By the time when we returned to Ashbourne, Dr. Taylor was gone to bed. Johnson and I sat up a long time by ourselves. He was much diverted with an article which I showed him in the Critical Review of this year, giving an account of a curious publication, entitled, A Spiritual Diary and Soliloquies, by John Rutty, M.D. Dr. Rutty was one of the people called Quakers, a physician of some eminence in Dublin, and author of several works. This Diary, which was kept from 1753 to 1775, the year in which he died, and was now published in two volumes octavo, exhibited, in the simplicity of his heart, a minute and honest register of the state of his mind; which, though frequently laughable enough, was not more so than the history of many men would be, if recorded with equal fairness. tolerable credit, who have given importance to their own private history by an intermixture of literary anecdotes, and the occurrences of their own times: the celebrated Huetius has published an entertaining volume upon this plan, "De rebus ad eum pertinentibus." In the fourth class we have the journalists, temporal and spiritual: Elias Ashmole, William Lilly, George Whitefield, John Wesley, and a thousand other old women and fanatic writers of memoirs and meditations.' I mentioned to him that Dr. Hugh Blair, in his lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, which I heard him deliver at Edinburgh, had animadverted on the Johnsonian style as too pompous; and attempted to imitate it, by giving a sentence of Addison in the Spectator, No. 411, in the manner of Johnson. When The following specimens were extracted by treating of the utility of the pleasures of imathe Reviewers : 'Tenth month, 1753. '23. Indulgence in bed an hour too long. nubilation from wind and indigestion. First month, 1757-22. A little swinish at dinner and repast. 31. Dogged on provocation. gination in preserving us from vice, it is observed of those who know not how to be idle and innocent,' that 'their very first step out of business is into vice or folly, which Dr. Blair supposed would have been expressed in the Rambler thus: "Their very first step out of the regions of business is into the perturbation of vice or the vacuity of folly.' JOHNSON: 'Sir, these are not the words I should have used. No, sir; the imitators of my style have 1 'Second month, 5. Very dogged or snappish. not hit it. Miss Aikin has done it the best; for 14. Snappish on fasting. she has imitated the sentiment as well as the diction.' I intend, before this work is concluded, to exhibit specimens of imitation of my friend's style in various modes; some caricaturing or mimicking it, and some formed upon it, whether intentionally or with a degree of similarity to it, of which, perhaps, the writers were not con Fourth month, 29. Mechanically and sinfully scious. dogged.' Johnson laughed heartily at this good quietist's self-condemning minutes; particularly at his mentioning, with such a serious regret, occasional instances of 'swinishness in eating, and doggedness of temper.' He thought the observations of the Critical Reviewers upon the importance of a man to himself so ingenious and so well expressed, that I shall here introduce them. After observing, that there are few writers who have gained any reputation by recording their own actions,' they say: In Baretti's Review, which he published in Italy under the title of 'FRUSTA LETTERARIA,' it is observed that Dr. Robertson, the historian, had formed his style upon that of Il célèbre Samuele Johnson.' My friend himself was of that opinion; for he once said to me, in a pleasant humour, 'Sir, if Robertson's style be faulty, he owes it to me; that is, having too many words, and those too big ones.' I read to him a letter which Lord Monboddo had written to me, containing some critical remarks upon the style of his Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. His Lordship praised the very fine passage upon landing at Icolmkill; but his own style being exceedingly dry and hard, he disapproved of the richness of 'We may reduce the egotists to four classes. In the first we have Julius Cæsar: he relates his own transactions; but he relates them with peculiar grace and dignity, and his narrative is supported by the greatness of his character and achievements. In the second class we have Marcus Antoninus: this writer has given us a series of reflections on his own life; but his sentiments are so noble, his morality so sublime, appeared, in which his style was considerably easier that his meditations are universally admired. In the third class we have some others of I When Dr. Blair published his Lectures, he was invidiously attacked for having omitted his censure on Johnson's style, and, on the contrary, praising it highly. But before that time Johnson's Lives of the Poets had than when he wrote The Rambler. It would therefore have been uncandid in Blair, even supposing his criticism to have been just, to have preserved it.-BOSWELL Johnson's language, and of his frequent use of metaphorical expressions. JOHNSON: Why, sir, this criticism would be just, if, in my style, superfluous words, or words too big for the thoughts, could be pointed out; but this I do not believe can be done. For instance, in the passage which Lord Monboddo admires, "We were now treading that illustrious region," the word illustrious contributes nothing to the mere narration; for the fact might be told without it: but it is not therefore superfluous; for it wakes the mind to peculiar attention where something of more than usual importance is to be presented. "Illustrious!"-for what? and then the sentence proceeds to expand the circumstances connected with Iona. And, sir, as to metaphorical expression, that is a great excellence in style, when it is used with propriety, for it gives you two ideas for one; conveys the meaning more luminously, and generally with a perception of delight.' He told me that he had been asked to undertake the new edition, of The Biographia Britannica, but had declined it; which he afterwards said to me he regretted. In this regret many will join, because it would have procured us more of Johnson's most delightful species of writing; and although my friend Dr. Kippis1 has hitherto discharged the task judiciously, distinctly, and with more impartiality than might have been expected from a Separatist, it were to have been wished that the superintendence of this literary Temple of Fame had been assigned to a friend to the constitution in Church and State.' We should not then have had it too much crowded with obscure dissenting teachers, doubtless men of merit and worth, but not quite to be numbered amongst 'the most eminent persons who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland.' 2 12 'After having given to the public the first five volumes of a new edition of The Biographia Britannica, between the years 1778 and 1793, Dr. Kippis died, October 8, 1795; and the work is not likely to be soon completed.-MALONE. * In this censure, which has been carelessly uttered, I carelessly joined. But in justice to Dr. Kippis, who, with that manly, candid good temper which marks his character, set me right, I now with pleasure retract it; and I desire it may be particularly observed, as pointed out by him to me, that The new lives of dissenting divines, in the first four volumes of the second edition of The Biographia Britannica, are those of John Abernethy, Thomas Amory, George Benson, Hugh Broughton (the learned Puritan), Simon Browne, Joseph Boyse (of Dublin), Thomas Cartwright (the learned Puritan), and Samuel Chandler. The only doubt I have ever heard suggested is, whether there should have been an article of Dr. Amory. But I was convinced, and am still convinced, that he was entitled to one, from the reality of his learning, and the excellent and candid nature of his practical writings. *The new lives of clergymen of the Church of England, in the same four volumes, are as follows:-John Balguy, Edward Bentham, George Berkeley (Bishop of On Saturday, September 20, after breakfast, when Taylor was gone out to his farm, Dr. Johnson and I had a serious conversation by ourselves on melancholy and madness; which he was, I always thought, erroneously inclined to confound together. Melancholy, like 'great wit,' may be near allied to madness:' but there is, in my opinion, a distinct separation between them. When he talked of madness, he was to be understood as speaking of those who were in any great degree disturbed, or, as it is commonly expressed, 'troubled in mind.' Some of the ancient philosophers held that all deviations from right reason were madness; and whoever wishes to see the opinions both of ancients and moderns upon this subject, collected and illustrated with a variety of curious facts, may read Dr. Arnold's very entertaining work.' Johnson said, 'A madman loves to be with people whom he fears; not as a dog fears the lash, but of whom he stands in awe.' I was struck with the justness of this observation. To be with those of whom a person, whose mind is wavering and dejected, stands in awe, represses and composes an uneasy tumult of spirits,2 and consoles him with the contemplation of something steady, and at least comparatively great. He added, 'Madmen are all sensual in the lower stages of the distemper. They are eager for gratifications to soothe their minds, and divert their attention from the misery which they suffer; but when they grow very ill, pleasure is too weak for them, and they seek for pain. Employment, sir, and hardships preCloyne), William Berriman, Thomas Birch, William Borlase, Thomas Bott, James Bradley, Thomas Broughton, John Brown, John Burton, Joseph Butler (Bishop of Durham), Thomas Carte, Edmund Castell, Edmund Chishull, Charles Churchill, William Clarke, Robert Clayton (Bishop of Clogher), John Conybeare (Bishop of Bristol), George Castard, and Samuel Croxall.-I am not conscious,' says Dr. Kippis, 'of any partiality in conducting the work. I would not willingly insert a dissenting minister that does not justly deserve to be noticed, or omit an established clergyman that does. At the same time, I shall not be deterred from introducing dissenters into The Biographia, when I am satisfied that they are entitled to that distinction, from their writings, learning, and merit.' Let me add that the expression, A friend to the constitution in Church and State,' was not meant by me as any reflection upon this reverend gentleman, as if he were an enemy to the political constitution of his country, as established at the Revolution, but, from my steady and avowed predilection for a Tory, was quoted from Johnson's Dictionary, where that distinction is so defined.-BosWELL. 1 Observations on Insanity, by Thomas Arnold, M.D., London, 1782.-BOSWELL. 2 Cardan composed his mind, tending to madness (or rather actually mad, for such he seems in his writings, learned as they are), by exciting voluntary pain. V. Card. Op. et Vit.-KEARNEY. 3 We read in the Gospels, that those unfortunate persons who were possessed with evil spirits (which, after all, I think is the most probable cause of madness vent melancholy. I suppose in all our army in America there was not one man who went mad.' We entered seriously upon a question of much importance to me, which Johnson was pleased to consider with friendly attention. I had long complained to him that I felt myself discontented in Scotland, as too narrow a sphere, and that I wished to make my chief residence in London, the great scene of ambition, instruction, and amusement: a scene which was to me, comparatively speaking, a heaven upon earth. JOHNSON: Why, sir, I never knew any one who had such a gust for London as you have, and I cannot blame you for your wish to live there; yet, sir, were I in your father's place, I should not consent to your settling there; for I have the old feudal notions, and I should be afraid that Auchinleck would be deserted, as you would soon find it more desirable to have a country-seat in a better climate. I own, however, that to consider it as a duty to reside on a family estate is a prejudice; for we must consider that working-people get employment equally, and the produce of the land is sold equally, whether a great family resides at home or not; and if the rents of an estate be carried to London, they return again in the circulation of commerce; nay, sir, we must perhaps allow, that carrying the rents to a distance is a good, because it contributes to that circulation. We must, however, allow that a well-regulated great family may improve a neighbourhood in civility and elegance, and give an example of good order, virtue, and piety; and so its residence at home may be of much advantage. But if a great family be disorderly and vicious, its residence at home is very pernicious to a neighbourhood. There is not now the same inducement to live in the country as formerly; the pleasures of social life are much better enjoyed in town; and there is no longer in the country that power and influence in proprietors of land which they had in old times, and which made the country so agreeable to them. The Laird of Auchinleck now is not near so great a man as the Laird of Auchinleck was a hundred years ago.' I told him, that one of my ancestors never went from home without being attended by as was first suggested to me by my respectable friend Sir John Pringle) had recourse to pain, tearing themselves, and jumping sometimes into the fire, sometimes into the water. Mr. Seward has furnished me with a remarkable anecdote in confirmation of Dr. Johnson's observation. A tradesman, who had acquired a large fortune in London, retired from business, and went to live at Worcester. His mind, being without its usual occupation, and having nothing else to supply its place, preyed upon itself, so that existence was a torment to him. At last he was seized with the stone; and a friend who found him in one of its severest fits, having ex pressed his concern, ‘No, no, sir,' said he, 'don't pity me; what I now feel is ease, compared with that torture of mind from which it relieves me.'-BOSWELL. thirty men on horseback. Johnson's shrewdness and spirit of inquiry were exerted upon every occasion. 'Pray,' said he, 'how did your ances tor support his thirty men and thirty horses when he went at a distance from home, in an age when there was hardly any money in circulation?' I suggested the same difficulty to a friend who mentioned Douglas's going to the Holy Land with a numerous train of followers. Douglas could, no doubt, maintain followers enough while living upon his own lands, the produce of which supplied them with food; but he could not carry that food to the Holy Land; and as there was no commerce by which he could be supplied with money, how could he maintain them in foreign countries? I suggested a doubt, that if I were to reside in London, the exquisite zest with which I relished it in occasional visits might go off, and I might grow tired of it. JOHNSON: 'Why, sir, you find no man at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.' To obviate his apprehension, that by settling in London I might desert the seat of my ancestors, I assured him that I had old feudal principles to a degree of enthusiasm; and that I felt all the dulcedo of the natale solum. I reminded him that the Laird of Auchinleck had an elegant house, in front of which he could ride ten miles forward upon his own territories, upon which he had upwards of six hundred people attached to him; that the family seat was rich in natural romantic beauties of rock, wood, and water; and that in my 'morn of life' I had appropriated the finest descriptions in the ancient classics to certain scenes there, which were thus associated in my mind. That when all this was considered, I should certainly pass a part of the year at home, and enjoy it the more from variety, and from bringing with me a share of the intellectual stores of the metropolis. He listened to all this, and kindly hoped it might be as I now supposed.' He said, a country gentleman should bring his lady to visit London as soon as he can, that they may have agreeable topics for conversation when they are by themselves. As I meditated trying my fortune in Westminster Hall, our conversation turned upon the profession of the law in England. JOHNSON: 'You must not indulge too sanguine hopes, should you be called to our bar. I was told, by a very sensible lawyer, that there are a great many chances against any man's success in the profession of the law; the candidates are so numerous, and those who get large practice so few. He said it was by no means true that a man of good parts and application is sure of having business, though he indeed allowed that if such a man could but appear in a few causes, his merit would be known, and he would get forward; but that the great risk was, that a man might pass half a lifetime in the courts and never have an opportunity of showing his abilities.'1 We talked of employment being absolutely necessary to preserve the mind from wearying and growing fretful, especially in those who have a tendency to melancholy; and I mentioned to him a saying which somebody had related of an American savage, who, when a European was expatiating on all the advantages of money, put this question: Will it purchase occupation?' JOHNSON: 'Depend upon it, sir, this saying is too refined for a savage. And, sir, money will purchase occupation; it will purchase all the conveniences of life; it will purchase variety of company; it will purchase all sorts of entertainment.' I talked to him of Forster's Voyage to the South Seas, which pleased me; but I found he did not like it. 'Sir,' said he, there is a great affectation of fine writing in it.' BOSWELL: 'But he carries you along with him.' JOHNSON: 'No, sir; he does not carry me along with him; he leaves me behind him; or rather, indeed, he sets me before him, for he makes me turn over many leaves at a time!' are by no means sufficiently clerical; this he knows that see; and no man likes to live under the eye of perpetual disapprobation.' I have no doubt that a good many sermons were composed for Taylor by Johnson. At this time I found, upon his table, a part of one which he had newly begun to write; and Concio pro Tayloro appears in one of his diaries. When to these circumstances we add the internal evidence from the power of thinking and style in the collection which the Reverend Mr. Hayes had published, with the significant title of Sermons left for publication by the Reverend John Taylor, LL.D.,' our conviction will be complete. I, however, would not have it thought that Dr. Taylor, though he could not write like Johnson (as, indeed, who could?), did not sometimes compose sermons as good as those which we generally have from very respectable divines. He showed me one with notes on the margin in Johnson's handwriting; and I was present when he read another to Johnson, that he might have his opinion of it, and Johnson said it was very well.' These, we may be sure, were not Johnson's; for he was above little arts or tricks of deception. Johnson was by no means of opinion, that On Sunday, September 21, we went to the every man of a learned profession should conchurch of Ashbourne, which is one of the largest sider it as incumbent upon him, or as necessary and most luminous that I have seen in any town to his credit, to appear as an author. When, in of the same size. I felt great satisfaction in the ardour of ambition for literary fame, I reconsidering that I was supported in my fond-gretted to him one day that an eminent judge ness for solemn public worship by the general concurrence and munificence of mankind. Johnson and Taylor were so different from each other, that I wondered at their preserving an intimacy. Their having been at school and college together, might in some degree account for this; but Sir Joshua Reynolds has furnished me with a stronger reason; for Johnson mentioned to him that he had been told by Taylor he was to be his heir. I shall not take upon me to animadvert upon this; but certain it is that Johnson paid great attention to Taylor. He now, however, said to me, 'Sir, I love him; but I do not love him more; my regard for him does not increase. As it is said in the Apocrypha, "his talk is of bullocks."2 I do not suppose he is very fond of my company. His habits 1 Now, at the distance of fifteen years since this conversation passed, the observation which I have had an opportunity of making in Westminster Hall has convinced me that, however true the opinion of Dr. Johnson's legal friend may have been some time ago, the same certainty of success cannot now be promised to the same display of merit. The reasons, however, of the rapid rise of some, and the disappointment of others equally respectable, are such as it might seem invidious to mention, and would require a longer detail than would be proper for this work-BOSWELL. * Ecclesiasticus, chap. xxxviii. v. 25. The whole chapter may be read as an admirable illustration of the superiority of cultivated minds over the gross and Ulterate.-BosWELL. had nothing of it, and therefore would leave no perpetual monument of himself to posterity; Alas, sir,' said Johnson, 'what a mass of confusion should we have, if every bishop, and every judge, every lawyer, physician, and divine, were to write books!' I mentioned to Johnson a respectable person of a very strong mind, who had little of that tenderness which is common to human nature; as an instance of which, when I suggested to him that he should invite his son, who had been settled ten years in foreign parts, to come home and pay him a visit, his answer was, 'No, no; let him mind his business.' JOHNSON: 'I do not agree with him, sir, in this. Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.' In the evening, Johnson, being in very good spirits, entertained us with several characteristical portraits; I regret that any of them escaped my retention and diligence. I found from experience, that to collect my friend's conversation so as to exhibit it with any degree of its original flavour, it was necessary to write it down without delay. To record his sayings, after some distance of time, was like preserving or pickling long-kept and faded fruits, or other vegetables, which, when in that state, have little or nothing of their taste when fresh. I shall present my readers with a series of what I gathered this evening from the John- getting £100,000 a proof of excellence? That sonian garden 'My friend, the late Earl of Cork, had a great desire to maintain the literary character of his family; he was a genteel man, but did not keep up the dignity of his rank. He was so generally civil, that nobody thanked him for it.' 'Did we not hear so much said of Jack Wilkes, we should think more highly of his conversation. Jack has a great variety of talk; Jack is a scholar, and Jack has the manners of a gentleman. But after hearing his name sounded from pole to pole, as the phoenix of convivial felicity, we are disappointed in his company. He has always been at me: but I would do Jack a kindness, rather than not. The contest is now over.' 'Garrick's gaiety of conversation has delicacy and elegance Foote makes you laugh more; but Foote has the air of a buffoon paid for entertaining the company. He, indeed, well deserves his hire.' 'Colley Cibber once consulted me as to one of his Birth-day Odes, a long time before it was wanted. I objected very freely to several passages. Cibber lost patience, and would not read his ode to an end. When we had done with criticism, we walked over to Richardson's, the author of Clarissa, and I wondered to find Richardson displeased that I "did not treat Cibber with more respect." Now, sir, to talk of respect for a player!' (smiling disdainfully.) BOSWELL: 'There, sir, you are always heretical; you never will allow merit to a player.' JOHNSON: Merit, sir; what merit? Do you respect a rope-dancer or a ballad-singer?' BosWELL: 'No, sir; but we respect a great player, as a man who can conceive lofty sentiments, and can express them gracefully.' JOHNSON: 'What, sir, a fellow who claps a hump on his back, and a lump on his leg, and cries, "I am Richard the Third?" Nay, sir, a ballad-singer is a higher man, for he does two things: he repeats and he sings. There is both recitation and music in his performance; the player only recites.' BOSWELL: 'My dear sir, you may turn anything into ridicule. I allow that a player of farce is not entitled to respect; he does a little thing but he who can represent exalted characters, and touch the noblest passions, has very respectable powers; and mankind have agreed in admiring great talents for the stage. We must consider, too, that a great player does what very few are capable to do: his art is a very rare faculty. Who can repeat Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be, or not to be," as Garrick does it?' JOHNSON: 'Anybody may. Jemmy there (a boy about eight years old, who was in the room) will do it as well in a week.' BOSWELL: 'No, no, sir; and as a proof of the merit of great acting, and of the value which mankind set upon it, Garrick has got £100,000.' JOHNSON: 'Is has been done by a scoundrel commissary.' This was most fallacious reasoning. I was sure, for once, that I had the best side of the argument. I boldy maintained the just distinction between a tragedian and a mere theatrical droll; between those who rouse our terror and pity, and those who only make us laugh. 'If,' said I, 'Betterton and Foote were to walk into this room, you would respect Betterton much more than Foote.' JOHNSON: If Betterton were to walk into this room with Foote, Foote would soon drive him out of it. Foote, sir, quatenus Foote, has powers superior to them all.' CHAPTER XLII. 1777-1778. ON Monday, September 22, when at breakfast, I unguardedly said to Dr. Johnson, 'I wish I saw you and Mrs. Macaulay together.' He grew very angry; and after a pause, while a cloud gathered on his brow, he burst out, 'No, sir, you would not see us quarrel, to make you sport. Don't you know that it is very uncivil to pit two people against one another?'-Then, checking himself, and wishing to be more gentle, he added, 'I do not say you should be hanged or drowned for this: but it is very uncivil.' Dr. Taylor thought him in the wrong, and spoke to him privately of it; but I afterwards acknowledged to Johnson that I was to blame, for I candidly owned that I meant to express a desire to see a contest between Mrs. Macaulay and him; but then I knew how the contest would end; so that I was to see him in triumph. JOHNSON: Sir, you cannot be sure how a contest will end; and no man has a right to engage two people in a dispute by which their passions may be inflamed, and they may part with bitter resentment against each other. I would sooner keep company with a man from whom I must guard my pockets, than with a man who contrives to bring me into a dispute with somebody that he may hear it. This is the great fault of (naming one of our friends), endeavouring to introduce a subject upon which he knows two people in the company differ.' BOSWELL: 'But he told me, sir, he does it for instruction.' JOHNSON: Whatever the motive be, sir, the man who does so, does very wrong. He has no more right to instruct himself at such risk, than he has to make two people fight a duel, that he may learn how to defend himself.' He found great fault with a gentleman of our acquaintance for keeping a bad table. Sir,' said he, when a man is invited to dinner, he is disappointed if he does not get something good. I advised Mrs. Thrale, who has no card-parties at her house, to give sweetmeats, and such good things, in an evening, as are not commonly given. |