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THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON.

I boasted improperly, resolved to have a witty stroke at me: 'Nay, sir, it was not the wine that made your head ache, but the sense that I put into it.' BoSWELL: 'What, sir; will sense make the head ache?' JOHNSON: 'Yes, sir (with a smile), when it is not used to it.'-No man who has a true relish of pleasantry could be offended at this; especially if Johnson in a long intimacy had given him repeated proofs of his regard and good estimation. I used to say, that as he had given me £1000 in praise, he had a good right now and then to take a guinea from me.

On Thursday, April 8, I dined with him at Mr. Allan Ramsay's, with Lord Graham and some other company. We talked of Shakspeare's witches. JOHNSON: 'They are beings of his own creation; they are a compound of malignity and meanness, without any abilities; and are quite different from the Italian magician. King James says, in his Dæmonology, "Magicians command the devils: witches are their servants." The Italian magicians are elegant beings.' RAMSAY: 'Opera witches, not Drury Lane witches.' Johnson observed, that abilities might be employed in a narrow sphere, as in getting money, which he said he believed no man could do, without vigorous parts, though concentrated to a point. RAMSAY: 'Yes, like a strong horse in a mill, he pulls better.'

Lord Graham, while he praised the beauty of Loch Lomond, on the banks of which is his family seat, complained of the climate, and said he could not bear it. JOHNSON: Nay, my Lord, don't talk so; you may bear it well enough. Your ancestors have borne it more years than I can tell.' This was a handsome compliment to the antiquity of the House of Montrose. His Lordship told me afterwards, that he had only affected to complain of the climate; lest, if he had spoken as favourably of his country as he really thought, Dr. Johnson might have attacked it. Johnson was very courteous to Lady Margaret Macdonald. 'Madam,' said he, when I was in the Isle of Skye, I heard of the people running to take the stones off the road, lest Lady Margaret's horse should stumble.'

405

'The result is, that order is better than confusion.' JOHNSON: The result is, that order cannot be had but by subordination.'

On Friday, April 16, I had been present at the trial of the unfortunate Mr. Hackman, who, in a fit of frantic jealous love, had shot Miss Ray, the favourite of a nobleman. Johnson, in whose company I had dined to-day with some other friends, was much interested by my account of what passed, and particularly with his prayer for the mercy of heaven. He said, in a solemn fervid tone, 'I hope he shall find mercy.'

This day a violent altercation arose between Johnson and Beauclerk [at the club], which having made much noise at the time, I think it proper, in order to prevent any future misrepresentation, to give a minute account of it.

In talking of Hackman, Johnson argued, as Judge Blackstone had done, that his being furnished with two pistols was a proof that he meant to shoot two persons. Mr. Beauclerk said, 'No; for that every wise man who intended to shoot himself took two pistols, that he might be sure of doing it at once. Lord -'s cook shot himself with one pistol, and lived ten days in great agony. Mr. who loved buttered muffins, but durst not eat them because they disagreed with his stomach, resolved to shoot himself; and then he eat three buttered muffins for breakfast, before shooting himself, knowing that he should not be troubled with indigestion: he had two charged pistols; one was found lying charged upon the table by him, after he had shot himself with the other.'-' Well,' said Johnson, with an air of triumph, 'you see here one pistol was sufficient.' Beauclerk replied smartly, 'Because it happened to kill him.' And either then or very little afterwards, being piqued at Johnson's triumphant remark, added, 'This is what you don't know, and I do.' There was then a cessation of the dispute; and some minutes intervened, during which dinner and the glass went on cheerfully; when Johnson suddenly and abruptly exclaimed, 'Mr. Beauclerk, how came you to talk so petulantly to me, as, "This is what you don't know, but what I know?" One thing I know, which you don't seem to know, that you are very uncivil.' BEAUCLERK: Because you began by being uncivil (which you always are).' The words in parentheses were, I believe, not heard by Dr. Johnson. Here again there was a cessation of arms. Johnson told me that the reason why he waited at first some time without taking any notice of what Mr. Beauclerk said, was because he was thinking whether he should resent it. But when he considered that there were present a young Lord and an eminent traveller, two men of the world with whom he had never dined before, he was apprehensive that they might think they had a right to take such liberties with him a

Lord Graham commended Dr. Drummond at Naples as a man of extraordinary talents; and aided, that he had a great love of liberty. JOHNSON: 'He is young, my Lord (looking to his Lordship with an arch smile); all boys love liberty, till experience convinces them they are not so fit to govern themselves as they imagined. We are all agreed as to our own liberty: we would have as much of it as we can get; but we are not agreed as to the liberty of others; for in proportion as we take, others must loose. I believe we hardly wish that the mob should have liberty to govern us. When that was the case some time ago, no man was at liberty not to have candles in his windows.' RAMSAY:

Beauclerk did, and therefore resolved he would not let it pass; adding, 'that he would not appear a coward.' A little while after this, the conversation turned on the violence of Hackman's temper. Johnson then said, 'It was his business to command his temper, as my friend Mr. Beauclerk should have done some time ago.' BEAUCLERK: 'I should learn of you, sir.' JOHNSON: 'Sir, you have given me opportunities enough of learning, when I have been in your company. No man loves to be treated with contempt.' BEAUCLERK (with a polite inclination toward Johnson): 'Sir, you have known me twenty years, and however I may have treated others, you may be sure I could never treat you with contempt.' JOHNSON: Sir, you have said more than was necessary.' Thus it ended; and Beauclerk's coach not having come for him till very late, Dr. Johnson and another gentleman sat with him a long time after the rest of the company were gone; and he and I dined at Beauclerk's on the Saturday se'nnight following. After this tempest had subsided, I recollect the following particulars of his conversation:'I am always for getting a boy forward in his learning, for that is a sure good. I would let him at first read any English book which happens to engage his attention; because you have done a great deal when you have brought him to have entertainment from a book. He'll get better books afterwards.'

'Mallet, I believe, never wrote a single line of his projected Life of the Duke of Marlborough. He groped for materials, and thought of it till he had exhausted his mind. Thus it sometimes happens that men entangle themselves in their own schemes.'

'To be contradicted in order to force you to talk is mighty unpleasing. You shine, indeed; but it is by being ground.'

Of a gentleman who made some figure among the Literati of his time (Mr. Fitzherbert), he said, 'What eminence he had was by a felicity of manner; he had no more learning than what he could not help.'

know, sir, is the cordial drop, "to make the nauseous draught of life go down;" but if the draught be not nauseous, if it be all sweet, there is no occasion for that drop.' JOHNSON: Many men would not be content to live so. I hope I should not. They would wish to have an | intimate friend, with whom they might compare minds and cherish private virtues.' One of the company mentioned Lord Chesterfield as a man who had no friend. JOHNSON: "There were more materials to make friendship in Garrick, had he not been so diffused.' BOSWELL: 'Garrick was pure gold, but beat out to thin leaf. Lord Chesterfield was tinsel.' JOHNSON: 'Garrick was a very good man, the most cheerful man of his age; a decent liver in a profession which is supposed to give indulgence to licentiousness; and a man who gave away, freely, money acquired by himself. He began the world with a great hunger for money; the son of a half-pay officer, bred in a family whose study was to make fourpence do as much as others made fourpence halfpenny do. But when he had got money he was very liberal.' I presumed to animadvert on his eulogy on Garrick in his Lives of the Poets. "You say, sir, his death eclipsed the gaiety of nations.' JOHNSON: 'I could not have said more or less. It is the truth; eclipsed, not extinguished; and his death did eclipse: it was like a storm.' BosWELL: 'But why nations? Did his gaiety extend further than his own nation?' JOHNSON: Why, sir, some exaggeration must be allowed. Besides, nations may be said-if we allow the Scotch to be a nation-to have gaiety-which they have not. You are an exception, though. Come, gentlemen, let us candidly admit that there is one Scotchman who is cheerful.' BEAUCLERK But he is a very unnatural Scotch

man.

I, however, continued to think the compliment to Garrick hyperbolically untrue. His acting had ceased some time before his death; at any rate he had acted in Ireland but a short time, at an early period of his life, and never in Scotland. I objected also to what On Saturday, April 24, I dined with him at appears an anti-climax of praise, when conMr. Beauclerk's, with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. trasted with the preceding panegyric, and Jones (afterwards Sir William), Mr. Langton, diminished the public stock of harmless pleaMr. Steevens, Mr. Paradise, and Dr. Higgins. sure!' 'Is not harmless pleasure very tame?' I mentioned that Mr. Wilkes had attacked JOHNSON: 'Nay, sir, harmless pleasure is the Garrick to me as a man who had no friend.highest praise. Pleasure is a word of dubious JOHNSON: 'I believe he is right, sir. [O: pixo, où piλos]-He had friends, but no friend. Garrick was so diffused, he had no man to whom he wished to unbosom himself. He found people always ready to applaud him, and that always for the same thing; so he saw life with great | uniformity.' I took upon me, for once, to fight with Goliath's weapons, and play the sophist.'Garrick did not need a friend, as he got from everybody all that he wanted. What is a friend? One who supports you and comforts you, while others do not. Friendship, you

import; pleasure is, in general, dangerous, and pernicious to virtue. To be able, therefore, to furnish pleasure that is harmless, pleasure pure and unalloyed, is as great a power as man can possess.' This was, perhaps, as ingenious a defence as could be made; still, however, I was not satisfied.

A celebrated wit being mentioned, he said, 'One may say of him as was said of a French wit, Il n'a de l'esprit que contre Dieu. I have been several times in company with him, but never perceived any strong power of wit. He

produces a general effect by various means; he ren; nay, there would be no harm in that view has a cheerful countenance and a gay voice. though children should at a certain age eat their Besides, his trade is wit. It would be as wild parents.' JOHNSON: But, sir, if this were in him to come into company without merri-known generally to be the case, parents would ment, as for a highwayman to take the road not have affection for children.' BOSWELL: without his pistols.'

Talking of the effects of drinking, he said, 'Drinking may be practised with great prudence; a man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk; a sober man, who happens occasionally to get drunk, readily enough goes into a new company, which a man who has been drinking should never do. Such a man will undertake anything; he is without skill in inebriation. I used to slink home when I had drunk too much. A man accustomed to self-examination will be conscious when he is drunk, though an habitual drunkard will not be conscious of it. I knew a physician who for twenty years was not sober; yet in a pamphlet, which he wrote upon fevers, he appealed to Garrick and me for his vindication from a charge of drunkenness. A bookseller (naming him2), who got a large fortune by trade, was so habitually and equally drunk, that his most intimate friends never perceived that he was more sober at one time than another.'

Talking of celebrated and successful irregular practisers in physic, he said, 'Taylor was the most ignorant man I ever knew, but sprightly; Ward the dullest. Taylor challenged me once to talk Latin with him (laughing). I quoted some of Horace, which he took to be part of my own speech. He said a few words well enough.' BEAUCLERK: 'I remember, sir, you said that Taylor was an instance how far impudence could carry ignorance.' Mr. Beauclerk was very entertaining this day, and told us a number of short stories in a lively and elegant manner, and with that air of the world which has I know not what impressive effect, as if there were something more than is expressed, or than, perhaps, we could perfectly understand. As Johnson and I accompanied Sir Joshua Reynolds in his coach, Johnson said, 'There is in Beauclerk a predominance over his company that one does not like. But he is a man who has lived so much in the world, that he has a short story on every occasion; he is always ready to talk, and is never exhausted.'

Johnson and I passed the evening at Miss Reynolds's, Sir Joshua's sister. I mentioned that an eminent friend of ours, talking of the common remark that affection descends, said that this was wisely contrived for the preservation of mankind; for which it was not so necessary that there should be affection from children to parents, as from parents to child

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1 Dr. James.

2 Andrew Miller.

'True, sir; for it is in expectation of a return that parents are so attentive to their children; and I know a very pretty instance of a little girl of whom her father was very fond, who once, when he was in a melancholy fit, and had gone to bed, persuaded him to rise in good humour by saying, "My dear papa, please to get up, and let me help you on with your clothes, that I may learn to do it when you are an old man.

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Soon after this time a little incident occurred which I will not suppress, because I am desirous that my work should be, as much as is consistent with the strictest truth, an antidote to the false and injurious notions of his character which have been given by others, and therefore I infuse every drop of genuine sweetness into my biographical cup.

'TO DR. JOHNSON.

'SOUTH AUDLEY STREET, Monday, April 26. 'MY DEAR SIR,-I am in great pain with an inflamed foot, and obliged to keep my bed, so am prevented from having the pleasure to dine at Mr. Ramsay's to-day, which is very hard; and my spirits are sadly sunk. Will you be so friendly as to come and sit an hour with me in the evening.-I am, ever your most faithful and affectionate humble servant,

'JAMES BOSWELL.'

'TO MR. BOSWELL.

'HARLEY STREET.

'Mr. Johnson laments the absence of Mr. Boswell, and will come to him.'

He came to me in the evening, and brought Sir Joshua Reynolds. I need scarcely say that their conversation, while they sat by my bedside, was the most pleasing opiate to pain that could have been administered.

Johnson, being now better disposed to obtain information concerning Pope than he was last year, sent by me to my Lord Marchmont a present of those volumes of his Lives of the Poets, which were at this time published, with a request to have permission to wait on him; and his Lordship, who had called on him twice, obligingly appointed Saturday, the 1st of May, for receiving us.

On that morning, Johnson came to me from Streatham, and, after drinking chocolate at General Paoli's, in South Audley Street, we proceeded to Lord Marchmont's, in Curzon Street. His Lordship met us at the door of his

The Chevalier Taylor, the celebrated oculist. library, and with great politeness said to John

MALONE.

• Probably Burke.

son, I am not going to make an encomium upon myself, by telling you the high respect I have

for you, sir.' Johnson was exceedingly courteous, and the interview, which lasted about two hours, during which the earl communicated his anecdotes of Pope, was as agreeable as I I could have wished. When we came out, I said to Johnson, that, considering his Lordship's civility, I should have been vexed if he had again failed to come. 'Sir,' said he, 'I would rather have given twenty pounds than not have come.' I accompanied him to Streatham, where we dined, and returned to town in the evening.

On Monday, May 3, I dined with him at Mr. Dilly's. I pressed him this day for his opinion on the passage in Parnell, concerning which I had in vain questioned him in several letters, and at length obtained it in due form of law :

'Case for DR. JOHNSON's opinion:

'3d of May 1779.

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Mr. Wesley being in the course of his mini

'PARNELL, in his Hermit, has the following stry at Edinburgh, I presented this letter to

passage:

"To clear this doubt, to know the world by sight, To find if books and swains report it right; (For yet by swains alone the world he knew, Whose feet came wandering o'er the nightly dew)." Is there not a contradiction in its being first supposed that the Hermit knew both what books and swains reported of the world; yet afterwards said that he knew it by swains alone?' 'I think it an inaccuracy. He mentions two instructors in the first line, and says he had only one in the next.'

This evening I set out for Scotland.

TO MRS. LUCY PORTER, IN LICHFIELD.

'May 4, 1779. 'DEAR MADAM,-Mr. Green has informed me that you are much better; I hope I need not tell you that I am glad of it. I cannot boast of being much better; my old nocturnal complaint still pursues me, and my respiration is difficult, though much easier than when I left you the summer before last. Mr. and Mrs. Thrale are well; Miss has been a little indisposed, but she has got well again. They have since the loss of their boy had two daughters; but they seem likely to want a son.

'I hope you had some books which I sent you. I was sorry for poor Mrs. Adey's death, and am afraid you will be sometimes solitary; but endeavour, whether alone or in company, to keep yourself cheerful. My friends likewise die very fast; but such is the state of man.-I am, dear love, your most humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

He had, before I left London, resumed the conversation concerning the appearance of a ghost at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which Mr. John Wesley believed, but to which Johnson did not give credit. I was, however, desirous to examine the question closely, and at the same

him, and was very politely received. I begged to have it returned to me, which was accordingly done. His state of the evidence as to the ghost did not satisfy me.

CHAPTER L. 1779.

I DID not write to Johnson, as usual, upon my return to my family, but tried how he would be affected by my silence. Mr. Dilly sent me a copy of a note which he received from him on the 13th of July, in these words :

'TO MR. DILLY.

'SIR,-Since Mr. Boswell's departure, I have never heard from him; please to send word what you know of him, and whether you have sent my books to his lady.-I am, etc.,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

My readers will not doubt that his solicitude about me was very flattering.

TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
'July 13, 1779.

'DEAR SIR,-What can possibly have happened that keeps us two such strangers to each other? I expected to have heard from you when you came home; I expected afterwards. I went into the country and returned, and yet there is no letter from Mr. Boswell. No ill, I hope, has happened; and if ill should happen, why should it be concealed from him who loves you? Is it a fit of humour, that has disposed you to try who can hold out longest without writing? If it be, you have the victory. But I am afraid of something bad; set me free from my suspicions.

'My thoughts are at present employed in guessing the reason of your silence: you must not expect that I should tell you anything, if

I had anything to tell. Write, pray write to me, and let me know what is or what has been the cause of this long interruption.-I am, dear sir, your most affectionate humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'TO DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.

' EDINBURGH, July 17, 1779. 'MY DEAR SIR, -What may be justly denominated a supine indolence of mind has been my

state of existence since I last returned to Scotland. In a livelier state I had often suffered severely from long intervals of silence on your part; and I had even been chid by you for expressing my uneasiness. I was willing to take advantage of my insensibility, and, while I could bear the experiment, to try whether your affection for me would, after an unusual silence on my part, make you write first. This afternoon I have had very high satisfaction by receiving your kind letter of inquiry, for which I most gratefully thank you. I am doubtful if it was right to make the experiment; though I have gained by it. I was beginning to grow tender, and to upbraid myself, especially after having dreamt two nights ago that I was with you. I and my wife, and my four children, are all well. I would not delay one post to answer your letter: but, as it is late, I have not time to do more. You shall soon hear from me, upon many and various particulars; and I shall never again put you to any test.-I am, with veneration, my dear sir, your much obliged and faithful humble servant,

'JAMES BOSWELL,'

On the 22d of July I wrote to him again, and gave him an account of my last interview with my worthy friend Mr. Edward Dilly, at his brother's house at Southill, in Bedfordshire, where he died soon after I parted from him, leaving me a very kind remembrance of his regard.

I informed him that Lord Hailes, who had promised to furnish him with some anecdotes for his Lives of the Poets, had sent me three instances of Prior's borrowing from Gombauld, in Recueil des Poètes, tome iii. Epigram 'To John I owed great obligation,' p. 25. To the Duke of Noailles,' p. 32. 'Sauntering Jack and Idle Joan,' p. 35.

My letter was a pretty long one, and contained a variety of particulars: but he, it should seem, had not attended to it; for his next to me was as follows:

'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

'STREATHAM, Sept. 9, 1779. 'MY DEAR SIR,-Are you playing the same trick again, and trying who can keep silence longest? Remember that all tricks are either knavish or childish, and that it is as foolish to

make experiments upon the constancy of a friend as upon the chastity of a wife.

'What can be the cause of this second fit of silence I cannot conjecture; but after one trick I will not be cheated by another, nor will I harass my thoughts with conjectures about the motives of a man who probably acts only by caprice. I therefore suppose you are well, and that Mrs. Boswell is well too: and that the fine summer has restored Lord Auchinleck. I am much better than you left me; I think I am

better than when I was in Scotland.

'I forgot whether I informed you that poor Thrale has been in great danger. Mrs Thrale likewise has miscarried, and been much indisposed. Everybody else is well; Langton is in camp. I intend to put Lord Hailes's description of Dryden into another edition, and, as I know his accuracy, wish he would consider the dates, which I could not always settle to my own mind.

'Mr. Thrale goes to Brighthelmstone about Michaelmas, to be jolly and ride a-hunting. I shall go to town, or perhaps to Oxford. Exercise and gaiety, or rather carelessness, will, I hope, dissipate all remains of his malady; and

I likewise hope, by the change of place, to find some opportunities of growing yet better myself. I am, dear sir, your humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

My readers will not be displeased at being told every slight circumstance of the manner in which Dr. Johnson contrived to amuse his solitary hours. He sometimes employed himself in chemistry, sometimes in watering and pruning a vine, sometimes in small experiments, at which those who may smile should recollect that there are moments which admit of being soothed only by trifles.2

On the 20th of September, I defended myself against his suspicion of me, which I did not deserve; and added, 'Pray, let us write frequently. A whim strikes me, that we should

1 Which I communicated to him from his Lordship; but it has not yet been published. I have a copy of it. -BOSWELL.

The few notices concerning Dryden, which Lord Hailes had collected, the author afterwards gave me. -MALONE.

2 In one of his manuscript Diaries there is the follow. ing entry, which marks his curious minute attention: I shaved my nail by accident in July 26, 1768. whetting the knife, about an eighth of an inch from the bottom, and about a fourth from the top. This I measure that I may know the growth of nails; the whole is about five-eighths of an inch.' Another of the same kind appears :- Aug. 7, 1779. Partem brachii dextri carpo proximam et cutem pectoris circa mamillam dextram rasi, ut notum fieret quanto temporis pili renovarentur.' And, Aug. 15, 1783. I cut from the vine 41 leaves, which weighed five oz. and a half and eight scruples. I lay them upon my bookcase, to see what weight they will lose by drying.'-BOSWELL.

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