who had been much obliged to him when they were young Scotchmen entering upon life in England. JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, a man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him. A man when he gets into a higher sphere, into other habits of life, cannot keep up all his former connexions. Then, Sir, those who knew him formerly upon a level with themselves, may think that they ought still to be treated as on a level, which cannot be; and an acquaintance in a former situation may bring out things which it would be very disagreeable to have mentioned before higher company, though, perhaps, everybody knows of them." He placed this subject in a new light to me, and showed that a man who has risen in the world must not be condemned too harshly for being distant to former acquaintance, even though he may have been much obliged to them. It is, no doubt, to be wished that a proper degree of attention should be shown by great men to their early friends. But if either from obtuse insensibility to difference of situation, or presumptuous forwardness, which will not submit even to an exterior observance of it, the dignity of high place cannot be preserved, when they are admitted into the company of those raised above the state in which they once were, encroachment must be repelled, and the kinder feelings sacrificed. To one of the very fortunate persons whom I have mentioned, namely, Mr. Wedderburn, now Lord Loughborough, I must do the justice to relate that I have been assured by another early acquaintance of his, old Mr. Macklin, who assisted in improving his pronunciation, that he found him very grateful. Macklin, I suppose, had not pressed upon his alleviation with so much eagerness as the gentleman who complained of him. Dr. Johnson's remark as to the jealousy entertained of our friends who rise far above us is certainly very just. By this was withered the early friendship between Charles Townshend and Akenside and many similar instances might be adduced. He said, "It is commonly a weak man who marries for love." We then talked of marrying women of fortune; and I mentioned a common remark that a man may be, upon the whole, richer by marrying a woman with a very small portion, because a woman of fortune will be proportionally expensive; whereas a woman who brings none will be very moderate in expenses. JOHNSON: "Depend upon it, Sir, this is not true. A woman of fortune being used to the handling of money, spends it judiciously but a woman who gets the command of money for the first time upon her marriage has such a gust in spending it, that she throws it away with great profusion." He praised the ladies of the present age, insisting that they were more faithful to their husbands, and more virtuous in every respect, than in former times, because their understandings were better cultivated. It was an undoubted proof of his good sense and good disposition that he was never querulous, never prone to inveigh against the present times, as is so common when superficial minds are on the fret. On the contrary, he was willing to speak favourably of his own age; and, indeed, maintained its superiority in every respect, except in its reverence for government; the relaxation of which he imputed, as its grand cause, to the shock which our monarchy received at the Revolution, though necessary; and secondly, to the timid concessions made to faction by successive Administrations in the reign of his present Majesty. I am happy to think that he lived to see the crown at last recover its just influence.* At Leicester, we read in the newspaper that Dr. James was dead. I thought that the death of an old schoolfellow, and one with whom he had lived a good deal * [This alludes to the triumph of the King and Mr. Pitt over the Coalition Ministry in 1784.—Croker.] Etat. 67] DEATH OF DR. JAMES 605 I ex Having lain at St. Albans, on Thursday, March 28, we breakfasted the next morning at Barnet. pressed to him a weakness of mind. which I could not help; an uneasy apprehension that my wife and children, who were at a great distance from me, might, perhaps, be ill. "Sir (said he), consider how foolish you would think it in them to be apprehensive that you are ill." This sudden turn relieved me for the moment; but I afterwards perceived it to be an ingenious fallacy.* I might, to be sure, be satisfied that they had no reason to be apprehensive about me, because I knew that I myself was well but we might have mutual anxiety, without the charge of folly; because each was, in some degree, uncertain as to the condition. of the other. From an engraving by W. Walker after a bust by Schaemaker a London physician, and the author of "A Medicinal I enjoyed the luxury of our approach to London, that metropolis which we both loved so much, for the high and varied intellectual pleasure which it furnishes. I experienced immediate happiness while whirled along with such a companion, and said to him, "Sir, you observed one day at General Oglethorpe's that a man is never happy for the present but when he is drunk. Will you not add-or when driving rapidly in a postchaise?" JOHNSON: "No, Sir, you are driving rapidly from something, or to something.' Talking of melancholy, he said, "Some men, and very thinking men too, have not those vexing thoughts.† Sir Joshua Reynolds is the same all the year round. [Surely it is no fallacy, but a sound and rational argument. He who is perfectly well, and apprehensive concerning the state of another at a distance from him, knows to a certainty that the fears of that person concerning his health are imaginary and delusive: and hence, has a rational ground for supposing that his own apprehensions concerning his absent wife or friend are equally unfounded. M.] †The phrase "vexing thoughts," is, I think, very expressive. It has been familiar to me from my Beauclerk, except when ill and in pain, is the same. But I believe most men have them in the degree in which they are capable of having them. If I were in the country, and were distressed by that malady, I would force myself to take a book; and every time I did it, I should find it the easier. Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.” We stopped at Messieurs Dilly's, booksellers in the Poultry; from whence he hurried away, in a hackney coach, to Mr. Thrale's in the Borough. I called at his house in the evening, having promised to acquaint Mrs. Williams of his safe return; when, to my surprise, I found him sitting with her at tea, and, as I thought, not in a very good humour: for, it seems, when he had got to Mr. Thrale's, he found the coach was at the door waiting to carry Mrs. and Miss Thrale, and Signor Baretti, their Italian master, to Bath. This was not showing the attention which might have been expected to the "Guide, Philosopher, and Friend; " the Imlac who had hastened from the country to console a distressed mother, who he understood was very anxious for his return. They had, I found, without ceremony, proceeded on their intended journey. I was glad to understand from him that it was still resolved that his tour to Italy with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale should take place, of which he had entertained some doubt, on account of the loss which they had suffered; and his doubts afterwards appeared to be well founded. He observed, indeed, very justly, that "their loss was an additional reason for their going abroad; and if it had not been fixed that he should have been one of the party, he would force them out, but he would not advise them unless his advice was asked, lest they might suspect that he recommended what he wished on his own account." I was not pleased that his intimacy with Mr. Thrale's family, though it no doubt contributed much to his comfort and enjoyment, was not without some degree of restraint: not, as has been grossly suggested, that it was required of him as a task to talk for the entertainment of them and their company; but that he was not quite at his ease; which, however, might partly be owing to his own honest pride-that dignity of mind which is always jealous of appearing too compliant. On Sunday, March 31, I called on him, and showed him as a curiosity which I had discovered his "Translation of Lobo's Account of Abyssinia," which Sir John Pringle had lent me, it being then little known as one of his works. He said, “ Take no notice of it," or "don't talk of it." He seemed to think it beneath him, though done at six-and-twenty. I said to him, "Your style, Sir, is much improved since you translated this." He answered, with a sort of triumphant smile, "Sir, I hope it is." On Wednesday, April 3, in the morning I found him very busy putting his books in order, and as they were generally very old ones, clouds of dust were flying around him. He had on a pair of large gloves, such as hedgers use. His present appearance put me in mind of my uncle Dr. Boswell's description of him, "A robust genius, born to grapple with whole libraries." childhood; for it is to be found in the "Psalms in Metre," used in the churches (I believe I should say kirks) of Scotland, Psal. xliii. v. 5. Why art thou then cast down, my soul? Some allowance must no doubt be made for early prepossession. But at a maturer period of life, after looking at various metrical versions of the Psalms, I am well satisfied that the version used in Scotland, is, upon the whole, the best; and that it is vain to think of having a better. It has in general a simplicity and unction of sacred Poesy; and in many parts its transfusion is admirable. From an engraving by H. Meyer after a drawing by J. Jackson, R.A. MRS. THRALE (AFTERWARDS PIOZZI) (b. 1741, d. 1821) "Of Mrs. Thrale less cannot be said than that, in one of the latest opinions of Dr. Johnson, If she was not the wisest woman in the world, she was undoubtedly one of the wittiest.' Besides a natural vivacity of conversation, she had reading enough, and the gods had made her poetical.'"-Tyers. 66 I gave him an account of a conversation which had passed between me and Captain Cook, the day before, at dinner at Sir John Pringle's; * and he was much. pleased with the conscientious accuracy of that celebrated circumnavigator, who set me right as to many of the exaggerated accounts given by Dr. Hawkesworth of his Voyages. I told him that while I was with the Captain, I catched the enthusiasm of curiosity and adventure, and felt a strong inclination to go with him on his next voyage. JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, a man does feel so, till he considers how very little he can learn from such voyages." BOSWELL : But one is carried away with the general grand and indistinct notion of A VOYAge round the WORLD." JOHNSON : Yes, Sir, but a man is to guard himself against taking a thing in general." I said I was certain that a great part of what we are told by the travellers to the South Sea must be conjecture, because they had not enough of the language of those countries to understand so much as they have related. Objects falling under the observation of the senses might be clearly known; but everything intellectual, everything abstract-politics, morals, and religion, must be darkly guessed. Johnson was of the same opinion. He upon another occasion, when a friend mentioned to him several extraordinary facts as communicated to him by the circumnavigators, slily observed, "Sir, I never before knew how much I was respected by these gentlemen; they told me none of these things." Dr. He had been in company with Omai, a native of one of the South Sea Islands, after he had been some time in this country. He was struck with the elegance of his behaviour, and accounted for it thus: "Sir, he had passed his time, while in England, only in the best company; so that all that he had acquired of our manners was genteel. As a proof of this, Sir, Lord Mulgrave and he dined one day at Streatham; they sat with their backs to the light fronting me, so that I could not see distinctly and there was so little of the savage in Omai, that I was afraid to speak to either, lest I should mistake one for the other." We agreed to dine to-day at the Mitre Tavern, after the rising of the House of Lords, where a branch of the litigation concerning the Douglas Estate, in which I was one of the counsel, was to come on. I brought with me Mr. Murray, Solicitor-General of Scotland, now one of the Judges of the Court of Session, with the title of Lord Henderland. I mentioned Mr. Solicitor's relation, Lord Charles Hay, with whom I knew Dr. Johnson had been acquainted.† JOHNSON: "I wrote something for Lord Charles; and I thought he had nothing to fear from a court-martial. I suffered a great loss when he died; he was a mighty pleasing man in conversation, and a reading man. The character of a soldier is high. They who stand forth the foremost in danger, for the community, have the respect of mankind. An officer is much more respected than any other man who has as little money. In a commercial country money will always purchase respect. But you find an officer, who has, properly speaking, no money, is everywhere well received and treated with attention. The character of a soldier always stands him in stead." BOSWELL: "Yet, Sir, I think that * [Sir John Pringle was at this time President of the Royal Society.-Croker.] [Third son of the Marquis of Tweedale. He distinguished himself at the battle of Fontenov. where he is said to have been the officer who invited the French guards to fire. He was afterwards third in command under Lord Loudon and General Hopson, in an expedition against Canada, but expressing himself with some violence against the tardiness of his superiors, he was, on the 31st July, 1757, put under arrest and sent to England, to be tried by a court martial, which, however, did not assemble till Feb., 1760; and Lord Charles died on the 1st May following, before the sentence was promulgated. I find in a letter (8th Sept., 1757) of Mr. Calcraft's, a personal friend of Lord Charles, that he had gone mad, and was in that state sent home, but his family were anxious to "disavow the disorder.-Croker.] |