WALKER.

many clergymen. JOHNSON. "I hope not." "I have taught only one, and he is the best reader I ever heard; not by my teaching, but by his own natural talents." JOHNSON. "Were he the best reader in the world, I would not have it told that he was taught." Here was one of his peculiar prejudices. Could it be any disadvantage to the clergyman to have it known that he was taught an easy and graceful delivery? BOSWELL. "Will you not allow, Sir, that a man may be taught to read well?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, so far as to read better than he might do without being taught, yes. For merly it was supposed that there was no difference in reading, but that one read as well as another." BOSWELL. "It is wonderful to see old Sheridan as enthusiastic about oratory WALKER. as ever." 66 His enthusiasm as to what oratory will do, may be too great: but he reads well." JOHNSON. "He reads well, but he reads low; and you know it is much easier to read low than to read high; for when you read high, you are much more limited, your loudest note can be but one, and so the variety is less in proportion to the loudness. Now some people have occasion to speak to an extensive audience, and must speak loud to be heard." WALKER. "The art is to read strong, though low."

Talking of the origin of language:- JOHNSON. "It must have come by inspiration. A thousand, nay a million of children could not invent a language. While the organs are pliable, there is not understanding enough to form a language; by the time that there is understanding enough, the organs are become stiff. We know that after a certain age we cannot learn to pronounce a new language. No foreigner, who comes to England when advanced in life, ever pronounces English tolerably well; at least such instances are very rare. When I maintain that language must have come by inspiration, I do not mean that inspiration is required for rhetoric, and all the beauties of language; for when once man has language, we can conceive that he may gradually form modifications of it. I mean only that inspiration seems to me to be necessary to give man the faculty of speech; to inform him that he may have speech; which I think he could no more find out without inspiration, than cows or hogs would think of such a faculty." WALKER. "Do you think, Sir, that there are any perfect synonymes in any language?" JOHNSON. Originally there were not; but by using words negligently, or in poetry, one word comes to be confounded with another."

He talked of Dr. Dodd. "A friend of mine,"

1" Mr. Sheridan, the father, is quite an enthusiast in recommending to the youth of the nation the study of oratory. According to him it is the one thing needful, the salvation of the nation, as every thing laudable and great depends upon it." Knox's Wint. Even. ii. 271. CROKER, 1847.

2 I have been told that the lady was Dr. Dodd's relict; but if this were so, Dr. Johnson could not have been aware of it,

said he, "came to me and told me that a lady" wished to have Dr. Dodd's picture in a bracelet, and asked me for a motto. I said, I could think of no better than Currat Lex. I was very willing to have him pardoned, that is, to have the sentence changed to transportation; but, when he was once hanged, I did not wish he should be made a saint."

Mrs. Burney, wife of his friend, Dr. Burney, came in, and he seemed to be entertained with her conversation.

Garrick's funeral was talked of as extravagantly expensive. Johnson, from his dislike to exaggeration, would not allow that it was distinguished by an extraordinary pomp. “Were there not six horses to each coach ?" said Mrs. Burney. JOHNSON. "Madam, there were no more six horses than six phoenixes."3

Mrs. Burney wondered that some very beautiful new buildings should be erected in Moorfields, in so shocking a situation as between Bedlam and St. Luke's Hospital; and said she could not live there. Jonsson. "Nay, Madam, you see nothing there to hurt you. You no more think of madness by having windows that look to Bedlam, than you think of death by having windows that look to a churchyard." MRS. BURNEY. "We may look to a churchyard, Sir; for it is right that we should be kept in mind of death." JOHNSON. "Nay, Madam, if you go to that, it is right that we should be kept in mind of madness, which is occasioned by too much indulgence of imagination. I think a very moral use may be made of these new buildings; I would have those who have heated imaginations live there, and take warning." MRS. BURNEY. "But, Sir, many of the poor people that are mad have become so from disease, or from distressing events. It is, therefore, not their fanit but their misfortune; and, therefore, to think of them is a melancholy consideration."

Time passed on in conversation till it was too late for the service of the church at three o'clock. I took a walk, and left him alone fr some time; then returned, and we had coffee and conversation again by ourselves.

I stated the character of a noble friend of mine as a curious case for his opinion *:"He is the most inexplicable man to me that I ever knew. Can you explain him, Sir? He is, I really believe, noble-minded, generoas, and princely. But his most intimate friends may be separated from him for years, withert his ever asking a question concerning ther He will meet them with a formality, a coidness, a stately indifference; but when they come close to him, and fairly engage him in conversation, they find him as easy, pleasant

for however he might disapprove of her wearing his pisters, he would hardly have afflicted her with such an answ See antè, p. 544. n. 2.- CROKER, 1835,

3 There certainly were, and Johnson himself went do oma of the coaches and six.- CROKER.

4 Probably Lord Mountstuart, afterwards first Marquis Bute.CROKER.

On Sunday, April 20., being Easter-day, after attending solemn service at St. Paul's, I came to Dr. Johnson, and found Mr. Lowe, the painter, sitting with him. Mr. Lowe mentioned the great number of new buildings of late in London, yet that Dr. Johnson had observed, that the number of inhabitants was not increased. 1 JOHNSON. 66 Why, Sir, the bills of mortality prove that no more people die now than formerly; so it is plain no more live. The register of births proves nothing, for not one-tenth of the people of London are born there." BOSWELL. "I believe, Sir, a great many of the children born in London, die early." JOHNSON. "Why, yes, Sir." BOSWELL. "But those who do live are as stout and strong people as any. Dr. Price says, they must be naturally strong to get through." JOHNSON. "That is system, Sir. A great traveller observes, that it is said there are no weak or deformed people among the Indians; but he, with much sagacity, assigns the reason of this, which is, that the hardship of their life as hunters and fishers does not allow weak or diseased children to grow up. Now, had I been an Indian, I must have died early; my eyes would not have served me to get food. I, indeed, now could fish, give me English tackle; but had I been an Indian, I must have starved, or they would have knocked me on the head, when they saw I could do nothing." BOSWELL. "Perhaps, they would have taken care of you; we are told they are fond of oratory, -you would have talked to them." JOHNSON. "Nay, Sir, I

The city was hardly capable of increase; but, in fact, the population of the city has rapidly diminished by the migration of the citizens to the suburbs, and the conversion of so many dwelling houses into counting and warehouses: the population of the city, in 1801, was about 130,000, and, in 1841, only 82,000.- CROKER, 1847.

2 This remarkable duel was fought on Monday the 21st of April, 1783, between Mr. Cunningham, of the Scots Greys, wounded, and Mr. Riddell, of the Life Guards, killed. See Gent. Mag. 1783, p. 362. CROKER.

3 I think it necessary to caution my readers against concluding that, in this or any other conversation of Dr. Johnson,

should not have lived long enough to be fit to talk; I should have been dead before I was ten years old. Depend upon it, Sir, a savage, when he is hungry, will not carry about with him a looby of nine years old, who cannot help himself. They have no affection, Sir." BosWELL. "I believe natural affection, of which we hear so much, is very small." JOHNSON. "Sir, natural affection is nothing: but affec tion from principle and established duty is sometimes wonderfully strong." Lowe. "A hen, Sir, will feed her chickens in preference to herself." JOHNSON. "But we don't know that the hen is hungry; let the hen be fairly hungry, and I'll warrant she 'll peck the cora herself. A cock, I believe, will feed hens instead of himself: but we don't know that the cock is hungry." Boswell. "And that, Sir. is not from affection, but gallantry. But some of the Indians have affection." JOHNSON. Sir, that they help some of their children is plain; for some of them live, which they could not do without being helped."

66

I dined with him; the company were Mrs Williams, Mrs. Desmoulins, and Mr. Lowe He seemed not to be well, talked little, grew drowsy soon after dinner, and retired; upon which I went away.

Having next day gone to Mr. Burke's seat in the country, from whence I was recalled by an express, that a near relation of mine had killed his antagonist in a duel, and was hin self dangerously wounded, I saw little of D Johnson till Monday, April 28., when I spert a considerable part of the day with him, and introduced the subject which then chiefly occu pied my mind. JOHNSON. "I do not see, Sir, that fighting is absolutely forbidden in Scriptur I see revenge forbidden, but not self-defence." BOSWELL. "The quakers say it is. Un him that smiteth thee on one cheek, offer hi also the other.'" JOHNSON. "But stay, Sir the text is meant only to have the effect moderating passion; it is plain that we are b to take it in a literal sense. We see this fr the context, where there are other recommen ations; which, I warrant you, the quaker v not take literally; as, for instance, From bir that would borrow of thee turn thou not away Let a man whose credit is bad come to a qu ker, and say, 'Well, Sir, lend me a hund pounds;' he'll find him as unwilling as a other man. No, Sir; a man may shoot th man who invades his character, as he may sho him who attempts to break into his house.

they have his serious and deliberate opinion on the ject of duelling. In my Journal of a Tour to the Hond ante, 387., it appears that he made this frank contenan "Nobody, at times, talks more laxly than I do" al die p. 342. He fairly owned he could not explain the “ tionality of duelling." We may therefore infer that he rea not think that justifiable, which seems so inconsistent wit the spirit of the Gospel. At the same time, it must be nom fessed, that, from the prevalent notions of honour, a pla man who receives a challenge is reduced to a draču alternative. A remarkable instance of this is furnished 19 ↑ clause in the will of the late Colonel Thomas, of the Guard

So, in 1745, my friend, Tom Cumming, the quaker [p. 343.], said he would not fight, but he would drive an ammunition cart: and we know that the quakers have sent flannel waistcoats to our soldiers, to enable them to fight better." BosWELL. "When a man is the aggressor, and by ill usage forces on a duel in which he is killed, have we not little ground to hope that he is gone to a state of happiness?" JOHNSON. 66 Sir, we are not to judge determinately of the state in which a man leaves this life. He may in a moment have repented effectually, and it is possible may have been accepted of God. There is in Camden's Remains an epitaph upon a very wicked man, who was killed by a fall from his horse, in which he is supposed to say,

66

3

Between the stirrup and the ground, I mercy ask'd, I mercy found.'" 1 BOSWELL. "Is not the expression in the burialservice in the sure and certain hope of a blessed resurrection' 2 too strong to be used indiscriminately, and, indeed, sometimes when those over whose bodies it is said have been notoriously profane?" JOHNSON. "It is sure and certain hope, Sir, not belief." I did not insist further; but cannot help thinking that less positive words would be more proper. Talking of a man who was grown very fat, so as to be incommoded with corpulency, he said, "He eats too much, Sir." BoswWELL. "I don't know, Sir; you will see one man fat, who eats moderately, and another lean, who eats a great deal." JOHNSON. Nay, Sir, whatever may be the quantity that a man eats, it is plain that if he is too fat, he has eaten more than he should have done. One man may have a digestion that consumes food beter than common; but it is certain that solidity s increased by putting something to it." BosWELL. "But may not solids swell and be listended?" JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir, they may well and be distended; but that is not fat."

66

We talked of the accusation against a genleman for supposed delinquencies in India.

JOHNSON. "What foundation there is for accusation I know not, but they will not get at him. Where bad actions are committed at so great a distance, a delinquent can obscure the evidence till the scent becomes cold; there is a cloud between, which cannot be penetrated; therefore all distant power is bad. I am clear that the best plan for the government of India is a despotic governor; for if he be a good man, it is evidently the best government; and supposing him to be a bad man, it is better to have one plunderer than many. A governor whose power is checked lets others plunder, that he himself may be allowed to plunder; but if despotic, he sees that the more he lets others plunder, the less there will be for himself, so he restrains them; and though he himself plunders, the country is a gainer, compared with being plundered by numbers."

I mentioned the very liberal payment which had been received for reviewing; and as evidence of this, that it had been proved in a trial, that Dr. Shebbeare had received six guineas a sheet for that kind of literary labour. JOHNSON. "Sir, he might get six guineas for a particular sheet, but not communibus sheetibus." BOSWELL. "Pray, Sir, by a sheet of review, is it meant that it shall be all of the writer's own composition? or are extracts, made from the book reviewed, deducted? JOHNSON. "No, Sir; it is a sheet, no matter of what." BOSWELL. "I think that is not reasonable." JOHNSON. "Yes, Sir, it is. A man will more easily write a sheet all his own, than read an octavo volume to get extracts." To one of Johnson's wonderful fertility of mind, I believe writing was really easier than reading and extracting; but with ordinary men the case is very different. A great deal, indeed, will depend upon the care and judgment with which extracts are made. I can suppose the operation to be tedious and difficult; but in many instances we must observe crude morsels cut out of books as if at random; and when a large extract is made from one place, it surely may be done with very little trouble. One, how

critten the night before he fell in a duel, September 3, 1783: In the first place. I commit my soul to Almighty God, in upes of his mercy and pardon for the irreligious step I now compliance with the unwarrantable customs of this ked world) put myself under the necessity of taking." BOSWELL. Colonel Thomas was shot in a duel by Colonel osmo Gordon. See Gent. Mag. 1783, p. 801.- WRIGHT. In repeating this epitaph, Johnson improved it. The iginal runs thus:

Betrist the stirrup and the ground,
Mercy I ask'd, mercy 1 found."- MALONE.

2 Mr. Boswell, quoting from memory, has interpolated the ord" blessed." The words of the Liturgy are, in sure 1 certain hope of the resurrection," &c. &c. L'Estrange, Las Alliance of Divine Offices," p. 302., observes," These rds import the faith of the congregation then present in article of the resurrection. The plural, our vile bodies,' ludes the restraint to a singular number." The reformed irgies have uniformly employed the same cautious lan

In one of the prayers used in the burial service, in Brst book of Edward VI., the following passage occurs: We give thee hearty thanks for this thy servant, whom

thou hast delivered, &c. &c. And, as we trust, hast brought his soul into sure consolation of rest."- MARKLAND.

3 Upon this objection, the Rev. Mr. Ralph Churton, fellow of Brazennose College, Oxford, has favoured me with the following satisfactory observation: —

The passage in the burial service does not mean the resurrection of the person interred, but the general resurrection; it is in sure and certain hope of the resurrection; not his resurrection. Where the deceased is really spoken of, the expression is very different, as our hope is this our brother doth' [rest in Christ]; a mode of speech consistent with every thing but absolute certainty that the person de. parted doth not rest in Christ, which no one can be assured of without immediate revelation from Heaven. In the first of these places also, eternal life' does not necessarily mean eternity of bliss, but merely the eternity of the state, whether in happiness or in misery, to ensue upon the resurrection; which is probably the sense of the life everlasting.' in the Apostles' Creed. See Wheatly and Bennet on the Common Prayer."- BOSWELL

4 No doubt Mr. Warren Hastings, to whose case two reports of a select committee of the House of Commons, drawn up by Mr. Burke, began about this time to excite public attention. CROKER, 1847.

ever, I must acknowledge, might be led, from the practice of reviewers, to suppose that they take a pleasure in original writing; for we often find, that instead of giving an accurate account of what has been done by the author whose work they are reviewing, which is surely the proper business of a literary journal, they produce some plausible and ingenious conceits of their own, upon the topics which have been discussed.

Upon being told that old Mr. Sheridan, indignant at the neglect of his oratorical plans, had threatened to go to America: JOHNSON. "I hope he will go to America." BoSWELL. "The Americans don't want oratory." JOHNSON. "But we can want Sheridan."

On Monday, April 28., I found him at home in the morning, and Mr. Seward with him. Horace having been mentioned: BOSWELL. "There is a great deal of thinking in his works. One finds there almost every thing but religion." SEWARD. "He speaks of his returning to it, in his Ode Parcus Deorum cultor et infrequens. JOHNSON. "Sir, he was not in earnest this was merely poetical." BOSWELL. "There are, I am afraid, many people who have no religion at all." SEWARD. "And sensible JOHNSON. people, too." Why, Sir, not sensible in that respect. There must be either a natural or a moral stupidity, if one lives in a total neglect of so very important a concern." SEWARD. "I Wonder that there should be people without religion." JOHNSON. "Sir, you need not wonder at this, when you consider how large a proportion of almost every man's life is passed without thinking of it. I myself was for some years totally regardless of religion. It had dropped out of my mind. It was at an early part of my life. Sickness brought it back, and I hope I have never lost it since." BOSWELL. "My dear Sir, what a man must you have been without religion! Why you must have gone on drinking, and swearing, and-" JOHNSON (with a smile). "I drank enough, and swore enough, to be sure." SEWARD. "One should think that sickness and the view of death would make more men religious." JOHNSON." Sir, they do not know how to go about it: they have not the first notion. A man who has never had religion before, no more grows religious when he is sick, than a man who has never learnt figures can count when he has need of calculation."

I mentioned a worthy friend' of ours, whom we valued much, but observed that he was too ready to introduce religious discourse upon all

1 Mr. Langton. Ante, pp. 262. 292. CROKER.

2 Malloch, as Mr. Bindley observes to me, "continued to write his name thus, after he came to London. His verses prefixed to the second edition of Thomson's Winter' are so subscribed, and so are his Letters written in London, and published a few years ago in The European Magazine; but he soon afterwards adopted the alteration to Mallet, for he is so called in the list of subscribers to Savage's Miscellanies, printed in 1726; and thenceforward uniformly Mallet,

occasions. JOHNSON. "Why, yes, Sir, he will introduce religious discourse without seeing whether it will end in instruction and improvement, or produce some profane jest. He would introduce it in the company of Wilkes, and twenty more such."

I mentioned Dr. Johnson's excellent distinction between liberty of conscience and liberty of teaching. JOHNSON. "Consider, Sir; if you have children whom you wish to educate in the principles of the church of England, and there comes a quaker who tries to pervert them to his principles, you would drive away the quaker. You would not trust to the predomination of right which you believe is in your opinions; you will keep wrong out of their heads. Now the vulgar are the chil dren of the state. If any one attempts to teach them doctrines contrary to what the state ap proves, the magistrate may and ought to restrain him." SEWARD. "Would you restrain private conversation, Sir?" JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, it is difficult to say where private conversation begins, and where it ends. If we three should discuss even the great question concerning the existence of a Supreme Being by ourselves, we should not be restrained; for that would be to put an end to all improvement. But if we should discuss it in the presence of te boarding-school girls, and as many boys, I think the magistrate would do well to put us in the stocks, to finish the debate there."

Lord Hailes had sent him a present of a curious little printed poem, on repairing the university of Aberdeen, by David Malloch, which he thought would please Johnson, s affording clear evidence that Mallet had peared even as a literary character by the name of Malloch; his changing which to ope of softer sound had given Johnson occasion to introduce him into his Dictionary, under the article Alias. This piece was, I suppose, e of Mallet's first essays. It is preserved in be works, with several variations. Johnson haiing read aloud, from the beginning of it, where there were some commonplace assertions as to the superiority of ancient times :-" How false," said he, "is all this, to say that in ancient times learning was not a disgrace to a peer, as it is now!' In ancient times a per was as ignorant as any one else. He would have been angry to have it thought he could write his name. Men in ancient times dare! to stand forth with a degree of ignorance with which nobody would now dare to stand forth. I am always angry when I hear ancient times praised at the expense of modern times. There

in all his writings."- MALONE. A notion has been enter tained, that no such exemplification of Alias is to be fastin Johnson's Dictionary, and that the whole story was wap gishly fabricated by Wilkes in the North Britain." The real fact is, that it is not to be found in the falio or quar editions, hut was added by Johnson in his own actass abrsty ment, in 1756.-J. BOSWELL, jun. It still remains in the octavo editions, at least it is in mine of 1794-CROLLE