Human Wishes" he had so successfully enforced in verse. The fund of thinking which this work contains is such, that almost every sentence of it may furnish a subject of long meditation. I am not satisfied if a year passes without my having read it through; and at every perusal, my admiration of the mind which produced it is so highly raised, that I can scarcely believe that I had the honour of enjoying the intimacy of such a man. I restrain myself from quoting passages from this excellent work, or even referring to them, because I should not know what to select, or, rather, what to omit. I shall, however, transcribe one, as it shows how well he could state the arguments of those who believe in the appearance of departed spirits: a doctrine which it is a mistake to suppose that he himself ever positively held: "If all your fear be of apparitions (said the prince), I will promise you safety: there is no danger from the dead; he that is once buried will be seen no more. "That the dead are seen no more (said Imlac), I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages, and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth'; those that never heard of one another, would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little weaken the general evidence; and some who deny it with their tongues, confess it by their fears." 1 This is a mere sophism; all ages and all nations are not agreed on this point, though such a belief may have existed in particular persons, in all ages and all nations. He might as well have said that insanity was the natural and true state of the human mind, because it has existed in all nations and all ages. CROKER. 2 Mr. Boswell, no doubt, saw some meaning in these words; but what that meaning might be, I cannot guess.CROKER. 3 This paper was in such high estimation before it was collected into volumes, that it was seized on with avidity by various publishers of newspapers and magazines, to enrich their publications. Johnson, to put a stop to this unfair proceeding, wrote for the Universal Chronicle the following advertisement; in which there is, perhaps, more pomp of words than the occasion demanded : "London, Jan. 5. 1759. ADVERTISEMENT. The proprietors of the paper entitled The Idler,' having found that those essays are inserted in the newspapers and magazines with so little regard to justice or decency, that the Universal Chronicie, in which they first appear, is not always men. picture. The truth, however, is, that we judge of the happiness and misery of life differently at different times, according to the state of our changeable frame. I always remember a remark made to me by a Turkish lady, educated in France: "Ma foi, monsieur, notre bonheur dépend de la façon que notre sang circule."2 This have I learnt from a pretty hard course of experience, and would, from sincere benevolence, impress upon all who honour this book with a perusal, that until a steady conviction is obtained, that the present life is an imperfect state, and only a passage to a better, if we comply with the divine scheme of progressive improvement; and also that it is a part of the mysterious plan of Providence, that intellectual beings must "be made perfect through suffering;" there will be a continual recurrence of disappointment and uneasiness. But if we walk with hope in "the mid-day sun" of resuch, that the comforts and enjoyments in our velation, our temper and disposition will be way will be relished, while we patiently support the inconveniences and pains. After much speculation and various reasonings, I acknowledge myself convinced of the truth of Voltaire's conclusion, "Après tout, c'est un monde passable." But we must not think too deeply: where ignorance is bliss, 66 tioned, think it necessary to declare to the publishers of those collections, that however patiently they have hitherto endured these injuries, made yet more injurious by contempt, they have now determined to endure them no longer. They have already seen essays, for which a very large price is paid, transferred, with the most shameless rapacity, into the weekly or monthly compilations, and their right, at least for the present, alienated from them, before they could themselves be said to enjoy it. But they would not willingly be thought to want tenderness, even for men by whom no tenderness hath been shown. The past is without remedy, and shall be without resentment. But those who have been thus busy with their sickles in the fields of their neighbours are henceforward to take notice, that the time of impunity is at an end. Whoever shall, without our leave, lay the hand of rapine upon our papers, is to expect that we shall vindicate our due, by the means which justice prescribes, and which are warranted by the immemorial prescriptions of honourable trade. We shall lay hold, in our turn, on their copies, degrade them from the pomp of wide margin and diffuse typography, contract them into a narrow space, and sell them he was also proceeding, though slowly, in his edition of Shakspeare. He, however, from that liberality which never failed, when called upon to assist other labourers in literature, found time to translate, for Mrs. Lenox's English version of Brumoy, "A Dissertation on the Greek Comedy," and "The General Conclusion of the Book."†' An inquiry into the state of foreign countries was an object that seems at all times to have interested Johnson. Hence Mr. Newbery found no great difficulty in persuading him to write the Introduction to a collection of voyages and travels published by him under the title of "The World Displayed:" the first volume of which appeared this year, and the remaining volumes in subsequent years. I would ascribe to this year the following letter to a son of one of his early friends at Lichfield, Mr. Joseph Simpson, barrister, and author of a tract entitled "Reflections on the Study of the Law." JOHNSON TO SIMPSON. "DEAR SIR, Your father's inexorability not only grieves but amazes me: he is your father; he was always accounted a wise man; nor do I remember any thing to the disadvantage of his good nature; but in his refusal to assist you there is neither good nature, fatherhood, nor wisdom. It is the practice of good nature to overlook faults which have already, by the consequences, punished the delinquent. It is natural for a father to think more favourably than others of his children; and it is always wise to give assistance, while a little help will prevent the necessity of greater. "If you married imprudently, you miscarried at your own hazard, at an age when you had a right of choice. It would be hard if the man might not choose his own wife, who has a right to plead before the judges of this country. "If your imprudence has ended in difficulties and inconveniences, you are yourself to support them; and, with the help of a little better health, you would support them and conquer them. Surely, that want which accident and sickness produce is to be supported in every region of humanity, though there were neither friends nor fathers in the world. You have certainly from your father the highest claim of charity, though none of right: and therefore I would counsel you to omit no at an humble price; yet not with a view of growing rich by confiscations, for we think not much better of money got by punishment than by crimes. We shall therefore, when our losses are repaid, give what profit shall remain to the Magdalens; for we know not who can be more properly taxed for the support of penitent prostitutes, than prostitutes in whom there yet appears neither penitence nor shame."BOSWELL. It is stated in Kippis's Biog. Brit. ii. 525., and repeated in Park's edition of the Noble Authors (vol. iv. p. 259.), that Mrs. Lenox's Translation of Brumoy's Greek Theatre had a "Preface," written by Lord Orrery; who also translated "The Discourse upon the Theatre of the Greeks, the Original of Tragedy, and the Parallel of the Theatres." — CROKER. 2 She resided in the house which, by his mother's death, was now become the property of Johnson. CROKER. 3 Lord Stowell informs me that he prided himself in being, during his visits to Oxford, accurately academic in all points; and he wore his gown almost ostentatiously. — CROKER. decent nor manly degree of importunity. Your debts in the whole are not large, and of the whole but a small part is troublesome. Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger. You must, therefore, be enabled to discharge petty debts, that you may have leisure, with security, to struggle with the rest. Neither the great nor little debts disgrace you. I am sure you have my esteem for the courage with which you contracted them, and the spirit with which you endure them. I wish my esteem could be of more use. I have been invited, or have invited myself, to several parts of the kingdom; and will not incommode my dear Lucy by coming to Lichfield, while her present lodging is of any use to her. Í hope, in a few days, to be at leisure, and to make visits. Whither I shall fly is matter of no importA man unconnected is at home every where; unless he may be said to be at home no where. I am sorry, dear Sir, that where you have parents, a man of your merits should not have a home. I wish I could give it you. I am, my dear Sir, affectionately yours, SAM. JOHNSON." ance. 4 Dr. Robert Vansittart, of the ancient and respectable family of that name in Berkshire. He was eminent for learning and worth, and much esteemed by Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL. Dr. Robert Vansittart, LL.D., professor of civil law at Oxford, and recorder of Windsor. He was a senior fellow of All Souls, where, after he had given up the profession in London, he chiefly resided in a set of rooms, formerly the old library, which he had fitted up in the Gothic style, and where he died about 1794. He was remarkable for his good humour and inoffensive wit, and a great favourite on the Oxford circuit. He was tall and very thin; and the bar gave the name of Counsellor Van to a sharp-pointed rock on the Wye, which still retains the name. He was the elder brother of Mr. Henry Vansittart, governor of Bengal, father of the present Lord Bexley, to whom I am indebted for the above particulars relative to his uncle.-CROKER. 5 At the installation of the Earl of Westmoreland as chancellor of the university, July 7. 1759. This extract was therefore misplaced by Mr. Boswell. - CROKER. "Chelsea, 16th March, 1759. "DEAR SIR, I am again your petitioner, in behalf of that great CHAM1 of literature, Samuel Johnson. His black servant, whose name is Francis Barber, has been pressed on board the Stag frigate, Captain Angel, and our lexicographer is in great distress. He says the boy is a sickly lad, of a delicate frame, and particularly subject to a malady in his throat, which renders him very unfit for his Majesty's service. You know what matter of animosity the said Johnson has against you and I dare say you desire no other opportunity of resenting it, than that of laying him under an obligation. He was humble enough to desire my assistance on this occasion, though he and I were never catercousins; and I gave him to understand that I would make application to my friend Mr. Wilkes, who, perhaps, by his interest with Dr. Hay and Mr. Elliot, might be able to procure the discharge of his lacquey. It would be superfluous to say more on this subject, which I leave to your own consideration; but I cannot let slip this opportunity of declaring that I am, with the most inviolable esteem and attachment, dear Sir, your affectionate, obliged, humble servant, T. SMOLLETT." Mr. Wilkes, who upon all occasions has acted, as a private gentleman, with most polite liberality, applied to his friend Sir George Hay, then one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty; and Francis Barber was discharged, as he has told me, without any wish of his own. He found his old master in Chambers in the Inner Temple, and returned to his service.3 What particular new scheme of life Johnson had in view this year, I have not discovered; but that he meditated one of some sort, is clear from his private devotions, in which we find [24th March]"the change of outward things which I am now to make;" and, "Grant me the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that the course which I am now beginning may proceed according to thy laws, and end in the enjoyment of thy favour." But he did not, in fact, make any external or visible change.+ 1 In my first edition this word was printed Chum, as it appears in one of Mr. Wilkes's Miscellanies, and I animadverted on Dr. Smollett's ignorance; for which let me propitiate the manes of that ingenious and benevolent gentleman. CHUM was certainly a mistaken reading for CHAM, the title of the Sovereign of Tartary, which is well applied to Johnson, the Monarch of Literature; and was an epithet familiar to Smollett. See "Roderick Random," chap. Ivi. For this correction I am indebted to Lord Palmerston, whose talents and literary acquirements accord well with his respectable pedigree of Temple.- - BOSWELL. After the publication of the second edition of this work, the author was furnished by Mr. Abercrombie, of Philadelphia, with the copy of a letter written by Dr. John Armstrong, the poet, to Dr. Smollett, at Leghorn, containing the following paragraph: "As to the King's Bench patriot [Wilkes], it is hard to say from what motive he published a letter of yours asking some trifling favour of him in behalf of somebody for whom the great CHAM of literature, Mr. Johnson, had interested himself."- MALONE. 2 He was not discharged till June 1760. 3 Dr. Johnson's acquaintance with Mrs. Montagu probably began about this period. We find, in this year, the first of [JOHNSON TO MISS PORTER. "March 23. 1759. "DEAR MADAM, I beg your pardon for having so long omitted to write. One thing or other has put me off. I have this day moved my things, London. I hope, my dear, you are well, and and you are now to direct to me at Staple Inn, Kitty mends. I wish her success in her trade. I am going to publish a little story book [Rasselas], which I will send you when it is out. Write to from you. I am, my dear, your humble servant, me, my dearest girl, for I am always glad to hear "SAM. JOHNSON." Pearson MSS. JOHNSON TO MISS PORTER. "May 10. 1759. "DEAR MADAM, - I am almost ashamed to tell you that all your letters came safe, and that I have been always very well, but hindered, I hardly know how, from writing. I sent, last week, some of my works, one for you, one for your aunt Hunter, who was with my poor dear mother when she died, one for Mr. Howard, and one for Kitty. tell me how you like my little book. I am, dear 'I beg you, my dear, to write often to me, and love, your affectionate humble servant, Pearson MSS. "SAM. JOHNSON." TO MRS. MONTAGU. - "Gray's Inn, Dec.17.1759. "MADAM, Goodness so conspicuous as yours will be often solicited, and perhaps sometimes solicited by those who have little pretension to your favour. It is now my turn to introduce a petitioner, but such as I have reason to believe you will think worthy of your notice. Mrs. Ogle, who kept the music-room in Soho Square, a woman who struggles with great industry for the support of eight children, hopes by a benefit concert to set otherwise discharge. She has, I know not why, so herself free from a few debts, which she cannot high an opinion of me as to believe that you will pay less regard to her application than to mine. You know, Madam, I am sure you know, how hard it is to deny, and therefore would not wonder at my compliance, though I were to suppress a motive which you know not, the vanity of being supposed to be of any importance to Mrs. Montagu. But the many applications which he made to the extensive and unwearied charity of that excellent woman. Johnson to Mrs. Montagu. " June 9. 1759. "MADAM, I am desired by Mrs. Williams to sign receipts with her name for the subscribers which you have been pleased to procure, and to return her humble thanks for your favour, which was conferred with all the grace that elegance can add to beneficence. I am, Madam, your most obedient and most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON." This and several other letters, which will be found in their proper places, I owe to the liberality of [the second] Lord Rokeby, the nephew and heir of Mrs. Montagu. It is necessary to request the attention of the reader to the warm terms in which Johnson so frequently expresses his admiration and esteem for Mrs. Montagu, as we shall see that he afterwards took another tone. - CROKER. 4 This change of life was no doubt the breaking up his establishment in Gough Square, where he had resided for ten years, and retiring to chambers in Staple Inn; while Mrs. Williams went into lodgings.—CROKER. though I may be willing to see the world deceived for my advantage, I am not deceived myself, for I know that Mrs. Ogle will owe whatever favours she shall receive from the patronage which we humbly entreat on this occasion, much more to your compassion for honesty in distress, than to the request of, Madam, your most obedient and most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON."] -Montagu MSS At this time, there being a competition among the architects of London to be employed in the building of Blackfriars Bridge, a question was very warmly agitated whether semicircular or elliptical arches were preferable. In the design offered by Mr. Mylne the elliptical form was adopted, and therefore it was the great object of his rivals to attack it. Johnson's regard for his friend Mr. Gwyn induced him to engage in this controversy against Mr. Mylne; and after being at considerable pains to study the subject, he wrote three several letters in the Gazetteer, in opposition to his plan. If it should be remarked that this was a controversy which lay quite out of Johnson's way, let it be remembered, that, after all, his employing his powers of reasoning and eloquence upon a subject which he had studied on the moment, is not more strange than what we often observe in lawyers, who, as Quicquid agunt homines is the matter of lawsuits, are sometimes obliged to pick up a temporary knowledge of an art or science, of which they understood nothing till their brief was delivered, and appear to be much masters of it. In like manner, members of the legislature frequently introduce and expatiate upon subjects of which they have informed themselves for the occasion. 1 Sir John Hawkins has given a long detail of it, in that manner vulgarly, but significantly, called rigmarole; in which, amidst an ostentatious exhibition of arts and artists, he talks of "proportions of a column being taken from that of the human figure, and adjusted by nature-masculine and feminine-in a man, sesquioctave of the head, and in a woman sesquinonal; nor has he failed to introduce a jargon of musical terms, which do not seem much to correspond with the subject, but serve to make up the heterogeneous mass. To follow the knight through all this, would be an useless fatigue to myself, and not a little disgusting to my readers. I shall, therefore, only make a few remarks upon his statement. He seems to exult in having detected Johnson in procuring, "from a person eminently skilled in mathematics and the principles of architecture, answers to a string of questions drawn up by himself, touching the comparative strength of semicircular and elliptical arches." Now I cannot conceive how Johnson could have acted more wisely. Sir John complains that the opinion of that excellent mathematician, Mr. Thomas Simpson, did not preponderate in favour of the semicircular arch. But he should have known, that however eminent Mr. Simpson was in the higher parts of abstract mathematical science, he was little versed in mixed and practical mechanics. Mr. Muller, of Woolwich Academy, the scholastic father of all the great engineers which this country has employed for forty years, decided the question by declaring clearly in favour of the elliptical arch. ungraciously suggested, that Johnson's motive for opposing Mr. Mylne's scheme may have been his prejudice against him as a native of North Britain; when, in truth, as has been stated, he gave the aid of his able pen to a friend, who was one of the candidates; and so far was he from having any ilitberal antipathy to Mr. Mylne, that he afterwards lived with that gentleman upon very agreeable terms of acquaintance, and dined with him at his house. Sir John Hawkins, indeed, gives full vent to his own prejudice in abusing Black It is IN 1760 he wrote "An Address of the Painters to George III. on his Accession to the Throne of these Kingdoms," which no monarch ever ascended with more sincere congratulations from his people. Two generations of foreign princes had prepared their minds to rejoice in having again a king who gloried in being "born a Briton." " 2 He also wrote for Mr. Baretti the Dedication† of his Italian and English Dictionary, to the Marquis of Abreu, then Envoy-Extraordinary from Spain at the Court of Great Britain. Johnson was now either very idle, or very busy with his Shakspeare; for I can find no other public composition by him except an Introduction to the Proceedings of the Committee for Clothing the French Prisoners;* one of the many proofs that he was ever awake to the calls of humanity; and an account which he gave in the Gentleman's Magazine of Mr. Tytler's acute and able vindication of Mary Queen of Scots.* The generosity of Johnson's feelings shines forth in the following sentence : "It has now been fashionable, for near half a century, to defame and vilify the house of Stuart, friars Bridge, calling it "an edifice, in which beauty and symmetry are in vain sought for; by which the citizens of London have perpetuated their own disgrace, and subjected a whole nation to the reproach of foreigners." Whoever has contemplated, placido lumine, this stately, elegant, and airy structure, which has so fine an effect, especially on approaching the capital on that quarter, must wonder at such unjust and ill-tempered censure; and I appeal to all foreigners of good taste, whether this bridge be not one of the most distinguished ornaments of London. As to the stability of the fabric, it is certain that the city of London took every precaution to have the best Portland stone for it; but as this is to be found in the quarries belonging to the public, under the direction of the Lords of the Treasury, it so happened that parliamentary interest, which is often the bane of fair pursuits, thwarted their endeavours. Notwithstanding this disadvantage, it is well known that not only has Blackfriars Bridge never sunk either in its foundation or in its arches, which were so much the subject of contest, but any injuries which it has suffered from the effects of severe frosts have been already, in some measure, repaired with sounder stone, and every necessary renewal can be completed at a moderate expense. BosWELL. Johnson's essay is an excellent piece of reasoning, and does not betray any personal or national prejudice against Mr. Mylne, though Boswell certainly shows some in his favour. In the result, the Bridge does no great credit to the artist. Its inconvenient steepness-the columns with the proportion "not of columns but of candles," and the perishable nature of the stone, are essential defects. - CROKER. 2 Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton.""— GEORGE III.'s first Speech to his Parliament.— CROKER. 3 This sentence may be generous, but it is not very logical. Elizabeth was surely as dead as the Stuarts, and would no more pay for praise than they could. — CROKER, and to exalt and magnify the reign of Elizabeth. The Stuarts have found few apologists, for the dead cannot pay for praise; and who will, without reward, oppose the tide of popularity? Yet there remains still among us, not wholly extinguished, a zeal for truth, a desire of establishing right in opposition to fashion." In this year I have not discovered a single private letter written by him to any of his friends. It should seem, however, that he had at this period a floating intention of writing a history of the recent and wonderful successes of the British arms in all quarters of the globe; for among his resolutions or memorandums, September 18., there is, "Send for books for Hist. of War." 1 How much is it to be regretted that this intention was not fulfilled! His majestic expression would have carried down to the latest posterity the glorious achievements of his country, with the same fervent glow which they produced on the mind at the time. He would have been under no temptation to deviate in any degree from truth, which he held very sacred, or to take a licence, which a learned divine told me he once seemed, in a conversation, jocularly to allow to historians. "There are (said he) inexcusable lies, and consecrated lies. For instance, we are told that on the arrival of the news of the un fortunate battle of Fontenoy, every heart beat and every eye was in tears. Now we know that no man ate his dinner the worse, but there should have been all this concern; and to say there was (smiling), may be reckoned a consecrated lie.' This year Mr. Murphy, having thought himself ill-treated by the Rev. Dr. Francklin, who was one of the writers of "The Critical Review," published an indignant vindication in "A Poetical Epistle to Samuel Johnson, A. M." in which he compliments Johnson in a just and elegant manner : — "Transcendent Genius! whose prolific vein Ne'er knew the frigid poet's toil and pain; To whom APOLLO opens all his store, With so much grace, such energy of thought; In chaster numbers, and new-points his rage; Thy nervous phrase impresses every soul, "Thou then, my friend, who see'st the dang'rous strife In which some demon bids me plunge my life, I take this opportunity to relate the manner in which an acquaintance first commenced between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Murphy. During the publication of "The Gray's Inn Journal," a periodical paper which was successfully carried on by Mr. Murphy alone, when a very young man, he happened to be in the country he was obliged to go to London in order to get with Mr. Foote; and having mentioned that ready for the press one of the numbers of that journal, Foote said to him, "You need not go on that account. Here is a French magazine, in which you will find a very pretty oriental tale; translate that and send it to your printer." Mr. Murphy having read the tale, was highly pleased with it, and followed Foote's advice. When he returned to town, this tale was pointed out to him in "The Rambler," from whence it had been translated into the French not acknowledge that this poetical epistle was an imitation of Boileau's Epitre à Moliere. I subjoin a few couplets from both Boileau and Murphy, which will show how little the epistle of the latter is entitled to the character of originality-in fact, such an unacknowledged use of an author is almost plagiarism. Rare et fameux esprit, dont la fertile veine Souvent j'ai beau réver du matin.jusqu'au soir; CROKER. 3 When Mr. Murphy first became acquainted with Dr. Johnson he was about thirty-one years old. He died at Knightsbridge, June 18. 1805, in his eighty-second year. The extraordinary paper mentioned in the text (The History of Abouzaid, the Son of Morad) is No. 38. of the second series [of the Gray's Inn Journal], published on June 15. 1754; which is a re-translation from the French version of the Rambler, No. 190.- MALONE. |