immediately mentioned, as an instance of it, an assertion of that writer, that he had seen objects magnified to a much greater degree by using three or four microscopes at a time than by using one. "Now," added Johnson, "every one acquainted with microscopes knows, that the more of them he looks through, the less the object will appear."-"Why," replied the King, "this is not only telling an untruth, but telling it clumsily; for, if that be the case, every one who can look through a microscope will be able to detect him." 1 "I now," said Johnson to his friends, when relating what had passed, "began to consider that I was depreciating this man in the estimation of his Sovereign, and thought it was time for me to say something that might be more favourable." He added, therefore, that Dr. Hill was, notwithstanding, a very curious observer; and if he would have been contented to tell the world no more than he knew, he might have been a very considerable man, and needed not to have recourse to such mean expedients to raise his reputation. The King then talked of literary journals, mentioned particularly the Journal des Savans, and asked Johnson if it was well done. Johnson said, it was formerly very well done, and gave some account of the persons who began it, and carried it on for some years: enlarging, at the same time, on the nature and use of such works. The King asked him if it was well done now. Johnson answered, he had no reason to think that it was. The King then asked him if there were any other literary journals published in this kingdom, except the Monthly and Critical Reviews; and on being answered there was no other, his Majesty asked which of them was the best: Johnson answered, that the Monthly Review was done with most care, the Critical upon the best principles; adding, that the authors of the Monthly Review were enemies to the Church. This the King said he was sorry to hear. The conversation next turned on the Philosophical Transactions, when Johnson observed that they had now a better method of arranging their materials than formerly. "Ay," said the King, "they are obliged to Dr. Johnson for that!" for his Majesty had heard and remembered the circumstance, which Johnson himself had forgot. His Majesty expressed a desire to have the literary biography of this country ably executed, and proposed to Dr. Johnson to undertake it. Johnson signified his readiness to comply with his Majesty's wishes. During the whole of this interview, Johnson talked to his Majesty with profound respect, but still in his firm manly manner, with a sonorous voice, and never in that subdued tone which is commonly used at the levee and in the drawing-room. After the King withdrew, Johnson showed himself highly pleased with his Majesty's conversation, and gracious behaviour. He said to Mr. Barnard, "Sir, they may talk of the King as they will; but he is the finest gentleman I have ever seen." And he afterwards observed to Mr. Langton, "Sir, his manners are those of as fine a gentleman as we may suppose Lewis the Fourteenth or Charles the Second." At Sir Joshua Reynolds's, where a circle of Johnson's friends was collected round him to hear his account of this memorable conversation, Dr. Joseph Warton, in his frank and lively manner, was very active in pressing him to mention the particulars. "Come now, Sir, this is an interesting matter; do favour us with it." Johnson, with great good-humour, complied. He told them, "I found his Majesty wished I should talk, and I made it my business to talk. I find it does a man good to be talked to by his Sovereign. In the first place, a man cannot be in a passion." Here some question interrupted him, which is to be regretted, as he certainly would have pointed out and illustrated many circumstances of advantage, from being in a situation where the powers of the mind are at once excited to vigorous exertion, and tempered by reverential awe. During all the time in which Dr. Johnson | was employed in relating to the circle at Sir Joshua Reynolds's the particulars of what passed between the King and him, Dr. Goldsmith remained unmoved upon a sofa at some distance, affecting not to join in the least in the eager curiosity of the company. He assigned as a reason for his gloom and seeming inattention, that he apprehended Johnson had relinquished his purpose of furnishing him with a Prologue to his play, with the hopes of literary and medical quack died in 1775. Garrick's Epigram am delighted with the Journal des Savans; its characteristics is well known : "For physic and farces, his equal there scarce is; His farces are physic, his physic a farce is."-LOCKHART. 1 Here, Bishop Elrington observed, Dr. Johnson was unJust to Hill, and showed that he did not understand the subject. Hill does not talk of magnifying objects by two or more microscopes, but by applying two object glasses to one microscope; and the advantage of diminished spherical errors by this contrivance is well known. Hill's account of the experiment is obscurely and inaccurately expressed in one or two particulars; but there can be no doubt that he is substantially right, and that Dr. Johnson's statement was altogether unfounded. CROKER. 2 Mr. Gibbon, however, about the same time (1763) gave a different judgment: -"I can hardly express how much I are erudition, precision, and taste; but what I most admire is that impartiality and candour which distinguish the beauties and defects of a work, giving to the former due and hearty praise, and calmly and tenderly pointing out the latter.“ Misc. Works, vol. v. p. 442. — LOCKHART. This perhaps may have given Dr. Johnson the idea of the most popular and entertaining of all his works, “ The Lives of the Poets." He himself says in his advertisement that he was persuaded to furnish the booksellers with prefaces," but that is not inconsistent with his having been predisposed by the royal wish. — CROKER. This reminds us of Madame de Sevigne's charming naiveté, when after giving an account of Louis XIV. having danced with her, she adds, "Ah! c'est le plus grand red monde !"- CROKER. which he had been flattered; but it was strongly suspected that he was fretting with chagrin and envy at the singular honour Dr. Johnson had lately enjoyed. At length, the frankness and simplicity of his natural character prevailed. He sprung from the sofa, advanced to Johnson, and in a kind of flutter, from imagining himself in the situation which he had just been hearing described, exclaimed, 'Well, you acquitted yourself in this conversation better than I should have done; for I should have bowed and stammered through the whole of it." I received no letter from Johnson this year; nor have I discovered any of the correspondence he had, except the two letters to Mr. Drummond, which have been inserted for the sake of connection with that to the same gentleman in 1766. His diary affords no light as to his employment at this time. He passed three months at Lichfield3: and I cannot omit an affecting and solemn scene there, as related by himself: "Sunday, Oct. 18. 1767. Yesterday, Oct. 17., at about ten in the morning, I took my leave for ever of my dear old friend, Catherine Chambers, who came to live with my mother about 1724, and has been but little parted from us since. She buried my father, my brother, and my mother. She is now fifty-eight years old. "I desired all to withdraw, then told her that we were to part for ever; that as Christians, we should part with prayer; and that I would, if she was willing, say a short prayer beside her. She expressed great desire to hear me; and held up her poor hands, as she lay in bed, with great fervour, while I prayed, kneeling by her, nearly in the following words: Almighty and most merciful Father, whose loving kindness is over all thy works, behold, visit, and relieve this thy servant, who is grieved with sickness. Grant that the sense of her weakness may add strength to her faith, and seriousness to her repentance. And grant that by the help of thy Holy Spirit, after the pains and labours of this short life, we may all obtain everlasting happiness, through August 2. 1767. I have been disturbed and unsettled for a long time, and have been without resolution to apply to study or to business, being hindered by sudden snatches. "I have for some days forborne wine and suppers. Abstinence is not easily practised in another's house; but I think it fit to try. "I was extremely perturbed in the night, but have had this day more ease than I expected. D [eo] gr [atia]. Perhaps this may be such a sudden relief as I once had by a good night's rest in Fetter Lane. "From that time, by abstinence, I have had more ease. I have read five books of Homer, and hope to end the sixth to-night. I have given Mrs. Desinoulins a guinea. "By abstinence from wine and suppers, I obtained sudden and great relief, and had freedom of mind restored to me; which I have wanted for all this year, without being able to find any means of obtaining it." He, however, furnished Mr. Adams with a Dedication * to the King of that ingenious gentleman's "Treatise on the Globes," conceived and expressed in such a manner as could not fail to be very grateful to a monarch, distinguished for his love of the sciences. This year was published a ridicule of his 1 It is remarkable that Johnson should have seen four, if not fire, of our sovereigns, and been in the actual presence of three if not four of them. Queen Anne touched him; George the First he probably never saw; but George the Second he must frequently have seen, though only in public. George the Third he conversed with on this occasion; and he once told Sir John Hawkins, that, in a visit to Mrs. Percy, who had the care of one of the young princes, at the Queen's house, the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., being a child, came into the room, and began to play about; when Johnson, with his usual curiosity, took an opportunity of asking him what books he was reading, and, in particular, inquired as to his knowledge of the Scriptures; the Prince, in his answers, gave him great satisfaction. It is possible, also, that at that visit he might have seen Prince William Henry (William IV.). who was, I think, as well as the Duke of Kent, under Mrs. Percy's care. -CROKER. It is proper here to mention, that when I speak of his correspondence, I consider it independent of the voluminous collection of letters which, in the course of many years, he wrote to Mrs. Thrale, which forms a separate part of his works; and, as a proof of the high estimation set on any thing which came from his pen, was sold by that lady for the sm of five hundred pounds. - BOSWELL. In my former edition I had extracted largely from those letters to fill up the lacunæ (such as this) in Mr. Boswell's narrative, but the restricted plan of this edition obliges me to limit myself to such extracts as are essential to carry on the Life of Johnson. CROKER. 3 In his letter to Mr. Drummond, dated Oct. 24. 1767, he mentions that he had arrived in London, after an absence of nearly six months in the country. Probably part of that time was spent at Oxford. - MALONE. He appears to have been more than "three months" in Lichfield. Writing to Mr. Thrale, 20th July, 1767, he says that he had already been away "much longer than he proposed or expected." And it appears that he remained there till the 18th October. It is probable that he was on a visit to Miss Porter, for he adds, Miss Lucy is more kind and civil than I expected, and has raised my esteem by many excellencies very noble and resplendent, though a little discoloured by hoary virginity." CROKER. 4 The greater part of this prayer is, as Bishop Elrington observed to me, in the Visitation of the Sick in our Liturgy, where, indeed, the best helps to prayer for all occasions may be found. - CROKER. 5 Catherine Chambers, as Dr. Harwood informed me, died in a few days after this interview, and was buried in St. Chad's, Lichfield, on the 7th of Nov. 1767.-CROKER. style, under the title of "Lexiphanes." Sir John Hawkins ascribes it to Dr. Kenrick; but its author was one Campbell, a Scotch purser in the navy. The ridicule consisted in applying Johnson's "words of large meaning" to insignificant matters, as if one should put the armour of Goliath upon a dwarf. The contrast might be laughable; but the dignity of the armour must remain the same in all considerate minds. This malicious drollery', therefore, it may easily be supposed, could do no harm to its illustrious object. "Nov. 17. 1767. "MADAM, If you impute it to disrespect or inattention, that I took no leave when I left Lichfield, you will do me great injustice. I know you too well not to value your friendship. "When I came to Oxford I inquired after the product of our walnut-tree, but it had, like other trees this year, but very few nuts, and for those few I came too late. The tree, as I told you, Madam, we cannot find to be more than thirty years old, and, upon measuring it, I found it, at about one foot from the ground, seven feet in circumference, and at the height of about seven feet, the circumference is five feet and a half, it would have been, I believe, still bigger, but that it has been lopped. The nuts are small, such as they call single nuts; whether this nut is of quicker growth than better I have not yet inquired; such as they are, I hope to send them next year. It may have been malicious, but it certainly is not droll. It is so overcharged, as to have neither resemblance nor pleasantry. Hawkins, in his second edition, (published long before Boswell) had corrected his error, and attributed it to Campbell. CROKER. Archibald Campbell, son of Professor Archibald Campbell, of St. Andrew's, was also author of "The Sale of Authors; a Dialogue, in imitation of Lucian." - ANDERSON. 2 We have just seen that he was detained till the 18th. - CROKER. Elizabeth, one of the younger daughters of Sir Thomas Aston: see antè, p. 20. n. 4. Some letters of Johnson to Mrs. Aston, communicated to me after that note was first printed, are in a uniform spirit of tenderness and respect, and, even if of no other value, afford an additional proof of the inaccuracy of Miss Seward. A bundle of her letters were destroyed by Johnson just before his death, with a strong expression of regard and regret for the writer.- CROKER. It appears that he visited, with the Thrales, (though Mr. Boswell never mentions it,) Mr. Brooke of Town-malling, of whose primitive house and manners we find some account in the Letters. Some "You know, dear Madam, the liberty I took of hinting, that I did not think your present mode of life very pregnant with happiness. Reflection has not yet changed my opinion. Solitude excludes pleasure, and does not always secure peace. communication of sentiments is commonly necessary to give vent to the imagination, and discharge the mind of its own flatulencies. Some lady surely might be found, in whose conversation you might delight, and in whose fidelity you might repose. The World, says Locke, has people of all sorts. You will forgive me this obtrusion of my opinion; I am sure I wish you well. "Poor Kitty has done what we have all to do, and Lucy has the world to begin anew: I hope she will find some way to more content than I left her possessing. "Be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs. Hinckley and Miss Turton. I am, Madam, your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON."] -Parker MSS. State of Johnson's Mind. Visit to Town- Malling. Oxford. Future Bell's - Life of Brutes. Natural History. Trivels. Chastity Choice of a Wife. Baretti's Italy. Liberty. Kenrick.. Thomson.- Monsey. Swift. — Lord Eglintoune. Letter on the Formation of a Library. — Boswell at the Stratford Jubilee. — Johnson's Opinion of his "Corsica." Ir appears from his notes of the state of his mind, that he suffered great perturbation and distraction in 1768. "Town-Malling, in Kent', 18th Sept. 1768, at night. — I have now begun the sixtieth year of my "Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, 23d August, 1777. —"It was very well done by Mr. Brooke to send for you. His house is one of my favourite places. His water is very commedious, and the whole place has the true old appearance of a little country town "Mrs. Thrale to Dr. Johnson, 15th September, 1777. "Come, here is news of Town. Malling, the quiet oldfashioned place in Kent, that you liked so, because it was agreeable to your own notions of a rural life. I believe we were the first people, except the master of it, who had, for many years, taken delight in the old coach without springs, the two roasted ducks in one dish, the fortified dowergarden, and fir-trees cut in figures. A spirit of innovation has however reached even there at last. The roads are mended; no more narrow shaded lanes, but clear open turnpike trotting. A yew hedge, or an eugh hedge if you will, newly cut down too by his nephew's desire. Ah: those nephews. And a wall pulled away, which bore incomparable fruit-to call in the country is the phrase. Mr. Thrale is wicked enough to urge on these rough reformers: how it will end I know not. For your comfort, the square canals still drop into one another, and the chocolate is still made in the me." Nothing of his writings was given to the public this year, except the Prologue to his friend Goldsmith's comedy of "The Goodnatured Man.” The first lines of this Prologue are strongly characteristical of the dismal gloom of his mind; which in his case, as in the case of all who are distressed with the same malady of imagination, transfers to others its own feelings. Who could suppose it was to introduce a comedy, when Mr. Bensley solemnly began, "Press'd with the load of life, the weary mind Surveys the general toil of human kind." But this dark ground might make Goldsmith's humour shine the more.' In the spring of this year, having published my "Account of Corsica, with the Journal of a Tour to that Island," I returned to London, very desirous to see Dr. Johnson, and hear him upon the subject. I found he was at Oxford, with his friend Mr. Chambers, who was now Vinerian Professor, and lived in New-Inn Hall. Having had no letter from him since that in which he criticised the Latinity of my Thesis, and having been told by somebody that he was offended at my having put into my book an extract of his letter to me at Paris, I was impatient to be with him, and therefore followed him to Oxford, where I was entertained by Mr. Chambers, with a civility which I shall ever gratefully remember. I found that Dr. Johnson had sent a letter to me to Scotland, and that I had nothing to complain of but his being more indifferent to my anxiety than I wished him to be. Instead of giving, room by a maid, who curtsies as she presents every cup. Dear old Daddy Brooke looks well, and even handsome, at eighty-one years old; while I saw his sister, who is ninetyfour years old and calls him Frankey, eat more venison at a sitting than Mr. Thrale. These are the proper contemplations of this season. May my daughter and my friend but enjoy life as long, and use it as innocently as these sweet people have done. The sight of such a family consoles one's heart."- CROKER. In this prologue, after the line" And social sorrow loses half its pain," the following couplet was inserted: "Amidst the toils of this returning year, So the prologue appeared in the Public Advertiser. Goldsmith probably thought that the lines printed in Italic characters might give offence, and therefore prevailed on Johnson to omit them. The epithet little, which perhaps the author thought might diminish his dignity, was also changed to anxious. - MALONE. Goldsmith was low in stature, a circumstance often alluded to by his coutemporaries. CHOKER. with the circumstances of time and place, such fragments of his conversation as I preserved during this visit to Oxford, I shall throw them together in continuation. I asked him whether, as a moralist, he did degree, hurt the nice feeling of honesty. not think that the practice of the law, in some JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir, if you act properly. You are not to deceive your clients with false representations of your opinion: you are not BOSWELL. "But to tell lies to a Judge." what do you think of supporting a cause which you know to be bad ?" JOHNSON. "Sir, you do not know it to be good or bad till the Judge determines it. I have said that you are to state facts fairly: so that your thinking, or what you call knowing, a cause to be bad, must be from reasoning, must be from your supposing your arguments to be weak and inconclusive. "But, But, Sir, that is not enough. An argument which does not convince yourself, may convince the judge to whom you urge it : and if it does convince him, why, then, Sir, you are wrong, and he is right. It is his business to judge; and you are not to be confident in your own opinion that a cause is bad, but to say all you can for your client, and then hear the judge's opinion." BOSWELL. Sir, does not affecting a warmth when you have no warmth, and appearing to be clearly of one opinion when you are in reality of another opinion, does not such dissimulation impair one's honesty? Is there not some danger that a lawyer may put on the same mask in common life, in the intercourse with his friends?" JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir. Every body knows you are paid for affecting warmth for your client; and it is, therefore, properly no dissimulation: the moment you come from the bar you resume your usual behaviour. Sir, a man will no more carry the artifice of the bar into the common intercourse of society, than a man who is paid for tumbling upon his hands will continue to tumble upon his hands when he should walk on his feet."3 2 "Mr. Boswell's book I was going to recommend to you when I received your letter: it has pleased and moved me strangely, all (I mean) that relates to Paoli. He is a man born two thousand years after his time! The pamphlet proves what I have always maintained, that any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity. Of Mr. Boswell's truth I have not the least suspicion, because I am sure he could invent nothing of this kind. The true title of this part of his work is, a Dialogue between a Green-Goose and a Hero. Gray to Horace Walpole, Feb. 25. 1768.-CROKER, 1846. 3 See post, Aug. 15. 1773, where Johnson has supported the same agument. J. BOSWELL, jun. Cicero touches this question more than once, but never with much confidence." Atqui etiam hoc præceptum officii diligenter tenendum est, ne quem unquam innocentem judicio capitis arcessas; id, enim, sine scelere fieri nullo pacto potest. Nec tamen, ut hoc fugiendum est, ita habendum est religioni, nocentem aliquando, modo ne nefarium impiumque, defendere. Vult hoc multitudo, patitur consuetudo, fert etiam humanitas. Judicis est semper in causas verum sequi, patroni nonnunquam verisimile, etiamsi minus sit verum, defendere." (De Off. 1. 2. c. 14.) We might have expected a less conditional and apologetical defence of his own profession from the great philosophical orator.- CROKER. Talking of some of the modern plays, he said, "False Delicacy" was totally void of character. He praised Goldsmith's "Goodnatured Man;" said it was the best comedy that had appeared since "The Provoked Husband," and that there had not been of late any such character exhibited on the stage as that of Croaker. I observed it was the Suspirius of his Rambler [No. 59.]. He said, Goldsmith had owned he had borrowed it from thence. "Sir," continued he," there is all the difference in the world between characters of nature and characters of manners; and there is the difference between the characters of Fielding and those of Richardson. Characters of manners are very entertaining; but they are to be understood, by a more superficial observer than characters of nature, where a man must dive into the recesses of the human heart." It always appeared to me, that he estimated the compositions of Richardson too highly, and that he had an unreasonable prejudice against Fielding. In comparing those two writers, he used this expression; "that there was as great a difference between them, as between a man who knew how a watch was made, and a man who could tell the hour by looking on the dial-plate." This was a short and figurative state of his distinction between drawing characters of nature and characters only of manners. But I cannot help being of opinion, that the neat watches of Fielding are as well constructed as the large clocks of Richardson, and that his dial-plates are brighter. Fielding's characters, though they do not expand themselves so widely in dissertation, are as just pictures of human nature, and I will venture to say, have more striking features, and nicer touches of the pencil; and, though Johnson used to quote with approbation a saying of Richardson's, "that the virtues of Fielding's heroes were the vices of a truly good man," I will venture to add, that the moral tendency of Fielding's writings, though it does not encourage a strained and rarely possible virtue, is ever favourable to honour and honesty, and cherishes the benevolent and generous affections. He who is as good as Fielding would make him, is an amiable member of society, and may be led on by more regulated instructors, to a higher state of ethical perfection.3 Johnson proceeded: "Even Sir Francis Wronghead 4 is a character of manners, though drawn with great humour." He then repeated, very happily, all Sir Francis's credulous account to Manly of his being with "the great man," and securing a place. I asked him, if "The Suspicious Husband" 5 did not furnish a well-drawn character, that of Ranger. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; Ranger is just a rake, a mere rake, and a lively young fellow, but no character. The great Douglas Cause was at this time a very general subject of discussion. I found he had not studied it with much attention 6, but had only heard parts of it occasionally. He, however, talked of it, and said, “I am of opinion that positive proof of fraud should not be required of the plaintiff, but that the Judges should decide according as probability shall appear to preponderate, granting to the defendant the presumption of filiation to be strong in his favour. And I think too, that a good deal of weight should be allowed to the dying declarations, because they were spontaneous. There is a great difference between what is said without our being urged to it, and what is said from a kind of compulsion. If I praise a man's book without being asked my opinion of it, that is honest praise, to which one may trust. But if an author asks me if I like his book, and I give him something like praise, it must not be taken as my real opinion." "I have not been troubled for a long time with authors desiring my opinion of their works. I used once to be sadly plagued with a man who wrote verses, but who literally had no other notion of a verse, but that it consisted of ten syllables. Lay your knife and your fork across your plate, was to him a verse: Lay your knife and your fōrk across your plāte.' As he wrote a great number of verses, he sometimes by chance made good ones, though he did not know it."7 He renewed his promise of coming to Scot 1 By Hugh Kelly, the poetical staymaker: he died, an. ætat. 38, Feb. 3. 1777. — CROKER. 2 See post, April 6. 1772. — C. 3" Johnson," says Hawkins, "was inclined, as being personally acquainted with Richardson, to favour the opinion of his admirers; but he seemed not firm in it, and could at any time be talked into a disapprobation of all fictitious relations, of which he would frequently say, they took no hold of the mind." - CROKER. 4 In The Provoked Husband, begun by Sir John Vanbrugh, and finished by Colley Cibber. WRIGHT. 5 By Dr. Benjamin Hoadly. Garrick's inimitable performance of Ranger was the main support of the piece during its first run. George II. was so well pleased with this comedy, that he sent the author one hundred pounds Wright. Horace Walpole gives as a reason of George the Second's favour, that one of the causes of suspicion against the innocent heroine (the finding Ranger's hat) was the same with one of those alleged against his mother, the Electress Dorothea-the hat of Count Konigsmark (the same who caused the murder of M. Thynne) having been found in her apartment.-CROKER. 6 Boswell, who was counsel on the side of Mr. Douglas, had published, in 1766, a pamphlet entitled the Essence of the Douglas Cause," but which, it will be seen, post, April 27. 1773, he could not induce Johnson even to read.LOCKHART. 7" Dr. Johnson did not like that his friends should bring their manuscripts for him to read, and he liked still lesa to read them when they were brought: sometimes, however, when he could not refuse, he would take the play or poem, or whatever it was, and give the people his opinion from some one page that he had peeped into. A gentleman carried him his tragedy, which, because he loved the author, Johnson took, and it lay about our rooms at Streatham some time. What answer did you give your friend, Sir?' asked 1, after the book had been called for. I told him,' replied he, that there was too much Tig and Terry in it. Seeing me laugh most violently, Why, what wouldst have, child? said he; I looked at nothing but the dramatis personæ, and |
