Young, in his _Second Epistle to Pope_, had written:--_Life of Johnson, Volume 2 1765-1776

'Armed with this truth all critics I defy;

For if I fall, by my own pen I die.'

Hume, in his _Auto_. (p. ix.) says:--'I had a fixed resolution, which I

inflexibly maintained, never to reply to any body.' This is not quite

true. See J. H. Burton's _Life of Hume_, ii. 252, for an instance of a

violent reply. The following passages in Johnson's writings are to the

same effect:--'I am inclined to believe that few attacks either of

ridicule or invective make much noise, but by the help of those that

they provoke.' _Piozzi Letters_ ii. 289. 'It is very rarely that an

author is hurt by his critics. The blaze of reputation cannot be blown

out, but it often dies in the socket.' _Ib_ p. 110. 'The writer who

thinks his works formed for duration mistakes his interest when he

mentions his enemies. He degrades his own dignity by shewing that he was

affected by their censures, and gives lasting importance to names,

which, left to themselves would vanish from remembrance.' Johnson's

_Works_, vii. 294. 'If it had been possible for those who were attacked

to conceal their pain and their resentment, the _Dunciad_ might have

made its way very slowly in the world.' _Ib_ viii. 276. Hawkins (_Life

of Johnson_, p. 348) says that, 'against personal abuse Johnson was ever

armed by a reflection that I have heard him utter:--"Alas! reputation

would be of little worth, were it in the power of every concealed enemy

to deprive us of it."' In his _Parl. Debates_ (_Works_, x. 359), Johnson

makes Mr. Lyttelton say:--'No man can fall into contempt but those who

deserve it.' Addison in _The Freeholder_, No. 40, says, that 'there is

not a more melancholy object in the learned world than a man who has

written himself down.' See also Boswell's _Hebrides_, near the end.

[185] Barber had entered Johnson's service in 1752 (_ante_, i. 239).

Nine years before this letter was written he had been a sailor on board

a frigate (_ante_, i. 348), so that he was somewhat old for a boy.

[186] Boswell, writing to Temple on May 14 of this year; says:--'Dr.

Robertson is come up laden with his _Charles V_.--three large quartos;

he has been offered three thousand guineas for it.' _Letters of

Boswell_, p. 152.

[187] In like manner the professors at Aberdeen and Glasgow seemed

afraid to speak in his presence. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug 23 and

Oct 29, 1773. See also _post_, April 20, 1778.

[188] See _ante_, July 28, 1763.

[189] Johnson, in inserting this letter, says (Works, viii. 374):--'I

communicate it with much pleasure, as it gives me at once an opportunity

of recording the fraternal kindness of Thomson, and reflecting on the

friendly assistance of Mr. Boswell, from whom I received it.' See

_post_, July 9, 1777, and June 18, 1778.

[190] Murphy, in his _Life of Garrick_, p. 183, says that Garrick once

brought Dr. Munsey--so he writes the name--to call on him. 'Garrick

entered the dining-room, and turning suddenly round, ran to the door,

and called out, "Dr. Munsey, where are you going?" "Up stairs to see the

author," said Munsey. "Pho! pho! come down, the author is here." Dr.

Munsey came, and, as he entered the room, said in his free way, "You

scoundrel! I was going up to the garret. Who could think of finding an

author on the first floor?"' Mrs. Montagu wrote to Lord Lyttelton from

Tunbridge in 1760:--'The great Monsey (_sic_) came hither on Friday ...

He is great in the coffee-house, great in the rooms, and great on the

pantiles.' _Montagu Letters_, iv. 291. In Rogers's _Table-Talk_, p. 271,

there is a curious account of him.

[191] See _ante_, July 26, 1763.

[192] My respectable friend, upon reading this passage, observed, that

he probably must have said not simply, 'strong facts,' but 'strong facts

well arranged.' His lordship, however, knows too well the value of

written documents to insist on setting his recollection against my notes

taken at the time. He does not attempt to _traverse_ the record. The

fact, perhaps, may have been, either that the additional words escaped

me in the noise of a numerous company, or that Dr. Johnson, from his

impetuosity, and eagerness to seize an opportunity to make a lively

retort, did not allow Dr. Douglas to finish his sentence. BOSWELL.

[193] 'It is boasted that between November [1712] and January, eleven

thousand [of _The Conduct of the Allies_] were sold.... Yet surely

whoever surveys this wonder-working pamphlet with cool perusal, will

confess that it's efficacy was supplied by the passions of its readers;

that it operates by the mere weight of facts, with very little

assistance from the hand that produced them.' Johnson's _Works_,

viii. 203.

[194] 'Every great man, of whatever kind be his greatness, has among his

friends those who officiously or insidiously quicken his attention to

offences, heighten his disgust, and stimulate his resentment.' _Ib_

viii 266.

[195] See the hard drawing of him in Churchill's _Rosciad_. BOSWELL. See

_ante_, i. 391, note 2.

[196] For _talk_, see _post_, under March 30 1783.

[197] See _post_, Oct. 6, 1769, and May 8, 1778, where Johnson tosses

Boswell.

[198] See _post_, Sept. 22, 1777, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Nov. i,

1773.

[199] See _post_, Nov. 27, 1773, note, April 7, 1775, and under May 8,

1781.

[200] He wrote the character of Mr. Mudge. See _post_, under March 20,

1781.

[201] 'Sept. 18, 1769. This day completes the sixtieth year of my

age.... The last year has been wholly spent in a slow progress of

recovery.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 85.

[202] In which place he has been succeeded by Bennet Langton, Esq. When

that truly religious gentleman was elected to this honorary

Professorship, at the same time that Edward Gibbon, Esq., noted for

introducing a kind of sneering infidelity into his Historical Writings,

was elected Professor in Ancient History, in the room of Dr. Goldsmith,

I observed that it brought to my mind, 'Wicked Will Whiston and good Mr.

Ditton.' I am now also of that admirable institution as Secretary for

Foreign Correspondence, by the favour of the Academicians, and the

approbation of the Sovereign. BOSWELL. Goldsmith, writing to his brother

in Jan., 1770, said:--'The King has lately been pleased to make me

Professor of Ancient History in a Royal Academy of Painting, which he

has just established, but there is no salary annexed, and I took it

rather as a compliment to the institution than any benefit to myself.

Honours to one in my situation are something like ruffles to one that

wants a shirt.' Prior's _Goldsmith_, ii. 221. 'Wicked Will Whiston,'

&c., comes from Swift's _Ode for Music, On the Longitude_ (Swift's

_Works_, ed. 1803, xxiv. 39), which begins,--

'The longitude miss'd on

By wicked Will Whiston;

And not better hit on

By good Master Ditton.'

It goes on so grossly and so offensively as regards one and the other,

that Boswell's comparison was a great insult to Langton as well as

to Gibbon.

[203] It has this inscription in a blank leaf:--'_Hunc librum D.D.

Samuel Johnson, eo quod hic loci studiis interdum vacaret_.' Of this

library, which is an old Gothick room, he was very fond. On my observing

to him that some of the _modern_ libraries of the University were more

commodious and pleasant for study, as being more spacious and airy, he

replied, 'Sir, if a man has a mind to _prance_, he must study at

Christ-Church and All-Souls.' BOSWELL.

[204] During this visit he seldom or never dined out. He appeared to be

deeply engaged in some literary work. Miss Williams was now with him at

Oxford. BOSWELL. It was more likely the state of his health which kept

him at home. Writing from Oxford on June 27 of this year to Mrs. Thrale,

who had been ill, he says:--'I will not increase your uneasiness with

mine. I hope I grow better. I am very cautious and very timorous.'

_Piozzi Letters_, i. 21.

[205] Boswell wrote a letter, signed with his own name, to the _London

Magazine_ for 1769 (p. 451) describing the Jubilee. It is followed by a

print of himself 'in the dress of an armed Corsican chief,' and by an

account, no doubt written by himself. It says:--'Of the most remarkable

masks upon this occasion was James Boswell, Esq., in the dress of an

armed Corsican chief. He entered the amphitheatre about twelve o'clock.

On the front of his cap was embroidered in gold letters, _Viva La

Liberta_; and on one side of it was a handsome blue feather and cockade,

so that it had an elegant, as well as a warlike appearance. He wore no

mask, saying that it was not proper for a gallant Corsican. So soon as

he came into the room he drew universal attention.' Cradock (_Memoirs_,

i. 217) gives a melancholy account of the festival. The preparations

were all behind-hand and the weather was stormy. 'There was a masquerade

in the evening, and all zealous friends endeavoured to keep up the

spirit of it as long as they could, till they were at last informed that

the Avon was rising so very fast that no delay could be admitted. The

ladies of our party were conveyed by planks from the building to the

coach, and found that the wheels had been two feet deep in water.'

Garrick in 1771 was asked by the Stratford committee to join them in

celebrating a Jubilee every year, as 'the most likely method to promote

the interest and reputation of their town.' Boswell caught at the

proposal eagerly, and writing to Garrick said:--'I please myself with

the prospect of attending you at several more Jubilees at

Stratford-upon-Avon.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 414, 435.

[206] Garrick's correspondents not seldom spoke disrespectfully of

Johnson. Thus, Mr. Sharp, writing to him in 1769, talks of 'risking the

sneer of one of Dr. Johnson's ghastly smiles.' _Ib_ i. 334. Dr. J.

Hoadly, in a letter dated July 25, 1775, says:--'Mr. Good-enough has

written a kind of parody of Puffy Pensioner's _Taxation no Tyranny_,

under the noble title of _Resistance no Rebellion_.' _Ib_ ii. 68.

[207] See ante, i. 181.

[208] In the Preface to my _Account of Corsica_, published in 1768, I

thus express myself:

'He who publishes a book affecting not to be an authour, and professing

an indifference for literary fame, may possibly impose upon many people

such an idea of his consequence as he wishes may be received. For my

part, I should be proud to be known as an authour, and I have an ardent

ambition for literary fame; for, of all possessions, I should imagine

literary fame to be the most valuable. A man who has been able to

furnish a book, which has been approved by the world, has established

himself as a respectable character in distant society, without any

danger of having that character lessened by the observation of his

weaknesses. To preserve an uniform dignity among those who see us every

day, is hardly possible; and to aim at it, must put us under the fetters

of perpetual restraint. The authour of an approved book may allow his

natural disposition an easy play, and yet indulge the pride of superior

genius, when he considers that by those who know him only as an authour,

he never ceases to be respected. Such an authour, when in his hours of

gloom and discontent, may have the consolation to think, that his

writings are, at that very time, giving pleasure to numbers; and such an

authour may cherish the hope of being remembered after death, which has

been a great object to the noblest minds in all ages.' BOSWELL. His

preface to the third edition thus ends:--'When I first ventured to send

this book into the world, I fairly owned an ardent desire for literary

fame. I have obtained my desire: and whatever clouds may overcast my

days, I can now walk here among the rocks and woods of my ancestors,

with an agreeable consciousness that I have done something worthy.' The

dedication of the first edition and the preface of the third are both

dated Oct. 29--one 1767, and the other 1768. Oct. 29 was his birthday.

[209] Paoli's father had been one of the leaders of the Corsicans in

their revolt against Genoa in 1734. Paoli himself was chosen by them as

their General-in-chief in 1755. In 1769 the island was conquered by the

French. He escaped in an English ship, and settled in England. Here he

stayed till 1789, when Mirabeau moved in the National Assembly the

recall of all the Corsican patriots. Paoli was thereupon appointed by

Louis XVI. Lieutenant-general and military commandant in Corsica. He

resisted the violence of the Convention, and was, in consequence,

summoned before it. Refusing to obey, an expedition was sent to arrest

him. Napoleon Buonaparte fought in the French army, but Paoli's party

proved the stronger. The islanders sought the aid of Great Britain, and

offered the crown of Corsica to George III. The offer was accepted, but

by an act of incredible folly, not Paoli, but Sir Gilbert Eliot, was

made Viceroy. Paoli returned to England, where he died in 1807, at the

age of eighty-two. In 1796 Corsica was abandoned by the English. By the

Revolution it ceased to be a conquered province, having been formally

declared an integral part of France. At the present day the Corsicans

are proud of being citizens of that great country; no less proud,

however, are they of Pascal Paoli, and of the gallant struggle for

independence of their forefathers.

[210] According to the _Ann. Reg_. (xii. 132) Paoli arrived in London on

Sept. 21. He certainly was in London on Oct. 10, for on that day he was

presented by Boswell to Johnson. Yet Wesley records in his _Journal_

(iii. 370) on Oct. 13:--'I very narrowly missed meeting the great Pascal

Paoli. He landed in the dock [at Portsmouth] but a very few minutes

after I left the waterside. Surely He who hath been with him from his

youth up hath not sent him into England for nothing.' In the _Public

Advertiser_ for Oct. 4 there is the following entry, inserted no doubt

by Boswell:--'On Sunday last General Paoli, accompanied by James

Boswell, Esq., took an airing in Hyde Park in his coach.' Priors

_Goldsmith_, i. 450. Horace Walpole writes:--'Paoli's character had been

so advantageously exaggerated by Mr. Boswell's enthusiastic and

entertaining account of him, that the Opposition were ready to

incorporate him in the list of popular tribunes. The Court artfully

intercepted the project; and deeming patriots of all nations equally

corruptible, bestowed a pension of AL1000 a year on the unheroic

fugitive.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, iii. 387.

[211] Johnson, writes Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_., p. 228), ridiculed a friend

'who, looking out on Streatham Common from our windows, lamented the

enormous wickedness of the times, because some bird-catchers were busy

there one fine Sunday morning. "While half the Christian world is

permitted," said Johnson, "to dance and sing and celebrate Sunday as a

day of festivity, how comes your puritanical spirit so offended with

frivolous and empty deviations from exactness? Whoever loads life with

unnecessary scruples, Sir," continued he, "provokes the attention of

others on his conduct, and incurs the censure of singularity, without

reaping the reward of superior virtue."' See Boswell's _Hebrides_,

Aug. 20, 1773.

[212] The first edition of Hume's _History of England_ was full of

Scotticisms, many of which he corrected in subsequent editions. MALONE.

According to Mr. J. H. Burton (_Life of Hume_, ii. 79), 'He appears to

have earnestly solicited the aid of Lyttelton, Mallet, and others, whose

experience of English composition might enable them to detect

Scotticisms.' Mr. Burton gives instances of alterations made in the

second edition. He says also that 'in none of his historical or

philosophical writings does any expression used by him, unless in those

cases where a Scotticism has escaped his vigilance, betray either the

district or the county of his origin.' _Ib_ i. 9. Hume was shown in

manuscript Reid's _Inquiry into the Human Mind_. Though it was an attack

on his own philosophy, yet in reading it 'he kept,' he says, 'a watchful

eye all along over the style,' so that he might point out any

Scotticisms. _Ib_ ii. 154. Nevertheless, as Dugald Stewart says in his

_Life of Robertson_ (p. 214), 'Hume fails frequently both in purity and

grammatical correctness.' Even in his later letters I have noticed

Scotticisms.

[213] In 1763 Wilkes, as author of _The North Briton_, No. 45, had been

arrested on 'a general warrant directed to four messengers to take up

any persons without naming or describing them with any certainty, and to

bring them, together with their papers.' Such a warrant as this Chief

Justice Pratt (Lord Camden) declared to be 'unconstitutional, illegal,

and absolutely void.' _Ann. Reg_. vi. 145.

[214] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 24, 1773.

[215] In the Spring of this year, at a meeting of the electors of

Southwark, 'instructions' had been presented to Mr. Thrale and his

brother-member, of which the twelfth was:--'That you promote a bill for

shortening the duration of Parliaments.' _Gent. Mag_. xxxix. 162.

[216] This paradox Johnson had exposed twenty-nine years earlier, in his

_Life of Sir Francis Drake_, _Works_, vi. 366. In _Rasselas_, chap. xi.,

he considers also the same question. Imlac is 'inclined to conclude

that, if nothing counteracts the natural consequence of learning, we

grow more happy as our minds take a wider range.' He then enumerates the

advantages which civilisation confers on the Europeans. 'They are surely

happy,' said the prince, 'who have all these conveniences.' 'The

Europeans,' answered Imlac, 'are less unhappy than we, but they are not

happy. Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured

and little to be enjoyed.' Writing to Mrs. Thrale from Skye, Johnson

said: 'The traveller wanders through a naked desert, gratified

sometimes, but rarely, with the sight of cows, and now and then finds a

heap of loose stones and turf in a cavity between rocks, where a being

born with all those powers which education expands, and all those

sensations which culture refines, is condemned to shelter itself from

the wind and rain. Philosophers there are who try to make themselves

believe that this life is happy, but they believe it only while they are

saying it, and never yet produced conviction in a single mind.' _Piozzi

Letters_, i. 150. See _post_, April 21 and May 7, 1773, April 26, 1776,

and June 15, 1784.

[217] James Burnet, a Scotch Lord of Session, by the title of Lord

Monboddo. 'He was a devout believer in the virtues of the heroic ages,

and the deterioration of civilised mankind; a great contemner of

luxuries, insomuch that he never used a wheel carriage.' WALTER SCOTT,

quoted in Croker's _Boswell_, p. 227. There is some account of him in

Chambers's _Traditions of Edinburgh_, ii. 175. In his _Origin of

Language_, to which Boswell refers in his next note, after praising

Henry Stephen for his _Greek Dictionary_, he continues:--'But to compile

a dictionary of a barbarous language, such as all the modern are

compared with the learned, is a work which a man of real genius, rather

than undertake, would choose to die of hunger, the most cruel, it is

said, of all deaths. I should, however, have praised this labour of

Doctor Johnson's more, though of the meanest kind,' &c. Monboddo's

_Origin of Language_, v. 274. On p. 271, he says:--'Dr. Johnson was the

most invidious and malignant man I have ever known.' See _post_, March

21, 1772, May 8, 1773, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 21, 1773.

[218] His Lordship having frequently spoken in an abusive manner of Dr.

Johnson, in my company, I on one occasion during the life-time of my

illustrious friend could not refrain from retaliation, and repeated to

him this saying. He has since published I don't know how many pages in

one of his curious books, attempting, in much anger, but with pitiful

effect, to persuade mankind that my illustrious friend was not the great

and good man which they esteemed and ever will esteem him to

be. BOSWELL.

[219] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 108) says:--'Mr. Johnson was indeed

unjustly supposed to be a lover of singularity. Few people had a more

settled reverence for the world than he, or was less captivated by new

modes of behaviour introduced, or innovations on the long-received

customs of common life.' In writing to Dr. Taylor to urge him to take a

certain course, he says:--'This I would have you do, not in compliance

with solicitation or advice, but as a justification of yourself to the

world; _the world has always a right to be regarded_.' _Notes and

Queries_, 6th S. v. 343. In _The Adventurer_, No. 131, he has a paper on

'Singularities.' After quoting Fontenelle's observation on Newton that

'he was not distinguished from other men by any singularity, either

natural or affected,' he goes on:--'Some may be found who, supported by

the consciousness of great abilities, and elevated by a long course of

reputation and applause, voluntarily consign themselves to singularity,

affect to cross the roads of life because they know that they shall not

be jostled, and indulge a boundless gratification of will, because they

perceive that they shall be quietly obeyed.... Singularity is, I think,

in its own nature universally and invariably displeasing.' Writing of

Swift, he says (_Works_, viii. 223):--'Whatever he did, he seemed

willing to do in a manner peculiar to himself, without sufficiently

considering that singularity, as it implies a contempt of the general

practice, is a kind of defiance which justly provokes the hostility of

ridicule; he, therefore, who indulges peculiar habits is worse than

others, if he be not better.' See _ante_, Oct. 1765, the record in his

_Journal_:--'At church. To avoid all singularity.'

[220] 'He had many other particularities, for which he gave sound and

philosophical reasons. As this humour still grew upon him he chose to

wear a turban instead of a periwig; concluding very justly that a

bandage of clean linen about his head was much more wholesome, as well

as cleanly, than the caul of a wig, which is soiled with frequent

perspirations.' _Spectator_, No. 576.

[221] See _post_, June 28, 1777, note.

[222] 'Depend upon it,' he said, 'no woman is the worse for sense and

knowledge.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 19; 1773--See, however, _post_,

1780, in Mr. Langton's Collection, where he says:--'Supposing a wife to

be of a studious or argumentative turn, it would be very troublesome'

[223]

'Though Artemisia talks by fits

Of councils, classics, fathers, wits;

Reads Malbranche, Boyle, and Locke:

Yet in some things, methinks she fails;

'Twere well if she would pare her nails,

And wear a cleaner smock.'

SWIFT. _Imitation of English Poets, Works_, xxiv. 6.

[224] _A Wife_, a poem, 1614. BOSWELL.

[225] In the original _that_.

[226] What a succession of compliments was paid by Johnson's old

school-fellow, whom he met a year or two later in Lichfield, who 'has

had, as he phrased it, _a matter of four wives_, for which' added

Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, 'neither you nor I like him much the better.'

_Piozzi Letters_, i. 41.

[227] Mr. Langton married the widow of the Earl of Rothes; _post_, March

20, 1771.

[228] Horace Walpole, writing of 1764, says:--'As one of my objects was

to raise the popularity of our party, I had inserted a paragraph in the

newspapers observing that the abolition of vails to servants had been

set on foot by the Duke of Bedford, and had been opposed by the Duke of

Devonshire. Soon after a riot happened at Ranelagh, in which the footmen

mobbed and ill-treated some gentlemen who had been active in that

reformation.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, ii. 3.

[229]

'Alexis shunned his fellow swains,

Their rural sports and jocund strains,

(Heaven guard us all from Cupid's bow!)

He lost his crook, he left his flocks;

And wandering through the lonely rocks,

He nourished endless woe.'

_The Despairing Shepherd_.

[230] 'In his amorous effusions Prior is less happy; for they are not

dictated by nature or by passion, and have neither gallantry nor

tenderness. They have the coldness of Cowley without his wit, the dull

exercises of a skilful versifier, resolved at all adventures to write

something about Chloe, and trying to be amorous by dint of study.... In

his private relaxation he revived the tavern, and in his amorous

pedantry he exhibited the college.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 15, 22.

[231] _Florizel and Perdita_ is Garrick's version of _The Winters Tale_.

He cut down the five acts to three. The line, which is misquoted, is in

one of Perdita's songs:--

'That giant ambition we never can dread;

Our roofs are too low for so lofty a head;

Content and sweet cheerfulness open our door,

They smile with the simple, and feed with the poor.'

Act ii. sc. 1.

[232] Horace. _Sat_. i. 4. 34.

[233] See _ante_, ii. 66.

[234] Horace Walpole told Malone that 'he was about twenty-two

[twenty-four] years old when his father retired; and that he remembered

his offering one day to read to him, finding that time hung heavy on his

hands. "What," said he, "will you read, child?" Mr. Walpole, considering

that his father had long been engaged in public business, proposed to

read some history. "No," said he, "don't read history to me; that can't

be true."' Prior's _Malone_, p. 387. See also _post_, April 30, 1773,

and Oct. 10, 1779.

[235] See _ante_, i 75, _post_, Oct 12, 1779, and Boswell's _Hebrides_,

August 15, 1773. Boswell himself had met Whitefield; for mentioning him

in his _Letter to the People of Scotland_ (p. 25), he adds:--'Of whose

pious and animated society I had some share.' Southey thus describes

Whitefield in his _Life of Wesley_ (i. 126):--'His voice excelled both

in melody and compass, and its fine modulations were happily accompanied

by that grace of action which he possessed in an eminent degree, and

which has been said to be the chief requisite of an orator. An ignorant

man described his eloquence oddly but strikingly, when he said that Mr.

Whitefield preached like a lion. So strange a comparison conveyed no

unapt a notion of the force and vehemence and passion of that oratory

which awed the hearers, and made them tremble like Felix before the

apostle.' Benjamin Franklin writes (_Memoirs_, i. 163):--'Mr.

Whitefield's eloquence had a wonderful power over the hearts and purses

of his hearers, of which I myself was an instance.' He happened to be

present at a sermon which, he perceived, was to finish with a collection

for an object which had not his approbation. 'I silently resolved he

should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper

money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he

proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the copper. Another

stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that, and determined me to give

the silver; and he finished so admirably that I emptied my pocket wholly

into the collector's dish, gold and all.'

[236] 'What an idea may we not form of an interview between such a

scholar and philosopher as Mr. Johnson, and such a legislatour and

general as Paoli.' Boswell's _Corsica_, p. 198.

[237] Mr. Stewart, who in 1768 was sent on a secret mission to Paoli, in

his interesting report says:--'Religion seems to sit easy upon Paoli,

and notwithstanding what his historian Boswell relates, I take him to be

very free in his notions that way. This I suspect both from the strain

of his conversation, and from what I have learnt of his conduct towards

the clergy and monks.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_, ii. 158. See _post_,

April 14, 1775, where Johnson said:--'Sir, there is a great cry about

infidelity; but there are in reality very few infidels.' Yet not long

before he had complained of an 'inundation of impiety.' Boswell's

_Hebrides_, Sept. 30, 1773.

[238] I suppose Johnson said atmosphere. CROKER. In _Humphry Clinker_,

in the Letter of June 2, there is, however, a somewhat similar use of

the word. Lord Bute is described as 'the Caledonian luminary, that

lately blazed so bright in our hemisphere; methinks, at present, it

glimmers through a fog.' A star, however, unlike a cloud, may pass from

one hemisphere to the other.

[239] See _post_, under Nov. 5, 1775. Hannah More, writing in 1782

(_Memoirs_, i. 242), says:--'Paoli will not talk in English, and his

French is mixed with Italian. He speaks no language with purity.'

[240] Horace Walpole writes:--'Paoli had as much ease as suited a

prudence that seemed the utmost effort of a wary understanding, and was

so void of anything remarkable in his aspect, that being asked if I knew

who it was, I judged him a Scottish officer (for he was

sandy-complexioned and in regimentals), who was cautiously awaiting the

moment of promotion.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, iii. 387

[241] Boswell introduced this subject often. See _post_, Oct. 26, 1769,

April 15, 1778, March 14, 1781, and June 23, 1784. Like Milton's fallen

angels, he 'found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.' _Paradise Lost_,

ii. 561.

[242] 'To this wretched being, himself by his own misconduct lashed out

of human society, the stage was indebted for several very pure and

pleasing entertainments; among them, _Love in a Village_, _The Maid of

the Mill_.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 136. 'When,' says Mrs. Piozzi

(_Anec_. p. 168), 'Mr. Bickerstaff's flight confirmed the report of his

guilt, and my husband said in answer to Johnson's astonishment, that he

had long been a suspected man: "By those who look close to the ground

dirt will be seen, Sir, (was his lofty reply); I hope I see things from

a greater distance."' In the _Garrick Corres_ (i. 473) is a piteous

letter in bad French, written from St. Malo, by Bickerstaff to Garrick,

endorsed by Garrick, 'From that poor wretch Bickerstaff: I could not

answer it.'

[243] Boswell, only a couple of years before he published _The Life of

Johnson_, in fact while he was writing it, had written to Temple:--'I

was the _great man_ (as we used to say) at the late Drawing-room, in a

suit of imperial blue, lined with rose-coloured silk, and ornamented

with rich gold-wrought buttons.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 289.

[244] Miss Reynolds, in her _Recollections_ (Croker's _Boswell_, p.

831), says, 'One day at Sir Joshua Reynolds's Goldsmith was relating

with great indignation an insult he had just received from some

gentleman he had accidentally met. "The fellow," he said, "took me for a

tailor!" on which all the company either laughed aloud or showed they

suppressed a laugh.'

[245] In Prior's _Goldsmith_, ii. 232, is given Filby's Bill for a suit

of clothes sent to Goldsmith this very day:--

Oct. 16.-- AL s. d.

To making a half-dress

suit of ratteen, lined

with satin 12 12 0

To a pair of silk stocking

breeches 2 5 0

To a pair of _bloom-coloured

ditto 1 4 6

Nothing is said in this bill of the colour of the coat; it is the

breeches that are bloom-coloured. The tailor's name was William, not

John, Filby; _Ib_ i. 378, Goldsmith in his _Life of Nash_ had

said:--'Dress has a mechanical influence upon the mind, and we naturally

are awed into respect and esteem at the elegance of those whom even our

reason would teach us to contemn. He seemed early sensible of human

weakness in this respect; he brought a person genteelly dressed to every

assembly.' Cunningham's _Goldsmith's Works_, iv. 46.

[246] 'The _Characters of Men and Women_ are the product of diligent

speculation upon human life; much labour has been bestowed upon them,

and Pope very seldom laboured in vain.... The _Characters of Men_,

however, are written with more, if not with deeper thought, and exhibit

many passages exquisitely beautiful.... In the women's part are some

defects.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 341.

[247] Mr. Langton informed me that he once related to Johnson (on the

authority of Spence), that Pope himself admired those lines so much that

when he repeated them his voice faltered: 'and well it might, Sir,' said

Johnson, 'for they are noble lines.' J. BOSWELL, JUN.

[248] We have here an instance of that reserve which Boswell, in his

Dedication to Sir Joshua Reynolds (_ante_, i. 4), says that he has

practised. In one particular he had 'found the world to be a great

fool,' and, 'I have therefore,' as he writes, 'in this work been more

reserved;' yet the reserve is slight enough. Everyone guesses that 'one

of the company' was Boswell.

[249] Yet Johnson, in his _Life of Pope_ (_Works_, viii. 276), seems to

be much of Boswell's opinion; for in writing of _The Dunciad_, he

says:--'The subject itself had nothing generally interesting, for whom

did it concern to know that one or another scribbler was a dunce?'

[250] The opposite of this Johnson maintained on April 29, 1778.

[251] 'It is surely sufficient for an author of sixteen ... to have

obtained sufficient power of language and skill in metre, to exhibit a

series of versification which had in English poetry no precedent, nor

has since had an imitation.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 326.

[252] See _ante_, i. 129.

[253] 'If the flights of Dryden are higher, Pope continues longer on the

wing ... Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with

perpetual delight.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 325.

[254] Probably, says Mr. Croker, those quoted by Johnson in _The Life of

Dryden_. _Ib_ vii. 339.

[255] The Duke of Buckingham in Dryden's _Absalom and Achitophel_.

[256] _Prologue to the Satires_, I. 193.

[257]

Almeria.--'It was a fancy'd noise; for all is hush'd.

Leonora.--It bore the accent of a human voice.

Almeria.--It was thy fear, or else some transient wind

Whistling thro' hollows of this vaulted aisle;

We'll listen--

Leonora.--Hark!

Almeria.--No, all is hush'd and still as death,--'Tis dreadful!

How reverend is the face of this tall pile,

Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads,

To bear aloft its arch'd and ponderous roof,

By its own weight made stedfast and immoveable,

Looking tranquillity! It strikes an awe

And terror on my aching sight; the tombs

And monumental caves of death look cold,

And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart.

Give me thy hand, and let me hear thy voice;

Nay, quickly speak to me, and let me hear

Thy voice--my own affrights me with its echoes.

Act ii. sc. 1.

[258]

'Swear by thy gracious self,

Which is the god of my idolatry.'

_Romeo and Juliet_, act ii. sc. 2. He was a God with whom he ventured to

take great liberties. Thus on Jan. 10, 1776, he wrote:--'I have ventured

to produce _Hamlet_ with alterations. It was the most imprudent thing I

ever did in all my life; but I had sworn I would not leave the stage

till I had rescued that noble play from all the rubbish of the fifth

act. I have brought it forth without the grave-digger's trick and the

fencing match. The alterations were received with general approbation

beyond my most warm expectations.' _Garrick Corres_., ii. 126. See

_ante_, ii. 78, note 4.

[259] This comparison between Shakespeare and Congreve is mentioned

perhaps oftener than any passage in Boswell. Almost as often as it is

mentioned, it may be seen that Johnson's real opinion is misrepresented

or misunderstood. A few passages from his writings will shew how he

regarded the two men. In the _Life of Congreve_ (_Works_, viii. 31) he

repeats what he says here:--'If I were required to select from the whole

mass of English poetry the most poetical paragraph, I know not what I

could prefer to an exclamation in _The Mourning Bride_.' Yet in writing

of the same play, he says:--'In this play there is more bustle than

sentiment; the plot is busy and intricate, and the events take hold on

the attention; but, except a very few passages, we are rather amused

with noise and perplexed with stratagem, than entertained with any true

delineation of natural characters.' _Ib_, p. 26. In the preface to his

_Shakespeare_, published four years before this conversation, he almost

answered Garrick by anticipation. 'It was said of Euripides that every

verse was a precept; and it may be said of Shakespeare, that from his

works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence. Yet

his real power is not shown in the splendour of particular passages, but

by the progress of his fable, and the tenour of his dialogue, and he

that tries to recommend him by select quotations, will succeed like the

pedant in _Hierocles_, who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a

brick in his pocket as a specimen.' _Ib_, v. 106. Ignorant, indeed, is

he who thinks that Johnson was insensible to Shakespeare's 'transcendent

and unbounded genius,' to use the words that he himself applied to him.

_The Rambler_, No. 156. 'It may be doubtful,' he writes, 'whether from

all his successors more maxims of theoretical knowledge, or more rules

of practical prudence, can be collected than he alone has given to his

country.' _Works_, v. 131. 'He that has read Shakespeare with attention

will, perhaps, find little new in the crowded world.' _Ib_, p. 434. 'Let

him that is yet unacquainted with the powers of Shakespeare, and who

desires to feel the highest pleasure that the drama can give, read every

play, from the first scene to the last, with utter negligence of all his

commentators. When his fancy is once on the wing, let it not stoop at

correction or explanation.' _Ib_, p. 152. And lastly he quotes Dryden's

words [from Dryden's _Essay of Dramatick Poesie_, edit. of 1701, i. 19]

'that Shakespeare was the man who, of all modern and perhaps ancient

poets, had the largest and most comprehensive soul.' _Ib_, p. 153. Mrs.

Piozzi records (_Anec_., p. 58), that she 'forced Johnson one day in a

similar humour [to that in which he had praised Congreve] to prefer

Young's description of night to those of Shakespeare and Dryden.' He

ended however by saying:--'Young froths and foams and bubbles sometimes

very vigorously; but we must not compare the noise made by your

tea-kettle here with the roaring of the ocean.' See also _post_, p. 96.

[260] _Henry V_, act iv., Prologue.

[261] _Romeo and Juliet_, act iv., sc. 3.

[262] _King Lear_, act iv., sc. 6.

[263] See _ante_, July 26, 1763.

[264] See _ante_, i. 388.

[265] In spite of the gross nonsense that Voltaire has written about

Shakespeare, yet it was with justice that in a letter to Horace Walpole

(dated July 15, 1768,) he said:--'Je suis le premier qui ait fait

connaA(R)tre Shakespeare aux FranASec.ais.... Je peux vous assurer qu'avant moi

personne en France ne connaissait la poA(C)sie anglaise.' Voltaire's

_Works_, liv. 513.

[266] 'Of whom I acknowledge myself to be one, considering it as a piece

of the secondary or comparative species of criticism; and not of that

profound species which alone Dr. Johnson would allow to be "real

criticism." It is, besides, clearly and elegantly expressed, and has

done effectually what it professed to do, namely, vindicated Shakespeare

from the misrepresentations of Voltaire; and considering how many young

people were misled by his witty, though false observations, Mrs.

Montagu's Essay was of service to Shakspeare with a certain class of

readers, and is, therefore, entitled to praise. Johnson, I am assured,

allowed the merit which I have stated, saying, (with reference to

Voltaire,) "it is conclusive _ad hominem_."' BOSWELL. That this dull

essay, which would not do credit to a clever school-girl of seventeen,

should have had a fame, of which the echoes have not yet quite died out,

can only be fully explained by Mrs. Montagu's great wealth and position

in society. Contemptible as was her essay, yet a saying of hers about

Voltaire was clever. 'He sent to the Academy an invective [against

Shakespeare] that bears all the marks of passionate dotage. Mrs. Montagu

happened to be present when it was read. Suard, one of their writers,

said to her, "Je crois, Madame, que vous A¬tes un peu fAcchA(C) (sic) de ce

que vous venez d'entendre." She replied, "Moi, Monsieur! point du tout!

Je ne suis pas amie de M. Voltaire."' Walpole's _Letters_, vi. 394. Her

own _Letters_ are very pompous and very poor, and her wit would not seem

to have flashed often; for Miss Burney wrote of her:--'She reasons well,

and harangues well, but wit she has none.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i.

335. Yet in this same _Diary_ (i. 112) we find evidence of the absurdly

high estimate that was commonly formed of her. 'Mrs. Thrale asked me if

I did not want to see Mrs. Montagu. I truly said, I should be the most

insensible of all animals not to like to see our sex's glory.' That she

was a very extraordinary woman we have Johnson's word for it. (See

_post_, May 15, 1784.) It is impossible, however, to discover anything

that rises above commonplace in anything that she wrote, and, so far as

I know, that she said, with the exception of her one saying about

Voltaire. Johnson himself, in one of his letters to Mrs. Thrale, has a

laugh at her. He had mentioned Shakespeare, nature and friendship, and

continues:--'Now, of whom shall I proceed to speak? Of whom but Mrs.

Montagu? Having mentioned Shakespeare and Nature, does not the name of

Montagu force itself upon me? Such were the transitions of the ancients,

which now seem abrupt, because the intermediate idea is lost to modern

understandings. I wish her name had connected itself with friendship;

but, ah Colin, thy hopes are in vain.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 101. See

_post_, April 7, 1778.

[267] 'Reynolds is fond of her book, and I wonder at it; for neither I,

nor Beauclerk, nor Mrs. Thrale, could get through it.' Boswell's

_Hebrides_, Sept. 23, 1773.

[268] Lord Kames is 'the Scotchman.' See _ante_, i. 393.

[269] 'When Charles Townshend read some of Lord Kames's _Elements of

Criticism_, he said:--"This is the work of a dull man grown

whimsical"--a most characteristical account of Lord Kames as a writer.'

_Boswelliana_, p. 278. Hume wrote of it:--'Some parts of the work are

ingenious and curious; but it is too abstruse and crabbed ever to take

with the public.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 131. 'Kames,' he says, 'had

much provoked Voltaire, who never forgives, and never thinks any enemy

below his notice.' _Ib_, p. 195. Voltaire (_Works_, xliii. 302) thus

ridicules his book:--'Il nous prouve d'abord que nous avons cinq sens,

et que nous sentons moins l'impression douce faite sur nos yeux et sur

nos oreilles par les couleurs et par les sons que nous ne sentons un

grand coup sur la jambe ou sur la tA¬te.'

[270] L'AbbA(C) Dubos, 1670-1742. 'Tous les artistes lisent avec fruit ses

_RA(C)flexions sur la poA(C)sie, la peinture, et la musique_. C'est le livre

le plus utile qu'on ait jamais A(C)crit sur ces matiA"res chez aucune des

nations de l'Europe.' Voltaire's _SiA"cle de Louis XIV_, i. 81.

[271] Bouhours, 1628-1702. Voltaire, writing of Bouhours' _ManiA"re de

bien penser sur les ouvrages d'esprit_, says that he teaches young

people 'A A(C)viter l'enflure, l'obscuritA(C), le recherchA(C), et le faux.'

_Ib_, p. 54. Johnson, perhaps, knew him, through _The Spectator_, No.

62, where it is said that he has shown 'that it is impossible for any

thought to be beautiful which is not just, ... that the basis of all wit

is truth.'

[272] _Macbeth_, act iii. sc. 2.

[273] In _The False Alarm_, that was published less than three months

after this conversation, Johnson describes how petitions were got. 'The

progress of a petition is well known. An ejected placeman goes down to

his county or his borough, tells his friends of his inability to serve

them, and his constituents of the corruption of the Government. His

friends readily understand that he who can get nothing will have nothing

to give. They agree to proclaim a meeting; meat and drink are

plentifully provided, a crowd is easily brought together, and those who

think that they know the reason of their meeting, undertake to tell

those who know it not; ale and clamour unite their powers.... The

petition is read, and universally approved. Those who are sober enough

to write, add their names, and the rest would sign it if they could.'

_Works_, vi. 172. Yet, when the petitions for Dr. Dodd's life were

rejected, Johnson said:--'Surely the voice of the public when it calls

so loudly, and calls only for mercy, ought to be heard.' _Post_, June

28, 1777. Horace Walpole, writing of the numerous petitions presented to

the King this year (1769), blames 'an example so inconsistent with the

principles of liberty, as appealing to the Crown against the House of

Commons.' Some of them prayed for a dissolution of Parliament. _Memoirs

of the Reign of George III_, iii. 382, 390. Two years earlier Lord

Shelburne, when Secretary of State, had found among the subscribers to a

petition for his impeachment, a friend of his, a London alderman. 'Oh!

aye,' said the alderman when asked for an explanation, 'I did sign a

petition at the Royal Exchange, which they told me was for the

impeachment of a Minister; I always sign a petition to impeach a

Minister, and I recollect that as soon as I had subscribed it, twenty

more put their names to it.' _Parl. Hist_., xxxv. 167.

[274] See _post_, under March 24, 1776.

[275] Mr. Robert Chambers says that the author of the ballad was

Elizabeth Halket, wife of Sir Henry Wardlaw. She died about 1727. 'The

ballad of Hardyknute was the first poem I ever read, and it will be the

last I shall forget.' SIR WALTER SCOTT. Croker's _Boswell_, p. 205.

[276] John Ray published, in 1674, _A Collection of English Words_, &c.,

and _A Collection of English Proverbs_. In 1768 the two were published

in one volume.

[277] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 23, 1773.

[278]

'Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage.'

_Macbeth_, Act v. se. 5.

[279] In the _Garrick Corres_., i. 385, there is a letter from Mrs.

Montagu to Garrick, which shows the ridiculous way in which Shakespeare

was often patronised last century, and 'brought into notice.' She

says:--'Mrs. Montagu is a little jealous for poor Shakespeare, for if

Mr. Garrick often acts Kitely, Ben Jonson will eclipse his fame.'

[280] 'Familiar comedy is often more powerful on the theatre than in the

page; imperial tragedy is always less.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 122. See

also Boswell's _Hebrides_, August 15 and 16, 1773, where Johnson

'displayed another of his heterodox opinions--a contempt of tragick

acting.' Murphy (_Life_, p. 145) thus writes of Johnson's slighting

Garrick and the stage:--'The fact was, Johnson could not see the

passions as they rose and chased one another in the varied features of

that expressive face; and by his own manner of reciting verses, which

was wonderfully impressive, he plainly showed that he thought there was

too much of artificial tone and measured cadence in the declamation of

the theatre.' Reynolds said of Johnson's recitation, that 'it had no

more tone than it should the have.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 26, 1773.

See _post_, April 3, 1773.

[281] See _post_, April 6, 1775, where Johnson, speaking of Cibber's

'talents of conversation,' said:--'He had but half to furnish; for one

half of what he said was oaths.'

[282] See _ante_, June 13, 1763.

[283] See _post_, Sept. 21, 1777.

[284] On Oct. 18, one day, not two days before, four men were hanged at

Tyburn for robbery on the highway, one for stealing money and linen, and

one for forgery. _Gent. Mag_., xxxix. 508. Boswell, in _The

Hypochondriack_, No. 68 (_London Mag_. for 1783, p. 203), republishes a

letter which he had written on April 25, 1768, to the _Public

Advertiser_, after he had witnessed the execution of an attorney named

Gibbon, and a youthful highwayman. He says:--'I must confess that I

myself am never absent from a public execution.... When I first attended

them, I was shocked to the greatest degree. I was in a manner convulsed

with pity and terror, and for several days, but especially nights after,

I was in a very dismal situation. Still, however, I persisted in

attending them, and by degrees my sensibility abated, so that I can now

see one with great composure. I can account for this curiosity in a

philosophical manner, when I consider that death is the most awful

object before every man, whoever directs his thoughts seriously towards

futurity. Therefore it is that I feel an irresistible impulse to be

present at every execution, as I there behold the various effects of the

near approach of death.' He maintains 'that the curiosity which impels

people to be present at such affecting scenes, is certainly a proof of

sensibility, not of callousness. For, it is observed, that the greatest

proportion of the spectators is composed of women.' See _post_, June

23, 1784.

[285] Of Johnson, perhaps, might almost be said what he said of Swift

(_Works_, viii. 207):--'The thoughts of death rushed upon him at this

time with such incessant importunity that they took possession of his

mind, when he first waked, for many hours together.' Writing to Mrs.

Thrale from Lichfield on Oct. 27, 1781, he says:--'All here is gloomy; a

faint struggle with the tediousness of time, a doleful confession of

present misery, and the approach seen and felt of what is most dreaded

and most shunned. But such is the lot of man.' _Piozzi Letters_,

ii. 209.

[286] Johnson, during a serious illness, thus wrote to Mrs.

Thrale:--'When any man finds himself disposed to complain with how

little care he is regarded, let him reflect how little he contributed to

the happiness of others, and how little, for the most part, he suffers

from their pain. It is perhaps not to be lamented that those solicitudes

are not long nor frequent which must commonly be vain; nor can we wonder

that, in a state in which all have so much to feel of their own evils,

very few have leisure for those of another.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 14.

See _post_, Sept. 14, 1777.

[287] 'I was shocked to find a letter from Dr. Holland, to the effect

that poor Harry Hallam is dying at Sienna [Vienna]. What a trial for my

dear old friend! I feel for the lad himself, too. Much distressed. I

dined, however. We dine, unless the blow comes very, very near the heart

indeed.' Macaulay's _Life_, ii. 287. See also _ante_, i. 355.

[288] See _post_, Feb. 24, 1773, for 'a furious quarrel' between Davies

and Baretti.

[289] Foote, two or three years before this, had lost one leg through an

accident in hunting. Forster's _Essays_, ii. 398. See _post_, under

Feb. 7, 1775.

[290] When Mr. Foote was at Edinburgh, he thought fit to entertain a

numerous Scotch company, with a great deal of coarse jocularity, at the

expense of Dr. Johnson, imagining it would be acceptable. I felt this as

not civil to me; but sat very patiently till he had exhausted his

merriment on that subject; and then observed, that surely Johnson must

be allowed to have some sterling wit, and that I had heard him say a

very good thing of Mr. Foote himself. 'Ah, my old friend Sam (cried

Foote), no man says better things; do let us have it.' Upon which I told

the above story, which produced a very loud laugh from the company. But

I never saw Foote so disconcerted. He looked grave and angry, and

entered into a serious refutation of the justice of the remark. 'What,

Sir, (said he), talk thus of a man of liberal education;--a man who for

years was at the University of Oxford;--a man who has added sixteen new

characters to the English drama of his country!' BOSWELL.

Foote was at Worcester College, but he left without taking his degree.

He was constantly in scrapes. When the Provost, Dr. Gower, who was a

pedant, sent for him to reprimand him, 'Foote would present himself with

great apparent gravity and submission, but with a large dictionary under

his arm; when, on the doctor beginning in his usual pompous manner with

a surprisingly long word, he would immediately interrupt him, and, after

begging pardon with great formality, would produce his dictionary, and

pretending to find the meaning of the word, would say, "Very well, Sir;

now please to go on."' Forster's _Essays_, ii. 307. Dr. Gower is

mentioned by Dr. King (_Anec_., p. 174) as one of the three persons he

had known 'who spoke English with that elegance and propriety, that if

all they said had been immediately committed to writing, any judge of

the language would have pronounced it an excellent and very beautiful

style.' The other two were Bishop Atterbury and Dr. Johnson.

[291] _Cento_. A composition formed by joining scrapes from other

authours.' Johnson's _Dictionary_.

[292] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 30, 1773.

[293] For the position of these chaplains see _The Tatler_, No. 255, and

_The Guardian_, No. 163.

[294] 'He had been assailed in the grossest manner possible by a woman

of the town, and, driving her off with a blow, was set upon by three

bullies. He thereupon ran away in great fear, for he was a timid man,

and being pursued, had stabbed two of the men with a small knife he

carried in his pocket.' Garrick and Beauclerk testified that every one

abroad carried such a knife, for in foreign inns only forks were

provided. 'When you travel abroad do you carry such knives as this?'

Garrick was asked. 'Yes,' he answered, 'or we should have no victuals.'

_Dr. Johnson: His Friends and His Critics_, p. 288. I have extracted

from the _Sessional Reports_ for 1769, p. 431, the following evidence as

to Baretti's character:--'SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. I have known Mr. Baretti

fifteen or sixteen years. He is a man of great humanity, and very active

in endeavouring to help his friends. He is a gentleman of a good temper;

I never knew him quarrelsome in my life; he is of a sober

disposition.... This affair was on a club night of the Royal

Academicians. We expected him there, and were inquiring about him before

we heard of this accident. He is secretary for foreign correspondence.'

'DR. JOHNSON. I believe I began to be acquainted with Mr. Baretti about

the year '53 or '54. I have been intimate with him. He is a man of

literature, a very studious man, a man of great diligence. He gets his

living by study. I have no reason to think he was ever disordered with

liquor in his life. A man that I never knew to be otherwise than

peaceable, and a man that I take to be rather timorous.' Qu. 'Was he

addicted to pick up women in the street?' 'Dr. J. I never knew that he

was.' Qu. 'How is he as to his eye-sight?' 'Dr. J. He does not see me

now, nor I do not [sic] see him. I do not believe he could be capable of

assaulting anybody in the street without great provocation.' 'EDMUND

BURKE, ESQ. I have known him between three and four years; he is an

ingenious man, a man of remarkable humanity--a thorough good-natured

man.' 'DAVID GARRICK, ESQ. I never knew a man of a more active

benevolence.... He is a man of great probity and morals.' 'DR.

GOLDSMITH. I have had the honour of Mr. Baretti's company at my chambers

in the Temple. He is a most humane, benevolent, peaceable man.... He is

a man of as great humanity as any in the world.' Mr. Fitzherbert and Dr.

Hallifax also gave evidence. 'There were divers other gentlemen in court

to speak for his character, but the Court thought it needless to call

them.' It is curious that Boswell passes over Reynolds and Goldsmith

among the witnesses. Baretti's bail before Lord Mansfield were Burke,

Garrick, Reynolds, and Fitzherbert. Mrs. Piozzi tells the following

anecdotes of Baretti:--'When Johnson and Burke went to see him in

Newgate, they had small comfort to give him, and bid him not hope too

strongly. "Why, what can _he_ fear," says Baretti, placing himself

between them, "that holds two such hands as I do?" An Italian came one

day to Baretti, when he was in Newgate, to desire a letter of

recommendation for the teaching his scholars, when he (Baretti) should

be hanged. "You rascal," replies Baretti in a rage, "if I were not _in

my own apartment_, I would kick you down stairs directly."' Hayward's

_Piazzi_, ii. 348. Dr. T. Campbell, in his _Diary_ (p. 52), wrote on

April 1, 1775:--'Boswell and Baretti, as I learned, are mortal foes; so

much so that Murphy and Mrs. Thrale agreed that Boswell expressed a

desire that Baretti should be hanged upon that unfortunate affair of his

killing, &c.'

[295] Lord Auchinleck, we may assume. Johnson said of Pope, that 'he was

one of those few whose labor is their pleasure.' _Works_, viii. 321.

[296] I have since had reason to think that I was mistaken; for I have

been informed by a lady, who was long intimate with her, and likely to

be a more accurate observer of such matters, that she had acquired such

a niceness of touch, as to know, by the feeling on the outside of the

cup, how near it was to being full. BOSWELL. Baretti, in a MS. note on

_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 84, says:--'I dined with Dr. Johnson as seldom as

I could, though often scolded for it; but I hated to see the victuals

pawed by poor Mrs. Williams, that would often carve, though

stone blind.'

[297] See _ante_, July 1 and Aug. 2, 1763.

[298] See _ante_, i. 232.

[299] An Italian quack who in 1765 established medicated baths in Cheney

Walk, Chelsea. CROKER.

[300] The same saying is recorded _post_, May 15, 1784, and in Boswell's

_Hebrides_, Oct. 5, 1773. 'Cooke reports another saying of Goldsmith's

to the same effect:--"There's no chance for you in arguing with Johnson.

Like the Tartar horse, if he does not conquer you in front, his kick

from behind is sure to be fatal."' Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 167. 'In

arguing,' wrote Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'Johnson did not trouble himself

with much circumlocution, but opposed directly and abruptly his

antagonist. He fought with all sorts of weapons--ludicrous comparisons

and similies; if all failed, with rudeness and overbearing. He thought

it necessary never to be worsted in argument. He had one virtue which I

hold one of the most difficult to practise. After the heat of contest

was over, if he had been informed that his antagonist resented his

rudeness, he was the first to seek after a reconciliation.... That he

was not thus strenuous for victory with his intimates in tA¬te-A -tA¬te

conversations when there were no witnesses, may be easily believed.

Indeed, had his conduct been to them the same as he exhibited to the

public, his friends could never have entertained that love and affection

for him which they all feel and profess for his memory.' Taylor's

_Reynolds_, ii. 457, 462.

[301] He had written the _Introduction_ to it. _Ante_, p. 317.

[302] See _post_, beginning of 1770.

[303] He accompanied Boswell on his tour to the Hebrides. Boswell's

_Hebrides_, Aug. 18, 1773.

[304] While he was in Scotland he never entered one of the churches. 'I

will not give a sanction,' he said, 'by my presence, to a Presbyterian

assembly.' _Ib_ Aug. 27, 1773. When he was in France he went to a Roman

Catholic service; _post_, Oct. 29, 1775.

[305] See _post_, March 21, 1772.

[306] See _ante_, ii. 82.

[307] See _post_, March 27, 1772.

[308] See _post_, May 7, 1773, Oct. 10, 1779, and June 9, 1784.

[309] _St. James_, v. 16.

[310] See _post_, June 28, 1777, note.

[311] Laceration was properly a term of surgery; hence the italics. See

_post_, Jan. 20, 1780.

[312] See _post_, April 15, 1778.

[313] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 12, 1773.

[314] He bids us pray 'For faith that panting for a happier seat, Counts

death kind nature's signal of retreat.'

[315]

'To die is landing on some silent shore,

Where billows never beat, nor tempests roar,

Ere well we feel the friendly stroke, 'tis o'er.'

GARTH. Quoted in Johnson's _Works_, vi. 61. Bacon, if he was the author

of _An Essay on Death_, says, 'I do not believe that any man fears to be

dead, but only the stroke of death.' Spedding's _Bacon_, vi. 600. Cicero

(_Tuscul. Quaest_. i. 8) quotes Epicharmus's saying:--'Emori nolo, sed

me esse mortuum nihil aestimo.'

[316] See _post_, beginning of 1773.

[317] See _post_, April 17, 1778.

[318] Perhaps _on_ is a misprint for _or_.

[319] Johnson says of Blackmore (_Works_, viii. 36) that 'he is one of

those men whose lot it has been to be much oftener mentioned by enemies

than by friends.'

[320] This account Johnson says he had from an eminent bookseller, who

had it from Ambrose Philips the poet. 'The relation of Philips,' he

adds, 'I suppose was true; but when all reasonable, all credible

allowance is made for this friendly revision, the author will still

retain an ample dividend of praise.... Correction seldom effects more

than the suppression of faults: a happy line, or a single elegance, may

perhaps be added, but of a large work the general character must always

remain.' _Works_, viii. 41.

[321] An acute correspondent of the _European Magazine_, April, 1792,

has completely exposed a mistake which has been unaccountably frequent

in ascribing these lines to Blackmore, notwithstanding that Sir Richard

Steele, in that very popular work, _The Spectator_, mentions them as

written by the Authour of The British Princes, the Honourable Edward

Howard. The correspondent above mentioned, shews this mistake to be so

inveterate, that not only _I_ defended the lines as Blackmore's, in the

presence of Dr. Johnson, without any contradiction or doubt of their

authenticity, but that the Reverend Mr. Whitaker has asserted in print,

that he understands they were _suppressed_ in the late edition or

editions of Blackmore. 'After all (says this intelligent writer) it is

not unworthy of particular observation, that these lines so often quoted

do not exist either in Blackmore or Howard.' In _The British Princes_,

8vo. 1669, now before me, p. 96, they stand thus:--

'A vest as admired Voltiger had on, Which, from this Island's foes, his

grandsire won, Whose artful colour pass'd the Tyrian dye, Oblig'd to

triumph in this legacy.'

It is probable, I think, that some wag, in order to make Howard still

more ridiculous than he really was, has formed the couplet as it now

circulates. BOSWELL. Swift in his _Poetry: A Rhapsody_, thus joins

Howard and Blackmore together:--

'Remains a difficulty still,

To purchase fame by writing ill.

From Flecknoe down to Howard's time

How few have reached the low sublime!

For when our high-born Howard died,

Blackmore alone his place supplied.'

_Swift's Works_ (1803), xi. 296.

[322] Boswell seems to have borrowed the notion from _The Spectator_,

No. 43, where Steele, after saying that the poet blundered because he

was 'vivacious as well as stupid,' continues:--'A fool of a colder

constitution would have staid to have flayed the Pict, and made buff of

his skin for the wearing of the conqueror.'

[323] See _ante_, ii. 100, note 1.

[324] Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 97) tells how one day at Streatham 'when

he was musing over the fire, a young gentleman called to him suddenly,

and I suppose he thought disrespectfully, in these words:--"Mr.

Johnson, would you advise me to marry?" "I would advise no man to marry,

Sir," returns for answer in a very angry tone Dr. Johnson, "who is not

likely to propagate understanding," and so left the room. Our companion

looked confounded, and I believe had scarce recovered the consciousness

of his own existence, when Johnson came back, and drawing his chair

among us, with altered looks and a softened voice, joined in the general

chat, insensibly led the conversation to the subject of marriage, where

he laid himself out in a dissertation so useful, so elegant, so founded

on the true knowledge of human life, and so adorned with beauty of

sentiment, that no one ever recollected the offence except to rejoice in

its consequences.' This 'young gentleman,' according to Mr. Hayward

(Mrs. Piozzi's _Auto_. i. 69), was Sir John Lade, the hero of the ballad

which Johnson recited on his death-bed. For other instances of Johnson's

seeking a reconciliation, see _post_, May 7, 1773, and April 12 and

May 8, 1778.

[325] '_The False Alarm_, his first and favourite pamphlet, was written

at our house between eight o'clock on Wednesday night and twelve o'clock

on Thursday night. We read it to Mr. Thrale when he came very late home

from the House of Commons.' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 41. See also _post_,

Nov. 26, 1774, where Johnson says that '_The Patriot_ was called for by

my political friends on Friday, was written on Saturday.'

[326] Wilkes was first elected member for Middlesex at the General

Election of March, 1768. He did not take his seat, having been thrown

into prison before Parliament met. On Feb. 3, 1769, he was declared

incapable of being elected, and a new writ was ordered. On Feb. 16 he

was again elected, and without opposition. His election was again

declared void. On March 16 he was a third time elected, and without

opposition. His election was again declared void. On April 13 he was a

fourth time elected by 1143 votes against 296 given for Colonel

Luttrell. On the 14th the poll taken for him was declared null and void,

and on the 15th, Colonel Luttrell was declared duly elected. _Parl.

Hist_. xvi. 437, and Almon's _Wilkes_, iv. 4. See _post_, Oct. 12, 1779.

[327] The resolution of expulsion was carried on Feb. 17, 1769. _Parl.

Hist_. xvi. 577. It was expunged on May 3, 1782. _Ib_ xxii. 1407.

[328] In the original it is not _rulers_, but _railers_. Johnson's

_Works_, vi. 176.

[329] How slight the change of system was is shown by a passage in

Forster's _Goldsmith_, ii. 388. Mr. Forster mentions a 'memorial in

favour of the most worthless of hack-partizans, Shebbeare, which

obtained for him his pension of AL200 a year. It is signed by fifteen

members of the House of Commons, and it asks for a pension "that he may

be enabled to pursue that laudable _inclination which he has_ of

manifesting his zeal for the service of his Majesty and his Government";

in other words, that a rascal shall be bribed to support a corrupt

administration.' Horace Walpole, in 1757 (_Letters_, iii. 54), described

Shebbeare as one 'who made a pious resolution of writing himself into a

place or the pillory, but who miscarried in both views.' He added in a

note, 'he did write himself into a pillory before the conclusion of that

reign, and into a pension at the beginning of the next, for one and the

same kind of merit--writing against King William and the Revolution.'