[1] Nothing can compensate for this want this year of all years.
Johnson's health was better than it had been for long, and his mind
happier perhaps than it had ever been. The knowledge that in his _Lives
of the Poets_, he had done, and was doing good work, no doubt was very
cheering to him. At no time had he gone more into society, and at no
time does he seem to have enjoyed it with greater relish. 'How do you
think I live?' he wrote on April 25. 'On Thursday, I dined with
Hamilton, and went thence to Mrs. Ord. On Friday, with much company at
Reynolds's. On Saturday, at Dr. Bell's. On Sunday, at Dr. Burney's; at
night, came Mrs. Ord, Mr. Greville, &c. On Monday with Reynolds, at
night with Lady Lucan; to-day with Mr. Langton; to-morrow with the
Bishop of St. Asaph; on Thursday with Mr. Bowles; Friday ----; Saturday,
at the Academy; Sunday with Mr. Ramsay.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 107. On
May 1, he wrote:--'At Mrs. Ord's, I met one Mrs. B---- [Buller], a
travelled lady, of great spirit, and some consciousness of her own
abilities. We had a contest of gallantry an hour long, so much to the
diversion of the company that at Ramsay's last night, in a crowded room,
they would have pitted us again. There were Smelt, [one of the King's
favourites] and the Bishop of St. Asaph, who comes to every place; and
Lord Monboddo, and Sir Joshua, and ladies out of tale.' _Ib_. p. 111.
The account that Langton gives of the famous evening at Mrs. Vesey's,
'when the company began to collect round Johnson till they became not
less than four, if not five deep (_ante_, May 2, 1780), is lively
enough; but 'the particulars of the conversation' which he neglects,
Boswell would have given us in full.
[2] In 1792, Miss Burney, after recording that Boswell told some of his
Johnsonian stories, continues:--'Mr. Langton told some stories in
imitation of Dr. Johnson; but they became him less than Mr. Boswell, and
only reminded me of what Dr. Johnson himself once said to me--"Every man
has some time in his life an ambition to be a wag."' Mme. D'Arblay's
_Diary_, v. 307.
[3] _Stephanorum Historia, vitas ipsorum ac libros complectens_. London,
1709.
[4] _Senilia_ was published in 1742. The line to which Johnson refers
is, 'Mel, nervos, fulgur, Carteret, unus, habes,' p. 101. In another
line, the poet celebrates Colley Cibber's Muse--the _Musa Cibberi_:
'Multa Cibberum levat aura.' p. 50. See Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1843,
i. 367.
[5] _Graecae Linguae Dialecti in Scholae Westmonast. usum_, 1738.
[6] Giannone, an Italian historian, born 1676, died 1748. When he
published his _History of the Kingdom of Naples_, a friend
congratulating him on its success, said:--'Mon ami, vous vous êtes mis
une couronne sur la tête, mais une couronne d'épines.' His attacks on
the Church led to persecution, in the end he made a retractation, but
nevertheless he died in prison. _Nouv. Biog. Gén._ xx. 422.
[7] See _ante_, ii. 119.
[8] 'There is no kind of impertinence more justly censurable than his
who is always labouring to level thoughts to intellects higher than his
own; who apologises for every word which his own narrowness of converse
inclines him to think unusual; keeps the exuberance of his faculties
under visible restraint; is solicitous to anticipate inquiries by
needless explanations; and endeavours to shade his own abilities lest
weak eyes should be dazzled with their lustre.' _The Rambler_, No. 173.
[9] Johnson, in his _Dictionary_, defines _Anfractuousness_ as _Fulness
of windings and turnings_. _Anfractuosity_ is not given. Lord Macaulay,
in the last sentence in his _Biography of Johnson_, alludes to
this passage.
[10] See _ante_, iii. 149, note 2.
[11] 'My purpose was to admit no testimony of living authors, that I
might not be misled by partiality, and that none of my contemporaries
might have reason to complain; nor have I departed from this resolution,
but when some performance of uncommon excellence excited my veneration,
when my memory supplied me from late books with an example that was
wanting, or when my heart, in the tenderness of friendship, solicited
admission for a favourite name.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 39. He cites
himself under _important_, Mrs. Lennox under _talent_, Garrick under
_giggler_; from Richardson's _Clarissa_, he makes frequent quotations.
In the fourth edition, published in 1773 (_ante_, ii. 203), he often
quotes Reynolds; for instance, under _vulgarism_, which word is not in
the previous editions. Beattie he quotes under _weak_, and Gray under
_bosom_. He introduces also many quotations from Law, and Young. In the
earlier editions, in his quotations from _Clarissa_, he very rarely
gives the author's name; in the fourth edition I have found it
rarely omitted.
[12] In one of his _Hypochondriacks_ (_London Mag._ 1782, p. 233)
Boswell writes:--'I have heard it remarked by one, of whom more remarks
deserve to be remembered than of any person I ever knew, that a man is
often as narrow as he is prodigal for want of counting.'
[13] 'Sept. 1778. We began talking of _Irene_, and Mrs. Thrale made Dr.
Johnson read some passages which I had been remarking as uncommonly
applicable to the present time. He read several speeches, and told us he
had not ever read so much of it before since it was first printed.' Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 96. 'I was told,' wrote Sir Walter Scott, 'that a
gentleman called Pot, or some such name, was introduced to him as a
particular admirer of his. The Doctor growled and took no further
notice. "He admires in especial your _Irene_ as the finest tragedy
modern times;" to which the Doctor replied, "If Pot says so, Pot lies!"
and relapsed into his reverie.' _Croker Corres._ ii. 32.
[14] _Scrupulosity_ was a word that Boswell had caught up from Johnson.
Sir W. Jones (_Life_, i. 177) wrote in 1776:--'You will be able to
examine with the minutest _scrupulosity_, as Johnson would call it.'
Johnson describes Addison's prose as 'pure without scrupulosity.'
_Works_, vii. 472. 'Swift,' he says, 'washed himself with oriental
scrupulosity.' _Ib._ viii. 222. Boswell (_Hebrides_, Aug. 15) writes of
'scrupulosity of conscience.'
[15]
'When thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes
With words that made them known.'
_The Tempest_, act i. sc. 2.
[16] Secretary to the British Herring Fishery, remarkable for an
extraordinary number of occasional verses, not of eminent merit.
BOSWELL. See _ante_, i. 115, note i. Lockman was known in France as the
translator of Voltaire's _La Henriade_. See Marmontel's Preface.
Voltaire's _Works_, ed. 1819, viii. 18.
[17] _Luke_ vii. 50. BOSWELL.
[18] Miss Burney, describing him in 1783, says:--'He looks unformed in
his manners and awkward in his gestures. He joined not one word in the
general talk.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 237. See _ante_, ii.
41, note 1.
[19] By Garrick.
[20] See _ante_, i. 201.
[21] See _post_, under Sept. 30, 1783.
[22] The actor. Churchill introduces him in _The Rosciad_ (_Poems_, i.
16):--'Next Holland came. With truly tragic stalk, He creeps, he flies.
A Hero should not walk.'
[23] In a letter written by Johnson to a friend in 1742-43, he says: 'I
never see Garrick.' MALONE.
[24] See _ante_, ii. 227.
[25] _The Wonder! A Woman keeps a Secret_, by Mrs. Centlivre. Acted at
Drury Lane in 1714. Revived by Garrick in 1757. Reed's _Biog.
Dram_. iii. 420.
[26] In _Macbeth_.
[27] Mr. Longley was Recorder of Rochester, and father of Archbishop
Longley. To the kindness of his grand-daughter, Mrs. Newton Smart, I owe
the following extract from his manuscript _Autobiography_:--'Dr. Johnson
and General Paoli came down to visit Mr. Langton, and I was asked to
meet them, when the conversation took place mentioned by Boswell, in
which Johnson gave me more credit for knowledge of the Greek metres than
I deserved. There was some question about anapaestics, concerning which
I happened to remember what Foster used to tell us at Eton, that the
whole line to the _Basis Anapaestica_ was considered but as one verse,
however divided in the printing, and consequently the syllables at the
end of each line were not common, as in other metres. This observation
was new to Johnson, and struck him. Had he examined me farther, I fear
he would have found me ignorant. Langton was a very good Greek scholar,
much superior to Johnson, to whom nevertheless he paid profound
deference, sometimes indeed I thought more than he deserved. The next
day I dined at Langton's with Johnson, I remember Lady Rothes [Langton's
wife] spoke of the advantage children now derived from the little books
published purposely for their instruction. Johnson controverted it,
asserting that at an early age it was better to gratify curiosity with
wonders than to attempt planting truth, before the mind was prepared to
receive it, and that therefore, _Jack the Giant-Killer, Parisenus and
Parismenus_, and _The Seven Champions of Christendom_ were fitter for
them than Mrs. Barbauld and Mrs. Trimmer.' Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 16)
says:--'Dr. Johnson used to condemn me for putting Newbery's books into
children's hands. "Babies do not want," said he, "to hear about babies;
they like to be told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can
stretch and stimulate their little minds." When I would urge the
numerous editions of _Tommy Prudent_ or _Goody Two Shoes_; "Remember
always," said he, "that the parents buy the books, and that the children
never read them.'" For Johnson's visit to Rochester, see _post_,
July, 1783.
[28] See _post_, beginning of 1781, after _The Life of Swift_, and
Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 15.
[29] See _ante_, under Sept. 9, 1779.
[30] Johnson wrote of this grotto (_Works_, viii. 270):--'It may be
frequently remarked of the studious and speculative that they are proud
of trifles, and that their amusements seem frivolous and childish.'
[31] See _ante_, i. 332.
[32] _Epilogue to the Satires_, i. 131. Dr. James Foster, the
Nonconformist preacher. Johnson mentions 'the reputation which he had
gained by his proper delivery.' _Works_, viii. 384. In _The
Conversations of Northcote_, p. 88, it is stated that 'Foster first
became popular from the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke stopping in the porch
of his chapel in the Old Jewry out of a shower of rain: and thinking he
might as well hear what was going on he went in, and was so well pleased
that he sent all the great folks to hear him, and he was run after as
much as Irving has been in our time.' Dr. T. Campbell (_Diary_, p. 34)
recorded in 1775, that 'when Mrs. Thrale quoted something from Foster's
_Sermons_, Johnson flew in a passion, and said that Foster was a man of
mean ability, and of no original thinking.' Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, v.
300) wrote of Foster:--'Wonderful! a divine preferring reason to faith,
and more afraid of vice than of heresy.'
[33] It is believed to have been her play of _The Sister_, brought out
in 1769. 'The audience expressed their disapprobation of it with so much
appearance of prejudice that she would not suffer an attempt to exhibit
it a second time.' _Gent. Mag._ xxxix. 199. It is strange, however, if
Goldsmith was asked to hiss a play for which he wrote the epilogue.
Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, ii. 80. Johnson wrote on Oct. 28, 1779
(_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 72):--'C---- L---- accuses ---- of making a party
against her play. I always hissed away the charge, supposing him a man
of honour; but I shall now defend him with less confidence.' Baretti, in
a marginal note, says that C---- L---- is 'Charlotte Lennox.' Perhaps
---- stands for Cumberland. Miss Burney said that 'Mr. Cumberland is
notorious for hating and envying and spiting all authors in the dramatic
line.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 272.
[34] See _ante_, i. 255.
[35] In _The Rambler_, No. 195, Johnson describes rascals such as this
man. 'They hurried away to the theatre, full of malignity and
denunciations against a man whose name they had never heard, and a
performance which they could not understand; for they were resolved to
judge for themselves, and would not suffer the town to be imposed upon
by scribblers. In the pit they exerted themselves with great spirit and
vivacity; called out for the tunes of obscene songs, talked loudly at
intervals of Shakespeare and Jonson,' &c.
[36] See _ante_, ii. 469.
[37] Dr. Percy told Malone 'that they all at the Club had such a high
opinion of Mr. Dyer's knowledge and respect for his judgment as to
appeal to him constantly, and that his sentence was final.' Malone adds
that 'he was so modest and reserved, that he frequently sat silent in
company for an hour, and seldom spoke unless appealed to. Goldsmith, who
used to rattle away upon _all_ subjects, had been talking somewhat
loosely relative to music. Some one wished for Mr. Dyer's opinion, which
he gave with his usual strength and accuracy. "Why," said Goldsmith,
turning round to Dyer, whom he had scarcely noticed before, "you seem to
know a good deal of this matter." "If I had not," replied Dyer, "I
should not, in this company, have said a word upon the subject."' Burke
described him as 'a man of profound and general erudition; his sagacity
and judgment were fully equal to the extent of his learning.' Prior's
_Malone_, pp. 419, 424. Malone in his _Life of Dryden_, p. 181, says
that Dyer was _Junius_. Johnson speaks of him as 'the late learned Mr.
Dyer.' _Works_, viii. 385. Had he been alive he was to have been the
professor of mathematics in the imaginary college at St. Andrews.
Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 25. Many years after his death, Johnson
bought his portrait to hang in 'a little room that he was fitting up
with prints.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 639.
[38] _Memoirs of Agriculture and other Oeconomical Arts_, 3 vols., by
Robert Dossie, London, 1768-82.
[39] See _ante_, ii. 14.
[40] Here Lord Macartney remarks, 'A Bramin or any cast of the Hindoos
will neither admit you to be of their religion, nor be converted to
yours;--a thing which struck the Portuguese with the greatest
astonishment, when they first discovered the East Indies.' BOSWELL.
[41] See _ante_, ii. 250.
[42] See _ante_, Aug. 30, 1780.
[43] John, Lord Carteret, and Earl Granville, who died Jan. 2, 1763. It
is strange that he wrote so ill; for Lord Chesterfield says (_Misc.
Works_, iv. _Appendix_, p. 42) that 'he had brought away with him from
Oxford, a great stock of Greek and Latin, and had made himself master of
all the modern languages. He was one of the best speakers in the House
of Lords, both in the declamatory and argumentative way.'
[44] Walpole describes the partiality of the members of the
court-martial that sat on Admiral Keppel in Jan. 1779. One of them
'declared frankly that he should not attend to forms of law, but to
justice.' So friendly were the judges to the prisoner that 'it required
the almost unanimous voice of the witnesses in favour of his conduct,
and the vile arts practised against him, to convince all mankind how
falsely and basely he had been accused.' Walpole, referring to the
members, speaks of 'the feelings of seamen unused to reason.' Some of
the leading politicians established themselves at Portsmouth during the
trial. _Journal of the Reign of George III_, ii. 329
[45] See _ante_, ii. 240.
[46] In all Gray's _Odes_, there is a kind of cumbrous splendour which
we wish away.... The mind of the writer seems to work with unnatural
violence. "Double, double, toil and trouble." He has a kind of strutting
dignity, and is tall by walking on tip-toe. His art and his struggle are
too visible, and there is too little appearance of ease and nature.'
Johnson's _Works_, viii. 484-87. See _ante_, i. 402, and ii. 327, 335.
[47] One evening, in the Haymarket Theatre, 'when Foote lighted the King
to his chair, his majesty asked who [sic] the piece was written by? "By
one of your Majesty's chaplains," said Foote, unable even then to
suppress his wit; "and dull enough to have been written by a bishop."'
Forster's _Essays_, ii. 435. See _ante_, i. 390, note 3.
[48] Bk. v. ch. 1.
[49] See _ante_, ii. 133, note 1; Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 27, and
Oct. 28.
[50] The correspondent of _The Gentleman's Magazine_ [1792, p. 214] who
subscribes himself SCIOLUS furnishes the following supplement:--
'A lady of my acquaintance remembers to have heard her uncle sing those
homely stanzas more than forty-five years ago. He repeated the
second thus:--
She shall breed young lords and ladies fair,
And ride abroad in a coach and three pair,
And the best, &c.
And have a house, &c.
And remembered a third which seems to have been the introductory one,
and is believed to have been the only remaining one:--
When the Duke of Leeds shall have made his choice
Of a charming young lady that's beautiful and wise,
She'll be the happiest young gentlewoman under the skies,
As long as the sun and moon shall rise,
And how happy shall, &c.
It is with pleasure I add that this stanza could never be more truly
applied than at this present time. BOSWELL. This note was added to the
second edition.
[51] See _ante_, i. 115, note 1.
[52] See _ante_, i. 82.
[53] Baretti, in a MS. note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 121, says:--'Johnson
was a real _true-born Englishman_. He hated the Scotch, the French, the
Dutch, the Hanoverians, and had the greatest contempt for all other
European nations; such were his early prejudices which he never
attempted to conquer.' Reynolds wrote of Johnson:--'The prejudices he
had to countries did not extend to individuals. In respect to Frenchmen
he rather laughed at himself, but it was insurmountable. He considered
every foreigner as a fool till they had convinced him of the contrary.'
Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 460. Garrick wrote of the French in
1769:--'Their _politesse_ has reduced their character to such a
sameness, and their humours and passions are so curbed by habit, that,
when you have seen half-a-dozen French men and women, you have seen the
whole.' _Garrick Corres_. i. 358.
[54] 'There is not a man or woman here,' wrote Horace Walpole from Paris
(_Letters_ iv. 434), 'that is not a perfect old nurse, and who does not
talk gruel and anatomy with equal fluency and ignorance.'
[55] '"I remember that interview well," said Dr. Parr with great
vehemence when once reminded of it; "I gave him no quarter." The subject
of our dispute was the liberty of the press. Dr. Johnson was very great.
Whilst he was arguing, I observed that he stamped. Upon this I stamped.
Dr. Johnson said, "Why did you stamp, Dr. Parr?" I replied, "Because you
stamped; and I was resolved not to give you the advantage even of a
stamp in the argument."' This, Parr said, was by no means his first
introduction to Johnson. Field's _Parr_, i. 161. Parr wrote to Romilly
in 1811:--'Pray let me ask whether you have ever read some admirable
remarks of Mr. Hutcheson upon the word _merit_. I remember a controversy
I had with Dr. Johnson upon this very term: we began with theology
fiercely, I gently carried the conversation onward to philosophy, and
after a dispute of more than three hours he lost sight of my heresy, and
came over to my opinion upon the metaphysical import of the term.' _Life
of Romilly_, ii. 365. When Parr was a candidate for the mastership of
Colchester Grammar School, Johnson wrote for him a letter of
recommendation. Johnstone's _Parr_, i. 94.
[56] 'Somebody was praising Corneille one day in opposition to
Shakespeare. "Corneille is to Shakespeare," replied Mr. Johnson, "as a
clipped hedge is to a forest."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 59.
[57] Johnson, it is clear, discusses here Mrs. Montagu's _Essay on
Shakespeare_. She compared Shakespeare first with Corneille, and then
with Aeschylus. In contrasting the ghost in _Hamlet_ with the shade of
Darius in _The Persians_, she says:--'The phantom, who was to appear
ignorant of what was past, that the Athenian ear might be soothed and
flattered with the detail of their victory at Salamis, is allowed, for
the same reason, such prescience as to foretell their future triumph at
Plataea.' p. 161.
[58] Caution is required in everything which is laid before youth, to
secure them from unjust prejudices, perverse opinions, and incongruous
combinations of images. In the romances formerly written, every
transaction and sentiment was so remote from all that passes among men,
that the reader was in very little danger of making any applications to
himself.' _The Rambler_, No. 4.
[59] Johnson says of Pope's _Ode for St. Cecilia's Day_:--'The next
stanzas place and detain us in the dark and dismal regions of mythology,
where neither hope nor fear, neither joy nor sorrow can be found.'
_Works_, viii. 328. Of Gray's _Progress of Poetry_, he says:--'The
second stanza, exhibiting Mars' car and Jove's eagle, is unworthy of
further notice. Criticism disdains to chase a school-boy to his
common-places.' _Ib_. p. 484.
[60] See _ante_, ii. 178.
[61]
'A Wizard-Dame, the Lover's ancient friend,
With magic charm has deaft thy husband's ear,
At her command I saw the stars descend,
And winged lightnings stop in mid career, &c.'
Hammond. _Elegy_, v. In Boswell's _Hebrides_ (Sept. 29), he said
'Hammond's _Love Elegies_ were poor things.'
[62] Perhaps Lord Corke and Orrery. _Ante_, iii. 183. CROKER.
[63] Colman assumed that Johnson had maintained that Shakespeare was
totally ignorant of the learned languages. He then quotes a line to
prove 'that the author of _The Taming of the Shrew_ had at least read
Ovid;' and continues:--'And what does Dr. Johnson say on this occasion?
Nothing. And what does Mr. Farmer say on this occasion? Nothing.'
Colman's _Terence_, ii. 390. For Farmer, see _ante_, iii. 38.
[64] 'It is most likely that Shakespeare had learned Latin sufficiently
to make him acquainted with construction, but that he never advanced to
an easy perusal of the Roman authors.' Johnson's _Works_, V. 129. 'The
style of Shakespeare was in itself ungrammatical, perplexed, and
obscure.' _Ib_. p. 135.
[65]
'May I govern my passion with
an absolute sway,
And grow wiser and better, as
my strength wears away,
Without gout or stone by a
gentle decay.'
_The Old Man's Wish_ was sung to Sir Roger de Coverley by 'the fair
one,' after the collation in which she ate a couple of chickens, and
drank a full bottle of wine. _Spectator_, No. 410. 'What signifies our
wishing?' wrote Dr. Franklin. 'I have sung that _wishing song_ a
thousand times when I was young, and now find at fourscore that the
three contraries have befallen me, being subject to the gout and the
stone, and not being yet master of all my passions.' Franklin's
_Memoirs_, iii. 185.
[66] He uses the same image in _The Life of Milton_ (_Works_, vii.
104):--'He might still be a giant among the pigmies, the one-eyed
monarch of the blind.' Cumberland (_Memoirs_, i. 39) says that Bentley,
hearing it maintained that Barnes spoke Greek almost like his mother
tongue, replied:--'Yes, I do believe that Barnes had as much Greek and
understood it about as well as an Athenian blacksmith.' See _ante_, iii
284. A passage in Wooll's _Life of Dr. Warton_ (i. 313) shews that
Barnes attempted to prove that Homer and Solomon were one and the same
man. But I. D'Israeli says that it was reported that Barnes, not having
money enough to publish his edition of _Homer_, 'wrote a poem, the
design of which is to prove that Solomon was the author of the _Iliad_,
to interest his wife, who had some property, to lend her aid towards the
publication of so divine a work.' _Calamities of Authors_, i. 250.
[67] 'The first time Suard saw Burke, who was at Reynolds's, Johnson
touched him on the shoulder and said, "Le grand Burke."' _Boswelliana_,
p. 299. See ante, ii. 450.
[68] Miss Hawkins (_Memoirs_, i. 279, 288) says that Langton told her
father that he meant to give his six daughters such a knowledge of
Greek, 'that while five of them employed themselves in feminine works,
the sixth should read a Greek author for the general amusement.' She
describes how 'he would get into the most fluent recitation of half a
page of Greek, breaking off for fear of wearying, by saying, "and so it
goes on," accompanying his words with a gentle wave of his hand.'
[69] See post, p. 42.
[70] See ante, i. 326.
[71] This assertion concerning Johnson's insensibility to the pathetick
powers of Otway, is too _round_. I once asked him, whether he did not
think Otway frequently tender: when he answered, 'Sir, he is all
tenderness.' BURNEY. He describes Otway as 'one of the first names in
the English drama.' _Works_, vii. 173.
[72] See ante, April 16, 1779.
[73] Johnson; it seems, took up this study. In July, 1773, he recorded
that between Easter and Whitsuntide, he attempted to learn the Low Dutch
language. 'My application,' he continues, 'was very slight, and my
memory very fallacious, though whether more than in my earlier years, I
am not very certain.' _Pr. and Med._ p. 129, and ante, ii. 263. On his
death-bed, he said to Mr. Hoole:--'About two years since I feared that I
had neglected God, and that then I had not a _mind_ to give him; on
which I set about to read _Thomas à Kempis_ in Low Dutch, which I
accomplished, and thence I judged that my mind was not impaired, Low
Dutch having no affinity with any of the languages which I knew.'
Croker's _Boswell_, p. 844. See ante, iii. 235.
[74] See post, under July 5, 1783.
[75] See ante, ii. 409, and iii. 197.
[76] One of Goldsmith's friends 'remembered his relating [about the year
1756] a strange Quixotic scheme he had in contemplation of going to
decipher the inscriptions on the _written mountains_, though he was
altogether ignorant of Arabic, or the language in which they might be
supposed to be written.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, ed. 1801, i. 40.
Percy says that Goldsmith applied to the prime minister, Lord Bute, for
a salary to enable him to execute 'the visionary project' mentioned in
the text. 'To prepare the way, he drew up that ingenious essay on this
subject which was first printed in the _Ledger_, and afterwards in his
_Citizen of the World_ [No. 107].' _Ib_. p. 65. Percy adds that the Earl
of Northumberland, who was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, regretted 'that
he had not been made acquainted with his plan; for he would have
procured him a sufficient salary on the Irish establishment.' Goldsmith,
in his review of Van Egmont's _Travels in Asia_, says:--'Could we see a
man set out upon this journey [to Asia] not with an intent to consider
rocks and rivers, but the manners, and the mechanic inventions, and the
imperfect learning of the inhabitants; resolved to penetrate into
countries as yet little known, and eager to pry into all their secrets,
with an heart not terrified at trifling dangers; if there could be found
a man who could unite this true courage with sound learning, from such a
character we might hope much information.' Goldsmith's _Works_, ed.
1854, iv. 225. Johnson would have gone to Constantinople, as he himself
said, had he received his pension twenty years earlier. _Post_, p. 27.
[77] It should be remembered, that this was said twenty-five or thirty
years ago, [written in 1799,] when lace was very generally worn. MALONE.
'Greek and Latin,' said Porson, 'are only luxuries.' Rogers's _Table
Talk_, p. 325.
[78] See _ante_, iii. 8.
[79] Dr. Johnson, in his _Life of Cowley_, says, that these are 'the
only English verses which Bentley is known to have written.' I shall
here insert them, and hope my readers will apply them.
'Who strives to mount Parnassus' hill,
And thence poetick laurels bring,
Must first acquire due force and skill,
Must fly with swan's or eagle's wing.
Who Nature's treasures would explore,
Her mysteries and arcana know;
Must high as lofty Newton soar,
Must stoop as delving Woodward low.
Who studies ancient laws and rites,
Tongues, arts, and arms, and history;
Must drudge, like Selden, days and nights,
And in the endless labour die.
Who travels in religious jars,
(Truth mixt with errour, shades with rays;)
Like Whiston, wanting pyx or stars,
In ocean wide or sinks or strays.
But grant our hero's hope, long toil
And comprehensive genius crown,
All sciences, all arts his spoil,
Yet what reward, or what renown?
Envy, innate in vulgar souls,
Envy steps in and stops his rise,
Envy with poison'd tarnish fouls
His lustre, and his worth decries.
He lives inglorious or in want,
To college and old books confin'd;
Instead of learn'd he's call'd pedant,
Dunces advanc'd, he's left behind:
Yet left content a genuine Stoick he,
Great without patron, rich without South Sea.' BOSWELL.
In Mr. Croker's octavo editions, _arts_ in the fifth stanza is
changed into _hearts_. J. Boswell, jun., gives the following reading of
the first four lines of the last stanza, not from _Dodsley's
Collection_, but from an earlier one, called _The Grove_.
'Inglorious or by wants inthralled,
To college and old books confined,
A pedant from his learning called,
Dunces advanced, he's left behind.'
[80] Bentley, in the preface to his edition of _Paradise Lost_, says:--
'Sunt et mihi carmina; me quoque dicunt
Vatem pastores: sed non ego credulus illis.'
[81] The difference between Johnson and Smith is apparent even in this
slight instance. Smith was a man of extraordinary application, and had
his mind crowded with all manner of subjects; but the force, acuteness,
and vivacity of Johnson were not to be found there. He had book-making
so much in his thoughts, and was so chary of what might be turned to
account in that way, that he once said to Sir Joshua Reynolds, that he
made it a rule, when in company, never to talk of what he understood.
Beauclerk had for a short time a pretty high opinion of Smith's
conversation. Garrick, after listening to him for a while, as to one of
whom his expectations had been raised, turned slyly to a friend, and
whispered him, 'What say you to this?--eh? _flabby_, I think.' BOSWELL.
Dr. A. Carlyle (_Auto_. p. 279), says:--'Smith's voice was harsh and
enunciation thick, approaching to stammering. His conversation was not
colloquial, but like lecturing. He was the most absent man in company
that I ever saw, moving his lips, and talking to himself, and smiling in
the midst of large companies. If you awaked him from his reverie and
made him attend to the subject of conversation, he immediately began a
harangue, and never stopped till he told you all he knew about it, with
the utmost philosophical ingenuity.' Dugald Stewart (_Life of Adam
Smith_, p. 117) says that 'his consciousness of his tendency to absence
rendered his manner somewhat embarrassed in the company of strangers.'
But 'to his intimate friends, his peculiarities added an inexpressible
charm to his conversation, while they displayed in the most interesting
light the artless simplicity of his heart.' _Ib_. p. 113. See also
Walpole's _Letters_, vi. 302, and _ante_, ii. 430, note 1.
[82] Garrick himself was a good deal of an infidel: see _ante_, ii. 85,
note 7.
[83] _Ante_, i. 181.
[84] The Tempest, act iv. sc. i. In _The Rambler_, No. 127, Johnson
writes of men who have 'borne opposition down before them, and left
emulation panting behind.' He quotes (_Works_, vii. 261) the following
couplet by Dryden:--
'Fate after him below with pain did move,
And victory could scarce keep pace above.'