'In France, to which my ideas [in the _Essay on the Study of Literature_]
were confined, the learning and language of Greece and Rome were
neglected by a philosophic age. The guardian of those studies, the
Academy of Inscriptions, was degraded to the lowest rank among the
three royal societies of Paris; the new appellation of _Erudits_ was
contemptuously applied to the successors of Lipsius and Casaubon; and
I was provoked to hear (see M. d'Alembert, _Discours préliminaire à
l'Encyclopedie_) that the exercise of the memory, their sole merit,
had been superseded by the nobler faculties of the imagination and the
judgment.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 104.
_A Synod of Cooks_.
(Vol. i, p. 470.)
When Johnson spoke of 'a Synod of Cooks' he was, I conjecture, thinking
of Milton's 'Synod of Gods,' in Beelzebub's speech in Paradise Lost,
book ii. line 391.
_Johnson and Bishop Percy_.
(Vol. i, p. 486.)
Bishop Percy in a letter to Boswell says: 'When in 1756 or 1757 I
became acquainted with Johnson, he told me he had lived twenty years
in London, but not very happily.'
--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 307.
_Barclay's Answer to Kenrick's Review of Johnson's
'Shakespeare.'_
(Vol. i, p. 498.)
Neither in the British Museum nor in the Bodleian have I been able to
find a copy of this book. _A Defence of Mr. Kenricks Review_, 1766,
does not seem to contain any reply to such a work as Barclay's.
_Mrs. Piozzi's 'Collection of Johnson s Letters.'_
(Vol. ii, p. 43, n. 2.)
MR. BOSWELL TO BISHOP PERCY.
'Feb. 9, 1788.
'I am ashamed that I have yet seven years to write of his life. ... Mrs.
(Thrale) Piozzi's Collection of his letters will be out soon. ... I saw
a sheet at the printing-house yesterday... It is wonderful what avidity
there still is for everything relative to Johnson. I dined at Mr.
Malone's on Wednesday with Mr. W. G. Hamilton, Mr. Flood, Mr. Windham, Mr.
Courtenay, &c.; and Mr. Hamilton observed very well what a proof it was
of Johnson's merit that we had been talking of him all the afternoon.'
--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 309.
_Johnson on romantic virtue_.
(Vol. ii, P. 76.)
'Dr. Johnson used to advise his friends to be upon their guard against
romantic virtue, as being founded upon no settled principle. "A plank,"
said he, "that is tilted up at one end must of course fall down on the
other."
'--William Seward, _Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons_, ii. 461.'
_'Old' Baxter on toleration_.
(Vol. ii, p. 253.)
The Rev. John Hamilton Davies, B.A., F.R.H.S., Rector of St. Nicholas's,
Worcester, and author of _The Life of Richard Baxter of Kidderminster,
Preacher and Prisoner_ (London, Kent & Co., 1887), kindly informs me,
in answer to my inquiries, that he believes that Johnson may allude
to the following passage in the fourth chapter of Baxter's Reformed
Pastor:--
'I think the Magistrate should be the hedge of the Church. I am against
the two extremes of universal license and persecuting tyranny. The
Magistrate must be allowed the use of his reason, to know the cause,
and follow his own judgment, not punish men against it. I am the less
sorry that the Magistrate doth so little interpose.'
_England barren in good historians_.
(Vol. ii, p. 236, n. 2.)
Gibbon, writing of the year 1759, says:
'The old reproach that no British altars had been raised to the muse of
history was recently disproved by the first performances of Robertson
and Hume, the histories of Scotland and of the Stuarts.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 103.
_An instance of Scotch nationality_.
(Vol. ii, p. 307.)
Lord Camden, when pressed by Dr. Berkeley (the Bishop's son) to appoint
a Scotchman to some office, replied: 'I have many years ago sworn that
I never will introduce a Scotchman into any office; for if you introduce
one he will contrive some way or other to introduce forty more cousins
or friends.'
--G. M. _Berkeley's Poems_, p. ccclxxi.
_Mortality in the Foundling Hospital of London_.
(Vol. ii, p. 398.)
'From March 25, 1741, to December 31, 1759, the number of children
received into the Foundling Hospital is 14,994, of which have died
to December 31, 1759, 8,465.'--_A Tour through the Whole Island of
Great Britain_, ed. 1769, vol. ii, p. 121. A great many of these died,
no doubt, after they had left the Hospital.
_Mr. Planta_.
(Vol. ii, p. 399, n. 2.)
The reference is no doubt to Mr. Joseph Planta, Assistant-Librarian
of the British Museum 1773, Principal Librarian 1799-1827. See Edwards'
_Lives of the Founders of the British Museum_, pp. 517 sqq.; and
Nichols's _Illustrations of Literature_, vol. vii, pp. 677-8.
'_Unitarian_'.
(Vol. ii, p. 408, n. 1.)
John Locke in his _Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of
Christianity_ quotes from Mr. Edwards whom he answers:--'This gentleman
and his fellows are resolved to be Unitarians; they are for one article
of faith as well as One person in the Godhead.'
--Locke's _Works_, ed. 1824, vi, 200.
_The proposed Riding School for Oxford_.
(Vol. ii, p. 424.)
My friend, Mr. C. E. Doble, has pointed out to me the following passage
in _Collectanea_, First Series, edited by Mr. C. R. L. Fletcher, Fellow
of All Souls College, and printed for the Oxford Historical Society,
Oxford, 1885.
'The _Advertisement to Religion and Policy, by Edward Earl of Clarendon_,
runs as follows:--
"Henry Viscount Cornbury, who was called up to the House of Peers
by the title of Lord Hyde, in the lifetime of his father, Henry Earl
of Rochester, by a codicil to his will, dated Aug. 10, 1751, left
divers MSS. of his great grandfather, Edward Earl of Clarendon, to
Trustees, with a direction that the money to arise from the sale or
publication thereof, should be employed as a beginning of a fund for
supporting a Manage or Academy for riding and other useful exercises
in Oxford; a plan of this sort having been also recommended by Lord
Clarendon in his Dialogue on Education. Lord Cornbury dying before
his father, this bequest did not take effect. But Catharine, one of
the daughters of Henry Earl of Rochester, and late Duchess Dowager
of Queensbury, whose property these MSS. became, afterwards by deed
gave them, together with all the monies which had arisen or might arise
from the sale or publication of them, to [three Trustees] upon trust
for the like purposes as those expressed by Lord Hyde in his codicil."
'The preface to the _Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, written by
himself_., has words to the same effect. (See also _Notes and Queries_,
Ser. I. x. 185, and xi. 32.)
'From a letter in _Notes and Queries_, Ser. II. x. p. 74, it appears
that in 1860 the available sum, in the hands of the Trustees of the
Clarendon Bequest, amounted to £10,000. The University no longer needed
a riding-school, and the claims of Physical Science were urgent; and in
1872 the announcement was made, that by the liberality of the Clarendon
Trustees an additional wing had been added to the University Museum,
containing the lecture-rooms and laboratories of the department of
Experimental Philosophy.' Vol. i. p. 305.
_Boswell and Mrs. Rudd._
(Vol. ii, p. 450, n. 1.)
In Mr. Alfred Morrison's _Collection of Autographs_, vol. i. p. 103,
mention is made among Boswell's autographs of verses entitled _Lurgan
Clanbrassil_, a supposed Irish song.'
I have learnt, through Mr. Morrison's kindness, that 'on the document
itself there is the following memorandum, signed, so far as can be made
out, H. W. R.:--
"The enclosed song was written and composed by James Boswell, the
biographer of Johnson, in commemoration of a tour he made with Mrs.
Rudd whilst she was under his protection, for living with whom he
displeased his father so much that he threatened to disinherit him.
"Mrs. Rudd had lived with one of the Perreaus, who were tried and
executed for forgery. She was tried at the same time and acquitted.
"My father having heard that Boswell used to sing this song at the Home
Circuit, requested it of him, and he wrote it and gave it him. H.W. R."'
"Feb. 1828."
Christopher Smart.
(Vol. ii, p. 454, n. 3.)
Mr. Robert Browning, in his Parleyings with Christopher Smart, under
the similitude of 'some huge house,' thus describes the general run of
that unfortunate poet's verse:--
'All showed the Golden Mean without a hint
Of brave extravagance that breaks the rule.
The master of the mansion was no fool
Assuredly, no genius just as sure!
Safe mediocrity had scorned the lure
Of now too much and now too little cost,
And satisfied me sight was never lost
Of moderate design's accomplishment
In calm completeness.'
Mr. Browning goes on to liken one solitary poem to a Chapel in the house,
in which is found--
'from floor to roof one evidence
Of how far earth may rival heaven.'
_Parleyings with certain People of Importance in their Day_ (pp. 80-82),
London, 1887.
_Johnsons discussion on baptism--with Mr. Lloyd, the Birmingham Quaker_.
(Vol. ii, p. 458.)
In _Farm and its Inhabitants_ (_ante_, p. xlii), a further account is
given of the controversy between Johnson and Mr. Lloyd the Quaker, on
the subject of Barclay's _Apology_.
'Tradition states that, losing his temper, Dr. Johnson threw the volume
on the floor, and put his foot on it, in denunciation of its statements.
The identical volume is now in the possession of G. B. Lloyd, of Edgbaston
Grove.
'At the dinner table he continued the debate in such angry tones, and
struck the table so violently that the children were frightened, and
desired to escape.
'The next morning Dr. Johnson went to the bank [Mr. Lloyd was a banker]
and by way of apology called out in his stentorian voice, "I say, Lloyd,
I'm the best theologian, but you are the best Christian.'" p. 41. It
could not have been 'the next morning' that Johnson went to the bank,
for he left for Lichfield on the evening of the day of the controversy
(_ante_, ii. 461). He must have gone in the afternoon, while Boswell
was away seeing Mr. Boulton's great works at Soho (ib. p. 459).
Mr. G. B. Lloyd, the great-grandson of Johnson's host, in a letter
written this summer (1886), says: 'Having spent much of my boyhood
with my grandfather in the old house, I have heard him tell the story
of the stamping on the broad volume.'
Boswell mentions (ib. p. 457) that 'Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd, like their
Majesties, had been blessed with a numerous family of fine children,
their numbers being exactly the same.' The author of _Farm and its
Inhabitants_ says (p. 46): 'There is a tradition that when Sampson
Lloyd's wife used to feel depressed by the care of such a large family
(they had sixteen children) he would say to her, "Never mind, the
twentieth will be the most welcome."' His fifteenth child Catharine
married Dr. George Birkbeck, the founder of the Mechanics' Institutes
(ib. p. 48).
A story told (p. 50) of one of Mr. Lloyd's sons-in-law, Joseph Biddle,
is an instance of that excess of forgetfulness which Johnson called
'morbid oblivion' (_ante_, v. 68). 'He went to pay a call in Leamington.
The servant asked him for his name, he could not remember it; in
perplexity he went away, when a friend in the street met him and
accosted him, "How do you do, Mr. Biddle?" "Oh, Biddle, Biddle, Biddle,
that's the name," cried he, and rushed off to pay his call.'
The editor is in error in stating (p. 45, n. 1) that a very poor poem
entitled _A bone for Friend Mary to pick_, is by Johnson. It may be
found in the _Gent. Mag._ for 1791, p. 948.
_Lichfield in 1783._
(Vol. ii, p. 461.)
C. P. Moritz, a young Prussian clergyman who published an account of
a pedestrian tour that he made in England in the year 1782, thus describes
Lichfield as he saw it on a day in June:--
'At noon I got to Lichfield, an old-fashioned town with narrow dirty
streets, where for the first time I saw round panes of glass in the
windows. The place to me wore an unfriendly appearance; I therefore
made no use of my recommendation, but went straight through and only
bought some bread at a baker's, which I took along with me.'--_Travels
in England in 1782_, p. 140, by C. P. Moritz. Cassell's National Library,
1886.
The 'recommendation' was an introduction to an inn given him by the
daughter of his landlord at Sutton, who told him 'that the people in
Lichfield were, in general, very proud.' Travelling as he did, on foot
and without luggage, he was looked upon with suspicion at the inns,
and often rudely refused lodging.
_Richard Baxter's doubt_.
(Vol. ii, p. 477.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies [See _ante_, p. xlix. 1] informs me that
there can be no doubt that Johnson referred to the following passage
in _Reliquiae Baxterianae_, folio edition of 1696, p. 127:--
'This is another thing which I am changed in; that whereas in my
younger days I was never tempted to doubt of the Truth of Scripture
or Christianity, but all my Doubts and Fears were exercised at home,
about my own Sincerity and Interest in Christ--since then my sorest
assaults have been on the other side, and such they were, that had I
been void of internal Experience, and the adhesion of Love, and the
special help of God, and had not discerned more Reason for my Religion
than I did when I was younger, I had certainly apostatized to Infidelity,'
&c.
Johnson, the day after he recorded his 'doubt,' wrote that he was
'troubled with Baxter's _scruple_' (_ante_, ii. 477). The 'scruple'
was, perhaps, the same as the 'doubt.' In his _Dictionary_ he defines
_scruple_ as _doubt; difficulty of determination; perplexity; generally
about minute things_.
_Oxford in 1782_.
(Vol. iii, p. 13, n. 3.)
The Rev. C. P. Moritz (_ante_, p. liv) gives a curious account of
his visit to Oxford. On his way from Dorchester on the evening of
a Sunday in June, he had been overtaken by the Rev. Mr. Maud, who seems
to have been a Fellow and Tutor of Corpus College[3], and who was
returning from doing duty in his curacy. It was late when they arrived
in the town. Moritz, who, as I have said, more than once had found
great difficulty in getting a bed, had made up his mind to pass the
summer night on a stonebench in the High Street. His comrade would not
hear of this, but said that he would take him to an ale-house where
'it is possible they mayn't be gone to bed, and we may yet find company.'
This ale-house was the Mitre.
'We went on a few houses further, and then knocked at a door. It was
then nearly twelve. They readily let us in; but how great was my
astonishment when, on being shown into a room on the left, I saw
a great number of clergymen, all with their gowns and bands on, sitting
round a large table, each with his pot of beer before him. My travelling
companion introduced me to them as a German clergyman, whom he could not
sufficiently praise for my correct pronunciation of the Latin, my
orthodoxy, and my good walking.
'I now saw myself in a moment, as it were, all at once transported
into the midst of a company, all apparently very respectable men, but
all strangers to me. And it appeared to me extraordinary that I should
thus at midnight be in Oxford, in a large company of Oxonian clergy,
without well knowing how I had got there. Meanwhile, however, I took
all the pains in my power to recommend myself to my company, and in the
course of conversation I gave them as good an account as I could of
our German universities, neither denying nor concealing that now and
then we had riots and disturbances. "Oh, we are very unruly here,
too," said one of the clergymen, as he took a hearty draught out of his
pot of beer, and knocked on the table with his hand. The conversation
now became louder, more general, and a little confused. ... At last,
when morning drew near, Mr. Maud suddenly exclaimed, "D-n me, I must
read prayers this morning at All Souls!" "D-n me" is an abbreviation
of "G-d d-n me," which in England does not seem to mean more mischief
or harm than any of our or their common expletives in conversation,
such as "O gemini!" or "The deuce take me!" ... I am almost ashamed
to own, that next morning, when I awoke, I had got so dreadful a
headache from the copious and numerous toasts of my jolly and reverend
friends that I could not possibly get up.
--_Travels in England in 1782_, by C. P. Moritz, p. 123.
[Footnote 3: No such person appears in the _Catalogue of Graduates_.]
_Dr. Lettsom_.
(Vol. in, p. 68.)
Boswell in an _Ode to Mr. Charles Dilly_, published in the _Gent.
Mag._ for 1791, p. 367, says that Dr. Lettsom 'Refutes pert Priestley's
nonsense.'
_William Vachell_.
(Vol. iii, p. 83, n. 3.)
Mr. George Parker of the Bodleian Library informs me that William
Vachell had been tutor to Prince Esterhazy, and that for many years
he held the appointment of 'Pumper,' or Lessee of the baths at Bath.
In 1776 and 1777 he paid as rental for them to the Corporation £525.
He died on November 26, 1789. According to Mr. Ivor Vachell (_Notes
and Queries_, 6th S. vii. 327), it was his eldest son who signed the
Round Robin.
_Johnson and Baretti_.
(Vol. iii, p. 96, n. 1.)
Baretti in his _Tolondron_, p. 145, gives an account of a difference
between himself and Johnson. Johnson sent to ask him to call on him,
but Baretti was leaving town. When he returned the time for a
reconciliation had passed, for Johnson was dead.
_English pulpit eloquence_.
(Vol. iii, p. 248.)
'Upon the whole, which is preferable, the philosophic method of the
English, or the rhetoric of the French preachers? The first (though
less glorious) is certainly safer for the preacher. It is difficult
for a man to make himself ridiculous, who proposes only to deliver
plain sense on a subject he has thoroughly studied. But the instant
he discovers the least pretensions towards the sublime or the pathetic,
there is no medium; we must either admire or laugh; and there are so
many various talents requisite to form the character of an orator that
it is more than probable we shall laugh.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 118.
_Bishop Percy's communications to Boswell relative to Johnson_.
(Vol. iii, p. 278, n. 1.)
'JAMES BOSWELL TO BISHOP PERCY.
"9 April, 1790.
"As to suppressing your Lordship's name when relating the very few
anecdotes of Johnson with which you have favoured me, I will do anything
to oblige your Lordship but that very thing. I owe to the authenticity
of my work, to its respectability, and to the credit of my illustrious
friends [? friend] to introduce as many names of eminent persons as I
can... Believe me, my Lord, you are not the only bishop in the number
of great men with which my pages are graced. I am quite resolute as to
this matter."
'--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 313.
_Sir Thomas Brown's remark 'Do the devils lie? No; for then Hell could
not subsist._'
(Vol. iii, p. 293.)
This remark, whether it is Brown's or not, may have been suggested by
Milton's lines in _Paradise Lost_, ii. 496-9, or might have suggested
them:--
'O shame to men! devil with devil damn'd
Firm concord holds, men only disagree
Of creatures rational.'
_Johnson on the advantages of having a profession or business_.
(Vol. iii, p. 309, n. 1.)
'Dr. Johnson was of opinion that the happiest as well as the most
virtuous persons were to be found amongst those who united with a
business or profession a love of literature.'
--Seward's _Biographiana_, p. 599.
_Johnson's trips to the country_.
(Vol. iii, p. 453.)
I have omitted to mention Johnson's visit to 'Squire Dilly's mansion
at Southill in June, 1781 (_ante_, iv. 118-132).
_Citations of living authors in Johnson's Dictionary_.
(Vol. iv, p. 4, n. 3.)
Johnson cites _Irene_ under _impostures_, and Lord Lyttelton under
_twist_.
_Dr. Parrs evening with Dr. Johnson_.
(Vol. iv, p. 15.)
The Rev. John Rigaud, B.D., Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, has
kindly sent me the following anecdote of the meeting of Johnson and
Parr:--
'I remember Dr. Routh, the old President of Magdalen, telling me of an
interview and conversation between Dr. Johnson and Dr. Parr, in the
course of which the former made use of some expression respecting the
latter, which considerably wounded and offended him. "Sir," he said
to Dr. Johnson, "you know that what you have just said will be known
in four-and-twenty hours over this vast metropolis." Upon which Dr.
Johnson's manner altered, his eye became calm, and he put out his hand,
and said, "Forgive me, Parr, I didn't quite mean it." "But," said the
President, with an amused and amusing look, "_I never could get him to
tell me what it was Dr. Johnson had said!_" He spoke of seeing Dr.
Johnson going up the steps into University College, dressed, I think,
in a snuff-coloured coat.'
Dr. Martin Joseph Routh, who was President of Magdalen College for
sixty-four years, was born in 1755 and died on December 22, 1854.
'_Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris_.'
(Vol. iv, p. 181, n. 3.)
Malone's note on _The Rape of Lucrece_ must have been, not as I
conjectured on line 1111, but on lines 1581-2:--
'It easeth some, though none it ever cured,
To think their dolour others have endured.'
With these lines may be compared Satan's speech in _Paradise Regained_,
Book i, lines 399-402:--
'Long since with woe
Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof,
That fellowship in pain divides not smart,
Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load.'
_Richard Baxter's rule of preaching_.
(Vol. iv, p. 185.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies [See _ante_, p. xlix.] has furnished me
with the following extract from _Reliquiae Baxterianae_, ed. 1696, p. 93,
in illustration of Johnson's statement:--
'And yet I did usually put in something in my Sermon which was above
their own discovery, and which they had not known before; and this I
did, that they might be kept humble, and still perceive their ignorance,
and be willing to keep in a learning state. (For when Preachers tell
their People of no more than they know, and do not shew that they excel
them in knowledge, and easily overtop them in Abilities, the People
will be tempted to turn Preachers themselves, and think that they have
learnt all that the Ministers can teach them, and are as wise as
they------). And this I did also to increase their knowledge; and
also to make Religion pleasant to them, by a daily addition to their
former Sight, and to draw them on with desire and Delight.'
_Opposition to Sir Joshua Reynolds in the Royal Academy_.
(Vol. iv, p. 219, n. 4.)
'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO BISHOP PERCY.
'12 March, 1790.
'Sir Joshua has been shamefully used by a junto of the Academicians.
I live a great deal with him, and he is much better than you would
suppose.'
--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 313.
_Richard Baxter on the possible salvation of a Suicide_.
(Vol. iv, p. 225.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies writes to me that 'Dr. Johnson's quotation
about suicide must surely be wrong. I have no recollection in any of
Baxter's _Works_ of such a statement, and it is in direct contradiction
to all that is known of his sentiments. 'Mr. Davies sends me the following
passage, which possibly Johnson might have very imperfectly remembered:--
'The commonest cause [of suicide] is melancholy, &c. Though there
be much more hope of the salvation of such as want the use of their
understandings, because so far it may be called involuntary, yet it
is a very dreadful case, especially so far as reason remaineth in any
power.'
--Baxter's _Christian Directory, edited by Orme, part iv, p. 138.
_Haslitt's report of Baxter's Sermon_.
(Vol. iv, p. 226, n. 2.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies tells me that he 'entirely disbelieves that
Baxter said, "Hell was paved with infants' skulls." The same thing, or
something very like it, has been said of Calvin, but I could never,'
Mr. Davies continues, 'find it in his Works.' He kindly sends me the
following extract from _Reliquiae Baxterianae_, ed. 1696, p. 24:--
'Once all the ignorant Rout were raging mad against me for preaching
the Doctrine of Original Sin to them, and telling them that Infants
before Regeneration had so much Guilt and Corruption, as made them
loathsome in the Eyes of God: whereupon they vented it abroad in the
Country, That I preached that God hated, or loathed Infants; so that
they railed at me as I passed through the streets. The next Lord's Day,
I cleared and confirmed it, and shewed them that if this were not true,
their Infants had no need of Christ, of Baptism, or of Renewing by the
Holy Ghost. And I asked them whether they durst say that their Children
were saved without a Saviour, and were no Christians, and why they
baptized them, with much more to that purpose, and afterwards they
were ashamed and as mute as fishes.'
_Johnson on an actor's transformation_.
(Vol. iv, p. 244.)
Boswell in his _Remarks on the Profession of a Player_ (Essay ii),
first printed in the _London Magazine_ for 1770, says:--
'I remember to have heard the most illustrious authour of this age say:
"If, Sir, Garrick believes himself to be every character that he
represents he is a madman, and ought to be confined. Nay, Sir, he is a
villain, and ought to be hanged. If, for instance, he believes himself
to be Macbeth he has committed murder, he is a vile assassin who, in
violation of the laws of hospitality as well as of other principles,
has imbrued his hands in the blood of his King while he was sleeping
under his roof. If, Sir, he has really been that person in his own mind,
he has in his own mind been as guilty as Macbeth."
'--Nichols's _Literary History_, ed. 1848, vii. 373.
_Sir John Flayer 'On the Asthma_.'
(Vol. iv, p. 353.)
Johnson, writing from Ashbourne to Dr. Brocklesby on July 20, 1784, says:
'I am now looking into Floyer who lived with his asthma to almost his
ninetieth year.' Mr. Samuel Timmins, the author of _Dr. Johnson in
Birmingham_, informs me that he and two friends of his lately found
in Lichfield a Lending Book of the Cathedral Library. Among the entries
for 1784 was: '_Sir John Floyer on the Asthma_, lent to Dr. Johnson.'
Johnson, no doubt, had taken the book with him to Ashbourne.
Mr. Timmins says that the entries in this Lending Book unfortunately
do not begin till about 1760 (or later). 'If,' he adds, 'the earlier
Lending Book could be found, it would form a valuable clue to books
which Johnson may have borrowed in his youth and early manhood.'
_Boswell's expectations from Burke_.
(Vol. iv, p. 223, n. 2; and p. 258, n. 2.)
Boswell, in May 1783, mentioned to Johnson his 'expectations from the
interest of an eminent person then in power.' The two following extracts
from letters written by him show what some of these expectations had been.
'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. TO JAMES ABERCROMBIE, ESQ., of Philadelphia.
'July 28,1793.
'I have a great wish to see America; and I once flattered myself that
I should be sent thither in a station of some importance.'
Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 317.
Boswell had written to Burke on March 3, 1778: 'Most heartily do I
rejoice that our present ministers have at last yielded to conciliation
(_ante_, iii. 221). For amidst all the sanguinary zeal of my countrymen,
I have professed myself a friend to our fellow-subjects in America, so
far as they claim an exemption from being taxed by the representatives
of the King's British subjects. I do not perfectly agree with you; for I
deny the declaratory act, and I am a warm Tory in its true constitutional
sense. I wish I were a commissioner, or one of the secretaries of the
commission for the grand treaty. I am to be in London this spring, and
if his Majesty should ask me what I would choose, my answer will be to
assist at the compact between Britain and America.'
--_Burke's Correspondence_, ii. 209.
_Boswelf's intention to attend on Johnson in his illness, and to publish
'Praises' of him._
(Vol. iv, p. 265.)
'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO BISHOP PERCY.
'Edinburgh, 8 March, 1784.
"...I intend to be in London about the end of this month, chiefly to
attend upon Dr. Johnson with respectful affection. He has for some time
been very ill...I wish to publish as a regale [_ante_, iii. 308, n. 2;
v. 347, n. 1] to him a neat little volume, _The Praises of Dr. Johnson,
by contemporary Writers_. ...Will your Lordship take the trouble to
send me a note of the writers you recollect having praised our much
respected friend?...An edition of my pamphlet [_ante_, iv. 258] has been
published in London."'
--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 302.
_The reported Russian version of the 'Rambler'_.
(Vol. iv, p. 277, n. 1.)
I am informed by my friend, Mr. W. R. Morfill, M.A., of Oriel College,
Oxford, who has, I suppose, no rival in this country in his knowledge of
the Slavonic tongues, that no Russian translation of the Rambler has
been published. He has given me the following title of the Russian
version of _Rasselas_, which he has obtained for me through the kindness
of Professor Grote, of the University of Warsaw:--
'Rasselas, printz Abissinskii, Vostochnaya Poviest Sochinenie Doktora
Dzhonsona Perevod s'angliiskago. 3 chasti, Moskva. 1795.
'Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia, An Eastern Tale, by Doctor Johnson.
Translated from the English. 2 parts, Moscow, 1795.'
'_It has not wit enough to keep it sweet_.'
(Vol. iv, p. 320.)
'Heylyn, in the Epistle to his _Letter-Combate_, addressing Baxter,
and speaking of such "unsavoury pieces of wit and mischief" as "the
_Church-historian_" asks, "Would you not have me rub them with a little
salt to keep them sweet?" This passage was surely present in the mind
of Dr. Johnson when he said concerning _The Rehearsal_ that "it had not
wit enough to keep it sweet."'
--J. E. Bailey's _Life of Thomas Fuller_, p. 640.
_Pictures of Johnson_.
(Vol. iv, p. 421, n. 2.)
In the Common Room of Trinity College, Oxford, there is an interesting
portrait of Johnson, said to be by Romney. I cannot, however, find
any mention of it in the _Life_ of that artist. It was presented to
the College by Canon Duckworth.
_The Gregory Family_.
(Vol. v, p. 48, n. 3.)
Mr. P. J. Anderson (in _Notes and Queries_, 7th S. iii. 147) casts some
doubt on Chalmers' statement. He gives a genealogical table of the
Gregory family, which includes thirteen professors; but two of these
cannot, from their dates, be reckoned among Chalmers' sixteen.
_The University of St. Andrews in 1778_.
(Vol. v, p. 63, n. 2.)
In the preface to _Poems by George Monck Berkeley_, it is recorded
(p. cccxlviii) that when 'Mr. Berkeley entered at the University of
St. Andrews [about 1778], one of the college officers called upon him
to deposit a crown to pay for the windows he might break. Mr. Berkeley
said, that as he should reside in his father's house, it was little
likely he should break any windows, having never, that he remembered,
broke one in his life. He was assured that he _would_ do it at St.
Andrews. On the rising of the session several of the students said, "Now
for the windows. Come, it is time to set off, let us sally forth!"
Mr. Berkeley, being called upon, enquired what was to be done? They
replied, "Why, to break every window in college." "For what reason?"
"Oh! no reason; but that it has always been done from time immemorial."'
The Editor goes on to say that Mr. Berkeley prevailed on them to give
up the practice. How poor some of the students were is shown by the
following anecdote, told by the College Porter, who had to collect the
crowns. 'I am just come,' he said, 'from a poor student indeed. I went
for the window _croon_; he cried, begged, and prayed not to pay it,
saying, "he brought but a croon to keep him all the session, and he
had spent sixpence of it; so I have got only four and sixpence."' His
father, a labourer, who owned three cows, 'had sold one to dress his
son for the University, and put the lamented croon in his pocket to
purchase coals. All the lower students study by fire-light. He had
brought with him a large tub of oatmeal and a pot of salted butter, on
which he was to subsist from Oct. 20 until May 20.' Berkeley raised
'a very noble subscription' for the poor fellow.
In another passage (p. cxcviii) it is recorded that Berkeley 'boasted to
his father, "Well, Sir, idle as you may think me, I never have once
bowed at any Professor's Lecture." An explanation being requested of
the word _bowing_, it was thus given: "Why, if any poor fellow has
been a little idle, and is not prepared to speak when called upon by
the Professor, he gets up and makes a respectful-bow, and sits down
again."' Berkeley was a grandson of Bishop Berkeley.
_Johnson's unpublished sermons_.
(Vol. v, p. 67, n. i.)
'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO JAMES ABERCROMBIE, ESQ., of Philadelphia.
'June 11, 1792.
"I have not yet been able to discover any more of Johnson's sermons
besides those left for publication by Dr. Taylor. I am informed by the
Lord Bishop of Salisbury, that he gave an excellent one to a clergyman,
who preached and published it in his own name on some public occasion.
But the Bishop has not as yet told me the name, and seems unwilling to
do it. Yet I flatter myself I shall get at it."'
--Nichols's _Literary History_, vii. 315.
_Tillotson's argument against the doctrine of transubstantiation._
(Vol. v, p. 71.)
Gibbon, writing of his reconversion from Roman Catholicism to
Protestantism in the year 1754, after allowing something to the
conversation of his Swiss tutor, says:--
'I must observe that it was principally effected by my private
reflections; and I still remember my solitary transport at the discovery
of a philosophical argument against the doctrine of transubstantiation--
_that_ the text of scripture which seems to inculcate the real presence
is attested only by a single sense-- our sight; while the real presence
itself is disproved by three of our senses--the sight, the touch, and
the taste.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 67.
_Jean Pierre de Crousaz_.
(Vol. v, p. 80.)
Gibbon, describing his education at Lausanne, says:--'The principles
of philosophy were associated with the examples of taste; and by a
singular chance the book as well as the man which contributed the most
effectually to my education has a stronger claim on my gratitude than
on my admiration. M. de Crousaz, the adversary of Bayle and Pope, is not
distinguished by lively fancy or profound reflection; and even in his
own country, at the end of a few years, his name and writings are almost
obliterated. But his philosophy had been formed in the school of Locke,
his divinity in that of Limborch and Le Clerc; in a long and laborious
life several generations of pupils were taught to think and even to
write; his lessons rescued the Academy of Lausanne from Calvinistic
prejudice; and he had the rare merit of diffusing a more liberal spirit
among the clergy and people of the Pays de Vaud.'
--_Memoirs of Edward Gibbon_, ed. 1827, i. 66.
_The new pavement in London._
(Vol. v, p. 84, n. 3.)
'By an Act passed in 1766, _For the better cleansing, paving, and
enlightning the City of London and Liberties thereof_, &c., powers
are granted in pursuance of which the great streets have been paved
with whyn-quarry stone, or rock-stone, or stone of a flat surface.'
--_A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain_, ed. 1769,
vol. ii, p. 121.
_Boswell's Projected Works._
(Vol. v, p. 91, n. 2.)
To this list should be added an account of a Tour to the Isle of Man
(_ante_, iii. 80).
_A cancel in the first edition of Boswell's 'Journal of a Tour to the
Hebrides_.'
(Vol. v, p. 151.)
In my note on the suppression of offensive passages in the second edition
of Boswell's _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_ (_ante_, v. 148), I
mention that Rowlandson in one of his _Caricatures_ paints Boswell
begging Sir Alexander Macdonald for mercy, while on the ground lie
pages 165, 167, torn out. I have discovered, though too late to mention
in the proper place, that in the first edition the leaf containing pages
167, 168, was really cancelled. In my own copy I noticed between pages 168
and 169 a narrow projecting slip of paper. I found the same in the copy
in the British Museum. Mr. Horace Hart, the printer to the University,
who has kindly examined my copy, informs me that the leaf was cancelled
after the sheets had been stitched together. It was cut out, but an edge
was left to which the new one was attached by paste. The leaf thus
treated begins with the words 'talked with very high respect' (_ante_,
v. 149) and ends 'This day was little better than a blank' (_ante_,
v. 151). This conclusion was perhaps meant to be significant to the
observant reader.
_Boswell's conversation with the King about the title proper to be
given to the Young Pretender._
(Vol. v, p. 185, n. 4.)