He had, however, no misgivings, for he t_Life of Johnson, Volume 3 1776-1780

'Then for the guerdon of my lay,

This man with faithful friendship, will I say,

From youth to honoured age my arts and me hath viewed.'

[7] We have now more knowledge generally diffused; all our ladies read

now 'which is a great extension.' _Post_, April 29, 1778.

[8] See _post_, April, 28, 1783.

[9] See _post_, March 22, 1783.

[10] See _post_, March 18, 1784.

[11] Newbery, the publisher, was the vendor of Dr. James's famous

powder. It was known that on the doctor's death a chemist whom he had

employed meant to try to steal the business, under the pretence that

he alone knew the secret of the preparation. A supply of powders enough

to last for many years was laid in by Newbery in anticipation, while

James left an affidavit that the chemist was never employed in the

manufacture. He, however, asserted that James was deprived of his mental

faculties when the affidavit was made. Evidence against this was

collected and published; the conclusion to the Preface being written by

Johnson. _A Bookseller of the Last Century_, p. 138. See _ante_, i.

159.

[12] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on the birth of a second son who died

early:--'I congratulate you upon your boy; but you must not think that I

shall love him all at once as well as I love Harry, for Harry you know

is so rational. I shall love him by degrees.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 206.

A week after Harry's death he wrote:--'I loved him as I never expect to

love any other little boy; but I could not love him as a parent.' _Ib_.

p. 310.

[13] Johnson had known this anxiety. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale from

Ashbourne on July 7, 1775:--'I cannot think why I hear nothing from you.

I hope and fear about my dear friends at Streatham. But I may have a

letter this afternoon--Sure it will bring me no bad news.' _Ib_. i. 263.

See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 21, 1773.

[14] See _ante_, ii. 75.

[15] _ante_, April 10, 1775.

[16] See _ante_, March 21, 1776, and _post_, Sept. 19, 1777.

[17] The phrase 'vexing thoughts,' is I think, very expressive. It has

been familiar to me from my childhood; for it is to be found in the

_Psalms in Metre_, used in the churches (I believe I should say _kirks_)

of Scotland, _Psal_. xliii. v. 5;

'Why art thou then cast down, my soul?

What should discourage thee?

And why with _vexing thoughts art_ thou

Disquieted in me?'

Some allowance must no doubt be made for early prepossession. But at a

maturer period of life, after looking at various metrical versions of

the _Psalms_, I am well satisfied that the version used in Scotland is,

upon the whole, the best; and that it has in general a simplicity and

_unction_ of sacred Poesy; and in many parts its transfusion is

admirable. BOSWELL.

[18] 'Burke and Reynolds are the same one day as another,' Johnson said,

_post_, under Sept. 22, 1777. Boswell celebrates Reynolds's 'equal and

placid temper,' _ante_, i. I. On Aug. 12, 1775, he wrote to Temple:--'It

is absurd to hope for continual happiness in this life; few men, if any,

enjoy it. I have a kind of belief that Edmund Burke does; he has so much

knowledge, so much animation, and the consciousness of so much fame.'

_Letters of Boswell_, p. 212.

[19] _ante_, i. 446.

[20] Baretti says, that 'Mrs. Thrale abruptly proposed to start for Bath,

as wishing to avoid the sight of the funeral. She had no man-friend to

go with her,' and so he offered his services. Johnson at that moment

arrived. 'I expected that he would spare me the jaunt, and go himself to

Bath with her; but he made no motion to that effect.' _European Mag_.

xiii. 315. It was on the evening of the 29th that Boswell found Johnson,

as he thought, not in very good humour. Yet on the 30th he wrote to Mrs.

Thrale, and called on Mr. Thrale. On April 1 and April 4 he again wrote

to Mrs. Thrale. He would have gone a second time, he says, to see Mr.

Thrale, had he not been made to understand that when he was wanted he

would be sent for. _Piozzi Letters_, i. 309-314.

[21] Pope, _Essay on Man_, iv. 390. Boswell twice more applies the same

line to Johnson, post, June 3, 1781, and under Dec. 13, 1784.

[22] Imlac consoles the Princess for the loss of Pekuah. 'When the

clouds of sorrow gather over us, we see nothing beyond them, nor can

imagine how they will be dispelled; yet a new day succeeded to the

night, and sorrow is never long without a dawn of ease. But they who

restrain themselves from receiving comfort do as the savages would have

done, had they put out their eyes when it was dark.' _Rasselas_, ch. 35.

'Keep yourself busy,' wrote Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, 'and you will in

time grow cheerful. New prospects may open, and new enjoyments may come

within your reach.' _Piozzi Letters_.

[23] See _ante_, i. 86. It was reprinted in 1789.

[24] See Boswell's _Hebrides_ under Nov. 11, 1773.

[25] See _post_, under April 29, 1776.

[26] In like manner he writes, 'I catched for the moment an enthusiasm

with respect to visiting the Wall of China.' _post_ April 10, 1778.

Johnson had had some desire to go upon Cook's expedition in 1772.

_ante_, March 21, 1772.

[27] Mme. D'Arblay (_Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, i. 284) describes 'the

perfect case with which Omai managed a sword which he had received from

the King, and which he had that day put on for the first time in order

to go to the House of Lords.' He is the 'gentle savage' in Cowpers

_Task_, i. 632.

[28] See ante, ii. 50.

[29] Voltaire (_Siècle de Louis XV_, ch. xv.), in his account of the

battle of Fontenoy, thus mentions him:--'On était à cinquante pas de

distance.... Les officiers anglais saluèrent les Français en ôtant leurs

chapeaux.... Les officiers des gardes françaises leur rendirent le

salut, Mylord Charles Hay, capitaine aux gardes anglaises,

cria:--_Messieurs des gardes françaises, tirez_. Le comte d'Auteroche

leur dit a voix haute:--_Messieurs, nous ne tirons jamais les premiers;

tirez vous-mêmes_.'

[30] See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's _Collection_. Hay was third in

command in the expedition to North America in 1757. It was reported that

he said that 'the nation's wealth was expended in making sham-fights and

planting cabbages.' He was put under arrest and sent home to be tried.

_Gent. Mag_. 1758, p. 170. Mr. Croker says that 'the real state of the

case was that he had gone mad, and was in that state sent home.' He died

before the sentence of the court-martial was promulgated. Croker's

_Boswell_, p. 497.

[31] In _Thoughts on the Coronation of George III_ (_Works_, v. 458) he

expressed himself differently, if indeed the passage is of his writing

(see _ante_, i. 361). He says: 'It cannot but offend every Englishman to

see troops of soldiers placed between him and his sovereign, as if they

were the most honourable of the people, or the King required guards to

secure his person from his subjects. As their station makes them think

themselves important, their insolence is always such as may be expected

from servile authority.' In his _Journey to the Hebrides_ (_ib_. ix. 30)

he speaks of 'that courtesy which is so closely connected with the

military character.' See _post_, April 10, 1778.

[32] 'It is not in the power even of God to make a polite

soldier.' Meander; quoted by Hume, _Essays_, Part i. 20, note.

[33] In Johnson's Debates for 1741 (_Works_, x. 387) is on the

quartering of soldiers. By the Mutiny Act the innkeeper was required to

find each foot-soldier lodging, diet, and small beer for fourpence a

day. By the Act as amended that year if he furnished salt, vinegar,

small-beer, candles, fire, and utensils to dress their victuals, without

payment, he had not to supply diet except on a march. _Ib_. pp. 416,

420. The allowance of small-beer was fixed at five pints a day, though

it was maintained that it should be six. Lord Baltimore, according to

Johnson, said that 'as every gentleman's servants each consumed daily

six pints, it surely is not to be required that a soldier should live in

a perpetual state of warfare with his constitution.' _Ib_. p. 418.

Burke, writing in 1794, says:--'In quarters the innkeepers are obliged

to find for the soldiers lodging, fire, candle-light, small-beer, salt

and vinegar gratis.' Burke's _Corres_. iv. 258. Johnson wrote in 1758

(_Works_, vi. 150):--'The manner in which the soldiers are dispersed in

quarters over the country during times of peace naturally produces

laxity of discipline; they are very little in sight of their officers;

and when they are not engaged in the slight duty of the guard are

suffered to live every man his own way.' Fielding, in _Tom Jones_, bk.

ix. ch. 6, humourously describes an innkeeper's grievances.

[34] This alludes to the pleadings of a Stoic and an Epicurean for and

against the existence of the Divinity in Lucian's _Jupiter the Tragic_.

CROKER.

[35] 'There is a time when every man is weary of raising difficulties

only to ask himself with the solution and desires to enjoy truth without

the labour or hazard of contest.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 497. See _ante_

May 7, 1773, and _post_, April 3, 1779, where he says, 'Sir, you are to

a certain degree hurt by knowing that even one man does not believe.'

Hume, in his Essay _Of Parties in General_, had written:--'Such is the

nature of the human mind, that it always takes hold of every mind that

approaches it; and as it is wonderfully fortified and corroborated by

an unanimity of sentiments, so is it, shocked and disturbed by any

contrariety.' 'Carlyle was fond of quoting a sentence of Novalis:--"My

conviction gains infinitely the moment another soul will believe in

it."' _Saturday Review_, No. 1538, p. 521. 'The introducing of new

doctrines,' said Bacon, 'is an affectation of tyranny over the

understandings and beliefs of men.' Bacon's _Nat. Hist_., Experiment

1000.

[36] 'We must own,' said Johnson, 'that neither a dull boy, nor an idle

boy, will do so well at a great school as at a private one.' Boswell's

_Hebrides_, Aug. 22, 1773. See _ante_, under Dec. 5, 1775. On June 16,

1784, he said of a very timid boy:--'Placing him at a public school is

forcing an owl upon day.' Lord Shelburne says that the first Pitt told

him 'that his reason for preferring private to public education was,

that he scarce observed a boy who was not cowed for life at Eton; that a

public school might suit a boy of a turbulent forward disposition, but

would not do where there was any gentleness.' Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_,

i. 72.

[37] 'There are,' wrote Hume in 1767, 'several advantages of a Scots

education; but the question is, whether that of the language does not

counterbalance them, and determine the preference to the English.' He

decides it does. He continues:--'The only inconvenience is, that few

Scotsmen that have had an English education have ever settled cordially

in their own country; and they have been commonly lost ever after to

their friends.' J.H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 403.

[38] He wrote to Temple on Nov. 28, 1789:--'My eldest son has been at

Eton since the 15th of October. You cannot imagine how miserable he has

been; he wrote to me for some time as if from the galleys, and

intreated me to come to him.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 314. On July 21,

1790, he wrote of his second son who was at home ill:--'I am in great

concern what should be done with him, for he is so oppressed at

Westminster School by the big boys that I am almost afraid to send him

thither.' _Ib_. p. 327. On April 6, 1791, he wrote:--'Your little friend

James is quite reconciled to Westminster.' _Ib_. p. 337. Southey, who

was at Westminster with young Boswell, describes 'the capricious and

dangerous tyranny' under which he himself had suffered. Southey's

_Life_, i. 138.

[39] Horace, Satires, i. 6. 65-88.

[40] Dr. Adam Smith, who was for some time a Professor in the

University of Glasgow, has uttered, in his _Wealth of Nations_ [v. I,

iii. 2], some reflections upon this subject which are certainly not well

founded, and seem to be invidious. BOSWELL.

[41] See _ante,_ ii. 98.

[42] Gibbon denied this. 'The diligence of the tutors is voluntary, and

will consequently be languid, while the pupils themselves, or their

parents, are not indulged in the liberty of choice or change,' _Misc.

Works_, i. 54. Of one of his tutors he wrote:--'He well remembered that

he had a salary to receive, and only forgot that he had a duty to

perform.' _Ib_. p. 58. Boswell, _post_, end of Nov. 1784, blames Dr.

Knox for 'ungraciously attacking his venerable _Alma Mater_.' Knox, who

was a Fellow of St. John's, left Oxford in 1778. In his _Liberal

Education_, published in 1781, he wrote:--'I saw immorality, habitual

drunkenness, idleness and ignorance, boastingly obtruding themselves on

public view.' Knox's _Works_, iv. 138. 'The general tendency of the

universities is favourable to the diffusion of ignorance, idleness,

vice, and infidelity among young men.' _Ib_. p. 147. 'In no part of the

kingdom will you meet with more licentious practices and sentiments, and

with less learning than in some colleges.' _Ib_. p. 179. 'The tutors

give what are called lectures. The boys construe a classic, the jolly

young tutor lolls in his elbow-chair, and seldom gives himself the

trouble of interrupting the greatest dunce.' _Ib_. p. 199. 'Some

societies would have been glad to shut themselves up by themselves, and

enjoy the good things of the cook and manciple, without the intrusion of

commoners who come for education.' _Ib_. p. 200. 'The principal thing

required is external respect from the juniors. However ignorant or

unworthy a senior fellow may be, yet the slightest disrespect is treated

as the greatest crime of which an academic can be guilty.' _Ib_. p. 201.

The Proctors gave far 'more frequent reprimands to the want of a band,

or to the hair tied in queue, than to important irregularities. A man

might be a drunkard, a debauchee, and yet long escape the Proctor's

animadversion; but no virtue could protect you if you walked on

Christ-church meadow or the High Street with a band tied too low, or

with no band at all; with a pig-tail, or with a green or scarlet coat.'

_Ib_. p. 159. Only thirteen weeks' residence a year was required. _Ib_.

p. 172. The degree was conferred without examination. _Ib_. p. 189.

After taking it 'a man offers himself as a candidate for orders. He is

examined by the Bishop's chaplain. He construes a few verses in the

Greek testament, and translates one of the articles from Latin into

English. His testimonial being received he comes from his jolly

companions to the care of a large parish.' _Ib_. p. 197. Bishop Law gave

in 1781 a different account of Cambridge. There, he complains, such was

the devotion to mathematics, that 'young men often sacrifice their whole

stock of strength and spirits, and so entirely devote most of their

first few years to what is called _taking a good degree_, as to be

hardly good for anything else.' Preface to Archbishop King's _Essay on

the Origin of Evil_, p. xx.

[43] According to Adam Smith this is true only of the Protestant

countries. In Roman Catholic countries and England where benefices are

rich, the church is continually draining the universities of all their

ablest members. In Scotland and Protestant countries abroad, where a

chair in a university is generally a better establishment than a

benefice, by far the greater part of the most eminent men of letters

have been professors. _Wealth of Nations_, v. i. iii. 3.

[44] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 17, 1773.

[45] Dr. Goldsmith was dead before Mr. Maclaurin discovered the

ludicrous errour. But Mr. Nourse, the bookseller, who was the proprietor

of the work, upon being applied to by Sir John Pringle, agreed very

handsomely to have the leaf on which it was contained cancelled, and

re-printed without it, at his own expence. BOSWELL. In the second

edition, published five years after Goldsmith's death, the story

remains. In a foot-note the editor says, that 'he has been credibly

informed that the professor had not the defect here mentioned.' The

story is not quite as Boswell tells it. 'Maclaurin,' writes Goldsmith

(ii. 91), 'was very subject to have his jaw dislocated; so that when he

opened his mouth wider than ordinary, or when he yawned, he could not

shut it again. In the midst of his harangues, therefore, if any of his

pupils began to be tired of his lecture, he had only to gape or yawn,

and the professor instantly caught the sympathetic affection; so that he

thus continued to stand speechless, with his mouth wide open, till his

servant, from the next room, was called in to set his jaw again.'

[46] Dr. Shebbeare (_post_, April 18, 1778) was tried for writing a

libellous pamphlet. Horace Walpole says:--'The bitterest parts of the

work were a satire on William III and George I. The most remarkable part

of this trial was the Chief Justice Mansfield laying down for law that

satires even on dead Kings were punishable. Adieu! veracity and history,

if the King's bench is to appreciate your expressions!' _Memoirs of the

Reign of George II_, iii. 153.

[47] What Dr. Johnson has here said, is undoubtedly good sense; yet I am

afraid that law, though defined by _Lord Coke_ 'the perfection of

reason,' is not altogether _with him_; for it is held in the books, that

an attack on the reputation even of a dead man, may be punished as a

libel, because tending to a breach of the peace. There is, however, I

believe, no modern decided case to that effect. In the King's Bench,

Trinity Term, 1790, the question occurred on occasion of an indictment,

_The King_ v. _Topham_, who, as a _proprietor_ of a news-paper entitled

_The World_, was found guilty of a libel against Earl Cowper, deceased,

because certain injurious charges against his Lordship were published in

that paper. An arrest of Judgment having been moved for, the case was

afterwards solemnly argued. My friend Mr. Const, whom I delight in

having an opportunity to praise, not only for his abilities but his

manners; a gentleman whose ancient German blood has been mellowed in

England, and who may be truely said to unite the _Baron_ and the

_Barrister_, was one of the Counsel for Mr. Topham. He displayed much

learning and ingenuity upon the general question; which, however, was

not decided, as the Court granted an arrest chiefly on the informality

of the indictment. No man has a higher reverence for the law of England

than I have; but, with all deference I cannot help thinking, that

prosecution by indictment, if a defendant is never to be allowed to

justify, must often be very oppressive, unless Juries, whom I am more

and more confirmed in holding to be judges of law as well as of fact,

resolutely interpose. Of late an act of Parliament has passed

declaratory of their full right to one as well as the other, in matter

of libel; and the bill having been brought in by a popular gentleman,

many of his party have in most extravagant terms declaimed on the

wonderful acquisition to the liberty of the press. For my own part I

ever was clearly of opinion that this right was inherent in the very

constitution of a Jury, and indeed in sense and reason inseparable from

their important function. To establish it, therefore, by Statute, is, I

think, narrowing its foundation, which is the broad and deep basis of

Common Law. Would it not rather weaken the right of primo-geniture, or

any other old and universally-acknowledged right, should the legislature

pass an act in favour of it? In my _Letter to the People of Scotland,

against diminishing the number of the Lords of Session_, published in

1785, there is the following passage, which, as a concise, and I hope a

fair and rational state of the matter, I presume to quote: 'The Juries

of England are Judges of _law_ as well as of fact, in _many civil_, and

in all _criminals_ trials. That my principles of _resistance_ may not be

misapprehended and more than my principles of _submission_, I protest

that I should be the last man in the world to encourage Juries to

contradict rashly, wantonly, or perversely, the opinion of the Judges.

On the contrary, I would have them listen respectfully to the advise

they receive from the Bench, by which they may be often well directed in

forming _their own opinion_; which, "and not anothers," is the opinion

they are to return _upon their oaths_. But where, after due attention to

all that the judge has said, they are decidedly of a different opinion

from him, they have not only a _power and a right_, but they are _bound

in conscience_ to bring in a verdict accordingly.' BOWELL. _The World_

is described by Gifford in his _Baviad and Marviad_, as a paper set up

by 'a knot of fantastic coxcombs to direct the taste of the town.'

Lowndes (_Bibl. Man_. ed. 1871, p. 2994) confounds it with _The World_

mentioned _ante_, i. 257. The 'popular gentleman' was Fox, whose Libel

Bill passed the House of Lords in June 1792. _Parl. Hist_. xxix. 1537.

[48] Nobody, that is to say, but Johnson. _Post_, p. 24, note 2.

[49] Of this service Johnson recorded:--'In the morning I had at church

some radiations of comfort.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 146.

[50] Baretti, in a marginal note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 311, says:--

'Mr. Thrale, who was a worldly man, and followed the direction of his

own feelings with no philosophical or Christian distinctions, having

now lost the strong hope of being one day succeeded in the profitable

Brewery by the only son he had left, gave himself silently up to his

grief, and fell in a few years a victim to it.' In a second note (ii.

22) he says:--'The poor man could never subdue his grief on account of

his son's death.'

[51] A gentleman, who from his extraordinary stores of knowledge, has

been stiled _omniscient_. Johnson, I think very properly, altered it to

all-knowing, as it is a _verbum solenne_, appropriated to the Supreme

Being. BOSWELL.

[52] Mrs. Thrale wrote to him on May 3:--'Should you write about

Streatham and Croydon, the book would be as good to me as a journey to

Rome, exactly; for 'tis Johnson, not _Falkland's Islands_ that interest

us, and your style is invariably the same. The sight of Rome might have

excited more reflections indeed than the sight of the Hebrides, and so

the book might be bigger, but it would not be better a jot.' _Piozzi

Letters_, i 318.

[53] Hawkins says (_Life_, p. 84) that 'Johnson was never greedy of

money, but without money could not be stimulated to write. I have been

told by a clergyman with whom he had been long acquainted, that, being

(sic) to preach on a particular occasion, he applied to him for help. "I

will write a sermon for thee," said Johnson, "but thou must pay me for

it."' See _post_, May 1, 1783. Horace Walpole (_Letters_, viii. 150)

records an anecdote that he had from Hawkins:--'When Dr. Johnson was at

his work on his _Shakespeare_, Sir John said to him, "Well! Doctor, now

you have finished your _Dictionary_, I suppose you will labour your

present work _con amore_ for your reputation." "No Sir," said Johnson,

"nothing excites a man to write but necessity."' Walpole then relates

the anecdote of the clergyman, and speaks of Johnson as 'the mercenary.'

Walpole's sinecure offices thirty-nine years before this time brought

him in 'near, £2000 a year.' In 1782 he wrote that his office of Usher

of the Exchequer was worth £1800 a year. _Letters_, i. lxxix, lxxxii.

[54] Swift wrote in 1735, when he was sixty-seven:--'I never got a

farthing by anything I writ, except one about eight years ago, and that

was by Mr. Pope's prudent management for me.' _Works_, xix. 171. It was,

I conjecture, _Gulliver's Travels_. Hume, in 1757, wrote:--'I am writing

the _History of England_ from the accession of Henry VII. I undertook

this work because I was tired of idleness, and found reading alone,

after I had often perused all good books (which I think is soon done),

somewhat a languid occupation.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 33.

[55] This Mr. Ellis was, I believe, the last of that profession called

_Scriveners_, which is one of the London companies, but of which the

business is no longer carried on separately, but is transacted by

attornies and others. He was a man of literature and talents. He was the

authour of a Hudibrastick version of Maphæsus's _Canto_, in addition to

the _Æneid_; of some poems in Dodsley's _Collections_; and various other

small pieces; but being a very modest man, never put his name to

anything. He shewed me a translation which he had made of Ovid's

_Epistles_, very prettily done. There is a good engraved portrait of him

by Pether, from a picture by Fry, which hangs in the hall of the

Scriveners' company. I visited him October 4, 1790, in his ninety-third

year, and found his judgment distinct and clear, and his memory, though

faded so as to fail him occasionally, yet, as he assured me, and I

indeed perceived, able to serve him very well, after a little

recollection. It was agreeable to observe, that he was free from the

discontent and fretfulness which too often molest old age. He in the

summer of that year walked to Rotherhithe, where he dined, and walked

home in the evening. He died on the 31st of December, 1791. BOSWELL. The

version of Maphæsus's 'bombastic' additional _Canto_ is advertised in

the _Gent. Mag_. 1758, p. 233. The engraver of Mr. Ellis's portrait in

the first two editions is called Peffer.

[56] 'Admiral Walsingham boasted that he had entertained more

miscellaneous parties than any other man in London. At one time he had

received the Duke of Cumberland, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Nairne the optician,

and Leoni the singer. It was at his table that Dr. Johnson made that

excellent reply to a pert coxcomb who baited him during dinner. "Pray

now," said he to the Doctor, "what would you give, old gentleman, to be

as young and sprightly as I am?" "Why, Sir, I think," replied Johnson,

"I would almost be content to be as foolish."' Cradock's _Memoirs_, i.

172.

[57] 'Dr. Johnson almost always prefers the company of an intelligent

man of the world to that of a scholar.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 241.

[58] See J.H. Burton's _Hume_, i. 174, for an account of him.

[59] Lord Macartney, who with his other distinguished qualities, is

remarkable also for an elegant pleasantry, told me, that he met Johnson

at Lady Craven's, and that he seemed jealous of any interference: 'So,

(said his Lordship, smiling,) _I kept back_.' BOSWELL.

[60] See _ante_, i. 242.

[61] There is an account of him in Sir John Hawkins's Life of Johnson.

BOSWELL. Hawkins (Life, p. 246) records the following sarcasm of Ballow.

In a coffee-house he attacked the profession of physic, which Akenside,

who was a physician as well as poet, defended. 'Doctor,' said Ballow,

'after all you have said, my opinion of the profession of physic is

this. The ancients endeavoured to make it a science, and failed; and the

moderns to make it a trade, and have succeeded.'

[62] See _ante_, i. 274.

[63] I have in vain endeavoured to find out what parts Johnson wrote

for Dr. James. Perhaps medical men may. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 159.

Johnson, needing medicine at Montrose, 'wrote the prescription in

technical characters.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 21, 1773.

[64] Horace Walpole, writing of May in this year, says that General

Smith, an adventurer from the East Indies, who was taken off by Foote in

_The Nabob_, 'being excluded from the fashionable club of young men of

quality at Almack's, had, with a set of sharpers, formed a plan for a

new club, which, by the excess of play, should draw all the young

extravagants thither. They built a magnificent house in St.

James's-street, and furnished it gorgeously.' _Journal of the Reign of

George III_, ii. 39.

[65] He said the same when in Scotland. Boswell's _Hebrides_, under Nov.

22, 1773. On the other hand, in _The Rambler_, No. 80, he wrote:--'It is

scarcely possible to pass an hour in honest conversation, without being

able, when we rise from it, to please ourselves with having given or

received some advantages; but a man may shuffle cards, or rattle dice,

from noon to midnight, without tracing any new idea in his mind, or

being able to recollect the day by any other token than his gain or

loss, and a confused remembrance of agitated passions, and clamorous

altercations.'

[66] 'Few reflect,' says Warburton, 'on what a great wit has so

ingenuously owned. That wit is generally false reasoning.' The wit was

Wycherley. See his letter xvi. to Pope in Pope's _Works_. Warburton's

_Divine Legation_, i. xii.

[67] 'Perhaps no man was ever more happy than Dr. Johnson in the

extempore and masterly defence of any cause which, at the given moment,

he chose to defend.' Stockdale's _Memoirs_, i. 261.

[68] Burke, in a letter that he wrote in 1771 (_Corres_. i. 330), must

have had in mind his talks with Johnson. 'Nay,' he said, 'it is not

uncommon, when men are got into debates, to take now one side, now

another, of a question, as the momentary humour of the man and the

occasion called for, with all the latitude that the antiquated freedom

and ease of English conversation among friends did, in former days,

encourage and excuse.' H.C. Robinson (_Diary_, iii. 485) says that Dr.

Burney 'spoke with great warmth of affection of Dr. Johnson, and said he

was the kindest creature in the world when he thought he was loved and

respected by others. He would play the fool among friends, but he

required deference. It was necessary to ask questions and make no

assertion. If you said two and two make four, he would say, 'How will

you prove that, Sir?' Dr. Burney seemed amiably sensitive to every

unfavourable remark on his old friend.

[69] Patrick Lord Elibank, who died in 1778. BOSWELL. See Boswell's

_Hebrides_, Sept. 12, 1773.

[70] Yet he said of him:--'Sir, there is nothing conclusive in his talk.'

See _post_, p. 57.

[71] Johnson records of this Good Friday:--'My design was to pass part

of the day in exercises of piety, but Mr. Boswell interrupted me; of

him, however, I could have rid myself; but poor Thrale, _orbus et

exspes_, came for comfort, and sat till seven, when we all went to

church.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 146.

[72] Johnson's entries at Easter shew this year, and some of the

following years, more peace of mind than hitherto. Thus this Easter he

records, 'I had at church some radiations of comfort.... When I

received, some tender images struck me. I was so mollified by the

concluding address to our Saviour that I could not utter it.' _Pr. and

Med_. pp. 146, 149. 'Easter-day, 1777, I was for some time much

distressed, but at last obtained, I hope from the God of peace, more

quiet than I have enjoyed for a long time. I had made no resolution, but

as my heart grew lighter, my hopes revived, and my courage increased.'

_Ib_. p. 158. 'Good Friday, 1778. I went with some confidence and

calmness through the prayers.' _Ib_. p. 164.

[73] '_Nunquam enim nisi navi plenâ tollo vectorem_.' Lib. ii. c. vi.

BOSWELL.

[74] See _ante_, i. 187.

[75] See _ante_, i. 232.

[76] See _ante_, ii, 219.

[77] Cheyne's _English Malady, or a Treatise of Nervous Diseases of All

Kinds_, 1733. He recommended a milk, seed, and vegetable diet; by seed

he apparently meant any kind of grain. He did not take meat. He drank

green tea. At one time he weighed thirty-two stones. His work shews the

great change in the use of fermented liquors since his time. Thus he

says:--'For nearly twenty years I continued sober, moderate, and plain

in my diet, and in my greatest health drank not above a quart, or three

pints at most of wine any day' (p. 235). 'For near one-half of the time

from thirty to sixty I scarce drank any strong liquor at all. It will be

found that upon the whole I drank very little above a pint of wine, or

at most not a quart one day with another, since I was near thirty'

(p. 243). Johnson a second time recommended Boswell to read this book,

_post_, July 2, 1776. See _ante_, i. 65. Boswell was not the man to

follow Cheyne's advice. Of one of his works Wesley says:--'It is one of

the most ingenious books which I ever saw. But what epicure will ever

regard it? for "the man talks against good eating and drinking."'

Wesley's _Journal_, i. 347. Young, in his _Epistles to Pope_, No. ii.

says:--

'--three ells round huge Cheyne

rails at meat.'

Dr. J. H. Burton (_Life of Hume_, i. 45) shews reason for believing that

a very curious letter by Hume was written to Cheyne.

[78] '"Solitude," he said one day, "is dangerous to reason, without

being favourable to virtue; pleasures of some sort are necessary to the

intellectual as to the corporeal health; and those who resist gaiety

will be likely for the most part to fall a sacrifice to appetite; for

the solicitations of sense are always at hand, and a dram to a vacant

and solitary person is a speedy and seducing relief. Remember (continued

he) that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably

superstitious, and possibly mad."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 106.

[79] The day before he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:--'Mr. Thrale's alteration

of purpose is not weakness of resolution; it is a wise man's compliance

with the change of things, and with the new duties which the change

produces. Whoever expects me to be angry will be disappointed. I do not

even grieve at the effect, I grieve only at the cause.' _Piozzi

Letters_, i. 314. Mrs. Thrale on May 3 wrote:--'Baretti said you would

be very angry, because this dreadful event made us put off our Italian

journey, but I knew you better. Who knows even now that 'tis deferred

for ever? Mr. Thrale says he shall not die in peace without seeing Rome,

and I am sure he will go no-where that he can help without you.' _Ib_.

p. 317.

[80] See _ante_, i. 346.

[81] See _post_, July 22, 1777, note, where Boswell complains of

children being 'suffered to poison the moments of festivity.'

[82] Boswell, _post_, under March 30, 1783, says, 'Johnson discovered a

love of little children upon all occasions.'

[83] Johnson at a later period thought otherwise. _Post_, March 30, 1778.

[84] Pope borrowed from the following lines:--

'When on my sick bed I languish,

Full of sorrow, full of anguish;

Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying,

Panting, groaning, speechless, dying--

Methinks I hear some gentle spirit say,

Be not fearful, come away.'

Campbell's _Brit. Poets_, p. 301.

[85] In Rochester's _Allusion to the Tenth Satire of the First Book of

Horace_.

[86] In the _Monthly Review_ for May, 1792, there is such a correction

of the above passage, as I should think myself very culpable not to

subjoin. 'This account is very inaccurate. The following statement of

facts we know to be true, in every material circumstance:--Shiels was

the principal collector and digester of the materials for the work: but

as he was very raw in authourship, an indifferent writer in prose, and

his language full of Scotticisms, Cibber, who was a clever, lively

fellow, and then soliciting employment among the booksellers, was

engaged to correct the style and diction of the whole work, then

intended to make only four volumes, with power to alter, expunge, or

add, as he liked. He was also to supply _notes_, occasionally,

especially concerning those dramatick poets with whom he had been

chiefly conversant. He also engaged to write several of the Lives;

which, (as we are told,) he, accordingly, performed. He was farther

useful in striking out the Jacobitical and Tory sentiments, which Shiels

had industriously interspersed wherever he could bring them in:--and, as

the success of the work appeared, after all, very doubtful, he was

content with twenty-one pounds for his labour beside a few sets of the

books, to disperse among his friends.--Shiels had nearly seventy pounds,

beside the advantage of many of the best Lives in the work being

communicated by friends to the undertaking; and for which Mr. Shiels had

the same consideration as for the rest, being paid by the sheet, for the

whole. He was, however, so angry with his Whiggish supervisor, (He, like

his father, being a violent stickler for the political principles which

prevailed in the Reign of George the Second,) for so unmercifully

mutilating his copy, and scouting his politicks, that he wrote Cibber a

challenge: but was prevented from sending it, by the publisher, who

fairly laughed him out of his fury. The proprietors, too, were

discontented, in the end, on account of Mr. Cibber's unexpected

industry; for his corrections and alterations in the proof-sheets were

so numerous and considerable, that the printer made for them a grievous

addition to his bill; and, in fine, all parties were dissatisfied. On

the whole, the work was productive of no profit to the undertakers, who

had agreed, in case of success, to make Cibber a present of some

addition to the twenty guineas which he had received, and for which his

receipt is now in the booksellers' hands. We are farther assured, that

he actually obtained an additional sum; when he, soon after, (in the

year 1758,) unfortunately embarked for Dublin, on an engagement for one

of the theatres there: but the ship was cast away, and every person on

board perished. There were about sixty passengers, among whom was the

Earl of Drogheda, with many other persons of consequence and property.

[_Gent. Mag_. 1758, p. 555.]

'As to the alledged design of making the compilement pass for the work

of old Mr. Cibber, the charges seem to have been founded on a somewhat

uncharitable construction. We are assured that the thought was not

harboured by some of the proprietors, who are still living; and we hope

that it did not occur to the first designer of the work, who was also

the printer of it, and who bore a respectable character.

'We have been induced to enter thus circumstantially into the foregoing

detail of facts relating to _The Lives of the Poets_, compiled by

Messrs. Cibber and Shiels, from a sincere regard to that sacred

principle of Truth, to which Dr. Johnson so rigidly adhered, according

to the best of his knowledge; and which we believe, _no consideration_

would have prevailed on him to violate. In regard to the matter, which

we now dismiss, he had, no doubt, been misled by partial and wrong

information: Shiels was the Doctor's amanuensis; he had quarrelled with

Cibber; it is natural to suppose that he told his story in his own way;

and it is certain that _he_ was not "a very sturdy moralist." [The

quotation is from Johnson's _Works_, ix. 116.] This explanation appears

to me very satisfactory. It is, however, to be observed, that the story

told by Johnson does not rest solely upon my record of his conversation;

for he himself has published it in his _Life of Hammond_ [_ib_. viii.

90], where he says, "the manuscript of Shiels is now in my possession."

Very probably he had trusted to Shiels's word, and never looked at it so

as to compare it with _The Lives of the Poets_, as published under Mr.

Cibber's name. What became of that manuscript I know not. I should have

liked much to examine it. I suppose it was thrown into the fire in that

impetuous combustion of papers, which Johnson I think rashly executed,

when _moribundus_.' BOSWELL. Mr. Croker, quoting a letter by Griffiths

the publisher, says:--'The question is now decided by this letter in

opposition to Dr. Johnson's assertion.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 818. The

evidence of such an infamous fellow as Griffiths is worthless. (For his

character see Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 161.) As the _Monthly Review_

was his property, the passage quoted by Boswell was, no doubt, written

by his direction. D'Israeli (_Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, vi.

375) says that Oldys (_ante_, i. 175) made annotations on a copy of

Langbaine's _Dramatic Poets_. 'This _Langbaine_, with additions by

Coxeter, was bought by Theophilus Cibber; on the strength of these notes

he prefixed his name to the first collection of the _Lives of Our

Poets_, written chiefly by Shiels.'

[87] Mason's _Memoirs of Gray's Life_ was published in 1775. Johnson, in

his _Life of Gray_ (_Works_, viii. 476), praises Gray's portion of the

book:--'They [Gray and Horace Walpole] wandered through France into

Italy; and Gray's _Letters_ contain a very pleasing account of many

parts of their journey.' 'The style of Madame de Sévigné,' wrote

Mackintosh (_Life_, ii. 221), 'is evidently copied, not only by her

worshipper Walpole, but even by Gray; notwithstanding the extraordinary

merits of his matter, he has the double stiffness of an imitator and of

a college recluse.'

[88] See ante, ii. 164.

[89] This impartiality is very unlikely. In 1757 Griffiths, the owner of

the _Monthly_, aiming a blow at Smollett, the editor of the _Critical_,

said that _The Monthly Review_ was not written by 'physicians without

practice, authors without learning, men without decency, gentlemen

without manners, and critics without judgement.' Smollett retorted:--

'_The Critical Review_ is not written by a parcel of obscure hirelings,

under the restraint of a bookseller and his wife, who presume to revise,

alter, and amend the articles occasionally. The principal writers in the

_Critical Review_ are unconnected with booksellers, un-awed by old women,

and independent of each other.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 100. 'A fourth

share in _The Monthly Review_ was sold in 1761 for £755.' _A Bookseller

of the Last Century_, p. 19.

[90] See ante, ii. 39.

[91] Horace Walpole writes:--'The scope of the _Critical Review_ was to

decry any work that appeared favourable to the principles of the

Revolution.' _Memoirs of the Reign of George II_, iii. 260.

[92] 'The story of this publication is remarkable. The whole book was

printed twice over, a great part of it three times, and many sheets four

or five times. The booksellers paid for the first impression; but the

charges and repeated operations of the press were at the expense of the

author, whose ambitious accuracy is known to have cost him at least a

thousand pounds. He began to print in 1755. Three volumes appeared in

1764, and the conclusion in 1771. Andrew Reid undertook to persuade

Lyttelton, as he had persuaded himself, that he was master of the secret

of punctuation; and, as fear begets credulity, he was employed, I know

not at what price, to point the pages of _Henry the Second_. When time

brought the _History_ to a third edition, Reid was either dead or

discarded; and the superintendence of typography and punctuation was

committed to a man originally a comb-maker, but then known by the style

of Doctor. Something uncommon was probably expected, and something

uncommon was at last done; for to the Doctor's edition is appended, what

the world had hardly seen before, a list of errors in nineteen pages.'

Johnson's _Works_, viii. 492. In the first edition of _The Lives of the

Poets_ 'the Doctor' is called Dr. Saunders. So ambitious was Lord

Lyttelton's accuracy that in the second edition he gave a list of 'false

stops which hurt the sense.' For instance, the punctuation of the

following paragraph:--'The words of Abbot Suger, in his life of Lewis le

Gros, concerning this prince are very remarkable,' he thus corrects,

'after prince a comma is wanting.' See _ante_, ii. 37.

[93] According to Horace Walpole, Lyttelton had angered Smollett by

declining 'to recommend to the stage' a comedy of his. 'He promised,'

Walpole continues, 'if it should be acted, to do all the service in his

power for the author. Smollett's return was drawing an abusive portrait

of Lord Lyttelton in _Roderick Random.' Memoirs of the Reign of George

II_, iii. 259.

[94] _Spectator_, No. 626. See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's

_Collection_, near the end.

[95] When Steele brought _The Spectator_ to the close of its first

period, he acknowledged in the final number (No. 555) his obligation to

his assistants. In a postscript to the later editions he says:--'It had

not come to my knowledge, when I left off _The Spectator_, that I owe

several excellent sentiments and agreeable pieces in this work to Mr.

Ince, of Gray's Inn.' Mr. Ince died in 1758. _Gent. Mag_. 1758, p. 504.

[96] _Spectator_, No. 364.

[97] Sir Edward Barry, Baronet. BOSWELL.

[98] 'We form our words with the breath of our nostrils, we have the

less to live upon for every word we speak.' Jeremy Taylor's _Holy

Dying_, ch. i. sec. 1.

[99] On this day Johnson sent the following application for rooms in

Hampton Court to the Lord Chamberlain:--

'My Lord, Being wholly unknown to your lordship, I have only this

apology to make for presuming to trouble you with a request, that a

stranger's petition, if it cannot be easily granted, can be easily

refused. Some of the apartments are now vacant in which I am encouraged

to hope that by application to your lordship I may obtain a residence.

Such a grant would be considered by me as a great favour; and I hope

that to a man who has had the honour of vindicating his Majesty's

Government, a retreat in one of his houses may not be improperly or

unworthily allowed. I therefore request that your lordship will be

pleased to grant such rooms in Hampton Court as shall seem proper to

'My Lord,

'Your lordship's most obedient and most faithful humble servant,

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

'April 11, 1776.'

'Mr. Saml. Johnson to the Earl of Hertford, requesting apartments at

Hampton Court, 11th May, 1776.' And within, a memorandum of the

answer:--'Lord C. presents his compliments to Mr. Johnson, and is sorry

he cannot obey his commands, having already on his hands many

engagements unsatisfied.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 337. The endorsement does

not, it will be seen, agree in date with the letter. Lord C. stands for

the Lord Chamberlain.

[100] Hogarth saw Garrick in Richard III, and on the following night in

Abel Drugger; he was so struck, that he said to him, 'You are in your

element when you are begrimed with dirt, or up to your elbows in blood.'

Murphy's _Garrick_, p. 21. Cooke, in his _Memoirs of Macklin_, p. 110,

says that a Lichfield grocer, who came to London with a letter of

introduction to Garrick from Peter Garrick, saw him act Abel Drugger,

and returned without calling on him. He said to Peter Garrick: 'I saw

enough of him on the stage. He may be rich, as I dare say any man who

lives like him must be; but by G-d, though he is your brother, Mr.

Garrick, he is one of the shabbiest, meanest, most pitiful hounds I ever

saw in the whole course of my life.' Abel Drugger is a character in Ben

Jonson's _Alchemist_.

[101] See _post_, under Sept. 30, 1783.

[102] Lord Shelburne in 1766, at the age of twenty-nine, was appointed

Secretary of State in Lord Chatham's ministry. Fitzmaurice's _Shelburne_,

ii. 1. Jeremy Bentham said of him:--'His head was not clear. He felt the

want of clearness. He had had a most wretched education.' _Ib_. p. 175.

[103] He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Aug. 14, 1780:--'I hope you have no

design of stealing away to Italy before the election, nor of leaving me

behind you; though I am not only seventy, but seventy-one.... But what

if I am seventy-two; I remember Sulpitius says of Saint Martin (now

that's above your reading), _Est animus victor annorum et senectuti

cedere nescius_. Match me that among your young folks.' _Piozzi

Letters_, ii. 177.

[104] Lady Hesketh, taking up apparently a thought which Paoli, as

reported by Boswell, had thrown out in conversation, proposed to Cowper

the Mediterranean for a topic. 'He replied, "Unless I were a better

historian than I am, there would be no proportion between the theme and

my ability. It seems, indeed, not to be so properly a subject for one

poem, as for a dozen."' Southey's _Cowper_, iii. 15, and vii. 44.

[105] Burke said:--'I do not know how it has happened, that orators have

hitherto fared worse in the hands of the translators than even the

poets; I never could bear to read a translation of Cicero.' _Life of Sir

W. Jones_, p. 196.

[106] See _ante_, ii. 188.

[107] See _ante_, ii. 182.

[108] See _post_, under date of Dec. 24, 1783, where mention seems to be

made of this evening.

[109] See _ante_, note, p. 30. BOSWELL

[110] 'Thomson's diction is in the highest degree florid and luxuriant,

such as may be said to be to his images and thoughts "both their lustre

and their shade;" such as invest them with splendour, through which,

perhaps, they are not always easily discerned.' Johnson's _Works_,

viii. 378. See _ante_, i. 453, and ii. 63.

[111] _A Collection of Poems in six volumes by several hands_, 1758.

[112] _Ib_. i. 116.

[113] Mr. Nicholls says, '_The Spleen_ was a great favourite with Gray

for its wit and originality.' Gray's _Works_, v. 36. See _post_, Oct. 10,

1779, where Johnson quotes two lines from it. 'Fling but a stone, the

giant dies,' is another line that is not unknown.

[114] A noted highwayman, who after having been several times tried and

acquitted, was at last hanged. He was remarkable for foppery in his dress,

and particularly for wearing a bunch of sixteen strings at the knees of his

breeches. BOSWELL.

[115] Goldsmith wrote a prologue for it. Horace Walpole wrote on

Dec. 14, 1771 (_Letters_, v. 356):--'There is a new tragedy at Covent

Garden called _Zobeide_, which I am told is very indifferent, though

written by a country gentleman.' Cradock in his old age published his

own _Memoirs_.

[116] '"Dr. Farmer," said Johnson {speaking of this essay}, "you have

done that which never was done before; that is, you have completely

finished a controversy beyond all further doubt." "There are some

critics," answered Farmer, "who will adhere to their old opinions."

"Ah!" said Johnson, "that may be true; for the limbs will quiver and

move when the soul is gone."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 152. Farmer was

Master of Emanuel College, Cambridge (_ante_, i. 368). In a letter dated

Oct. 3, 1786, published in Romilly's _Life_ (i. 332), it is

said:--'Shakespeare and black letter muster strong at Emanuel.'

[117] 'When Johnson once glanced at this _Liberal Translation of the New

Testament_, and saw how Dr. Harwood had turned _Jesus wept_ into _Jesus,

the Saviour of the world, burst into a flood of tears_, he

contemptuously threw the book aside, exclaiming, "Puppy!" The author,

Dr. Edward Harwood, is not to be confounded with Dr. Thomas Harwood, the

historian of Lichfield.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 836.

[118] See an ingenious Essay on this subject by the late Dr. Moor, Greek

Professor at Glasgow. BOSWELL.

[119] See _ante_, i. 6, note 2.

[120] 'Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a

book!' _Job_ xix. 23.

[121] 'The gradual progress which Iago makes in the Moor's conviction,

and the circumstances which he employs to inflame him, are so artfully

natural, that, though it will perhaps not be said of him as he says of

himself, that he is "a man not easily jealous," yet we cannot but pity

him, when at last we find him "perplexed in the extreme."' Johnson's

_Works_, v. 178.

[122] Of Dennis's criticism of Addison's _Cato_, he says:--'He found and

shewed many faults; he shewed them indeed with anger, but he found them

with acuteness, such as ought to rescue his criticism from oblivion.'

_Ib_. vii. 457. In a note on 'thunder rumbling from the mustard-bowl'

(The _Dunciad_, ii. 226) it is said:--'Whether Mr. Dennis was the

inventor of that improvement, I know not; but is certain that, being

once at a tragedy of a new author, he fell into a great passion at

hearing some, and cried, "S'death! that is _my_ thunder."' See

D'Israeli's _Calamities of Authors_, i. 135, for an amplification of

this story.

[123] Sir James Mackintosh thought Cumberland was meant. I am now

satisfied that it was Arthur Murphy. CROKER. The fact that Murphy's name

is found close to the story renders it more likely that Mr. Croker is

right.

[124] 'Obscenity and impiety,' Johnson boasted in the last year of his

life, 'have always been repressed in my company.' _Post_, June 11, 1784.

He had, however, no misgivings, for he thus ends:--