Chapter 23

"Thou thy weary [worldly] task hast done,Home art gone and ta'en thy wages."[Cymbeline, act iv. sc. 2.]

Had she had good humour and prompt elocution, her universal curiosity and comprehensive knowledge would have made her the delight of all that knew her.' Ib. p. 311.

[726]Johnson (Works, viii. 354) described in 1756 such a companion as he found in Mrs. Williams. He quotes Pope'sEpitaph on Mrs. Corbet, and continues:—'I have always considered this as the most valuable of all Pope's epitaphs; the subject of it is a character not discriminated by any shining or eminent peculiarities; yet that which really makes, though not the splendour, the felicity of life, and that which every wise man will choose for his final and lasting companion in the languor of age, in the quiet of privacy, when he departs, weary and disgusted, from the ostentatious, the volatile and the vain. Of such a character which the dull overlook, and the gay despise, it was fit that the value should be made known, and the dignity established.' Seeante, i.232.

[727]Pr. and Med. p. 226. BOSWELL.

[728]I conjecture that Mr. Bowles is the friend. The account follows close on the visit to his house, and contains a mention of Johnson's attendance at a lecture at Salisbury.

[729]A writer in Notes and Queries, 1st S. xii. 149, says:—'Mr. Bowles had married a descendant of Oliver Cromwell, viz. Dinah, the fourth daughter of Sir Thomas Frankland, and highly valued himself upon this connection with the Protector.' He adds that Mr. Bowles was an active Whig.

[730]Mr. Malone observes, 'This, however, was certainly a mistake, as appears from the Memoirspublished by Mr. Noble. Had Johnson been furnished with the materials which the industry of that gentleman has procured, and with others which, it it is believed, are yet preserved in manuscript, he would, without doubt, have produced a most valuable and curious history of Cromwell's life.' BOSWELL.

[731]See ante, ii.358, note 3.

[732]Short Notes for Civil Conversation. Spedding'sBacon, vii.109.

[733]'When I took up his Life of Cowley, he made me put it away to talk. I could not help remarking how very like he is to his writing, and how much the same thing it was to hear or to read him; but that nobody could tell that without coming to Streatham, for his language was generally imagined to be laboured and studied, instead of the mere common flow of his thoughts. "Very true," said Mrs. Thrale, "he writes and talks with the same ease, and in the same manner."' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, i. 120. What a different account is this from that given by Macaulay:—'When he talked he clothed his wit and his sense in forcible and natural expressions. As soon as he took his pen in his hand to write for the public, his style became systematically vicious.' Macaulay'sEssays, edit. 1843, i.404. Seeante, ii.96, note; iv.183; andpost, the end of the vol.

[734]See ante, ii.125, iii.254, and Boswell'sHebrides, Oct. 14.

[735]Hume said:—'The French have more real politeness, and the English the better method of expressing it. By real politeness I mean softness of temper, and a sincere inclination to oblige and be serviceable, which is very conspicuous in this nation, not only among the high, but low; in so much that the porters and coachmen here are civil, and that, not only to gentlemen, but likewise among themselves.' J.H. Burton's Hume, i. 53.

[736]This is the third time that Johnson's disgust at this practice is recorded. See ante, ii.403, and iii.352.

[737]See ante, iii.398, note 3.

[738]'Sept. 22, 1783. The chymical philosophers have discovered a body (which I have forgotten, but will enquire) which, dissolved by an acid, emits a vapour lighter than the atmospherical air. This vapour is caught, among other means, by tying a bladder compressed upon the body in which the dissolution is performed; the vapour rising swells the bladder and fills it. Piozzi Letters, ii.310. The 'body' was iron-filings, the acid sulphuric acid, and the vapour nitrogen. The other 'new kinds of air' were the gases discovered by Priestley.

[739]I do not wonder at Johnson's displeasure when the name of Dr. Priestley was mentioned; for I know no writer who has been suffered to publish more pernicious doctrines. I shall instance only three. First, Materialism; by whichmindis denied to human nature; which, if believed, must deprive us of every elevated principle. Secondly,Necessity; or the doctrine that every action, whether good or bad, is included in an unchangeable and unavoidable system; a notion utterly subversive of moral government. Thirdly, that we have no reason to think that thefutureworld, (which, as he is pleased toinformus, will be adapted to ourmerely improvednature,) will be materially different fromthis; which, if believed, would sink wretched mortals into despair, as they could no longer hope for the 'rest that remaineth for the people of GOD' [Hebrews, iv.9], or for that happiness which is revealed to us as something beyond our present conceptions; but would feel themselves doomed to a continuation of the uneasy state under which they now groan. I say nothing of the petulant intemperance with which he dares to insult the venerable establishments of his country.

As a specimen of his writings, I shall quote the following passage, which appears to me equally absurd and impious, and which might have been retorted upon him by the men who were prosecuted for burning his house. 'I cannot, (says he,) as a necessarian, [meaningnecessitarian] hateany man; because I consider him asbeing, in all respects, just what GOD hasmade him to be; and also asdoing with respect to me, nothing but what he wasexpressly designedandappointedto do; GOD being theonly cause, and men nothing more than theinstrumentsin his hands toexecute all his pleasure.'—Illustrations of Philosophical Necessity, p. 111.

The Reverend Dr. Parr, in a late tract, appears to suppose that 'Dr. Johnson not only endured, but almost solicited, an interview with Dr. Priestley. In justice to Dr. Johnson, I declare my firm belief that he never did. My illustrious friend was particularly resolute in not giving countenance to men whose writings he considered as pernicious to society. I was present at Oxford when Dr. Price, even before he had rendered himself so generally obnoxious by his zeal for the French Revolution, came into a company where Johnson was, who instantly left the room. Much more would he have reprobated Dr. Priestley. Whoever wishes to see a perfect delineation of thisLiterary Jack of all Trades, may find it in an ingenious tract, entitled, 'A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH OF DR. PRIESTLEY,' printed for Rivingtons, in St. Paul's Church-Yard. BOSWELL. See Appendix B.

[740]Burke said, 'I have learnt to think betterof mankind.'Ante, iii.236.

[741]He wrote to his servant Frank from Heale on Sept. l6:—'As Thursday [the 18th] is my birthday I would have a little dinner got, and would have you invite Mrs. Desmoulins, Mrs. Davis that was about Mrs. Williams, and Mr. Allen, and Mrs. Gardiner.' Croker's Boswell, p.739. Seeante, iii.157, note 3.

[742]Dr. Burney had just lost Mr. Bewley, 'the Broom Gentleman' (ante, p. 134), and Mr. Crisp. Dr. Burney'sMemoirs, ii.323, 352. For Mr. Crisp, see Macaulay'sReviewof Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary. Essays, ed. 1874, iv.104.

[743]He wrote of her to Mrs. Montagu:—'Her curiosity was universal, her knowledge was very extensive, and she sustained forty years of misery with steady fortitude. Thirty years and more she had been my companion, and her death has left me very desolate.' Croker's Boswell, p. 739. This letter brought to a close his quarrel with Mrs. Montagu (ante, p. 64).

[744]On Sept. 22 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—'If excision should be delayed, there is danger of a gangrene. You would not have me for fear of pain perish in putrescence. I shall, I hope, with trust in eternal mercy, lay hold of the possibility of life which yet remains.' Piozzi Letters, ii.312.

[745]Rather more than seven years ago. Ante, ii.82, note 2.

[746]Mrs. Anna Williams. BOSWELL.

[747]See ante, p. 163, and Boswell'sHebrides, Nov 2.

[748]Dated Oct. 27. Piozzi Letters, ii.321.

[749]According to Mrs. Piozzi (Letters, ii.387), he said to Mrs. Siddons:—'You see, Madam, wherever you go there are no seats to be got.' Sir Joshua also paid her a fine compliment. 'He never marked his own name [on a picture],' says Northcote, 'except in the instance of Mrs. Siddons's portrait as the Tragic Muse, when he wrote his name upon the hem of her garment. "I could not lose," he said, "the honour this opportunity offered to me for my name going down to posterity on the hem of your garment."' Northcote'sReynolds, i. 246. In Johnson'sWorks, ed. 1787, xi. 207, we read that 'he said of Mrs. Siddons that she appeared to him to be one of the few persons that the two great corrupters of mankind, money and reputation, had not spoiled.'

[750]'Indeed, Dr. Johnson,' said Miss Monckton, 'you mustsee Mrs. Siddons.' 'Well, Madam, if you desire it, I will go. See her I shall not, nor hear her; but I'll go, and that will do.' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, ii. 198.

[751]'Mrs. Porter, the tragedian, was so much the favourite of her time, that she was welcomed on the stage when she trod it by the help of a stick.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 319.

[752]He said:—'Mrs. Clive was the best player I ever saw.' Boswell's Hebrides, post, v. 126. Seeante, p. 7. She was for many years the neighbour and friend of Horace Walpole.

[753]She acted the heroine in Irene. Ante, i. 197. 'It is wonderful how little mind she had,' he once said.Ante, ii. 348. See Boswell'sHebrides, post, v. 126.

[754]See ante, iii. 183.

[755]See ante, iii. 184.

[756]'Garrick's great distinction is his universality,' Johnson said. 'He can represent all modes of life, but that of an easy, fine-bred gentleman.' Boswell's Hebrides, post, v. 126. Seeante, iii. 35. Horace Walpole wrote of Garrick in 1765 (Letters, iv. 335):—'Several actors have pleased me more, though I allow not in so many parts. Quin in Falstaff was as excellent as Garrick inLear. Old Johnson far more natural in everything he attempted; Mrs. Porter surpassed him in passionate tragedy. Cibber and O'Brien were what Garrick could never reach, coxcombs and men of fashion. Mrs. Clive is at least as perfect in low comedy.'

[757]See ante, ii. 465.

[758]Mr. Kemble told Mr. Croker that 'Mrs. Siddons's pathos in the last scene of The Strangerquite overcame him, but he always endeavoured to restrain any impulses which might interfere with his previous study of his part.' Croker'sBoswell, p. 742. Diderot, writing of the qualifications of a great actor, says:—'Je lui veux beaucoup de jugement; je le veux spectateur froid et tranquille de la nature humaine; qu'il ait par conséquent beaucoup de finesse, mais nulle sensibilité, ou, ce qui est la même chose, l'art de tout imiter, et une égale aptitude à toutes sortes de caractères et de rôles; s'il était sensible, il lui serait impossible de jouer dix fois de suite le même rôle avec la même chaleur et le même succès; très chaud à la première représentation, il serait épuisé et froid comme le marble à la troisième,' &c. Diderot'sWorks(ed. 1821), iii. 274. See Boswell'sHebrides, post, v. 46.

[759]My worthy friend, Mr. John Nichols, was present when Mr. Henderson, the actor, paid a visit to Dr. Johnson; and was received in a very courteous manner. See Gent. Mag. June, 1791.

I found among Dr. Johnson's papers, the following letter to him, from the celebrated Mrs. Bellamy [ante, i. 326]:—

'To DR. JOHNSON.

'SIR,

'The flattering remembrance of the partiality you honoured me with, some years ago, as well as the humanity you are known to possess, has encouraged me to solicit your patronage at my Benefit.

'By a long Chancery suit, and a complicated train of unfortunate events, I am reduced to the greatest distress; which obliges me, once more, to request the indulgence of the publick.

'Give me leave to solicit the honour of your company, and to assure you, if you grant my request, the gratification I shall feel, from being patronized by Dr. Johnson, will be infinitely superiour to any advantage that may arise from the Benefit; as I am, with the profoundest respect, Sir,

'Your most obedient, humble servant, G. A. BELLAMY. No. 10 Duke-street, St. James's, May 11, 1783.'

I am happy in recording these particulars, which prove that my illustrious friend lived to think much more favourably of Players than he appears to have done in the early part of his life. BOSWELL. Mr. Nichols, describing Henderson's visit to Johnson, says:—'The conversation turning on the merits of a certain dramatic writer, Johnson said: "I never did the man an injury; but he would persist in reading his tragedy to me."' Gent. Mag: 1791, p. 500.

[760]Piozzi Letters, vol. ii. p. 328. BOSWELL.

[761]Piozzi Letters, vol. ii. p. 342. BOSWELL. The letter to Miss Thrale was dated Nov. 18. Johnson wrote on Dec. l3:—'You must all guess again at my friend. It was not till Dec. 31 that he told the name.

[762]Miss Burney, who visited him on this day, records:—'He was, if possible, more instructive, entertaining, good-humoured, and exquisitely fertile than ever.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 284. The day before he wrote to one of Mrs. Thrale's little daughters:—'I live here by my own self, and have had of late very bad nights; but then I have had a pig to dinner which Mr. Perkins gave me. Thus life is chequered.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 327.

[763]See ante, i. 242.

[764]See ante, i. 242.

[765]Nos. 26 and 29.

[766]Piozzi Letters, i. 334. Seeante, p. 75.

[767]He strongly opposed the war with America, and was one of Dr. Franklin's friends. Franklin's Memoirs, ed. 1818, iii. 108.

[768]It was of this tragedy that the following story is told in Rogers's Table-Talk, p. 177:—'Lord Shelburne could say the most provoking things, and yet appear quite unconscious of their being so. In one of his speeches, alluding to Lord Carlisle, he said:—"The noble Lord has written a comedy." "No, a tragedy." "Oh, I beg pardon; I thought it was a comedy."' Seeante, p. 113. Pope, writing to Mr. Cromwell on Aug. 19, 1709, says:—'One might ask the same question of a modern life, that Rich did of a modern play: "Pray do me the favour, Sir, to inform me is this your tragedy or your comedy?"' Pope'sWorks, ed. 1812, vi. 81.

[769]Mrs. Chapone, when she was Miss Mulso, had written 'four billets in The Rambler, No. 10.'Ante, i. 203. She was one of the literary ladies who sat at Richardson's feet. Wraxall (Memoirs, ed. 1815, i. 155) says that 'under one of the most repulsive exteriors that any woman ever possessed she concealed very superior attainments and extensive knowledge.' Just as Mrs. Carter was often called 'the learned Mrs. Carter,' so Mrs. Chapone was known as 'the admirable Mrs. Chapone.'

[770]See ante, iii. 373.

[771]A few copies only of this tragedy have been printed, and given to the authour's friends. BOSWELL.

[772]Dr. Johnson having been very ill when the tragedy was first sent to him, had declined the consideration of it. BOSWELL.

[773]Johnson refers, I suppose, to a passage in Dryden which he quotes in his Dictionaryundermechanick:—'Many a fair precept in poetry is like a seeming demonstration in mathematicks, very specious in the diagram, but failing in the mechanick operation.'

[774]

'I could have borne my woes; that stranger JoyWounds while it smiles:—The long imprison'd wretch,Emerging from the night of his damp cell,Shrinks from the sun's bright beams; and that which flingsGladness o'er all, to him is agony.' BOSWELL.

[775]Lord Cockburn (Life of Lord Jeffrey, i. 74) describing the representation of Scotland towards the close of last century, and in fact till the Reform Bill of 1832, says:—'There were probably not above 1500 or 2000 county electors in all Scotland; a body not too large to be held, hope included, in Government's hand. The election of either the town or the county member was a matter of such utter indifference to the people, that they often only knew of it by the ringing of a bell, or by seeing it mentioned next day in a newspaper.'

[776]Six years later, when he was Praesesof the Quarter-Sessions, he carried up to London an address to be presented to the Prince of Wales. 'This,' he wrote, 'will add something to myconspicuousness. Will that word do?'Letters of Boswell, p. 295.

[777]This part of this letter was written, as Johnson goes on to say, a considerable time before the conclusion. The Coalition Ministry, which was suddenly dismissed by the King on Dec. 19, was therefore still in power. Among Boswell's 'friends' was Burke. See ante, p. 223.

[778]On Nov. 22 he wrote to Dr. Taylor:-'I feel the weight of solitude very pressing; after a night of broken and uncomfortable slumber I rise to a solitary breakfast, and sit down in the evening with no companion. Sometimes, however, I try to read more and more.' Notes and Queries, 6th S. v. 482. On Dec. 27 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:—'You have more than once wondered at my complaint of solitude, when you hear that I am crowded with visits.Inopem me copia fecit. Visitors are no proper companions in the chamber of sickness. They come when I could sleep or read, they stay till I am weary.... The amusements and consolations of langour and depression are conferred by familiar and domestick companions, which can be visited or called at will.... Such society I had with Levett and Williams; such I had where I am never likely to have it more.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 341.

[779]The confusion arising from the sudden dismissal of a Ministry which commanded a large majority in the House of Commons had been increased by the resignation, on Dec. 22, of Earl Temple, three days after his appointment as Secretary of State. Parl. Hist. xxiv. 238.

[780]'News I know none,' wrote Horace Walpole on Dec. 30, 1783 (Letters, viii. 447), 'but that they are crying Peerages about the streets in barrows, and can get none off.' Thirty-three peerages were made in the next three years. (Whitaker's Almanac, 1886, p. 463.) Macaulay tells how this December 'a troop of Lords of the Bedchamber, of Bishops who wished to be translated, and of Scotch peers who wished to be reelected made haste to change sides.' Macaulay'sWritings and Speeches, ed. 1871, p. 407.

[781]See ante, ii. 182. He died Oct. 28, 1788.

[782]'Prince Henry was the first encourager of remote navigation. What mankind has lost and gained by the genius and designs of this prince it would be long to compare, and very difficult to estimate. Much knowledge has been acquired, and much cruelty been committed; the belief of religion has been very little propagated, and its laws have been outrageously and enormously violated. The Europeans have scarcely visited any coast but to gratify avarice, and extend corruption; to arrogate dominion without right, and practise cruelty without incentive. Happy had it then been for the oppressed, if the designs of Henry had slept in his bosom, and surely more happy for the oppressors.' Johnson's Works, v. 219. Seeante, ii. 478.

[783]'The author himself,' wrote Gibbon (Misc. Works, i. 220), 'is the best judge of his own performance; no one has so deeply meditated on the subject; no one is so sincerely interested in the event.'

[784]Mickle, speaking in the third person as the Translator, says:— 'He is happy to be enabled to add Dr. Johnson to the number of those whose kindness for the man, and good wishes for the Translation, call for his sincerest gratitude.' Mickle's Lusiad, p. ccxxv.

[785]A brief record, it should seem, is given, ante, iii. 37.

[786]See ante, iii. 106, 214.

[787]The author of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Dr, Johnsonsays (p. 153) that it was Johnson who determined Shaw to undertake this work. 'Sir,' he said, 'if you give the world a vocabulary of that language, while the island of Great Britain stands in the Atlantic Ocean your name will be mentioned.' On p. 156 is a letter by Johnson introducing Shaw to a friend.

[788]'Why is not the original deposited in some publick library?' he asked. Boswell's Hebrides, Nov. 10.

[789]See ante, i. 190.

[790]See Appendix C.

[791]'Dec. 27, 1873. The wearisome solitude of the long evenings did indeed suggest to me the convenience of a club in my neighbourhood, but I have been hindered from attending it by want of breath.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 340. 'Dec. 31. I have much need of entertainment; spiritless, infirm, sleepless, and solitary, looking back with sorrow and forward with terrour.'Ib, p. 343.

[792]'"I think," said Mr. Cambridge, "it sounds more like some club that one reads of in The Spectatorthan like a real club in these times; for the forfeits of a whole year will not amount to those of a single night in other clubs."' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, ii. 290. Mr. Cambridge was thinking of the Two-penny Club.Spectator, No. ix.

[793]I was in Scotland when this Club was founded, and during all the winter. Johnson, however, declared I should be a member, and invented a word upon the occasion: 'Boswell (said he) is a very clubableman.' When I came to town I was proposed by Mr. Barrington, and chosen. I believe there are few societies where there is better conversation or more decorum. Several of us resolved to continue it after our great founder was removed by death. Other members were added; and now, above eight years since that loss, we go on happily. BOSWELL. Mr. Croker says 'Johnson had already inventedunclubablefor Sir J. Hawkins,' and refers to a note by Dr. Burney (ante, i. 480, note I), in which Johnson is represented as saying of Hawkins, while he was still a member of the Literary Club:—'Sir John, Sir, is a very unclubable man.' But, as Mr. Croker points out (Croker'sBoswell, p. 164), 'Hawkins was not knighted till long after he had left the club.' The anecdote, being proved to be inaccurate in one point, may be inaccurate in another, and may therefore belong to a much later date.

[794]See Appendix D.

[795]Ben Jonson wrote Leges Convivalesthat were 'engraven in marble over the chimney in the Apollo of the Old Devil Tavern, Temple Bar; that being his Club Room.' Jonson'sWorks, ed. 1756, vii. 291.

[796]RULES.

'To-day deep thoughts with me resolve to drenchIn mirth, which after no repenting draws.'—MILTON.['To-day deep thoughts resolve with meto drenchIn mirththat, &c.'Sonnets, xxi.]

'The Club shall consist of four-and-twenty.

'The meetings shall be on the Monday, Thursday, and Saturday of every week; but in the week before Easter there shall be no meeting.

'Every member is at liberty to introduce a friend once a week, but not oftener.

'Two members shall oblige themselves to attend in their turn every night from eight to ten, or to procure two to attend in their room.

'Every member present at the Club shall spend at least sixpence; and every member who stays away shall forfeit three-pence.

'The master of the house shall keep an account of the absent members; and deliver to the President of the night a list of the forfeits incurred.

'When any member returns after absence, he shall immediately lay down his forfeits; which if he omits to do, the President shall require.

'There shall be no general reckoning, but every man shall adjust his own expences.

'The night of indispensable attendance will come to every member once a month. Whoever shall for three months together omit to attend himself, or by substitution, nor shall make any apology in the fourth month, shall be considered as having abdicated the Club.

'When a vacancy is to be filled, the name of the candidate, and of the member recommending him, shall stand in the Club-room three nights. On the fourth he may be chosen by ballot; six members at least being present, and two-thirds of the ballot being in his favour; or the majority, should the numbers not be divisible by three.

'The master of the house shall give notice, six days before, to each of those members whose turn of necessary attendance is come.

'The notice may be in these words:—"Sir, On —— the —— of —— — will be your turn of presiding at the Essex-Head. Your company is therefore earnestly requested."

'One penny shall be left by each member for the waiter.'

Johnson's definition of a Club in this sense, in his Dictionary, is, 'An assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions.' BOSWELL.

[797]She had left him in the summer (ante, p. 233), but perhaps she had returned.

[798]He received many acts of kindness from outside friends. On Dec. 31 he wrote:—'I have now in the house pheasant, venison, turkey, and ham, all unbought. Attention and respect give pleasure, however late or however useless. But they are not useless when they are late; it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind.' Piozzi Letters, ii. 343.

[799]'Dec. 16, 1783. I spent the afternoon with Dr. Johnson, who indeed is very ill, and whom I could hardly tell how to leave. He was very, very kind. Oh! what a cruel, heavy loss will he be! Dec. 30. I went to Dr. Johnson, and spent the evening with him. He was very indifferent indeed. There were some very disagreeable people with him; and he once affected me very much by turning suddenly to me, and grasping my hand and saying:—"The blister I have tried for my breath has betrayed some very bad tokens; but I will not terrify myself by talking of them. Ah! priez Dieu pour moi."' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, ii. 293, 5. 'I snatch,' he wrote a few weeks later, 'every lucid interval, and animate myself with such amusements as the time offers.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 349.

[800]He had written to her on Nov. 10. See Croker's Boswell, p. 742.

[801]Hawkins (Life, 562) says that this November Johnson said to him:—'What a man am I, who have got the better of three diseases, the palsy, the gout, and the asthma, and can now enjoy the conversation of my friends, without the interruptions of weakness or pain.'

[802]'The street [on London Bridge], which, before the houses fell to decay, consisted of handsome lofty edifices, pretty regularly built, was 20 feet broad, and the houses on each side generally 26-1/2 feet deep.' After 1746 no more leases were granted, and the houses were allowed to run to ruin. In 1756-7 they were all taken down. Dodsley's London and its Environs, ed. 1761, iv. 136-143.

[803]In Lowndes's Bibl. Man. i. 328 is given a list of nearly fifty of these books. Some of them were reprinted by Stace in 1810-13 in 6 vols. quarto. Dr. Franklin, writing of the books that he bought in his boyhood says:—'My first acquisition was Bunyan's works in separate little volumes. I afterwards sold them to enable me to buy R. Burton'sHistorical Collections; they were small chapmen's books, and cheap. Forty volumes in all.' Franklin'sMemoirs, i. 17.

[804]He wrote to Mrs. Thrale this same day:—'Alas, I had no sleep last night, and sit now panting over my paper. Dabit Deus his quoque finem.' ['This too the Gods shall end.' MORRIS, Virgil,Aeneids, 1.199.]Piozzi Letters, ii. 347.

[805]Boswell's purpose in thisLetterwas to recommend the Scotch to address the King to express their satisfaction that the East India Company Bill had been rejected by the House of Lords.Ib. p. 39. 'Let us,' he writes, 'upon this awful occasion think only ofpropertyandconstitution;' p. 42. 'Let me add,' he says in concluding, 'that a dismission of the Portland Administration will probably disappoint an object which I have most ardently at heart;' p. 42. He was thinking no doubt of his 'expectations from the interest of an eminent person then in power' (ante, p. 223.)

[806]On p. 4 Boswell condemns the claim of Parliament to tax the American colonies as 'unjust and inexpedient.' 'This claim,' he says, 'was almost universally approved of in Scotland, where due consideration was had of the advantage of raising regiments.' He continues:—'When pleading at the bar of the House of Commons in a question concerning taxation, I avowed that opinion, declaring that the man in the world for whom I have the highest respect (Dr. Johnson) had not been able to convince me thatTaxation was no Tyranny.'

[807]Boswell wrote to Reynolds on Feb. 6:—'I intend to be in London next month, chiefly to attend upon Dr. Johnson with respectful affection.' Croker'sBoswell, p. 748.

[808]'I have really hope from spring,' he wrote on Jan. 21, 'and am ready, like Almanzor, to bid the sunfly swiftly, andleave weeks and months behind him. The sun has looked for six thousand years upon the world to little purpose, if he does not know that a sick man is almost as impatient as a lover.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 347. Almanzor's speech is at the end of Dryden'sConquest of Granada:—

'Move swiftly, Sun, and fly a lover's pace;Leave weeks and months behind thee in thy race.'

Seeante, i. 332, where Johnson said, 'This distinction of seasons is produced only by imagination operating on luxury. To temperance every day is bright,' andpost, Aug. 2, 1784.

[809]He died in the following August at Dover, on his way home. Walpole'sLetters, viii. 494. Seeante, iii. 250, 336, andpost, Aug. 19, 1784.

[810]On the last day of the old year he wrote:—'To any man who extends his thoughts to national consideration, the times are dismal and gloomy. But to a sick man, what is the publick?'Piozzi Letters, ii. 344.

The original of the following note is in the admirable collection of autographs belonging to my friend, Mr. M. M. Holloway:—

'TO THE REV. DR. TAYLOR,

'in Ashbourne,

'Derbyshire.

'DEAR SIR,

'I am still confined to the house, and one of my amusements is to write letters to my friends, though they, being busy in the common scenes of life, are not equally diligent in writing to me. Dr. Heberden was with me two or three days ago, and told me that nothing ailed me, which I was glad to hear, though I knew it not to be true. My nights are restless, my breath is difficult, and my lower parts continue tumid.

'The struggle, you see, still continues between the two sets of ministers: those that areoutandinone can scarce call them, for who isoutorinis perhaps four times a day a new question. The tumult in government is, I believe, excessive, and the efforts of each party outrageously violent, with very little thought on any national interest, at a time when we have all the world for our enemies, when the King and parliament have lost even the titular dominion of America, and the real power of Government every where else. Thus Empires are broken down when the profits of administration are so great, that ambition is satisfied with obtaining them, and he that aspires to greatness needs do nothing more than talk himself into importance. He has then all the power which danger and conquest used formerly to give; he can raise a family and reward his followers.

'Mr. Burke has just sent me his Speech upon the affairs of India, a volume of above a hundred pages closely printed. I will look into it; but my thoughts seldom now travel to great distances.

'I would gladly know when you think to come hither, and whether this year you will come or no. If my life be continued, I know not well how I shall bestow myself.

'I am, Sir,

'Your affectionate &c.,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'London, Jan. 24, 1784.'

[811]Seepost, v. 48.

[812]Seepost, p. 271.

[813]I sent it to Mr. Pitt, with a letter, in which I thus expressed myself:—'My principles may appear to you too monarchical: but I know and am persuaded, they are not inconsistent with the true principles of liberty. Be this as it may, you, Sir, are now the Prime Minister, called by the Sovereign to maintain the rights of the Crown, as well as those of the people, against a violent faction. As such, you are entitled to the warmest support of every good subject in every department.' He answered:—'I am extremely obliged to you for the sentiments you do me the honour to express, and have observed with great pleasure thezealous and able supportgiven to the CAUSE OF THE PUBLICK in the work you were so good to transmit to me.' BOSWELL. Five years later, and two years beforeThe Life of Johnsonwas published, Boswell wrote to Temple:—'As to Pitt, he is an insolent fellow, but so able, that upon the whole I must support him against theCoalition; but I willworkhim, for he has behaved very ill to me. Can he wonder at my wishing for preferment, when men of the first family and fortune in England struggle for it?'Letters of Boswell, p. 295. Warburton said of Helvetius, whom he disliked, that, if he had met him, 'he would haveworkedhim.' Walpole'sLetters, iv. 217.

[814]Out of this offer, and one of a like nature made in 1779 (ante, iii. 418), Mr. Croker weaves a vast web of ridiculous suspicions.

[815]From his garden at Prestonfield, where he cultivated that plant with such success, that he was presented with a gold medal by the Society of London for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. BOSWELL.

[816]In the originaleffusion. Johnson'sWorks, vii. 402.

[817]Who had written him a very kind letter. BOSWELL.

[818]On Jan. 12 the Ministry had been in a minority of 39 in a House of 425; on March 8 the minority was reduced to one in a House of 381. Parliament was dissolved on the 25th. In the first division in the new Parliament the Ministry were in a majority of 97 in a House of 369.Parl. Hist.xxiv. 299, 744, 829.

[819]Seeante, p. 241.

[820]'In old Aberdeen stands the King's College, of which the first president was Hector Boece, or Boethius, who may be justly reverenced as one of the revivers of elegant learning.' Johnson'sWorks, ix. 11.

[821]Seeante, iii. 104.

[822]In his dining-room, no doubt, among 'the very respectable people' whose portraits hung there.Ante, p. 203, note.

[823]Horace Walpole (Letters, viii. 466) wrote on March 30:—'The nation is intoxicated, and has poured in Addresses of Thanks to the Crown for exerting the prerogativeagainstthe palladium of the people.'

[824]The election lasted from April 1 to May 16. Fox was returned second on the poll.Ann. Reg.xxvii. 190.

[825]He was returned also for Kirkwall, for which place he sat for nearly a year, while the scrutiny of the Westminster election was dragging on.Parl. Hist. xxiv. 799.

[826]Hannah More wrote on March 8 (Memoirs, i. 310):—'I am sure you will honour Mr. Langton, when I tell you he is come on purpose to stay with Dr. Johnson, and that during his illness. He has taken a little lodging in Fleet-street in order to be near, to devote himself to him. He has as much goodness as learning, and that is saying a bold thing of one of the first Greek scholars we have.'

[827]Floyer was the Lichfield physician on whose advice Johnson was 'touched' by Queen Anne.Ante, i. 42, 91, andpost, July 20, 1784.

[828]To which Johnson returned this answer:—

'TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL OF PORTMORE.

'Dr. Johnson acknowledges with great respect the honour of Lord Portmore's notice. He is better than he was; and will, as his Lordship directs, write to Mr. Langton.

'Bolt-court, Fleet-street,

April 13, 1784.'

BOSWELL. Johnson here assumes his title of Doctor, which Boswell says (ante, ii. 332, note 1), so far as he knew, he never did. Perhaps the letter has been wrongly copied, or perhaps Johnson thought that, in writing to a man of title, he ought to assume such title as he himself had.

[829]The eminent painter, representative of the ancient family of Homfrey (now Humphry) in the west of England; who, as appears from their arms which they have invariably used, have been, (as I have seen authenticated by the best authority,) one of those among the Knights and Esquires of honour who are represented by Holinshed as having issued from the Tower of London on coursers apparelled for the justes, accompanied by ladies of honour, leading every one a Knight, with a chain of gold, passing through the streets of London into Smithfield, on Sunday, at three o'clock in the afternoon, being the first Sunday after Michaelmas, in the fourteenth year of King Richard the Second. This family once enjoyed large possessions, but, like others, have lost them in the progress of ages. Their blood, however, remains to them well ascertained; and they may hope in the revolution of events, to recover that rank in society for which, in modern times, fortune seems to be an indispensable requisite. BOSWELL.

[830]Son of Mr. Samuel Paterson. BOSWELL. In the first two editions after 'Paterson' is added 'eminent for his knowledge of books.' Seeante, iii. 90.

[831]Humphry, on his first coming to London, poor and unfriended, was helped by Reynolds. Northcote'sReynolds, ii. 174.

[832]On April 21 he wrote:—'After a confinement of 129 days, more than the third part of a year, and no inconsiderable part of human life, I this day returned thanks to God in St. Clement's Church for my recovery.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 365.

[833]On April 26 he wrote:—'On Saturday I showed myself again to the living world at the Exhibition; much and splendid was the company, but like the Doge of Genoa at Paris [Versailles, Voltaire,Siècle de Louis XIV, chap, xiv.], I admired nothing but myself. I went up the stairs to the pictures without stopping to rest or to breathe,

"In all the madness of superfluous health."

[Pope'sEssay on Man, iii. 3.] The Prince of Wales had promised to be there; but when we had waited an hour and a half, sent us word that he could not come.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 367. 'The first Gentleman in Europe' was twenty-one years old when he treated men like Johnson and Reynolds with this insolence. Mr. Forster (Life of Goldsmith, ii. 244) says that it was at this very dinner that 'Johnson left his seat by desire of the Prince of Wales, and went to the head of the table to be introduced.' He does not give his authority for the statement.

[834]Mr. Croker wrote in 1847 that he had 'seen it very lately framed and glazed, in possession of the lady to whom it was addressed.' Croker'sBoswell, p. 753.

[835]Shortly before he begged one of Mrs. Thrale's daughters 'never to think that she had arithmetic enough.'Ante, p. 171, note 3. Seeante, iii. 207, note 3.

[836]Cowper wrote on May 10 to the Rev. John Newton:—'We rejoice in the account you give us of Dr. Johnson. His conversion will indeed be a singular proof of the omnipotence of Grace; and the more singular, the more decided.' Southey'sCowper, xv. 150. Johnson, in a prayer that he wrote on April 11, said:—'Enable me, O Lord, to glorify Thee for that knowledge of my corruption, and that sense of Thy wrath, which my disease and weakness and danger awakened in my mind.'Pr. and Med.p. 217.

[837]Mr. Croker suggestsimmediate.

[838]'The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.'St. James, v. 16.

[839]Upon this subject there is a very fair and judicious remark in the life of Dr. Abernethy, in the first edition of theBiographia Britannica, which I should have been glad to see in his life which has been written for the second edition of that valuable work. 'To deny the exercise of a particular providence in the Deity's government of the world is certainly impious: yet nothing serves the cause of the scorner more than an incautious forward zeal in determining the particular instances of it.'

In confirmation of my sentiments, I am also happy to quote that sensible and elegant writer Mr.Melmoth[seeante, iii. 422], in Letter VIII. of his collection, published under the name ofFitzosborne. 'We may safely assert, that the belief of a particular Providence is founded upon such probable reasons as may well justify our assent. It would scarce, therefore, be wise to renounce an opinion which affords so firm a support to the soul, in those seasons wherein she stands in most need of assistance, merely because it is not possible, in questions of this kind, to solve every difficulty which attends them.' BOSWELL.

[840]I was sorry to observe Lord Monboddo avoid any communication with Dr. Johnson. I flattered myself that I had made them very good friends (seeJournal of a Tour to the Hebrides, third edit. p. 67,post, v. 80), but unhappily his Lordship had resumed and cherished a violent prejudice against my illustrious friend, to whom I must do the justice to say, there was on his part not the least anger, but a good-humoured sportiveness. Nay, though he knew of his Lordship's indisposition towards him, he was even kindly; as appeared from his inquiring of me after him, by an abbreviation of his name, 'Well, how doesMonny?' BOSWELL. Boswell (Hebrides, post, v. 74) says:—'I knew Lord Monboddo and Dr. Johnson did not love each other; yet I was unwilling not to visit his lordship, and was also curious to see them together.' Accordingly, he brought about a meeting. Four years later, in 1777 (ante, iii. 102), Monboddo received from Johnson a copy of his Journey to the Hebrides. They met again in London in 1780 (Piozzi Letters, ii. III), and perhaps then quarrelled afresh. Dr. Seattle wrote on Feb. 28, 1785:-'Lord Monboddo's hatred of Johnson was singular; he would not allow him to know anything but Latin grammar, "and that," says he, "I know as well as he does." I never heard Johnson say anything severe of him, though when he mentioned his name, he generally "grinned horribly a ghastly smile,"' ['Grinned horrible,' &c.Paradise Lost, ii. 846.] Forbes'sBeattie, p. 333. The use of the abbreviationMonnyon Johnson's part scarcely seems a proof of kindliness. Seeante, i. 453, where he said:--'Why, Sir, _Sherry_ is dull, naturally dull,' &c.; and iii. 84, note 2, where he said:—'I should have thoughtMundBurke would have had more sense;' see also Rogers'sBoswelliana, p. 216, where he said:—'Derry[Derrick] may do very well while he can outrun his character; but the moment that his character gets up with him he is gone.'

[841]On May 13 he wrote:—' Now I am broken loose, my friends seem willing enough to see me. ... But I do not now drive the world about; the world drives or draws me. I am very weak.'Piozzi Letters, ii. 369.

[842]Seeante,iii, 443.

[843]Seeante,p. 197.

[844]Boswell himself, likely enough.

[845]Verses on the death of Mr. Levett. BOSWELL.Ante,p. 138

[846]If it was Boswell to whom this advice was given, it is not unlikely that he needed it. The meagreness of his record of Johnson's talk at this season may have been due, as seems to have happened before, to too much drinking.Ante,p.88, note 1.

[847]Ante,ii. 100.

[848]George Steevens. Seeante,iii. 281.

[849]Forty-six years earlier Johnson wrote of this lady:-'I have composed a Greek epigram to Eliza, and think she ought to be celebrated in as many different languages as Lewis le Grand.'Ante, i. 122. Miss Burney described her in 1780 as 'really a noble-looking woman; I never saw age so graceful in the female sex yet; her whole face seems to beam with goodness, piety, and philanthropy.' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, i. 373.

[850]'Mrs. Thrale says that though Mrs. Lennox's books are generally approved, nobody likes her.'Ib.p. 91. Seeante, i. 255, and iv. 10.

[851]'Sept. 1778. MRS. THRALE. "Mrs. Montagu is the first woman for literary knowledge in England, and if in England, I hope I may say in the world." DR. JOHNSON. "I believe you may, Madam. She diffuses more knowledge in her conversation than any woman I know, or, indeed, almost any man." MRS. THRALE. "I declare I know no man equal to her, take away yourself and Burke, for that art."' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, i. 118. It is curious that Mrs. Thrale and Boswell should both thus instance Burke. Miss Burney writes of her in much more moderate terms:—'Allowing a little for parade and ostentation, which her power in wealth and rank in literature offer some excuse for, her conversation is very agreeable; she is always reasonable and sensible, and sometimes instructive and entertaining.'Ib.p. 325. Seeante, ii. 88, note 3. These five ladies all lived to a great age. Mrs. Montagu was 80 when she died; Mrs. Lennox, 83; Miss Burney (Mme. D'Arblay), 87; Miss More and Mrs. (Miss) Carter, 88. Their hostess, Mrs. Garrick, was 97 or 98.

[852]Miss Burney, describing how she first saw Burke, says:—'I had been told that Burke was not expected; yet I could conclude this gentleman to be no other. There was an evident, a striking superiority in his demeanour, his eye, his motions, that announced him no common man.' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary, ii. 145. Seeante, ii. 450, where Johnson said of Burke:—'His stream of mind is perpetual;' and Boswell'sHebrides post,, v. 32, and Prior'sLife of Burke, fifth edition, p. 58.

[853]Kennelis a strong word to apply to Burke; but, in his jocularity, he sometimes 'let himself down' to indelicate stories. In the House of Commons he had told one—and a very stupid one too—not a year before.Parl. Hist, xxiii. 918. Horace Walpole speaks of Burke's 'pursuit of wit even to puerility.'Journal of the Reign of George III, i. 443. He adds (ib. ii. 26):—'Burke himself always aimed at wit, but was not equally happy in public and private. In the former, nothing was so luminous, so striking, so abundant; in private, it was forced, unnatural, and bombast.' Seeante, p. 104, where Wilkes said that in his oratory 'there was a strange want of taste.'

[854]Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, third edition, p. 20 [post, v. 32.] BOSWELL. See alsoante, i. 453, and iii. 323.

[855]I have since heard that the report was not well founded; but the elation discovered by Johnson in the belief that it was true, shewed a noble ardour for literary fame. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote on Feb. 9:—'One thing which I have just heard you will think to surpass expectation. The chaplain of the factory at Petersburgh relates that theRambleris now, by the command of the Empress, translating into Russian, and has promised, when it is printed, to send me a copy.'Piozzi Letters,ii. 349. Stockdale records (Memoirs,ii. 98) that in 1773 the Empress of Russia engaged 'six English literary gentlemen for instructors of her young nobility in her Academy at St. Petersburgh.' He was offered one of the posts. Her zeal may have gone yet further, and she may have wished to open up English literature to those who could not read English. Beauclerk's library was offered for sale to the Russian Ambassador.Ante,iii. 420. Miss Burney, in 1789, said that a newspaper reported that 'Angelica Kauffmann is making drawings fromEvelinafor the Empress of Russia.' Mme. D'Arblay'sDiary,v. 35.

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