character: it varies according to circumstances. Alexander the Great swept India'; now the Turks sweep Greece."

A learned gentleman [Dr. Vansittart], who, in the course of conversation, wished to inform us of this simple fact, that the counsel upon the circuit of Shrewsbury were much bitten by fleas, took, I suppose, seven or eight minutes in relating it circumstantially. He in a plenitude of phrase told us, that large bales of woollen cloth were lodged in the town-hall; that by reason of this, fleas nestled there in prodigious numbers; that the lodgings of the counsel were near the town-hall; and that those little animals moved from place to place with wonderful agility. Johnson sat in great impatience till the gentleman had finished his tedious narrative, and then burst out (playfully however), "It is a pity, Sir, that you have not seen a lion; for a flea has taken you such a time, that a lion must have served you a twelvemonth."

He would not allow Scotland to derive any credit from Lord Mansfield; for he was educated in England. "Much," said he, " may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young." Talking of a modern historian and a modern moralist, he said, “There is more thought in the moralist than in the historian. There is but a shallow stream of thought in history." BOSWELL. 66 But, surely, Sir, an historian has reflection?" JOHNSON. "Why, yes, Sir; and so has a cat when she catches a mouse for her kitten: but she cannot write like [Beattie]; neither can [Robertson]."

4

sausages. The sausages there are the best in the world; they lose much by being carried."

On Saturday, May 9., Mr. Dempster and I had agreed to dine by ourselves at the British Coffee-house. Johnson, on whom I happened to call in the morning, said he would join us; which he did, and we spent a very agreeable day, though I recollect but little of what passed.

He said, "Walpole was a minister given by the King to the people: Pitt was a minister given by the people to the King, -as an adjunct."

"The misfortune of Goldsmith in conversation is this he goes on without knowing how he is to get off. His genius is great, but his knowledge is small. As they say of a generous man, it is a pity he is not rich, we may say of Goldsmith, it is a pity he is not knowing. He would not keep his knowledge to himself."

Before leaving London this year, I consulted him upon a question purely of Scotch law. It was held of old, and continued for a long period to be an established principle in that law, that whoever intermeddled with the effects of a person deceased, without the interposition of legal authority to guard against. embezzlement, should be subjected to pay all the debts of the deceased, as having been guilty of what was technically called vicious intromission. The court of session had gradually relaxed the strictness of this principle, where the interference proved had been inconsiderable. In a case which came before that court the preceding winter, I had laboured to persuade the judge to return to the ancient law. It was my own sincere opinion, that they ought to adhere to it; but I had exhausted all my powers of reasoning in vain. Johnson thought as I did; and, in order to assist me in my application to the Court for a revision and alteration of the judgment, he dictated to me the following Argument. [See Appendix.]

With such comprehension of mind, and such clearness of penetration, did he thus treat subject altogether new to him, without any other preparation than my having stated to him the arguments which had been used on each side of the question. His intellectual powers appeared with peculiar lustre, when tried against those of a writer of such fame as Lord Kames, and that, too, in his Lordship's own department.

Johnson replies, "Poor V. &c.; he is a good man, and, when his mind is composed, a man of parts." This proves the identity of the person, and also that Johnson himself sanctioned Mrs. Piozzi's version of the story-mouse versus flca. - CROKER.

3 The historian and the moralist, whose names Mr. Boswell had left in blank, are Doctors Robertson and Beattie. CROKER.

4 Probably Mr. Boswell's brother David. See post, April 29. 1780. CROKER.

5 Wilson against Smith and Armour.- BOSWELL.

This masterly argument, after being prefaced and concluded with some sentences of my own, and garnished with the usual formularies, was actually printed and laid before the lords of session, but without success. My respected friend Lord Hailes, however, one of that honourable body, had critical sagacity enough to discover a more than ordinary hand in the petition. I told him Dr. Johnson had favoured me with his pen. His lordship, with wonderful acumen, pointed out exactly where his composition began, and where it ended. But, that I may do impartial justice, and conform to the great rule of courts, Suum cuique tribuito, I must add, that their lordships in general, though they were pleased to call this a well-drawn paper," preferred the former very inferior petition, which I had written; thus confirming the truth of an observation made to me by one of their number, in a merry mood:-"My dear Sir, give yourself no trouble in the composition of the papers you present to us; for, indeed, it is casting pearls before swine."

66

I renewed my solicitations that Dr. Johnson would this year accomplish his long-intended visit to Scotland.

JOHNSON TO BOSWELL.

"August 13. 1772. "DEAR SIR,- The regret has not been little with which I have missed a journey so pregnant with pleasing expectations, as that in which I could promise myself not only the gratification of curiosity, both rational and fanciful, but the delight of seeing those whom I love and esteem. But such has been the course of things, that I could not come; and such has been, I am afraid, the state of my body, that it would not well have seconded my inclination. My body, I think, grows better, and I refer my hopes to another year; for I am very sincere in my design to pay the visit, and take the ramble. In the mean time, do not omit any opportunity of keeping up a favourable opinion of me in the minds of any of my friends. Beattie's book2 is, I believe, every day more liked; at least, I like it more, as I look more upon it.

"I am glad if you got credit by your cause; and am yet of opinion that our cause was good, and that the determination ought to have been in your favour. Poor Hastie [the Schoolmaster], I think, had but his deserts.

"You promised to get me a little Pindar: you may add to it a little Anacreon.

This application of the scriptural phrase was not very becoming, but the meaning was correct: the facts and the law only ought to be considered by the judge-the verbal decorations of style should be of no weight. It is probable that the judge who used it was bantering Boswell on some pleading in which there was, perhaps, more ornament than substance. - CROKER.

2Essay on Truth." of which a third edition was published in 1772.-CROKER.

3. While memory lasts and life inspires my frame."—

I wish to have the knowledge of it preserved adequate and complete; for such an institution makes a very important part of the history of mankind. Do not forget a design so worthy of a scholar who studies the law of his country, and of a gentleman who may naturally be curious to know the conwith great affection, dition of his own ancestors. I am, dear Sir, yours SAM. JOHNSON."

BOSWELL TO JOHNSON.

"Edinburgh, Dec. 25. 1772. "MY DEAR SIR,- I was much disappointed that Howyou did not come to Scotland last autumn.

ever, I must own that your letter prevents me from complaining; not only because I am sensible that

the state of your health was but too good an exeuse, but because you write in a strain which shows that you have agreeable views of the scheme which we have so long proposed.

"I communicated to Beattie what you said of his book in your last letter to me. He writes to me thus: - You judge very rightly in supposing that Dr. Johnson's favourable opinion of my book must give me great delight. Indeed, it is impossible for me to say how much I am gratified by it; for there is not a man upon earth whose good opinion I would be more ambitious to cultivate. talents and his virtues I reverence more than any words can express. The extraordinary civilities (the paternal attentions I should rather say), and the many instructions I have had the honour to receive from him, will to me be a perpetual source of pleasure in the recollection,

His

'Dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos reget artus.' "I had still some thoughts, while the summer lasted, of being obliged to go to London on some little business; otherwise I should certainly have troubled him with a letter several months ago, and This I intend to do as soon as I am left a little at given some vent to my gratitude and admiration. Meantime, if you have occasion to write to him, I beg you will offer him my most respectful compliments, and assure him of the sincerity of my attachment and the warmth of my gratitude.' "I am, &c., JAMES BOSWELL."

leisure.

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[JOHNSON TO MRS. THRALE.'
(Extracts.)

"Lichfield, Oct. 19. 1772. I set out on Thursday night, at nine, and arrived at Lichfield on Friday night, at eleven, no otherwise incommoded than with want of sleep, which, however, I enjoyed very comfortably the first night. I think a stage coach is not the worst bed.

En. iv. 356. Yet it seems that Boswell had allowed Johnson's kind letter of the 13th August to remain above four months unanswered.- CROKER.

4 It appears from the extracts of his letters to Mrs. Thrale, which I have given in the text, that in the autumn of this year Johnson again visited Lichfield and Ashbourne, where he was somewhat indisposed; and on his return to town had a fit of the gout, accompanied by a cough, which gave him more trouble. - CROKER.

but you know likewise that health will not hold me away. "Ashbourne, Nov. 27. 1772. If you are so kind as to write to me on Saturday, the day on which you will receive this, I shall have it before I leave Ashbourne. I am to go to Lichfield on Wednesday, and purpose to find my way to London through Birmingham and Oxford. I was yesterday at Chatsworth. It is a very fine house. wish you had been with me to see it; for then, as we are apt to want matter of talk, we should have gained something new to talk on. They complimented me with playing the fountain, and opening the cascade. But I am of my friend's opinion, that, when one has seen the ocean, cascades are but little things."]

CHAPTER XXVIII.

1773.

I

- DalChesSir

George Steevens. Goldsmith and Evans. rymple's History. · · Action in Speaking. terfield and Tyrawley. The Spectator. Andrew Freeport. Burnet's Own Times. Good Friday. Easter Day. A Dinner at Johnson's. -Wages to Women Servants.— Keeping a Journal. - Luxury. Equality.- The Stuarts. Law Reports. -"The Gentle Shepherd." Whigs and Tories. — Sterne. — Charles Townshend. -"Happy Revolution." -"She Stoops to Con. quer." Short-Hand. Dedications.

Harris.
Chatham's Verses to Garrick.

James Duelling. Lord Savage Life. Suicide. Budgell. The Douglas Cause.

IN 1773', his only publication was an edition of his folio Dictionary, with additions and corrections; nor did he, so far as is known, furnish any productions of his fertile pen to any of his numerous friends or dependants, except the Preface to his old amanuensis Macbean's "Dictionary of Ancient Geography." His Shakspeare, indeed, which had been received with high approbation by the public, and gone through several editions, was this year republished by George Steevens, Esq., a gentleman not only deeply skilled in ancient learning, and of very extensive reading in English literature, especially the early writers, but at the same time of acute discernment and elegant taste.

1 He, however, wrote, or partly wrote, an Epitaph on Mrs. Bell, wife of his friend John Bell, Esq., brother of the Rev. Dr. Bell, Prebendary of Westminster, which is printed in his works. It is in English prose, and has so little of his manner, that I did not believe he had any hand in it, till I was satisfied of the fact by the authority of Mr. Bell. BosWELL. See antè, p. 225. — C.

2 Dr. Johnson's early friend, Mr. Edmond Southwell, third son of the first Lord Southwell, born in 1705, had died in the preceding November, aged 67: the Mr. Southwell here mentioned was, probably, Thomas Arthur, afterwards the fourth Lord and second Viscount. (See antè, p. 123.)

JOHNSON TO BOSWELL.

"London, Feb. 22. 1773. "DEAR SIR, I have read your kind letter much more than the elegant Pindar which it accompanied. I am always glad to find myself not forgotten; and to be forgotten by you would give me great uneasiness. My northern friends have never been unkind to me: I have from you, dear Sir, testimonies of affection, which I have not often been able to excite; and Dr. Beattie rates the testimony which I was desirous of paying to his merit, much higher than I should have thought it reasonable to expect.

What says

"I have heard of your masquerade. your synod to such innovations? I am not studiously scrupulous, nor do I think a masquerade either evil in itself, or very likely to be the occasion of evil; yet, as the world thinks it a very licentious relaxation of manners, I would not have been one of the first masquers in a country where no masquerade had ever been before.

"A new edition of my great Dictionary is revise; but, having made no preparation, I was printed, from a copy which I was persuaded to able to do very little. Some superfluities I have expunged, and some faults I have corrected, and here and there have scattered a remark; but the main fabric of the work remains as it was. I had looked very little into it since I wrote it; and, I think, I found it full as often better, as worse, than I expected.

The two ladies mentioned were, probably, daughters of the first lord: Frances, born in 1708, and Lucy, born in 1710. CROKER.

3 Given by a lady at Edinburgh. - BOSWELL.

4 There had been masquerades in Scotland; but not for a very long time.- BOSWELL. This masquerade was given on the 15th of January, by the Countess Dowager of Fife. Johnson had no doubt seen an account of it in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, where it is said to have been the first masquerade ever seen in Scotland. Mr. Boswell himself appeared in the character of a Dumb Conjurer. CROKER.

"Baretti and Davies' have had a furious quarrel; a quarrel, I think, irreconcileable. Dr. Goldsmith has a new comedy, which is expected in the spring. No name is yet given it. The chief diversion arises from a stratagem by which a lover is made to mistake his future father-in-law's house for an inn. This, you see, borders upon farce. The dialogue is quick and gay, and the incidents are so prepared as not to seem improbable.

66

"I am sorry that you lost your cause of Intromission, because I yet think the arguments on your side unanswerable. But you seem, I think, to say that you gained reputation even by your defeat; and reputation you will daily gain, if you keep Lord Auchinleck's precept in your mind, and endeavour to consolidate in your mind a firm and regular system of law, instead of picking up occasional fragments.

"My health seems in general to improve; but I have been troubled for many weeks with a vexatious catarrh, which is sometimes sufficiently distressful. I have not found any great effects from bleeding and physic; and am afraid that I must expect help from brighter days and softer air.

"Write to me now and then; and whenever any good befalls you, make haste to let me know it; for no one will rejoice at it more than, dear Sir, your most humble servant,

SAM. JOHNSON.

"You continue to stand very high in the favour of Mrs. Thrale."

While a former edition of my work was passing through the press, I was unexpectedly favoured with a packet from Philadelphia, from Mr. James Abercrombie, a gentleman of that country, who is pleased to honour me with very high praise of my "Life of Dr. Johnson." To have the fame of my illustrious friend, and his faithful biographer, echoed from the New World, is extremely flattering; and my grateful acknowledgments shall be wafted across the Atlantic. Mr. Abercrombie has politely conferred on me a considerable additional obligation, by transmitting to me copies of two letters from Dr. Johnson to American gentlemen. Gladly, Sir," says he, "would I have lent you the originals; but being the only relics of the kind in America, they are considered by the possessors of such inestimable value, that no possible consideration would induce them to part with them. In some future publication of yours relative to that great and good man, they may perhaps be thought worthy of in

66

sertion."

1 Davies was the publisher of Baretti's Travels; and this was probably a quarrel between author and publisher. - CROKER.

2" She Stoops to Conquer, or the Mistakes of a Night," was performed, for the first time, at Covent Garden, on the 15th of March. Mr. Prior, in his Life of Goldsmith, tells us that something like the main incident had happened to the Author himself in early life. - and the farcical trick of driving Mrs. Hardcastle round her own house, while she fancied she was going a journey, was actually practised by Sheridan on Madame de Genlis. CROKER.

This gentleman, who now resides in America, in a public character of considerable dignity, desired that his name might not be transcribed at full length. - BOSWELL. Probably a Mr. Richard Bland, of Virginia, whose " Inquiry

JOHNSON TO MR. B—D.3

"Johnson's Court, March 4. 1773. "SIR,-That in the hurry of a sudden departure you should yet find leisure to consult my convenience, is a degree of kindness, and an instance of regard, not only beyond my claims, but above my expectation. You are not mistaken in supposing that I set a high value on my American friends, and that you should confer a very valuable favour upon me by giving me an opportunity of keeping myself in their memory.

"I have taken the liberty of troubling you with a packet, to which I wish a safe and speedy conveyance, because I wish a safe and speedy voyage to him that conveys it. I am, Sir, your most humble SAM. JOHNSON."

servant,

JOHNSON TO REV. MR. WHITE.

"Johnson's Court, March 4. 1773. "DEAR SIR,-Your kindness for your friends accompanies you across the Atlantic. It was long since observed by Horace, that no ship could leave care behind you have been attended in your voyage by other powers, - by benevolence and constancy; and I hope care did not often show her face in their company.

"I received the copy of Rasselas. The impression is not magnificent, but it flatters an author, because the printer seems to have expected that it would be scattered among the people. The little book has been well received, and is translated into Italian, French, German, and Dutch. It has now one honour more by an American edition.

"I know not that much has happened since your departure that can engage your curiosity. Of all public transactions the whole world is now informed by the newspapers. Opposition seems to despond; and the dissenters, though they have ment much enfeebled, seem not likely to gain any taken advantage of unsettled times, and a governimmunities.

into the Rights of the British Colonies" was republished in London in 1770.- CROKER.

Afterwards Dr. White, and Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania. During his first visit to England in 1771, as a candidate for holy orders, he was several times in company with Dr. Johnson, who expressed a wish to see the edition of Rasselas, which Dr. White told him had been printed in America. Dr. White, on his return, immediately sent him a copy. — CROKER.

Colman thought so ill of it, that when, at one of the last rehearsals, Mrs. Reynolds and some other ladies objected to one of Tony Lumpkin's sallies, he exclaimed, "Pshaw! of what consequence is a squib, when we have been sitting for two hours on a barrel of gunpowder?"- CROKER.