'On the 14th I came to Lichfield, and found every body glad enough to
see me. On the 20th, I came hither, and found a house half-built, of
very uncomfortable appearance; but my own room has not been altered.
That a man worn with diseases, in his seventy-second or third year,
should condemn part of his remaining life to pass among ruins and
rubbish, and that no inconsiderable part, appears to me very strange. I
know that your kindness makes you impatient to know the state of my
health, in which I cannot boast of much improvement. I came through the
journey without much inconvenience, but when I attempt self-motion I
find my legs weak, and my breath very short; this day I have been much
disordered. I have no company; the Doctor[1166] is busy in his fields,
and goes to bed at nine, and his whole system is so different from mine,
that we seem formed for different elements[1167]; I have, therefore,
all my amusement to seek within myself.'
Having written to him, in bad spirits, a letter filled with dejection
and fretfulness, and at the same time expressing anxious apprehensions
concerning him, on account of a dream which had disturbed me; his answer
was chiefly in terms of reproach, for a supposed charge of 'affecting
discontent, and indulging the vanity of complaint.' It, however,
proceeded,--
'Write to me often, and write like a man. I consider your fidelity and
tenderness as a great part of the comforts which are yet left me, and
sincerely wish we could be nearer to each other.... My dear friend, life
is very short and very uncertain; let us spend it as well as we can. My
worthy neighbour, Allen, is dead. Love me as well as you can. Pay my
respects to dear Mrs. Boswell. Nothing ailed me at that time; let your
superstition at last have an end.'
Feeling very soon, that the manner in which he had written might hurt
me, he two days afterwards, July 28, wrote to me again, giving me an
account of his sufferings; after which, he thus proceeds:--
'Before this letter, you will have had one which I hope you will not
take amiss; for it contains only truth, and that truth kindly
intended.... _Spartam quam nactus es orna_[1168]; make the most and best
of your lot, and compare yourself not with the few that are above you,
but with the multitudes which are below you.... Go steadily forward with
lawful business or honest diversions. _Be_ (as Temple says of the
Dutchmen) _well when you are not ill, and pleased when you are not
angry_[1169].... This may seem but an ill return for your tenderness;
but I mean it well, for I love you with great ardour and sincerity. Pay
my respects to dear Mrs. Boswell, and teach the young ones to love me.'
I unfortunately was so much indisposed during a considerable part of
the year, that it was not, or at least I thought it was not in my power
to write to my illustrious friend as formerly, or without expressing
such complaints as offended him. Having conjured him not to do me the
injustice of charging me with affectation, I was with much regret long
silent. His last letter to me then came, and affected me very
tenderly:--
'TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
'DEAR SIR,
'I have this summer sometimes amended, and sometimes relapsed, but, upon
the whole, have lost ground, very much. My legs are extremely weak, and
my breath very short, and the water is now encreasing upon me. In this
uncomfortable state your letters used to relieve; what is the reason
that I have them no longer? Are you sick, or are you sullen? Whatever be
the reason, if it be less than necessity, drive it away; and of the
short life that we have, make the best use for yourself and for your
friends.... I am sometimes afraid that your omission to write has some
real cause, and shall be glad to know that you are not sick, and that
nothing ill has befallen dear Mrs. Boswell, or any of your family.
'I am, Sir, your, &c.
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Lichfield, Nov. 5, 1784.'
Yet it was not a little painful to me to find, that in a paragraph of
this letter, which I have omitted, he still persevered in arraigning me
as before, which was strange in him who had so much experience of what I
suffered. I, however, wrote to him two as kind letters as I could; the
last of which came too late to be read by him, for his illness encreased
more rapidly upon him than I had apprehended; but I had the consolation
of being informed that he spoke of me on his death-bed, with affection,
and I look forward with humble hope of renewing our friendship in a
better world.
I now relieve the readers of this Work from any farther personal notice
of its authour, who if he should be thought to have obtruded himself too
much upon their attention, requests them to consider the peculiar plan
of his biographical undertaking.
Soon after Johnson's return to the metropolis, both the asthma and
dropsy became more violent and distressful. He had for some time kept a
journal in Latin of the state of his illness, and the remedies which he
used, under the title of _Aegri Ephemeris_, which he began on the 6th of
July, but continued it no longer than the 8th of November; finding, I
suppose, that it was a mournful and unavailing register. It is in my
possession; and is written with great care and accuracy.
Still his love of literature[1170] did not fail. A very few days before
his death he transmitted to his friend Mr. John Nichols, a list of the
authours of the _Universal History_, mentioning their several shares in
that work. It has, according to his direction, been deposited in the
British Museum, and is printed in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for
December, 1784.
During his sleepless nights he amused himself by translating into Latin
verse, from the Greek, many of the epigrams in the Anthologica[1171].
These translations, with some other poems by him in Latin, he gave to
his friend Mr. Langton, who, having added a few notes, sold them to the
booksellers for a small sum, to be given to some of Johnson's relations,
which was accordingly done; and they are printed in the collection of
his works.
A very erroneous notion has circulated as to Johnson's deficiency in the
knowledge of the Greek language, partly owing to the modesty with which,
from knowing how much there was to be learnt, he used to mention his own
comparative acquisitions. When Mr. Cumberland[1172] talked to him of the
Greek fragments which are so well illustrated in The Observer[1173],
and of the Greek dramatists in general, he candidly acknowledged his
insufficiency in that particular branch of Greek literature. Yet it may
be said, that though not a great, he was a good Greek scholar. Dr.
Charles Burney[1174], the younger, who is universally acknowledged by
the best judges to be one of the few men of this age who are very
eminent for their skill in that noble language, has assured me, that
Johnson could give a Greek word for almost every English one; and that
although not sufficiently conversant in the niceties of the language, he
upon some occasions discovered, even in these, a considerable degree of
critical acumen. Mr. Dalzel, Professor of Greek at Edinburgh, whose
skill in it is unquestionable, mentioned to me, in very liberal terms,
the impression which was made upon him by Johnson, in a conversation
which they had in London concerning that language. As Johnson,
therefore, was undoubtedly one of the first Latin scholars in modern
times, let us not deny to his fame some additional splendour from
Greek[1175].
I shall now fulfil my promise[1176] of exhibiting specimens of various
sorts of imitation of Johnson's style.
In the _Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_, 1787, there is an
'Essay on the Style of Dr. Samuel Johnson,' by the Reverend Robert
Burrowes, whose respect for the great object of his criticism[1177] is
thus evinced in the concluding paragraph:--
'I have singled him out from the whole body of English writers, because
his universally-acknowledged beauties would be most apt to induce
imitation; and I have treated rather on his faults than his perfections,
because an essay might comprize all the observations I could make upon
his faults, while volumes would not be sufficient for a treatise on his
perfections.'
Mr. BURROWES has analysed the composition of Johnson, and pointed out
its peculiarities with much acuteness; and I would recommend a careful
perusal of his Essay to those, who being captivated by the union of
perspicuity and splendour which the writings of Johnson contain, without
having a sufficient portion of his vigour of mind, may be in danger of
becoming bad copyists of his manner. I, however, cannot but observe, and
I observe it to his credit, that this learned gentleman has himself
caught no mean degree of the expansion and harmony, which, independent
of all other circumstances, characterise the sentences of Johnson. Thus,
in the Preface to the volume in which his Essay appears, we find,--
'If it be said that in societies of this sort, too much attention is
frequently bestowed on subjects barren and speculative, it may be
answered, that no one science is so little connected with the rest, as
not to afford many principles whose use may extend considerably beyond
the science to which they primarily belong; and that no proposition is
so purely theoretical as to be totally incapable of being applied to
practical purposes. There is no apparent connection between duration and
the cycloidal arch, the properties of which duly attended to, have
furnished us with our best regulated methods of measuring time: and he
who has made himself master of the nature and affections of the
logarithmick curve, is not aware that he has advanced considerably
towards ascertaining the proportionable density of the air at its
various distances from the surface of the earth.'
The ludicrous imitators of Johnson's style are innumerable. Their
general method is to accumulate hard words, without considering, that,
although he was fond of introducing them occasionally, there is not a
single sentence in all his writings where they are crowded together, as
in the first verse of the following imaginary Ode by him to Mrs.
Thrale[1178], which appeared in the newspapers:--
'_Cervisial coctor's viduate_ dame,
_Opin'st_ thou this gigantick frame,
_Procumbing_ at thy shrine:
Shall, _catenated_ by thy charms,
A captive in thy _ambient_ arms,
_Perennially_ be thine?'
This, and a thousand other such attempts, are totally unlike the
original, which the writers imagined they were turning into ridicule.
There is not similarity enough for burlesque, or even for caricature.
Mr. COLMAN, in his _Prose on several occasions_, has _A Letter from
LEXIPHANES[1179]; containing Proposals for a Glossary or Vocabulary of
the Vulgar Tongue: intended as a Supplement to a larger DICTIONARY_. It
is evidently meant as a sportive sally of ridicule on Johnson, whose
style is thus imitated, without being grossly overcharged:--
'It is easy to foresee, that the idle and illiterate will complain that
I have increased their labours by endeavouring to diminish them; and
that I have explained what is more easy by what is more difficult--
_ignotum per ignotius_. I expect, on the other hand, the liberal
acknowledgements of the learned. He who is buried in scholastick
retirement, secluded from the assemblies of the gay, and remote from the
circles of the polite, will at once comprehend the definitions, and be
grateful for such a seasonable and necessary elucidation of his
mother-tongue.'
Annexed to this letter is a short specimen of the work, thrown together
in a vague and desultory manner, not even adhering to alphabetical
concatenation[1180].
The serious imitators of Johnson's style, whether intentionally or by
the imperceptible effect of its strength and animation, are, as I have
had already occasion to observe, so many, that I might introduce
quotations from a numerous body of writers in our language, since he
appeared in the literary world. I shall point out only the following:--