Joshua Reynolds, whom he always considered as one of his literary school. Much praise indeed is due to those excellent Discourses, which are so universally admired, and for which the author received from the Empress of Russia a gold snuff-box, adorned with her profile in bas relief, set in diamonds; and containing, what is infinitely more valuable, a slip of paper, on which are written, with her imperial majesty's own hand, the following words: "Pour le Chevalier Reynolds, en témoignage du contentement que j'ai ressentie à la lecture de ses excellens Discours sur la Peinture."

This year, Johnson gave the world a luminous proof that the vigour of his mind in all its faculties, whether memory, judgment, or imagination, was not in the least abated; for this year came out the first four volumes of his "Prefaces, biographical and critical, to the most eminent of the English Poets," published by the booksellers of London. The remaining volumes came out in the year 1780. The poets were selected by the several booksellers who had the honorary copyright, which is still preserved among them by mutual compact, notwithstanding the decision of the House of Lords against the perpetuity of literary property. We have his own authority', that by his recommendation the poems of Blackmore, Watts, Pomfret, and Yalden, were added to the collection. Of this work I shall speak more particularly hereafter.

[JOHNSON TO MRS. ASTON.

66

My purpose was to have paid you my annual visit in the summer, but it happened otherwise, not by any journey another way, for I have never been many miles from London, but by such hindrances as it is hard to bring to any account.

"Do not follow my bad example, but write to have to tell; I hope it is all good. me soon again, and let me know of you what you

"Please to make my compliments to Mrs. Cobb, Mrs. Adey, and Miss Adey, and all the ladies and gentlemen that frequent your mansion.

If you want any books, or any thing else that I can send you, let me know. I am, dear Madam, your most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."]

[BOSWELL TO JOHNSON.

-

Edinburgh, Feb 2. 1779. "MY DEAR SIR, Garrick's death is a striking event; not that we should be surprised with the death of any man who has lived sixty-two years; but because there was a vivacity in our late celebrated friend, which drove away the thoughts of death from any association with him. I am sure you will be tenderly affected with his departure; and I would wish to hear from you upon the subject.

"Bolt Court, Fleet Street, Jan. 2. 1779. "DEAR MADAM,- Now the new year is come, of which I wish you and dear Mrs. Gastrell many and many returns, it is fit that I give you some account of the year past. In the beginning of it I had a difficulty of breathing, and other illness, from which, however, I by degrees recovered, and from which I am now tolerably free. In the spring and summer I flattered myself that I should come to Lichfield, and forebore to write till I could tell of my intentions with some certainty, and one thing or other making the journey always improper, as II was obliged to him in my days of effervescence did not come, I omitted to write, till at last I grew afraid of hearing ill news. But the other day Mr. Prujean called and left word, that you, dear Madam, are grown better; and I know not when I heard any thing that pleased me so much. I shall now long more and more to see Lichfield, and partake the happiness of your recovery,

in London, when poor Derrick was my governor; and since that time I received many civilities from him. Do you remember how pleasing it was, when I received a letter from him at Inverary, upon our first return to civilised living after our Hebridean journey? I shall always remember him with affection as well as admiration.

He gave

"On Saturday last, being the 30th of January, I drank coffee and old port, and had solemn conversation with the Reverend Mr. Falconer, a nonjuring bishop, a very learned and worthy man. two toasts, which you will believe I drank with cordiality,— Dr. Samuel Johnson and Flora Macdonald. I sat about four hours with him, and it was really as if I had been living in the last cen

at Hereford, February 28. 1716-17, and died at his house in London, January 20. 1779. The inaccuracy of lapidary inscriptions is well known. - MALONE. The inscription as it now exists in Lichfield Cathedral has 63 years.- CROKER.

tury. The episcopal church of Scotland, though faithful to the royal house of Stuart, has never accepted of any congé d'élire since the revolution; it is the only true episcopal church in Scotland, as it has its own succession of bishops. For as to the episcopal clergy, who take the oaths to the present government, they indeed follow the rites of the church of England, but, as Bishop Falconer observed, they are not episcopals; for they are under no bishop, as a bishop cannot have authority beyond his diocese.' This venerable gentleman did me the honour to dine with me yesterday, and he laid his hands upon the heads of my little ones. We had a good deal of curious literary conversation, particularly about Mr. Thomas Ruddiman, with whom he lived in great friendship.

་

of yourself, and do not forget to drink. I was
somehow or other hindered from coming into the
country last summer, but I think of coming this
year. I am, dear love, your most humble servant,
Pearson MSS.
"SAM. JOHNSON."]

[JOHNSON TO MRS. ASTON.

"Bolt Court, Fleet Street, March 4. 1779. "DEAR MADAM,- Mrs. Gastrell and you are very often in my thoughts, though I do not write so often as might be expected from so much love and so much respect. I please myself with thinking that I shall see you again, and shall find you better. But futurity is uncertain: poor David [Garrick] had doubtless many futurities in his "Any fresh instance of the uncertainty of life head, which death has intercepted- -a death, I bemakes one embrace more closely a valuable friend. lieve, totally unexpected: he did not in his last My dear and much respected Sir, may God pre-hour seem to think his life in danger. serve you long in this world while I am in it. I am ever, your much obliged, and affectionate hum

ble servant,

JAMES BOSWELL."

JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS.

"Feb. 15. 1779. "DEAREST MADAM,- I have never deserved to be treated as you treat me. When you employed me before, I undertook your affair1 and succeeded, but then I succeeded by choosing a proper time, and a proper time I will try to choose again.

"I have about a week's work to do, and then I shall come to live in town, and will first wait on you in Dover-street. You are not to think that I neglect you, for your nieces will tell you how rarely they have seen me. I will wait on you as soon as I can, and yet you must resolve to talk things over without anger, and you must leave me to catch opportunities; and be assured, dearest dear, that I should have very little enjoyment of that day in which I had neglected any opportunity of doing good to you. I am, dearest Madam, your SAM. JOHNSON."]

humble servant,

Reyn. MSS.

[JOHNSON TO MRS. PORTER.

"Bolt Court, Fleet Street, March 4. 1779.

"MY DEAR LOVE,- Since I heard from you, I sent you a little print, and two barrels of oysters, and I shall have some little books to send you soon. I have seen Mr. Pearson, and am pleased to find that he has got a living. I was hurried when he was with me, but had time to hear that my friends were all well.

"Poor Mrs. Adey was, I think, a good woman, and therefore her death is less to be lamented; but it is not pleasant to think how uncertain it is, that, when friends part, they will ever meet again. My old complaint of flatulence, and tight and short breath, oppress me heavily. My nights are very restless. I think of consulting the doctor to

morrow.

"This has been a mild winter, for which I hope you have been the better. Take what care you can

This seems to allude to some favour (probably a pecuniary one) which Johnson was to solicit from Sir Joshua for Miss Reynolds.- CROKER.

King George IV. told me of his having once made a somewhat similar observation to Mr. Fox, who in their

My old complaints hang heavy on me, and my nights are very uncomfortable and unquiet; and sleepless nights make heavy days. I think to go to my physician, and try what can be done. For why should not I grow better as well as you?

"Now you are better, pray, dearest Madam, take care of yourself. I hope to come this summer and watch you. It will be a very pleasant journey if I can find you and dear Mrs. Gastrell well. I sent you two barrels of oysters; if you would wish for more, please to send your commands to, Madam, your most humble servant,

· Pembroke MSS.

SAM. JOHNSON."]

he was ill, and had written to Mr. Thrale for information concerning him: and I announced my intention of soon being again in London.

JOHNSON TO BOSWELL.

"March 13. 1779.

made a very good translation." Here nothing whatever in favour of the performance was affirmed, and yet the writer was not shocked. A printed "Ode to the Warlike Genius of Britain" came next in review. The bard3 was a lank bony figure, with short black hair; he was writhing himself in agitation, while John"DEAR SIR, -Why should you take such deson read, and, showing his teeth in a grin of light to make a bustle, to write to Mr. Thrale that I am negligent, and to Francis to do what is so very and in a keen sharp tone, "Is that poetry, Sir? earnestness, exclaimed in broken sentences, unnecessary? Thrale, you may be sure, cared not about it; and I shall spare Francis the trouble, by - Is it Pindar ?" JOHNSON. “ 'Why, Sir, there ordering a set both of the Lives and Poets to dear is here a great deal of what is called poetry." Mrs. Boswell', in acknowledgment of her marma- Then, turning to me, the poet cried, "My muse lade. Persuade her to accept them, and accept has not been long upon the town, and (pointthem kindly. If I thought she would receive them ing to the Ode) it trembles under the hand of scornfully, I would send them to Miss Boswell, the great critic." Johnson, in a tone of diswho, I hope, has yet none of her mamma's ill-will pleasure, asked him, "Why do you praise Anson ?" I did not trouble him by asking his reason for this question. He proceeded: "Here is an error, Sir: you have made Genius feminine." "Palpable, Sir (cried the enthusiast); I know it. But (in a lower tone) it was to pay a compliment to the Duchess of Devonshire, with which her grace was pleased. She is walking across Coxheath in the military uniform, and I suppose her to be the Genius of Britain." JOHNSON. "Sir, you are giving a reason for it; but that will not make it right. You may have a reason why two and two should make five; but they will still make but four.'

to me.

"I would send sets of Lives, four volumes, to some other friends, to Lord Hailes first. His second volume lies by my bed-side; a book surely of great labour, and to every just thinker of great delight. Write me word to whom I shall send besides. Would it please Lord Auchinleck? Mrs. Thrale waits in the coach. I am, dear Sir, &c., "SAM. JOHNSON."

This letter crossed me on the road to London, where I arrived on Monday, March 15., and next morning, at a late hour, found Dr. Johnson sitting over his tea, attended by Mrs. Desmoulins, Mr. Levett, and a clergyman, who had come to submit some poetical pieces to his revision. It is wonderful what a number and variety of writers, some of them even unknown to him, prevailed on his good-nature to look over their works, and suggest corrections and improvements. My arrival interrupted, for a little while, the important business of this true representative of Bayes; upon its being resumed, I found that the subject under immediate consideration was a translation, yet in manuscript, of the "Carmen Seculare" of Horace, which had this year been set to music, and performed as a public entertainment in London, for the joint benefit of Monsieur Philidor and Signor Baretti. When Johnson had done reading, the author asked him bluntly, "If upon the whole it was a good translation?" Johnson, whose regard for truth was uncommonly strict, seemed to be puzzled for a moment what answer to make, as he certainly could not honestly commend the performance: with exquisite address he evaded the question thus: "Sir, I do not say that it may not be

He sent a set elegantly bound and gilt, which was received as a very handsome present. - BoSWELL.

2 Andrew Philidor, a musician and chess-player of eminence. In 1777, he published "Analyse du Jeu des Echecs." 3 This was a Mr. Tasker. Mr. D'Israeli informed me that this portrait is so accurately drawn, that being, some years after the publication of this work, at a watering-place on the coast of Devon, he was visited by Mr. Tasker, whose name, however, he did not then know, but was so struck with his resemblance to Boswell's picture, that he asked him whether he had not had an interview with Dr. Johnson, and it appeared that he was indeed the author of "The Warlike Geaius of Britain."- CROKER.

4 He disliked Lord Anson, first as a whig, and also perhaps from local politics, as the Ansons have had a strong

Although I was several times with him in the course of the following days, such it seems were my occupations, or such my negligence, that I have preserved no memorial of his conversation till Friday, March 26., when I visited him. He said he expected to be attacked on account of his "Lives of the Poets." "However," said he, "I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works. An assault upon a town is a bad thing; but starving it is still worse; an assault may be unsuccessful, you may have more men killed than you kill; but if you starve the town, you are sure of victory."

Talking of a friend of ours associating with persons of very discordant principles and characters; I said he was a very universal man, quite a man of the world. JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; but one may be so much a man of the world, as to be nothing in the world. member a passage in Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield,' which he was afterwards fool

I re

party interest in Lichfield. "On one occasion," says Mrs. Piozzi," he visited Lord Anson's seat, and although, as he confessed, well received and kindly treated, he, with the true gratitude of a wit, ridiculed the master of the house before he had left it an hour.'" In the grounds there is a Temple of the Winds, on which he made the following epigram:

"Gratum animum laudo; Qui debuit omnia ventis,
Quam bene ventorum surgere templa jubet ! "

I praise the grateful mind which thus bestows
A temple on the winds by which he rose. — CROSER.

5 Probably Sir Joshua Reynolds. See antė, pp. 243. and 590. n. 4.- CROKER.