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"Once when somebody produced a newspaper in which there was a letter of stupid abuse of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of which Johnson himself came in for a share,—' Pray (said he), let us have it read aloud from beginning to end;' which being done, he, with a ludicrous earnestness, and not directing his look to any particular person, called out, 'Are we alive after all this satire!""

"He had a strong prejudice against the political character of Secker, one instance of which appeared at Oxford, where he expressed great dissatisfaction at his varying the old-established toast, Church and King.' The Archbishop of Canterbury,' said he (with an affected smooth smiling grimace), ' drinks, Constitution in Church and State.' Being asked what difference there was between the two toasts, he said, 'Why, Sir, you may be sure he meant something.' Yet when the life of that prelate, prefixed to his sermons by Dr. Porteus and Dr. Stinton, his chaplains, first came out, he read it with the utmost avidity, and said, 'It is a life well written, and that well deserves to be recorded." "

"Of a certain noble Lord, he said, 'Respect him, you could not; for he had no mind of his own. Love him you could not; for that which you could do with him, everyone else could.""

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Of Dr. Goldsmith he said, 'No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had.'"

"He told in his lively manner the following literary anecdote: 'Green and Guthrie, an Irishman and a Scotchman, undertook a translation of Duhalde's "History of China." Green said of Guthrie, that he knew no English, and Guthrie of Green, that he knew no French; and these two undertook to translate Duhalde's History of China.” In this translation there was found "the twenty-sixth day of the new moon.' Now, as the whole age of the moon is but twenty-eight days, the moon, instead of being new, was nearly as old as it could be. The blunder arose from their mistaking the word neuvième ninth, nouvelle or neuve, new.'"

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"Talking of Dr. Blagden's copiousness and precision of communication, Dr. Johnson said, 'Blagden, Sir, is a delightful fellow.'

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"On occasion of Dr. Johnson's publishing his pamphlet of 'The False Alarm,' there came out a very angry answer (by many supposed to be by Mr. Wilkes). Dr. Johnson determined on not answering it; but, in conversation with Mr. Langton, mentioned a particular or two, which, if he had replied to it, he might perhaps have inserted. In the answerer's pamphlet, it had been said with solemnity, Do you consider, Sir, that a House of Commons is to the people as a creature is to its Creator?' 'To this question,' said Dr. Johnson, I could have replied that-in the first placethe idea of a CREATOR must be such as that he has a power to unmake or annihilate his creature.' "

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"Then it cannot be conceived that a creature can make laws for its CREATOR.'

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at Northend, where a large company was assembled at dinner, a gentleman who was just returned from Paris, willing to please Mr. Richardson, mentioned to him a very flattering circumstancethat he had seen his "Clarissa" lying on the King's brother's table. Richardson observing that part of the company were engaged in talking to each other, affected then not to attend to it. But by and by, when there was a general silence, and he thought that the flattery might be fully heard, he addressed himself to the gentleman. I think, Sir, you were saying something about,' pausing in a high flutter of expectation. The gentleman, provoked at his inordinate vanity, resolved not to indulge it, and with an exquisitely sly air of indifference answered, 'A mere trifle, Sir, not worth repeating.' The mortification of Richardson was visible, and he did not speak ten words more the whole day. Dr. Johnson was present, and appeared to enjoy it much.

*His profound adoration of the GREAT FIRST CAUSE was such as to set him above that "philosophy and vain deceit," with which men of narrow conceptions have been infected. I have heard him strongly

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SIR CHARLES BLAGDEN

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Depend upon it,' said he, that if a man talks of his misfortunes, there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery, there never is any recourse to the mention of it.'"

“A man must be a poor beast, that should read no more in quantity than he could utter aloud."

"Imlac in Rasselas,' I spelt with a c at the end, because it is less like English, which should always have the Saxon k added to the c." *

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Many a man is mad in certain instances, and goes through life without having it perceived-for example, a madness has seized a person of supposing himself obliged literally to pray continually; had the madness turned the opposite way, and the person thought it a crime ever to pray, it might not improbably have continued unobserved."

"He apprehended that the delineation of characters in the end of the first Book of the Retreat of the Ten Thousand' was the first instance of the kind that was known."

"Supposing (said he) a wife to be of a studious or argumentative turn, it would be very troublesome for instance-if a woman should continually dwell upon the subject of the Arian heresy."

"No man speaks concerning another, even suppose it be in his praise, if he thinks he does not hear him exactly as he would, if he thought he was within hearing."

"The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.' This he said to me with great earnestness of manner, very near the time of his decease, on occasion of having desired me to read a letter addressed to him from some person in the North of England; which when I had done, and he asked me what the contents were, as I thought being particular upon it might fatigue him, it being of great length, I only told him in general that it was highly in his praise ;—and then he expressed himself as above."

"He mentioned with an air of satisfaction what Baretti had told him; that, meeting, in the course of his studying English, with an excellent paper in the Spectator, one of four that were written by the respectable Dissenting Minister, Mr. Grove of Taunton, and observing the genius and energy of mind that it exhibits, it greatly quickened his curiosity to visit our country; as he thought, if such were the lighter periodical essays of our authors, their productions on more weighty occasions must be wonderful indeed!"

"He observed once, at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, that a beggar in the street will more readily ask alms from a man, though there should be no marks of wealth in his appearance, than from even a well-dressed woman; † which he accounted for from the great degree of carefulness as to money, that is to be found in women; saying farther upon it, that the opportunities in general that they possess of improving their condition are much fewer than men have; and adding, as he looked round the company, which consisted of men only-there is not one of us who does not think he might be richer, if he would use his endeavour."

maintain that "what is right is not so from any natural fitness, but because GOD wills it to be right; and it is certainly so, because he has predisposed the relations of things so as that which he wills must be right.-Boswell.

* I hope the authority of the great master of our language will stop that curtailing innovation, by which we see critic, public, etc., frequently written instead of critick, publick, etc.

† Sterne is of a direct contrary opinion. See his "Sentimental Journey," Article, "The Mystery." -Boswell.

"He thus characterized an ingenious writer of his acquaintance: 'Sir, he is an enthusiast by rule.'

66 6 He may hold up that SHIELD against all his enemies;' -was an observation on Homer, in reference to his description of the shield of Achilles, made by Mrs. Fitzherbert, wife to his friend Mr. Fitzherbert of Derbyshire, and respected by Dr. Johnson as a very fine one. He had in general a very high opinion of that lady's understanding."

"An observation of Bathurst's may be mentioned, which Johnson repeated, appearing to acknowledge it to be well founded; namely, it was somewhat remarkable how seldom, on occasion of coming into the company of any new person, one felt any wish or inclination to see him again."

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This year the Reverend Dr. Francklin* having published a translation of Lucian," inscribed to him the Demonax thus:

"To Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON, the Demonax of the present age, this piece is inscribed by a sincere admirer of his respectable talents,

"THE TRANSLATOR."

Though upon a particular comparison of Demonax and Johnson, there does not seem to be a great deal of similarity between them, this Dedication is a just compliment from the general character given by Lucian of the ancient Sage, “äpiσтov ὧν οἶδα ἐγὼ φιλοσόφων γενόμενον, the best philosopher whom I have ever seen or known."

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* [Rev. Thomas Francklin, D.D. (b. 1721 (?), d. 1784). Besides his "Lucian he translated Sophocles; for the works of the former, however, he showed too much zeal in his endeavour to adapt them to the taste of the eighteenth century reader. His name also appears on the title-page of an English version of Voltaire. Francklin was one of the signatories of the Round Robin presented to Johnson by his friends with regard to Goldsmith's epitaph. In this petition his name is spelt Franklin. See p. 655.]

CHAPTER XLVIII-1781

"LIVES OF THE POETS"

Completion of "The Lives of the Poets "-John Nichols-Various Readings of Cowley-Waller

Milton-Dryden-Warburton-Pope-Addison-Parnell-Blackmore-Tickell-Lyttelton-Young

-Sir Herbert Croft-Swift-Spence's Anecdotes-Gray.

THE

LIVES

OF THE MOST EMINENT

IN 1781, Johnson at last completed his "Lives of the Poets," of which he gives this account : "Some time in March I finished the Lives of the Poets,' which I wrote in my usual way, dilatorily and hastily, unwilling to work, and working with vigour and haste."* In a memorandum previous to this, he says of them : "Written, I hope, in such a manner as may tend to the promotion of piety." † This is the work which, of all Dr. Johnson's writings, will perhaps be read most generally, and with most pleasure. Philology and biography were his favourite pursuits, and those who lived most in intimacy with him, heard him upon all occasions, when there was a proper opportunity, take delight in expatiating upon the various merits of the English Poets: upon the niceties of their characters, and the events of their progress through the world which they contribute to illuminate. His mind was so full of that kind of information, and it was so well arranged in his memory, that in performing what he had undertaken in this way, he had little more to do than to put his thoughts upon paper; exhibiting first each Poet's life, and then subjoining a critical examination of his genius and works. But when he began to write, the subject swelled in such a manner, that instead of prefaces to each poet, of no more than a few pages, as he had originally intended,‡ he produced an ample, rich, and most entertaining view of them in

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ENGLISH POETS;

WITH

CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS

ON THEIR

WORK S.

By SAMUEL JOHNSON.

IN

FOUR VOLUME S.

VOLUME I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR C. BATHURST, J. BUCKLAND, W STRAHAN, J. RIVING.
TON AND SONS, T. DAVIEL, T. PAYNE, L. DAVIS, W. OWIN, H. WHITE,
3. CROWDER, 7. CASLON, T. LONGMAN, B. LAW, C. DILLY,
1. DODELEY, J WILKIE, THORSON, J. JOHNSON, T. LOWNDES,
C. ROBINSON, 1. CADILL, J. NICHOLS, E. NIWBERY,
1. EVANS, P. ELMSLY, J.KELLEY, H. BALDWIN, G. NICOL,
LEIGH AND SATHERE, J. BTW, N. CONANT, W.NICOLL,
J. MELAKA, 3. HAYES, W. FOX, AND J. BOWEN,
M DCC LXXXI.

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every respect. In this he resembled Quintilian, who tells us that in the composition of his Institutions of Oratory, "Latius se tamen aperiente materia plus quam imponebatur oneris sponte suscepi." The booksellers, justly sensible. of the great additional value of the copyright, presented him with another hundred pounds, over and above two hundred, for which his agreement was to furnish such prefaces as he thought fit.

This was, however, but a small recompense for such a collection of biography, and such principles and illustrations of criticism, as, if digested and arranged in one system, by some modern Aristotle or Longinus, might form a code upon that subject, such as no other nation can show. As he was so good as to make me a present of the greatest part of the original and indeed only manuscript of this admirable work, I have an opportunity of observing with wonder the correctness with which he rapidly struck off such glowing composition. He may be assimilated to the Lady in Waller, who could impress with "Love at first sight:

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"Some other nymphs with colours faint,
And pencil slow, may Cupid paint,
And a weak heart in time destroy;
She has a stamp, and prints the boy."

That he, however, had a good deal of trouble, and some anxiety in carrying on the work, we see from a series of letters to Mr. Nichols the printer,* whose variety of literary inquiry and obliging disposition, rendered him useful to Johnson. Mr. Steevens appears, from the papers in my possession, to have supplied him with some anecdotes and quotations; and I observe the fair hand of Mrs. Thrale as one of his copyists of select passages. But he was principally indebted to my steady friend Mr. Isaac Reed, of Staple-inn, whose extensive and accurate knowledge of English literary History I do not express with exaggeration, when I say it is wonderful; indeed his labours have proved it to the world; and all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance can bear testimony to the frankness of his communications in private society.

It is not my intention to dwell upon each of Johnson's "Lives of the Poets," or attempt an analysis of their merits, which, were I able to do it, would take up too

*Thus :-"In the Life of Waller,' Mr. Nichols will find a reference to the Parliamentary History, from which a long quotation is to be inserted. If Mr. Nichols cannot easily find the book, Mr. Johnson will send it from Streatham."

"Clarendon is here returned."

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By some accident, I laid your note upon Duke up so safely, that I cannot find it. Your informations have been of great use to me. I must beg it again; with another list of our authors, for I have laid that with the other. I have sent Stepney's Epitaph. Let me have the revises as soon as can be. Dec. 1778." I have sent Philips, with his Epitaphs to be inserted. The fragment of a preface is hardly worth the impression, but that we may seem to do something. It may be added to the Life of Philips.' The Latin page is to be added to the Life of Smith.' I shall be at home to revise the two sheets of Milton. March 1, 1779."

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Please to get me the last edition of Hughes's letters; and try to get Dennis upon Blackmore, and upon Cato, and anything of the same writer against Pope. Our materials are defective.'

The

"As Waller professed to have imitated Fairfax, do you think a few pages of Fairfax would enrich our edition ? Few readers have seen it, and it may please them. But it is not necessary." "An account of the lives and works of some of the most eminent English Poets. By, etc. English Poets, biographically and critically considered, by SAM. JOHNSON.'-Let Mr. Nichols take his choice, or make another to his mind. May, 1781."

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You somehow forgot the advertisement for the new edition. It was not enclosed. Of Gay's Letters I see not that any use can be made, for they give no information of anything. That he was a member of a Philosophical Society is something; but surely he could but be a corresponding member. However, not having his life here, I know not how to put it in, and it is of little importance.

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See several more in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1785. The Editor of that Miscellany, in which Johnson wrote for several years, seems justly to think that every fragment of so great a man is worthy of being preserved.

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