side of the room, intent on poring over the +backs of the books[1091]. Sir Joshua observed, (aside,) 'He runs to the +books, as I do to the pictures: but I have the advantage. I can see much +more of the pictures than he can of the books.' Mr. Cambridge, upon +this, politely said, 'Dr. Johnson, 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.' Johnson, ever ready for contest, instantly started from his +reverie, wheeled about, and answered, 'Sir, 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 enquire 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.' +Sir Joshua observed to me the extraordinary promptitude with which +Johnson flew upon an argument. 'Yes, (said I,) he has no formal +preparation, no flourishing with his sword; he is through your body in +an instant[1092].' + +Johnson was here solaced with an elegant entertainment, a very +accomplished family, and much good company; among whom was Mr. Harris[1093] +of Salisbury, who paid him many compliments on his _Journey to the +Western Islands_. + +The common remark as to the utility of reading history being made;-- +JOHNSON. 'We must consider how very little history there is; I mean real +authentick history. That certain Kings reigned, and certain battles were +fought, we can depend upon as true; but all the colouring, all the +philosophy of history is conjecture[1094].' BOSWELL. 'Then, Sir, you would +reduce all history to no better than an almanack[1095], a mere +chronological series of remarkable events.' Mr. Gibbon, who must at that +time have been employed upon his _History_[1096], of which he published the +first volume in the following year, was present; but did not step forth +in defence of that species of writing. He probably did not like to trust +himself with JOHNSON[1097]! + +Johnson observed, that the force of our early habits was so great, that +though reason approved, nay, though our senses relished a different +course, almost every man returned to them. I do not believe there is any +observation upon human nature better founded than this; and, in many +cases, it is a very painful truth; for where early habits have been mean +and wretched, the joy and elevation resulting from better modes of life +must be damped by the gloomy consciousness of being under an almost +inevitable doom to sink back into a situation which we recollect with +disgust. It surely may be prevented, by constant attention and +unremitting exertion to establish contrary habits of superiour efficacy. + +_The Beggar's Opera_, and the common question, whether it was pernicious +in its effects, having been introduced;--JOHNSON. 'As to this matter, +which has been very much contested, I myself am of opinion, that more +influence has been ascribed to _The Beggar's Opera_, than it in reality +ever had; for I do not believe that any man was ever made a rogue by +being present at its representation. At the same time I do not deny that +it may have some influence, by making the character of a rogue familiar, +and in some degree pleasing[1098].' Then collecting himself as it were, to +give a heavy stroke: 'There is in it such a _labefactation_ of all +principles, as may be injurious to morality.' + +While he pronounced this response, we sat in a comical sort of +restraint, smothering a laugh, which we were afraid might burst out. In +his _Life of Gay_, he has been still more decisive as to the +inefficiency of _The Beggar's Opera_ in corrupting society[1099]. But I +have ever thought somewhat differently; for, indeed, not only are the +gaiety and heroism of a highwayman very captivating to a youthful +imagination, but the arguments for adventurous depredation are so +plausible, the allusions so lively, and the contrasts with the ordinary +and more painful modes of acquiring property are so artfully displayed, +that it requires a cool and strong judgement to resist so imposing an +aggregate: yet, I own, I should be very sorry to have _The Beggar's +Opera_ suppressed; for there is in it so much of real London life, so +much brilliant wit, and such a variety of airs, which, from early +association of ideas, engage, soothe, and enliven the mind, that no +performance which the theatre exhibits, delights me more. + +The late '_worthy_' Duke of Queensberry[1100], as Thomson, in his +_Seasons_, justly characterises him, told me, that when Gay first shewed +him _The Beggar's Opera_, his Grace's observation was, 'This is a very +odd thing, Gay; I am satisfied that it is either a very good thing, or a +very bad thing.' It proved the former, beyond the warmest expectations +of the authour or his friends, Mr. Cambridge, however, shewed us to-day, +that there was good reason enough to doubt concerning its success. He +was told by Quin, that during the first night of its appearance it was +long in a very dubious state; that there was a disposition to damn it, +and that it was saved by the song[1101], + +'Oh ponder well! be not severe!' + +the audience being much affected by the innocent looks of Polly, when +she came to those two lines, which exhibit at once a painful and +ridiculous image, + +'For on the rope that hangs my Dear, +Depends poor Polly's life.' + +Quin himself had so bad an opinion of it, that he refused the part of +Captain Macheath, and gave it to Walker[1102], who acquired great celebrity +by his grave yet animated performance of it[1103]. + +We talked of a young gentleman's marriage with an eminent singer[1104], and +his determination that she should no longer sing in publick, though his +father was very earnest she should, because her talents would be +liberally rewarded, so as to make her a good fortune. It was questioned +whether the young gentleman, who had not a shilling in the world[1105], but +was blest with very uncommon talents, was not foolishly delicate, or +foolishly proud, and his father truely rational without being mean. +Johnson, with all the high spirit of a Roman senator, exclaimed, 'He +resolved wisely and nobly to be sure. He is a brave man. Would not a +gentleman be disgraced by having his wife singing publickly for hire? +No, Sir, there can be no doubt here. I know not if I should not +_prepare_ myself for a publick singer, as readily as let my wife be +one.' + +Johnson arraigned the modern politicks of this country, as entirely +devoid of all principle of whatever kind. 'Politicks (said he) are now +nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do +men engage in politicks, and their whole conduct proceeds upon it. How +different in that respect is the state of the nation now from what it +was in the time of Charles the First, during the Usurpation, and after +the Restoration, in the time of Charles the Second. _Hudibras_ affords a +strong proof how much hold political principles had then upon the minds +of men. There is in _Hudibras_ a great deal of bullion which will always +last. But to be sure the brightest strokes of his wit owed their force +to the impression of the characters, which was upon men's minds at the +time; to their knowing them, at table and in the street; in short, being +familiar with them; and above all, to his satire being directed against +those whom a little while before they had hated and feared[1106]. The +nation in general has ever been loyal, has been at all times attached to +the monarch, though a few daring rebels have been wonderfully powerful +for a time. The murder of Charles the First was undoubtedly not +committed with the approbation or consent of the people. Had that been +the case, Parliament would not have ventured to consign the regicides to +their deserved punishment. And we know what exuberance of joy there was +when Charles the Second was restored. If Charles the Second had bent all +his mind to it, had made it his sole object, he might have been as +absolute as Louis the Fourteenth.' A gentleman observed he would have +done no harm if he had. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, absolute princes seldom do +any harm. But they who are governed by them are governed by chance. +There is no security for good government.' CAMBRIDGE. 'There have been +many sad victims to absolute government.' JOHNSON. 'So, Sir, have there +been to popular factions.' BOSWELL. 'The question is, which is worst, +one wild beast or many?' + +Johnson praised _The Spectator_, particularly the character of Sir Roger +de Coverley. He said, 'Sir Roger did not die a violent death, as has +been generally fancied. He was not killed; he died only because others +were to die, and because his death afforded an opportunity to Addison +for some very fine writing. We have the example of Cervantes making Don +Quixote die[1107].--I never could see why Sir Roger is represented as a +little cracked. It appears to me that the story of the widow was +intended to have something superinduced upon it: but the superstructure +did not come[1108].' + +Somebody found fault with writing verses in a dead language, maintaining +that they were merely arrangements of so many words, and laughed at the +Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, for sending forth collections of +them not only in Greek and Latin, but even in Syriac, Arabick, and other +more unknown tongues. JOHNSON. 'I would have as many of these as +possible; I would have verses in every language that there are the means +of acquiring. Nobody imagines that an University is to have at once two +hundred poets; but it should be able to show two hundred scholars. +Pieresc's[1109] death was lamented, I think, in forty languages. And I +would have had at every coronation, and every death of a King, every +_Gaudium_, and every _Luctus_, University-verses, in as many languages +as can be acquired. I would have the world to be thus told, "Here is a +school where every thing may be learnt."' + +Having set out next day on a visit to the Earl of Pembroke, at +Wilton[1110], and to my friend, Mr. Temple[1111], at Mamhead, in +Devonshire, and not having returned to town till the second of May, I +did not see Dr. Johnson for a considerable time, and during the remaining +part of my stay in London, kept very imperfect notes of his conversation, +which had I according to my usual custom written out at large soon after +the time, much might have been preserved, which is now irretrievably lost. +I can now only record some particular scenes, and a few fragments of his +_memorabilia_. But to make some amends for my relaxation of diligence in +one respect, I have to present my readers with arguments upon two law +cases, with which he favoured me. + +On Saturday, the sixth of May, we dined by ourselves at the Mitre, and +he dictated to me what follows, to obviate the complaint already +mentioned[1112], which had been made in the form of an action in the Court +of Session, by Dr. Memis, of Aberdeen, that in the same translation of a +charter in which _physicians_ were mentioned, he was called _Doctor of +Medicine_. + +'There are but two reasons for which a physician can decline the title +of _Doctor of Medicine_, because he supposes himself disgraced by the +doctorship, or supposes the doctorship disgraced by himself. To be +disgraced by a title which he shares in common with every illustrious +name of his profession, with Boerhaave, with Arbuthnot, and with Cullen, +can surely diminish no man's reputation. It is, I suppose, to the +doctorate, from which he shrinks, that he owes his right of practising +physick. A doctor of Medicine is a physician under the protection of the +laws, and by the stamp of authority. The physician, who is not a Doctor, +usurps a profession, and is authorised only by himself to decide upon +health and sickness, and life and death. That this gentleman is a +Doctor, his diploma makes evident; a diploma not obtruded upon him, but +obtained by solicitation, and for which fees were paid. With what +countenance any man can refuse the title which he has either begged or +bought, is not easily discovered. + +'All verbal injury must comprise in it either some false position, or +some unnecessary declaration of defamatory truth. That in calling him +Doctor, a false appellation was given him, he himself will not pretend, +who at the same time that he complains of the title, would be offended +if we supposed him to be not a Doctor. If the title of Doctor be a +defamatory truth, it is time to dissolve our colleges; for why should +the publick give salaries to men whose approbation is reproach? It may +likewise deserve the notice of the publick to consider what help can be +given to the professors of physick, who all share with this unhappy +gentleman the ignominious appellation, and of whom the very boys in the +street are not afraid to say, _There goes the Doctor_. + +'What is implied by the term Doctor is well known. It distinguishes him +to whom it is granted, as a man who has attained such knowledge of his +profession as qualifies him to instruct others. A Doctor of Laws is a +man who can form lawyers by his precepts. A Doctor of Medicine is a man +who can teach the art of curing diseases. There is an old axiom which no +man has yet thought fit to deny, _Nil dat quod non habet_. Upon this +principle to be Doctor implies skill, for _nemo docet quod non didicit_. +In England, whoever practises physick, not being a Doctor, must practise +by a licence: but the doctorate conveys a licence in itself. + +'By what accident it happened that he and the other physicians were +mentioned in different terms, where the terms themselves were +equivalent, or where in effect that which was applied to him was the +most honourable, perhaps they who wrote the paper cannot now remember. +Had they expected a lawsuit to have been the consequence of such petty +variation, I hope they would have avoided it[1113]. But, probably, as they +meant no ill, they suspected no danger, and, therefore, consulted only +what appeared to them propriety or convenience.' + +A few days afterwards I consulted him upon a cause, _Paterson and +others_ against _Alexander and others_, which had been decided by a +casting vote in the Court of Session, determining that the Corporation +of Stirling was corrupt, and setting aside the election of some of their +officers, because it was proved that three of the leading men who +influenced the majority had entered into an unjustifiable compact, of +which, however, the majority were ignorant. He dictated to me, after a +little consideration, the following sentences upon the subject:-- + +'There is a difference between majority and superiority; majority is +applied to number, and superiority to power; and power, like many other +things, is to be estimated _non numero sed pondere_. Now though the +greater _number_ is not corrupt, the greater _weight_ is corrupt, so +that corruption predominates in the borough, taken _collectively_, +though, perhaps, taken _numerically_, the greater part may be uncorrupt. +That borough, which is so constituted as to act corruptly, is in the eye +of reason corrupt, whether it be by the uncontrolable power of a few, or +by an accidental pravity of the multitude. The objection, in which is +urged the injustice of making the innocent suffer with the guilty, is an +objection not only against society, but against the possibility of +society. All societies, great and small, subsist upon this condition; +that as the individuals derive advantages from union, they may likewise +suffer inconveniences; that as those who do nothing, and sometimes those +who do ill, will have the honours and emoluments of general virtue and +general prosperity, so those likewise who do nothing, or perhaps do +well, must be involved in the consequences of predominant corruption.' + +This in my opinion was a very nice case; but the decision was affirmed +in the House of Lords. + +On Monday, May 8, we went together and visited the mansions of +Bedlam[1114]. I had been informed that he had once been there before with +Mr. Wedderburne, (now Lord Loughborough,) Mr. Murphy, and Mr. Foote; and +I had heard Foote give a very entertaining account of Johnson's +happening to have his attention arrested by a man who was very furious, +and who, while beating his straw[1115], supposed it was William Duke of +Cumberland, whom he was punishing for his cruelties in Scotland, in +1746[1116]. There was nothing peculiarly remarkable this day; but the +general contemplation of insanity was very affecting. I accompanied him +home, and dined and drank tea with him. + +Talking of an acquaintance of ours[1117], distinguished for knowing an +uncommon variety of miscellaneous articles both in antiquities and +polite literature, he observed, 'You know, Sir, he runs about with +little weight upon his mind.' And talking of another very ingenious +gentleman[1118], who from the warmth of his temper was at variance with +many of his acquaintance, and wished to avoid them, he said, 'Sir, he +leads the life of an outlaw.' + +On Friday, May 12[1119], as he had been so good as to assign me a room in +his house, where I might sleep occasionally, when I happened to sit with +him to a late hour, I took possession of it this night, found every +thing in excellent order, and was attended by honest Francis with a most +civil assiduity. I asked Johnson whether I might go to a consultation +with another lawyer upon Sunday, as that appeared to me to be doing work +as much in my way, as if an artisan should work on the day appropriated +for religious rest. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, when you are of consequence +enough to oppose the practice of consulting upon Sunday, you should do +it: but you may go now. It is not criminal, though it is not what one +should do, who is anxious for the preservation and increase of piety, to +which a peculiar observance of Sunday is a great help. The distinction +is clear between what is of moral and what is of ritual obligation.' + +On Saturday, May 13, I breakfasted with him by invitation, accompanied +by Mr. Andrew Crosbie[1120], a Scotch Advocate, whom he had seen at +Edinburgh, and the Hon. Colonel (now General) Edward Stopford, brother +to Lord Courtown, who was desirous of being introduced to him. His tea +and rolls and butter, and whole breakfast apparatus were all in such +decorum, and his behaviour was so courteous, that Colonel Stopford was +quite surprised, and wondered at his having heard so much said of +Johnson's slovenliness and roughness. I have preserved nothing of what +passed, except that Crosbie pleased him much by talking learnedly of +alchymy, as to which Johnson was not a positive unbeliever, but rather +delighted in considering what progress had actually been made in the +transmutation of metals, what near approaches there had been to the +making of gold; and told us that it was affirmed, that a person in the +Russian dominions had discovered the secret, but died without revealing +it, as imagining it would be prejudicial to society. He added, that it +was not impossible but it might in time be generally known. + +It being asked whether it was reasonable for a man to be angry at +another whom a woman had preferred to him;--JOHNSON. 'I do not see, Sir, +that it is reasonable for a man to be angry at another, whom a woman has +preferred to him: but angry he is, no doubt; and he is loath to be angry +at himself.' + +Before setting out for Scotland on the 23rd[1121], I was frequently in his +company at different places, but during this period have recorded only +two remarks: one concerning Garrick: 'He has not Latin enough. He finds +out the Latin by the meaning rather than the meaning by the Latin[1122].' +And another concerning writers of travels, who, he observed, 'were more +defective than any other writers[1123].' + +I passed many hours with him on the 17th[1124], of which I find all my +memorial is, 'much laughing.' It should seem he had that day been in a +humour for jocularity and merriment, and upon such occasions I never +knew a man laugh more heartily. We may suppose, that the high relish of +a state so different from his habitual gloom, produced more than +ordinary exertions of that distinguishing faculty of man, which has +puzzled philosophers so much to explain[1125]. Johnson's laugh was as +remarkable as any circumstance in his manner. It was a kind of good +humoured growl. Tom Davies described it drolly enough: 'He laughs like a +rhinoceros.' + + +'To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I have an old amanuensis[1126] in great distress. I have given what I +think I can give, and begged till I cannot tell where to beg again. I +put into his hands this morning four guineas. If you could collect three +guineas more, it would clear him from his present difficulty. + +'I am, Sir, +'Your most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + + +'May 21, 1775.' + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I make no doubt but you are now safely lodged in your own habitation, +and have told all your adventures to Mrs. Boswell and Miss Veronica. +Pray teach Veronica to love me. Bid her not mind mamma. + +'Mrs. Thrale has taken cold, and been very much disordered, but I hope +is grown well. Mr. Langton went yesterday to Lincolnshire, and has +invited Nicolaida[1127] to follow him. Beauclerk talks of going to Bath. I +am to set out on Monday; so there is nothing but dispersion. + +'I have returned Lord Hailes's entertaining sheets[1128], but must stay +till I come back for more, because it will be inconvenient to send them +after me in my vagrant state. + + +'I promised Mrs. Macaulay[1129] that I would try to serve her son at +Oxford. I have not forgotten it, nor am unwilling to perform it. If they +desire to give him an English education, it should be considered whether +they cannot send him for a year or two to an English school. If he comes +immediately from Scotland, he can make no figure in our Universities. +The schools in the north, I believe, are cheap; and, when I was a young +man, were eminently good. + +'There are two little books published by the Foulis[1130], Telemachus and +Collins's _Poems_, each a shilling: I would be glad to have them. + +'Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, though she does not love me. You +see what perverse things ladies are, and how little fit to be trusted +with feudal estates. When she mends and loves me, there may be more hope +of her daughters. + +'I will not send compliments to my friends by name, because I would be +loath to leave any out in the enumeration. Tell them, as you see them, +how well I speak of Scotch politeness, and Scotch hospitality, and +Scotch beauty, and of every thing Scotch, but Scotch oat-cakes, and +Scotch prejudices. + +'Let me know the answer of Rasay[1131], and the decision relating to Sir +Allan[1132]. + +'I am, my dearest Sir, with great affection, +'Your most obliged, and +'Most humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'May 27, 1775.' + +After my return to Scotland, I wrote three letters to him, from which I +extract the following passages:-- + +'I have seen Lord Hailes since I came down. He thinks it wonderful that +you are pleased to take so much pains in revising his _Annals_. I told +him that you said you were well rewarded by the entertainment which you +had in reading them.' + +'There has been a numerous flight of Hebrideans in Edinburgh this +summer, whom I have been happy to entertain at my house. Mr. Donald +Macqueen[1133] and Lord Monboddo supped with me one evening. They joined in +controverting your proposition, that the Gaelick of the Highlands and +Isles of Scotland was not written till of late.' + +'My mind has been somewhat dark this summer[1134]. I have need of your +warming and vivifying rays; and I hope I shall have them frequently. I +am going to pass some time with my father at Auchinleck.' + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I am returned from the annual ramble into the middle counties[1135]. +Having seen nothing I had not seen before, I have nothing to relate. +Time has left that part of the island few antiquities; and commerce has +left the people no singularities. I was glad to go abroad, and, perhaps, +glad to come home; which is, in other words, I was, I am afraid, weary +of being at home, and weary of being abroad. Is not this the state of +life? But, if we confess this weariness, let us not lament it, for all +the wise and all the good say, that we may cure it. + +'For the black fumes which rise in your mind, I can prescribe nothing +but that you disperse them by honest business or innocent pleasure, and +by reading, sometimes easy and sometimes serious. Change of place is +useful; and I hope that your residence at Auchinleck will have many good +effects[1136]. + +'That I should have given pain to Rasay, I am sincerely sorry; and am +therefore very much pleased that he is no longer uneasy. He still thinks +that I have represented him as personally giving up the Chieftainship. I +meant only that it was no longer contested between the two houses, and +supposed it settled, perhaps, by the cession of some remote generation, +in the house of Dunvegan. I am sorry the advertisement was not continued +for three or four times in the paper. + +'That Lord Monboddo and Mr. Macqueen should controvert a position +contrary to the imaginary interest of literary or national prejudice, +might be easily imagined; but of a standing fact there ought to be no +controversy: If there are men with tails, catch an _homo caudatus_; if +there was writing of old in the Highlands or Hebrides, in the Erse +language, produce the manuscripts. Where men write, they will write to +one another, and some of their letters, in families studious of their +ancestry, will be kept. In Wales there are many manuscripts. + +'I have now three parcels of Lord Hailes's history, which I purpose to +return all the next week: that his respect for my little observations +should keep his work in suspense, makes one of the evils of my journey. +It is in our language, I think, a new mode of history, which tells all +that is wanted, and, I suppose, all that is known, without laboured +splendour of language, or affected subtilty of conjecture. The exactness +of his dates raises my wonder. He seems to have the closeness of +Henault[1137] without his constraint. + +'Mrs. Thrale was so entertained with your _Journal_[1138], that she almost +read herself blind. She has a great regard for you. + +'Of Mrs. Boswell, though she knows in her heart that she does not love +me, I am always glad to hear any good, and hope that she and the little +dear ladies will have neither sickness nor any other affliction. But she +knows that she does not care what becomes of me, and for that she may be +sure that I think her very much to blame. + +'Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head to think that I do +not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love +and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, +and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety. I hold +you, as Hamlet has it, 'in my heart of hearts[1139],' and therefore, it is +little to say, that I am, Sir, + +'Your affectionate humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'London, Aug. 27, 1775.' + + +TO THE SAME. + +'SIR, + +'If in these papers[1140] there is little alteration attempted, do not +suppose me negligent. I have read them perhaps more closely than the +rest; but I find nothing worthy of an objection. + +'Write to me soon, and write often, and tell me all your honest heart. + +'I am Sir, +'Yours affectionately, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Aug. 30, 1775.' + + +TO THE SAME. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'I now write to you, lest in some of your freaks and humours you should +fancy yourself neglected. Such fancies I must entreat you never to +admit, at least never to indulge: for my regard for you is so radicated +and fixed, that it is become part of my mind, and cannot be effaced but +by some cause uncommonly violent; therefore, whether I write or not, set +your thoughts at rest. I now write to tell you that I shall not very +soon write again, for I am to set out to-morrow on another journey. + + * * * * * + +'Your friends are all well at Streatham, and in Leicester-fields[1141]. +Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, if she is in good humour with me. + +'I am, Sir, &c. +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'September 14, 1775.' + +What he mentions in such light terms as, 'I am to set out to-morrow on +another journey,' I soon afterwards discovered was no less than a tour +to France with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. This was the only time in his life +that he went upon the Continent. + +'To MR. ROBERT LEVET. + +'Sept. 18[1142], 1775. +Calais. + + +'DEAR SIR, + +'We are here in France, after a very pleasing passage of no more than +six hours. I know not when I shall write again, and therefore I write +now, though you cannot suppose that I have much to say. You have seen +France yourself[1143]. From this place we are going to Rouen, and from +Rouen to Paris, where Mr. Thrale designs to stay about five or six +weeks. We have a regular recommendation to the English resident, so we +shall not be taken for vagabonds. We think to go one way and return +another, and for [?see] as much as we can. I will try to speak a little +French[1144]; I tried hitherto but little, but I spoke sometimes. If I +heard better, I suppose I should learn faster. I am, Sir, + +'Your humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + + +To THE SAME. + +'Paris, Oct. 22, 1775. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'We are still here, commonly very busy in looking about us. We have been +to-day at Versailles. You have seen it, and I shall not describe it. We +came yesterday from Fontainbleau, where the Court is now. We went to see +the King and Queen at dinner, and the Queen was so impressed by Miss[1145], +that she sent one of the Gentlemen to enquire who she was. I find all +true that you have ever told me of Paris. Mr. Thrale is very liberal, +and keeps us two coaches, and a very fine table; but I think our cookery +very bad[1146]. Mrs. Thrale got into a convent of English nuns, and I +talked with her through the grate, and I am very kindly used by the +English Benedictine friars. But upon the whole I cannot make much +acquaintance here; and though the churches, palaces, and some private +houses are very magnificent, there is no very great pleasure after +having seen many, in seeing more; at least the pleasure, whatever it be, +must some time have an end, and we are beginning to think when we shall +come home. Mr. Thrale calculates that, as we left Streatham on the +fifteenth of September, we shall see it again about the fifteenth of +November. + +'I think I had not been on this side of the sea five days before I found +a sensible improvement in my health. I ran a race in the rain this day, +and beat Baretti. Baretti is a fine fellow, and speaks French, I think, +quite as well as English[1147]. + +'Make my compliments to Mrs. Williams; and give my love to Francis; and +tell my friends that I am not lost. + +I am, dear Sir, + +'Your affectionate humble, &c. + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + + +'To DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, Oct. 24, 1775. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'If I had not been informed that you were at Paris, you should have had +a letter from me by the earliest opportunity, announcing the birth of my +son, on the 9th instant; I have named him Alexander[1148], after my father. +I now write, as I suppose your fellow traveller, Mr. Thrale, will return +to London this week, to attend his duty in Parliament, and that you will +not stay behind him. + +'I send another parcel of Lord Hailes's _Annals_, I have undertaken to +solicit you for a favour to him, which he thus requests in a letter to +me: "I intend soon to give you _The Life of Robert Bruce_, which you +will be pleased to transmit to Dr. Johnson. I wish that you could assist +me in a fancy which I have taken, of getting Dr. Johnson to draw a +character of Robert Bruce, from the account that I give of that prince. +If he finds materials for it in my work, it will be a proof that I have +been fortunate in selecting the most striking incidents." + +'I suppose by _The Life of Robert Bruce_, his Lordship means that part +of his _Annals_ which relates the history of that prince, and not a +separate work. + +'Shall we have _A Journey to Paris_ from you in the winter? You will, I +hope, at any rate be kind enough to give me some account of your French +travels very soon, for I am very impatient. What a different scene have +you viewed this autumn, from that which you viewed in autumn 1773! I +ever am, my dear Sir, + +'Your much obliged and +'Affectionate humble servant, +'JAMES BOSWELL.' + +'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I am glad that the young Laird is born, and an end, as I hope, put to +the only difference that you can ever have with Mrs. Boswell[1149]. I know +that she does not love me; but I intend to persist in wishing her well +till I get the better of her. + +'Paris is, indeed, a place very different from the Hebrides, but it is +to a hasty traveller not so fertile of novelty, nor affords so many +opportunities of remark. I cannot pretend to tell the publick any thing +of a place better known to many of my readers than to myself. We can +talk of it when we meet. + +'I shall go next week to Streatham, from whence I purpose to send a +parcel of the _History_ every post. Concerning the character of Bruce, I +can only say, that I do not see any great reason for writing it; but I +shall not easily deny what Lord Hailes and you concur in desiring. + +'I have been remarkably healthy all the journey, and hope you and your +family have known only that trouble and danger which has so happily +terminated. Among all the congratulations that you may receive, I hope +you believe none more warm or sincere, than those of, dear Sir, + +'Your most affectionate, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'November 16, 1775[1150].' + + +'TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD[1151]. + +'DEAR MADAM, + +'This week I came home from Paris. I have brought you a little box, +which I thought pretty; but I know not whether it is properly a +snuff-box, or a box for some other use. I will send it, when I can find +an opportunity. I have been through the whole journey remarkably well. +My fellow-travellers were the same whom you saw at Lichfield[1152], only we +took Baretti with us. Paris is not so fine a place as you would expect. +The palaces and churches, however, are very splendid and magnificent; +and what would please you, there are many very fine pictures; but I do +not think their way of life commodious or pleasant[1153]. + +'Let me know how your health has been all this while. I hope the fine +summer has given you strength sufficient to encounter the winter. + +'Make my compliments to all my friends; and, if your fingers will let +you, write to me, or let your maid write, if it be troublesome to you. I +am, dear Madam, + +'Your most affectionate humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'November 16, 1775.' + +TO THE SAME. + +'DEAR MADAM, + +'Some weeks ago I wrote to you, to tell you that I was just come home +from a ramble, and hoped that I should have heard from you. I am afraid +winter has laid hold on your fingers, and hinders you from writing. +However, let somebody write, if you cannot, and tell me how you do, and +a little of what has happened at Lichfield among our friends. I hope you +are all well. + +'When I was in France, I thought myself growing young, but am afraid +that cold weather will take part of my new vigour from me. Let us, +however, take care of ourselves, and lose no part of our health by +negligence. + +'I never knew whether you received the _Commentary on the New Testament_ +and the _Travels_, and the glasses. + +'Do, my dear love, write to me; and do not let us forget each other. +This is the season of good wishes, and I wish you all good. I have not +lately seen Mr. Porter[1154], nor heard of him. Is he with you? + +'Be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs. Adey, and Mrs. Cobb, and all +my friends; and when I can do any good, let me know. + +'I am, dear Madam, +'Yours most affectionately, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'December, 1775.' + +It is to be regretted that he did not write an account of his travels in +France; for as he is reported to have once said, that 'he could write +the Life of a Broomstick[1155],' so, notwithstanding so many former +travellers have exhausted almost every subject for remark in that great +kingdom, his very accurate observation, and peculiar vigour of thought +and illustration, would have produced a valuable work. During his visit +to it, which lasted but about two months, he wrote notes or minutes of +what he saw. He promised to show me them, but I neglected to put him in +mind of it; and the greatest part of them has been lost, or perhaps, +destroyed in a precipitate burning of his papers a few days before his +death, which must ever be lamented. One small paper-book, however, +entitled 'FRANCE II,' has been preserved, and is in my possession. It is +a diurnal register of his life and observations, from the 10th of +October to the 4th of November, inclusive, being twenty-six days, and +shows an extraordinary attention to various minute particulars. Being +the only memorial of this tour that remains, my readers, I am confident, +will peruse it with pleasure, though his notes are very short, and +evidently written only to assist his own recollection. + +'Oct. 10. Tuesday. We saw the _Ecole Militaire_, in which one hundred +and fifty young boys are educated for the army. They have arms of +different sizes, according to the age;--flints of wood. The building is +very large, but nothing fine, except the council-room. The French have +large squares in the windows;--they make good iron palisades. Their +meals are gross. + +'We visited the Observatory, a large building of a great height. The +upper stones of the parapet very large, but not cramped with iron. The +flat on the top is very extensive; but on the insulated part there is no +parapet. Though it was broad enough, I did not care to go upon it. Maps +were printing in one of the rooms. + +'We walked to a small convent of the Fathers of the Oratory. In the +reading-desk of the refectory lay the lives of the Saints. + +'Oct. 11. Wednesday. We went to see _Hotel de Chatlois_[1156], a house not +very large, but very elegant. One of the rooms was gilt to a degree that +I never saw before. The upper part for servants and their masters was +pretty. + +'Thence we went to Mr. Monville's, a house divided into small +apartments, furnished with effeminate and minute elegance.--Porphyry. + +'Thence we went to St. Roque's church, which is very large;--the lower +part of the pillars incrusted with marble.--Three chapels behind the +high altar;--the last a mass of low arches.--Altars, I believe, all +round. + +'We passed through _Place de VendA'me_, a fine square, about as big as +Hanover-square.--Inhabited by the high families.--Lewis XIV. on +horse-back in the middle. + +'Monville is the son of a farmer-general. In the house of Chatlois is a +room furnished with japan, fitted up in Europe. + +'We dined with Boccage[1157], the Marquis Blanchetti, and his lady.--The +sweetmeats taken by the Marchioness Blanchetti, after observing that +they were dear.--Mr. Le Roy, Count Manucci, the AbbA(C), the Prior[1158], and +Father Wilson, who staid with me, till I took him home in the coach. + +'Bathiani is gone. + +'The French have no laws for the maintenance of their poor.--Monk not +necessarily a priest.--Benedictines rise at four; are at church an hour +and half; at church again half an hour before, half an hour after, +dinner; and again from half an hour after seven to eight. They may sleep +eight hours.--Bodily labour wanted in monasteries. + +'The poor taken to hospitals, and miserably kept.--Monks in the convent +fifteen:--accounted poor. + +'Oct. 12. Thursday. We went to the Gobelins.--Tapestry makes a good +picture;--imitates flesh exactly.--One piece with a gold ground;--the +birds not exactly coloured.--Thence we went to the King's cabinet;--very +neat, not, perhaps, perfect.--Gold ore.--Candles of the candle-tree.-- +Seeds.--Woods. Thence to Gagnier's house, where I saw rooms nine, +furnished with a profusion of wealth and elegance which I never had seen +before.--Vases.--Pictures.--The Dragon china.--The lustre said to be of +crystal, and to have cost 3,500AL.--The whole furniture said to have cost +125,000AL.--Damask hangings covered with pictures.--Porphyry.--This house +struck me.--Then we waited on the ladies to Monville's.--Captain Irwin +with us[1159].--Spain. County towns all beggars.--At Dijon he could not +find the way to Orleans.--Cross roads of France very bad.--Five +soldiers.--Woman.--Soldiers escaped.--The Colonel would not lose five +men for the death of one woman.--The magistrate cannot seize a soldier +but by the Colonel's permission.--Good inn at Nismes.--Moors of Barbary +fond of Englishmen.--Gibraltar eminently healthy;--It has beef from +Barbary;--There is a large garden.--Soldiers sometimes fall from the +rock. + +'Oct. 13. Friday. I staid at home all day, only went to find the Prior, +who was not at home.--I read something in Canus[1160].--_Nec admiror, nec +multum laudo_. + +Oct. 14. Saturday. We went to the house of Mr. Argenson, which was +almost wainscotted with looking-glasses, and covered with gold.--The +ladies' closet wainscotted with large squares of glass over painted +paper. They always place mirrours to reflect their rooms. + +'Then we went to Julien's, the Treasurer of the Clergy:--30,000AL a +year.--The house has no very large room, but is set with mirrours, and +covered with gold.--Books of wood here, and in another library. + +'At D----'s[1161] I looked into the books in the lady's closet, and, in +contempt, shewed them to Mr. T.--_Prince Titi_[1162]; _Bibl. des FA(C)es_, and +other books.--She was offended, and shut up, as we heard afterwards, her +apartment. + +'Then we went to Julien Le Roy, the King's watch-maker, a man of +character in his business, who shewed a small clock made to find the +longitude[1163].--A decent man. + +'Afterwards we saw the _Palais Marchand_[1164], and the Courts of Justice, +civil and criminal.--Queries on the _Sellette_[1165].--This building has +the old Gothick passages, and a great appearance of antiquity.--Three +hundred prisoners sometimes in the gaol[1166]. + +'Much disturbed; hope no ill will be[1167]. + +'In the afternoon I visited Mr. Freron the journalist[1168]. He spoke Latin +very scantily, but seemed to understand me.--His house not splendid, but +of commodious size.--His family, wife, son, and daughter, not elevated +but decent.--I was pleased with my reception.--He is to translate my +books, which I am to send him with notes. + +'Oct. 15. Sunday. At Choisi, a royal palace on the banks of the Seine, +about 7m. from Paris.--The terrace noble along the river.--The rooms +numerous and grand, but not discriminated from other palaces.--The +chapel beautiful, but small.--China globes.--Inlaid tables.--Labyrinth. +--Sinking table[1169].--Toilet tables. + +'Oct. 16. Monday. The Palais Royal very grand, large, and lofty.--A very +great collection of pictures.--Three of Raphael.--Two Holy Family.--One +small piece of M. Angelo.--One room of Rubens--I thought the pictures of +Raphael fine[1170]. + +'The Thuilleries.--Statues.--Venus.--Aen. and Anchises in his +arms.--Nilus.--Many more. The walks not open to mean persons.--Chairs at +night hired for two sous apiece.--Pont tournant[1171]. + +'Austin Nuns.--Grate.--Mrs. Fermor, Abbess[1172].--She knew Pope, and +thought him disagreeable.--Mrs. ------- has many books[1173];--has seen +life.--Their frontlet disagreeable.--Their hood.--Their life easy.--Rise +about five; hour and half in chapel.--Dine at ten.--Another hour and +half at chapel; half an hour about three, and half an hour more at +seven:--four hours in chapel.--A large garden.--Thirteen +pensioners[1174].--Teacher complained. + +'At the Boulevards saw nothing, yet was glad to be there.--Rope-dancing +and farce.--Egg dance. + +'N. [Note.] Near Paris, whether on week-days or Sundays, the roads +empty. + +'Oct. 17, Tuesday. At the Palais Marchand I bought + + A snuff-box[1175], 24 L. + ------------- 6 + Table book 15 + Scissars 3 p [pair] 18 + ---- + 63--2 12 6[1176] + +'We heard the lawyers plead.--N. As many killed at Paris as there are +days in the year. _Chambre de question_[1177].--Tournelle[1178] at the +Palais Marchand.--An old venerable building. + +'The Palais Bourbon, belonging to the Prince of CondA(C). Only one small +wing shown;--lofty;--splendid;--gold and glass.--The battles of the +great CondA(C) are painted in one of the rooms. The present Prince a +grandsire at thirty-nine[1179]. + +'The sight of palaces, and other great buildings, leaves no very +distinct images, unless to those who talk of them. As I entered, my wife +was in my mind[1180]: she would have been pleased. Having now nobody to +please, I am little pleased. + +'N. In France there is no middle rank[1181]. + +'So many shops open, that Sunday is little distinguished at Paris.--The +palaces of Louvre and Thuilleries granted out in lodgings. + +'In the _Palais de Bourbon_, gilt globes of metal at the fire-place. + +'The French beds commended.--Much of the marble, only paste. + +'The Colosseum a mere wooden building, at least much of it. + +'Oct. 18. Wednesday. We went to Fontainebleau, which we found a large +mean town, crowded with people.--The forest thick with woods, very +extensive.--Manucci[1182] secured us lodgings.--The appearance of the +country pleasant. No hills, few streams, only one hedge.--I remember no +chapels nor crosses on the road.--Pavement still, and rows of trees. + +'N. Nobody but mean people walk in Paris[1183]. + +'Oct. 19. Thursday. At Court, we saw the apartments;--the King's +bed-chamber and council-chamber extremely splendid--Persons of all ranks +in the external rooms through which the family passes:--servants and +masters.--Brunet with us the second time. + +'The introductor came to us;--civil to me.--Presenting.--I had +scruples.--Not necessary.--We went and saw the King[1184] and Queen at +dinner.--We saw the other ladies at dinner--Madame Elizabeth[1185], with +the Princess of GuimenA(C).--At night we went to a comedy. I neither saw +nor heard.--Drunken women.--Mrs. Th. preferred one to the other. + +'Oct. 20. Friday. We saw the Queen mount in the forest--Brown habit; +rode aside: one lady rode aside.--The Queen's horse light grey; +martingale.--She galloped.--We then went to the apartments, and admired +them.--Then wandered through the palace.--In the passages, stalls and +shops.--Painting in Fresco by a great master, worn out.--We saw the +King's horses and dogs.--The dogs almost all English.--Degenerate. + +'The horses not much commended.--The stables cool; the kennel filthy. + +'At night the ladies went to the opera. I refused, but should have been +welcome. + +'The King fed himself with his left hand as we. + +'Saturday, 21. In the night I got ground.--We came home to Paris.--I +think we did not see the chapel.--Tree broken by the wind.--The French +chairs made all of boards painted. + +N. Soldiers at the court of justice.--Soldiers not amenable to the +magistrates.--Dijon woman[1186]. + +'Faggots in the palace.--Every thing slovenly, except in the chief +rooms.--Trees in the roads, some tall, none old, many very young and +small. + +'Women's saddles seem ill made.--Queen's bridle woven with silver.--Tags +to strike the horse. + +'Sunday, Oct. 22. To Versailles[1187], a mean town. Carriages of business +passing.--Mean shops against the wall.--Our way lay through SAªve, where +the China manufacture.--Wooden bridge at SAªve, in the way to +Versailles.--The palace of great extent.--The front long; I saw it not +perfectly.--The Menagerie. Cygnets dark; their black feet; on the +ground; tame.--Halcyons, or gulls.--Stag and hind, young.--Aviary, very +large; the net, wire.--Black stag of China, small.--Rhinoceros, the horn +broken and pared away, which, I suppose, will grow; the basis, I think, +four inches 'cross; the skin folds like loose cloth doubled over his +body, and cross his hips; a vast animal, though young; as big, perhaps, +as four oxen.--The young elephant, with his tusks just appearing.--The +brown bear put out his paws;--all very tame.--The lion.--The tigers I +did not well view.--The camel, or dromedary with two bunches called the +Huguin[1188], taller than any horse.--Two camels with one bunch.--Among the +birds was a pelican, who being let out, went to a fountain, and swam +about to catch fish. His feet well webbed: he dipped his head, and +turned his long bill sidewise. He caught two or three fish, but did not +eat them. + +'Trianon is a kind of retreat appendant to Versailles. It has an open +portico; the pavement, and, I think, the pillars, of marble.--There are +many rooms, which I do not distinctly remember--A table of porphyry, +about five feet long, and between two and three broad, given to Louis +XIV. by the Venetian State.--In the council-room almost all that was not +door or window, was, I think, looking-glass.--Little Trianon is a small +palace like a gentleman's house.--The upper floor paved with +brick.--Little Vienne.--The court is ill paved.--The rooms at the top +are small, fit to sooth the imagination with privacy. In the front of +Versailles are small basons of water on the terrace, and other basons, I +think, below them. There are little courts.--The great gallery is +wainscotted with mirrors, not very large, but joined by frames. I +suppose the large plates were not yet made.--The play-house was very +large.--The chapel I do not remember if we saw--We saw one chapel, but I +am not certain whether there or at Trianon.--The foreign office paved +with bricks.--The dinner half a Louis each, and, I think, a Louis +over.--Money given at Menagerie, three livres; at palace, six livres. + +'Oct. 23. Monday. Last night I wrote to Levet.--We went to see the +looking-glasses wrought. They come from Normandy in cast plates, perhaps +the third of an inch thick. At Paris they are ground upon a marble +table, by rubbing one plate upon another with grit between them. The +various sands, of which there are said to be five, I could not learn. +The handle, by which the upper glass is moved, has the form of a wheel, +which may be moved in all directions. The plates are sent up with their +surfaces ground, but not polished, and so continue till they are +bespoken, lest time should spoil the surface, as we were told. Those +that are to be polished, are laid on a table, covered with several thick +cloths, hard strained, that the resistance may be equal; they are then +rubbed with a hand rubber, held down hard by a contrivance which I did +not well understand. The powder which is used last seemed to me to be +iron dissolved in aqua fortis: they called it, as Baretti said, _marc de +beau forte_, which he thought was dregs. They mentioned vitriol and +salt-petre. The cannon ball swam in the quicksilver. To silver them, a +leaf of beaten tin is laid, and rubbed with quicksilver, to which it +unites. Then more quicksilver is poured upon it, which, by its mutual +[attraction] rises very high. Then a paper is laid at the nearest end of +the plate, over which the glass is slided till it lies upon the plate, +having driven much of the quicksilver before it. It is then, I think, +pressed upon cloths, and then set sloping to drop the superfluous +mercury; the slope is daily heightened towards a perpendicular. + +'In the way I saw the Greve, the Mayor's house, and the Bastile.[1189] + +'We then went to Sans-terre, a brewer. He brews with about as much malt +as Mr. Thrale, and sells his beer at the same price, though he pays no +duty for malt, and little more than half as much for beer. Beer is sold +retail at 6d. a bottle. He brews 4,000 barrels a year. There are +seventeen brewers in Paris, of whom none is supposed to brew more than +he:--reckoning them at 3,000 each, they make 51,000 a year.--They make +their malt, for malting is here no trade. The moat of the Bastile is +dry. + +'Oct. 24, Tuesday. We visited the King's library--I saw the _Speculum +humanae Salvationis_, rudely printed, with ink, sometimes pale, +sometimes black; part supposed to be with wooden types, and part with +pages cut on boards.--The Bible, supposed to be older than that of +Mentz, in 62[1190]: it has no date; it is supposed to have been printed +with wooden types.--I am in doubt; the print is large and fair, in two +folios.--Another book was shown me, supposed to have been printed with +wooden types;--I think, _Durandi Sanctuarium_[1191] in 58. This is inferred +from the difference of form sometimes seen in the same letter, which +might be struck with different puncheons.--The regular similitude of +most letters proves better that they are metal.--I saw nothing but the +_Speculum_ which I had not seen, I think, before. + +'Thence to the Sorbonne.--The library very large, not in lattices like +the King's. _Marbone_ and _Durandi_, q. collection 14 vol. _Scriptores +de rebus Gallicis_, many folios.--_Histoire GA(C)nA(C)alogique of France_, 9 +vol.--_Gallia Christiana_, the first edition, 4to. the last, f. 12 +vol.--The Prior and Librarian dined [with us]:--I waited on them +home.--Their garden pretty, with covered walks, but small; yet may hold +many students.--The Doctors of the Sorbonne are all equal:--choose those +who succeed to vacancies.--Profit little. + +'Oct. 25. Wednesday. I went with the Prior to St. Cloud, to see Dr. +Hooke.--We walked round the palace, and had some talk.--I dined with our +whole company at the Monastery.--In the library,_Beroald_,--_Cymon_,-- +_Titus_, from Boccace.--_Oratio Proverbialis_ to the Virgin, from +Petrarch; Falkland to Sandys; Dryden's Preface to the third vol. of +Miscellanies[1192]. + +'Oct. 26. Thursday. We saw the china at SAªve, cut, glazed, painted. +Bellevue, a pleasing house, not great: fine prospect.--Meudon, an old +palace.--Alexander, in Porphyry: hollow between eyes and nose, thin +cheeks.--Plato and Aristotle--Noble terrace overlooks the town.--St. +Cloud.--Gallery not very high, nor grand, but pleasing.--In the rooms, +Michael Angelo, drawn by himself, Sir Thomas More, Des Cartes, Bochart, +Naudacus, Mazarine.--Gilded wainscot, so common that it is not +minded.--Gough and Keene.--Hooke came to us at the inn.--A message from +Drumgold. + +'Oct. 27. Friday. I staid at home.--Gough and Keene, and Mrs. S----'s +friend dined with us.--This day we began to have a fire.--The weather is +grown very cold, and I fear, has a bad effect upon my breath, which has +grown much more free and easy in this country. + +'Sat. Oct. 28. I visited the Grand Chartreux built by St. Louis.--It is +built for forty, but contains only twenty-four, and will not maintain +more. The friar that spoke to us had a pretty apartment[1193].--Mr. Baretti +says four rooms; I remember but three.--His books seemed to be +French.--His garden was neat; he gave me grapes.--We saw the Place de +Victoire, with the statues of the King, and the captive nations. + +We saw the palace and gardens of Luxembourg, but the gallery was +shut.--We climbed to the top stairs.--I dined with Colbrooke, who had +much company:--Foote, Sir George Rodney, Motteux, Udson, Taaf.--Called +on the Prior, and found him in bed. + +'Hotel--a guinea a day.--Coach, three guineas a week.--Valet de +place[1194], three l.[1195] a day.--_Avantcoureur_, a guinea a week.-- +Ordinary dinner, six l. a head.--Our ordinary seems to be about five +guineas a day.--Our extraordinary expences, as diversions, gratuities, +clothes, I cannot reckon.--Our travelling is ten guineas a day. + +'White stockings, 18 l.--Wig.--Hat. + +'Sunday, Oct. 29. We saw the boarding-school.--The _Enfans trouvA(C)s_ +[1196].--A room with about eighty-six children in cradles, as sweet as +a parlour.--They lose a third[1197]; take in to perhaps more than seven +[years old]; put them to trades; pin to them the papers sent with them. +--Want nurses.--Saw their chapel. + +'Went to St. Eustatia; saw an innumerable company of girls catechised, +in many bodies, perhaps 100 to a catechist.--Boys taught at one time, +girls at another.--The sermon; the preacher wears a cap, which he takes +off at the name:--his action uniform, not very violent. + +'Oct. 30. Monday. We saw the library of St. Germain[1198].--A very noble +collection.--_Codex Divinorum Officiorum_, 1459:--a letter, square like +that of the _Offices_, perhaps the same.--The _Codex_, by Fust and +Gernsheym.--_Meursius_, 12 v. fol.--_Amadis_, in French, 3 v. fol.-- +CATHOLICON _sine colophone_, but of 1460.--Two other editions[1199], +one by ... _Augustin. de Civitate Dei_, without name, date, or place, +but of Fust's square letter as it seems. + +'I dined with Col. Drumgold;--had a pleasing afternoon. + +'Some of the books of St. Germain's stand in presses from the wall, like +those at Oxford. + +'Oct. 31. Tuesday. I lived at the Benedictines; meagre day; soup meagre, +herrings, eels, both with sauce; fryed fish; lentils, tasteless in +themselves. In the library; where I found _Maffeus's de HistoriAc IndicAc: +Promontorium flectere, to double the Cape_. I parted very tenderly from +the Prior and Friar Wilkes[1200]. + +_Maitre des Arts_, 2 y.--_Bacc. Theol_. 3 y.--_Licentiate_, 2 +y.--_Doctor Th_. 2 y. in all 9 years.--For the Doctorate three +disputations, _Major, Minor, Sorbonica_.--Several colleges suppressed, +and transferred to that which was the Jesuits' College. + +'Nov. 1. Wednesday. We left Paris.--St. Denis, a large town; the church +not very large, but the middle isle is very lofty and aweful.--On the +left are chapels built beyond the line of the wall, which destroy the +symmetry of the sides. The organ is higher above the pavement than any I +have ever seen.--The gates are of brass.--On the middle gate is the +history of our Lord.--The painted windows are historical, and said to be +eminently beautiful.--We were at another church belonging to a convent, +of which the portal is a dome; we could not enter further, and it was +almost dark. + +'Nov. 2. Thursday. We came this day to Chantilly, a seat belonging to +the Prince of CondA(C).--This place is eminently beautified by all +varieties of waters starting up in fountains, falling in cascades, +running in streams, and spread in lakes.--The water seems to be too near +the house.--All this water is brought from a source or river three +leagues off, by an artificial canal, which for one league is carried +under ground.--The house is magnificent.--The cabinet seems well +stocked: what I remember was, the jaws of a hippopotamus, and a young +hippopotamus preserved, which, however, is so small, that I doubt its +reality.--It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature +birth.--Nothing was in spirits; all was dry.--The dog, the deer; the +ant-bear with long snout.--The toucan, long broad beak.--The stables +were of very great length.--The kennel had no scents.--There was a +mockery of a village.--The Menagerie had few animals[1201]. For Dr. Blagden +see _post_, 1780 in Mr. Langton's _Collection_.--Two faussans[1202], or +Brasilian weasels, spotted, very wild.--There is a forest, and, I think, +a park.--I walked till I was very weary, and next morning felt my feet +battered, and with pains in the toes. + +'Nov. 3. Friday. We came to Compiegne, a very large town, with a royal +palace built round a pentagonal court.--The court is raised upon vaults, +and has, I suppose, an entry on one side by a gentle rise.--Talk of +painting[1203],--The church is not very large, but very elegant and +splendid.--I had at first great difficulty to walk, but motion grew +continually easier.--At night we came to Noyon, an episcopal city.--The +cathedral is very beautiful, the pillars alternately gothick and +Corinthian.--We entered a very noble parochial church.--Noyon is walled, +and is said to be three miles round. + +'Nov. 4. Saturday. We rose very early, and came through St. Quintin to +Cambray, not long after three.--We went to an English nunnery, to give a +letter to Father Welch, the confessor, who came to visit us in the +evening. + +'Nov. 5. Sunday. We saw the cathedral.--It is very beautiful, with +chapels on each side. The choir splendid. The balustrade in one part +brass.--The Neff[1204] very high and grand.--The altar silver as far as it +is seen.--The vestments very splendid.--At the Benedictines church----' + +Here his Journal[1205] ends abruptly. Whether he wrote any more after this +time, I know not; but probably not much, as he arrived in England about +the 12th of November. These short notes of his tour, though they may +seem minute taken singly, make together a considerable mass of +information, and exhibit such an ardour of enquiry and acuteness of +examination, as, I believe, are found in but few travellers, especially +at an advanced age. They completely refute the idle notion which has +been propagated, _that he could not see_[1206]; and, if he had taken the +trouble to revise and digest them, he undoubtedly could have expanded +them into a very entertaining narrative. + +When I met him in London the following year, the account which he gave +me of his French tour, was, 'Sir, I have seen all the visibilities of +Paris, and around it; but to have formed an acquaintance with the people +there, would have required more time than I could stay. I was just +beginning to creep into acquaintance[1207] by means of Colonel Drumgold, a +very high man, Sir, head of _L'Ecole Militaire_, a most complete +character, for he had first been a professor of rhetorick, and then +became a soldier. And, Sir, I was very kindly treated by the English +Benedictines, and have a cell appropriated to me in their convent.' + +He observed, 'The great in France live very magnificently, but the rest +very miserably. There is no happy middle state as in England[1208]. The +shops of Paris are mean; the meat in the markets is such as would be +sent to a gaol in England[1209]: and Mr. Thrale justly observed, that the +cookery of the French was forced upon them by necessity; for they could +not eat their meat, unless they added some taste to it. The French are +an indelicate people; they will spit upon any place[1210]. At Madame +----'s[1211], a literary lady of rank, the footman took the sugar in his +fingers[1212], and threw it into my coffee. I was going to put it aside; +but hearing it was made on purpose for me, I e'en tasted Tom's fingers. +The same lady would needs make tea _A l'Angloise_. The spout of the +tea-pot did not pour freely; she bad the footman blow into it[1213]. France +is worse than Scotland in every thing but climate. Nature has done more +for the French; but they have done less for themselves than the Scotch +have done.' + +It happened that Foote was at Paris at the same time with Dr. Johnson, +and his description of my friend while there, was abundantly ludicrous. +He told me, that the French were quite astonished at his figure and +manner, and at his dress, which he obstinately continued exactly as in +London[1214];--his brown clothes, black stockings, and plain shirt. He +mentioned, that an Irish gentleman said to Johnson, 'Sir, you have not +seen the best French players.' JOHNSON. 'Players, Sir! I look on them as +no better than creatures set upon tables and joint-stools to make faces +and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.'--'But, Sir, you will allow +that some players are better than others?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, as some +dogs dance better than others.' + +While Johnson was in France, he was generally very resolute in speaking +Latin. It was a maxim with him that a man should not let himself down, +by speaking a language which he speaks imperfectly. Indeed, we must have +often observed how inferiour, how much like a child a man appears, who +speaks a broken tongue. When Sir Joshua Reynolds, at one of the dinners +of the Royal Academy, presented him to a Frenchman of great distinction, +he would not deign to speak French, but talked Latin, though his +Excellency did not understand it, owing, perhaps, to Johnson's English +pronunciation[1215]: yet upon another occasion he was observed to speak +French to a Frenchman of high rank, who spoke English; and being asked +the reason, with some expression of surprise,--he answered, 'because I +think my French is as good as his English.' Though Johnson understood +French perfectly, he could not speak it readily, as I have observed at +his first interview with General Paoli, in 1769[1216]; yet he wrote it, I +imagine, pretty well, as appears from some of his letters in Mrs. +Piozzi's collection, of which I shall transcribe one:-- + +_A Madame La Comtesse de----_[1217]. +'July 16, 1775[1218]. + +'Oui, _Madame, le moment est arrivA(C), et il faut que je parte. Mais +pourquoi faut il partir? Est ce que je m'ennuye? Je m'ennuyerai +ailleurs. Est ce que je cherche ou quelque plaisir, ou quelque +soulagement? Je ne cherche rien, je n'espere rien. Aller voir ce que jai +vA", etre un peu rejouA(C), un peu degoutA(C), me resouvenir que la vie se +passe en vain, me plaindre de moi, m'endurcir aux dehors; void le tout +de ce qu'on compte pour les delices de l'anneA(C). Que Dieu vous donne, +Madame, tous les agrA(C)mens de la vie, avec un esprit qui peut en jouir +sans s'y livrer trop_.' + +Here let me not forget a curious anecdote, as related to me by Mr. +Beauclerk, which I shall endeavour to exhibit as well as I can in that +gentleman's lively manner; and in justice to him it is proper to add, +that Dr. Johnson told me I might rely both on the correctness of his +memory, and the fidelity of his narrative. 'When Madame de Boufflers was +first in England[1219], (said Beauclerk,) she was desirous to see Johnson. +I accordingly went with her to his chambers in the Temple, where she was +entertained with his conversation for some time. When our visit was +over, she and I left him, and were got into Inner Temple-lane, when all +at once I heard a noise like thunder. This was occasioned by Johnson, +who it seems, upon a little recollection, had taken it into his head +that he ought to have done the honours of his literary residence to a +foreign lady of quality, and eager to shew himself a man of gallantry, +was hurrying down the stair-case in violent agitation. He overtook us +before we reached the Temple-gate, and brushing in between me and Madame +de Boufflers, seized her hand, and conducted her to her coach. His dress +was a rusty brown morning suit, a pair of old shoes by way of slippers, +a little shrivelled wig sticking on the top of his head, and the sleeves +of his shirt and the knees of his breeches hanging loose. A considerable +crowd of people gathered round, and were not a little struck by this +singular appearance.' + +He spoke Latin with wonderful fluency and elegance. When Pere +Boscovich[1220] was in England, Johnson dined in company with him at Sir +Joshua Reynolds's, and at Dr. Douglas's, now Bishop of Salisbury. Upon +both occasions that celebrated foreigner expressed his astonishment at +Johnson's Latin conversation. When at Paris, Johnson thus characterised +Voltaire to Freron the Journalist: '_Vir est acerrimi ingenii et +paucarum literarum!_' + + +'TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, Dec. 5, 1775. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'Mr. Alexander Maclean, the young Laird of Col, being to set out +to-morrow for London, I give him this letter to introduce him to your +acquaintance. The kindness which you and I experienced from his brother, +whose unfortunate death we sincerely lament[1221], will make us always +desirous to shew attention to any branch of the family. Indeed, you have +so much of the true Highland cordiality, that I am sure you would have +thought me to blame if I had neglected to recommend to you this +Hebridean prince, in whose island we were hospitably entertained. + +'I ever am with respectful attachment, my dear Sir, +'Your most obliged +'And most humble servant, +'JAMES BOSWELL.' + +Mr. Maclean returned with the most agreeable accounts of the polite +attention with which he was received by Dr. Johnson. + +In the course of this year Dr. Burney informs me that 'he very +frequently met Dr. Johnson at Mr. Thrale's, at Streatham, where they had +many long conversations, often sitting up as long as the fire and +candles lasted, and much longer than the patience of the servants +subsisted[1222].' + +A few of Johnson's sayings, which that gentleman recollects, shall here +be inserted. + +'I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night, and +then the nap takes me.' + +'The writer of an epitaph should not be considered as saying nothing but +what is strictly true. Allowance must be made for some degree of +exaggerated praise. In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath[1223].' + +'There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly, but then +less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at +the other[1224].' + +'More is learned in publick than in private schools[1225], from emulation; +there is the collision of mind with mind, or the radiation of many minds +pointing to one centre. Though few boys make their own exercises, yet if +a good exercise is given up, out of a great number of boys, it is made +by somebody.' + +'I hate by-roads in education. Education is as well known, and has long +been as well known, as ever it can be[1226]. Endeavouring to make children +prematurely wise is useless labour. Suppose they have more knowledge at +five or six years old than other children, what use can be made of it? +It will be lost before it is wanted, and the waste of so much time and +labour of the teacher can never be repaid. Too much is expected from +precocity, and too little performed. Miss----[1227] was an instance of +early cultivation, but in what did it terminate? In marrying a little +Presbyterian parson, who keeps an infant boarding-school, so that all +her employment now is, + +"To suckle fools, and chronicle small-beer[1228]." + +'She tells the children, "This is a cat, and that is a dog, with four +legs and a tail; see there! you are much better than a cat or a dog, for +you can speak[1229]." If I had bestowed such an education on a daughter, +and had discovered that she thought of marrying such a fellow, I would +have sent her to the _Congress_.' + +'After having talked slightingly of musick, he was observed to listen +very attentively while Miss Thrale played on the harpsichord, and with +eagerness he called to her, "Why don't you dash away like Burney?" Dr. +Burney upon this said to him, "I believe, Sir, we shall make a musician +of you at last." Johnson with candid complacency replied, "Sir, I shall +be glad to have a new sense given to me[1230]."' + +'He had come down one morning to the breakfast-room, and been a +considerable time by himself before any body appeared. When, on a +subsequent day, he was twitted by Mrs. Thrale for being very late, which +he generally was, he defended himself by alluding to the extraordinary +morning, when he had been too early. "Madam, I do not like to come down +to _vacuity_."' + +'Dr. Burney having remarked that Mr. Garrick was beginning to look old, +he said, "Why, Sir, you are not to wonder at that; no man's face has had +more wear and tear[1231]."' + +Not having heard from him for a longer time than I supposed he would be +silent, I wrote to him December 18, not in good spirits:-- + +'Sometimes I have been afraid that the cold which has gone over Europe +this year like a sort of pestilence[1232] has seized you severely: +sometimes my imagination, which is upon occasions prolifick of evil, +hath figured that you may have somehow taken offence at some part of my +conduct.' + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Never dream of any offence. How should you offend me? I consider your +friendship as a possession, which I intend to hold till you take it from +me, and to lament if ever by my fault I should lose it. However, when +such suspicions find their way into your mind, always give them vent; I +shall make haste to disperse them; but hinder their first ingress if you +can. Consider such thoughts as morbid. + +'Such illness as may excuse my omission to Lord Hailes, I cannot +honestly plead. I have been hindered, I know not how, by a succession of +petty obstructions. I hope to mend immediately, and to send next post to +his Lordship. Mr. Thrale would have written to you if I had omitted; he +sends his compliments and wishes to see you. + +'You and your lady will now have no more wrangling about feudal +inheritance[1233]. How does the young Laird of Auchinleck? I suppose Miss +Veronica is grown a reader and discourser. + +'I have just now got a cough, but it has never yet hindered me from +sleeping: I have had quieter nights than are common with me. + +'I cannot but rejoice that Joseph[1234] has had the wit to find the way +back. He is a fine fellow, and one of the best travellers in the world. + +'Young Col brought me your letter. He is a very pleasing youth. I took +him two days ago to the Mitre, and we dined together. I was as civil as +I had the means of being. + +'I have had a letter from Rasay, acknowledging, with great appearance of +satisfaction, the insertion in the Edinburgh paper[1235]. I am very glad +that it was done. + +'My compliments to Mrs. Boswell, who does not love me; and of all the +rest, I need only send them to those that do: and I am afraid it will +give you very little trouble to distribute them. + +'I am, my dear, dear Sir, +'Your affectionate humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'December, 23, 1775.' + + +1776: A†TAT. 67--In 1776, Johnson wrote, so far as I can discover, +nothing for the publick: but that his mind was still ardent, and fraught +with generous wishes to attain to still higher degrees of literary +excellence, is proved by his private notes of this year, which I shall +insert in their proper place. + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I have at last sent you all Lord Hailes's papers. While I was in +France, I looked very often into Henault[1236]; but Lord Hailes, in my +opinion, leaves him far and far behind. Why I did not dispatch so short +a perusal sooner, when I look back, I am utterly unable to discover: but +human moments are stolen away by a thousand petty impediments which +leave no trace behind them. I have been afflicted, through the whole +Christmas, with the general disorder, of which the worst effect was a +cough, which is now much mitigated, though the country, on which I look +from a window at Streatham, is now covered with a deep snow. Mrs. +Williams is very ill: every body else is as usual. + +'Among the papers, I found a letter to you, which I think you had not +opened; and a paper for _The Chronicle_, which I suppose it not +necessary now to insert. I return them both. + +'I have, within these few days, had the honour of receiving Lord +Hailes's first volume, for which I return my most respectful thanks. + +'I wish you, my dearest friend, and your haughty lady, (for I know she +does not love me,) and the young ladies, and the young Laird, all +happiness. Teach the young gentleman, in spite of his mamma, to think +and speak well of, + +'Sir, +'Your affectionate humble servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Jan. 10, 1776.' + +At this time was in agitation a matter of great consequence to me and my +family, which I should not obtrude upon the world, were it not that the +part which Dr. Johnson's friendship for me made him take in it, was the +occasion of an exertion of his abilities, which it would be injustice to +conceal. That what he wrote upon the subject may be understood, it is +necessary to give a state of the question, which I shall do as briefly +as I can. + +In the year 1504, the barony or manour of Auchinleck, (pronounced +_Affleck_[1237],) in Ayrshire, which belonged to a family of the same name +with the lands, having fallen to the Crown by forfeiture, James the +Fourth, King of Scotland, granted it to Thomas Boswell, a branch of an +ancient family in the county of Fife, stiling him in the charter, +_dilecto familiari nostro_; and assigning, as the cause of the grant, +_pro bono et fideli servitio nobis praestito_. Thomas Boswell was slain +in battle, fighting along with his Sovereign, at the fatal field of +Flodden, in 1513[1238]. + +From this very honourable founder of our family, the estate was +transmitted, in a direct series of heirs male, to David Boswell, my +father's great grand uncle, who had no sons, but four daughters, who +were all respectably married, the eldest to Lord Cathcart. + +David Boswell, being resolute in the military feudal principle of +continuing the male succession, passed by his daughters, and settled the +estate on his nephew by his next brother, who approved of the deed, and +renounced any pretensions which he might possibly have, in preference to +his son. But the estate having been burthened with large portions to the +daughters, and other debts, it was necessary for the nephew to sell a +considerable part of it, and what remained was still much encumbered. + +The frugality of the nephew preserved, and, in some degree, relieved the +estate. His son, my grandfather, an eminent lawyer, not only +re-purchased a great part of what had been sold, but acquired other +lands; and my father, who was one of the Judges of Scotland, and had +added considerably to the estate, now signified his inclination to take +the privilege allowed by our law[1239], to secure it to his family in +perpetuity by an entail, which, on account of his marriage articles, +could not be done without my consent. + +In the plan of entailing the estate, I heartily concurred with him, +though I was the first to be restrained by it; but we unhappily differed +as to the series of heirs which should be established, or in the +language of our law, called to the succession. My father had declared a +predilection for heirs general, that is, males and females +indiscriminately. He was willing, however, that all males descending +from his grandfather should be preferred to females; but would not +extend that privilege to males deriving their descent from a higher +source. I, on the other hand, had a zealous partiality for heirs male, +however remote, which I maintained by arguments which appeared to me to +have considerable weight[1240]. And in the particular case of our family, I +apprehended that we were under an implied obligation, in honour and good +faith, to transmit the estate by the same tenure which we held it, which +was as heirs male, excluding nearer females. I therefore, as I thought +conscientiously, objected to my father's scheme. + +My opposition was very displeasing to my father, who was entitled to +great respect and deference; and I had reason to apprehend disagreeable +consequences from my non-compliance with his wishes[1241]. After much +perplexity and uneasiness, I wrote to Dr. Johnson, stating the case, +with all its difficulties, at full length, and earnestly requesting that +he would consider it at leisure, and favour me with his friendly opinion +and advice. + + +'To James Boswell, Esq. + +'Dear Sir, + +'I was much impressed by your letter, and if I can form upon your case +any resolution satisfactory to myself, will very gladly impart it: but +whether I am quite equal to it, I do not know. It is a case compounded +of law and justice, and requires a mind versed in juridical +disquisitions. Could not you tell your whole mind to Lord Hailes? He is, +you know, both a Christian and a Lawyer. I suppose he is above +partiality, and above loquacity: and, I believe, he will not think the +time lost in which he may quiet a disturbed, or settle a wavering mind. +Write to me, as any thing occurs to you; and if I find myself stopped by +want of facts necessary to be known, I will make inquiries of you as my +doubts arise. + +'If your former resolutions should be found only fanciful, you decide +rightly in judging that your father's fancies may claim the preference; +but whether they are fanciful or rational, is the question. I really +think Lord Hailes could help us. + +'Make my compliments to dear Mrs. Boswell; and tell her, that I hope to +be wanting in nothing that I can contribute to bring you all out of your +troubles. + +'I am, dear Sir, most affectionately, + +'Your humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'London, Jan. 15, 1776.' + + +TO THE SAME. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I am going to write upon a question which requires more knowledge of +local law, and more acquaintance with the general rules of inheritance, +than I can claim; but I write, because you request it. + +'Land is, like any other possession, by natural right wholly in the +power of its present owner; and may be sold, given, or bequeathed, +absolutely or conditionally, as judgment shall direct, or passion +incite. + +'But natural right would avail little without the protection of law; and +the primary notion of law is restraint in the exercise of natural right. +A man is therefore, in society, not fully master of what he calls his +own, but he still retains all the power which law does not take from +him. + +'In the exercise of the right which law either leaves or gives, regard +is to be paid to moral obligations. + +'Of the estate which we are now considering, your father still retains +such possession, with such power over it, that he can sell it, and do +with the money what he will, without any legal impediment. But when he +extends his power beyond his own life, by settling the order of +succession, the law makes your consent necessary. + +'Let us suppose that he sells the land to risk the money in some +specious adventure, and in that adventure loses the whole; his posterity +would be disappointed; but they could not think themselves injured or +robbed. If he spent it upon vice or pleasure, his successors could only +call him vicious and voluptuous; they could not say that he was +injurious or unjust. + +'He that may do more may do less. He that, by selling, or squandering, +may disinherit a whole family, may certainly disinherit part, by a +partial settlement. + +'Laws are formed by the manners and exigencies of particular times, and +it is but accidental that they last longer than their causes: the +limitation of feudal succession to the male arose from the obligation of +the tenant to attend his chief in war. + +'As times and opinions are always changing, I know not whether it be not +usurpation to prescribe rules to posterity, by presuming to judge of +what we cannot know: and I know not whether I fully approve either your +design or your father's, to limit that succession which descended to you +unlimited. If we are to leave _sartum tectum_[1242] to posterity, what we +have without any merit of our own received from our ancestors, should +not choice and free-will be kept unviolated? Is land to be treated with +more reverence than liberty?--If this consideration should restrain your +father from disinheriting some of the males, does it leave you the power +of disinheriting all the females? + +'Can the possessor of a feudal estate make any will? Can he appoint, out +of the inheritance, any portions to his daughters? There seems to be a +very shadowy difference between the power of leaving land, and of +leaving money to be raised from land; between leaving an estate to +females, and leaving the male heir, in effect, only their steward. + +'Suppose at one time a law that allowed only males to inherit, and +during the continuance of this law many estates to have descended, +passing by the females, to remoter heirs. Suppose afterwards the law +repealed in correspondence with a change of manners, and women made +capable of inheritance; would not then the tenure of estates be changed? +Could the women have no benefit from a law made in their favour? Must +they be passed by upon moral principles for ever, because they were once +excluded by a legal prohibition? Or may that which passed only to males +by one law, pass likewise to females by another? + +'You mention your resolution to maintain the right of your brothers[1243]: +I do not see how any of their rights are invaded. + +'As your whole difficulty arises from the act of your ancestor, who +diverted the succession from the females, you enquire, very properly, +what were his motives, and what was his intention; for you certainly are +not bound by his act more than he intended to bind you, nor hold your +land on harder or stricter terms than those on which it was granted. + +'Intentions must be gathered from acts. When he left the estate to his +nephew, by excluding his daughters, was it, or was it not, in his power +to have perpetuated the succession to the males? If he could have done +it, he seems to have shown, by omitting it, that he did not desire it to +be done; and, upon your own principles, you will not easily prove your +right to destroy that capacity of succession which your ancestors have +left. + +'If your ancestor had not the power of making a perpetual settlement; +and if, therefore, we cannot judge distinctly of his intentions, yet his +act can only be considered as an example; it makes not an obligation. +And, as you observe, he set no example of rigorous adherence to the line +of succession. He that overlooked a brother, would not wonder that +little regard is shown to remote relations. + +'As the rules of succession are, in a great part, purely legal, no man +can be supposed to bequeath any thing, but upon legal terms; he can +grant no power which the law denies; and if he makes no special and +definite limitation, he confers all the power which the law allows. + +'Your ancestor, for some reason, disinherited his daughters; but it no +more follows that he intended this act as a rule for posterity, than the +disinheriting of his brother. + +'If, therefore, you ask by what right your father admits daughters to +inheritance, ask yourself, first, by what right you require them to be +excluded? + +'It appears, upon reflection, that your father excludes nobody; he only +admits nearer females to inherit before males more remote; and the +exclusion is purely consequential. + +'These, dear Sir, are my thoughts, immethodical and deliberative; but, +perhaps, you may find in them some glimmering of evidence. + +'I cannot, however, but again recommend to you a conference with Lord +Hailes, whom you know to be both a Lawyer and a Christian. + +'Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, though she does not love me. + +'I am, Sir, +'Your affectionate servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON. + +'Feb. 3, 1773' + +I had followed his recommendation and consulted Lord Hailes, who upon +this subject had a firm opinion contrary to mine. His Lordship +obligingly took the trouble to write me a letter, in which he discussed +with legal and historical learning, the points in which I saw much +difficulty, maintaining that 'the succession of heirs general was the +succession, by the law of Scotland, from the throne to the cottage, as +far as we can learn it by record;'[1244] observing that the estate of our +family had not been limited to heirs male; and that though an heir male +had in one instance been chosen in preference to nearer females, that +had been an arbitrary act, which had seemed to be best in the +embarrassed state of affairs at that time; and the fact was, that upon a +fair computation of the value of land and money at the time, applied to +the estate and the burthens upon it, there was nothing given to the heir +male but the skeleton of an estate. 'The plea of conscience (said his +Lordship,) which you put, is a most respectable one, especially when +_conscience_ and _self_ are on different sides. But I think that +conscience is not well informed, and that self and she ought on this +occasion to be of a side.' + +This letter, which had considerable influence upon my mind, I sent to +Dr. Johnson, begging to hear from him again, upon this interesting +question. + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Having not any acquaintance with the laws or customs of Scotland, I +endeavoured to consider your question upon general principles, and found +nothing of much validity that I could oppose to this position: "He who +inherits a fief unlimited by his ancestors, inherits the power of +limiting it according to his own judgement or opinion." If this be true, +you may join with your father. + +'Further consideration produces another conclusion: "He who receives a +fief unlimited by his ancestors, gives his heirs some reason to +complain, if he does not transmit it unlimited to posterity. For why +should he make the state of others worse than his own, without a +reason?" If this be true, though neither you nor your father are about +to do what is quite right, but as your father violates (I think) the +legal succession least, he seems to be nearer the right than yourself. + +'It cannot but occur that "Women have natural and equitable claims as +well as men, and these claims are not to be capriciously or lightly +superseded or infringed." When fiefs implied military service, it is +easily discerned why females could not inherit them; but that reason is +now at an end. As manners make laws, manners likewise repeal them. + +'These are the general conclusions which I have attained. None of them +are very favourable to your scheme of entail, nor perhaps to any scheme. +My observation, that only he who acquires an estate may bequeath it +capriciously[1245], if it contains any conviction, includes this position +likewise, that only he who acquires an estate may entail it +capriciously. But I think it may be safely presumed, that "he who +inherits an estate, inherits all the power legally concomitant;" and +that "He who gives or leaves unlimited an estate legally limitable, must +be presumed to give that power of limitation which he omitted to take +away, and to commit future contingencies to future prudence." In these +two positions I believe Lord Hailes will advise you to rest; every other +notion of possession seems to me full of difficulties and embarrassed +with scruples. + +'If these axioms be allowed, you have arrived now at full liberty +without the help of particular circumstances, which, however, have in +your case great weight. You very rightly observe, that he who passing by +his brother gave the inheritance to his nephew, could limit no more than +he gave; and by Lord Hailes's estimate of fourteen years' purchase, what +he gave was no more than you may easily entail according to your own +opinion, if that opinion should finally prevail. + +'Lord Hailes's suspicion that entails are encroachments on the dominion +of Providence, may be extended to all hereditary privileges and all +permanent institutions; I do not see why it may not be extended to any +provision for the present hour, since all care about futurity proceeds +upon a supposition, that we know at least in some degree what will be +future. Of the future we certainly know nothing; but we may form +conjectures from the past; and the power of forming conjectures, +includes, in my opinion, the duty of acting in conformity to that +probability which we discover. Providence gives the power, of which +reason teaches the use. + +'I am, dear Sir, +'Your most faithful servant, +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Feb. 9. 1776.' + +'I hope I shall get some ground now with Mrs. Boswell; make my +compliments to her, and to the little people. + +'Don't burn papers; they may be safe enough in your own box,--you will +wish to see them hereafter.' + +To THE SAME. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'To the letters which I have written about your great question I have +nothing to add. If your conscience is satisfied, you have now only your +prudence to consult. I long for a letter, that I may know how this +troublesome and vexatious question is at last decided[1246]. I hope that it +will at last end well. Lord Hailes's letter was very friendly, and very +seasonable, but I think his aversion from entails has something in it +like superstition. Providence is not counteracted by any means which +Providence puts into our power. The continuance and propagation of +families makes a great part of the Jewish law, and is by no means +prohibited in the Christian institution, though the necessity of it +continues no longer. Hereditary tenures are established in all civilised +countries, and are accompanied in most with hereditary authority. Sir +William Temple considers our constitution as defective, that there is +not an unalienable estate in land connected with a peerage[1247]; and Lord +Bacon mentions as a proof that the Turks are Barbarians, their want of +Stirpes, as he calls them, or hereditary rank[1248]. Do not let your mind, +when it is freed from the supposed necessity of a rigorous entail, be +entangled with contrary objections, and think all entails unlawful, till +you have cogent arguments, which I believe you will never find. I am +afraid of scruples[1249]. + +'I have now sent all Lord Hailes's papers; part I found hidden in a +drawer in which I had laid them for security, and had forgotten them. +Part of these are written twice: I have returned both the copies. Part I +had read before. + +'Be so kind as to return Lord Hailes my most respectful thanks for his +first volume; his accuracy strikes me with wonder; his narrative is far +superiour to that of Henault, as I have formerly mentioned. + +'I am afraid that the trouble, which my irregularity and delay has cost +him, is greater, far greater, than any good that I can do him will ever +recompense; but if I have any more copy, I will try to do better. + +'Pray let me know if Mrs. Boswell is friends with me, and pay my +respects to Veronica, and Euphemia, and Alexander. + +'I am, Sir, + +'Your most humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'February, 15, 1775 [1776].' + + +'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. + +'Edinburgh, Feb. 20, 1776. + + * * * * * + +'You have illuminated my mind and relieved me from imaginary shackles of +conscientious obligation. Were it necessary, I could immediately join in +an entail upon the series of heirs approved by my father; but it is +better not to act too suddenly.' + +'DR. JOHNSON TO MR. BOSWELL. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I am glad that what I could think or say has at all contributed to +quiet your thoughts. Your resolution not to act, till your opinion is +confirmed by more deliberation, is very just. If you have been +scrupulous, do not now be rash. I hope that as you think more, and take +opportunities of talking with men intelligent in questions of property, +you will be able to free yourself from every difficulty. + +'When I wrote last, I sent, I think, ten packets. Did you receive them +all? + +'You must tell Mrs. Boswell that I suspected her to have written without +your knowledge[1250], and therefore did not return any answer, lest a +clandestine correspondence should have been perniciously discovered. I +will write to her soon. + +'I am, dear Sir, + +'Most affectionately yours, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'Feb. 24, 1776.' + +Having communicated to Lord Hailes what Dr. Johnson wrote concerning the +question which perplexed me so much, his Lordship wrote to me: 'Your +scruples have produced more fruit than I ever expected from them; an +excellent dissertation on general principles of morals and law.' + +I wrote to Dr. Johnson on the 20th of February, complaining of +melancholy, and expressing a strong desire to be with him; informing him +that the ten packets came all safe; that Lord Hailes was much obliged to +him, and said he had almost wholly removed his scruples against entails. + + +'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'I have not had your letter half an hour; as you lay so much weight upon +my notions, I should think it not just to delay my answer. + +'I am very sorry that your melancholy should return, and should be sorry +likewise if it could have no relief but from company. My counsel you may +have when you are pleased to require it; but of my company you cannot in +the next month have much, for Mr. Thrale will take me to Italy, he says, +on the first of April. + +'Let me warn you very earnestly against scruples. I am glad that you are +reconciled to your settlement, and think it a great honour to have +shaken Lord Hailes's opinion of entails. Do not, however, hope wholly to +reason away your troubles; do not feed them with attention, and they +will die imperceptibly away. Fix your thoughts upon your business, fill +your intervals with company, and sunshine will again break in upon your +mind[1251]. If you will come to me, you must come very quickly; and even +then I know not but we may scour the country together, for I have a mind +to see Oxford and Lichfield, before I set out on this long journey. To +this I can only add, that + +'I am, dear Sir, + +'Your most affectionate humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'March 5, 1776.' + + +To THE SAME. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Very early in April we leave England, and in the beginning of the next +week I shall leave London for a short time; of this I think it necessary +to inform you, that you may not be disappointed in any of your +enterprises. I had not fully resolved to go into the country before this +day. + +'Please to make my compliments to Lord Hailes; and mention very +particularly to Mrs. Boswell my hope that she is reconciled to, Sir, + +'Your faithful servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +'March 12, 1776.' + +Above thirty years ago, the heirs of Lord Chancellor Clarendon presented +the University of Oxford with the continuation of his _History_, and +such other of his Lordship's manuscripts as had not been published, on +condition that the profits arising from their publication should be +applied to the establishment of a _ManA"ge_ in the University. The gift +was accepted in full convocation. A person being now recommended to Dr. +Johnson, as fit to superintend this proposed riding-school, he exerted +himself with that zeal for which he was remarkable upon every similar +occasion[1252]. But, on enquiry into the matter, he found that the scheme +was not likely to be soon carried into execution; the profits arising +from the Clarendon press being, from some mismanagement, very scanty. +This having been explained to him by a respectable dignitary of the +church, who had good means of knowing it, he wrote a letter upon the +subject, which at once exhibits his extraordinary precision and +acuteness, and his warm attachment to his ALMA MATER. + + +'To THE REVEREND DR. WETHERELL, MASTER OF UNIVERSITY-COLLEGE, OXFORD. + +'DEAR SIR, + +'Few things are more unpleasant than the transaction of business with +men who are above knowing or caring what they have to do; such as the +trustees for Lord Cornbury's institution will, perhaps, appear, when you +have read Dr. ----'s letter. + +'The last part of the Doctor's letter is of great importance. The +complaint[1253] which he makes I have heard long ago, and did not know but +it was redressed. It is unhappy that a practice so erroneous has not yet +been altered; for altered it must be, or our press will be useless, with +all its privileges. The booksellers, who, like all other men, have +strong prejudices in their own favour, are enough inclined to think the +practice of printing and selling books by any but themselves, an +encroachment on the rights of their fraternity; and have need of +stronger inducements to circulate academical publications than those of +one another; for, of that mutual co-operation by which the general trade +is carried on, the University can bear no part. Of those whom he neither +loves nor fears, and from whom he expects no reciprocation of good +offices, why should any man promote the interest but for profit? I +suppose, with all our scholastick ignorance of mankind, we are still too +knowing to expect that the booksellers will erect themselves into +patrons, and buy and sell under the influence of a disinterested zeal +for the promotion of learning. + +'To the booksellers, if we look for either honour or profit from our +press, not only their common profit, but something more must be allowed; +and if books, printed at Oxford, are expected to be rated at a high +price, that price must be levied on the publick, and paid by the +ultimate purchaser, not by the intermediate agents. What price shall be +set upon the book, is, to the booksellers, wholly indifferent, provided +that they gain a proportionate profit by negociating the sale. + +'Why books printed at Oxford should be particularly dear, I am, however, +unable to find. We pay no rent; we inherit many of our instruments and +materials; lodging and victuals are cheaper than at London; and, +therefore, workmanship ought, at least, not to be dearer. Our expences +are naturally less than those of booksellers; and, in most cases, +communities are content with less profit than individuals. + +'It is, perhaps, not considered through how many hands a book often +passes, before it comes into those of the reader; or what part of the +profit each hand must retain, as a motive for transmitting it to the +next. + +'We will call our primary agent in London, Mr. Cadell[1254], who receives +our books from us, gives them room in his warehouse, and issues them on +demand; by him they are sold to Mr. Dilly a wholesale bookseller, who +sends them into the country; and the last seller is the country +bookseller. Here are three profits to be paid between the printer and +the reader, or in the style of commerce, between the manufacturer and +the consumer; and if any of these profits is too penuriously +distributed, the process of commerce is interrupted. + +'We are now come to the practical question, what is to be done? You will +tell me, with reason, that I have said nothing, till I declare how much, +according to my opinion, of the ultimate price ought to be distributed +through the whole succession of sale. + +'The deduction, I am afraid, will appear very great: but let it be +considered before it is refused. We must allow, for profit, between +thirty and thirty-five _per cent_., between six and seven shillings in +the pound; that is, for every book which costs the last buyer twenty +shillings, we must charge Mr. Cadell with something less than fourteen. +We must set the copies at fourteen shillings each, and superadd what is +called the quarterly-book, or for every hundred books so charged we must +deliver an hundred and four. + +'The profits will then stand thus:-- + +'Mr. Cadell, who runs no hazard, and gives no credit, will be paid for +warehouse room and attendance by a shilling profit on each book, and his +chance of the quarterly-book. + +'Mr. Dilly, who buys the book for fifteen shillings, and who will expect +the quarterly-book if he takes five and twenty, will send it to his +country customer at sixteen and six, by which, at the hazard of loss, +and the certainty of long credit, he gains the regular profit of ten +_per cent_, which is expected in the wholesale trade. + +'The country bookseller, buying at sixteen and sixpence, and commonly +trusting a considerable time, gains but three and sixpence, and if he +trusts a year, not much more than two and sixpence; otherwise than as he +may, perhaps, take as long credit as he gives. + +'With less profit than this, and more you see he cannot have, the +country bookseller cannot live; for his receipts are small, and his +debts sometimes bad. + +'Thus, dear Sir, I have been incited by Dr. ----'s letter to give you a +detail of the circulation of books, which, perhaps, every man has not +had opportunity of knowing; and which those who know it, do not, +perhaps, always distinctly consider. + +'I am, &c. +'SAM. JOHNSON[1255].' + + +'March 12, 1776.' + +Having arrived in London late on Friday, the 15th of March, I hastened +next morning to wait on Dr. Johnson, at his house; but found he was +removed from Johnson's-court, No. 7, to Boltcourt, No. 8[1256], still +keeping to his favourite Fleet-street. My reflection at the time upon +this change as marked in my Journal, is as follows: 'I felt a foolish +regret that he had left a court which bore his name[1257]; but it was not +foolish to be affected with some tenderness of regard for a place in +which I had seen him a great deal, from whence I had often issued a +better and a happier man than when I went in, and which had often +appeared to my imagination while I trod its pavements, in the solemn +darkness of the night, to be sacred to wisdom and piety[1258].' Being +informed that he was at Mr. Thrale's, in the Borough, I hastened +thither, and found Mrs. Thrale and him at breakfast. I was kindly +welcomed. In a moment he was in a full glow of conversation, and I felt +myself elevated as if brought into another state of being. Mrs. Thrale +and I looked to each other while he talked, and our looks expressed our +congenial admiration and affection for him. I shall ever recollect this +scene with great pleasure. I exclaimed to her, 'I am now, +intellectually, _Hermippus redivivus_, I am quite restored by him, by +transfusion of mind[1259]!' 'There are many (she replied) who admire and +respect Mr. Johnson; but you and I _love_ him.' + +He seemed very happy in the near prospect of going to Italy with Mr. and +Mrs. Thrale. 'But, (said he,) before leaving England I am to take a +jaunt to Oxford, Birmingham, my native city Lichfield, and my old +friend, Dr. Taylor's, at Ashbourn, in Derbyshire. I shall go in a few +days, and you, Boswell, shall go with me.' I was ready to accompany him; +being willing even to leave London to have the pleasure of his +conversation. + +I mentioned with much regret the extravagance of the representative of a +great family in Scotland, by which there was danger of its being ruined; +and as Johnson respected it for its antiquity, he joined with me in +thinking it would be happy if this person should die. Mrs. Thrale seemed +shocked at this, as feudal barbarity; and said, 'I do not understand +this preference of the estate to its owner; of the land to the man who +walks upon that land.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Madam, it is not a preference of +the land to its owner, it is the preference of a family to an +individual. Here is an establishment in a country, which is of +importance for ages, not only to the chief but to his people; an +establishment which extends upwards and downwards; that this should be +destroyed by one idle fellow is a sad thing.' + +He said, 'Entails[1260] are good, because it is good to preserve in a +country, serieses of men, to whom the people are accustomed to look up +as to their leaders. But I am for leaving a quantity of land in +commerce, to excite industry, and keep money in the country; for if no +land were to be bought in the country, there would be no encouragement +to acquire wealth, because a family could not be founded there; or if it +were acquired, it must be carried away to another country where land may +be bought. And although the land in every country will remain the same, +and be as fertile where there is no money, as where there is, yet all +that portion of the happiness of civil life, which is produced by money +circulating in a country, would be lost.' BOSWELL. 'Then, Sir, would it +be for the advantage of a country that all its lands were sold at once?' +JOHNSON. 'So far, Sir, as money produces good, it would be an advantage; +for, then that country would have as much money circulating in it as it +is worth. But to be sure this would be counterbalanced by disadvantages +attending a total change of proprietors.' + +I expressed my opinion that the power of entailing should be limited +thus: 'That there should be one third, or perhaps one half of the land +of a country kept free for commerce; that the proportion allowed to be +entailed, should be parcelled out so that no family could entail above a +certain quantity. Let a family according to the abilities of its +representatives, be richer or poorer in different generations, or always +rich if its representatives be always wise: but let its absolute +permanency be moderate. In this way we should be certain of there being +always a number of established roots; and as in the course of nature, +there is in every age an extinction of some families, there would be +continual openings for men ambitious of perpetuity, to plant a stock in +the entail ground[1261].' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, mankind will be better able +to regulate the system of entails, when the evil of too much land being +locked up by them is felt, than we can do at present when it is not +felt.' I mentioned Dr. Adam Smith's book on _The Wealth of Nations_[1262] +which was just published, and that Sir John Pringle had observed to me, +that Dr. Smith, who had never been in trade, could not be expected to +write well on that subject any more than a lawyer upon physick. JOHNSON. +'He is mistaken, Sir: a man who has never been engaged in trade himself +may undoubtedly write well upon trade, and there is nothing which +requires more to be illustrated by philosophy than trade does. As to +mere wealth, that is to say, money, it is clear that one nation or one +individual cannot increase its store but by making another poorer: but +trade procures what is more valuable, the reciprocation of the peculiar +advantages of different countries. A merchant seldom thinks but of his +own particular trade. To write a good book upon it, a man must have +extensive views. It is not necessary to have practised, to write well +upon a subject.' I mentioned law as a subject on which no man could +write well without practice. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, in England, where so +much money is to be got by the practice of the law, most of our writers +upon it have been in practice; though Blackstone had not been much in +practice when he published his _Commentaries_. But upon the Continent, +the great writers on law have not all been in practice: Grotius, indeed, +was; but Puffendorf was not, Burlamaqui was not.' + +When we had talked of the great consequence which a man acquired by +being employed in his profession, I suggested a doubt of the justice of +the general opinion, that it is improper in a lawyer to solicit +employment; for why, I urged, should it not be equally allowable to +solicit that as the means of consequence, as it is to solicit votes to +be elected a member of Parliament? Mr. Strahan had told me that a +countryman of his and mine[1263], who had risen to eminence in the law, +had, when first making his way, solicited him to get him employed in +city causes. JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is wrong to stir up law-suits; but when +once it is certain that a law-suit is to go on, there is nothing wrong +in a lawyer's endeavouring that he shall have the benefit, rather than +another.' BOSWELL. 'You would not solicit employment, Sir, if you were a +lawyer.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, but not because I should think it wrong, but +because I should disdain it.' This was a good distinction, which will be +felt by men of just pride. He proceeded: 'However, I would not have a +lawyer to be wanting to himself in using fair means. I would have him to +inject a little hint now and then, to prevent his being overlooked.' + +Lord Mountstuart's bill for a Scotch Militia[1264], in supporting which his +Lordship had made an able speech in the House of Commons, was now a +pretty general topick of conversation. JOHNSON. 'As Scotland contributes +so little land-tax[1265] towards the general support of the nation, it +ought not to have a militia paid out of the general fund, unless it +should be thought for the general interest, that Scotland should be +protected from an invasion, which no man can think will happen; for what +enemy would invade Scotland, where there is nothing to be got? No, Sir; +now that the Scotch have not the pay of English soldiers spent among +them, as so many troops are sent abroad, they are trying to get money +another way, by having a militia paid. If they are afraid, and seriously +desire to have an armed force to defend them, they should pay for it. +Your scheme is to retain a part of your land-tax, by making us pay and +clothe your militia.' BOSWELL. 'You should not talk of _we_ and _you_, +Sir: there is now an _Union_.' JOHNSON. 'There must be a distinction of +interest, while the proportions of land-tax are so unequal. If Yorkshire +should say, "Instead of paying our land-tax, we will keep a greater +number of militia," it would be unreasonable.' In this argument my +friend was certainly in the wrong. The land-tax is as unequally +proportioned between different parts of England, as between England and +Scotland; nay, it is considerably unequal in Scotland itself. But the +land-tax is but a small part of the numerous branches of publick +revenue, all of which Scotland pays precisely as England does. A French +invasion made in Scotland would soon penetrate into England. + +He thus discoursed upon supposed obligation in settling estates:--'Where +a man gets the unlimited property of an estate, there is no obligation +upon him in _justice_ to leave it to one person rather than to another. +There is a motive of preference from _kindness_, and this kindness is +generally entertained for the nearest relation. If I _owe_ a particular +man a sum of money, I am obliged to let that man have the next money I +get, and cannot in justice let another have it: but if I owe money to no +man, I may dispose of what I get as I please. There is not a _debitum +justitice_ to a man's next heir; there is only a _debitum caritatis_. It +is plain, then, that I have morally a choice, according to my liking. If +I have a brother in want, he has a claim from affection to my +assistance; but if I have also a brother in want, whom I like better, he +has a preferable claim. The right of an heir at law is only this, that +he is to have the succession to an estate, in case no other person is +appointed to it by the owner. His right is merely preferable to that of +the King.' + +We got into a boat to cross over to Black-friars; and as we moved along +the Thames, I talked to him of a little volume, which, altogether +unknown to him, was advertised to be published in a few days, under the +title of _Johnsoniana, or Bon-Mots of Dr. Johnson_[1266]. JOHNSON, 'Sir, +it is a mighty impudent thing.' BOSWELL. 'Pray, Sir, could you have no +redress if you were to prosecute a publisher for bringing out, under +your name, what you never said, and ascribing to you dull stupid +nonsense, or making you swear profanely, as many ignorant relaters of +your _bon-mots_ do[1267]?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; there will always be some +truth mixed with the falsehood, and how can it be ascertained how much +is true and how much is false? Besides, Sir, what damages would a jury +give me for having been represented as swearing?' BOSWELL. 'I think, +Sir, you should at least disavow such a publication, because the world +and posterity might with much plausible foundation say, "Here is a +volume which was publickly advertised and came out in Dr. Johnson's own +time, and, by his silence, was admitted by him to be genuine."' +JOHNSON. 'I shall give myself no trouble about the matter.' + +He was, perhaps, above suffering from such spurious publications; but I +could not help thinking, that many men would be much injured in their +reputation, by having absurd and vicious sayings imputed to them; and +that redress ought in such cases to be given. + +He said, 'The value of every story depends on its being true. A story is +a picture either of an individual or of human nature in general: if it +be false, it is a picture of nothing. For instance: suppose a man should +tell that Johnson, before setting out for Italy, as he had to cross the +Alps, sat down to make himself wings. This many people would believe; +but it would be a picture of nothing. ----[1268] (naming a worthy friend +of ours,) used to think a story, a story, till I shewed him that truth +was essential to it[1269].' I observed, that Foote entertained us with +stories which were not true; but that, indeed, it was properly not as +narratives that Foote's stories pleased us, but as collections of +ludicrous images. JOHNSON. 'Foote is quite impartial, for he tells lies +of every body.' + +The importance of strict and scrupulous veracity cannot be too often +inculcated. Johnson was known to be so rigidly attentive to it, that +even in his common conversation the slightest circumstance was mentioned +with exact precision[1270]. The knowledge of his having such a principle +and habit made his friends have a perfect reliance on the truth of every +thing that he told, however it might have been doubted if told by many +others. As an instance of this, I may mention an odd incident which he +related as having happened to him one night in Fleet-street. 'A +gentlewoman (said he) begged I would give her my arm to assist her in +crossing the street, which I accordingly did; upon which she offered me +a shilling, supposing me to be the watchman. I perceived that she was +somewhat in liquor.' This, if told by most people, would have been +thought an invention; when told by Johnson, it was believed by his +friends as much as if they had seen what passed. + +We landed at the Temple-stairs, where we parted. + +I found him in the evening in Mrs. Williams's room. We talked of +religious orders. He said, 'It is as unreasonable for a man to go into a +Carthusian convent for fear of being immoral, as for a man to cut off +his hands for fear he should steal. There is, indeed, great resolution +in the immediate act of dismembering himself; but when that is once +done, he has no longer any merit: for though it is out of his power to +steal, yet he may all his life be a thief in his heart. So when a man +has once become a Carthusian, he is obliged to continue so, whether he +chooses it or not. Their silence, too, is absurd. We read in the Gospel +of the apostles being sent to preach, but not to hold their tongues. All +severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle. +I said to the Lady Abbess[1271] of a convent, "Madam, you are here, not for +the love of virtue, but the fear of vice." She said, "She should +remember this as long as she lived."' I thought it hard to give her this +view of her situation, when she could not help it; and, indeed, I +wondered at the whole of what he now said; because, both in his +_Rambler_[1272] and _Idler_[1273], he treats religious austerities with +much solemnity of respect[1274]. + +Finding him still persevering in his abstinence from wine, I ventured to +speak to him of it.--JOHNSON. 'Sir, I have no objection to a man's +drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt to go +to excess in it, and therefore, after having been for some time without +it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to it[1275]. +Every man is to judge for himself, according to the effects which he +experiences. One of the fathers tells us, he found fasting made him so +peevish[1276] that he did not practise it.' + +Though he often enlarged upon the evil of intoxication[1277], he was by no +means harsh and unforgiving to those who indulged in occasional excess +in wine. One of his friends[1278], I well remember, came to sup at a tavern +with him and some other gentlemen, and too plainly discovered that he +had drunk too much at dinner. When one who loved mischief, thinking to +produce a severe censure, asked Johnson, a few days afterwards, 'Well, +Sir, what did your friend say to you, as an apology for being in such a +situation?' Johnson answered, 'Sir, he said all that a man _should_ say: +he said he was sorry for it.' + +I heard him once give a very judicious practical advice upon this +subject: 'A man, who has been drinking wine at all freely, should never +go into a new company. With those who have partaken of wine with him, he +may be pretty well in unison; but he will probably be offensive, or +appear ridiculous, to other people.' + +He allowed very great influence to education. 'I do not deny, Sir, but +there is some original difference in minds; but it is nothing in +comparison of what is formed by education. We may instance the science +of _numbers_, which all minds are equally capable of attaining[1279]; yet +we find a prodigious difference in the powers of different men, in that +respect, after they are grown up, because their minds have been more or +less exercised in it: and I think the same cause will explain the +difference of excellence in other things, gradations admitting always +some difference in the first principles[1280].' This is a difficult +subject; but it is best to hope that diligence may do a great deal. We +are _sure_ of what it can do, in increasing our mechanical force and +dexterity. + +I again visited him on Monday. He took occasion to enlarge, as he often +did, upon the wretchedness of a sea-life[1281]. 'A ship is 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. When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to +live on land[1282].'--'Then (said I) it would be cruel in a father to breed +his son to the sea.' JOHNSON. 'It would be cruel in a father who thinks +as I do. Men go to sea, before they know the unhappiness of that way of +life; and when they have come to know it, they cannot escape from it, +because it is then too late to choose another profession; as indeed is +generally the case with men, when they have once engaged in any +particular way of life.' + +On Tuesday, March 19, which was fixed for our proposed jaunt, we met in +the morning at the Somerset coffee-house in the Strand, where we were +taken up by the Oxford coach. He was accompanied by Mr. Gwyn[1283], the +architect; and a gentleman of Merton College, whom we did not know, had +the fourth seat. We soon got into conversation; for it was very +remarkable of Johnson, that the presence of a stranger had no restraint +upon his talk. I observed that Garrick, who was about to quit the stage, +would soon have an easier life. JOHNSON. 'I doubt that, Sir.' BOSWELL. +'Why, Sir, he will be Atlas with the burthen off his back.' JOHNSON. +'But I know not, Sir, if he will be so steady without his load. However, +he should never play any more, but be entirely the gentleman, and not +partly the player: he should no longer subject himself to be hissed by a +mob, or to be insolently treated by performers, whom he used to rule +with a high hand, and who would gladly retaliate.' BOSWELL. 'I think he +should play once a year for the benefit of decayed actors, as it has +been said he means to do.' JOHNSON. 'Alas, Sir! he will soon be a +decayed actor himself.' + +Johnson expressed his disapprobation of ornamental architecture, such as +magnificent columns supporting a portico, or expensive pilasters +supporting merely their own capitals, 'because it consumes labour +disproportionate to its utility.' For the same reason he satyrised +statuary. 'Painting (said he) consumes labour not disproportionate to +its effect; but a fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to +make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of +statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head +cut upon a carrot[1284].' Here he seemed to me to be strangely deficient in +taste; for surely statuary is a noble art of imitation, and preserves a +wonderful expression of the varieties of the human frame; and although +it must be allowed that the circumstances of difficulty enhance the +value of a marble head, we should consider, that if it requires a long +time in the performance, it has a proportionate value in durability. + +Gwyn was a fine lively rattling fellow. Dr. Johnson kept him in +subjection, but with a kindly authority. The spirit of the artist, +however, rose against what he thought a Gothick attack, and he made a +brisk defence. 'What, Sir, will you allow no value to beauty in +architecture or in statuary? Why should we allow it then in writing? Why +do you take the trouble to give us so many fine allusions, and bright +images, and elegant phrases? You might convey all your instruction +without these ornaments.' Johnson smiled with complacency; but said, +'Why, Sir, all these ornaments are useful, because they obtain an easier +reception for truth; but a building is not at all more convenient for +being decorated with superfluous carved work.' + +Gwyn at last was lucky enough to make one reply to Dr. Johnson, which he +allowed to be excellent. Johnson censured him for taking down a church +which might have stood many years, and building a new one at a different +place, for no other reason but that there might be a direct road to a +new bridge; and his expression was, 'You are taking a church out of the +way, that the people may go in a straight line to the bridge.'--'No, +Sir, (said Gwyn,) I am putting the church _in_ the way, that the people +may not _go out of the way_.' JOHNSON, (with a hearty loud laugh of +approbation,) 'Speak no more. Rest your colloquial fame upon this.' + +Upon our arrival at Oxford, Dr. Johnson and I went directly to +University College, but were disappointed on finding that one of the +fellows, his friend Mr. Scott[1285], who accompanied him from Newcastle to +Edinburgh, was gone to the country. We put up at the Angel inn, and +passed the evening by ourselves in easy and familiar conversation. +Talking of constitutional melancholy, he observed, 'A man so afflicted, +Sir, must divert distressing thoughts, and not combat with them.' +BOSWELL. 'May not he think them down, Sir?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. To +attempt to _think them down_ is madness. He should have a lamp +constantly burning in his bed-chamber during the night, and if wakefully +disturbed, take a book, and read, and compose himself to rest. To have +the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a +considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise.' BOSWELL. +'Should not he provide amusements for himself? Would it not, for +instance, be right for him to take a course of chymistry?' JOHNSON. 'Let +him take a course of chymistry, or a course of rope-dancing, or a course +of any thing to which he is inclined at the time. Let him contrive to +have as many retreats for his mind as he can, as many things to which it +can fly from itself[1286]. Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_[1287] is a +valuable work. It is, perhaps, overloaded with quotation. But there is +great spirit and great power in what Burton says, when he writes from +his own mind.' + +Next morning we visited Dr. Wetherell, Master of University College, +with whom Dr. Johnson conferred on the most advantageous mode of +disposing of the books printed at the Clarendon press, on which subject +his letter has been inserted in a former page[1288]. I often had occasion +to remark, Johnson loved business[1289], loved to have his wisdom actually +operate on real life. Dr. Wetherell and I talked of him without reserve +in his own presence. WETHERELL. 'I would have given him a hundred +guineas if he would have written a preface to his _Political Tracts_[1290], +by way of a Discourse on the British Constitution.' BOSWELL. 'Dr. +Johnson, though in his writings, and upon all occasions a great friend +to the constitution both in church and state, has never written +expressly in support of either. There is really a claim upon him for +both. I am sure he could give a volume of no great bulk upon each, which +would comprise all the substance, and with his spirit would effectually +maintain them. He should erect a fort on the confines of each.' I could +perceive that he was displeased with this dialogue. He burst out, 'Why +should _I_ be always writing[1291]?' I hoped he was conscious that the debt +was just, and meant to discharge it, though he disliked being dunned. + +We then went to Pembroke College, and waited on his old friend Dr. +Adams, the master of it, whom I found to be a most polite, pleasing, +communicative man. Before his advancement to the headship of his +college, I had intended to go and visit him at Shrewsbury, where he was +rector of St. Chad's, in order to get from him what particulars he could +recollect of Johnson's academical life. He now obligingly gave me part +of that authentick information, which, with what I afterwards owed to +his kindness, will be found incorporated in its proper place in this +work. + +Dr. Adams had distinguished himself by an able answer to David Hume's +_Essay on Miracles_. He told me he had once dined in company with Hume +in London[1292]; that Hume shook hands with him, and said, 'You have +treated me much better than I deserve;' and that they exchanged visits. +I took the liberty to object to treating an infidel writer with smooth +civility. Where there is a controversy concerning a passage in a +classick authour, or concerning a question in antiquities, or any other +subject in which human happiness is not deeply interested, a man may +treat his antagonist with politeness and even respect. But where the +controversy is concerning the truth of religion, it is of such vast +importance to him who maintains it, to obtain the victory, that the +person of an opponent ought not to be spared. If a man firmly believes +that religion is an invaluable treasure[1293], he will consider a writer +who endeavours to deprive mankind of it as a _robber_; he will look upon +him as _odious_, though the infidel might think himself in the right. A +robber who reasons as the gang do in the _Beggar's Opera_, who call +themselves _practical_ philosophers[1294], and may have as much sincerity +as pernicious _speculative_ philosophers, is not the less an object of +just indignation. An abandoned profligate may think that it is not wrong +to debauch my wife, but shall I, therefore, not detest him? And if I +catch him in making an attempt, shall I treat him with politeness? No, I +will kick him down stairs, or run him through the body; that is, if I +really love my wife, or have a true rational notion of honour. An +infidel then shall not be treated handsomely by a Christian, merely +because he endeavours to rob with ingenuity. I do declare, however, that +I am exceedingly unwilling to be provoked to anger, and could I be +persuaded that truth would not suffer from a cool moderation in its +defenders, I should wish to preserve good humour, at least, in every +controversy; nor, indeed, do I see why a man should lose his temper +while he does all he can to refute an opponent. I think ridicule may be +fairly used against an infidel; for instance, if he be an ugly fellow, +and yet absurdly vain of his person[1295], we may contrast his appearance +with Cicero's beautiful image of Virtue, could she be seen[1296]. Johnson +coincided with me and said, 'When a man voluntarily engages in an +important controversy, he is to do all he can to lessen his antagonist, +because authority from personal respect has much weight with most +people, and often more than reasoning[1297]. If my antagonist writes bad +language, though that may not be essential to the question, I will +attack him for his bad language.' ADAMS. 'You would not jostle a +chimney-sweeper.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, if it were necessary to jostle him +_down_.' + +Dr. Adams told us, that in some of the Colleges at Oxford, the fellows +had excluded the students from social intercourse with them in the +common room[1298]. JOHNSON. 'They are in the right, Sir: there can be no +real conversation, no fair exertion of mind amongst them, if the young +men are by; for a man who has a character does not choose to stake it in +their presence.' BOSWELL. 'But, Sir, may there not be very good +conversation without a contest for superiority?' JOHNSON. 'No animated +conversation, Sir, for it cannot be but one or other will come off +superiour. I do not mean that the victor must have the better of the +argument, for he may take the weak side; but his superiority of parts +and knowledge will necessarily appear: and he to whom he thus shews +himself superiour is lessened in the eyes of the young men[1299]. You know +it was said, "_Mallem cum Scaligero errare quam cum Clavio recte +sapere_[1300]." In the same manner take Bentley's and Jason de Nores' +Comments upon Horace, you will admire Bentley more when wrong, than +Jason when right.' + +We walked with Dr. Adams into the master's garden, and into the common +room. JOHNSON, (after a reverie of meditation,) 'Ay! Here I used to play +at draughts with Phil. Jones[1301] and Fludyer. Jones loved beer, and did +not get very forward in the church. Fludyer turned out a scoundrel[1302], a +Whig, and said he was ashamed of having been bred at Oxford. He had a +living at Putney, and got under the eye of some retainers to the court +at that time, and so became a violent Whig: but he had been a scoundrel +all along to be sure.' BOSWELL. 'Was he a scoundrel, Sir, in any other +way than that of being a political scoundrel? Did he cheat at draughts?' +JOHNSON. 'Sir, we never played for _money_.' + +He then carried me to visit Dr. Bentham, Canon of Christ-Church, and +Divinity Professor, with whose learned and lively conversation we were +much pleased. He gave us an invitation to dinner, which Dr. Johnson told +me was a high honour. 'Sir, it is a great thing to dine with the Canons +of Christ-Church.' We could not accept his invitation, as we were +engaged to dine at University College. We had an excellent dinner there, +with the Master and Fellows, it being St. Cuthbert's day, which is kept +by them as a festival, as he was a saint of Durham, with which this +college is much connected[1303]. + +We drank tea with Dr. Home[1304], late President of Magdalen College, and +Bishop of Norwich, of whose abilities, in different respects, the +publick has had eminent proofs, and the esteem annexed to whose +character was increased by knowing him personally. He had talked of +publishing an edition of Walton's _Lives_[1305], but had laid aside that +design, upon Dr. Johnson's telling him, from mistake, that Lord Hailes +intended to do it. I had wished to negociate between Lord Hailes and +him, that one or other should perform so good a work. JOHNSON. 'In order +to do it well, it will be necessary to collect all the editions of +Walton's _Lives_. By way of adapting the book to the taste of the +present age, they have, in a later edition, left out a vision which he +relates Dr. Donne had[1306], but it should be restored; and there should be +a critical catalogue given of the works of the different persons whose +lives were written by Walton, and therefore their works must be +carefully read by the editor.' + +We then went to Trinity College, where he introduced me to Mr. Thomas +Warton, with whom we passed a part of the evening. We talked of +biography.--JOHNSON. 'It is rarely well executed[1307]. They only who live +with a man can write his life with any genuine exactness and +discrimination; and few people who have lived with a man know what to +remark about him. The chaplain of a late Bishop[1308], whom I was to assist +in writing some memoirs of his Lordship, could tell me scarcely any +thing[1309].' + +I said, Mr. Robert Dodsley's life should be written, as he had been so +much connected with the wits of his time[1310], and by his literary merit +had raised himself from the station of a footman. Mr. Warton said, he +had published a little volume under the title of _The Muse in Livery_ +[1311]. JOHNSON. 'I doubt whether Dodsley's brother[1312] would thank a +man who should write his life: yet Dodsley himself was not unwilling that +his original low condition should be recollected. When Lord Lyttelton's +_Dialogues of the Dead_ came out, one of which is between Apicius, an +ancient epicure, and Dartineuf, a modern epicure, Dodsley said to me, +"I knew Dartineuf well, for I was once his footman[1313]."' + +Biography led us to speak of Dr. John Campbell[1314], who had written a +considerable part of the _Biographia Britannica_. Johnson, though he +valued him highly, was of opinion that there was not so much in his +great work, _A Political Survey of Great Britain_, as the world had been +taught to expect[1315]; and had said to me, that he believed Campbell's +disappointment, on account of the bad success of that work, had killed +him. He this evening observed of it, 'That work was his death.' Mr. +Warton, not adverting to his meaning, answered, 'I believe so; from the +great attention he bestowed on it.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, he died of +_want_ of attention, if he died at all by that book.' + +We talked of a work much in vogue at that time, written in a very +mellifluous style, but which, under pretext of another subject, +contained much artful infidelity[1316]. I said it was not fair to attack us +thus unexpectedly; he should have warned us of our danger, before we +entered his garden of flowery eloquence, by advertising, 'Spring guns +and men-traps set here[1317].' The authour had been an Oxonian, and was +remembered there for having 'turned Papist.' I observed, that as he had +changed several times--from the Church of England to the Church of +Rome,--from the Church of Rome to infidelity,--I did not despair yet of +seeing him a methodist preacher. JOHNSON, (laughing.) 'It is said, that +his range has been more extensive, and that he has once been +Mahometan[1318]. However, now that he has published his infidelity, he will +probably persist in it.' BOSWELL. 'I am not quite sure of that, Sir.' + +I mentioned Sir Richard Steele having published his _Christian Hero_, +with the avowed purpose of obliging himself to lead a religious life[1319], +yet, that his conduct was by no means strictly suitable. JOHNSON. +'Steele, I believe, practised the lighter vices.' + +Mr. Warton, being engaged, could not sup with us at our inn; we had +therefore another evening by ourselves. I asked Johnson, whether a +man's[1320] being forward to make himself known to eminent people, and +seeing as much of life, and getting as much information as he could in +every way, was not yet lessening himself by his forwardness. JOHNSON. +'No, Sir; a man always makes himself greater as he increases his +knowledge.' + +I censured some ludicrous fantastick dialogues between two coach-horses +and other such stuff, which Baretti had lately published[1321]. He joined +with me, and said, 'Nothing odd will do long. _Tristram Shandy_ did not +last[1322].' I expressed a desire to be acquainted with a lady who had been +much talked of, and universally celebrated for extraordinary address and +insinuation[1323]. JOHNSON. 'Never believe extraordinary characters which +you hear of people. Depend upon it, Sir, they are exaggerated. You do +not see one man shoot a great deal higher than another.' I mentioned Mr. +Burke. JOHNSON. 'Yes; Burke is an extraordinary man. His stream of mind +is perpetual[1324].' It is very pleasing to me to record, that Johnson's +high estimation of the talents of this gentleman was uniform from their +early acquaintance. Sir Joshua Reynolds informs me, that when Mr. Burke +was first elected a member of Parliament, and Sir John Hawkins expressed +a wonder at his attaining a seat, Johnson said, 'Now we who know Mr. +Burke, know, that he will be one of the first men in this country[1325].' +And once, when Johnson was ill, and unable to exert himself as much as +usual without fatigue, Mr. Burke having been mentioned, he said, 'That +fellow calls forth all my powers. Were I to see Burke now it would kill +me[1326].' So much was he accustomed to consider conversation as a +contest[1327], and such was his notion of Burke as an opponent. + +Next morning, Thursday, March 31, we set out in a post-chaise to pursue +our ramble. It was a delightful day, and we rode through Blenheim park. +When I looked at the magnificent bridge built by John Duke of +Marlborough, over a small rivulet, and recollected the Epigram made upon +it-- + +'The lofty arch his high ambition shows, +The stream, an emblem of his bounty flows[1328]:' + +and saw that now, by the genius of Brown[1329], a magnificent body of water +was collected, I said, 'They have _drowned_ the Epigram.' I observed to +him, while in the midst of the noble scene around us, 'You and I, Sir, +have, I think, seen together the extremes of what can be seen in +Britain:--the wild rough island of Mull, and Blenheim park.' + +We dined at an excellent inn at Chapel-house, where he expatiated on the +felicity of England in its taverns and inns, and triumphed over the +French for not having, in any perfection, the tavern life. 'There is no +private house, (said he,) in which people can enjoy themselves so well, +as at a capital tavern. Let there be ever so great plenty of good +things, ever so much grandeur, ever so much elegance, ever so much +desire that every body should be easy; in the nature of things it cannot +be: there must always be some degree of care and anxiety. The master of +the house is anxious to entertain his guests; the guests are anxious to +be agreeable to him: and no man, but a very impudent dog indeed, can as +freely command what is in another man's house, as if it were his own[1330]. +Whereas, at a tavern, there is a general freedom from anxiety. You are +sure you are welcome: and the more noise you make, the more trouble you +give, the more good things you call for, the welcomer you are. No +servants will attend you with the alacrity which waiters do, who are +incited by the prospect of an immediate reward in proportion as they +please. No, Sir; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, +by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn[1331].' +He then repeated, with great emotion, Shenstone's lines:-- + +'Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, +Where'er his stages may have been, +May sigh to think he still has found +The warmest welcome at an inn[1332].' + +My illustrious friend, I thought, did not sufficiently admire +Shenstone[1333]. That ingenious and elegant gentleman's opinion of Johnson +appears in one of his letters to Mr. Graves[1334], dated Feb. 9, 1760. 'I +have lately been reading one or two volumes of _The Rambler_; who, +excepting against some few hardnesses[1335] in his manner, and the want of +more examples to enliven, is one of the most nervous, most perspicuous, +most concise, [and] most harmonious prose writers I know. A learned +diction improves by time.' + +In the afternoon, as we were driven rapidly along in the post-chaise, he +said to me 'Life has not many things better than this[1336].' + +We stopped at Stratford-upon-Avon, and drank tea and coffee; and it +pleased me to be with him upon the classick ground of Shakspeare's +native place. + +He spoke slightingly of Dyer's _Fleece_[1337].--'The subject, Sir, cannot +be made poetical. How can a man write poetically of serges and druggets? +Yet you will hear many people talk to you gravely of that _excellent_ +poem, _The Fleece_.' Having talked of Grainger's _Sugar-Cane_, I +mentioned to him Mr. Langton's having told me, that this poem, when read +in manuscript at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, had made all the assembled wits +burst into a laugh, when, after much blank-verse pomp, the poet began a +new paragraph thus:-- + +'Now, Muse, let's sing of _rats_' + +And what increased the ridicule was, that one of the company, who slily +overlooked the reader, perceived that the word had been originally +_mice_, and had been altered to _rats_, as more dignified[1338]. + +This passage does not appear in the printed work. Dr. Grainger, or some +of his friends, it should seem, having become sensible that introducing +even _Rats_ in a grave poem, might be liable to banter. He, however, +could not bring himself to relinquish the idea; for they are thus, in a +still more ludicrous manner, periphrastically exhibited in his poem as +it now stands: + +'Nor with less waste the whisker'd vermin race +A countless clan despoil the lowland cane.' + +Johnson said, that Dr. Grainger was an agreeable man; a man who would do +any good that was in his power. His translation of _Tibullus_, he +thought, was very well done; but _The Sugar-Cane_, a poem, did not +please him[1339]; for, he exclaimed, 'What could he make of a sugar-cane? +One might as well write the "Parsley-bed, a Poem;" or "The +Cabbage-garden, a Poem."' BOSWELL. 'You must then _pickle_ your cabbage +with the _sal atticum_.' JOHNSON. 'You know there is already _The +Hop-Garden_, a Poem[1340]: and, I think, one could say a great deal about +cabbage. The poem might begin with the advantages of civilised society +over a rude state, exemplified by the Scotch, who had no cabbages till +Oliver Cromwell's soldiers introduced them[1341]; and one might thus shew +how arts are propagated by conquest, as they were by the Roman arms.' He +seemed to be much diverted with the fertility of his own fancy. + +I told him, that I heard Dr. Percy was writing the history of the wolf +in Great-Britain. JOHNSON. 'The wolf, Sir! why the wolf? Why does he not +write of the bear, which we had formerly? Nay, it is said we had the +beaver. Or why does he not write of the grey rat, the Hanover rat, as it +is called, because it is said to have come into this country about the +time that the family of Hanover came? I should like to see _The History +of the Grey Rat, by Thomas Percy, D.D., Chaplain in Ordinary to His +Majesty_,' (laughing immoderately). BOSWELL. 'I am afraid a court +chaplain could not decently write of the grey rat.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, he +need not give it the name of the Hanover rat.' Thus could he indulge a +luxuriant sportive imagination, when talking of a friend whom he loved +and esteemed. + +He mentioned to me the singular history of an ingenious acquaintance. +'He had practised physick in various situations with no great emolument. +A West-India gentleman, whom he delighted by his conversation, gave him +a bond for a handsome annuity during his life, on the condition of his +accompanying him to the West-Indies, and living with him there for two +years. He accordingly embarked with the gentleman; but upon the voyage +fell in love with a young woman who happened to be one of the +passengers, and married the wench. From the imprudence of his +disposition he quarrelled with the gentleman, and declared he would have +no connection with him. So he forfeited the annuity. He settled as a +physician in one of the Leeward Islands. A man was sent out to him +merely to compound his medicines. This fellow set up as a rival to him +in his practice of physick, and got so much the better of him in the +opinion of the people of the island that he carried away all the +business, upon which he returned to England, and soon after died.' + +On Friday, March 22, having set out early from Henley[1342], where we had +lain the preceding night, we arrived at Birmingham about nine o'clock, +and, after breakfast, went to call on his old schoolfellow Mr. +Hector[1343]. A very stupid maid, who opened the door, told us, that 'her +master was gone out; he was gone to the country; she could not tell when +he would return.' In short, she gave us a miserable reception; and +Johnson observed, 'She would have behaved no better to people who wanted +him in the way of his profession.' He said to her, 'My name is Johnson; +tell him I called. Will you remember the name?' She answered with +rustick simplicity, in the Warwickshire pronunciation, 'I don't +understand you, Sir.'--'Blockhead, (said he,) I'll write.' I never heard +the word _blockhead_ applied to a woman before, though I do not see why +it should not, when there is evident occasion for it[1344]. He, however, +made another attempt to make her understand him, and roared loud in her +ear, '_Johnson_', and then she catched the sound. + +We next called on Mr. Lloyd, one of the people called Quakers. He too +was not at home; but Mrs. Lloyd was, and received us courteously, and +asked us to dinner. Johnson said to me, 'After the uncertainty of all +human things at Hector's, this invitation came very well.' We walked +about the town, and he was pleased to see it increasing. + +I talked of legitimation by subsequent marriage, which obtained in the +Roman law, and still obtains in the law of Scotland. JOHNSON. 'I think +it a bad thing; because the chastity of women being of the utmost +importance, as all property depends upon it, they who forfeit it should +not have any possibility of being restored to good character; nor should +the children, by an illicit connection, attain the full right of lawful +children, by the posteriour consent of the offending parties.' His +opinion upon this subject deserves consideration. Upon his principle +there may, at times, be a hardship, and seemingly a strange one, upon +individuals; but the general good of society is better secured. And, +after all, it is unreasonable in an individual to repine that he has not +the advantage of a state which is made different from his own, by the +social institution under which he is born. A woman does not complain +that her brother, who is younger than her, gets their common father's +estate. Why then should a natural son complain that a younger brother, +by the same parents lawfully begotten, gets it? The operation of law is +similar in both cases. Besides, an illegitimate son, who has a younger +legitimate brother by the same father and mother, has no stronger claim +to the father's estate, than if that legitimate brother had only the +same father, from whom alone the estate descends. + +Mr. Lloyd joined us in the street; and in a little while we met _Friend +Hector_, as Mr. Lloyd called him. It gave me pleasure to observe the joy +which Johnson and he expressed on seeing each other again. Mr. Lloyd and +I left them together, while he obligingly shewed me some of the +manufactures of this very curious assemblage of artificers. We all met +at dinner at Mr. Lloyd's, where we were entertained with great +hospitality. Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd had been married the same year with +their Majesties, and like them, had been blessed with a numerous family +of fine children, their numbers being exactly the same. Johnson said, +'Marriage is the best state for a man in general; and every man is a +worse man, in proportion as he is unfit for the married state.' + +I have always loved the simplicity of manners, and the +spiritual-mindedness of the Quakers; and talking with Mr. Lloyd, I +observed, that the essential part of religion was piety, a devout +intercourse with the Divinity; and that many a man was a Quaker without +knowing it. + +As Dr. Johnson had said to me in the morning, while we walked together, +that he liked individuals among the Quakers, but not the sect; when we +were at Mr. Lloyd's, I kept clear of introducing any questions +concerning the peculiarities of their faith. But I having asked to look +at Baskerville's edition of _Barclay's Apology_, Johnson laid hold of +it; and the chapter on baptism happening to open, Johnson remarked, 'He +says there is neither precept nor practice for baptism, in the +scriptures; that is false.' Here he was the aggressor, by no means in a +gentle manner; and the good Quakers had the advantage of him; for he had +read negligently, and had not observed that Barclay speaks of _infant_ +baptism[1345]; which they calmly made him perceive. Mr. Lloyd, however, was +in as great a mistake; for when insisting that the rite of baptism by +water was to cease, when the _spiritual_ administration of CHRIST began, +he maintained, that John the Baptist said, '_My baptism_ shall decrease, +but _his_ shall increase.' Whereas the words are, '_He_ must increase, +but _I_ must decrease[1346].' + +One of them having objected to the 'observance of days, and months, and +years,' Johnson answered, 'The Church does not superstitiously observe +days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas +might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there +should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, +because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be +neglected.' + +He said to me at another time, 'Sir, the holidays observed by our church +are of great use in religion.' There can be no doubt of this, in a +limited sense, I mean if the number of such consecrated portions of time +be not too extensive. The excellent Mr. Nelson's[1347] _Festivals and +Fasts_, which has, I understand, the greatest sale of any book ever +printed in England, except the Bible, is a most valuable help to +devotion; and in addition to it I would recommend two sermons on the +same subject, by Mr. Pott, Archdeacon of St. Alban's, equally +distinguished for piety and elegance. I am sorry to have it to say, that +Scotland is the only Christian country, Catholick or Protestant, where +the great events of our religion are not solemnly commemorated by its +ecclesiastical establishment, on days set apart for the purpose. + +Mr. Hector was so good as to accompany me to see the great works of Mr. +Bolton, at a place which he has called Soho, about two miles from +Birmingham, which the very ingenious proprietor shewed me himself to the +best advantage. I wish Johnson had been with us: for it was a scene +which I should have been glad to contemplate by his light[1348]. The +vastness and the contrivance of some of the machinery would have +'matched his mighty mind.' I shall never forget Mr. Bolton's expression +to me: 'I sell here, Sir, what all the world desires to have--POWER.' He +had about seven hundred people at work. I contemplated him as an _iron +chieftain_, and he seemed to be a father to his tribe. One of them came +to him, complaining grievously of his landlord for having distrained his +goods.' 'Your landlord is in the right, Smith, (said Bolton). But I'll +tell you what: find you a friend who will lay down one half of your +rent, and I'll lay down the other half; and you shall have your goods +again.' + +From Mr. Hector I now learnt many particulars of Dr. Johnson's early +life, which, with others that he gave me at different times since, have +contributed to the formation of this work. + +Dr. Johnson said to me in the morning, 'You will see, Sir, at Mr. +Hector's, his sister, Mrs. Careless[1349], a clergyman's widow. She was the +first woman with whom I was in love. It dropt out of my head +imperceptibly; but she and I shall always have a kindness for each +other.' He laughed at the notion that a man never can be really in love +but once, and considered it as a mere romantick fancy. + +On our return from Mr. Bolton's, Mr. Hector took me to his house, where +we found Johnson sitting placidly at tea[1350], with his _first love_; who, +though now advanced in years, was a genteel woman, very agreeable, and +well-bred. + +Johnson lamented to Mr. Hector the state of one of their school-fellows, +Mr. Charles Congreve, a clergyman, which he thus described: 'He +obtained, I believe, considerable preferment in Ireland, but now lives +in London, quite as a valetudinarian, afraid to go into any house but +his own. He takes a short airing in his post-chaise every day. He has an +elderly woman, whom he calls cousin, who lives with him, and jogs his +elbow when his glass has stood too long empty, and encourages him in +drinking, in which he is very willing to be encouraged; not that he gets +drunk, for he is a very pious man, but he is always muddy[1351]. He +confesses to one bottle of port every day, and he probably drinks more. +He is quite unsocial; his conversation is quite monosyllabical: and +when, at my last visit, I asked him what a clock it was? that signal of +my departure had so pleasing an effect on him, that he sprung up to look +at his watch, like a greyhound bounding at a hare.' When Johnson took +leave of Mr. Hector, he said, 'Don't grow like Congreve; nor let me grow +like him, when you are near me[1352].' + +When he again talked of Mrs. Careless to-night, he seemed to have had +his affection revived; for he said, 'If I had married her, it might have +been as happy for me.[1353]' BOSWELL. 'Pray, Sir, do you not suppose that +there are fifty women in the world, with any one of whom a man may be as +happy, as with any one woman in particular.' JOHNSON. 'Ay, Sir, fifty +thousand.' BOSWELL. 'Then, Sir, you are not of opinion with some who +imagine that certain men and certain women are made for each other; and +that they cannot be happy if they miss their counterparts.' JOHNSON. 'To +be sure not, Sir. I believe marriages would in general be as happy, and +often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor, upon a due +consideration of characters and circumstances, without the parties +having any choice in the matter.' + +I wished to have staid at Birmingham to-night, to have talked more with +Mr. Hector; but my friend was impatient to reach his native city; so we +drove on that stage in the dark, and were long pensive and silent. When +we came within the focus of the Lichfield lamps, 'Now (said he,) we are +getting out of a state of death.' We put up at the Three Crowns, not one +of the great inns, but a good old fashioned one, which was kept by Mr. +Wilkins, and was the very next house to that in which Johnson was born +and brought up, and which was still his own property[1354]. We had a +comfortable supper, and got into high spirits. I felt all my Toryism +glow in this old capital of Staffordshire. I could have offered incense +_genio loci_; and I indulged in libations of that ale, which Boniface, +in _The Beaux Stratagem_, recommends with such an eloquent jollity[1355]. + +Next morning he introduced me to Mrs. Lucy Porter, his step-daughter. +She was now an old maid, with much simplicity of manner. She had never +been in London. Her brother, a Captain in the navy, had left her a +fortune of ten thousand pounds; about a third of which she had laid out +in building a stately house, and making a handsome garden, in an +elevated situation in Lichfield. Johnson, when here by himself, used to +live at her house. She reverenced him, and he had a parental tenderness +for her[1356]. + +We then visited Mr. Peter Garrick, who had that morning received a +letter from his brother David, announcing our coming to Lichfield. He +was engaged to dinner, but asked us to tea, and to sleep at his house. +Johnson, however, would not quit his old acquaintance Wilkins, of the +Three Crowns. The family likeness of the Garricks was very striking[1357]; +and Johnson thought that David's vivacity was not so peculiar to himself +as was supposed. 'Sir, (said he,) I don't know but if Peter had +cultivated all the arts of gaiety as much as David has done, he might +have been as brisk and lively. Depend upon it, Sir, vivacity is much an +art, and depends greatly on habit.' I believe there is a good deal of +truth in this, notwithstanding a ludicrous story told me by a lady +abroad, of a heavy German baron, who had lived much with the young +English at Geneva, and was ambitious to be as lively as they; with which +view, he, with assiduous exertion, was jumping over the tables and +chairs in his lodgings; and when the people of the house ran in and +asked, with surprize, what was the matter, he answered, '_Sh' apprens +t'etre fif_.' + +We dined at our inn, and had with us a Mr. Jackson[1358], one of Johnson's +schoolfellows, whom he treated with much kindness, though he seemed to +be a low man, dull and untaught. He had a coarse grey coat, black +waistcoat, greasy leather breeches, and a yellow uncurled wig; and his +countenance had the ruddiness which betokens one who is in no haste to +'leave his can.' He drank only ale. He had tried to be a cutler at +Birmingham, but had not succeeded; and now he lived poorly at home, and +had some scheme of dressing leather in a better manner than common; to +his indistinct account of which, Dr. Johnson listened with patient +attention, that he might assist him with his advice. Here was an +instance of genuine humanity and real kindness in this great man, who +has been most unjustly represented as altogether harsh and destitute of +tenderness. A thousand such instances might have been recorded in the +course of his long life; though that his temper was warm and hasty, and +his manner often rough, cannot be denied. + +I saw here, for the first time, _oat ale_; and oat cakes not hard as in +Scotland, but soft like a Yorkshire cake, were served at breakfast. It +was pleasant to me to find, that _Oats_, the _food of horses_[1359], were +so much used as the _food of the people_ in Dr. Johnson's own town. He +expatiated in praise of Lichfield and its inhabitants, who, he said, +were 'the most sober, decent people[1360] in England, the genteelest in +proportion to their wealth, and spoke the purest English[1361].' I doubted +as to the last article of this eulogy: for they had several provincial +sounds; as _there_, pronounced like _fear_, instead of like _fair; once_ +pronounced _woonse_, instead of _wunse_, or _wonse_. Johnson himself +never got entirely free of those provincial accents[1362]. Garrick +sometimes used to take him off, squeezing a lemon into a punch-bowl, +with uncouth gesticulations, looking round the company, and calling out, +'Who's for _poonsh_?[1363]' + +Very little business appeared to be going forward in Lichfield. I found +however two strange manufactures for so inland a place, sail-cloth and +streamers for ships; and I observed them making some saddle-cloths, and +dressing sheepskins: but upon the whole, the busy hand of industry +seemed to be quite slackened. 'Surely, Sir, (said I,) you are an idle +set of people.' 'Sir, (said Johnson,) we are a city of philosophers, we +work with our heads, and make the boobies of Birmingham[1364] work for us +with their hands.' + +There was at this time a company of players performing at Lichfield. The +manager, Mr. Stanton, sent his compliments, and begged leave to wait on +Dr. Johnson. Johnson received him very courteously, and he drank a glass +of wine with us. He was a plain decent well-behaved man, and expressed +his gratitude to Dr. Johnson for having once got him permission from Dr. +Taylor at Ashbourne to play there upon moderate terms. Garrick's name +was soon introduced. JOHNSON. 'Garrick's conversation is gay and +grotesque. It is a dish of all sorts, but all good things. There is no +solid meat in it: there is a want of sentiment in it. Not but that he +has sentiment sometimes, and sentiment, too, very powerful and very +pleasing: but it has not its full proportion in his conversation.' + +When we were by ourselves he told me, 'Forty years ago, Sir, I was in +love with an actress here, Mrs. Emmet, who acted Flora, in _Hob in the +Well_[1365].' What merit this lady had as an actress, or what was her +figure, or her manner, I have not been informed: but, if we may believe +Mr. Garrick, his old master's taste in theatrical merit was by no means +refined[1366]; he was not an _elegans formarum spectator_[1367]. Garrick +used to tell, that Johnson said of an actor, who played Sir Harry Wildair +[1368] at Lichfield, 'There is a courtly vivacity about the fellow;' when +in fact, according to Garrick's account, 'he was the most vulgar ruffian +that ever went upon _boards_.' + +We had promised Mr. Stanton to be at his theatre on Monday. Dr. Johnson +jocularly proposed me to write a Prologue for the occasion: 'A Prologue, +by James Boswell, Esq. from the Hebrides.' I was really inclined to take +the hint. Methought, 'Prologue, spoken before Dr. Samuel Johnson, at +Lichfield, 1776;' would have sounded as well as, 'Prologue, spoken +before the Duke of York, at Oxford,' in Charles the Second's time. Much +might have been said of what Lichfield had done for Shakspeare, by +producing Johnson and Garrick. But I found he was averse to it. + +We went and viewed the museum of Mr. Richard Green, apothecary here, who +told me he was proud of being a relation of Dr. Johnson's. It was, +truely, a wonderful collection, both of antiquities and natural +curiosities, and ingenious works of art. He had all the articles +accurately arranged, with their names upon labels, printed at his own +little press; and on the staircase leading to it was a board, with the +names of contributors marked in gold letters. A printed catalogue of the +collection was to be had at a bookseller's. Johnson expressed his +admiration of the activity and diligence and good fortune of Mr. Green, +in getting together, in his situation, so great a variety of things; and +Mr. Green told me that Johnson once said to him, 'Sir, I should as soon +have thought of building a man of war, as of collecting such a museum.' +Mr. Green's obliging alacrity in shewing it was very pleasing. His +engraved portrait, with which he has favoured me, has a motto truely +characteristical of his disposition, '_Nemo sibi vivat_.' + +A physician being mentioned who had lost his practice, because his +whimsically changing his religion had made people distrustful of him, I +maintained that this was unreasonable, as religion is unconnected with +medical skill. JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is not unreasonable; for when people +see a man absurd in what they understand, they may conclude the same of +him in what they do not understand. If a physician were to take to +eating of horse-flesh, nobody would employ him; though one may eat +horse-flesh, and be a very skilful physician. If a man were educated in +an absurd religion, his continuing to profess it would not hurt him, +though his changing to it would.' + +We drank tea and coffee at Mr. Peter Garrick's, where was Mrs. Aston, +one of the maiden sisters of Mrs. Walmsley, wife of Johnson's first +friend[1369], and sister also of the lady of whom Johnson used to speak +with the warmest admiration, by the name of Molly Aston[1370], who was +afterwards married to Captain Brodie of the navy. + +On Sunday, March 24, we breakfasted with Mrs. Cobb, a widow lady, who +lived in an agreeable sequestered place close by the town, called the +Friary, it having been formerly a religious house. She and her niece, +Miss Adey, were great admirers of Dr. Johnson; and he behaved to them +with a kindness and easy pleasantry, such as we see between old and +intimate acquaintance. He accompanied Mrs. Cobb to St. Mary's church, +and I went to the cathedral, where I was very much delighted with the +musick, finding it to be peculiarly solemn and accordant with the words +of the service. + +We dined at Mr. Peter Garrick's, who was in a very lively humour, and +verified Johnson's saying, that if he had cultivated gaiety as much as +his brother David, he might have equally excelled in it. He was to-day +quite a London narrator, telling us a variety of anecdotes with that +earnestness and attempt at mimicry which we usually find in the wits of +the metropolis. Dr. Johnson went with me to the cathedral in the +afternoon[1371]. It was grand and pleasing to contemplate this illustrious +writer, now full of fame, worshipping in the 'solemn temple[1372]' of his +native city. + +I returned to tea and coffee at Mr. Peter Garrick's, and then found Dr. +Johnson at the Reverend Mr. Seward's[1373], Canon Residentiary, who +inhabited the Bishop's palace[1374], in which Mr. Walmsley lived, and which +had been the scene of many happy hours in Johnson's early life. Mr. +Seward had, with ecclesiastical hospitality and politeness, asked me in +the morning, merely as a stranger, to dine with him; and in the +afternoon, when I was introduced to him, he asked Dr. Johnson and me to +spend the evening and sup with him. He was a genteel well-bred dignified +clergyman, had travelled with Lord Charles Fitzroy, uncle of the present +Duke of Grafton, who died when abroad, and he had lived much in the +great world. He was an ingenious and literary man, had published an +edition of Beaumont and Fletcher, and written verses in Dodsley's +collection. His lady was the daughter of Mr. Hunter, Johnson's first +schoolmaster. And now, for the first time, I had the pleasure of seeing +his celebrated daughter, Miss Anna Seward, to whom I have since been +indebted for many civilities, as well as some obliging communications +concerning Johnson[1375]. + +Mr. Seward mentioned to us the observations which he had made upon the +strata of earth in volcanos, from which it appeared, that they were so +very different in depth at different periods, that no calculation +whatever could be made as to the time required for their formation. This +fully refuted an antimosaical remark introduced into Captain Brydone's +entertaining tour, I hope heedlessly, from a kind of vanity which is too +common in those who have not sufficiently studied the most important of +all subjects. Dr. Johnson, indeed, had said before, independent of this +observation, 'Shall all the accumulated evidence of the history of the +world;--shall the authority of what is unquestionably the most ancient +writing, be overturned by an uncertain remark such as this?[1376]' + +On Monday, March 25, we breakfasted at Mrs. Lucy Porter's. Johnson had +sent an express to Dr. Taylor's, acquainting him of our being at +Lichfield[1377], and Taylor had returned an answer that his postchaise +should come for us this day. While we sat at breakfast, Dr. Johnson +received a letter by the post, which seemed to agitate him very much. +When he had read it, he exclaimed, 'One of the most dreadful things that +has happened in my time.' The phrase _my time_, like the word _age_, is +usually understood to refer to an event of a publick or general nature. +I imagined something like an assassination of the King--like a gunpowder +plot carried into execution--or like another fire of London. When asked, +'What is it, Sir?' he answered, 'Mr. Thrale has lost his only son![1378]' +This was, no doubt, a very great affliction to Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, +which their friends would consider accordingly; but from the manner in +which the intelligence of it was communicated by Johnson, it appeared +for the moment to be comparatively small. I, however, soon felt a +sincere concern, and was curious to observe, how Dr. Johnson would be +affected. He said, 'This is a total extinction to their family, as much +as if they were sold into captivity.' Upon my mentioning that Mr. Thrale +had daughters, who might inherit his wealth;--'Daughters, (said Johnson, +warmly,) he'll no more value his daughters than--'I was going to +speak.--'Sir, (said he,) don't you know how you yourself think? Sir, he +wishes to propagate his name[1379].' In short, I saw male succession strong +in his mind, even where there was no name, no family of any long +standing. I said, it was lucky he was not present when this misfortune +happened. JOHNSON. 'It is lucky for _me_. People in distress never think +that you feel enough.' BOSWELL. 'And Sir, they will have the hope of +seeing you, which will be a relief in the mean time; and when you get to +them, the pain will be so far abated, that they will be capable of being +consoled by you, which, in the first violence of it, I believe, would +not be the case.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; violent pain of mind, like violent +pain of body, _must_ be severely felt.' BOSWELL. 'I own, Sir, I have not +so much feeling for the distress of others, as some people have, or +pretend to have: but I know this, that I would do all in my power to +relieve them.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is affectation to pretend to feel the +distress of others, as much as they do themselves. It is equally so, as +if one should pretend to feel as much pain while a friend's leg is +cutting off, as he does. No, Sir; you have expressed the rational and +just nature of sympathy. I would have gone to the extremity of the earth +to have preserved this boy[1380].' + +He was soon quite calm. The letter was from Mr. Thrale's clerk, and +concluded, 'I need not say how much they wish to see you in London.' He +said, 'We shall hasten back from Taylor's.' + +Mrs. Lucy Porter and some other ladies of the place talked a great deal +of him when he was out of the room, not only with veneration but +affection. It pleased me to find that he was so much _beloved_ in his +native city. + +Mrs. Aston, whom I had seen the preceding night, and her sister, Mrs. +Gastrel, a widow lady, had each a house and garden, and pleasure-ground, +prettily situated upon Stowhill, a gentle eminence, adjoining to +Lichfield. Johnson walked away to dinner there, leaving me by myself +without any apology; I wondered at this want of that facility of +manners, from which a man has no difficulty in carrying a friend to a +house where he is intimate; I felt it very unpleasant to be thus left in +solitude in a country town, where I was an entire stranger, and began to +think myself unkindly deserted: but I was soon relieved, and convinced +that my friend, instead of being deficient in delicacy, had conducted +the matter with perfect propriety, for I received the following note in +his handwriting: 'Mrs. Gastrel, at the lower house on Stowhill, desires +Mr. Boswell's company to dinner at two.' I accepted of the invitation, +and had here another proof how amiable his character was in the opinion +of those who knew him best. I was not informed, till afterwards, that +Mrs. Gastrel's husband was the clergyman who, while he lived at +Stratford upon Avon, where he was proprietor of Shakspeare's garden, +with Gothick barbarity cut down his mulberry-tree[1381], and, as Dr. +Johnson told me, did it to vex his neighbours. His lady, I have reason +to believe, on the same authority[1382], participated in the guilt of what +the enthusiasts for our immortal bard deem almost a species of +sacrilege. + +After dinner Dr. Johnson wrote a letter to Mrs. Thrale on the death of +her son[1383]. I said it would be very distressing to Thrale, but she would +soon forget it, as she had so many things to think of. JOHNSON. 'No, +Sir, Thrale will forget it first. _She_ has many things that she _may_ +think of. _He_ has many things that he _must_ think of[1384].' This was a +very just remark upon the different effect of those light pursuits which +occupy a vacant and easy mind, and those serious engagements which +arrest attention, and keep us from brooding over grief. + +He observed of Lord Bute, 'It was said of Augustus, that it would have +been better for Rome that he had never been born, or had never died. So +it would have been better for this nation if Lord Bute had never been +minister, or had never resigned.' + +In the evening we went to the Town-hall, which was converted into a +temporary theatre, and saw _Theodosius_, with _The Stratford Jubilee_. I +was happy to see Dr. Johnson sitting in a conspicuous part of the pit, +and receiving affectionate homage from all his acquaintance. We were +quite gay and merry. I afterwards mentioned to him that I condemned +myself for being so, when poor Mr. and Mrs. Thrale were in such +distress. JOHNSON. 'You are wrong, Sir; twenty years hence Mr. and Mrs. +Thrale will not suffer much pain from the death of their son. Now, Sir, +you are to consider, that distance of place, as well as distance of +time, operates upon the human feelings. I would not have you be gay in +the presence of the distressed, because it would shock them; but you may +be gay at a distance. Pain for the loss of a friend, or of a relation +whom we love, is occasioned by the want which we feel. In time the +vacuity is filled with something else; or sometimes the vacuity closes +up of itself.' + +Mr. Seward and Mr. Pearson, another clergyman here, supt with us at our +inn, and after they left us, we sat up late as we used to do in London. + +Here I shall record some fragments of my friend's conversation during +this jaunt. + +'Marriage, Sir, is much more necessary to a man than to a woman; for he +is much less able to supply himself with domestick comforts. You will +recollect my saying to some ladies the other day, that I had often +wondered why young women should marry, as they have so much more +freedom, and so much more attention paid to them while unmarried, than +when married. I indeed did not mention the _strong_ reason for their +marrying--the _mechanical_ reason.' BOSWELL. 'Why that _is_ a strong +one. But does not imagination make it much more important than it is in +reality? Is it not, to a certain degree, a delusion in us as well as in +women?' JOHNSON. 'Why yes, Sir; but it is a delusion that is always +beginning again.' BOSWELL. 'I don't know but there is upon the whole +more misery than happiness produced by that passion.' JOHNSON. 'I don't +think so, Sir.' + +'Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate, and +may be offensive.' + +'Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen[1385]. It is +assuming a superiority, and it is particularly wrong to question a man +concerning himself. There may be parts of his former life which he may +not wish to be made known to other persons, or even brought to his own +recollection.' + +'A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own +disadvantage. People may be amused and laugh at the time, but they will +be remembered, and brought out against him upon some subsequent +occasion.' + +'Much may be done if a man puts his whole mind to a particular object. +By doing so, Norton[1386] has made himself the great lawyer that he is +allowed to be.' + +I mentioned an acquaintance of mine[1387], a sectary, who was a very +religious man, who not only attended regularly on publick worship with +those of his communion, but made a particular study of the Scriptures, +and even wrote a commentary on some parts of them, yet was known to be +very licentious in indulging himself with women; maintaining that men +are to be saved by faith alone, and that the Christian religion had not +prescribed any fixed rule for the intercourse between the sexes. +JOHNSON. 'Sir, there is no trusting to that crazy piety.' + +I observed that it was strange how well Scotchmen were known to one +another in their own country, though born in very distant counties; for +we do not find that the gentlemen of neighbouring counties in England +are mutually known to each other. Johnson, with his usual acuteness, at +once saw and explained the reason of this; 'Why, Sir, you have +Edinburgh, where the gentlemen from all your counties meet, and which is +not so large but they are all known. There is no such common place of +collection in England, except London, where from its great size and +diffusion, many of those who reside in contiguous counties of England, +may long remain unknown to each other.' + +On Tuesday, March 26, there came for us an equipage properly suited to a +wealthy well-beneficed clergyman;--Dr. Taylor's large roomy post-chaise, +drawn by four stout plump horses, and driven by two steady jolly +postillions, which conveyed us to Ashbourne; where I found my friend's +schoolfellow living upon an establishment perfectly corresponding with +his substantial creditable equipage: his house, garden, +pleasure-grounds, table, in short every thing good, and no scantiness +appearing. Every man should form such a plan of living as he can execute +completely. Let him not draw an outline wider than he can fill up. I +have seen many skeletons of shew and magnificence which excite at once +ridicule and pity. Dr. Taylor had a good estate of his own, and good +preferment in the church[1388], being a prebendary of Westminster, and +rector of Bosworth. He was a diligent justice of the peace, and presided +over the town of Ashbourne, to the inhabitants of which I was told he +was very liberal; and as a proof of this it was mentioned to me, he had +the preceding winter distributed two hundred pounds among such of them +as stood in need of his assistance. He had consequently a considerable +political interest in the county of Derby, which he employed to support +the Devonshire family; for though the schoolfellow and friend of +Johnson, he was a Whig. I could not perceive in his character much +congeniality of any sort with that of Johnson, who, however, said to me, +'Sir, he has a very strong understanding[1389].' His size, and figure, and +countenance, and manner, were that of a hearty English 'Squire, with the +parson super-induced: and I took particular notice of his upper servant, +Mr. Peters, a decent grave man, in purple clothes, and a large white +wig, like the butler or _major domo_ of a Bishop. + +Dr. Johnson and Dr. Taylor met with great cordiality; and Johnson soon +gave him the same sad account of their school-fellow, Congreve, that he +had given to Mr. Hector[1390]; adding a remark of such moment to the +rational conduct of a man in the decline of life, that it deserves to be +imprinted upon every mind: 'There is nothing against which an old man +should be so much upon his guard as putting himself to nurse[1391].' +Innumerable have been the melancholy instances of men once distinguished +for firmness, resolution, and spirit, who in their latter days have been +governed like children, by interested female artifice. + +Dr. Taylor commended a physician who was known to him and Dr. Johnson, +and said, 'I fight many battles for him, as many people in the country +dislike him.' JOHNSON. 'But you should consider, Sir, 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'll think, +"We'll send for Dr. ----[1392] nevertheless."' This was an observation deep +and sure in human nature. + +Next day we talked of a book[1393] in which an eminent judge was arraigned +before the bar of the publick, as having pronounced an unjust decision +in a great cause. Dr. Johnson maintained that this publication would not +give any uneasiness to the judge. 'For (said he,) either he acted +honestly, or he meant to do injustice. If he acted honestly, his own +consciousness will protect him; if he meant to do injustice, he will be +glad to see the man who attacks him, so much vexed,' + +Next day, as Dr. Johnson had acquainted Dr. Taylor of the reason for his +returning speedily to London, it was resolved that we should set out +after dinner. A few of Dr. Taylor's neighbours were his guests that day. + +Dr. Johnson talked with approbation of one who had attained to the state +of the philosophical wise man, that is, to have no want of any thing. +'Then, Sir, (said I,) the savage is a wise man.' 'Sir, (said he,) I do +not mean simply being without,--but not having a want.' I maintained, +against this proposition, that it was better to have fine clothes, for +instance, than not to feel the want of them. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; fine +clothes are good only as they supply the want of other means of +procuring respect. Was Charles the Twelfth, think you, less respected +for his coarse blue coat and black stock[1394]? And you find the King of +Prussia dresses plain, because the dignity of his character is +sufficient.' I here brought myself into a scrape, for I heedlessly said, +'Would not _you_, Sir, be the better for velvet and embroidery?' +JOHNSON. 'Sir, you put an end to all argument when you introduce your +opponent himself. Have you no better manners? There is _your want_.' I +apologised by saying, I had mentioned him as an instance of one who +wanted as little as any man in the world, and yet, perhaps, might +receive some additional lustre from dress. + + + + +APPENDIX A. +(Page 17.) + + +In the Bodleian is the following autograph record by Johnson of Good +Friday, March 28, Easter Sunday, March 30, and May 4, 1766, and the copy +of the record of Saturday, March 29. They belong to the series published +by the Rev. Mr. Strahan under the title of _Prayers and Meditations_, +but they are not included in it. + +'Good Friday, March 28, 1766.--On the night before I used proper +Collects, and prayed when I arose in the morning. I had all the week an +awe upon me, not thinking on Passion week till I looked in the almanack. +I have wholly forborne M [? meat] and wines, except one glass on Sunday +night. + +'In the morning I rose, and drank very small tea without milk, and had +nothing more that day. + +'This was the day on which Tetty died. I did not mingle much men [? +mention] of her with the devotions of this day, because it is dedicated +to more holy subjects. I mentioned her at church, and prayed once +solemnly at home. I was twice at church, and went through the prayers +without perturbation, but heard the sermons imperfectly. I came in both +times at the second lesson, not hearing the bell. + +'When I came home I read the Psalms for the day, and one sermon in +Clark. Scruples distract me, but at church I had hopes to conquer them. + +'I bore abstinence this day not well, being at night insupportably +heavy, but as fasting does not produce sleepyness, I had perhaps rested +ill the night before. I prayed in my study for the day, and prayed again +in my chamber. I went to bed very early--before eleven. + +'After church I selected collects for the Sacraments. + +'Finding myself upon recollection very ignorant of religion, I formed a +purpose of studying it. + +'I went down and sat to tea, but was too heavy to converse. + +'Saturday, 29.--I rose at the time now usual, not fully refreshed. Went +to tea. A sudden thought of restraint hindered me. I drank but one dish. +Took a purge for my health. Still uneasy. Prayed, and went to dinner. +Dined sparingly on fish [added in different ink] about four. Went to +Simpson. Was driven home by my physick. Drank tea, and am much +refreshed. I believe that if I had drank tea again yesterday, I had +escaped the heaviness of the evening. Fasting that produces inability is +no duty, but I was unwilling to do less than formerly. + +'I had lived more abstemiously than is usual the whole week, and taken +physick twice, which together made the fast more uneasy. + +'Thus much I have written medically, to show that he who can fast long +must have lived plentifully. + +'Saturday, March 29, 1766.--I was yesterday very heavy. I do not feel +myself to-day so much impressed with awe of the approaching mystery. I +had this day a doubt, like Baxter, of my state, and found that my faith, +though weak, was yet faith. O God! strengthen it. + +'Since the last reception of the sacrament I hope I have no otherwise +grown worse than as continuance in sin makes the sinner's condition more +dangerous. + +'Since last New Year's Eve I have risen every morning by eight, at least +not after nine, which is more superiority over my habits than I have +ever before been able to obtain. Scruples still distress me. My +resolution, with the blessing of God, is to contend with them, and, if I +can, to conquer them. + +'My resolutions are-- +'To conquer scruples. +'To read the Bible this year. +'To try to rise more early. +'To study Divinity. +'To live methodically. +'To oppose idleness. +'To frequent Divine worship. + +'Almighty and most merciful Father! before whom I now appear laden with +the sins of another year, suffer me yet again to call upon Thee for +pardon and peace. + +'O God! grant me repentance, grant me reformation. Grant that I may be +no longer distracted with doubts, and harassed with vain terrors. Grant +that I may no longer linger in perplexity, nor waste in idleness that +life which Thou hast given and preserved. Grant that I may serve Thee in +firm faith and diligent endeavour, and that I may discharge the duties +of my calling with tranquillity and constancy. Take not, O God, Thy holy +Spirit from me: but grant that I may so direct my life by Thy holy laws, +as that, when Thou shalt call me hence, I may pass by a holy and happy +death to a life of everlasting and unchangeable joy, for the sake of +Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. + +'I went to bed (at) one or later; but did not sleep, tho' I knew not +why. + +'Easter Day, March 30, 1766.--I rose in the morning. Prayed. Took my +prayer book to tea; drank tea; planned my devotion for the church. I +think prayed again. Went to church, was early. Went through the prayers +with fixed attention. Could not hear the sermon. After sermon, applied +myself to devotion. Troubled with Baxter's scruple, which was quieted as +I returned home. It occurred to me that the scruple itself was its own +confutation. + +'I used the prayer against scruples in the foregoing page in the pew, +and commended (so far as it was lawful) Tetty, dear Tetty, in a prayer +by herself, then my other friends. What collects I do not exactly +remember. I gave a shilling. I then went towards the altar that I might +hear the service. The communicants were more than I ever saw. I kept +back; used again the foregoing prayer; again commended Tetty, and lifted +up my heart for the rest. I prayed in the collect for the fourteen S. +after Trinity for encrease of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and deliverance +from scruples; this deliverance was the chief subject of my prayers. O +God, hear me. I am now to try to conquer them. After reception I +repeated my petition, and again when I came home. My dinner made me a +little peevish; not much. After dinner I retired, and read in an hour +and a half the seven first chapters of St. Matthew in Greek. Glory be to +God. God grant me to proceed and improve, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. + +'I went to Evening Prayers, and was undisturbed. At church in the +morning it occurred to me to consider about example of good any of my +friends had set me. This is proper, in order to the thanks returned for +their good examples. + +'My attainment of rising gives me comfort and hope. O God, for Jesus +Christ's sake, bless me. Amen. + +'After church, before and after dinner, I read Rotheram on Faith. + +'After evening prayer I retired, and wrote this account. + +'I then repeated the prayer of the day, with collects, and my prayer for +night, and went down to supper at near ten. + +'May 4,--66. I have read since the noon of Easter day the Gospels of St. +Matthew and St. Mark in Greek. + +'I have read Xenophon's Cyropaidia.' + +BODLEIAN LIBRARY. SELECT AUTOGRAPHS. (MONTAGU.) + + * * * * * + + + + +APPENDIX B. +(_Page_ 312.) + + +Johnson's sentiments towards his fellow-subjects in America have never, +so far as I know, been rightly stated. It was not because they fought +for liberty that he had come to dislike them. A man who, 'bursting forth +with a generous indignation, had said:--"The Irish are in a most +unnatural state; for we see there the minority prevailing over the +majority"' (_ante_, ii. 255), was not likely to wish that our +plantations should be tyrannically governed. The man who, 'in company +with some very grave men at Oxford, gave as his toast, "Here's to the +next insurrection of the negroes in the West Indies"' (_post_, iii. +200), was not likely to condemn insurrections in general. The key to his +feelings is found in his indignant cry, 'How is it that we hear the +loudest _yelps_ for liberty among the drivers of negroes?' (_Ib_) He +hated slavery as perhaps no man of his time hated it. While the Quakers, +who were almost the pioneers in the Anti-slavery cause, were still +slave-holders and slave-dealers, he lifted up his voice against it. So +early as 1740, when Washington was but a child of eight, he had +maintained 'the natural right of the negroes to liberty and +independence.' (_Works_, vi. 313.) In 1756 he described Jamaica as 'a +place of great wealth and dreadful wickedness, a den of tyrants and a +dungeon of slaves.' (_Ib_ vi. 130.) In 1759 he wrote:--'Of black men the +numbers are too great who are now repining under English cruelty.' (_Ib_ +iv. 407.) In the same year, in describing the cruelty of the Portuguese +discoverers, he said:--'We are openly told that they had the less +scruple concerning their treatment of the savage people, because they +scarcely considered them as distinct from beasts; and indeed, the +practice of all the European nations, and among others of the _English +barbarians that cultivate the southern islands of America_, proves that +this opinion, however absurd and foolish, however wicked and injurious, +still continues to prevail. Interest and pride harden the heart, and it +is in vain to dispute against avarice and power.' (_Ib_ v. 218.) No +miserable sophistry could convince him, with his clear mind and his +ardour for liberty, that slavery can be right. 'An individual,' he wrote +(_post_, iii. 202), 'may, indeed, forfeit his liberty by a crime; but he +cannot by that crime forfeit the liberty of his children.' How deeply he +felt for the wrongs done to helpless races is shown in his dread of +discoverers. No man had a more eager curiosity, or more longed that the +bounds of knowledge should be enlarged. Yet he wrote:--'I do not much +wish well to discoveries, for I am always afraid they will end in +conquest and robbery.' (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 248.) In his _Life of +Savage_, written in 1744, he said (_Works_, viii. 156):--'Savage has not +forgotten ... to censure those crimes which have been generally +committed by the discoverers of new regions, and to expose the enormous +wickedness of making war upon barbarous nations because they cannot +resist, and of invading countries because they are fruitful.... He has +asserted the natural equality of mankind, and endeavoured to suppress +that pride which inclines men to imagine that right is the consequence +of power.' He loved the University of Salamanca, because it gave it as +its opinion that the conquest of America by the Spaniards was not lawful +(_ante_, i. 455). When, in 1756, the English and French were at war in +America, he said that 'such was the contest that no honest man could +heartily wish success to either party.... It was only the quarrel of two +robbers for the spoils of a passenger' (_ante_, i. 308, note 2). When, +from political considerations, opposition was raised in 1766 to the +scheme of translating the Bible into Erse, he wrote:--'To omit for a +year, or for a day, the most efficacious method of advancing +Christianity, in compliance with any purposes that terminate on this +side of the grave, is a crime of which I know not that the world has yet +had an example, except in the practice of the planters of America--a +race of mortals whom, I suppose, no other man wishes to resemble' +(_ante_, ii. 27). Englishmen, as a nation, had no right to reproach +their fellow-subjects in America with being drivers of negroes; for +England shared in the guilt and the gain of that infamous traffic. Nay, +even as the Virginian delegates to Congress in 1774 complained:--'Our +repeated attempts to exclude all further importations of slaves from +Africa by prohibition, and by imposing duties which might amount to +prohibition, have hitherto been defeated by his Majesty's negative--thus +preferring the immediate advantages of a few British corsairs to the +lasting interests of the American States, and to the rights of human +nature, deeply wounded by this infamous practice.' Bright's _Speeches_, +ed. 1869, i. 171. Franklin (_Memoirs_, ed. 1818, iii. 17), writing from +London in 1772, speaks of 'the hypocrisy of this country, which +encourages such a detestable commerce by laws for promoting the Guinea +trade; while it piqued itself on its virtue, love of liberty, and the +equity of its courts in setting free a single negro.' From the slightest +stain of this hypocrisy Johnson was free. He, at all events, had a right +to protest against 'the yelps' of those who, while they solemnly +asserted that among the unalienable rights of all men are liberty and +the pursuit of happiness, yet themselves were drivers of negroes. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] Had he been 'busily employed' he would, no doubt, have finished the +edition in a few months. He himself had recorded at Easter, 1765: 'My +time has been unprofitably spent, and seems as a dream that has left +nothing behind.' _Pr. and Med_., p. 61. + +[2] Dedications had been commonly used as a means of getting money by +flattery. I. D'Israeli in his _Calamities of Authors_, i. 64, +says:--'Fuller's _Church History_ is disgraced by twelve particular +dedications. It was an expedient to procure dedication fees; for +publishing books by subscription was an art not yet discovered.' The +price of the dedication of a play was, he adds, in the time of George I, +twenty guineas. So much then, at least, Johnson lost by not dedicating +_Irene_. However, when he addressed the _Plan of his Dictionary_ to Lord +Chesterfield (_ante_, i. 183) he certainly came very near a dedication. +Boswell, in the _Hypochondriack_, writes:--'For my own part, I own I am +proud enough. But I do not relish the stateliness of not dedicating at +all. I prefer pleasure to pride, and it appears to me that there is much +pleasure in honestly expressing one's admiration, esteem, or affection +in a public manner, and in thus contributing to the happiness of another +by making him better pleased with himself.' _London Mag_. for 1782, p. +454. His dedications were dedications of friendship, not of flattery or +servility. He dedicated his _Tour to Corsica_ to Paoli, his _Tour to the +Hebrides_ to Malone, and his _Life of Johnson_ to Sir Joshua Reynolds. +Goldsmith, in like manner, distrest though he so often was, dedicated +his _Traveller_ to his brother, the _Deserted Village_ to Sir Joshua, +and _She Stoops to Conquer_ to Johnson. + +[3] A passage in Boswell's letter to Malone of Jan. 29, 1791 (Croker's +_Boswell_, p. 829), shows that it is Reynolds of whom he is writing. 'I +am,' he writes, 'to cancel a leaf of the first volume, having found that +though Sir Joshua certainly assured me he had no objection to my +mentioning that Johnson wrote a dedication for him, he now thinks +otherwise. In that leaf occurs the mention of Johnson having written to +Dr. Leland, thanking the University of Dublin for their diploma.' In the +first edition, this mention of the letter is followed by the passage +above about dedications. It was no doubt Reynolds's _Dedication of his +Discourses_ to the King in the year 1778 that Johnson wrote. The first +sentence is in a high degree Johnsonian. 'The regular progress of +cultivated life is from necessaries to accommodations, from +accommodations to ornaments.' + +[4] 'That is to say,' he added, 'to the last generation of the Royal +Family.' See _post_, April 15, 1773. We may hope that the Royal Family +were not all like the Duke of Gloucester, who, when Gibbon brought him +the second volume of the _Decline and Fall_, 'received him with much +good nature and affability, saying to him, as he laid the quarto on the +table, "Another d----d thick, square book! Always scribble, scribble, +scribble! Eh! Mr. Gibbon?"' Best's _Memorials_, p. 68. + +[5] Such care was needless. Boswell complained (_post_, June 24, 1774), +that Johnson did not _answer_ his letters, but only sent him _returns_. + +[6] 'On one of the days that my ague disturbed me least, I walked from +the convent to Corte, purposely to write a letter to Mr. Samuel Johnson. +I told my revered friend, that from a kind of superstition agreeable in +a certain degree to him as well as to myself, I had, during my travels, +written to him from Loca Solennia, places in some measure sacred. That, +as I had written to him from the tomb of Melancthon (see _post_, June +28, 1777), sacred to learning and piety, I now wrote to him from the +palace of Pascal Paoli, sacred to wisdom and liberty.' Boswell's _Tour +to Corsica_, p. 218. How delighted would Boswell have been had he lived +to see the way in which he is spoken of by the biographer of Paoli: 'En +traversant la MA(C)diterranA(C)e sur de frAªles navires pour venir s'asseoir au +foyer de la nationalitA(C) Corse, _des hommes graves_ tels que Boswel et +Volney obA(C)issaient sans doute A un sentiment bien plus A(C)levA(C) qu' au +besoin vulgaire d'une puerile curiositA(C).' _Histoire de Pascal Paoli_, +par A. Arrighi, i. 231. By every Corsican of any education the name of +Boswell is known and honoured. One of them told me that it was in +Boswell's pages that Paoli still lived for them. He informed me also of +a family which still preserved by tradition the remembrance of Boswell's +visit to their ancestral home. + +[7] The twelve following lines of this letter were published by Boswell +in his _Corsica_ (p. 219) without Johnson's leave. (See _post_, March +23, 1768.) Temple, to whom the book had been shewn before publication, +had, it should seem, advised Boswell to omit this extract. Boswell +replied:--'Your remarks are of great service to me ... but I must have +my great preceptor, Mr. Johnson, introduced.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. +122. In writing to excuse himself to Johnson (_post_, April 26, 1768), +he says, 'the temptation to publishing it was so strong.' + +[8] 'Tell your Court,' said Paoli to Boswell, 'what you have seen here. +They will be curious to ask you. A man come from Corsica will be like a +man come from the Antipodes.' Boswell's _Corsica_, p. 188. He was not +indeed the first 'native of this country' to go there. He found in +Bastia 'an English woman of Penrith, in Cumberland. When the Highlanders +marched through that country in the year 1745, she had married a soldier +of the French picquets in the very midst of all the confusion and +danger, and when she could hardly understand one word he said.' _Ib_, p. +226. Boswell nowhere quotes Mrs. Barbauld's fine lines on Corsica. +Perhaps he was ashamed of the praise of the wife of 'a little +Presbyterian parson who kept an infant boarding school.' (See _post_, +under Dec. 17, 1775.) Yet he must have been pleased when he read:-- + +'Such were the working thoughts which swelled the breast +Of generous Boswell; when with nobler aim +And views beyond the narrow beaten track +By trivial fancy trod, he turned his course +From polished Gallia's soft delicious vales,' &c. + +Mrs. Barbauld's _Poems_, i. 2. + +[9] Murphy, in the _Monthly Review_, lxxvi. 376, thus describes +Johnson's life in Johnson's Court after he had received his pension. +'His friend Levett, his physician in ordinary, paid his daily visits +with assiduity; attended at all hours, made tea all the morning, talked +what he had to say, and did not expect an answer; or, if occasion +required it, was mute, officious, and ever complying.... There Johnson +sat every morning, receiving visits, hearing the topics of the day, and +indolently trifling away the time. Chymistry afforded some amusement.' +Hawkins (_Life_, p. 452), says:--'An upper room, which had the +advantages of a good light and free air, he fitted up for a study. A +silver standish and some useful plate, which he had been prevailed on to +accept as pledges of kindness from some who most esteemed him, together +with furniture that would not have disgraced a better dwelling, banished +those appearances of squalid indigence which, in his less happy days, +disgusted those who came to see him.' Some of the plate Johnson had +bought. See _post_, April 15, 1781. + +[10] It is remarkable, that Mr. Gray has employed somewhat the same +image to characterise Dryden. He, indeed, furnishes his car with but two +horses, but they are of 'ethereal race': + +'Behold where Dryden's less presumptuous car, +Wide o'er the fields of glory bear +Two coursers of ethereal race, +With necks in thunder cloath'd, and long resounding pace.' + +_Ode on the Progress of Poesy_. BOSWELL. In the '_Life of Pope (Works_, +viii. 324) Johnson says:--'The style of Dryden is capricious and varied; +that of Pope is cautious and uniform. Dryden obeys the motions of his +own mind; Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of composition. +Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid; Pope is always smooth, uniform, +and gentle.' + +[11] In the original _laws or kings_. + +[12] + +'The mind is its own place, and in itself +Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.' + +_Paradise Lost_, i. 254. + +'Caelum, non animum, mutant qui +trans mare current.' + +Horace, _Epis_. i. II. 27. See also _ante_, i. 381. note 2. + +[13] 'I once inadvertently put him,' wrote Reynolds, 'in a situation +from which none but a man of perfect integrity could extricate himself. +I pointed at some lines in _The Traveller_ which I told him I was sure +he wrote. He hesitated a little; during this hesitation I recollected +myself, that, as I knew he would not lie, I put him in a cleft-stick, +and should have had but my due if he had given me a rough answer; but he +only said, 'Sir, I did not write them, but that you may not imagine that +I have wrote more than I really have, the utmost I have wrote in that +poem, to the best of my recollection, is not more than eighteen lines. +[Nine seems the actual number.] It must be observed there was then an +opinion about town that Dr. Johnson wrote the whole poem for his friend, +who was then in a manner an unknown writer.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. +458. See also _post_, April 9, 1778. For each line of _The Traveller_ +Goldsmith was paid 11-1/4d. (_ante_, i. 193, note), Johnson's present, +therefore, of nine lines was, if reckoned in money, worth 8/5-1/4. + +[14] See _ante_, i. 194, note. + +[15] _Respublica et Status Regni Hungariae. Ex Officina Elzeviriana_, +1634, p. 136. This work belongs to the series of _Republics_ mentioned +by Johnson, _post_, under April 29, 1776. + +[16] '"Luke" had been taken simply for the euphony of the line. He was +one of two brothers, Dosa.... The origin of the mistake [of Zeck for +Dosa] is curious. The two brothers belonged to one of the native races +of Transylvania called Szeklers or Zecklers, which descriptive addition +follows their names in the German biographical authorities; and this, +through abridgment and misapprehension, in subsequent books came at last +to be substituted for the family name.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 370. +The iron crown was not the worst of the tortures inflicted. + +[17] See _post_, April 15, 1781. In 1748 Johnson had written (_Works_, +v. 231): 'At a time when so many schemes of education have been +projected.... so many schools opened for general knowledge, and so many +lectures in particular sciences attended.' Goldsmith, in his _Life of +Nash_ (published in 1762), describes the lectures at Bath 'on the arts +and sciences which are frequently taught there in a pretty, superficial +manner so as not to tease the understanding while they afford the +imagination some amusement.' Cunningham's _Goldsmith's Works_, iv 59. + +[18] Perhaps Gibbon had read this passage at the time when he wrote in +his Memoirs:--'It has indeed been observed, nor is the observation +absurd, that, excepting in experimental sciences which demand a costly +apparatus and a dexterous hand, the many valuable treatises that have +been published on every subject of learning may now supersede the +ancient mode of oral instruction.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 50. See +_post_, March 20, 1776, note. + +[19] See _ante_, i. 103. + +[20] Baretti was in Italy at the same time as Boswell. That they met +seems to be shewn by a passage in Boswell's letter (_post_, Nov. 6, +1766). Malone wrote of him:--'He appears to be an infidel.' Prior's +_Malone_, p. 399. + +[21] Lord Charlemont records (_Life_, i. 235) that 'Mrs. Mallet, meeting +Hume at an assembly, boldly accosted him in these words:--"Mr. Hume, +give me leave to introduce myself to you; we deists ought to know each +other." "Madame," replied Hume, "I am no deist. I do not style myself +so, neither do I desire to be known by that appellation."' Hume, in 1763 +or 1764, wrote to Dr. Blair about the men of letters at Paris:--'It +would give you and Robertson great satisfaction to find that there is +not a single deist among them.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 181. There +was no deist, I suppose, because they were all atheists. Romilly +(_Life_, i. 179) records the following anecdote, which he had from +Diderot in 1781:--'Hume dA¬na avec une grande compagnie chez le Baron +d'Holbach. Il A(C)tait assis A cA'tA(C) du Baron; on parla de la religion +naturelle. "Pour les AthA(C)es," disait Hume, "je ne crois pas qu'il en +existe; je n'en ai jamais vu." "Vous avez A(C)tA(C) un peu malheureux," +rA(C)pondit l'autre, "vous voici A table avec dix-sept pour la premiA"re +fois."' It was on the same day that Diderot related this that he said to +Romilly, 'Il faut _sabrer_ la thA(C)ologie.' + +[22] 'The inference upon the whole is, that it is not from the value or +worth of the object which any person pursues that we can determine his +enjoyment; but merely from the passion with which he pursues it, and the +success which he meets with in his pursuit. Objects have absolutely no +worth or value in themselves. They derive their worth merely from the +passion. If that be strong and steady and successful, the person is +happy. It cannot reasonably be doubted but a little miss, dressed in a +new gown for a dancing-school ball, receives as complete enjoyment as +the greatest orator, who triumphs in the splendour of his eloquence, +while he governs the passions and resolutions of a numerous assembly.' +Hume's _Essays_, i. 17 (_The Sceptic_). Pope had written in the _Essay +on Man_ (iv. 57): + +'Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; +Bliss is the same in subject or in King.' + +See also _post_, April 15, 1778. + +[23] In _Boswelliana_, p. 220, a brief account is given of his life, +which was not altogether uneventful. + +[24] We may compare with this what he says in _The Rambler_, No. 21, +about the 'cowardice which always encroaches fast upon such as spend +their time in the company of persons higher than themselves.' In No. 104 +he writes:--'It is dangerous for mean minds to venture themselves within +the sphere of greatness.' In the court that Boswell many years later +paid to Lord Lonsdale, he suffered all the humiliations that the +brutality of this petty greatness can inflict. _Letters of Boswell_, p. +324. See also _post_, Sept. 22, 1777. + +[25] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 19, 1773. + +[26] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 107) thus sums up his examination of +second-sight:--'There is against it, the seeming analogy of things +confusedly seen, and little understood; and for it, the indistinct cry +of natural persuasion, which may be, perhaps, resolved at last into +prejudice and tradition. I never could advance my curiosity to +conviction; but came away at last only willing to believe.' See also +_post_, March 24, 1775. Hume said of the evidence in favour of +second-sight--:'As finite added to finite never approaches a hair's +breadth nearer to infinite, so a fact incredible in itself acquires not +the smallest accession of probability by the accumulation of testimony.' +J. H. Burton's Hume, i. 480. + +[27] 'I love anecdotes,' said Johnson. Boswell's _Hebridge_, Aug. 16, +1773. Boswell said that 'Johnson always condemned the word _anecdotes_, +as used in the sense that the French, and we from them, use it, as +signifying particulars.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 311. In his +_Dictionary_, he defined '_Anecdotes_ Something yet unpublished; secret +history.' In the fourth edition he added: 'It is now used, after the +French, for a biographical incident; a minute passage of private life.' + +[28] See _ante_, July 19, 1763. + +[29] Boswell, writing to Wilkes in 1776, said:--'Though we differ widely +in religion and politics, _il y a des points ou nos ames sont animes_, +as Rouseau said to me in his wild retreat.' Almon's _Wilkes_, iv. 319. + +[30] Rousseau fled from France in 1762. A few days later his arrest was +ordered at Geneva. He fled from Neufchatel in 1763, and soon afterwards +he was banished from Berne. _Nonev. Biog. Gen., Xlii. 750_. He had come +to England with David Hume a few weeks before this conversation was +held, and was at this time in Chiswick. Hume's _Private Corres_., +pp. 125, 145. + +[31] Rousseau had by this time published his _Nouvelle Helloise_ and +_Emile_. + +[32] Less than three months after the date of this conversation Rousseau +wrote to General Conway, one of the Secretaries of State, thanking him +for the pension which George III proposed secretly to confer on him. +Hume's _Private Corres_., p. 165. Miss Burney, in her preface to +_Evelina_, a novel which was her introduction to Johnson's strong +affection, mentioning Rousseau and Johnson, adds in a footnote:-- +'However superior the capacities in which these great writers deserve to +be considered, they must pardon me that, for the dignity of my subject, +I here rank the authors of _Rasselas_ and _EloA-se_ as novelists.' + +[33] Rousseau thus wrote of himself: + +'Dieu est juste; il veut que je souffre; et il sait que je suis +innocent. VoilA le motif de ma confiance, mon coeur et ma raison me +crient qu'elle ne me trompera pas. Laissons donc faire les hommes et la +destinA(C)e; apprenons A souffrir sans murmure; tout doit A la fin rentrer +dans Fordre, et mon tour viendra tA't ou tard.' Rousseau's _Works_, +xx. 223. + +[34] 'He entertained me very courteously,' wrote Boswell in his +_Corsica_, p. 140. + +[35] In this preference Boswell pretended at times to share. See _post_, +Sept. 30, 1769. + +[36] Johnson seems once to have held this view to some extent; for, +writing of Savage's poem _On Public Spirit_, he says (_Works_, viii. +156):--'He has asserted the natural equality of mankind, and endeavoured +to suppress that pride which inclines men to imagine that right is the +consequence of power.' See also _post_, Sept. 23, 1777, where he +asserts:--'It is impossible not to conceive that men in their original +state were equal.' For the opposite opinion, see _ante_, June 25, 1763. + +[37] 'Qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes.' 'Manners and towns of +various nations viewed.' FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 1. 142. + +[38] By the time Boswell was twenty-six years old he could boast that he +had made the acquaintance of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Paoli among +foreigners; and of Adam Smith, Robertson, Hume, Johnson, Goldsmith, +Garrick, Horace Walpole, Wilkes, and perhaps Reynolds, among Englishmen. +He had twice at least received a letter from the Earl of Chatham. + +[39] In such passages as this we may generally assume that the +gentleman, whose name is not given, is Boswell himself. See _ante_, i. +4, and _post_, Oct. 16, 1769. + +[40] See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's 'Collection,' where this +assertion is called 'his usual remark.' + +[41] See _post_, April 15, 1778. + +[42] These two words may be observed as marks of Mr. Boswell's accuracy. +It is a jocular Irish phrase, which, of all Johnson's acquaintances, no +one probably, but Goldsmith, would have used.--CROKER. + +[43] See _ante_, May 24, 1763. + +[44] Johnson's best justification for the apparent indolences of the +latter part of his life may be found in his own words: 'Every man of +genius has some arts of fixing the attention peculiar to himself, by +which, honestly exerted, he may benefit mankind.... To the position of +Tully, that if virtue could be seen she must be loved, may be added, +that if truth could be heard she must be obeyed.' _The Rambler_, No. 87. +He fixed the attention best by his talk. For 'the position of Tully,' +see _post_, March 19, 1776. + +[45] See _ante_, i. 192, and _post_, May 1, 1783. Goldsmith wrote _The +Traveller and Deserted Village_ on a very different plan. 'To save +himself the trouble of transcription, he wrote the lines in his first +copy very wide, and would so fill up the intermediate space with +reiterated corrections, that scarcely a word of his first effusions was +left unaltered.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 113. + +[46] Mrs. Thrale in a letter to Dr. Johnson, said:--'Don't sit making +verses that never will be written.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 183. Baretti +noted opposite this in the margin of his copy: 'Johnson was always +making Latin or English verses in his mind, but never would write +them down.' + +[47] Burke entered Parliament as member for Wendover borough on Jan. +14th, 1766. William Burke, writing to Barry the artist on the following +March 23, says:--'Ned's success has exceeded our most sanguine hopes; +all at once he has darted into fame. He is full of real business, intent +upon doing real good to his country, as much as if he was to receive +twenty per cent. from the commerce of the whole empire, which he labours +to improve and extend.' Barry's _Works_, i. 42. + +[48] It was of these speeches that Macaulay wrote:--'The House of +Commons heard Pitt for the last time and Burke for the first time, and +was in doubt to which of them the palm of eloquence should be assigned. +It was indeed a splendid sunset and a splendid dawn.' Macaulay's +_Essays_ (edition 1874), iv. 330. + +[49] See _post_, March 20, 1776. + +[50] Boswell has already stated (_ante_, Oct. 1765) that Johnson's +_Shakespeare_ was 'virulently attacked' by Kenrick. No doubt there were +other attacks and rejoinders too. + +[51] Two days earlier he had drawn up a prayer on entering _Novum +Museum_. _Pr. and Med_., p. 69. + +[52] See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's Collection. + +[53] _Dictionarium Saxonico et Gothico-Latinum_. London, 1772. Lye died +in 1767. O. Manning completed the work. + +[54] See Appendix A. + +[55] Mr. Langton's uncle. BOSWELL. + +[56] The place of residence of Mr. Peregrine Langton. BOSWELL. + +[57] Mr. Langton did not disregard this counsel, but wrote the following +account, which he has been pleased to communicate to me: + +'The circumstances of Mr. Peregrine Langton were these. He had an +annuity for life of two hundred pounds _per annum_. He resided in a +village in Lincolnshire; the rent of his house, with two or three small +fields, was twenty-eight pounds; the county he lived in was not more +than moderately cheap; his family consisted of a sister, who paid him +eighteen pounds annually for her board, and a niece. The servants were +two maids, and two men in livery. His common way of living, at his +table, was three or four dishes; the appurtenances to his table were +neat and handsome; he frequently entertained company at dinner, and then +his table was well served with as many dishes as were usual at the +tables of the other gentlemen in the neighbourhood. His own appearance, +as to clothes, was genteelly neat and plain. He had always a +post-chaise, and kept three horses. + +'Such, with the resources I have mentioned, was his way of living, which +he did not suffer to employ his whole income: for he had always a sum of +money lying by him for any extraordinary expences that might arise. Some +money he put into the stocks; at his death, the sum he had there +amounted to one hundred and fifty pounds. He purchased out of his income +his household-furniture and linen, of which latter he had a very ample +store; and, as I am assured by those that had very good means of +knowing, not less than the tenth part of his income was set apart for +charity: at the time of his death, the sum of twenty-five pounds was +found, with a direction to be employed in such uses. + +'He had laid down a plan of living proportioned to his income, and did +not practise any extraordinary degree of parsimony, but endeavoured that +in his family there should be plenty without waste; as an instance that +this was his endeavour, it may be worth while to mention a method he +took in regulating a proper allowance of malt liquor to be drunk in his +family, that there might not be a deficiency, or any intemperate +profusion: On a complaint made that his allowance of a hogshead in a +month, was not enough for his own family, he ordered the quantity of a +hogshead to be put into bottles, had it locked up from the servants, and +distributed out, every day, eight quarts, which is the quantity each day +at one hogshead in a month; and told his servants, that if that did not +suffice, he would allow them more; but, by this method, it appeared at +once that the allowance was much more than sufficient for his small +family; and this proved a clear conviction, that could not be answered, +and saved all future dispute. He was, in general, very diligently and +punctually attended and obeyed by his servants; he was very considerate +as to the injunctions he gave, and explained them distinctly; and, at +their first coming to his service, steadily exacted a close compliance +with them, without any remission; and the servants finding this to be +the case, soon grew habitually accustomed to the practice of their +business, and then very little further attention was necessary. On +extraordinary instances of good behaviour, or diligent service, he was +not wanting in particular encouragements and presents above their wages; +it is remarkable that he would permit their relations to visit them, and +stay at his house two or three days at a time. + +'The wonder, with most that hear an account of his A"conomy, will be, how +he was able, with such an income, to do so much, especially when it is +considered that he paid for everything he had; he had no land, except +the two or three small fields which I have said he rented; and, instead +of gaining any thing by their produce, I have reason to think he lost by +them; however, they furnished him with no further assistance towards his +housekeeping, than grass for his horses, (not hay, for that I know he +bought,) and for two cows. Every Monday morning he settled his family +accounts, and so kept up a constant attention to the confining his +expences within his income; and to do it more exactly, compared those +expences with a computation he had made, how much that income would +afford him every week and day of the year. One of his A"conomical +practices was, as soon as any repair was wanting in or about his house, +to have it immediately performed. When he had money to spare, he chose +to lay in a provision of linen or clothes, or any other necessaries; as +then, he said, he could afford it, which he might not be so well able to +do when the actual want came; in consequence of which method, he had a +considerable supply of necessary articles lying by him, beside what was +in use. + +'But the main particular that seems to have enabled him to do so much +with his income, was, that he paid for every thing as soon as he had it, +except, alone, what were current accounts, such as rent for his house +and servantsaEuro(TM) wages; and these he paid at the stated times with the +utmost exactness. He gave notice to the tradesmen of the neighbouring +market-towns that they should no longer have his custom, if they let any +of his servants have anything without their paying for it. Thus he put +it out of his power to commit those imprudences to which those are +liable that defer their payments by using their money some other way +than where it ought to go. And whatever money he had by him, he knew +that it was not demanded elsewhere, but that he might safely employ it +as he pleased. + +'His example was confined, by the sequestered place of his abode, to the +observation of few, though his prudence and virtue would have made it +valuable to all who could have known it. These few particulars, which I +knew myself, or have obtained from those who lived with him, may afford +instruction, and be an incentive to that wise art of living, which he so +successfully practiced.aEuro(TM) BOSWELL + +[58] Of his being in the chair of THE LITERARY CLUB, which at this time +met once a week in the evening. BOSWELL. See _ante_, Feb. 1764, note. + +[59] See _post_, Feb. 1767, where he told the King that 'he must now +read to acquire more knowledge.' + +[60] The passage omitted alluded to a private transaction. BOSWELL. + +[61] The censure of my Latin relates to the Dedication, which was as +follows: + + VIRO NOBILISSIMO, ORNATISSIMO, + JOANNI, + VICECOMITI MOUNTSTUART, + ATAVIS EDITO REGIBUS + EXCELSAE FAMILLAE DE BUTE SPEI ALTERAE; + LABENTE SECULO, + QUUM HOMINES NULLIUS ORIGINIS + GENUS AEQUARE OPIBUS AGGREDIUNTUR, + SANGUINIS ANTIQUI ET ILLUSTRIS + SEMPER MEMORI, + NATALIUM SPLENDOREM VIRTUTIBUS AUGENTI: + + AD PUBLICA POPULI COMITIA + JAM LEGATO; + + IN OPTIMATIUM VERO MAGNA† BRITANNIA† SENATU, + JURE HA†REDITARIO, + OLIM CONSESSURO: + + VIM INSITAM VARIA DOCTRINA PROMOVENTE, + NEC TAMEN SE VENDITANTE, + PRA†DITO: + + PRISCA FIDE, ANIMO LIBERRIMO, + ET MORUM ELEGANTIA + INSIGNI: + + IN ITALIA† VISITANDA† ITINERE, + SOCIO SUO HONORATISSIMO, + HASCE JURISPRUDENTA† PRIMITIAS + DEVINCTISSIMA† AMICITIA† ET OBSERVANTIA† + MONUMENTUM, + D. D. C Q. + +JACOBUS BOSWELL. BOSWELL. + +[62] See _ante_, i. 211. + +[63] See _post_, May 19, 1778. + +[64] This alludes to the first sentence of the _ProA|mium_ of my Thesis. +'JURISPRUDENTA† studio nullum uberius, nullum generosius: in legibus enim +agitandis, populorum mores, variasque fortunA| vices ex quibus leges +oriuntur, contemplari simul solemus_' BOSWELL. + +[65] 'Mr. Boswell,' says Malone, 'professed the Scotch and the English +law; but had never taken very great pains on the subject. His father, +Lord Auchinleck, told him one day, that it would cost him more trouble +to hide his ignorance in these professions than to show his knowledge. +This Boswell owned he had found to be true.' _European Magazine_, 1798, +p. 376. Boswell wrote to Temple in 1775:--'You are very kind in saying +that I may overtake you in learning. Believe me though that I have a +kind of impotency of study.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 181. + +[66] This is a truth that Johnson often enforced. 'Very few,' said the +poet; 'live by choice: every man is placed in his present condition by +causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not +always willingly co-operate.' _Rasselas_, chap. 16. 'To him that lives +well,' answered the hermit, 'every form of life is good; nor can I give +any other rule for choice than to remove from all apparent evil.' _Ib_, +chap. 21. 'Young man,' said Omar, 'it is of little use to form plans of +life.' _The Idler_, No. 101. + +[67] 'Hace sunt quae nostra _liceat_ te voce moneri.' _Aeneid_, iii. +461. + +[68] The passage omitted explained the transaction to which the +preceding letter had alluded. BOSWELL. + +[69] See _ante_, June 10, 1761. + +[70] Mr. Croker says:--'It was by visiting Chambers, when a fellow of +University College, that Johnson became acquainted with Lord Stowell [at +that time William Scott]; and when Chambers went to India, Lord Stowell, +as he expressed it to me, seemed to succeed to his place in Johnson's +friendship.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 90, note. John Scott (Earl of +Eldon), Sir William Jones and Mr. Windham, were also members of +University College. The hall is adorned with the portraits of these five +men. An engraving of Johnson is in the Common Room. + +[71] It is not easy to discover anything noble or even felicitous in +this Dedication. _Works_, v. 444. + +[72] See _ante_, i. 148. + +[73] See _ante_, i. 177, note 2. + +[74] See _ante_, i. 158. + +[75] See _ante_, i. 178, note 2. + +[76] This poem is scarcely Johnson's, though all the lines but the third +in the following couplets may be his. + +Whose life not sunk in sloth is free from care, +Nor tost by change, nor stagnant in despair; +Who with wise authors pass the instructive day +And wonder how the moments stole away; +Who not retired beyond the sight of life +Behold its weary cares, its noisy strife.' + +[77] Johnson's additions to these three poems are not at all evident. + +[78] In a note to the poem it is stated that Miss Williams, when, before +her blindness, she was assisting Mr. Grey in his experiments, was the +first that observed the emission of the electrical spark from a human +body. The best lines are the following:-- + +Now, hoary Sage, purse thy happy flight, +With swifter motion haste to purer light, +Where Bacon waits with Newton and with Boyle +To hail thy genius, and applaud thy toil; +Where intuition breaks through time and space, +And mocks experiment's successive race; +Sees tardy Science toil at Nature's laws, +And wonders how th' effect obscures the cause. +Yet not to deep research or happy guess +Is owed the life of hope, the death of peace.' + +[79] A gentleman, writing from Virginia to John Wesley, in 1735, about +the need of educating the negro slaves in religion, says:--'Their +masters generally neglect them, as though immortality was not the +privilege of their souls in common with their own.' Wesley's _Journal_, +II. 288. But much nearer home Johnson might have found this criminal +enforcement of ignorance. Burke, writing in 1779, about the Irish, +accuses the legislature of 'condemning a million and a half of people to +ignorance, according to act of parliament.' Burke's _Corres_. ii. 294. + +[80] See _post_, March 21, 1775, and Appendix. + +[81] Johnson said very finely:--'Languages are the pedigree of nations.' +Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 18, 1773. + +[82] The Rev. Mr. John Campbell, Minister of the Parish of Kippen, near +Stirling, who has lately favoured me with a long, intelligent, and very +obliging letter upon this work, makes the following remark:--'Dr. +Johnson has alluded to the worthy man employed in the translation of the +New Testament. Might not this have afforded you an opportunity of paying +a proper tribute of respect to the memory of the Rev. Mr. James Stuart, +late Minister of Killin, distinguished by his eminent Piety, Learning +and Taste? The amiable simplicity of his life, his warm benevolence, his +indefatigable and successful exertions for civilizing and improving the +Parish of which he was Minister for upwards of fifty years, entitle him +to the gratitude of his country, and the veneration of all good men. It +certainly would be a pity, if such a character should be permitted to +sink into oblivion.' BOSWELL. + +[83] Seven years later Johnson received from the Society some religious +works in Erse. See post, June 24, 1774. Yet in his journey to the +Hebrides, in 1773 (Works, ix. 101), he had to record of the parochial +schools in those islands that 'by the rule of their institution they +teach _only_ English, so that the natives read a language which they may +never use or understand,' + +[84] This paragraph shews Johnson's real estimation of the character and +abilities of the celebrated Scottish Historian, however lightly, in a +moment of caprice, he may have spoken of his works. BOSWELL. + +[85] See _ante_, i. 210. + +[86] This is the person concerning whom Sir John Hawkins has thrown out +very unwarrantable reflections both against Dr. Johnson and Mr. Francis +Barber. BOSWELL. See _post_, under Oct. 20, 1784. In 1775, Heely, it +appears, applied through Johnson for the post that was soon to be vacant +of 'master of the tap' at Ranelagh House. 'He seems,' wrote Johnson, in +forwarding his letter of application, 'to have a genius for an +alehouse.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 210. See also _post_, Aug. 12, 1784. + +[87] See an account of him in the _European Magazine_, Jan. 1786. +BOSWELL. There we learn that he was in his time a grammar-school usher, +actor, poet, the puffing partner in a quack medicine, and tutor to a +youthful Earl. He was suspected of levying blackmail by threats of +satiric publications, and he suffered from a disease which rendered him +an object almost offensive to sight. He was born in 1738 or 1739, and +died in 1771. + +[88] It was republished in _The Repository_, ii. 227, edition of 1790. + +[89] The Hon. Thomas Hervey, whose _Letter to Sir Thomas Hanmer_ in 1742 +was much read at that time. He was the second son of John, first Earl of +Bristol, and one of the brothers of Johnson's early friend Henry Hervey. +He died Jan. 20, 1775. MALONE. See _post_, April 6, 1775. + +[90] See _post_, under Sept. 22, 1777, for another story told by +Beauclerk against Johnson of a Mr. Hervey. + +[91] Essays published in the _Daily Gazetteer_ and afterwards collected +into two vols. _Gent. Mag_. for 1748, P. 48. + +[92] Mr. Croker regrets that Johnson employed his pen for hire in +Hervey's 'disgusting squabbles,' and in a long note describes Hervey's +letter to Sir Thomas Hanmer with whose wife he had eloped. But the +attack to which Johnson was hired to reply was not made by Hanmer, but, +as was supposed, by Sir C. H. Williams. Because a man has wronged +another, he is not therefore to submit to the attacks of a third. +Williams, moreover, it must be remembered, was himself a man of +licentious character. + +[93] Buckingham House, bought in 1761, by George III, and settled on +Queen Charlotte. The present Buckingham Palace occupies the site. P. +CUNNINGHAM. Here, according to Hawkins (_Life_, p. 470), Johnson met the +Prince of Wales (George IV.) when a child, 'and enquired as to his +knowledge of the Scriptures; the prince in his answers gave him great +satisfaction.' Horace Walpole, writing of the Prince at the age of +nineteen, says (_Journal of the Reign of George III_, ii. +503):--'Nothing was coarser than his conversation and phrases; and it +made men smile to find that in the palace of piety and pride his Royal +Highness had learnt nothing but the dialect of footmen and grooms.' + +[94] Dr. Johnson had the honour of contributing his assistance towards +the formation of this library; for I have read a long letter from him to +Mr. Barnard, giving the most masterly instructions on the subject. I +wished much to have gratified my readers with the perusal of this +letter, and have reason to think that his Majesty would have been +graciously pleased to permit its publication; but Mr. Barnard, to whom I +applied, declined it 'on his own account.' BOSWELL. It is given in Mr. +Croker's edition, p. 196. + +[95] The particulars of this conversation I have been at great pains to +collect with the utmost authenticity from Dr. Johnson's own detail to +myself; from Mr. Langton who was present when he gave an account of it +to Dr. Joseph Warton, and several other friends, at Sir Joshua +Reynolds's; from Mr. Barnard; from the copy of a letter written by the +late Mr. Strahan the printer, to Bishop Warburton; and from a minute, +the original of which is among the papers of the late Sir James +Caldwell, and a copy of which was most obligingly obtained for me from +his son Sir John Caldwell, by Sir Francis Lumm. To all these gentlemen I +beg leave to make my grateful acknowledgements, and particularly to Sir +Francis Lumm, who was pleased to take a great deal of trouble, and even +had the minute laid before the King by Lord Caermarthen, now Duke of +Leeds, then one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, who +announced to Sir Francis the Royal pleasure concerning it by a letter, +in these words: 'I have the King's commands to assure you, Sir, how +sensible his Majesty is of your attention in communicating the minute of +the conversation previous to its publication. As there appears no +objection to your complying with Mr. Boswell's wishes on the subject, +you are at full liberty to deliver it to that gentleman, to make such +use of in his _Life of Dr. Johnson_, as he may think proper.' BOSWELL. +In 1790, Boswell published in a quarto sheet of eight pages _A +conversation between His Most Sacred Majesty George III. and Samuel +Johnson, LLD. Illustrated with Observations. By James Boswell, Esq. +London. Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly in the Poultry. +MDCCXC. Price Half-a-Guinea. Entered in the Hall-Book of the Company of +Stationers_. It is of the same impression as the first edition of _the +Life of Johnson_. + +[96] After Michaelmas, 1766. See _ante_, ii. 25. + +[97] See _post_, May, 31, 1769, note. + +[98] Writing to Langton, on May 10, of the year before he had said, 'I +read more than I did. I hope something will yet come on it.' _Ante_, +ii. 20. + +[99] Boswell and Goldsmith had in like manner urged him 'to continue his +labours.' See _ante_, i. 398, and ii. 15. + +[100] Johnson had written to Lord Chesterfield in the _Plan of his +Dictionary_ (_Works_, v. 19), 'Ausonius thought that modesty forbade him +to plead inability for a task to which Caesar had judged him +equal:--_Cur me posse negem posse quod ille pufat_?' We may compare also +a passage in Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_ (ii. 377):--'THE KING. "I believe +there is no constraint to be put upon real genius; nothing but +inclination can set it to work. Miss Burney, however, knows best." And +then hastily returning to me he cried; "What? what?" "No, sir, +I--I--believe not, certainly," quoth I, very awkwardly, for I seemed +taking a violent compliment only as my due; but I knew not how to put +him off as I would another person.' + +[101] In one part of the character of Pope (_Works_, viii. 319), Johnson +seems to be describing himself:--'He certainly was in his early life a +man of great literary curiosity; and when he wrote his _Essay on +Criticism_ had for his age a very wide acquaintance with books. When he +entered into the living world, it seems to have happened to him as to +many others, that he was less attentive to dead masters; he studied in +the academy of Paracelsus, and made the universe his favourite +volume.... His frequent references to history, his allusions to various +kinds of knowledge, and his images selected from art and nature, with +his observations on the operations of the mind and the modes of life, +show an intelligence perpetually on the wing, excursive, vigorous, and +diligent, eager to pursue knowledge, and attentive to retain it.' See +_ante_, i. 57. + +[102] Johnson thus describes Warburton (_Works_, viii. 288):--'About +this time [1732] Warburton began to make his appearance in the first +ranks of learning. He was a man of vigorous faculties, a mind fervid and +vehement, supplied by incessant and unlimited enquiry, with wonderful +extent and variety of knowledge.' Cradock (_Memoirs_, i. 188) says that +'Bishop Kurd always wondered where it was possible for Warburton to meet +with certain anecdotes with which not only his conversation, but +likewise his writings, abounded. "I could have readily informed him," +said Mrs. Warburton, "for, when we passed our winters in London, he +would often, after his long and severe studies, send out for a whole +basketful of books from the circulating libraries; and at times I have +gone into his study, and found him laughing, though alone."' Lord +Macaulay was, in this respect, the Warburton of our age. + +[103] The Rev. Mr. Strahan clearly recollects having been told by +Johnson, that the King observed that Pope made Warburton a Bishop. +'True, Sir, (said Johnson,) but Warburton did more for Pope; he made him +a Christian:' alluding, no doubt, to his ingenious Comments on the +_Essay on Man_. BOSWELL. The statements both of the King and Johnson are +supported by two passages in Johnson's _Life of Pope_, (_Works_, viii. +289, 290). He says of Warburton's Comments:--'Pope, who probably began +to doubt the tendency of his own work, was glad that the positions, of +which he perceived himself not to know the full meaning, could by any +mode of interpretation be made to mean well.... From this time Pope +lived in the closest intimacy with his commentator, and amply rewarded +his kindness and his zeal; for he introduced him to Mr. Murray, by whose +interest he became preacher at Lincoln's Inn; and to Mr. Allen, who gave +him his niece and his estate, and by consequence a bishoprick.' See also +the account given by Johnson, in Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 21, 1773. +Bishop Law in his Revised Preface to Archbishop King's _Origin of Evil_ +(1781), p. xvii, writes:--'I had now the satisfaction of seeing that +those very principles which had been maintained by Archbishop King were +adopted by Mr. Pope in his Essay on Man; this I used to recollect, and +sometimes relate, with pleasure, conceiving that such an account did no +less honour to the poet than to our philosopher; but was soon made to +understand that anything of that kind was taken highly amiss by one +[Warburton] who had once held the doctrine of that same Essay to be rank +atheism, but afterwards turned a warm advocate for it, and thought +proper to deny the account above-mentioned, with heavy menaces against +those who presumed to insinuate that Pope borrowed anything from any man +whatsoever.' See _post_, Oct. 10, 1779. + +[104] In Gibbon's _Memoirs_, a fine passage is quoted from Lowth's +Defence of the University of Oxford, against Warburton's reproaches. 'I +transcribe with pleasure this eloquent passage,' writes Gibbon, 'without +inquiring whether in this angry controversy the spirit of Lowth himself +is purified from the intolerant zeal which Warburton had ascribed to the +genius of the place.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 47. See BOSWELL'S +_Hebrides_, Aug. 28, 1773. + +[105] See _post_, April 15, 1773, where Johnson says that Lyttelton 'in +his _History_ wrote the most vulgar Whiggism,' and April 10, 1776. +Gibbon, who had reviewed it this year, says in his _Memoirs_ (_Misc. +Works_, i. 207): 'The public has ratified my judgment of that voluminous +work, in which sense and learning are not illuminated by a ray +of genius.' + +[106] Hawkins says of him (_Life_, p. 211):--'He obtained from one of +those universities which would scarce refuse a degree to an apothecary's +horse a diploma for that of doctor of physic.' He became a great +compiler and in one year earned AL1500. In the end he turned +quack-doctor. He was knighted by the King of Sweden 'in return for a +present to that monarch of his _Vegetable System_.' He at least thrice +attacked Garrick (Murphy's _Garrick_, pp. 136, 189, 212), who replied +with three epigrams, of which the last is well-known:-- + +'For Farces and Physic his equal there scarce is; + His Farces are Physic, his Physic a Farce is.' + +Horace Walpole (_Letters_ iii. 372), writing on Jan. 3, 1761, +said:--'Would you believe, what I know is fact, that Dr. Hill earned +fifteen guineas a week by working for wholesale dealers? He was at once +employed on six voluminous works of Botany, Husbandry, &c., published +weekly.' Churchill in the Rescind thus writes of him:-- + +'Who could so nobly grace the motley list, + Actor, Inspector, Doctor, Botanist? + Knows any one so well--sure no one knows-- + At once to play, prescribe, compound, compose?' + +Churchill's _Poems_, i. 6. In the _Gent. Mag_. xxii. 568, it is stated +that he had acted pantomime, tragedy and comedy, and had been damned +in all. + +[107] Mr. Croker quotes Bishop Elrington, who says, 'Dr. Johnson was +unjust to Hill, and showed that _he_ did not understand the subject.' +Croker's _Boswell_, p. 186. + +[108] D'Israeli (_Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, i. 201) says +that 'Hill, once when he fell sick, owned to a friend that he had +over-fatigued himself with writing seven works at once, one of which was +on architecture and another on cookery.' D'Israeli adds that Hill +contracted to translate a Dutch work on insects for fifty guineas. As he +was ignorant of the language, he bargained with another translator for +twenty-five guineas. This man, who was equally ignorant, rebargained +with a third, who perfectly understood his original, for twelve guineas. + +[109] Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, v. 442), writing on Dec. 20, 1763, of the +_Journal des Savans_, says:--'I can hardly express how much I am +delighted with this journal; its characteristics are erudition, +precision, and taste.... The father of all the rest, it is still their +superior.... There is nothing to be wished for in it but a little more +boldness and philosophy; but it is published under the Chancellor's eye.' + +[110] Goldsmith, in his _Present State of Polite Learning_ (ch. xi.), +published in 1759, says;--'We have two literary reviews in London, with +critical newspapers and magazines without number. The compilers of these +resemble the commoners of Rome, they are all for levelling property, not +by increasing their own, but by diminishing that of others.... The most +diminutive son of fame or of famine has his _we_ and his _us_, his +_firstlys_ and his _secondlys_, as methodical as if bound in cow-hide +and closed with clasps of brass. Were these Monthly Reviews and +Magazines frothy, pert, or absurd, they might find some pardon, but to +be dull and dronish is an encroachment on the prerogative of a folio.' + +[111] See _post_, April 10, 1766. + +[112] Mr. White, the Librarian of the Royal Society, has, at my request, +kindly examined the records of the Royal Society, but has not been able +to discover what the 'circumstance' was. Neither is any light thrown on +it by Johnson's reviews of Birch's _History of the Royal Society_ and +_Philosophical Transactions_, vol. xlix. (_ante_, i. 309), which I +have examined. + +[113] 'Were you to converse with a King, you ought to be as easy and +unembarrassed as with your own valet-de-chambre; but yet every look, +word, and action should imply the utmost respect. What would be proper +and well-bred with others much your superior, would be absurd and +ill-bred with one so very much so.' Chesterfield's _Letters_, iii. 203. + +[114] Imlac thus described to Rasselas his interview with the Great +Mogul:--'The emperor asked me many questions concerning my country and +my travels; and though I cannot now recollect anything that he uttered +above the power of a common man, he dismissed me astonished at his +wisdom, and enamoured of his goodness.' _Rasselas_, chap. ix. Wraxall +(_Memoirs_, edit. of 1884, i. 283) says that Johnson was no judge of a +fine gentleman. 'George III,' he adds, 'was altogether destitute of +these ornamental and adventitious endowments.' He mentions 'the +oscillations of his body, the precipitation of his questions, none of +which, it was said, would wait for an answer, and the hurry of his +articulation.' Mr. Wheatley, in a note on this passage, quotes the +opinion of 'Adams, the American Envoy, who said, the "King is, I really +think, the most accomplished courtier in his dominions."' + +[115] 'Dr. Warton made me a most obsequious bow.... He is what Dr. +Johnson calls a rapturist, and I saw plainly he meant to pour forth much +civility into my ears. He is a very communicative, gay, and pleasant +converser, and enlivened the whole day by his readiness upon all +subjects.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 236. It is very likely that he +is 'the ingenious writer' mentioned _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's +'Collection,' of whom Johnson said, 'Sir, he is an enthusiast by rule.' +Mr. Windham records that Johnson, speaking of Warton's admiration of +fine passages, said:--'His taste is amazement' (misprinted _amusement_). +Windham's _Diary_, p. 20. In her _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_ (ii. 82), Mme. +D'Arblay says that Johnson 'at times, when in gay spirits, would take +off Dr. Warton with the strongest humour; describing, almost +convulsively, the ecstasy with which he would seize upon the person +nearest to him, to hug in his arms, lest his grasp should be eluded, +while he displayed some picture or some prospect.' In that humourous +piece, _Probationary Odes for the Laureateship_ (p. xliii), Dr. Joseph +is made to hug his brother in his arms, when he sees him descend safely +from the balloon in which he had composed his _Ode_. Thomas Warton is +described in the same piece (p. 116) as 'a little, thick, squat, +red-faced man.' There was for some time a coolness between Johnson and +Dr. Warton. Warton, writing on Jan. 22, 1766, says:--'I only dined with +Johnson, who seemed cold and indifferent, and scarce said anything to +me; perhaps he has heard what I said of his _Shakespeare_, or rather was +offended at what I wrote to him--as he pleases.' Wooll's _Warton_, p. +312. Wooll says that a dispute took place between the two men at +Reynolds's house. 'One of the company overheard the following conclusion +of the dispute. JOHNSON. "Sir, I am not used to be contradicted." +WARTON. "Better for yourself and friends, Sir, if you were; our +admiration could not be increased, but our love might."' _Ib_ p. 98. + +[116] _The Good-Natured Man_, _post_ p. 45. + +[117] 'It has been said that the King only sought one interview with Dr. +Johnson. There was nothing to complain of; it was a compliment paid by +rank to letters, and once was enough. The King was more afraid of this +interview than Dr. Johnson was; and went to it as a schoolboy to his +task. But he did not want to have the trial repeated every day, nor was +it necessary. The very jealousy of his self-love marked his respect; and +if he thought the less of Dr. Johnson, he would have been more willing +to risk the encounter.' Hazlitt's _Conversations of Northcote_, p. 45. +It should seem that Johnson had a second interview with the King +thirteen years later. In 1780, Hannah More records (_Memoirs_, i. +174):--'Johnson told me he had been with the King that morning, who +enjoined him to add Spenser to his _Lives of the Poets_.' It is strange +that, so far as I know, this interview is not mentioned by any one else. +It is perhaps alluded to, _post_, Dec., 1784, when Mr. Nichols told +Johnson that he wished 'he would gratify his sovereign by a _Life of +Spenser_.' + +[118] It is proper here to mention, that when I speak of his +correspondence, I consider it independent of the voluminous collection +of letters which, in the course of many years, he wrote to Mrs. Thrale, +which forms a separate part of his works; and as a proof of the high +estimation set on any thing which came from his pen, was sold by that +lady for the sum of five hundred pounds. BOSWELL. + +[119] He was away from the London 'near six months.' See _ante_, ii. 30. + +[120] On August 17 he recorded:--'I have communicated with Kitty, and +kissed her. I was for some time distracted, but at last more composed. I +commended my friends, and Kitty, Lucy, and I were much affected. Kitty +is, I think, going to heaven.' _Pr. and Med., p. 75_. + +[121] _Pr. and Med_., pp. 77 and 78. BOSWELL. + +[122] _Pr. and Med_., p. 73. BOSWELL. On Aug. 17, he recorded:--'By +abstinence from wine and suppers I obtained sudden and great relief, and +had freedom of mind restored to me, which I have wanted for all this +year, without being able to find any means of obtaining it.' _Ib_ p. 74. + +[123] Hawkins, in his second edition (p. 347) assigns it to Campbell, +'who,' he says, 'as well for the malignancy of his heart as his terrific +countenance, was called horrible Campbell.' + +[124] See _ante_, i. 218. + +[125] The book is as dull as it is indecent. The 'drollery' is of the +following kind. Johnson is represented as saying:--'Without dubiety you +misapprehend this dazzling scintillation of conceit in totality, and had +you had that constant recurrence to my oraculous dictionary which was +incumbent upon you from the vehemence of my monitory injunctions,' +&c. p. 2. + +[126] _Pr. and Med_., p. 81. BOSWELL. 'This day,' he wrote on his +birthday, 'has been passed in great perturbation; I was distracted at +church in an uncommon degree, and my distress has had very little +intermission.... This day it came into my mind to write the history of +my melancholy. On this I purpose to deliberate; I know not whether it +may not too much disturb me.' See _post_, April 8, 1780. + +[127] It is strange that Boswell nowhere quotes the lines in _The +Good-Natured Man_, in which Paoli is mentioned. 'That's from Paoli of +Corsica,' said Lofty. Act v. sc. i. + +[128] In the original, 'Pressed _by_.' Boswell, in thus changing the +preposition, forgot what Johnson says in his _Plan of an English +Dictionary_ (_Works_, v. 12):--'We say, according to the present modes +of speech, The soldier died _of_ his wounds, and the sailor perished +_with_ hunger; and every man acquainted with our language would be +offended with a change of these particles, which yet seem originally +assigned by chance.' + +[129] Boswell, writing to Temple on March 24, says:--'My book has +amazing celebrity; Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Walpole, Mrs. Macaulay, and Mr. +Garrick have all written me noble letters about it. There are two Dutch +translations going forward.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 145. It met with a +rapid sale. A third edition was called for within a year. Dilly, the +publisher, must have done very well by it, as he purchased the copyright +for one hundred guineas. _Ib_, p. 103. 'Pray read the new account of +Corsica,' wrote Horace Walpole to Gray on Feb. 18, 1768 (_Letters_, v. +85). 'The author is a strange being, and has a rage of knowing everybody +that ever was talked of. He forced himself upon me at Paris in spite of +my teeth and my doors.' To this Gray replied:--'Mr. Boswell's book has +pleased and moved me strangely; all, I mean, that relates to Paoli. He +is a man born two thousand years after his time! The pamphlet proves, +what I have always maintained, that any fool may write a most valuable +book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with +veracity.' In _The Letters of Boswell_ (p. 122) there is the following +under date of Nov. 9, 1767:--'I am always for fixing some period for my +perfection, as far as possible. Let it be when my account of _Corsica_ +is published; I shall then have a character which I must support.' In +April 16 of the following year, a few weeks after the book had come out, +he writes:--'To confess to you at once, Temple, I have since my last +coming to town been as wild as ever.' (p. 146.) + +[130] Boswell used to put notices of his movements in the newspapers, +such as--'James Boswell, Esq., is expected in town.' _Public +Advertiser_, Feb. 28, 1768. 'Yesterday James Boswell, Esq., arrived from +Scotland at his lodgings in Half-Moon Street, Piccadilly.' _Ib_ March +24, 1768. Prior's _Goldsmith_, i. 449. + +[131] Johnson was very ill during this visit. Mrs. Thrale had at the +same time given birth to a daughter, and had been nursed by her mother. +His thoughts, therefore, were turned on illness. Writing to Mrs. Thrale, +he says:--'To roll the weak eye of helpless anguish, and see nothing on +any side but cold indifference, will, I hope, happen to none whom I love +or value; it may tend to withdraw the mind from life, but has no +tendency to kindle those affections which fit us for a purer and a +nobler state.... These reflections do not grow out of any discontent at +C's [Chambers's] behaviour; he has been neither negligent nor +troublesome; nor do I love him less for having been ill in his house. +This is no small degree of praise.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 13. + +[132] See _ante_, ii. 3, note. + +[133] The editor of the _Letters of Boswell_ justly says (p. 149):--'The +detail in the _Life of Johnson_ is rather scanty about this period; +dissipation, the _History of Corsica_, wife-hunting, ... interfered +perhaps at this time with Boswell's pursuit of Dr. Johnson.' + +[134] See _Boswell's_ Hebrides, Aug. 15, 1773, for a discussion of the +same question. Lord Eldon has recorded (_Life_, i. 106), that when he +first went the Northern Circuit (about 1776-1780), he asked Jack Lee +(_post_, March 20, 1778), who was not scrupulous in his advocacy, +whether his method could be justified. 'Oh, yes,' he said, 'undoubtedly. +Dr. Johnson had said that counsel were at liberty to state, as the +parties themselves would state, what it was most for their interest to +state.' After some interval, and when he had had his evening bowl of +milk punch and two or three pipes of tobacco, he suddenly said, 'Come, +Master Scott, let us go to bed. I have been thinking upon the questions +that you asked me, and I am not quite so sure that the conduct you +represented will bring a man peace at the last.' Lord Eldon, after +stating pretty nearly what Johnson had said, continues:--'But it may be +questioned whether even this can be supported.' + +[135] Garrick brought out Hugh Kelly's _False Delicacy_ at Drury Lane +six days before Goldsmith's _Good-Natured Man_ was brought out at Covent +Garden. 'It was the town talk,' says Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_, +ii. 93), some weeks before either performance took place, 'that the two +comedies were to be pitted against each other.' _False Delicacy_ had a +great success. Ten thousand copies of it were sold before the season +closed. (_Ib_ p. 96.) 'Garrick's prologue to _False Delicacy_,' writes +Murphy (_Life of Garrick_, p. 287), 'promised a moral and sentimental +comedy, and with an air of pleasantry called it a sermon in five acts. +The critics considered it in the same light, but the general voice was +in favour of the play during a run of near twenty nights. Foote, at +last, by a little piece called _Piety in Pattens_, brought that species +of composition into disrepute.' It is recorded in Johnson's _Works_ +(1787), xi. 201, that when some one asked Johnson whether they should +introduce Hugh Kelly to him, 'No, Sir,' says he, 'I never desire to +converse with a man who has written more than he has read.' See _post_, +beginning of 1777. + +[136] _The Provoked Husband, or A Journey to London_, by Vanbrugh and +Colley Cibber. It was brought out in 1727-8. See _post_, June 3, 1784. + +[137] See _ante_, i. 213. + +[138] April 6, 1772, and April 12, 1776. + +[139] Richardson, writing on Dec. 7, 1756, to Miss Fielding, about her +Familiar Letters, says:--'What a knowledge of the human heart! Well +might a critical judge of writing say, as he did to me, that your late +brother's knowledge of it was not (fine writer as he was) comparable to +yours. His was but as the knowledge of the outside of a clock-work +machine, while yours was that of all the finer springs and movements of +the inside.' _Richardson Corres_. ii. 104. Mrs. Calderwood, writing of +her visit to the Low Countries in 1756, says:--'All Richison's +[Richardson's] books are translated, and much admired abroad; but for +Fielding's the foreigners have no notion of them, and do not understand +them, as the manners are so entirely English.' _Letters, &c., of Mrs. +Calderwood_, p. 208 + +[140] In _The Provoked Husband_, act iv. sc. 1. + +[141] By Dr. Hoadley, brought out in 1747. 'This was the first good +comedy from the time of _The Provoked Husband_ in 1727.' Murphy's +_Garrick_, p. 78. + +[142] Madame Riccoboni, writing to Garrick from Paris on Sept. 7, 1768, +says:--'On ne supporterait point ici l'indA(C)cence de Ranger. Les +trA"sindA(C)cens FranASec.aisdeviennent dA(C)licats sur leur thA(C)Actre, A mesure +qu'ils le sont moins dans leur conduite.' _Garrick's Corres_. ii. 548. + +[143] 'The question in dispute was as to the heirship of Mr. Archibald +Douglas. If he were really the son of Lady Jane Douglas, he would +inherit large family estates; but if he were supposititious, then they +would descend to the Duke of Hamilton. The Judges of the Court of +Session had been divided in opinion, eight against seven, the Lord +President Dundas giving the casting vote in favour of the Duke of +Hamilton; and in consequence of it he and several other of the judges +had, on the reversal by the Lords, their houses attacked by a mob. It is +said, but not upon conclusive authority, that Boswell himself headed the +mob which broke his own father's windows.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 86. +See _post_, April 27, 1773, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 24-26, 1773. +Mr. J. H. Burton, in his _Life of Hume_ (ii. 150), says:--'Men about to +meet each other in company used to lay an injunction on themselves not +to open their lips on the subject, so fruitful was it in debates and +brawls.' Boswell, according to the Bodleian catalogue, was the author of +_Dorando, A Spanish Tale_, 1767. In this tale the Douglas cause is +narrated under the thinnest disguise. It is reviewed in the _Gent. Mag_. +for 1767, p. 361. + +[144] See _post_, under April 19, 1772, March 15, 1779, and June 2, +1781. + +[145] Revd. Kenneth Macaulay. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 27, 1773. +He was the great-uncle of Lord Macaulay. + +[146] Martin, in his _St. Kilda_ (p. 38), had stated that the people of +St. Kilda 'are seldom troubled with a cough, except at the Steward's +landing. I told them plainly,' he continues, 'that I thought all this +notion of infection was but a mere fancy, at which they seemed offended, +saying, that never any before the minister and myself was heard to doubt +of the truth of it, which is plainly demonstrated upon the landing of +every boat.' The usual 'infected cough,' came, he says, upon his visit. +Macaulay (_History of St. Kilda_, p. 204) says that he had gone to the +island a disbeliever, but that by eight days after his arrival all the +inhabitants were infected with this disease. See also _post_, March, 21, +1772, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 2, 1773. + +[147] See _ante_, July 1, 1763. + +[148] _Post_, March 21, 1772. + +[149] This is not the case. Martin (p. 9) says that the only landing +place is inaccessible except under favour of a neap tide, a north-east +or west wind, or with a perfect calm. He himself was rowed to St. Kilda, +'the inhabitants admiring to see us get thither contrary to the wind and +tide' (p. 5). + +[150] That for one kind of learning Oxford has no advantages, he shows +in a letter that he wrote there on Aug. 4, 1777. 'I shall inquire,' he +says, 'about the harvest when I come into a region where anything +necessary to life is understood.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 349. At Lichfield +he reached that region. 'My barber, a man not unintelligent, speaks +magnificently of the harvest;' _Ib_ p. 351. + +[151] See _post_, Sept. 14, 1777. + +[152] See _ante_, i. 116. + +[153] The advancement had been very rapid. 'When Dr. Robertson's career +commenced,' writes Dugald Stewart in his _Life_ of that historian (p. +157), 'the trade of authorship was unknown in Scotland.' Smollet, in +_Humphry Clinker_, published three years after this conversation, makes +Mr. Bramble write (Letter of Aug. 8):--'Edinburgh is a hot-bed of +genius. I have had the good fortune to be made acquainted with many +authors of the first distinction; such as the two Humes [David Hume and +John Home, whose names had the same pronunciation], Robertson, Smith, +Wallace, Blair, Ferguson, Wilkie, &c.' To these might be added Smollett +himself, Boswell, Reid, Beattie, Kames, Monboddo. Henry Mackenzie and +Dr. Henry began to publish in 1771. Gibbon, writing to Robertson in +1779, says:--'I have often considered with some sort of envy the +valuable society which you possess in so narrow a compass.' Stewart's +_Robertson_, p. 363. + +[154] See _post_, April 30, 1773, where Johnson owned that he had not +read Hume. J.H. Burton (_Life of Hume_, ii. 129), after stating that +'Hume was the first to add to a mere narrative of events an enquiry into +the progress of the people, &c.,' says:--'There seems to be no room for +the supposition that he had borrowed the idea from Voltaire's _Essai sur +les Moeurs_. Hume's own _Political Discourses_ are as close an approach +to this method of inquiry as the work of Voltaire; and if we look for +such productions of other writers as may have led him into this train of +thought, it would be more just to name Bacon and Montesquieu.' + +[155] See _post_, May 8 and 13, 1778. + +[156] See _post_, April 30, 1773, April 29, 1778, and Oct. 10, 1779. + +[157] _An Essay on the Future Life of Brutes_. By Richard Dean, Curate +of Middleton, Manchester, 1767. The 'part of the Scriptures' on which +the author chiefly relies is the _Epistle to the Romans_, viii. 19-23. +He also finds support for his belief in 'those passages in _Isaiah_ +where the prophet speaks of new Heavens, and a new Earth, of the Lion as +eating straw like the Ox, &c.' Vol. ii. pp. x, 4. + +[158] The words that Addison's Cato uses as he lays his hand on his +sword. Act v. sc. 1. + +[159] I should think it impossible not to wonder at the variety of +Johnson's reading, however desultory it may have been. Who could have +imagined that the High Church of England-man would be so prompt in +quoting _Maupertuis_, who, I am sorry to think, stands in the list of +those unfortunate mistaken men, who call themselves _esprits forts_. I +have, however, a high respect for that Philosopher whom the Great +Frederick of Prussia loved and honoured, and addressed pathetically in +one of his Poems,-- + +'Maupertuis, cher Maupertuis, + Que notre vie est peu de chose!' + +There was in Maupertuis a vigour and yet a tenderness of sentiment, +united with strong intellectual powers, and uncommon ardour of soul. +Would he had been a Christian! I cannot help earnestly venturing to hope +that he is one now. BOSWELL. Voltaire writing to D'Alembert on Aug. 25, +1759, says:--'Que dites-vous de Maupertuis, mort entre deux capucins?' +Voltaire's _Works_, lxii. 94. The stanza from which Boswell quotes is as +follows:-- + +'O Maupertuis, cher Maupertuis, +Que notre vie est peu de chose! +Cette fleur, qui brille aujourd'hui +Demain se fane A peine A(C)close; +Tout pA(C)rit, tout est emportA(C) +Par la dure fatalitA(C) +Des arrtAªs de la destinA(C)e; +Votre vertu, vos grands talents +Ne pourront obtenir du temps +Le seul dA(C)lai d'une journA(C)e.' + _La vie est un Songe. Euvres de + FrA(C)dA(C)ric II (edit. 1849), x. 40. + +[160] Johnson does not give _Conglobulate_ in his _Dictionary_; only +_conglobe_. If he used the word it is not likely that he said +'conglobulate _together_.' + +[161] Gilbert White, writing on Nov. 4, 1767, after mentioning that he +had seen swallows roosting in osier-beds by the river, says:--'This +seems to give some countenance to the northern opinion (strange as it +is) of their retiring under water.' White's _Selborne_, Letter xii. See +also _post_, May 7, 1773. + +[162] _Travels from St. Petersburgh in Russia to divers parts of Asia_. +By John Bell, Glasgow, 1763: 4to. 2 vols. + +[163] I. D'Israeli (_Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, i. 194) ranks +this book among Literary Impostures. 'Du Halde never travelled ten +leagues from Paris in his life; though he appears by his writings to be +familiar with Chinese scenery.' See _ante_, i. 136. + +[164] See _post_, Oct. 10, 1779. + +[165] Boswell, in his correspondence with Temple in 1767 and 1768, +passes in review the various ladies whom he proposes to marry. The lady +described in this paragraph--for the 'gentleman' is clearly Boswell--is +'the fair and lively Zelide,' a Dutch-woman. She was translating his +_Corsica_ into French. On March 24, 1768, he wrote, 'I must have her.' +On April 26, he asked his father's permission to go over to Holland to +see her. But on May 14 he forwarded to Temple one of her letters. +'Could,' he said, 'any actress at any of the theatres attack me with a +keener--what is the word? not fury, something softer. The lightning that +flashes with so much brilliance may scorch, and does not her esprit do +so?' _Letters of Boswell_, pp. 144-150. + +[166] In the original it is _some_ not _many_. Johnson's _Works_, vii. +182. + +[167] _An account of the Manners and Customs of Italy_, by Joseph +Baretti, London, 1768. The book would be still more entertaining were it +not written as a reply to Sharp's _Letters on Italy_. _Post_ under +April 29, 1776. + +[168] Mrs. Piozzi wrote of him: 'His character is easily seen, and his +soul above disguise, haughty and insolent, and breathing defiance +against all mankind; while his powers of mind exceed most people's, and +his powers of purse are so slight that they leave him dependent on all. +Baretti is for ever in the state of a stream damned up; if he could once +get loose, he would bear down all before him.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, +ii. 335. + +[169] According to Hawkins (_Life_, p. 460), the watch was new this +year, and was, he believed, the first Johnson ever had. + +[170] _St. John_, ix. 4. In _Pr. and Med_., p. 233, is the +following:--'Ejaculation imploring diligence. "O God, make me to +remember that the night cometh when no man can work."' Porson, in his +witty attack on Sir John Hawkins, originally published in the _Gent. +Mag_. for 1787, quotes the inscription as a proof of Hawkins's Greek. +'_Nux gar erchetai_. The meaning is (says Sir John) _For the night +cometh_. And so it is, Mr. Urban.' Porson _Tracts_, p. 337. + +[171] He thus wrote of himself from Oxford to Mrs. Thrale:--'This little +dog does nothing, but I hope he will mend; he is now reading _Jack the +Giant-killer_. Perhaps so noble a narrative may rouse in him the soul of +enterprise.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 9. + +[172] See _ante_, ii. 3 + +[173] Under the same date, Boswell thus begins a letter to +Temple:--'Your moral lecture came to me yesterday in very good time, +while I lay suffering severely for immorality. If there is any firmness +at all in me, be assured that I shall never again behave in a manner so +unworthy the friend of Paoli. My warm imagination looks forward with +great complacency on the sobriety, the healthfulness, and the worth of +my future life.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 147 + +[174] Johnson so early as Aug. 21, 1766, had given him the same advice +(_ante_, ii. 22). How little Boswell followed it is shewn by his letter +to the Earl of Chatham, on April 8, 1767, in which he informed him of +his intention to publish his _Corsica_, and concluded:--'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.' _Chatham Corres_., iii. 246. On the same +day on which he wrote to Johnson, he said in a letter to Temple, 'Old +General Oglethorpe, who has come to see me, and is with me often, just +on account of my book, bids me not marry till I have first put the +Corsicans in a proper situation. "You may make a fortune in the doing of +it," said he; "or, if you do not, you will have acquired such a +character as will entitle you to any fortune."' _Letters of Boswell_, p. +148. Four months later, Boswell wrote:--'By a private subscription in +Scotland, I am sending this week AL700 worth of ordnance [to Corsica] ... +It is really a tolerable train of artillery.' _Ib_ p. 156. In 1769 he +brought out a small volume entitled _British Essays in favour of the +Brave Corsicans. By Several Hands_. Collected and published by James +Boswell, Esq. + +[175] From about the beginning of the fourteenth century, Corsica had +belonged to the Republic of Genoa. In the great rising under Paoli, the +Corsicans would have achieved their independence, had not Genoa ceded +the island to the crown of France. + +[176] Boswell, writing to Temple on May 14 of this year, says:--'I am +really the _great man_ now. I have had David Hume in the forenoon, and +Mr. Johnson in the afternoon of the same day, visiting me. Sir J. +Pringle and Dr. Franklin dined with me to-day; and Mr. Johnson and +General Oglethorpe one day, Mr. Garrick alone another, and David Hume +and some more _literati_ another, dine with me next week. I give +admirable dinners and good claret; and the moment I go abroad again, +which will be in a day or two, I set up my chariot. This is enjoying the +fruit of my labours, and appearing like the friend of Paoli.' _Letters +of Boswell_, p. 151. + +[177] See _post_, April 12, 1778, and May 8, 1781. + +[178] The talk arose no doubt from the general election that had just +been held amid all the excitement about Wilkes. Dr. Franklin (_Memoirs_, +iii. 307), in a letter dated April 16, 1768, describes the riots in +London. He had seen 'the mob requiring gentlemen and ladies of all ranks +as they passed in their carriages, to shout for Wilkes and liberty, +marking the same words on all their coaches with chalk, and No. 45 on +every door. I went last week to Winchester, and observed that for +fifteen miles out of town there was scarce a door or window shutter next +the road unmarked; and this continued here and there quite to +Winchester.' + +[179] In his _Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage_, he thus +writes:--'If I might presume to advise them [the Ministers] upon this +great affair, I should dissuade them from any direct attempt upon the +liberty of the press, which is the darling of the common people, and +therefore cannot be attacked without immediate danger.' _Works_, v. 344. +On p. 191 of the same volume, he shows some of the benefits that arise +in England from 'the boundless liberty with which every man may write +his own thoughts.' See also in his _Life of Milton_, the passage about +_Areopagitica_, _Ib_ vii. 82. The liberty of the press was likely to be +'a constant topic.' Horace Walpole (_Memoirs of the Reign of George +III_, ii. 15), writing of the summer of 1764, says:--'Two hundred +informations were filed against printers; a larger number than had been +prosecuted in the whole thirty-three years of the last reign.' + +[180] 'The sun has risen, and the corn has grown, and, whatever talk has +been of the danger of property, yet he that ploughed the field commonly +reaped it, and he that built a house was master of the door; the +vexation excited by injustice suffered, or supposed to be suffered, by +any private man, or single community, was local and temporary; it +neither spread far nor lasted long.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 170. See +also _post_, March 31, 1772. Dr. Franklin (_Memoirs_, iii. 215) wrote to +the AbbA(C) Morellet, on April 22, 1787:--'Nothing can be better expressed +than your sentiments are on this point, where you prefer liberty of +trading, cultivating, manufacturing, &c., even to civil liberty, this +being affected but rarely, the other every hour.' + +[181] See _ante_, July 6, 1763. + +[182] See _ante_, Oct. 1765. + +[183] 'I was diverted with Paoli's English library. It consisted +of:--Some broken volumes of the _Spectatour_ and _Tatler_; Pope's _Essay +on Man_; _Gulliver's Travels_; A _History of France_ in old English; and +Barclay's _Apology for the Quakers_. I promised to send him some English +books... I have sent him some of our best books of morality and +entertainment, in particular the works of Mr. Samuel Johnson.' Boswell's +_Corsica_, p. 169. + +[184] Johnson, as Boswell believed, only once 'in the whole course of +his life condescended to oppose anything that was written against him.' +(See _ante_, i. 314.) In this he followed the rule of Bentley and of +Boerhaave. 'It was said to old Bentley, upon the attacks against him, +"why, they'll write you down." "No, Sir," he replied; "depend upon it, +no man was ever written down but by himself."' Boswell's _Hebrides_, +Oct. 1 1773. Bentley shewed prudence in his silence. 'He was right,' +Johnson said, 'not to answer; for, in his hazardous method of writing, +he could not but be often enough wrong.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 10, +1773. 'Boerhaave was never soured by calumny and detraction, nor ever +thought it necessary to confute them; "for they are sparks," said he, +"which, if you do not blow them, will go out of themselves."' Johnson's +_Works_, vi. 288. Swift, in his _Lines on Censure_ which begin,-- + + 'Ye wise instruct me to endure + An evil which admits no cure.' + +ends by saying:-- + + 'The most effectual way to baulk + Their malice is--to let them talk.' + Swift's _Works_, xi. 58. + +Young, in his _Second Epistle to Pope_, had written:-- + + 'Armed with this truth all critics I defy; + For if I fall, by my own pen I die.' + +Hume, in his _Auto_. (p. ix.) says:--'I had a fixed resolution, which I +inflexibly maintained, never to reply to any body.' This is not quite +true. See J. H. Burton's _Life of Hume_, ii. 252, for an instance of a +violent reply. The following passages in Johnson's writings are to the +same effect:--'I am inclined to believe that few attacks either of +ridicule or invective make much noise, but by the help of those that +they provoke.' _Piozzi Letters_ ii. 289. 'It is very rarely that an +author is hurt by his critics. The blaze of reputation cannot be blown +out, but it often dies in the socket.' _Ib_ p. 110. 'The writer who +thinks his works formed for duration mistakes his interest when he +mentions his enemies. He degrades his own dignity by shewing that he was +affected by their censures, and gives lasting importance to names, +which, left to themselves would vanish from remembrance.' Johnson's +_Works_, vii. 294. 'If it had been possible for those who were attacked +to conceal their pain and their resentment, the _Dunciad_ might have +made its way very slowly in the world.' _Ib_ viii. 276. Hawkins (_Life +of Johnson_, p. 348) says that, 'against personal abuse Johnson was ever +armed by a reflection that I have heard him utter:--"Alas! reputation +would be of little worth, were it in the power of every concealed enemy +to deprive us of it."' In his _Parl. Debates_ (_Works_, x. 359), Johnson +makes Mr. Lyttelton say:--'No man can fall into contempt but those who +deserve it.' Addison in _The Freeholder_, No. 40, says, that 'there is +not a more melancholy object in the learned world than a man who has +written himself down.' See also Boswell's _Hebrides_, near the end. + +[185] Barber had entered Johnson's service in 1752 (_ante_, i. 239). +Nine years before this letter was written he had been a sailor on board +a frigate (_ante_, i. 348), so that he was somewhat old for a boy. + +[186] Boswell, writing to Temple on May 14 of this year; says:--'Dr. +Robertson is come up laden with his _Charles V_.--three large quartos; +he has been offered three thousand guineas for it.' _Letters of +Boswell_, p. 152. + +[187] In like manner the professors at Aberdeen and Glasgow seemed +afraid to speak in his presence. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug 23 and +Oct 29, 1773. See also _post_, April 20, 1778. + +[188] See _ante_, July 28, 1763. + +[189] Johnson, in inserting this letter, says (Works, viii. 374):--'I +communicate it with much pleasure, as it gives me at once an opportunity +of recording the fraternal kindness of Thomson, and reflecting on the +friendly assistance of Mr. Boswell, from whom I received it.' See +_post_, July 9, 1777, and June 18, 1778. + +[190] Murphy, in his _Life of Garrick_, p. 183, says that Garrick once +brought Dr. Munsey--so he writes the name--to call on him. 'Garrick +entered the dining-room, and turning suddenly round, ran to the door, +and called out, "Dr. Munsey, where are you going?" "Up stairs to see the +author," said Munsey. "Pho! pho! come down, the author is here." Dr. +Munsey came, and, as he entered the room, said in his free way, "You +scoundrel! I was going up to the garret. Who could think of finding an +author on the first floor?"' Mrs. Montagu wrote to Lord Lyttelton from +Tunbridge in 1760:--'The great Monsey (_sic_) came hither on Friday ... +He is great in the coffee-house, great in the rooms, and great on the +pantiles.' _Montagu Letters_, iv. 291. In Rogers's _Table-Talk_, p. 271, +there is a curious account of him. + +[191] See _ante_, July 26, 1763. + +[192] My respectable friend, upon reading this passage, observed, that +he probably must have said not simply, 'strong facts,' but 'strong facts +well arranged.' His lordship, however, knows too well the value of +written documents to insist on setting his recollection against my notes +taken at the time. He does not attempt to _traverse_ the record. The +fact, perhaps, may have been, either that the additional words escaped +me in the noise of a numerous company, or that Dr. Johnson, from his +impetuosity, and eagerness to seize an opportunity to make a lively +retort, did not allow Dr. Douglas to finish his sentence. BOSWELL. + +[193] 'It is boasted that between November [1712] and January, eleven +thousand [of _The Conduct of the Allies_] were sold.... Yet surely +whoever surveys this wonder-working pamphlet with cool perusal, will +confess that it's efficacy was supplied by the passions of its readers; +that it operates by the mere weight of facts, with very little +assistance from the hand that produced them.' Johnson's _Works_, +viii. 203. + +[194] 'Every great man, of whatever kind be his greatness, has among his +friends those who officiously or insidiously quicken his attention to +offences, heighten his disgust, and stimulate his resentment.' _Ib_ +viii 266. + +[195] See the hard drawing of him in Churchill's _Rosciad_. BOSWELL. See +_ante_, i. 391, note 2. + +[196] For _talk_, see _post_, under March 30 1783. + +[197] See _post_, Oct. 6, 1769, and May 8, 1778, where Johnson tosses +Boswell. + +[198] See _post_, Sept. 22, 1777, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. i, +1773. + +[199] See _post_, Nov. 27, 1773, note, April 7, 1775, and under May 8, +1781. + +[200] He wrote the character of Mr. Mudge. See _post_, under March 20, +1781. + +[201] 'Sept. 18, 1769. This day completes the sixtieth year of my +age.... The last year has been wholly spent in a slow progress of +recovery.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 85. + +[202] In which place he has been succeeded by Bennet Langton, Esq. When +that truly religious gentleman was elected to this honorary +Professorship, at the same time that Edward Gibbon, Esq., noted for +introducing a kind of sneering infidelity into his Historical Writings, +was elected Professor in Ancient History, in the room of Dr. Goldsmith, +I observed that it brought to my mind, 'Wicked Will Whiston and good Mr. +Ditton.' I am now also of that admirable institution as Secretary for +Foreign Correspondence, by the favour of the Academicians, and the +approbation of the Sovereign. BOSWELL. Goldsmith, writing to his brother +in Jan., 1770, said:--'The King has lately been pleased to make me +Professor of Ancient History in a Royal Academy of Painting, which he +has just established, but there is no salary annexed, and I took it +rather as a compliment to the institution than any benefit to myself. +Honours to one in my situation are something like ruffles to one that +wants a shirt.' Prior's _Goldsmith_, ii. 221. 'Wicked Will Whiston,' +&c., comes from Swift's _Ode for Music, On the Longitude_ (Swift's +_Works_, ed. 1803, xxiv. 39), which begins,-- + +'The longitude miss'd on +By wicked Will Whiston; +And not better hit on +By good Master Ditton.' + +It goes on so grossly and so offensively as regards one and the other, +that Boswell's comparison was a great insult to Langton as well as +to Gibbon. + +[203] It has this inscription in a blank leaf:--'_Hunc librum D.D. +Samuel Johnson, eo quod hic loci studiis interdum vacaret_.' Of this +library, which is an old Gothick room, he was very fond. On my observing +to him that some of the _modern_ libraries of the University were more +commodious and pleasant for study, as being more spacious and airy, he +replied, 'Sir, if a man has a mind to _prance_, he must study at +Christ-Church and All-Souls.' BOSWELL. + +[204] During this visit he seldom or never dined out. He appeared to be +deeply engaged in some literary work. Miss Williams was now with him at +Oxford. BOSWELL. It was more likely the state of his health which kept +him at home. Writing from Oxford on June 27 of this year to Mrs. Thrale, +who had been ill, he says:--'I will not increase your uneasiness with +mine. I hope I grow better. I am very cautious and very timorous.' +_Piozzi Letters_, i. 21. + +[205] Boswell wrote a letter, signed with his own name, to the _London +Magazine_ for 1769 (p. 451) describing the Jubilee. It is followed by a +print of himself 'in the dress of an armed Corsican chief,' and by an +account, no doubt written by himself. It says:--'Of the most remarkable +masks upon this occasion was James Boswell, Esq., in the dress of an +armed Corsican chief. He entered the amphitheatre about twelve o'clock. +On the front of his cap was embroidered in gold letters, _Viva La +Liberta_; and on one side of it was a handsome blue feather and cockade, +so that it had an elegant, as well as a warlike appearance. He wore no +mask, saying that it was not proper for a gallant Corsican. So soon as +he came into the room he drew universal attention.' Cradock (_Memoirs_, +i. 217) gives a melancholy account of the festival. The preparations +were all behind-hand and the weather was stormy. 'There was a masquerade +in the evening, and all zealous friends endeavoured to keep up the +spirit of it as long as they could, till they were at last informed that +the Avon was rising so very fast that no delay could be admitted. The +ladies of our party were conveyed by planks from the building to the +coach, and found that the wheels had been two feet deep in water.' +Garrick in 1771 was asked by the Stratford committee to join them in +celebrating a Jubilee every year, as 'the most likely method to promote +the interest and reputation of their town.' Boswell caught at the +proposal eagerly, and writing to Garrick said:--'I please myself with +the prospect of attending you at several more Jubilees at +Stratford-upon-Avon.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 414, 435. + +[206] Garrick's correspondents not seldom spoke disrespectfully of +Johnson. Thus, Mr. Sharp, writing to him in 1769, talks of 'risking the +sneer of one of Dr. Johnson's ghastly smiles.' _Ib_ i. 334. Dr. J. +Hoadly, in a letter dated July 25, 1775, says:--'Mr. Good-enough has +written a kind of parody of Puffy Pensioner's _Taxation no Tyranny_, +under the noble title of _Resistance no Rebellion_.' _Ib_ ii. 68. + +[207] See ante, i. 181. + +[208] In the Preface to my _Account of Corsica_, published in 1768, I +thus express myself: + +'He who publishes a book affecting not to be an authour, and professing +an indifference for literary fame, may possibly impose upon many people +such an idea of his consequence as he wishes may be received. For my +part, I should be proud to be known as an authour, and I have an ardent +ambition for literary fame; for, of all possessions, I should imagine +literary fame to be the most valuable. A man who has been able to +furnish a book, which has been approved by the world, has established +himself as a respectable character in distant society, without any +danger of having that character lessened by the observation of his +weaknesses. To preserve an uniform dignity among those who see us every +day, is hardly possible; and to aim at it, must put us under the fetters +of perpetual restraint. The authour of an approved book may allow his +natural disposition an easy play, and yet indulge the pride of superior +genius, when he considers that by those who know him only as an authour, +he never ceases to be respected. Such an authour, when in his hours of +gloom and discontent, may have the consolation to think, that his +writings are, at that very time, giving pleasure to numbers; and such an +authour may cherish the hope of being remembered after death, which has +been a great object to the noblest minds in all ages.' BOSWELL. His +preface to the third edition thus ends:--'When I first ventured to send +this book into the world, I fairly owned an ardent desire for literary +fame. I have obtained my desire: and whatever clouds may overcast my +days, I can now walk here among the rocks and woods of my ancestors, +with an agreeable consciousness that I have done something worthy.' The +dedication of the first edition and the preface of the third are both +dated Oct. 29--one 1767, and the other 1768. Oct. 29 was his birthday. + +[209] Paoli's father had been one of the leaders of the Corsicans in +their revolt against Genoa in 1734. Paoli himself was chosen by them as +their General-in-chief in 1755. In 1769 the island was conquered by the +French. He escaped in an English ship, and settled in England. Here he +stayed till 1789, when Mirabeau moved in the National Assembly the +recall of all the Corsican patriots. Paoli was thereupon appointed by +Louis XVI. Lieutenant-general and military commandant in Corsica. He +resisted the violence of the Convention, and was, in consequence, +summoned before it. Refusing to obey, an expedition was sent to arrest +him. Napoleon Buonaparte fought in the French army, but Paoli's party +proved the stronger. The islanders sought the aid of Great Britain, and +offered the crown of Corsica to George III. The offer was accepted, but +by an act of incredible folly, not Paoli, but Sir Gilbert Eliot, was +made Viceroy. Paoli returned to England, where he died in 1807, at the +age of eighty-two. In 1796 Corsica was abandoned by the English. By the +Revolution it ceased to be a conquered province, having been formally +declared an integral part of France. At the present day the Corsicans +are proud of being citizens of that great country; no less proud, +however, are they of Pascal Paoli, and of the gallant struggle for +independence of their forefathers. + +[210] According to the _Ann. Reg_. (xii. 132) Paoli arrived in London on +Sept. 21. He certainly was in London on Oct. 10, for on that day he was +presented by Boswell to Johnson. Yet Wesley records in his _Journal_ +(iii. 370) on Oct. 13:--'I very narrowly missed meeting the great Pascal +Paoli. He landed in the dock [at Portsmouth] but a very few minutes +after I left the waterside. Surely He who hath been with him from his +youth up hath not sent him into England for nothing.' In the _Public +Advertiser_ for Oct. 4 there is the following entry, inserted no doubt +by Boswell:--'On Sunday last General Paoli, accompanied by James +Boswell, Esq., took an airing in Hyde Park in his coach.' Priors +_Goldsmith_, i. 450. Horace Walpole writes:--'Paoli's character had been +so advantageously exaggerated by Mr. Boswell's enthusiastic and +entertaining account of him, that the Opposition were ready to +incorporate him in the list of popular tribunes. The Court artfully +intercepted the project; and deeming patriots of all nations equally +corruptible, bestowed a pension of AL1000 a year on the unheroic +fugitive.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, iii. 387. + +[211] Johnson, writes Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_., p. 228), ridiculed a friend +'who, looking out on Streatham Common from our windows, lamented the +enormous wickedness of the times, because some bird-catchers were busy +there one fine Sunday morning. "While half the Christian world is +permitted," said Johnson, "to dance and sing and celebrate Sunday as a +day of festivity, how comes your puritanical spirit so offended with +frivolous and empty deviations from exactness? Whoever loads life with +unnecessary scruples, Sir," continued he, "provokes the attention of +others on his conduct, and incurs the censure of singularity, without +reaping the reward of superior virtue."' See Boswell's _Hebrides_, +Aug. 20, 1773. + +[212] The first edition of Hume's _History of England_ was full of +Scotticisms, many of which he corrected in subsequent editions. MALONE. +According to Mr. J. H. Burton (_Life of Hume_, ii. 79), 'He appears to +have earnestly solicited the aid of Lyttelton, Mallet, and others, whose +experience of English composition might enable them to detect +Scotticisms.' Mr. Burton gives instances of alterations made in the +second edition. He says also that 'in none of his historical or +philosophical writings does any expression used by him, unless in those +cases where a Scotticism has escaped his vigilance, betray either the +district or the county of his origin.' _Ib_ i. 9. Hume was shown in +manuscript Reid's _Inquiry into the Human Mind_. Though it was an attack +on his own philosophy, yet in reading it 'he kept,' he says, 'a watchful +eye all along over the style,' so that he might point out any +Scotticisms. _Ib_ ii. 154. Nevertheless, as Dugald Stewart says in his +_Life of Robertson_ (p. 214), 'Hume fails frequently both in purity and +grammatical correctness.' Even in his later letters I have noticed +Scotticisms. + +[213] In 1763 Wilkes, as author of _The North Briton_, No. 45, had been +arrested on 'a general warrant directed to four messengers to take up +any persons without naming or describing them with any certainty, and to +bring them, together with their papers.' Such a warrant as this Chief +Justice Pratt (Lord Camden) declared to be 'unconstitutional, illegal, +and absolutely void.' _Ann. Reg_. vi. 145. + +[214] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 24, 1773. + +[215] In the Spring of this year, at a meeting of the electors of +Southwark, 'instructions' had been presented to Mr. Thrale and his +brother-member, of which the twelfth was:--'That you promote a bill for +shortening the duration of Parliaments.' _Gent. Mag_. xxxix. 162. + +[216] This paradox Johnson had exposed twenty-nine years earlier, in his +_Life of Sir Francis Drake_, _Works_, vi. 366. In _Rasselas_, chap. xi., +he considers also the same question. Imlac is 'inclined to conclude +that, if nothing counteracts the natural consequence of learning, we +grow more happy as our minds take a wider range.' He then enumerates the +advantages which civilisation confers on the Europeans. 'They are surely +happy,' said the prince, 'who have all these conveniences.' 'The +Europeans,' answered Imlac, 'are less unhappy than we, but they are not +happy. Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured +and little to be enjoyed.' Writing to Mrs. Thrale from Skye, Johnson +said: 'The traveller wanders through a naked desert, gratified +sometimes, but rarely, with the sight of cows, and now and then finds a +heap of loose stones and turf in a cavity between rocks, where a being +born with all those powers which education expands, and all those +sensations which culture refines, is condemned to shelter itself from +the wind and rain. Philosophers there are who try to make themselves +believe that this life is happy, but they believe it only while they are +saying it, and never yet produced conviction in a single mind.' _Piozzi +Letters_, i. 150. See _post_, April 21 and May 7, 1773, April 26, 1776, +and June 15, 1784. + +[217] James Burnet, a Scotch Lord of Session, by the title of Lord +Monboddo. 'He was a devout believer in the virtues of the heroic ages, +and the deterioration of civilised mankind; a great contemner of +luxuries, insomuch that he never used a wheel carriage.' WALTER SCOTT, +quoted in Croker's _Boswell_, p. 227. There is some account of him in +Chambers's _Traditions of Edinburgh_, ii. 175. In his _Origin of +Language_, to which Boswell refers in his next note, after praising +Henry Stephen for his _Greek Dictionary_, he continues:--'But to compile +a dictionary of a barbarous language, such as all the modern are +compared with the learned, is a work which a man of real genius, rather +than undertake, would choose to die of hunger, the most cruel, it is +said, of all deaths. I should, however, have praised this labour of +Doctor Johnson's more, though of the meanest kind,' &c. Monboddo's +_Origin of Language_, v. 274. On p. 271, he says:--'Dr. Johnson was the +most invidious and malignant man I have ever known.' See _post_, March +21, 1772, May 8, 1773, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 21, 1773. + +[218] His Lordship having frequently spoken in an abusive manner of Dr. +Johnson, in my company, I on one occasion during the life-time of my +illustrious friend could not refrain from retaliation, and repeated to +him this saying. He has since published I don't know how many pages in +one of his curious books, attempting, in much anger, but with pitiful +effect, to persuade mankind that my illustrious friend was not the great +and good man which they esteemed and ever will esteem him to +be. BOSWELL. + +[219] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 108) says:--'Mr. Johnson was indeed +unjustly supposed to be a lover of singularity. Few people had a more +settled reverence for the world than he, or was less captivated by new +modes of behaviour introduced, or innovations on the long-received +customs of common life.' In writing to Dr. Taylor to urge him to take a +certain course, he says:--'This I would have you do, not in compliance +with solicitation or advice, but as a justification of yourself to the +world; _the world has always a right to be regarded_.' _Notes and +Queries_, 6th S. v. 343. In _The Adventurer_, No. 131, he has a paper on +'Singularities.' After quoting Fontenelle's observation on Newton that +'he was not distinguished from other men by any singularity, either +natural or affected,' he goes on:--'Some may be found who, supported by +the consciousness of great abilities, and elevated by a long course of +reputation and applause, voluntarily consign themselves to singularity, +affect to cross the roads of life because they know that they shall not +be jostled, and indulge a boundless gratification of will, because they +perceive that they shall be quietly obeyed.... Singularity is, I think, +in its own nature universally and invariably displeasing.' Writing of +Swift, he says (_Works_, viii. 223):--'Whatever he did, he seemed +willing to do in a manner peculiar to himself, without sufficiently +considering that singularity, as it implies a contempt of the general +practice, is a kind of defiance which justly provokes the hostility of +ridicule; he, therefore, who indulges peculiar habits is worse than +others, if he be not better.' See _ante_, Oct. 1765, the record in his +_Journal_:--'At church. To avoid all singularity.' + +[220] 'He had many other particularities, for which he gave sound and +philosophical reasons. As this humour still grew upon him he chose to +wear a turban instead of a periwig; concluding very justly that a +bandage of clean linen about his head was much more wholesome, as well +as cleanly, than the caul of a wig, which is soiled with frequent +perspirations.' _Spectator_, No. 576. + +[221] See _post_, June 28, 1777, note. + +[222] 'Depend upon it,' he said, 'no woman is the worse for sense and +knowledge.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 19; 1773--See, however, _post_, +1780, in Mr. Langton's Collection, where he says:--'Supposing a wife to +be of a studious or argumentative turn, it would be very troublesome' + +[223] + +'Though Artemisia talks by fits +Of councils, classics, fathers, wits; +Reads Malbranche, Boyle, and Locke: +Yet in some things, methinks she fails; +'Twere well if she would pare her nails, +And wear a cleaner smock.' + +SWIFT. _Imitation of English Poets, Works_, xxiv. 6. + +[224] _A Wife_, a poem, 1614. BOSWELL. + +[225] In the original _that_. + +[226] What a succession of compliments was paid by Johnson's old +school-fellow, whom he met a year or two later in Lichfield, who 'has +had, as he phrased it, _a matter of four wives_, for which' added +Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, 'neither you nor I like him much the better.' +_Piozzi Letters_, i. 41. + +[227] Mr. Langton married the widow of the Earl of Rothes; _post_, March +20, 1771. + +[228] Horace Walpole, writing of 1764, says:--'As one of my objects was +to raise the popularity of our party, I had inserted a paragraph in the +newspapers observing that the abolition of vails to servants had been +set on foot by the Duke of Bedford, and had been opposed by the Duke of +Devonshire. Soon after a riot happened at Ranelagh, in which the footmen +mobbed and ill-treated some gentlemen who had been active in that +reformation.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, ii. 3. + +[229] + +'Alexis shunned his fellow swains, +Their rural sports and jocund strains, +(Heaven guard us all from Cupid's bow!) +He lost his crook, he left his flocks; +And wandering through the lonely rocks, +He nourished endless woe.' + +_The Despairing Shepherd_. + +[230] 'In his amorous effusions Prior is less happy; for they are not +dictated by nature or by passion, and have neither gallantry nor +tenderness. They have the coldness of Cowley without his wit, the dull +exercises of a skilful versifier, resolved at all adventures to write +something about Chloe, and trying to be amorous by dint of study.... In +his private relaxation he revived the tavern, and in his amorous +pedantry he exhibited the college.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 15, 22. + +[231] _Florizel and Perdita_ is Garrick's version of _The Winters Tale_. +He cut down the five acts to three. The line, which is misquoted, is in +one of Perdita's songs:-- + +'That giant ambition we never can dread; +Our roofs are too low for so lofty a head; +Content and sweet cheerfulness open our door, +They smile with the simple, and feed with the poor.' + +Act ii. sc. 1. + +[232] Horace. _Sat_. i. 4. 34. + +[233] See _ante_, ii. 66. + +[234] Horace Walpole told Malone that 'he was about twenty-two +[twenty-four] years old when his father retired; and that he remembered +his offering one day to read to him, finding that time hung heavy on his +hands. "What," said he, "will you read, child?" Mr. Walpole, considering +that his father had long been engaged in public business, proposed to +read some history. "No," said he, "don't read history to me; that can't +be true."' Prior's _Malone_, p. 387. See also _post_, April 30, 1773, +and Oct. 10, 1779. + +[235] See _ante_, i 75, _post_, Oct 12, 1779, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, +August 15, 1773. Boswell himself had met Whitefield; for mentioning him +in his _Letter to the People of Scotland_ (p. 25), he adds:--'Of whose +pious and animated society I had some share.' Southey thus describes +Whitefield in his _Life of Wesley_ (i. 126):--'His voice excelled both +in melody and compass, and its fine modulations were happily accompanied +by that grace of action which he possessed in an eminent degree, and +which has been said to be the chief requisite of an orator. An ignorant +man described his eloquence oddly but strikingly, when he said that Mr. +Whitefield preached like a lion. So strange a comparison conveyed no +unapt a notion of the force and vehemence and passion of that oratory +which awed the hearers, and made them tremble like Felix before the +apostle.' Benjamin Franklin writes (_Memoirs_, i. 163):--'Mr. +Whitefield's eloquence had a wonderful power over the hearts and purses +of his hearers, of which I myself was an instance.' He happened to be +present at a sermon which, he perceived, was to finish with a collection +for an object which had not his approbation. 'I silently resolved he +should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper +money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he +proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the copper. Another +stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that, and determined me to give +the silver; and he finished so admirably that I emptied my pocket wholly +into the collector's dish, gold and all.' + +[236] 'What an idea may we not form of an interview between such a +scholar and philosopher as Mr. Johnson, and such a legislatour and +general as Paoli.' Boswell's _Corsica_, p. 198. + +[237] Mr. Stewart, who in 1768 was sent on a secret mission to Paoli, in +his interesting report says:--'Religion seems to sit easy upon Paoli, +and notwithstanding what his historian Boswell relates, I take him to be +very free in his notions that way. This I suspect both from the strain +of his conversation, and from what I have learnt of his conduct towards +the clergy and monks.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, ii. 158. See _post_, +April 14, 1775, where Johnson said:--'Sir, there is a great cry about +infidelity; but there are in reality very few infidels.' Yet not long +before he had complained of an 'inundation of impiety.' Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Sept. 30, 1773. + +[238] I suppose Johnson said atmosphere. CROKER. In _Humphry Clinker_, +in the Letter of June 2, there is, however, a somewhat similar use of +the word. Lord Bute is described as 'the Caledonian luminary, that +lately blazed so bright in our hemisphere; methinks, at present, it +glimmers through a fog.' A star, however, unlike a cloud, may pass from +one hemisphere to the other. + +[239] See _post_, under Nov. 5, 1775. Hannah More, writing in 1782 +(_Memoirs_, i. 242), says:--'Paoli will not talk in English, and his +French is mixed with Italian. He speaks no language with purity.' + +[240] Horace Walpole writes:--'Paoli had as much ease as suited a +prudence that seemed the utmost effort of a wary understanding, and was +so void of anything remarkable in his aspect, that being asked if I knew +who it was, I judged him a Scottish officer (for he was +sandy-complexioned and in regimentals), who was cautiously awaiting the +moment of promotion.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, iii. 387 + +[241] Boswell introduced this subject often. See _post_, Oct. 26, 1769, +April 15, 1778, March 14, 1781, and June 23, 1784. Like Milton's fallen +angels, he 'found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.' _Paradise Lost_, +ii. 561. + +[242] 'To this wretched being, himself by his own misconduct lashed out +of human society, the stage was indebted for several very pure and +pleasing entertainments; among them, _Love in a Village_, _The Maid of +the Mill_.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 136. 'When,' says Mrs. Piozzi +(_Anec_. p. 168), 'Mr. Bickerstaff's flight confirmed the report of his +guilt, and my husband said in answer to Johnson's astonishment, that he +had long been a suspected man: "By those who look close to the ground +dirt will be seen, Sir, (was his lofty reply); I hope I see things from +a greater distance."' In the _Garrick Corres_ (i. 473) is a piteous +letter in bad French, written from St. Malo, by Bickerstaff to Garrick, +endorsed by Garrick, 'From that poor wretch Bickerstaff: I could not +answer it.' + +[243] Boswell, only a couple of years before he published _The Life of +Johnson_, in fact while he was writing it, had written to Temple:--'I +was the _great man_ (as we used to say) at the late Drawing-room, in a +suit of imperial blue, lined with rose-coloured silk, and ornamented +with rich gold-wrought buttons.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 289. + +[244] Miss Reynolds, in her _Recollections_ (Croker's _Boswell_, p. +831), says, 'One day at Sir Joshua Reynolds's Goldsmith was relating +with great indignation an insult he had just received from some +gentleman he had accidentally met. "The fellow," he said, "took me for a +tailor!" on which all the company either laughed aloud or showed they +suppressed a laugh.' + +[245] In Prior's _Goldsmith_, ii. 232, is given Filby's Bill for a suit +of clothes sent to Goldsmith this very day:-- + +Oct. 16.-- AL s. d. +To making a half-dress + suit of ratteen, lined + with satin 12 12 0 +To a pair of silk stocking + breeches 2 5 0 +To a pair of _bloom-coloured + ditto 1 4 6 + +Nothing is said in this bill of the colour of the coat; it is the +breeches that are bloom-coloured. The tailor's name was William, not +John, Filby; _Ib_ i. 378, Goldsmith in his _Life of Nash_ had +said:--'Dress has a mechanical influence upon the mind, and we naturally +are awed into respect and esteem at the elegance of those whom even our +reason would teach us to contemn. He seemed early sensible of human +weakness in this respect; he brought a person genteelly dressed to every +assembly.' Cunningham's _Goldsmith's Works_, iv. 46. + +[246] 'The _Characters of Men and Women_ are the product of diligent +speculation upon human life; much labour has been bestowed upon them, +and Pope very seldom laboured in vain.... The _Characters of Men_, +however, are written with more, if not with deeper thought, and exhibit +many passages exquisitely beautiful.... In the women's part are some +defects.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 341. + +[247] Mr. Langton informed me that he once related to Johnson (on the +authority of Spence), that Pope himself admired those lines so much that +when he repeated them his voice faltered: 'and well it might, Sir,' said +Johnson, 'for they are noble lines.' J. BOSWELL, JUN. + +[248] We have here an instance of that reserve which Boswell, in his +Dedication to Sir Joshua Reynolds (_ante_, i. 4), says that he has +practised. In one particular he had 'found the world to be a great +fool,' and, 'I have therefore,' as he writes, 'in this work been more +reserved;' yet the reserve is slight enough. Everyone guesses that 'one +of the company' was Boswell. + +[249] Yet Johnson, in his _Life of Pope_ (_Works_, viii. 276), seems to +be much of Boswell's opinion; for in writing of _The Dunciad_, he +says:--'The subject itself had nothing generally interesting, for whom +did it concern to know that one or another scribbler was a dunce?' + +[250] The opposite of this Johnson maintained on April 29, 1778. + +[251] 'It is surely sufficient for an author of sixteen ... to have +obtained sufficient power of language and skill in metre, to exhibit a +series of versification which had in English poetry no precedent, nor +has since had an imitation.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 326. + +[252] See _ante_, i. 129. + +[253] 'If the flights of Dryden are higher, Pope continues longer on the +wing ... Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with +perpetual delight.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 325. + +[254] Probably, says Mr. Croker, those quoted by Johnson in _The Life of +Dryden_. _Ib_ vii. 339. + +[255] The Duke of Buckingham in Dryden's _Absalom and Achitophel_. + +[256] _Prologue to the Satires_, I. 193. + +[257] + +Almeria.--'It was a fancy'd noise; for all is hush'd. + +Leonora.--It bore the accent of a human voice. + +Almeria.--It was thy fear, or else some transient wind +Whistling thro' hollows of this vaulted aisle; +We'll listen-- + +Leonora.--Hark! + +Almeria.--No, all is hush'd and still as death,--'Tis dreadful! +How reverend is the face of this tall pile, +Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads, +To bear aloft its arch'd and ponderous roof, +By its own weight made stedfast and immoveable, +Looking tranquillity! It strikes an awe +And terror on my aching sight; the tombs +And monumental caves of death look cold, +And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart. +Give me thy hand, and let me hear thy voice; +Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear +Thy voice--my own affrights me with its echoes. + +Act ii. sc. 1. + +[258] + +'Swear by thy gracious self, +Which is the god of my idolatry.' + +_Romeo and Juliet_, act ii. sc. 2. He was a God with whom he ventured to +take great liberties. Thus on Jan. 10, 1776, he wrote:--'I have ventured +to produce _Hamlet_ with alterations. It was the most imprudent thing I +ever did in all my life; but I had sworn I would not leave the stage +till I had rescued that noble play from all the rubbish of the fifth +act. I have brought it forth without the grave-digger's trick and the +fencing match. The alterations were received with general approbation +beyond my most warm expectations.' _Garrick Corres_., ii. 126. See +_ante_, ii. 78, note 4. + +[259] This comparison between Shakespeare and Congreve is mentioned +perhaps oftener than any passage in Boswell. Almost as often as it is +mentioned, it may be seen that Johnson's real opinion is misrepresented +or misunderstood. A few passages from his writings will shew how he +regarded the two men. In the _Life of Congreve_ (_Works_, viii. 31) he +repeats what he says here:--'If I were required to select from the whole +mass of English poetry the most poetical paragraph, I know not what I +could prefer to an exclamation in _The Mourning Bride_.' Yet in writing +of the same play, he says:--'In this play there is more bustle than +sentiment; the plot is busy and intricate, and the events take hold on +the attention; but, except a very few passages, we are rather amused +with noise and perplexed with stratagem, than entertained with any true +delineation of natural characters.' _Ib_, p. 26. In the preface to his +_Shakespeare_, published four years before this conversation, he almost +answered Garrick by anticipation. 'It was said of Euripides that every +verse was a precept; and it may be said of Shakespeare, that from his +works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence. Yet +his real power is not shown in the splendour of particular passages, but +by the progress of his fable, and the tenour of his dialogue, and he +that tries to recommend him by select quotations, will succeed like the +pedant in _Hierocles_, who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a +brick in his pocket as a specimen.' _Ib_, v. 106. Ignorant, indeed, is +he who thinks that Johnson was insensible to Shakespeare's 'transcendent +and unbounded genius,' to use the words that he himself applied to him. +_The Rambler_, No. 156. 'It may be doubtful,' he writes, 'whether from +all his successors more maxims of theoretical knowledge, or more rules +of practical prudence, can be collected than he alone has given to his +country.' _Works_, v. 131. 'He that has read Shakespeare with attention +will, perhaps, find little new in the crowded world.' _Ib_, p. 434. 'Let +him that is yet unacquainted with the powers of Shakespeare, and who +desires to feel the highest pleasure that the drama can give, read every +play, from the first scene to the last, with utter negligence of all his +commentators. When his fancy is once on the wing, let it not stoop at +correction or explanation.' _Ib_, p. 152. And lastly he quotes Dryden's +words [from Dryden's _Essay of Dramatick Poesie_, edit. of 1701, i. 19] +'that Shakespeare was the man who, of all modern and perhaps ancient +poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul.' _Ib_, p. 153. Mrs. +Piozzi records (_Anec_., p. 58), that she 'forced Johnson one day in a +similar humour [to that in which he had praised Congreve] to prefer +Young's description of night to those of Shakespeare and Dryden.' He +ended however by saying:--'Young froths and foams and bubbles sometimes +very vigorously; but we must not compare the noise made by your +tea-kettle here with the roaring of the ocean.' See also _post_, p. 96. + +[260] _Henry V_, act iv., Prologue. + +[261] _Romeo and Juliet_, act iv., sc. 3. + +[262] _King Lear_, act iv., sc. 6. + +[263] See _ante_, July 26, 1763. + +[264] See _ante_, i. 388. + +[265] In spite of the gross nonsense that Voltaire has written about +Shakespeare, yet it was with justice that in a letter to Horace Walpole +(dated July 15, 1768,) he said:--'Je suis le premier qui ait fait +connaA(R)tre Shakespeare aux FranASec.ais.... Je peux vous assurer qu'avant moi +personne en France ne connaissait la poA(C)sie anglaise.' Voltaire's +_Works_, liv. 513. + +[266] 'Of whom I acknowledge myself to be one, considering it as a piece +of the secondary or comparative species of criticism; and not of that +profound species which alone Dr. Johnson would allow to be "real +criticism." It is, besides, clearly and elegantly expressed, and has +done effectually what it professed to do, namely, vindicated Shakespeare +from the misrepresentations of Voltaire; and considering how many young +people were misled by his witty, though false observations, Mrs. +Montagu's Essay was of service to Shakspeare with a certain class of +readers, and is, therefore, entitled to praise. Johnson, I am assured, +allowed the merit which I have stated, saying, (with reference to +Voltaire,) "it is conclusive _ad hominem_."' BOSWELL. That this dull +essay, which would not do credit to a clever school-girl of seventeen, +should have had a fame, of which the echoes have not yet quite died out, +can only be fully explained by Mrs. Montagu's great wealth and position +in society. Contemptible as was her essay, yet a saying of hers about +Voltaire was clever. 'He sent to the Academy an invective [against +Shakespeare] that bears all the marks of passionate dotage. Mrs. Montagu +happened to be present when it was read. Suard, one of their writers, +said to her, "Je crois, Madame, que vous Aªtes un peu fAcchA(C) (sic) de ce +que vous venez d'entendre." She replied, "Moi, Monsieur! point du tout! +Je ne suis pas amie de M. Voltaire."' Walpole's _Letters_, vi. 394. Her +own _Letters_ are very pompous and very poor, and her wit would not seem +to have flashed often; for Miss Burney wrote of her:--'She reasons well, +and harangues well, but wit she has none.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. +335. Yet in this same _Diary_ (i. 112) we find evidence of the absurdly +high estimate that was commonly formed of her. 'Mrs. Thrale asked me if +I did not want to see Mrs. Montagu. I truly said, I should be the most +insensible of all animals not to like to see our sex's glory.' That she +was a very extraordinary woman we have Johnson's word for it. (See +_post_, May 15, 1784.) It is impossible, however, to discover anything +that rises above commonplace in anything that she wrote, and, so far as +I know, that she said, with the exception of her one saying about +Voltaire. Johnson himself, in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale, has a +laugh at her. He had mentioned Shakespeare, nature and friendship, and +continues:--'Now, of whom shall I proceed to speak? Of whom but Mrs. +Montagu? Having mentioned Shakespeare and Nature, does not the name of +Montagu force itself upon me? Such were the transitions of the ancients, +which now seem abrupt, because the intermediate idea is lost to modern +understandings. I wish her name had connected itself with friendship; +but, ah Colin, thy hopes are in vain.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 101. See +_post_, April 7, 1778. + +[267] 'Reynolds is fond of her book, and I wonder at it; for neither I, +nor Beauclerk, nor Mrs. Thrale, could get through it.' Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Sept. 23, 1773. + +[268] Lord Kames is 'the Scotchman.' See _ante_, i. 393. + +[269] 'When Charles Townshend read some of Lord Kames's _Elements of +Criticism_, he said:--"This is the work of a dull man grown +whimsical"--a most characteristical account of Lord Kames as a writer.' +_Boswelliana_, p. 278. Hume wrote of it:--'Some parts of the work are +ingenious and curious; but it is too abstruse and crabbed ever to take +with the public.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 131. 'Kames,' he says, 'had +much provoked Voltaire, who never forgives, and never thinks any enemy +below his notice.' _Ib_, p. 195. Voltaire (_Works_, xliii. 302) thus +ridicules his book:--'Il nous prouve d'abord que nous avons cinq sens, +et que nous sentons moins l'impression douce faite sur nos yeux et sur +nos oreilles par les couleurs et par les sons que nous ne sentons un +grand coup sur la jambe ou sur la tAªte.' + +[270] L'AbbA(C) Dubos, 1670-1742. 'Tous les artistes lisent avec fruit ses +_RA(C)flexions sur la poA(C)sie, la peinture, et la musique_. C'est le livre +le plus utile qu'on ait jamais A(C)crit sur ces matiA"res chez aucune des +nations de l'Europe.' Voltaire's _SiA"cle de Louis XIV_, i. 81. + +[271] Bouhours, 1628-1702. Voltaire, writing of Bouhours' _ManiA"re de +bien penser sur les ouvrages d'esprit_, says that he teaches young +people 'A A(C)viter l'enflure, l'obscuritA(C), le recherchA(C), et le faux.' +_Ib_, p. 54. Johnson, perhaps, knew him, through _The Spectator_, No. +62, where it is said that he has shown 'that it is impossible for any +thought to be beautiful which is not just, ... that the basis of all wit +is truth.' + +[272] _Macbeth_, act iii. sc. 2. + +[273] In _The False Alarm_, that was published less than three months +after this conversation, Johnson describes how petitions were got. '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 their meeting, undertake to tell +those who know it not; ale and clamour unite their powers.... The +petition is read, and universally approved. Those who are sober enough +to write, add their names, and the rest would sign it if they could.' +_Works_, vi. 172. Yet, when the petitions for Dr. Dodd's life were +rejected, Johnson said:--'Surely the voice of the public when it calls +so loudly, and calls only for mercy, ought to be heard.' _Post_, June +28, 1777. Horace Walpole, writing of the numerous petitions presented to +the King this year (1769), blames 'an example so inconsistent with the +principles of liberty, as appealing to the Crown against the House of +Commons.' Some of them prayed for a dissolution of Parliament. _Memoirs +of the Reign of George III_, iii. 382, 390. Two years earlier Lord +Shelburne, when Secretary of State, had found among the subscribers to a +petition for his impeachment, a friend of his, a London alderman. 'Oh! +aye,' said the alderman when asked for an explanation, 'I did sign a +petition at the Royal Exchange, which they told me was for the +impeachment of a Minister; I always sign a petition to impeach a +Minister, and I recollect that as soon as I had subscribed it, twenty +more put their names to it.' _Parl. Hist_., xxxv. 167. + +[274] See _post_, under March 24, 1776. + +[275] Mr. Robert Chambers says that the author of the ballad was +Elizabeth Halket, wife of Sir Henry Wardlaw. She died about 1727. 'The +ballad of Hardyknute was the first poem I ever read, and it will be the +last I shall forget.' SIR WALTER SCOTT. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 205. + +[276] John Ray published, in 1674, _A Collection of English Words_, &c., +and _A Collection of English Proverbs_. In 1768 the two were published +in one volume. + +[277] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 23, 1773. + +[278] + +'Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player +That struts and frets his hour upon the stage.' + +_Macbeth_, Act v. se. 5. + +[279] In the _Garrick Corres_., i. 385, there is a letter from Mrs. +Montagu to Garrick, which shows the ridiculous way in which Shakespeare +was often patronised last century, and 'brought into notice.' She +says:--'Mrs. Montagu is a little jealous for poor Shakespeare, for if +Mr. Garrick often acts Kitely, Ben Jonson will eclipse his fame.' + +[280] 'Familiar comedy is often more powerful on the theatre than in the +page; imperial tragedy is always less.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 122. See +also Boswell's _Hebrides_, August 15 and 16, 1773, where Johnson +'displayed another of his heterodox opinions--a contempt of tragick +acting.' Murphy (_Life_, p. 145) thus writes of Johnson's slighting +Garrick and the stage:--'The fact was, Johnson could not see the +passions as they rose and chased one another in the varied features of +that expressive face; and by his own manner of reciting verses, which +was wonderfully impressive, he plainly showed that he thought there was +too much of artificial tone and measured cadence in the declamation of +the theatre.' Reynolds said of Johnson's recitation, that 'it had no +more tone than it should the have.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 26, 1773. +See _post_, April 3, 1773. + +[281] See _post_, April 6, 1775, where Johnson, speaking of Cibber's +'talents of conversation,' said:--'He had but half to furnish; for one +half of what he said was oaths.' + +[282] See _ante_, June 13, 1763. + +[283] See _post_, Sept. 21, 1777. + +[284] On Oct. 18, one day, not two days before, four men were hanged at +Tyburn for robbery on the highway, one for stealing money and linen, and +one for forgery. _Gent. Mag_., xxxix. 508. Boswell, in _The +Hypochondriack_, No. 68 (_London Mag_. for 1783, p. 203), republishes a +letter which he had written on April 25, 1768, to the _Public +Advertiser_, after he had witnessed the execution of an attorney named +Gibbon, and a youthful highwayman. He says:--'I must confess that I +myself am never absent from a public execution.... When I first attended +them, I was shocked to the greatest degree. I was in a manner convulsed +with pity and terror, and for several days, but especially nights after, +I was in a very dismal situation. Still, however, I persisted in +attending them, and by degrees my sensibility abated, so that I can now +see one with great composure. I can account for this curiosity in a +philosophical manner, when I consider that death is the most awful +object before every man, whoever directs his thoughts seriously towards +futurity. Therefore it is that I feel an irresistible impulse to be +present at every execution, as I there behold the various effects of the +near approach of death.' He maintains 'that the curiosity which impels +people to be present at such affecting scenes, is certainly a proof of +sensibility, not of callousness. For, it is observed, that the greatest +proportion of the spectators is composed of women.' See _post_, June +23, 1784. + +[285] Of Johnson, perhaps, might almost be said what he said of Swift +(_Works_, viii. 207):--'The thoughts of death rushed upon him at this +time with such incessant importunity that they took possession of his +mind, when he first waked, for many hours together.' Writing to Mrs. +Thrale from Lichfield on Oct. 27, 1781, he says:--'All here is gloomy; a +faint struggle with the tediousness of time, a doleful confession of +present misery, and the approach seen and felt of what is most dreaded +and most shunned. But such is the lot of man.' _Piozzi Letters_, +ii. 209. + +[286] Johnson, during a serious illness, thus wrote to Mrs. +Thrale:--'When any man finds himself disposed to complain with how +little care he is regarded, let him reflect how little he contributed to +the happiness of others, and how little, for the most part, he suffers +from their pain. It is perhaps not to be lamented that those solicitudes +are not long nor frequent which must commonly be vain; nor can we wonder +that, in a state in which all have so much to feel of their own evils, +very few have leisure for those of another.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 14. +See _post_, Sept. 14, 1777. + +[287] 'I was shocked to find a letter from Dr. Holland, to the effect +that poor Harry Hallam is dying at Sienna [Vienna]. What a trial for my +dear old friend! I feel for the lad himself, too. Much distressed. I +dined, however. We dine, unless the blow comes very, very near the heart +indeed.' Macaulay's _Life_, ii. 287. See also _ante_, i. 355. + +[288] See _post_, Feb. 24, 1773, for 'a furious quarrel' between Davies +and Baretti. + +[289] Foote, two or three years before this, had lost one leg through an +accident in hunting. Forster's _Essays_, ii. 398. See _post_, under +Feb. 7, 1775. + +[290] When Mr. Foote was at Edinburgh, he thought fit to entertain a +numerous Scotch company, with a great deal of coarse jocularity, at the +expense of Dr. Johnson, imagining it would be acceptable. I felt this as +not civil to me; but sat very patiently till he had exhausted his +merriment on that subject; and then observed, that surely Johnson must +be allowed to have some sterling wit, and that I had heard him say a +very good thing of Mr. Foote himself. 'Ah, my old friend Sam (cried +Foote), no man says better things; do let us have it.' Upon which I told +the above story, which produced a very loud laugh from the company. But +I never saw Foote so disconcerted. He looked grave and angry, and +entered into a serious refutation of the justice of the remark. 'What, +Sir, (said he), talk thus of a man of liberal education;--a man who for +years was at the University of Oxford;--a man who has added sixteen new +characters to the English drama of his country!' BOSWELL. + +Foote was at Worcester College, but he left without taking his degree. +He was constantly in scrapes. When the Provost, Dr. Gower, who was a +pedant, sent for him to reprimand him, 'Foote would present himself with +great apparent gravity and submission, but with a large dictionary under +his arm; when, on the doctor beginning in his usual pompous manner with +a surprisingly long word, he would immediately interrupt him, and, after +begging pardon with great formality, would produce his dictionary, and +pretending to find the meaning of the word, would say, "Very well, Sir; +now please to go on."' Forster's _Essays_, ii. 307. Dr. Gower is +mentioned by Dr. King (_Anec_., p. 174) as one of the three persons he +had known 'who spoke English with that elegance and propriety, that if +all they said had been immediately committed to writing, any judge of +the language would have pronounced it an excellent and very beautiful +style.' The other two were Bishop Atterbury and Dr. Johnson. + +[291] _Cento_. A composition formed by joining scrapes from other +authours.' Johnson's _Dictionary_. + +[292] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 30, 1773. + +[293] For the position of these chaplains see _The Tatler_, No. 255, and +_The Guardian_, No. 163. + +[294] 'He had been assailed in the grossest manner possible by a woman +of the town, and, driving her off with a blow, was set upon by three +bullies. He thereupon ran away in great fear, for he was a timid man, +and being pursued, had stabbed two of the men with a small knife he +carried in his pocket.' Garrick and Beauclerk testified that every one +abroad carried such a knife, for in foreign inns only forks were +provided. 'When you travel abroad do you carry such knives as this?' +Garrick was asked. 'Yes,' he answered, 'or we should have no victuals.' +_Dr. Johnson: His Friends and His Critics_, p. 288. I have extracted +from the _Sessional Reports_ for 1769, p. 431, the following evidence as +to Baretti's character:--'SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. I have known Mr. Baretti +fifteen or sixteen years. He is a man of great humanity, and very active +in endeavouring to help his friends. He is a gentleman of a good temper; +I never knew him quarrelsome in my life; he is of a sober +disposition.... This affair was on a club night of the Royal +Academicians. We expected him there, and were inquiring about him before +we heard of this accident. He is secretary for foreign correspondence.' +'DR. JOHNSON. I believe I began to be acquainted with Mr. Baretti about +the year '53 or '54. I have been intimate with him. He is a man of +literature, a very studious man, a man of great diligence. He gets his +living by study. I have no reason to think he was ever disordered with +liquor in his life. A man that I never knew to be otherwise than +peaceable, and a man that I take to be rather timorous.' Qu. 'Was he +addicted to pick up women in the street?' 'Dr. J. I never knew that he +was.' Qu. 'How is he as to his eye-sight?' 'Dr. J. He does not see me +now, nor I do not [sic] see him. I do not believe he could be capable of +assaulting anybody in the street without great provocation.' 'EDMUND +BURKE, ESQ. I have known him between three and four years; he is an +ingenious man, a man of remarkable humanity--a thorough good-natured +man.' 'DAVID GARRICK, ESQ. I never knew a man of a more active +benevolence.... He is a man of great probity and morals.' 'DR. +GOLDSMITH. I have had the honour of Mr. Baretti's company at my chambers +in the Temple. He is a most humane, benevolent, peaceable man.... He is +a man of as great humanity as any in the world.' Mr. Fitzherbert and Dr. +Hallifax also gave evidence. 'There were divers other gentlemen in court +to speak for his character, but the Court thought it needless to call +them.' It is curious that Boswell passes over Reynolds and Goldsmith +among the witnesses. Baretti's bail before Lord Mansfield were Burke, +Garrick, Reynolds, and Fitzherbert. Mrs. Piozzi tells the following +anecdotes of Baretti:--'When Johnson and Burke went to see him in +Newgate, they had small comfort to give him, and bid him not hope too +strongly. "Why, what can _he_ fear," says Baretti, placing himself +between them, "that holds two such hands as I do?" An Italian came one +day to Baretti, when he was in Newgate, to desire a letter of +recommendation for the teaching his scholars, when he (Baretti) should +be hanged. "You rascal," replies Baretti in a rage, "if I were not _in +my own apartment_, I would kick you down stairs directly."' Hayward's +_Piazzi_, ii. 348. Dr. T. Campbell, in his _Diary_ (p. 52), wrote on +April 1, 1775:--'Boswell and Baretti, as I learned, are mortal foes; so +much so that Murphy and Mrs. Thrale agreed that Boswell expressed a +desire that Baretti should be hanged upon that unfortunate affair of his +killing, &c.' + +[295] Lord Auchinleck, we may assume. Johnson said of Pope, that 'he was +one of those few whose labor is their pleasure.' _Works_, viii. 321. + +[296] I have since had reason to think that I was mistaken; for I have +been informed by a lady, who was long intimate with her, and likely to +be a more accurate observer of such matters, that she had acquired such +a niceness of touch, as to know, by the feeling on the outside of the +cup, how near it was to being full. BOSWELL. Baretti, in a MS. note on +_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 84, says:--'I dined with Dr. Johnson as seldom as +I could, though often scolded for it; but I hated to see the victuals +pawed by poor Mrs. Williams, that would often carve, though +stone blind.' + +[297] See _ante_, July 1 and Aug. 2, 1763. + +[298] See _ante_, i. 232. + +[299] An Italian quack who in 1765 established medicated baths in Cheney +Walk, Chelsea. CROKER. + +[300] The same saying is recorded _post_, May 15, 1784, and in Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Oct. 5, 1773. 'Cooke reports another saying of Goldsmith's +to the same effect:--"There's no chance for you in arguing with Johnson. +Like the Tartar horse, if he does not conquer you in front, his kick +from behind is sure to be fatal."' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 167. 'In +arguing,' wrote Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'Johnson did not trouble himself +with much circumlocution, but opposed directly and abruptly his +antagonist. He fought with all sorts of weapons--ludicrous comparisons +and similies; if all failed, with rudeness and overbearing. He thought +it necessary never to be worsted in argument. He had one virtue which I +hold one of the most difficult to practise. After the heat of contest +was over, if he had been informed that his antagonist resented his +rudeness, he was the first to seek after a reconciliation.... That he +was not thus strenuous for victory with his intimates in tAªte-A -tAªte +conversations when there were no witnesses, may be easily believed. +Indeed, had his conduct been to them the same as he exhibited to the +public, his friends could never have entertained that love and affection +for him which they all feel and profess for his memory.' Taylor's +_Reynolds_, ii. 457, 462. + +[301] He had written the _Introduction_ to it. _Ante_, p. 317. + +[302] See _post_, beginning of 1770. + +[303] He accompanied Boswell on his tour to the Hebrides. Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Aug. 18, 1773. + +[304] While he was in Scotland he never entered one of the churches. 'I +will not give a sanction,' he said, 'by my presence, to a Presbyterian +assembly.' _Ib_ Aug. 27, 1773. When he was in France he went to a Roman +Catholic service; _post_, Oct. 29, 1775. + +[305] See _post_, March 21, 1772. + +[306] See _ante_, ii. 82. + +[307] See _post_, March 27, 1772. + +[308] See _post_, May 7, 1773, Oct. 10, 1779, and June 9, 1784. + +[309] _St. James_, v. 16. + +[310] See _post_, June 28, 1777, note. + +[311] Laceration was properly a term of surgery; hence the italics. See +_post_, Jan. 20, 1780. + +[312] See _post_, April 15, 1778. + +[313] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 12, 1773. + +[314] He bids us pray 'For faith that panting for a happier seat, Counts +death kind nature's signal of retreat.' + +[315] + +'To die is landing on some silent shore, +Where billows never beat, nor tempests roar, +Ere well we feel the friendly stroke, 'tis o'er.' + +GARTH. Quoted in Johnson's _Works_, vi. 61. Bacon, if he was the author +of _An Essay on Death_, says, 'I do not believe that any man fears to be +dead, but only the stroke of death.' Spedding's _Bacon_, vi. 600. Cicero +(_Tuscul. Quaest_. i. 8) quotes Epicharmus's saying:--'Emori nolo, sed +me esse mortuum nihil aestimo.' + +[316] See _post_, beginning of 1773. + +[317] See _post_, April 17, 1778. + +[318] Perhaps _on_ is a misprint for _or_. + +[319] Johnson says of Blackmore (_Works_, viii. 36) that 'he is one of +those men whose lot it has been to be much oftener mentioned by enemies +than by friends.' + +[320] This account Johnson says he had from an eminent bookseller, who +had it from Ambrose Philips the poet. 'The relation of Philips,' he +adds, 'I suppose was true; but when all reasonable, all credible +allowance is made for this friendly revision, the author will still +retain an ample dividend of praise.... Correction seldom effects more +than the suppression of faults: a happy line, or a single elegance, may +perhaps be added, but of a large work the general character must always +remain.' _Works_, viii. 41. + +[321] An acute correspondent of the _European Magazine_, April, 1792, +has completely exposed a mistake which has been unaccountably frequent +in ascribing these lines to Blackmore, notwithstanding that Sir Richard +Steele, in that very popular work, _The Spectator_, mentions them as +written by the Authour of The British Princes, the Honourable Edward +Howard. The correspondent above mentioned, shews this mistake to be so +inveterate, that not only _I_ defended the lines as Blackmore's, in the +presence of Dr. Johnson, without any contradiction or doubt of their +authenticity, but that the Reverend Mr. Whitaker has asserted in print, +that he understands they were _suppressed_ in the late edition or +editions of Blackmore. 'After all (says this intelligent writer) it is +not unworthy of particular observation, that these lines so often quoted +do not exist either in Blackmore or Howard.' In _The British Princes_, +8vo. 1669, now before me, p. 96, they stand thus:-- + +'A vest as admired Voltiger had on, Which, from this Island's foes, his +grandsire won, Whose artful colour pass'd the Tyrian dye, Oblig'd to +triumph in this legacy.' + +It is probable, I think, that some wag, in order to make Howard still +more ridiculous than he really was, has formed the couplet as it now +circulates. BOSWELL. Swift in his _Poetry: A Rhapsody_, thus joins +Howard and Blackmore together:-- + +'Remains a difficulty still, +To purchase fame by writing ill. +From Flecknoe down to Howard's time +How few have reached the low sublime! +For when our high-born Howard died, +Blackmore alone his place supplied.' + +_Swift's Works_ (1803), xi. 296. + +[322] Boswell seems to have borrowed the notion from _The Spectator_, +No. 43, where Steele, after saying that the poet blundered because he +was 'vivacious as well as stupid,' continues:--'A fool of a colder +constitution would have staid to have flayed the Pict, and made buff of +his skin for the wearing of the conqueror.' + +[323] See _ante_, ii. 100, note 1. + +[324] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 97) tells how one day at Streatham 'when +he was musing over the fire, a young gentleman called to him suddenly, +and I suppose he thought disrespectfully, in these words:--"Mr. +Johnson, would you advise me to marry?" "I would advise no man to marry, +Sir," returns for answer in a very angry tone Dr. Johnson, "who is not +likely to propagate understanding," and so left the room. Our companion +looked confounded, and I believe had scarce recovered the consciousness +of his own existence, when Johnson came back, and drawing his chair +among us, with altered looks and a softened voice, joined in the general +chat, insensibly led the conversation to the subject of marriage, where +he laid himself out in a dissertation so useful, so elegant, so founded +on the true knowledge of human life, and so adorned with beauty of +sentiment, that no one ever recollected the offence except to rejoice in +its consequences.' This 'young gentleman,' according to Mr. Hayward +(Mrs. Piozzi's _Auto_. i. 69), was Sir John Lade, the hero of the ballad +which Johnson recited on his death-bed. For other instances of Johnson's +seeking a reconciliation, see _post_, May 7, 1773, and April 12 and +May 8, 1778. + +[325] '_The False Alarm_, his first and favourite pamphlet, was written +at our house between eight o'clock on Wednesday night and twelve o'clock +on Thursday night. We read it to Mr. Thrale when he came very late home +from the House of Commons.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 41. See also _post_, +Nov. 26, 1774, where Johnson says that '_The Patriot_ was called for by +my political friends on Friday, was written on Saturday.' + +[326] Wilkes was first elected member for Middlesex at the General +Election of March, 1768. He did not take his seat, having been thrown +into prison before Parliament met. On Feb. 3, 1769, he was declared +incapable of being elected, and a new writ was ordered. On Feb. 16 he +was again elected, and without opposition. His election was again +declared void. On March 16 he was a third time elected, and without +opposition. His election was again declared void. On April 13 he was a +fourth time elected by 1143 votes against 296 given for Colonel +Luttrell. On the 14th the poll taken for him was declared null and void, +and on the 15th, Colonel Luttrell was declared duly elected. _Parl. +Hist_. xvi. 437, and Almon's _Wilkes_, iv. 4. See _post_, Oct. 12, 1779. + +[327] The resolution of expulsion was carried on Feb. 17, 1769. _Parl. +Hist_. xvi. 577. It was expunged on May 3, 1782. _Ib_ xxii. 1407. + +[328] In the original it is not _rulers_, but _railers_. Johnson's +_Works_, vi. 176. + +[329] How slight the change of system was is shown by a passage in +Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 388. Mr. Forster mentions a 'memorial in +favour of the most worthless of hack-partizans, Shebbeare, which +obtained for him his pension of AL200 a year. It is signed by fifteen +members of the House of Commons, and it asks for a pension "that he may +be enabled to pursue that laudable _inclination which he has_ of +manifesting his zeal for the service of his Majesty and his Government"; +in other words, that a rascal shall be bribed to support a corrupt +administration.' Horace Walpole, in 1757 (_Letters_, iii. 54), described +Shebbeare as one 'who made a pious resolution of writing himself into a +place or the pillory, but who miscarried in both views.' He added in a +note, 'he did write himself into a pillory before the conclusion of that +reign, and into a pension at the beginning of the next, for one and the +same kind of merit--writing against King William and the Revolution.' +See also _post_, end of May, 1781. + +[330] Johnson could scarcely be soothed by lines such as the +following:-- + +'Never wilt thou retain the hoarded store, +In virtue affluent, but in metal poor; + * * * * * +Great is thy prose; great thy poetic strain, +Yet to dull coxcombs are they great in vain. + +[331] Stockdale, who was born in 1736 and died in 1811, wrote _Memoirs +of his Life_--a long, dull book, but containing a few interesting +anecdotes of Johnson. He thought himself, and the world also, much +ill-used by the publishers, when they passed him over and chose Johnson +to edit the _Lives of the Poets_. He lodged both in Johnson's Court and +in Bolt Court, but preserved little good-will for his neighbour. +Johnson, in the _Life of Waller_ (_Works_, vii. 194), quoting from +Stockdale's _Life_ of that poet, calls him 'his last ingenious +biographer.' I. D'Israeli says that 'the bookseller Flexney complained +that whenever this poet came to town, it cost him AL20. Flexney had been +the publisher of Churchill's _Works_, and never forgetting the time when +he published _The Rosciad_, he was speculating all his life for another +Churchill and another quarto poem. Stockdale usually brought him what he +wanted, and Flexney found the workman, but never the work.' _Calamities +of Authors_, ed. 1812, ii. 314. + +[332] 'I believe most men may review all the lives that have passed +within their observation without remembering one efficacious resolution, +or being able to tell a single instance of a course of practice suddenly +changed in consequence of a change of opinion, or an establishment of +determination.' _Idler_, No. 27. 'These sorrowful meditations fastened +upon Rasselas's mind; he passed four months in resolving to lose no more +time in idle resolves.' _Rasselas_, ch. iv. + +[333] _Pr. and Med_. p. 95. [p. 101.] BOSWELL. + +[334] See _ante_, i. 368. + +[335] The passage remains unrevised in the second edition. + +[336] Johnson had suffered greatly from rheumatism this year, as well as +from other disorders. He mentions 'spasms in the stomach which disturbed +me for many years, and for two past harassed me almost to distraction.' +These, however, by means of a strong remedy, had at Easter nearly +ceased. 'The pain,' he adds, 'harrasses me much; yet many leave the +disease perhaps in a much higher degree, with want of food, fire, and +covering, which I find also grievous, with all the succours that riches +kindness can buy and give.' (He was staying at Mr. Thrale's) _Pr. and +Med_. pp. 92-95. 'Shall I ever,' he asks on Easter Day, 'receive the +Sacrament with tranquility? Surely the time will come.' _Ib_ p. 99. + +[337] Son of the learned Mrs. Grierson, who was patronised by the late +Lord Granville, and was the editor of several of the Classicks. BOSWELL. + +[338] + +'Pontificum libros, annosa volumina vatum, +Dictitet Albano Musas in monte locutas.' +'Then swear transported that the sacred Nine +Pronounced on Alba's top each hallowed line.' + +FRANCIS. Horace, _Epis_. II. i. 26. + +[339] See _ante_, i. 131, where Boswell says that 'Johnson afterwards +honestly acknowledged the merit of Walpole.' + +[340] See _post_, May 15, 1783. + +[341] 'His acquaintance was sought by persons of the first eminence in +literature; and his house, in respect of the conversations there, became +an academy.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 329. See _ante_, i. 247, 350, +note 3. + +[342] Probably Madame de Boufflers. See _post_, under November 12, 1775. + +[343] 'To talk in publick, to think in solitude, to read and hear, to +inquire and answer inquiries, is the business of a scholar.' _Rasselas_, +ch. viii. Miss Burney mentions an amusing instance of a consultation by +letter. 'The letter was dated from the Orkneys, and cost Dr. Johnson +eighteen pence. The writer, a clergyman, says he labours under a most +peculiar misfortune, for which he can give no account, and which is +that, though he very often writes letters to his friends and others, he +never gets any answers. He entreats, therefore, that Dr. Johnson will +take this into consideration, and explain to him to what so strange a +thing may be attributed.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 96. + +[344] 'How he [Swift] spent the rest of his time, and how he employed +his hours of study, has been inquired with hopeless curiosity. For who +can give an account of another's studies? Swift was not likely to admit +any to his privacies, or to impart a minute account of his business or +his leisure.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 208. + +[345] See _post_, March 31, 1772. + +[346] 'He loved the poor,' says Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 84), 'as I never +yet saw any one else do, with an earnest desire to make them happy. +"What signifies," says some one, "giving half-pence to common beggars? +they only lay it out in gin or tobacco." "And why should they be denied +such sweeteners of their existence?" says Johnson.' The harm done by +this indiscriminate charity had been pointed out by Fielding in his +_Covent Garden Journal_ for June 2, 1752. He took as the motto for +the paper: + +'O bone, ne te +Frustrere, insanis et tu'; + +which he translates, 'My good friend, do not deceive thyself; for with +all thy charity thou also art a silly fellow.' 'Giving our money to +common beggars,' he describes as 'a kind of bounty that is a crime +against the public.' Fielding's _Works_, x. 77, ed. 1806. Johnson once +allowed (_post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_) that 'one might +give away AL500 a year to those that importune in the streets, and not do +any good.' See also _post_, Oct. 10, 1779. + +[347] He was once attacked, though whether by robbers is not made clear. +See _post_, under Feb. 7, 1775. + +[348] Perhaps it was this class of people which is described in the +following passage:--'It was never against people of coarse life that his +contempt was expressed, while poverty of sentiment in men who considered +themselves to be company _for the parlour_, as he called it, was what he +would not bear.' Piozzi's _Anec_. 215. + +[349] See _ante_, i. 320, for one such offer. + +[350] See _ante_, i. 163, note 1, and _post_, March 30, 1781. + +[351] Dr. T. Campbell, in his _Survey of the South of Ireland_, ed. 1777 +(_post_, April 5, 1775), says:--'By one law of the penal code, if a +Papist have a horse worth fifty, or five hundred pounds, a Protestant +may become the purchaser upon paying him down five. By another of the +same code, a son may say to his father, "Sir, if you don't give me what +money I want, I'll turn _discoverer_, and in spite of you and my elder +brother too, on whom at marriage you settled your estate, I shall become +heir,"' p. 251. Father O'Leary, in his _Remarks on Wesley's Letter_, +published in 1780 (_post_, _Hebrides_, Aug. 15, 1773), says (p. +41):--'He has seen the venerable matron, after twenty-four years' +marriage, banished from the perjured husband's house, though it was +proved in open court that for six months before his marriage he went to +mass. But the law requires that he should be a year and a day of the +same religion.' Burke wrote in 1792: 'The Castle [the government in +Dublin] considers the out-lawry (or what at least I look on as such) of +the great mass of the people as an unalterable maxim in the government +of Ireland.' _Burke's Corres_., iii. 378. See _post_, ii. 130, and May +7, 1773, and Oct. 12, 1779. + +[352] See post, just before Feb. 18, 1775. + +[353] 'Of Sheridan's writings on elocution, Johnson said, they were a +continual renovation of hope, and an unvaried succession of +disappointments.' Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 197. See _post_, May +17, 1783. + +[354] In 1753, Jonas Hanway published his _Travels to Persia_. + +[355] 'Though his journey was completed in eight days he gave a relation +of it in two octavo volumes.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 352. See +_ante_, i. 313. + +[356] See _ante_, i. 68, and _post_, June 9, 1784, note, where he varies +the epithet, calling it 'the best piece of _parenetic_ divinity.' + +[357] '"I taught myself," Law tells us, "the high Dutch language, on +purpose to know the original words of the blessed Jacob."' Overton's +_Life of Law_, p. 181. Behmen, or BA¶hme, the mystic shoemaker of +Gorlitz, was born in 1575, and died in 1624. 'His books may not hold at +all honourable places in libraries; his name may be ridiculous. But he +_was_ a generative thinker. What he knew he knew for himself. It was not +transmitted to him, but fought for.' F.D. Maurice's _Moral and Meta. +Phil_. ii. 325. Of Hudibras's squire, Ralph, it was said: + +'He Anthroposophus, and Floud, +And Jacob Behmen understood.' + +_Hudibras_, I. i. 541. + +Wesley (_Journal_, i. 359) writes of Behmen's _Mysteriun Magnum_, 'I can +and must say thus much (and that with as full evidence as I can say two +and two make four) it is most sublime nonsense, inimitable bombast, +fustian not to be paralleled.' + +[358] 'He heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to +utter,' 2 Corinthians, xii. 4. + +[359] See _ante_, i. 458. In _Humphry Clinker_, in the Letter of June +11, the turnkey of Clerkenwell Prison thus speaks of a Methodist:--'I +don't care if the devil had him; here has been nothing but canting and +praying since the fellow entered the place. Rabbit him! the tap will be +ruined--we han't sold a cask of beer nor a dozen of wine, since he paid +his garnish--the gentlemen get drunk with nothing but your damned +religion.' + +[360] 'John Wesley probably paid more for turnpikes than any other man +in England, for no other person travelled so much.' Southey's _Wesley_, +i. 407. 'He tells us himself, that he preached about 800 sermons in a +year.' _Ib_ ii. 532. In one of his _Appeals to Men of Reason and +Religion_, he asks:--'Can you bear the summer sun to beat upon your +naked head? Can you suffer the wintry rain or wind, from whatever +quarter it blows? Are you able to stand in the open air, without any +covering or defence, when God casteth abroad his snow like wool, or +scattereth his hoar-frost like ashes? And yet these are some of the +smallest inconveniences which accompany field-preaching. For beyond all +these, are the contradiction of sinners, the scoffs both of the great +vulgar and the small; contempt and reproach of every kind--often more +than verbal affronts--stupid, brutal violence, sometimes to the hazard +of health, or limbs, or life. Brethren, do you envy us this honour? +What, I pray you, would buy you to be a field-preacher? Or what, think +you, could induce any man of common sense to continue therein one year, +unless he had a full conviction in himself that it was the will of God +concerning him?' Southey's _Wesley_, i. 405. + +[361] Stockdale reported to Johnson, that Pope had told Lyttelton that +the reason why he had not translated Homer into blank verse was 'that he +could translate it more easily into rhyme. "Sir," replied Johnson, "when +the Pope said that, he knew that he lied."' Stockdale's _Memoirs_, ii. +44. In the _Life of Somervile_, Johnson says:--'If blank verse be not +tumid and gorgeous, it is crippled prose.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 95. +See _post_ beginning of 1781. + +[362] _Ephesians_, v. 20. + +[363] In the original--'Yet all hope pleasure in what yet remain' See +_post_ June 12, 1784. + +[364] See _post_ under Aug 29, 1783, and Boswell's _Hebrides_ Oct 14, +1773. + +[365] 'The chief glory of every people arises from its authours.' +Johnson's _Works_, v 49. + +[366] In a Discourse by Sir William Jones, addressed to the Asiatick +Society [in Calcutta], Feb. 24, 1785, is the following passage:-- + +'One of the most sagacious men in this age who continues, I hope, to +improve and adorn it, Samuel Johnson [he had been dead ten weeks], +remarked in my hearing, that if Newton had flourished in ancient Greece, +he would have been worshipped as a Divinity.' MALONE. Johnson, in _An +Account of an Attempt to ascertain the Longitude_ (_Works_, v, 299), +makes the supposed author say:--'I have lived till I am able to produce +in my favour the testimony of time, the inflexible enemy of false +hypotheses; the only testimony which it becomes human understanding to +oppose to the authority of Newton.' + +[367] Murphy (_Life_, p. 91) places the scene of such a conversation in +the house of the Bishop of Salisbury. 'Boscovitch,' he writes, 'had a +ready current flow of that flimsy phraseology with which a priest may +travel through Italy, Spain, and Germany. Johnson scorned what he called +colloquial barbarisms. It was his pride to speak his best. He went on, +after a little practice, with as much facility as if it was his native +tongue. One sentence this writer well remembers. Observing that +Fontenelle at first opposed the Newtonian philosophy, and embraced it +afterwards, his words were:--"Fontenellus, ni fallor, in extrema +senectute fuit transfuga ad castra Newtoniana."' See _post_, under Nov. +12, 1775. Boscovitch, the Jesuit astronomer, was a professor in the +University of Pavia. When Dr. Burney visited him, 'he complained very +much of the silence of the English astronomers, who answer none of his +letters.' Burney's _Tour in France and Italy_, p. 92. + +[368] See _post_, in 1781, the _Life of Lyttelton_. + +[369] The first of Macpherson's forgeries was _Fragments of Ancient +Poetry collected in the Highlands_. Edinburgh, 1760. In 1762, he +published in London, _The Works of Ossian, the son of Fingal_, 2 vols. +Vol. i. contained _Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem_, in six Books. See +_post_, Jan 1775. + +[370] Horace, _Ars Poetica_, l. 41. + +[371] Perhaps Johnson had some ill-will towards attorneys, such as he +had towards excisemen (_ante_, i. 36, note 5 and 294). In _London_, +which was published in May, 1738, he couples them with street robbers: + +'Their ambush here relentless ruffians lay, +And here the fell attorney prowls for prey.' + +_Works_, i. 1. In a paper in the _Gent. Mag_. for following June (p. +287), written, I have little doubt, by him, the profession is this +savagely attacked:--'Our ancestors, in ancient times, had some regard to +the moral character of the person sent to represent them in their +national assemblies, and would have shewn some degree of resentment or +indignation, had their votes been asked for murderer, an adulterer, a +know oppressor, an hireling evidence, an attorney, a gamester, or pimp.' +In the _Life of Blackmere_ (_Works_, viii. 36) he has a sly hit at the +profession. 'Sir Richard Blackmore was the son of Robert Blackmore, +styled by Wood gentleman, and supposed to have been an attorney.' We may +compare Goldsmith's lines in _Retaliation_:--'Then what was his failing? +come tell it, and burn ye,-- + +'He was, could he help it? a special attorney.' + +See also _post_, under June 16, 1784. + +[372] See _ante_, i. Appendix F. + +[373] Dr. Maxwell is perhaps here quoting the _Idler_, No. 69, where +Johnson, speaking of _Bioethics on the Confronts of Philosophy_, calls +it 'the book which seems to have been the favourite of the middle ages.' + +[374] Yet it is Murphy's tragedy of _Zenobia_ that Mrs. Piozzi writes +(_Anec_. p. 280):--'A gentleman carried Dr. Johnson his tragedy, which +because he loved the author, he took, and it lay about our rooms some +time. "Which answer did you give your friend, Sir?" said I, after the +book had been called for. "I told him," replied he, "that there was too +_Tig and Terry_ in it." Seeing me laugh most violently, "Why, what +would'st have, child?" said he. "I looked at nothing but the _dramatis_ +[_personae_], and there was _Tigranes_ and _Tiridates_, or _Teribaeus_, +or such stuff. A man can tell but what he knows, and I never got any +further than the _first_ pages."' In _Zenobia_ two and Tigranes. + +[375] Hume was one who had this idle dream. Shortly before his death one +of his friends wrote:--'He still maintains that the national debt must +be the ruin of Britain; and laments that the two most civilised nations, +the English and French, should be on the decline; and the barbarians, +the Goths and Vandals of Germany and Russia, should be rising in power +and renown.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 497. + +[376] Hannah More was with Dr. Kennicott at his death. 'Thus closed a +life,' she wrote (_Memoirs_, i. 289), 'the last thirty years of which +were honourably spent in collating the Hebrew Scriptures.' See also +Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 16, 1773. + +[377] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 467) says that Mallet, in return for what +he wrote against Byng, 'had a considerable pension bestowed upon him, +which he retained to his death.' See _ante_, i. 268. + +[378] See _ante_, ii. 76. + +[379] 'It is dangerous for a man and woman to suspend their fate upon +each other at a time when opinions are fixed, and habits are +established; when friendships have been contracted on both sides; when +life has been planned into method, and the mind has long enjoyed the +contemplation of its own prospects.' _Rasselas_, ch. xxix. + +[380] Malone records that 'Cooper was round and fat. Dr. Warton, one +day, when dining with Johnson, urged in his favour that he was, at +least, very well informed, and a good scholar. "Yes," said Johnson, "it +cannot be denied that he has good materials for playing the fool, and he +makes abundant use of them."' Prior's _Malone_, p. 428. See _post_, +Sept. 15, 1777, note. + +[381] See _post_, Sept 21, 1777, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22, +1773. + +[382] But see _ante_, i. 299, where Johnson owned that his happier days +had come last. + +[383] + +'In youth alone unhappy mortals live, +But ah! the mighty bliss is fugitive; +Discolour'd sickness, anxious labours come, +And age, and death's inexorable doom.' + +DRYDEN. Virgil, _Georgics_, iii. 66. In the first edition Dr. Maxwell's +_Collectanea_ ended here. What follows was given in the second edition +in _Additions received after the second edition was printed_, i. v. + +[384] To Glaucus. Clarke's translation is:--'Ut semper fortissime rem +gererem, et superior virtute essem aliis.' _Iliad_, vi. 208. Cowper's +version is:-- + +'That I should outstrip always all mankind In worth and valour.' + +[385] Maxwell calls him his old master, because Sharpe was Master of the +Temple when Maxwell was assistant preacher. CROKER. + +[386] Dr. T. Campbell, in his _Survey of the South of Ireland_, p. 185, +writes: 'In England the meanest cottager is better fed, better lodged, +and better dressed than the most opulent farmers here.' See post, +Oct. 19, 1779. + +[387] In the vice-royalty of the Duke of Bedford, which began in Dec. +1756, 'in order to encourage tillage a law was passed granting bounties +on the land carriage of corn and flour to the metropolis.' Lecky's +_Hist. of Eng_. ii. 435. In 1773-4 a law was passed granting bounties +upon the export of Irish corn to foreign countries. _Ib_ iv. 415. + +[388] See _ante_, i. 434. + +[389] See _ante_, ii. 121. Lord Kames, in his _Sketches of the History +of Man_, published in 1774, says:--'In Ireland to this day goods +exported are loaded with a high duty, without even distinguishing made +work from raw materials; corn, for example, fish, butter, horned cattle, +leather, &c. And, that nothing may escape, all goods exported that are +not contained in the book of rates, pay five per cent, _ad valorem_.' +ii. 413. These export duties were selfishly levied in what was supposed +to be the interest of England. + +[390] 'At this time [1756] appeared Brown's _Estimate_, a book now +remembered only by the allusions in Cowper's _Table Talk_ [Cowper's +_Poems_, ed. 1786, i. 20] and in Burke's _Letters on a Regicide Peace_ +[Payne's _Burke_, p. 9]. It was universally read, admired, and believed. +The author fully convinced his readers that they were a race of cowards +and scoundrels; that nothing could save them; that they were on the +point of being enslaved by their enemies, and that they richly deserved +their fate.' Macaulay's _Essays_, ii. 183. Dr. J.H. Burton says:--'Dr. +Brown's book is said to have run to a seventh edition in a few months. +It is rather singular that the edition marked as the seventh has +precisely the same matter in each page, and the same number of pages as +the first.' _Life of Hume_, ii. 23. Brown wrote two tragedies, +_Barbarossa_ and _Athelstan_, both of which Garrick brought out at Drury +Lane. In _Barbarossa_ Johnson observed 'that there were two +improprieties; in the first place, the use of a bell is unknown to the +Mahometans; and secondly, Otway had tolled a bell before Dr. Brown, and +we are not to be made April fools twice by the same trick.' Murphy's +_Garrick_, p. 173. Brown's vanity is shown in a letter to Garrick +(_Garrick Corres_. i. 220) written on Jan. 19, 1766, in which he talks +of going to St. Petersburg, and drawing up a System of Legislation for +the Russian Empire. In the following September, in a fit of madness, he +made away with himself. + +[391] See _post_, May 8, 1781. + +[392] Horace Walpole, writing in May, 1764, says:--'The Earl of +Northumberland returned from Ireland, where his profusion and +ostentation had been so great that it seemed to lay a dangerous +precedent for succeeding governors.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George +III_, i. 417. He was created Duke in 1766. For some pleasant anecdotes +about this nobleman and Goldsmith, see Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 66, +and Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 379, and ii. 227. + +[393] Johnson thus writes of him (_Works_, viii. 207):--'The Archbishop +of Dublin gave him at first some disturbance in the exercise of his +jurisdiction; but it was soon discovered that between prudence and +integrity he was seldom in the wrong; and that, when he was right, his +spirit did not easily yield to opposition.' He adds: 'He delivered +Ireland from plunder and oppression, and showed that wit confederated +with truth had such force as authority was unable to resist. He said +truly of himself that Ireland "was his debtor." It was from the time +when he first began to patronise the Irish, that they may date their +riches and prosperity.' _Ib_ p. 319. Pope, in his _Imitations of +Horace_, II. i. 221, says:-- + +'Let Ireland tell how wit upheld her cause, +Her trade supported, and supplied her laws; +And leave on Swift this grateful verse engraved, +"The rights a Court attacked, a poet saved."' + +[394] These lines have been discovered by the author's second son in the +_London Magazine_ for July 1732, where they form part of a poem on +_Retirement_, copied, with some slight variations, from one of Walsh's +smaller poems, entitled _The Retirement_. They exhibit another proof +that Johnson retained in his memory fragments of neglected poetry. In +quoting verses of that description, he appears by a slight variation to +have sometimes given them a moral turn, and to have dexterously adapted +them to his own sentiments, where the original had a very different +tendency. In 1782, when he was at Brighthelmstone, he repeated to Mr. +Metcalfe, some verses, as very characteristic of a celebrated historian +[Gibbon]. They are found among some anonymous poems appended to the +second volume of a collection frequently printed by Lintot, under the +title of _Pope's Miscellanies_:-- + +'See how the wand'ring Danube flows, + Realms and religions parting; +A friend to all true Christian foes, + To Peter, Jack, and Martin. +Now Protestant, and Papist now, + Not constant long to either, +At length an infidel does grow, + And ends his journey neither. +Thus many a youth I've known set out, + Half Protestant, half Papist, +And rambling long the world about, + Turn infidel or atheist.' + +MALONE. See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_, and Boswell's +_Hebrides_ Aug. 27, and Oct. 28, 1773. + +[395] Juvenal, _Sat_. iii. 1. 2. + +'Yet still my calmer thoughts his choice commend.' + +Johnson's _London_, 1. 3. + +[396] It was published without the authors name. + +[397] 'What have we acquired? What but ... an island thrown aside from +human use; ... an island which not the southern savages have dignified +with habitation.' _Works_, vi. 198. + +[398] 'It is wonderful with what coolness and indifference the greater +part of mankind see war commenced. Those that hear of it at a distance, +or read of it in books, but have never presented its evils to their +minds, consider it as little more than a splendid game, a proclamation, +an army, a battle, and a triumph. Some, indeed, must perish in the most +successful field, but they die upon the bed of honour, "resign their +lives, amidst the joys of conquest, and, filled with England's glory, +smile in death." The life of a modern soldier is ill-represented by +heroic fiction. War has means of destruction more formidable than the +cannon and the sword. + +Of the thousands and ten thousands that perished in our late contests +with France and Spain, a very small part ever felt the stroke of an +enemy; the rest languished in tents and ships, amidst damps and +putrefaction; pale, torpid, spiritless, and helpless; gasping and +groaning, unpitied among men made obdurate by long continuance of +hopeless misery; and were at last whelmed in pits, or heaved into the +ocean, without notice and without remembrance. By incommodious +encampments and unwholesome stations, where courage is useless, and +enterprise impracticable, fleets are silently dispeopled, and armies +sluggishly melted away.' _Works_, vi. 199. + +[399] Johnson wrote of the Earl of Chatham:--'This surely is a +sufficient answer to the feudal gabble of a man who is every day +lessening that splendour of character which once illuminated the +kingdom, then dazzled, and afterwards inflamed it; and for whom it will +be happy if the nation shall at last dismiss him to nameless obscurity, +with that equipoise of blame and praise which Corneille allows to +Richelieu.' _Works_, vi. 197. + +[400] _Ephesians_, vi. 12. Johnson (_Works_, vi. 198) calls Junius 'one +of the few writers of his despicable faction whose name does not +disgrace the page of an opponent.' But he thus ends his attack;--'What, +says Pope, must be the priest where a monkey is the god? What must be +the drudge of a party of which the heads are Wilkes and Crosby, +Sawbridge and Townsend?' _Ib_ p. 206. + +[401] This softening was made in the later copies of the _first_ +edition. A second change seems to have been made. In the text, as given +in Murphy's edition (1796, viii. 137), the last line of the passage +stands:--'If he was sometimes wrong, he was often right.' Horace Walpole +describes Grenville's 'plodding, methodic genius, which made him take +the spirit of detail for ability.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, +i. 36. For the fine character that Burke drew of him see Payne's +_Burke_, i. 122. There is, I think, a hit at Lord Bute's Chancellor of +the Exchequer, Sir F. Dashwood (Lord Le Despencer), who was described as +'a man to whom a sum of five figures was an impenetrable secret.' +Walpole's _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, i. 172, note. He himself +said, 'People will point at me, and cry, "there goes the worst +Chancellor of the Exchequer that ever appeared."' _Ib_ p. 250. + +[402] Boswell, I suspect, quoted this passage from hearsay, for +originally it stood:--'If he could have got the money, he could have +counted it' (p. 68). In the British Museum there are copies of the first +edition both _softened_ and _unsoftened_. + +[403] _Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands_. +BOSWELL. + +[404] By comparing the first with the subsequent editions, this curious +circumstance of ministerial authorship may be discovered. BOSWELL. + +[405] _Navigation_ was the common term for canals, which at that time +were getting rapidly made. A writer in _Notes and Queries_, 6th, xi. 64, +shows that Langton, as payment of a loan, undertook to pay Johnson's +servant, Frank, an annuity for life, secured on profits from the +_navigation_ of the River Wey in Surrey. + +[406] It was, Mr. Chalmers told me, a saying about that time, 'Married a +Countess Dowager of Rothes!' 'Why, everybody marries a Countess Dowager +of Rothes!' And there were in fact, about 1772, three ladies of that +name married to second husbands. CROKER. Mr. Langton married one of +these ladies. + +[407] _The Hermit of Warkworth: A Ballad in three cantos_. T. Davis, 25. +6d. Cradock (_Memoirs_, i. 207) quotes Johnson's parody on a stanza in +_The Hermit_: + +'I put my hat upon my head, + And walked into the Strand, + And there I met another man + With his hat in his hand.' + +'Mr. Garrick,' he continues, 'asked me whether I had seen Johnson's +criticism on the _Hermit_. "It is already," said he, "over half +the town."' + +[408] '"I am told," says a letter-writer of the day, "that Dr. Goldsmith +now generally lives with his countryman, Lord Clare, who has lost his +only son, Colonel Nugent."' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 228. '_The Haunch +of Venison_ was written this year (1771), and appears to have been +written for Lord Clare alone; nor was it until two years after the +writer's death that it obtained a wider audience than his immediate +circle of friends.' _Ib_ p. 230. See _post_, April 17, 1778. + +[409] Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, i. 222) mentions Mr. Strahan:--'I agreed +upon easy terms with Mr. Thomas Cadell, a respectable bookseller, and +Mr. William Strahan, an eminent printer, and they undertook the care and +risk of the publication [of the _Decline and Fall_], which derived more +credit from the name of the shop than from that of the author.... So +moderate were our hopes, that the original impression had been stinted +to five hundred, till the number was doubled by the prophetic taste of +Mr. Strahan.' Hume, by his will, left to Strahan's care all his +manuscripts, 'trusting,' he says, 'to the friendship that has long +subsisted between us for his careful and faithful execution of my +intentions.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 494. See _ib_. p. 512, for a +letter written to Hume on his death-bed by Strahan. + +[410] Dr. Franklin, writing of the year 1773, says (_Memoirs_, i. +398):--'An acquaintance (Mr. Strahan, M.P.) calling on me, after having +just been at the Treasury, showed me what he styled _a pretty thing_, +for a friend of his; it was an order for AL150, payable to Dr. Johnson, +said to be one half of his yearly pension.' + +[411] See _post_, July 27, 1778. + +[412] Hawkins (_Life_, p. 513) says that Mr. Thrale made the same +attempt. 'He had two meetings with the ministry, who at first seemed +inclined to find Johnson a seat.' 'Lord Stowell told me,' says Mr. +Croker, 'that it was understood amongst Johnson's friends that Lord +North was afraid that Johnson's help (as he himself said of Lord +Chesterfield's) might have been sometimes _embarrassing_. "He perhaps +thought, and not unreasonably," added Lord Stowell, "that, like the +elephant in the battle, he was quite as likely to trample down his +friends as his foes."' Lord Stowell referred to Johnson's letter to +Chesterfield (_ante_, i. 262), in which he describes a patron as 'one +who encumbers a man with help.' + +[413] Boswell married his cousin Margaret Montgomerie on Nov. 25, 1769. +On the same day his father married for the second time. _Scots Mag_. for +1769, p. 615. Boswell, in his _Letter to the People of Scotland_ (p. +55), published in 1785, describes his wife as 'a true _Montgomerie_, +whom I esteem, whom I love, after fifteen years, as on the day when she +gave me her hand.' See his _Hebrides_, Aug. 14, 1773. + +[414] + +'Musis amicus, tristitiam et metus +Tradam, &c. + +While in the Muse's friendship blest, +Nor fear, nor grief, shall break my rest; +Bear them, ye vagrant winds, away, +And drown them in the Cretan Sea.' + +FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, i. 26. I. + +[415] Horace. _Odes_, i. 22. 5. + +[416] Lord Elibank wrote to Boswell two years later:--'Old as I am, I +shall be glad to go five hundred miles to enjoy a day of Mr. Johnson's +company.' Boswell's _Hebrides_ under date of Sept. 12, 1773. See _ib_. +Nov. 10, and _post_, April 5, 1776. + +[417] Goldsmith wrote to Langton on Sept. 7, 1771:--'Johnson has been +down upon a visit to a country parson, Doctor Taylor, and is returned to +his old haunts at Mrs. Thrale's.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 93. + +[418] While Miss Burney was examining a likeness of Johnson, 'he no +sooner discerned it than he began see-sawing for a moment or two in +silence; and then, with a ludicrous half-laugh, peeping over her +shoulder, he called out:--"Ah, ha! Sam Johnson! I see thee!--and an ugly +dog thou art!"' _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, ii. 180. In another passage (p. +197), after describing 'the kindness that irradiated his austere and +studious features into the most pleased and pleasing benignity,' as he +welcomed her and her father to his house, she adds that a lady who was +present often exclaimed, 'Why did not Sir Joshua Reynolds paint Dr. +Johnson when he was speaking to Dr. Burney or to you?' + +[419] 'Johnson,' wrote Beattie from London on Sept. 8 of this year, 'has +been greatly misrepresented. I have passed several entire days with him, +and found him extremely agreeable.' Beattie's _Life_, ed. 1824, p. 120. + +[420] He was preparing the fourth edition, See _post, March 23, 1772. + +[421] 'Sept. 18, 1771, 9 at night. I am now come to my sixty-third year. +For the last year I have been slowly recovering both from the violence +of my last illness, and, I think, from the general disease of my life: +... some advances I hope have been made towards regularity. I have +missed church since Easter only two Sundays.... But indolence and +indifference has [sic] been neither conquered nor opposed.' _Pr. and +Med_. p. 104. + +[422] 'Let us search and try our ways.' _Lamentations_ iii. 40. + +[423] _Pr. and Med_. p. 101 [105]. BOSWELL. + +[424] Boswell forgets the fourth edition of his _Dictionary_. Johnson, +in Aug. 1771 (_ante_, p. 142), wrote to Langton:--'I am engaging in a +very great work, the revision of my _Dictionary_.' In _Pr. and Med_. p. +123, at Easter, 1773, as he 'reviews the last year,' he records:--'Of +the spring and summer I remember that I was able in those seasons to +examine and improve my _Dictionary_, and was seldom withheld from the +work but by my own unwillingness.' + +[425] Thus translated by a friend:-- + +'In fame scarce second to the nurse of Jove, +This Goat, who twice the world had traversed round, +Deserving both her masters care and love, +Ease and perpetual pasture now has found.' + +BOSWELL. + +[426] Cockburn (_Life of Jeffrey_, i. 4) says that the High School of +Edinburgh, in 1781, 'was cursed by two under master, whose atrocities +young men cannot be made to believe, but old men cannot forget, and the +criminal law would not now endure.' + +[427] Mr. Langton married the Countess Dowager of Rothes. BOSWELL. + +[428] From school. See _ante_, ii. 62. + +[429] See _ante_, i. 44. + +[430] Johnson used to say that schoolmasters were worse than the +Egyptian task-masters of old. 'No boy,' says he, 'is sure any day he +goes to school to escape a whipping. How can the schoolmaster tell what +the boy has really forgotten, and what he has neglected to learn?' +Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 209. 'I rejoice,' writes J. S. Mill +(_Auto_. p. 53), 'in the decline of the old, brutal, and tyrannical +system of teaching, which, however, did succeed in enforcing habits of +application; but the new, as it seems to me, is training up a race of +men who be incapable of doing anything which is disagreeable to them.' + +[431] See _ante_, i. 373. + +[432] See _ante_, ii. 74. + +[433] The ship in which Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander were to have sailed +was the Endeavour. It was, they said, unfit for the voyage. The +Admiralty altered it in such a way as to render it top-heavy. It was +nearly overset on going down the river. Then it was rendered safe by +restoring it to its former condition. When the explorers raised their +former objections, they were told to take it or none. _Ann. Reg_. xv. +108. See also Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 18, 1773. + +[434] I suspect that _Raleigh_ is here an error of Mr. Boswell's pen for +_Drake_. CROKER. Johnson had written Drake's _Life_, and therefore must +have had it well in mind that it was Drake who went round the world. + +[435] _Romeo and Juliet_, act v. sc. 1. + +[436] 'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. + +'_Edinburgh_, May 3, 1792. + +'MY DEAR SIR, + +'As I suppose your great work will soon be reprinted, I beg leave to +trouble you with a remark on a passage of it, in which I am a little +misrepresented. Be not alarmed; the misrepresentation is not imputable +to you. Not having the book at hand, I cannot specify the page, but I +suppose you will easily find it. Dr. Johnson says, speaking of Mrs. +Thrale's family, "Dr. Beattie _sunk upon us_ that he was married, or +words to that purpose." I am not sure that I understand _sunk upon us_, +which is a very uncommon phrase, but it seems to me to imply, (and +others, I find, have understood it in the same sense,) _studiously +concealed from us his being married_. Now, Sir, this was by no means the +case. I could have no motive to conceal a circumstance, of which I never +was nor can be ashamed; and of which Dr. Johnson seemed to think, when +he afterwards became acquainted with Mrs. Beattie, that I had, as was +true, reason to be proud. So far was I from concealing her, that my wife +had at that time almost as numerous an acquaintance in London as I had +myself; and was, not very long after, kindly invited and elegantly +entertained at Streatham by Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. + +'My request, therefore, is, that you would rectify this matter in your +new edition. You are at liberty to make what use you please of +this letter. + +'My best wishes ever attend you and your family. Believe me to be, with +the utmost regard and esteem, dear Sir, + +'Your obliged and affectionate humble servant, J. BEATTIE.' + +I have, from my respect for my friend Dr. Beattie, and regard to his +extreme sensibility, inserted the foregoing letter, though I cannot but +wonder at his considering as any imputation a phrase commonly used among +the best friends. BOSWELL. Mr. Croker says there was a cause for the +'extreme sensibility.' 'Dr. Beattie was conscious that there was +something that might give a colour to such an imputation. It became +known, shortly after the date of this letter, that the mind of Mrs. +Beattie had become deranged.' Beattie would have found in Johnson's +_Dictionary_ an explanation of _sunk upon us_--'_To sink. To suppress; +to conceal_. "If sent with ready money to buy anything, and you happen +to be out of pocket, _sink_ the money and take up the goods on +account."' Swift's _Rules to Servants_, _Works_, viii. 256. + +[437] See _ante_, i 450. + +[438] See _ante_, ii. 10. + +[439] See _Post_, April 15, 1778, note, and June 12, 1784. + +[440] See ante, i. 405. + +[441] _St. John_, xv. 24 + +[442] See note, p. 51 of this volume. BOSWELL. + +[443] See _ante_, ii. 105. + +[444] The petition was presented on Feb. 6 of this year. By a majority +thrown of 217 to 71 leave was refused for it to be brought up. _Parl. +Hist_. xvii. 245-297. Gibbon, in a letter dated Feb. 8, 1772 (_Misc. +Works_, ii. 74), congratulates Mr. Holroyd 'on the late victory of our +dear mamma, the Church of England. She had, last Thursday, 71 rebellious +sons, who pretended to set aside her will on account of insanity; but +217 worthy champions, headed by Lord North, Burke, and Charles Fox, +though they allowed the thirty-nine clauses of her testament were absurd +and unreasonable, supported the validity of it with infinite humour. By +the by, Charles Fox prepared himself for that holy war by passing +twenty-two hours in the pious exercise of hazard; his devotion cost him +only about AL500 per hour--in all, AL11,000.' See Boswell's _Hebrides_, +Aug. 19, 1773. + +[445] 'Lord George Germayne,' writes Horace Walpole, 'said that he +wondered the House did not take some steps on this subject with regard +to the Universities, where boys were made to subscribe to the Articles +without reading them--a scandalous abuse.' _Journal of the Reign of +George III_, i. 11. + +[446] See _ante_, ii. 104. + +[447] Burke had thus answered Boswell's proposal:--'What is that +Scripture to which they are content to subscribe? The Bible is a vast +collection of different treatises; a man who holds the divine authority +of one may consider the other as merely human. Therefore, to ascertain +Scripture you must have one Article more, and you must define what that +Scripture is which you mean to teach.' _Parl. Hist_. xvii. 284. + +[448] Dr. Nowell (_post_, June 11, 1784) had this year preached the fast +sermon before the House of Commons on Jan. 30, the anniversary of the +execution of Charles I, and received the usual vote of thanks. _Parl. +Hist. xvii_. 245. On Feb. 25 the entry of the vote was, without a +division, ordered to be expunged. On the publication of the sermon it +had been seen that Nowell had asserted that George III was endued with +the same virtues as Charles I, and that the members of the House were +the descendants of those who had opposed that King. _Ib_ p. 313, and +_Ann. Reg_. xv. 79. On March 2, Mr. Montague moved for leave to bring in +a bill to abolish the fast, but it was refused by 125 to 97. _Parl. +Hist_. xvii. 319. The fast was abolished in 1859--thirteen years within +the century that Johnson was ready to allow it. 'It is remarkable,' +writes Horace Walpole, 'that George III had never from the beginning of +his reign gone to church on the 30th of January, whereas George II +always did.' _Journal of the Reign of George III_, i. 41. + +[449] This passage puzzled Mr. Croker and Mr. Lockhart. The following +extract from the _Gent. Mag_. for Feb. 1772, p. 92, throws light on +Johnson's meaning:--'This, say the opposers of the Bill, is putting it +in the King's power to change the order of succession, as he may for +ever prevent, if he is so minded, the elder branches of the family from +marrying, and therefore may establish the succession in the younger. Be +this as it may, is it not, in fact, converting the holy institution of +marriage into a mere state contract?' See also the Protest of fourteen +of the peers in _Parl. Hist_. xvii. 391, and _post_, April 15, 1773. +Horace Walpole ends his account of the Marriage Bill by saying:--'Thus +within three weeks were the Thirty-nine Articles affirmed and the New +Testament deserted.' _Journal of the Reign of George III_, i. 37. How +carelessly this Act was drawn was shown by Lord Eldon, when +Attorney-General, in the case of the marriage of the Duke of Sussex to +Lady Augusta Murray. 'Lord Thurlow said to me angrily at the Privy +Council, "Sir, why have you not prosecuted under the Act of Parliament +all the parties concerned in this abominable marriage?" To which I +answered, "That it was a very difficult business to prosecute--that the +Act had been drawn by Lord Mansfield and _Mr. Attorney-General Thurlow_, +and Mr. Solicitor-General Wedderburne, and unluckily they had made all +parties present at the marriage guilty of felony; and as nobody could +prove the marriage except a person who had been present at it, there +could be no prosecution, because nobody present could be compelled to be +a witness." This put an end to the matter.' Twiss's _Eldon_, i. 234. + +[450] See _post_, May 9, 1773, and May 13, 1778. + +[451] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 25, 1773, where Johnson, discussing +the same question, says:--'There is generally a _scoundrelism_ about +a low man.' + +[452] Mackintosh told Mr. Croker that this friend was Mr. Cullen, +afterwards a judge by the name of Lord Cullen. In _Boswelliana_ (pp. +250-2), Boswell mentions him thrice, and always as 'Cullen the mimick.' +His manner, he says, was wretched, and his physiognomy worse than +Wilkes's. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 268) says that 'Cullen possessed +the talent of mimicry beyond all mankind; for his was not merely an +exact imitation of voice and manner of speaking, but a perfect +exhibition of every man's manner of thinking on every subject.' Carlyle +mentions two striking instances of this. + +[453] See _post_, May 15, 1776. + +[454] 'The prince of Dublin printers,' as Swift called him. Swift's +_Works_ (1803), xviii. 288. He was taken off by Foote under the name of +Peter Paragraph, in _The Orators_, the piece in which he had meant to +take off Johnson (_ante_, ii. 95). 'Faulkner consoled himself (pending +his prosecution of the libeller) by printing the libel, and selling it +most extensively.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 287. See Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Aug. 29. + +[455] Faulkner had lost one of his legs. 'When Foote had his accident +(_ante_, ii. 95), "Now I shall take off old Faulkner indeed to the +life," was the first remark he made when what he had to suffer was +announced to him.' Forster's _Essays_, ii. 400. + +[456] A writer in the _Monthly Review_, lxxvi. 374 (no doubt Murphy), +says:--'A large number of friends such as Johnson, Mr. Burke, and Mr. +Murphy dined at Garrick's at Christmas, 1760. Foote was then in Dublin. +It was said at table that he had been horse-whipped by an apothecary for +taking him off upon the stage. "But I wonder," said Garrick, "that any +man would show so much resentment to Foote; nobody ever thought it worth +his while to quarrel with him in London." "And I am glad," said Johnson, +"to find that the man is rising in the world." The anecdote was +afterwards told to Foote, who in return gave out that he would in a +short time produce the Caliban of literature on the stage. Being +informed of this design, Johnson sent word to Foote, that, the theatre +being intended for the reformation of vice, he would go from the boxes +on the stage, and correct him before the audience, Foote abandoned the +design. No ill-will ensued.' + +[457] See _post_, May 15, 1776, where Johnson says:--'I turned Boswell +loose at Lichfield, my native city, that he might see for once real +_civility_. + +[458] In my list of Boswell's projected works (_ante_, i. 225, note 2) I +have omitted this. + +[459] See _post_, April 7, 1775. + +[460] Boswell visited Ireland in the summer of 1760. Prior's +_Goldsmith_, i. 450. + +[461] Puffendorf states that 'tutors and schoolmasters have a right to +the moderate use of gentle discipline over their pupils'--viii. 3-10; +adding, rather superfluously, Grotius's _caveat_, that 'it shall not +extend to a power of death.' CROKER. + +[462] The brother of Sir J. Macdonald, mentioned _ante_, i. 449. Johnson +visited him in the Isle of Skye. 'He had been very well pleased with him +in London, but he was dissatisfied at hearing heavy complaints of rents +racked, and the people driven to emigration.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, +Sept. 2, 1773. He reproached him also with meanness as a host. + +[463] Lord Campbell (_Lives of the Chancellors_, v. 449) points out that +this conversation followed close on the appointment of 'the incompetent +Bathurst' as Chancellor. 'Such a conversation,' he adds, 'would not have +occurred during the chancellorship of Lord Hardwicke or Lord Somers.' + +[464] + +'But if at first he minds his hits, + And drinks champagne among the wits,' &c. + +Prior's _Chameleon_, 1. 39. + +[465] 'Plain truth, _dear Murray_, needs no flowers of speech.' Pope +thus addresses him in Epistle vi. Book i. of his _Imitations of Horace_, +which he dedicated to him. + +[466] See _ante_, 386. + +[467] See _post_, March 23, 1776. + +[468] Afterwards Lord Ashburton. Described by Johnson (_post_, July 22, +1777), as 'Mr. Dunning, the great lawyer.' + +[469] 'Having cleared his tongue from his native pronunciation, so as to +be no longer distinguished as a Scot, he seems inclined to disencumber +himself from all adherences of his original, and took upon him to change +his name from Scotch _Malloch_ to English _Mallet_, without any +imaginable reason of preference which the eye or ear can discover. What +other proofs he gave of disrespect to his native country I know not, but +it was remarked of him that he was the only Scot whom Scotchmen did not +commend.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 464. See _ante_, i. 268, and _post_, +April 28, 1783. + +[470] Mr. Love was, so far as is known, the first who advised Boswell to +keep a journal. When Boswell was but eighteen, writing of a journey he +had taken, he says: 'I kept an exact journal, at the particular desire +of my friend, Mr. Love, and sent it to him in sheets every post.' +_Letters of Boswell_, p. 8. + +[471] 'That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool +that uses it.' _Hamlet_, iii. 2. + +[472] Jeffrey wrote from Oxford, where he spent nine months in +1791-2:--'The only part of a Scotchman I mean to abandon is the +language, and language is all I expect to learn in England.' (Cockburn's +_Jeffrey_, i. 46). His biographer says:--'He certainly succeeded in the +abandonment of his habitual Scotch. The change was so sudden and so +complete, that it excited the surprise of his friends, and furnished +others with ridicule for many years.... The result, on the whole, was +exactly as described by Lord Holland, who said that though Jeffrey "had +lost the broad Scotch at Oxford, he had only gained the narrow +English."' Cockburn, in forgetfulness of Mallet's case, says that 'the +acquisition of a pure English accent by a full-grown Scotchman is +fortunately impossible.' + +[473] Henry Dundas, afterwards Viscount Melville. See _post_, under Nov. +29, 1777. Boswell wrote to Temple on May 22, 1775:--'Harry Dundas is +going to be made King's Advocate--Lord Advocate at thirty-three! I +cannot help being angry and somewhat fretful at this; he has, to be +sure, strong parts, but he is a coarse, unlettered, unfanciful dog.' +_Letters of Boswell_, p. 195. Horace Walpole describes him as 'the +rankest of all Scotchmen, and odious for that bloody speech that had +fixed on him the nick-name of _Starvation_! _Journal of the Reign of +George III_, ii. 479. On p. 637 he adds:--'The happily coined word +"starvation" delivered a whole continent from the Northern harpies that +meant to devour it.' The speech in which Dundas introduced _starvation_ +was made in 1775. Walpole's _Letters_, viii. 30. See _Parl. Hist_., +xviii. 387. His character is drawn with great force by Cockburn. _Life +of Jeffrey_, i. 77. + +[474] The correspondent of Hume. See J. H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 320. + +[475] See _post_, May 12, 1778. + +[476] In the _Plan_ (Works, v. 9), Johnson noticed the difference of the +pronunciation of _great_. 'Some words have two sounds which may be +equally admitted as being equally defensible by authority. Thus _great_ +is differently used:-- + +'For Swift and him despised the farce of state, +The sober follies of the wise and great.'--POPE. + +'As if misfortune made the throne her seat, +And none could be unhappy but the great.'--ROWE. + +In the _Preface to the Dictionary_ (_Works_, v. 25), Johnson says that +'the vowels are capriciously pronounced, and differently modified by +accident or affectation, not only in every province, but in every +mouth.' Swift gives both rhymes within ten lines:-- + +'My lord and he are grown so great-- +Always together, tAªte-A -tAªte.' + + * * * * * + +'You, Mr. Dean, frequent the great, Inform us, will the emperor treat?' +Swift's _Works_ (1803), x. 110. + +[477] 'Dr. Henry More, of Cambridge, Johnson did not much affect; he was +a Platonist, and, in Johnson's opinion, a visionary. He would frequently +cite from him, and laugh at, a passage to this effect:--"At the +consummation of all things, it shall come to pass that eternity shall +shake hands with opacity"' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 543. + +[478] See _post_, April 17, 1778, and May 19, 1784. + +[479] See _ante_, i. 240, and ii. 105. + +[480] _Revelations_, xiv. 2. + +[481] Johnson, in _The Rambler_, No. 78, describes man's death as 'a +change not only of the place, but the manner of his being; an entrance +into a state not simply which he knows not, but which perhaps he has not +faculties to know.' + +[482] This fiction is known to have been invented by Daniel Defoe, and +was added to Drelincourt's book, to make it sell. The first edition had +it not. MALONE. 'More than fifty editions have not exhausted its +popularity. The hundreds of thousands who have bought the silly treatise +of Drelincourt have borne unconscious testimony to the genius of De +Foe.' Forster's _Essays_, ii. 70. + +[483] See _ante_, i. 29. + +[484] In his _Life of Akenside ( Works_, viii. 475) he says:--'Of +Akenside's _Odes_ nothing favourable can be said.... To examine such +compositions singly cannot be required; they have doubtless brighter and +darker parts; but when they are once found to be generally dull, all +further labour may be spared; for to what use can the work be criticised +that will not be read?' See _post_, April 10, 1776. + +[485] See _post_, just before May 15, 1776. + +[486] See _post_, Sept. 23, 1777. + +[487] The account of his trial is entitled:--'_The Grand Question in +Religion Considered. Whether we shall obey God or Man; Christ or the +Pope; the Prophets and Apostles, or Prelates and Priests. Humbly offered +to the King and Parliament of Great Britain. By E. Elwall. With an +account of the Author's Tryal or Prosecution at Stafford Assizes before +Judge Denton. London.'_ No date. Elwall seems to have been a Unitarian +Quaker. He was prosecuted for publishing a book against the doctrines of +the Trinity, but was discharged, being, he writes, treated by the Judge +with great humanity. In his pamphlet he says (p. 49):--'You see what I +have already done in my former book. I have challenged the greatest +potentates on earth, yea, even the King of Great Britain, whose true and +faithful subject I am in all temporal things, and whom I love and +honour; also his noble and valiant friend, John Argyle, and his great +friends Robert Walpole, Charles Wager, and Arthur Onslow; all these can +speak well, and who is like them; and yet, behold, none of all these +cared to engage with their friend Elwall.' See _post_, May 7, 1773. Dr. +Priestley had received an account of the trial from a gentleman who was +present, who described Elwall as 'a tall man, with white hair, a large +beard and flowing garments, who struck everybody with respect. He spoke +about an hour with great gravity, fluency, and presence of mind.' The +trial took place, he said, in 1726. 'It is impossible,' adds Priestley +(_Works_, ed. 1831, ii. 417), 'for an unprejudiced person to read +Elwall's account of his trial, without feeling the greatest veneration +for the writer.' In truth, Elwall spoke with all the simple power of the +best of the early Quakers. + +[488] Boswell, in the _Hypochrondriack_ (_London Mag_. 1783, p. 290), +writing on swearing, says:--'I have the comfort to think that my +practice has been blameless in this respect.' He continues (p. 293):-- +'To do the present age justice, there is much less swearing among +genteel people than in the last age.' + +[489] 'The _Life of Dr. Parnell_ is a task which I should very willingly +decline, since it has been lately written by Goldsmith, a man of such +variety of powers, and such felicity of performance, that he always +seemed to do best that which he was doing.... What such an author has +told, who would tell again? I have made an abstract from his larger +narrative, and have this gratification from my attempt, that it gives me +an opportunity of paying due tribute to the memory of Goldsmith. [Greek: +Togargerasesti Thanonton].' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 398. + +[490] See _ante_, i. 26, and _post_, April 11, 1773. + +[491] 'Mr. Ruffhead says of fine passages that they are fine, and of +feeble passages that they are feeble; but recommending poetical beauty +is like remarking the splendour of sunshine; to those who can see it is +unnecessary, and to those who are blind, absurd.' _Gent. Mag_. May, +1769, p. 255. The review in which this passage occurs, is perhaps in +part Johnson's. + +[492] See _ante_, i. 448. + +[493] See _post_, April 5, 1775. + +[494] It was Lewis XIV who said it. 'Toutes les fois que je donne une +place vacante, je fais cent mecontens et un ingrat.' Voltaire, _Siecle +de Louis XIV_, ch. 26. 'When I give away a place,' said Lewis XIV, 'I +make an hundred discontented, and one ungrateful.' Johnson's _Works_, +viii. 204. + +[495] See _post_, May 15, 1783. + +[496] This project has since been realized. Sir Henry Liddel, who made a +spirited tour into Lapland, brought two rein-deer to his estate in +Northumberland, where they bred; but the race has unfortunately +perished. BOSWELL. + +[497] Dr. Johnson seems to have meant the Address to the Reader with a +KEY subjoined to it; which have been prefixed to the modern editions of +that play. He did not know, it appears, that several additions were made +to _The Rehearsal_ after the first edition. MALONE. In his _Life of +Dryden_ (_Works_, vii. 272) Johnson writes:--'Buckingham characterised +Dryden in 1671 by the name of Bayes in _The Rehearsal_.... It is said +that this farce was originally intended against Davenant, who in the +first draught was characterised by the name of Bilboa.... It is said, +likewise, that Sir Robert Howard was once meant. The design was probably +to ridicule the reigning poet, whoever he might be. Much of the personal +satire, to which it might owe its first reception, is now lost or +obscured.' + +[498] 'The Pantheon,' wrote Horace Walpole (_Letters_, v. 489), a year +later than this conversation, 'is still the most beautiful edifice in +England.' Gibbon, a few weeks before Johnson's visit to the Pantheon, +wrote:--'In point of _ennui_ and magnificence, the Pantheon is the +wonder of the eighteenth century and of the British empire.' Gibbon's +_Misc. Works_, ii. 74. Evelina, in Miss Burners novel (vol. i. Letter +xxiii.) contrasts the Pantheon and Ranelagh:--'I was extremely struck on +entering the Pantheon with the beauty of the building, which greatly +surpassed whatever I could have expected or imagined. Yet it has more +the appearance of a chapel than of a place of diversion; and, though I +was quite charmed with the magnificence of the room, I felt that I could +not be as gay and thoughtless there as at Ranelagh; for there is +something in it which rather inspires awe and solemnity than mirth and +pleasure.' Ranelagh was at Chelsea, the Pantheon was in Oxford-street. +See _ante_, ii. 119, and _post_, Sept. 23, 1777. + +[499] Her husband, Squire Godfrey Bosville, Boswell (_post_, Aug. 24, +1780), calls 'my Yorkshire _chief_.' Their daughter was one of the young +ladies whom he passes in review in his letters to Temple. 'What say you +to my marrying? I intend next autumn to visit Miss Bosville in +Yorkshire; but I fear, my lot being cast in Scotland, that beauty would +not be content. She is, however, grave; I shall see.' _Letters of +Boswell_, p. 81. She married Sir A. Macdonald, Johnson's inhospitable +host in Sky (_ante_, ii. 157). + +[500] In _The Adventurer_, No. 120, Johnson, after describing 'a gay +assembly,' continues:--'The world in its best state is nothing more than +a larger assembly of beings, combining to counterfeit happiness which +they do not feel.' _Works_, iv. 120. + +[501] 'Sir Adam Fergusson, who by a strange coincidence of chances got +in to be member of Parliament for Ayrshire in 1774, was the +great-grandson of a messenger. I was talking with great indignation that +the whole (? old) families of the county should be defeated by an +upstart.' _Boswelliana_, p. 283. + +[502] See _ante_, ii. 60. + +[503] See _ante_, i. 424. Hume wrote of the judgment of Charles I. +(_Hist. of Eng_. vii. 148):--'If ever, on any occasion, it were laudable +to conceal truth from the populace, it must be confessed that the +doctrine of resistance affords such an example; and that all speculative +reasoners ought to observe with regard to this principle the same +cautious silence which the laws in every species of government have ever +prescribed to themselves.' + +[504] 'All foreigners remark that the knowledge of the common people of +England is greater than that of any other vulgar. This superiority we +undoubtedly owe to the rivulets of intelligence [i. e. the newspapers] +which are continually trickling among us, which every one may catch, and +of which every one partakes.' _Idler_, No. 7. In a later number (30), he +speaks very contemptuously of news-writers. 'In Sir Henry Wotton's +jocular definition, _an ambassador is said to be a man of virtue sent +abroad to tell lies for the advantage of his country. A newswriter is _a +man without virtue, who writes lies at home for his own profit_.' + +[505] See _post_, April 3, 1773. + +[506] Probably Mr. Elphinston. See _ante_, i. 210, _post_, April 19, +1773, and April i, 1779. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 493) wrote of a +friend:--'He had overcome many disadvantages of his education, for he +had been sent to a Jacobite seminary of one Elphinstone at Kensington, +where his body was starved and his mind also. He returned to Edinburgh +to college. He had hardly a word of Latin, and was obliged to work hard +with a private tutor.' + +[507] 'In progress of time Abel Sampson, _probationer_ of divinity, was +admitted to the privileges of a preacher.' _Guy Mannering_, chap. ii. + +[508] In his Dictionary he defines _heinous_ as _atrocious; wicked in a +high degree_. + +[509] _Ephesians_, v. 5. + +[510] His second definition of _whoremonger_ is _one who converses with +a fornicatress_. + +[511] It must not be presumed that Dr. Johnson meant to give any +countenance to licentiousness, though in the character of an Advocate he +made a just and subtle distinction between occasional and habitual +transgression. BOSWELL. + +[512] Erskine was born in 1750, entered the navy in 1764, the army in +1768, he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1776, was called +to the Bar in 1778, was made a King's counsel in 1783, and Lord +Chancellor in 1806. He died in 1823. Campbell's _Chancellors_, +vi. 368-674. + +[513] Johnson had called Churchill 'a blockhead.' _Ante_, i. 419. 'I +have remarked,' said Miss Reynolds, 'that his dislike of anyone seldom +prompted him to say much more than that the fellow is a blockhead.' +Croker's _Boswell_, p. 834. In like manner Goldsmith called Sterne a +blockhead; for Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_, i. 260) is, no doubt, +right in saying that the author of _Tristram Shandy_ is aimed at in the +following passage in _The Citizen of the World_ (Letter, 74):--'In +England, if a bawdy blockhead thus breaks in on the community, he sets +his whole fraternity in a roar; nor can he escape even though he should +fly to nobility for shelter.' That Johnson did not think so lowly of +Fielding's powers is shown by a compliment that he paid Miss Burney, on +one of the characters in _Evelina_. '"Oh, Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith is the +man!" cried he, laughing violently. "Harry Fielding never drew so good a +character!"' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 78. + +[514] Richardson wrote of Fielding (_Corres_, vi. 154):--'Poor Fielding! +I could not help telling his sister that I was equally surprised at and +concerned for his continued lowness. Had your brother, said I, been born +in a stable, or been a runner at a sponging-house, we should have +thought him a genius, and wished he had had the advantage of a liberal +education, and of being admitted into good company.' Other passages show +Richardson's dislike or jealousy of Fielding. Thus he wrote:--'You guess +that I have not read _Amelia_. Indeed, I have read but the first volume. +I had intended to go through with it; but I found the characters and +situations so wretchedly low and dirty that I imagined I could not be +interested for any one of them.' _Ib_ iv. 60. 'So long as the world will +receive, Mr. Fielding will write,' _Ib_ p. 285. + +[515] Hannah More wrote in 1780 (_Memoirs_, i. 168), 'I never saw +Johnson really angry with me but once. I alluded to some witty passage +in _Tom Jones_; he replied, "I am shocked to hear you quote from so +vicious a book. I am sorry to hear you have read it: a confession which +no modest lady should ever make. I scarcely know a more corrupt work!" +He went so far as to refuse to Fielding the great talents which are +ascribed to him, and broke out into a noble panegyric on his competitor, +Richardson; who, he said, was as superior to him in talents as in +virtue; and whom he pronounced to be the greatest genius that had shed +its lustre on this path of literature.' Yet Miss Burney in her Preface +to _Evelina_ describes herself as 'exhilarated by the wit of Fielding +and humour of Smollett.' It is strange that while Johnson thus condemned +Fielding, he should 'with an ardent and liberal earnestness' have +revised Smollett's epitaph. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 28, 1773. +Macaulay in his _Speech on Copyright_ (_Writings and Speeches_, p. 615) +said of Richardson's novels:--'No writings have done more to raise the +fame of English genius in foreign countries. No writings are more deeply +pathetic. No writings, those of Shakespeare excepted, show more profound +knowledge of the human heart.' Horace. Walpole (_Letters_, iv. 305), on +the other hand, spoke of Richardson as one 'who wrote those deplorably +tedious lamentations, _Clarissa_ and _Sir Charles Grandison_, which are +pictures of high life as conceived by a bookseller, and romances as they +would be spiritualised by a methodist teacher.' Lord Chesterfield says +of _Sir Charles Grandison_, that 'it is too long, and there is too much +mere talk in it. Whenever he goes _ultra crepidam_ into high life, he +grossly mistakes the modes; but to do him justice he never mistakes +nature, and he has surely great knowledge and skill both in painting and +in interesting the heart.' _Ib_ note. See _ante_, ii. 48. + +[516] _Amelia_ he read through without stopping. _Post_, April 12, 1776. +Shenstone (_Works_, iii. 70) writes of 'the tedious character of Parson +Adams,' and calls the book 'a very mean performance; of which the +greater part is unnatural and unhumorous.' + +[517] Johnson wrote to Richardson of _Clarissa_, 'though the story is +long, every letter is short.' He begged him to add an _index rerum_, +'for _Clarissa_ is not a performance to be read with eagerness, and laid +aside for ever; but will be occasionally consulted by the busy, the +aged, and the studious.' Richardson's _Corres_, v. 281. + +[518] 'Our immortal Fielding was of the younger branch of the Earls of +Denbigh, who draw their origin from the Counts of Habsburg, the lineal +descendants of Eltrico, in the seventh century Duke of Alsace. Far +different have been the fortunes of the English and German divisions of +the family of Habsburg: the former, the knights and sheriffs of +Leicestershire, have slowly risen to the dignity of a peerage: the +latter, the Emperors of Germany and Kings of Spain, have threatened the +liberty of the old, and invaded the treasures of the new world. The +successors of Charles the Fifth may disdain their brethren of England; +but the romance of _Tom Jones_, that exquisite picture of human manners, +will outlive the palace of the Escurial, and the imperial eagle of the +house of Austria.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 4. Richardson, five years +after _Tom Jones_ was published, wrote (_Corres_, v. 275):--'Its run is +over, even with us. Is it true that France had virtue enough to refuse a +license for such a profligate performance?' + +[519] Mr. Samuel Paterson, eminent for his knowledge of books. BOSWELL. +In the first two editions this note does not appear, but Mr. Paterson is +described as 'the auctioneer.' See _post_, Aug. 3, 1776. + +[520] Mr. Paterson, in a pamphlet, produced some evidence to shew that +his work was written before Sterne's _Sentimental Journey_ +appeared. BOSWELL. + +[521] _Coryat's Crudities hastily gobled up in five Moneths Trauells in +France, Sauoy, Italy, etc. London_, 1611. + +[522] 'Lord Erskine,' says Mr. Croker, 'was fond of this anecdote. He +told it to me the first time that I was in his company, and often +repeated it, boasting that he had been a sailor, a soldier, a lawyer, +and a parson.' + +[523] 185,000. 2 _Kings_, xix. 35. + +[524] Lord Chatham wrote on Oct. 12, 1766, to Lord Shelburne that he +'had extremely at heart to obtain this post for Lord Cardross, a young +nobleman of great talents, learning, and accomplishments, and son of the +Earl of Buchan, an intimate friend of Lord Chatham, from the time they +were students together at Utrecht.' _Chatham Corres_. iii. 106. Horace +Walpole wrote on Oct. 26, 'Sir James Gray goes to Madrid. The embassy +has been sadly hawked about it.' Walpole's _Letters_, v. 22. 'Sir James +Gray's father was first a box-keeper, and then footman to James II.' +_Ib_ ii. 366. + +[525] See _ante_, ii. 134, for Johnson's attack on Lord Chatham's +'feudal gabble.' + +[526] In Boswell's _Hebrides_, on Aug. 25, 1773, Johnson makes much the +same answer to a like statement by Boswell. See _post_, March 21, 1783. + +[527] See _ante_, i. 343, 405, and _post_, April 10, 1772. + +[528] 'I cannot,' wrote John Wesley, (_Journal_, iv. 74), 'give up to +all Deists in Great Britain the existence of witchcraft, till I give up +the credit of all history, sacred and profane. And at the present time, +I have not only as strong but stronger proofs of this from eye and ear +witnesses than I have of murder; so that I cannot rationally doubt of +one any more the than the other.' + +[529] See this curious question treated by him with most acute ability, +_Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 33. [Aug. 16.] +BOSWELL. Johnson, in his _Observations on Macbeth_ (_Works_, v. 55-7), +shews his utter disbelief in witchcraft. 'These phantoms,' he writes, +'have indeed appeared more frequently in proportion as the darkness of +ignorance has been more gross; but it cannot be shewn that the brightest +gleams of knowledge have at any time been sufficient to drive them out +of the world.' He describes the spread of the belief in them in the +middle ages, and adds:--'The reformation did not immediately arrive at +its meridian, and though day was gradually increasing upon us, the +goblins of witchcraft still continued to hover in the twilight.' See +_post_, April 8, 1779 and 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. + +[530] The passage to which Johnson alluded is to be found (I conjecture) +in the _Phoenissae_, I. 1120. J. BOSWELL, JUN. + +[531] Boswell (_Letters_, p. 324), on June 21, 1790, described to Temple +the insults of that 'brutal fellow,' Lord Lonsdale, and continued:--'In +my fretfulness I used such expressions as irritated him almost to fury, +so that he used such expressions towards me that I should have, +according to the irrational laws of honour sanctioned by the world, been +under the necessity of risking my life, had not an explanation taken +place.' Boswell's eldest son, Sir Alexander Boswell, lost his life in +a duel. + +[532] Johnson might have quoted the lieutenant in _Tom Jones_, Book vii. +chap. 13. 'My dear boy, be a good Christian as long as you live: but be +a man of honour too, and never put up an affront; not all the books, nor +all the parsons in the world, shall ever persuade me to that. I love my +religion very well, but I love my honour more. There must be some +mistake in the wording of the text, or in the translation, or in the +understanding it, or somewhere or other. But however that be, a man must +run the risk, for he must preserve his honour.' See _post_, April 19, +1773, and April 20, 1783, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 19, 1773. + +[533] Oglethorpe was born in 1698. In 1714 he entered the army. Prince +Eugene's campaigns against the Turks in which Oglethorpe served were in +1716-17. Rose's _Biog. Dict_. vii. 266 and x. 381. He was not therefore +quite so young as Boswell thought. + +[534] In the first two editions _Bender_. Belgrade was taken by Eugene +in 1717. + +[535] 'Idem velle atque idem nolle ea demum firma amicitia est.' +Sallust, _Catilina_, xx. 4. + +[536] More than one conjecture has been hazarded as to the passage to +which Johnson referred. I believe that he was thinking of the lines-- + +'Et variis albae junguntur saepe columbae; + Et niger a viridi turtur amatur ave.' + +_Sappho to Phaon_, line 37. + +'Turtles and doves of differing hues unite, +And glossy jet is paired with shining white.' (POPE.) + +Goldsmith had said that people to live in friendship together must have +the same likings and aversions. Johnson thereupon calls to mind Sappho, +who had shown that there could be love where there was little likeness. + +[537] It was not published till after Goldsmith's death. It is in the +list of new books in the _Gent. Mag_. for Aug. 1774, p. 378. See _post_, +under June 22, 1776, the note on Goldsmith's epitaph. + +[538] 'Upon my opening the door the young women broke off their +discourse, but my landlady's daughters telling them that it was nobody +but the Gentleman (for that is the name that I go by in the +neighbourhood as well as in the family), they went on without minding +me.' _Spectator_, No. 12. + +[539] The author also of the _Ballad of Cumnor Hall_. See Scott's +_Introduction to Kenilworth. Bishop Horne says that 'Mickle inserted in +the _Lusiad_ an angry note against Garrick, who, as he thought, had used +him ill by rejecting a tragedy of his.' Shortly afterwards, he saw +Garrick act for the first time. The play was _Lear_. 'During the first +three acts he said not a word. In a fine passage of the fourth he +fetched a deep sigh, and turning to a friend, "I wish," said he, "the +note was out of my book."' Horne's _Essays_, ed. 1808, p. 38. See +_post_, under Dec. 24, 1783, and Garrick's letter in Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Oct. 23,1773. + +[540] The farmer's son told Mr. Prior that 'he had felt much reluctance +in erasing during necessary repairs these memorials.' Prior's +_Goldsmith_, ii. 335. + +[541] See _ante_, ii. 178. + +[542] Here was a blank, which may be filled up thus:--'_was told by an +apparition_;'--the writer being probably uncertain whether he was asleep +or awake, when his mind was impressed with the solemn presentiment with +which the fact afterwards happened so wonderfully to correspond. +BOSWELL. 'Lord Hardinge, when Secretary at War,' writes Mr. Croker, +'informed me, that it appears that Colonel Sir Thomas Prendergast, of +the twenty-second foot, was killed at Malplaquet, Aug. 31, 1709; but no +trace can be found of any _Colonel_ Cecil in the army at that period. +Colonel W. Cecil, who was sent to the Tower in 1744, could hardly have +been, in 1709, of the age and rank which Oglethorpe's anecdote seems to +imply.' Prendergast, or Prendergrass, in the year 1696, informed the +government of the plot to assassinate William III., in which Friend was +one of the leaders. Macaulay (_Hist. of Eng_. chap. 21), calls +Prendergrass 'a Roman Catholic gentleman of known courage and honour.' +Swift, attacking Prendergast's son, attacks Prendergast himself:-- + + 'What! thou the spawn of him who shamed our isle, + Traitor, assassin, and informer vile.' + +Swift's _Works_, xi. 319. + +[543] Locke says:--'When once it comes to be a trial of skill, contest +for mastery betwixt you and your child, you must be sure to carry it, +whatever blows it costs, if a nod or words will not prevail.' He +continues:--'A prudent and kind mother of my acquaintance was, on such +an occasion, forced to whip her little daughter, at her first coming +home from nurse, eight times successively the same morning, before she +could master her stubbornness, and obtain a compliance in a very easy +and indifferent matter.... As this was the first time, so I think it was +the last, too, she ever struck her.' _Locke on Education_ (ed. 1710), +p. 96. + +[544] Andrew Crosbie, arguing for the schoolmaster, had +said:--'Supposing it true that the respondent had been provoked to use a +little more severity than he wished to do, it might well be justified on +account of the ferocious and rebellious behaviour of his scholars, some +of whom cursed and swore at him, and even went so far as to wrestle with +him, in which case he was under a necessity of subduing them as he best +could.' _Scotch Appeal Cases_, xvii. p. 214. The judgment of the House +of Lords is given in Paton's _Reports of Cases upon Appeal from +Scotland_, ii. 277, as follows:--'A schoolmaster, appointed by the +Magistrates and Town Council of Cambelton, without any mention being +made as to whether his office was for life or at pleasure: Held that it +was a public office, and that he was liable to be dismissed for a just +and reasonable cause, and that acts of cruel chastisement of the boys +were a justifiable cause for his dismissal; reversing the judgment of +the Court of Session.... The proof led before his dismission went to +shew that scarce a day passed without some of the scholars coming home +with their heads cut, and their bodies discoloured. He beat his pupils +with wooden squares, and sometimes with his fists, and used his feet by +kicking them, and dragged them by the hair of the head. He had also +entered into the trade of cattle grazing and farming--dealt in black +cattle--in the shipping business--and in herring fishing.' + +[545] These six Methodists were in 1768 expelled St. Edmund's Hall, by +the Vice-Chancellor, acting as 'visitor.' Nominally they were expelled +for their ignorance; in reality for their active Methodism. That they +were 'mighty ignorant fellows' was shown, but ignorance was tolerated at +Oxford. One of their number confessed his ignorance, and declined all +examination. But 'as he was represented to be a man of fortune, and +declared that he was not designed for holy orders, the Vice-Chancellor +did not think fit to remove him for this reason only, though he was +supposed to be one of "the righteous over-much."' _Dr. Johnson: His +Friends and his Critics_, pp. 51-57. Horace Walpole, Whig though he was, +thought as Johnson. 'Oxford,' he wrote (_Letters_ v. 97), 'has begun +with these rascals, and I hope Cambridge will wake.' + +[546] Much such an expulsion as this Johnson had justified in his _Life +of Cheynel_ (_Works_, vi. 415). 'A temper of this kind,' he wrote, 'is +generally inconvenient and offensive in any society, but in a place of +education is least to be tolerated ... He may be justly driven from a +society, by which he thinks himself too wise to be governed, and in +which he is too young to teach, and too opinionative to learn.' + +[547] Johnson wrote far otherwise of the indulgence shown to Edmund +Smith, the poet. 'The indecency and licentiousness of his behaviour drew +upon him, Dec. 24, 1694, while he was yet only bachelor, a publick +admonition, entered upon record, in order to his expulsion. Of this +reproof the effect is not known. He was probably less notorious. At +Oxford, as we all know, much will be forgiven to literary merit.... Of +his lampoon upon Dean Aldrich, [Smith was a Christ-Church man], I once +heard a single line too gross to be repeated. But he was still a genius +and a scholar, and Oxford was unwilling to lose him; he was endured with +all his pranks and his vices two years longer; but on Dec. 20, 1705, at +the instance of all the Canons, the sentence declared five years before +was put in execution. The execution was, I believe, silent and tender.' +_Works_, vii. 373-4. + +[548] See post, p. 193, note i. + +[549] 'Our bottle-conversation,' wrote Addison, 'is infected with +party-lying.' _The Spectator_, No. 507. + +[550] Mrs. Piozzi, in her _Anecdotes_, p. 261, has given an erroneous +account of this incident, as of many others. She pretends to relate it +from recollection, as if she herself had been present; when the fact is +that it was communicated to her by me. She has represented it as a +personality, and the true point has escaped her. BOSWELL. She tells the +story against Boswell. 'I fancy Mr. B---- has not forgotten,' +she writes. + +[551] See post, April 11, 1776. + +[552] Johnson, in his Dictionary, defines _manufacturer_ as a _workman; +an artificer_. + +[553] Johnson had no fear of popular education. In his attack on +Jenyns's _Enquiry_ (ante, i. 315), he wrote (_Works_, vi. 56):--'Though +it should be granted that those who are _born to poverty and drudgery_ +should not be _deprived_ by an _improper education_ of the _opiate_ of +_ignorance_, even this concession will not be of much use to direct our +practice, unless it be determined, who are those that are _born to +poverty_. To entail irreversible poverty upon generation after +generation, only because the ancestor happened to be poor, is in itself +cruel, if not unjust.... I am always afraid of determining on the side +of envy or cruelty. The privileges of education may sometimes be +improperly bestowed, but I shall always fear to withhold them, lest I +should be yielding to the suggestions of pride, while I persuade myself +that I am following the maxims of policy.' In _The Idler_, No. 26, he +attacked those who 'hold it little less than criminal to teach poor +girls to read and write,' and who say that 'they who are born to poverty +are born to ignorance, and will work the harder the less they know.' + +[554] Tacitus's Agricola, ch. xii, was no doubt quoted in reference to +the shortness of the northern winter day. + +[555] It is remarkable, that Lord Monboddo, whom, on account of his +resembling Dr. Johnson in some particulars, Foote called an Elzevir +edition of him, has, by coincidence, made the very same remark. _Origin +and Progress of Language_, vol. iii. 2nd ed. p. 219. BOSWELL. See +Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 21, note. + +[556] On Saturday night Johnson recorded:--'I resolved last Easter to +read within the year the whole Bible, a very great part of which I had +never looked upon. I read the Greek Testament without construing, and +this day concluded the Apocalypse.... Easter Day. After twelve at night. +The day is now begun on which I hope to begin a new course, [Greek: +hosper aph husplaeggon], [as if from the starting-place.] + +My hopes are from this time-- +To rise early, +To waste less time, +To appropriate something to charity.' + +A week later he recorded:--'It is a comfort to me that at last, in my +sixty-third year, I have attained to know even thus hastily, confusedly, +and imperfectly, what my Bible contains. I have never yet read the +Apocrypha. I have sometimes looked into the Maccabees, and read a +chapter containing the question, _Which is the strongest?_ I think, in +Esdras' [I Esdras, ch. iii. v. 10]. _Pr. and Med_. pp. 112-118. + +[557] _Pr. and Med_. p. iii. BOSWELL. + +[558] 'Perfect through sufferings.' _Hebrews_, ii. 10. + +[559] 'I was always so incapable of learning mathematics,' wrote Horace +Walpole (_Letters_, ix. 467), 'that I could not even get by heart the +multiplication table, as blind Professor Sanderson honestly told me, +above three-score years ago, when I went to his lectures at Cambridge. +After the first fortnight he said to me, "Young man, it would be +cheating you to take your money; for you never can learn what I am +trying to teach you." I was exceedingly mortified, and cried; for, being +a Prime Minister's son, I had firmly believed all the flattery with +which I had been assured that my parts were capable of anything.' + +[560] Reynolds said:--'Out of the great number of critics in this +metropolis who all pretend to knowledge in pictures, the greater part +must be mere pretenders only. Taste does not come by chance; it is a +long and laborious task to acquire it.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 264. + +[561] 'Jemmy Boswell,' wrote John Scott (afterwards Lord Eldon), 'called +upon me, desiring to know what would be my definition of taste. I told +him I must decline defining it, because I knew he would publish it. He +continued his importunities in frequent calls, and in one complained +much that I would not give him it, as he had that morning got Henry +Dundas's, Sir A. Macdonald's, and J. Anstruther's definitions. "Well, +then," I said, "Boswell, we must have an end of this. Taste, according +to my definition, is the judgment which Dundas, Macdonald, Anstruther, +and you manifested when you determined to quit Scotland and to come into +the south. You may publish this if you please."' Twiss's _Eldon_, i. +303. See _post_, April 10, 1778, note for Lord Eldon. + +[562] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 220) says that 'Swift's delight was in +simplicity. That he has in his works no metaphor, as has been said, is +not true; but his few metaphors seem to be received rather by necessity +than choice. He studied purity.... His style was well suited to his +thoughts.... He pays no court to the passions; he excites neither +surprise nor admiration; he always understands himself, and his reader +always understands him; the peruser of Swift wants little previous +knowledge; it will be sufficient that he is acquainted with common words +and common things; ... [his style] instructs, but it does not persuade.' +Hume describes Swift's style as one which he 'can approve, but surely +can never admire. It has no harmony, no eloquence, no ornament, and not +much correctness, whatever the English may imagine.' J. H. Burton's +_Hume_, ii. 413. + +[563] Johnson's Works, v. 146. + +[564] Dr. Warton wrote on Jan. 22, 1766:--'Garrick is entirely off from +Johnson, and cannot, he says, forgive him his insinuating that he +withheld his old editions, which always were open to him; nor, I +suppose, his never mentioning him in all his works.' Wooll's _Warton_, +p. 313. Beauclerk wrote to Lord Charlemont in 1773:--'If you do not come +here, I will bring all the club over to Ireland to live with you, and +that will drive you here in your own defence, Johnson _shall spoil your +books_, Goldsmith pull your flowers, and Boswell talk to you: stay then +if you can.' Charlemont's _Life_, i. 347. Yet Garrick had lent Johnson +some books, for Johnson wrote to him on Oct. 10, 1766:--'I return you +thanks for the present of the _Dictionary_, and will take care to return +you [qu. your] other books.' _Garrick Corres_, i. 245. Steevens, who had +edited Johnson's _Shakespeare_, wrote to Garrick:--'I have taken the +liberty to introduce your name, because _I have found_ no reason to say +that the possessors of the old quartos were not sufficiently +communicative.' _Ib_ p. 501. Mme. D'Arblay describes how 'Garrick, +giving a thundering stamp on some mark on the carpet that struck his +eye--not with passion or displeasure, but merely as if from +singularity--took off Dr. Johnson's voice in a short dialogue with +himself that had passed the preceding week. "David! Will you lend me +your _Petrarca_?" "Y-e-s, Sir!" "David! you sigh?" "Sir--you shall have +it certainly." "Accordingly," Mr. Garrick continued, "the book, +stupendously bound, I sent to him that very evening. But scarcely had he +taken it in his hands, when, as Boswell tells me, he poured forth a +Greek ejaculation and a couplet or two from Horace, and then in one of +those fits of enthusiasm which always seem to require that he should +spread his arms aloft, he suddenly pounces my poor _Petrarca_ over his +head upon the floor. And then, standing for several minutes lost in +abstraction, he forgot probably that he had ever seen it."' Dr. Burney's +_Memoirs_, i. 352. See _post_, under Aug. 12, 1784. + +[565] The gentleman most likely is Boswell (_ante_, ii. 14, note 1). I +suspect that this anecdote belongs to _ante_, April 14, when 'Johnson +was not in the most genial humour.' Boswell, while showing that Mrs. +Piozzi misrepresented an incident of that evening 'as a personality,' +would be afraid of weakening his case by letting it be seen that Johnson +on that occasion was very personal. Since writing this I have noticed +that Dr. T. Campbell records in his _Diary_, p. 53, that on April 1, +1775, he was dining at Mr. Thrale's with Boswell, when many of Johnson's +'bon-mots were retailed. Boswell arguing in favour of a cheerful glass, +adduced the maxim _in vino veritas_. "Well," says Johnson, "and what +then, unless a man has lived a lie." Boswell then urged that it made a +man forget all his cares. "That to be sure," says Johnson, "might be of +use, if a man sat by such a person as you."' Campbell's account confirms +what Boswell asserts (_ante_, ii. 188) that Mrs. Piozzi had the +anecdote from him. + +[566] No. 150. The quotation is from Francis Osborne's _Advice to a +Son_. Swift, in _The Tatler_, No. 230, ranks Osborne with some other +authors, who 'being men of the Court, and affecting the phrases then in +fashion, are often either not to be understood, or appear perfectly +ridiculous.' + +[567] See post, May 13, 1778, and June 30, 1784. + +[568] Mrs. Piozzi, to whom I told this anecdote, has related it, as if +the gentleman had given 'the _natural history of the mouse_.' _Anec_. p. +191. BOSWELL. The gentleman was very likely Dr. Vansittart, who is +mentioned just before. (See _ante_, i. 348, note 1.) Mrs. Thrale, in +1773, wrote to Johnson of 'the man that saw the mouse.' Piozzi +_Letters_, i. 186. From Johnson's answer (_ib_. p. 197) it seems that +she meant Vansittart. Mr. Croker says 'this proves that Johnson himself +sanctioned Mrs. Piozzi's version of the story--_mouse versus flea_.' Mr. +Croker has an odd notion of what constitutes both a proof and +a sanction. + +[569] Lord Shelburne says that 'William Murray [Lord Mansfield] was +sixteen years of age when he came out of Scotland, and spoke such broad +Scotch that he stands entered in the University books at Oxford as born +as Bath, the Vice-Chancellor mistaking _Bath for Perth_.' Fitzmaurice's +_Shelburne_, i. 87. + +[570] The asterisks seem to show that Beattie and Robertson are meant. +This is rendered more probable from the fact that the last paragraph is +about Scotchmen. + +[571] See _ante_, ii. 51. + +[572] Boswell's friend was very likely his brother David, who had long +resided in Valencia. In that case, Johnson came round to Boswell's +opinion, for he wrote, 'he will find Scotland but a sorry place after +twelve years' residence in a happier climate;' _post_, April 29, 1780. + +[573] See _ante_, i.443, note 2. + +[574] Wilson against Smith and Armour. BOSWELL. + +[575] Lord Kames, in his _Historical Law Tracts_. BOSWELL. + +[576] 'Covin. A deceitful agreement between two or more to the hurt of +another.' Johnson's _Dictionary_. + +[577] Lord Kames (_Sketches of the History of Man_, iv. 168) says:--'The +undisciplined manners of our forefathers in Scotland made a law +necessary, that whoever intermeddled irregularly with the goods of a +deceased person should be subjected to pay all his debts, however +extensive. A due submission to legal authority has in effect abrogated +that severe law, and it is now [1774] scarce ever heard of.' Scott +introduces Lord Kames in _Redgauntlet_, at the end of chap. I of the +_Narrative_:--'"What's the matter with the auld bitch next?" said an +acute metaphysical judge, though somewhat coarse in his manners, aside +to his brethren.' In Boswell's poem _The Court of Session Garland_, +where the Scotch judges each give judgment, we read:-- + +'Alemore the judgment as illegal blames, +"Tis equity, you bitch," replies my Lord Kames.' + +Chambers's _Traditions of Edinburgh_, ii. 161. Mr. Chambers adds (p. +171) that when Kames retired from the Bench, 'after addressing his +brethren in a solemn speech, in going out at the door of the court room, +he turned about, and casting them a last look, cried, in his usual +familiar tone, "Fare ye a' weel, ye bitches."' + +[578] At this time there were no civil juries in Scotland. 'But this was +made up for, to a certain extent, by the Supreme Court, consisting of no +fewer than fifteen judges; who formed a sort of judicial jury, and were +dealt with as such. The great mass of the business was carried on by +writing.' Cockbarn's _Jeffery_, i. 87. See _post_, Jan. 19, 1775, note. + +[579] In like manner, he had discovered the _Life of Cheynel_ to be +Johnson's. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 17, 1774. + +[580] The _Essay on Truth_, published in May, 1770. Beattie wrote on +Sept. 30, 1772:--'The fourth edition of my _Essay_ is now in the press.' +Forbes's _Beattie_, ed. 1824, p. 134. Three translations--French, +Dutch, and German--had, it seems, already appeared. _Ib_ p. 121. 'Mr. +Johnson made Goldsmith a comical answer one day, when seeming to repine +at the success of Beattie's _Essay on Truth_. "Here's such a stir," said +he, "about a fellow that has written one book, and I have written many." +"Ah, Doctor," says he, "there go two and forty sixpences you know to one +guinea."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 179. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct +1, 1773. + +[581] See _ante_, ii. 144, 183. + +[582] On the same day he wrote to Dr. Taylor:--'Your uneasiness at the +misfortunes of your relations, I comprehend perhaps too well. It was an +irresistible obtrusion of a disagreeable image, which you always wished +away, but could not dismiss, an incessant persecution of a troublesome +thought, neither to be pacified nor ejected. Such has of late been the +state of my own mind. I had formerly great command of my attention, and +what I did not like could forbear to think on. But of this power, which +is of the highest importance to the tranquillity of life, I have been so +much exhausted, that I do not go into a company towards night, in which +i foresee anything disagreeable, nor enquire after anything to which I +am not indifferent, lest something, which I know to be nothing, should +fasten upon my imagination, and hinder me from sleep.' _Notes and +Queries_, 6th S., v. 383. On Oct. 6 he wrote to Dr. Taylor:--'I am now +within a few hours of being able to send the whole _Dictionary_ to the +press [_ante_, ii. 155], and though I often went sluggishly to the work, +I am not much delighted at the completion. My purpose is to come down to +Lichfield next week.' _Ib_ p. 422. He stayed some weeks there and in +Ashbourne. _Piozzi Letters_, i. 55-70. + +[583] See _ante_, ii. 141, note 3. + +[584] 'While of myself I yet may think, while breath my body sways.' +Morris's Aeneids, iv. 336. + +[585] It should seem that this dictionary work was not unpleasant to +Johnson; for Stockdale records (_Memoirs_, ii. 179) that about 1774, +having told him that he had declined to edit a new edition of Chambers's +_Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences_, 'Johnson replied that if I would +not undertake, he would. I expressed my astonishment that, in his easy +circumstances, he should think of preparing a new edition of a tedious, +scientific dictionary. "Sir," said he, "I like that muddling work." He +allowed some time to go by, during which another editor was found--Dr. +Rees. Immediately after this intelligence he called on me, and his first +words were:--"It is gone, Sir."' + +[586] He, however, wrote, or partly wrote, an Epitaph on Mrs. Bell, wife +of his friend John Bell, Esq., brother of the Reverend Dr. Bell, +Prebendary of Westminster, which is printed in his _Works_ [i. 151]. It +is in English prose, and has so little of his manner, that I did not +believe he had any hand in it, till I was satisfied of the fact by the +authority of Mr. Bell. BOSWELL. 'The epitaph is to be seen in the parish +church of Watford.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 471. + +[587] See _ante_, i. 187. Mme. D'Arblay (_Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, i. +271) says that this year Goldsmith projected a _Dictionary of Arts and +Sciences_, in which Johnson was to take the department of ethics, and +that Dr. Burney finished the article _Musician_. The scheme came +to nothing. + +[588] We may doubt Steevens's taste. Garrick 'produced _Hamlet_ with +alterations, rescuing,' as he said, 'that noble play from all the +rubbish of the fifth act' (_ante_, ii. 85, note 7.) Steevens wrote to +Garrick:--'I expect great pleasure from the perusal of your altered +_Hamlet_. It is a circumstance in favour of the poet which I have long +been wishing for. You had better throw what remains of the piece into a +farce, to appear immediately afterwards. No foreigner who should happen +to be present at the exhibition, would ever believe it was formed out of +the loppings and excrescences of the tragedy itself. You may entitle it +_The Grave-Diggers; with the pleasant Humours of Osric, the Danish +Macaroni_.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 451. + +[589] A line of an epigram in the _Life of Virgil_, ascribed to Donatus. + +[590] Given by a lady at Edinburgh. BOSWELL. + +[591] There had been masquerades in Scotland; but not for a very long +time. BOSWELL. 'Johnson,' as Mr. Croker observes, 'had no doubt seen an +account of the masquerade in the _Gent. Mag_. for January,' p. 43. It is +stated there that 'it was the first masquerade ever seen in Scotland.' +Boswell appeared as a dumb Conjurer. + +[592] Mrs. Thrale recorded in 1776, after her quarrel with Baretti:--'I +had occasion to talk of him with Tom Davies, who spoke with horror of +his ferocious temper; "and yet," says I, "there is great sensibility +about Baretti. I have seen tears often stand in his eyes." "Indeed," +replies Davies, "I should like to have seen that sight vastly, +when--even butchers weep."' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 340. Davies said of +Goldsmith:--'He least of all mankind approved Baretti's conversation; he +considered him as an insolent, overbearing foreigner.' Davies, in the +same passage, speaks of Baretti as 'this unhappy Italian.' Davies's +_Garrick_, ii. 168. As this was published in Baretti's life-time, the +man could scarcely have been so ferocious as he was described. + +[593] 'There were but a few days left before the comedy was to be acted, +and no name had been found for it. "We are all in labour," says Johnson, +whose labour of kindness had been untiring throughout, "for a name to +Goldy's play." [See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 14, 1773.] What now +stands as the second title, _The Mistakes of a Night_, was originally +the only one; but it was thought undignified for a comedy. _The Old +House a New Inn_ was suggested in place of it, but dismissed as awkward. +Sir Joshua offered a much better name to Goldsmith, saying, "You ought +to call it _The Belle's Stratagem_, and if you do not I will damn it." +When Goldsmith, in whose ear perhaps a line of Dryden's lingered, hit +upon _She Stoops to Conquer_.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 337, and +Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 285. Mr. Forster quotes the line of Dryden as + +'But kneels to conquer, and but stoops to rise.' + +In Lord Chesterfield's _Letters_, iii. 131, the line is given, + +'But stoops to conquer, and but kneels to rise.' + +[594] This gentleman, who now resides in America in a publick character +of considerable dignity, desired that his name might not be transcribed +at full length. BOSWELL. + +[595] Now Doctor White, and Bishop of the Episcopal Church in +Pennsylvania. During his first visit to England in 1771, as a candidate +for holy orders, he was several times in company with Dr. Johnson, who +expressed a wish to see the edition of his _Rasselas_, which Dr. White +told him had been printed in America. Dr. White, on his return, +immediately sent him a copy. BOSWELL. + +[596] Horace. _Odes_, iii. I. 34. + +[597] See _post_, Oct. 12, 1779. + +[598] Malone had the following from Baretti: 'Baretti made a translation +of _Rasselas_ into French. He never, however, could satisfy himself with +the translation of the first sentence, which is uncommonly lofty. +Mentioning this to Johnson, the latter said, after thinking two or three +minutes, "Well, take up the pen, and if you can understand my +pronunciation, I will see what I can do." He then dictated the sentence +to the translator, which proved admirable, and was immediately adopted.' +Prior's _Malone_, p. 161. Baretti, in a MS. note on his copy of _Piozzi +Letters_, i. 225, says:--'Johnson never wrote to me French, but when he +translated for me the first paragraph of his _Rasselas_.' That Johnson's +French was faulty, is shown by his letters in that language. _Ante_, ii. +82, and _post_, under Nov. 12, 1775. + +[599] It has been translated into Bengalee, Hungarian, Polish, Modern +Greek, and Spanish, besides the languages mentioned by Johnson. Dr. J. +Macaulay's _Bibliography of Rasselas_. It reached its fifth edition by +1761. _A Bookseller of the Last Century_, p. 243. In the same book (p. +19) it is mentioned that 'a sixteenth share in _The Rambler_ was sold +for AL22 2s. 6d.' + +[600] A motion in the House of Commons for a committee to consider of +the subscription to the Thirty nine Articles had, on Feb. 23 of this +year, been rejected by 159 to 67. _Parl. Hist_. xvii. 742-758. A bill +for the relief of Protestant Dissenters that passed the House of Commons +by 65 to 14 on March 25, was rejected in the House of Lords by 86 to 28 +on April 2. _Ib_ p. 790. + +[601] See _post_, April 25, 1778, where Johnson says that 'Colman [the +manager] was prevailed on at last by much solicitation, nay, a kind of +force, to bring it on.' Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_, ii. 334-6) +writes:--'The actors and actresses had taken their tone from the +manager. Gentleman Smith threw up Voting Marlow; Woodward refused Tony +Lumpkin; Mrs. Abington declined Miss Hardcastle [in _The AthenA|um_, No. +3041, it is pointed out that Mrs. Abington was not one of Colman's +Company]; and, in the teeth of his own misgivings, Colman could not +contest with theirs. He would not suffer a new scene to be painted for +the play, he refused to furnish even a new dress, and was careful to +spread his forebodings as widely as he could.' The play met with the +greatest success. 'There was a new play by Dr. Goldsmith last night, +which succeeded prodigiously,' wrote Horace Valpole (_Letters_, v. 452). +The laugh was turned against the doubting manager. Ten days after the +play had been brought out, Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'C----[Colman] +is so distressed with abuse about his play, that he has solicited +Goldsmith to _take him off the rack of the newspapers_.' _Piozzi +Letters_, i. 80. See _post_, just before June 22, 1784, for Mr. +Steevens's account. + +[602] It was anything but an apology, unless _apology_ is used in its +old meaning of _defence_. + +[603] Nine days after _She Stoops to Conquer_ was brought out, a vile +libel, written, it is believed, by Kenrick (_ante_ i. 297), was +published by Evans in _The London Packet_. The libeller dragged in one +of the Miss Hornecks, 'the Jessamy Bride' of Goldsmith's verse. +Goldsmith, believing Evans had written the libel, struck him with his +cane. The blow was returned, for Evans was a strong man. 'He indicted +Goldsmith for the assault, but consented to a compromise on his paying +fifty pounds to a Welsh charity. The papers abused the poet, and +steadily turned aside from the real point in issue. At last he stated it +himself, in an _Address to the Public_, in the _Daily Advertiser_ of +March 31.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 347-351. The libel is given in +Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_ (1801), i. 103. + +[604] '_Your_ paper,' I suppose, because the _Chronicle_ was taken in at +Bolt Court. _Ante_, ii. 103. + +[605] See Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 265, for a possible explanation of +this sarcasm. + +[606] Horace Walpole is violent against Dalrymple and the King. 'What +must,' he says, 'be the designs of this reign when George III. +encourages a Jacobite wretch to hunt in France for materials for +blackening the heroes who withstood the enemies of Protestantism and +liberty.' _Journal of the Reign of George III_, i. 286. + +[607] Mr. Hallam pointed out to Mr. Croker that Johnson was speaking of +Dalrymple's description of the parting of Lord and Lady Russell:--'With +a deep and noble silence; with a long and fixed look, in which respect +and affection unmingled with passion were expressed, Lord and Lady +Russell parted for ever--he great in this last act of his life, but she +greater.' Dalrymple's _Memoirs_, i. 31. See _post_, April 30, 1773, for +the foppery of Dalrymple; and Boswell's _Hebrides_, near the end, for +Johnson's imitation of Dalrymple's style. + +[608] See _ante_, i. 334. + +[609] See _ante_, ii. 170. + +[610] Horace Walpole says:--'It was not Chesterfield's fault if he had +not wit; nothing exceeded his efforts in that point; and though they +were far from producing the wit, they at least amply yielded the +applause he aimed at.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George II_, i. 51. + +[611] A curious account of Tyrawley is given in Walpole's _Reign of +George II_, iii. 108. He had been Ambassador at Lisbon, and he 'even +affected not to know where the House of Commons was.' Walpole says +(_Letters_, i. 215, note) that 'Pope has mentioned his and another +ambassador's seraglios in one of his _Imitations of Horace_.' He refers +to the lines in the _Imitations_, i. 6. 120:-- + +'Go live with Chartres, in each vice outdo + K----l's lewd cargo, or Ty----y's crew.' + +Kinnoul and Tyrawley, says Walpole, are meant. + +[612] According to Chalmers, who himself has performed this task, Dr. +Percy was the first of these gentlemen, and Dr. John Calder the +second. CROKER. + +[613] Sir Andrew Freeport, after giving money to some importunate +beggars, says:--'I ought to give to an hospital of invalids, to recover +as many useful subjects as I can, but I shall bestow none of my bounties +upon an almshouse of idle people; and for the same reason I should not +think it a reproach to me if I had withheld my charity from those common +beggars.' _The Spectator_, No. 232. This paper is not by Addison. In No. +549, which is by Addison, Sir Andrew is made to found 'an almshouse for +a dozen superannuated husbandmen.' I have before (ii. 119) contrasted +the opinions of Johnson and Fielding as to almsgiving. A more curious +contrast is afforded by the following passage in _Tom Jones_, book i. +chap. iii:--'I have told my reader that Mr. Allworthy inherited a large +fortune, that he had a good heart, and no family. Hence, doubtless, it +will be concluded by many that he lived like an honest man, owed no one +a shilling, took nothing but what was his own, kept a good house, +entertained his neighbours with a hearty welcome at his table, and was +charitable to the poor, i.e. to those who had rather beg than work, by +giving them the offals from it; that he died immensely rich, and built +an hospital.' + +[614] Boswell says (_Hebrides_, Aug. 26, 1773):--'His recitation was +grand and affecting, and, as Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed to me, had +no more tone than it should have.' Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 302) +writes:--'His manner of repeating deserves to be described, though at +the same time it defeats all power of description; but whoever once +heard him repeat an ode of Horace would be long before they could endure +to hear it repeated by another.' See _ante_, ii. 92, note 4. + +[615] 'Some of the old legendary stories put in verse by modern writers +provoked him to caricature them thus one day at Streatham:-- + +"The tender infant, meek and mild, +Fell down upon the stone; +The nurse took up the squealing child, +But still the child squeal'd on." + +'A famous ballad also beginning--_Rio verde, Rio verde_, when I +commended the translation of it, he said he could do it better himself, +as thus:-- + +"Glassy water, glassy water, +Down whose current clear and strong, +Chiefs confused in mutual slaughter, +Moor and Christian roll along." + +"But, Sir," said I, "this is not ridiculous at all." "Why no," replied +he, "why should I always write ridiculously?"' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 65. +See _ante_, ii. 136, note 4. Neither Boswell nor Mrs. Piozzi mentions +Percy by name as the subject of Johnson's ridicule. + +[616] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 4, 1773. + +[617] Rogers (_Table-Talk_, p. 88) said that 'Fox considered Burnet's +style to be perfect.' + +[618] Johnson (_Works_, vii. 96) quotes; 'Dalrymple's observation, who +says "that whenever Burnet's narrations are examined, he appears to be +mistaken."' Lord Bolingbroke (_Works_, iv. 151) wrote of party pamphlets +and histories:--'Read them with suspicion, for they deserve to be +suspected; pay no regard to the epithets given, nor to the judgments +passed; neglect all declamation, weigh the reasoning, and advert to +fact. With such precautions, even Burnet's history may be of some use.' +Horace Walpole, noticing an attack on Burnet, says (_Letters_, vi. +487):--'It shows his enemies are not angry at his telling falsehoods, +but the truth ... I will tell you what was said of his _History_ by one +whose testimony you yourself will not dispute. That confessor said, +"Damn him, he has told a great deal of truth, but where the devil did he +learn it?" This was St. Atterbury's testimony.' + +[619] The cross-buns were for Boswell and Levet. Johnson recorded (_Pr. +and Med_. p. 121):--'On this whole day I took nothing of nourishment but +one cup of tea without milk; but the fast was very inconvenient. Towards +night I grew fretful and impatient, unable to fix my mind or govern my +thoughts.' + +[620] It is curious to compare with this Johnson's own record:--'I found +the service not burdensome nor tedious, though I could not hear the +lessons. I hope in time to take pleasure in public works.' _Pr. and +Med_. p. 121. + +[621] In the original _in_. + +[622] Afterwards Charles I. BOSWELL. + +[623] See _ante_, ii. 47. + +[624] See _post_, April 9, 1778, where Johnson said:-'Goldsmith had no +settled notions upon any subject; so he talked always at random.' + +[625] The next day Johnson recorded:--'I have had some nights of that +quiet and continual sleep which I had wanted till I had almost forgotten +it.' _Pemb. Coll. MSS_. + +[626] See _ante_, ii. 11. + +[627] We have the following account of Johnson's kitchen in 1778: 'Mr. +Thale.--"And pray who is clerk of your kitchen, Sir?" Dr. J.--"Why, Sir, +I am afraid there is none; a general anarchy prevails in my kitchen, as +I am told Mr. Levet, who says it is not now what it used to be." Mr. +T.--"But how do you get your dinners drest?" Dr. J.--"Why, Desmouline +has the chief management, for we have no jack." Mr. T.--"No jack? Why, +how do they manage without?" Dr. J.--"Small joints, I believe, they +manage with a string, and larger one done at the tavern. I have some +thoughts (with a profound gravity) of buying a jack, because I think a +jack is some credit to a house." Mr. T.--"Well, but you'll have a spit +too?" Dr. J.--"No Sir, no; that would be superfluous; for we shall never +use it; if a jack is seen, a spit will be presumed."' Mme. D'Arblay's +_Diary_, i. 115. + +[628] See _ante_, i. 418. + +[629] See _ante_, i. 252. + +[630] 'By inscribing this slight performance to you, I do not mean so +much to compliment you as myself. It may do me some honour to inform the +publick, 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.' BOSWELL. + +[631] See an account of this learned and respectable gentleman, and of +his curious work in the _Middle State, Journal of a Tour to the +Hebrides_, 3rd edition. p. 371. [Oct. 25.] BOSWELL. See _post_, June +9, 1784. + +[632] See _ante_, i. 225, for Boswell's project works, and i. 211. + +[633] 'When the efficiency [of men and women] is equal, but the pay +unequal, the only explanation that can be given is custom.' J. S. Mill's +_Political Economy_, Book ii. ch. xiv. 5. + +[634] The day before he told Boswell this he had recorded:--'My general +resolution, to which I humbly implore the help of God, is to methodise +my life, to resist sloth. I hope from this time to keep a journal.' _Pr. +and Med_. p. 124. Four times more he recorded the same resolution to +keep a journal. See _ante_, i. 433, and _post_, Apr. 14,1775. + +[635] See _post_, March 30, 1778, where Johnson says:--'A man loves to +review his own mind. That is the use of a diary or journal.' + +[636] 'He who has not made the experiment, or who is not accustomed to +require rigorous accuracy from himself, will scarcely believe how much a +few hours take from certainty of knowledge and distinctness of imagery +... To this dilatory notation must be imputed the false relations of +travellers, where there is no imaginable motive to deceive. They trusted +to memory what cannot be trusted safely but to the eye, and told by +guess what a few hours before they had known with certainty.' Johnson's +_Works_, ix. 144. + +[637] Goldsmith, in his dedication to Reynolds of the _Deserted +Village_, refers no doubt to Johnson's opinion of luxury. He writes:--'I +know you will object (and indeed _several of our best and wisest +friends_ concur in the opinion) that the depopulation it deplores is +nowhere to be seen, and the disorders it laments are only to be found in +the poet's own imagination.... In regretting the depopulation of the +country I inveigh against the increase of our luxuries; and here also I +expect the shout of modern politicians against me. For twenty or thirty +years past it has been the fashion to consider luxury as one of the +greatest national advantages.' See _post_, April 15, 1778. + +[638] Johnson, in his _Parl. Debates_ (_Works_, x. 418), makes General +Handasyd say:--'The whole pay of a foot soldier is sixpence a day, of +which he is to pay fourpence to his landlord for his diet, or, what is +very nearly the same, to carry fourpence daily to the market ... +Twopence a day is all that a soldier had to lay out upon cleanliness and +decency, and with which he is likewise to keep his arms in order, and to +supply himself with some part of his clothing. If, Sir, after these +deductions he can, from twopence a day, procure himself the means of +enjoying a few happy moments in the year with his companions over a cup +of ale, is not his economy much more to be envied than his luxury?' + +[639] The humours of Ballamagairy. BOSWELL. + +[640] + +'Ah me! when shall I marry me? +Lovers are plenty; but fail to relieve me. +He, fond youth, that could carry me, +Offers to love, but means to deceive me. +But I will rally and combat the ruiner: +Not a look, nor a smile shall my passion discover; +She that gives all to the false one pursuing her, +Makes but a penitent and loses a lover.' + +Boswell, in a letter published in Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, ii. 116, +with the song, says:--'The tune is a pretty Irish air, call _The Humours +of Ballamagairy_, to which, he told me, he found it very difficult to +adapt words; but he has succeeded very happily in these few lines. As I +could sing the tune and was fond of them, he was so good as to give me +them. I preserve this little relic in his own handwriting with an +affectionate care.' + +[641] See _ante_, i. 408, and _post_ April 7, 1776. + +[642] See _ante_, ii. 74. + +[643] See _ante_, i. 429. + +[644] See ante, ii. 169, for Johnson's 'half-a-guinea's worth of +inferiority.' + +[645] Boswell (_ante_, i. 256) mentions that he knew Lyttelton. For his +_History_, see _ante_, ii. 37. + +[646] Johnson has an interesting paper 'on lying' in _The Adventurer_, +No. 50, which thus begins:--'When Aristotle was once asked what a man +could gain by uttering falsehoods, he replied, "Not to be credited when +he shall tell the truth."' + +[647] Johnson speaks of the past, for Sterne had been dead five years. +Gray wrote on April 22, 1760:--'_Tristram Shandy_ is still a greater +object of admiration, the man as well as the book. One is invited to +dinner where he dines a fortnight beforehand.' Gray's _Works_, ed. +1858, iii. 241. + +[648] 'I was but once,' said Johnson, 'in Sterne's company, and then his +only attempt at merriment consisted in his display of a drawing too +indecently gross to have delighted even in a brothel.' Johnson's _Works_ +(1787), xi. 214. + +[649] Townshend was not the man to make his jokes serve twice. Horace +Walpole said of his _Champagne Speech_,--'It was Garrick writing and +acting extempore scenes of Congreve.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George +III_, iii. 25. Sir G. Colebrooke says:--'When Garrick and Foote were +present he took the lead, and hardly allowed them an opportunity of +shewing their talents of mimicry, because he could excel them in their +own art.' _Ib_ p. 101, note. '"Perhaps," said Burke, "there never arose +in this country, nor in any country, a man of a more pointed and +finished wit."' Payne's _Burke_, i. 146. + +[650] The 'eminent public character' is no doubt Burke, and the friend, +as Mr. Croker suggests, probably Reynolds. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, +Aug. 15, 1773, for a like charge made by Johnson against Burke. Boswell +commonly describes Burke as 'an eminent friend of ours;' but he could +not do so as yet, for he first met him fifteen days later. (_Post_, +April 30.) + +[651] 'Party,' Burke wrote in 1770 (_Thoughts on the Present +Discontents_), 'is a body of men united for promoting by their joint +endeavours the national interest upon some particular principle in which +they are all agreed. For my part I find it impossible to conceive that +any one believes in his own politics, or thinks them to be of any +weight, who refuses to adopt the means of having them reduced into +practice.' Payne's _Burke_, i. 86. + +[652] On May 5, and again on Nov. 10, the play was commanded by the King +and Queen. Prior's _Goldsmith_, ii. 394. + +[653] _Absalom and Achitophel_, part i. l. 872. + +[654] Paoli perhaps was thinking of himself. While he was still 'the +successful rebel' in Corsica, he had said to Boswell:--'The arts and +sciences are like dress and ornament. You cannot expect them from us for +some time. But come back twenty or thirty years hence, and we'll shew +you arts and sciences.' Boswell's _Corsica_, p. 172. + +[655] 'The Duke of Cumberland had been forbidden the Court on his +marriage with Mrs. Horton, a year before; but on the Duke of +Gloucester's avowal of his marriage with Lady Waldegrave, the King's +indignation found vent in the Royal Marriage Act: which was hotly +opposed by the Whigs as an edict of tyranny. Goldsmith (perhaps for +Burke's sake) helped to make it unpopular with the people: "We'll go to +France", says Hastings to Miss Neville, "for there, even among slaves, +the laws of marriage are respected." Said on the first night this had +directed repeated cheering to the Duke of Gloucester, who sat in one of +the boxes.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 358. See _ante_, ii. 152. + +[656] _Stenography_, by John Angell, 1758. + +[657] See _post_, April 10, 1778. + +[658] See _ante_, ii. + +[659] James Harris, father of the first Earl of Malmesbury, born 1709, +died 1780. Two years later Boswell wrote to Temple: 'I am invited to a +dinner at Mr. Cambridge's (for the dinner, see _post_, April 18, 1773), +where are to be Reynolds, Johnson, and Hermes Harris. "_Do you think +so?" said he. "Most certainly, said I_." Do you remember how I used to +laugh at his style when we were in the Temple? He thinks himself an +ancient Greek from these little peculiarities, as the imitators of +Shakspeare, whom the _Spectator_ mentions, thought they had done +wonderfully when they had produced a line similar:-- + +"And so, good morrow to ye, good Master Lieutenant."' + +_Letters of Boswell_, p. 187. It is not in the _Spectator_, but in +_Martinus Scriblerus_, ch. ix. (Swift's _Works_, 1803, xxiii, 53), that +the imitators of Shakspeare are ridiculed. Harris got his name of Hermes +from his _Hermes, or a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal +Grammar_. Cradock (_Memoirs_, i, 208) says that, 'A gentleman applied to +his friend to lend him some amusing book, and he recommended Harris's +_Hermes_. On returning it, the other asked how he had been entertained. +"Not much," he replied; "he thought that all these imitations of +_Tristram Shandy_ fell far short of the original."' See _post_, April 7, +1778, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 3, 1773. + +[660] Johnson suffers, in Cowper's epitaph on him, from the same kind of +praise as Goldsmith gives Harris:-- + + 'Whose verse may claim, grave, masculine and strong, + Superior praise to the mere poet's song.' + +Cowper's _Works_, v. 119. + +[661] See _ante_, 210. + +[662] Cave set up his coach about thirty years earlier (_ante_, i, 152, +note). Dr. Franklin (_Memoirs_, iii, 172) wrote to Mr. Straham in +1784:--'I remember your observing once to me, as we sat together in the +House of Commons, that no two journeymen printers within your knowledge +had met with such success in the world as ourselves. You were then at +the head of your profession, and soon afterwards became a member of +parliament. I was an agent for a few provinces, and now act for +them all.' + +[663] 'Hamilton made a large fortune out of Smollett's _History_.' +Forster's _Goldsmith_, i, 149. He was also the proprietor of the +_Critical Review_. + +[664] See _ante_, i, 71. + +[665] See _ante_, ii, 179, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 19, 1773. +Horace Walpole wrote of the year 1773:--'The rage of duelling had of +late much revived, especially in Ireland, and many attempts were made in +print and on the stage to curb so horrid and absurd a practice.' +_Journal of the Reign of George III_, i. 282. + +[666] Very likely Boswell. See _Post_, April 10, 1778, where he +says:--'I slily introduced Mr. Garrick's fame and his assuming the airs +of a great man'. + +[667] In the _Garrick's Corres_ up to this date there is no letter from +Lord Mansfield which answers Boswell's descriptions. To Lord Chatham +Garrick had addressed some verses from Mount Edgecumbe. Chatham, on +April 3, 1772, sent verses in return, and wrote:--'You have kindly +settled upon me a lasting species of property I never dreamed of in that +enchanting place; a far more able conveyancer than any in Chancery-land. +_Ib_ i, 459. + +[668] + +'Then I alone the conquest prize, +When I insult a rival's eyes: +If there's, &c.' + +Act iii, sc. 12. + +[669] + +'But how did he return, this haughty brave, +Who whipt the winds, and made the sea his slave? +(Though Neptune took unkindly to be bound +And Eurus never such hard usage found +In his A†olian prison under ground).' + +Dryden, _Juvenal_, x. 180. + +[670] Most likely Mr. Pepys, a Master in Chancery, whom Johnson more +than once roughly attacked at Streatham. See _post_, April 1, 1781, and +Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 46. + +[671] See _ante_, ii. 73. + +[672] 'Jan. 5, 1772. Poor Mr. Fitzherbert hanged himself on Wednesday. +He went to see the convicts executed that morning; and from thence in +his boots to his son, having sent his groom out of the way. At three his +son said, Sir, you are to dine at Mr. Buller's; it is time for you to go +home and dress. He went to his own stable and hanged himself with a +bridle. They say his circumstances were in great disorder.' Horace +Walpole's _Letters_, v. 362. See _ante_, i. 82, and _post_, Sept. +15, 1777. + +[673] Boswell, in his _Hebrides_ (Aug. 18, 1773) says that, 'Budgel was +accused of forging a will [Dr. Tindal's] and sunk himself in the Thames, +before the trial of its authenticity came on.' Pope, speaking of +himself, says that he-- + +'Let Budgel charge low Grub-street on his quill, +And write whate'er he pleas'd, except his will.' + +_Prologue to the Satires_, 1, 378. + +Budgel drowned himself on May 4, 1737, more than two years after the +publication of this Prologue. _Gent. Mag_. vii. 315. Perhaps the verse +is an interpolation in a later edition. See _post_, April 26, 1776. + +[674] See _post_, March 15, 1776. + +[675] On the Douglas Cause. See _ante_, ii. 50, and _post_, March 26, +1776. + +[676] I regretted that Dr. Johnson never took the trouble to study a +question which interested nations. He would not even read a pamphlet +which I wrote upon it, entitled _The Essence of the Douglas Cause_; +which, I have reason to flatter myself, had considerable effect in +favour of Mr. Douglas; of whose legitimate filiation I was then, and am +still, firmly convinced. Let me add, that no fact can be more +respectably ascertained than by the judgement of the most august +tribunal in the world; a judgement, in which Lord Mansfield and Lord +Camden united in 1769, and from which only five of a numerous body +entered a protest. BOSWELL. Boswell, in his Hebrides, records on Oct. +26, 1773:--'Dr. Johnson roused my zeal so much that I took the liberty +to tell him that he knew nothing of the [Douglas] Cause.' Lord Shelburne +says: 'I conceived such a prejudice upon the sight of the present Lord +Douglas's face and figure, that I could not allow myself to vote in this +cause. If ever I saw a Frenchman, he is one.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, +i. 10. Hume 'was struck,' he writes, 'with a very sensible indignation +at the decision. The Cause, though not in the least intricate, is so +complicated that it never will be reviewed by the public, who are +besides perfectly pleased with the sentence; being swayed by compassion +and a few popular topics. To one who understands the Cause as I do, +nothing could appear more scandalous than the pleadings of the two law +lords.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 423. In Campbell's _Chancellors_, v. +494, an account is given of a duel between Stuart and Thurlow that arose +out of this suit. + +[677] The Fountains. _Works_, ix. 176. + +[678] See _ante_, ii. 25. + +[679] It has already been observed (_ante_, ii. 55), that one of his +first Essays was a Latin Poem on a glow-worm; but whether it be any +where extant, has not been ascertained. MALONE. + +[680] 'Mallet's works are such as a writer, bustling in the world, +shewing himself in publick, and emerging occasionally from time to time +into notice, might keep alive by his personal influence; but which, +conveying little information and giving no great pleasure, must soon +give way, as the succession of things produces new topicks of +conversation and other modes of amusement.' Johnson's _Works_, +viii. 468. + +[681] Johnson made less money, because he never 'traded' on his +reputation. When he had made his name, he almost ceased to write. + +[682] 'May 27, 1773. Dr. Goldsmith has written a comedy--no, it is the +lowest of all farces. It is not the subject I condemn, though very +vulgar, but the execution. The drift tends to no moral, no edification +of any kind. The situations, however, are well imagined, and make one +laugh, in spite of the grossness of the dialogue, the forced witticisms, +and total improbability of the whole plan and conduct. But what disgusts +me most is, that though the characters are very low, and aim at low +humour, not one of them says a sentence that is natural or marks any +character at all. It is set up in opposition to sentimental comedy, and +is as bad as the worst of them.' Horace Walpole's _Letters_, v. 467. +Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, i. 286) says that Goldsmith gave him an +order to see this comedy. 'The next time I saw him, he inquired of me +what my opinion was of it. I told him that I would not presume to be a +judge of its merits. He asked, "Did it make you laugh?" I answered, +"Exceedingly." "Then," said the Doctor, "that is all I require."' + +[683] Garrick brought out his revised version of this play by Beaumont +and Fletcher in 1754-5. Murphy's _Garrick_, p. 170. The compliment is in +a speech by Don Juan, act v. sc. 2: 'Ay, but when things are at the +worst, they'll mend; example does everything, and the fair sex will +certainly grow better, whenever the greatest is the best woman in +the kingdom.' + +[684] _Formular_ is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_. + +[685] + +'On earth, a present god, shall Caesar reign.' + +FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, iii. 5.2. + +[686] See _ante_, i. 167. + +[687] Johnson refers, I believe, to Temple's Essay _Of Heroic Virtue_, +where he says that 'the excellency of genius' must not only 'be +cultivated by education and instruction,' but also 'must be assisted by +fortune to preserve it to maturity; because the noblest spirit or genius +in the world, if it falls, though never so bravely, in its first +enterprises, cannot deserve enough of mankind to pretend to so great a +reward as the esteem of heroic virtue.' Temple's _Works_, iii. 306. + +[688] See _post_, Sept. 17, 1777. + +[689] In an epitaph that Burke wrote for Garrick, he says: 'He raised +the character of his profession to the rank of a liberal art.' Windham's +_Diary_, p. 361. + +[690] 'The allusion,' as Mr. Lockhart pointed out, 'is not to the _Tale +of a Tub_, but to the _History of John Bull_' (part ii. ch 12 and 13). +Jack, who hangs himself, is however the youngest of the three brothers +of _The Tale of a Tub_, 'that have made such a clutter in the work' +(_ib_. chap ii). Jack was unwillingly convinced by Habbakkuk's argument +that to save his life he must hang himself. Sir Roger, he was promised, +before the rope was well about his neck, would break in and cut +him down. + +[691] He wrote the following letter to Goldsmith, who filled the chair +that evening. 'It is,' Mr. Forster says (_Life of Goldsmith_, ii. 367), +'the only fragment of correspondence between Johnson and Goldsmith that +has been preserved.' + +'April 23, 1773. + +'SIR,--I beg that you will excuse my absence to the Club; I am going +this evening to Oxford. + +'I have another favour to beg. It is that I may be considered as +proposing Mr. Boswell for a candidate of our society, and that he may be +considered as regularly nominated. + +'I am, sir, + +'Your most humble servant, + +'SAM. JOHNSON.' + +If Johnson went to Oxford his stay there was brief, as on April 27 +Boswell found him at home. + +[692] 'There are,' says Johnson, speaking of Dryden (_Works_, vii. 292), +'men whose powers operate only at leisure and in retirement, and whose +intellectual vigour deserts them in conversation.' See also _ante_, i. +413. 'No man,' he said of Goldsmith, 'was more foolish when he had not a +pen in his hand, or more wise when he had;' _post_, 1780, in Mr. +Langton's _Collection_. Horace Walpole (_Letters_, viii. 560), who 'knew +Hume personally and well,' said, 'Mr. Hume's writings were so superior +to his conversation, that I frequently said he understood nothing till +he had written upon it.' + +[693] The age of great English historians had not long begun. The first +volume of _The Decline and Fall_ was published three years later. +Addison had written in 1716 (_Freeholder_, No. 35), 'Our country, which +has produced writers of the first figure in every other kind of work, +has been very barren in good historians.' Johnson, in 1751, repeated +this observation in _The Rambler_, No. 122. Lord Bolingbroke wrote in +1735 (_Works_, iii. 454), 'Our nation has furnished as ample and as +important matter, good and bad, for history, as any nation under the +sun; and yet we must yield the palm in writing history most certainly to +the Italians and to the French, and I fear even to the Germans.' + +[694] Gibbon, informing Robertson on March 26, 1788, of the completion +of _The Decline and Fall_, said:--'The praise which has ever been the +most flattering to my ear, is to find my name associated with the names +of Robertson and Hume; and provided I can maintain my place in the +triumvirate, I am indifferent at what distance I am ranked below my +companions and masters.' Dugald Stewart's _Robertson_, p. 367. + +[695] 'Sir,' said Johnson, 'if Robertson's style be faulty, he owes it +me; that is, having too many words, and those too big ones.' _Post_, +Sept. 19, 1777. Johnson was not singular among the men of his time in +condemning Robertson's _verbiage_. Wesley (_Journal_, iii. 447) wrote of +vol. i. of _Charles the Fifth_:--'Here is a quarto volume of eight or +ten shillings' price, containing dry, verbose dissertations on feudal +government, the substance of all which might be comprised in half a +sheet of paper!' Johnson again uses _verbiage_ (a word not given in his +_Dictionary_), _post_, April 9, 1778. + +[696] See _ante_, ii. 210. + +[697] See _post_, Oct. 10, 1779. + +[698] 'Vertot, nA(C) en Normandie en 1655. Historien agrA(C)able et A(C)lA(C)gant. +Mort en 1735.' Voltaire, _SiA"cle de Louis XIV_. + +[699] Even Hume had no higher notion of what was required in a writer of +ancient history. He wrote to Robertson, who was, it seems, meditating a +History of Greece:--'What can you do in most places with these (the +ancient) authors but transcribe and translate them? No letters or state +papers from which you could correct their errors, or authenticate their +narration, or supply their defects.' J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 83. + +[700] See _ante_, ii. 53. Southey, asserting that Robertson had never +read the Laws of Alonso the Wise, says, that 'it is one of the thousand +and one omissions for which he ought to be called rogue as long as his +volumes last.' Southey's _Life_, ii. 318. + +[701] Ovid. de Art. Amand. i. iii. v. 13 [339]. BOSWELL. 'It may be that +our name too will mingle with those.' + +[702] The _Gent. Mag_. for Jan. 1766 (p. 45) records, that 'a person was +observed discharging musket-balls from a steel crossbow at the two +remaining heads upon Temple Bar.' They were the heads of Scotch rebels +executed in 1746. Samuel Rogers, who died at the end of 1855, said, 'I +well remember one of the heads of the rebels upon a pole at Temple Bar.' +Rogers's _Table-Talk_, p. 2. + +[703] In allusion to Dr. Johnson's supposed political principles, and +perhaps his own. BOSWELL. + +[704] 'Dr. Johnson one day took Bishop Percy's little daughter upon his +knee, and asked her what she thought of _Pilgrim's Progress_. The child +answered that she had not read it. "No!" replied the Doctor; "then I +would not give one farthing for you:" and he set her down and took no +further notice of her.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 838. Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. +p. 281) says, that Johnson once asked, 'Was there ever yet anything +written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting +_Don Quixote_, _Robinson Crusoe_, and The _Pilgrim's Progress_?' + +[705] It was Johnson himself who was thus honoured. _Post_, under Dec. +20, 1784. + +[706] Here is another instance of his high admiration of Milton as a +Poet, notwithstanding his just abhorrence of that sour Republican's +political principles. His candour and discrimination are equally +conspicuous. Let us hear no more of his 'injustice to Milton.' BOSWELL. + +[707] There was an exception to this. In his criticism of _Paradise +Lost_ (_Works_, vii. 136), he says:--'The confusion of spirit and matter +which pervades the whole narration of the war of Heaven fills it with +incongruity; and the book in which it is related is, I believe, the +favourite of children, and gradually neglected as knowledge is +increased.' + +[708] In the _Academy_, xxii. 348, 364, 382, Mr. C. E. Doble shews +strong grounds for the belief that the author was Richard Allestree, +D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford, and Provost of Eton. Cowper +spoke of it as 'that repository of self-righteousness and pharisaical +lumber;' with which opinion Southey wholly disagreed. Southey's +_Cowper_, i. 116. + +[709] Johnson said to Boswell:--'Sir, they knew that if they refused you +they'd probably never have got in another. I'd have kept them all out. +Beauclerk was very earnest for you.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. +21, 1773. + +[710] Garrick and Jones had been elected this same spring. See _ante_, +i. 481, note 3. + +[711] Mr. Langton, in his _Collection_ (_post_, 1780), mentions an ode +brought by Goldsmith to the Club, which had been recited for money. + +[712] Dr. Johnson's memory here was not perfectly accurate: _Eugenio_ +does not conclude thus. There are eight more lines after the last of +those quoted by him; and the passage which he meant to recite is as +follows:-- + +'Say now ye fluttering, poor assuming elves, Stark full of pride, of +folly, of--yourselves; Say where's the wretch of all your impious crew +Who dares confront his character to view? Behold Eugenio, view him o'er +and o'er, Then sink into yourselves, and be no more.' + +Mr. Reed informs me that the Author of _Eugenio_, a Wine Merchant at +Wrexham in Denbighshire, soon after its publication, viz. 17th May, +1737, cut his own throat; and that it appears by Swift's _Works_ that +the poem had been shewn to him, and received some of his corrections. +Johnson had read _Eugenio_ on his first coming to town, for we see it +mentioned in one of his letters to Mr. Cave, which has been inserted in +this work; _ante_, p. 122. BOSWELL. See Swift's _Works_, ed. 1803, xix. +153, for his letter to this wine merchant, Thomas Beach by name. + +[713] These lines are in the _Annus Mirabilis_ (stanza 164) in a +digression in praise of the Royal Society; described by Johnson +(_Works_, vii. 320) as 'an example seldom equalled of seasonable +excursion and artful return.' _Ib_ p. 341, he says: 'Dryden delighted to +tread upon the brink of meaning, where light and darkness begin to +mingle.... This inclination sometimes produced nonsense, which he knew; +and sometimes it issued in absurdities, of which perhaps he was not +conscious.' He then quotes these lines, and continues: 'They have no +meaning; but may we not say, in imitation of Cowley on another book-- + +"'Tis so like _sense_, 'twill serve the turn as well."' + +Cowley's line is from his _Pindarique Ode to Mr. Hobs_:-- + +''Tis so like _truth_, 'twill serve _our_ turn as well.' + +[714] In his _Dictionary_, he defines _punster as a low wit, who +endeavours at reputation by double meaning_. See _post_, April 28, 1778. + +[715] I formerly thought that I had perhaps mistaken the word, and +imagined it to be _Corps_, from its similarity of sound to the real one. +For an accurate and shrewd unknown gentleman, to whom I am indebted for +some remarks on my work, observes on this passage--'Q. if not on the +word _Fort_? A vociferous French preacher said of Bourdaloue, "Il preche +_fort bien, et_ moi _bien fort_."'--Menagiana. See also Anecdotes +Litteraires, Article Bourdaloue. But my ingenious and obliging +correspondent, Mr. Abercrombie of Philadelphia, has pointed out to me +the following passage in _Menagiana_; which renders the preceding +conjecture unnecessary, and confirms my original statement: + +'Madme de Bourdonne, Chanoinesse de Remiremont, venoit d'entendre un +discours plein de feu et d'esprit, mais fort peu solide, et +tresirregulier. Une de ses amies, qui y prenoit interet pour l'orateur, +lui dit en sortant, "Eh bien, Madme que vous semble-t-il de ce que vous +venez d'entendre?--Qu'il ya d'esprit?"--"Il y a tant, repondit Madme de +Bourdonne, que je n'y ai pas vu de _corps_"'--Menagiana, tome ii. p. 64. +Amsterd. 1713. BOSWELL. _Menagiana, ou les bans mots et remarques +critiques, historiqites, morales et derudition de M. Menage, recueillies +par ses amis_, published in 1693. Gilles Menage was born 1613, +died 1692. + +[716] That Johnson only relished the conversation, and did not join in +it, is more unlikely. In his _charge_ to Boswell, he very likely pointed +out that what was said within was not to be reported without. Boswell +gives only brief reports of the talk at the Club, and these not openly. +See _post_, April 7, 1775, note. + +[717] See _post_, the passage before Feb. 18, 1775. + +[718] By the Rev. Henry Wharton, published in 1692. + +[719] See _ante_, ii. 126, for what Johnson said of the _inward light_. + +[720] Lady Diana Beauclerk. In 1768 Beauclerk married the eldest +daughter of the second Duke of Marlborough, two days after her divorce +from her first husband, Viscount Bolingbroke, the nephew of the famous +Lord Bolingbroke. She was living when her story, so slightly veiled as +it is, was thus published by Boswell. The marriage was not a happy one. +Two years after Beauclerk's death, Mr. Burke, looking at his widow's +house, said in Miss Burney's presence:--'I am extremely glad to see her +at last so well housed; poor woman! the bowl has long rolled in misery; +I rejoice that it has now found its balance. I never myself so much +enjoyed the sight of happiness in another, as in that woman when I first +saw her after the death of her husband.' He then drew Beauclerk's +character 'in strong and marked expressions, describing the misery he +gave his wife, his singular ill-treatment of her, and the necessary +relief the death of such a man must give.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, +ii. 147. + +[721] Old Mr. Langton. CROKER. See _post_, April 26, 1776. + +[722] See _post_, Sept. 22, 1777. + +[723] See _post_, May 15, 1776. + +[724] The writer of hymns. + +[725] Malone says that 'Hawkesworth was introduced by Garrick to Lord +Sandwich, who, thinking to put a few hundred pounds into his pocket, +appointed him to revise and publish _Cook's Voyages_. He scarcely did +anything to the MSS., yet sold it to Cadell and Strahan for AL6000.' +Prior's _Malone_, p. 441. Thurlow, in his speech on copy-right on March +24, 1774, said 'that Hawkesworth's book, which was a mere composition of +trash, sold for three guineas by the booksellers' monopolizing.' _Parl. +Hist_. xvii. 1086. See _ante_, i. 253, note 1, and Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Oct. 3. + +[726] Gilbert White held 'that, though most of the swallow kind may +migrate, yet that some do stay behind, and bide with us during the +winter.' White's _Selborne_, Letter xii. See _ante_, ii. 55. + +[727] See _ante_, ii. 73. + +[728] No. 41. 'The sparrow that was hatched last spring makes her first +nest the ensuing season of the same materials, and with the same art as +in any following year; and the hen conducts and shelters her first brood +of chickens with all the prudence that she ever attains.' + +[729] See _post_, April 3, 1776, April 3, 1779, and April 28, 1783. + +[730] Rousseau went further than Johnson in this. About eleven years +earlier he had, in his _Contract Social_, iv. 8, laid down certain +'simple dogmas,' such as the belief in a God and a future state, and +said:--'Sans pouvoir obliger personne A les croire, il [le Souverain] +peut bannir de l'Etat quiconque ne les croit pas: ... Que si quelquiun, +aprA"s avoir reconne publiquement ces mAªmes dogmes, se conduit comme ne +les croyant pas, qu'il soit puni de mort; il a commis le plus grand des +crimes, il a menti devant les lois.' + +[731] See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. + +[732] Boswell calls Elwal Johnson's countryman, because they both came +from the same county. See _ante_, ii. + +[733] Baretti, in a MS. note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 219, +says:--'Johnson would have made an excellent Spanish inquisitor. To his +shame be it said, he always was tooth and nail against toleration.' + +[734] Dr. Mayo's calm temper and steady perseverance, rendered him an +admirable subject for the exercise of Dr. Johnson's powerful abilities. +He never flinched; but, after reiterated blows, remained seemingly +unmoved as at the first. The scintillations of Johnson's genius flashed +every time he was struck, without his receiving any injury. Hence he +obtained the epithet of The Literary Anvil. BOSWELL. See _post_, April +15, 1778, for an account of another dinner at Mr. Dilly's, where Johnson +and Mayo met. + +[735] The Young Pretender, Charles Edward. + +[736] Mr. Croker, quoting Johnson's letter of May 20, 1775 (_Piozzi +Letters_, i. 219), where he says, 'I dined in a large company at a +dissenting bookseller's yesterday, and disputed against toleration with +one Doctor Meyer,' continues:--'This must have been the dinner noted in +the text; but I cannot reconcile the date, and the mention of the death +of the Queen of Denmark, which happened on May 10, 1775, ascertains that +the date of the _letter_ is correct. Boswell ... must, I think, have +misdated and misplaced his note of the conversation.' That the dinner +did not take place in May, 1775, is, however, quite clear. By that date +Goldsmith had been dead more than a year, and Goldsmith bore a large +part in the talk at the Dilly's table. On the other hand, there can be +no question about the correctness of the date of the letter. Wesley, in +his _Journal_ for 1757 (ii. 349), mentions 'Mr. Meier, chaplain to one +of the Hanoverian regiments.' Perhaps he is the man whom Johnson met +in 1775. + +[737] See _ante_, i. 423, note 2. + +[738] 'It is very possible he had to call at Covent-garden on his way, +and that for this, and not for Boswell's reason, he had taken his hat +early. The actor who so assisted him in Young Marlow was taking his +benefit this seventh of May; and for an additional attraction Goldsmith +had written him an epilogue.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 376. + +[739] Johnson was not given to interrupting a speaker. Hawkins (_Life_, +p. 164), describing his conversation, says:--'For the pleasure he +communicated to his hearers he expected not the tribute of silence; on +the contrary, he encouraged others, particularly young men, to speak, +and paid a due attention to what they said.' See _post_, under April 29, +1776, note. + +[740] That this was Langton can be seen from Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. +22, 1773, and from Johnson's letters of July 5, 1773, July 5, 1774, and +Jan. 21, 1775. + +[741] See _post_, April 28, 1783. + +[742] _Pr. and Med_. p. 40. Boswell. + +[743] See _ante_, i. 489. + +[744] 'In England,' wrote Burke, 'the Roman Catholics are a sect; in +Ireland they are a nation.' Burke's _Corres_. iv. 89. + +[745] 'The celebrated number of _ten_ persecutions has been determined +by the ecclesiastical writers of the fifth century, who possessed a more +distinct view of the prosperous or adverse fortunes of the church, from +the age of Nero to that of Diocletian. The ingenious parallels of the +_ten_ plagues of Egypt, and of the _ten_ horns of the Apocalypse, first +suggested this calculation to their minds.' Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, +ch. xvi, ed. 1807, ii. 370. + +[746] See _ante_, ii. 121, 130. + +[747] See _ante_, ii. 105. + +[748] Reynolds said:--'Johnson had one virtue which I hold one of the +most difficult to practise. After the heat of contest was over, if he +had been informed that his antagonist resented his rudeness, he was the +first to seek after a reconciliation.' Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 457. He +wrote to Dr. Taylor in 1756:--'When I am musing alone, I feel a pang for +every moment that any human being has by my peevishness or obstinacy +spent in uneasiness.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 324. More than +twenty years later he said in Miss Burney's hearing:--'I am always sorry +when I make bitter speeches, and I never do it but when I am +insufferably vexed.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 131. 'When the fray was +over,' writes Murphy (_Life_, p. 140), 'he generally softened into +repentance, and, by conciliating measures, took care that no animosity +should be left rankling in the breast of the antagonist.' See +_ante_, ii. 109. + +[749] Johnson had offended Langton as well as Goldsmith this day, yet of +Goldsmith only did he ask pardon. Perhaps this fact increased Langton's +resentment, which lasted certainly more than a year. See _post_, July 5, +1774, and Jan. 21, 1775. + +[750] 'Addison, speaking of his own deficiency in conversation, used to +say of himself, that with respect to intellectual wealth he could draw +bills for a thousand pounds, though he had not a guinea in his pocket.' +Johnson's _Works_, vii. 446. Somewhat the same thought may be found in +_The Tatler_, No. 30, where it is said that 'a man endowed with great +perfections without good-breeding, is like one who has his pockets full +of gold, but always wants change for his ordinary occasions.' I have +traced it still earlier, for Burnet in his _History of his own Times_, +i. 210, says, that 'Bishop Wilkins used to say Lloyd had the most +learning in ready cash of any he ever knew.' Later authors have used the +same image. Lord Chesterfield (_Letters_, ii. 291) in 1749 wrote of Lord +Bolingbroke:--'He has an infinite fund of various and almost universal +knowledge, which, from the clearest and quickest conception and happiest +memory that ever man was blessed with, he always carries about him. It +is his pocket-money, and he never has occasion to draw upon a book for +any sum.' Southey wrote in 1816 (_Life and Corres_. iv. 206):--'I wish +to avoid a conference which will only sink me in Lord Liverpool's +judgment; what there may be in me is not payable at sight; give me +leisure and I feel my strength.' Rousseau was in want of readiness like +Addison:--'Je fais d'excellens impromptus A loisir; mais sur le temps je +n'ai jamais rien fait ni dit qui vaille. Je ferais une fort jolie +conversation par la poste, comme on dit que les Espagnols jouent aux +A(C)checs. Quand je lus le trait d'un Duc de Savoye qui se retourna, +faisant route, pour crier; _A votre gorge, marchand de Paris_, je dis, +me voilA .' _Les Confessions_, Livre iii. See also _post_, May 8, 1778. + +[751] 'Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces, or infirmity +suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and +striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings; and +Milton, in a letter to a learned stranger, by whom he had been visited, +with great reason congratulates himself upon the consciousness of being +found equal to his own character, and having preserved in a private and +familiar interview that reputation which his works had procured him.' +_The Rambler_, No. 14. + +[752] Prior (_Life of Goldsmith_, ii. 459) says that it was not a German +who interrupted Goldsmith but a Swiss, Mr. Moser, the keeper of the +Royal Academy (_post_, June 2, 1783). He adds that at a Royal Academy +dinner Moser interrupted another person in the same way, when Johnson +seemed preparing to speak, whereupon Goldsmith said, 'Are you sure that +_you_ can comprehend what he says?' + +[753] Edmund Burke he called Mund; Dodsley, Doddy; Derrick, Derry; +Cumberland, Cumbey; Monboddo, Monny; Stockdale, Stockey. Mrs. Piozzi +represents him in his youth as calling Edmund Hector 'dear Mund.' +_Ante_, i. 93, note. Sheridan's father had been known as Sherry among +Swift and his friends. Swift's _Works_, ed. 1803, x. 256. + +[754] Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_, ii. 103) on this remarks:--'It +was a courteous way of saying, "I wish _you_ [Davies] wouldn't call me +Goldy, whatever Mr. Johnson does."' That he is wrong in this is shown by +Boswell, in his letter to Johnson of Feb. 14, 1777, where he says:--'You +remember poor Goldsmith, when he grew important, and wished to appear +_Doctor Major_, could not bear your calling him _Goldy_.' See also +Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 14, 1773. + +[755] The Reverend Thomas Bagshaw, M.A., who died on November 20, 1787, +in the seventy-seventh year of his age, Chaplain of Bromley College, in +Kent, and Rector of Southfleet. He had resigned the cure of Bromley +Parish some time before his death. For this, and another letter from Dr. +Johnson in 1784, to the same truely respectable man, I am indebted to +Dr. John Loveday, of the Commons [_ante_, i. 462, note 1], a son of the +late learned and pious John Loveday, Esq., of Caversham in Berkshire, +who obligingly transcribed them for me from the originals in his +possession. This worthy gentleman, having retired from business, now +lives in Warwickshire. The world has been lately obliged to him as the +Editor of the late Rev. Dr. Townson's excellent work, modestly entitled, +_A Discourse on the Evangelical History, from the Interment to the +Ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ_; to which is prefixed, a +truly interesting and pleasing account of the authour, by the Reverend +Mr. Ralph Churton. BOSWELL. + +[756] Sunday was May 9. + +[757] As Langton was found to deeply resent Johnson's hasty expression +at the dinner on the 7th, we must assume that he had invited Johnson to +dine with him before the offence had been given. + +[758] In the _Dictionary_ Johnson, as the second definition of +_metaphysical_, says: 'In Shakespeare it means _supernatural_ or +_preternatural_.' 'Creation' being beyond the nature of man, the right +derived from it is preternatural or metaphysical. + +[759] See _ante_, i. 437. + +[760] Hume, on Feb. 24 of this year, mentioned to Adam Smith as a late +publication Lord Monboddo's _Origin and Progress of Language_:--'It +contains all the absurdity and malignity which I suspected; but is writ +with more ingenuity and in a better style than I looked for.' J. H. +Burton's _Hume_, ii. 466. See _ante_, ii. 74. + +[761] Monday was May 10. + +[762] See _ante_, i. 413. Percy wrote of Goldsmith's envy:--'Whatever +appeared of this kind was a mere momentary sensation, which he knew not +how, like other men, to conceal.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 117. + +[763] He might have applied to himself his own version of Ovid's lines, +_Genus et proavos_, &c., the motto to _The Rambler_, No. 46:-- + +'Nought from my birth or ancestors I claim; All is my own, my honor and +my shame.' + +See _ante_, ii. 153. + +[764] That Langton is meant is shewn by Johnson's letter of July 5 +(_post_, p. 265). The man who is there described as leaving the town in +deep dudgeon was certainly Langton. 'Where is now my legacy?' writes +Johnson. He is referring, I believe, to the last part of his playful and +boisterous speech, where he says:--'I hope he has left me a legacy.' Mr. +Croker, who is great at suspicions, ridiculously takes the mention of a +legacy seriously, and suspects 'some personal disappointment at the +bottom of this strange obstreperous and sour merriment.' He might as +well accuse Falstaff of sourness in his mirth. + +[765] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 23, 1773, where Boswell makes the +same remark. + +[766] + +'Et quorum pars magna fui.' +'Yea, and was no small part thereof.' + +Morris, A†neids, ii. 6. + +[767] Johnson, as drawn by Boswell, is too 'awful, melancholy, and +venerable.' Such 'admirable fooling' as he describes here is but rarely +shown in his pages. Yet he must often have seen equally 'ludicrous +exhibitions.' Hawkins (_Life_, p. 258) says, that 'in the talent of +humour there hardly ever was Johnson's equal, except perhaps among the +old comedians.' Murphy writes (Life, p. 139):--'Johnson was surprised to +be told, but it is certainly true, that with great powers of mind, wit +and humour were his shining talents.' Mrs. Piozzi confirms this. 'Mr. +Murphy,' she writes (_Anec_. p. 205), 'always said he was incomparable +at buffoonery.' She adds (p. 298):--'He would laugh at a stroke of +genuine humour, or sudden sally of odd absurdity, as heartily and freely +as I ever yet saw any man; and though the jest was often such as few +felt besides himself, yet his laugh was irresistible, and was observed +immediately to produce that of the company, not merely from the notion +that it was proper to laugh when he did, but purely out of want of power +to forbear it.' Miss Burney records:--'Dr. Johnson has more fun, and +comical humour, and love of nonsense about him than almost anybody I +ever saw.' Mine. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 204. See Boswell's own account, +_post_, end of vol. iv. + +[768] _Pr. and Med_. p. 129. BOSWELL. See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's +_Collection_ for Johnson's study of Low Dutch. + +[769] 'Those that laugh at the portentous glare of a comet, and hear a +crow with equal tranquillity from the right or left, will yet talk of +times and situations proper for intellectual performances,' &c. _The +Idler_, No. xi. See _ante_, i. 332. + +[770] 'He did not see at all with one of his eyes' (_ante_, i. 41). + +[771] Not six months before his death, he wished me to teach him the +Scale of Musick:--'Dr. Burney, teach me at least the alphabet of your +language.' BURNEY. + +[772] Accurata Burdonum [i.e. Scaligerorum] FabulA| Confutatio (auctore +I. R). Lugduni Batavorum. Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium MDCXVII. BRIT. MUS. +CATALOGUE. + +[773] Mrs. Piozzi's _Anecdotes of Johnson_, p. 131. BOSWELL. Mrs. Piozzi +(_Anec_. p. 129) describes her mother and Johnson as 'excellent, far +beyond the excellence of any other man and woman I ever yet saw. As her +conduct extorted his truest esteem, her cruel illness excited all his +tenderness. He acknowledged himself improved by her piety, and over her +bed with the affection of a parent, and the reverence of a son.' +Baretti, in a MS. note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 81, says that 'Johnson +could not much near Mrs. Salusbury, nor Mrs. Salusbury him, when they +first knew each other. But her cancer moved his compassion, and made +them friends.' Johnson, recording her death, says:--'Yesterday, as I +touched her hand and kissed it, she pressed my hand between her two +hands, which she probably intended as the parting caress ... This +morning being called about nine to feel her pulse, I said at parting, +"God bless you; for Jesus Christ's sake." She smiled as pleased.' _Pr. +and Med_. p. 128. + +[774] Johnson wrote to Dr. Taylor July 22, 1782:--'Sir Robert Chambers +slipped this session through the fingers of revocation, but I am in +doubt of his continuance. Shelburne seems to be his enemy. Mrs. Thrale +says they will do him no harm. She perhaps thinks there is no harm +without hanging. The mere act of recall strips him of eight thousand a +year.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 462. + +[775] Beattie was Professor of Moral Philosophy. For some years his +'English friends had tried to procure for him a permanent provision +beyond the very moderate emoluments arising from his office.' Just +before Johnson wrote, Beattie had been privately informed that he was to +have a pension of AL200 a year. Forbes's _Beattie_, ed. 1824, pp. 145, +151. When Johnson heard of this 'he clapped his hands, and cried, "O +brave we!"' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 26. + +[776] Langton. See _ante_, p. 254, note 2. + +[777] Langton--his native village. + +[778] See _ante_, p. 261, note 2. + +[779] That he set out on this day is shewn by his letter to Mrs. Thrale. +_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 103. The following anecdote in the _Memoir of +Goldsmith_, prefixed to his _Misc. Works_ (i. 110), is therefore +inaccurate:--'I was dining at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, August 7, 1773, +where were the Archbishop of Tuam and Mr. (now Lord) Eliot, when the +latter making use of some sarcastical reflections on Goldsmith, Johnson +broke out warmly in his defence, and in the course of a spirited +eulogium said, "Is there a man, Sir, now who can pen an essay with such +ease and elegance as Goldsmith?"' Johnson did in August, 1783, dine at +Reynolds's, and meet there the Archbishop of Tuam, 'a man coarse of +voice and inelegant of language' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 300. + +[780] It was on Saturday the 14th of August that he arrived. + +[781] From Aug. 14 to Nov. 22 is one hundred days. + +[782] It is strange that not one of the four conferred on him an +honorary degree. This same year Beattie had been thus honoured at +Oxford. Gray, who visited Aberdeen eight years before Johnson, was +offered the degree of doctor of laws, 'which, having omitted to take it +at Cambridge, he thought it decent to refuse.' Johnson's _Works_, +viii. 479. + +[783] He was long remembered amongst the lower order of Hebrideans by +the title of _Sassenach More_, the _big Englishman_. WALTER SCOTT. + +[784] The first edition was published in September, 1785. In the +following August, in his preface to the third edition, Boswell speaks of +the first two editions 'as large impressions.' + +[785] The authour was not a small gainer by this extraordinary Journey; +for Dr. Johnson thus writes to Mrs. Thrale, Nov. 3, 1773:--'Boswell will +praise my resolution and perseverance, and I shall in return celebrate +his good humour and perpetual cheerfulness. He has better faculties than +I had imagined; more justness of discernment, and more fecundity of +images. It is very convenient to travel with him; for there is no house +where he is not received with kindness and respect.' Let. 90, to Mrs. +Thrale. [_Piozzi Letters_, i. 198.] MALONE. + +[786] 'The celebrated Flora Macdonald. See Boswell's _Tour_' COURTENAY. + +[787] Lord Eldon (at that time Mr. John Scott) has the following +reminiscences of this visit:--'I had a walk in New Inn Hall Garden with +Dr. Johnson and Sir Robert Chambers [Principal of the Hall]. Sir Robert +was gathering snails, and throwing them over the wall into his +neighbours garden. The Doctor repreached him very roughly, and stated to +him that this was unmannerly and unneighbourly. "Sir," said Sir Robert, +"my neighbour is a Dissenter." "Oh!" said the Doctor, "if so, Chambers, +toss away, toss away, as hard as you can." He was very absent. I have +seen him standing for a very long time, without moving, with a foot on +each side the kennel which was then in the middle of the High Street, +with his eyes fixed on the water running in it. In the common-room of +University College he was dilating upon some subject, and the then head +of Lincoln College, Dr. Mortimer, occasionally interrupted him, saying, +"I deny that." This was often repeated, and observed upon by Johnson, in +terms expressive of increasing displeasure and anger. At length upon the +Doctor's repeating the words, "I deny that," "Sir, Sir," said Johnson, +"you must have forgot that an author has said: _Plus negabit tinus +asinus in una hora quam centum philosophi probaverint in centum +annis_."' [Dr. Fisher, who related this story to Mr. Croker, described +Dr. Mortimer as 'a Mr. Mortimer, a shallow under-bred man, who had no +sense of Johnson's superiority. He flatly contradicted some assertion +which Johnson had pronounced to be as clear as that two and two make +four.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 483.] 'Mrs. John Scott used to relate that +she had herself helped Dr. Johnson one evening to fifteen cups of tea.' +Twiss's _Eldon_, i. 87. + +[788] In this he shewed a very acute penetration. My wife paid him the +most assiduous and respectful attention, while he was our guest; so that +I wonder how he discovered her wishing for his departure. The truth is, +that his irregular hours and uncouth habits, such as turning the candles +with their heads downwards, when they did not burn bright enough, and +letting the wax drop upon the carpet, could not but be disagreeable to a +lady. Besides, she had not that high admiration of him which was felt by +most of those who knew him; and what was very natural to a female mind, +she thought he had too much influence over her husband. She once in a +little warmth, made, with more point than justice, this remark upon that +subject: 'I have seen many a bear led by a man; but I never before saw a +man led by a bear.' BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 66. + +[789] Sir Alexander Gordon, one of the Professors at Aberdeen. BOSWELL. + +[790] This was a box containing a number of curious things which he had +picked up in Scotland, particularly some horn spoons. BOSWELL. + +[791] The Rev. Dr. Alexander Webster, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, +a man of distinguished abilities, who had promised him information +concerning the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. BOSWELL. + +[792] The Macdonalds always laid claim to be placed on the right of the +whole clans, and those of that tribe assign the breach of this order at +Culloden as one cause of the loss of the day. The Macdonalds, placed on +the left wing, refused to charge, and positively left the field +unassailed and unbroken. Lord George Murray in vain endeavoured to urge +them on by saying, that their behaviour would make the left the right, +and that he himself would take the name of Macdonald. WALTER SCOTT. + +[793] The whole of the first volume is Johnson's and three-quarters of +the second. A second edition was published the following year, with a +third volume added, which also contained pieces by Johnson, but no +apology from Davies. + +[794] 'When Davies printed the _Fugitive Pieces_ without his knowledge +or consent; "How," said I, "would Pope have raved had he been served +so?" "We should never," replied he, "have heard the last on't, to be +sure; but then Pope was a narrow man: I will however," added he, "storm +and bluster _myself_ a little this time;"--so went to London in all the +wrath he could muster up. At his return I asked how the affair ended: + +'"Why," said he, "I was a fierce fellow, and pretended to be very angry, +and Thomas was a good-natured fellow, and pretended to be very sorry; so +_there_ the matter ended: I believe the dog loves me dearly. Mr. Thrale" +(turning to my husband), "What shall you and I do that is good for Tom +Davies? We will do something for him to be sure."' Piozzi's _Anec_. +p. 55. + +[795] _Prayers and Meditations_, BOSWELL. + +[796] The ancient Burgh of Prestick, in Ayrshire. BOSWELL. + +[797] Perhaps Johnson imperfectly remembered, '_novae rediere in +pristina vires_.' _AEneid_, xii. 424. + +[798] See _ante_, i. 437. The decision was given on Feb. 22 against the +perpetual right. 'By the above decision near 200,000AL. worth of what was +honestly purchased at public sale, and which was yesterday thought +property, is now reduced to nothing.... The English booksellers have now +no other security in future for any literary purchase they may make but +the statute of the 8th of Queen Anne, which secures to the authors +assigns an exclusive property for 14 years, to revert again to the +author, and vest in him for 14 years more.' _Ann. Reg_. 1774, i. 95. + +[799] Murphy was a barrister as well as author. + +[800] Mr. Croker quotes a note by Malone to show that in the catalogue +of Steevens's Library this book is described as a quarto, _corio turcico +foliis deauratis_. + +[801] A manuscript account drawn by Dr. Webster of all the parishes in +Scotland, ascertaining their length, breadth, number of inhabitants, and +distinguishing Protestants and Roman Catholicks. This book had been +transmitted to government, and Dr. Johnson saw a copy of it in Dr. +Webster's possession. BOSWELL. + +[802] Beauclerk, three weeks earlier, had written to Lord +Charlemont:--'Our club has dwindled away to nothing. Nobody attends but +Mr. Chambers, and he is going to the East Indies. Sir Joshua and +Goldsmith have got into such a round of pleasures that they have no +time.' Charlemont's _Life_, i. 350. Johnson, no doubt, had been kept +away by illness (_ante_, p. 272). + +[803] Mr. Fox, as Sir James Mackintosh informed me, was brought in by +Burke. CROKER. + +[804] Sir C. Bunbury was the brother of Mr. H. W. Bunbury, the +caricaturist, who married Goldsmith's friend, the elder Miss +Horneck--'Little Comedy' as she was called. Forster's _Goldsmith_, +ii. 147. + +[805] Rogers (_Table-Talk_, p. 23) tells how Dr. Fordyce, who sometimes +drank a good deal, was summoned to a lady patient when he was conscious +that he had had too much wine. 'Feeling her pulse, and finding himself +unable to count its beats, he muttered, "Drunk by G--." Next morning a +letter from her was put into his hand. "She too well knew," she wrote, +"that he had discovered the unfortunate condition in which she had been, +and she entreated him to keep the matter secret in consideration of the +enclosed (a hundred-pound bank-note)."' + +[806] Steevens wrote to Garrick on March 6:--'Mr. C. Fox pays you but a +bad compliment; as he appears, like the late Mr. Secretary Morris, to +enter the society at a time when he has _nothing else to do_. If the +_bon ton_ should prove a contagious disorder among us, it will be +curious to trace its progress. I have already seen it breaking out in +Dr. G----[Goldsmith] under the form of many a waistcoat, but I believe +Dr. G---- will be the last man in whom the symptoms of it will be +detected.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 613. In less than a month poor Goldsmith +was dead. Fox, just before his election to the club, had received +through one of the doorkeepers of the House of Commons the following +note:--'SIR,--His Majesty has thought proper to order a new commission +of the Treasury to be made out, in which I do not perceive your +name. NORTH.' + +[807] See Boswell's answer, _post_, May 12. + +[808] See _post_, April 16, 1775. + +[809] See _ante_, i. 122, note 2. + +[810] Iona. + +[811] 'I was induced,' he says, 'to undertake the journey by finding in +Mr. Boswell a companion, whose acuteness would help my inquiry, and +whose gaiety of conversation and civility of manners are sufficient to +counteract the inconveniences of travel in countries less hospitable +than we have passed.' Quoted by Boswell in his _Hebrides_, Aug. +18, 1773. + +[812] See _post_, Nov. 16, 1776. + +[813] Boswell wrote to Temple on May 8, 1779:--'I think Dr. Johnson +never answered but three of my letters, though I have had numerous +returns from him.' _Letters of Boswell_. See _post_, Sept. 29, 1777. + +[814] Dr. Goldsmith died April 4, this year. BOSWELL. Boswell wrote to +Garrick on April 11, 1774:--'Dr. Goldsmith's death would affect all the +club much. I have not been so much affected with any event that has +happened of a long time. I wish you would give me, who am at a distance, +some particulars with regard to his last appearance.' _Garrick +Corres_. i. 622. + +[815] See _ante_, p. 265. + +[816] See _ante_, ii. 27, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 29, 1773. + +[817] These books Dr. Johnson presented to the Bodleian Library, +BOSWELL. + +[818] On the cover enclosing them, Dr. Johnson wrote, 'If my delay has +given any reason for supposing that I have not a very deep sense of the +honour done me by asking my judgement, I am very sorry.' BOSWELL. + +[819] See _post_, March 20, 1776. + +[820] 'Sir Joshua was much affected by the death of Goldsmith, to whom +he had been a very sincere friend. He did not touch the pencil for that +day, a circumstance most extraordinary for him who passed _no day +without a line_. Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 325. + +[821] He owed his tailor AL79, though he had paid him AL110 in 1773. In +this payment was included AL35 for his nephew's clothes. We find such +entries in his own bills as--'To Tyrian bloom satin grain and, garter +blue silk beeches 8AL 2s. 7d. To Queen's-blue dress suit 11AL 17s. 0d. To +your blue velvet suit 21AL 10s. 9d.' (See _ante_, ii. 83.) Filby's son +said to Mr. Prior:--'My father attributed no blame to Goldsmith; he had +been a good customer, and had he lived would have paid every farthing.' +Prior's _Goldsmith_, ii. 232. + +[822] 'Soon after Goldsmith's death certain persons dining with Sir +Joshua commented rather freely on some part of his works, which, in +their opinion, neither discovered talent nor originality. To this Dr. +Johnson listened in his usual growling manner; when, at length, his +patience being exhausted, he rose with great dignity, looked them full +in the face, and exclaimed, "If nobody was suffered to abuse poor Goldy, +but those who could write as well, he would have few censors."' +Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 327. To Goldsmith might be applied the words +that Johnson wrote of Savage (_Works_, viii. 191):--'Vanity may surely +be readily pardoned in him to whom life afforded no other comforts than +barren praises, and the consciousness of deserving them. Those are no +proper judges of his conduct who have slumbered away their time on the +down of plenty; nor will any wise man presume to say, "Had I been in +Savage's condition, I should have lived or written better than Savage."' + +[823] Mrs. Thrale's mother died the summer before (_ante_, p. 263). Most +of her children died early. By 1777 she had lost seven out of eleven. +_Post_, May 3, 1777. + +[824] Johnson had not seen Langton since early in the summer of 1773. He +was then suffering from a fever and an inflammation in the eye, for +which he was twice copiously bled. (_Pr. and Med_. 130.) The following +winter he was distressed by a cough. (_Ib_ p. 135.) Neither of these +illnesses was severe enough to be called dreadful. In the spring of 1770 +he was very ill. (_Ib_ p. 93.) On Sept. 18, 1771, he records:--'For the +last year I have been slowly recovering from the violence of my last +illness.' (_Ib_ p. 104.) On April 18, 1772, in reviewing the last year, +he writes:--'An unpleasing incident is almost certain to hinder my rest; +this is the remainder of my last illness.' (_Ib_ p. iii.) In the winter +of 1772-3, he suffered from a cough. (_Ib_ p. 121.) I think that he must +mean the illness of 1770, though it is to be noticed that he wrote to +Boswell on July 5, 1773:--'Except this eye [the inflamed eye] I am very +well.' (_Ante_, p. 264.) + +[825] 'Lord have mercy upon us.' + +[826] See Johnson's _Works_, i. 172, for his Latin version. D'Israeli +(_Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, vi. 368) says 'that Oldys +[_ante_, i. 175] always asserted that he was the author of this song, +and as he was a rigid lover of truth I doubt not that he wrote it. I +have traced it through a dozen of collections since the year 1740, the +first in which I find it.' + +[827] Mr. Seward (_Anec_, ii. 466) gives the following version of these +lines: + +'Whoe'er thou art with reverence tread +Where Goldsmith's letter'd dust is laid. +If nature and the historic page, +If the sweet muse thy care engage. +Lament him dead whose powerful mind +Their various energies combined.' + +[828] See _ante_, p. 265. + +[829] At Lleweney, the house of Mrs. Thrale's cousin, Mr. Cotton, Dr. +Johnson stayed nearly three weeks. Johnson's _Journey into North Wales_, +July 28, 1774. Mr. Fitzmaurice, Lord Shelburne's brother, had a house +there in 1780; for Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on May 7 of that +year:--'He has almost made me promise to pass part of the summer at +Llewenny.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 113. + +[830] Lord Hailes was Sir David Dalrymple. See _ante_, i. 267. He is not +to be confounded with Sir John Dalrymple, mentioned _ante_, ii. 210. + +[831] + +E'en in a bishop I can spy desert; +Seeker is decent, Rundel has a heart.' + +Pope's _Epilogue to the Satires_, ii. 70. + +[832] In the first two editions _forenoon_. Boswell, in three other +passages, made the same change in the third edition. _Forenoon_ perhaps +he considered a Scotticism. The correction above being made in one of +his letters, renders it likely that he corrected them before +publication. + +[833] Horace, _Ars Poet_. l. 373. + +[834] 'Do not you long to hear the roarings of the old lion over the +bleak mountains of the North?' wrote Steevens to Garrick. _Garrick +Corres_, ii. 122. + +[835] 'Aug. 16. We came to Penmanmaur by daylight, and found a way, +lately made, very easy and very safe. It was cut smooth and enclosed +between parallel walls; the outer of which secures the passenger from +the precipice, which is deep and dreadful.... The sea beats at the +bottom of the way. At evening the moon shone eminently bright: and our +thoughts of danger being now past, the rest of our journey was very +pleasant. At an hour somewhat late we came to Bangor, where we found a +very mean inn, and had some difficulty to obtain lodging. I lay in a +room where the other bed had two men.' Johnson's _Journey into +North Wales_. + +[836] He did not go to the top of Snowdon. He says:--'On the side of +Snowdon are the remains of a large fort, to which we climbed with great +labour. I was breathless and harassed,' _Ib_ Aug. 26. + +[837] I had written to him, to request his interposition in behalf of a +convict, who I thought was very unjustly condemned. BOSWELL. + +[838] He had kept a journal which was edited by Mr. Duppa in 1816. It +will be found _post_, in vol. v. + +[839] 'When the general election broke up the delightful society in +which we had spent some time at Beconsfield, Dr. Johnson shook the +hospitable master of the house [Burke] kindly by the hand, and said, +"Farewell my dear Sir, and remember that I wish you all the success +which ought to be wished you, which can possibly be wished you +indeed--_by an honest man_."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 242. The dissolution +was on Sept. 30. Johnson, with the Thrales, as his _Journal_ shows, had +arrived at Beconsfield on the 24th. See _ante_, ii. 222, for Johnson's +opinion of Burke's honesty. + +[840] Mr. Perkins was for a number of years the worthy superintendant of +Mr. Thrale's great brewery, and after his death became one of the +proprietors of it; and now resides in Mr. Thrale's house in Southwark, +which was the scene of so many literary meetings, and in which he +continues the liberal hospitality for which it was eminent. Dr. Johnson +esteemed him much. He hung up in the counting-house a fine proof of the +admirable mizzotinto of Dr. Johnson, by Doughty; and when Mrs. Thrale +asked him somewhat flippantly, 'Why do you put him up in the +counting-house?' he answered, 'Because, Madam, I wish to have one wise +man there.' 'Sir,' (said Johnson,) 'I thank you. It is a very handsome +compliment, and I believe you speak sincerely.' BOSWELL. + +[841] In the news-papers. BOSWELL. + +[842] 'Oct. 16, 1774. In Southwark there has been outrageous rioting; +but I neither know the candidates, their connections, nor success.' +Horace Walpole's _Letters_, vi. 134. Of one Southwark election Mrs. +Piozzi writes (_Anec_. p. 214):--'A Borough election once showed me Mr. +Johnson's toleration of boisterous mirth. A rough fellow, a hatter by +trade, seeing his beaver in a state of decay seized it suddenly with one +hand, and clapping him on the back with the other. "Ah, Master Johnson," +says he, "this is no time to be thinking about _hats_." "No, no, Sir," +replies our doctor in a cheerful tone, "hats are of no use now, as you +say, except to throw up in the air and huzza with," accompanying his +words with the true election halloo.' + +[843] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 19, 1773. Johnson thus mentions him +(_Works_, ix. 142):--'Here we had the last embrace of this amiable man, +who, while these pages were preparing to attest his virtues, perished in +the passage between Ulva and Inch Kenneth.' + +[844] Alluding to a passage in a letter of mine, where speaking of his +_Journey to the Hebrides_, I say, 'But has not _The Patriot_ been an +interruption, by the time taken to write it, and the time luxuriously +spent in listening to its applauses?' BOSWELL. + +[845] We had projected a voyage together up the Baltic, and talked of +visiting some of the more northern regions. BOSWELL. See Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Sept. 16. + +[846] See _ante_, i. 72. + +[847] John Hoole, the son of a London watchmaker, was born in Dec. 1727, +and died on Aug. 2, 1803. At the age of seventeen he was placed as a +clerk in the East-India House; but, like his successors, James and John +Stuart Mill, he was an author as well as a clerk. See _ante_, i. 383. + +[848] _Cleonice_. BOSWELL. Nichols (_Lit. Anec_. ii. 407) says that as +_Cleonice_ was a failure on the stage 'Mr. Hoole returned a considerable +part of the money which he had received for the copy-right, alleging +that, as the piece was not successful on the stage, it could not be very +profitable to the bookseller, and ought not to be a loss.' + +[849] See _ante_, i. 255. + +[850] See _post_, March 20, 1776. + +[851] 'The King,' wrote Horace Walpole on Jan. 21, 1775 (_Letters_, vi. +179), 'sent for the book in MS., and then wondering said, "I protest, +Johnson seems to be a Papist and a Jacobite--so he did not know why he +had been made to give him a pension."' + +[852] Boswell's little daughter. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug, 15, 1773. + +[853] 'Bis dat qui cito dat, minimi gratia tarda pretii est.' Alciat's +_Emblems_, Alciati _Opera_ 1538, p. 821. + +[854] It was at the Turk's Head coffee-house in the Strand. See _ante_, +i. 450. + +[855] _Hamlet_, act iii. sc. 2. + +[856] 'Exegi monumentum A|re perennius.' Horace, _Odes_, iii. 30. I. + +[857] The second edition was not brought out till the year after +Johnson's death. These mistakes remain uncorrected. Johnson's _Works_, +ix. 44. 150. + +[858] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 23. + +[859] In the Court of Session of Scotland an action is first tried by +one of the Judges, who is called the Lord Ordinary; and if either party +is dissatisfied, he may appeal to the whole Court, consisting of +fifteen, the Lord President and fourteen other Judges, who have both in +and out of Court the title of Lords, from the name of their estates; as, +Lord Auchinleck, Lord Monboddo, &c. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 201, +note 1. + +[860] Johnson had thus written of him (_Works_, ix. 115):--'I suppose my +opinion of the poems of Ossian is already discovered. I believe they +never existed in any other form than that which we have seen. The +editor, or author, never could show the original; nor can it be shown by +any other. To revenge reasonable incredulity by refusing evidence is a +degree of insolence with which the world is not yet acquainted; and +stubborn audacity is the last refuge of guilt.' See _ante_, ii. 126. + +[861] _Taxation no Tyranny_. See _post_, under March 21, 1775. + +[862] See _ante_, p. 265. + +[863] In Tickell's _Epistle from the Hon. Charles Fox to the Hon. John +Townshend_ (1779) are the following lines (p. 11):-- + +'Soon as to Brooks's thence thy footsteps bend, +What gratulations thy approach attend! + +See Beauclerk's cheek a tinge of red surprise, +And friendship give what cruel health denies.' + +[864] It should be recollected, that this fanciful description of his +friend was given by Johnson after he himself had become a water-drinker. +BOSWELL. Johnson, _post_, April 18, 1775, describes one of his friends +as _muddy_. On April 12, 1776, in a discussion about wine, when Reynolds +said to him, 'You have sat by, quite sober, and felt an envy of the +happiness of those who were drinking,' he replied, 'Perhaps, contempt.' +On April 28, 1778, he said to Reynolds: 'I won't argue any more with +you, Sir. You are too far gone.' See also _ante_, i. 313, note 3, where +he said to him: 'Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should +you number up my cups of tea?' + +[865] See them in _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 337 +[Oct. 17]. BOSWELL. + +[866] He now sent me a Latin inscription for my historical picture of +Mary Queen of Scots, and afterwards favoured me with an English +translation. Mr. Alderman Boydell, that eminent Patron of the Arts, has +subjoined them to the engraving from my picture. + + 'Maria Scotorum Regina + Homimun seditiosorum + Contumeliis lassata, +Minis territa, clamoribus victa + Libello, per quem + Regno cedit, + Lacrimans trepidansque + Nomen apponit?' + + 'Mary Queen of Scots, +Harassed, terrified, and overpowered + By the insults, menaces, + And clamours + Of her rebellious subjects, + Sets her hand, + With tears and confusion, + To a resignation of the kingdom.' + +BOSWELL. + +Northcote (_Life of Reynolds_, ii. 234) calls Boydell 'the truest and +greatest encourager of English art that England ever saw.' + +[867] By the Boston Port-Bill, passed in 1774, Boston had been closed as +a port for the landing and shipping of goods. _Ann. Reg_. xvii. 64. + +[868] Becket, a bookseller in the Strand, was the publisher of _Ossian_. + +[869] His Lordship, notwithstanding his resolution, did commit his +sentiments to paper, and in one of his notes affixed to his _Collection +of Old Scottish Poetry_, he says, that 'to doubt the authenticity of +those poems is a refinement in Scepticism indeed.' J. BLAKEWAY. + +[870] Mr. Croker writes (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 378, note):--'The +original draft of these verses in Johnson's autograph is now before me. +He had first written:-- + +'Sunt pro legitimis pectora pura sacris;' + +he then wrote-- + +'Legitimas faciunt pura labella preces;' + +which more nearly approaches Mr. Boswell's version, and alludes, happily +I think, to the prayers having been read by the young lady.... The line +as it stands in the _Works_ [Sint pro legitimis pura labella sacris, i. +167], is substituted in Mr. Langton's hand.... As I have reason to +believe that Mr. Langton assisted in editing these Latin _poemata_, I +conclude that these alterations were his own.' + +[871] The learned and worthy Dr. Lawrence, whom Dr. Johnson respected +and loved as his physician and friend. BOSWELL. 'Dr. Lawrence was +descended, as Sir Egerton Brydges informs me, from Milton's friend +['Lawrence, of virtuous father virtuous son.' Milton's _Sonnets_, xx.]. +One of his sons was Sir Soulden Lawrence, one of the Judges of the +King's Bench.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 734. See _post_, March 19, 1782. + +[872] My friend has, in this letter, relied upon my testimony, with a +confidence, of which the ground has escaped my recollection. BOSWELL. +Lord Shelburne said: 'Like the generality of Scotch, Lord Mansfield had +no regard to truth whatever.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, i. 89. + +[873] Dr. Lawrence. See Johnson's letter to Warren Hastings of Dec. 20, +1774. _Post_, beginning of 1781. + +[874] I have deposited it in the British Museum. BOSWELL. Mr. P. +Cunningham says:--'Of all the MSS. which Boswell says he had deposited +in the British Museum, only the copy of the letter to Lord Chesterfield +has been found, and that was not deposited by him, but after his death, +"pursuant to the intentions of the late James Boswell, Esq."' Croker's +_Boswell_, p. 430. The original letter to Macpherson was sold in Mr. +Pocock's collection in 1875. It fetched AL50, almost five times as much +as Johnson was paid for his _London_. It differs from the copy, if we +can trust the auctioneer's catalogue, where the following passage is +quoted:--'Mr. James Macpherson, I received your foolish and impudent +note. Whatever insult is offered me, I will do my best to repel, and +what I cannot do for myself the law shall do for me. I will not desist +from detecting what I think a cheat from any fear of the menaces of +a Ruffian.' + +[875] In the _Gent. Mag_. for 1773, p. 192, is announced: '_The Iliad of +Homer_. Translated by James Macpherson, Esq., 2 vols. 4to. AL2 2s. +Becket.' Hume writes:--'Finding the style of his _Ossian_ admired by +some, he attempts a translation of _Homer_ in the very same style. He +begins and finishes in six weeks a work that was for ever to eclipse the +translation of Pope, whom he does not even deign to mention in his +preface; but this joke was still more unsuccessful [than his _History of +Britain_].' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 478. Hume says of him, that he had +'scarce ever known a man more perverse and unamiable.' _Ib_ p. 470. + +[876] 'Within a few feet of Johnson lies (by one of those singular +coincidences in which the Abbey abounds) his deadly enemy, James +Macpherson.' Stanley's _Westminster Abbey_, p. 298. + +[877] _Hamlet_, act iii. sc. I. + +[878] 'Fear was indeed a sensation to which Dr. Johnson was an utter +stranger, excepting when some sudden apprehensions seized him that he +was going to die.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 277. In this respect his +character might be likened to that of Fearing, in _Pilgrim's Progress_ +(Part ii), as described by Great-Heart:--'When he came to the Hill +Difficulty, he made no stick at that, nor did he much fear the Lions; +for you must know that his troubles were not about such things as these; +his fear was about his acceptance at last.' + +[879] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 18, 1773. + +[880] See _ante_, i. 249, where Garrick humorously foretold the +Round-house for Johnson. + +[881] See _ante_, ii. 95. + +[882] 'It was,' writes Hawkins (_Life_, p. 491), 'an oak-plant of a +tremendous size; a plant, I say, and not a shoot or branch, for it had +had a root which, being trimmed to the size of a large orange, became +the head of it. Its height was upwards of six feet, and from about an +inch in diameter at the lower end, increased to near three; this he kept +in his bed-chamber, so near the chair in which he constantly sat as to +be within reach.' Macpherson, like Johnson, was a big man. Dr. A. +Carlyle says (_Auto_. p. 398):--'He was good-looking, of a large size, +with very thick legs, to hide which he generally wore boots, though not +then the fashion. He appeared to me proud and reserved.' + +[883] Boswell wrote to Temple on April 4:--'Mr. Johnson has allowed me +to write out a supplement to his Journey.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 186. +On May 10 he wrote:--'I have not written out another line of my remarks +on the Hebrides. I found it impossible to do it in London. Besides, Dr. +Johnson does not seem very desirous that I should publish any +supplement. _Between ourselves, he is not apt to encourage one to share +reputation with himself_.' _Ib_ p. 192. + +[884] Colonel Newcome, when a lad, 'was for ever talking of India, and +the famous deeds of Clive and Lawrence. His favourite book was a history +of India--the history of Orme.' Thackeray's _Newcomes_, ch. 76. See +_post_, April 15, 1778. + +[885] _Richard II_, act i. sc. 3. See _ante_, i. 129. + +[886] A passage in the _North Briton_, No. 34, shews how wide-spread +this prejudice was. The writer gives his 'real, fair, and substantial +objections to the administration of this _Scot_ [Lord Bute]. The first +is, that he is a _Scot_. I am certain that reason could never believe +that a _Scot_ was fit to have the management of _English_ affairs. A +_Scot_ hath no more right to preferment in England than a _Hanoverian_ +or a _Hottentot_.' In _Humphry Clinker_ (Letter of July 13) we +read:--'From Doncaster northwards all the windows of all the inns are +scrawled with doggrel rhymes in abuse of the Scotch nation.' Horace +Walpole, writing of the contest between the House of Commons and the +city in 1771, says of the Scotch courtiers:--'The Scotch wanted to come +to blows, and _were at least not sorry to see the House of Commons so +contemptible_.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, iv. 301. 'What a +nation is Scotland,' he wrote at the end of the Gordon Riots, 'in every +reign engendering traitors to the State, and false and pernicious to the +kings that favour it the most.' _Letters_, vii. 400. See _post_, March +21, 1783. Lord Shelburne, a man of a liberal mind, wrote:--'I can scarce +conceive a Scotchman capable of liberality, and capable of +impartiality.' After calling them 'a sad set of innate cold-hearted, +impudent rogues,' he continues:--'It's a melancholy thing that there is +no finding any other people that will take pains, or be amenable even to +the best purposes.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, iii. 441. Hume wrote to +his countryman, Gilbert Elliot, in 1764:--'I do not believe there is one +Englishman in fifty, who, if he heard I had broke (sic) my neck +to-night, would be sorry. Some, because I am not a Whig; some, because I +am not a Christian; and all, because I am a Scotsman. Can you seriously +talk of my continuing an Englishman? Am I, or are you, an Englishman?' +Elliot replies:--'Notwithstanding all you say, we are both Englishmen; +that is, true British subjects, entitled to every emolument and +advantage that our happy constitution can bestow.' Burton's _Hume_, ii. +238, 240. Hume, in his prejudice against England, went far beyond +Johnson in his prejudice against Scotland. In 1769 he wrote:--'I am +delighted to see the daily and hourly progress of madness and folly and +wickedness in England. The consummation of these qualities are the true +ingredients for making a fine narrative in history, especially if +followed by some signal and ruinous convulsion--as I hope will soon be +the case with that pernicious people.' _Ib_ p. 431. In 1770 he +wrote:--'Our government has become a chimera, and is too perfect, in +point of liberty, for so rude a beast as an Englishman; who is a man, a +bad animal too, corrupted by above a century of licentiousness.' _Ib_ +p. 434. + +[887] 'The love of planting,' wrote Sir Walter Scott, 'which has become +almost a passion, is much to be ascribed to Johnson's sarcasms.' Croker +_Corres_. ii. 34. Lord Jeffrey wrote from Watford in 1833:--'What a +country this old England is. In a circle of twenty miles from this spot +(leaving out London and its suburbs), there is more old timber ... than +in all Scotland.' Cockburn's _Jeffrey_, i. 348. See _post_, March +21, 1775. + +[888] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 20. + +[889] Even David Hume subscribed to the fund. He wrote in +1760:--'Certain it is that these poems are in every body's mouth in the +Highlands, have been handed down from father to son, and are of an age +beyond all memory and tradition. Adam Smith told me that the Piper of +the Argyleshire militia repeated to him all those which Mr. Macpherson +had translated. We have set about a subscription of a guinea or two +guineas apiece, in order to enable Mr. Macpherson to undertake a mission +into the Highlands to recover this poem, and other fragments of +antiquity.' Mason's _Gray_, ii. 170. Hume changed his opinion. 'On going +to London,' writes Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 276), 'he went over to the +other side, and loudly affirmed the poems to be inventions of +Macpherson. I happened to say one day, when he was declaiming against +Macpherson, that I had met with nobody of his opinion but William Caddel +of Cockenzie, and President Dundas, which he took ill, and was some time +of forgetting.' Gibbon, in the _Decline and Fall_ (vol. i. ch. 6), +quoted Ossian, but added:--'Something of a doubtful mist still hangs +over these Highland traditions; nor can it be entirely dispelled by the +most ingenious researches of modern criticism.' On this Hume wrote to +him on March 18, 1776:--'I see you entertain a great doubt with regard +to the authenticity of the poems of Ossian.... Where a supposition is so +contrary to common sense, any positive evidence of it ought never to be +regarded. Men run with great avidity to give their evidence in favour of +what flatters their passions and their national prejudices. You are +therefore over and above indulgent to us in speaking of the matter with +hesitation.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 225. So early as 1763 Hume had +asked Dr. Blair for 'proof that these poems were not forged within these +five years by James Macpherson. _These proofs must not be arguments, but +testimonies_!' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 466. Smollett, it should seem, +believed in Ossian to the end. In Humphry Clinker, in the letter dated +Sept. 3, he makes one of his characters write:--'The poems of Ossian are +in every mouth. A famous antiquarian of this country, the laird of +Macfarlane, at whose house we dined, can repeat them all in the original +Gaelic.' See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 10. + +[890] I find in his letters only Sir A. Macdonald (_ante_, ii. 157) of +whom this can be said. + +[891] See _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd ed. p. 520 [p. 431]. +BOSWELL. + +[892] For the letter, see the end of Boswell's _Hebrides_. + +[893] _Fossilist_ is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_. + +[894] 'Rasay has little that can detain a traveller, except the laird +and his family; but their power wants no auxiliaries. Such a seat of +hospitality amidst the winds and waters fills the imagination with a +delightful contrariety of images.' _Works_, ix. 62. + +[895] Page 103. BOSWELL. + +[896] From Skye he wrote:--'The hospitality of this remote region is +like that of the golden age. We have found ourselves treated at every +house as if we came to confer a benefit.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 155. + +[897] See _ante_, i. 443, note 2. + +[898] I observed with much regret, while the first edition of this work +was passing through the press (Aug. 1790), that this ingenious gentleman +was dead. BOSWELL. + +[899] See _ante_, p. 242. + +[900] See _ante_, i. 187. + +[901] See _ante_, ii. 121, 296, and _post_, under March 30, 1783. + +[902] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 158) says that 'the mediocrity of knowledge' +obtained in the Scotch universities, 'countenanced in general by a +national combination so invidious that their friends cannot defend it, +and actuated in particulars by a spirit of enterprise so vigorous that +their enemies are constrained to praise it, enables them to find, or to +make their way, to employment, riches, and distinction.' + +[903] Macpherson had great influence with the newspapers. Horace Walpole +wrote in February, 1776:--'Macpherson, the Ossianite, had a pension of +AL600 a year from the Court, to supervise the newspapers.' In Dec. 1781, +Walpole mentions the difficulty of getting 'a vindicatory paragraph' +inserted in the papers, 'This was one of the great grievances of the +time. Macpherson had a pension of AL800 a year from Court for inspecting +newspapers, and inserted what lies he pleased, and prevented whatever he +disapproved of being printed.' _Journal of the Reign of George III_, +ii. 17, 483. + +[904] This book was published in 1779 under the title of '_Remarks on +Dr. Samuel Johnson's Journey to the Hebrides_, by the Rev. Donald +M'Nicol, A.M., Minister of Lismore, Argyleshire.' In 1817 it was +reprinted at Glasgow together with Johnson's _Journey_, in one volume. +The _Remarks_ are a few pages shorter than the _Journey_. By 'another +Scotchman,' Boswell certainly meant Macpherson. + +[905] From a list in his hand-writing. BOSWELL. + +[906] 'Such is the laxity of Highland conversation that the inquirer is +kept in continual suspense, and by a kind of intellectual +retrogradation, knows less as he hears more.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 47. +'The Highlanders are not much accustomed to be interrogated by others, +and seem never to have thought upon interrogating themselves; so that, +if they do not know what they tell to be true, they likewise do not +distinctly perceive it to be false.' _Ib_ 114. + +[907] Of his _Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_. BOSWELL. It +was sold at five shillings a copy. It did not reach a second edition +till 1785, when perhaps a fresh demand for it was caused by the +publication of Boswell's _Hebrides_. Boswell, in a note, _post_, April +28, 1778, says that 4000 copies were sold very quickly. Hannah More +(_Memoirs_, i. 39) says that Cadell told her that he had sold 4000 +copies the first week. This, I think, must be an exaggeration. A German +translation was brought out this same year. + +[908] Boswell, on the way to London, wrote to Temple:--'I have continual +schemes of publication, but cannot fix. I am still very unhappy with my +father. We are so totally different that a good understanding is +scarcely possible. He looks on my going to London just now as an +_expedition_, as idle and extravagant, when in reality it is highly +improving to me, considering the company which I enjoy.' _Letters of +Boswell_, p. 182. + +[909] See _post_, under March 22, 1776. + +[910] See _ante_, p. 292. + +[911] 'A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not love +Scotland better than truth; he will always love it better than inquiry; +and if falsehood flatters his vanity, will not be very diligent to +detect it.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 116. + +[912] At Slanes Castle in Aberdeenshire he wrote:--'I had now travelled +two hundred miles in Scotland, and seen only one tree not younger than +myself.' _Works_, ix. 17. Goldsmith wrote from Edinburgh on Sept. 26, +1753:--'Every part of the country presents the same dismal landscape. No +grove, nor brook lend their music to cheer the stranger, or make the +inhabitants forget their poverty.' Forsters _Goldsmith_, i. 433. + +[913] This, like his pamphlet on _Falkland's Islands_, was published +without his name. + +[914] See Appendix. + +[915] Convicts were sent to nine of the American settlements. According +to one estimate about 2,000 had been for many years sent annually. 'Dr. +Lang, after comparing different estimates, concludes that the number +sent might be about 50,000 altogether.' _Penny Cyclo_. xxv. 138. X. + +[916] This 'clear and settled opinion' must have been formed in three +days, and between Grantham and London. For from that Lincolnshire town +he had written to Temple on March 18:--'As to American affairs, I have +really not studied the subject; it is too much for me perhaps, or I am +too indolent or frivolous. From the smattering which newspapers have +given me, I have been of different minds several times. That I am a +Tory, a lover of power in monarchy, and a discourager of much liberty in +the people, I avow; but it is not clear to me that our colonies are +completely our subjects.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 180. Four years later +he wrote to Temple:--'I must candidly tell you that I think you should +not puzzle yourself with political speculations more than I do; neither +of us is fit for that sort of mental labour.' _Ib_ 243. See _post_, +Sept. 23, 1777, for a contest between Johnson and Boswell on +this subject. + +[917] See _ante_, ii. 134. + +[918] Johnson's _Works_, vi. 261. + +[919] Four years earlier he had also attacked him. _Ante_, ii. 134, note +4. + +[920] Lord Camden, formerly Chief Justice Pratt. See _ante_, ii. 72, +note 3; and _post_, April 14, 1775. + +[921] 'Our people,' wrote Franklin in 1751 (_Memoirs_, vi. 3, 10), 'must +at least be doubled every twenty years.' The population he reckoned at +upwards of one million. Johnson referred to this rule also in the +following passage:--'We are told that the continent of North America +contains three millions, not of men merely, but of whigs, of whigs +fierce for liberty and disdainful of dominion; that they multiply with +the fecundity of their own rattlesnakes, so that every quarter of a +century doubles their number.' _Works_, vi. 227. Burke, in his _Speech +of Concilitation with America_, a fortnight after Johnson's pamphlet +appeared, said, 'your children do not grow faster from infancy to +manhood than they spread from families to communities, and from villages +to nations.' Payne's _Burke_, i. 169. + +[922] Dr. T. Campbell records on April 20, 1775 (_Diary_, p. 74), that +'Johnson said the first thing he would do would be to quarter the army +on the cities, and if any refused free quarters, he would pull down that +person's house, if it was joined to other houses; but would burn it if +it stood alone. This and other schemes he proposed in the manuscript of +_Taxation no Tyranny_, but these, he said, the Ministry expunged. See +_post_, April 15, 1778, where, talking of the Americans, Johnson +exclaimed, 'he'd burn and destroy them.' On June 11, 1781, Campbell +records (_ib_. p. 88) that Johnson said to him:--'Had we treated the +Americans as we ought, and as they deserved, we should have at once +razed all their towns and let them enjoy their forests.' Campbell justly +describes this talk as 'wild rant.' + +[923] + +'He errs who deems obedience to a prince +Slav'ry--a happier freedom never reigns +Than with a pious monarch.' +_Stit_. iii. 113. CROKER. + +This volume was published in 1776. The copy in the library of Pembroke +College, Oxford, bears the inscription in Johnson's hand: 'To Sir Joshua +Reynolds from the Authour.' On the title-page Sir Joshua has written +his own name. + +[924] R. B. Sheridan thought of joining in these attacks. In his _Life_ +by Moore (i. 151) fragments of his projected answer are given. He +intended to attack Johnson on the side of his pension. One thought he +varies three times. 'Such pamphlets,' he writes, 'will be as trifling +and insincere as the venal quit-rent of a birth-day ode.' This again +appears as 'The easy quit-rent of refined panegyric,' and yet again as +'The miserable quit-rent of an annual pamphlet.' + +[925] See _post_, beginning of 1781. + +[926] Boswell wrote to Temple on June 19, 1775:--'Yesterday I met Mr. +Hume at Lord Kame's. They joined in attacking Dr. Johnson to an absurd +pitch. Mr. Hume said he would give me half-a-crown for every page of his +_Dictionary_ in which he could not find an absurdity, if I would give +him half-a-crown for every page in which he did not find one: he talked +so insolently really, that I calmly determined to be at him; so I +repeated, by way of telling that Dr. Johnson _could_ be touched, the +admirable passage in your letter, how the Ministry had set him to write +in a way that they "could not ask even their infidel pensioner Hume to +write." When Hume asked if it was from an American, I said No, it was +from an English gentleman. "Would a _gentleman_ write so?" said he. In +short, Davy was finely punished for his treatment of my revered friend; +and he deserved it richly, both for his petulance to so great a +character and for his talking so before me.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. +204. Hume's pension was AL400. He obtained it through Lord Hertford, the +English ambassador in Paris, under whom he had served as secretary to +the embassy. J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 289. + +[927] See _post_, Aug. 24 1782. + +[928] Dr. T. Campbell records on March 16 of this year (_Diary_, p. +36):--'Thrale asked Dr. Johnson what Sir Joshua Reynolds said of +_Taxation no Tyranny_. "Sir Joshua," quoth the Doctor, "has not read +it." "I suppose," quoth Thrale, "he has been very busy of late." "No," +says the Doctor, "but I never look at his pictures, so he won't read my +writings." He asked Johnson if he had got Miss Reynold's opinion, for +she, it seems, is a politician. "As to that," quoth the Doctor, "it is +no great matter, for she could not tell after she had read it on which +said of the question Mr. Burke's speech was."' + +[929] W.G. Hamilton. + +[930] See _post_, Nov. 19, 1783. + +[931] Sixteen days after this pamphlet was published, Lord North, as +Chancellor of the University of Oxford, proposed that the degree of +Doctor in Civil Law should be conferred on Johnson (_post_, p. 331). +Perhaps the Chancellor in this was cheaply rewarding the service that +had been done to the Minister. See _ante_, ii. 373. + +[932] Johnson's _Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_, ed. 1785, +p. 256. [Johnson's _Works_, ix. 108.] BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 10, +note 3. + +[933] He had written to Temple six days earlier:--'Second sight pleases +my superstition which, you know, is not small, and being not of the +gloomy but the grand species, is an enjoyment; and I go further than Mr. +Johnson, for the facts which I heard convinced me.' _Letters of +Boswell_, p. 179. When ten years later he published his _Tour_, he said +(Nov. 10, 1773) that he had returned from the Hebrides with a +considerable degree of faith; 'but,' he added, 'since that time my +belief in those stories has been much weakened.' + +[934] This doubt has been much agitated on both sides, I think without +good reason. See Addison's _Freeholder, May 4, 1714. _The Freeholder_ +was published from Dec. 1715 to June 1716. In the number for May 4 there +is no mention of _The Tale of a Tub_; _An Apology for the Tale of a Tub_ +(Swift's _Works_, ed. 1803, iii. 20);--Dr. Hawkesworth's Preface to +Swift's _Works_, and Swift's Letter to Tooke the Printer, and Tooke's +Answer, in that collection;--Sheridan's _Life of Swift_;--Mr. +Courtenay's note on p. 3 of his _Poetical Review of the Literary and +Moral Character of Dr. Johnson_; and Mr. Cooksey's _Essay on the Life +and Character of John Lord Somers, Baron of Evesham_. + +Dr. Johnson here speaks only to the _internal evidence_. I take leave to +differ from him, having a very high estimation of the powers of Dr. +Swift. His _Sentiments of a Church-of-England-man_, his _Sermon on the +Trinity_, and other serious pieces, prove his learning as well as his +acuteness in logick and metaphysicks; and his various compositions of a +different cast exhibit not only wit, humour, and ridicule; but a +knowledge 'of nature, and art, and life:' a combination therefore of +those powers, when (as the _Apology_ says,) 'the authour was young, his +invention at the heighth, and his reading fresh in his head,' might +surely produce _The Tale of a Tub_. BOSWELL. + +[935] 'His _Tale of a Tub_ has little resemblance to his other pieces. +It exhibits a vehemence and rapidity of mind, a copiousness of images +and vivacity of diction such as he afterwards never possessed, or never +exerted. It is of a mode so distinct and peculiar that it must be +considered by itself; what is true of that is not true of anything else +which he has written.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 220. At the conclusion +of the _Life of Swift_ (_ib_. 228), Johnson allows him one great +merit:--'It was said in a preface to one of the Irish editions that +Swift had never been known to take a single thought from any writer, +ancient or modern. This is not literally true; but perhaps no writer can +easily be found that has borrowed so little, or that in all his +excellencies and all his defects has so well maintained his claim to be +considered as original.' See _ante_, i. 452. + +[936] Johnson in his _Dictionary_, under the article _shave_, quotes +Swift in one example, and in the next _Gulliver's Travels_, not +admitting, it should seem, that Swift had written that book. + +[937] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 26, 1773. David Hume wrote of +Home's _Agis_:--'I own, though I could perceive fine strokes in that +tragedy, I never could in general bring myself to like it: the author, I +thought, had corrupted his taste by the imitation of Shakespeare, whom +he ought only to have admired.' J.H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 392. About +_Douglas_ he wrote:--'I am persuaded it will be esteemed the best, and +by French critics the only tragedy of our language.' _Ib_ ii. 17. Hume +perhaps admired it the more as it was written, to use his own words, 'by +a namesake of mine.' _Ib_ i. 316. _Home_ is pronounced _Hume_. He often +wrote of his friend as 'Mr. John Hume, _alias_ Home.' A few days before +his death he added the following codicil to his will:--'I leave to my +friend Mr. John Home, of Kilduff, ten dozen of my old claret at his +choice; and one single bottle of that other liquor called port. I also +leave to him six dozen of port, provided that he attests, under his +hand, signed John _Hume_, that he has himself alone finished that bottle +at two sittings. By this concession he will at once terminate the only +two differences that ever arose between us concerning temporal matters.' +_Ib_ ii. 506. Sir Walter Scott wrote in his _Diary_ in 1827:--'I +finished the review of John Home's works, which, after all, are poorer +than I thought them. Good blank verse, and stately sentiment, but +something luke-warmish, excepting _Douglas_, which is certainly a +masterpiece. Even that does not stand the closet. Its merits are for the +stage; and it is certainly one of the best acting plays going.' +Lockhart's _Scott_, ix. 100. + +[938] Sheridan, says Mr. S. Whyte (_Miscellanea Nova_, p. 45), brought +out _Douglas_ at the Dublin Theatre. The first two nights it had great +success. The third night was as usual to be the author's. It had +meanwhile got abroad that he was a clergyman. This play was considered a +profanation, a faction was raised, and the third night did not pay its +expenses. It was Whyte who suggested that, by way of consolation, +Sheridan should give Home a gold medal. The inscription said that he +presented it to him 'for having enriched the stage with a perfect +tragedy.' Whyte took the medal to London. When he was close at his +journey's end, 'I was,' he writes, 'stopped by highwaymen, and preserved +the medal by the sacrifice of my purse at the imminent peril of +my life.' + +[939] + +'No merit now the dear Nonjuror claims, +MoliA"re's old stubble in a moment flames.' + +The _Nonjuror_ was 'a comedy thrashed out of MoliA"re's _Tartuffe_.' _The +Dunciad_, i. 253. + +[940] See _post_, June 9, 1784; also Macaulay's _England_, ch. xiv. (ed. +1874, v. 94), for remarks on what Johnson here says. + +[941] See _ante_, i. 318, where his name is spelt _Madden_. + +[942] This was not merely a cursory remark; for in his _Life of Fenton_ +he observes, 'With many other wise and virtuous men, who at that time of +discord and debate (about the beginning of this century) consulted +conscience [whether] well or ill informed, more than interest, he +doubted the legality of the government; and refusing to qualify himself +for publick employment, by taking the oaths [by the oaths] required, +left the University without a degree.' This conduct Johnson calls +'perverseness of integrity.' [Johnson's _Works_, viii. 54. + +The question concerning the morality of taking oaths, of whatever kind, +imposed by the prevailing power at the time, rather than to be excluded +from all consequence, or even any considerable usefulness in society, +has been agitated with all the acuteness of casuistry. It is related, +that he who devised the oath of abjuration, profligately boasted, that +he had framed a test which should 'damn one half of the nation, and +starve the other.' Upon minds not exalted to inflexible rectitude, or +minds in which zeal for a party is predominant to excess, taking that +oath against conviction may have been palliated under the plea of +necessity, or ventured upon in heat, as upon the whole producing more +good than evil. + +At a county election in Scotland, many years ago, when there was a warm +contest between the friends of the Hanoverian succession, and those +against it, the oath of abjuration having been demanded, the freeholders +upon one side rose to go away. Upon which a very sanguine gentleman, one +of their number, ran to the door to stop them, calling out with much +earnestness, 'Stay, stay, my friends, and let us swear the rogues out of +it!' BOSWELL. Johnson, writing of the oaths required under the Militia +Bill of 1756, says:--'The frequent imposition of oaths has almost ruined +the morals of this unhappy nation, and of a nation without morals it is +of small importance who shall be king.' _Lit. Mag_. 1756, i. 59. + +[943] Dr. Harwood sent me the following extract from the book containing +the proceedings of the corporation of Lichfield: '19th July, 1712. +Agreed that Mr. Michael Johnson be, and he is hereby elected a +magistrate and brother of their incorporation; a day is given him to +Thursday next to take the oath of fidelity and allegiance, and the oath +of a magistrate. Signed, &c.'--'25th July, 1712. Mr. Johnson took the +oath of allegiance and that he believed there was no transubstantiation +in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper before, &c.'--CROKER. + +[944] A parody on _Macbeth_, act ii. sc. 2. + +[945] Lord Southampton asked Bishop Watson of Llandaff 'how he was to +bring up his son so as to make him get forwards in the world. "I know of +but one way," replied the Bishop; "give him parts and poverty." "Well +then," replied Lord S., "if God has given him parts, I will manage as to +the poverty."' H. C. Robinson's _Diary_, i. 337. Lord Eldon said that +Thurlow promised to give him a post worth about AL160 a year, but he +never did. 'In after life,' said Eldon, 'I inquired of him why he had +not fulfilled his promise. His answer was curious:--"It would have been +your ruin. Young men are very apt to be content when they get something +to live upon; so when I saw what you were made of, I determined to break +my promise to make you work;" and I dare say he was right, for there is +nothing does a young lawyer so much good as to be half starved.' Twiss's +_Eldon_, i. 134. + +[946] In New Street, near Gough Square, in Fleet Street, whither in +February 1770 the King's printinghouse was removed from what is still +called Printing House Square. CROKER. Dr. Spottiswoode, the late +President of the Royal Society, was the great-grandson of Mr. Strahan. + +[947] See _post_, under March 30, 1783. + +[948] Johnson wrote to Dr. Taylor on April 8 of this year:--'I have +placed young Davenport in the greatest printing house in London, and +hear no complaint of him but want of size, which will not hinder him +much. He may when he is a journeyman always get a guinea a week.' _Notes +and Queries_, 6th S., v. 422. Mr. Jewitt in the _Gent. Mag_. for Dec. +1878, gives an account of this lad. He was the orphan son of a +clergyman, a friend of the Rev. W. Langley, Master of Ashbourne School +(see _post_, Sept. 14, 1777). Mr. Langley asked Johnson's help 'in +procuring him a place in some eminent printing office.' Davenport wrote +to Mr. Langley nearly eight years later:--'According to your desire, I +consulted Dr. Johnson about my future employment in life, and he very +laconically told me "to work hard at my trade, as others had done before +me." I told him my size and want of strength prevented me from getting +so much money as other men. "Then," replied he, "you must get as much as +you can."' The boy was nearly sixteen when he was apprenticed, and had +learnt enough Latin to quote Virgil, so that there was nothing in +Johnson's speech beyond his understanding. + +[949] Seven years afterwards, Johnson described this evening. Miss +Monckton had told him that he must see Mrs. Siddons. 'Well, Madam,' he +answered, 'if you desire it, I will go. See her I shall not, nor hear +her; but I'll go, and that will do. The last time I was at a play, I was +ordered there by Mrs. Abington, or Mrs. Somebody, I do not well remember +who; but I placed myself in the middle of the first row of the front +boxes, to show that when I was called I came.' Mme. D' Arblay's _Diary_, +ii. 199. At Fontainebleau he went--to a comedy (_post_, Oct. 19, 1775), +so that it was not 'the last time he was at a play.' + +[950] 'One evening in the oratorio season of 1771,' writes Mrs. Piozzi +(Anec. 72), 'Mr. Johnson went with me to Covent Garden theatre. He sat +surprisingly quiet, and I flattered myself that he was listening to the +music. When we were got home he repeated these verses, which he said he +had made at the oratorio:-- + +"In Theatre, March 8, 1771. +Tertii verso quater orbe lustri, +Quid theatrales tibi, Crispe, pompae? +Quam decet canos male literates +Sera voluptas! +Tene mulceri fidibus canoris? +Tene cantorum modulis stupere? +Tene per pictas, oculo elegante, +Currere formas? +Inter aequales, sine felle liber, +Codices veri studiosus inter +Rectius vives. Sua quisque carpal +Gaudia gratus. +Lusibus gaudet puer otiosis, +Luxus oblectat juvenem theatri, +At seni fluxo sapienter uti +Tempore restat."' + +(_Works_, i. 166.) + +[951] _Bon Ton, or High Life above Stairs_, by Garrick. He made King the +comedian a present of this farce, and it was acted for the first time on +his benefit-a little earlier in the month. Murphy's _Garrick_, pp. +330, 332 + +[952] 'August, 1778. An epilogue of Mr. Garrick's to _Bonduca_ was +mentioned, and Dr. Johnson said it was a miserable performance:--"I +don't know," he said, "what is the matter with David; I am afraid he is +grown superannuated, for his prologues and epilogues used to be +incomparable."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 64. + +[953] 'Scottish brethren and architects, who had bought Durham Yard, and +erected a large pile of buildings under the affected name of the +Adelphi. These men, of great taste in their profession, were attached +particularly to Lord Bute and Lord Mansfield, and thus by public and +private nationality zealous politicians.' Walpole's _Memoirs of the +Reign of George III_. iv. 173. Hume wrote to Adam Smith in June 1772, at +a time where there was 'a universal loss of credit':--'Of all the +sufferers, I am the most concerned for the Adams. But their undertakings +were so vast, that nothing could support them. They must dismiss 3000 +workmen, who, comprehending the materials, must have expended above +AL100,000 a year. To me the scheme of the Adelphi always appeared so +imprudent, that my wonder is how they could have gone on so long.' J. H. +Burton's _Hume_, ii, 460. Garrick lived in the Adelphi. + +[954] 'Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes, Beholds his own +hereditary skies.' DRYDEN, Ovid, _Meta_. i. 85. + +[955] Hannah More (_Memoirs_, i. 213) says that she was made 'the umpire +in a trial of skill between Garrick and Boswell, which could most nearly +imitate Dr. Johnson's manner. I remember I gave it for Boswell in +familiar conversation, and for Garrick in reciting poetry.' + +[956] 'Gesticular mimicry and buffoonery Johnson hated, and would often +huff Garrick for exercising it his presence.' Hawkins's _Johnson_, +p. 386. + +[957] In the first two editions Johnson is represented as only saying, +'Davy is futile.' + +[958] My noble friend Lord Pembroke said once to me at Wilton, with a +happy pleasantry and some truth, that 'Dr. Johnson's sayings would not +appear so extraordinary, were it not for his _bow-wow way_.' The sayings +themselves are generally of sterling merit; but, doubtless, his _manner_ +was an addition to their effect; and therefore should be attended to as +much as may be. It is necessary however, to guard those who were not +acquainted with him, against overcharged imitations or caricatures of +his manner, which are frequently attempted, and many of which are +second-hand copies from the late Mr. Henderson the actor, who, though +a good mimick of some persons, did not represent Johnson correctly. +BOSWELL. + +[959] See '_Prosodia Rationalis_; or, an Essay towards establishing the +Melody and Measure of Speech, to be expressed and perpetuated by +peculiar Symbols.' London, 1779. BOSWELL. + +[960] I use the phrase _in score_, as Dr. Johnson has explained it in +his _Dictionary_:--'A _song in_ SCORE, the words with the musical notes +of a song annexed.' But I understand that in scientific property it +means all the parts of a musical composition noted down in the +characters by which it is established to the eye of the skillful. +BOSWELL. It was _declamation_ that Steele pretended to reduce to +notation by new characters. This he called the _melody_ of speech, not +the harmony, which is the term in _score_ implies. BURNEY. + +[961] Johnson, in his _Life of Gray_ (_Works_, viii. 481), spoke better +of him. 'What has occurred to me from the slight inspection of his +_Letters_, in which my understanding has engaged me, is, that his mind +had a large gap; that his curiosity was unlimited, and his judgment +cultivated.' Horace Walpole (_Letters_, ii 128) allowed that he was bad +company. 'Sept. 3, 1748. I agree with you most absolutely in your +opinion about Gray; he is the worst company in the world. From a +melancholy turn, from living reclusely, and from a little too much +dignity, he never converses easily; all his words are measured and +chosen, his writings are admirable; he himself is not agreeable.' + +[962] In the original, 'Give ample room and verge enough.' In the _Life +of Gray_ (_Works_, vii. 486) Johnson says that the slaughtered bards +'are called upon to "Weave the warp, and weave the woof," perhaps with +no great propriety; for it is by crossing the _woof_ with the _warp_ +that men weave the _web_ or piece; and the first line was dearly bought +by the admission of its wretched correspondent, "Give ample room and +verge enough." He has, however, no other line as bad.' See _ante_, +i. 402. + +[963] This word, which is in the first edition, is not in the second or +third. + +[964] '_The Church-yard_ abounds with images which find a mirror in +every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo. +The four stanzas, beginning "Yet even these bones," are to me original. +I have never seen the notions in any other place; yet he that reads them +here persuades himself that he has always felt them. Had Gray written +often thus, it had been vain to blame, and useless to praise him.' +_Works_, viii. 487. Goldsmith, in his _Life of Parnell_ (_Misc. Works_, +iv. 25), thus seems to sneer at _The Elegy_:--'The _Night Piece_ on +death deserves every praise, and, I should suppose, with very little +amendment, might be made to surpass all those night pieces and +_church-yard scenes_ that have since appeared.' + +[965] Mr. Croker says, 'no doubt Lady Susan Fox who, in 1773, married +Mr. William O'Brien, an actor.' It was in 1764 that she was married, so +that it is not likely that she was the subject of this talk. See Horace +Valpole's _Letters_, iv. 221. + +[966] Mrs. Thrale's marriage with Mr. Piozzi. + +[967] See _ante_, i. 408. + +[968] Boswell was of the same way of thinking as Squire Western, who +'did indeed consider a parity of fortune and circumstances to be +physically as necessary an ingredient in marriage as difference of +sexes, or any other essential; and had no more apprehension of his +daughter falling in love with a poor man than with any animal of a +different species.' _Tom Jones_, bk. vi. ch. 9. + +[969] + +'Temptanda via est, qua me quoque possim +Tollere humo victorque virum volitare per ora.' +'New ways I must attempt, my grovelling name +To raise aloft, and wing my flight to fame.' + +DRYDEN, Virgil, _Georg_. iii. 9. 'Chesterfield was at once the most +distinguished orator in the Upper House, and the undisputed sovereign of +wit and fashion. He held this eminence for about forty years. At last it +became the regular custom of the higher circles to laugh whenever he +opened his mouth, without waiting for his _bon mot_. He used to sit at +White's, with a circle of young men of rank around him, applauding every +syllable that he uttered.' Macaulay's _Life_, i. 325. + +[970] With the Literary Club, as is shewn by Boswell's letter of April +4, 1775, in which he says:--'I dine on Friday at the Turk's Head, +Gerrard Street, with our Club, who now dine once a month, and sup every +Friday.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 186. The meeting of Friday, March 24, +is described _ante_, p. 318, and that of April 7, _post_, p. 345. + +[971] Very likely Boswell (_ante_, ii. 84, note 3). + +[972] In the _Garrick Corres_. (ii. 141) is a letter dated March 4, +1776, from (to use Garrick's own words) 'that worst of bad women, Mrs. +Abington, to ask my playing for her benefit.' It is endorsed by +Garrick:--'A copy of Mother Abington's Letter about leaving the stage.' + +[973] Twenty years earlier he had recommended to Miss Boothby as a +remedy for indigestion dried orange-peel finely powdered, taken in a +glass of hot red port. 'I would not,' he adds, 'have you offer it to the +Doctor as my medicine. Physicians do not love intruders.' _Piozzi +Letters_, ii. 397. See _post_, April 18, 1783. + +[974] The misprint of _Chancellor_ for _Gentlemen_ is found in both the +second and third editions. It is not in the first. + +[975] Extracted from the Convocation Register, Oxford. BOSWELL. + +[976] The original is in my possession. He shewed me the Diploma, and +allowed me to read it, but would not consent to my taking a copy of it, +fearing perhaps that I should blaze it abroad in his life-time. His +objection to this appears from his 99th letter to Mrs. Thrale, whom in +that letter he thus scolds for the grossness of her flattery of +him:--'The other Oxford news is, that they have sent me a degree of +Doctor of Laws, with such praises in the Diploma as perhaps ought to +make me ashamed: they are very like your praises. I wonder whether I +shall ever shew it [_them_ in the original] to you.' + +It is remarkable that he never, so far as I know, assumed his title of +_Doctor_, but called himself _Mr_. Johnson, as appears from many of his +cards or notes to myself; and I have seen many from him to other +persons, in which he uniformly takes that designation. I once observed +on his table a letter directed to him with the addition of _Esquire_, +and objected to it as being a designation inferiour to that of Doctor; +but he checked me, and seemed pleased with it, because, as I +conjectured, he liked to be sometimes taken out of the class of literary +men, and to be merely _genteel,--un gentilhomme comme un autre_. +Boswell. See post, March 30, 1781, where Johnson applies the title to +himself in speaking, and April 13, 1784, where he does in writing, and +Boswell's Hebrides, Aug. 15, 1773, note. + +[977] 'To make a man pleased with himself, let me tell you, is doing a +very great thing.' _Post_, April 28, 1778. + +[978] 'The original is in the hands of Dr. Forthergril, then +Vice-Chancellor, who made this transcript.' T. WARTON--BOSWELL. + +[979] Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, as is shewn by _Piozzi Letters_, +i. 213. + +[980] 'That the design [of the _Dunciad_] was moral, whatever the author +might tell either his readers or himself, I am not convinced. The first +motive was the desire of revenging the contempt with which Theobald had +treated his _Shakespeare_ and regaining the honour which he had lost, by +crushing his opponent.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 338. + +[981] + +'Daughter of Chaos and old Night, +Cimmerian Muse, all hail! +That wrapt in never-twinkling gloom canst write, +And shadowest meaning with thy dusky veil! +What Poet sings and strikes the strings? +It was the mighty Theban spoke. +He from the ever-living lyre +With magic hand elicits fire. +Heard ye the din of modern rhymers bray? +It was cool M-n; or warm G-y, +Involv'd in tenfold smoke.' + +Colman's _Prose on Several Occasions_, ii. 273. + +[982] 'These _Odes_,' writes Colman, 'were a piece of boys' play with my +schoolfellow Lloyd, with whom they were written in concert.' _Ib_ i. xi. +In the _Connoisseur_ (_ante_, i. 420) they had also written in concert. +'Their humour and their talents were well adapted to what they had +undertaken; and Beaumont and Fletcher present what is probably the only +parallel instance of literary co-operation so complete, that the +portions written by the respective parties are undistinguishable.' +Southey's _Cowper_, i. 47. + +[983] _Ante_, i. 402. + +[984] Boswell writing to Temple two days later, recalled the time 'when +you and I sat up all night at Cambridge and read Gray with a noble +enthusiasm; when we first used to read Mason's _Elfrida_, and when we +talked of that elegant knot of worthies, Gray, Mason, Walpole, &c.' +_Letters of Boswell_, p. 185. + +[985] 'I have heard Mr. Johnson relate how he used to sit in some +coffee-house at Oxford, and turn M----'s _C-r-ct-u-s_ into ridicule for +the diversion of himself and of chance comers-in. "The _Elf--da_," says +he, "was too exquisitely pretty; I could make no fun out of that."' +Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 37. I doubt whether Johnson used the word _fun_, +which he describes in his _Dictionary_ as 'a low cant [slang] word.' + +[986] See _post_, March 26, 1779, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 1, and +under Nov. 11, 1773. According to Dr. T. Campbell (_Diary_, p. 36), +Johnson, on March 16, had said that _Taxation no Tyranny_ did not sell. + +[987] Six days later he wrote to Dr. Taylor:--'The patriots pelt me with +answers. Four pamphlets, I think, already, besides newspapers and +reviews, have been discharged against me. I have tried to read two of +them, but did not go through them.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., v. 422. + +[988] 'Mrs. Macaulay,' says Mr. Croker, who quotes Johnson's _Works_, +vi. 258, where she is described as 'a female patriot bewailing the +miseries of her friends and fellow-citizens.' See _ante_, i. 447. + +[989] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 24, 1773, and _post_, Sept. 24, +1777, for another landlord's account of Johnson. + +[990] From Dryden's lines on Milton. + +[991] Horace Walpole wrote, on Jan. 15, 1775 (_Letters_, vi. +171):--'They [the Millers] hold a Parnassus-fair every Thursday, give +out rhymes and themes, and all the flux of quality at Bath contend for +the prizes. A Roman Vase, dressed with pink ribands and myrtles, +receives the poetry, which is drawn out every festival: six judges of +these Olympic games retire and select the brightest compositions, which +the respective successful acknowledge, kneel to Mrs. Calliope Miller, +kiss her fair hand, and are crowned by it with myrtle, with--I don't +know what.' + +[992] Miss Burney wrote, in 1780:--'Do you know now that, +notwithstanding Bath-Easton is so much laughed at in London, nothing +here is more tonish than to visit Lady Miller. She is a round, plump, +coarse-looking dame of about forty, and while all her aim is to appear +an elegant woman of fashion, all her success is to seem an ordinary +woman in very common life, with fine clothes on.' Mme. D'Arblay's +_Diary_, i. 364. + +[993] 'Yes, on my faith, there are _bouts-rimA(C)s_ on a buttered muffin, +made by her Grace the Duchess of Northumberland.' Walpole's _Letters_, +vi. 171. 'She was,' Walpole writes, 'a jovial heap of contradictions. +She was familiar with the mob, while stifled with diamonds; and yet was +attentive to the most minute privileges of her rank, while almost +shaking hands with a cobbler.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, i. +419. Dr. Percy showed her Goldsmith's ballad of _Edwin and Angelina_ in +MS., and she had a few copies privately printed. Forster's +_Goldsmith_, i. 379. + +[994] Perhaps Mr. Seward, who was something of a literary man, and who +visited Bath (_post_, under March 30, 1783). + +[995] + +'--rerum +Fluctibus in mediis et tempestatibus urbis.' + +Horace, _Epistles_, ii. 2. 84. See _ante_, i. 461. + +[996] + +'Qui semel adspexit quantum dimissa petitis +PrA|stent, mature redeat repetatque relicta.' + +Horace, _Epistles_, i. 7. 96. + +'To his first state let him return with speed, +Who sees how far the joys he left exceed +His present choice.' FRANCIS. + +Malone says that 'Walpole, after he ceased to be minister, endeavoured +to amuse his mind with reading. But one day when Mr. Welbore Ellis was +in his library, he heard him say, with tears in his eyes, after having +taken up several books and at last thrown away a folio just taken down +from a shelf, "Alas! it is all in vain; _I cannot read_."' Prior's +_Malone_, p. 379. Lord Eldon, after his retirement, said to an +inn-keeper who was thinking of giving up business:--'Believe me, for I +speak from experience, when a man who has been much occupied through +life arrives at having nothing to do, he is very apt not to know what to +do _with himself_.' Later on, he said:--'It was advice given by me in +the spirit of that Principal of Brasenose, who, when he took leave of +young men quitting college, used to say to them, "Let me give you one +piece of advice, _Cave de resignationibus_." And very good advice too.' +Twiss's _Eldon_, iii. 246. + +[997] See _post_, April 10, 1775. He had but lately begun to visit +London. 'Such was his constant apprehension of the small-pox, that he +lived for twenty years within twenty miles of London, without visiting +it more than once.' At the age of thirty-five he was inoculated, and +henceforth was oftener in town. Campbell's _British Poets_, p. 569. + +[998] Mr. S. Raymond, Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of New South +Wales, published in Sydney in 1854 the _Diary of a Visit to England in +1775. by an Irishman_ (_The Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell_,) _with Notes_. +The MS., the editor says, was discovered behind an old press in one of +the offices of his Court. The name of the writer nowhere appears in the +MS. It is clear, however, that if it is not a forgery, the author was +Campbell. In the _Edinburgh Review_ for Oct., 1859, its authenticity is +examined, and is declared to be beyond a doubt. Lord Macaulay aided the +Reviewer in his investigation. _Ib_ p. 323. He could scarcely, however, +have come to his task with a mind altogether free from bias, for the +editor 'has contrived,' we are told, 'to expose another of Mr. Croker's +blunders.' Faith in him cannot be wrong who proves that Croker is not in +the right. The value of this _Diary_ is rated too highly by the +Reviewer. The Master of Balliol College has pointed out to me that it +adds but very little to Johnson's sayings. So far as he is concerned, we +are told scarcely anything of mark that we did not know already. This +makes the Master doubt its genuineness. I have noticed one suspicious +passage. An account is given of a dinner at Mr. Thrale's on April 1, at +which Campbell met Murphy, Boswell, and Baretti. 'Johnson's _bons mots_ +were retailed in such plenty that they, like a surfeit, could not lie +upon my memory.' In one of the stories told by Murphy, Johnson is made +to say, 'Damn the rascal.' Murphy would as soon have made the Archbishop +of Canterbury swear as Johnson; much sooner the Archbishop of York. It +was Murphy 'who paid him the highest compliment that ever was paid to a +layman, by asking his pardon for repeating some oaths in the course of +telling a story' (_post_, April 12, 1776). Even supposing that at this +time he was ignorant of his character, though the supposition is a wild +one, he would at once have been set right by Boswell and the Thrales +(_post_, under March 15, 1776). It is curious, that this anecdote +imputing profanity to Johnson is not quoted by the Edinburgh reviewer. +On the whole I think that the _Diary_ is genuine, and accordingly I have +quoted it more than once. + +[999] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 173) says that Johnson spoke of Browne as +'of all conversers the most delightful with whom he ever was in +company.' Pope's bathos, in his lines to Murray:-- + +'Graced as thou art with all the power of words, +So known, so honoured, at the House of Lords,' + +was happily parodied by Browne:-- + +'Persuasion tips his tongue whene'er he talks, +And he has chambers in the King's Bench Walks.' + +Pattison's _Satires of Pope_, pp. 57, 134. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, +Sept. 5. + +[1000] Horace Walpole says of Beckford's Bribery Bill of +1768:--'Grenville, to flatter the country gentlemen, who can ill afford +to combat with great lords, nabobs, commissaries, and West Indians, +declaimed in favour of the bill.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George +III_, iii. 159. + +[1001] See _ante_, ii. 167, where he said much the same. Another day, +however, he agreed that a landlord ought to give leases to his tenants, +and not 'wish to keep them in a wretched dependance on his will. "It is +a man's duty," he said, "to extend comfort and security among as many +people as he can. He should not wish to have his tenants mere +_Ephemerae_--mere beings of an hour."' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. +10, 1773. + +[1002] 'Thomas Hickey is now best remembered by a characteristic +portrait of his friend Tom Davies, engraved with Hickey's name to it.' +P. CUNNINGHAM. + +[1003] See _ante_, ii. 92. In the _Life of Pope_ (_Works_, viii. 302), +Johnson says that 'the shafts of satire were directed in vain against +Cibber, being repelled by his impenetrable impudence.' Pope speaks of +Gibber's 'impenetrability.' Elwin's _Pope_, ix. 231. + +[1004] He alludes perhaps to a note on the _Dunciad_, ii, 140, in which +it is stated that 'the author has celebrated even Cibber himself +(presuming him to be the author of the _Careless Husband_).' See _post_, +May 15, 1776, note. + +[1005] See _ante_, ii. 32. + +[1006] Burke told Malone that 'Hume, in compiling his _History_, did not +give himself a great deal of trouble in examining records, &c.; and that +the part he most laboured at was the reign of King Charles II, for whom +he had an unaccountable partiality.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 368. + +[1007] Yet Johnson (_Works_, vii. 177) wrote of Otway, who was nine +years old when Charles II. came to the throne, and who outlived him by +only a few weeks:--'He had what was in those times the common reward of +loyalty; he lived and died neglected.' Hawkins (_Life_, p. 51) says that +he heard Johnson 'speak of Dr. Hodges who, in the height of the Great +Plague of 1665, continued in London, and was almost the only one of his +profession that had the courage to oppose his art to the spreading of +the contagion. It was his hard fate, a short time after, to die in +prison for debt in Ludgate. Johnson related this to us with the tears +ready to start from his eyes; and, with great energy, said, "Such a man +would not have been suffered to perish in these times."' + +[1008] Johnson in 1742 said that William III. 'was arbitrary, insolent, +gloomy, rapacious, and brutal; that he was at all times disposed to play +the tyrant; that he had, neither in great things nor in small, the +manners of a gentleman; that he was capable of gaining money by mean +artifices, and that he only regarded his promise when it was his +interest to keep it.' _Works_, vi. 6. Nearly forty years later, in his +_Life of Rowe_ (_ib_. vii. 408), he aimed a fine stroke at that King. +'The fashion of the time,' he wrote, 'was to accumulate upon Lewis all +that can raise horrour and detestation; and whatever good was withheld +from him, that it might not be thrown away, was bestowed upon King +William.' Yet in the _Life of Prior_ (_ib_. viii. 4) he allowed him +great merit. 'His whole life had been action, and none ever denied him +the resplendent qualities of steady resolution and personal courage.' +See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 24, 1773. + +[1009] 'The fact of suppressing the will is indubitably true,' wrote +Horace Walpole (_Letters_, vii. 142). 'When the news arrived of the +death of George I, my father carried the account from Lord Townshend to +the then Prince of Wales. The Council met as soon as possible. There +Archbishop Wake, with whom one copy of the will had been deposited, +advanced, and delivered the will to the King, who put it into his +pocket, and went out of Council without opening it, the Archbishop not +having courage or presence of mind to desire it to be read, as he ought +to have done. I was once talking to the late Lady Suffolk, the former +mistress, on that extraordinary event. She said, "I cannot justify the +deed to the legatees; but towards his father, the late King was +justifiable, for George I. had burnt two wills made in favour of +George II."' + +[1010] 'Charles II. by his affability and politeness made himself the +idol of the nation, which he betrayed and sold.' Johnson's _Works_, +vi. 7. + +[1011] 'It was maliciously circulated that George was indifferent to his +own succession, and scarcely willing to stretch out a hand to grasp the +crown within his reach.' Coxe's _Memoirs of Walpole_, i. 57. + +[1012] Plin. _Epist_. lib. ii. ep. 3. BOSWELL. + +[1013] Mr. Davies was here mistaken. Corelli never was in England. +BURNEY. + +[1014] Mr. Croker is wrong in saying that the Irishman in Mrs. Thrale's +letter of May 16, 1776 (_Piozzi Letters_, i. 329), is Dr. Campbell. The +man mentioned there had never met Johnson, though she wrote more than a +year after this dinner at Davies's. She certainly quotes one of 'Dr. +C-l's phrases,' but she might also have quoted Shakspeare. I have no +doubt that Mrs. Thrale's Irishman was a Mr. Musgrave (_post_, under June +16, 1784, note), who is humorously described in Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, +ii. 83. Since writing this note I have seen that the Edinburgh reviewer +(Oct. 1859, p. 326) had come to the same conclusion. + +[1015] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 26, 1773, where Johnson said that +'he did not approve of a Judge's calling himself Farmer Burnett, and +going about with a little round hat.' + +[1016] 'If all the employments of life were crowded into the time which +it [sic] really occupied, perhaps a few weeks, days, or hours would be +sufficient for its accomplishment, so far as the mind was engaged in the +performance.' _The Rambler_, No. 8. + +[1017] Johnson certainly did, who had a mind stored with knowledge, and +teeming with imagery: but the observation is not applicable to writers +in general. BOSWELL. See _post_, April 20, 1783. + +[1018] See _ante_, i. 358. + +[1019] See ante, i. 306. + +[1020] There has probably been some mistake as to the terms of this +supposed extraordinary contract, the recital of which from hearsay +afforded Johnson so much play for his sportive acuteness. Or if it was +worded as he supposed, it is so strange that I should conclude it was a +joke. Mr. Gardner, I am assured, was a worthy and a liberal man. +BOSWELL. Thurlow, when Attorney-General, had been counsel for the +Donaldsons, in the appeal before the House of Lords on the Right of +Literary Property (_ante_, i. 437, and ii. 272). In his argument 'he +observed (exemplifying his observations by several cases) that the +booksellers had not till lately ever concerned themselves about +authors.' _Gent. Mag_. for 1774, p. 51. + +[1021] 'The booksellers of London are denominated _the trade_' (_post_, +April 15, 1778, note). + +[1022] _Bibliopole_ is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_. + +[1023] The Literary Club. See _ante_, p. 330, note 1. Mr. Croker says +that the records of the Club show that, after the first few years, +Johnson very rarely attended, and that he and Boswell never met there +above seven or eight times. It may be observed, he adds, how very rarely +Boswell records the conversation at the club, Except in one instance +(_post_, April, 3, 1778), he says, Boswell confines his report to what +Johnson or himself may have said. That this is not strictly true is +shewn by his report of the dinner recorded above, where we find reported +remarks of Beauclerk and Gibbon. Seven meetings besides this are +mentioned by Boswell. See _ante_, ii. 240, 255, 318, 330; and _post_, +April 3, 1778, April 16, 1779, and June 22, 1784. Of all but the last +there is some report, however brief, of something said. When Johnson was +not present, Boswell would have nothing to record in this book. + +[1024] _Travels through Germany, &c_., 1756-7. + +[1025] _Travels through Holland, &c. Translated from the French_, 1743. + +[1026] See _post_, March 24, 1776, and May 17, 1778. + +[1027] _Description of the East_, 1743-5. + +[1028] Johnson had made the same remark, and Boswell had mentioned +Leandro Alberti, when they were talking in an inn in the Island of Mull. +Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 14, 1773. + +[1029] Addison does not mention where this epitaph, which has eluded a +very diligent inquiry, is found. MALONE. I have found it quoted in old +Howell. 'The Italian saying may be well applied to poor England:--"I was +well--would be better--took physic--and died."' _Lett_. Jan. 20, 1647. +CROKER. It is quoted by Addison in _The Spectator_, No. 25:--'This +letter puts me in mind of an Italian epitaph written on the monument of +a Valetudinarian: _Stavo ben, ma per star meglio sto qui_, which it is +impossible to translate.' + +[1030] Lord Chesterfield, as Mr. Croker points out, makes the same +observation in one of his _Letters to his Son_ (ii. 351). Boswell, +however, does not get it from him, for he had said the same in the +_Hebrides_, six months before the publication of Chesterfield's +_Letters_. Addison, in the preface to his _Remarks_, says:--'Before I +entered on my voyage I took care to refresh my memory among the classic +authors, and to make such collections out of them as I might afterwards +have occasion for.' + +[1031] See ante, ii. 156. + +[1032] 'It made an impression on the army that cannot be well imagined +by those who saw it not. The whole army, and at last all people both in +city and country were singing it perpetually, and perhaps never had so +slight a thing so great an effect.' Bumet's Own Time, ed. 1818, ii. 430. +In Tristram Shandy, vol. i. chap. 21, when Mr. Shandy advanced one of +his hypotheses:--'My uncle Toby,' we read, 'would never offer to answer +this by any other kind of argument than that of whistling half-a-dozen +bars of Lilliburlero.' + +[1033] See ante, ii. 66. + +[1034] 'Of Gibbon, Mackintosh neatly remarked that he might have been +cut out of a corner of Burke's mind, without his missing it.' _Life of +Mackintosh_, i. 92. It is worthy of notice that Gibbon scarcely mentions +Johnson in his writings. Moreover, in the names that he gives of the +members of the Literary Club, 'who form a large and luminous +constellation of British stars,' though he mentions eighteen of them, he +passes over Boswell. Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i.219. See also _post_, +April 18, 1775. + +[1035] We may compare with this Dryden's line:-- + +'Usurped a patriot's all-atoning name.' + +_Absalom and Achitophel_, l. 179. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 506) says that 'to +party opposition Johnson ever expressed great aversion, and of the +pretences of patriots always spoke with indignation and contempt.' He +had, Hawkins adds, 'partaken of the short-lived joy that infatuated the +public' when Walpole fell; but a few days convinced him that the +patriotism of the opposition had been either hatred or ambition. For +_patriots_, see _ante_, i. 296, note, and _post_, April 6, 1781. + +[1036] Mr. Burke. See _ante_, p. 222, note 4. + +[1037] Lord North's ministry lasted from 1770 to 1782. + +[1038] Perhaps Johnson had this from Davies, who says (_Life of +Garrick_, i. 124):--'Mrs. Pritchard read no more of the play of +_Macbeth_ than her own part, as written out and delivered to her by the +prompter.' She played the heroine in _Irene_ (_ante_, i. 197). See +_post_ under Sept. 30, 1783, where Johnson says that 'in common life she +was a vulgar idiot,' and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 28, 1773. + +[1039] A misprint for April 8. + +[1040] Boswell calls him the 'Irish Dr. Campbell,' to distinguish him +from the Scotch Dr. Campbell mentioned _ante_, i. 417. + +[1041] See _ante_, i. 494. + +[1042] Baretti, in a MS. note in his copy of _Piozzi Letters_, i. 374, +says:--'Johnson was often fond of saying silly things in strong terms, +and the silly Madam [Mrs. Thrale] never failed to echo that beastly +kind of wit.' + +[1043] According to Dr. T. Campbell, who was present at the dinner +(_Diary_, p. 66), Barry and Garrick were the two actors, and Murphy the +author. If Murphy said this in the heat of one of his quarrels with +Garrick, he made amends in his _Life_ of that actor (p. 362):--'It was +with Garrick,' he wrote, 'a fixed principle, that authors were entitled +to the emolument of their labours, and by that generous way of thinking +he held out an invitation to men of genius.' + +[1044] Page 392, vol. i. BOSWELL. + +[1045] Let me here be allowed to pay my tribute of most sincere +gratitude to the memory of that excellent person, my intimacy with whom +was the more valuable to me, because my first acquaintance with him was +unexpected and unsolicited. Soon after the publication of my _Account of +Corsica_, he did me the honour to call on me, and, approaching me with a +frank courteous air, said, 'My name, Sir, is Oglethorpe, and I wish to +be acquainted with you.' I was not a little flattered to be thus +addressed by an eminent man, of whom I had read in Pope, from my +early years, + +'Or, driven by strong benevolence of soul, Will fly, like Oglethorpe, +from pole to pole.' + +I was fortunate enough to be found worthy of his good opinion, insomuch, +that I not only was invited to make one in the many respectable +companies whom he entertained at his table, but had a cover at his +hospitable board every day when I happened to be disengaged; and in his +society I never failed to enjoy learned and animated conversation, +seasoned with genuine sentiments of virtue and religion. BOSWELL. See +_ante_, i. 127, and ii. 59, note 1. The couplet from Pope is from +_Imitations of Horace_, _Epist_. ii. 2. 276. + +[1046] + +'Hope springs eternal in the human breast: +Man never _is_, but always _to be_ blest.' + +_Essay on Man_, i. 95. + +[1047] 'The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to +pleasure, but from hope to hope.' _The Rambler_, No. 2. See _post_, iii. +53, and June 12, 1784. Swift defined happiness as 'a perpetual +possession of being well deceived.' _Tale of a Tub_, Sect, ix., Swift's +_Works_, ed. 1803, iii. 154. + +[1048] See _post_, March 29, 1776. + +[1049] The General seemed unwilling to enter upon it at this time; but +upon a subsequent occasion he communicated to me a number of +particulars, which I have committed to writing; but I was not +sufficiently diligent in obtaining more from him, not apprehending that +his friends were so soon to lose him; for, notwithstanding his great +age, he was very healthy and vigorous, and was at last carried off by a +violent fever, which is often fatal at any period of life. BOSWELL. + +[1050] See _ante_, p. 338. + +[1051] + +'Mediocribus esse poetis + _Non homines, non Di_, non concessere columnae.' +'But God and man, and letter'd post denies + That poets ever are of middling size.' + +FRANCIS, Horace, _Ars Poet_. l. 372. + +[1052] Why he failed to keep his journal may be guessed from his letter +to Temple:--'I am,' he wrote on April 17, 'indeed enjoying this +metropolis to the full, according to my taste, except that I cannot, I +see, have a plenary indulgence from you for Asiatic multiplicity. Be not +afraid of me, except when I take too much claret; and then indeed there +is a _furor brevis_ as dangerous as anger.... I have rather had too much +dissipation since I came last to town. I try to keep a journal, and +shall show you that I have done tolerably: but it is hardly credible +what ground I go over, and what a variety of men and manners I +contemplate in a day; and all the time I myself am _pars magna_, for my +exuberant spirits will not let me listen enough.' _Letters of Boswell_, +pp. 187-9. + +[1053] Johnson, in _The Rambler_, No. 110, published on Easter Eve, +1751, thus justifies fasting:--'Austerity is the proper antidote to +indulgence; the diseases of mind as well as body are cured by +contraries, and to contraries we should readily have recourse if we +dreaded guilt as we dread pain.' + +[1054] From this too just observation there are some eminent exceptions, +BOSWELL. 'Dr. Johnson said:--"Few bishops are now made for their +learning. To be a bishop, a man must be learned in a learned age, +factious in a factious age, but always of eminence."' Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Aug. 21, 1773. + +[1055] Lord Shelburne wrote of him:--'He panted for the Treasury, having +a notion that the King and he understood it from what they had read +about revenue and funds while they were at Kew.' Fitzmaurice's +_Shelburne_, i. 141. + +[1056] Chief Justice Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden) became popular by +his conduct as a judge in Wilkes's case. In 1764 he received the freedom +of the guild of merchants in Dublin in a gold box, and from Exeter the +freedom of the city. The city of London gave him its freedom in a gold +box, and had his portrait painted by Reynolds. _Gent. Mag_. 1764, pp. +44, 96, 144. See _ante_, p. 314. + +[1057] The King, on March 3, 1761, recommended this measure to +Parliament. _Parl. Hist_. xv. 1007. 'This,' writes Horace Walpole, 'was +one of Lord Bute's strokes of pedantry. The tenure of the judges had +formerly been a popular topic; and had been secured, as far as was +necessary. He thought this trifling addition would be popular now, when +nobody thought or cared about it.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George +III_, i. 41. + +[1058] The money arising from the property of the prizes taken before +the declaration of war, which were given to his Majesty by the peace of +Paris, and amounted to upwards of AL700,000, and from the lands in the +ceded islands, which were estimated at AL200,000 more. Surely there was a +noble munificence in this gift from a Monarch to his people. And let it +be remembered, that during the Earl of Bute's administration, the King +was graciously pleased to give up the hereditary revenues of the Crown, +and to accept, instead of them, of the limited sum of AL800,000 a year; +upon which Blackstone observes, that 'The hereditary revenues, being put +under the same management as the other branches of the publick +patrimony, will produce more, and be better collected than heretofore; +and the publick is a gainer of upwards of AL100,000 _per annum_ by this +disinterested bounty of his Majesty.' Book I. Chap. viii. p. 330. +BOSWELL. Lord Bolingbroke (_Works_, iii. 286), about the year 1734, +pointed out that 'if the funds appropriated produce the double of that +immense revenue of AL800,000 a year, which hath been so liberally given +the King for life, the whole is his without account; but if they fail in +any degree to produce it, the entire national fund is engaged to make up +the difference.' Blackstone (edit, of 1778, i. 331) says:--'AL800,000 +being found insufficient, was increased in 1777 to, AL900,000.' He adds, +'the public is still a gainer of near AL100,000.' + +[1059] See _post_, iii. 163. + +[1060] Lord Eldon says that Dundas, 'in broken phrases,' asked the King +to confer a baronetcy on 'an eminent Scotch apothecary who had got from +Scotland the degree of M. D. The King said:--"What, what, is that all? +It shall be done. I was afraid you meant to ask me to make the Scotch +apothecary a physician--that's more difficult."' He added:--'They may +make as many Scotch apothecaries Baronets as they please, but I shall +die by the College.' Twiss's _Eldon_, ii. 354. A Dr. Duncan, says Mr. +Croker, was appointed physician to the King in 1760. Croker's _Boswell_, +p. 448. A doctor of the same name, and no doubt the same man, was made a +baronet in Aug. 1764. Jesse's _Selwyn_, i. 287. + +[1061] Wedderburne, afterwards Lord Chancellor Loughborough, and Earl of +Rosslyn. One of his 'errands' had been to bring Johnson bills in payment +of his first quarter's pension. _Ante_, i. 376. + +[1062] Home, the author of _Douglas_. Boswell says that 'Home showed the +Lord Chief Baron Orde a pair of pumps he had on, and desired his +lordship to observe how well they were made, telling him at the same +time that they had been made for Lord Bute, but were rather too little +for him, so his lordship had made John a present of them. "I think," +said the Lord Chief Baron, "you have taken the measure of Lord Bute's +foot."' _Boswelliana_, p. 252. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 335), +writes:--'With Robertson and Home in London I passed the time very +agreeably; for though Home was now [1758] entirely at the command of +Lord Bute, whose nod made him break every engagement--for it was not +given above an hour or two before dinner--yet, as he was sometimes at +liberty when the noble lord was to dine abroad, like a horse loosened +from his stake, he was more sportful than usual.' + +[1063] Lord North was merely the King's agent. The King was really his +own minister at this time, though he had no seat in his own +cabinet councils. + +[1064] Only thirty-four years earlier, on the motion in the Lords for +the removal of Walpole, the Duke of Argyle said:--'If my father or +brother took upon him the office of a sole minister, I would oppose it +as inconsistent with the constitution, as a high crime and misdemeanour. +I appeal to your consciences whether he [Walpole] hath not done this... +He hath turned out men lately for differing with him.' Lord Chancellor +Hardwicke replied:--'A sole minister is so illegal an office that it is +none. Yet a noble lord says, _Superior respondeat_, which is laying down +a rule for a prime minister; whereas the noble Duke was against any.' +_The Secker MS. Parl. Hist_. xi. 1056-7. In the Protest against the +rejection of the motion it was stated:--'We are persuaded that a sole, +or even a first minister, is an officer unknown to the law of Britain,' +&c. _Ib_ p. 1215. Johnson reports the Chancellor as saying:--'It has not +been yet pretended that he assumes the title of _prime minister_, or, +indeed, that it is applied to him by any but his enemies ... The first +minister can, in my opinion, be nothing more than a formidable illusion, +which, when one man thinks he has seen it, he shows to another, as +easily frighted as himself,' &c. Johnson's _Works_, x. 214-15. In his +_Dictionary_, _premier_ is only given as an adjective, and _prime +minister_ is not given at all. When the Marquis of Rockingham was +forming his cabinet in March 1782, Burke wrote to him:--'Stand firm on +your ground--but _one_ ministry. I trust and hope that your lordship +will not let _one_, even but _one_ branch of the state ... out of your +own hands; or those which you can entirely rely on.' Burke's _Corres_. +ii. 462. See also _post_, iii. 46, April 1, 1781, Jan. 20, 1782, and +April 10, 1783. + +[1065] See _ante_, p. 300. + +[1066] 'As he liberally confessed that all his own disappointments +proceeded from himself, he hated to hear others complain of general +injustice.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 251. See _post_, end of May, 1781, and +March 23, 1783. + +[1067] 'Boswell and I went to church, but came very late. We then took +tea, by Boswell's desire; and I eat one bun, I think, that I might not +seem to fast ostentatiously.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 138. + +[1068] See ante, i. 433. + +[1069] See ante, i. 332. + +[1070] The following passages shew that the thought, or something like +it, was not new to Johnson:--'BruyA"re declares that we are come into the +world too late to produce anything new, that nature and life are +preoccupied, and that description and sentiment have been long +exhausted.' _The Rambler_, No. 143. 'Some advantage the ancients might +gain merely by priority, which put them in possession of the most +natural sentiments, and left us nothing but servile repetition or forced +conceits.' _Ib_ No. 169. 'My earlier predecessors had the whole field of +life before them, untrodden and unsurveyed; characters of every kind +shot up in their way, and those of the most luxuriant growth, or most +conspicuous colours, were naturally cropt by the first sickle. They that +follow are forced to peep into neglected corners.' _The Idler_, No. 3. +'The first writers took possession of the most striking objects for +description, and the most probable occurrences for fiction.' _Rasselas_, +ch. x. Some years later he wrote:--'Whatever can happen to man has +happened so often that little remains for fancy or invention.' _Works_, +vii. 311. See also _The Rambler_, No. 86. In _The Adventurer_, No. 95, +he wrote:--'The complaint that all topicks are preoccupied is nothing +more than the murmur of ignorance or idleness.' See _post_, under Aug. +29, 1783. Dr. Warton (_Essay on Pope_, i. 88) says that 'St. Jerome +relates that Donatus, explaining that passage in Terence, _Nihil est +dictum quod non sit dictum prius_, railed at the ancients for taking +from him his best thoughts. _Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt_.' + +[1071] Warburton, in the Dedication of his _Divine Legation_ to the +Free-thinkers (vol. I. p. ii), says:--'Nothing, I believe, strikes the +serious observer with more surprize, in this age of novelties, than that +strange propensity to infidelity, so visible in men of almost every +condition: amongst whom the advocates of Deism are received with all the +applauses due to the inventers of the arts of life, or the deliverers of +oppressed and injured nations.' See _ante_, ii. 81. + +[1072] In _The Rambler_, No. 89, Johnson writes of 'that interchange of +thoughts which is practised in free and easy conversation, where +suspicion is banished by experience, and emulation by benevolence; where +every man speaks with no other restraint than unwillingness to offend, +and hears with no other disposition than desire to be pleased.' In _The +Idler_, No. 34, he says 'that companion will be oftenest welcome whose +talk flows out with inoffensive copiousness and unenvied insipidity.' He +wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'Such tattle as filled your last sweet letter +prevents one great inconvenience of absence, that of returning home a +stranger and an inquirer. The variations of life consist of little +things. Important innovations are soon heard, and easily understood. Men +that meet to talk of physicks or metaphysicks, or law or history, may be +immediately acquainted. We look at each other in silence, only for want +of petty talk upon slight occurrences.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 354. + +[1073] _Pr. and Med_. p. 138. BOSWELL. + +[1074] This line is not, as appears, a quotation, but an abstract of p. +139 of _Pr. and Med_. + +[1075] This is a proverbial sentence. 'Hell,' says Herbert, 'is full of +good meanings and wishings.' _Jacula Prudentum_, p. 11, edit +1651. MALONE. + +[1076] Boswell wrote to Temple:--'I have only to tell you, as my divine, +that I yesterday received the holy sacrament in St. Paul's Church, and +was exalted in piety.' It was in the same letter that he mentioned +'Asiatic multiplicity' (_ante_ p. 352, note 1). _Letters of Boswell_, +p. 189. + +[1077] + +'Nil admirari, prope res est una, Numici, +Solaque, quae possit facere et servare beatum' + +Horace, _Epis_. i. 6. 1. + +'Not to admire is all the art I know, +To make men happy and keep them so' + +Pope's _Imitations_, adapted from Creech. + +[1078] + +'We live by Admiration, Hope, and Love; +And even as these are well and wisely fixed, +In dignity of being we ascend.' + +Wordsworth's _Works_, ed. 1857, vi. 135. + +[1079] + +'Amoret's as sweet and good, +As the most delicious food; +Which but tasted does impart +Life and gladness to the heart. +Sacharissa's beauty's wine, +Which to madness does incline; +Such a liquor as no brain +That is mortal can sustain.' + +Waller's _Epistles_, xii. BOSWELL. + +[1080] Not that he would have wished Boswell 'to talk from books.' 'You +and I,' he once said to him, 'do not talk from books.' Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Nov. 3, 1773. See _post_, iii, 108, note 1, for Boswell's +want of learning. + +[1081] See _post_, under March 30, 1783. + +[1082] Yet he sat to Miss Reynolds, as he tells us, perhaps ten times +(_post_, under June 17, 1783), and 'Miss Reynolds's mind,' he said, 'was +very near to purity itself.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 80. Eight years +later Barry, in his _Analysis_ (_post_, May, 1783, note), said:--'Our +females are totally, shamefully, and cruelly neglected in the +appropriation of trades and employments.' Barry's _Works_, ii. 333. + +[1083] The four most likely to be mentioned would be, I think, +Beauclerk, Garrick, Langton, and Reynolds. On p. 359, Boswell mentions +Beauclerk's 'acid manner.' + +[1084] In his _Dictionary_, Johnson defines _muddy_ as _cloudy in mind, +dull_; and quotes _The Winter's Tale_, act i. sc. 2. Wesley (_Journal_, +ii. 10) writes:--'Honest, _muddy_ M. B. conducted me to his house.' +Johnson (_post_, March 22, 1776), after telling how an acquaintance of +his drank, adds, 'not that he gets drunk, for he is a very pious man, +but he is always _muddy_.' It seems at first sight unlikely that he +called Reynolds _muddy_; yet three months earlier he had +written:--'Reynolds has taken too much to strong liquor.' _Ante_, p. +292, note 5. + +[1085] In _The Rambler_, No. 72, Johnson defines good-humour as 'a habit +of being pleased; a constant and perennial softness of manner, easiness +of approach, and suavity of disposition.' + +[1086] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 17, 1773. + +[1087] 'It is with their learning as with provisions in a besieged town, +every one has a mouthful, and no one a bellyful.' Johnson's _Works_ +(1787), xi. 200. + +[1088] 'Men bred in the Universities of Scotland cannot be expected to +be often decorated with the splendours of ornamental erudition, but they +obtain a mediocrity of knowledge between learning and ignorance, not +inadequate to the purposes of common life, which is, I believe, very +widely diffused among them.' Johnson's _Works_, ix. 158. Lord Shelburne +said that the Earl of Bute had 'a great deal of superficial knowledge, +such as is commonly to be met with in France and Scotland, chiefly upon +matters of natural philosophy, mines, fossils, a smattering of +mechanics, a little metaphysics, and a very false taste in everything.' +Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, i. 139. 'A gentleman who had heard that +Bentley was born in the north, said to Porson: "Wasn't he a Scotchman?" +"No, Sir," replied Porson, "Bentley was a great Greek scholar."' +Rogers's _Table Talk_, p. 322. + +[1089] Walton did not retire from business till 1643. But in 1664, Dr. +King, Bishop of Chichester, in a letter prefixed to his _Lives_, +mentions his having been familiarly acquainted with him for forty years; +and in 1631 he was so intimate with Dr. Donne that he was one of the +friends who attended him on his death-bed. J. BOSWELL, jun. His first +wife's uncle was George Cranmer, the grandson of the Archbishop's +brother. His second wife was half-sister of Bishop Ken. + +[1090] Johnson himself, as Boswell tells us, 'was somewhat susceptible +of flattery.' _Post_, end of 1784. + +[1091] The first time he dined with me, he was shewn into my book-room, +and instantly poured over the lettering of each volume within his reach. +My collection of books is very miscellaneous, and I feared there might +be some among them that he would not like. But seeing the number of +volumes very considerable, he said, 'You are an honest man, to have +formed so great an accumulation of knowledge.' BURNEY. Miss Burney +describes this visit (_Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, ii. 93):--'Everybody rose +to do him honour; and he returned the attention with the most formal +courtesie. My father whispered to him that music was going forward, +which he would not, my father thinks, have found out; and, placing him +on the best seat vacant, told his daughters to go on with the duet, +while Dr. Johnson, intently rolling towards them one eye--for they say +he does not see with the other--made a grave nod, and gave a dignified +motion with one hand, in silent approvance of the proceeding.' He was +next introduced to Miss Burney, but 'his attention was not to be drawn +off two minutes longer from the books, to which he now strided his way. +He pored over them shelf by shelf, almost brushing them with his +eye-lashes from near examination. At last, fixing upon something that +happened to hit his fancy, he took it down, and standing aloof from the +company, which he seemed clean and clear to forget, he began very +composedly to read to himself, and as intently as if he had been alone +in his own study. We were all excessively provoked, for we were +languishing, fretting, expiring to hear him talk.' Dr. Burney, taking up +something that Mrs. Thrale had said, ventured to ask him about Bach's +concert. 'The Doctor, comprehending his drift, good-naturedly put away +his book, and see-sawing with a very humorous smile, drolly repeated, +"Bach, Sir? Bach's concert? And pray, Sir, who is Bach? Is he a piper?"' + +[1092] Reynolds, noting down 'such qualities as Johnson's works cannot +convey,' says that 'the most distinguished was his possessing a mind +which was, as I may say, always ready for use. Most general subjects had +undoubtedly been already discussed in the course of a studious thinking +life. In this respect few men ever came better prepared into whatever +company chance might throw him; and the love which he had to society +gave him a facility in the practice of applying his knowledge of the +matter in hand, in which I believe he was never exceeded by any man.' +Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 454. + +[1093] See _ante_, p. 225. + +[1094] 'Our silly things called Histories,' wrote Burke (_Corres_, i. +337). 'The Duke of Richmond, Fox, and Burke,' said Rogers (_Table-Talk_, +p. 82), 'were conversing about history, philosophy, and poetry. The Duke +said, "I prefer history to philosophy or poetry, because history is +_truth_." Both Fox and Burke disagreed with him: they thought that +poetry was _truth_, being a representation of human nature.' Lord +Bolingbroke had said (_Works_, iii. 322) that the child 'in riper years +applies himself to history, or to that which he takes for history, to +authorised romance.' + +[1095] Mr. Plunket made a great sensation in the House of Commons (Feb. +28, 1825) by saying that history, if not judiciously read, 'was no +better than an old almanack'--which Mercier had already said in his +_Nouveau Tableau de Paris_--'Malet du Pan's and such like histories of +the revolution are no better than an old almanack.' Boswell, we see, had +anticipated both. CROKER. + +[1096] It was at Rome on Oct. 15, 1764, says Gibbon in a famous passage, +'that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started +to my mind.' It was not till towards the end of 1772 that he 'undertook +the composition of the first volume.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. +198, 217-9. + +[1097] See p. 348. BOSWELL. Gibbon, when with Johnson, perhaps felt that +timidity which kept him silent in Parliament. 'I was not armed by nature +and education,' he writes, 'with the intrepid energy of mind and voice +_Vincentem strepitus, et natum rebus agendis_. Timidity was fortified by +pride, and even the success of my pen discouraged the trial of my +voice.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 221. Some years before he entered +Parliament, he said that his genius was 'better qualified for the +deliberate compositions of the closet, than for the extemporary +discourses of the Parliament. An unexpected objection would disconcert +me; and as I am incapable of explaining to others what I do not +thoroughly understand myself, I should be meditating while I ought to be +answering.' _Ib_ ii. 39. + +[1098] A very eminent physician, whose discernment is as acute and +penetrating in judging of the human character as it is in his own +profession, remarked once at a club where I was, that a lively young +man, fond of pleasure, and without money, would hardly resist a +solicitation from his mistress to go upon the highway, immediately after +being present at the representation of _The Beggar's Opera_. I have been +told of an ingenious observation by Mr. Gibbon, that '_The Beggar's +Opera_ may, perhaps, have sometimes increased the number of highwaymen; +but that it has had a beneficial effect in refining that class of men, +making them less ferocious, more polite, in short, more like gentlemen.' +Upon this Mr. Courtenay said, that 'Gay was the Orpheus of +highwaymen.' BOSWELL. + +[1099] 'The play like many others was plainly written only to divert +without any moral purpose, and is therefore not likely to do good; nor +can it be conceived without more speculation than life requires or +admits to be productive of much evil. Highwaymen and house-breakers +seldom frequent the play-house, or mingle in any elegant diversion; nor +is it possible for any one to imagine that he may rob with safety, +because he sees Macheath reprieved upon the stage.' _Works_, viii. 68. + +[1100] 'The worthy Queensb'ry yet laments his Gay.' + +_The Seasons_. Summer, l. 1422. Pope (_Prologue to the Satires_, l. 259) +says:-- + +'Of all thy blameless life the sole return +My verse, and Queensb'ry weeping o'er thy urn.' + +Johnson (_Works_, viii. 69) mentions 'the affectionate attention of the +Duke and Duchess of Queensberry, into whose house he was taken, and with +whom he passed the remaining part of his life.' Smollett, in _Humphry +Clinker_, in the letters of Sept. 12 and 13, speaks of the Duke as 'one +of the best men that ever breathed,' 'one of those few noblemen whose +goodness of heart does honour to human nature.' He died in 1778. + +[1101] This song is the twelfth air in act i. + +[1102] 'In several parts of tragedy,' writes Tom Davies, 'Walker's look, +deportment, and action gave a _distinguished glare to tyrannic rage_.' +Davies's _Garrick_, i. 24. + +[1103] Pope said of himself and Swift:--'Neither of us thought it would +succeed. We shewed it to Congreve, who said it would either take greatly +or be damned confoundedly. We were all at the first night of it in great +uncertainty of the event, till we were very much encouraged by +overhearing the Duke of Argyle say, "It will do--it must do! I see it in +the eyes of them!" This was a good while before the first act was over, +and so gave us ease soon: for that duke has a more particular knack than +any one now living in discovering the taste of the publick. He was quite +right in this, as usual: the good-nature of the audience appeared +stronger and stronger every act, and ended in a clamour of applause.' +Spence's _Anec_. p. 159. See _The Dundad_, iii. 330, and _post_, +April 25, 1778. + +[1104] R. B. Sheridan married Miss Linley in 1773. + +[1105] His wife had AL3000, settled on her with delicate generosity by a +gentleman to whom she had been engaged. Moore's _Sheridan_, i. 43. + +[1106] 'Those who had felt the mischief of discord and the tyranny of +usurpation read _Hudibras_ with rapture, for every line brought back to +memory something known, and gratified resentment by the just censure of +something hated. But the book, which was once quoted by princes, and +which supplied conversation to all the assemblies of the gay and witty, +is now seldom mentioned, and even by those that affect to mention it, is +seldom read.' _The Idler_, No. 59. + +[1107] In his _Life of Addison_, Johnson says (_Works_, vii. 431):--'The +reason which induced Cervantes to bring his hero to the grave, _para mi +solo nacio Don Quixote y yo para el_ [for me alone was Don Quixote born, +and I for him], made Addison declare, with undue vehemence of +expression, that he would kill Sir Roger; being of opinion that they +were born for one another, and that any other hand would do him wrong.' + +[1108] 'It may be doubted whether Addison ever filled up his original +delineation. He describes his knight as having his imagination somewhat +warped; but of this perversion he has made very little use.' Johnson's +_Works_, vii. 431. + +[1109] 'The papers left in the closet of Pieresc supplied his heirs with +a whole winter's fuel.' _The Idler_, No. 65. 'A chamber in his house was +filled with letters from the most eminent scholars of the age. The +learned in Europe had addressed Pieresc in their difficulties, who was +hence called "the attorney-general of the republic of letters." The +niggardly niece, though entreated to permit them to be published, +preferred to use these learned epistles occasionally to light her +fires.' D'Israeli's _Curiosities of Literature_, i. 59. + +[1110] Boswell was accompanied by Paoli. To justify his visit to London, +he said:--'I think it is also for my interest, as in time I may get +something. Lord Pembroke was very obliging to me when he was in +Scotland, and has corresponded with me since. I have hopes from him.' +_Letters of Boswell_, pp. 182, 189, and _post_, iii. 122, note 2. Horace +Walpole described Lord Pembroke in 1764 as 'a young profligate.' +_Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, i. 415. + +[1111] Page 316. BOSWELL. + +[1112] Page 291. BOSWELL. + +[1113] In justice to Dr. Memis, though I was against him as an Advocate, +I must mention, that he objected to the variation very earnestly, before +the translation was printed off. BOSWELL. + +[1114] Mr. Croker quotes _The World_ of June 7, 1753, where a Londoner, +'to gratify the curiosity of a country friend, accompanied him in Easter +week to Bedlam. To my great surprise,' he writes, 'I found a hundred +people, at least, who, having paid their twopence apiece, were suffered +unattended to run rioting up and down the wards making sport of the +miserable inhabitants. I saw them in a loud laugh of triumph at the +ravings they had occasioned.' Young (_Universal Passion_, Sat. v.) +describes Britannia's daughters + +'As unreserved and beauteous as the sun, +Through every sign of vanity they run; +Assemblies, parks, coarse feasts in city halls, +Lectures and trials, plays, committees, balls; +Wells, _Bedlams_, executions, Smithfield scenes, +And fortune-tellers' caves, and lions' dens.' + +In 1749, William Hutton walked from Nottingham to London, passed three +days there in looking about, and returned on foot. The whole journey +cost him ten shillings and eight-pence. He says:--'I wished to see a +number of curiosities, but my shallow pocket forbade. _One penny to see +Bedlam was all I could spare_.' Hutton's _Life_, pp. 71, 74. Richardson +(_Familiar Letters_, No. 153) makes a young lady describe her visit to +Bedlam:--'The distempered fancies of the miserable patients most +unaccountably provoked mirth and loud laughter; nay, so shamefully +inhuman were some, among whom (I am sorry to say it) were several of my +own sex, as to endeavour to provoke the patients into rage to make +them sport.' + +[1115] In the _Life of Dryden_ (_Works_, vii. 304), Johnson +writes:--'Virgil would have been too hasty if he had condemned him +[Statius] _to straw_ for one sounding line.' In _Humphry Clinker_ +(Letter of June 10), Mr. Bramble says to Clinker:--'The sooner you lose +your senses entirely the better for yourself and the community. In that +case, some charitable person might provide you with a dark room and +clean straw in Bedlam.' Churchill, in _Independence_ (Poems, ii. +307), writes:-- + +'To Bethlem with him--give him whips and straw, +I'm very sensible he's mad in law.' + +[1116] My very honourable friend General Sir George Howard, who served +in the Duke of Cumberland's army, has assured me that the cruelties were +not imputable to his Royal Highness. BOSWELL. Horace Walpole shews the +Duke's cruelty to his own soldiers. 'In the late rebellion some recruits +had been raised under a positive engagement of dismission at the end of +three years. When the term was expired they thought themselves at +liberty, and some of them quitted the corps. The Duke ordered them to be +tried as deserters, and not having received a legal discharge, they were +condemned. Nothing could mollify him; two were executed.' _Memoirs of +the Reign of George II_, ii. 203. + +[1117] It has been suggested that this is Dr. Percy (see _post_, April +23, 1778), but Percy was more than 'an acquaintance of ours,' he was +a friend. + +[1118] Very likely Mr. Steevens. See _post_, April 13, 1778, and May 15, +1784. + +[1119] On this day Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'Boswell has made me +promise not to go to Oxford till he leaves London; I had no great reason +for haste, and therefore might as well gratify a friend. I am always +proud and pleased to have my company desired. Boswell would have thought +my absence a loss, and I know not who else would have considered my +presence as profit. He has entered himself at the Temple, and I joined +in his bond. He is to plead before the Lords, and hopes very nearly to +gain the cost of his journey. He lives much with his friend Paoli.' +_Piozzi Letters_, i. 216. Boswell wrote to Temple on June 6:--'For the +last fortnight that I was in London I lay at Paoli's house, and had the +command of his coach.... I felt more dignity when I had several servants +at my devotion, a large apartment, and the convenience and state of a +coach. I recollected that _this dignity in London_ was honourably +acquired by my travels abroad, and my pen after I came home, so I could +enjoy it with my own approbation.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 200. A year +later he records, that henceforth, while in London, he was Paoli's +constant guest till he had a house of his own there (_post_, iii. 34). + +[1120] Lord Stowell told Mr. Croker that, among the Scottish _literati_, +Mr. Crosbie was the only man who was disposed to _stand up_ (as the +phrase is) to Johnson. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 270. It is said that he +was the original of Mr. Counsellor Pleydell in Scott's novel of _Guy +Mannering_. Dr. A. Carlyle (_Autobiography_, p. 420) says of 'the famous +club called the Poker,' which was founded in Edinburgh in 1762:--'In a +laughing humour, Andrew Crosbie was chosen Assassin, in case any officer +of that sort should be needed; but David Hume was added as his Assessor, +without whose assent nothing should be done, so that between _plus_ and +_minus_ there was likely to be no bloodshed.' See Boswell's _Herbrides_, +Aug. 16, 1773. + +[1121] He left on the 22nd. 'Boswell,' wrote Johnson to Mrs. Thrale on +May 22, 'went away at two this morning. He got two and forty guineas in +fees while he was here. He has, by his wife's persuasion and mine, taken +down a present for his mother-in-law.' [? Step-mother, with whom he was +always on bad terms; _post_, iii. 95, note 1.] _Piozzi Letters_, i. 219. +Boswell, the evening of the same day, wrote to Temple from Grantham:--'I +have now eat (sic) a Term's Commons in the Inner Temple. You cannot +imagine what satisfaction I had in the form and ceremony of the +_Hall_.... After breakfasting with Paoli, and worshipping at St. Paul's, +I dined tAªte-A -tAªte with my charming Mrs. Stuart. We talked with +unreserved freedom, as we had nothing to fear; we were _philosophical_, +upon honour--not deep, but feeling; we were pious; we drank tea, and bid +each other adieu as finely as romance paints. She is my wife's dearest +friend; so you see how beautiful our intimacy is. I then went to Mr. +Johnson's, and he accompanied me to Dilly's, where we supped; and then +he went with me to the inn in Holborn, where the Newcastle Fly sets out; +we were warmly affectionate. He is to buy for me a chest of books, of +his choosing, off stalls, and I am to read more and drink less; that was +his counsel.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 196. + +[1122] Yet Gilbert Walmsley had called him in his youth 'a good +scholar.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 1; and Boswell wrote to him:--'Mr. +Johnson is ready to bruise any one who calls in question your classical +knowledge, and your happy application of it.' _Ib_ p. 622. + +[1123] 'Those whose lot it is to ramble can seldom write, and those who +know how to write very seldom ramble.' Johnson to Mrs. Thrale. _Piozzi +Letters_, i. 32. See _post_, April 17, 1778. + +[1124] A letter from Boswell to Temple on this day helps to fill up the +gap in his journal:--'It gives me acute pain that I have not written +more to you since we parted last; but I have been like a skiff in the +sea, driven about by a multiplicity of waves. I am now at Mr. Thrale's +villa, at Streatham, a delightful spot. Dr. Johnson is here too. I came +yesterday to dinner, and this morning Dr. Johnson and I return to +London, and I go with Mr. Beauclerk to see his elegant villa and +library, worth AL3000, at Muswell Hill, and return and dine with him. I +hope Dr. Johnson will dine with us. I am in that dissipated state of +mind that I absolutely cannot write; I at least imagine so. But while I +glow with gaiety, I feel friendship for you, nay, admiration of some of +your qualities, as strong as you could wish. My excellent friend, let us +ever cultivate that mutual regard which, as it has lasted till now, +will, I trust, never fail. On Saturday last I dined with John Wilkes and +his daughter, and nobody else, at the Mansion-House; it was a most +pleasant scene. I had that day breakfasted with Dr. Johnson. I drank tea +with Lord Bute's daughter-in-law, and I supped with Miss Boswell. What +variety! Mr. Johnson went with me to Beauclerk's villa, Beauclerk having +been ill; it is delightful, just at Highgate. He has one of the most +numerous and splendid private libraries that I ever saw; green-houses, +hot-houses, observatory, laboratory for chemical experiments, in short, +everything princely. We dined with him at his box at the Adelphi. I have +promised to Dr. Johnson to read when I get to Scotland, and to keep an +account of what I read; I shall let you know how I go on. My mind must +be nourished.' _Letters of Boswell_, pp. 193-5. + +[1125] Swift did not laugh. 'He had a countenance sour and severe, which +he seldom softened by any appearance of gaiety. He stubbornly resisted +any tendency to laughter.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 222. Neither did +Pope laugh. 'By no merriment, either of others or his own, was he ever +seen excited to laughter.' _Ib_ p. 312. Lord Chesterfield wrote +(_Letters_ i. 329):--'How low and unbecoming a thing laughter is. I am +sure that since I have had the full use of my reason nobody has ever +heard me laugh.' Mrs. Piozzi records (_Anec_. p. 298) that 'Dr. Johnson +used to say "that the size of a man's understanding might always be +justly measured by his mirth;" and his own was never contemptible.' + +[1126] The day before he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'Peyton and Macbean +[_ante_, i 187] are both starving, and I cannot keep them.' _Piozzi +Letters_, i. 218. On April 1, 1776, he wrote:--'Poor Peyton expired this +morning. He probably, during many years for which he sat starving by the +bed of a wife, not only useless but almost motionless, condemned by +poverty to personal attendance chained down to poverty--he probably +thought often how lightly he should tread the path of life without his +burthen. Of this thought the admission was unavoidable, and the +indulgence might be forgiven to frailty and distress. His wife died at +last, and before she was buried he was seized by a fever, and is now +going to the grave. Such miscarriages when they happen to those on whom +many eyes are fixed, fill histories and tragedies; and tears have been +shed for the sufferings, and wonder excited by the fortitude of those +who neither did nor suffered more than Peyton.' _Ib_ 312. Baretti, in a +marginal note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 219, writes:--'Peyton was a fool +and a drunkard. I never saw so nauseous a fellow.' But Baretti was a +harsh judge. + +[1127] A learned Greek. BOSWELL. 'He was a nephew of the Patriarch of +Constantinople, and had fled from some massacre of the Greeks.' +Johnstone's _Life of Parr_, i. 84. + +[1128] See _ante_, p. 278. + +[1129] Wife of the Rev. Mr. Kenneth Macaulay, authour of _The History of +St. Kilda_. BOSWELL. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 28, 1773. + +[1130] 'The Elzevirs of Glasgow,' as Boswell called them. (_Hebrides_, +Oct. 29.) + +[1131] See in Boswell's _Hebrides_, Johnson's letter of May 6, 1775. + +[1132] A law-suit carried on by Sir Allan Maclean, Chief of his Clan, to +recover certain parts of his family estates from the Duke of +Argyle. BOSWELL. + +[1133] A very learned minister in the Isle of Sky, whom both Dr. Johnson +and I have mentioned with regard. BOSWELL. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. +3, 1773, and Johnson's _Works_, ix. 54. Johnson in another passage, +(_ib_. p. 115), speaks of him as 'a very learned minister. He wished me +to be deceived [as regards Ossian] for the honour of his country; but +would not directly and formally deceive me.' Johnson told him this to +his face. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22. His credulity is shewn by the +belief he held, that the name of a place called Ainnit in Sky was the +same as the _Anaitidis delubrum_ in Lydia. _Ib_ Sept. 17. + +[1134] This darkness is seen in his letters. He wrote 'June 3, 1775. It +required some philosophy to bear the change from England to Scotland. +The unpleasing tone, the rude familiarity, the barren conversation of +those whom I found here, in comparison with what I had left, really hurt +my feelings ... The General Assembly is sitting, and I practise at its +Bar. There is _de facto_ something low and coarse in such employment, +though on paper it is a Court of _Supreme Judicature_; but guineas must +be had ... Do you know it requires more than ordinary spirit to do what +I am to do this very morning: I am to go to the General Assembly and +arraign a judgement pronounced last year by Dr. Robertson, John Home, +and a good many more of them, and they are to appear on the other side. +To speak well, when I despise both the cause and the Judges, is +difficult: but I believe I shall do wonderfully. I look forward with +aversion to the little, dull labours of the Court of Sessions. You see, +Temple, I have my troubles as well as you have. My promise under the +venerable yew has kept me sober.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 198. On June +19, he is 'vexed to think myself a coarse labourer in an obscure +corner.... Mr. Hume says there will in all probability be a change of +the Ministry soon, which he regrets. Oh, Temple, while they change so +often, how does one feel an ambition to have a share in the great +department! ... My father is most unhappily dissatisfied with me. He +harps on my going over Scotland with a brute (think how shockingly +erroneous!) and wandering (or some such phrase) to London!' _Ib_ p. 201. +'Aug. 12. I have had a pretty severe return this summer of that +melancholy, or hypochondria, which is inherent in my constitution.... +While afflicted with melancholy, all the doubts which have ever +disturbed thinking men come upon me. I awake in the night dreading +annihilation, or being thrown into some horrible state of being.' He +recounts a complimentary letter he had received from Lord Mayor Wilkes, +and continues:--'Tell me, my dear Temple, if a man who receives so many +marks of more than ordinary consideration can be satisfied to drudge in +an obscure corner, where the manners of the people are disagreeable to +him.' _Ib_ p. 209. + +[1135] He was absent from the end of May till some time in August. He +wrote from Oxford on June 1:--'Don't suppose that I live here as we live +at Streatham. I went this morning to the chapel at _six_.' _Piozzi +Letters_, i. 223. He was the guest of Mr. Coulson, a Fellow of +University College. On June 6, he wrote:--'Such is the uncertainty of +all human things that Mr. Coulson has quarrelled with me. He says I +raise the laugh upon him, and he is an independent man, and all he has +is his own, and he is not used to such things.' _Ib_ p. 226. An +eye-witness told Mr. Croker that 'Coulson was going out on a country +living, and talking of it with the same pomp as to Lord Stowell.' [He +had expressed to him his doubts whether, after living so long in the +_great world_, he might not grow weary of the comparative retirement of +a country parish. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 425.] Johnson chose to imagine +his becoming an archdeacon, and made himself merry at Coulson's expense. +At last they got to warm words, and Johnson concluded the debate by +exclaiming emphatically--'Sir, having meant you no offence, I will make +you no apology.' _Ib_ p. 458. The quarrel was made up, for the next day +he wrote:--'Coulson and I are pretty well again.' _Piozzi Letters_, +i. 229. + +[1136] Boswell wrote to Temple on Sept. 2:--'It is hardly credible how +difficult it is for a man of my sensibility to support existence in the +family where I now am. My father, whom I really both respect and +affectionate (if that is a word, for it is a different feeling from that +which is expressed by _love_, which I can say of you from my soul), is +so different from me. We _divaricate_ so much, as Dr. Johnson said, that +I am often hurt when, I dare say, he means no harm: and he has a method +of treating me which makes me feel myself like a _timid boy_, which to +_Boswell_ (comprehending all that my character does in my own +imagination and in that of a wonderful number of mankind) is +intolerable. His wife too, whom in my conscience I cannot condemn for +any capital bad quality, is so narrow-minded, and, I don't know how, so +set upon keeping him under her own management, and so suspicious and so +sourishly tempered that it requires the utmost exertion of practical +philosophy to keep myself quiet. I however have done so all this week to +admiration: nay, I have appeared good-humoured; but it has cost me +drinking a considerable quantity of strong beer to dull my faculties.' +_Letters of Boswell_, p. 215. + +[1137] Voltaire wrote of HA(C)nault's _AbrA(C)gA(C) de l' Histoire de la +France_:--'Il a A(C)tA(C) dans l'histoire ce que Fontenelle a A(C)tA(C) dans la +philosophie. Il l'a rendue familiA"re.' Voltaire's _Works_, xvii. 99. +With a quotation from HA(C)nault, Carlyle begins his _French Revolution_. + +[1138] My _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, which that lady read in +the original manuscript. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale, 'May 22, +1775:--I am not sorry that you read Boswell's _Journal_. Is it not a +merry piece? There is much in it about poor me.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. +220. 'June 11, 1775. You never told me, and I omitted to inquire, how +you were entertained by Boswell's _Journal_. _One would think the man +had been hired to be a spy upon me_. He was very diligent, and caught +opportunities of writing from time to time.' _Ib_ p. 233. I suspect that +the words I have marked by italics are not Johnson's, but are Mrs. +Piozzi's interpolation. + +[1139] 'In my heart of _heart_.' _Hamlet_, act iii. sc. 2. + +[1140] Another parcel of Lord Hailes's _Annals of Scotland_. BOSWELL. + +[1141] Where Sir Joshua Reynolds lived. BOSWELL. + +[1142] Johnson's birthday. In _Pr. and Med_. p. 143, is a prayer which +was, he writes, 'composed at Calais in a sleepless night, and used +before the morn at NA'tre Dame.' + +[1143] See _ante_, i. 243, note 3. + +[1144] 'While Johnson was in France, he was generally very resolute in +speaking Latin.' _Post_, under Nov. 12, 1775. + +[1145] Miss Thrale. BOSWELL. + +[1146] In his _Journal_ he records 'their meals are gross' (_post_, Oct. +10). We may doubt therefore Mrs. Piozzi's statement that he said of the +French: 'They have few sentiments, but they express them neatly; they +have little in meat too, but they dress it well.' Piozzi's _Anec_. +p. 102. + +[1147] See _ante_, i. 362, note 1. + +[1148] Boswell wrote to Temple:--'You know, my dearest friend, of what +importance this is to me; of what importance it is to the family of +Auchinleck, _which you may be well convinced is my supreme object in +this world_.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 217. Alexander Boswell was killed +in a duel in 1822. + +[1149] This alludes to my old feudal principle of preferring male to +female succession. BOSWELL. See _post_, under Jan. 10, 1776. + +[1150] He wrote to Dr. Taylor on the same day:--'I came back last +Tuesday from France. Is not mine a kind of life turned upside down? +Fixed to a spot when I was young, and roving the world when others are +contriving to sit still, I am wholly unsettled. I am a kind of ship with +a wide sail, and without an anchor.' _Notes and Queries_. 6th S., +v. 422. + +[1151] There can be no doubt that many years previous to 1775 he +corresponded with this lady, who was his step-daughter, but none of his +earlier letters to her have been preserved. BOSWELL. Many of these +earlier letters were printed by Malone and Croker in later editions. +See i. 512. + +[1152] When on their way to Wales, July 7, 1774, _post_, vol. v. + +[1153] Smollett wrote (_Travels_, i. 88):--'Notwithstanding the gay +disposition of the French, their houses are all gloomy. After all it is +in England only where we must look for cheerful apartments, gay +furniture, neatness, and convenience.' + +[1154] Son of Mrs. Johnson, by her first husband. BOSWELL. + +[1155] 'A gentleman said, "Surely that Vanessa must be an extraordinary +woman, that could inspire the Dean to write so finely upon her." Mrs. +Johnson [Stella] smiled, and answered "that she thought that point not +quite so clear; for it was well known the Dean could write finely upon a +broomstick."' Johnson's Works, viii. 210. + +[1156] Horace Walpole wrote from Paris this autumn:--'I have not yet had +time to visit the Hotel du Chatelet.' _Letters_, vi. 260. On July 31st, +1789, writing of the violence of the mob, he says:--'The hotel of the +Due de Chatelet, lately built and superb, has been assaulted, and the +furniture sold by auction.' _Ib_ ix. 202. + +[1157] See _post_, under Nov. 12, 1775, note, and June 25, 1784. + +[1158] The Prior of the Convent of the Benedictines where Johnson had a +cell appropriated to him. _Post_, Oct. 31, and under Nov. 12. + +[1159] The rest of this paragraph appears to be a minute of what was +told by Captain Irwin. BOSWELL. + +[1160] Melchior Canus, a celebrated Spanish Dominican, who died at +Toledo, in 1560. He wrote a treatise _De Locis Theologicis_, in twelve +books. BOSWELL. + +[1161] D'Argenson's. CROKER. + +[1162] See Macaulay's _Essays_, i. 355, and Mr. Croker's answer in his +note on this passage. His notion that 'this book was exhibited purposely +on the lady's table, in the expectation that her English visitors would +think it a literary curiosity,' seems absurd. He does not choose to +remember the '_Bibl. des FA(C)es_ and other books.' Since I wrote this note +Mr. Napier has published an edition of Boswell, in which this question +is carefully examined (ii. 550). He sides with Macaulay. + +[1163] 'Si quelque invention peut supplA(C)er A la connaissance qui nous +est refusA(C)e des longitudes sur la mer, c'est celle du plus habile +horloger de France (M. Leroi) qui dispute cette invention A +l'Angleterre.' Voltaire, _SiA"cle de Louis XV_, ch. 43. + +[1164] The _Palais Marchand_ was properly only the stalls which were +placed along some of the galleries of the Palais. They have been all +swept away in Louis Philippe's restoration of the Palais. CROKER. + +[1165] 'Petit siA"ge de bois sur lequel on faisait asseoir, pour les +interroger, ceux qui A(C)taient accusA(C)s d'un dA(C)lit pouvant faire encourir +une peine afflictive.' LITTRA%. + +[1166] The Conciergerie, before long to be crowded with the victims of +the Revolution. + +[1167] This passage, which so many think superstitious, reminds me of +Archbishop Laud's Diary. BOSWELL. Laud, for instance, on Oct. 27, 1640, +records:--'In my upper study hung my picture taken by the life; and +coming in, I found it fallen down upon the face, and lying on the floor, +the string being broken by which it was hanged against the wall. I am +almost every day threatened with my ruin in Parliament. God grant this +be no omen.' Perhaps there was nothing superstitious in Johnson's entry. +He may have felt ill in mind or body, and dreaded to become worse. + +[1168] For a brief account of FrA(C)ron, father and son, see Carlyle's +_French Revolution_, part ii. bk. 1. ch. 4. + +[1169] A round table, the centre of which descended by machinery to a +lower floor, so that supper might be served without the presence of +servants. It was invented by Lewis XV. during the favour of Madame du +Barri. CROKER. + +[1170] See _ante_, i. 363, note 3. + +[1171] Before the Revolution the passage from the garden of the +Tuileries into the Place Louis XV. was over a _pont tournant_. CROKER. + +[1172] The niece of Arabella Fermor, the Belinda of the _Rape of the +Lock_. Johnson thus mentions this lady (_Works_, viii. 246):--'At Paris, +a few years ago, a niece of Mrs. Fermor, who presided in an English +convent, mentioned Pope's works with very little gratitude, rather as an +insult than an honour.' She is no doubt the Lady Abbess mentioned +_post_, March 15, 1776. She told Mrs. Piozzi in 1784 'that she believed +there was but little comfort to be found in a house that harboured +poets; for that she remembered Mr. Pope's praise made her aunt very +troublesome and conceited, while his numberless caprices would have +employed ten servants to wait on him.' Piozzi's _Journey_, i. 20. + +[1173] Mrs. Thrale wrote, on Sept. 18, 1777:--'When Mr. Thrale dismisses +me, I am to take refuge among the Austin Nuns, and study Virgil with +dear Miss Canning.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 374. + +[1174] _Pensionnaires_, pupils who boarded in the convent. + +[1175] He brought back a snuff-box for Miss Porter. _Ante_, p. 387. + +[1176] 63 livres = AL2 12s. 6d. + +[1177] Torture-chamber. See _ante_, i. 467, note 1. + +[1178] 'Au parlement de Paris la chambre chargA(C)e des affaires +criminelles.' LITTRA%. + +[1179] The grandson was the Duke d'Enghien who was put to death by +Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804. + +[1180] His tender affection for his departed wife, of which there are +many evidences in his _Prayers and Meditations_, appears very feelingly +in this passage. BOSWELL. 'On many occasions I think what she [his wife] +would have said or done. When I saw the sea at Brighthelmstone, I wished +for her to have seen it with me.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 91. + +[1181] See _post_, p. 402. + +[1182] See _post_, iii. 89. + +[1183] Dr. Moore (_Travels in France_, i. 31) says that in Paris, 'those +who cannot afford carriages skulk behind pillars, or run into shops, to +avoid being crushed by the coaches, which are driven as near the wall as +the coachman pleases.' Only on the Pont Neuf, and the Pont Royal, and +the quays between them were there, he adds, foot-ways. + +[1184] Lewis XVI. + +[1185] The King's sister, who was guillotined in the Reign of Terror. + +[1186] See p. 391. BOSWELL. + +[1187] 'When at Versailles, the people showed us the Theatre. As we +stood on the stage looking at some machinery for playhouse purposes; +"Now we are here, what shall we act, Mr. Johnson:--_The Englishman in +Paris_"? "No, no," replied he, "we will try to act _Harry the Fifth_."' +Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 101. _The Englishman in Paris_ is a comedy by Foote. + +[1188] This epithet should be applied to this animal, with one bunch. +BOSWELL. + +[1189] He who commanded the troops at the execution of Lewis XVI. + +[1190] 1462. + +[1191] I cannot learn of any book of this name. Perhaps Johnson saw +_Durandi Rationale Officiorum Divinorum_, which was printed in 1459, one +year later than Johnson mentions. A copy of this he had seen at Blenheim +in 1774. His _Journey into North Wales_, Sept. 22. + +[1192] He means, I suppose, that he read these different pieces while he +remained in the library. BOSWELL. + +[1193] Johnson in his _Dictionary_ defines _Apartment_ as _A room; a set +of rooms_. + +[1194] Smollett (_Travels_, i. 85) writes of these temporary +servants:--'You cannot conceive with what eagerness and dexterity these +rascally valets exert themselves in pillaging strangers. There is always +one ready in waiting on your arrival, who begins by assisting your own +servant to unload your baggage, and interests himself in your own +affairs with such artful officiousness that you will find it difficult +to shake him off.' + +[1195] Livres--francs we should now say. + +[1196] It was here that Rousseau got rid of his children. 'Je savais que +l'A(C)ducation pour eux la moins perilleuse A(C)tait celle des enfans trouvA(C)s; +et je les y mis.' _Les Reveries, ix'me promenade_. + +[1197] Dr. Franklin, in 1785, wrote:--'I am credibly informed that +nine-tenths of them die there pretty soon.' _Memoirs_, iii. 187. Lord +Kames (_Sketches of the History of Man_, iii. 91) says:--'The Paris +almanac for the year 1768 mentions that there were baptised 18,576 +infants, of whom the foundling-hospital received 6025.' + +[1198] St. Germain des PrA(C)s. Better known as the Prison of the Abbaye. + +[1199] I have looked in vain into De Bure, Meerman, Mattaire, and other +typographical books, for the two editions of the _Catholicon_, which Dr. +Johnson mentions here, with _names_ which I cannot make out. I read 'one +by _Latinius_, one by _Boedinus_.' I have deposited the original MS. in +the British Museum, where the curious may see it. My grateful +acknowledgements are due to Mr. Planta for the trouble he was pleased to +take in aiding my researches. BOSWELL. A Mr. Planta is mentioned in Mme. +D'Arblay's _Diary_, v. 39. + +[1200] Friar Wilkes visited Johnson in May 1776. _Piozzi Letters_, i. +336. On Sept. 18, 1777, Mrs. Thrale wrote to Johnson:--'I have got some +news that will please you now. Here is an agreeable friend come from +Paris, whom you were very fond of when we were there--the Prior of our +English Benedictine Convent, Mr. Cowley ... He inquires much for you; +and says Wilkes is very well, No. 45, as they call him in the Convent. A +cell is always kept ready for your use he tells me.' _Ib_ p. 373. + +[1201] The writing is so bad here, that the names of several of the +animals could not be decyphered without much more acquaintance with +natural history than I possess.--Dr. Blagden, with his usual politeness, +most obligingly examined the MS. To that gentleman, and to Dr. Gray, of +the British Museum, who also very readily assisted me, I beg leave to +express my best thanks. BOSWELL + +[1202] It is thus written by Johnson, from the French pronunciation of +_fossane_. It should be observed, that the person who shewed this +Menagerie was mistaken in supposing the _fossane_ and the Brasilian +weasel to be the same, the _fossane_ being a different animal, and a +native of Madagascar. I find them, however, upon one plate in Pennant's +_Synopsis of Quadrupeds_. BOSWELL. + +[1203] How little Johnson relished this talk is shewn by his letter to +Mrs. Thrale of May 1, 1780, and by her answer. He wrote:--'The +Exhibition, how will you do, either to see or not to see? The Exhibition +is eminently splendid. There is contour, and keeping, and grace, and +expression, and all the varieties of artificial excellence.' _Piozzi +Letters_, ii. III. She answered:--'When did I ever plague about contour, +and grace, and expression? I have dreaded them all three since that +hapless day at Compiegne when you teased me so.' _Ib_ p. 116 + +[1204] '_Nef_, (old French from _nave_) _the body of a church_.' +Johnson's _Dictionary_. + +[1205] My worthy and ingenious friend, Mr. Andrew Lumisden, by his +accurate acquaintance with France, enabled me to make out many proper +names, which Dr. Johnson had written indistinctly, and sometimes spelt +erroneously. Boswell. Lumisden is mentioned in Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Sept. 13. + +[1206] Baretti, in a marginal note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 142, says +that 'Johnson saw next to nothing of Paris.' On p. 159 he adds:--'He +noticed the country so little that he scarcely spoke of it ever after.' +He shews, however, his ignorance of Johnson's doings by saying that 'in +France he never touched a pen.' + +[1207] Hume's reception in 1763 was very different. He wrote to Adam +Smith:--'I have been three days at Paris, and two at Fontainebleau, and +have everywhere met with the most extraordinary honours which the most +exorbitant vanity could wish or desire.' The Dauphin's three children, +afterwards Lewis XVI, Lewis XVIII, and Charles X, had each to make a set +speech of congratulation. He was the favourite of the most exclusive +coteries. J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 168, 177, 208. But at that date, +sceptical philosophy was the rage. + +[1208] Horace Walpole wrote from Paris in 1771 (_Letters_, v. +317-19):--'The distress here is incredible, especially at Court.... The +middling and common people are not much richer than Job when he had lost +everything but his patience.' Rousseau wrote of the French in +1777:--'Cette nation qui se prA(C)tend si gaie montre peu cette gaitA(C) dans +ses jeux. Souvent j'allais jadis aux guinguettes pour y voir danser le +menu peuple; mais ses danses A(C)taient si maussades, son maintien si +dolent, si gauche, que j'en sortais plutot contristA(C) que rA(C)joui.' _Les +RA(C)veries, IXme. promenade_. Baretti (_Journey to Genoa_, iv. 146) denies +that the French 'are entitled to the appellation of cheerful.' +'Provence,' he says (_ib_. 148), 'is the only province in which you see +with some sort of frequency the rustic assemblies roused up to +cheerfulness by the _fifre_ and the _tambourin_.' Mrs. Piozzi describes +the absence of 'the happy middle state' abroad. 'As soon as Dover is +left behind, every man seems to belong to some other man, and no man to +himself.' Piozzi's _Journey_, ii. 341. Voltaire, in his review of _Julia +Mandeville_ (_Works_, xliii. 364), says:--'Pour peu qu'un roman, une +tragA(C)die, une comA(C)die ait de succA"s a Londres, on en fait trois et +quatre A(C)ditions en peu de mois; c'est que l'A(C)tat mitoyen est plus riche +et plus instruit en Angleterre qu'en France, &c.' But Barry, the painter +(_post_, May 17, 1783), in 1766, described to Burke, 'the crowds of busy +contented people which cover (as one may say) the whole face of the +country.' But he was an Irishman comparing France with Ireland. 'They +make a strong, but melancholy contrast to a miserable ------ which I +cannot help thinking of sometimes. You will not be at any loss to know +that I mean Ireland.' Barry's _Works_, i. 57. 'Hume,' says Dr. J. H. +Burton, 'in his _Essay on The Parties of Great Britain_ (published in +1741), alludes to the absence of a middle class in Scotland, where he +says, there are only "two ranks of men, gentlemen who have some fortune +and education, and the meanest starving poor; without any considerable +number of the middling rank of men, which abounds more in England, both +in cities and in the country, than in any other quarter of the world."' +_Life of Hume_, i. 198. I do not find this passage in the edition of +Hume's _Essays_ of 1770. + +[1209] Yet Smollett wrote in 1763:--'All manner of butcher's meat and +poultry are extremely good in Paris. The beef is excellent.' He adds, 'I +can by no means relish their cookery.' Smollett's _Travels_, i. 86. +Horace Walpole, in 1765, wrote from Amiens on his way to Paris:--'I am +almost famished for want of clean victuals, and comfortable tea, and +bread and butter.' _Letters_, iv. 401. Goldsmith, in 1770, wrote from +Paris:--'As for the meat of this country I can scarce eat it, and though +we pay two good shillings an head for our dinner, I find it all so +tough, that I have spent less time with my knife than my pick-tooth.' +Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 219. + +[1210] Walpole calls Paris 'the ugliest, beastliest town in the +universe,' and describes the indelicacy of the talk of women of the +first rank. _Letters_, iv. 435. See _post_, May 13, 1778, and under +Aug. 29, 1783. + +[1211] Madame du Boccage, according to Miss Reynolds, whose authority +was Baretti. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 467. See _post_, June 25, 1784. + +[1212] In Edinburgh, Johnson threw a glass of lemonade out of the window +because the waiter had put the sugar into it 'with his greasy fingers.' +Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 14. + +[1213] Mrs. Thrale wrote to Johnson in 1782:--'When we were in France we +could form little judgement [of the spread of refinement], as our time +was passed chiefly among English; yet I recollect that one fine lady, +who entertained us very splendidly, put her mouth to the teapot, and +blew in the spout when it did not pour freely.' _Piozzi Letters_, +ii. 247. + +[1214] That he did not continue exactly as in London is stated by +Boswell himself. 'He was furnished with a Paris-made wig of handsome +construction,' (_Post_, April 28, 1778). His _Journal_ shews that he +bought articles of dress (_ante_, p. 398). Hawkins (_Life_, p. 517) says +that 'he yielded to the remonstrances of his friends so far as to dress +in a suit of black and a Bourgeois wig, but resisted their importunity +to wear ruffles. By a note in his diary it appears that he laid out near +thirty pounds in clothes for this journey.' A story told by Foote we may +believe as little as we please. 'Foote is quite impartial,' said +Johnson, 'for he tells lies of everybody.' _Post_, under March 15, 1776. + +[1215] If Johnson's Latin was understood by foreigners in France, but +not in England, the explanation may be found in his _Life of Milton_ +(_Works_, vii. 99), where he says:--'He who travels, if he speaks Latin, +may so soon learn the sounds which every native gives it, that he need +make no provision before his journey; and if strangers visit us, it is +their business to practise such conformity to our modes as they expect +from us in their own countries.' Johnson was so sturdy an Englishman +that likely enough, as he was in London, he would not alter his +pronunciation to suit his Excellency's ear. In Priestley's _Works_, +xxiii. 233, a conversation is reported in which Dr. Johnson argued for +the Italian method of pronouncing Latin. + +[1216] See _ante_, ii. 80. + +[1217] As Mme. de Boufflers is mentioned in the next paragraph, Boswell +no doubt, wishes to shew that the letter was addressed to her. She was +the mistress of the Prince of Conti. She understood English, and was the +correspondent of Hume. There was also a Marquise de Boufflers, mistress +of old King Stanislaus. + +[1218] In the _Piozzi Letters_ (i. 34), this letter is dated May 16, +1771; in Boswell's first and second editions, July 16, 1771; in the +third edition, July 16, 1775. In May, 1771, Johnson, so far as there is +anything to shew, was in London. On July 16, both in 1771 and 1775, he +was in Ashbourne. One of Hume's Letters (_Private Corres_., p. 283), +dated April 17, 1775, shews that Mme. de Boufflers was at that time +'speaking of coming to England.' + +[1219] Mme. de Boufflers was in England in the summer of 1763. Jesse's +_Selwyn_, i. 235. + +[1220] Boscovich, a learned Jesuit, was born at Ragusa in 1711, and died +in 1787. He visited London in 1760, and was elected a Fellow of the +Royal Society. Chalmers's _Biog. Dict_. See _ante_, p. 125. + +[1221] See _ante_, p. 288. + +[1222] Four years later Johnson thus spoke to Miss Burney of her +father:--'"I love Burney; my heart goes out to meet him." "He is not +ungrateful, Sir," cried I; "for most heartily does he love you." "Does +he, Madam? I am surprised at that." "Why, Sir? Why should you have +doubted it?" "Because, Madam, Dr. Burney is a man for all the world to +love: it is but natural to love him." I could have almost cried with +delight at this cordial, unlaboured _A(C)loge_.' Mme. D'Arblay's +_Diary_, i. 196. + +[1223] 'Though a sepulchral inscription is professedly a panegyrick, and +therefore not confined to historical impartiality, yet it ought always +to be written with regard to truth. No man ought to be commended for +virtues which he never possessed, but whoever is curious to know his +faults must inquire after them in other places.' Johnson's _Works_, v. +265. See _post_, April 24, 1779. + +[1224] See _ante_, i. 46. + +[1225] See _post_, iii. 12, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 22. + +[1226] Johnson's Dick Wormwood, in _The Idler_, No. 83, a man 'whose +sole delight is to find everything wrong, triumphs when he talks on the +present system of education, and tells us with great vehemence that we +are learning words when we should learn things.' In the _Life of Milton_ +(_Works_, vii, 75), Johnson writes:--'It is told that in the art of +education Milton performed wonders; and a formidable list is given of +the authors, Greek and Latin, that were read in Aldersgate-street, by +youth between ten and fifteen or sixteen years of age. Those who tell or +receive these stories should consider, that nobody can be taught faster +than he can learn. The speed of the horseman must be limited by the +power of the horse.' He advised Boswell 'not to _refine_ in the +education of his children. You must do as other people do.' _Post_, iii. +169. Yet, in his _Life of Barretier_ (_Works_, vi. 380), he says:--'The +first languages which he learnt were the French, German, and Latin, +which he was taught, not in the common way, by a multitude of +definitions, rules, and exceptions, which fatigue the attention and +burden the memory, without any use proportionate to the time which they +require and the disgust which they create. The method by which he was +instructed was easy and expeditious, and therefore pleasing. He learnt +them all in the same manner, and almost at the same time, by conversing +in them indifferently with his father.' + +[1227] Miss Aikin, better known as Mrs. Barbauld. Johnson uses +_Presbyterian_ where we should use _Unitarian_. 'The Unitarians of the +present day [1843] are the representatives of that branch of the early +Nonconformists who received the denomination of Presbyterians; and they +are still known by that name.' _Penny Cyclo_. xxvi. 6. + +[1228] Othello, act ii. sc. 1. + +[1229] He quotes Barbauld's _Lessons for Children_ (p. 68, ed. of 1878). +Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 16), speaking of books for children says:--'Mrs. +Barbauld had his best praise; no man was more struck than Mr. Johnson +with voluntary descent from possible splendour to painful duty.' Mrs. +Piozzi alludes to Johnson's praise of Dr. Watts:--'Every man acquainted +with the common principles of human action, will look with veneration on +the writer, who is at one time combating Locke, and at another making a +catechism for children in their fourth year. A voluntary descent from +the dignity of science is perhaps the hardest lesson that humility can +teach.' _Works_, viii. 384. He praised Milton also, who, when 'writing +_Paradise Lost_, could condescend from his elevation to rescue children +from the perplexity of grammatical confusion, and the trouble of lessons +unnecessarily repeated.' _Ib_ vii. 99. Mrs. Barbauld did what Swift said +Gay had shown could be done. 'One may write things to a child without +being childish.' Swift's _Works_, xvii. 221. In her _Advertisement_, she +says:--'The task is humble, but not mean; to plant the first idea in a +human mind can be no dishonour to any hand.' 'Ethicks, or morality,' +wrote Johnson, 'is one of the studies which ought to begin with the +first glimpse of reason, and only end with life itself.' _Works_, v. +243. This might have been the motto of her book. As the _Advertisement_ +was not published till 1778 (Barbauld's _Works_, ii. 19) it is possible +that Johnson's criticism had reached her, and that it was meant as an +answer. Among her pupils were William Taylor of Norwich, Sir William +Gell, and the first Lord Denman (_ib_. i. xxv-xxx). Mrs. Barbauld bore +Johnson no ill-will. In her _Eighteen Hundred and Eleven_, she describes +some future pilgrims 'from the Blue Mountains or Ontario's Lake,' coming +to view 'London's faded glories.' + +'With throbbing bosoms shall the wanderers tread +The hallowed mansions of the silent dead, +Shall enter the long aisle and vaulted dome +Where genius and where valour find a home; +Bend at each antique shrine, and frequent turn +To clasp with fond delight some sculptured urn, +The ponderous mass of Johnson's form to greet, +Or breathe the prayer at Howard's sainted feet.' + +_Ib_ i. 242. + +[1230] According to Mme. D'Arblay he said:--'Sir, I shall be very glad +to have a new sense _put into_ me.' He had been wont to speak +slightingly of music and musicians. 'The first symptom that he showed of +a tendency to conversion was upon hearing the following read aloud from +the preface to Dr. Burney's _History of Music_ while it was yet in +manuscript:--"The love of lengthened tones and modulated sounds seems a +passion implanted in human nature throughout the globe; as we hear of no +people, however wild and savage in other particulars, who have not music +of some kind or other, with which they seem greatly delighted." "Sir," +cried Dr. Johnson after a little pause, "this assertion I believe may be +right." And then, see-sawing a minute or two on his chair, he forcibly +added:--"All animated nature loves music--except myself!"' _Dr. Burney's +Memoirs_, ii. 77. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 319) says that Johnson said of +music, '"it excites in my mind no ideas, and hinders me from +contemplating my own." I have sometimes thought that music was positive +pain to him. Upon his hearing a celebrated performer go through a hard +composition, and hearing it remarked that it was very difficult, he +said, "I would it had been impossible."' Yet he had once bought a +flageolet, though he had never made out a tune. 'Had I learnt to +fiddle,' he said, 'I should have done nothing else' (_post_, April 7, +1778, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 15, 1773). Not six months before +his death he asked Dr. Burney to teach him the scale of music (_ante_, +p. 263, note 4). That 'he appeared fond of the bagpipe, and used often +to stand for some time with his ear close to the great drone' (Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Oct. 15), does not tell for much either way. In his +_Hebrides_ (_Works_, ix. 55), he shews his pleasure in singing. 'After +supper,' he writes, 'the ladies sung Erse songs, to which I listened, as +an English audience to an Italian opera, delighted with the sound of +words which I did not understand.' Boswell records (_Hebrides_, Sept. +28) that another day a lady 'pleased him much, by singing Erse songs, +and playing on the guitar.' Johnson himself shews that if his ear was +dull to music, it was by no means dead to sound. He thus describes a +journey by night in the Highlands (_Works_, ix. 155):--'The wind was +loud, the rain was heavy, and the whistling of the blast, the fall of +the shower, the rush of the cataracts, and the roar of the torrent, made +a nobler chorus of the rough music of nature than it had ever been my +chance to hear before.' In 1783, when he was in his seventy-fourth year, +he said, on hearing the music of a funeral procession:--'This is the +first time that I have ever been affected by musical sounds.' _Post_, +1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. + +[1231] Miss Burney, in 1778, records that he said:--'David, Madam, looks +much older than he is; for his face has had double the business of any +other man's; it is never at rest; when he speaks one minute, he has +quite a different countenance to what he assumes the next; I don't +believe he ever kept the same look for half-an-hour together in the +whole course of his life; and such an eternal, restless, fatiguing play +of the muscles must certainly wear out a man's face before its real +time.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 64. Malone fathers this witticism on +Foote. Prior's _Malone_, p. 369. + +[1232] On Nov. 2 of this year, a proposal was made to Garrick by the +proprietors of Covent-Garden Theatre, 'that now in the time of dearth +and sickness' they should open their theatres only five nights in each +week. _Garrick Corres_, ii. 108. + +[1233] 'Mrs. Boswell no doubt had disliked his wish to pass over his +daughters in entailing the Auchinleck estate, in favour of heirs-male +however remote. _Post_, p. 414--Johnson, on Feb. 9, 1776, opposing this +intention, wrote:--'I hope I shall get some ground now with +Mrs. Boswell.' + +[1234] Joseph Ritter, a Bohemian, who was in my service many years, and +attended Dr. Johnson and me in our Tour to the Hebrides. After having +left me for some time, he had now returned to me. BOSWELL. See +_ante_, ii. 103. + +[1235] See Boswell's _Hebrides_ near the end. + +[1236] See _ante_, p. 383. + +[1237] Mr. Croker says that he was informed by Boswell's grand-daughter, +who died in 1836, that it had come to be pronounced Auchinleck. The Rev. +James Chrystal, the minister of Auchinleck, in answer to my inquiry, +politely informs me that 'the name "Affleck" is still quite common as +applied to the parish, and even Auchinleck House is as often called +Place Affleck as otherwise.' + +[1238] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. 4. + +[1239] Acts of Parliament of Scotland, 1685, cap. 22. BOSWELL. Cockburn +(_Life of Jeffrey_, i. 372) mentions 'the statute (11 and 12 Victoria, +chap. 36) which dissolves the iron fetters by which, for about 160 +years, nearly three-fourths of the whole land in Scotland was made +permanently unsaleable, and unattachable for debt, and every acre in the +kingdom might be bound up, throughout all ages, in favour of any heirs, +or any conditions, that the caprice of each unfettered owner might be +pleased to proscribe.' + +[1240] As first, the opinion of some distinguished naturalists, that our +species is transmitted through males only, the female being all along no +more than a _nidus_, or nurse, as Mother Earth is to plants of every +sort; which notion seems to be confirmed by that text of scripture, 'He +was yet _in the loins of his_ FATHER when Melchisedeck met him' (Heb. +vii. 10); and consequently, that a man's grandson by a daughter, instead +of being his _surest_ descendant as is vulgarly said, has in reality no +connection whatever with his blood. And secondly, independent of this +theory, (which, if true, should completely exclude heirs general,) that +if the preference of a male to a female, without regard to +primogeniture, (as a son, though much younger, nay, even a grandson by a +son, to a daughter,) be once admitted, as it universally is, it must be +equally reasonable and proper in the most remote degree of descent from +an original proprietor of an estate, as in the nearest; +because,--however distant from the representative at the time,--that +remote heir male, upon the failure of those nearer to the _original +proprietor_ than he is, becomes in fact the nearest male to _him_, and +is, therefore, preferable as _his_ representative, to a female +descendant.--A little extension of mind will enable us easily to +perceive that a son's son, in continuation to whatever length of time, +is preferable to a son's daughter, in the succession to an ancient +inheritance; in which regard should be had to the representation of the +original proprietor, and not to that of one of his descendants. + +I am aware of Blackstone's admirable demonstration of the reasonableness +of the legal succession, upon the principle of there being the greatest +probability that the nearest heir of the person who last dies proprietor +of an estate, is of the blood of the first purchaser. But supposing a +pedigree to be carefully authenticated through all its branches, instead +of mere _probability_ there will be a _certainty_ that _the nearest heir +male, at whatever period_, has the same right of blood with the first +heir male, namely, _the original purchaser's eldest son_. Boswell. + +[1241] Boswell wrote to Temple on Sept. 2, 1775:--'What a discouraging +reflection is it that my father has in his possession a renunciation of +my birthright, which I _madly_ granted to him, and which he has not the +generosity to restore now that I am doing beyond his utmost hopes, and +that he may incommode and disgrace me by some strange settlements, while +all this time not a shilling is secured to my wife and children in case +of my death!' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 216. + +[1242] The technical term in Roman law for a building in good repair. + +[1243] Which term I applied to all the heirs male. Boswell. + +[1244] A misprint for 1776. + +[1245] I had reminded him of his observation mentioned, ii. 261. +BOSWELL. + +[1246] The entail framed by my father with various judicious clauses, +was settled by him and me, settling the estate upon the heirs male of +his grandfather, which I found had been already done by my grandfather, +imperfectly, but so as to be defeated only by selling the lands. I was +freed by Dr. Johnson from scruples of conscientious obligation, and +could, therefore, gratify my father. But my opinion and partiality of +male succession, in its full extent, remained unshaken. Yet let me not +be thought 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. BOSWELL. + +[1247] Temple, in _Popular Discontents_ (_Works_, iii. 62-64), examines +the general dissatisfaction with the judicature of the House of Lords. +Till the end of Elizabeth's reign, he states, the peers, who were few in +number, were generally possessed of great estates which rendered them +less subject to corruption. As one remedy for the evil existing in his +time, he suggests that the Crown shall create no Baron, who shall not at +the same time entail AL4000 a year upon that honour, whilst it continues +in his family; a Viscount, AL5000; an Earl, AL6000; a Marquis, AL7000; and +a Duke, AL8000. + +[1248] 'A cruel tyranny bathed in the blood of their Emperors upon every +succession; a heap of vassals and slaves; no nobles, no gentlemen, no +freeman, no inheritance of land, no strip of ancient families, [nullA| +stirpes antiquA|].' Spedding _Bacon_, vii. 22. + +[1249] 'Let me warn you very earnestly against scruples,' he wrote on +March 5, of this year:--'I am no friend to scruples,' he had said at St. +Andrew's. Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 19. 'On his many, men miserable, +but few men good.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 844. + +[1250] A letter to him on the interesting subject of the family +settlement, which I had read. BOSWELL. + +[1251] Paoli had given Boswell much the same advice. 'All this,' said +Paoli, 'is melancholy. I have also studied metaphysics. I know the +arguments for fate and free-will, for the materiality and immateriality +of the soul, and even the subtle arguments for and against the existence +of matter. _Ma lasciamo queste dispute ai oziosi_. But let us leave +these disputes to the idle. _Io tengo sempre fermo un gran pensiero_. I +hold always firm one great object. I never feel a moment of +despondency.' Boswell's _Corsica_, ed. 1879, p. 193. See _post_, +March 14, 1781. + +[1252] Johnson, in his letters to the Thrales during the year 1775, +mentions this riding-school eight or nine times. The person recommended +was named Carter. Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, i. 72) says 'the profit of the +_History_ has been applied to the establishment of a riding-school, that +the polite exercises might be taught, I know not with what success, in +the University.' + +[1253] I suppose the complaint was, that the trustees of the Oxford +Press did not allow the London booksellers a sufficient profit upon +vending their publications. BOSWELL. + +[1254] Cadell published _The False Alarm and The Journey to the +Hebrides_. Gibbon described him as 'That honest and liberal bookseller.' +Stewart's _Life of Robertson,_ p. 366. + +[1255] I am happy in giving this full and clear statement to the +publick, to vindicate, by the authority of the greatest authour of his +age, that respectable body of men, the Booksellers of London, from +vulgar reflections, as if their profits were exorbitant, when, in truth, +Dr. Johnson has here allowed them more than they usually demand. + +[1256] 'Behind the house was a garden which he took delight in watering; +a room on the ground-floor was assigned to Mrs. Williams, and the whole +of the two pair of stairs floor was made a repository for his books; one +of the rooms thereon being his study. Here, in the intervals of his +residence at Streatham, he received the visits of his friends, and to +the most intimate of them sometimes gave not inelegant dinners.' +Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 531. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Aug. 14, +1780:--'This is all that I have to tell you, except that I have three +bunches of grapes on a vine in my garden: at least this is all that I +will now tell of my garden.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 178. This house was +burnt down in 1819. _Notes and Queries_, 1st S., v. 233. + +[1257] He said, when in Scotland, that he was _Johnson of that Ilk_. +ROSWELL. See _post_, April 28, 1778, note. + +[1258] See _ante_, ii. 229. + +[1259] See vol. i. p. 375. BOSWELL. Boswell refers to the work of Dr. +Cohausen of Coblentz, _Hermippus Redivivus_. Dr. Campbell translated it +(_ante_, i. 417), under the title of _Hermippus Redivivus, or the Sage's +Triumph over Old Age and the Grave_. Cohausen maintained that life might +be prolonged to 115 years by breathing the breath of healthy young +women. He founded his theory 'on a Roman inscription--_AEsculapio et +Sanitati L. Colodius Hermippus qui vixit annos CXV. dies V. puellarum +anhelitu_.' He maintained that one of the most eligible conditions of +life was that of a Confessor of youthful nuns. _Lowndes's Bibl. Man_. p. +488, and _Gent. Mag_. xiii. 279. I. D'Israeli (_Curiosities of +Literature_, ed. 1834, ii. 102) describes Campbell's book as a 'curious +banter on the hermetic philosophy and the universal medicine; the grave +irony is so closely kept up, that it deceived for a length of time the +most learned. Campbell assured a friend it was a mere _jeu-d'-esprit_.' +Lord E. Fitzmaurice (_Life of Shelburne_, iii. 447) says that +Ingenhousz, a Dutch physician who lived with Shelburne, combated in one +of his works the notion held by certain schoolmasters, that 'it was +wholesome to inhale the air which has passed through the lungs of their +pupils, closing the windows in order purposely to facilitate that +operation.' + +[1260] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 24. + +[1261] The privilege of perpetuating in a family an estate and arms +_indefeasibly_ from generation to generation, is enjoyed by none of his +Majesty's subjects except in Scotland, where the legal fiction of _fine_ +and _recovery_ is unknown. It is a privilege so proud, that I should +think it would be proper to have the exercise of it dependent on the +royal prerogative. It seems absurd to permit the power of perpetuating +their representation, to men, who having had no eminent merit, have +truly no name. The King, as the impartial father of his people, would +never refuse to grant the privilege to those who deserved it. BOSWELL. + +[1262] Boswell wrote to Temple about six weeks later:--'Murphy says he +has read thirty pages of Smith's _Wealth_, but says he shall read no +more; Smith, too, is now of our Club. It has lost its select merit.' +_Letters of Boswell_, p. 233. Johnson can scarcely have read Smith; if +he did, it made no impression on him. His ignorance on many points as to +what constitutes the wealth of a nation remained as deep as ever. + +[1263] Mr. Wedderburne. CROKER. + +[1264] A similar bill had been thrown out sixteen years earlier by 194 +to 84. 'A Bill for a Militia in Scotland was not successful; nor could +the disaffected there obtain this mode of having their arms restored. +Pitt had acquiesced; but the young Whigs attacked it with all their +force.' Walpole's _Reign of George II_, iii. 280. Lord Mountstuart's +bill was thrown out by 112 to 95, the Ministry being in the minority. +The arguments for and against it are stated in the _Ann. Reg_. xix 140. +See _post_, iii. i. Henry Mackenzie (_Life of John Home_, i. 26) +says:--'The Poker Club was instituted at a time when Scotland was +refused a militia, and thought herself affronted by the refusal. The +name was chosen from a quaint sort of allusion to the principles it was +meant to excite, as a club to stir up the fire and spirit of the +country.' See _ante_, p. 376. + +[1265] 'Scotland paid only one fortieth to the land-tax, the very +specific tax out of which all the expenses of a militia were to be +drawn.' _Ann. Reg_. xix. 141. + +[1266] In a new edition of this book, which was published in the +following year, the editor states, that either 'through hurry or +inattention some obscene jests had unluckily found a place in the first +edition.' See _post_, April 28, 1778. + +[1267] See _ante_, ii. 338, note 2. + +[1268] The number of the asterisks, taken with the term _worthy friend_, +renders it almost certain that Langton was meant. The story might, +however, have been told of Reynolds, for he wrote of Johnson:--'Truth, +whether in great or little matters, he held sacred. From the violation +of truth, he said, in great things your character or your interest was +affected; in lesser things, your pleasure is equally destroyed. I +remember, on his relating some incident, I added something to his +relation which I supposed might likewise have happened: "It would have +been a better story," says he, "if it had been so; but it was not."' +Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 457. Mrs. Piozzi records (_Anec_. p. 116):--'"A +story," says Johnson, "is a specimen of human manners, and derives its +sole value from its truth, When Foote has told me something, I dismiss +it from my mind like a passing shadow; when Reynolds tells me something, +I consider myself as possessed of an idea the more."' + +[1269] Boswell felt this when, more than eight years earlier, he +wrote:--'As I have related Paoli's remarkable sayings, I declare upon +honour that I have neither added nor diminished; nay, so scrupulous have +I been, that I would not make the smallest variation, even when my +friends thought it would be an improvement. I know with how much +pleasure we read what is perfectly authentick.' Boswell's _Corsia_, ed. +1879, p. 126. See _post_, iii. 209. + +[1270] In his _Life of Browne_ (_Works_, vi. 478) he sayd of 'innocent +frauds':--'But no fraud is innocent; for the confidence which makes the +happiness of society is in some degree diminished by every man whose +practice is at variance with his words.' 'Mr. Tyers,' writes Murphy +(_Life_, p. 146), 'observed that Dr. Johnson always talked as if he was +talking upon oath.' Compared with Johnson's strictness, Rouseau's laxity +is striking. After describing 'ces gens qu'on appelle vrais dans le +monde,' he continues;--'L'homme que j'appele _vrai_ fait tout le +contraire. En choses parfaitnement indifferentes la vA(C)ritA(C) qu'alors +l'autre respecte si fort le touche fort peu, et il ne se fera guA(C)re de +scrupule d'amuser une compagnie par des faits controuvA(C), dont il ne +rA(C)sulte aucun jugement injuste ni pour ni contre qui que ce soit vivant +ou mort.' _Les RA(C)veries: IVine Promenade_. + +[1271] No doubt Mrs. Fermor (_ante_, p. 392.) + +[1272] No. 110. + +[1273] No. 52. + +[1274] But see _ante_, ii. 365, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 19. + +[1275] See _ante_, ii. 8, and _post_, April 7, 1778. + +[1276] Three weeks later, at his usual fast before Easter, Johnson +recorded:--'I felt myself very much disordered by emptiness, and called +for tea with peevish and impatient eagerness.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 147. + +[1277] Of the use of spirituous liquors, he wrote (_Works_, vi. +26):--'The mischiefs arising on every side from this compendious mode of +drunkenness are enormous and insupportable, equally to be found among +the great and the mean; filling palaces with disquiet and distraction, +harder to be borne as it cannot be mentioned, and overwhelming +multitudes with incurable diseases and unpitied poverty.' Yet he found +an excuse for drunkenness which few men but he could have found. +Stockdale (_Memoirs_, ii. 189) says that he heard Mrs. Williams 'wonder +what pleasure men can take in making beasts of themselves. "I wonder, +Madam," replied Johnson, "that you have not penetration enough to see +the strong inducement to this excess; for he who makes a beast of +himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."' + +[1278] Very likely Boswell. See _post_, under May 8, 1781, for a like +instance. In 1775, under a yew tree, he promised Temple to be sober. On +Aug. 12, 1775, he wrote:--'My promise under the solemn yew I have +observed wonderfully, having never infringed it till, the other day, a +very jovial company of us dined at a tavern, and I unwarily exceeded my +bottle of old Hock; and having once broke over the pale, I run wild, but +I did not get drunk. I was, however, intoxicated, and very ill next +day.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 209. During his present visit to London +he wrote:--'My promise under the solemn yew was not religiously kept, +because a little wine hurried me on too much. The General [Paoli] has +taken my word of honour that I shall not taste fermented liquor for a +year, that I may recover sobriety. I have kept this promise now about +three weeks. I was really growing a drunkard.' _Ib_ p. 233. In 1778 he +was for a short time a water drinker. _Post_, April 28, 1778. His +intemperance grew upon him, and at last carried him off. On Dec. 4, +1790, he wrote to Malone:--'Courtenay took my word and honour that till +March 1 my allowance of wine per diem should not exceed four good +glasses at dinner, and a pint after it, and this I have kept, though I +have dined with Jack Wilkes, &c. On March 8, 1791, he wrote:--'Your +friendly admonition as to excess in wine _has_ been often too +applicable. As I am now free from my restriction to Courtenay, I shall +be much upon my guard; for, to tell the truth, I did go too deep the day +before yesterday.' Croker's _Boswell_, pp. 828, 829. + +[1279] 'Mathematics are perhaps too much studied at our universities. +This seems a science to which the meanest intellects are equal. I forget +who it is that says, "All men might understand mathematics if they +would."' Goldsmith's _Present Stale of Polite Learning_, ch. 13. + +[1280] 'No, Sir,' he once said, 'people are not born with a particular +genius for particular employments or studies, for it would be like +saying that a man could see a great way east, but could not west. It is +good sense applied with diligence to what was at first a mere accident, +and which by great application grew to be called by the generality of +mankind a particular genius.' Miss Reynolds's _Recollections_. Croker's +_Boswell_, p. 833:--'Perhaps this is Miss Reynolds's recollection of the +following, in Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 15, 1773':--JOHNSON. 'I could +as easily apply to law as to tragick poetry.' BOSWELL. 'Yet, Sir, you +did apply to tragick poetry, not to law.' JOHNSON. 'Because, Sir, I had +not money to study law. Sir, the man who has vigour may walk to the east +just as well as to the west, if he happens to turn his head that way.' +'The true genius,' he wrote (_Works_, vii. 1), 'is a mind of large +general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.' +Reynolds held the same doctrine, having got it no doubt from Johnson. He +held 'that the superiority attainable in any pursuit whatever does not +originate in an innate propensity of the mind to that pursuit in +particular, but depends on the general strength of the intellect, and on +the intense and constant application of that strength to a specific +purpose. He regarded ambition as the cause of eminence, but accident as +pointing out the _means_.' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. II. 'Porson +insisted that all men are born with abilities nearly equal. "Any one," +he would say, "might become quite as good a critic as I am, if he would +only take the trouble to make himself so. I have made myself what I am +by intense labour."' Rogers's _Table Talk_, p. 305. Hume maintained the +opposite. 'This forenoon,' wrote Boswell on June 19, 1775, 'Mr. Hume +came in. He did not say much. I only remember his remark, that +characters depend more on original formation than on the way we are +educated; "for," said he, "princes are educated uniformly, and yet how +different are they! how different was James the Second from Charles the +Second!"' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 205. Boswell recorded, two years +earlier (_Hebrides_, Sept. 16):--'Dr. Johnson denied that any child was +better than another, but by difference of instruction; though, in +consequence of greater attention being paid to instruction by one child +than another, and of a variety of imperceptible causes, such as +instruction being counteracted by servants, a notion was conceived that, +of two children equally well educated, one was naturally much worse +than another.' + +[1281] See _ante_, i. 348. + +[1282] The grossness of naval men is shewn in Captain Mirvan, in Miss +Burney's _Evelina_. In her _Diary_, i. 358, she records:--'The more I +see of sea-captains the less reason I have to be ashamed of Captain +Mirvan, for they have all so irresistible a propensity to wanton +mischief--to roasting beaus and detesting old women, that I quite +rejoice I shewed the book to no one ere printed, lest I should have been +prevailed upon to soften his character.' + +[1283] Baretti, in a MS. note in _Piozzi Letters_, i. 349, describes +Gwyn as 'the Welsh architect that built the bridge at Oxford.' He built +Magdalen Bridge. + +[1284] 'Whence,' asks Goldsmith, 'has proceeded the vain magnificence of +expensive architecture in our colleges? Is it that men study to more +advantage in a palace than in a cell? One single performance of taste or +genius confers more real honour on its parent university than all the +labours of the chisel.' _Present State of Polite Learning_, ch. 13. +Newton used to say of his friend, the Earl of Pembroke, 'that he was a +lover of stone dolls.' Brewster's _Newton_, ed. 1860, ii. 334. + +[1285] Afterwards Lord Stowell. See the beginning of Boswell's +_Hebrides_. + +[1286] See _ante_, i. 446. + +[1287] See _ante_, ii. 121, and _post_, Oct. 27, 1779. + +[1288] See _ante_, p. 424. + +[1289] See _post_, under April 4, 1781. + +[1290] See _ante_, p. 315. + +[1291] See _ante_, i. 398. + +[1292] 'Hume told Cadell, the bookseller, that he had a great desire to +be introduced to as many of the persons who had written against him as +could be collected. Accordingly, Dr. Douglas, Dr. Adams, &c., were +invited by Cadell to dine at his house, in order to meet Hume. They +came; and Dr. Price, who was of the party, assured me that they were all +delighted with David.' Rogers's _Table Talk_, p. 106. + +[1293] Boswell, in his _Corsica_, ed. 1879, p. 204, uses a strange +argument against infidelity. 'Belief is favourable to the human mind +were it for nothing else but to furnish it entertainment. An infidel, I +should think, must frequently suffer from ennui.' In his _Hebrides_, +Aug. 15, note, he attacks Adam Smith for being 'so forgetful of _human +comfort_ as to give any countenance to that dreary infidelity which +would "make us poor indeed."' + +[1294] 'JEMMY TWITCHER. Are we more dishonest than the rest of mankind? +What we win, gentlemen, is our own, by the law of arms and the right of +conquest. CROOK-FINGER'D JACK. Where shall we find such another set of +practical philosophers, who to a man are above the fear of death?' _The +Beggar's Opera_, act ii. sc. i. + +[1295] Boswell, I think, here aims a blow at Gibbon. He says (_post_, +under March 19, 1781), that 'Johnson had talked with some disgust of Mr. +Gibbon's ugliness.' He wrote to Temple on May 8, 1779:--'Gibbon is an +ugly, affected, disgusting fellow, and poisons our literary club to me.' +He had before classed him among 'infidel wasps and venomous insects.' +_Letters of Boswell_, pp. 233, 242. The younger Coleman describes Gibbon +as dressed 'in a suit of flowered velvet, with a bag and sword.' _Random +Records_, i. 121. + +[1296] 'Formam quidem ipsam, Marce fili, et tamquam faciem honesti +vides, "quae si oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amores" ut ait Plato, +"excitaret sapientiae."' Cicero, De _Off_. i. 5. + +[1297] Of Beattie's attack on Hume, he said:--'Treating your adversary +with respect, is striking soft in a battle.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, +Aug. 15. + +[1298] When Gibbon entered Magdalen College in 1752, the ordinary +commoners were already excluded. 'As a gentleman commoner,' he writes, +'I was admitted to the society of the fellows, and fondly expected that +some questions of literature would be the amusing and instructive topics +of their discourse. Their conversation stagnated in a round of college +business, Tory politics, personal anecdotes, and private scandal; their +dull and deep potations excused the brisk intemperance of youth; and +their constitutional toasts were not expressive of the most lively +loyalty for the house of Hanover.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 53. In +Jesse's edition of White's _Selborne_, p. ii, it is stated that 'White, +as long as his health allowed him, always attended the annual election +of Fellows at Oriel College, where the gentlemen-commoners were allowed +the use of the common-room after dinner. This liberty they seldom +availed themselves of, except on the occasion of Mr. White's visits; for +such was his happy manner of telling a story that the room was always +filled when he was there.' He died in 1793. + +[1299] 'So different are the colours of life as we look forward to the +future, or backward to the past, and so different the opinions and +sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that +the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or +pity on either side.... One generation is always the scorn and wonder of +the other; and the notions of the old and young are like liquors of +different gravity and texture which never can unite.' _The Rambler_, +No. 69. + +[1300] 'It was said of a dispute between two mathematicians, "_malim cum +Scaligero errare quam cum Clavio recte sapere_" that "it was more +eligible to go wrong with one than right with the other." A tendency of +the same kind every mind must feel at the perusal of Dryden's prefaces +and Rymer's discourses.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 303. + +[1301] 'There is evidence of Phil. Jones's love of beer; for we find +scribbled at the end of the college buttery-books, "O yes, O yes, come +forth, Phil. Jones, and answer to your charge for exceeding the +batells." His excess, perhaps, was in liquor.' _Dr. Johnson: His +Friends, &c_., p. 23. + +[1302] See _post_, iii. 1. + +[1303] Dr. Fisher, who was present, told Mr. Croker that 'he recollected +one passage of the conversation. Boswell quoted _Quern Deus vult +perdere, prius dementat_, and asked where it was. A pause. At last Dr. +Chandler said, in Horace. Another pause. Then Fisher remarked that he +knew of no metre in Horace to which the words could be reduced: and +Johnson said dictatorially, "The young man is right."' See _post_, March +30, 1783. For another of Dr. Fisher's anecdotes, see _ante_, p. 269. +Mark Pattison recorded in his _Diary_ in 1843 (_Memoirs_, p. 203), on +the authority of Mr. (now Cardinal) Newman:--'About 1770, the worst time +in the University; a head of Oriel then, who was continually obliged to +be assisted to bed by his butler. Gaudies, a scene of wild license. At +Christ Church they dined at three, and sat regularly till chapel at +nine.' A gaudy is such a festival as the one in the text. + +[1304] The author of the _Commentary on the Psalms_. See Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Aug. 15, note. + +[1305] See _ante_, pp. 279, 283. + +[1306] 'I have seen,' said Mr. Donne to Sir R. Drewry, 'a dreadful +vision since I saw you. I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me, +through this room, with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a dead +child in her arms.' He learnt that on the same day, and about the very +hour, after a long and dangerous labour, she had been delivered of a +dead child. Walton's _Life of Dr. Donne_, ed. 1838, p. 25. + +[1307] 'Biographers so little regard the manners or behaviour of their +heroes, that more knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a +short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and +studied narrative, begun with his pedigree, and ended with his funeral.' +_The Rambler_, No. 60. See _post_, iii. 71. + +[1308] See _post_, iii. 112. + +[1309] It has been mentioned to me by an accurate English friend, that +Dr. Johnson could never have used the phrase _almost nothing_, as not +being English; and therefore I have put another in its place. At the +same time, I am not quite convinced it is not good English. For the best +writers use the phrase '_Little or nothing_;' i.e. almost so little as +to be nothing. BOSWELL. Boswell might have left _almost nothing_ in his +text. Johnson used it in his writings, certainly twice. 'It will add +_almost nothing_ to the expense.' Works, v. 307. 'I have read little, +_almost nothing_.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 176. Moreover, in a letter to Mrs. +Aston, written on Nov. 5, 1779 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 640), he +says:--'Nothing almost is purchased.' In _King Lear_, act ii. sc. 2, +we have:-- + +'Nothing almost sees miracles But misery.' + +[1310] 'Pope's fortune did not suffer his charity to be splendid and +conspicuous; but he assisted Dodsley with a hundred pounds, that he +might open a shop.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 318. + +[1311] _A Muse in Livery: or the Footman's Miscellany_. 1732. A rhyme in +the motto on the title-page shows what a Cockney muse Dodsley's was. +He writes:-- + +'But when I mount behind the coach, +And bear aloft a flaming torch.' + +The Preface is written with much good feeling. + +[1312] James Dodsley, many years a bookseller in Pall Mall. He died Feb. +19, 1797. P. CUNNINGHAM. He was living, therefore, when this anecdote +was published. + +[1313] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, iii. 135) says:--'You know how decent, +humble, inoffensive a creature Dodsley is; how little apt to forget or +disguise his having been a footman.' Johnson seems to refer to Dodsley +in the following passage, written in 1756 (_Works_, v. 358):--'The last +century imagined that a man composing in his chariot was a new object of +curiosity; but how much would the wonder have been increased by a +footman studying behind it.' + +[1314] See _ante_, i. 417. + +[1315] Yet surely it is a very useful work, and of wonderful research +and labour for one man to have executed. BOSWELL. See Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Oct. 17, 1773. + +[1316] Two days earlier, Hume congratulated Gibbon on the first volume +of his _Decline and Fall_:--'I own that if I had not previously had the +happiness of your personal acquaintance, such a performance from an +Englishman in our age would have given me some surprise. You may smile +at this sentiment, but as it seems to me that your countrymen, for +almost a whole generation, have given themselves up to barbarous and +absurd faction, and have totally neglected all polite letters, I no +longer expected any valuable production ever to come from them.' J. H. +Burton's _Hume_, ii. 484. + +[1317] Five weeks later Boswell used a different metaphor. 'I think it +is right that as fast as infidel wasps or venomous insects, whether +creeping or flying, are hatched, they should be crushed.' _Letters of +Boswell_, p. 232. If the infidels were wasps to the orthodox, the +orthodox were hornets to the infidels. Gibbon wrote (_Misc. Works_, i. +273):--'The freedom of my writings has indeed provoked an implacable +tribe; but as I was safe from the stings, I was soon accustomed to the +buzzing of the hornets.' + +[1318] Macaulay thus examines this report (_Essays_, i. 360):--'To what +then, it has been asked, could Johnson allude? Possibly to some anecdote +or some conversation of which all trace is lost. One conjecture may be +offered, though with diffidence. Gibbon tells us in his memoirs [_Misc. +Works_, i. 56] that at Oxford he took a fancy for studying Arabic, and +was prevented from doing so by the remonstrances of his tutor. Soon +after this, the young man fell in with Bossuet's controversial writings, +and was speedily converted by them to the Roman Catholic faith. The +apostasy of a gentleman-commoner would of course be for a time the chief +subject of conversation in the common room of Magdalene. His whim about +Arabic learning would naturally be mentioned, and would give occasion to +some jokes about the probability of his turning Mussulman. If such jokes +were made, Johnson, who frequently visited Oxford, was very likely to +hear of them.' Though Gibbon's _Autobiography_ ends with the year 1788, +yet he wrote portions of it, I believe, after the publication of the +_Life of Johnson_. (See _ante_, ii. 8, note 1.) I have little doubt that +in the following lines he refers to the attack thus made on him by +Boswell and Johnson. 'Many years afterwards, when the name of Gibbon was +become as notorious as that of Middleton, it was industriously whispered +at Oxford that the historian had formerly "turned Papist;" my character +stood exposed to the reproach of inconstancy.' Gibbon's _Misc. +Works_, i. 65. + +[1319] Steele, in his _Apology for Himself and his Writings_ (ed. 1714, +p. 80), says of himself:--'He first became an author when an ensign of +the Guards, a way of life exposed to much irregularity, and being +thoroughly convinced of many things of which he often repented, and +which he more often repeated, he writ, for his own private use, a little +book called the _Christian Hero_, with a design principally to fix upon +his own mind a strong impression of virtue and religion, in opposition +to a stronger propensity towards unwarrantable pleasures. This secret +admonition was too weak; he therefore printed the book with his name, in +hopes that a standing testimony against himself, and the eyes of the +world, that is to say of his acquaintance, upon him in a new light, +might curb his desires, and make him ashamed of understanding and +seeming to feel what was virtuous, and living so quite contrary a life.' + +[1320] 'A man,' no doubt, is Boswell himself. + +[1321] '"I was sure when I read it that the preface to Baretti's +_Dialogues_ was Dr. Johnson's; and that I made him confess." "Baretti's +_Dialogues_! What are they about?" "A thimble, and a spoon, and a knife, +and a fork! They are the most absurd, and yet the most laughable things +you ever saw. They were written for Miss Thrale, and all the dialogues +are between her and him, except now and then a shovel and a poker, or a +goose and a chair happen to step in."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 263. + +[1322] 'April 4, 1760. At present nothing is talked of, nothing admired, +but what I cannot help calling a very insipid and tedious performance; +it is a kind of novel called _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy_; +the great humour of which consists in the whole narration always going +backwards.' Walpole's _Letters_, iii. 298. 'March 7, 1761. The second +and third volumes of _Tristram Shandy_, the dregs of nonsense, have +universally met the contempt they deserve.' _Ib_ 382. '"My good friend," +said Dr. Farmer (_ante_, i. 368), one day in the parlour at Emanuel +College, "you young men seem very fond of this _Tristram Shandy_; but +mark my words, however much it may be talked about at present, yet, +depend upon it, in the course of twenty years, should any one wish to +refer to it, he will be obliged to go to an antiquary to inquire for +it."' Croker's _Boswell_, ed. 1844, ii. 339. See _ante_, ii. 173, note +2, and 222. + +[1323] Mrs. Rudd. She and the two brothers Perreau were charged with +forgery. She was tried first and acquitted, the verdict of the jury +being 'not guilty, according to the evidence before us.' The _Ann. Reg_. +xviii. 231, adds:--'There were the loudest applauses on this acquittal +almost ever known in a court of justice.' 'The issue of Mrs. Rudd's +trial was thought to involve the fate of the Perreaus; and the popular +fancy had taken the part of the woman as against the men.' They were +convicted and hanged, protesting their innocence. _Letters of Boswell_, +pp. 223-230. Boswell wrote to Temple on April 28:--'You know my +curiosity and love of adventure; I have got acquainted with the +celebrated Mrs. Rudd.' _Ib_ P. 233--Three days later, he wrote:-- +'Perhaps the adventure with Mrs. Rudd is very foolish, notwithstanding +Dr. Johnson's approbation.' _Ib_ p. 235. See _post_, iii. 79, and +April 28, 1778. + +[1324] See _post_, May 15, 1784, where Johnson says that Mrs. Montagu +has 'a constant _stream_ of conversation,' and a second time allows that +'Burke is an extraordinary man.' Johnson writes of 'a _stream_ of +melody.' Works, viii. 92. For Burke's conversation see _post_, April 7, +1778, 1780 in Mr. Langton's _Collection_, March 21, 1783, and Boswell's +_Hebrides_, Aug. 15. + +[1325] See _ante_, ii. 16. + +[1326] According to Boswell's record in _Boswelliana_, p. 273, two +sayings are here united. He there writes, on the authority of Mr. +Langton:--'Dr. Johnson had a very high opinion of Edmund Burke. He said, +"That fellow calls forth all my powers"; and once when he was out of +spirits and rather dejected he said, "Were I to see Burke now 'twould +kill me."' + +[1327] See _ante_, ii. 100, iii. 24, and under May 8, 1781. + +[1328] In a note on the _Dunciad_, ii. 50, the author of this epigram is +said to be Dr. Evans. + +[1329] Capability Brown, as he was called. See _post_, Oct. 30, 1779. + +[1330] Such an 'impudent dog' had Boswell himself been in Corsica. +'Before I was accustomed to the Corsican hospitality,' he wrote. 'I +sometimes forgot myself, and imagining I was in a publick house, called +for what I wanted, with the tone which one uses in calling to the +waiters at a tavern. I did so at Pino, asking for a variety of things at +once, when Signora Tomasi perceiving my mistake, looked in my face and +smiled, saying with much calmness and good nature, "una cosa dopo un +altra, Signore. One thing after another, Sir."' Boswell's _Corsica_, ed. +1879, p. 151. A Corsican gentleman, who knows the Tomasi family, told me +that this reply is preserved among them by tradition. + +[1331] Sir John Hawkins has preserved very few _Memorabilia_ of Johnson. +There is, however, to be found, in his bulky tome [p. 87], a very +excellent one upon this subject:--'In contradiction to those, who, +having a wife and children, prefer domestick enjoyments to those which a +tavern affords, I have heard him assert, _that a tavern chair was the +throne of human felicity_.--"As soon," said he, "as I enter the door of +a tavern, I experience an oblivion of care, and a freedom from +solicitude: when I am seated, I find the master courteous, and the +servants obsequious to my call; anxious to know and ready to supply my +wants: wine there exhilarates my spirits, and prompts me to free +conversation and an interchange of discourse with those whom I most +love: I dogmatise and am contradicted, and in this conflict of opinions +and sentiments I find delight."' BOSWELL. + +[1332] We happened to lie this night at the inn at Henley, where +Shenstone wrote these lines. BOSWELL. I give them as they are found in +the corrected edition of his Works, published after his death. In +Dodsley's collection the stanza ran thus:-- + +'Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, +Whate'er his _various tour has_ been, +May sigh to think _how oft_ he found +His warmest welcome at an Inn.' BOSWELL. + +[1333] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 29. + +[1334] See Shenstone's _Works_, iii. 311. Rev. Richard Graves, author of +_The Spiritual Quixote_. He and Shenstone were fellow-students at +Pembroke College, Oxford. + +[1335] 'He too often makes use of the _abstract_ for the _concrete_.' +SHENSTONE. BOSWELL. + +[1336] 'I asked him why he doated on a coach so, and received for +answer, that in the first place the company was shut in with him +_there_, and could not escape as out of a room; in the next place he +heard all that was said in a carriage, where it was my turn to be deaf.' +Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 276. See _post_, iii, 5, 162. Gibbon, at the end of +a journey in a post-chaise, wrote (_Misc. Works_, i. 408):--'I am always +so much delighted and improved with this union of easeand motion, that, +were not the expense enormous, I would travel every year some hundred +miles, more especially in England.' + +[1337] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 406) tells the following 'ludicrous +story' of _The Fleece_. 'Dodsley the bookseller was one day mentioning +it to a critical visitor with more expectation of success than the other +could easily admit. In the conversation the author's age was asked; and, +being represented as advanced in life, "He will," said the critic, "be +buried in woollen."' To encourage the trade in wool, an Act was passed +requiring the dead to be buried in woollen, Burke refers to this when he +says of Lord Chatham, who was swathed in flannel owing to the gout:-- +'Like a true obeyer of the laws, he will be buried in woollen.' Burke's +_Corres_, ii. 201. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 231) says:--'A portrait of Samuel +Dyer [see _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_] was painted by +Sir Joshua, and from it a mezzotinto was scraped; the print whereof, as +he was little known, sold only to his friends. A singular use was made +of it; Bell, the publisher of _The English Poets_, caused an engraving +to be made from it, and prefixed it to the poems of Mr. John Dyer.' + +[1338] Such is this little laughable incident, which has been often +related. Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, who was an intimate friend of +Dr. Grainger, and has a particular regard for his memory, has +communicated to me the following explanation:-- + +'The passage in question was originally not liable to such a perversion; +for the authour having occasion in that part of his work to mention the +havock made by rats and mice, had introduced the subject in a kind of +mock heroick, and a parody of Homer's battle of the frogs and mice, +invoking the Muse of the old Grecian bard in an elegant and well-turned +manner. In that state I had seen it; but afterwards, unknown to me and +other friends, he had been persuaded, contrary to his own better +judgement, to alter it, so as to produce the unlucky effect +above-mentioned.' + +The above was written by the Bishop when he had not the Poem itself to +recur to; and though the account given was true of it at one period, yet +as Dr. Grainger afterwards altered the passage in question, the remarks +in the text do not now apply to the printed poem. + +The Bishop gives this character of Dr. Grainger:--'He was not only a man +of genius and learning, but had many excellent virtues; being one of the +most generous, friendly, and benevolent men I ever knew.' BOSWELL. + +[1339] Dr. Johnson said to me, 'Percy, Sir, was angry with me for +laughing at _The Sugar-cane_: for he had a mind to make a great thing of +Grainger's rats.' BOSWELL. Johnson helped Percy in writing a review of +this poem in 1764 (_ante_, i. 481). + +[1340] In _Poems_ by Christopher Smart, ed. 1752, p. 100. One line may +serve as a sample of the whole poem, Writing of 'Bacchus, God of hops,' +the poet says:-- + +''Tis he shall gen'rate the buxom beer.' + +[1341] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 22. + +[1342] Henley in Arden, thirteen miles from Birmingham. + +[1343] Mr. Hector's house was in the Square--now known as the Old +Square. It afterwards formed a part of the Stork Hotel, but it was +pulled down when Corporation Street was made. A marble tablet had been +placed on the house at the suggestion of the late Mr. George Dawson, +marking the spot where 'Edmund Hector was the host, Samuel Johnson the +guest.' This tablet, together with the wainscoting, the door, and the +mantelpiece of one of the rooms, was set up in Aston Hall, at the +Johnson Centenary, in a room that is to be known as Dr. Johnson's Room. + +[1344] My worthy friend Mr. Langton, to whom I am under innumerable +obligations in the course of my Johnsonian History, has furnished me +with a droll illustration about this question. An honest carpenter, +after giving some anecdote in his presence of the ill-treatment which he +had received from a clergyman's wife, who was a noted termagant, and +whom he accused of unjust dealing in some transaction with him, added, +'I took care to let her know what I thought of her.' And being asked, +'What did you say?' answered, 'I told her she was a _scoundrel_.' +BOSWELL. + +[1345] 'As to the baptism of infants, it is a mere human tradition, for +which neither precept nor practice is to be found in all the Scripture.' +Barclay's _Apology_, Proposition xii, ed. 1703, p. 409. + +[1346] _John_ iii. 30. BOSWELL. + +[1347] Mr. Seward (_Anec_. ii. 223) says that 'Dr. Johnson always +supposed that Mr. Richardson had Mr. Nelson in his thoughts when he +delineated the character of Sir Charles Grandison.' Robert Nelson was +born in 1656, and died in 1715. + +[1348] 'Mr. Arkwright pronounced Johnson to be the only person who on a +first view understood both the principle and powers of machinery.' +Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 215. Arthur Young, who visited Birmingham +in 1768, writes:--'I was nowhere more disappointed than at Birmingham, +where I could not gain any intelligence even of the most common nature, +through the excessive jealousy of the manufacturers. It seems the French +have carried off several of their fabricks, and thereby injured the town +not a little. This makes them so cautious that they will show strangers +scarce anything.' _Tour through the North of England_, iii. 279. + +[1349] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale (year not given):--'I have passed +one day at Birmingham with my old friend Hector--there's a name--and his +sister, an old love. My mistress is grown much older than my friend, + +---"O quid habes illius, illius +Quae spirabat amores +Quae me surpuerat mihi."' + +'Of her, of her what now remains, +Who breathed the loves, who +charmed the swains, +And snatched me from my heart?' + +FRANCIS, Horace, _Odes_, iv. 13. 18. _Piozzi Letters_, i. 290. + +[1350] Some years later he wrote:--'Mrs. Careless took me under her +care, and told me when I had tea enough.' _Ib_. ii. 205. + +[1351] See _ante_, ii. 362, note 3. + +[1352] Johnson, in a letter to Hector, on March 7 of this year, +described Congreve as 'very dull, very valetudinary, and very recluse, +willing, I am afraid, to forget the world, and content to be forgotten +by it, to repose in that sullen sensuality into which men naturally sink +who think disease a justification of indulgence, and converse only with +those who hope to prosper by indulging them ... Infirmity will come, but +let us not invite it; indulgence will allure us, but let us turn +resolutely away. Time cannot always be defeated, but let us not yield +till we are conquered.' _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., iii. 401. + +[1353] In the same letter he said:--'I hope dear Mrs. Careless is well, +and now and then does not disdain to mention my name. It is happy when a +brother and sister live to pass their time at our age together. I have +nobody to whom I can talk of my first years--when I do to Lichfield, I +see the old places but find nobody that enjoyed them with me.' + +[1354] I went through the house where my illustrious friend was born, +with a reverence with which it doubtless will long be visited. An +engraved view of it, with the adjacent buildings, is in _The Gent. Mag_. +for Feb. 1875. BOSWELL. + +[1355] The scene of Farquhar's _Beaux Stratagem_ is laid in Lichfield. +The passage in which the ale is praised begins as follows:-- + +'_Aimwell_. I have heard your town of Lichfield much famed for ale; I +think I'll taste that. + +'_Boniface_, Sir, I have now in my cellar ten tun of the best ale in +Staffordshire; 'tis smooth as oil, sweet as milk, clear as amber, and +strong as brandy; and will be just fourteen year old the fifth day of +next March, old style.' Act i. sc. i. See _post_, April 20, 1781. + +[1356] Though his letters to her are very affectionate, yet what he +wrote of her to Mrs. Thrale shews that her love for him was not strong. +Thus he writes:--'July 20, 1767. Miss Lucy is more kind and civil than I +expected.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 4. 'July 17, 1771. Lucy is a +philosopher, and considers me as one of the external and accidental +things that are to be taken and left without emotion. If I could learn +of Lucy, would it be better? Will you teach me?' _Ib_ p. 46. 'Aug. 1, +1775. This was to have been my last letter from this place, but Lucy +says I must not go this week. Fits of tenderness with Mrs. Lucy are not +common, but she seems now to have a little paroxysm, and I was not +willing to counteract it.' _Ib_ p. 293. 'Oct. 27, 1781. Poor Lucy's +illness has left her very deaf, and I think, very inarticulate ... But +she seems to like me better than she did.' _Ib_ ii. 208. 'Oct. 31, 1781. +Poor Lucy's health is very much broken ... Her mental powers are not +impaired, and her social virtues seem to increase. She never was so +civil to me before.' _Ib_ p. 211. On his mother's death he had written +to her:--'Every heart must lean to somebody, and I have nobody but you.' +_Ante_ i. 515. + +[1357] See _ante_, p. 311. + +[1358] See _post_, iii. 131. + +[1359] Boswell varies Johnson's definition, which was 'a grain which in +England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the +people.' _ante_, i. 294, note 8. + +[1360] '"I remember," said Dr. Johnson, "when all the _decent_ people in +Lichfield got drunk every night."' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 19. See +_post_, iii. 77. + +[1361] He had to allow that in literature they were behind the age. +Nearly four years after the publication of _Evelina_, he +wrote:--'Whatever Burney [by Burney he meant Miss Burney] may think of +the celerity of fame, the name of _Evelina_ had never been heard at +Lichfield till I brought it. I am afraid my dear townsmen will be +mentioned in future days as the last part of this nation that was +civilised. But the days of darkness are soon to be at an end; the +reading society ordered it to be procured this week.' _Piozzi +Letters_, ii. 221. + +[1362] See _ante_, ii. 159. + +[1363] Garrick himself, like the Lichfieldians, always said--_shupreme, +shuperior_. BURNEY. + +[1364] Johnson did not always speak so disrespectfully of Birmingham. In +his _Taxation no Tyranny_ (_Works_, vi. 228), he wrote:--'The traders of +Birmingham have rescued themselves from all imputation of narrow +selfishness by a manly recommendation to Parliament of the rights and +dignity of their native country.' The _boobies_ in this case were +sound Tories. + +[1365] This play was Gibber's _Hob; or The Country Wake_, with +additions, which in its turn was Dogget's _Country Wake_ reduced. Reed's +_Biog. Dram_. ii. 307. + +[1366] Boswell says, _post_, under Sept. 30, 1783, that 'Johnson had +thought more upon the subject of acting than might be generally +supposed.' + +[1367] A nice observer of the female form. CROKER. Terence, _Eun_. iii. +5. + +[1368] In Farquhar's Comedy of _Sir Harry Wildair_. + +[1369] Gilbert Walmesley, _ante_, i. 81 + +[1370] See _ante_, i. 83. + +[1371] Cradock (_Memoirs_ i. 74) says that in the Cathedral porch, a +gentleman, 'who might, perhaps, be too ambitious to be thought an +acquaintance of the great Literary Oracle, ventured to say, "Dr. +Johnson, we have had a most excellent discourse to day," to which he +replied, "That may be, Sir, but it is impossible for you to know it."' + +[1372] _The Tempest_, act iv., sc. 1. + +[1373] See _post_, iii. 151. + +[1374] Johnson, in 1763, advising Miss Porter to rent a house, +said:--'You might have the Palace for twenty pounds.' Croker's +_Boswell_, p. 145. + +[1375] Boswell, after his book was published, quarrelled with Miss +Seward. He said that he was forced to examine these communications 'with +much caution. They were tinctured with a strong prejudice against +Johnson.' His book, he continued, was meant to be 'a _real history_ and +not a _novel_,' so that he had 'to suppress all erroneous particulars, +however entertaining.' He accused her of attacking Johnson with +malevolence. _Gent. Mag_. 1793, p. 1009. For Boswell's second meeting +with her, see _post_, iii. 284. + +[1376] A Signor Recupero had noticed on Etna, the thickness of each +stratum of earth between the several strata of lava. 'He tells me,' +wrote Brydone, 'he is exceedingly embarrassed by these discoveries in +writing the history of the mountain. That Moses hangs like a dead weight +upon him, and blunts all his zeal for inquiry; for that really he has +not the conscience to make his mountain so young as that prophet makes +the world. The bishop, who is strenuously orthodox--for it is an +excellent see--has already warned him to be upon his guard, and not to +pretend to be a better natural historian than Moses.' Brydone's +_Tour_, i. 141. + +[1377] He wrote:--'Mr. Boswell is with me, but I will take care that he +shall hinder no business, nor shall he know more than you would have +him.' Mr. Morison's _Collection of Autographs_, vol. ii. + +[1378] 'March 23, 1776. Master Thrale, son of Mr. Thrale, member for the +Borough, suddenly before his father's door.' _Gent. Mag_. 1776, p. 142. + +[1379] See _post_, iii. 95. + +[1380] 'Sir,' he said, 'I would walk to the extent of the diameter of +the earth to save Beauclerk' (_post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's +_Collection_). He had written of the boy the previous summer:--'Pray +give my service to my dear friend Harry, and tell him that Mr. Murphy +does not love him better than I do.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 262. + +[1381] See an accurate and animated statement of Mr. Gastrel's +barbarity, by Mr. Malone, in a note on _Some account of the Life of +William Shakspeare_, prefixed to his admirable edition of that poet's +works, vol. i. p. 118. BOSWELL. + +[1382] See Prior's _Life of Malone_, p. 142. + +[1383] _Piozzi Letters_, i. 307. + +[1384] See _post_, iii. 18, note 1. + +[1385] Mr. Hoole wrote of Johnson's last days:--'Being asked unnecessary +and frivolous questions, he said he often thought of _Macbeth_ [act iii. +sc. 4]--"Question enrages him."' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 843. See _post_, +iii. 57, 268. + +[1386] Sir Fletcher Norton, afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons, +and in 1782 created Baron Grantley. MALONE. For Norton's ignorance, see +_ante_, ii. 91. Walpole (_Letters_, iv. 124) described him as 'a tough +enemy; I don't mean in parts or argument, but one that makes an +excellent bull-dog.' When in 1770 he was made Speaker, Walpole +wrote:--'Nothing can exceed the badness of his character, even in this +bad age.' _Ib_ v. 217. In his _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, i. +240, Walpole says:--'It was known that in private causes he took money +from both parties.' Horne (afterwards Horne Tooke) charged Norton with +this practice; _Parl. Hist_. xvii. 1010; and so did Junius in his +_Letter_ xxxix. Churchill, in _The Duellist_ (_Poems_, ed. 1766, ii. +87), writing of him, says:-- + +'How often... +Hath he ta'en briefs on false pretence, +and undertaken the defence +of trusting fools, whom in the end +He meant to ruin, not defend.' + +Lord Eldon said that 'he was much known by the name of Sir Bull-face +Double Fee.' He added that 'he was not a lawyer.' Twiss's _Eldon_, iii. +98. 'Acting, it was supposed from resentment, having been refused a +peerage,' he made on May 7, 1777, a bold speech to the King on +presenting the Civil List Bill. 'He told him that his faithful Commons, +labouring under burthens almost too heavy to be borne, had granted him a +very great additional revenue--great beyond example, great beyond his +Majesty's highest wants.' _Parl. Hist_. xix. 213, and Walpole's _Journal +of the Reign of George III_, ii. 113. + +[1387] Burns's Holy Willie, like Boswell, was an Ayrshire man. + +[1388] Johnson, on May 16, wrote of him to Mrs. Thrale:--'He has his +head as full as yours at an election. Livings and preferments, as if he +were in want with twenty children, run in his head. But a man must have +his head on something, small or great.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 325. + +[1389] Johnson wrote on May 25, 1780 (_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 136):'---- +is come to town, brisk and vigorous, fierce and fell, to drive on his +lawsuit. Nothing in all life now can be more _profligater_ than what he +is; and if, in case, that so be, that they persist for to resist him, he +is resolved not to spare no money, nor no time.' Taylor, no doubt, is +meant, and Baretti, in a marginal note, says:--'This was the elegant +phraseology of that Doctor.' See _post_, iii. 180. + +[1390] See _ante_, p. 460. + +[1391] He did not hold with Steele, who in _The Spectator_, No. 153, +writes:--'It was prettily said, "He that would be long an old man must +begin early to be one."' Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 275) says that 'saying +of the old philosopher, that he who wants least is most like the gods +who want nothing, was a favourite sentence with Dr. Johnson, who +required less attendance, sick or well, than ever I saw any human +creature.' + +[1392] Dr. Butter, of Derby, is mentioned _post_, iii. 163, and under +May 8, 1781. + +[1393] Andrew Stuart's _Letters to Lord Mansfield_ (_ante_, ii. 229). + +[1394] Johnson was thinking of Charles's meeting with the King of +Poland. 'Charles XII. A(C)tait en grosses bottes, ayant pour cravate un +taffetas noir qui lui serrait le cou; son habit A(C)tait, comme A +l'ordinaire, d'un gros drap bleu, avec des boutons de cuivre dorA(C).' +Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, xx. 123. + + + +THE END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life Of Johnson, Vol. 2, by Boswell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF JOHNSON, VOL. 2 *** + +***** This file should be named 9072.txt or 9072.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/0/7/9072/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David King and the Online +Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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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