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You shall have Japix by the first convenient number, thirty-five.
opportunity. I doubt not to pick up Schotanus.
Mynheer Trotz has promised me his assistance.'
Early in 1764 Johnson paid a visit to the
Langton family, at their seat of Langton in
Lincolnshire, where he passed some time much
to his satisfaction. His friend Bennet Langton,
it will not be doubted, did everything in his
power to make the place agreeable to so illus-
trious a guest; and the elder Mr. Langton and
his lady, being fully capable of understanding
his value, were not wanting in attention. He,
however, told me that old Mr. Langton, though
a man of considerable learning, had so little
allowance to make for his occasional 'laxity of
talk,' that because, in the course of discussion,
he sometimes mentioned what might be said in
favour of the peculiar tenets of the Romish
Church, he went to his grave believing him to
be of that communion.

Johnson, during his stay at Langton, had the advantage of a good library, and saw several gentlemen of the neighbourhood. I have obtained from Mr. Langton the following particulars of this period :

He was now fully convinced that he could not have been satisfied with a country living: for, talking of a respectable clergyman in Lincolnshire, he observed, 'This man, sir, fills up the duties of his life well. I approve of him, but could not imitate him.'

To a lady who endeavoured to vindicate herself from blame for neglecting social attention to worthy neighbours, by saying, 'I would go to them if it would do them any good;' he said, 'What good, madam, do you expect to have in your power to do them? It is showing them respect, and that is doing them good.'

So socially accommodating was he, that once, when Mr. Langton and he were driving together in a coach, and Mr. Langton complained of being sick, he insisted that they should go out and sit on the back of it in the open air, which they did; and being sensible how strange the appearance must be, observed that a countryman whom they saw in a field would probably be thinking, If these two madmen should come down, what would become of me !'

After about ten years,

instead of supping weekly, it was resolved to dine together once a fortnight during the meeting of Parliament. Their original tavern having been converted into a private house, they moved first to Prince's in Sackville Street, then to Le Telier's in Dover Street, and now meet at Parsloe's, St. James's Street. Between the time of its formation and the time at which this work is passing through the press (June 1792),1 the following persons, now dead, were members of it :-Mr. Dunning (afterwards Lord Ashburton), Mr. Samuel Dyer, Mr. Garrick, Dr. Shipley (Bishop of St. Asaph), Mr. Vesey, Mr. Thomas Warton, and Dr. Adam Smith. The present members are: Mr. Burke, Mr. Langton, Lord Charlemont, Sir Robert Chambers, Dr. Percy (Bishop of Dromore), Dr. Barnard (Bishop of Killaloe), Dr. Marlay (Bishop of Clonfert), Mr. Fox, Dr. George Fordyce, Sir William Scott, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Charles Bunbury, Mr. Windham of Norfolk, Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Gibbon, Sir William Jones, Mr. Colman, Mr. Steevens, Dr. Burney, Dr. Joseph Warton, Mr. Malone, Lord Ossory, Lord Spencer, Lord Lucan, Lord Palmerston, Lord Eliot, Lord Macartney, Mr. Richard Burke, junior, Sir William Hamilton, Dr. Warren, Mr. Courtenay, Dr. Hinchliffe (Bishop of Peterborough), the Duke of Leeds, Dr. Douglas (Bishop of Salisbury), and the writer of this account.2

1 The second edition is here spoken of.-MALONE. 2: The Literary Club has since been deprived, by death, of Dr. Hinchliffe (Bishop of Peterborough), Mr. Gibbon, Sir William Jones, Mr. Richard Burke, Mr. Colman, Mr. Boswell (the author of this work), the Marquis of Bath, Dr. Warren, Mr. Burke, the Rev. Dr. Farmer, the Duke of Leeds, the Earl of Lucan, James Earl of Charlemont, Mr. Steevens, Dr. Warton, Mr. Langton, Lord Palmerston, Dr. Fordyce, Dr. Marlay (Bishop of Waterford), Sir William Hamilton, Sir Robert Chambers, Lord Eliot, Lord Macartney, Dr. Barnard (Bishop of Limerick), Mr. Fox, Dr. Horsley

(Bishop of St. Asaph), Dr. Douglas (Bishop of Salis

bury), and Dr. French Lawrence. Its latest, and its irreparable loss, was that of the Right Hon. William Windham, the delight and admiration of this society, and of every other with whom he ever associated. Of the persons above mentioned some were chosen members of it after the preceding account was written. It has since that time acquired Sir Charles Blagden, Major Rennell, the Hon. Frederick North, the Right Hon. George Can

Soon after his return to London, which was in February, was founded that club which existed long without a name, but at Mr. Garrick's funeral became distinguished by the title of THE LITERARY CLUB. Sir Joshua Reynolds had the ning, Mr. Marsden, the Right Hon. J. H. Frere, the Right

merit of being the first proposer of it, to which Johnson acceded; and the original members were Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Edmund Burke, Dr. Nugent, Mr. Beauclerk, Mr. Langton, Dr. Goldsmith, Mr. Chamier, and Sir John Hawkins. They met at the Turk's Head in Gerrard Street, Soho, one evening in every week, at seven, and generally continued their conversation till a pretty late hour. This club has been gradually increased to its present

Hon. Thomas Grenville, the Rev. Dr. Vincent, Dean of
Westminster, Mr. William Lock, jun., Mr. George Ellis,
Lord Minto, the Right Hon. Sir William Grant (Master
of the Rolls), Sir George Staunton, Bart., Mr. Charles
Wilkins, the Right Honourable Sir William Drummond,
Sir Henry Halford, M. D., Sir Henry Englefield, Bart,
Henry Lord Holland, John Earl of Aberdeen, Mr.
Charles Hatchett, Mr. Charles Vaughan, Mr. Humphrey
Davy, and the Rev. Dr. Burney. The club, some years
after Mr. Boswell's death, removed (in 1799) from
Parsloe's to the Thatched House in St. James's Street,
where they still continue to meet.

Sir John Hawkins' represents himself as a 'seceder' from this society, and assigns as the reason of his 'withdrawing' himself from it, that its late hours were inconsistent with his domestic arrangements. In this he is not accurate; for the fact was that he one evening attacked Mr. Burke in so rude a manner that all the company testified their displeasure, and at their next meeting his reception was such that he never came again.2

He is equally inaccurate with respect to Mr. Garrick, of whom he says, 'he trusted that the least intimation of a desire to come among us. would procure him a ready admission;' but in this he was mistaken. Johnson consulted me upon it, and when I could find no objection to receive him, exclaimed, 'He will disturb us by his buffoonery;' and afterwards so managed matters that he was never formally proposed, and by consequence never admitted."

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well as from my own knowledge, to vindicate at once the heart of Johnson and the social merit of Garrick.

In this year, except what he may have done in revising Shakspeare, we do not find that he laboured much in literature. He wrote a review of Grainger's Sugar Cane, a poem in the London Chronicle. He told me that Dr. Percy wrote the greatest part of this review; but I imagine he did not recollect it distinctly, for it appears to be mostly, if not altogether, his own. He also wrote in the Critical Review an account of Goldsmith's excellent poem, The Traveller.

The ease and independence to which he had at last attained by royal munificence increased his natural indolence. In his Meditations he thus accuses himself: 'Good Friday, April 20, 1764. I have made no reformation: I have lived totally useless, more sensual in thought, and more addicted to wine and meat.' And next morning he thus feelingly complains: 'My in

ment, has sunk into grosser sluggishness, and my dissipation spread into wilder negligence. My thoughts have been clouded with sensuality; and, except that from the beginning of this year I have in some measure forborne excess of strong drinks, my appetites have predominated over my reason. A kind of strange oblivion has overspread me, so that I know not what has become of the last year, and perceive that incidents and intelligence pass over me without leaving any impression.' He then solemnly says, 'This is not the life to which heaven is promised;' and he earnestly resolves an

In justice both to Mr. Garrick and Dr. Johnson, I think it necessary to rectify this mis-dolence, since my last reception of the sacrastatement. The truth is, that not very long after the institution of our club, Sir Joshua Reynolds was speaking of it to Garrick. I like it much,' said he; 'I think I shall be of you.' When Sir Joshua mentioned this to Dr. Johnson, he was much displeased with the actor's conceit. He'll be of us,' said Johnson; 'how does he know that we will permit him? The first duke in England has no right to hold such language.' However, when Garrick was regularly proposed some time afterwards, Johnson, though he had taken a momentary offence at his arrogance, warmly and kindly supported him, and he was accordingly elected,' was a most agreeable member, and continued to attend our meetings to the time of his death.

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Mrs. Piozzi has also given a similar misrepresentation of Johnson's treatment of Garrick in this particular, as if he had used these tuous expressions: 'If Garrick does apply, I'll black-ball him.-Surely one ought to sit in a society like ours,

"Unelbow'd by a gamester, pimp, or player.""

I am happy to be enabled by such unquestionable authority as that of Sir Joshua Reynolds, as

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amendment.

It was his custom to observe certain days with a pious abstraction: viz., New Year's day, the day of his wife's death, Good Friday, Easter Day, and his own birthday. He this year says: 'I have now spent fifty-five years in resolving, having from the earliest time almost that I can remember been forming schemes of a better life. I have done nothing. The need of doing, therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short. O God, grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my resolutions, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.' Such a tenderness of conscience, such a fervent desire of improvement, will rarely be found. It is surely not decent in those who are hardened in indifference to spiritual improvement, to treat this pious anxiety of Johnson with contempt.

About this time he was afflicted with a very severe return of the hypochondriac disorder, which was ever lurking about him. He was so ill as, notwithstanding his remarkable love of company, to be entirely averse to society, the most fatal symptom of that malady. Dr. Adams told me that as an old friend he was admitted to visit him, and that he found him in a deplorable state, sighing, groaning, talking to himself, and restlessly walking from room to

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"That Davis hath a very pretty wife,'when Dr. Johnson muttered, 'Lead us not into temptation,'-used, with waggish and gallant humour, to whisper Mrs. Davies, 'You, my dear, are the cause of this.'

He had another particularity, of which none of his friends even ventured to ask an explanation. It appeared to me some superstitious habit, which he had contracted early, and from which he had never called upon his reason to disentangle him. This was his anxious care to go out or in at a door or passage, by a certain number of steps from a certain point, or at least so as that either his right or his left foot (I am not certain which) should constantly make the first actual movement when he came close to the door or passage. Thus I conjecture; for I have, upon innumerable occasions, observed him suddenly stop, and then seem to count his steps with a deep earnestness; and when he had neglected or gone wrong in this sort of magical movement, I have seen him go back again, put himself in a proper posture to begin the ceremony, and having gone through it, break from his abstraction, walk briskly on, and join his companion. A strange instance of something of this nature, even when on horseback, happened when he was in the Isle of Skye.2 Sir Joshua Reynolds has observed him to go a good way about, rather than cross a particular alley in Leicester Fields; but this Sir Joshua imputed to his having had some disagreeable recollection associated with it.

That the most minute singularities which belonged to him, and made very observable parts

It used to be imagined at Mr. Thrale's, when Johnson retired to a window or corner of the room, by perceiving his lips in motion, and hearing a murmur without audible articulation, that he was praying; but this was not always the case, for I was once, per-haps unperceived by him, writing at a table so near the place of his retreat, that I heard him repeating some lines in an ode of Horace over and over again, as if by iteration to exercise the organs of speech and fix the ode in his memory:

Audiet cives acuisse ferrum,

Quo graves Persæ melius perirent

Audiet pugnas

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"Our sons shall hear, shall hear to latest times, Of Roman arms with civil gore imbued, Which better had the Persian foe subdued." -FRANCIS.

of his appearance and manner, may not be omitted, it is requisite to mention that while talking, or even musing as he sat in his chair, he commonly held his head to one side towards his right shoulder, and shook it in a tremulous manner, moving his body backwards and forwards, and rubbing his left knee in the same direction, with the palm of his hand. In the intervals of articulating he made various sounds with his mouth; sometimes as if ruminating, or what is called chewing the cud, sometimes giving a half whistle, sometimes making his tongue play backwards from the roof of his mouth, as if chuckling like a hen, and sometimes protruding it against his upper gums in front, as if pronouncing quickly under his breath, too, too, too, all this accompanied sometimes with a thoughtful look, but more frequently with a smile. Generally, when he had concluded a period in the course of a dispute, by which time he was a good deal exhausted by violence and vociferation, he used to blow out his breath like a whale. This, I suppose, was a relief to his lungs; and seemed in him to be a contemptuous mode of expression, as if he had made the arguments of his opponent fly like

chaff before the wind.

I am fully aware how very obvious an occasion I here give for the sneering jocularity of such as have no relish of an exact likeness; which to render complete, he who draws it must not disdain the slightest strokes. But if witlings should be inclined to attack this account, let them have the candour to quote what I have offered in my defence.

He was for some time in the summer at Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire, on a visit to the Reverend Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dromore. Whatever dissatisfaction he felt at what he considered as a slow progress in intellectual improvement, we find that his heart was tender, and his affections warm, as appears from the following very kind letter:

TO JOSHUA REYNOLDS, ESQ., IN LEICESTER
FIELDS, LONDON.

'At the Rev. Mr. Percy's, at Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire (by Castle Ashby), Aug. 19, 1764. 'DEAR SIR, -I did not hear of your sickness till I heard likewise of your recovery, and therefore escaped that part of your pain, which every man must feel to whom you are known as you are known to me.

'Having had no particular account of your disorder, I know not in what state it has left you. If the amusement of my company can exhilarate the languor of a slow recovery, I will not delay a day to come to you; for I know not how I can so effectually promote my own pleasure as by pleasing you, or my own interests as by pre2 Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3d edit. p. 316. serving you, in whom, if I should lose you, I should BOSWELL. lose almost the only man whom I call a friend.

It was during the American war.-BURNEY.

'Pray let me hear of you from yourself, or from dear Miss Reynolds. Make my compliments to Mr. Mudge.-I am, dear sir, your most affectionate and most humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

Doctor of Laws. The diploma, which is in my possession, is as follows:

'OMNIBUS ad quos præsentes literæ pervenerint, salutem. Nos Præpositus et Socii Seniores Collegii sacrosanctæ et individuæ Trinitatis Regina Elizabethæ juxta Dublin, testamur, Samueli Johnson, Armigero, ob egregiam scriptorum elegantiam et utilitatem, gratiam concessam fuisse pro gradu Doctoratus in utroque Jure, octavo die Julii, Anno Domini millesimo septingentesimo sexagesimo-quinto. In cujus rei testimonium singulorum manus et sigillum quo in hisce utimur apposuimus; vicesimo tertio die Julii, Anno Domini millesimo septingentesimo FRAN. ANDREWS, Præp.. GUL. CLEMENT. THO. WILSON. THO. LELAND.

Early in the year 1765 he paid a short visit to the University of Cambridge with his friend Mr. Beauclerk. There is a lively picturesque account of his behaviour on this visit in the Gentleman's Magazine for March 1785, being an extract of a letter from the late Dr. John Sharp. The two following sentences are very characteristical: He drank his large potations of tea with me, interrupted by many an indignant contradiction and many a noble sentiment.'-sexagesimo-quinto. 'Several persons got into his company the last evening at Trinity, where, about twelve, he began to be very great, stripped poor Mrs. Macaulay to the very skin, then gave her for his toast, and drank her in two bumpers.'

The strictness of his self-examination, and scrupulous Christian humility, appear in his pious meditation on Easter-day this year :

'I purpose again to partake of the blessed sacrament: yet when I consider how vainly I

have hitherto resolved at this annual commemoration of my Saviour's death to regulate my life by his laws, I am almost afraid to renew my resolutions.'

The concluding words are very remarkable, and show that he laboured under a severe depression of spirits :

'Since the last Easter I have reformed no

evil habit: my time has been unprofitably spent, and seems as a dream that has left nothing behind. My memory grows confused, and I know not how the days pass over me. Good Lord, deliver me!'

No man was more gratefully sensible of any kindness done to him than Johnson. There is a little circumstance in his diary this year which shows him in a very amiable light ::

'July 2.-I paid Mr. Simpson ten guineas, which he had formerly lent me in my necessity, and for which Tetty expressed her gratitude.' 'July 8.-I lent Mr. Simpson ten guineas more.'

Here he had a pleasing opportunity of doing the same kindness to an old friend which he had formerly received from him. Indeed, his liberality as to money was very remarkable. The next article in his diary is: July 16th, I received seventy-five pounds. Lent Mr. Davies twenty-five.'

Trinity College, Dublin, at this time surprised Johnson with a spontaneous compliment of the highest academical honours, by creating him

1 Sir Joshua's sister, for whom Johnson had a particular affection, and to whom he wrote many letters which I have seen, and which I am sorry her too nice delicacy will not permit to be published.-BOSWELL.

R. MURRAY.
ROBtus LAW.

MICH. KEARNEY.'

This unsolicited mark of distinction, conferred on so great a literary character, did much honour to the judgment and liberal spirit of that learned body. Johnson acknowledged the favour in a letter to Dr. Leland, one of their number; but I have not been able to obtain a copy of it.1

He appears this year to have been seized with a temporary fit of ambition, for he had thoughts both of studying law and of engaging in politics. His Prayer before the Study of Law is truly admirable :

'Sept. 26, 1765.

'Almighty God, the giver of wisdom, without whose help resolutions are vain, without whose blessings study is ineffectual; enable me, if it be thy will, to attain such knowledge as may qualify me to direct the doubtful and instruct the ignorant, to prevent wrongs and terminate

1 Since the publication of the edition in 1804, a copy of this letter has been obligingly communicated to me by John Leland, Esq., son to the learned historian, to whom it is addressed :

TO THE REV. DR. LELAND.

'SIR,-Among the names subscribed to the degree which I have had the honour of receiving from the University of Dublin, I find none of which I have any

personal knowledge but those of Dr. Andrews and yourself.

'Men can be estimated by those who know them not, only as they are represented by those who know them: and therefore I flatter myself that I owe much of the pleasure which this distinction gives me, to your concurrence with Dr. Andrews in recommending me to the learned Society.

'Having desired the Provost to return my general thanks to the University, I beg that you, sir, will accept my particular and immediate acknowledgments.-I am, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.

'JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET,

LONDON, Oct. 17, 1765.'

I have not been able to recover the letter which Johnson wrote to Dr. Andrews on this occasion.- MALONE.

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in the great brewery which afterwards was his own. The proprietor of it had an only daughter, who was married to a nobleman. It was not fit that a peer should continue the business. On the old man's death, therefore, the

so large a property was a difficult matter; and after some time, it was suggested that it would be advisable to treat with Thrale, a sensible, active, honest man, who had been employed in the house, and to transfer the whole to him for thirty thousand pounds, security being taken upon the property. This was accordingly settled. In eleven years Thrale paid the purchase-money. He acquired a large fortune,

contentions; and grant that I may use that knowledge which I shall attain, to thy glory and my own salvation, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen." His prayer in the view of becoming a politician is entitled, Engaging in politics with H-n,' no doubt his friend the Right Honour-brewery was to be sold. To find a purchaser for able William Gerard Hamilton, for whom, during a long acquaintance, he had a great esteem, and to whose conversations he once paid this high compliment: 'I am very unwilling to be left alone, sir, and therefore I go with my company down the first pair of stairs, in some hope that they may perhaps return again: I go with you, sir, as far as the street door.' In what particular department he intended to engage does not appear, nor can Mr. Hamilton explain. His prayer is in general terms :'Enlighten my understanding with knowledge of right, and govern my will by thy laws, that no deceit may mislead me, nor temptation corrupt me; that I may always endeavour to do good and hinder evil.'3

There is nothing upon the subject in his diary.

CHAPTER XVII.

1765-1766.

THIS year was distinguished by Johnson's being introduced into the family of Mr. Thrale, one of the most eminent brewers in England, and member of Parliament for the borough of Southwark. Foreigners are not a little amazed when they hear of brewers, distillers, and men in similar departments of trade, held forth as persons of considerable consequence. In this great commercial country, it is natural that a situation which produces much wealth should be considered as very respectable; and no doubt honest industry is entitled to esteem. But perhaps the too rapid advances of men of low

extraction tends to lessen the value of that distinction by birth and gentility which has ever been found beneficial to the grand scheme of subordination. Johnson used to give this account of the rise of Mr. Thrale's father: 'He worked at six shillings a week for twenty years 1 Prayers and Meditations, p. 66.-BOSWELL.

2 In the preface to a late collection of Mr. Hamilton's pieces, it has been observed that our author was, by the generality of Johnson's words, 'led to suppose that he was seized with a temporary fit of ambition, and that hence he was induced to apply his thoughts to law and politics. But Mr. Boswell was certainly mistaken in this respect; and these words merely allude to Johnson's having at that time entered into some engagement with Mr. Hamilton occasionally to furnish him with his sentiments on the great political topics which should be considered in Parliament.' In consequence of this engagement, Johnson, in November 1766, wrote a very valuable tract, entitled Considerations on Corn, which is printed as an Appendix to the works of Mr. Hamilton, published by T. Payne in 1808.-MALONE.

• Prayers and Meditations, p. 67.-BOSWELL.

and lived to be a member of Parliament for Southwark. But what was most remarkable was the liberality with which he used his riches. He gave his son and daughters the best education. The esteem which his good conduct procured him from the nobleman who had married his master's daughter made him be treated with much attention; and his son, both at school and at the University of Oxford, associated with young men of the first rank. His allowance from his father after he left college was splendid; not less than a thousand a year. This, in a man who had risen as old Thrale did, was a very extraordinary instance of generosity. He used to say: "If this young dog does not find so much after I am gone as he expects, let him remember that he has had a great deal in my own time.”

The son, though in affluent circumstances, had good sense enough to carry on his father's trade, which was of such extent that I remember he once told me he would not quit it for an annuity of ten thousand a year: 'Not,' said he, that I get ten thousand a year by it, but it is an estate to a family.' Having left daughters only, the property was sold for the immense sum of one hundred and thirty-five thousand pounds,- -a magnificent proof of what may be done by fair trade in a long period of time.

1- The predecessor of old Thrale was Edmund Halsey, Esq.; the nobleman who married his daughter was Lord Cobham, great-uncle of the Marquis of Buckingham. But I believe Dr. Johnson was mistaken in assigning so very low an origin to Mr. Thiale. The Clerk of St. Alban's, a very aged man, told me that he (the elder Thrale) married a sister of Mr. Halsey. It is at least certain that the family of Thale was of some consideration in that town: in the abbey church is a handsome monument to the memory of Mr. John Thrale, late of London, merchant, who died in 1704, aged fifty-four; Margaret, his wife, and three of their children who died young, between the years 1676 and 1690 The arms upon this monument are, paly of eight, gules and or, impaling, ermine, on a chief indented vert, three wolves' (or gryphons) heads, or, couped at the neck:-Crest on a ducal coronet, a tree, vert.-BLAKEWAY.

2 In 1733 he served the office of High Sheriff for Surrey; and died April 9, 1758.-A. CHALMERS.

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