'June 28, 1757[1013].'
'TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY,
LINCOLNSHIRE.
'DEAR SIR,
'I should be sorry to think that what engrosses the attention of my
friend, should have no part of mine. Your mind is now full of the fate
of Dury[1014]; but his fate is past, and nothing remains but to try what
reflection will suggest to mitigate the terrours of a violent death,
which is more formidable at the first glance, than on a nearer and more
steady view. A violent death is never very painful; the only danger is
lest it should be unprovided. But if a man can be supposed to make no
provision for death in war, what can be the state that would have
awakened him to the care of futurity? When would that man have prepared
himself to die, who went to seek death without preparation? What then
can be the reason why we lament more him that dies of a wound, than him
that dies of a fever? A man that languishes with disease, ends his life
with more pain, but with less virtue; he leaves no example to his
friends, nor bequeaths any honour to his descendants. The only reason
why we lament a soldier's death, is, that we think he might have lived
longer; yet this cause of grief is common to many other kinds of death
which are not so passionately bewailed. The truth is, that every death
is violent which is the effect of accident; every death, which is not
gradually brought on by the miseries of age, or when life is
extinguished for any other reason than that it is burnt out. He that
dies before sixty, of a cold or consumption, dies, in reality, by a
violent death; yet his death is borne with patience only because the
cause of his untimely end is silent and invisible. Let us endeavour to
see things as they are, and then enquire whether we ought to complain.
Whether to see life as it is, will give us much consolation, I know not;
but the consolation which is drawn from truth, if any there be, is solid
and durable; that which may be derived from errour must be, like its
original, fallacious and fugitive. I am, dear, dear Sir, your most
humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Sept. 21, 1758.'
[Page 339: The death of Johnson's mother. Ætat 50.]
1759: ÆTAT. 50.--In 1759, in the month of January, his mother died at
the great age of ninety, an event which deeply affected him[1015]; not
that 'his mind had acquired no firmness by the contemplation of
mortality[1016];' but that his reverential affection for her was not
abated by years, as indeed he retained all his tender feelings even to
the latest period of his life[1017]. I have been told that he regretted
much his not having gone to visit his mother for several years, previous
to her death[1018]. But he was constantly engaged in literary labours which
confined him to London; and though he had not the comfort of seeing his
aged parent, he contributed liberally to her support[1019].
[Page 340: Rasselas. A.D. 1759.]
Soon after this event, he wrote his _Rasselas_[1020], _Prince of
Abyssinia_; concerning the publication of which Sir John Hawkins guesses
vaguely and idly[1021], instead of having taken the trouble to inform
himself with authentick precision. Not to trouble my readers with a
repetition of the Knight's reveries, I have to mention, that the late
Mr. Strahan the printer told me, that Johnson wrote it, that with the
profits he might defray the expence of his mother's funeral, and pay
some little debts which she had left. He told Sir Joshua Reynolds that
he composed it in the evenings of one week, sent it to the press in
portions as it was written, and had never since read it over[1022]. Mr.
Strahan, Mr. Johnston, and Mr. Dodsley purchased it for a hundred
pounds[1023], but afterwards paid him twenty-five pounds more, when it came
to a second edition.
[Page 342: Rasselas and Candide. A.D. 1759.]
Considering the large sums which have been received for compilations,
and works requiring not much more genius than compilations[1024], we cannot
but wonder at the very low price which he was content to receive for
this admirable performance; which, though he had written nothing else,
would have rendered his name immortal in the world of literature. None
of his writings has been so extensively diffused over Europe; for it has
been translated into most, if not all, of the modern languages[1025]. This
Tale, with all the charms of oriental imagery, and all the force and
beauty of which the English language is capable, leads us through the
most important scenes of human life, and shews us that this stage of our
being is full of 'vanity and vexation of spirit[1026].' To those who look
no further than the present life, or who maintain that human nature has
not fallen from the state in which it was created, the instruction of
this sublime story will be of no avail. But they who think justly, and
feel with strong sensibility, will listen with eagerness and admiration
to its truth and wisdom. Voltaire's _Candide_, written to refute the
system of Optimism, which it has accomplished with brilliant success, is
wonderfully similar in its plan and conduct to Johnson's _Rasselas_;
insomuch, that I have heard Johnson say[1027], that if they had not been
published so closely one after the other that there was not time for
imitation, it would have been in vain to deny that the scheme of that
which came latest was taken from the other. Though the proposition
illustrated by both these works was the same, namely, that in our
present state there is more evil than good, the intention of the writers
was very different. Voltaire, I am afraid, meant only by wanton
profaneness to obtain a sportive victory over religion, and to discredit
the belief of a superintending Providence: Johnson meant, by shewing the
unsatisfactory nature of things temporal, to direct the hopes of man to
things eternal. _Rasselas_, as was observed to me by a very accomplished
lady, may be considered as a more enlarged and more deeply philosophical
discourse in prose, upon the interesting truth, which in his _Vanity of
Human Wishes_ he had so successfully enforced in verse.
The fund of thinking which this work contains is such, that almost every
sentence of it may furnish a subject of long meditation. I am not
satisfied if a year passes without my having read it through; and at
every perusal, my admiration of the mind which produced it is so highly
raised, that I can scarcely believe that I had the honour of enjoying
the intimacy of such a man.
[Page 343: Apparitions. Ætat 50.]
I restrain myself from quoting passages from this excellent work, or
even referring to them, because I should not know what to select, or
rather, what to omit. I shall, however, transcribe one, as it shews how
well he could state the arguments of those who believe in the appearance
of departed spirits; a doctrine which it is a mistake to suppose that he
himself ever positively held[1028]:
'If all your fear be of apparitions, (said the Prince,) I will promise
you safety: there is no danger from the dead; he that is once buried
will be seen no more.
'That the dead are seen no more, (said Imlac,) I will not undertake to
maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages, and
of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom
apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion,
which prevails[1029] as far as human nature is diffused, could become
universal only by its truth; those that never heard of one another,
would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make
credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little weaken
the general evidence; and some who deny it with their tongues, confess
it by their fears.'
Notwithstanding my high admiration of _Rasselas_, I will not maintain
that the 'morbid melancholy[1030]' in Johnson's constitution may not,
perhaps, have made life appear to him more insipid and unhappy than it
generally is; for I am sure that he had less enjoyment from it than I
have. Yet, whatever additional shade his own particular sensations may
have thrown on his representation of life, attentive observation and
close enquiry have convinced me, that there is too much of reality in
the gloomy picture. The truth, however, is, that we judge of the
happiness and misery of life differently at different times, according
to the state of our changeable frame. I always remember a remark made to
me by a Turkish lady, educated in France, '_Ma foi, Monsieur, notre
bonheur dépend de la façon que notre sang circule_.' This have I learnt
from a pretty hard course of experience, and would, from sincere
benevolence, impress upon all who honour this book with a perusal, that
until a steady conviction is obtained, that the present life is an
imperfect state, and only a passage to a better, if we comply with the
divine scheme of progressive improvement; and also that it is a part of
the mysterious plan of Providence, that intellectual beings must 'be
made perfect through suffering[1031];' there will be a continual recurrence
of disappointment and uneasiness. But if we walk with hope in 'the
mid-day sun' of revelation, our temper and disposition will be such,
that the comforts and enjoyments in our way will be relished, while we
patiently support the inconveniences and pains. After much speculation
and various reasonings, I acknowledge myself convinced of the truth of
Voltaire's conclusion, '_Après tout c èst un monde passable_[1032].' But we
must not think too deeply;
'Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise[1033],'
is, in many respects, more than poetically just. Let us cultivate, under
the command of good principles, '_la théorie des sensations agréables_;'
and, as Mr. Burke once admirably counselled a grave and anxious
gentleman, 'live pleasant[1034].'
[Page 344: 'Live pleasant.' A.D. 1759.]
The effect of _Rasselas_, and of Johnson's other moral tales, is thus
beautifully illustrated by Mr. Courtenay:
'Impressive truth, in splendid fiction drest,
Checks the vain wish, and calms the troubled breast;
O'er the dark mind a light celestial throws,
And sooths the angry passions to repose;
As oil effus'd illumes and smooths the deep,
When round the bark the swelling surges sweep[1035].'
[Page 345: The Idler pirated. Ætat 50.]
It will be recollected, that during all this year he carried on his
Idler[1036], and, no doubt, was proceeding, though slowly, in his edition
of _Shakspeare_. He, however, from that liberality which never failed,
when called upon to assist other labourers in literature, found time to
translate for Mrs. Lennox's English version of Brumoy, 'A Dissertation
on the Greek Comedy,'[dagger] and 'The General Conclusion of the
book.'[dagger]
An inquiry into the state of foreign countries was an object that seems
at all times to have interested Johnson. Hence Mr. Newbery found no
great difficulty in persuading him to write the Introduction[*] to a
collection of voyages and travels published by him under the title of
_The World Displayed_; the first volume of which appeared this year, and
the remaining volumes in subsequent years.
[Page 346: Parental tyranny. A.D. 1759.]
I would ascribe to this year[1037] the following letter to a son of one of
his early friends at Lichfield, Mr. Joseph Simpson, Barrister, and
authour of a tract entitled _Reflections on the Study of the Law_.
[Page 347: An excursion to Oxford. Ætat 50.]
'If you married imprudently, you miscarried at your own hazard, at an
age when you had a right of choice. It would be hard if the man might
not choose his own wife, who has a right to plead before the Judges of
his country.
'If your imprudence has ended in difficulties and inconveniences, you
are yourself to support them; and, with the help of a little better
health, you would support them and conquer them. Surely, that want which
accident and sickness produces, is to be supported in every region of
humanity, though there were neither friends nor fathers in the world.
You have certainly from your father the highest claim of charity, though
none of right; and therefore I would counsel you to omit no decent nor
manly degree of importunity. Your debts in the whole are not large, and
of the whole but a small part is troublesome. Small debts are like small
shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped
without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little
danger. You must, therefore, be enabled to discharge petty debts, that
you may have leisure, with security, to struggle with the rest. Neither
the great nor little debts disgrace you. I am sure you have my esteem
for the courage with which you contracted them, and the spirit with
which you endure them. I wish my esteem could be of more use. I have
been invited, or have invited myself, to several parts of the kingdom;
and will not incommode my dear Lucy by coming to Lichfield, while her
present lodging is of any use to her. I hope, in a few days, to be at
leisure, and to make visits. Whither I shall fly is matter of no
importance. A man unconnected is at home every where; unless he may be
said to be at home no where. I am sorry, dear Sir, that where you have
parents, a man of your merits should not have an home. I wish I could
give it you. I am, my dear Sir,
'Affectionately yours,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
He now refreshed himself by an excursion to Oxford, of which the
following short characteristical notice, in his own words, is
preserved:--
'----[1039] is now making tea for me. I have been in my gown ever since I
came here[1040]. It was, at my first coming, quite new and handsome. I have
swum thrice, which I had disused for many years. I have proposed to
Vansittart[1041], climbing over the wall, but he has refused me. And I have
clapped my hands till they are sore, at Dr. King's speech[1042].'
[Page 348: The great CHAM of literature. A.D. 1759.]
His negro servant, Francis Barber, having left him, and been some time
at sea, not pressed as has been supposed, but with his own consent, it
appears from a letter to John Wilkes, Esq., from Dr. Smollet, that his
master kindly interested himself in procuring his release from a state
of life of which Johnson always expressed the utmost abhorrence. He
said, 'No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself
into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of
being drowned[1043].' And at another time, 'A man in a jail has more room,
better food, and commonly better company[1044].' The letter was as
follows:--
[Page 349: Johnson's black servant at sea. Ætat 50.]
'Chelsea, March 16, 1759.
'DEAR SIR,
'I am again your petitioner, in behalf of that great CHAM[1045] of
literature, Samuel Johnson. His black servant, whose name is Francis
Barber, has been pressed on board the Stag Frigate, Captain Angel, and
our lexicographer is in great distress. He says the boy is a sickly lad,
of a delicate frame, and particularly subject to a malady in his throat,
which renders him very unfit for his Majesty's service. You know what
manner of animosity the said Johnson has against you[1046]; and I dare say
you desire no other opportunity of resenting it than that of laying him
under an obligation. He was humble enough to desire my assistance on
this occasion, though he and I were never cater-cousins; and I gave him
to understand that I would make application to my friend Mr. Wilkes,
who, perhaps, by his interest with Dr. Hay and Mr. Elliot, might be able
to procure the discharge of his lacquey. It would be superfluous to say
more on the subject, which I leave to your own consideration; but I
cannot let slip this opportunity of declaring that I am, with the most
inviolable esteem and attachment, dear Sir,
'Your affectionate, obliged, humble servant,
'T. SMOLLET.'
Mr. Wilkes, who upon all occasions has acted, as a private gentleman,
with most polite liberality, applied to his friend Sir George Hay, then
one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty; and Francis Barber was
discharged, as he has told me, without any wish of his own. He found his
old master in Chambers in the Inner Temple[1047], and returned to his
service.
[Page 350: Life in Inner Temple-lane. A.D. 1759.]
What particular new scheme of life Johnson had in view this year, I have
not discovered; but that he meditated one of some sort, is clear from
his private devotions, in which we find[1048], 'the change of outward
things which I am now to make;' and, 'Grant me the grace of thy Holy
Spirit, that the course which I am now beginning may proceed according
to thy laws, and end in the enjoyment of thy favour.' But he did not, in
fact, make any external or visible change[1049].
[Page 351: Blackfriars-bridge. Ætat 50.]
At this time, there being a competition among the architects of London
to be employed in the building of Blackfriars-bridge, a question was
very warmly agitated whether semicircular or elliptical arches were
preferable. In the design offered by Mr. Mylne the elliptical form was
adopted, and therefore it was the great object of his rivals to attack
it. Johnson's regard for his friend Mr. Gwyn induced him to engage in
this controversy against Mr. Mylne[1050]; and after being at considerable
pains to study the subject, he wrote three several letters in the
_Gazetteer_, in opposition to his plan.
If it should be remarked that this was a controversy which lay quite out
of Johnson's way, let it be remembered, that after all, his employing
his powers of reasoning and eloquence upon a subject which he had
studied on the moment, is not more strange than what we often observe in
lawyers, who, as _Quicquid agunt homines_[1051] is the matter of law-suits,
are sometimes obliged to pick up a temporary knowledge of an art or
science, of which they understood nothing till their brief was
delivered, and appear to be much masters of it. In like manner, members
of the legislature frequently introduce and expatiate upon subjects of
which they have informed themselves for the occasion.
[Page 353: Relief of the French Prisoners. Ætat 51.]
1760: ÆTAT. 51].--In 1760 he wrote _An Address of the Painters to
George III. on his Accession to the Throne of these Kingdoms_,[dagger]
which no monarch ever ascended with more sincere congratulations from
his people. Two generations of foreign princes had prepared their minds
to rejoice in having again a King, who gloried in being 'born a
Briton[1052].' He also wrote for Mr. Baretti, the dedication[dagger] of
his _Italian and English Dictionary_ to the Marquis of Abreu, then
Envoy-Extraordinary from Spain at the Court of Great Britain.
[Page 354: Mary Queen of Scots. A.D. 1760.]
Johnson was now neither very idle, nor very busy with his _Shakspeare_;
for I can find no other public composition by him except an introduction
to the proceedings of the Committee for cloathing the French
Prisoners[1053];[*] one of the many proofs that he was ever awake to the
calls of humanity; and an account which he gave in the Gentlemen's
Magazine of Mr. Tytler's acute and able vindication of Mary Queen of
Scots.[*] The generosity of Johnson's feelings shines forth in the
following sentence:--
"It has now been fashionable, for near half a century, to defame and
vilify the house of Stuart and, to exalt and magnify the reign of
Elizabeth. The Stuarts have found few apologists, for the dead cannot
pay for praise; and who will, without reward, oppose the tide of
popularity? Yet there remains still among us, not wholly extinguished, a
zeal for truth, a desire of establishing right in opposition to
fashion[1054]".
In this year I have not discovered a single private letter, written by
him to any of his friends. It should seem, however, that he had at this
period a floating intention of writing a history of the recent and
wonderful successes of the British arms in all quarters of the globe;
for among his resolutions or memorandums, September 18, 'send for books
for Hist. of War[1055].' How much is it to be regretted that this intention
was not fulfilled. His majestick expression would have carried down to
the latest posterity the glorious achievements of his country with the
same fervent glow which they produced on the mind of the time. He would
have been under no temptation to deviate in any degree from truth, which
he held very sacred, or to take a licence, which a learned divine told
me he once seemed, in a conversation, jocularly to allow to historians.
[Page 355: Consecrated lies. Ætat 51.]
'There are (said he) inexcusable lies, and consecrated lies. For
instance, we are told that on the arrival of the news of the unfortunate
battle of Fontenoy, every heart beat, and every eye was in tears. Now we
know, that no man eat his dinner the worse[1056], but there _should_ have
been all this concern; and to say there _was_, (smiling) may be reckoned
a consecrated lie.'
This year Mr. Murphy, having thought himself ill-treated by the Reverend
Dr. Francklin, who was one of the writers of _The Critical Review_,
published an indignant vindication in _A Poetical Epistle to Samuel
Johnson, A.M_., in which he compliments Johnson in a just and elegant
manner:
Transcendant Genius! whose prolific vein
Ne'er knew the frigid poet's toil and pain;
To whom APOLLO opens all his store,
And every Muse presents her sacred lore;
Say, pow'rful JOHNSON, whence thy verse is fraught
With so much grace and such energy of thought;
Whether thy JUVENAL instructs the age
In chaster numbers, and new-points his rage;
Or fair IRENE sees, alas! too late.
Her innocence exchang'd for guilty state;
Whatever you write, in every golden line
Sublimity and elegance combine;
Thy nervous phrase impresses every soul,
While harmony gives rapture to the whole.'
[Page 356: Arthur Murphy. A.D. 1760.]
Again, towards the conclusion:
'Thou then, my friend, who seest the dang'rous strife
In which some demon bids me plunge my life,
To the Aonian fount direct my feet,
Say where the Nine thy lonely musings meet?
Where warbles to thy ear the sacred throng,
Thy moral sense, thy dignity of song?
Tell, for you can, by what unerring art
You wake to finer feelings every heart;
In each bright page some truth important give,
And bid to future times thy RAMBLER live[1057]?
I take this opportunity to relate the manner in which an acquaintance
first commenced between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Murphy. During the
publication of _The Grays-Inn Journal_, a periodical paper which was
successfully carried on by Mr. Murphy alone, when a very young man, he
happened to be in the country with Mr. Foote; and having mentioned that
he was obliged to go to London in order to get ready for the press in
one of the numbers of that _Journal_, Foote said to him, 'You need not
to go on that account. Here is a French magazine, in which you will find
a very pretty oriental tale; translate that, and send it to your
printer.' Mr. Murphy having read the tale, was highly pleased with it,
and followed Foote's advice. When he returned to town, this tale was
pointed out to him in _The Rambler_, from whence it had been translated
into the French magazine. Mr. Murphy then waited upon Johnson, to
explain this curious incident. His talents, literature, and
gentleman-like manners, were soon perceived by Johnson, and a friendship
was formed which was never broken[1058].
[Page 357: Letter to Mr. Langston. Ætat 51.]
'To BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., AT LANGTON, NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE.
'DEAR SIR,
'You that travel about the world, have more materials for letters, than
I who stay at home; and should, therefore, write with frequency equal to
your opportunities. I should be glad to have all England surveyed by
you, if you would impart your observations in narratives as agreeable as
your last. Knowledge is always to be wished to those who can communicate
it well. While you have been riding and running, and seeing the tombs of
the learned, and the camps of the valiant, I have only staid at home,
and intended to do great things, which I have not done. Beau[1059] went
away to Cheshire, and has not yet found his way back. Chambers passed
the vacation at Oxford.