THE que nainen cirum tot is patril præsertim Palikke Ski Lewis (diciter impensi, ú a Limar Republicá Pan & PETS are beleatur; Nos, JI Inn & Sciares UniverIznuta qui ta`s viri merita pari -LLKCOM corisentur, & perpetuum 330 LOU WILL WASTE erà literas prozu zincat and somumentum, in vana Jarckung Da Magistrorum In The Lik 6 Epentiem, pradictum SILNESSON, Doctorem in Jure Cirili TENISTAN e cartinus, eumque virtute jezacka Digimas nazis juribus, privilegiis e kurča od uten modum quáquà pertinenJefri e podere jusrias In cujus rei ZENIT Commme Universitatis Oxoniensis un permis us apponi fecimus. *Din Dmo nostre Convocationis die treams Mana Martii, Anno Domini MilleFÜNÜ METANGENZerino, septuagesimo quinto.” To Beds THOME FOTHERGILL S.T.P. Caineritatis Oxoniensis S.P.D. Vice-Cancellaris. Ma Via-CENILLE AND ĜIVIANE,— The honour of the degree of KA by SEA formerly conferred upon a ure Jars.I, in cose,ence of his having eminently listin gusted himself by the public of a series of Essays, excellently alalitel u. form the man Lers of the people, and in which the cause of religion and morality has been maintained and recommended by the strongest powers of arga 'MULTIS non est opus, ut testimonium quo, ment and elegance of language, reflected ar te praside, Ozoniensis nomen meum posteris equal degree of lustre upon the University | coms.endârunt, quali animo acceperim comperitself. "The many learned labours which have since that time employed the attention and displayed the abilities of that great man, so much to the advancement of literature and the benefit of the community, render him worthy of more distinguished honours in the republic of letters; and I persuade myself that I shall act agreeably to the sentiments of the whole University in desiring that it may be proposed in Convocation to confer on him the degree of Doctor in Civil Law, by diploma, to which I readily give my consent; and am, Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen, your affectionate friend and servant, DIPLOMA. 'NORTH.'1 CANCELLARIUS, Magistri, et Scholares 'SAM. JOHNSON. tum faciam. Nemo sibi placens non lætatur ; nemo sibi non placet, qui vobis, literarum arbitris, placere potuit. Hoc tamen habet incommodi tantum beneficium, quod mihi nunquam posthac sine restræ fama detrimento vel labi 1 The original is in my possession. He showed me the diploma, and allowed me to read it, but would not consent to my taking a copy of it, fearing perhaps that I should blaze it abroad in his lifetime. His objection whom in that letter he thus scolds for the grossness of to this appears from his 99th letter to Mrs. Thrale, her flattery of him :-The other Oxford news is, that they have sent me a degree of Doctor of Laws, with such praises in the diploma as perhaps ought to make me ashamed; they are very like your praises. I wonder whether I shall ever show it to you.' It is remarkable that he never, so far as I know, assumed his title of Doctor, but called himself Mr. Johnson, as appears from many of his cards or notes to myself, and I have seen many from him to other persons, in which he uniformly takes that designation. -I once observed on his table a letter directed to him! with the addition of Esquire, and objected to it as being a designation inferior to that of Doctor; but he 'SCIATIS, virum illustrem SAMUELEM JOHNBON, in omni humaniorum literarum genere eruditum, omniumque scientiarum comprehen-checked me, and seemed pleased with it, because, as I Extracted from the Convocation Register, Oxford. --BROW KLLA conjectured, he liked to be sometimes taken out of the class of literary men, and to be merely genteel-un gentilhomme comme un autre.-BOSWELL liceat vel cessare; semperque sit timendum ne quod mihi tam eximiæ laudi est, vobis aliquando fiat opprobrio. Vale.1 '7. Id. Apr. 1775.' He revised some sheets of Lord Hailes's Annals of Scotland, and wrote a few notes on the margin with red ink, which he bade me tell his lordship did not sink into the paper, and might be wiped off with a wet sponge, so that it did not spoil his manuscript. I observed to him that there were very few of his friends so accurate as that I could venture to put down in writing what they told me as his sayings. JOHNSON: 'Why should you write down my sayings?' BOSWELL: 'I write them when they are good.' JOHNSON: Nay, you may as well write down the sayings of any one else that are good.' But where, I might with great propriety have added, can I find such? I visited him by appointment in the evening, and we drank tea with Mrs. Williams. He told me that he had been in the company of a gentleman whose extraordinary travels had been much the subject of conversation. But I found he had not listened to him with that full confidence, without which there is little satisfaction in the society of travellers. I was curious to hear what opinion so able a judge as Johnson had formed of his abilities, and I asked if he was not a man of sense. JOHNSON: 'Why, sir, he is not a distinct relater; and I should say, he is neither abounding nor deficient in sense. I did not perceive any superiority of understanding.' BosWELL: 'But will you not allow him a nobleness of resolution in penetrating into distant regions?' JOHNSON: 'That, sir, is not to the present purpose. We are talking of A fighting cock has a nobleness of resolution.' sense. Next day, Sunday, April 2, I dined with him at Mr. Hoole's. We talked of Pope. JOHNSON: 'He wrote his Dunciad for fame. That was his primary motive. Had it not been for that, the dunces might have railed against him till they were weary without his troubling himself about them. He delighted to vex them, no doubt; but he had more delight in seeing how well he could vex them.' The Odes to Obscurity and Oblivion, in ridicule of 'cool Mason and warm Gray,' being mentioned, Johnson said, 'They are Colman's best things. Upon its being observed that it was believed these Odes were made by Colman and Lloyd jointly-JOHNSON: 'Nay, sir, how can two people make an Ode? Perhaps one made one of them, and one the other.' I observed that two people had made a play, and quoted the anecdote of Beaumont and Fletcher, who The original is in the hands of Dr. Fothergill, then Vice-Chancellor, who made this transcript.-T. WAR were brought under suspicion of treason, because, while concerting the plan of a tragedy when sitting together at a tavern, one of them was overheard saying to the other, 'I'll kill the King.' JOHNSON: The first of these Odes is the best; but they are both good. They exposed a very bad kind of writing.' BOSWELL: 'Surely, sir, Mr. Mason's Elfrida is a fine poem: at least you will allow there are some good passages in it.' JOHNSON: "There are now and then some good imitations of Milton's bad manner.' His I often wondered at his low estimation of the writings of Gray and Mason. Of Gray's poetry I have in a former part of this work expressed my high opinion; and for that of Mr. Mason I have ever entertained a warm admiration. Elfrida is exquisite, both in poetical description and moral sentiment; and his Caractacus is a noble drama. Nor can I omit paying my tribute of praise to some of his smaller poems, which I have read with pleasure, and which no criticism shall persuade me not to like. If I wondered at Johnson's not tasting the works of Mason and Gray, still more have I wondered at their not tasting his works; that they should be insensible to his energy of diction, to his splendour of images, and comprehension of thought. Tastes may differ as to the violin, the flute, the hautboy, in short, all the lesser instruments; but who can be insensible to the powerful impressions of the majestic organ? His Taxation no Tyranny being mentioned, he said, 'I think I have not been attacked enough for it. Attack is the reaction; I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds.' BosWELL: 'I don't know, sir, what you would be at. Five or six shots of small arms in every newspaper, and repeated cannonading in pamphlets, might, I think, satisfy you. But, sir, you'll never make out this match, of which we have talked, with a certain political lady, since you are so severe against her principles.' JOHNSON: Nay, sir, I have the better chance for that. She is like the Amazons of old; she must be courted by the sword. But I have not been severe upon her.' BOSWELL: 'Yes, sir, you have made her ridiculous.' JOHNSON: "That was already done, sir. To endeavour to make her ridiculous, is like blacking the chimney.' I put him in mind that the landlord at Ellon in Scotland said that he heard he was the greatest man in England,-next to Lord Mansfield. Ay, sir,' said he, 'the exception defined the idea. A Scotchman could go no farther: "The force of Nature could no farther go.' Lady Miller's collection of verses by fashionable people, which were put into her vase at Bath-Easton villa, near Bath, in competition for honorary prizes, being mentioned, he held them very cheap: 'Boutsrimès,' said he,' is a mere conceit, and an old conceit now; I wonder how people were persuaded to write in that manner for this lady.' I named a gentleman of his acquaintance who wrote for the vase. JOHNSON: He was a blockhead for his pains.' BOSWELL: The Duchess of Northumberland wrote.' JOHNSON: Sir, the Duchess of Northumberland may do what she pleases: nobody will say anything to a lady of her high rank. But I should be apt to throw -'s verses in his face.' I talked of the cheerfulness of Fleet Street, owing to the constant quick succession of people which we perceive passing through it. JOHNSON: Why, sir, Fleet Street has a very animated appearance: but I think the tide of human existence is at Charing Cross.' He made the common remark on the unhappiness which men who have led a busy life experience when they retire in expectation of enjoying themselves at ease, and that they generally languish for want of their habitual occupation, and wish to return to it. He mentioned as strong an instance of this as can well be imagined: 'An eminent tallow-chandler in London, who had acquired a considerable fortune, gave up the trade in favour of his foreman, and went to live at a country-house near town. He soon grew weary, and paid frequent visits to his old shop, where he desired they might let him knew their melting-days, and he would come and assist them; which he accordingly did. Here, sir, was a man, to whom the most disgusting circumstances in the business to which he had been used was a relief from idleness.' CHAPTER XXXI. 1775. ON Wednesday, April 5, I dined with Johnson at Messieurs Dilly's, with Mr. John Scott of Amwell, the Quaker, Mr. Langton, Mr. Miller (now Sir John), and Dr. Thomas Campbell, an Irish clergyman, whom I took the liberty of inviting to Mr. Dilly's table, having seen him at Mr. Thrale's, and been told that he had come to England chiefly with a view to see Dr. Johnson, for whom he entertained the highest veneration. He has since published A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland, a very entertaining book, which has however one fault -that it assumes the fictitious character of an Englishman. We talked of public speaking. JOHNSON: 'We must not estimate a man's powers by his being able or not able to deliver his sentiments in public. Isaac Hawkins Browne, one of the first wits of this country, got into Parliament, and never opened his mouth. For my own part, I think it is more disgraceful never to try to speak, than to try it, and fail; as it is more disgraceful not to fight, than to fight and be beaten.' This argument appeared to me fallacious; for if a man has not spoken, it may be said that he would have done very well if he had tried; whereas, if he has tried and failed, there is nothing to be said for him. 'Why then,' I asked, 'is it thought disgraceful for a man not to fight, and not disgraceful not to speak in public?' JOHNSON: Because there may be other reasons for a man's not speaking in public than want of resolution: he may have nothing to say (laughing). Whereas, sir, you know courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.' He observed, that 'the statutes against bribery were intended to prevent upstarts with money from getting into Parliament;' adding, that 'if he were a gentleman of landed property, he would turn out all his tenants who did not vote for the candidate whom he supported.' LANGTON: 'Would not that, sir, be checking the freedom of election?' JOHNSON: 'Sir, the law does not mean that the privilege of voting should be independent of old family interest, of the permanent property of the country.' On Thursday, April 6, I dined with him at Mr. Thomas Davies's with Mr. Hicky, the painter, and my old acquaintance Mr. Moody, the player. Dr. Johnson, as usual, spoke contemptuously of Colley Cibber. 'It is wonderful that a man, who for forty years had lived with the great and the witty, should have acquired so ill the talents of conversation; and he had but half to furnish; for one half of what he said was oaths.' He, however, allowed considerable merit to some of his comedies, and said there was no reason to believe that The Careless Husband was not written by himself. Davies said he was the first dramatic writer who introduced genteel ladies upon the stage. Johnson refuted his observation by instancing several such characters in comedies before his time. DAVIES (trying to defend himself from a charge of ignorance): 'I mean genteel moral characters.' 'I think,' said Hicky, 'gentility and morality are inseparable.' BOSWELL: By no means, sir. The genteelest characters are often the most immoral. Does not Lord Chesterfield give precepts for uniting wickedness and the graces? A man, indeed, is not genteel when he gets drunk; but most vices may be committed very genteelly: a man may debauch his friend's wife genteelly: he may cheat at cards genteelly.' HICKY: 'I do not think that is genteel.' BosWELL: Sir, it may not be like a gentleman, but it may be genteel.' JOHNSON: You are meaning two different things. One means exterior grace; the other honour. It is certain that a man may be very immoral with exterior grace. Lovelace in Clarissa is a very genteel and a very wicked character. Tom Hervey, who died t'other day, though a vicious man, was one of the genteelest men that ever lived.' Tom Davies instanced Charles the Second. JOHNSON (taking fire at any attack upon that prince, for whom he had an extraordinary partiality): Charles the Second was licentious in his practice; but he always had a reverence for what was good. Charles the Second knew his people, and rewarded merit. The Church was at no time better filled than in his reign. He was the best king we have had from his time till the reign of his present Majesty, except James the Second, who was a very good king, but unhappily believed that it was necessary for the salvation of his subjects that they should be Roman Catholics. He had the merit of endeavouring to do what he thought was for the salvation of the souls of his subjects, till he lost a great empire. We, who thought that we should not be saved if we were Roman Catholics, had the merit of maintaining our religion, at the expense of submitting ourselves to the government of King William (for it could not be done otherwise),-to the government of one of the most worthless scoundrels that ever existed. No; Charles the Second was not such (naming another king). He did not destroy his father's will. He took money, indeed, from France: but he did not betray those over whom he ruled: he did not let the French fleet pass ours. George the First knew nothing, and desired to know nothing: did nothing, and desired to do nothing; and the only good thing that is told of him is that he wished to restore the crown to its hereditary successor.' He roared with prodigious violence against George the Second. When he ceased, Moody interjected, in an Irish tone, and with a comic look, Ah! poor George the Second.' a man as get riches as well as those who deserve them 1 in folio, of an ordinary size and print.' BosWELL: 'Such as Carte's History?' JOHNSON: 'Yes, sir, when a man writes from his own mind, he writes very rapidly. The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.' I mentioned that Dr. Thomas Campbell had come from Ireland to London principally to see Dr. Johnson. He seemed angry at this observa-rate, I should, in ten years, write nine volumes tion. DAVIES: 'Why, you know, sir, there came a man from Spain to see Livy,' and Corelli came to England to see Purcell, and when he heard he was dead, went directly back again to Italy.' JOHNSON: 'I should not have wished to be dead to disappoint Campbell, had he been so foolish as you represent him; but I should have wished to have been a hundred miles off.' This was apparently perverse; and I do believe it was not his real way of thinking: he could not but like a man who came so far to see him. He laughed with some complacency when I told him Campbell's odd expression to me concerning him: 'That having seen such a man, was a thing to talk of a century hence,'- -as if he could live so long. I argued warmly against the judges trading, and mentioned Hale as an instance of a perfect judge, who devoted himself entirely to his office. JOHNSON: 'Hale, sir, attended to other things besides law: he left a great estate.' BosWELL: That was because what he got accumulated without any exertion and anxiety on his part.' While the dispute went on, Moody once tried to say something on our side. Tom Davies clapped him on the back to encourage him. Beauclerk, to whom I mentioned this circum 1 Johnson certainly did, who had a mind stored with knowledge, and teeming with imagery: but the obser vation is not applicable to writers in general.-Bos WELL. stance, said, that he could not conceive a more humiliating situation than to be clapped on the back by Tom Davies.' JOHNSON: Why, sir, all who go to look for what the classics have said of Italy, must find the same passages: and I should think it would be one of the first things the Italians would do on the revival of learning, to collect all that the Roman authors have said of their country.' We spoke of Rolt, to whose Dictionary of Commerce Dr. Johnson wrote the preface. JOHNSON: 'Old Gardner, the bookseller, employed Rolt and Smart to write a monthly miscellany, called The Universal Visitor. There Ossian being mentioned-JOHNSON: 'Supwas a formal written contract, which Allen the posing the Irish and Erse languages to be the printer saw. Gardner thought as you do of the same, which I do not believe, yet as there is no judge. They were bound to write nothing else; reason to suppose that the inhabitants of the they were to have, I think, a third of the profits Highlands and Hebrides ever wrote their native of this sixpenny pamphlet; and the contract language, it is not to be credited that a long was for ninety-nine years.. I wish I had thought poem was preserved among them. If we had of giving this to Thurlow, in the cause about no evidence of the art of writing being practised literary property. What an excellent instance in one of the counties of England, we should would it have been of the oppression of book-not believe that a long poem was preserved sellers towards poor authors!' (smiling.) Davies, zealous for the honour of the trade, said, Gardner was not properly a bookseller. JOHNSON: Nay, sir; he certainly was a bookseller. He had served his time regularly, was a member of the Stationers' Company, kept a shop in the face of mankind, purchased copyright, and was a bibliopole, sir, in every sense. I wrote for some months in The Universal Visitor, for poor Smart, while he was mad, not then knowing the terms on which he was engaged to write, and thinking I was doing him good. I hoped his wits would soon return to him. Mine returned to me, and I wrote in The Universal Visitor no longer.' Friday, April 7, I dined with him at a tavern, with a numerous company. JOHNSON: 'I have been reading Twiss's Travels in Spain, which are just come out. They are as good as the first book of travels that you will take up. They are as good as those of Keysler or Blainville; nay, as Addison's, if you except the learning. They are not so good as Brydone's, but they are better than Pococke's. I have not, indeed, cut the leaves yet; but I have read in them where the pages are open, and I do not suppose that what is in the pages which are closed is worse than what is in the open pages.-It would seem,' he added, that Addison had not acquired much Italian learning, for we do not find it introduced into his writings. The only instance that I recollect, is his quoting Stavo bene; per star meglio, sto qui.'2 I mentioned Addison's having borrowed many of his classical remarks from Leandro Alberti. Mr. Beauclerk said, 'It was alleged that he had borrowed also from another Italian author." 1 There has probably been some mistake as to the terms of this supposed extraordinary contract, the recital of which from hearsay afforded Johnson so much play for his sportive acuteness. Or if it was worded as he supposed, it is so strange that I should conclude it was a joke. Mr. Gardner, I am assured, was a worthy and liberal man.-BOSWELL. 2 Addison, however, does not mention where this celebrated Epitaph, which has eluded a very diligent inquiry, is found.-MALONE. there, though in the neighbouring counties, where the same language was spoken, the inhabitants could write.' BEAUCLERK: 'The ballad of Lillibulero was once in the mouths of all the people of this country, and is said to have had a great effect in bringing about the Revolution. Yet I question whether anybody can repeat it now; which shows how improbable it is that much poetry should be preserved by tradition.' One of the company suggested an internal objection to the antiquity of the poetry said to be Ossian's, that we do not find the wolf in it, which must have been the case had it been of that age. The mention of the wolf had led Johnson to think of other wild beasts; and while Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Langton were carrying on a dialogue about something which engaged them earnestly, he, in the midst of it, broke out, 'Pennant tells of bears.' What he added, I have forgotten. They went on, which he, being dull of hearing, did not perceive, or, if he did, was not willing to break off his talk; so he continued to vociferate his remarks, and bear (like a word in a catch' as Beauclerk said) was repeatedly heard at intervals, which, coming from him who, by those who did not know him, had been so often assimilated to that ferocious animal, while we who were sitting around could hardly stifle laughter, produced a very ludicrous effect. Silence having ensued, he proceeded: 'We are told that the black bear is innocent; but I should not like to trust myself with him.' Mr. Gibbon muttered, in a low tone of voice, 'I should not like to trust myself with you.' This piece of sarcastic pleasantry was a prudent resolution, if applied to competition of abilities. Patriotism having become one of our topics, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong, determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start Patriotism is the last refuge of a 1 But if you find the same applications in another book, then Addison's learning falls to the ground. Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, ut supra.-MALONE. |