stance, said, that he could not conceive a more humiliating situation than to be clapped on the back by Tom Davies.' JOHNSON: Why, sir, all who go to look for what the classics have said of Italy, must find the same passages: and I should think it would be one of the first things the Italians would do on the revival of learning, to collect all that the Roman authors have said of their country.' Ossian being mentioned--JOHNSON: 'Supposing the Irish and Erse languages to be the same, which I do not believe, yet as there is no reason to suppose that the inhabitants of the Highlands and Hebrides ever wrote their native language, it is not to be credited that a long poem was preserved among them. If we had no evidence of the art of writing being practised in one of the counties of England, we should not believe that a long poem was preserved there, though in the neighbouring counties, where the same language was spoken, the inhabitants could write.' BEAUCLERK: The bal We spoke of Rolt, to whose Dictionary of Commerce Dr. Johnson wrote the preface. JOHNSON: Old Gardner, the bookseller, employed Rolt and Smart to write a monthly miscellany, called The Universal Visitor. There was a formal written contract, which Allen the printer saw. Gardner thought as you do of the judge. They were bound to write nothing else; they were to have, I think, a third of the profits of this sixpenny pamphlet; and the contract was for ninety-nine years. I wish I had thought of giving this to Thurlow, in the cause about literary property. What an excellent instance would it have been of the oppression of booksellers towards poor authors!' 1 (smiling.) Davies, zealous for the honour of the trade, said, Gardner was not properly a bookseller. JOHNSON: Nay, sir; he certainly was a book-lad of Lillibulero was once in the mouths of all seller. He had served his time regularly, was a member of the Stationers' Company, kept a shop in the face of mankind, purchased copyright, and was a bibliopole, sir, in every sense. I wrote for some months in The Universal Visitor, for poor Smart, while he was mad, not then knowing the terms on which he was engaged to write, and thinking I was doing him good. I hoped his wits would soon return to him. Mine returned to me, and I wrote in The Universal Visitor no longer.' Friday, April 7, I dined with him at a tavern, with a numerous company. JOHNSON: 'I have been reading Twiss's Travels in Spain, which are just come out. They are as good as the first book of travels that you will take up. They are as good as those of Keysler or Blainville; nay, as Addison's, if you except the learning. They are not so good as Brydone's, but they are better than Pococke's. I have not, indeed, cut the leaves yet; but I have read in them where the pages are open, and I do not suppose that what is in the pages which are closed is worse than what is in the open pages. It would seem,' he added, that Addison had not acquired much Italian learning, for we do not find it introduced into his writings. The only instance that I recollect, is his quoting Stavo bene; per star meglio, sto qui.' 2 I mentioned Addison's having borrowed many of his classical remarks from Leandro Alberti. Mr. Beauclerk said, 'It was alleged that he had borrowed also from another Italian author.' 1 There has probably been some mistake as to the terms of this supposed extraordinary contract, the recital of which from hearsay afforded Johnson so much play for his sportive acuteness. Or if it was worded as he supposed, it is so strange that I should conclude it was a joke. Mr. Gardner, I am assured, was a worthy and liberal man.-BOSWELL. 2 Addison, however, does not mention where this celebrated Epitaph, which has eluded a very diligent inquiry, is found.-MALONE. the people of this country, and is said to have had a great effect in bringing about the Revolution. Yet I question whether anybody can repeat it now; which shows how improbable it is that much poetry should be preserved by tradition.' One of the company suggested an internal objection to the antiquity of the poetry said to be Ossian's, that we do not find the wolf in it, which must have been the case had it been of that age. The mention of the wolf had led Johnson to think of other wild beasts; and while Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Langton were carrying on a dialogue about something which engaged them earnestly, he, in the midst of it, broke out, Pennant tells of bears.' What he added, I have forgotten. They went on, which he, being dull of hearing, did not perceive, or, if he did, was not willing to break off his talk; so he continued to vociferate his remarks, and bear (like a word in a catch' as Beauclerk said) was repeatedly heard at intervals, which, coming from him who, by those who did not know him, had been so often assimilated to that ferocious animal, while we who were sitting around could hardly stifle laughter, produced a very ludicrous effect. Silence having ensued, he proceeded: 'We are told that the black bear is innocent; but I should not like to trust myself with him.' Mr. Gibbon muttered, in a low tone of voice, 'I should not like to trust myself with you.' This piece of sarcastic pleasantry was a prudent resolution, if applied to competition of abilities. Patriotism having become one of our topics, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong, determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a 1 But if you find the same applications in another book, then Addison's learning falls to the ground. Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, ut supra.-MALONE. scoundrel.' But let it be considered that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for self-interest. I maintained, that certainly all patriots were not scoundrels. Being urged (not by Johnson) to name one exception, I mentioned an eminent person,' whom we all greatly admired. JOHNSON: Sir, I do not say that he is not honest; but we have no reason to conclude from his political conduct that he is honest. Were he to accept a place from this ministry, he would lose that character of firmness which he has, and might be turned out of his place in a year. This ministry is neither stable, nor grateful to their friends, as Sir Robert Walpole was so that he may think it more for his interest to take his chance of his party coming in.' Mrs. Pritchard being mentioned, he said, 'Her playing was quite mechanical. It is wonderful how little mind she had. Sir, she had never read the tragedy of Macbeth all through. She no more thought of the play out of which her part was taken, than a shoemaker thinks of the skin out of which the piece of leather, of which he is making a pair of shoes, is cut.' On Saturday, April 8, I dined with him at Mr. Thrale's, where we met the Irish Dr. Campbell. Johnson had supped the night before at Mrs. Abington's, with some fashionable people whom he named; and he seemed much pleased with having made one in so elegant a circle. Nor did he omit to pique his mistress a little with jealousy of her housewifery; for he said, with a smile, Mrs. Abington's jelly, my dear lady, was better than yours.' Mrs. Thrale, who frequently practised a coarse mode of flattery, by repeating his bon-mots in his hearing, told us that he had said a certain celebrated actor was just fit to stand at the door of an auction room with a long pole and cry, 'Pray, gentlemen, walk in ;' and that a certain author, upon hearing this, had said that another still more celebrated actor was fit for nothing better than that, and would pick your pocket after you came out. JOHNSON: Nay, my dear lady, there is no wit in what our friend added; there is only abuse. You may as well say of any man that he will pick a pocket. Besides, the man who is stationed at the door does not pick people's pockets; that is done within, by the auctioneer.' Mrs. Thrale told us that Tom Davies repeated, in a very bold manner, the story of Dr. Johnson's first repartee to me, which I have related exactly. He made me say, 'I was born in Scotland,' instead of 'I come from Scotland:' so that Johnson's saying, 'That, sir, is what a great many of your countrymen cannot help,' had no point, or even meaning; and that upon this being mentioned to Mr. Fitzherbert, he ob 1 Believed to be Burke. served, 'It is not every man that can carry a bon-mot.' On Monday, April 10, I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's, with Mr. Langton and the Irish Dr. Campbell, whom the General had obligingly given me leave to bring with me. This learned gentleman was thus gratified with a very high intellectual feast, by not only being in company with Dr. Johnson, but with General Oglethorpe, who had been so long a celebrated name both at home and abroad. I must again and again entreat of my readers not to suppose that my imperfect record of conversation contains the whole of what was said by Johnson, or other eminent persons who lived with him. What I have preserved, however, has the value of the most perfect authenticity. He this day enlarged upon Pope's melancholy remark, 'Man never is, but always to be blest.' He asserted, that the present was never a happy state to any human being; but that, as every part of life, of which we are conscious, was at some point of time a period yet to come, in which felicity was expected, there was some happiness produced by hope. Being pressed upon this subject, and asked if he really was of opinion, that though, in general, happiness was very rare in human life, a man was not sometimes happy in the moment that was present, he answered, 'Never, but when he is drunk.' He urged General Oglethorpe to give the world his life. He said, 'I know no man whose life would be more interesting. If I were furnished with materials, I should be very glad to write it.' Mr. Scott of Amwell's Elegies were lying in the room. Dr. Johnson observed, 'They are very well; but such as twenty people might write.' Upon this I took occasion to controvert Horace's maxim: mediocribus esse poetis Non Di, non homines, non concessere columnæ ; ' 2 for here (I observed) was a very middle-rate poet who pleased many readers, and therefore poetry of a middle sort was entitled to some esteem; nor could I see why poetry should not, like everything else, have different gradations of excellence, and consequently of value. Johnson repeated the common remark that, as there is no necessity for our having poetry at all, it being merely a luxury, an instrument of pleasure, it can have no value unless when exquisite in its kind.' I declared myself not satisfied. 1 The General seemed unwilling to enter upon it at this time; but upon a subsequent occasion he communicated to me a number of particulars, which I have committed to writing; but I was not sufficiently diligent in obtaining more from him, not apprehending that his friends were so soon to lose him; for, notwith standing his great age, he was very healthy and vigorous, and was at last carried off by a violent fever, which is often fatal at any period of life.--BOSWELL 2 De Art. Poet. v. 372.-BOSWELL 'Why, then, sir,' said he, 'Horace and you must settle it.' He was not much in the humour of talking. No more of his conversation for some days appears in my journal, except that when a gentleman told him he had bought a suit of lace for his lady, he said, 'Well, sir, you have done a good thing and a wise thing.' 'I have done a good thing,' said the gentleman, 'but I do not know that I have done a wise thing.' JOHNSON: 'Yes, sir; no money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction. A man is pleased that his wife is dressed as well as other people; and a wife is pleased that she is dressed.' On Friday, April 14, being Good Friday, I repaired to him in the morning, according to my usual custom on that day, and breakfasted with him. I observed that he fasted so very strictly, that he did not even taste bread, and took no milk with his tea-I suppose because it is a kind of animal food. He entered upon the state of the nation, and thus discoursed: 'Sir, the great misfortune now is that Government has too little power. All that it has to bestow must of necessity be given to support itself, so that it cannot reward merit. No man, for instance, can now be made a bishop or his learning and piety; his only chance for promotion is his being connected with somebody who has parliamentary interest. Our several ministers in this reign have outbid each other in concessions to the people. Lord Bute, though a very honourable man, a man who meant well, a man who had his blood full of prerogative, was a theoretical statesman, a bookminister, and thought this country could be governed by the influence of the Crown alone. Then, sir, he gave up a great deal. He advised the King to agree that the judges should hold their places for life, instead of losing them at the accession of a new king. Lord Bute, I suppose, thought to make the King popular by this concession; but the people never minded it; and it was a most impolitic measure. There is no reason why a judge should hold his office for life, more than any other person in public trust. A judge may be partial otherwise than to the Crown: we have seen judges partial to the populace. A judge may become corrupt, and yet there may not be legal evidence against him. A judge may become froward from age. A judge may grow unfit for his office in many ways. It was desirable that there should be a possibility of being delivered from him by a new king. That is now gone by an act of Parliament ex gratia of the Crown. Lord Bute advised the King to give up a very large sum of money,2 for which nobody thanked him. It was of consequence to the King, but nothing 1 From this too just observation there are some eminent exceptions.-Boswell. 2 The money arising from the property of the prizes taken before the declaration of war, which were given to the public among whom it was divided. When I say Lord Bute advised, I mean that such acts were done when he was minister, and we are to suppose that he advised them.-Lord Bute showed an undue partiality to Scotchmen. He turned out Dr. Nichols, a very eminent man, from being physician to the King, to make room for one of his countrymen, a man very low in his profession. He had and to go on errands for him. He had occasion for people to go on errands for him, but he should not have had Scotchmen; and certainly he should not have suffered them to have access to him before the first people in England.' I told him that the admission of one of them before the first people in England, which had given the greatest offence, was no more than what happens at every minister's levee, where those who attend are admitted in the order that they have come, which is better than admitting them according to their rank; for if that were to be the rule, a man who has waited all the morning might have the mortification to see a peer, newly come, go in before him, and keep him waiting still. JOHNSON: True, sir; but should not have come to the levee, to be in the way of people of consequence. He saw Lord Bute at all times; and could have said what he had to say at any time, as well as at the levee. There is now no Prime Minister; there is only an agent for Government in the House of Commons. We are governed by the Cabinet; but there is no one head there since Sir Robert Walpole's time.' BOSWELL: 'What then, sir, is the use of Parliament?' 'JOHNSON: Why, sir, Parliament is a large council to the King; and the advantage of such a council is having a great number of men of property concerned in the legislature, who, for their own interest, will not consent to bad laws And you must have observed, sir, the administration is feeble and timid, and cannot act with that authority and resolution which is necessary. Were I in power, I would turn out every man who dared to oppose me. Government has the distribution of offices that it may be enabled to maintain its authority.' 'Lord Bute,' he added, 'took down too fast to his Majesty by the Peace of Paris, and amounted to upwards of £700,000, and from the lands in the ceded islands, which were estimated at £200,000 more. Surely there was a noble munificence in this gift from a monarch to his people. And let it be remembered, that during the Earl of Bute's administration, the King was graciously pleased to give up the hereditary revenues of the Crown, and to accept, instead of them, of the limited sum of £800,000 a year: upon which Blackstone observes, that "The hereditary revenues, being put under the same management as the other branches of the public patrimony, will produce more and be better collected than heretofore; and the public is a gainer of upwards of £100,000 per annum by this disinterested bounty of his Majesty.'-Book i. chap. viii. p. 330.-BOSWELL. without building up something new.' BosWELL: 'Because, sir, he found a rotten building. The political coach was drawn by a set of bad horses, it was necessary to change them.' JOHNSON: 'But he should have changed them one by one.' I told him that I had been informed by Mr. Orme that many parts of the East Indies were better mapped than the Highlands of Scotland. JOHNSON: That a country may be mapped, it must be travelled over.' 'Nay,' said I, meaning to laugh with him at one of his prejudices, 'can't you say it is not worth mapping?' As we walked to St. Clement's Church, and saw several shops open upon this most solemın fast-day of the Christian world, I remarked that one disadvantage arising from the immensity of London was that nobody was heeded by his neighbour; there was no fear of censure for not observing Good Friday as it ought to be kept, and as it is kept in country towns. He said it was, upon the whole, very well observed even in London. He, however, owned that London was too large; but added, 'It is nonsense to say the head is too big for the body. It would be as much too big though the body were ever so large; that is to say, though the country were ever so extensive. It has no similarity to a head connected with a body.' Dr. Wetherell, Master of the University College, Oxford, accompanied us home from church; and after he was gone, there came two other gentlemen, one of whom uttered the commonplace complaints, that by the increase of taxes labour would be dear, other nations would undersell us, and our commerce would be ruined. JOHNSON (Smiling): 'Never fear, sir. Our commerce is in a very good state; and suppose we had no commerce at all, we could live very well on the produce of our own country.' I cannot omit to mention, that I never knew any man less disposed to be querulous than Johnson. Whether the subject was his own situation, or the state of the public, or the state of human nature in general, though he saw the evils, his mind was turned to resolution and never to whining or complaint. noon. We went again to St. Clement's in the afterHe had found fault with the preacher in the morning for not choosing a text adapted to the day. The preacher in the afternoon had chosen one extremely proper: 'It is finished.' After the evening service, he said, 'Come, you shall go home with me, and sit just an hour.' But he was better than his word; for after we had drunk tea with Mrs. Williams, he asked me to go up to his study with him, where we sat a long while together in a serene, undis turbed frame of mind, sometimes in silence, and sometimes conversing, as we felt ourselves inclined, or more properly speaking, as he was inclined; for during all the course of my long intimacy with him, my respectful attention never abated, and my wish to hear him was such that I constantly watched every dawning of communication from that great and illuminated mind. He observed, 'All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not. In the same manner all power, of whatever sort, is of itself desirable. A man would not submit to learn to hem a ruffle of his wife, or of his wife's maid; but if a mere wish could attain it, he would rather wish to be able to hem a ruffle.' He again advised me to keep a journal fully and minutely, but not to mention such trifles as that meat was too much or too little done, or that the weather was fair or rainy. He had till very near his death a contempt for the notion that the weather affects the human frame. I told him that our friend Goldsmith had said to me that he had come too late into the world, for that Pope and other poets had taken up the places in the Temple of Fame; so that, as but a few at any period can possess poetical reputation, a man of genius can now hardly acquire it. JOHNSON: That is one of the most sensible things I have ever heard of Goldsmith. It is difficult to get literary fame, and it is every day growing more difficult. Ah, sir, that should make a man think of securing happiness in another world, which all who try sincerely for it may attain. In comparison of that, how little are all other things! The belief of immortality is impressed upon all men, and all men act under an impression of it, however they may talk, and though perhaps they may be scarcely sensible of it.' I said it appeared to me that some people had not the least notion of immortality; and I mentioned a distinguished gentleman of our acquaintance. JOHNSON: 'Sir, if it were not for the notion of immortality, he would cut a throat to fill his pockets.' When I quoted this to Beauclerk, who knew much more of the gentleman than we did, he said in his acid manner, 'He would cut a throat to fill his pockets, if it were not for fear of being hanged.' Dr. Johnson proceeded: 'Sir, there is a great cry about infidelity, but there are in reality very few infidels. I have heard a person, originally a Quaker, but now I am afraid a Deist, say that he did not believe there were, in all England, above two hundred infidels.' He was pleased to say, 'If you come to settle here, we will have one day in the week on which we will meet by ourselves. That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments.' In his private register this evening is thus marked : 'Boswell sat with me till night; we had some serious talk.' 1 Prayers and Meditations, p. 128. It also appears from the same record, that after I left him he was occupied in religious duties, in giving Francis, his servant, some directions for preparation to communicate; in reviewing his life, and resolving on better conduct.' The humility and piety which he discovers on such occasions is truly edifying. No saint, however, in the course of his religious warfare, was more sensible of the unhappy failure of pious resolves than Johnson. He said one day, talking to an acquaintance on this subject, 'Sir, Hell is paved with good intentions.'1 On Sunday, April 16, being Easter-day, after having attended the solemn service at St Paul's, I dined with Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Williams. I maintained that Horace was wrong in placing happiness in Nil admirari, for that I thought admiration one of the most agreeable of all our feelings; and I regretted that had lost much of my disposition to admire, which people generally do as they advance in life. JOHNSON: 'Sir, as a man advances in life, he gets what is better than admiration,-judgment, to estimate things at their true value.' I still insisted that admiration was more pleasing than judgment, as love is more pleasing than friendship. The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne. JOHNSON: No, sir; admiration and love are like being intoxicated with champagne; judgment and friendship like being enlivened. Waller has hit upon the same thought with you; but I don't believe you have borrowed from Waller. I wish you would enable yourself to borrow more.' He then took occasion to enlarge on the advantages of reading, and combated the idle, superficial notion that knowledge enough may be acquired in conversation. The foundation,' said he, must be laid by reading. General principles must be had from books, which, however, must be brought to the test of real life. In conversation you never get a system. What is said upon a subject is to be gathered from a hundred people. The parts of a truth which a man gets thus, are at such a distance from each other that he never attains to a full view.' TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. 'April 17, 1775. 'DEAR SIR,-I have inquired more minutely about the medicine for the rheumatism, which 1 This is a proverbial sentence. 'Hell,' says Herbert, 'is full of good meanings and wishings.'-Jacula Prudentum, p. 11, edit. 1651.—MALONE. Amoret's as sweet and good That is mortal can sustain.'-BOSWELL. I am sorry to hear that you still want. The receipt is this:- 'Take equal quantities of flour of sulphur and flour of mustard seed; make them an electuary with honey or treacle, and take a bolus as big as a nutmeg several times a day, as you can bear it, drinking after it a quarter of a pint of the infusion of the root of Lovage. 'Lovage, in Ray's Nomenclature, is Levisticum: perhaps the botanists may know the Latin name. 'Of this medicine I pretend not to judge. There is all the appearance of its efficacy which a single instance can afford. The patient was very old, the pain very violent, and the relief, I think, speedy and lasting. 'My opinion of alterative medicine is not high, but quid tentasse nocebit! If it does harm, or does no good, it may be omitted; but that it may do good, you have, I hope, reason to think is desired by, sir, your most affectionate humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.' CHAPTER XXXII 1775. ON Tuesday, April 11, Johnson and I were engaged to go with Sir Joshua Reynolds to dine with Mr. Cambridge, at his beautiful villa on the banks of the Thames, near Twickenham. Dr. Johnson's tardiness was such, that Sir Joshua, who had an appointment at Richmond early in the day, was obliged to go by himself on horseback, leaving his coach to Johnson and me. Johnson was in such good spirits, that everything seemed to please him as we drove along. Our conversation turned on a variety of subjects. He thought portrait-painting an improper employment for a woman. 'Public practice of any art,' he observed, and staring in men's faces, is very indelicate in a female.' I happened to start a question, whether, when a man knows that some of his intimate friends are invited to the house of another friend with whom they are all equally intimate, he may join them without an invitation. JOHNSON: No, sir; he is not to go when he is not invited. They may be invited on purpose to abuse him' (smiling). As a curious instance how little a man knows, or wishes to know his own character in the world, or rather, as a convincing proof that Johnson's roughness was only external, and did not proceed from his heart, I insert the following dialogue. JOHNSON: It is wonderful, sir, how rare a quality good-humour is in life. We meet with very few good-humoured men.' I mentioned four of our friends, none of whom he would allow to be good-humoured. One was acid, another was muddy, and to the others he had objections which have escaped me. Then, shaking his head and stretching himself at ease |