as to deter others from the same perversion.'

After frequently considering this subject, I am more and more confirmed in what I then meant to express, and which was sanctioned by the authority and illustrated by the wisdom of Johnson; and I think it of the utmost conse

'Weave the warp, and weave the woof;'

I added, in a solemn tone,

"Give ample verge and room enough." No, sir, there are but two good stanzas in Gray's poetry, which are in his Elegy in a Country Churchyard. He then repeated the stanza,

'For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey,' etc., mistaking one word; for instead of precincts he said confines. He added, 'The other stanza I forget.'

A young lady who had married a man much her inferior in rank being mentioned, a question arose how a woman's relations should behave to her in such a situation; and while I recapitulate the debate, and recollect what has since happened, I cannot but be struck in a manner that delicacy forbids me to express. While I contended that she ought to be treated with an inflexible steadiness of displeasure, Mrs. Thrale was all for mildness and forgiveness, and, according to the vulgar phrase, 'making the best of a bad bargain.' JOHNSON: 'Madam, we must distinguish. Were I a man of rank, I would not let a daughter starve who had made a mean marriage; but having voluntarily degraded herself from the station which she was originally entitled to hold, I would support her only in that which she herself had chosen, and would not put her on a level with my other daughters. You are to consider, madam, that it is our duty to maintain the subordination of civilised society; and when there is a gross and shameful

1 I use the phrase in score, as Dr. Johnson has explained it in his Dictionary: A song in SCORE, the words with the musical notes of a song annexed.' But I understand that, in scientific propriety, it means all the parts of a musical composition noted down in the characters by which it is exhibited to the eye of the skilful-BosWELL.

It was declamation that Steele pretended to reduce to notation by new characters. This he called the melody of speech, not the harmony, which the term in score implies.-BURNEY.

they shall be received as well as if they had not contaminated their blood by a base alliance, the great check upon that inordinate caprice which generally occasions low marriages will be removed, and the fair and comfortable order of improved life will be miserably disturbed.

Lord Chesterfield's Letters being mentioned, Johnson said, 'It was not to be wondered at that they had so great a sale, considering that they were the letters of a statesman, a wit, one who had been so much in the mouths of mankind, one long accustomed virâm volitare per ora.' On Friday, March 31, I supped with him and some friends at a tavern. One of the company attempted, with too much forwardness, to rally him on his late appearance at the theatre; but had reason to repent of his temerity. "Why, sir, did you go to Mrs. Abington's benefit? Did you see?' JOHNSON: 'No, sir.' 'Did you hear?' JOHNSON: No, sir.' 'Why then, sir, did you go?' JOHNSON: Because, sir, she is a favourite of the public; and when the public cares the thousandth part for you that it does for her, I will go to your benefit too.'

Next morning I won a small bet from Lady Diana Beauclerk, by asking him as to one of his particularities, which her ladyship laid I durst not do. It seems he had been frequently observed at the Club to put into his pocket the Seville oranges, after he had squeezed the juice of them into the drink which he had made for himself. Beauclerk and Garrick talked of it to me, and seemed to think that he had a strange unwillingness to be discovered. We could not divine what he did with them; and this was the bold question to be put. I saw on his table the spoils of the preceding night, some fresh peels nicely scraped and cut into pieces. 'Oh, sir,' said I, 'I now partly see what you do with the squeezed oranges you put into your pocket at the Club.' JOHNSON: 'I have a great love for them.' BosWELL: And pray, sir, what do you do with

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 sense. A fighting cock has a nobleness of resolution.'

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

1 The original is in the hands of Dr. Fothergill, then Vice-Chancellor, who made this transcript.-T. WAR

TON.

2 Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller.

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.'

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. His 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

He

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. 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.'