Though I am afraid your illness leaves you little leisure for the
reception of airy civilities, yet I cannot forbear to pay you my
congratulations on the new year; and to declare my wishes that your
years to come may be many and happy. In this wish, indeed, I include
myself, who have none but you on whom my heart reposes; yet surely I
wish your good, even though your situation were such as should permit
you to communicate no gratifications to, dearest, dearest Madam, Your,
&c. SAM JOHNSON.' (BOSWELL.)
[196] Horace, _Odes_, iv. 3.2, quoted also _ante_, i.352, note.
[197] The passage which Boswell quotes in part is as follows:--'When
they were first published they were kindly commended by the _Critical
Reviewers_; [i.e. the writers in the _Critical Review_. In some of the
later editions of Boswell these words have been printed, _critical
reviewers_; so as to include all the reviewers who criticised the work];
and poor Lyttelton, with humble gratitude, returned, in a note which I
have read, acknowledgements which can never be proper, since they must
be paid either for flattery or for justice.' _Works_, viii.491. Boswell
forgets that what may be proper in one is improper in another.
Lyttelton, when he wrote this note, had long been a man of high
position. He had 'stood in the first rank of opposition,' he had been
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and when he lost his post, he had been
'recompensed with a peerage.' See _ante_, ii. 126.
[198] See _post_, June 12 and 15, 1784.
[199] He adopted it from indolence. Writing on Aug. 1, 1780, after
mentioning the failure of his application to Lord Westcote, he
continues:--'There is an ingenious scheme to save a day's work, or part
of a day, utterly defeated. Then what avails it to be wise? The plain
and the artful man must both do their own work.--But I think I have got
a life of Dr. Young.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 173.
[200] _Gent. Mag._ vol. lv. p. 10. BOSWELL.
[201] By a letter to Johnson from Croft, published in the later editions
of the _Lives_, it seems that Johnson only expunged one passage. Croft
says:--'Though I could not prevail on you to make any alteration, you
insisted on striking out one passage, because it said, that, if I did
not wish you to live long for your sake, I did for the sake of myself
and the world.' _Works_ viii.458.
[202] The Late Mr. Burke. MALONE.
[203] See_post_, June 2, 1781.
[204] Johnson's _Works_, viii 440.
[205] _Ib._ p.436
[206] 'Eheu! fugaces, Postume, Postume, Labuntur anni.' 'How swiftly
glide our flying years!' FRANCIS. Horace, _Odes_, ii.14. i.
[207] The late Mr. James Ralph told Lord Macartney, that he passed an
evening with Dr. Young at Lord Melcombe's (then Mr. Dodington) at
Hammersmith. The Doctor happening to go out into the garden, Mr.
Dodington observed to him, on his return, that it was a dreadful night,
as in truth it was, there being a violent storm of rain and wind. 'No,
Sir, (replied the Doctor) it is a very fine night. The LORD is
abroad.' BOSWELL.
[208] See _ante_, ii.96, and iii.251; and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept.
30.
[209] 'An ardent judge, who zealous in his trust, With warmth gives
sentence, yet is always just.' Pope's _Essay on Criticism_, l.677.
[210] _Works_, viii.459. Though the _Life of Young_ is by Croft, yet the
critical remarks are by Johnson.
[211] _Ib._ p.460.
[212] Johnson refers to Chambers's _Dissertation on Oriental Gardening_,
which was ridiculed in the _Heroic Epistle_. See _post_, under May 8,
1781, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 13.
[213] Boswell refers to the death of Narcissa in the third of the _Night
Thoughts_. While he was writing the _Life of Johnson_ Mrs. Boswell was
dying of consumption in (to quote Young's words)
The rigid north,
Her native bed, on which bleak
Boreas blew.'
She died nearly two years before _The Life_ was published.
[214] _Proverbs_, xviii.14.
[215] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 16.
[216] See vol. i. page 133. BOSWELL.
[217] 'In his economy Swift practised a peculiar and offensive
parsimony, without disguise or apology. The practice of saving being
once necessary, became habitual, and grew first ridiculous, and at last
detestable. But his avarice, though it might exclude pleasure, was never
suffered to encroach upon his virtue. He was frugal by inclination, but
liberal by principle; and if the purpose to which he destined his little
accumulations be remembered, with his distribution of occasional
charity, it will perhaps appear, that he only liked one mode of expense
better than another, and saved merely that he might have something to
give.' _Works_, viii.222.
[218] _Ib_. p.225.
[219] Mr. Chalmers here records a curious literary anecdote--that when a
new and enlarged edition of the _Lives of the Poets_ was published in
1783, Mr. Nichols, in justice to the purchasers of the preceding
editions, printed the additions in a separate pamphlet, and advertised
that it might be had _gratis_. Not ten copies were called for. CROKER.
[220] See _ante_, p.9, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 15.
[221] _Works_, vii. Preface.
[222] From this disreputable class, I except an ingenious though not
satisfactory defence of HAMMOND, which I did not see till lately, by the
favour of its authour, my amiable friend, the Reverend Mr. Bevill, who
published it without his name. It is a juvenile performance, but
elegantly written, with classical enthusiasm of sentiment, and yet with
a becoming modesty, and great respect for Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL.
[223] Before the _Life of Lyttelton_ was published there was, it seems,
some coolness between Mrs. Montagu and Johnson. Miss Burney records the
following conversation in September 1778. 'Mark now,' said Dr. Johnson,
'if I contradict Mrs. Montagu to-morrow. I am determined, let her say
what she will, that I will not contradict her.' MRS. THRALE. 'Why to be
sure, Sir, you did put her a little out of countenance last time she
came.'...DR. JOHNSON. 'Why, Madam, I won't answer that I shan't
contradict her again, if she provokes me as she did then; but a less
provocation I will withstand. I believe I am not high in her good graces
already; and I begin (added he, laughing heartily) to tremble for my
admission into her new house. I doubt I shall never see the inside of
it.' Yet when they met a few days later all seemed friendly. 'When Mrs.
Montagu's new house was talked of, Dr. Johnson in a jocose manner,
desired to know if he should be invited to see it. "Ay, sure," cried
Mrs. Montagu, looking well pleased, "or else I shan't like it."' Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, i.118, 126. 'Mrs. Montagu's dinners and assemblies,'
writes Wraxall, 'were principally supported by, and they fell with, the
giant talents of Johnson, who formed the nucleus round which all the
subordinate members revolved.' Wraxall's _Memoirs_, ed. 1815, i.160.
[224] Described by the author as 'a body of original essays.' 'I
consider _The Observer,'_ he arrogantly continues, 'as fairly enrolled
amongst the standard classics of our native language.' Cumberland's
_Memoirs_, ii.199. In his account of this _Feast of Reason_ he quite as
much satirises Mrs. Montagu as praises her. He introduces Johnson in it,
annoyed by an impertinent fellow, and saying to him:--'Have I said
anything, good Sir, that you do not comprehend?' 'No, no,' replied he,
'I perfectly well comprehend every word you have been saying.' 'Do you
so, Sir?' said the philosopher, 'then I heartily ask pardon of the
company for misemploying their time so egregiously.' _The Observer_,
No. 25.
[225] Miss Burney gives an account of an attack made by Johnson, at a
dinner at Streatham, in June 1781, on Mr. Pepys (_post_, p. 82), 'one of
Mrs. Montagu's steadiest abettors.' 'Never before,' she writes, 'have I
seen Dr. Johnson speak with so much passion. "Mr. Pepys," he cried, in a
voice the most enraged, "I understand you are offended by my _Life of
Lord Lyttelton_. What is it you have to say against it? Come forth, man!
Here am I, ready to answer any charge you can bring."' After the quarrel
had been carried even into the drawing-room, Mrs. Thrale, 'with great
spirit and dignity, said that she should be very glad to hear no more of
it. Everybody was silenced, and Dr. Johnson, after a pause,
said:--"Well, Madam, you _shall_ hear no more of it; yet I will defend
myself in every part and in every atom."... Thursday morning, Dr.
Johnson went to town for some days, but not before Mrs. Thrale read him
a very serious lecture upon giving way to such violence; which he bore
with a patience and quietness that even more than made his peace with
me.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 45. Two months later the quarrel was
made up. 'Mr. Pepys had desired this meeting by way of a reconciliation;
and Dr. Johnson now made amends for his former violence, as he advanced
to him, as soon as he came in, and holding out his hand to him received
him with a cordiality he had never shewn him before. Indeed he told me
himself that he thought the better of Mr. Pepys for all that had
passed.' _Ib._ p. 82. Miss Burney, in Dec. 1783, described the quarrel
to Mr. Cambridge:--'"I never saw Dr. Johnson really in a passion but
then; and dreadful indeed it was to see. I wished myself away a thousand
times. It was a frightful scene. He so red, poor Mr. Pepys so pale." "It
was behaving ill to Mrs. Thrale certainly to quarrel in her house."
"Yes, but he never repeated it; though he wished of all things to have
gone through just such another scene with Mrs. Montagu; and to refrain
was an act of heroic forbearance. She came to Streatham one morning, and
I saw he was dying to attack her." "And how did Mrs. Montagu herself
behave?" Very stately, indeed, at first. She turned from him very
stiffly, and with a most distant air, and without even courtesying to
him, and with a firm intention to keep to what she had publicly
declared--that she would never speak to him more. However, he went up to
her himself, longing to begin, and very roughly said:--"Well, Madam,
what's become of your fine new house? I hear no more of it." "But how
did she bear this?" "Why, she was obliged to answer him; and she soon
grew so frightened--as everybody does--that she was as civil as ever."
He laughed heartily at this account. But I told him Dr. Johnson was now
much softened. He had acquainted me, when I saw him last, that he had
written to her upon the death of Mrs. Williams [see _post_, Sept. 18,
1783, note], because she had allowed her something yearly, which now
ceased. "And I had a very kind answer from her," said he. "Well then,
Sir," cried I, "I hope peace now will be again proclaimed." "Why, I am
now," said he, "come to that time when I wish all bitterness and
animosity to be at an end."' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 290.
[226] January, 1791. BOSWELL. Hastings's trial had been dragging on for
more than three years when _The Life of Johnson_ was published. It began
in 1788, and ended in 1795.
[227] _Gent. Mag_. for 1785, p. 412.
[228] Afterwards Sir Robert Chambers, one of his Majesty's Judges in
India. BOSWELL. See _ante_, i.274.
[229] 'He conceived that the cultivation of Persian literature might
with advantage be made a part of the liberal education of an English
gentleman; and he drew up a plan with that view. It is said that the
University of Oxford, in which Oriental learning had never, since the
revival of letters, been wholly neglected, was to be the seat of the
institution which he contemplated.' Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843,
iii. 338.
[230] Lord North's. Feeble though it was, it lasted eight years longer.
[231] Jones's _Persian Grammar_. Boswell. It was published in 1771.
[232] _Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland_. BOSWELL.
[233] See _ante_, ii. 296.
[234] Macaulay wrote of Hastings's answer to this letter:--'It is a
remarkable circumstance that one of the letters of Hastings to Dr.
Johnson bears date a very few hours after the death of Nuncomar. While
the whole settlement was in commotion, while a mighty and ancient
priesthood were weeping over the remains of their chief, the conqueror
in that deadly grapple sat down, with characteristic self-possession, to
write about the _Tour to the Hebrides_, Jones's _Persian Grammar_, and
the history, traditions, arts, and natural productions of India.'
Macaulay's _Essays_, ed. 1843, iii.376.
[235] Johnson wrote the Dedication, _Ante_, i.383.
[236] See _ante_, ii.82, note 2.
[237] _Copy_ is _manuscript for printing_.
[238] Published by Kearsley, with this well-chosen motto:--'From his
cradle He was a SCHOLAR, and a ripe and good one: And to add greater
honours to his age Than man could give him, he died fearing Heaven.'
SHAKSPEARE. BOSWELL. This quotation is a patched up one from _Henry
VIII_, act iv. sc.2. The quotation in the text is found on p. 89 of this
_Life of Johnson_.
[239] Mr. Thrale had removed, that is to say, from his winter residence
in the Borough. Mrs. Piozzi has written opposite this passage in her
copy of Boswell:--'Spiteful again! He went by direction of his
physicians where they could easiest attend to him.' Hayward's _Piozzi_,
i. 91. There was, perhaps, a good deal of truth in Boswell's
supposition, for in 1779 Johnson had told her that he saw 'with
indignation her despicable dread of living in the Borough.' _Piozzi
Letters_, ii.92. Johnson had a room in the new house. 'Think,' wrote
Hannah More, 'of Johnson's having apartments in Grosvenor-square! but he
says it is not half so convenient as Bolt-court.' H. More's
_Memoirs_, i.2O7.
[240] See _ante_, iii. 250.
[241] Shakspeare makes Hamlet thus describe his father:--
'See what a grace was seated on this brow:
Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself,
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald, Mercury,
New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;
A combination, and a form, indeed,
Where every god did seem to set his seal,
To give the world assurance of a man.!
[Act iii. sc. 4.]