[606] Knight was kidnapped when a child and sold to a Mr. Wedderburne of Ballandean, who employed him as his personal servant. In 1769 his master brought him to Britain, and from that time allowed him sixpence a week for pocket money. By the assistance of his fellow-servants he learnt to read. In 1772 he read in a newspaper the report of the decision in the Somerset Case. 'From that time,' said Mr. Ferguson, 'he had had it in his head to leave his master's service.' In 1773 he married a fellow-servant, and finding sixpence a week insufficient for married life, applied for ordinary wages. This request being refused, he signified his intention of seeking service elsewhere. On his master's petition to the Justices of Peace of Perthshire, he was brought before them on a warrant; they decided that he must continue with him as formerly. For some time he continued accordingly; but a child being born to him, he petitioned the Sheriff, who decided in his favour. He thereupon left the house of his master, who removed the cause into the Court of Session.' Ferguson maintained that there are 'many examples of greater servitude in this country [Scotland] than that claimed by the defender, i.e. [Mr. Wedderburne, the plaintiff]. There still exists a species of perpetual servitude, which is supported by late statutes and by daily practice, viz. That which takes place with regard to the coaliers and sailers, where, from the single circumstance of entering to work after puberty, they are bound to perpetual service, and sold along with the works.' Ferguson'sAdditional Information, July 4, 1775, pp. 3; 29; and Maclaurin'sAdditional Information, April 20, 1776, p. 2. Seeante, p. 202.
[607] Seeante, p. 106.
[608] Florence Wilson accompanied, as tutor, Cardinal Wolsey's nephew to Paris, and published at Lyons in 1543 hisDe Tranquillitate Animi Dialogus. Rose'sBiog. Dict. xii. 508.
[609] When Johnson visited Boswell in Edinburgh, Mrs. Boswell 'insisted that, to show all respect to the Sage, she would give up her own bed-chamber to him, and take a worse.' Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 14. Seepost, April 18, 1778.
[610] Seeante, Dec. 23, 1775.
[611] Fielding, in hisVoyage to Lisbon(p. 2), writes of him as 'my friend Mr. Welch, whom I never think or speak of but with love and esteem.' Seepost, under March 30, 1783.
[612] Johnson definespoliceasthe regulation and government of a city or country, so far as regards the inhabitants.
[613] At this time Under-secretary of State. Seeante, i. 478, note 1.
[614] Fielding, after telling how, unlike his predecessor, he had not plundered the public or the poor, continues:—'I had thus reduced an income of about £500 a-year of the dirtiest money upon earth to little more than £300; a considerable proportion of which remained with my clerk.' He added that he 'received from the Government a yearly pension out of the public service money.'Voyage to Lisbon, Introduction.
[615] The friendship between Mr. Welch and him was unbroken. Mr. Welch died not many months before him, and bequeathed him five guineas for a ring, which Johnson received with tenderness, as a kind memorial. His regard was constant for his friend Mr. Welch's daughters; of whom, Jane is married to Mr. Nollekens the statuary, whose merit is too well known to require any praise from me. BOSWELL.
[616] Seeante, ii. 50. It seems from Boswell's words, as the editor of theLetters of Boswell(p. 91) points out, that in this case he was 'only a friend and amateur, and not a duly appointed advocate.' He certainly was not retained in an earlier stage of the cause, for on July 22, 1767, he wrote:—'Though I am not a counsel in that cause, yet I am much interested in it.'Ib. p. 93.
[617] Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, humorously observed, that Levett used to breakfast on the crust of a roll, which Johnson, after tearing out the crumb for himself, threw to his humble friend. BOSWELL. Perhaps the wordthrewis here too strong. Dr. Johnson never treated Levett with contempt. MALONE. Hawkins (Life, p. 398) says that 'Dr. Johnson frequently observed that Levett was indebted to him for nothing more than house-room, his share in a penny loaf at breakfast, and now and then a dinner on a Sunday.' Johnson's roll, says Dr. Harwood, was every morning placed in a small blue and white china saucer which had belonged to his wife, and which he familiarly called 'Tetty.' See the inscription on the saucer in the Lichfield Museum.
[618] See this subject discussed in a subsequent page, under May 3, 1779. BOSWELL.
[619] On Feb. 17, Lord North 'made his Conciliatory Propositions.'Parl. Hist. xix. 762.
[620] Seeante, ii 111.
[621] Seeante, ii. 312.
[622] Alluding to a line in hisVanity of Human Wishes, describing Cardinal Wolsey in his state of elevation:—
'Through him the rays of regal bounty shine.' BOSWELL.
[623] Seeante, p. 205.
[624] 'In my mind's eye, Horatio.'Hamlet, act i. sc. 2.
[625] Mr. Langton. Seeante, p. 48.
[626] Seeante, May 12, 1775.
[627] Daughter of Dr. Swinfen, Johnson's godfather, and widow of Mr. Desmoulins, a writing-master. BOSWELL.
[628] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Montagu on March 5:—'Now, dear Madam, we must talk of business. Poor Davies, the bankrupt bookseller, is soliciting his friends to collect a small sum for the repurchase of part of his household stuff. Several of them gave him five guineas. It would be an honour to him to owe part of his relief to Mrs. Montagu.' Croker'sBoswell, p. 570. J. D'Israeli says (Calamities of Authors, i. 265):—'We owe to Davies beautiful editions of some of our elder poets, which are now eagerly sought after; yet, though all his publications were of the best kinds, and are now of increasing value, the taste of Tom Davies twice ended in bankruptcy.' Seepost, April 7, 1778.
[629] Seeante, i. 391. Davies wrote to Garrick in 1763:—'I remember that during the run ofCymbelineI had the misfortune to disconcert you in one scene of that play, for which I did immediately beg your pardon, and did attribute it to my accidentally seeing Mr. Churchill in the pit, with great truth; and that was the only time I can recollect of my being confused or unmindful of my business when that gentleman was before me. I had even then a more moderate opinion of my abilities than your candour would allow me, and have always acknowledged that gentleman's picture of me was fair.' He adds that he left the stage on account of Garrick's unkindness, 'who,' he says, 'at rehearsals took all imaginable pains to make me unhappy.'Garrick Corres. i. 165.
[630] He was afterwards Solicitor-General under Lord Rockingham and Attorney-General under the Duke of Portland. 'I love Mr. Lee exceedingly,' wrote Boswell, 'though I believe there are not any two specifick propositions of any sort in which we exactly agree. But the general mass of sense and sociality, literature and religion, in each of us, produces two given quantities, which unite and effervesce wonderfully well. I know few men I would go farther to serve than Jack Lee.'Letter to the People of Scotland, p. 75. Lord Eldon said that Lee, in the debates upon the India Bill, speaking of the charter of the East India Company, 'expressed his surprise that there could be such political strife about what he called "a piece of parchment, with a bit of wax dangling to it." This most improvident expression uttered by a Crown lawyer formed the subject of comment and reproach in all the subsequent debates, in all publications of the times, and in everybody's conversation.' Twiss'sEldon, iii. 97. In the debate on Fox's India Bill on Dec. 3, 1783, Lee 'asked what was the consideration of a charter, a skin of parchment with a waxed seal at the corner, compared to the happiness of thirty millions of subjects, and the preservation of a mighty empire.'Parl. Hist. xxiv. 49. See Twiss'sEldon, i. 106-9, and 131, for anecdotes of Lee; andante, ii. 48, note 1.
[631] 'For now we seethrougha glass darkly; but then face to face.' ICorinthians, xiii. 12.
[632] Goldsmith notices this in theHaunch of Venison:—
My friend bade me welcome, but struck me quite dumbWith tidings that Johnson and Burke would not come;For I knew it (he cried), both eternally fail,The one with his speeches, andt'other with Thrale.'
CROKER. Seeante, i. 493.
[633] Seepost, April 1, 1781. 'Johnson said:—"He who praises everybody praises nobody."' Johnson'sWorks(1787), xi. 216.
[634] See ante, p. 55.
[635] Johnson wrote in July 1775:—'Everybody says the prospect of harvest is uncommonly delightful; but this has been so long the summer talk, and has been so often contradicted by autumn, that I do not suffer it to lay much hold on my mind. Our gay prospects have now for many years together ended in melancholy retrospects.'Piozzi Letters, i. 259. On Aug. 27, 1777, he wrote:—'Amidst all these little things there is one great thing. The harvest is abundant, and the weatherà la merveille. No season ever was finer.'Ib. p. 360. In this month of March, 1778, wheat was selling at 5s. 3d. the bushel in London; at 6s. 10d. in Somerset; and at 5s. 1d. in Northumberland, Suffolk, and Sussex.Gent. Mag. xlviii. 98. The average price for 1778 was 5s. 3d.Ann. Reg. xxi. 282.
[636] Seepost, iii. 243, Oct. 10, 1779, and April 1, 1781.
[637] The first edition was in 1492. Between that period and 1792, according to this account, there were 3600 editions. But this is very improbable. MALONE. Malone assumes, as Mr. Croker points out, that this rate of publication continued to the year 1792. But after all, the difference is trifling. Johnson here forgot to use his favourite cure for exaggeration—counting. Seepost, April 18, 1783. 'Round numbers,' he said, 'are always false.' Johnson'sWorks(1787), xi. 198. Horace Walpole (Letters, viii. 300), after making a calculation, writes:—'I may err in my calculations, for I am a woeful arithmetician; but no matter, one large sum is as good as another.'
[638] The original passage is: 'Si non potes te talem facere, qualem vis, quomodo poteris alium ad tuum habere beneplacitum?'De Imit. Christ. lib. i. cap. xvi. J. BOSWELL, Jun.
[639] See p. 29 of this vol. BOSWELL.
[640] Since this was written the attainder has been reversed; and Nicholas Barnewall is now a peer of Ireland with this title. The person mentioned in the text had studied physick, and prescribedgratisto the poor. Hence arose the subsequent conversation. MALONE.
[641] See Franklin'sAutobiographyfor his conversion from vegetarianism.
[642] Seeante, ii. 217, where Johnson advised Boswell to keep a journal. 'The great thing to be recorded, is the state of your own mind.'
[643] 'Nobody can live long without knowing that falsehoods of convenience or vanity, falsehoods from which no evil immediately visible ensues, except the general degradation of human testimony, are very lightly uttered, and, once uttered, are sullenly supported.' Johnson'sWorks, viii. 23.
[644]Literary Magazine, 1756, p. 37. BOSWELL. Johnson'sWorks, vi. 42. Seepost, Oct. 10, 1779.
[645]
'Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic incredulus odi.''For while upon such monstrous scenes we gaze,They shock our faith, our indignation raise.'
FRANCIS. Horace,Ars Poet. 1. 188. Johnson speaks of 'the natural desire of man to propagate a wonder.'Works, vii. 2. 'Wonders,' he says, 'are willingly told, and willingly heard.'Ib. viii. 292. Speaking of Voltaire he says:—'It is the great failing of a strong imagination to catch greedily at wonders.'Ib. vi. 455. Seeante, i. 309, note 3, ii. 247, and Boswell'sHebrides, Oct. 19, 1773. According to Mrs. Piozzi (Anec. p. 137) Hogarth said:—'Johnson, though so wise a fellow, is more like King David than King Solomon; for he says in his haste that all men are liars.'
[646] The following plausible but over-prudent counsel on this subject is given by an Italian writer, quoted by 'Rhedi de generatione insectarum,' with the epithet of 'divini poetæ:'
'Sempre a quel ver ch'ha faccia di menzogna Dee l'uom chiuder le labbra quanto ei puote; Però che senza colpa fa vergogna.' BOSWELL.
It is strange that Boswell should not have discovered that these lines were from Dante. The following is Wright's translation:—
'That truth which bears the semblance of a lie,Should never pass the lips, if possible;Tho' crime be absent, still disgrace is nigh.'
Infern. xvi. 124. CROKER.
[647] Seeante, i. 7, note 1.
[648] Seeante, i. 405.
[649] 'Of John Wesley he said:—"He can talk well on any subject."'Post, April 15, 1778. Southey says that 'his manners were almost irresistibly winning, and his cheerfulness was like perpetual sunshine.'Life of Wesley, i. 409. Wesley recorded on Dec. 18, 1783 (Journal, iv. 258):—'I spent two hours with that great man Dr. Johnson, who is sinking into the grave by a gentle decay.'
[650] 'When you met him in the street of a crowded city, he attracted notice, not only by his band and cassock, and his long hair white and bright as silver, but by his pace and manner, both indicating that all his minutes were numbered, and that not one was to be lost. "Though I am always in haste," he says of himself, "I am never in a hurry; because I never undertake any more work than I can go through with perfect calmness of spirit."' Southey'sWesley, ii. 397.
[651] No doubt the Literary Club. Seeante, ii. 330, 345. Mr. Croker says 'that it appears by the books of the Club that the company on that evening consisted of Dr. Johnson president, Mr. Burke, Mr. Boswell, Dr. George Fordyce, Mr. Gibbon, Dr. Johnson (again named), Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lord Upper Ossory, and Mr. R. B. Sheridan.' E. no doubt stands for Edmund Burke, and J. for Joshua Reynolds. Who are meant by the other initials cannot be known. Mr. Croker hazards some guesses; but he says that Sir James Mackintosh and Chalmers were as dubious as himself.
[652] See Langhorne'sPlutarch, ed. 1809, ii. 133.
[653] 'A man came in balancing a straw upon his nose, and the audience were clapping their hands in all the raptures of applause.'The Citizen of the World, Letter xxi. According to Davis (Life of Garrick, i. 113), 'in one year, after paying all expenses, £11,000 were the produce of Mr. Maddocks (the straw-man's agility), added to the talents of the players at Covent Garden theatre.'
[654] Seeante, i. 399.
[655] 'Sir' said Edwards to Johnson (post, April 17, 1778), 'I remember you would not let us sayprodigiousat College.'
[656] 'Emigration was at this time a common topick of discourse. Dr. Johnson regretted it as hurtful to human happiness.' Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 15, 1773.
[657] In 1766 Johnson wrote a paper (first published in 1808) to prove that 'the bounty upon corn has produced plenty.' 'The truth of these principles,' he says, 'our ancestors discovered by reason, and the French have now found it by experience. In this regulation we have the honour of being masters to those who, in commercial policy, have been long accounted the masters of the world.'Works, v. 323, 326, andante, i. 518. 'In 1688 was granted the parliamentary bounty upon the exportation of corn. The country gentlemen had felt that the money price of corn was falling. The bounty was an expedient to raise it artificially to the high price at which it had frequently been sold in the times of Charles I. and II.' Smith'sWealth of Nations, book I. c. xi. The year 1792, the last year of peace before the great war, was likewise the last year of exportation.Penny Cyclo. viii. 22.
[658]
'Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throatTo persuade Tommy Townshend to lend him a vote.'
Goldsmith'sRetaliation.
Horace Walpole says of Lord Mansfield's speech on theHabeas Corpus Billof 1758:—'Perhaps it was the only speech that in my time at least had real effect; that is, convinced many persons.'Reign of George II, iii. 120.
[659] Gibbon, who was now a member of parliament, was present at this dinner. In hisAutobiography(Misc. Works, i. 221) he says:—'After a fleeting illusive hope, prudence condemned me to acquiesce in the humble station of a mute…. Timidity was fortified by pride, and even the success of my pen discouraged the trial of my voice. But I assisted at the debates of a free assembly; I listened to the attack and defence of eloquence and reason; I had a near prospect of the character, views, and passions of the first men of the age…. The eight sessions that I sat in parliament were a school of civil prudence, the first and most essential virtue of an historian.'
[660] Horace,Odes, iii. 24, 46.
[661] Lord Bolingbroke, who, however detestable as a metaphysician, must be allowed to have had admirable talents as a political writer, thus describes the House of Commons, in his 'Letter to Sir William Wyndham:' —'You know the nature of that assembly; they grow, like hounds, fond of the man who shews them game, and by whose halloo they are used to be encouraged.' BOSWELL. Bolingbroke'sWorks, i. 15.
[662] Smollett says (Journey, i. 147) that he had a musquetoon which could carry eight balls. 'This piece did not fail to attract the curiosity and admiration of the people in every place through which we passed. The carriage no sooner halted than a crowd surrounded the man to view the blunderbuss, which they dignified with the name ofpetit canon. At Nuys in Burgundy, he fired it in the air, and the whole mob dispersed, and scampered off like a flock of sheep.'
[663] Smollett does not say that he frightened the nobleman. He mistook him for a postmaster and spoke to him very roughly. The nobleman seems to have been good-natured; for, at the next stage, says Smollett, 'observing that one of the trunks behind was a little displaced, he assisted my servant in adjusting it.' His name and rank were learnt later on.Journey, i. p. 134.
[664] The two things did not happen in the same town. 'I am sure, writes Thicknesse (Travels, ii. 147), 'there was but that single French nobleman in this mighty kingdom, who would have submitted to such insults as the Doctorsayshe treated him with; nor any other town but Sens [it was Nuys] where the firing of a gun would have so terrified the inhabitants.'
[665] Both Smollett and Thicknesse were great grumblers.
[666] Lord Bolingbroke said of Lord Oxford:—'He is naturally inclined to believe the worst, which I take to be a certain mark of a mean spirit and a wicked soul; at least I am sure that the contrary quality, when it is not due to weakness of understanding, is the fruit of a generous temper and an honest heart.' Bolingbroke'sWorks, i. 25. Lord Eldon asked Pitt, not long before his death, what he thought of the honesty of mankind. 'His answer was, that he had a favourable opinion of mankind upon the whole, and that he believed that the majority was really actuated by fair meaning and intention.' Twiss'sEldon, i. 499.
[667] Johnson wrote in 175l:—'We are by our occupations, education, and habits of life, divided almost into different species, which regard one another, for the most part, with scorn and malignity.'The Rambler, No. 160. In No. 173 he writes of 'the general hostility which every part of mankind exercises against the rest to furnish insults and sarcasm.' In 1783 he said:—'I am ready now to call a mana good manupon easier terms than I was formerly.'Post, under Aug. 29, 1783.
[668] Johnson thirty-four years earlier, in theLife of Savage(Works, viii. 188), had written:—'The knowledge of life was indeed his chief attainment; and it is not without some satisfaction that I can produce the suffrage of Savage in favour of human nature.' On April 14, 1781, he wrote:—'The world is not so unjust or unkind as it is peevishly represented. Those who deserve well seldom fail to receive from others such services as they can perform; but few have much in their power, or are so stationed as to have great leisure from their own affairs, and kindness must be commonly the exuberance of content. The wretched have no compassion; they can do good only from strong principles of duty.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 199.
[669] Pope thus introduces this story:
'Faith in such case if you should prosecute,I think Sir Godfrey should decide the suit,Who send the thief who [that] stole the cash away,And punish'd him that put it in his way.'
Imitations of Horace, book II. epist. ii. [l. 23]. BOSWELL.
[670] Very likely Boswell himself. Seepost, July 17, 1779, where he put Johnson's friendship to the test by neglecting to write to him.
[671] No doubt Dr. Barnard, Dean of Derry, afterwards Bishop of Killaloe. Seeante, p. 84.
[672] The reverse of the story ofCombabus, on which Mr. David Hume told Lord Macartney, that a friend of his had written a tragedy. It is, however, possible that I may have been inaccurate in my perception of what Dr. Johnson related, and that he may have been talking of the same ludicrous tragical subject that Mr. Hume had mentioned. BOSWELL. The story of Combabus, which was originally told by Lucian, may be found in Bayle'sDictionary. MALONE.
[673] Horace Walpole, less than three months later, wrote (Letters, vii. 83):—'Poor Mrs. Clive has been robbed again in her own lane [in Twickenham] as she was last year. I don't make a visit without a blunderbuss; one might as well be invaded by the French.' Yet Wesley in the previous December, speaking of highwaymen, records (Journal, iv. 110):—'I have travelled all roads by day and by night for these forty years, and never was interrupted yet.' Baretti, who was a great traveller, says:—'For my part I never met with any robbers in my various rambles through several regions of Europe.' Baretti'sJourney from London to Genoa, ii. 266.
[674] A year or two before Johnson became acquainted with the Thrales a man was hanged on Kennington Common for robbing Mr. Thrale.Gent. Mag. xxxiii. 411.
[675] The late Duke of Montrose was generally said to have been uneasy on that account; but I can contradict the report from his Grace's own authority. As he used to admit me to very easy conversation with him, I took the liberty to introduce the subject. His Grace told me, that when riding one night near London, he was attacked by two highwaymen on horseback, and that he instantly shot one of them, upon which the other galloped off; that his servant, who was very well mounted, proposed to pursue him and take him, but that his Grace said, 'No, we have had blood enough: I hope the man may live to repent.' His Grace, upon my presuming to put the question, assured me, that his mind was not at all clouded by what he had thus done in self-defence. BOSWELL.
[676] See Boswell'sHebrides, Sept. 22, for a discussion on signing death-warrants.
[677] 'Mr. Dunning the great lawyer,' Johnson called him,ante, p. 128. Lord Shelburne says:—'The fact is well known of the present Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (Lord Loughborough, formerly Mr. Wedderburne) beginning a law argument in the absence of Mr. Dunning, but upon hearing him hem in the course of it, his tone so visibly [sic] changed that there was not a doubt in any part of the House of the reason of it.' Fitzmaurice'sShelburne, iii. 454.
[678] 'The applause of a single human being,' he once said, 'is of great consequence.'Post, 1780, in Mr. Langton'sCollection.
[679] Most likely Boswell's father, for he answers to what is said of this person. He was known to Johnson, he had married a second time, and he was fond of planting, and entertained schemes for the improvement of his property. See Boswell'sHebrides, Nov. 4 and 5, 1773.Respectablewas still a term of high praise. It had not yet come down to signify 'a man who keeps a gig.' Johnson defines it as 'venerable, meriting respect.' It is not in the earlier editions of hisDictionary. Boswell, in hisHebrides(Oct. 27), calls Johnson the Duke of Argyle's 'respectable guest,' andpost, under Sept. 5, 1780, writes of 'therespectablenotion which should ever be entertained of my illustrious friend.' Dr. Franklin in a dedication to Johnson describes himself as 'a sincere admirer of hisrespectabletalents;'post, end of 1780. In theGent. Mag. lv. 235, we read that 'a stone now covers the grave which holds his [Dr. Johnson's]respectableremains.' 'I do not know,' wrote Hannah More (Memoirs, i. 43) of Hampton Court, 'a morerespectablesight than a room containing fourteen admirals, all by Sir Godfrey.' Gibbon (Misc. Works, ii. 487), congratulating Lord Loughborough on becoming Lord Chancellor, speaks of the support the administration will derive 'from sorespectablean ally.' George III. wrote to Lord Shelburne on Sept. 16, 1782, 'when the tie between the Colonies and England was about to be formally severed,' that he made 'the most frequent prayers to heaven to guide me so to act that posterity may not lay the downfall of this oncerespectableempire at my door.' Fitzmaurice'sShelburne, iii. 297. Lord Chesterfield (Misc. Works, iv. 308) writing of the hour of death says:—'That moment is at least a veryrespectableone, let people who boast of not fearing it say what they please.'
[680] The younger Newbery records that Johnson, finding that he had a violin, said to him:—'Young man, give the fiddle to the first beggar man you meet, or you will never be a scholar.'A Bookseller of the Last Century, pp. 127, 145. See Boswell'sHebrides, Oct. 15.
[681] When I told this to Miss Seward, she smiled, and repeated, with admirable readiness, fromAcis and Galatea,
'Bring me a hundred reeds of ample growth,To make a pipe for my CAPACIOUS MOUTH.' BOSWELL.
[682] Seepost, June 3, 1784, where Johnson again mentions this. InThe Spectator, No. 536, Addison recommends knotting, which was, he says, again in fashion, as an employment for 'the most idle part of the kingdom; I mean that part of mankind who are known by the name of the women's-men, or beaus,' etc. InThe Universal Passion, Satire i, Young says of fame:—
'By this inspired (O ne'er to be forgot!)Some lords have learned to spell, and some to knot.'
Lord Eldon says that 'at a period when all ladies were employed (when they had nothing better to do) in knotting, Bishop Porteous was asked by the Queen, whether she might knot on a Sunday. He answered, "You may not;" leaving her Majesty to decide whether, asknotandnotwere in sound alike, she was, or was not, at liberty to do so.' Twiss'sEldon, ii. 355.
[683] See Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 23.
[684] Seepost, p. 248.
[685] Martin's style is wanting in that 'cadence which Temple gave to English prose' (post, p. 257). It would not be judged now so severely as it was a century ago, as the following instance will show:—'There is but one steel and tinder-box in all this commonwealth; the owner whereof fails not upon every occasion of striking fire in the lesser isles, to go thither, and exact three eggs, or one of the lesser fowls from each man as a reward for his service; this by them is called the Fire-Penny, and this Capitation is very uneasy to them; I bid them try their chrystal with their knives, which, when they saw it did strike fire, they were not a little astonished, admiring at the strangeness of the thing, and at the same time accusing their own ignorance, considering the quantity of chrystal growing under the rock of their coast. This discovery has delivered them from the Fire-Penny-Tax, and so they are no longer liable to it.'
[686] Seeante, p. 226.
[687] Lord Macartney observes upon this passage, 'I have heard him tell many things, which, though embellished by their mode of narrative, had their foundation in truth; but I never remember any thing approaching to this. If he had written it, I should have supposed some wag had put the figure of one before the three.'—I am, however, absolutely certain that Dr. Campbell told me it, and I gave particular attention to it, being myself a lover of wine, and therefore curious to hear whatever is remarkable concerning drinking. There can be no doubt that some men can drink, without suffering any injury, such a quantity as to others appears incredible. It is but fair to add, that Dr. Campbell told me, he took a very long time to this great potation; and I have heard Dr. Johnson say, 'Sir, if a man drinks very slowly, and lets one glass evaporate before he takes another, I know not how long he may drink.' Dr. Campbell mentioned a Colonel of Militia who sat with him all the time, and drank equally. BOSWELL.
[688] Seeante, i. 417.
[689] In the following September she is thus mentioned by Miss Burney: —'Mrs. Thrale. "To-morrow, Sir, Mrs. Montagu dines here, and then you will have talk enough." Dr. Johnson began to see-saw, with a countenance strongly expressive of inward fun, and after enjoying it some time in silence, he suddenly, and with great animation, turned to me and cried; "Down with her, Burney! down with her! spare her not! attack her, fight her, and down with her at once! You are a rising wit, and she is at the top; and when I was beginning the world, and was nothing and nobody, the joy of my life was to fire at all the established wits, and then everybody loved to halloo me on."' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, i. 117. 'She has,' adds Miss Burney, 'a sensible and penetrating countenance and the air and manner of a woman accustomed to being distinguished and of great parts. Dr. Johnson, who agrees in this, told us that a Mrs. Hervey of his acquaintance says she can remember Mrs. Montagutryingfor this same air and manner.'Ib. p. 122. Seeante, ii. 88.
[690] Only one volume had been published; it ended with the sixteenth chapter.
[691] Dr. A. Carlyle (Auto. p. 462) says:—'She did not take at Edinburgh. Lord Kames, who was at first catched with her Parnassian coquetry, said at last that he believed she had as much learning as a well-educated college lad here of sixteen. In genuine feelings and deeds she was remarkably deficient. We saw her often in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, and in that town, where there was no audience for such an actress as she was, her natural character was displayed, which was that of an active manager of her affairs, a crafty chaperon, and a keen pursuer of her interest, not to be outdone by the sharpest coal-dealer on the Tyne; but in this capacity she was not displeasing, for she was not acting a part.'
[692] What my friend meant by these words concerning the amiable philosopher of Salisbury, I am at a loss to understand. A friend suggests, that Johnson thought hismanneras a writer affected, while at the same time thematterdid not compensate for that fault. In short, that he meant to make a remark quite different from that which acelebrated gentlemanmade on a very eminent physician: 'He is a coxcomb, but asatisfactory coxcomb.' BOSWELL. Malone says that thecelebrated gentlemanwas Gerard Hamilton. See Boswell'sHebrides, Nov. 3, where Johnson says that 'he thought Harris a coxcomb,' andante, ii. 225.
[693]Hermes.
[694] On the back of the engraving of Johnson in the Common Room of University College is inscribed:—'Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in hac camera communi frequens conviva. D.D. Gulielmus Scott nuper socius.' Gulielmus Scott is better known as Lord Stowell. Seeante, i. 379, note 2, and iii. 42; andpost, April 17, 1778.
[695] Seeante, under March 15, 1776.
[696] See Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 31.
[697] Seeante, p. 176.
[698] Seeante, i. 413.
[699]Eminentis the epithet Boswell generally applies to Burke (ante, ii. 222), and Burke almost certainly is here meant. Yet Johnson later on said, 'Burke's talk is the ebullition of his mind. He does not talk from a desire of distinction, but because his mind is full.'Post, March 21, 1783.
[700] Kames describes it as 'an act as wild as any that superstition ever suggested to a distempered brain.'Sketches, etc. iv. 321.
[701] Seeante,p. 243.
[702] 'Queen Caroline,' writes Horace Walpole, 'much wished to make Dr. Clarke a bishop, but he would not subscribe the articles again. I have often heard my father relate that he sat up one night at the Palace with the Doctor, till the pages of the backstairs asked if they would have fresh candles, my father endeavouring to persuade him to subscribe again, as he had for the living of St. James's. Clarke pretended he hadthenbelieved them. "Well," said Sir Robert, "but if you do not now, you ought to resign your living to some man who would subscribe conscientiously." The Doctor would neither resign his living nor accept the bishopric.'Journal of the Reign of George III, i. 8. Seeante, i. 398,post, Dec. 1784, where Johnson, on his death-bed, recommended Clarke'sSermons; and Boswell'sHebrides, Oct. 5.
[703] Boswell took Ogden'sSermonswith him to the Hebrides, but Johnson showed no great eagerness to read them. See Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 15 and 32.
[704] Seeante, p. 223.
[705]King Lear, act iii. sc. 4.
[706] The Duke of Marlborough.
[707] See Chappell'sPopular Music of the Olden Time, i. 330.
[708] Seeante, p. 177.
[709] 'The accounts of Swift's reception in Ireland given by Lord Orrery and Dr. Delany are so different, that the credit of the writers, both undoubtedly veracious, cannot be saved but by supposing, what I think is true, that they speak of different times. Johnson'sWorks, viii. 207. See Boswell'sHebrides, Sept. Lord Orrery says that Swift, on his return to Ireland in 1714, 'met with frequent indignities from the populace, and indeed was equally abused by persons of all ranks and denominations.' Orrery'sRemarks on Swift, ed. 1752, p. 60. Dr. Delany says (Observations, p. 87) that 'Swift, when he came—to take possession of his Deanery (in 1713), was received with very distinguished respect.'
[710] 'He could practise abstinence,' says Boswell (post, March 20, 1781), 'but not temperance.'
[711] 'The dinner was good, and the Bishop is knowing and conversible,' wrote Johnson of an earlier dinner at Sir Joshua's where he had met the same bishop.Piozzi Letters, i. 334.
[712] Seepost, Aug 19, 1784.
[713] There is no mention in theJourney to Brundusiumof a brook. Johnson referred, no doubt, to Epistle I. 16. 12.
[714]
'Ne ought save Tyber hastning to his fallRemaines of all. O world's inconstancie!That which is firme doth flit and fall away,And that is flitting doth abide and stay.'
Spenser,The Ruines of Rome.
[715] Giano Vitale, to give him his Italian name, was a theologian and poet of Palermo. His earliest work was published in 1512, and he died about 1560.Brunet, and Zedler'sUniversal Lexicon.
[716]
'Albula Romani restat nunc nominis index,Qui quoque nunc rapidis fertur in aequor aquis.Disce hinc quid possit Fortuna. Immota labascunt,Et quae perpetuo sunt agitata manent.'
Jani Vitalis PanormitaniDe Roma. SeeDelicia C.C. Italorum Poetarum, edit. 1608, p. 1433, It is curious that in all the editions of Boswell that I have seen, the errorlabescuntremains unnoticed.
[717] Seepost, June 2, 1781.
[718] Dr. Shipley was chaplain to the Duke of Cumberland. CROKER. The battle was fought on July 2, N.S. 1747.
[719]
'Inconstant as the wind I various rove;At Tibur, Rome—at Rome, I Tibur love.'
FRANCIS. Horace,Epistles, i. 8. 12. In the first two editions Mr.Cambridge's speech ended here.
[720]
'More constant to myself, I leave with pain,By hateful business forced, the rural scene.'
FRANCIS. Horace,Epist., I. 14. 16.
[721] Seeante, p. 167.
[722] Fox, it should be remembered, was Johnson's junior by nearly forty years.
[723] Seeante, i. 413, ii. 214, and Boswell'sHebrides, Oct. 2.
[724] Seeante, i. 478.
[725] 'Who can doubt,' asks Mr. Forster, 'that he also meant slowness of motion? The first point of the picture isthat. The poet is moving slowly, his tardiness of gait measuring the heaviness of heart, the pensive spirit, the melancholy of which it is the outward expression and sign.' Forster'sGoldsmith, i. 369.
[726] Seeante, ii. 5.
[727]Essay on Man, ii. 2.
[728] Gibbon could have illustrated this subject, for not long before he had at Paris been 'introduced,' he said, 'to the best company of both sexes, to the foreign ministers of all nations, and to the first names and characters of France.' Gibbon'sMisc. Works, i. 227. He says of an earlier visit:—'Alone, in a morning visit, I commonly found the artists and authors of Paris less vain and more reasonable than in the circles of their equals, with whom they mingle in the houses of the rich.'Ib. p. 162. Horace Walpole wrote of the Parisians in 1765, (Letters, iv. 436):—'Their gaiety is not greater than their delicacy—but I will not expatiate. [He had just described the grossness of the talk of women of the first rank.] Several of the women are agreeable, and some of the men; but the latter are in general vain and ignorant. Thesavans—I beg their pardon, thephilosophes—are insupportable, superficial, overbearing, and fanatic.'
[729] Seepost, under Aug. 29, 1783, and Boswell'sHebrides, Oct. 14.
[730] Seepost, April 28, 1783.
[731] Seeante, p. 191.
[732] [Greek: 'gaerusko d aiei polla didaskomenos.'] 'I grow in learning as I grow in years.' Plutarch,Solon, ch. 31.
[733]
''Tis somewhat to be lord of some small groundIn which a lizard may at least turn around.'
Dryden,Juvenal, iii. 230.
[734]Modern characters from Shakespeare. Alphabetically arranged. A New Edition. London, 1778. It is not a pamphlet but a duodecimo of 88 pages. Some of the lines are very grossly applied.
[735]As You Like it, act iii. sc. 2. The giant's name is Gargantua, not Garagantua. InModern Characters(p. 47), the next line also is given:—'Tis a word too great for any mouth of this age's size.' The lines that Boswell next quotes are not given.
[736]Coriolanus, act iii. sc. 1.
[737] See vol. i. p. 498. BOSWELL.
[738] Seeante, ii. 236, where Johnson charges Robertson withverbiage. This word is not in hisDictionary.
[739] Pope, meeting Bentley at dinner, addressed him thus:—'Dr. Bentley, I ordered my bookseller to send you your books. I hope you received them.' Bentley, who had purposely avoided saying anything aboutHomer, pretended not to understand him, and asked, 'Books! books! what books?' 'MyHomer,' replied Pope, 'which you did me the honour to subscribe for.'—'Oh,' said Bentley, 'ay, now I recollect—your translation:—it is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope; but you must not call itHomer.' Johnson'sWorks, viii. 336, note.
[740] 'It is certainly the noblest version of poetry which the world has ever seen; and its publication must therefore be considered as one of the great events in the annals of Learning.'Ib. p. 256. 'There would never,' said Gray, 'be another translation of the same poem equal to it.' Gray'sWorks, ed. 1858, v. 37. Cowper however says, that he and a friend 'compared Pope's translation throughout with the original. They were not long in discovering that there is hardly the thing in the world of which Pope was so utterly destitute as a taste forHomer.' Southey'sCowper, i. 106.
[741] Boswell here repeats what he had heard from Johnson,ante, p. 36.
[742] Swift, in his Preface to Temple'sLetters, says:—'It is generally believed that this author has advanced our English tongue to as great a perfection as it can well bear.' Temple'sWorks, i. 226. Hume, in his EssayOf Civil Liberty, wrote in 1742:—'The elegance and propriety of style have been very much neglected among us. The first polite prose we have was writ by a man who is still alive (Swift). As to Sprat, Locke, and even Temple, they knew too little of the rules of art to be esteemed elegant writers.' Mackintosh says (Life, ii. 205):—'Swift represents Temple as having brought English style to perfection. Hume, I think, mentions him; but of late he is not often spoken of as one of the reformers of our style—this, however, he certainly was. The structure of his style is perfectly modern.' Johnson said that he had partly formed his style upon Temple's;ante, i. 218. In the lastRambler, speaking of what he had himself done for our language, he says:—'Something, perhaps, I have added to the elegance of its construction, and something to the harmony of its cadence.'
[743] 'Clarendon's diction is neither exact in itself, nor suited to the purpose of history. It is the effusion of a mind crowded with ideas, and desirous of imparting them; and therefore always accumulating words, and involving one clause and sentence in another.'The Rambler, No. 122.
[744] Johnson's addressing himself with a smile to Mr. Harris is explained by a reference to what Boswell said (ante, p. 245) of Harris's analytic method in hisHermes.
[745] 'Dr. Johnson said of a modern Martial [no doubt Elphinston's], "there are in these verses too much folly for madness, I think, and too much madness for folly."' Piozzi'sAnec. p. 61. Burns wrote on it the following epigram:—
'O thou whom Poetry abhors,Whom Prose has turned out of doors,Heard'st thou that groan—proceed no further,'Twas laurell'd. Martial roaring murder.'
For Mr. Elphinston seeante, i. 210.
[746] It was calledThe Siege of Aleppo. Mr. Hawkins, the authour of it, was formerly Professor of Poetry at Oxford. It is printed in hisMiscellanies, 3 vols. octavo. BOSWELL. 'Hughes's last work was his tragedy,The Siege of Damascus, after which aSiegebecame a popular title.' Johnson'sWorks, vii. 477. Seeante, i. 75, note 2. Hannah More (Memoirs, i. 200) mentions anotherSiegeby a Mrs. B. This lady asked Johnson to 'look over herSiege of Sinope; he always found means to evade it. At last she pressed him so closely that he refused to do it, and told her that she herself, by carefully looking it over, would be able to see if there was anything amiss as well as he could. "But, Sir," said she, "I have no time. I have already so many irons in the fire." "Why then, Madame," said he, quite out of patience, "the best thing I can advise you to do is to put your tragedy along with your irons."' Mrs. B. was Mrs. Brooke. See Baker'sBiog. Dram. iii. 273, where no less than thirty-sevenSiegesare enumerated.
[747] That the story was true is shewn by theGarrick Corres. ii. 6. Hawkins wrote to Garrick in 1774:—'You rejected mySiege of Aleppobecause it was "wrong in the first concoction," as you said.' He added that his play 'was honoured with theentireapprobation of Judge Blackstone and Mr. Johnson.'
[748] The manager of Covent Garden Theatre.
[749] Hawkins wrote:—'In short, Sir, the world will be a proper judge whether I have been candidly treated by you.' Garrick, in his reply, did not make the impertinent offer which he here boasts of. Hawkins lived in Dorsetshire, not in Devonshire; as he reminds Garrick who had misdirected his letter.Garrick Corres. ii. 7-11.
[750] Seeante, i. 433.
[751] 'BOSWELL. "Beauclerk has a keenness of mind which is very uncommon." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir; and everything comes from him so easily. It appears to me that I labour, when I say a good thing." BOSWELL. "You are loud, Sir, but it is not an effort of mind."' Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 21. Seepost, under May 2, 1780.
[752] Boswell seems to imply that he showed Johnson, or at least read to him, a portion of his journal. Most of hisJournal of a Tour to the Hebrideshad been read by him. Boswell'sHebrides, Aug. 18, and Oct. 26.
[753] Hannah More wrote of this evening (Memoirs, i. 146):—'Garrick put Johnson into such good spirits that I never knew him so entertaining or more instructive. He was as brilliant as himself, and as good-humoured as any one else.'
[754] He was, perhaps, more steadily under Johnson than under any else. In his own words he was 'of Johnson's school.' (Ante, p. 230). Gibbon calls Johnson Reynolds's oracle. Gibbon'sMisc. Works, i. 149.
[755] Boswell never mentions Sir John Scott (Lord Eldon) who knew Johnson (ante, ii. 268), and who was Solicitor-General when theLife of Johnsonwas published. Boswell perhaps never forgave him the trick that he and others played him at the Lancaster Assizes about the years 1786-8. 'We found,' said Eldon, 'Jemmy Boswell lying upon the pavement—inebriated. We subscribed at supper a guinea for him and half-a-crown for his clerk, and sent him next morning a brief with instructions to move for the writ ofQuare adhæsit pavimento, with observations calculated to induce him to think that it required great learning to explain the necessity of granting it. He sent all round the town to attornies for books, but in vain. He moved however for the writ, making the best use he could of the observations in the brief. The judge was astonished and the audience amazed. The judge said, "I never heard of such a writ—what can it be that adherespavimento? Are any of you gentlemen at the Bar able to explain this?" The Bar laughed. At last one of them said, "My Lord, Mr. Boswell last nightadhæsit pavimento. There was no moving him for some time. At last he was carried to bed, and he has been dreaming about himself and the pavement."' Twiss'sEldon, i. 130. Boswell wrote to Temple in 1789:—'I hesitate as to going the Spring Northern Circuit, which costs £50, and obliges me to be in rough, unpleasant company four weeks.'Letters of Boswell, p. 274. Seeante, ii. 191, note 2.
[756] 'Johnson, in accounting for the courage of our common people, said (Works, vi. 151):—'It proceeds from that dissolution of dependence which obliges every man to regard his own character. While every man is fed by his own hands, he has no need of any servile arts; he may always have wages for his labour, and is no less necessary to his employer than his employer is to him.'
[757] He says of a laird's tenants:—'Since the islanders no longer content to live have learned the desire of growing rich, an ancient dependant is in danger of giving way to a higher bidder, at the expense of domestick dignity and hereditary power. The stranger, whose money buys him preference, considers himself as paying for all that he has, and is indifferent about the laird's honour or safety. The commodiousness of money is indeed great; but there are some advantages which money cannot buy, and which therefore no wise man will by the love of money be tempted to forego.'Ib. ix. 83.
[758] 'Every old man complains … of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation. He recounts the decency and regularity of former times, and celebrates the discipline and sobriety of the age in which his youth was passed; a happy age, which is now no more to be expected, since confusion has broken in upon the world, and thrown down all the boundaries of civility and reverence.'The Rambler, No. 50.
[759] Boswell, perhaps, had in mindThe Rambler, No. 146:—'It is long before we are convinced of the small proportion which every individual bears to the collective body of mankind; or learn how few can be interested in the fortune of any single man; how little vacancy is left in the world for any new object of attention; to how small extent the brightest blaze of merit can be spread amidst the mists of business and of folly.'
[760] Seeante, ii. 227.
[761]
'Fortunam reverenter habe, quicumque repenteDives ab exili progrediere loco.'
Ausonius,Epigrammata, viii. 7.
Stockdale records (Memoirs, ii. 186), that Johnson said to him:—'Garrick has undoubtedly the merit of an unassuming behaviour; for more pains have been taken to spoil that fellow than if he had been heir apparent to the Empire of India.'
[762] A lively account of Quin is given inHumphry Clinker, in the letters of April 30 and May 6.
[763] Seeante, i. 216.
[764] A few days earlier Garrick wrote to a friend:—'I did not hear till last night that your friends have generously contributed to your and their own happiness. No one can more rejoice at this circumstance than I do; and as I hope we shall have a bonfire upon the occasion, I beg that you will light it with the inclosed.' The inclosed was a bond for £280.Garrick Corres. ii. 297. Murphy says:—'Dr. Johnson often said that, when he saw a worthy family in distress, it was his custom to collect charity among such of his friends as he knew to be affluent; and on those occasions he received from Garrick more than from any other person, and always more than he expected.'Life of Garrick, p. 378. 'It was with Garrick a fixed principle that authors were intitled to the emolument of their labours, and by that generous way of thinking he held out an invitation to men of genius.'Ib. p. 362. Seeante, p. 70, andpost, April 24, 1779.
[765] When Johnson told this little anecdote to Sir Joshua Reynolds, he mentioned a circumstance which he omitted to-day:—'Why (said Garrick) it is as red as blood.' BOSWELL. A passage in Johnson's answer to Hanway'sEssay on Tea(ante, i. 314) shews that tea was generally made very weak. 'Three cups,' he says, 'make the common quantity, so slightly impregnated that, perhaps, they might be tinged with the Athenian cicuta, and produce less effects than these letters charge upon tea.'Works, vi. 24.
[766] To Garrick might be applied what Johnson said of Swift:—'He was frugal by inclination, but liberal by principle.'Works, viii. 222.
[767] Seepost, under March 30, 1783. In Fitzmaurice'sShelburne, ii. 329, is a paper by Lord Shelburne in which are very clearly laid down rules of economy—rules which, to quote his own words (p. 337), 'require little, if any, more power of mind, than to be sure to put on a clean shirt every day.' Boswell records (Hebrides, Aug. 18) that Johnson said:—'If a man is not of a sluggish mind, he may be his own steward.'
[768] 'Lady Macbeth urges the excellence and dignity of courage, a glittering idea which has dazzled mankind from age to age, and animated sometimes the housebreaker, and sometimes the conqueror.' Johnson'sWorks, v. 69.
[769] Smollett, who had been a ship's doctor, describes the hospital in a man-of-war:—'Here I saw about fifty miserable distempered wretches, suspended in rows, so huddled one upon another, that not more than fourteen inches space was allotted for each with his bed and bedding; and deprived of the light of the day as well as of fresh air; breathing nothing but a noisome atmosphere … devoured with vermin.' &c. The doctor, when visiting the sick, 'thrust his wig in his pocket, and stript himself to his waistcoat; then creeping on all fours under their hammocks, and forcing up his bare pate between two, kept them asunder with one shoulder until he had done his duty.'Roderick Random, i. ch. 25 and 26.
[770] Seeante, ii. 339.
[771] 'The qualities which commonly make an army formidable are long habits of regularity, great exactness of discipline, and great confidence in the commander … But the English troops have none of these requisites in any eminent degree. Regularity is by no means part of their character.' Johnson'sWorks, vi. 150.
[772] Seeante, i. 348.
[773] In theMarmor Norfolciense(Works, vi. 101) he describes the soldier as 'a red animal, that ranges uncontrolled over the country, and devours the labours of the trader and the husbandman; that carries with it corruption, rapine, pollution, and devastation; that threatens without courage, robs without fear, and is pampered without labour.' InThe Idler, No. 21, he makes an imaginary correspondent say:—'I passed some years in the most contemptible of all human stations, that of a soldier in time of peace.' 'Soldiers, in time of peace,' he continues, 'long to be delivered from the tyranny of idleness, and restored to the dignity of active beings.'Ib. No. 30, he writes:—'Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth by the falsehoods which interest dictates, and credulity encourages. A peace will equally leave the warriour and relater of wars destitute of employment; and I know not whether more is to be dreaded from streets filled with soldiers accustomed to plunder, or from garrets filled with scribblers accustomed to lie.' Many years later he wrote (Works, viii. 396):—'West continued some time in the army; though it is reasonable to suppose that he never sunk into a mere soldier, nor ever lost the love, or much neglected the pursuit of learning.'
[774] Seeante, p. 9.
[775] Seepost, March 21, 1783.
[776] The reference seems to be to a passage in Plutarch'sAlcibiades, where Phaeax is thus described:—'He seemed fitter for soliciting and persuading in private than for stemming the torrent of a public debate; in short, he was one of those of whom Eupolis says:—"True he can talk, and yet he is no speaker."' Langhome'sPlutarch, ed. 1809, ii. 137. How the quotation was applied is a matter only for conjecture.
[777] 'Was there,' asked Johnson, 'ever yet anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, exceptingDon Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, andThe Pilgrim's Progress?' Piozzi'sAnec. p. 281.
[778] Seeante, i. 406.
[779] Seeante, March 25, 1776.
[780] In theGent. Mag. for 1776, p. 382, this hulk seems to be mentioned:—'The felons sentenced under the new convict-act began to work in clearing the bed of the Thames about two miles below Barking Creek. In the vessel wherein they work there is a room abaft in which they are to sleep, and in the forecastle a kind of cabin for the overseer.'Ib. p. 254, there is an admirable paper, very likely by Bentham, on the punishment of convicts, which Johnson might have read with advantage.
[781] See Boswell'sHebrides, Sept. 25.
[782] Malone says that he had in vain examined Dodsley'sCollectionfor the verses. My search has been equally in vain.
[783] Johnson (Works, vii. 373) praises Smith's 'excellent Latin ode on the death of the great Orientalist, Dr. Pocock.' He says that he does not know 'where to find it equalled among the modern writers.' Seeante, ii. 187, note 3.
[784] Seeante, p. 7.
[785] Seepost, April 15, 1781.
[786] Seeante, ii. 224.
[787] 'Thus commending myself and my eternal concerns into thy most faithful hands, in firm hope of a happy reception into thy kingdom; Oh! my God! hear me, while I humbly extend my supplications for others; and pray that thou wouldst bless the King and all his family; that thou wouldst preserve the crown to his house to endless generations.' Dodd'sLast Prayer, p. 132.
[788] Seeante, iii. 166.
[789] Seeante, i. 413.
[790] 'I never knew,' wrote Davies of Johnson, 'any man but one who had the honour and courage to confess that he had a tincture of envy in him. He, indeed, generously owned that he was not a stranger to it; at the same time he declared that he endeavoured to subdue it.' Davies'sGarrick, ii. 391.
[791] Reynolds said that Johnson, 'after the heat of contest was over, if he had been informed that his antagonist resented his rudeness, was the first to seek after a reconcilation.' Taylor'sReynolds, 11. 457. See ante, 11. 109.
[792]Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, edit. 3, p. 221 [Sept. 17]. BOSWELL.
[793] See this accurately stated, and the descent of his family from the Earls of Northumberland clearly deduced in the Reverend Dr. Nash's excellentHistory of Worcestershire, vol. ii. p. 318. The Doctor has subjoined a note, in which he says, 'The Editor hath Seen and carefully examined the proofs of all the particulars above-mentioned, now in the possession of the Reverend Thomas Percy.' The same proofs I have also myself carefully examined, and have seen some additional proofs which have occurred since the Doctor's book was published; and both as a Lawyer accustomed to the consideration of evidence, and as a Genealogist versed in the study of pedigrees, I am fully satisfied. I cannot help observing, as a circumstance of no small moment, that in tracing the Bishop of Dromore's genealogy, essential aid was given by the late Elizabeth Duchess of Northumberland, Heiress of that illustrious House; a lady not only of high dignity of spirit, such as became her noble blood, but of excellent understanding and lively talents. With a fair pride I can boast of the honour of her Grace's correspondence, specimens of which adorn my archives. BOSWELL.
[794] 'The gardens are trim to the highest degree, and more adapted to avillanear London than the ancient seat of a great Baron. In a word, nothing except the numbers of unindustrious poor that swarm at the gate excites any one idea of its former circumstances.' Pennant'sScotland, p. 31.
[795] Mr. Croker quotes a passage fromThe Heroic Epistle, which ends:—
'So when some John his dull invention racksTo rival Boodle's dinners, or Almack's,Three uncouth legs of mutton shock our eyes,Three roasted geese, three buttered apple pies.'
[796] Johnson saw Alnwick on his way to Scotland. 'We came to Alnwick,' he wrote, 'where we were treated with great civility by the Duke: I went through the apartments, walked on the wall, and climbed the towers.'Piozzi Letters, i. 108.
[797] 'When Reynolds painted his portrait looking into the slit of his pen and holding it almost close to his eye, as was his custom, he felt displeased, and told me he would not be known by posterity for hisdefectsonly, let Sir Joshua do his worst. I said that the picture in the room where we were talking represented Sir Joshua holding his ear in his hand to catch the sound. "He may paint himself as deaf, if he chooses," replied Johnson, "but I will not beblinking Sam."' Piozzi'sAnec. p. 248.
[798] 'You look in vain for thehelmeton the tower, the ancient signal of hospitality to the traveller, or for the grey-headed porter to conduct him to the hall of entertainment. Instead of the disinterested usher of the old times, he is attended by avaletto receive the fees of admittance.' Pennant'sScottland, p. 32.
[799] It certainly was a custom, as appears from the following passage inPerce-forest, vol. iii. p. 108:—'Fasoient mettre au plus hault de leur hostel unheaulme, en signeque tous les gentils hommes et gentilles femmes entrâssent hardiment en leur hostel comme en leur propre.' KEARNEY.
[800] The title of a book translated by Dr. Percy. BOSWELL. It is a translation of the introduction tol'Histoire de Danemarck, par M. Mallet. Lowndes'sBibl. Man. ed. 1871, p. 1458.
[801] He was a Welshman.
[802] This is the common cant against faithful Biography. Does the worthy gentleman mean that I, who was taught discrimination of character by Johnson, should have omitted his frailties, and, in short, havebedawbedhim as the worthy gentleman has bedawbed Scotland? BOSWELL.
[803] See Dr. Johnson'sJourney to the Western Islands, 296 [Works, ix. 124];—see hisDictionaryarticle,oats:—and myVoyage to the Hebrides, first edition. PENNANT.
[804] Mr. Boswell's Journal, p. 286, [third edition, p. 146, Sep. 6.] PENNANT.
[805] Seeante, ii. 60.
[806] Percy, it should seem, took offence later on. Cradock (Memoirs, i. 206) says:—'Almost the last time I ever saw Johnson [it was in 1784] he said to me:—"Notwithstanding all the pains that Dr. Farmer and I took to serve Dr. Percy in regard to hisAncient Ballads, he has left town for Ireland without taking leave of either of us."' Cradock adds (p. 238) that though 'Percy was a most pleasing companion, yet there was a violence in his temper which could not always be controlled.' 'I was witness,' he writes (p. 206), 'to an entire separation between Percy and Goldsmith about Rowley's [Chatterton's] poems.'
[807] Sunday, April 12, 1778. BOSWELL.
[808] Johnson, writing of the uncertainty of friendship, says: 'A dispute begun in jest upon a subject which, a moment before, was on both sides regarded with careless indifference, is continued by the desire of conquest, till vanity kindles into rage, and opposition rankles into enmity. Against this hasty mischief I know not what security can be obtained; men will be sometimes surprised into quarrels.'The Idler, No. 23. Seeante, ii. 100, note 1.
[809] Though the Bishop of Dromore kindly answered the letters which I wrote to him, relative to Dr. Johnson's early history; yet, in justice to him, I think it proper to add, that the account of the foregoing conversation and the subsequent transaction, as well as some other conversations in which he is mentioned, has been given to the publick without previous communication with his Lordship. BOSWELL. This note is first given in the second edition, being added, no doubt, at the Bishop's request.
[810] Seepost, 1780, in Mr. Langton'sCollection.
[811] Chap. xlii. is still shorter:—'Concerning Owls.
'There are no owls of any kind in the whole island.'
Horrebow says in hisPreface, p. vii:—'I have followed Mr. Anderson article by article, declaring what is false in each.' A Member of theIcelandic Literary Societyin a letter to thePall Mall Gazette, dated May 3, 1883, thus accounts for these chapters:—'In 1746 there was published at Hamburg a small volume entitled,Nachrichlen von Island, Grönland und der Strasse Davis. The Danish Government, conceiving that its intentions were misrepresented by this work, procured a reply to be written by Niels Horrebow, and this was published, in 1752, under the title ofTilforladelige Efterretninger om Island; in 1758, an English translation appeared in London. The object of the author was to answer all Anderson's charges and imputations. This Horrebow did categorically, and hence come these Chapters, though it must be added that they owe their laconic celebrity to the English translator, the author being rather profuse than otherwise in giving his predecessor a flat denial.'
[812] Seeante, p. 255.
[813] 'A fugitive from heaven and prayer,
I mocked at all religious fear,Deep scienced in the mazy loreOf mad philosophy: but nowHoist sail, and back my voyage ploughTo that blest harbour which I left before.'
FRANCIS. Horace,Odes, i. 34. 1.
[814] Seeante, i. 315, andpost, p. 288.
[815] Ovid,Meta. ii. 13.
[816] Johnson says (Works, viii. 355):—'The greater part of mankindhave no character at all, have little that distinguishes them from others equally good or bad.' It would seem to follow that the greater part of mankind have no style at all, for it is in character that style takes its spring.
[817] 'Dodd's wish to be received into our society was conveyed to us only by a whisper, and that being the case all opposition to his admission became unnecessary.' Hawkins'sJohnson, p. 435.
[818] See note, vol. iii. p. 106. BOSWELL. Seepost, p. 290, for Johnson's violence against the Americans and those who sided with them.
[819] The friend was Mr. Steevens. Garrick says (Corres. ii. 361) that Steevens had written things in the newspapers against him that were slanderous, and then had assured him upon his word and honour that he had not written them; that he had later on bragged that he had written them, and had said, 'that it was fun to vex me.' Garrick adds:—'I was resolved to keep no terms with him, and will always treat him as such a pest of society merits from all men.' 'Steevens, Dr. Parr used to say, had only three friends—himself, Dr. Farmer, and John Reed, so hateful was his character. He was one of the wisest, most learned, but most spiteful of men.' Johnstone'sParr, viii. 128. Boswell had felt Steevens's ill-nature. While he was carrying theLife of Johnsonthrough the press, at a time when he was suffering from 'the most woeful return of melancholy,' he wrote to Malone,—'Jan 29, 1791. Steevenskindlytells me that I have over-printed, and that the curiosity about Johnson isnowonly in our own circle…. Feb. 25. You must know that I amcertainlyinformed that a certain person who delights in mischief has beendepreciatingmy book, so that I fear the sale of it may be very dubious.' Croker'sBoswell, p. 828.A certain personwas, no doubt, Steevens. Seeante, ii. 375, andpost, under March 30, 1783, and May 15, 1784.
[820]
'I own th' indulgence—Such I give and take.'
FRANCIS. Horace,Ars Poet. 1. II.
[821]
'We grant, altho' he had much wit,H' was very shy of using it,As being loth to wear it out.'
Hudibras, i. I. 45.