BOSWELL TO JOHNSON. parison. Lord Hailes is somewhat like him: but Lord Hailes does not, perhaps, go beyond him in research; and I do not know that he equals him in elegance. Percy's attention to poetry has given grace and splendour to his studies of antiquity. A mere antiquarian is a rugged being. "Upon the whole, you see that what I might say in sport or petulance to him, is very consistent with full conviction of his merit. I am, dear Sir, your most, &c., "MY DEAR SIR, I beg leave to address you in behalf of our friend Dr. Percy, who was much hurt by what you said to him that day we dined at his house (Sunday, April 12.); when, in the course of the dispute as to Pennant's merit as a traveller, you told Percy that he had the resentment of a narrow mind against Pennant, because he did not find every thing in Northumberland.' Percy is sensible that you did not mean to injure him; but he is vexed to think that your behaviour to him on that occasion may be interpreted as a proof that he is despised by you, which I know is not the case. I "South Audley Street, April 25. have told him, that the charge of being narrow- DEAR SIR,I wrote to Dr. Johnson on the subminded was only as to the particular point in ques-ject of the Pennantian controversy; and have retion; and that he had the merit of being a martyr to his noble family. "Earl Percy is to dine with General Paoli next Friday; and I should be sincerely glad to have it in my power to satisfy his lordship how well you think of Dr. Percy, who, I find, apprehends that your good opinion of him may be of very essential consequence; and who assures me that he has the highest respect and the warmest affection for you. "I have only to add, that my suggesting this occasion for the exercise of your candour and generosity is altogether unknown to Dr. Percy, and proceeds from my good-will towards him, and my persuasion that you will be happy to do him an essential kindness. I am, more and more, my dear Sir, your most faithful and affectionate humble servant, JAMES BOSWELL." JOHNSON TO BOSWELL. "April 23. 1778, "SIR,The debate between Dr. Percy and me is one of those foolish controversies which begin upon a question of which neither party cares how it is decided, and which is, nevertheless, continued to acrimony, by the vanity with which every man resists confutation. Dr. Percy's warmth proceeded from a cause which, perhaps, does him more honour than he could have derived from juster criticism. His abhorrence of Pennant proceeded from his opinion that Pennant had wantonly and indecently censured his patron. His anger made him resolve, that, for having been once wrong, he never should be right. Pennant has much in his notions that I do not like; but still I think him a very intelligent traveller. If Percy is really offended, I am sorry; for he is a man whom I never knew to offend any one. He is a man very willing to learn, and very able to teach; a man, out of whose company I never go without having learned something It is sure that he vexes me sometimes, but I am afraid it is by making me feel my own ignorance. So much extension of mind, and so much minute accuracy of inquiry, if you survey your whole circle of acquaintance, you will find so scarce, if you find it at all, that you will value Percy by com Though the Bishop of Dromore kindly answered the letters which I wrote to him, relative to Dr. Johnson's early history; yet, in justice to him, I think it proper to add, that the account of the foregoing conversation, and the subsequent transaction, as well as of some other conversations in which he is mentioned, has been given to the public without previous communication with his lordship. - BOSWELL Boswell manages with more art than candour to give his reserve towards Perry the turn of a compliment: he knew very well that the Bishop would have naturally and justly SAM. JOHNSON." BOSWELL TO DR. PERCY. ceived from him an answer which will delight you. I read it yesterday to Dr. Robertson, at the Exhibition; and at dinner to Lord Percy, General Oglethorpe, &c., who dined with us at General Paoli's; who was also a witness to the high testimony to your honour. "General Paoli desires the favour of your company next Tuesday to dinner, to meet Dr. Johnson. If I can, I will call on you to-day. I am, with sincere regard, your most obedient humble servant, "JAMES BOSWELL." 1 ON Monday, April 13., I dined with Johnson at Mr. Langton's, where were Dr. Porteus, then Bishop of Chester, afterwards of London, and Dr. Stinton. 2 He was at first in a very but "Pretty baby," to one of the children. silent mood. Before dinner he said nothing Langton said very well to me afterwards, that he could repeat Dr. Johnson's conversation before dinner, as Johnson had said that he could repeat a complete chapter of "The Natural History of Iceland," from the Danish objected to the revival and promulgation of this disagreeable affair, and therefore Boswell never consulted him. Several anecdotes, related by Mr. Cradock, show that the amicable relations which had subsisted between Johnson and Percy were more seriously changed than Boswell is willing to confess.-Cradock's Memoirs, p. 241. — CROKER. 2 Dr. Stinton had been Dr. Porteus's fellow chaplain to Archbishop Secker, and was his colleague in the publication of their patron's works. — CROKER. of Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly with others: but a man must write a great thus: 66 Chap. LXXII. — Concerning Snakes. "There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island." At dinner we talked of another mode in the newspapers of giving modern characters in sentences from the classics, and of the passage "Parcus deorum cultor et infrequens, Consultus erro, nunc retrorsùm being well applied to Soame Jenyns; who, deal to make his style obviously discernible. As logicians say, this appropriation of style is infinite in potestate, limited in actu." Mr. Topham Beauclerk came in the evening, and he and Dr. Johnson and I staid to supper. wished to be a member of the LITERARY CLUB. It was mentioned that Dr. Dodd had once Club were hanged. I will not say but some of JOHNSON. "I should be sorry if any of our them deserve it." BEAUCLERK (supposing this to be aimed at persons for whom he had at that time a wonderful fancy, which, however, did not last long) was irritated, and eagerly said, "You, Sir, have a friend 5 (naming him) who deserves to be hanged; for he speaks behind their backs against those with whom he lives on the best terms, and attacks them in the newspapers. He certainly ought to be kicked." JOHNSON. "Sir, we all do this in some degree: Veniam petimusque damusque vicissim. To be sure it may be done so much, that a man may deserve to be kicked." BEAUCLERK. "He We talked of the styles of different painters, is very malignant." JOHNSON. "No, Sir, he and how certainly a connoisseur could distin-is not malignant. He is mischievous, if you guish them. I asked if there was as clear a difference of styles in language as in painting, or even as in handwriting, so that the composition of every individual may be distinguished? JOHNSON. "Yes. Those who have a style of eminent excellence, such as Dryden and Milton, can always be distinguished." I had no doubt of this; but what I wanted to know was, whether there was really a peculiar style to every man whatever, as there is certainly a peculiar handwriting, a peculiar countenance, not widely different in many, yet always enough to be distinctive: 3 Miss Reynolds and Sir J. Hawkins doubted whether Johnson had ever been in Dodd's company; but Johnson told Boswell (antè, p. 541.) that "he had once been." I have now before me a letter, dated in 1750, from Dr. Dodd to his friend the Rev. Mr. Parkhurst, the lexicographer, mentioning this meeting; and his account, at that day, of the man with whom he was afterward to have so painful a correspondence, is interesting and curious: "I spent yesterday afternoon with Johnson, the celebrated author of The Rambler, who is of all others the oddest and most peculiar fellow I ever saw. He is six feet high, has a will. He would do no man an essential injury; he may, indeed, love to make sport of people by vexing their vanity. I, however, once knew an old gentleman who was absolutely malignant. He really wished evil to others, and rejoiced at it." BOSWELL. "The gentleman, Mr. Beauclerk, against whom you are so violent, is, I know, a man of good principles." BEAUCLERK. "Then he does not wear them out in practice." Dr. Johnson, who, as I have observed before, delighted in discrimination of character, and having a masterly knowledge of human nature, was willing to take men as they are, imperfect, and with a mixture of good and bad qualities, I suppose thought he had said enough in defence of his friend, of whose merits, notwith- | standing his exceptionable points, he had a just value: and added no more on the subject. On Tuesday, April 14., I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's, with General Paoli and Mr. Langton. General Oglethorpe declaimed against luxury. JOHNSON. "Depend upon it, Sir, every state of society is as luxurious as it ¦ violent convulsion in his head, and his eyes are distorted. He speaks roughly and loud, listens to no man's opinions, thoroughly pertinacious of his own. Good sense flows from him in all he utters, and he seems possessed of a prodigious fund of knowledge, which he is not at all reserved in com municating, but in a manner so obstinate, ungenteel, and boorish, as renders it disagreeable and dissatisfactory. In short, it is impossible for words to describe him. He seems often inattentive to what passes in company, and then locks like a person possessed by some superior spirit. I have been reflecting on him ever since I saw him. He is a man of most universal and surprising genius, but in himself particular beyond expression."- CROKER. 4 Mr. Fox, Lord Spencer, Mr. Burke, and some other Whigs, the violence of whose opposition at this time seemed to Johnson little short of abetting rebellion, for which they "deserved to be hanged."- CHOKER. 5 No doubt George Steevens (now Johnson's colleague in editing Shakespeare), to whom such practices were imputed. and particularly as against Garrick and Murphy.-Miss Hawk. Mem, i. 39. — CROKER. can be. Men always take the best they can ⚫ Coarse are his meals, the fortune of the chase; rather should have supposed it to import in its primitive signification, a composition of several things; for Maccaronic verses are verses made out of a mixture of different languages, that is, of one language with the termination of another." I suppose we scarcely know of a language in any country, where there is any learning, in which that motley ludicrous species of composition may not be found. It is particularly droll in Low Dutch. The "Polemomiddinia" of Drummond of Hawthornden, in which there is a jumble of many languages moulded, as if it were all in Latin, is well known. Mr. Langton made us laugh heartily at one in the Grecian mould, by Joshua Barnes, in which are to be found such comical Anglohellenisms as λvébouw baryev: they were banged with clubs. Let us have that kind of luxury, Sir, if you will." JOHNSON. "But hold, Sir; to be merely satisfied is not enough. It is in refinement On Wednesday, April 15., I dined with Dr. and elegance that the civilised man differs Johnson at Mr. Dilly's, and was high in spirits, from the savage. A great part of our industry, for I had been a good part of the morning and all our ingenuity, is exercised in procuring with Mr. Orme, the able and eloquent historian pleasure; and, Sir, a hungry man has not of Hindostan, who expressed a great admirathe same pleasure in eating a plain dinner, tion of Johnson. "I do not care," said he, that a hungry man has in eating a luxurious" on what subject Johnson talks; but I love dinner. You see I put the case fairly. A hungry man may have as much, nay, more pleasure in eating a plain dinner, than a man grown fastidious has in eating a luxurious dinner. But I suppose the man who decides between the two dinners to be equally a hungry man.' Talking of the different governments, JOHNSON. "The more contracted power is, the more easily it is destroyed. A country governed by a despot is an inverted cone. Government there cannot be so firm as when it rests upon a broad basis gradually contracted, as the government of Great Britain, which is founded on the parliament, then is in the privy council, then in the king." BosWELL. "Power, when contracted into the person of a despot, may be easily destroyed, as the prince may be cut off. So Caligula wished that the people of Rome had but one neck, that he might cut them off at a blow." OGLETHORPE. "It was of the senate he wished that.' The senate by its usurpation controlled both the emperor and the people. And don't you think that we see too much of that in our own parliament ?" Dr. Johnson endeavoured to trace the etymology of Maccaronic verses, which he thought were of Italian invention, from Maccaroni; but on being informed that this would infer that they were the most common and easy verses, maccaroni being the most ordinary and simple food, he was at a loss; for he said, "He Boswell was right, and Oglethorpe wrong; the exclamation in Suetonius is," Utinam populus Romanus unam cervicem haberet." Calig. XXX. -CROKER. 2 Dr Johnson was right in supposing that this kind of poetry derived its name from maccherone. "Ars ista poetica (says Merlin Coccaie, whose true name was Theophilo Folengo) nuncupatur ars macaronica, a macaronibus derivata ; qui macarones sunt quoddam pulmentum, farina, caseo, better to hear him talk than any body. He either gives you new thoughts, or a new colouring. It is a shame to the nation that he has not been more liberally rewarded. Had I been George the Third, and thought as he did about America, I would have given Johnson three hundred a year for his Taxation no Tyranny,' alone." I repeated this, and Johnson was much pleased with such praise from such a man as Orme. At Mr. Dilly's to-day were Mrs. Knowles, the ingenious quaker lady, Miss Seward, the poetess of Lichfield, the Reverend Dr. Mayo, and the Rev. Mr. Beresford, tutor to the Duke of Bedford. Before dinner Dr. Johnson seized upon Mr. Charles Sheridan's "Account of the late Revolution in Sweden," and seemed to read it ravenously, as if he devoured it, which was to all appearance his method of studying. "He knows how to read better than any one,' says Mrs. Knowles; "he gets at the substance of a book directly; he tears out the heart of it." He kept it wrapt up in the tablecloth in his lap during the time of dinner, from an avidity to have one entertainment in readiness, when he should have finished another; resembling (if I may use so coarse a simile) a dog who holds a bone in his paws in reserve, while he eats something else which has been thrown to him. The subject of cookery having been very naturally introduced at a table where Johnson, who boasted of the niceness of his palate, butyro compaginatum, grossum, rude, et rusticanun. Ideo macaronica nil nisi grossedinem, ruditatem, et vocabulazzos debet in se continere.' Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poet. ii. 357. Folengo's assumed name was taken up in consequence of his having been instructed in his youth by Virago Coccaio. He died in 1544. - MALONE. 4 The elder brother of Mr. Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He died in 1806.- MALONE. owned that "he always found a good dinner," he said, "I could write a better book of cookery than has ever yet been written; it should be a book upon philosophical principles. Pharmacy is now made much more simple. Cookery may be made so too. A prescription which is now compounded of five ingredients, had formerly fifty in it. So in cookery, if the nature of the ingredients be well known, much fewer will do. Then, as you cannot make bad meat good, I would tell what is the best butcher's meat, the best beef, the best pieces; how to choose young fowls; the proper seasons of different vegetables; and then how to roast and boil and compound. DILLY. "Mrs. Glasse's Cookery,' which is the best, was written by Dr. Hill. Half the trade1 know this." JOHNSON. 'Well, Sir, this shows how much better the subject of cookery may be treated by a philosopher. I doubt if the book be written by Dr. Hill; for, in Mrs. Glasse's 'Cookery,' which I have looked into, saltpetre and salprunella are spoken of as different substances, whereas sal-prunella is only saltpetre burnt on charcoal; and Hill could not be ignorant of this. However, as the greatest part of such a book is made by transcription, this mistake may have been carelessly adopted. But you shall see what a book of cookery I shall make I shall agree with Mr. Dilly for the copyright." MISS SEWARD. "That would be Hercules with the distaff indeed." JOHNSON. "No, Madam. Women can spin very well; but they cannot make a good book of cookery." 66 JOHNSON. "O! Mr. Dilly-you must know that an English _Benedictine monk at Paris has translated The Duke of Berwick's Memoirs,' from the original French, and has sent them to me to sell. I offered them to Strahan, who sent them back with this answer;-That the first book he had published was the Duke of Berwick's Life, by which he had lost: and he hated the name.' Now I honestly tell you that Strahan has refused them; but I also honestly tell you that he did it upon no principle, for he never looked into them." DILLY "Are they well translated, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, very well; in a style very current and clear. I have written to the Benedictine to give me an answer upon two points. What evidence is there that the letters are authentic? (for if they are not authentic, they are nothing.) And how long will it be before the original French is published? For if the French edition is not to appear for a consider able time, the translation will be almost as valuable as an original book. They will make two volumes in octavo; and I have undertaken to correct every sheet as it comes from the 1 As physicians are called the faculty, and counsellors at law the profession, the booksellers of London are denominated the trade. Johnson disapproved of these denominations. BoSWELL. The Abbé Hook. They were published, in 1779, by Cadell. Mackintosh. The Memoires du Maréchal de Berwick" (written in the third person) had been published by the Abbé de Margon, in 1737: those mentioned in the press." Mr. Dilly desired to see them, and said he would send for them. He asked Dr. Johnson if he would write a preface to them. JOHNSON. "No, Sir. The Benedictines were very kind to me, and I'll do what I undertook to do; but I will not mingle my name with them. I am to gain nothing by them. I'll turn them loose upon the world, and let them take their chance.' DR. MAYO. "Pray, Sir, are Ganganelli's letters authentic?" JOHNSON. "No, Sir. Voltaire put the same question to the editor of them that I did to Macpherson - Where are the originals?" 3 Mrs. Knowles affected to complain that men had much more liberty allowed them than women. JOHNSON."6 Why, Madam, women have all the liberty they should wish to have. | We have all the labour and the danger, and the women all the advantage. We go to sea, we build houses, we do every thing, in short, to pay our court to the women." MRS. KNOWLES. "The Doctor reasons very wittily, but not very convincingly. Now, take the instance of building: the mason's wife, if she is ever seen in liquor, is ruined: the mason may get himself drunk as often as he pleases, with little loss of character; nay, may let his wife and children starve." JOHNSON. "Madam, you must consider, if the mason does get himself drunk, and let his wife and children starve, the parish will oblige him to find security for their maintenance. We have different modes of restraining evil. Stocks for the men, a ducking-stool for women, and a pound for beasts. If we require more perfection from women than from ourselves, it is doing them honour. And women have not the same temptations that we have; they may always live in virtuous company; men must mix in the world indiscriminately. If a woman has no inclination to do what is wrong, being secured from it is no restraint to her." "I am at liberty to walk into the Thames; but if I were to try it, my friends would restrain me in Bedlam, and I should be obliged to them." MRS. KNOWLES. "Still, Doctor, I cannot help thinking it a hardship that more indulgence is allowed to men than to women. It gives a superiority to men, to which I do not see how they are entitled." JOHNSON. "It is plain, Madam, one or other must have the superiority. As Shakspeare says, If two men ride on a horse, one must ride behind." DILLY. "I suppose, Sir, Mrs. Knowles would have them ride in panniers, one on each side" JOHNSON. "Then, Sir, the horse would throw them both." MRS. KNOWLES. "Well, I hope that in another world the sexes will be equal." BOSWELL. "That is being too ambitious, text are written in the first person, as by Berwick himself, but were revised by the Abbé Hook, and published in Paris by Berwick's grandson, the Duc de Fitzjames, 1778-80.-CROKER, 1831-47. 3 These pretended letters of Pope Clement XIV, Ga. | nelli, were written and published by the Marquis Caracioli, first in French, in 1775, and afterwards in Italian, in 1777 CROKER, 1847. Madam. We might as well desire to be equal with the angels. We shall all, I hope, be happy in a future state, but we must not expect to be all happy in the same degree. It is enough, if we be happy according to our several capacities. A worthy carman will get to heaven as well as Sir Isaac Newton. Yet, though equally good, they will not have the same degrees of happiness." JOHNSON. "Probably not." Upon this subject I had once before sounded him by mentioning the late Reverend Mr. Brown of Utrecht's image; that a great and small glass, though equally full, did not hold an equal quantity; which he threw out to refute David Hume's saying, that a little miss, going to dance at a bail, in a fine new dress, was as happy as a great orator, after having made an eloquent and applauded speech. After some thought, Johnson said, "I come over to the parson." As an instance of coincidence of thinking, Mr. Dilly told me, that Dr. King, a late dissenting minister in London, said to him, upon the happiness in a future state of good men of different capacities, "A pail does not hold so much as a tub; but, if it be equally full, it has no reason to complain. Every saint in heaven will have as much happiness as he can hold." Mr. Dilly thought this a clear, though a familiar, illustration of the phrase, "One star differeth from another in brightness." (1 Cor. xv. 41.) Dr. Mayo having asked Johnson's opinion of Soame Jenyns's "View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion;"-JOHNSON. “I think it a pretty book; not very theological, indeed; and there seems to be an affectation of ease and carelessness, as if it were not suitable to his character to be very serious about the matter." BOSWELL. "He may have intended this to introduce his book the better among genteel people, who might be unwilling to read too grave a treatise. There is a general levity in the age. We have physicians now with bagwigs; may we not have airy divines, at least somewhat less solemn in their appearance than they used to be?" JOHNSON. "Jenyns might mean as you say." BOSWELL. "You should like his book, Mrs. Knowles, as it maintains, as you friends do, that courage is not a Christian virtue." MRS. KNOWLES. Yes, indeed, I like him there; but I cannot agree with him that friendship is not a Christian virtue." JOHNSON. "Why, Madam, strictly speaking, he is 66 right. All friendship is preferring the interest of a friend to the neglect, or, perhaps, against the interest, of others; so that an old Greek said, 'He that has friends has no friend.' Now, Christianity recommends universal benevolence; to consider all men as our brethren; which is contrary to the virtue of friendship, as described by the ancient philosophers. Surely, Madam, your sect must approve of this; for you call all men friends." MRS. KNOWLES. "We are commanded to do good to all men, but especially to them who are of the household of faith."" JOHNSON. "Well, Madam; the household of faith is wide enough." MRS. KNOWLES. "But, Doctor, our Saviour had twelve apostles, yet there was one whom he loved. John was called 'the disciple whom Jesus loved.' JOHNSON (with eyes sparkling benignantly). "Very well indeed, Madam. You have said very well." BOSWELL. "A fine application. Pray, Sir, had you ever thought of it?" JoHNSON. "I had not, Sir." From this pleasing subject, he, I know not how or why, made a sudden transition to one upon which he was a violent aggressor; for he said, "I am willing to love all mankind, except an American;" and his inflammable corruption bursting into horrid fire, he "breathed out threatenings and slaughter;" calling them "rascals, robbers, pirates," and exclaiming, he'd "burn and destroy them." Miss Seward, looking to him with mild but steady astonishment, said, "Sir, this is an instance that we are always most violent against those whom we have injured." He was irritated still more by this delicate and keen reproach; and roared out another tremendous volley, which one might fancy could be heard across the Atlantic. During this tempest I sat in great uneasiness, lamenting his heat of temper, till, by degrees, I diverted his attention to other topics. DR. MAYO (to Dr. Johnson). "Pray, Sir, have you read Edwards, of New England, on Grace?"2 JOHNSON. "No, Sir." BOSWELL. "It puzzled me so much as to the freedom of the human will, by stating, with wonderful acute ingenuity, our being actuated by a series of motives which we cannot resist, that the only relief I had was to forget it." MAYO. "But he makes the proper distinction between moral and physical necessity." Boswell. "Alas! Sir, they come both to the same thing. You may be bound as hard by chains when covered 1 The sentiment is Aristotle's: sis oidos & Tokhoi giopolitical world now lament) observes, in his autobiography: he has no friend who has many friends (End, Eth. vi. 12.), which Diogenes Laertius condensed into & ( &?) cínor, obeis cer, and Johnson (ante, p. 64.) into a choi, où çíños. I doubt whether the attributed to Johnson is not an error of transcription occasioned by his having added, as Casaubon bad already done, the iota subscriptum to the ∞ in the common texts of Diogenes. - CROKER. * Dr. Mayo, no doubt, meant “A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern prevailing Notion that Freedom of Will is essential to Moral Agency," by the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, President of the College of New Jersey. Of this cork, Sir James Mackintosh (who so kindly assisted me in my first edition of this work, and whose loss the literary and "Robert Hall's society and conversation had a great influence on my mind. He led me to the perusal of Jonathan Edwards's work on Free Will, which Dr. Priestley had pointed out before. I am sorry that I never yet read the other works of that extraordinary man, who, in a metaphysical age or country, would certainly have been deemed as much the boast of America as his great countryman Franklin. - Mem. of Mackintosh, vol. i. p. 14.- C., 1835. Boswell, it must be recollected, in spite of his toryism, took the American side; but this phrase "inflammable corruption bursting ont in horrid fire,' is extravagant, if not unintelligible. CROKER, 1847. |