'Which never more shall leaves or blossoms bear.'
_Iliad_, i. 310.
[261] 'We agreed pretty well, only we disputed in adjusting the claims
of merit between a shopkeeper of London and a savage of the American
wildernesses. Our opinions were, I think, maintained on both sides
without full conviction; Monboddo declared boldly for the savage, and I,
perhaps for that reason, sided with the citizen.' _Piozzi Letters_,
i. 115.
[262]
'Heroes are much the same, the point's agreed,
From Macedonia's madman to the Swede;
The whole strange purpose of their lives to find,
Or make, an enemy of all mankind!
Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,
Yet ne'er looks forward further than his nose.'
_Essay on Man,_ iv. 219.
[263] _Maccaroni_ is not in Johnson's _Dictionary_. Horace Walpole
(_Letters_, iv. 178) on Feb. 6, 1764, mentions 'the Maccaroni Club,
which is composed of all the travelled young men who wear long curls and
spying-glasses.' On the following Dec. 16 he says:--'The Maccaroni Club
has quite absorbed Arthur's; for, you know, old fools will hobble after
young ones.' _Ib._ p. 302. See _post_, Sept. 12, for _buck_.
[264] 'We came late to Aberdeen, where I found my dear mistress's
letter, and learned that all our little people were happily recovered of
the measles. Every part of your letter was pleasing.' _Piozzi Letters_,
i. 115. For Johnson's use of the word _mistress_ in speaking of Mrs.
Thrale see _ante_, i. 494.
[265] See _ante_, ii. 455. 'They taught us,' said one of the Professors,
'to raise cabbage and make shoes, How they lived without shoes may yet
be seen; but in the passage through villages it seems to him that
surveys their gardens, that when they had not cabbage they had nothing.'
_Piozzi Letters_, i. 116. Johnson in the same letter says that 'New
Aberdeen is built of that granite which is used for the _new_ pavement
in London.'
[266] 'In Aberdeen I first saw the women in plaids.' _Piozzi Letters_,
i. 116.
[267] Seven years later Mackintosh, on entering King's College, found
there the son of Johnson's old friend, 'the learned Dr. Charles Burney,
finishing his term at Aberdeen.' Among his fellow-students were also
some English Dissenters, among them Robert Hall. Mackintosh's _Life,_ i.
10, 13. In Forbes's _Life of Beattie_ (ed. 1824, p. 169) is a letter by
Beattie, dated Oct. 15, 1773, in which the English and Scotch
Universities are compared. Colman, in his _Random Records,_ ii. 85,
gives an account of his life at Aberdeen as a student.
[268] Lord Bolingbroke (Works, iii. 347) in 1735 speaks of 'the little
care that is taken in the training up our youth,' and adds, 'surely it
is impossible to take less.' See _ante_, ii. 407, and iii. 12.
[269] _London, 2d May_, 1778. Dr. Johnson acknowledged that he was
himself the authour of the translation above alluded to, and dictated it
to me as follows:--
Quos laudet vates Graius Romanus et Anglus
Tres tria temporibus secla dedere suis.
Sublime ingenium Graius; Romanus habebat
Carmen grande sonans; Anglus utrumque tulit.
Nil majus Natura capit: clarare priores
Quae potuere duos tertius unus habet. BOSWELL.
It was on May 2, 1778, that Johnson attacked Boswell with such rudeness
that he kept away from him for a week. _Ante_, iii. 337.
[270] 'We were on both sides glad of the interview, having not seen nor
perhaps thought on one another for many years; but we had no emulation,
nor had either of us risen to the other's envy, and our old kindness was
easily renewed.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 117.
[271] Johnson wrote on Sept. 30:--'Barley-broth is a constant dish, and
is made well in every house. A stranger, if he is prudent, will secure
his share, for it is not certain that he will be able to eat anything
else.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. p. 160.
[272] See _ante_. p. 24.
[273] _Genesis_, ix. 6.
[274] My worthy, intelligent, and candid friend, Dr. Kippis, informs me,
that several divines have thus explained the mediation of our Saviour.
What Dr. Johnson now delivered, was but a temporary opinion; for he
afterwards was fully convinced of the _propitiatory sacrifice_, as I
shall shew at large in my future work, _The Life of Samuel Johnson,
LL.D._ BOSWELL. For Dr. Kippis see _ante_, iii. 174, and for Johnson on
the propitiatory sacrifice, iv. 124.
[275] _Malachi_, iv. 2.
[276] _St. Luke_, ii 32.
[277] 'Healing _in_ his wings,'_Malachi_, iv. 2.
[278] 'He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned.' _St. Mark_, xvi. 16.
[279] Mr. Langton. See _ante_, ii. 254, 265.
[280] Spedding's _Bacon_, vii. 271. The poem is also given in _The
Golden Treasury_, p. 37; where, however, 'limns _the_ water' is changed
into 'limns _on_ water.'
[281] 'Addison now returned to his vocation, and began to plan literary
occupations for his future life. He purposed a tragedy on the death of
Socrates... He engaged in a nobler work, a defence of the Christian
religion, of which part was published after his death.' Johnson's
_Works_, vii. 441, and Addison's _Works_, ed. 1856, v. 103.
[282] Dr. Beattie was so kindly entertained in England, that he had not
yet returned home. BOSWELL. Beattie was staying in London till his
pension got settled. Early in July he had been told that he was to have
a pension of £200 a year (_ante_, ii. 264, note 2). It was not till Aug.
20 that it was conferred. On July 9, he, in company with Sir Joshua
Reynolds, received the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford. On Aug. 24, he had a
long interview with the King; 'who asked,' Beattie records, 'whether we
had any good preachers at Aberdeen. I said "Yes," and named Campbell and
Gerard, with whose names, however, I did not find that he was
acquainted.' It was this same summer that Reynolds painted him in 'the
allegorical picture representing the triumph of truth over scepticism
and infidelity' (_post_, Oct. 1, note). Forbes's _Beattie_, ed. 1824,
pp. 151-6, 167.
[283] Dr. Johnson's burgess-ticket was in these words:--'Aberdoniae,
vigesimo tertio die mensis Augusti, anno Domini millesimo
septingentesimo septuagesimo tertio, in presentia honorabilium virorum,
Jacobi Jopp, armigeri, praepositi, Adami Duff, Gulielmi Young, Georgii
Marr, et Gulielmi Forbes, Balivorum, Gulielmi Rainie Decani guildae, et
Joannis Nicoll Thesaurarii dicti burgi. 'Quo die vir generosus et
doctrina clarus, Samuel Johnson, LL.D. receptus et admissus fuit in
municipes et fratres guildae: praefati burgi de Aberdeen. In deditissimi
amoris et affectus ac eximiae observantiae tesseram, quibus dicti
Magistratus eum amplectuntur. Extractum per me, ALEX. CARNEGIE.'
BOSWELL. 'I was presented with the freedom of the city, not in a gold
box, but in good Latin. Let me pay Scotland one just praise; there was
no officer gaping for a fee; this could have been said of no city on the
English side of the Tweed.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 117. Baretti, in a MS.
note on this passage, says:--'Throughout England nothing is done for
nothing. Stop a moment to look at the rusticks mowing a field, and they
will presently quit their work to come to you, and ask something to
drink.' Aberdeen conferred its freedom so liberally about this time that
it is surprising that Boswell was passed over. George Colman the
younger, when a youth of eighteen, was sent to King's College. He says
in his worthless _Random Records_, ii. 99:--'I had scarcely been a week
in Old Aberdeen, when the Lord Provost of the New Town invited me to
drink wine with him one evening in the Town Hall; there I found a
numerous company assembled. The object of this meeting was soon declared
to me by the Lord Provost, who drank my health, and presented me with
the freedom of the City.' Two of his English fellow-students, of a
little older standing, had, he said, received the same honour. His
statement seemed to me incredible; but by the politeness of the
Town-clerk, W. Gordon, Esq., I have found out that in the main it is
correct. Colman, with one of the two, was admitted as an Honorary
Burgess on Oct. 8, 1781, being described as _vir generosus_; the other
had been admitted earlier. The population of Aberdeen and its suburbs in
1769 was, according to Pennant, 16,000. Pennant's _Tour_, p. 117.
[284] 'King's College in Aberdeen was an exact model of the University
of Paris. Its founder, Bishop [not Archbishop] Elphinstone, had been a
Professor at Paris and at Orleans.' Burton's _Scotland_, ed. 1873, iii.
404. On p. 20, Dr. Burton describes him as 'the rich accomplished
scholar and French courtier Elphinstone, munificently endowing a
University after the model of the University of Paris.'
[285] Boswell projected the following works:--1. An edition of
_Johnson's Poems. Ante_, i. 16. 2. A work in which the merit of
Addison's poetry shall be maintained, _ib_. p. 225. 3. A _History of
Sweden_, ii. 156. 4. A_ Life of Thomas Ruddiman, ib._ p. 216. 5. An
edition of Walton's_ Lives_ iii. 107. 6. A _History of the Civil War in_
_Great Britain in_ 1745 and 1746, _ib._, p. 162.
7. A _Life of Sir Robert Sibbald, ib._ p. 227. 8 An account of his own
Travels, _ib_. p. 300. 9. A Collection, with notes, of old tenures and
charters of Scotland, _ib_. p. 414, note 3. 10. A _History of James IV._
11. 'A quarto volume to be embellished with fine plates, on the subject
of the controversy (_ante_, ii. 367) occasioned by the _Beggar's
Opera._' Murray's _Johnsoniana_, ed. 1836, p. 502.
Thomas Boswell received from James IV. the estate of Auchinleck. _Ante_,
ii. 413. See _post_, Nov. 4.
[286] Mackintosh says, in his _Life_, i. 9:--'In October, 1780, I was
admitted into the Greek class, then taught by Mr. Leslie, who did not
aspire beyond teaching us the first rudiments of the language; more
would, I believe, have been useless to his scholars.'
[287] 'Boswell was very angry that the Aberdeen professors would not
talk.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 118. Dr. Robertson and Dr. Blair, whom
Boswell, five years earlier, invited to meet Johnson at supper, 'with an
excess of prudence hardly opened their lips' (_ante_, ii. 63). At
Glasgow the professors did not dare to talk much (_post_, Oct. 29). On
another occasion when Johnson came in, the company 'were all as quiet as
a school upon the entrance of the headmaster.' _Ante_, iii. 332.
[288] Dr. Beattie says that this printer was Strahan. He had seen the
letter mentioned by Gerard, and many other letters too from the Bishop
to Strahan. 'They were,' he continues, 'very particularly acquainted.'
He adds that 'Strahan was eminently skilled in composition, and had
corrected (as he told me himself) the phraseology of both Mr. Hume and
Dr. Robertson.' Forbes's _Beattie_, ed. 1824, p. 341.
[289] An instance of this is given in Johnson's _Works_, viii.
288:--'Warburton had in the early part of his life pleased himself with
the notice of inferior wits, and corresponded with the enemies of Pope.
A letter was produced, when he had perhaps himself forgotten it, in
which he tells Concanen, "Dryden, I observe, borrows for want of
leisure, and Pope for want of genius; Milton out of pride, and Addison
out of modesty."'
[290] 'Goldsmith asserted that Warburton was a weak writer. "Warburton,"
said Johnson, "may be absurd, but he will never be weak; he flounders
well."' Stockdale's _Memoirs_, ii. 64. See Appendix A.
[291] _The Doctrine of Grace; or the Office and Operations of the Holy
Spirit vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity and the Abuses of
Fanaticism_, 1762.
[292] _A Letter to the Bishop of Gloucester, occasioned by his Tract on
the Office and Operations of the Holy Spirit_, by John Wesley, 1762.
[293] Malone records:--'I could not find from Mr. Walpole that his
father [Sir Robert] read any other book but Sydenham in his retirement.'
To his admiration of Sydenham his death was attributed; for it led him
to treat himself wrongly when he was suffering from the stone. Prior's
_Malone_, p. 387. Johnson wrote a _Life of Sydenham_. In it he ridicules
the notion that 'a man eminent for integrity _practised Medicine by
chance, and grew wise only by murder_.' _Works_, vi. 409.
[294] All this, as Dr. Johnson suspected at the time, was the immediate
invention of his own lively imagination; for there is not one word of it
in Mr. Locke's complimentary performance. My readers will, I have no
doubt, like to be satisfied, by comparing them; and, at any rate, it may
entertain them to read verses composed by our great metaphysician, when
a Bachelor in Physick.