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[JOHNSON TO MRS. PORTER.

"May 4. 1779. "DEAR MADAM,- Mr. Green has informed me that you are much better; I hope I need not tell you that I am glad of it. I cannot boast of being much better; my old nocturnal complaint still pur. sues me, and my respiration is difficult, though much easier than when I left you the summer be

"CASE FOR DR. JOHNSON'S OPINION; fore last. "May 3. 1779.

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Mr. and Mrs. Thrale are well; Miss has been a little indisposed, but she is got well Parnell, in his Hermit,' has the following two daughters; but they seem likely to want a again. They have, since the loss of their boy, had

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"Is there not a contradiction in its being first your, &c., supposed that the Hermit knew both what books and swains reported of the world; yet afterwards said, that he knew it by swains alone?"

"I think it an inaccuracy. He mentions two instructors in the first line, and says he had only

one in the next."1

This evening I set out for Scotland.

[JOHNSON TO MRS. ASTON.
"May 4. 1779.

"DEAR MADAM, – When I sent you the little books, I was not sure that you were well enough to take the trouble of reading them, but have lately heard from Mr. Greeves that you are much recovered. I hope you will gain more and more strength, and live many and many years, and I shall come again to Stowhill, and live as I used to do, with you and dear Mrs. Gastrell.

"I am not well: my nights are very troublesome, and my breath is short; but I know not that it grows much worse. I wish to see you. Mrs. Harvey has just sent to me to dine with her, and I have promised to wait on her to-morrow.

"Mr. Green comes home loaded with curiosities', and will be able to give his friends new entertainment. When I come, it will be great en

kind of a man was Mr. Pope in his conversation?" His lordship answered, "That if the conversation did not take something of a lively or epigrammatic turn, he fell asleep, or, perhaps, pretended to be so." - CROKER.

"I do not," says Mr. Malone, "see any difficulty in this passage, and wonder that Dr. Johnson should have acknow. ledged it to be inaccurate. The Hermit, it should be observed, had no actual experience of the world whatsoever : all his knowledge concerning it had been obtained in two ways; from books, and from the relations of those country swains who had seen a little of it. The plain meaning, there. fore, is, To clear his doubts concerning Providence, and to obtain some knowledge of the world by actual experience; to see whether the accounts furnished by books, or by the oral communications of swains, were just representations of it;' [I say swains,] for his oral or viva voce information had been obtained from that part of mankind alone, &c. The word alone here does not relate to the whole of the preceding line, as has been supposed, but, by a common licence, to

He had, before I left London, resumed the conversation concerning the appearance of a ghost at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which Mr. John Wesley believed, but to which Johnson did not give credit. I was, however, desirous to examine the question closely, and at the same time wished to be made acquainted with Mr. John Wesley; for though I differed from him in some points, I admired his various talents, and loved his pious zeal. At my request, therefore, Dr. Johnson gave me a letter of introduction to him.

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the words, of all mankind, which are understood, and of which it is restrictive." Mr. Malone, it must be owned, has shown much critical ingenuity in his explanation of this passage. His interpretation, however, seems to me much too recondite. The meaning of the passage may be certain enough; but surely the expression is confused, and one part of it contradictory to the other.-BOSWELL.

It is odd enough that these critics did not think it worth their while to consult the original for the exact words on which they were exercising their ingenuity. Parnell's words are not, "if books AND swains," but, “if books or swains," which might mean, not that books and swains agreed, but that they differed, and that the Hermit's doubt was excited by the difference between his instructors. There is, no doubt, a clumsy ambiguity in the expression, but the meaning obviously is that, of men, he knew swains only. — CROKER. 2 Mr. Green, it will be recollected, had a museum at Lichfield. CROKER.

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"On Friday, We set out about twelve, and lay at Daventry.

ventry.

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“On Saturday, We dined with Rann at CoHe intercepted us at the town's end. saw Tom Johnson, who had hardly life to know that I was with him. I hear he is since dead. In the evening I came to Lucy, and walked to Stowhill. Mrs. Aston was gone, or going to bed. I did not see her.

"Sunday. After dinner I went to Stowhill, and was very kindly received. At night I saw my old friend Brodhurst - you know him-the playfellow of my infancy, and gave him a guinea.

"Monday. Dr. Taylor came, and we went with Mrs. Cobb to Greenhill Bower. I had not seen it, perhaps, for fifty years. It is much degenerated. Every thing grows old.

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Tuesday. I dined, I think, with Lucy both Monday and Tuesday.

"Wednesday, Thursday. I had a few visits, from Peter Garrick among the rest, and dined at Stowhill. My breath very short.

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Friday. I dined at Stowhill.

"Saturday. Mrs. Aston took me out in her chaise, and was very kind. I dined with Mrs. Cobb, and came to Lucy, with whom I found, as I had done the first day, Lady Smith and Miss Vyse."

Ashbourne, June 14. 1779.-"Your account of Mr. Thrale's illness is very terrible; but when I remember that he seems to have it peculiar to his constitution—that whatever distemper he has, he always has his head affected- I am less frighted. The seizure was, I think, not apoplectical, but hysterical, and therefore not dangerous to life. I would have you, however, consult such physicians as you think you can best trust. Bromfield seems to have done well, and, by his practice, seems not to suspect an apoplexy. That is a solid and fundamental comfort. I remember Dr. Marsigli, an Italian physician, whose seizure was more violent than Mr. Thrale's, for he fell down helpless; but his case was not considered as of much danger, and he went safe home, and is now a professor at Padua. His fit was considered as only hysterical."

Ashbourne, June 17. 1779. "It is certain that your first letter did not alarm me in proportion to the danger, for indeed it did not describe the

! Dr. Johnson made this year his annual excursion into the midland counties, of which he, as usual, gave Mrs. Thrale an account in several letters; but his visit was shortened by the alarming illness of Mr. Thrale. CROKER.

A serious apoplectic attack, which was the precursor of another of the same nature, which terminated his existence in the course of the ensuing year. - CROKER.

To assist in keeping the patient's mind easy, he considerately wrote him the next letter.- CROKER, 1847.

danger as it was. I am glad that you have Heberden; and hope his restoratives and his preservatives will both be effectual. In the preservatives, dear Mr. Thrale must concur; yet what can he reform? or what can he add to his regularity and temperance? He can only sleep less. We will do, however, all we can. I go to Lichfield to-morrow, with intent to hasten to Streatham. "Both Mrs. Aston and Dr. Taylor have had strokes of the palsy. The lady was sixty-eight, and at that age has gained ground upon it; the doctor is, you know, not young, and he is quite well, only suspicious of every sensation in the peccant arm. I hope my dear master's case is yet slighter, and that, as his age is less, his recovery will be more perfect. Let him keep his thoughts diverted, and his mind easy.' "18 -Letters.

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health.

"What can be done, you must do for yourself. Do not let any uneasy thought settle in your mind. Cheerfulness and exercise are your great remedies. Nothing is for the present worth your anxiety. Vivere læti is one of the great rules of I believe it will be good to ride often, but never to weariness; for weariness is itself a temporary resolution of the nerves, and is therefore to be avoided. Labour is exercise continued to fatigue; exercise is labour used only while it produces pleasure.

"Above all, keep your mind quiet. Do not think with earnestness even of your health, but think on such things as may please without too much agitation; among which, I hope, is, dear Sir, your, &c., SAM. JOHNSON." -Letters.

JOHNSON TO MISS REYNOLDS.

London, June 27. 1779. "DEAR MADAM,I have sent what I can for your German friend. At this time it is very difficult to get any money, and I cannot give much. I am, Madam, your most affectionate and most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."

Reyn. MSS.]

4 Was it from the Minister for his recent pamphlet ? CROKER, 1847.

5 He came to town soon after this letter, as appears by his next letter. — CROKER.

6 It is due to the memory of Dr. Johnson's inexhaustible charity to insert this otherwise insignificant note. When he says that he cannot give much, let it be recollected, that his only fixed income was his pension of 3001, a year, and that he had four or five eleemosynary inmates in his house. — CROKER.

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"SAM. JOHNSON."

faction by receiving your kind letter of inquiry, for which I most gratefully thank you. I am doubtful if it was right to make the experiment; though I have gained by it. I was beginning to grow tender, and to upbraid myself, especially after having dreamt two nights ago that I was with you. I, and my wife, and my four children, are all well. I would not delay one post to answer your letter; You but as it is late, I have not time to do more. shall soon hear from me, upon many and various particulars; and I shall never again put you to any test. I am, with veneration, my dear Sir, your, JAMES BOSWELL." &c.,

On the 22d of July, I wrote to him again; and gave him an account of my last interview with my worthy friend, Mr. Edward Dilly, at his brother's house at Southill in Bedfordshire, where he died soon after I parted from him, leaving me a very kind remembrance of his regard.

I informed him that Lord Hailes, who had promised to furnish him with some anecdotes for his "Lives of the Poets," had sent me three instances of Prior's borrowing from Gombauld, in Recueil des Poètes, tome 3. Epigram "To John I owed great obligation," p. 25. "To the Duke of Noailles," p. 32. Sauntering Jack and idle Joan," p. 35.

My readers will not doubt that his solicitude tained a variety of particulars; but he, it My letter was a pretty long one, and conabout me was very flattering. should seem, had not attended to it; for his next to me was as follows:

JOHNSON TO BOSWELL.

"July 13. 1779. "DEAR SIR, -What can possibly have happened, that keeps us two such strangers to each other? I expected to have heard from you when you came home; I expected afterwards. I went into the country and returned; and yet there is no letter from Mr. Boswell. No ill, I hope, has happened; and if ill should happen, why should it be concealed from him who loves you? Is it a fit of humour, that has disposed you to try who can hold out longest without writing? If it be, you have the victory. But I am afraid of something bad; set me free from my suspicions.

"My thoughts are at present employed in guessing the reason of your silence: you must not expect that I should tell you any thing, if I had any thing to tell. Write, pray write to me, and let me know what is or what has been the cause of this long interruption. I am, dear Sir, your most affectionate humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."

BOSWELL TO JOHNSON.

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Edinburgh, July 17. 1779. “MY DEAR SIR, —What may be justly denominated a supine indolence of mind has been my state of existence since I last returned to Scotland. In a livelier state I had often suffered severely from long intervals of silence on your part; and I had even been chid by you for expressing my uneasiI was willing to take advantage of my insensibility, and while I could bear the experiment, to try whether your affection for me would, after an unusual silence on my part, make you write first. This afternoon I have had a very high satis

ness.

est?

JOHNSON TO BOSWELL.

"Streatham, Sept. 9. 1779. "MY DEAR SIR, Are you playing the same trick again, and trying who can keep silence longRemember that all tricks are either knavish or childish; and that it is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife.

"What can be the cause of this second fit of silence, I cannot conjecture; but after one trick, I will not be cheated by another, nor will harass my thoughts with conjectures about the motives of a man who, probably, acts only by caprice. I therefore suppose you are well, and that Mrs. Boswell is well too, and that the fine summer has restored Lord Auchinleck. I am much better than you left me; I think I am better than when I was in Scotland.

"I forgot whether I informed you that poor Thrale has been in great danger. Mrs. Thrale likewise has miscarried, and been much indisposed. Every body else is well. Langton is in camp. I into another edition, and, as I know his accuracy, intend to put Lord Hailes's description of Dryden' wish he would consider the dates, which I could not always settle to my own mind.

Michaelmas, to be jolly and ride a-hunting. I shall "Mr. Thrale goes to Brighthelmstone, about go to town, or perhaps to Oxford. Exercise and

1 Which I communicated to him from his Lordship, but it has not yet been published. I have a copy of it. - BoSWELL. collected, Mr. Boswell afterwards gave me.- MALONE. The few notices concerning Dryden, which Lord Hailes had

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["September, 1779. "On the 17th, Mr. Chamier took me away with him from Streatham. I left the servants a guinea for my health, and was content enough to escape into a house where my birth-day, not being known, I could not be mentioned. I sat up till midnight was past, and the day of a new year-a very awful day began. I prayed to God, who had safely brought me to the beginning of another year, but could not perfectly recollect the prayer, and supplied it. Such desertions of memory I have always had. When I arose on the 18th, I think I prayed again, then walked with my friend into his grounds. When I came back, after some time passed in the library, finding myself oppressed by sleepiness, I retired to my chamber, where by lying down, and a short imperfect slumber, I was refreshed, and prayed as the night before. I then dined and trifled in the parlour and library, and was freed from a scruple about Horace. At last I went to bed, having first composed a prayer.

19th, Sunday. I went to church and attended the service. I found at church a time to use my prayer, O Lord, have mercy, &c.' Prayers and Med., p. 222.]

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My readers will not be displeased at being told every slight circumstance of the manner in which Dr. Johnson contrived to amuse his solitary hours. He sometimes employed himself in chemistry, sometimes in watering and pruning a vine, sometimes in small experiments, at which those who may smile should recollect that there are moments which admit of being soothed only by trifles.3

On the 20th of September I defended myself against his suspicion of me, which I did not deserve; and added, "Pray let us write frequently. A whim strikes me, that we should send off a sheet once a week, like a stagecoach, whether it be full or not; nay, though it should be empty. The very sight of your handwriting would comfort me; and were a sheet to be thus sent regularly, we should much oftener convey something, were it only a few kind words.

1 It appears by the extract from his Prayers and Meditations, that he went for a few days with his friend Antony Chamier, (antè, 521. n. 3.) to his villa, near Epsom: glad "to escape to a house where his birthday (18th Sept.) could not be mentioned. - CROKER, 1847.

2 I do not find any prayer in the printed collection beginning with these precise words. - CROKER, 1847.

3 In one of his manuscript Diaries, there is the following entry, which marks his curious minute attention:-"July 26. 1768.-I shaved my nail by accident in whetting the knife, about an eighth of an inch from the bottom, and about a fourth from the top. This I measure that I may know the growth of nails; the whole is about five eighths of an inch." Another of the same kind appears August 7. 1779:" Partem brachii dextri carpo proximam et cutem pectoris circa mamillam dextram rasi, ut notum fieret quanto temporis pili renovarentur." And," August 15. 1783:- I cut from the vine forty-one leaves. which weighed five ounces and a half, and eight scruples: I lay them upon my bookcase, to see what weight they will lose by drying." BOSWELL. Dr. Johnson was always exceeding fond of chemistry; and we made up a sort of laboratory

My friend, Colonel James Stuart, second son of the Earl of Bute, who had distinguished himself as a good officer of the Bedfordshire militia, had taken a public-spirited resolution to serve his country in its difficulties, by raising a regular regiment, and taking the command of it himself. This, in the heir of the immense property of Wortley, was highly honourable. Having been in Scotland recruiting, he obligingly asked me to accompany him to Leeds, then the head-quarters of his corps; from thence to London for a short time, and afterwards to other places to which the regitime of the year when I had full leisure, was ment might be ordered. Such an offer, at a very pleasing; especially as I was to accompany a man of sterling good sense, information, discernment, and conviviality, and was to have a second crop, in one year, of London and Johnson. Of this I informed my illustrious friend in characteristical warm terms in a letter dated the 30th of September, from Leeds.

On Monday, October 4., I called at his house before he was up. He sent for me to his bedside, and expressed his satisfaction at this incidental meeting, with as much vivacity as if he had been in the gaiety of youth. He called briskly, "Frank, go and get coffee, and let us breakfast in splendour."

During this visit to London, I had several interviews with him, which it is unnecessary to distinguish particularly. I consulted him as to the appointment of guardians to my children in case of my death. "Sir," said he, "do not appoint a number of guardians. When there are many, they trust one to another, and the business is neglected. I would advise you to choose only one: let him be a man of respectable character, who, for his own credit, will do what is right; let him be a rich man, so that he may be under no temptation to take advantage; and let him be a man of business, who is used to conduct affairs with ability and expertness, to whom, therefore, the execution of the trust will not be burthensome."

[JOHNSON TO MRS. THRALE. “Oct. 8. 1779. —On Sunday the gout left my ankles, and I went very commodiously to church.

at Streatham one summer, and diverted ourselves with drawing essences and colouring liquors. But the danger in which Mr. Thrale found his friend one day, when I had driven to London, and he had got the children and servants assembled round him to see some experiments performed, put an end to all our entertainment; as Mr. Thrale was persuaded that his short sight would have occasioned his destruction in a moment by bringing him close to a fierce and violent flame. Indeed, it was a perpetual miracle that he did not set himself on fire reading abed, as was his constant custom, when quite unable even to keep clear of mischief with our best help: and accordingly the foretops of all his wigs were hurned by the candle down to the very network. Future experiments in chemistry, however, were too dangerous, and Mr. Thrale insisted that we should do no more towards finding the philosopher's stone.'"- Piozzi. - CROKER.

4 Colonel Stuart assumed successively the names of Wortley and Mackenzie, but was best known as Mr. Stuart Wortley. He was the father of the first Lord Wharncliffe, and died in 1814. We cannot but smile at Boswell's hyperbolical applause of his friend's heroism. CROKER.

On Monday night I felt my feet uneasy. On
Tuesday I was quite lame: that night I took an
opiate, having first taken physic and fasted. To-
wards morning on Wednesday the pain remitted.
Bozzy came to me, and much talk we had. I
fasted another day; and on Wednesday night could
walk tolerably. On Thursday, finding myself
mending, I ventured on my dinner, which I think
has a little interrupted my convalescence. To-day
I have again taken physic, and eaten only some
stewed apples. I hope to starve it away.
It is
now no worse than it was at Brighthelmstone."]
-Letters.

We left Mr. Strahan's at seven, as Johnson had said he intended to go to evening prayers. As we walked alone, he complained of a little gout in his toe, and said, "I sha'n't whenever I miss church on a Sunday, I resolve go to prayers to-night: I shall go to-morrow: to go another day. But I do not always do it. This was a fair exhibition of that vibration between pious resolutions and indolence, which many of us have too often experienced. I went home with him, and we had a long quiet conversation.

I read him a letter from Dr. Hugh Blair concerning Pope (in writing whose life he was now employed), which I shall insert as a literary curiosity.

3

DR. BLAIR TO BOSWELL.

"DEAR SIR,

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On Sunday, October 10., we dined together at Mr. Strahan's. The conversation having turned on the prevailing practice of going to the East Indies in quest of wealth; - JOHNSON. "A man had better have ten thousand pounds at the end of ten years passed in Eng"Broughton Park, Sept. 21. 1779. land, than twenty thousand pounds at the end - In the year 1763, being at Lonof ten years passed in India, because you must don, I was carried by Dr. John Blair, Prebendary compute what you give for money; and the of Westminster, to dine at old Lord Bathurst's, man who has lived ten years in India has given where we found the late Mr. Mallet, Sir James up ten years of social comfort, and all those Porter, who had been ambassador at Constantinoadvantages which arise from living in England. ple, the late Dr. Macaulay, and two or three more. The ingenious Mr. Brown, distinguished by the The conversation turning on Mr. Pope, Lord name of Capability Brown', told me, that he Bathurst told us, that the Essay on Man' was was once at the seat of Lord Clive, who had originally composed by Lord Bolingbroke in prose, returned from India with great wealth; and and that Mr. Pope did no more than put it into that he showed him at the door of his bed- verse: that he had read Lord Bolingbroke's chamber a large chest, which he said he had manuscript in his own handwriting; and reonce had full of gold; upon which Brown ob-membered well, that he was at a loss whether most served, 'I am glad you can bear it so near to admire the elegance of Lord Bolingbroke's When prose, or the beauty of Mr. Pope's verse. your bed-chamber.'" Lord Bathurst told this, Mr. Mallet bade me attend, and remember this remarkable piece of information; as, by the course of nature, I might survive his lordship, and be a witness of his having said so. The conversation was indeed too remarkable to be forgotten. A few days after, meeting with you, who were then also at London, you will remember that I mentioned to you what had passed on this subject, as I was much struck with this anecdote. But what ascertains my recollection of it, beyond doubt, is, that being accustomed to keep a journal of what passed when I was at London, which I wrote out every evening, I find the particulars of the above information, just as I thence enabled to fix this conversation to have have now given them, distinctly marked; and am passed on Friday, the 22d of April, 1763.

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We talked of the state of the poor in London. JOHNSON. "Saunders Welch, the justice, who was once high-constable of Holborn, and had the best opportunities of knowing the state of the poor, told me, that I underrated the number, when I computed that twenty a week, that is, above a thousand a year, died of hunger; not absolutely of immediate hunger, but of the wasting and other diseases which are the consequences of hunger. This happens only in so large a place as London, where people are not known. What we are told about the great sums got by begging is not true: the trade is overstocked. And, you may depend upon it, there are many who cannot get work. A particular kind of manufacture fails: those who have been used to work at it can, for some time, work at nothing else. You meet a man begging; you charge him with idleness: he says, 'I am willing to labour. Will you give me work?'-'I cannot.'-'Why, then, have no right to charge me with idleness, you

1 Lancelot Brown, Esq., the celebrated landscape gardener, who acquired his cognomen from his habit of saying that the place he came to advise upon had “ capabilities.”—CROKER, 1847.

2 See ante, pp. 609-615., the circumstances that gave point to Brown's remark. GROKER.

3 The Rev. Dr. Law, Bishop of Carlisle, in the preface to his valuable edition of Archbishop King's Essay on the Origin of Evil," mentions that the principles maintained in it had been adopted by Pope in his Essay on Man ;" and adds, "The fact,notwithstanding such denial(Bishop Warburton's), might have been strictly verified by an unexceptionable testi

"I remember also distinctly (though I have not for this the authority of my journal), that, the conversation going on concerning Mr. Pope, I took notice of a report which had been sometimes propagated that he did not understand Greek. Lord Bathurst said to me that he knew that to be false;

for that part of the Iliad was translated by Mr.

mony, viz. that of the late Lord Bathurst, who saw the very same system of the To Sirio (taken from the Archbishop) in Lord Bolingbroke's own hand, lying before Mr. Pope, while he was composing his Essay." This is respectable evidence: but that of Dr. Blair is more direct from the fountain-head, as well as more full. Let me add to it that of Dr. Joseph Warton: "The late Lord Bathurst repeatedly assured me that he had read the whole scheme of the Essay on Man,' in the handwriting of Bolingbroke, and drawn up in a series of propositions, which Pope was to versify and illustrate." Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, vol. ii. p. 62.BOSWELL.

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