MOLOCH.
'What doubt we to incense
His utmost ire? which, to the height enraged,
Will either quite consume us, and reduce
To nothing this essential; happier far
Than miserable to have eternal being.'
Bk. ii. 1. 94.
BELIAL.
'Who would lose,
Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
To perish rather, swallowed up and lost
In the wide womb of uncreated night,
Devoid of sense and motion?'
1. 146.
Cowper, at times at least, held with Moloch. He wrote to his friend
Newton:--'I feel--I will not tell you what--and yet I must--a wish that
I had never been, a wonder that I am, and an ardent but hopeless desire
not to be.' Southey's _Cowper_, vi. 130. See _ante_, p. 153, and
Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 12.
[872] Johnson recorded in _Pr. and Med_. p. 202:--'At Ashbourne I hope
to talk seriously with Taylor.' Taylor published in 1787 _A Letter
to Samuel Johnson on the Subject of a Future State_. He writes that
'having heard that Johnson had said that he would prefer a state of
torment to that of annihilation, he told him that such a declaration,
coming from him, might be productive of evil consequences. Dr. J.
desired him to arrange his thoughts on the subject.' Taylor says that
Johnson's entry about the serious talk refers to this matter. _Gent.
Mag_. 1787, p. 521. I believe that Johnson meant to warn Taylor about
the danger _he_ was running of 'entering the state of torment.'
[873] Wesley, like Johnson, was a wide reader. On his journeys he
read books of great variety, such as _The Odyssey_, Rousseau's _Emile_,
Boswell's _Corsica_, Swift's _Letters_, Hoole's _Tasso_, Robertson's
_Charles V., Quintus Curtius_, Franklin's _Letters on Electricity_,
besides a host of theological works. Like Johnson, too, he was a great
dabbler in physic and a reader of medical works. His writings covered a
great range. He wrote, he says, among other works, an English, a Latin,
a Greek, a Hebrew, and a French Grammar, a Treatise on Logic and another
on Electricity. In the British Isles he had travelled perhaps more than
any man of his time, and he had visited North America and more than one
country of Europe. He had seen an almost infinite variety of characters.
See _ante_, p. 230.
[874] The story is recorded in Wesley's _Journal_, ed. 1827, iv. 316.
It was at Sunderland and not at Newcastle where the scene was laid.
The ghost did not prophesy ill of the attorney. On the contrary, it said
to the girl:--'Go to Durham, employ an attorney there, and the house
will be recovered.' She went to Durham, 'and put the affair into Mr.
Hugill the attorney's hands.' 'A month after,' according to the girl,
'the ghost came about eleven. I said, "Lord bless me! what has brought
you here again?" He said, "Mr. Hugill has done nothing but wrote one
letter."' On this Wesley writes by way of comment:--'So he [the ghost]
had observed him [the attorney] narrowly, though unseen.' See _post_,
under May 3, 1779.
[875] Johnson, with his horror of annihilation, caught at everything
which strengthened his belief in the immortality of the soul. Boswell
mentions _ante_, ii. 150, 'Johnson's elevated wish for more and more
evidence for spirit,' and records the same desire, _post_, June 12,
1784. Southey (_Life of Wesley_, i. 25) says of supernatural
appearances:--'With regard to the good end which they may be supposed to
answer, it would be end sufficient if sometimes one of those unhappy
persons, who looking through the dim glass of infidelity see nothing
beyond this life, and the narrow sphere of mortal existence, should,
from the established truth of one such story (trifling and objectless as
it might otherwise appear), be led to a conclusion that there are more
things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy.' See
_ante_, p. 230, and _post_, April 15, 1781.
[876] Miss Jane Harry. In Miss Seward's _Letters_, i. 97, is an
account of her, which Mr. Croker shows to be inaccurate. There is, too,
a long and lifeless report of the talk at this dinner.
[877] See _ante_, ii. 14, 105.
[878] Mrs. Knowles, not satisfied with the fame of her needlework, the
'_sutile pictures_' mentioned by Johnson, in which she has indeed
displayed much dexterity, nay, with the fame of reasoning better than
women generally do, as I have fairly shewn her to have done,
communicated to me a Dialogue of considerable length, which after many
years had elapsed, she wrote down as having passed between Dr. Johnson
and herself at this interview. As I had not the least recollection of
it, and did not find the smallest trace of it in my _Record_ taken at
the time, I could not in consistency with my firm regard to
authenticity, insert it in my work. It has, however, been published in
_The Gent. Mag_. for June, 1791. It chiefly relates to the principles of
the sect called _Quakers_; and no doubt the Lady appears to have greatly
the advantage of Dr. Johnson in argument as well as expression. From
what I have now stated, and from the internal evidence of the paper
itself, any one who may have the curiosity to peruse it, will judge
whether it was wrong in me to reject it, however willing to gratify Mrs.
Knowles. BOSWELL. Johnson mentioned the '_sutile pictures_' in a letter
dated May 16, 1776, describing the dinner at Messrs. Dilly's. 'And
there,' he wrote, 'was Mrs. Knowles, the Quaker, that works the sutile
[misprinted by Mrs. Piozzi _futile_] pictures. She is a Staffordshire
woman, and I am to go and see her. Staffordshire is the nursery of art;
here they grow up till they are transplanted to London.' _Piozzi
Letters_, i. 326. He is pleasantly alluding to the fact that he was a
Staffordshire man. In the _Dialogue_ in _The Gent. Mag_. for 1791, p.
502, Mrs. Knowles says that, the wrangle ended thus:--'Mrs. K. "I hope,
Doctor, thou wilt not remain unforgiving; and that you will renew your
friendship, and joyfully meet at last in those bright regions where
pride and prejudice can never enter." Dr. Johnson. "Meet _her_! I never
desire to meet fools anywhere." This sarcastic turn of wit was so
pleasantly received that the Doctor joined in the laugh; his spleen was
dissipated, he took his coffee, and became, for the remainder of the
evening, very cheerful and entertaining.' Did Miss Austen find here the
title of _Pride and Prejudice_, for her novel?
[879] Of this day he recorded (_Pr. and Med_. p. 163):--'It has happened
this week, as it never happened in Passion Week before, that I have
never dined at home, and I have therefore neither practised abstinence
nor peculiar devotion.'
[880] See _ante_, iii. 48, note 4.
[881] I believe, however, I shall follow my own opinion; for the world
has shewn a very flattering partiality to my writings, on many
occasions. BOSWELL. In _Boswelliana_, p. 222, Boswell, after recording a
story about Voltaire, adds:--'In contradiction to this story, see in my
_Journal_ the account which Tronchin gave me of Voltaire.' This
_Journal_ was probably destroyed by Boswell's family. By his will, he
left his manuscripts and letters to Sir W. Forbes, Mr. Temple, and Mr.
Malone, to be published for the benefit of his younger children as they
shall decide. The Editor of _Boswelliana_ says (p. 186) that 'these
three literary executors did not meet, and the entire business of the
trust was administered by Sir W. Forbes, who appointed as his law-agent,
Robert Boswell, cousin-german of the deceased. By that gentleman's
advice, Boswell's manuscripts were left to the disposal of his family;
and it is believed that the whole were immediately destroyed.' The
indolence of Malone and Temple, and the brutish ignorance of the
Boswells, have indeed much to answer for. See _ante_, i. 225, note 2,
and _post_, May 12, 1778.
[882] 'He that would travel for the entertainment of others should
remember that the great object of remark is human life.' _The Idler_,
No. 97.
[883] See _ante_, ii. 377.
[884] Johnson recorded (_Pr. and Med_. p. 163):--'Boswell came in to go
to Church ... Talk lost our time, and we came to Church late, at the
Second Lesson.'
[885] See _ante_, i. 461.
[886] Oliver Edwards entered Pembroke College in June, 1729. He left in
April, 1730.
[887] _Pr. and Med_. p. 164. BOSWELL.
[888] 'Edwards observed how many we have outlived. I hope, yet hope, that
my future life shall be better than my past.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 166.
[889] See _post_, April 30, 1778.
[890] See _ante_, p. 221.
[891] 'Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little
matters.' _Ante_, i. 471.
[892] Johnson said to me afterwards, 'Sir, they respected me for my
literature; and yet it was not great but by comparison. Sir, it is
amazing how little literature there is in the world.' BOSWELL.
[893] See _ante_, i. 320.
[894] Very near the College, facing the passage which leads to it from
Pembroke Street, still stands an old alehouse which must have been old
in Johnson's time.
[895] This line has frequently been attributed to Dryden, when a King's
Scholar at Westminster. But neither Eton nor Westminster have in truth
any claim to it, the line being borrowed, with a slight change, from an
Epigram by Crashaw:--
'Joann. 2,
'_Aquæ in vinum versæ.
Unde rubor vestris et non sua purpura lymphis?
Qua rosa mirantes tam nova mutat aquas?
Numen, convinvæ, præsens agnoscite numen,
Nympha pudica_ DEUM _vidit, et erubuit_.' MALONE.
What gave your springs a brightness not their own?
What rose so strange the wond'ring waters flushed?
Heaven's hand, oh guests; heaven's hand may here be known;
The spring's coy nymph has seen her God and blushed.
[896] 'He that made the verse following (some ascribe it to Giraldus
Cambrensis) could adore both the sun rising, and the sun setting, when
he could so cleanly honour King Henry II, then departed, and King
Richard succeeding.
"_Mira cano, Sol occubuit, nox nulla sequutaest_."'
Camden's _Remains_ (1870), p. 351.
[897] 'When Mr. Hume began to be known in the world as a philosopher,
Mr. White, a decent, rich merchant of London, said to him:--"I am
surprised, Mr. Hume, that a man of your good sense should think of
being a philosopher. Why, _I_ now took it into my head to be a
philosopher for some time, but tired of it most confoundedly, and very
soon gave it up." "Pray, Sir," said Mr. Hume, "in what branch of
philosophy did you employ your researches? What books did you read?"
"Books?" said Mr. White; "nay sir, I read no books, but I used to sit
whole forenoons a-yawning and poking the fire." _Boswelliana_, p. 221.
The French were more successful than Mr. Edwards in the pursuit of
philosophy, Horace Walpole wrote from Paris in 1766 (_Letters_, iv.
466):--'The generality of the men, and more than the generality, are
dull and empty. They have taken up gravity, thinking it was philosophy
and English, and so have acquired nothing in the room of their natural
levity and cheerfulness.'
[898] See _ante_, ii. 8.
[899] See _ante_, i. 332.
[900] See _ante_, i. 468, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 4.
[901] I am not absolutely sure but this was my own suggestion, though it
is truly in the character of Edwards. BOSWELL.
[902] Sixty-nine. He was born in 1709.
[903] See _ante_, i. 75, note 1.
[904]
'O my coevals! remnants of yourselves!
Poor human ruins, tottering o'er the grave!
Shall we, shall aged men, like aged trees,
Strike deeper their vile roots, and closer cling,
Still more enamoured of this wretched soil?'
Young's _Night Thoughts_, Night iv.
[905] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 20, 1773. According to Mrs. Piozzi
'he liked the expression so well that he often repeated it.' Piozzi's
_Anec_. p. 208. He wrote to her:--'Have you not observed in all our
conversations that my _genius_ is always in extremes; that I am very
noisy or very silent; very gloomy or very merry; very sour or very
kind?' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 166. In Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_ (ii. 310)
we read that 'Dr. Johnson is never his best when there is nobody to draw
him out;' and in her _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_ (ii. 107) she adds that
'the masterly manner in which, as soon as any topic was started, he
seized it in all its bearings, had so much the air of belonging to the
leader of the discourse, that this singularity was unsuspected save by
the experienced observation of long years of acquaintance.' Malone wrote
in 1783:--'I have always found him very communicative; ready to give his
opinion on any subject that was mentioned. He seldom, however, starts a
subject himself; but it is very easy to lead him into one.' Prior's
_Malone_, p. 92. What Dugald Stewart says of Adam Smith (_Life_, p. 114)
was equally true of Johnson:--'He was scarcely ever known to start a new
topic himself, or to appear unprepared upon those topics that were
introduced by others.' Johnson, in his long fits of silence, was perhaps
like Cowper, but when aroused he was altogether unlike. Cowper says of
himself:--'The effect of such continual listening to the language of a
heart hopeless and deserted is that I can never give much more than half
my attention to what is started by others, and very rarely start
anything myself.' Southey's _Cowper_, v. 10.
[906] In summer 1792, additional and more expensive decorations having
been introduced, the price of admission was raised to two shillings. I
cannot approve of this. The company may be more select; but a number of
the honest commonalty are, I fear, excluded from sharing in elegant and
innocent entertainment. An attempt to abolish the one-shilling gallery
at the playhouse has been very properly counteracted. BOSWELL.
[907] _Regale_, as a noun, is not in Johnson's Dictionary. It was a
favourite word with Miss Burney.
[908] 'Tyers is described in _The Idler_, No. 48, under the name of Tom
Restless; "a circumstance," says Mr. Nichols, "pointed out to me by
Dr. Johnson himself."' _Lit. Anec_. viii. 81. 'When Tom Restless
rises he goes into a coffee-house, where he creeps so near to men whom
he takes to be reasoners, as to hear their discourse, and endeavours to
remember something which, when it has been strained through Tom's head,
is so near to nothing, that what it once was cannot be discovered. This
he carries round from friend to friend through a circle of visits, till,
hearing what each says upon the question, he becomes able at dinner to
say a little himself; and as every great genius relaxes himself among
his inferiors, meets with some who wonder how so young a man can talk so
wisely.'
[909] 'That accurate judge of human life, Dr. Johnson, has often been
heard by me to observe, that it was the greatest misfortune which
could befall a man to have been bred to no profession, and pathetically
to regret that this misfortune was his own.' _More's Practical Piety_,
p. 313. MARKLAND.
[910] He had wished to study it. See _ante_, i. 134.
[911] The fourth Earl of Lichfield, the Chancellor of Oxford, died in
1772. The title became extinct in 1776, on the death of the fifth earl.
The present title was created in 1831. Courthope's _Hist. Peerage_,
p. 286.
[912] See _post_, March 23, 1783, where Boswell vexed him in much the
same way.
[913] I am not entirely without suspicion that Johnson may have felt a
little momentary envy; for no man loved the good things of this life
better than he did; and he could not but be conscious that he deserved
a much larger share of them, than he ever had. I attempted in a
newspaper to comment on the above passage, in the manner of Warburton,
who must be allowed to have shewn uncommon ingenuity, in giving to any
authour's text whatever meaning he chose it should carry. [_Ante_, ii.
37, note 1.] As this imitation may amuse my readers, I shall here
introduce it:--
'No saying of Dr. Johnson's has been more misunderstood than his
applying to Mr. Burke when he first saw him at his fine place at
Beaconsfield, _Non equidem invideo; miror magis_. These two celebrated
men had been friends for many years before Mr. Burke entered on his
parliamentary career. They were both writers, both members of THE
LITERARY CLUB; when, therefore, Dr. Johnson saw Mr. Burke in a situation
so much more splendid than that to which he himself had attained, he did
not mean to express that he thought it a disproportionate prosperity;
but while he, as a philosopher, asserted an exemption from envy, _non
equidem invideo_, he went on in the words of the poet _miror magis_;
thereby signifying, either that he was occupied in admiring what he was
glad to see; or, perhaps, that considering the general lot of men of
superiour abilities, he wondered that Fortune, who is represented as
blind, should, in this instance, have been so just.' BOSWELL. Johnson in
his youth had translated
'Non equidem invideo; miror magis'
(Virgil, _Eclogues_, i. II) by
'My admiration only I exprest,
(No spark of envy harbours in my breast).'
_Ante_, i. 51.
[914] See _ante_ ii. 136.
[915] This neglect was avenged a few years after Goldsmith's death,
when Lord Camden sought to enter The Literary Club and was black-balled.
'I am sorry to add,' wrote Mr. [Sir William] Jones in 1780, 'that Lord
Camden and the Bishop of Chester were rejected. When Bishops and
Chancellors honour us by offering to dine with us at a tavern, it seems
very extraordinary that we should ever reject such an offer; but there
is no reasoning on the caprice of men.' _Life of Sir W. Jones_, p. 240.
[916] Cradock (_Memoirs_, i. 229) was dining with The Literary Club,
when Garrick arrived very late, full-dressed. 'He made many apologies;
he had been unexpectedly detained at the House of Lords, and Lord Camden
had insisted upon setting him down at the door of the hotel in his own
carriage. Johnson said nothing, but he looked a volume.'
[917] Miss. [Per Errata; Originally: Mrs.] Burney records this year
(1778) that Mrs. Thrale said to Johnson, 'Garrick is one of those
whom you suffer nobody to abuse but yourself; for if any other person
speaks against him, you browbeat him in a minute. "Why, madam," answered
he, "they don't know when to abuse him, and when to praise him; I will
allow no man to speak ill of David that he does not deserve."' Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 65. See _ante_, i. 393, note 1.
[918] The passage is in a letter dated Dublin, Oct. 12, 1727. 'Here is
my maintenance,' wrote Swift, 'and here my convenience. If it pleases
God to restore me to my health, I shall readily make a third journey;
if not we must part, as all human creatures have parted.' He never made
the third journey. Swift's _Works_, ed. 1803, xvii. 154.
[919] See _ante_, ii. 162.
[920] No doubt Percy.
[921] The philosopher was Bias. Cicero, _Paradoxa_, i.
[922] Johnson recorded of this day (_Pr. and Med_. p. 164):--'We sat
till the time of worship in the afternoon, and then came again late,
at the Psalms. Not easily, I think, hearing the sermon, or not being
attentive, I fell asleep.'
[923] Marshall's _Minutes of Agriculture_.
[924] It was only in hay-time and harvest that Marshall approved of
Sunday work. He had seen in the wet harvest of 1775 so much corn
wasted that he 'was ambitious to set the patriotic example' of Sunday
labour. One Sunday he 'promised every man who would work two shillings,
as much roast beef and plumb pudding as he would eat, with as much ale
as it might be fit for him to drink.' Nine men and three boys came. In a
note in the edition of 1799, he says:--'The Author has been informed
that an old law exists (mentioned by Dugdale), which tolerates
husbandmen in working on Sundays in harvest; and that, in proof thereof,
a gentleman in the north has uniformly carried one load every year on a
Sunday.' He adds:--'Jan. 1799. The particulars of this note were
furnished by the late Dr. Samuel Johnson; at whose request some
considerable part of what was originally written, and _printed_ on this
subject was cancelled. That which was published and which is now offered
again to the public is, _in effect_, what Dr. Johnson approved; or, let
me put it in the most cautious terms, that of which _Dr. Johnson did not
disapprove_.' Marshall's _Minutes etc., on Agriculture_, ii. 65-70.
[925] Saturday was April 18.
[926] William Duncombe, Esq. He married the sister of John Hughes
the poet; was the authour of two tragedies and other ingenious
productions; and died 26th Feb. 1769, aged 79. MALONE. In his Life of
Hughes (_Works_, vii. 477), Johnson says 'an account of Hughes is
prefixed to his works by his relation, the late Mr. Duncombe, a man
whose blameless elegance deserved the same respect.'
[927] See _ante_, i. 185, 243, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 22.
[928] See _ante_, i. 145.
[929] See Appendix A.
[930] No doubt Parson Home, better known as Home Tooke, who was at
this time in prison. He had signed an advertisement issued by the
Constitutional Society asking for a subscription for 'the relief of the
widows, etc., of our beloved American fellow-subjects, who had been
inhumanly murdered by the King's troops at Lexington and Concord.' For
this 'very gross libel' he had in the previous November been sentenced
to a fine of £200 and a year's imprisonment. Ann. Reg. xx. 234-245. See
_post_, May 13, 1778.
[931] Mr. Croker's conjecture that Dr. Shebbeare was the gentleman is
supported by the favourable way in which Boswell (_post_, May 1781)
speaks of Shebbeare as 'that gentleman,' and calls him 'a respectable
name in literature.' Shebbeare, on Nov. 28, 1758, was sentenced by Lord
Mansfield to stand in the pillory, to be confined for three years, and
to give security for his good behaviour for seven years, for a libellous
pamphlet intitled _A Sixth Letter to the People of England_. _Gent.
Mag_. xxviii. 555. (See _ante_, p. 15, note 3.) On Feb. 7, 1759, the
under-sheriff of Middlesex was found guilty of a contempt of Court, in
having suffered Shebbeare to stand _upon_ the pillory only, and not _in_
it. _Ib_. xxix. 91. Before the seven years had run out, Shebbeare was
pensioned. Smollett, in the preface to _Humphry Clinker_, represents the
publisher of that novel as writing to the imaginary author:--'If you
should be sentenced to the pillory your fortune is made. As times go,
that's a sure step to honour and preferment. I shall think myself happy
if I can lend you a lift.' See also in the same book Mr. Bramble's
Letter of June 2.
[932] See p. 275 of this volume. BOSWELL. Why Boswell mentions this
gentleman at all, seeing that nothing that he says is reported, is
not clear. Perhaps he gave occasion to Johnson's attack on the
Americans. It is curious also why both here and in the account given of
Dr. Percy's dinner his name is not mentioned. In the presence of this
unknown gentleman Johnson violently attacked first Percy, and next
Boswell.
[933] Mr. Langton no doubt. See _ante_, iii. 48. He had paid Johnson a
visit that morning. _Pr. and Med_. p. 165.
[934] See _ante_, p. 216.
[935] See _ante_, i. 494, where Johnson says that 'her learning is that
of a schoolboy in one of the lower forms.'
[936] On this day Johnson recorded in his review of the past year:--
'My nights have been commonly, not only restless, but painful and
fatiguing.' He adds, 'I have written a little of the _Lives of the
Poets_, I think with all my usual vigour.... This year the 28th of March
passed away without memorial. Poor Tetty, whatever were our faults and
failings, we loved each other. I did not forget thee yesterday. Couldest
thou have lived!' _Pr. and Med_. pp. 169, 170.
[937] Mr. Langton. See _ante_, iii. 48.
[938] Malone was told by Baretti that 'Dr. James picked up on a stall a
book of Greek hymns. He brought it to Johnson, who ran his eyes over
the pages and returned it. A year or two afterwards he dined at Sir
Joshua Reynolds's with Dr. Musgrave, the editor of _Euripides_. Musgrave
made a great parade of his Greek learning, and among other less known
writers mentioned these hymns, which he thought none of the company were
acquainted with, and extolled them highly. Johnson said the first of
them was indeed very fine, and immediately repeated it. It consisted of
ten or twelve lines.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 160.
[939] By Richard Tickell, the grandson of Addison's friend. Walpole's
_Letters_, vii. 54
[940] She was a younger sister of Peg Woffington (_ante_, p. 264).
Johnson described her as 'a very airy lady.' (Boswell's _Hebrides_,
Sept. 23, 1773.) Murphy (_Life_, p. 137) says that 'Johnson, sitting at
table with her, took hold of her hand in the middle of dinner, and held
it close to his eye, wondering at the delicacy and the whiteness, till
with a smile she asked:--"Will he give it to me again when he has done
with it?"' He told Miss Burney that 'Mrs. Cholmondeley was the first
person who publicly praised and recommended _Evelina_ among the wits.'
Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 180. Miss Burney wrote in 1778:--'Mrs.
Cholmondeley has been praising _Evelina_; my father said that I could
not have had a greater compliment than making two such women my friends
as Mrs. Thrale and Mrs. Cholmondeley, for they were severe and knowing,
and afraid of praising _à tort et à travers_, as their opinions are
liable to be quoted.' _Ib_. i. 47. To Mrs. Cholmondeley Goldsmith, just
before his death, shewed a copy in manuscript of his _Retaliation_. No
one else, it should seem, but Burke had seen it. Forster's _Goldsmith_,
ii. 412.
[941] Dr. Johnson is supported by the usage of preceding writers.
So in _Musarum Deliciae_, 8vo. 1656 (the writer is speaking of
Suckling's play entitled _Aglaura_, printed in folio):--
'This great voluminous _pamphlet_ may be said
To be like one that hath more hair than head.'