world, as he prepared himself to whirl in the vortex of pleasure,
imagined a total indifference and universal negligence to be the most
agreeable concomitants of youth, and the strongest indication of an
easy temper and a quick apprehension. Vacant to every object, and
sensible of every impulse, he thought that an appearance of diligence
would deduct something from the reputation of genius, and hoped that
he should appear to attain, amidst all the ease of carelessness, and
all the tumult of diversion, that knowledge and those accomplishments
which mortals of the common fabric obtain only by mute abstraction
and solitary drudgery. He tried this scheme of life awhile, was made
weary of it by his sense and his virtue; he then wished to return to
his studies, and finding long habits of idleness and pleasure harder
to be cured than he expected, still wishing to retain his claim to
some extraordinary prerogatives, resolved the common consequences of
irregularity into an unalterable decree of destiny, and concluded that
nature had originally formed him incapable of rational enjoyment. Let
all such fancies, illusive and destructive, be banished henceforward
from your thoughts for ever. Resolve and keep your resolution; choose,
and pursue your choice. If you spend this day in study, you will find
yourself still more able to study to-morrow; not that you are to
expect that you shall at once obtain a complete victory.”
Johnson had commended his friend for keeping a journal.[31] He
concludes his letter by expressing a hope that he is “enriching his
journal with many observations upon the country” in which he was
residing.
At Utrecht Boswell obtained the friendship of M. Trotz, the learned
civilian, whose prelections on civil law he attended for some months.
He also became intimate with the Rev. William Brown, pastor of the
English congregation at Utrecht, subsequently Professor of Church
History at St. Andrews. Anecdotes related by M. Trotz and Mr. Brown are
preserved in Boswell’s Commonplace-book.
Lord Auchinleck had designed that his son should prosecute his studies
at Utrecht for two years. The proposal was not a hopeful one, and
it was not realized. Before his first term was completed, Boswell
longed for the pleasures of travel: as the term closed he hastened
into the country. He visited Leyden and other noted localities in
the Netherlands, and passed into Germany. He reached Berlin in July,
where he delivered a letter of introduction to Mr., afterwards Sir
Andrew Mitchell, British Ambassador at the Prussian Court. By this
accomplished gentleman he was well received and hospitably entertained.
From Berlin he wrote a letter to his father, expatiating on the
advantages of travel, and entreating that such a remittance might be
sent him as would carry him into Switzerland, and from thence into
Italy. Pending his father’s answer, he visited the duchies of Hanover
and Brunswick. Returning to Berlin on the 27th of August he found
a letter from his father, strongly disapproving his proposal for a
lengthened tour, and allowing him only the indulgence of visiting
France before resuming his legal studies at Utrecht. Mortified by
his father’s decision, and the severely peremptory character of his
letter, he thought of waiting on Mr. Mitchell to entreat his aid and
intervention. The ambassador was from home; he had gone with his
family to Spa, where he was still to remain some weeks. Procuring his
address, Boswell sent him a lengthened communication, which owing to
its peculiar manner we present without abridgment:—
“You may believe, sir, that I was a good deal surprised to hear, upon
my return to Berlin, that _onze Gezant_[32] was gone. There was indeed
a surmise at Brunswick that you intended to return to England this
season. I was asked if it was true, and very innocently affirmed that
there was nothing in it. I find however, that when a man leaves a
Minister at a foreign Court but for a fortnight, he is not sure of
finding him upon his return. Your departure is a good deal unlucky for
me, not only as it deprives me of conversation which gave me uncommon
pleasure, and invariably accustomed me to rational thinking and
honourable sentiment, but because I now particularly stand in need of
your prudent and kind counsel with respect to my travels. I have had
another letter from my father, in which he continues of opinion that
travelling is of very little use, and may do a great deal of harm. I
shall not repeat what I have formerly said of my father’s particular
character; I say _particular_, for rarely will you find a man of so
excellent a frame of body, and so noble a mind as to have passed
through life with uniform propriety of conduct.[33] For my own part, I
own that I am not such a favourite of nature. Think not that I intend
to plead machinery, and escape from the censure due to the faults
which I have committed. I only would have you consider that judgment
is a natural gift as well as imagination, and force of mind is in a
great measure independent of our endeavours: think of me as I am, and
pronounce accordingly.
“I esteem and love my father, and I am determined to do what is in
my power to make him easy and happy; but you will allow that I may
endeavour to make him happy and at the same time not be too hard upon
myself. I must use you so much with the freedom of a friend as to tell
you that, with the vivacity which you allowed me, I have a melancholy
disposition. To escape from the gloom of dark speculation, I have made
excursions into the fields of amusement, perhaps of folly. I have
found that amusement and folly are beneath me, and that without some
laudable pursuit my life must be insipid and wearisome. I therefore
took the resolution of leaving London, and settled myself for the
winter at Utrecht, where I recovered my inclination for study and
rational thinking. I then laid my account with travelling for a couple
of years, but I found my father’s views to be entirely different. You
saw the letter which I wrote him from this, and I flatter myself that
you approved of it. I cannot expect his answer for some weeks; in
the meantime he tells me that he would not oppose my passing another
winter at Utrecht, so that he does not grudge the time which I ask.
As for the money, I should think for one year a little extraordinary
expense is not thrown away, when it is also to be considered that
what I spend now I shall not have some years hence. My father seems
much against my going to Italy, but gives me leave to go from there
and pass some months in Paris. I own that the words of the apostle
Paul, “I must see Rome,” are strongly borne in upon my mind; it would
give me infinite pleasure; it would give me talk for a lifetime,
and I should go home to Auchinleck with serene contentment. I am no
libertine, and have a moral certainty of suffering no harm in Italy;
I can also assure you that I shall be as moderate as possible in my
expenses. I do not intend to travel as _Mi Lord Anglois_, but merely
as a scholar and a man of elegant curiosity, and I am told that in
that character I may live in Italy very reasonably. I obviate your
objection of my being obliged to live like others, by assuring you
that I have none of that second-rate ambition which actuates most
young men of fortune upon their travels. After passing four months on
classic ground, I would come through France, and go home, as I said to
my father, _uti conviva satur_.
“Now, sir, tell me fairly if I am unreasonable. Upon my honour
I cannot think that I am. I give you my word that my father’s
inclinations shall be as inviolable laws to his son; but don’t
you think that I may just remonstrate before I consider an act as
passed? Don’t you think that, rather than go home contrary to what I
much desire, and cannot help thinking very proper,—don’t you think
it worth while to humour me so far as to allow me my year and a
reasonable sum, after which I return clear and contented, without any
pretence for my stormy disposition to murmur at? I would beg, sir,
that you may write to my father your opinion as to this matter, and
put it in the light that you think it deserves. In the meantime I can
see little advantage to be had at Berlin. I shall, however, remain
here a fortnight, after which I intend passing by Mannheim, and one or
two more of the German Courts, to Geneva; I am then at the point from
which I may either steer to Italy or to France. I shall see Voltaire.
I shall also see Switzerland and Rousseau; these two men are to me
greater objects than most statues or pictures. I take this opportunity
to assure the loved and respected friend of my father that I am
serenely happy at having obtained his acquaintance. I would hope that
I shall not be found unworthy of his regard, and I wish very honestly
for an opportunity of showing my real esteem for such a character as I
could draw to any one else but to himself.”[34]
In a postscript Boswell begged an early reply. His letter, somewhat
Johnsonian in style, actually reflected some of Dr. Johnson’s
sentiments respecting himself, in the letter received at Utrecht. It
was sufficiently candid to induce friendship, and not more ambitious
than the ardour of youth might have excused or justified. But Mr.
Mitchell had no desire to arbitrate between father and son in a matter
with which he was personally unconcerned. He contented himself with
administering to the young traveller a lecture on filial obedience, and
declined all further negotiation. Lord Auchinleck meanwhile relented
without further pressure, assented to the Italian project, and sent
the necessary funds. To the Ambassador Boswell addressed a letter from
Geneva on the 26th December; it commenced in a style sufficiently
exultant:—
“I thank you for your letter from Spa, although it gave me no great
encouragement in my scheme of going to Italy. You tell me gravely to
follow the plan which my father prescribed, whatever it may be, and in
doing so I shall certainly act most wisely. I forgive you this, for I
say just the same to young people when I advise. To enter into detail
of the little circumstances which compose the felicity of another,
is what a man of any genius can hardly submit to. We therefore give
a good, wholesome, general counsel; and he who consults us thinks a
little, and then endeavours to take his own way as well as he can.
I have, however, the happiness to inform you that my father has
consented that I shall go to Italy. Upon my soul, I am grateful to
the most worthy of men: it will be hard if we are not well together,
for I love him with the strongest affection. If I find that I cannot
succeed in my own plans in such a way as to convince my father that
I am in the right, I shall do my utmost to fulfil the plan beyond
which he cannot think to look. You may suppose what my ideas are,
for they are of your old acquaintances. One thing I am sure of, and
by the undisguised honour of a man of probity I swear, shall chiefly
influence me—a regard to the happiness of him to whom I owe so much,
Believe me I have a soul.”
Had Boswell concluded his letter at this point he might have merited
some praise for snubbing the ambassador who had lectured him on filial
duty. But he goes on to entreat Mr. Mitchell’s influence on behalf
of the father and brother of his friend Mr. Temple. The father he
describes as formerly an officer in the Customs, who had forfeited his
appointment by becoming insolvent. The son, Master Robert, is now a
lieutenant on half-pay. Through Mr. Mitchell he desires a Government
post for the one, and full pay for the other. He assures the ambassador
that excepting his Sovereign he is “the only man in Britain” he would
ask a favour of. “If you can aid me,” he adds, “you will most truly
oblige a worthy fellow, for such I am.” To this second communication
the ambassador vouchsafed no answer.
Through a part of Germany Boswell was accompanied by the Earl
Marischal, who ordinarily resided at Berlin, and who had, during a
recent visit to Scotland, formed the acquaintance of Lord Auchinleck.
With introductions from his lordship he visited Voltaire at Ferney, and
Rousseau in the wilds of Neufchatel. It is to be regretted that he did
not record his conversations with these celebrated persons. Crossing
the Alps, he visited the principal towns of Italy. He spent some time
in Italy with Lord Mountstuart, eldest son of the Earl of Bute. To this
nobleman he dedicated his thesis when he was called to the Bar.
The inhabitants of Corsica were at this time engaged against the
Genoese in their memorable struggle for liberty, and Pascal Paoli,
their patriotic leader, had become celebrated over Europe. To Boswell
he had been warmly commended by Rousseau, who had corresponded with
the Corsicans respecting the formation of their laws. Boswell hinted
to Rousseau that he might proceed to Corsica, and when in April, 1765,
he reached Rome, he addressed a letter to the philosopher, begging an
introduction to Paoli. Not receiving a reply, he wrote to Rousseau a
second time, informing him that should he withhold the introduction
sought for “he should certainly go without it, and probably be hanged
as a spy.”[35] On his arrival at Florence, in August, he received a
letter from “the wild philosopher,” recommending him first to Mr.
Buttafoco, Captain of the Royal Italian Regiment at Viscovado, and
in his absence to General Paoli. At Leghorn he procured from Count
Rivarola, the Sardinian Consul, a special letter to Paoli and other
leading persons at Corsica.
Arriving in the island, Boswell was courteously received by Signor
Antonetti, to whom he presented a letter from Count Rivarola. After
entertaining him at his house, Antonetti facilitated his progress to
the town of Sollacarò, the headquarters of Paoli. On his route Boswell
heard that in the castle of Corte were detained three murderers, a
woman and two men; he gratified his curiosity by conversing with them.
At his request the executioner was also presented to him.
Reaching Sollacarò, Boswell was brought into the presence of Paoli,
to whom he handed his credentials. Paoli received him with reserve,
but afterwards became friendly. To the general he described himself
in these terms:—“With a mind naturally inclined to melancholy, and a
keen desire of inquiry, I have intensely applied myself to metaphysical
researches, and reasoned beyond my depth on such subjects as it is not
given to man to know. I have rendered my mind a comera (_sic_) obscura;
in the very heat of youth I felt the _non est tanti_, the _omnia
vanitas_ of one who has exhausted all the sweets of his being, and is
weary with dull repetition. I told him that I had almost become for
ever incapable of taking a part in active life.”[36]
Paoli introduced Boswell to his nobility, who severally honoured
him with visits. He was one day mounted on Paoli’s horse, with its
rich garniture of crimson velvet and gold lace. In journeying he was
attended by the general’s guards, an honour from which he “enjoyed a
sort of luxury of noble sentiment.” From Paoli’s palace at Corte, the
capital of Corsica, he addressed a letter to Dr. Johnson, which he
describes as “full of generous enthusiasm.” Having related what he had
done and seen, he summed up; “I dare to call this a spirited tour; I
dare to challenge your approbation.”[37]
From Corsica Boswell communicated to Rousseau, now in France, the
details of his visit to Paoli, and on his reaching Paris received
the philosopher’s commands to bring with him into England, whither
he had preceded him, the notorious companion of his household,
Therése La Vasseur. Boswell accepted the mission, and accompanied
Rousseau’s mistress from Paris to London. In reference to his intended
progress, Mr. Hume, at whose instance Rousseau proceeded to England,
thus communicated with his ingenious correspondent, the Countess de
Bouflers:—
“_12th of January, 1766._
“A letter has come open to me from Guy, the bookseller, by which I
learn that Mademoiselle[38] sets out first in company with a friend
of mine, a young gentleman very good-humoured, very agreeable, and
very mad. He visited Rousseau in his mountains, who gave him a
recommendation to Paoli, the King of Corsica; where this gentleman,
whose name is Boswell, went last summer in search of adventures. He
has such a rage for literature, that I dread some event fatal to our
friend’s honour. For remember the story of Terentia, who was first
married to Cicero, then to Sallust, and at last, in her old age,
married a young nobleman, who imagined that she must possess some
secret which would convey to him eloquence and genius.”
At Paris, in the house of Mr. Waters, an English banker, Boswell found
a letter from Dr. Johnson, dated the 14th January. It proceeded thus:—
“Be assured for the present, that nothing has lessened either the
esteem or love with which I dismissed you at Harwich. Both have been
increased by all that I have been told of you by yourself or others,
and when you return, you will return to an unaltered and, I hope,
unalterable friend.
“All that you have to fear from me is the vexation of disappointing
me. No man loves to frustrate expectations which have been formed in
his favour; and the pleasure which I promise myself from your journals
and remarks is so great, that perhaps no degree of attention or
discernment will be sufficient to afford it.
“Come home, however, and take your chance. I long to see you and to
hear you, and hope that we shall not be so long separated again. Come
home, and expect such welcome as is due to him whom a wise and noble
curiosity has led where perhaps, no native of this country ever was
before.
* * * * *
“As your father’s liberality has indulged you with so long a ramble,
I doubt not but that you will think his sickness, or even his desire
to see you, a sufficient reason for hastening your return. The longer
we live, and the more we think, the higher value we learn to put on
the friendship and tenderness of parents and friends. Parents we can
have but once; and he promises himself too much who enters life with
the expectation of finding many friends. Upon some motive I hope that
you will be here soon, and am willing to think that it will be an
inducement to your return that it is sincerely desired by, dear sir,
your affectionate humble servant,
“SAM JOHNSON.”
Boswell reached London in the beginning of February, and at once
visited Dr. Johnson at his house in Johnson’s Court. Received with much
cordiality, he proceeded to entertain the lexicographer with Voltaire’s
opinions of some of the English poets. In the evening the friends
supped together at the Mitre Tavern, when Boswell learnt, for the first
time, that Johnson had become practically an abstainer. On Saturday,
the 15th February, Boswell and Johnson again met at the “Mitre,” the
former being accompanied by his friend Mr. Temple. Boswell spoke of
Rousseau, and said he had met with Mr. Wilkes in Italy, and had enjoyed
his society. Johnson denounced both the philosopher and the politician
in his severest manner.
In the course of their conversation General Paoli had remarked to
Boswell that he might inform the members of his court that the
Corsicans were worthy of greater support than they had hitherto
received. Boswell construed the remark into a request, and, before
he left the island, commissioned a Corsican dress in which he might,
to members of the English Cabinet, plead the cause of Paoli. In this
costume he waited on several members of Government, and some noted
politicians. From Mr. Walpole he experienced a courteous reception.
Mr. Pitt wrote him a short letter, which, in the hope of producing
a correspondence between him and the minister, he acknowledged as
follows:—
“_St. James’ Street, Feb. 19, 1766._
“Sir,—I have the honour to receive your most obliging letter, and
can with difficulty restrain myself from paying you compliments on
the very genteel manner in which you are pleased to treat me. But I
come from a people among whom even the lowest arts of insinuation
are unknown. However you may, by political circumstances, be in one
view a simple individual, yet, sir, Mr. Pitt will always be the prime
minister of the brave, the secretary of freedom and of spirit; and
I hope that I may with propriety talk to him of the views of the
illustrious Paoli. Be that as it may, I shall very much value the
honour of being admitted to your acquaintance.
“I am, &c.,
JAMES BOSWELL.”[39]
Informed of his mother’s death, Boswell left London for Auchinleck.
His father was pleased to find him somewhat less volatile, and quite
reconciled to the legal profession. On the 26th July he was admitted
advocate. His “Thesis on Civil Law,” published at his admission, he
transmitted to Dr. Johnson, who criticised it with severity; he,
however, heartily commended his resolution to obey his father, and
seriously to occupy himself with business. His proposal to write a
history of Corsica Dr. Johnson objected to. “You have,” he wrote, “no
materials which others have not, or may have. You have, somehow or
other, warmed your imagination. I wish there were some cure, like the
lover’s leap, for all heads of which some single idea has obtained an
unreasonable and irregular possession. Mind your own affairs, and leave
the Corsicans to theirs.”
Aware of Boswell’s tendency to form resolutions, which he afterwards
departed from, Dr. Johnson entreated him to abandon his practice of
vow-making. To a letter from the lexicographer on this subject Boswell
made the following answer:—
“_Auchinleck, 6th November, 1766._
“Might I venture to differ from you with regard to the utility of
vows? I am sensible that it may be very dangerous to make vows rashly,
and without a due consideration. But I cannot help thinking that they
may often be of great advantage to one of a variable judgment and
irregular inclinations. I always remember a passage in one of your
letters to our Italian friend, Baretti; where, talking of the monastic
life, you say you do not wonder that serious men should put themselves
under the protection of a religious order, when they have found how
unable they are to take care of themselves. For my own part, without
affecting to be a Socrates, I am sure I have a more than ordinary
struggle to maintain with the Evil Principle; and all the methods I
can devise are little enough to keep me tolerably steady in the paths
of rectitude.”
In February, 1767, Boswell conveyed his congratulations to Mr. Temple
on his being admitted to priest’s orders, and instituted Rector of
Mamhead. The following remarks with which his congratulations were
accompanied would have reflected credit on Dr. Johnson:—
“I am sincerely happy that you are at length the Reverend Mr. Temple.
I view the profession of a clergyman in an amiable and respectable
light. Don’t be moved by declamations against ecclesiastical history,
as if that could blacken the sacred order. I confess that it is not
in ecclesiastical history that we find the most agreeable account of
divines: their politics, their ambition, and their cruelty are there
displayed; but remember, Temple, you are there reading the vices of
only political divines,—of such individuals as in so numerous a
body have been very unworthy members of the Church, and should have
rather been employed in the rudest secular concerns. But if you would
judge fairly of the priests of Jesus, you must consider how many of
the distressed they have comforted, how many of the wicked they have
reclaimed, how many of the good they have improved; consider the lives
of thousands of worthy pious divines who have been a blessing to their
parishes. This is just, Temple. You say the truths of morality are
written in the hearts of all men, and they find it their interest
to practise them. My dear friend, will you believe a specious moral
essayist against your own experience? Don’t you in the very same
letter complain of the wickedness of those around you? Don’t you
talk of the tares in society? My friend, it is your office to labour
cheerfully in the vineyard, and, if possible, to leave not a tare in
Mamhead.
* * * * *
“In a word, my dear Temple, be a good clergyman, and you will be happy
both here and hereafter.”