'Edinburgh, March 12, 1778.
'MY DEAR SIR,
'The alarm of your late illness distressed me but a few hours; for on
the evening of the day that it reached me, I found it contradicted in
_The London Chronicle_, which I could depend upon as authentick
concerning you, Mr. Strahan being the printer of it. I did not see the
paper in which "the approaching extinction of a bright luminary" was
announced. Sir William Forbes told me of it; and he says, he saw me so
uneasy, that he did not give me the report in such strong terms as he
read it. He afterwards sent me a letter from Mr. Langton to him, which
relieved me much. I am, however, not quite easy, as I have not heard
from you; and now I shall not have that comfort before I see you, for I
set out for London to-morrow before the post comes in. I hope to be with
you on Wednesday morning; and I ever am, with the highest veneration, my
dear Sir, your much obliged, faithful, and affectionate,
'Humble servant,
'JAMES BOSWELL.'
On Wednesday, March 18, I arrived in London, and was informed by good
Mr. Francis that his master was better, and was gone to Mr. Thrale's at
Streatham, to which place I wrote to him, begging to know when he would
be in town. He was not expected for some time; but next day having
called on Dr. Taylor, in Dean's-yard, Westminster, I found him there,
and was told he had come to town for a few hours. He met me with his
usual kindness, but instantly returned to the writing of something on
which he was employed when I came in, and on which he seemed much
intent. Finding him thus engaged, I made my visit very short, and had no
more of his conversation, except his expressing a serious regret that a
friend of ours[625] was living at too much expence, considering how poor
an appearance he made: 'If (said he) a man has splendour from his
expence, if he spends his money in pride or in pleasure, he has value:
but if he lets others spend it for him, which is most commonly the case,
he has no advantage from it.'
On Friday, March 20, I found him at his own house, sitting with Mrs.
Williams, and was informed that the room formerly allotted to me[626] was
now appropriated to a charitable purpose; Mrs. Desmoulins[627], and I
think her daughter, and a Miss Carmichael, being all lodged in it. Such
was his humanity, and such his generosity, that Mrs. Desmoulins herself
told me, he allowed her half-a-guinea a week. Let it be remembered, that
this was above a twelfth part of his pension.
His liberality, indeed, was at all periods of his life very remarkable.
Mr. Howard, of Lichfield, at whose father's house Johnson had in his
early years been kindly received, told me, that when he was a boy at the
Charter-House, his father wrote to him to go and pay a visit to Mr.
Samuel Johnson, which he accordingly did, and found him in an upper
room, of poor appearance. Johnson received him with much courteousness,
and talked a great deal to him, as to a school-boy, of the course of his
education, and other particulars. When he afterwards came to know and
understand the high character of this great man, he recollected his
condescension with wonder. He added, that when he was going away, Mr.
Johnson presented him with half-a-guinea; and this, said Mr. Howard, was
at a time when he probably had not another.
We retired from Mrs. Williams to another room. Tom Davies soon after
joined us. He had now unfortunately failed in his circumstances, and was
much indebted to Dr. Johnson's kindness for obtaining for him many
alleviations of his distress[628]. After he went away, Johnson blamed his
folly in quitting the stage, by which he and his wife got five hundred
pounds a year. I said, I believed it was owing to Churchill's attack
upon him,
'He mouths a sentence, as curs mouth a bone[629].'
JOHNSON. 'I believe so too, Sir. But what a man is he, who is to be
driven from the stage by a line? Another line would have driven him from
his shop.'
I told him, that I was engaged as Counsel at the bar of the House of
Commons to oppose a road-bill in the county of Stirling, and asked him
what mode he would advise me to follow in addressing such an audience.
JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, you must provide yourself with a good deal of
extraneous matter, which you are to produce occasionally, so as to fill
up the time; for you must consider, that they do not listen much. If you
begin with the strength of your cause, it may be lost before they begin
to listen. When you catch a moment of attention, press the merits of the
question upon them.' He said, as to one point of the merits, that he
thought 'it would be a wrong thing to deprive the small landholders of
the privilege of assessing themselves for making and repairing the high
roads; _it was destroying a certain portion of liberty, without a good
reason, which was always a bad thing_! When I mentioned this observation
next day to Mr. Wilkes, he pleasantly said, 'What! does _he_ talk of
liberty? _Liberty_ is as ridiculous in _his_ mouth as _Religion_ in
_mine_!' Mr. Wilkes's advice, as to the best mode of speaking at the bar
of the House of Commons, was not more respectful towards the senate,
than that of Dr. Johnson. 'Be as impudent as you can, as merry as you
can, and say whatever comes uppermost. Jack Lee[630] is the best heard
there of any Counsel; and he is the most impudent dog, and always
abusing us.'
In my interview with Dr. Johnson this evening, I was quite easy, quite
as his companion; upon which I find in my Journal the following
reflection: 'So ready is my mind to suggest matter for dissatisfaction,
that I felt a sort of regret that I was so easy. I missed that aweful
reverence with which I used to contemplate MR. SAMUEL JOHNSON, in the
complex magnitude of his literary, moral, and religious character. I
have a wonderful superstitious love of _mystery_; when, perhaps, the
truth is, that it is owing to the cloudy darkness of my own mind. I
should be glad that I am more advanced in my progress of being, so that
I can view Dr. Johnson with a steadier and clearer eye. My
dissatisfaction to-night was foolish. Would it not be foolish to regret
that we shall have less mystery in a future state? That we "now see
in[631] a glass darkly," but shall "then see face to face?"' This
reflection, which I thus freely communicate, will be valued by the
thinking part of my readers, who may have themselves experienced a
similar state of mind.
He returned next day to Streatham, to Mr. Thrale's; where, as Mr.
Strahan once complained to me, 'he was in a great measure absorbed from
the society of his old friends[632].' I was kept in London by business,
and wrote to him on the 27th, that a separation from him for a week,
when we were so near, was equal to a separation for a year, when we were
at four hundred miles distance. I went to Streatham on Monday, March 30.
Before he appeared, Mrs. Thrale made a very characteristical remark:--'I
do not know for certain what will please Dr. Johnson: but I know for
certain that it will displease him to praise any thing, even what he
likes, extravagantly[633].'
At dinner he laughed at querulous declamations against the age, on
account of luxury[634],--increase of London,--scarcity of provisions,--and
other such topicks. 'Houses (said he) will be built till rents fall: and
corn is more plentiful now than ever it was[635].'
I had before dinner repeated a ridiculous story told me by an old man
who had been a passenger with me in the stage-coach to-day. Mrs. Thrale,
having taken occasion to allude to it in talking to me, called it 'The
story told you by the old _woman_.'--'Now, Madam, (said I,) give me
leave to catch you in the fact; it was not an old _woman_, but an old
_man_, whom I mentioned as having told me this.' I presumed to take an
opportunity, in presence of Johnson, of shewing this lively lady how
ready she was, unintentionally, to deviate from exact authenticity of
narration[636].
_Thomas à Kempis_ (he observed) must be a good book, as the world has
opened its arms to receive it. It is said to have been printed, in one
language or other, as many times as there have been months since it
first came out[637]. I always was struck with this sentence in it: 'Be not
angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you
cannot make yourself as you wish to be[638].'
He said, 'I was angry with Hurd about Cowley, for having published a
selection of his works: but, upon better consideration, I think there is
no impropriety in a man's publishing as much as he chooses of any
authour, if he does not put the rest out of the way. A man, for
instance, may print the _Odes_ of Horace alone.' He seemed to be in a
more indulgent humour, than when this subject was discussed between him
and Mr. Murphy[639].
When we were at tea and coffee, there came in Lord Trimlestown, in whose
family was an ancient Irish peerage, but it suffered by taking the
generous side in the troubles of the last century[640]. He was a man of
pleasing conversation, and was accompanied by a young gentleman, his
son.
I mentioned that I had in my possession the _Life of Sir Robert
Sibbald_, the celebrated Scottish antiquary, and founder of the Royal
College of Physicians at Edinburgh, in the original manuscript in his
own handwriting; and that it was I believed the most natural and candid
account of himself that ever was given by any man. As an instance, he
tells that the Duke of Perth, then Chancellor of Scotland, pressed him
very much to come over to the Roman Catholick faith: that he resisted
all his Grace's arguments for a considerable time, till one day he felt
himself, as it were, instantaneously convinced, and with tears in his
eyes ran into the Duke's arms, and embraced the ancient religion; that
he continued very steady in it for some time, and accompanied his Grace
to London one winter, and lived in his household; that there he found
the rigid fasting prescribed by the church very severe upon him; that
this disposed him to reconsider the controversy, and having then seen
that he was in the wrong, he returned to Protestantism. I talked of some
time or other publishing this curious life. MRS. THRALE. 'I think you
had as well let alone that publication. To discover such weakness,
exposes a man when he is gone.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, it is an honest picture
of human nature. How often are the primary motives of our greatest
actions as small as Sibbald's, for his re-conversion[641].' MRS. THRALE.
'But may they not as well be forgotten?' JOHNSON. 'No, Madam, a man
loves to review his own mind. That is the use of a diary, or
journal[642].' LORD TRIMLESTOWN. 'True, Sir. As the ladies love to see
themselves in a glass; so a man likes to see himself in his journal.'
BOSWELL. 'A very pretty allusion.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, indeed.' BOSWELL. 'And
as a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character
by looking at his journal.' I next year found the very same thought in
Atterbury's _Funeral Sermon on Lady Cutts_; where, having mentioned her
_Diary_, he says, 'In this glass she every day dressed her mind.' This
is a proof of coincidence, and not of plagiarism; for I had never read
that sermon before.
Next morning, while we were at breakfast, Johnson gave a very earnest
recommendation of what he himself practised with the utmost
conscientiousness: I mean a strict attention to truth, even in the most
minute particulars. 'Accustom your children (said he) constantly to
this; if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say
that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check
them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end.' BOSWELL. 'It
may come to the door: and when once an account is at all varied in one
circumstance, it may by degrees be varied so as to be totally different
from what really happened.' Our lively hostess, whose fancy was
impatient of the rein, fidgeted at this, and ventured to say, 'Nay, this
is too much. If Mr. Johnson should forbid me to drink tea, I would
comply, as I should feel the restraint only twice a day; but little
variations in narrative must happen a thousand times a day, if one is
not perpetually watching.' JOHNSON. 'Well, Madam, and you _ought_ to be
perpetually watching. It is more from carelessness about truth than from
intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world[643].'
In his review of Dr. Warton's _Essay on the Writings and Genius of
Pope_, Johnson has given the following salutary caution upon this
subject:--
'Nothing but experience could evince the frequency of false information,
or enable any man to conceive that so many groundless reports should be
propagated, as every man of eminence may hear of himself. Some men
relate what they think, as what they know; some men of confused memories
and habitual inaccuracy, ascribe to one man what belongs to another; and
some talk on, without thought or care. A few men are sufficient to
broach falsehoods, which are afterwards innocently diffused by
successive relaters[644].'
Had he lived to read what Sir John Hawkins and Mrs. Piozzi have related
concerning himself, how much would he have found his observation
illustrated. He was indeed so much impressed with the prevalence of
falsehood, voluntary or unintentional, that I never knew any person who
upon hearing an extraordinary circumstance told, discovered more of the
_incredulus odi_[645]. He would say, with a significant look and decisive
tone, 'It is not so. Do not tell this again[646].' He inculcated upon all
his friends the importance of perpetual vigilance against the slightest
degrees of falsehood; the effect of which, as Sir Joshua Reynolds
observed to me, has been, that all who were of his _school_ are
distinguished for a love of truth and accuracy, which they would not
have possessed in the same degree, if they had not been acquainted with
Johnson[647].
Talking of ghosts, he said, 'It is wonderful that five thousand years
have now elapsed since the creation of the world, and still it is
undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance of the spirit
of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it; but all
belief is for it[648].'
He said, 'John Wesley's conversation is good[649], but he is never at
leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour[650]. This is very
disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have out his talk,
as I do.'
On Friday, April 3, I dined with him in London, in a company[651] where
were present several eminent men, whom I shall not name, but distinguish
their parts in the conversation by different letters.
F. 'I have been looking at this famous antique marble dog of Mr.
Jennings, valued at a thousand guineas, said to be Alcibiades's dog.'
JOHNSON. 'His tail then must be docked. That was the mark of
Alcibiades's dog[652].' E. 'A thousand guineas! The representation of no
animal whatever is worth so much, at this rate a dead dog would indeed
be better than a living lion.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is not the worth of the
thing, but of the skill in forming it which is so highly estimated.
Every thing that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shews man he
can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable. The first man who
balanced a straw upon his nose[653]; Johnson, who rode upon three horses
at a time[654]; in short, all such men deserved the applause of mankind,
not on account of the use of what they did, but of the dexterity which
they exhibited.' BOSWELL. 'Yet a misapplication of time and assiduity is
not to be encouraged. Addison, in one of his _Spectators_, commends the
judgement of a King, who, as a suitable reward to a man that by long
perseverance had attained to the art of throwing a barleycorn through
the eye of a needle, gave him a bushel of barley.' JOHNSON. 'He must
have been a King of Scotland, where barley is scarce.' F. 'One of the
most remarkable antique figures of an animal is the boar at Florence.'
JOHNSON. 'The first boar that is well made in marble, should be
preserved as a wonder. When men arrive at a facility of making boars
well, then the workmanship is not of such value, but they should however
be preserved as examples, and as a greater security for the restoration
of the art, should it be lost.'
E. 'We hear prodigious[655] complaints at present of emigration[656]. I am
convinced that emigration makes a country more populous.' J. 'That
sounds very much like a paradox.' E. 'Exportation of men, like
exportation of all other commodities, makes more be produced.' JOHNSON.
'But there would be more people were there not emigration, provided
there were food for more.' E. 'No; leave a few breeders, and you'll have
more people than if there were no emigration.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, it is
plain there will be more people, if there are more breeders. Thirty cows
in good pasture will produce more calves than ten cows, provided they
have good bulls.' E. 'There are bulls enough in Ireland.' JOHNSON.
(smiling,) 'So, Sir, I should think from your argument.' BOSWELL. 'You
said, exportation of men, like exportation of other commodities, makes
more be produced. But a bounty is given to encourage the exportation of
corn[657], and no bounty is given for the exportation of men; though,
indeed, those who go, gain by it.' R. 'But the bounty on the exportation
of corn is paid at home.' E. 'That's the same thing.' JOHNSON. 'No,
Sir.' R. 'A man who stays at home, gains nothing by his neighbours
emigrating.' BOSWELL. 'I can understand that emigration may be the cause
that more people may be produced in a country; but the country will not
therefore be the more populous; for the people issue from it. It can
only be said that there is a flow of people. It is an encouragement to
have children, to know that they can get a living by emigration.' R.
'Yes, if there were an emigration of children under six years of age.
But they don't emigrate till they could earn their livelihood in some
way at home.' C. 'It is remarkable that the most unhealthy countries,
where there are the most destructive diseases, such as Egypt and Bengal,
are the most populous.' JOHNSON. 'Countries which are the most populous
have the most destructive diseases. _That_ is the true state of the
proposition.' C. 'Holland is very unhealthy, yet it is exceedingly
populous.' JOHNSON. 'I know not that Holland is unhealthy. But its
populousness is owing to an influx of people from all other countries.
Disease cannot be the cause of populousness, for it not only carries off
a great proportion of the people, but those who are left are weakened
and unfit for the purposes of increase.'
R. 'Mr. E., I don't mean to flatter, but when posterity reads one of
your speeches in Parliament, it will be difficult to believe that you
took so much pains, knowing with certainty that it could produce no
effect, that not one vote would be gained by it[658].' E. 'Waiving your
compliment to me, I shall say in general, that it is very well worth
while for a man to take pains to speak well in Parliament. A man, who
has vanity, speaks to display his talents; and if a man speaks well, he
gradually establishes a certain reputation and consequence in the
general opinion, which sooner or later will have its political reward.
Besides, though not one vote is gained, a good speech has its effect.
Though an act which has been ably opposed passes into a law, yet in its
progress it is modelled, it is softened in such a manner, that we see
plainly the Minister has been told, that the Members attached to him are
so sensible of its injustice or absurdity from what they have heard,
that it must be altered[659].' JOHNSON. 'And, Sir, there is a
gratification of pride. Though we cannot out-vote them we will out-argue
them. They shall not do wrong without its being shown both to themselves
and to the world.' E. 'The House of Commons is a mixed body. (I except
the Minority, which I hold to be pure, [smiling] but I take the whole
House.) It is a mass by no means pure; but neither is it wholly corrupt,
though there is a large proportion of corruption in it. There are many
members who generally go with the Minister, who will not go all lengths.
There are many honest well-meaning country gentleman who are in
parliament only to keep up the consequence of their families. Upon most
of these a good speech will have influence.' JOHNSON. 'We are all more
or less governed by interest. But interest will not make us do every
thing. In a case which admits of doubt, we try to think on the side
which is for our interest, and generally bring ourselves to act
accordingly. But the subject must admit of diversity of colouring; it
must receive a colour on that side. In the House of Commons there are
members enough who will not vote what is grossly unjust or absurd. No,
Sir, there must always be right enough, or appearance of right, to keep
wrong in countenance.' BOSWELL. 'There is surely always a majority in
parliament who have places, or who want to have them, and who therefore
will be generally ready to support government without requiring any
pretext.' E. 'True, Sir; that majority will always follow
"_Quo clamor vocat et turba, faventium_[660]."'
BOSWELL. 'Well now, let us take the common phrase, Place-hunters. I
thought they had hunted without regard to any thing, just as their
huntsmen, the Minister, leads, looking only to the prey[661].' J. 'But
taking your metaphor, you know that in hunting there are few so
desperately keen as to follow without reserve. Some do not choose to
leap ditches and hedges and risk their necks, or gallop over steeps, or
even to dirty themselves in bogs and mire.' BOSWELL. 'I am glad there
are some good, quiet, moderate political hunters.' E. 'I believe, in any
body of men in England, I should have been in the Minority; I have
always been in the Minority.' P. 'The House of Commons resembles a
private company. How seldom is any man convinced by another's argument;
passion and pride rise against it.' R. 'What would be the consequence,
if a Minister, sure of a majority in the House of Commons, should
resolve that there should be no speaking at all upon his side.' E. 'He
must soon go out. That has been tried; but it was found it would not
do.'
E. 'The Irish language is not primitive; it is Teutonick, a mixture of
the northern tongues: it has much English in it.' JOHNSON. 'It may have
been radically Teutonick; but English and High Dutch have no similarity
to the eye, though radically the same. Once, when looking into Low
Dutch, I found, in a whole page, only one word similar to English;
_stroem_, like _stream_, and it signified _tide_'. E. 'I remember having
seen a Dutch Sonnet, in which I found this word, _roesnopies_. Nobody
would at first think that this could be English; but, when we enquire,
we find _roes_, rose, and _nopie_, knob; so we have _rosebuds_'.
JOHNSON. 'I have been reading Thicknesse's _Travels_, which I think are
entertaining.' BOSWELL. 'What, Sir, a good book?' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, to
read once; I do not say you are to make a study of it, and digest it;
and I believe it to be a true book in his intention. All travellers
generally mean to tell truth; though Thicknesse observes, upon Smollet's
account of his alarming a whole town in France by firing a
blunderbuss[662], and frightening a French nobleman till he made him tie
on his portmanteau[663], that he would be loth to say Smollet had told two
lies in one page; but he had found the only town in France where these
things could have happened[664]. Travellers must often be mistaken. In
every thing, except where mensuration can be applied, they may honestly
differ. There has been, of late, a strange turn in travellers to be
displeased[665].'
E. 'From the experience which I have had,--and I have had a great
deal,--I have learnt to think _better_ of mankind[666].' JOHNSON. 'From my
experience I have found them worse in commercial dealings, more disposed
to cheat, than I had any notion of; but more disposed to do one another
good than I had conceived[667].' J. 'Less just and more beneficent.'
JOHNSON. 'And really it is wonderful, considering how much attention is
necessary for men to take care of themselves, and ward off immediate
evils which press upon them, it is wonderful how much they do for
others. As it is said of the greatest liar, that he tells more truth
than falsehood; so it may be said of the worst man, that he does more
good than evil[668].' BOSWELL. 'Perhaps from experience men may be found
happier than we suppose.' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; the more we enquire, we
shall find men the less happy.' P. 'As to thinking better or worse of
mankind from experience, some cunning people will not be satisfied
unless they have put men to the test, as they think. There is a very
good story told of Sir Godfrey Kneller, in his character of a Justice of
the peace. A gentleman brought his servant before him, upon an
accusation of having stolen some money from him; but it having come out
that he had laid it purposely in the servant's way, in order to try his
honesty, Sir Godfrey sent the master to prison[669].' JOHNSON. 'To resist
temptation once, is not a sufficient proof of honesty. If a servant,
indeed, were to resist the continued temptation of silver lying in a
window, as some people let it lye, when he is sure his master does not
know how much there is of it, he would give a strong proof of honesty.
But this is a proof to which you have no right to put a man. You know,
humanly speaking, there is a certain degree of temptation, which will
overcome any virtue. Now, in so far as you approach temptation to a man,
you do him an injury; and, if he is overcome, you share his guilt.' P.
'And, when once overcome, it is easier for him to be got the better of
again.' BOSWELL. 'Yes, you are his seducer; you have debauched him. I
have known a man[670] resolved to put friendship to the test, by asking a
friend to lend him money merely with that view, when he did not want
it.' JOHNSON. 'That is very wrong, Sir. Your friend may be a narrow man,
and yet have many good qualities: narrowness may be his only fault. Now
you are trying his general character as a friend, by one particular
singly, in which he happens to be defective, when, in truth, his
character is composed of many particulars.'
E. 'I understand the hogshead of claret, which this society was favoured
with by our friend the Dean[671], is nearly out; I think he should be
written to, to send another of the same kind. Let the request be made
with a happy ambiguity of expression, so that we may have the chance of
his sending _it_ also as a present.' JOHNSON. 'I am willing to offer my
services as secretary on this occasion.' P. 'As many as are for Dr.
Johnson being secretary hold up your hands.--Carried unanimously.'
BOSWELL. 'He will be our Dictator.' JOHNSON. 'No, the company is to
dictate to me. I am only to write for wine; and I am quite
disinterested, as I drink none; I shall not be suspected of having
forged the application. I am no more than humble _scribe_.' E. 'Then you
shall _pre_scribe.' BOSWELL. 'Very well. The first play of words
to-day.' J. 'No, no; the _bulls_ in Ireland.' JOHNSON. 'Were I your
Dictator you should have no wine. It would be my business _cavere ne
quid detrimenti Respublica caperet_, and wine is dangerous. Rome was
ruined by luxury,' (smiling.) E. 'If you allow no wine as Dictator, you
shall not have me for your master of horse.'
On Saturday, April 4, I drank tea with Johnson at Dr. Taylor's, where he
had dined. He entertained us with an account of a tragedy written by a
Dr. Kennedy, (not the Lisbon physician.) 'The catastrophe of it (said
he) was, that a King, who was jealous of his Queen with his
prime-minister, castrated himself[672]. This tragedy was actually shewn
about in manuscript to several people, and, amongst others, to Mr.
Fitzherbert, who repeated to me two lines of the Prologue:
"Our hero's fate we have but gently touch'd;
The fair might blame us, if it were less couch'd."
It is hardly to be believed what absurd and indecent images men will
introduce into their writings, without being sensible of the absurdity
and indecency. I remember Lord Orrery told me, that there was a pamphlet
written against Sir Robert Walpole, the whole of which was an allegory
on the PHALLICK OBSCENITY. The Duchess of Buckingham asked Lord Orrery
_who_ this person was? He answered he did not know. She said, she would
send to Mr. Pulteney, who, she supposed, could inform her. So then, to
prevent her from making herself ridiculous, Lord Orrery sent her Grace a
note, in which he gave her to understand what was meant.'
He was very silent this evening; and read in a variety of books:
suddenly throwing down one, and taking up another.
He talked of going to Streatham that night. TAYLOR. 'You'll be robbed if
you do: or you must shoot a highwayman[673]. Now I would rather be robbed
than do that; I would not shoot a highwayman.' JOHNSON. 'But I would
rather shoot him in the instant when he is attempting to rob me, than
afterwards swear against him at the Old-Bailey, to take away his life,
after he has robbed me[674]. I am surer I am right in the one case than in
the other. I may be mistaken as to the man, when I swear: I cannot be
mistaken, if I shoot him in the act. Besides, we feel less reluctance
reluctance to take away a man's life, when we are heated by the injury,
than to do it at a distance of time by an oath, after we have cooled.'
BOSWELL. 'So, Sir, you would rather act from the motive of private
passion, than that of publick advantage.' JOHNSON. 'Nay, Sir, when I
shoot the highwayman I act from both.' BOSWELL. 'Very well, very
well.--There is no catching him.' JOHNSON. 'At the same time one does
not know what to say. For perhaps one may, a year after, hang himself
from uneasiness for having shot a man[675]. Few minds are fit to be
trusted with so great a thing.' BOSWELL. 'Then, Sir, you would not shoot
him?' JOHNSON. 'But I might be vexed afterwards for that too[676].'
Thrale's carriage not having come for him, as he expected, I accompanied
him some part of the way home to his own house. I told him, that I had
talked of him to Mr. Dunning[677] a few days before, and had said, that in
his company we did not so much interchange conversation, as listen to
him; and that Dunning observed, upon this, 'One is always willing to
listen to Dr. Johnson:' to which I answered, 'That is a great deal from
you, Sir.'--'Yes, Sir, (said Johnson,) a great deal indeed. Here is a
man willing to listen, to whom the world is listening all the rest of
the year.' BOSWELL. 'I think, Sir, it is right to tell one man of such a
handsome thing, which has been said of him by another. It tends to
increase benevolence.' JOHNSON. 'Undoubtedly it is right, Sir[678].'
On Tuesday, April 7, I breakfasted with him at his house. He said,
'nobody was content.' I mentioned to him a respectable person[679] in
Scotland whom he knew; and I asserted, that I really believed he was
always content. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir, he is not content with the present;
he has always some new scheme, some new plantation, something which is
future. You know he was not content as a widower; for he married again.'
BOSWELL. 'But he is not restless.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, he is only locally at
rest. A chymist is locally at rest; but his mind is hard at work. This
gentleman has done with external exertions. It is too late for him to
engage in distant projects.' BOSWELL. 'He seems to amuse himself quite
well; to have his attention fixed, and his tranquillity preserved by
very small matters. I have tried this; but it would not do with me.'
JOHNSON, (laughing) 'No, Sir; it must be born with a man to be contented
to take up with little things. Women have a great advantage that they
may take up with little things, without disgracing themselves: a man
cannot, except with fiddling. Had I learnt to fiddle, I should have done
nothing else[680].' BOSWELL. 'Pray, Sir, did you ever play on any musical
instrument?' JOHNSON. 'No, Sir. I once bought me a flagelet; but I never
made out a tune.' BOSWELL. 'A flagelet, Sir!--so small an instrument[681]?
I should have liked to hear you play on the violoncello. _That_ should
have been _your_ instrument.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, I might as well have played
on the violoncello as another; but I should have done nothing else. No,
Sir; a man would never undertake great things, could he be amused with
small. I once tried knotting. Dempster's sister undertook to teach me;
but I could not learn it[682].' BOSWELL. 'So, Sir; it will be related in
pompous narrative, "Once for his amusement he tried knotting; nor did
this Hercules disdain the distaff."' JOHNSON. 'Knitting of stockings is
a good amusement. As a freeman of Aberdeen[683] I should be a knitter of
stockings.' He asked me to go down with him and dine at Mr. Thrale's at
Streatham, to which I agreed. I had lent him _An Account of Scotland, in
1702_, written by a man of various enquiry, an English chaplain to a
regiment stationed there. JOHNSON. 'It is sad stuff, Sir, miserably
written, as books in general then were. There is now an elegance of
style universally diffused.[684] No man now writes so ill as Martin's
_Account of the Hebrides_ is written. A man could not write so ill, if
he should try. Set a merchant's clerk now to write, and he'll do
better[685].'
He talked to me with serious concern of a certain female friend's
'laxity of narration, and inattention to truth.'--'I am as much vexed
(said he) at the ease with which she hears it mentioned to her, as at
the thing itself. I told her, "Madam, you are contented to hear every
day said to you, what the highest of mankind have died for, rather than
bear."--You know, Sir, the highest of mankind have died rather than bear
to be told they had uttered a falsehood. Do talk to her of it[686]: I am
weary.'
BOSWELL. 'Was not Dr. John Campbell a very inaccurate man in his
narrative, Sir? He once told me, that he drank thirteen bottles of port
at a sitting.'[687] JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, I do not know that Campbell ever
lied with pen and ink; but you could not entirely depend on any thing he
told you in conversation: if there was fact mixed with it. However, I
loved Campbell: he was a solid orthodox man: he had a reverence for
religion. Though defective in practice, he was religious in principle;
and he did nothing grossly wrong that I have heard[688].'
I told him, that I had been present the day before, when Mrs. Montagu,
the literary lady[689], sat to Miss Reynolds for her picture; and that she
said, 'she had bound up Mr. Gibbon's _History_ without the last two
offensive chapters[690]; for that she thought the book so far good, as it
gave, in an elegant manner, the substance of the bad writers _medii
aevi_, which the late Lord Lyttelton advised her to read.' JOHNSON.
'Sir, she has not read them: she shews none of this impetuosity to me:
she does not know Greek, and, I fancy, knows little Latin. She is
willing you should think she knows them; but she does not say she
does[691].' BOSWELL. 'Mr. Harris, who was present, agreed with her.'
JOHNSON. 'Harris was laughing at her, Sir. Harris is a sound sullen
scholar; he does not like interlopers. Harris, however, is a prig, and a
bad prig[692]. I looked into his book[693], and thought he did not
understand his own system.' BOSWELL. 'He says plain things in a formal
and abstract way, to be sure: but his method is good: for to have clear
notions upon any subject, we must have recourse to analytick
arrangement.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, it is what every body does, whether they
will or no. But sometimes things may be made darker by definition. I see
a _cow_, I define her, _Animal quadrupes ruminans cornutum_. But a goat
ruminates, and a cow may have no horns. _Cow_ is plainer.' BOSWELL. 'I
think Dr. Franklin's definition of _Man_ a good one--"A tool-making
animal."' JOHNSON. 'But many a man never made a tool; and suppose a man
without arms, he could not make a tool.'
Talking of drinking wine, he said, 'I did not leave off wine, because I
could not bear it; I have drunk three bottles of port without being the
worse for it. University College has witnessed this[694].' BOSWELL. 'Why
then, Sir, did you leave it off?' JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, because it is so
much better for a man to be sure that he is never to be intoxicated,
never to lose the power over himself[695]. I shall not begin to drink wine
again, till I grow old, and want it.' BOSWELL. 'I think, Sir, you once
said to me, that not to drink wine was a great deduction from life.'
JOHNSON. 'It is a diminution of pleasure, to be sure; but I do not say a
diminution of happiness. There is more happiness in being rational.'
BOSWELL. 'But if we could have pleasure always, should not we be happy?
The greatest part of men would compound for pleasure.' JOHNSON.
'Supposing we could have pleasure always, an intellectual man would not
compound for it. The greatest part of men would compound, because the
greatest part of men are gross.' BOSWELL. 'I allow there may be greater
pleasure than from wine. I have had more pleasure from your
conversation, I have indeed; I assure you I have.' JOHNSON. 'When we
talk of pleasure, we mean sensual pleasure. When a man says, he had
pleasure with a woman, he does not mean conversation, but something of a
very different nature. Philosophers tell you, that pleasure is
_contrary_ to happiness. Gross men prefer animal pleasure. So there are
men who have preferred living among savages. Now what a wretch must he
be, who is content with such conversation as can be had among savages!
You may remember an officer at Fort Augustus[696], who had served in
America, told us of a woman whom they were obliged to _bind_, in order
to get her back from savage life.' BOSWELL. 'She must have been an
animal, a beast.' JOHNSON. 'Sir, she was a speaking cat.'
I mentioned to him that I had become very weary in a company where I
heard not a single intellectual sentence, except that 'a man who had
been settled ten years in Minorca was become a much inferiour man to
what he was in London, because a man's mind grows narrow in a narrow
place.' JOHNSON. 'A man's mind grows narrow in a narrow place, whose
mind is enlarged only because he has lived in a large place: but what is
got by books and thinking is preserved in a narrow place as well as in a
large place. A man cannot know modes of life as well in Minorca as in
London; but he may study mathematicks as well in Minorca.' BOSWELL. 'I
don't know, Sir: if you had remained ten years in the Isle of Col, you
would not have been the man that you now are.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, Sir, if I
had been there from fifteen to twenty-five; but not if from twenty-five
to thirty-five.' BOSWELL. 'I own, Sir, the spirits which I have in
London make me do every thing with more readiness and vigour. I can talk
twice as much in London as any where else[697].'
Of Goldsmith he said, 'He was not an agreeable companion, for he talked
always for fame[698]. A man who does so never can be pleasing. The man who
talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you. An eminent
friend[699] of ours is not so agreeable as the variety of his knowledge
would otherwise make him, because he talks partly from ostentation.'
Soon after our arrival at Thrale's, I heard one of the maids calling
eagerly on another, to go to Dr. Johnson. I wondered what this could
mean. I afterwards learnt, that it was to give her a Bible, which he had
brought from London as a present to her.
He was for a considerable time occupied in reading _Mémoires de
Fontenelle_, leaning and swinging upon the low gate into the court,
without his hat.
I looked into Lord Kames's _Sketches of the History of Man_; and
mentioned to Dr. Johnson his censure of Charles the Fifth, for
celebrating his funeral obsequies in his life-time, which, I told him, I
had been used to think a solemn and affecting act[700]. JOHNSON. 'Why,
Sir, a man may dispose his mind to think so of that act of Charles; but
it is so liable to ridicule, that if one man out of ten thousand laughs
at it, he'll make the other nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine
laugh too.' I could not agree with him in this.
Sir John Pringle had expressed a wish that I would ask Dr. Johnson's
opinion what were the best English sermons for style. I took an
opportunity to-day of mentioning several to him.--_Atterbury_? JOHNSON.
'Yes, Sir, one of the best.' BOSWELL. _Tillotson_? JOHNSON. 'Why, not
now. I should not advise a preacher at this day to imitate Tillotson's
style: though I don't know; I should be cautious of objecting to what
has been applauded by so many suffrages.--_South_ is one of the best, if
you except his peculiarities, and his violence, and sometimes coarseness
of language.--_Seed_ has a very fine style; but he is not very
theological.--_Jortin's_ sermons are very elegant.--_Sherlock's_ style
too is very elegant, though he has not made it his principal study.--And
you may add _Smallridge_. All the latter preachers have a good style.
Indeed, nobody now talks much of style: every body composes pretty
well.[701] There are no such unharmonious periods as there were a hundred
years ago. I should recommend Dr. _Clarke's_ sermons, were he
orthodox.[702] However, it is very well known _where_ he was not orthodox,
which was upon the doctrine of the Trinity, as to which he is a
condemned heretick; so one is aware of it.' BOSWELL. 'I like Ogden's
_Sermons on Prayer_ very much, both for neatness of style and subtilty
of reasoning.' JOHNSON. 'I should like to read all that Ogden has
written.'[703] BOSWELL. 'What I wish to know is, what sermons afford the
best specimen of English pulpit eloquence.' JOHNSON. 'We have no sermons
addressed to the passions that are good for any thing; if you mean that
kind of eloquence.' A CLERGYMAN: (whose name I do not recollect.) 'Were
not Dodd's sermons addressed to the passions?' JOHNSON. 'They were
nothing, Sir, be they addressed to what they may.'
At dinner, Mrs. Thrale expressed a wish to go and see Scotland. JOHNSON.
'Seeing Scotland, Madam, is only seeing a worse England. It is seeing
the flower gradually fade away to the naked stalk. Seeing the Hebrides,
indeed, is seeing quite a different scene.'
Our poor friend, Mr. Thomas Davies[704], was soon to have a benefit at
Drury-lane theatre, as some relief to his unfortunate circumstances. We
were all warmly interested for his success, and had contributed to it.
However, we thought there was no harm in having our joke, when he could
not be hurt by it. I proposed that he should be brought on to speak a
Prologue upon the occasion; and I began to mutter fragments of what it
might be: as, that when now grown _old_, he was obliged to cry, 'Poor
Tom's _a-cold_[705];'--that he owned he had been driven from the stage by
a Churchill, but that this was no disgrace, for a Churchill[706] had beat
the French;--that he had been satyrised as 'mouthing a sentence as curs
mouth a bone,' but he was now glad of a bone to pick.--'Nay, (said
Johnson,) I would have him to say,
"Mad Tom is come to see the world again[707]."'
He and I returned to town in the evening. Upon the road, I endeavoured
to maintain, in argument, that a landed gentleman is not under any
obligation to reside upon his estate; and that by living in London he
does no injury to his country. JOHNSON. 'Why, Sir, he does no injury to
his country in general, because the money which he draws from it gets
back again in circulation; but to his particular district, his
particular parish, he does an injury. All that he has to give away is
not given to those who have the first claim to it. And though I have
said that the money circulates back, it is a long time before that
happens. Then, Sir, a man of family and estate ought to consider himself
as having the charge of a district, over which he is to diffuse civility
and happiness[708].'
Next day I found him at home in the morning. He praised Delany's
_Observations on Swift_; said that his book and Lord Orrery's might both
be true, though one viewed Swift more, and the other less favourably;
and that, between both, we might have a complete notion of Swift[709].
Talking of a man's resolving to deny himself the use of wine, from moral
and religious considerations, he said, 'He must not doubt about it. When
one doubts as to pleasure, we know what will be the conclusion. I now no
more think of drinking wine, than a horse does. The wine upon the table
is no more for me, than for the dog that is under the table.'[710]
On Thursday, April 9, I dined with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, with
the Bishop of St. Asaph,[711] (Dr. Shipley,) Mr. Allan Ramsay[712], Mr.
Gibbon, Mr. Cambridge, and Mr. Langton. Mr. Ramsay had lately returned
from Italy, and entertained us with his observations upon Horace's
villa, which he had examined with great care. I relished this much, as
it brought fresh into my mind what I had viewed with great pleasure
thirteen years before. The Bishop, Dr. Johnson, and Mr. Cambridge,
joined with Mr. Ramsay, in recollecting the various lines in Horace
relating to the subject.
Horace's journey to Brundusium being mentioned, Johnson observed, that
the brook which he describes is to be seen now, exactly as at that
time,[713] and that he had often wondered how it happened, that small
brooks, such as this, kept the same situation for ages, notwithstanding
earthquakes, by which even mountains have been changed, and agriculture,
which produces such a variation upon the surface of the earth.
CAMBRIDGE. 'A Spanish writer has this thought in a poetical conceit.
After observing that most of the solid structures of Rome are totally
perished, while the Tiber remains the same, he adds,
'_Lo que èra Firme huió solamente,
Lo Fugitivo permanece y dura_[714].'