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A revolution of some importance in my plan of life had just taken place; for instead of procuring a commission in the foot-guards, which was my own inclination, I had, in compliance with my father's wishes, agreed to study the law, and was soon to set out for Utrecht, to hear the lectures of an excellent Civilian in that University, and then to proceed on my travels. Though very desirous of obtaining Dr. Johnson's advice and instructions on the mode of pursuing my studies, I was at this time so occupied-shall I call it—or so dissipated, by the amusements of London, that our next meeting was not till Saturday, June 25, when, happening to dine at Clifton's eating-house, in Butcher Row, I was surprised to perceive Johnson come in and take his seat at another table. The mode of dining, or rather being fed, at such houses in London, is well known to many to be particularly unsocial, as there is no ordinary,* or united company, but each person has his own mess, and is under no obligation to hold any intercourse with anyone. A liberal and full-minded man, however, who loves to talk will break through this churlish and unsocial restraint.

1. Foot-guards. "I am thinking of the brilliant scenes of happiness I shall enjoy as an officer of the guards. How I shall become a favorite of ministers of state, and the adoration of ladies of quality, beauty, and fortune! How many parties of pleasure shall I have in town! How many fine jaunts to the noble seats of dukes, lords, and members of Parliament! I am thinking of the perfect knowledge which I shall acquire of men and manners, of the intimacies which I shall have the honor to form with the learned and ingenious in every science, and of the many amusing literary anecdotes which I shall pick up." Boswell to Andrew Erskine, 1763.

2. Utrecht. "I could almost weep to think of leaving dear London and the calm retirement of Inner Temple. You may see I am somewhat melancholy; pray comfort me. This is very effeminate and very young, but I cannot help it." Boswell to Mr. Temple.

3. Dr. Johnson's advice. "You tell me gravely to follow the plan which my father prescribes, whatever it may be; and in doing so, I shall certainly act most wisely. I forgive you this, for I say just the same to young people when I advise. To enter into a detail of the little circumstances which compose the felicity of another is what a man of any genius can hardly submit to. We, therefore, give a good, wholesome, general counsel; and he who consults us thinks a little, and then endeavors to take his own way as well as he can." Boswell to Sir Andrew Mitchell, 1764.

1763]

AT THE MITRE TAVERN

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Johnson and an Irish gentleman got into a dispute concerning the cause of some part of mankind being black. What the Irishman said is totally obliterated from my mind, but I remember that he became very warm and intemperate in his expressions, upon which Johnson rose and quietly walked

away. When he had retired, his antagonist took his revenge, as he thought, by saying, "He has a most ungainly figure, and an affectation of pomposity, unworthy of a man of genius.'

Johnson had not observed that I was in the room. I followed him, however, and he agreed to meet me in the evening at the Mitre. I called on him, and we went thither at nine. We had a good supper, and port wine, of which he then sometimes drank a bottle. The orthodox high-church sound of the Mitre, the figure and manner of the celebrated Samuel Johnson, the extraordinary power and precision of his conversation, and the pride arising from finding myself admitted as his companion, produced a variety of sensations, and a pleasing elevation of mind beyond what I had ever before experienced. I find in my Journal the following minute of our conversation, which, though it will give but a very faint notion of what passed, will be curious as showing how habitual to his mind were some opinions which appear in his works. "Sir, I do not think Gray a first-rate poet. He has not a bold imagination, nor much command of words. The obscurity in which he has involved himself will not persuade

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he had been used

1. Not a bold imagination. “He said to write only lyric poetry, in which the poems being short, he was able to polish every part; that this having become a habit, he could not write otherwise." Norton Nicholls: Reminiscences of Gray, 1805.

2. Nor much command of words. "The poverty of rime, the crowd of monosyllables, the collision of harsh consonants, and the want of picturesque expression which, I will be bold to say, our language labors under now more than it did a hundred years ago." Gray, 1760.

3. Obscurity. "Must I plunge into metaphysics? Alas! I cannot see in the dark; nature has not furnished me with the optics of a cat. Must I pore upon mathematics? Alas! I cannot see in too much light; I am no eagle. It is very possible that two and two make four, but I would not give four farthings to demonstrate this ever so clearly; and if these be the profits of life, give me the amusements of it." Gray, 1736. See also Landor on Gray in the Imaginary Conversations.

us that he is sublime. His Elegy in a Churchyard has a happy selection of images, but I don't like what are called his great things. His ode, which begins

Ruin seize thee, ruthless King,

Confusion on thy banners wait!

has been celebrated for its abruptness, and plunging into the subject all at once. But such arts as these have no merit, unless when they are original. We admire them only once, and this abruptness has nothing new in it. We have had it often before. Nay, we have it in the old song of Johnny Armstrong:

Is there ever a man in all Scotland,

From the highest estate to the lowest degree, etc.

And then, sir,

Yes, there is a man in Westmoreland
And Johnny Armstrong they do him call.

There now, you plunge at once into the subject. You have no previous narration to lead you to it.-The two next lines in that ode are, I think, very good:

Though fanned by conquest's crimson wing,

They mock the air with idle state."

Here let it be observed, that although his opinion of Gray's poetry was widely different from mine, and I believe from that of most men of taste, by whom it is with justice highly admired, there is certainly much absurdity in the clamor which has been raised, as if he had been culpably injurious to the merit of that bard, and had been actuated by envy. That his opinion on this subject was what in private and in public he uniformly expressed, regardless of what others might think, we may wonder, and perhaps regret; but it is shallow and unjust to charge him with expressing what he did not think.

Finding him in a placid humor, I opened my mind to him ingenuously, and gave him a little sketch of my life, to which he was pleased to listen with great attention.

1763]

HIS RELIGIOUS LIBERALITY

87

I acknowledged that though educated very strictly in the principles of religion, I had for some time been misled into a certain degree of infidelity, but that I was come now to a better way of thinking, and was fully satisfied of the truth of the Christian revelation, though I was not clear as to every point considered to be orthodox. Being at all times a curious examiner of the human mind, and pleased with an undisguised display of what had passed in it, he called to me with warmth, "Give me your hand; I have taken a liking to you." He then began to descant upon the force of testimony, and the little we could know of final causes,* so that the objections of, why was it so? or why was it not so? ought not to disturb us;1 adding, that he himself had at one period been guilty of a temporary neglect of religion, but that it was not the result of argument, but mere absence of thought.

After having given credit to reports of his bigotry, I was agreeably surprised when he expressed the following very liberal sentiment, which has the additional value of obviating an objection to our holy religion, founded upon the discordant tenets of Christians themselves: "For my part, sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious."

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We talked of belief in ghosts. He said, "Sir, I make a distinction between what a man may experience by the mere strength of his imagination, and what imagination cannot possibly produce. Thus, suppose I should think that I saw a form, and heard a voice cry, 'Johnson, you are a very wicked fellow, and unless you repent you will certainly be punished'my own unworthiness is so deeply impressed upon my mind

1. Not to disturb us. "Why, sir, the greatest concern we have in this world, the choice of our profession, must be determined without demonstrative reasoning [absolute proof] And take the case of a man who is ill. I call two physicians; they differ in opinion. I am not to lie down and die between them. I must do something." Johnson, quoted in Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.

2. Agree in the essential articles. Note that Johnson says this when he is standing on the defensive regarding the Christian religion. At other times he might not be so tolerant.

that I might imagine I thus saw and heard, and therefore I should not believe that an external communication had been made to me. But if a form should appear, and a voice should tell me that a particular man had died at a particular place1 and a particular hour, a fact which I had no apprehension of, nor any means of knowing, and this fact, with all its circumstances, should afterwards be unquestionably proved, I should, in that case, be persuaded that I had supernatural intelligence imparted to me."

Here it is proper, once for all, to give a true and fair statement of Johnson's way of thinking upon the question, whether departed spirits are ever permitted to appear in this world, or in any way to operate upon human life. He has been ignorantly misrepresented as weakly credulous upon that subject; and, therefore, though I feel an inclination to disdain and treat with silent contempt so foolish a notion concerning my illustrious friend, yet as I find it has gained ground, it is necessary to refute it. The real fact then is that Johnson had such a rational respect for testimony as to make him submit his understanding to what was authentically proved, though he could not comprehend why it was so. Being thus disposed, he was willing to inquire into the truth of any relation of supernatural agency, a general belief of which has prevailed in all nations and ages. But so far was he from being the dupe of implicit faith that he examined the matter with a jealous

1. A particular man had died at a particular place. "Men mark when they hit and never mark when they miss." Francis Bacon: Of Prophecies.

2. Respect for testimony. The following principles Dr. Johnson sometimes follows and sometimes disregards: (1) Never accept any explanation which you cannot reconcile in some way with your general body of belief. Believing contradictions, knowing them to be contradictions, is to believe nonsense. (2) Accept an opinion only when the evidence of the facts is on the whole for it. When the evidence is on the whole against it, or when there is no evidence at all, dismiss the notion from the mind. (3) Accept the simplest and least extraordinary explanation that will account for the facts. These principles Dr. Johnson preferred to the sentimental vaporing which was almost as popular in his own generation as it is today. But he sometimes lost his hold on them and became "weakly credulous" and "fearfully superstitious."