66 Clare's house in the country, and he took no more notice of me than if I had been an ordinary man." The company having laughed heartily, Johnson stood forth in defence of his friend. Nay, gentlemen," said he, Dr. Goldsmith is in the right. A nobleman ought to have made up to such a man as Goldsmith; and I think it is much against Lord Camden that he neglected him." Nor could he patiently endure to hear, that such respect as he thought due only to higher intellectual qualities should be bestowed on men of slighter, though perhaps more amusing, talents. I told him, that one morning, when I went to breakfast with Garrick, who was very vain of his intimacy with Lord Camden, he accosted me thus: "Pray now, did you - did you meet a little lawyer turning the corner, eh ?" "No, Sir," said I; "pray what do you mean by the question?" "Why," replied Garrick, with an affected indifference, yet as if standing on tip-toe, "Lord Camden has this moment left me. We have had a long walk together." JOHNSON. Well, Sir, Garrick talked very properly. Lord Camden was a little lawyer to be associating so familiarly with a player." 66 Sir Joshua Reynolds observed, with great truth, that Johnson considered Garrick to be as it were his property. He would allow no man either to blame or to praise Garrick in his presence, without contradicting him. 2 Having fallen into a very serious frame of mind, in which mutual expressions of kindness passed between us, such as would be thought too vain in me to repeat, I talked with regret of the sad inevitable certainty that one of us must survive the other. JoHNSON. " Yes, Sir, that is an affecting consideration. I remember Swift, in one of his letters to Pope, says, 'I intend to come over, that we may meet once more; and when we must part, it is what happens to all human beings.' BOSWELL."The hope that we shall see our departed friends again must support the mind." JOHNSON. "Why, yes, Sir."3 BOSWELL. "There is a strange unwillingness to part with life, independent of serious fears as to futurity. A reverend friend of ours [Dr. Percy] tells me, that he feels an uneasiness at the thoughts of leaving his house, his study, his books." JOHNSON. "This is foolish in [Percy]. A man need not be uneasy on these grounds: for, as he will retain his consciousness, he may 1 See anté, p. 222. n. 5.- C. 2 Sir Joshua Reynolds wrote, or, perhaps, I should rather say compiled, two Dialogues, in illustration of this position, in the first of which Johnson attacks Garrick in opposition to Sir Joshua, and in the other defends him against Gibbon. They are so tame an imitation that Mr. Chalmers did not believe them to have been Sir Joshua's but Sir George Beaumont assured me that he had received a copy of them from Sir Joshua himself, and that they were composed of recollected scraps of Johnson's conversation. The Dialogues are printed in Miss Hawkins's Memoirs and in my former editions, but are hardly worth the space they would occupy in this volume.-CROKER. 3 See on the same subject, p. 233.- MALONE. 41 carry my all with me.”— C. say with the philosopher, Omnia mea mecum porto." BosWELL." True, Sir: we may carry our books in our heads; but still there is something painful in the thought of leaving for ever what has given us pleasure. I remember, many years ago, when my imagination was warm, and I happened to be in a melancholy mood, it distressed me to think of going into a state of being in which Shakspeare's poetry did not exist. A lady, whom I then much admired, a very amiable woman, humoured my fancy, and relieved me by saying, 'The first thing you will meet with in the other world will be an elegant copy of Shakspeare's works presented to you.' Dr. Johnson smiled 5 benignantly at this, and did not appear to disapprove of the notion. We went to St. Clement's church again in the afternoon, and then returned and drank tea and coffee in Mrs. Williams's room; Mrs. Desmoulins doing the honours of the tea-table. I observed that he would not even look at a proof-sheet of his "Life of Waller" on GoodFriday. Mr. Allen, the printer, brought a book on agriculture, which was printed, and was soon to be published. 6 It was a very strange performance, the author having mixed in it his own thoughts upon various topics, along with his remarks on ploughing, sowing, and other farming operations. He seemed to be an absurd profane fellow, and had introduced in his books many sneers at religion, with equal ignorance and conceit. Dr. Johnson permitted me to read some passages aloud. One was that he resolved to work on Sunday, and did work, but he owned he felt some weak compunction; and he had this very curious reflection: "I was born in the wilds of Christianity, and the briars and thorns still hang about me.' Dr. Johnson could not help laughing at this ridiculous image, yet was very angry at the fellow's impiety. However," said he, "the reviewers will make him hang himself." He however observed, "that formerly there might have been a dispensation obtained for working on Sunday in the time of harvest."7 Indeed, in ritual observances, were all the ministers of religion what they should be, and what many of them are, such a power might be wisely and safely lodged with the church. 66 On Saturday, 18th April, I drank tea with him. He praised the late Mr. Duncombe, of Canterbury, as a pleasing man. "He used to Dr. Johnson might well smile at such a distress of mind, and at the argument by which it was relieved. — CROKER. 6 This was Marshall's Minutes of Agriculture. The author lived to publish many more important and less offensive works on this subject. -CHALMERS. 7 In the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth [following those of Edward VI.] for the observance of Sunday, there was one exception viz. for labour in time of harvest, after divine service: but which was not provided for in the act 29 Car. 2. c. 7. MARKLAND. 9 William Duncombe, Esq. He married the sister of John Hughes, the poet; was the author of two tragedies, and other ingenious productions; and died 26th Feb. 1769, aged 79.--MALONE. come to me; I did not seek much after him. Indeed, I never sought much after any body." BOSWELL. "Lord Orrery, I suppose." JOHNSON. No, Sir; I never went to him but when he sent for me." BOSWELL."Richardson?" JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir: but I sought after George Psalmanszar the most. I used to go and sit with im at an alehouse in the city." I am happy to mention another instance which I discovered of his seeking after a man of merit. Soon after the Honourable Daines Barrington had published his excellent "Observations on the Statutes," Johnson waited on that worthy and learned gentleman; and, having told him his name, courteously said, "I have read your book, Sir, with great pleasure, and wish to be better known to you." Thus began an acquaintance, which was continued with mutual regard as long as Johnson lived. Talking of a recent seditious delinquent, he said, "They should set him in the pillory, that he may be punished in a way that would disgrace him." I observed, that the pillory does not always disgrace. And I mentioned an instance of a gentleman, who I thought was not dishonoured by it. JOHNSON. "Ay, but he was, Sir. He could not mouth and strut about as he used to do, after having been there. People are not willing to ask a man to their tables, who has stood in the pillory." The gentleman who had dined with us at Dr. Percy's came in. Johnson attacked the Americans with intemperate vehemence of abuse. I said something in their favour; and added, that I was always sorry when he talked on that subject. This, it seems, exasperated him; though he said nothing at the time. The cloud was charged with sulphureous vapour, which was afterwards to burst in thunder. We talked of a gentleman [Mr. Langton], who was running out his fortune in London; and I said, "We must get him out of it. All his friends must quarrel with him, and that will soon drive him away." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, we'll send you to him. If your company does not drive a man out of his house, nothing will." This was a horrible "This extraordinary person," says Mrs. Piozzi, "lived and died at a house in Old Street, where Dr. Johnson was witness to his talents and virtues, and to his final preference of the Church of England, after having studied. disgraced, and adorned so many modes of worship. The name he went by was not supposed by his friend to be that of his family, but all inquiries were vain: his reasons for concealing his original were penitentiary; he deserved no other name than that of the impostor, he said. His pious and patient endurance of a tedious illness, ending in an exemplary death (1763), confirmed the strong impression his merit had made upon the mind of Dr. Johnson."- CROKER. The Memoir of Psalmanazar, written by himself, and published in 1764, though now a neglected piece of biography, will well repay the reader, as it affords much curious information. [See also Smollett's account of him in Humphrey Clinker.] MARK 66 shock, for which there was no visible cause. I afterwards asked him, why he had said so harsh a thing. JOHNSON. Because, Sir, you made me angry about the Americans." BoSWELL. "But why did you not take your revenge directly?" JOHNSON (Smiling). "Because, Sir, I had nothing ready. A man cannot strike till he has his weapons." This was a candid and pleasant confession. He showed me to-night his drawing-room, very genteelly fitted up, and said," Mrs. Thrale sneered, when I talked of my having ! asked you and your lady to live at my house. I was obliged to tell her, that you would be in as respectable a situation in my house as in hers. Sir, the insolence of wealth will creep out." BOSWELL. "She has a little both of the insolence of wealth and the conceit of parts." JOHNSON. "The insolence of wealth is a wretched thing; but the conceit of parts has some foundation. To be sure, it should not be. But who is without it?" BOSWELL "Yourself, Sir." JOHNSON. Why, I play no tricks: I lay no traps." BOSWELL. "No, Sir. You are six feet high, and you only do not stoop." 66 We talked of the numbers of people that sometimes have composed the household of great families. I mentioned that there were a hundred in the family of the present Earl of Eglingtoune's father. Dr. Johnson seeming to doubt it, I began to enumerate; "Let us see, my lord and my lady, two." JOHNSON. Nay, Sir, if you are to count by twos, you may be long enough." BOSWELL. Well, but now I add two sons and seven daughters, and a servant for each; that will make twenty; so we have the fifth part already." JOHNSON. "Very true. You get at twenty pretty readily; but you will not so easily get further 66 on. 66 We grow to five feet pretty readily; but it is not so easy to grow to seven." ["Yesterday (18th of April) I rose late, having not slept ill. Having promised a dedication, I thought it necessary to write, but for some time neither wrote nor read. Langton came in and talked. After dinner I wrote. At tea Boswell came in. He stayed till near twelve." — Pr. and Med., p. 163.] fine. It seems strange that Johnson should, in April. 1778, "Does envy doubt? Witness, ye chosen train, But his ears were not endangered; indeed he was so favourably treated, being allowed to stand on, and not in, the pillory, and to have certain other indulgences, that the sheriff was afterwards prosecuted for partiality towards him. - CROKER. 5 He means, that if it had not been in performance of a promise, he would not have done any worldly business on Easter eve. What the dedication was does not appear. — CROKER. 1 On Sunday, 19th April, being Easter-day, after the solemnities of the festival in St. Paul's church, I visited him, but could not stay to dinner. I expressed a wish to have the arguments for Christianity always in readiness, that my religious faith might be as firm and clear as any proposition whatever; so that I need not be under the least uneasiness when it should be attacked. JOHNSON. “Sir, you cannot answer all objections. You have demonstration for a first cause: you see he must be good as well as powerful, because there is nothing to make him otherwise, and goodness of itself is preferable. Yet you have against this, what is very certain, the unhappiness of human life. This, however, gives us reason to hope for a future state of compensation, that there may be a perfect system. But of that we were not sure, till we had a positive revelation." I told him, that his "Rasselas " had often made me unhappy; for it represented the misery of human life so well, and so convincingly to a thinking mind, that if at any time the impression wore off, and I felt myself easy, I began to suspect some delusion. [“ In reviewing my time from Easter, 1777, found a very melancholy and shameful blank. So little has been done, that days and months are without any trace. My health has, indeed, been very much interrupted. My nights have been commonly, not only restless, but painful and fatiguing. My respiration was once so difficult, that an asthma was suspected. I could not walk, but with great difficulty, from Stowhill to Greenhill. Some relaxation of my breast has been procured, I think, by opium, which, though it never gives me sleep, frees my breast from spasms. I have written a little of the Lives of the Poets. I think with all my usual vigour. I have made sermons, perhaps as readily as formerly. ' My memory is less faithful in retaining names, and, I am afraid, in retain ing occurrences. Of this vacillation and vagrancy of mind, I impute a great part to a fortuitous and unsettled life, and therefore purpose to spend my time with more method.”— Pr. and Med., p. 167.] On Monday, 20th April, I found him at home in the morning. We talked of a gentleman [Mr. Langton] who we apprehended was gradually involving his circumstances by bad management. JOHNSON." Wasting a fortune is evaporation by a thousand imperceptible means. If it were a stream, they'd stop it. You must speak to him. It is really miserable. Were he a gamester, it could be said he had hopes of winning. Were he a bankrupt in trade, he might have grown rich; but he has neither spirit to spend, nor resolution to 1 The sermons were probably those which were left for publication by Dr. Taylor, some written, perhaps, at Ashbourne in the preceding summer. Hall. See ante, p. 555, and n. 3.-CROKER. 2 Samuel Musgrave, M. D., editor of the Euripides, and author of "Dissertations on the Grecian Mythology," &c., published in 172, after his death, by the learned air. Tyrwhitt. MALONE. 3" The Project," a poem (published anonymously in spare. He does not spend fast enough to have pleasure from it. He has the crime of prodigality, and the wretchedness of parsimony. If a man is killed in a duel, he is killed as many a one has been killed; but it is a sad thing for a man to lie down and die; to bleed to death, because he has not fortitude enough to sear the wound, or even to stitch it up." I cannot but pause a moment to admire the fecundity of fancy, and choice of language, which in this instance, and, indeed, on almost all occasions, he displayed. It was well observed by Dr. Percy (afterwards Bishop of Dromore), "The conversation of Johnson is strong and clear, and may be compared to an antique statue, where every vein and muscle is distinct and bold. Ordinary conversation resembles an inferior cast." 3 "On Saturday, 25th April, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, with the learned Dr. Musgrave'; Counsellor Leland of Ireland, son to the historian; Mrs. Cholmondeley, [p. 349.] and some more ladies. "The Project," a new poem, was read to the company by Dr. Musgrave. JCHNSON. "Sir, it has no power. Were it not for the well-known names with which it is filled, it would be nothing: the names carry the poet, not the poet the names." MUSGRAVE. "A temporary poem always entertains us." JOHNSON. "So does an account of the criminals hanged yesterday entertain us." He proceeded; -"Demosthenes Taylor, as he was called (that is, the editor of Demosthenes), was the most silent man, the merest statue of a man, that I have ever seen. I once dined in company with him, and all he said during the whole time was no more than Richard. How a man should say only Richard, it is not easy to imagine But it was thus: Dr. Douglas was talking of Dr. Zachary Grey, and ascribing to him something that was written by Dr. Richard Grey. So, to correct him, Taylor said, ‘Richard." Mrs. Cholmondeley, in a high flow of spirits, exhibited some lively sallies of hyperbolical compliment to Johnson, with whom she had been long acquainted, and was very easy. He was quick in catching the manner of the moment, and answered her somewhat in the style of the hero of a romance, Madam, you crown me with unfading laurels." 66 I happened, I know not how, to say that a pamphlet meant a prose piece. JOHNSON. "No, Sir. A few sheets of poetry unbound are a pamphlet, as much as a few sheets of prose. MUSGRAVE. "A pamphlet may be understood to mean a poetical piece in West 1778), by Richard Tickell, author of "Anticipation.” CROKER. 4 Dr. Johnson is here perfectly correct, and is supported by the usage of preceding writers. So in Musarum Delicia, a collection of poems, 8vo., 1656 (the writer is speaking of Suckling's play entitled Aglaura, printed in folio): "This great voluminous pamphlet may be said To be like one, that hath more hair than head."-- minster-hall, that is, in formal language; but in common language it is understood to mean prose." JOHNSON. (And here was one of the many instances of his knowing clearly and telling exactly how a thing is.) "A pamphlet is understood in common language to mean prose, only from this, that there is so much more prose written than poetry; as when we say a book, prose is understood for the same reason, though a book may as well be in poetry as in prose. We understand what is most general, and we name what is less frequent." Burke thinks it has no merit. JOHNSON. "It was refused by one of the houses; but I should have thought it would succeed, not from any great excellence in the writing, but from the novelty, and the general spirit and gaiety of the piece, which keeps the audience always attentive, and dismisses them in good humour." vote. Both Goldsmith's comedies were once refused; his first by Garrick, his second by Colman, who was prevailed on at last by much solicitation, nay, a kind of force, to bring it on. His Vicar of Wakefield' I myself did not think would have had much success. It was written and sold to a bookseller before his 'Traveller,' but published after; so little expectation had the bookseller from it. Had it been sold after The Traveller,' he might have had twice as much money for it, though sixty guineas was no mean price. The bookWe talked of a lady's verses on Ireland. seller had the advantage of Goldsmith's repuMISS REYNOLDS. "Have you seen them, Sir?" tation from 'The Traveller' in the sale, though JOHNSON. "No, Madam; I have seen a Goldsmith had it not in selling the copy." Sin translation from Horace, by one of her JOSHUA REYNOLDS. "The Beggar's Opera daughters. She showed it me." MISS REY- affords a proof how strangely people will differ NOLDS. "And how was it, Sir?" JoHN-in opinion about a literary performance. SON. "Why, very well, for a young miss's verses; that is to say, compared with excellence, nothing; but very well, for the person who wrote them. I am vexed at being shown verses in that manner." MISS REYNOLDS. "But if they should be good, why not give them hearty praise?" JOHNSON. "Why, Madam, because I have not then got the better of my bad humour from having been shown them. You must consider, Madam, beforehand, they may be bad as well as good. Nobody has a right to put another under such a difficulty, that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth, or hurt himself by telling what is not true.' BOSWELL. "A man often shows his writings to people of eminence, to obtain from them, either from their good-nature, or from their not being able to tell the truth firmly, a commendation, of which he may afterwards avail himself." JOHNSON. "Very true, Sir. Therefore, the man who is asked by an author, what he thinks of his work, is put to the torture, and is not obliged to speak the truth; so that what he says is not considered as his opinion; yet he has said it, and cannot retract it; and this author, when mankind are hunting him with a canister at his tail, can say, 'I would not have published, had not Johnson, or Reynolds, or Musgrave, or some other good judge, commended the work.' Yet I consider it as a very difficult question in conscience, whether one should advise a man not to publish a work, if profit be his object; for a man may say, Had it not been for you, I should have had the money.' Now you cannot be sure; for you have only your own opinion, and the public may think SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. very differently." "You must upon such an occasion have two judgments; one as to the real value of the work, the other as to what may please the general taste at the time." JOHNSON. "But you can be sure of neither; and therefore I should scruple much to give a suppressive They are mentioned in Watts's, but without a name, which I cannot supply; - quere Lady Knight? CROKER, 1847. We went to the drawing-room, where was a considerable increase of company. Several of us got round Dr. Johnson, and complained that he would not give us an exact catalogue of his works, that there might be a complete edition. He smiled, and evaded our entreaties. That he intended to do it, I have no doubt, because I have heard him say so; and I have in my possession an imperfect list, fairly written out, which he entitles Historia Studiorum. I once got from one of his friends a list, which there was pretty good reason to suppose was accurate; for it was written down in his presence by this friend, who enumerated each article aloud, and had some of them mentioned to him by Mr. Levett, in concert with whom it was made out; and Johnson, who heard all this, did not contradict it. But when I showed a copy of this list to him, and mentioned the evidence for its exactness, he laughed, and said, "I was willing to let them go on as they pleased, and never interfered." Upon which I read it to him, article by article, and got him positively to own or refuse; and then, having obtained certainty so far, I got some other articles confirmed by him directly, and, afterwards, from time to time, made additions under his sanction. His friend, Edward Cave, having been mentioned, he told us, "Cave used to sell ten thousand of The Gentleman's Magazine;' yet such was then his minute attention and anxiety that the sale should not suffer the smallest decrease, that he would name a particular person who he heard had talked of leaving off the Magazine, and would say, 'Let us have something good next month.'" 2 This seems to confirm the conjecture made, antė, p. 49. n. 1., that Johnson acted for a time as the editor of the Magazine. CHOKER. -desirous It was observed, that avarice was inherent in some dispositions. JOHNSON. "No man was born a miser, because no man was born to possession. Every man is born cupidus desirous of getting; but not avarus of keeping." BOSWELL. "I have heard old Mr. Sheridan maintain, with much ingenuity, that a complete miser is a happy man: a miser who gives himself wholly to the one passion of saving." JOHNSON. "That is flying in the face of all the world, who have called an avaricious man a miser, because he is miserable.' No, Sir; a man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man, because he has both enjoyments." The conversation having turned on bon-mots, he quoted, from one of the Ana, an exquisite instance of flattery in a maid of honour in France, who being asked by the queen what o'clock it was, answered, "What your majesty "12 He admitted that Mr. Burke's pleases." classical pun [p. 273.] upon Mr. Wilkes's being carried on the shoulders of the mob, 66 numerisque fertur Lege solutis," was admirable; and though he was strangely unwilling to allow to that extraordinary man the talent of wit 3, he also laughed with approbation at another of his playful conceits; which was, that "Horace has in one line given a description of a good desirable manor: • Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines;' that is to say, a modus as to the tithes and certain fines." 54 ON Tuesday, April 28., he was engaged to dine at General Paoli's, where, as I have already observed, I was still entertained in elegant hospitality, and with all the ease and comfort of a home. I called on him, and accompanied him in a hackney-coach. We stopped first at the bottom of Hedge Lane, into which he went to leave a letter, "with good news for a poor man in distress," as he fold me. I did not question him particularly as to this. He himself often resembled Lady Bolingbroke's lively description of Pope: that He observed, " a man cannot with propriety "he was un politique aux choux et aux raves." speak of himself, except he relates simple He would say, "I dine to-day in Grosvenorfacts: as, 'I was at Richmond:' or what de-square; this might be with a duke; or, perpends on mensuration; as, 'I am six feet high.' He is sure he has been at Richmond; he is sure he is six feet high; but he cannot be sure he is wise, or that he has any other excellence. Then, all censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare. It has all the invidiousness of selfpraise, and all the reproach of falsehood." BOSWELL. "Sometimes it may proceed from This is a sophism - people call him miserable, because he seems so to them; but he himself may be, and no doubt generally is, happy in his avarice. "Populus me sibilat; at mihi plaudo Ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca." "I'm hissed in public: but, in secret blest, I count my money and enjoy my chest.' Hor. 1. Sat. 1. 70.- Francis.- CROKER, 1847. ? The anecdote is told in " Menagiana,” vol. iii. p. 104.. but not of a "maid of honour," nor as an instance of “ ezquisite flattery. "M. d'Uzès était chevalier d'honneur de la reine. Cette princesse lui demanda un jour quelle heure il était; il répondit, Madame, l'heure qu'il plaira à votre majesté.'" Menage tells it as a pleasantry of M. d'Uzès ; but M. de la Monnoye says, that this duke was remarkable for nairetés and blunders, and was a kind of butt, to whom the wits of the court used to attribute all manner of absurdities. CROKER. 3 See this question fully investigated in the notes upon the "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," ante. p. 273. n. L et seq. And here, as a lawyer mindful of the maxim Suum cuique tribuito, I cannot forbear to mention, that the ad haps, "I dine to-day at the other end of the town;" or, "A gentleman of great eminence called on me yesterday." He loved thus to keep things floating in conjecture: Omne ignotum pro magnifico est. I believe I ventured to dissipate the cloud, to unveil the mystery, more freely and frequently than any of his friends. We stopped again at Wirgman's, the well-known toy-shop in St. James's Street, at ditional note, beginning with "I find since the former edition," is not mine, but was obligingly furnished by Mr. Malone, who was so kind as to superintend the press while I was in Scotland, and the first part of the second edition was printing. He would not allow me to ascribe it to its proper author; but, as it is exquisitely acute and elegant, I take this opportunity, without his knowledge, to do him justice.BOSWELL. 4 This, as both Mr. Bindley and Dr. Kearney have observed to me, is the motto to" An Inquiry into Customary Estates and Tenants' Rights, &c.; with some Considerations for restraining excessive Fines," by Everard Fleetwood, Esq. 8vo. 1731. But it is, probably, a mere coincidence. Mr. Burke, perhaps, never saw that pamphlet. - MALONE. 5 Mr. P. Cunningham has, I think, enabled us to clear up Boswell's mystery, by finding in the Garrick correspondence (i. 305.), May, 1778, that Johnson's poor friend, Mauritius Lowe, the painter, lived at No. 3. Hedge Lane, In a state of extreme distress; and I have little doubt that the good news was that a picture o his was (as I find in the catalogue of that year) admitted to the Exhibition of the Royal Academy, then on the point of opening. Johnson's good offices were similarly exerted on Lowe's behalf at the Exhibition of 1783. See post, sub 12th April. - CROKER, 1847. |