66

BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON.

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." 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."

66

And here it is proper to settle, with authentic precision, what has long floated in public report, as to Johnson's being himself the author 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 Italic character:

99

"How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure! Still to ourselves in every place consign'd, Our own felicity we make or find: With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, Glides the smooth current of domestic 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.' tion to the whole, which consists of four They bear a small proporhundred and thirty-eight verses. in the couplet which he inserted 2, mentions Goldsmith, 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, in "The Vanity of Human Wishes." The truth is, that Goldsmith himself was in a mistake. In the " Respublica Hungarica," 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; "corona candescente ferreâ coronatur."3 same severity of torture was exercised on the The Earl of Athol, one of the murderers of King James I. of Scotland!

Voltaire's metaphor. It is one of the most beautiful critical passages in our language, and was probably suggested to Johnson's mind by this conversation, although he did not make use of the same illustration.- CROKER. Johnson condemns the image in his Life of Gray. "The car of Dryden," he says, "with his two coursers, has nothing in it peculiar; it is a car in which any other rider may be placed."-P. CUNNINGHAM.

This rests on no authority whatever, and may well be doubted. degree, seems written from the personal observation and The Traveller is a poem which, in a peculiar feelings of its author. - CROKER.

2 This is a strange way of speaking of the lines of an author in his own poemJohnson's were rather the

1766.

by marking the lines which he furnished to
Dr. Johnson at the same time favoured me
only the last four:
Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," which are

"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."

days," said he, "got a strange opinion that Talking of education, "People have now-aevery 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, except where experiments are to be shown. You may teach chymistry by lectures:-you might teach making of shoes by lectures!"

tavern, that we might renew our social intimacy at the original place of meeting. But At night I supped with him at the Mitre there was now a considerable difference in which he was advised to leave off wine, he his way of living. Having had an illness +, in had, from that period, continued to abstain from it, and drank only water, or lemonade.

I told him that a foreign friend of his 5, whom I had met with abroad, was so wretchedly perverted to infidelity, that he treated the hopes of immortality with brutal levity; and said, lie like a dog." I added, that this man said to me, "As man dies like a dog, let him lie like a dog." JOHNSON. "If he dies like a dog, let him best of them, and I know how bad I am." “I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the his opinion, if he thinks himself one of the JOHNSON. "Sir, he must be very singular in best of men; for none of his friends think him so."be a Deist; for no man could be so after a - He said, "No honest man could I named Hume. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; Hume owned to a clergyman in the bishopric of fair examination of the proofs of Christianity." Durham, that he had never read the New Testament with attention." -I mentioned Hume's notion, 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 assembly. JOHNSON. having made an eloquent speech in a great happy, are equally happy, is not true. "Sir, that all who are peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisA

ing, though perhaps in less effective language, the same or
insertion; and it must be observed that they could only have
been alterations of, or substitutions for other lines, convey-
similar sentiments.- CROKER.

rebels were George and Luke Dosa, and they (or at least
George) were punished, as stated in the poem. Felicien Zech
3 Mr. Boswell is in error. The names of the brother
Mr. Bolton Corney, has made, of Luke into "Zeck," is
(properly Zach), was a different person.-JOHN MURRAY.
The alteration therefore which a late editor of Goldsmith,
doubly improper.-P. CUNNINGHAM.

4 Probably the severe fit of hypochondria mentioned antè,
p. 165. CROKER.

5 Probably Baretti.-CROKER.

BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON.

gone from the Old Bailey these many years.
Yes, I should like to have him work in the
plantations." BOSWELL.
him as bad a man as Voltaire? JOHNSON.
"Sir, do you think
"Why, Sir, it is difficult to settle the propor-
tion of iniquity between them."

This violence seemed very strange to me,
who had read many of Rousseau's animated
writings with great pleasure, and even edifica-
tion; had been much pleased with his society,
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.
absurd preference of savage to civilised life,
His
and other singularities, are proofs rather of a
defect in his understanding, than of any de-
pravity 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, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other." 2"

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. 66 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 multorum hominum mores et urbes.3 On the contrary, by having it in my power to compare him with many of the most celebrated

Boswell was always engoué of notorieties; and the Confessions of this miserable man had not been at this time published. If we are to admit Mr. Boswell's distinction between the understanding and the heart, it would seem that his judgment on this point should be reversed, for Rousseau's understanding would probably have been sound enough, if the folly and turpitude of his heart had not disordered it. I do not think there is in literature so hollow and undeserved a reputation as Rousseau's. - CROKER.

2 No mistake was ever greater, in terms or in substance, than that which affirms the natural equality of mankind. Men, on the contrary, are born so very unequal in capacities and powers, mental and corporeal, that it requires laws and the institutions of civil society to bring them to a state of moral equality. Social equality that is, equality in property, power, rank, and respect-if it were miraculously established, could not maintain itself a week. - CROKER.

3 Horace, (de Art. Poet. 142.,) of Ulysses, in allusion to the opening lines of the Odyssey, who,—

1766

persons of other countries, my admiration of his extraordinary mind was increased and confirmed.

appeared in his manners, was more striking to The roughness, indeed, which sometimes the studied smooth complying habits of the me now, from my having been accustomed to 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 his servant, who, he said, would not believe the teased him with an account of the infidelity of scriptures, because he could not read them in the original tongues, and be sure that they were not invented. Johnson, almost Why, foolish fellow," said "has he any better authority for BoSWELL. every know they are right, but must submit themthing that he believes?" "Then the vulgar, Sir, never can selves to the learned." JOHNSON. "To be sure, Sir. The vulgar are the children of the State, and must be taught like children. be a Mahometan, just as a poor Englishman BOSWELL. "Then, Sir, a poor Turk must must be a Christian?" JOHNSON. yes, Sir; and what then? This, now, is such stuff as I used to talk to my mother, when I "Why, first began to think myself a clever fellow; and she ought to have whipt me for it."

on him, with the hope of prevailing on him to Another evening Dr. Goldsmith and I called disposed, sup with us at the Mitre. We found him inand resolved not to go abroad. go to the Mitre to-night, since we cannot have "Come, then," said Goldsmith, "we will not the big man with us.' for a bottle of port, of which Goldsmith and I partook, while our friend, now a water-drinker, Johnson then called sat by us. GOLDSMITH. "I think, Mr. Johngive yourself no more concern about a new son, you don't go near the theatres now. You play, than if you had never had anything to do with the stage." JOHNSON. 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 mistress." GOLDSMITH. "Nay, Sir; but your Muse was not a pros

Why, Sir,

"Wandering from clime to clime, observant stray'd,

Their manners noted, and their states survey'd."- Pope. - CROKER.

4 It may be suspected that Dr. Johnson called this "childish stuff" somewhat hastily, and from a desire of evading the subject; for, no doubt, the principle involved in Mr. Boswell's inquiries is one of very high importance, and of very great difficulty for it applies not merely to the submission of the ignorant to the interpretations of the learned, but to the degree of absolute, verbal and literal authority, to which human transcripts of the divine inspiration are entitled. This question has a great share in the infidel sophistry of some modern Germans. - CROKER, 1831-1846.

5 These two little words may be observed as marks of Mr. Boswell's accuracy in reporting the expressions of his personages. It is a jocular Irish phrase, which, of all Johnson's acquaintances, no one, probably, but Goldsmith, would have used. CROker.

6 Mr. Macaulay, in the essay before mentioned, censures

BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON.

JOHNSON TO LANGTON,

At Langton.

"Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, May 10. 1766. "DEAR SIR, In supposing that I should be more than commonly affected by the death of Peregrine Langton', 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 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 economy. I hope you make what inquiries you can, and write down what is told you. The little things which distinguish domestic characters are soon forgotten: if you delay to inquire, you will have no information; if you neglect to write, information will be vain, 3

1766.

"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 should renew your grief; but I would not for-
"I wish I had written sooner, lest, writing now,
bear saying what I have now said.

family to whom no misfortune at all should happen,
"This loss is, I hope, the only misfortune of a
you all go on.
if my wishes could avert it.

Let me know how

little horse that I recommended? It would do him good to ride about his estate in fine weather. Has Mr. Langton got him the

Langton, and to dear Miss Langton, and Miss Di,
"Be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs.
and Miss Juliet, and to every body else.

is my night. I continue to rise tolerably well,
"THE CLUB holds very well together. Monday
and read more than I did. I hope something will
yet come on it. I am, Sir, your most affectionate
servant,
SAM. JOHNSON."

1 Mr. Langton's uncle.- BOSWELL.

2 The place of residence of Mr. Peregrine Langton.—
BOSWELL.

3 Mr. Langton did not disregard the counsel given by Dr. Johnson, but wrote an 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 postchaise, 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 expenses 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. endeavour, it may be worth while to mention a method he As an instance that this was his 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. allowance of a hogshead in a month was not enough for his On a complaint made that 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. extraordinary instances of good behaviour, or diligent service, he was not wanting in particular encouragements and

On

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 economy, will be, how he was able, with such an income, to do so much, especially when it is considered that he paid for every thing 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 expenses within his income; and to do it more exactly, compared those expenses with a computation he had made, how much that income would afford him every week and day of the year. One of his economical practices was, as soon as any repair was wanting in or about his house, to have it immedíately 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 any thing 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.

With all our respect for Mr. Bennet Langton's acknowledged character for accuracy and veracity, there seems something, in the foregoing relation, absolutely incomprehensible a house, a good table, frequent company, four servants (two of them men in livery), a carriage and three horses on two hundred pounds a year! Economy and readymoney payments will do much to diminish current expenses, but what effect can they have had on rent, taxes, wages, and other permanent charges of a respectable domestic establishment? CROKER.

4 Of his being in the chair of the Literary Club, which at this time met once a week in the evening. BOSWELL. The day was soon after changed to Friday.-CROKER.