Goldsmith is gone much further. He died of a fever, exasperated, as I believe, by the fear of distress. He had raised money and squandered it by every artifice of acquisition and folly of expense. But let not his frailties be remembered; he was a very great man. 'I have just begun to print my Journey to the Hebrides, and am leaving the press to take another journey into Wales, whither Mr. Thrale is going, to take possession of at least five hundred a-year, fallen to his lady. All at Streatham, that are alive, are well. 'I have never recovered from the last dreadful illness, but flatter myself that I grow gradually better; much, however, yet remains to mend. Κύριε ἐλέησον. 'If you have the Latin version of Busy, curious, thirsty fly, be so kind as to transcribe and send it; but you need not be in haste, for I shall be I know not where for at least five weeks. I wrote the following tetrastich on poor Goldsmith: * Τὸν τάφον εἰσοράᾳς τὸν Ολιβάροιο, κονίην Αφουσι μὴ σίμνην, Ξεῖινε, πόδεσσι πάτει. Οἴσι μέμηλε φύσις, μέτρων χάρις, ἔργα παλαιῶν Κλαίετε ποιητὴν, ἱστόρικον, φυσικόν. 'Please to make my most respectful compliments to all the ladies, and remember me to young George and his sisters. I reckon George begins to show a pair of heels. 'Do not be sullen now, but let me find a letter when I come back. I am, dear sir, your affectionate humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' TO MR. ROBERT LEVET. LLEWENNY, IN DENBIGHSHIRE, August 16, 1774. 'DEAR SIR,-Mr. Thrale's affairs have kept him here a great while, nor do I know exactly when we shall come hence. I have sent you a bill upon Mr. Strahan, 'I have made nothing of the ipecacuanha, but have taken abundance of pills, and hope that they have done me good. 'Wales, so far as I have yet seen of it, is a very beautiful and rich country, all enclosed and planted. Denbigh is not a mean town. Make my compliments to all my friends, and tell Frank I hope he remembers my advice. When his money is out, let him have more.I am, sir, your humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. EDINBURGH, August 30, 1774. 'You have given me an inscription for a portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, in which you, in a short and striking manner, point out her hard fate. But you will be pleased to keep in mind that my picture is a representation of a particular scene in her history: her being forced to resign her crown, while she was imprisoned in the castle of Lochleven. I must, therefore, beg that you will be kind enough to give me an inscription suited to that particular scene, or determine which of the two formerly transmitted to you is the best; and, at any rate, favour me with an English translation. It will be doubly kind if you comply with my request speedily. 66 'Your critical notes on the specimen of Lord Hailes's Annals of Scotland are excellent. I agreed with you on every one of them. He himself objected only to the alteration of free to brave, in the passage where he says that Edward 'departed with the glory due to the conquerer of a free people." He says, to call the Scots brave would only add to the glory of their conqueror. You will make allowance for the national zeal of our annalist. I now send a few more leaves of the Annals, which I hope you will peruse, and return with observations, as you did upon the former occasion. Lord Hailes writes to me thus: "Mr. Boswell will be pleased to express the grateful sense which Sir David Dalrymple has of Dr. Johnson's attention to his little specimen. The further specimen will show, that "Even in an Edward he can see desert." 'It gives me much pleasure to hear that a republication of Isaac Walton's Lives is intended. You have been in a mistake in thinking that Lord Hailes had it in view. I remember one morning, while he sat with you in my house, he said that there should be a new edition of Walton's Lives; and you said that "they should be benoted a little." This was all that passed on that subject. You must, therefore, inform Dr. Horne that he may resume his plan. I enclose a note concerning it; and if Dr. Horne will write to me, all the attention that I can give shall be cheerfully bestowed upon what I think a pious work, the preservation and elucidation of Walton, by whose writings I have been most pleasingly edified.' MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. 'EDINBURGH, Sept. 16, 1774. 'WALES has probably detained you longer than I supposed. You will have become quite a mountaineer, by visiting Scotland one year and Wales another. You must go next to Switzerland. Cambria will complain if you do not honour her also with some remarks. And I find concessere columnæ, the booksellers expect another book. I am impatient to see your Tour to Scotland and the Hebrides. Might you not send me a copy by the post as soon as it is printed off?' 'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. 'LONDON, October 1, 1774. 'DEAR SIR,-Yesterday I returned from my Welsh journey. I was sorry to leave my book suspended so long: but having an opportunity of government, having again to encounter the of seeing with so much convenience a new part of the island, I could not reject it. I have been in five of the six counties of North Wales; and have seen St. Asaph and Bangor, the two seats of their Bishops; have been upon Penmanmaur and Snowdon, and passed over into Anglesea. But Wales is so little different from England, that it offers nothing to the speculation of the traveller. 'When I came home, I found several of your papers, with some pages of Lord Hailes's Annals, which I will consider. I am in haste to give you some account of myself, lest you should suspect me of negligence in the pressing business which I find recommended to my care, and which I knew nothing of till now, when all care is vain.1 'In the distribution of my books I purpose to follow your advice, adding such as shall occur to me. I am not pleased with your notes of remembrance added to your names, for I hope I shall not easily forget them. 'I have received four Erse books, without any direction, and suspect that they are intended for the Oxford library. If that is the intention, I think it will be proper to add the metrical psalms, and whatever else is printed in Erse, that the present may be complete. The donor's name should be told. 'I wish you could have read the book before it was printed, but our distance does not easily permit it. 'I am sorry Lord Hailes does not intend to publish Walton; I am afraid it will not be done so well, if it be done at all. I purpose now to drive the book forward. Make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell, and let me hear often from you.-I am, dear sir, your affectionate humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' This tour to Wales, which was made in company with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale, though it no doubt contributed to his health and amusement, did not give an occasion to such a discursive exercise of his mind as our tour to the Hebrides. I do not find that he kept any journal or notes of what he saw there. All that I heard him say of it was, that, instead of bleak and barren mountains, there were green and fertile ones; and that one of the castles in Wales would contain all the castles he had seen in Scotland.' CHAPTER XXIX. 1774-1775. PARLIAMENT having been dissolved, and his friend Mr. Thrale, who was a steady supporter 1 I had written to him, to request his interposition in behalf of a convict, who I thought was very unjustly condemned.-BOSWELL. storm of a contested election, Johnson wrote a short political pamphlet, entitled The Patriot, addressed to the electors of Great Britain; a title which, to factious men who consider a patriot only as an opposer of the measures of government, will appear strangely misapplied. It was, however, written with energetic vivacity; and except those passages in which it endeavours to vindicate the glaring outrage of the House of Commons in the case of the Middlesex election, and to justify the attempt to reduce our fellow-subjects in America to unconditional submission, it contained an admirable display of the properties of a real patriot, in the original and genuine sense ;-a sincere, steady, rational, and unbiassed friend to the interests and prosperity of his king and country. It must be acknowledged, however, that both in this and his two former pamphlets, there was, amidst many powerful arguments, not only a considerable portion of sophistry, but a contemptuous ridicule of his opponents which was very provoking. 'TO MR. PERKINS.1 'October 25, 1774. 'SIR,-You may do me a very great favour. Mrs. Williams, a gentlewoman whom you may have seen at Mr. Thrale's, is a petitioner for Mr. Hetherington's charity: petitions are this day issued at Christ's Hospital. 'I am a bad manager of business in a crowd; and if I should send a mean man, he may be put away without his errand. I must therefore entreat that you will go, and ask for a petition for Anna Williams, whose paper of inquiries was delivered with answers at the counting-house of the hospital on Thursday the 20th. My servant will attend you thither, and bring the petition home when you have it. 'The petition which they are to give us, is a form which they deliver to every petitioner, and which the petitioner is afterwards to fill up, and return to them again. This we must have, or we cannot proceed according to their directions. You need, I believe, only ask for a petition; if they inquire for whom you ask, you can tell them. 1 Mr. Perkins was for a number of years the worthy superintendent of Mr. Thrale's great brewery, and after his death became one of the proprietors of it; and now resides (1791) in Mr. Thrale's house in Southwark, which was the scene of so many literary meetings, and in which he continues the liberal hospitality for which it was eminent. Dr. Johnson esteemed him much. He hung up in the counting-house a fine proof of the admirable mezzotinto of Dr. Johnson by Doughty: and when Mrs. Thrale asked him, somewhat flippantly, Why do you put him up in the counting-house?' he answered, Because, madam, I wish to have one wise man there.' 'Sir,' said Johnson, I thank you. It is a very handsome compliment, and I believe you speak sincerely.'-BOSWELL 'I beg pardon for giving you this trouble; but it is a matter of great importance.-I am, sir, your most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' 'TO JAMES, BOSWELL, ESQ. 'LONDON, Oct. 27, 1774. 'DEAR SIR,-There has appeared lately in the papers an account of a boat overset between Mull and Ulva, in which many passengers were lost, and among them Maclean of Coll. We, you know, were once drowned; I hope, therefore, that the story is either wantonly or erroneously told. Pray satisfy me by the next post. 'I have printed two hundred and forty pages. I am able to do nothing much worth doing to dear Lord Hailes's book. I will, however, send back the sheets; and hope by degrees to answer all your reasonable expectations. 'Mr. Thrale has happily surmounted a very violent and acrimonious opposition; but all joys have their abatement-Mrs. Thrale has fallen from her horse and hurt herself very much. The rest of our friends, I believe, are well. My compliments to Mrs. Boswell, -I am, sir, your most affectionate servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' This letter, which shows his tender concern for an amiable young gentleman to whom he had been very much obliged in the Hebrides, I have inserted according to its date, though before receiving it I had informed him of the melancholy event that the young Laird of Coll was unfortunately drowned. 'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. touch the continent?1-I am, dear sir, your most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' In his manuscript diary of this year, there is the following entry : Nov. 27. Advent Sunday. I considered that this day, being the beginning of the ecclesiastical year, was a proper time for a new course of life. I began to read the Greek Testament regularly, at one hundred and sixty verses every Sunday. This day I began the Acts. 'In this week I read Virgil's Pastorals. I learned to repeat the Pollio and Gallus. I read carelessly the first Georgic.' Such evidences of his unceasing ardour, both for divine and human lore,' when advanced into his sixty-fifth year, and notwithstanding his many disturbances from disease, must make us at once honour his spirit, and lament that it should be so grievously clogged by its material tegument. It is remarkable that he was very fond of the precision which calculation produces. Thus we find in one of his manuscript diaries, 12 pages in 4to Gr. Test. and 30 pages Beza's folio, comprise the whole in 40 days.' 'DR. JOHNSON TO JOHN HOOLE, ESQ. 'DEAR SIR,-I have returned your play,2 which you will find underscored with red, where there was a word which I did not like. The red will be washed off with a little water. 'The plot is so well framed, the intricacy so artful, and the disentanglement so easy, the suspense so affecting, and the passionate partsso properly interposed, that I have no doubt of its success.-I am, sir, your most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' lotte Lennox, in three volumes quarto. In his diary, January 2, I find this entry-'Wrote Charlotte's Proposals.' But, indeed, the internal evidence would have been quite sufficient. Her claim to the favour of the public was thus enforced : Nov. 26, 1774. 'DEAR SIR,-Last night I corrected the last page of our Journey to the Hebrides. The printer has detained it all this time, for I had, before I The first effort of his pen in 1775 was Prowent into Wales, written all except two sheets.posals for publishing the Works of Mrs. CharThe Patriot was called for by my political friends on Friday, was written on Saturday, and I have heard little of it. So vague are con[jectures at a distance. As soon as I can, I will take care that copies be sent to you, for I would wish that they might be given before they are bought but I am afraid that Mr. Strahan will send to you and to the booksellers at the same time. Trade is as diligent as courtesy. I have mentioned all that you recommended. Pray make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell and the younglings. The club has, I think, not yet met. 'Tell me, and tell me honestly, what you think and what others say of our travels. Shall we In the newspapers.-BOSWELL. Alluding to a passage in a letter of mine, where speaking of his Journey to the Hebrides, I say, 'But has not the Patriot been an interruption by the time taken to write it, and the time luxuriously spent in listening to its applauses?'-BOSWELL. 'Most of the pieces, as they appear singly, have been read with approbation, perhaps above their merits, but of no great advantage to the writer. She hopes, therefore, that she shall not be considered as too indulgent to vanity, or too studious of interest, if from that labour which has hitherto been chiefly gainful to others, she endeavours to obtain at least some profits to herself and her children. She cannot decently enforce her claim by the praise of her own performances; nor can she suppose that, by the most 1 We had projected a voyage together up the Baltic, and talked of visiting some of the more northern regions.-BosWELL. 2 Cleonice.-BOSWELL artful and laboured address, any additional notice could be procured to a publication, of which Her Majesty has condescended to be the patroness.' He this year also wrote the preface to Baretti's Easy Lessons in Italian and English. 'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. January 14, 1775. 'DEAR SIR,-You never did ask for a book by the post till now, and I did not think on it. You see now it is done. I sent one to the King, and I hear he likes it. 'I shall send a parcel into Scotland for presents, and intend to give to many of my friends. In your catalogue you left out Lord Auchinleck. 'Let me know, as fast as you read it, how you like it; and let me know if any mistake is committed, or anything important left out. I wish you could have seen the sheets. My compliments to Mrs. Boswell, and to Veronica, and to all my friends.—I am, sir, your most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' 6 MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. EDINBURGH, Jan. 19, 1775. 'Be pleased to accept of my best thanks for your Journey to the Hebrides, which came to me by last night's post. I did really ask the favour twice; but you have been even with me by granting it so speedily. Bis dat qui cito dat. Though ill of a bad cold, you kept me up the greatest part of last night; for I did not stop till I had read every word of your book. I looked back to our first talking of a visit to the Hebrides, which was many years ago, when sitting by ourselves in the Mitre Tavern in London, I think about witching time o' night : and then exulted in contemplating our scheme fulfilled, and a monumentum perenne of it erected by your superior abilities. I shall only say that your book has afforded me a high gratification. I shall afterwards give you my thoughts on particular passages. In the meantime, I hasten to tell you of your having mistaken two names, which you will correct in London, as I shall do here, that the gentlemen who deserve the valuable compliments which you have paid them may enjoy their honours. In page 106, for Gordon read Murchison; and in page 357, for Maclean read Macleod. 'But I am now to apply to you for immediate aid in my profession, which you have never refused to grant when I requested it. I enclose you a petition for Dr. Memis, a physician at Aberdeen, in which Sir John Dalrymple has exerted his talents, and which I am to answer as counsel for the managers of the Royal Infirmary in that city. Mr. Jop, the Provost, who delivered to you your freedom, is one of my clients, and as a citizen of Aberdeen, you will support him. 'The fact is shortly this. In a translation of the charter of the Infirmary from Latin into English, made under the authority of the managers, the same phrase in the original is in one place rendered Physician, but when applied to Dr. Memis is rendered Doctor of Medicine. Dr. Memis complained of this before the translation was printed, but was not indulged with having it altered; and he has brought an action for damages on account of a supposed injury, as if the designation given to him was an inferior one, tending to make it be supposed he is not a physician, and consequently to hurt his practice. My father has dismissed the action as groundless, and now he has appealed to the whole court.'1 'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. 'Jan. 21, 1775. 'DEAR SIR, -I long to hear how you like the book; it is, I think, much liked here. But Macpherson is very furious; can you give me any more intelligence about him, or his Fingal? Do what you can, and do it quickly. Is Lord Hailes on our side? 'Pray let me know what I owed you when I left you, that I may send it to you. 'I am going to write about the Americans. If you have picked up any hints among your lawyers, who are great masters of the law of nations, or if your own mind suggest anything, let me know. But mum, it is a secret. 'I will send your parcel of books as soon as I can; but I cannot do as I wish. However, you find everything mentioned in the book which you recommended. 'Langton is here; we are all that ever we He is a worthy fellow, without malice, though not without resentment. were. 'This is all the news that I have; but as you love verses, I will send you a few which I made upon Inchkenneth; but remember the condition, you shall not show them, except to Lord Hailes, whom I love better than any man whom I know so little. If he asks you to transcribe 1 In the Court of Session of Scotland an action is first tried by one of the judges, who is called the Lord Ordinary; and if either party is dissatisfied, he may appeal to the whole Court, consisting of fifteen, the Lord President and fourteen other judges, who have both in and out of the court the title of Lords from the name of their estates; as, Lord Auchinleck, Lord Monboddo, etc.-BOSWELL. 2 It should be recollected that this fanciful description of his friend was given by Johnson after he himself had become a water-drinker.-BosWELL. See them in Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d edit. p. 337.-BOSWELL them for him, you may do it, but I think he must promise not to let them be copied again, nor to show them as mine. 'I have at last sent back Lord Hailes's sheets. I never think about returning them, because I alter nothing. You will see that I might as well have kept them. However, I am ashamed of my delay; and if I have the honour of receiving any more, promise punctually to return them by the next post. Make my compliments to dear Mrs. Boswell, and to Miss Veronica.-I am, dear sir, yours most faithfully, 'SAM. JOHNSON.'1 'MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. 'EDINBURGH, January 27, 1775. . 'You rate our lawyers here too high, when you call them great masters of the law of nations. 'As for myself, I am ashamed to say I have read little and thought little on the subject of America. I will be much obliged to you, if you direct me where I shall find the best information of what is to be said on both sides. It is a subject vast in its present extent and future consequences. The imperfect hints which now float in my mind, tend rather to the formation of an opinion that our government has been precipitant and severe in the resolutions taken against the Bostonians. Well, do you know that I have no kindness for that race? But nations or bodies of men should, as well as individuals, have a fair trial, and not be condemned on character alone. Have we not express contracts with our colonies, which afford a more certain foundation of judgment than general political speculations on the mutual rights of States and their provinces or colonies? Pray let me know immediately what to read, and I shall diligently endeavour to gather for you anything that I can find. Is Burke's speech on American taxation published by himself? Is it authentic? I remem He now sent me a Latin inscription for my historical picture, Mary Queen of Scots, and afterwards favoured me with an English translation. Mr. AlderTuan Boydell, that eminent patron of the arts, has subjoined them to the engraving from my picture. 'Maria Scotorum Regina, Hominum seditiosorum Contumeliis lassata, Minis territa, clamoribus victa, Libello, per quem Regno cedit, Lacrimans trepidansque Nomen apponit. 'Mary Queen of Scots, Harassed, terrified, and overpowered By the insults, menaces, And clamours Of her rebellious subjects, With tears and confusion, To a resignation of the kingdom." -BOSWELL. ber to have heard you say, that you had never considered East Indian affairs; though, surely, they are of much importance to Great Britain. Under the recollection of this, I shelter myself from the reproach of ignorance about the Americans. If you write upon the subject, I shall certainly understand it. But, since you seem to expect that I should know something of it, without your instruction, and that my own mind should suggest something, I trust you will put me in the way. 'What does Becket mean by the Originals of Fingal and other Poems of Ossian, which he advertises to have lain in his shop? 'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. 'Jan. 28, 1775. It is 'DEAR SIR,-You sent me a case to consider, in which I have no facts but what are against vain to write thus without materials. The fact us, nor any principles on which to reason. seems to be against you; at least, I cannot know or say anything to the contrary. I am glad that you like the book so well. I hear no more of Macpherson. I shall long to know what Lord Hailes says of it. Lend it him privately. I shall send the parcel as soon as I can. my compliments to Mrs. Boswell.—I am, sir, etc., Make 'SAM. JOHNSON.' MR. BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. 'EDINBURGH, Feb. 2, 1775. 'As to Macpherson, I am anxious to have from yourself a full and pointed account of what has passed between you and him. It is confidently told here, that before your book came out he sent to you to let you know that he understood you meant to deny the authenticity of Ossian's poems; that the originals were in his possession; that you might have inspection of them, and might take the evidence of people skilled in the Erse language; and that he hoped, after this fair offer, you would not be so uncandid as to assert that he had refused reasonable proof. That you paid no regard to his message, but published your strong attack upon him; and then he wrote a letter to you, in such terms as he thought suited to one who had not acted as a men of veracity. You may believe it gives me pain to hear your conduct represented as unfavourable, while I can only deny what is said, on the ground that your character refutes it, without having any information to oppose. Let me, I beg it of you, be furnished with a sufficient answer to any calumny upon this occasion. 'Lord Hailes writes to me (for we correspond more than we talk together), "As to Fingal, I see a controversy arising, and purpose to keep out of its way. There is no doubt that I might mention some circumstances, but I do not choose |