how to send it to-night. If I cannot send it to-night, it will come by
the next post.
'Pray, do not omit any thing mentioned in this letter: God bless you for
ever and ever.
'I am your dutiful son,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Jan. 13, 1758[1469].'
'To Miss PORTER, AT MRS. JOHNSON'S, IN LICHFIELD.
'MY DEAR Miss,
'I think myself obliged to you beyond all expression of gratitude for
your care of my dear mother. God grant it may not be without success.
Tell Kitty[1470] that I shall never forget her tenderness for her
mistress. Whatever you can do, continue to do. My heart is very full.
'I hope you received twelve guineas on Monday. I found a way of sending
them by means of the postmaster, after I had written my letter, and hope
they came safe. I will send you more in a few days. God bless you all.
'I am, my dear,
'Your most obliged
'And most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Jan. 16, 1759.
'Over the leaf is a letter to my mother.'
'DEAR HONOURED MOTHER,
'Your weakness afflicts me beyond what I am willing to communicate to
you. I do not think you unfit to face death, but I know not how to bear
the thought of losing you. Endeavour to do all you [can] for yourself.
Eat as much as you can.
'I pray often for you; do you pray for me. I have nothing to add to my
last letter.
'I am, dear, dear mother
'Your dutiful son,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Jan. 16, 1759.'
'To MRS. JOHNSON, IN LICHFIELD.
'DEAR HONOURED MOTHER,
'I fear you are too ill for long letters; therefore I will only tell
you, you have from me all the regard that can possibly subsist in the
heart. I pray God to bless you for evermore, for Jesus Christ's sake.
Amen.
'Let Miss write to me every post, however short.
'I am, dear mother,
'Your dutiful son,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Jan. 18, 1759.'
'TO MISS PORTER, AT MRS. JOHNSON'S, IN LICHFIELD.
'DEAR Miss,
'I will, if it be possible, come down to you. God grant I may yet [find]
my dear mother breathing and sensible. Do not tell her, lest I
disappoint her. If I miss to write next post, I am on the road.
'I am, my dearest Miss,
'Your most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Jan. 20, 1759.'
_On the other side_.
'DEAR HONOURED MOTHER[1471],
'Neither your condition nor your character make it fit for me to say
much. You have been the best mother, and I believe the best woman in the
world. I thank you for your indulgence to me, and beg forgiveness of all
that I have done ill, and all that I have omitted to do well. God grant
you his Holy Spirit, and receive you to everlasting happiness, for Jesus
Christ's sake. Amen. Lord Jesus receive your spirit. Amen.
'I am, dear, dear mother,
'Your dutiful son,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Jan. 20, 1759.'
'TO MISS PORTER IN LICHFIELD.
'You will conceive my sorrow for the loss of my mother, of the best
mother. If she were to live again surely I should behave better to her.
But she is happy, and what is past is nothing to her; and for me, since
I cannot repair my faults to her, I hope repentance will efface them. I
return you and all those that have been good to her my sincerest thanks,
and pray God to repay you all with infinite advantage. Write to me, and
comfort me, dear child. I shall be glad likewise, if Kitty will write to
me. I shall send a bill of twenty pounds in a few days, which I thought
to have brought to my mother; but God suffered it not. I have not power
or composure to say much more. God bless you, and bless us all.
'I am, dear Miss,
'Your affectionate humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Jan. 23, 1759[1472].'
'To Miss PORTER.
(_The beginning is torn and lost_.)
* * * * *
'You will forgive me if I am not yet so composed as to give any
directions about any thing. But you are wiser and better than I, and I
shall be pleased with all that you shall do. It is not of any use for me
now to come down; nor can I bear the place. If you want any directions,
Mr. Howard[1473] will advise you. The twenty pounds I could not get a
bill for to-night, but will send it on Saturday.
'I am, my dear, your affectionate servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Jan. 25, 1759.'
* * * * *
'To Miss PORTER.
'DEAR Miss,
'I have no reason to forbear writing, but that it makes my heart heavy,
and I had nothing particular to say which might not be delayed to the
next post; but had no thoughts of ceasing to correspond with my dear
Lucy, the only person now left in the world with whom I think myself
connected. There needed not my dear mother's desire, for every heart
must lean to somebody, and I have nobody but you; in whom I put all my
little affairs with too much confidence to desire you to keep receipts,
as you prudently proposed.
'If you and Kitty will keep the house, I think I shall like it best.
Kitty may carry on the trade for herself, keeping her own stock apart,
and laying aside any money that she receives for any of the goods which
her good mistress has left behind her. I do not see, if this scheme be
followed, any need of appraising the books. My mother's debts, dear
mother, I suppose I may pay with little difficulty; and the little trade
may go silently forward. I fancy Kitty can do nothing better; and I
shall not want to put her out of a house, where she has lived so long,
and with so much virtue. I am very sorry that she is ill, and earnestly
hope that she will soon recover; let her know that I have the highest
value for her, and would do any thing for her advantage. Let her think
of this proposal. I do not see any likelier method by which she may pass
the remaining part of her life in quietness and competence.
'You must have what part of the house you please, while you are inclined
to stay in it; but I flatter myself with the hope that you and I shall
some time pass our days together. I am very solitary and comfortless,
but will not invite you to come hither till I can have hope of making
you live here so as not to dislike your situation. Pray, my dearest,
write to me as often as you can.
'I am, dear Madam,
'Your affectionate humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.
'Feb. 6, 1759'
'To Miss PORTER.
'DEAR MADAM,
'I thought your last letter long in coming; and did not require or
expect such an inventory of little things as you have sent me. I could
have taken your word for a matter of much greater value. I am glad that
Kitty is better; let her be paid first, as my dear, dear mother ordered,
and then let me know at once the sum necessary to discharge her other
debts, and I will find it you very soon.
'I beg, my dear, that you would act for me without the least scruple,
for I can repose myself very confidently upon your prudence, and hope we
shall never have reason to love each other less. I shall take it very
kindly if you make it a rule to write to me once at least every week,
for I am now very desolate, and am loth to be universally forgotten.
'I am, dear sweet,
'Your affectionate servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'March 1, 1759.'
'TO MISS PORTER.
'DEAR MADAM,
'I beg your pardon for having so long omitted to write. One thing or
other has put me off. I have this day moved my things and you are now to
direct to me at Staple Inn, London. I hope, my dear, you are well, and
Kitty mends. I wish her success in her trade. I am going to publish a
little story book [_Rasselas_], which I will send you when it is out.
Write to me, my dearest girl, for I am always glad to hear from you.
'I am, my dear, your humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'March 23, 1759.'
'TO MISS PORTER.
'DEAR MADAM,
'I am almost ashamed to tell you that all your letters came safe, and
that I have been always very well, but hindered, I hardly know how, from
writing. I sent, last week, some of my works, one for you, one for your
aunt Hunter, who was with my poor dear mother when she died, one for Mr.
Howard, and one for Kitty.
'I beg you, my dear, to write often to me, and tell me how you like my
little book.
'I am, dear love, your affectionate humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'May 10, 1759.'
JOHNSON AT CAMBRIDGE.
(Page 487.)
The following is the full extract of Dr. Sharp's letter giving an
account of Johnson's visit to Cambridge in 1765:--
'Camb. Mar. 1, 1765.
'As to Johnson, you will be surprised to hear that I have had him in the
chair in which I am now writing. He has ascended my aërial citadel. He
came down on a Saturday evening, with a Mr. Beauclerk, who has a friend
at Trinity. Caliban, you may be sure, was not roused from his lair
before next day noon, and his breakfast probably kept him till night. I
saw nothing of him, nor was he heard of by any one, till Monday
afternoon, when I was sent for home to two gentlemen unknown. In
conversation I made a strange _faux pas_ about Burnaby Greene's poem, in
which Johnson is drawn at full length[1474]. He drank his large potations
of tea with me, interrupted by many an indignant contradiction, and many
a noble sentiment. He had on a better wig than usual, but, one whose
curls were not, like Sir Cloudesly's[1475], formed for 'eternal buckle.'
[1476] Our conversation was chiefly on books, you may be sure. He was
much pleased with a small _Milton_ of mine, published in the author's
lifetime, and with the Greek epigram on his own effigy, of its being the
picture, not of him, but of a bad painter[1477]. There are many manuscript
stanzas, for aught I know, in Milton's own handwriting, and several
interlined hints and fragments. We were puzzled about one of the
sonnets, which we thought was not to be found in Newton's edition[1478],
and differed from all the printed ones. But Johnson cried, "No, no!"
repeated the whole sonnet instantly, _memoriter_, and shewed it us in
Newton's book. After which he learnedly harangued on sonnet-writing, and
its different numbers. He tells me he will come hither again quickly,
and is promised "an habitation in Emanuel College[1479]." He went back to
town next morning; but as it began to be known that he was in the
university, several persons got into his company the last evening at
Trinity, where, about twelve, he began to be very great; stripped poor
Mrs. Macaulay to the very skin, then gave her for his toast, and drank
her in two bumpers.' (_Gent. Mag_. for 1785, p. 173.)
* * * * *
APPENDIX D.
JOHNSON'S LETTER TO DR. LELAND.
(Page 489.)
'TO THE REV. DR. LELAND.
'SIR,
'Among the names subscribed to the degree which I have had the honour of
receiving from the university of Dublin, I find none of which I have any
personal knowledge but those of Dr. Andrews and yourself.
'Men can be estimated by those who know them not, only as they are
represented by those who know them; and therefore I flatter myself that
I owe much of the pleasure which this distinction gives me to your
concurrence with Dr. Andrews in recommending me to the learned society.
'Having desired the Provost to return my general thanks to the
University, I beg that you, sir, will accept my particular and immediate
acknowledgements.
'I am, Sir,
'Your most obedient and most humble servant,
'SAM. JOHNSON.'
'Johnson's-court, Fleet-street,
London, Oct. 17, 1765.'
* * * * *
APPENDIX E.
JOHNSON'S 'ENGAGING IN POLITICKS WITH H----N.
(Page 490.)
In a little volume entitled _Parliamentary Logick_, by the Right Hon.
W.G. Hamilton, published in 1808, twelve years after the author's death,
is included _Considerations on Corn_, by Dr. Johnson (_Works_, v. 321).
It was written, says Hamilton's editor, in November 1766. A dearth had
caused riots. 'Those who want the supports of life,' Johnson wrote,
'will seize them wherever they can be found.' (_Ib_. p. 322.) He
supported in this tract the bounty for exporting corn. If more than a
year after he had engaged in politics with Mr. Hamilton nothing had been
produced but this short tract, the engagement was not of much
importance. But there was, I suspect, much more in it. Indeed, the
editor says (_Preface_, p. ix.) that 'Johnson had entered into some
engagement with Mr. Hamilton, occasionally to furnish him with his
sentiments on the great political topicks that should be considered in
Parliament.' Mr. Croker draws attention to a passage in Johnson's letter
to Miss Porter of Jan. 14, 1766 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 173) in which he
says: 'I cannot well come [to Lichfield] during the session of
parliament.' In the spring of this same year Burke had broken with
Hamilton, in whose service he had been. 'The occasion of our
difference,' he wrote, 'was not any act whatsoever on my part; it was
entirely upon his, by a voluntary but most insolent and intolerable
demand, amounting to no less than a claim of servitude during the whole
course of my life, without leaving to me at any time a power either of
getting forward with honour, or of retiring with tranquillity' (Burke's
_Corres_. i. 77). It seems to me highly probable that Hamilton, in
consequence of his having just lost, as I have shewn, Burke's services,
sought Johnson's aid. He had taken Burke 'as a companion in his
studies.' (_Ib_. p. 48.) 'Six of the best years of my life,' wrote
Burke, 'he took me from every pursuit of literary reputation or of
improvement of my fortune. In that time he made his own fortune (a very
great one).' (_Ib_. p. 67.) Burke had been recommended to Hamilton by
Dr. Warton. On losing him Hamilton, on Feb. 12, 1765, wrote to Warton,
giving a false account of his separation with Burke, and asking him to
recommend some one to fill his place--some one 'who, in addition to a
taste and an understanding of ancient authors, and what generally passes
under the name of scholarship, has likewise a share of modern knowledge,
and has applied himself in some degree to the study of the law.' By way
of payment he offers at once 'an income, which would neither be
insufficient for him as a man of letters, or disreputable to him as a
gentleman,' and hereafter 'a situation'--a post, that is to say, under
government. (Wooll's _Warton_, i. 299.) Warton recommended Chambers.
Chambers does not seem to have accepted the post, for we find him
staying on at Oxford (_post_, ii. 25, 46). Johnson had all the knowledge
that Hamilton required, except that of law. It is this very study that
we find him at this very time entering upon. All this shows that for
some time and to some extent an engagement was formed between him and
Hamilton. Boswell, writing to Malone on Feb. 25, 1791, while _The Life
of Johnson_ was going through the press, says:--
'I shall have more cancels. That _nervous_ mortal W. G. H. is not
satisfied with my report of some particulars _which I wrote down from
his own mouth_, and is so much agitated that Courtenay has persuaded me
to allow a _new edition_ of them by H. himself to be made at H.'s
expense.'
(Croker's _Boswell_, p. 829). This would seem to show that there was
something that Hamilton wished to conceal. Horace Walpole (_Memoirs of
the Reign of George III_, iii. 402) does not give him a character for
truthfulness. He writes on one occasion:--'Hamilton denied it, but his
truth was not renowned.' Miss Burney, who met Hamilton fourteen years
after this, thus describes him:--'This Mr. Hamilton is extremely tall
and handsome; has an air of haughty and fashionable superiority; is
intelligent, dry, sarcastic, and clever. I should have received much
pleasure from his conversational powers, had I not previously been
prejudiced against him, by hearing that he is infinitely artful, double,
and crafty.' (Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, i. 293).
* * * * *
APPENDIX F.
JOHNSON'S FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE THRALES AND HIS SERIOUS ILLNESS.
(_Page_ 490.)
Johnson (_Pr. and Med_. p. 191) writes:--'My first knowledge of Thrale
was in 1765.' In a letter to Mrs. Thrale, he says:--'You were but
five-and-twenty when I knew you first.' (_Piozzi Letters_, i. 284). As
she was born on Jan. 16/27, 1741, this would place their introduction in
1766. In another letter, written on July 8, 1784, he talks of her
'kindness which soothed twenty years of a life radically wretched.'
(_Ib_. ii. 376). Perhaps, however, he here spoke in round numbers. Mrs.
Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 125) says they first met in 1764. Mr. Thrale, she
writes, sought an excuse for inviting him. 'The celebrity of Mr.
Woodhouse (_post_, ii. 127), a shoemaker, whose verses were at that time
the subject of common discourse, soon afforded a 'pretence.' There is a
notice of Woodhouse in the _Gent. Mag_. for June, 1764 (p. 289).
Johnson, she says, dined with them every Thursday through the winter of
1764-5, and in the autumn of 1765 followed them to Brighton. In the
_Piozzi Letters_ (i. 1) there is a letter of his, dated Aug. 13, 1765,
in which he speaks of his intention to join them there.
'From that time,' she writes, 'his visits grew more frequent till, in
the year 1766, his health, which he had always complained of, grew so
exceedingly bad, that he could not stir out of his room in the court he
inhabited for many _weeks_ together, I think _months_. Mr. Thrale's
attentions and my own now became so acceptable to him, that he often
lamented to us the horrible condition of his mind, which, he said, was
nearly distracted: and though he charged _us_ to make him odd solemn
promises of secrecy on so strange a subject, yet when we waited on him
one morning, and heard him, in the most pathetic terms, beg the prayers
of Dr. Delap [the Rector of Lewes] who had left him as we came in, I
felt excessively affected with grief, and well remember my husband
involuntarily lifted up one hand to shut his mouth, from provocation at
hearing a man so widely proclaim what he could at last persuade no one
to believe; and what, if true, would have been so unfit to reveal. Mr.
Thrale went away soon after, leaving me with him, and bidding me prevail
on him to quit his close habitation in the court, and come with us to
Streatham, where I undertook the care of his health, and had the honour
and happiness of contributing to its restoration.'
It is not possible to reconcile the contradiction in dates between
Johnson and Mrs. Piozzi, nor is it easy to fix the time of this illness.
That before February, 1766, he had had an illness so serious as to lead
him altogether to abstain from wine is beyond a doubt. Boswell, on his
return to England in that month, heard it from his own lips (_post_, ii.
8). That this illness must have attacked him after March 1, 1765, when
he visited Cambridge, is also clear; for at that time he was still
drinking wine (_ante_, Appendix C). That he was unusually depressed in
the spring of this year is shewn by his entry at Easter (_ante_, p.
487). From his visit to Dr. Percy in the summer of 1764 (_ante_, p. 486)
to the autumn of 1765, we have very little information about him. For
more than two years he did not write to Boswell (_post_, ii. 1). Dr.
Adams (_ante_, p. 483) describes the same kind of attack as Mrs. Piozzi.
Its date is not given. Boswell, after quoting an entry made on Johnson's
birthday, Sept. 18, 1764, says 'about this time he was afflicted' with
the illness Dr. Adams describes. From Mrs. Piozzi, from Johnson's
account to Boswell, and from Dr. Adams we learn of a serious illness.
Was there more than one? If there was only one, then Boswell is wrong in
placing it before March 1, 1765, when Johnson was still a wine-drinker,
and Mrs. Piozzi is wrong in placing it after February, 1766, when he had
become an abstainer. Johnson certainly stayed at Streatham from before
Midsummer to October in 1766 (_post_, ii. 25, and _Pr. and Med_. p. 71),
and this fact lends support to Mrs. Piozzi's statement. But, on the
other hand, his meetings with Boswell in February of that year, and his
letters to Langton of March 9 and May 10 (_post_, ii. 16, 17), shew a
not unhappy frame of mind. Boswell, in his _Hebrides_ (Oct. 16, 1773),
speaks of Johnson's illness in 1766. If it was in 1766 that he was ill,
it must have been after May 10 and before Midsummer-day, and this period
is almost too brief for Mrs. Piozzi's account. It is a curious
coincidence that Cowper was introduced to the Unwins in the same year in
which Johnson, according to his own account, had his first knowledge of
the Thrales. (Southey's _Cowper_, i, 171.)
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Post_, iv. 172.
[2] _Post_, iii. 312.
[3] _Post_, i. 324.
[4] _History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, ed. 1807,
vol. i. p. xi.
[5] _Post_, iii. 230.
[6] _Post_, i. 7.
[7] _Post_, ii. 212.
[8] _Post_, i. 7.
[9] _Post_, iv. 444.
[10] _Post_, ii. 100.
[11] _Post_, iv. 429; v. 17.
[12] _Post_, v. 117.
[13] _Post_, i. 472, n. 4; iv. 260, n. 2; v. 405, n. 1, 454, n. 2; vi.
i-xxxvii.
[14] _Post_, i. 60, n. 7.
[15] _Post_, ii. 476.
[16] _Post_, vi. xxxiv.
[17] _Post_, iii. 462.
[18] _Post_, vi. xxii.
[19] _Post_, iv. 8, n. 3.
[20] _Post_, i. 489, 518.
[21] _Post_, iv. 223, n. 3.
[22] _Post_, i. 39, n. 1.
[23] _Post_, iii. 340, n. 2.
[24] _Post_, i. 103, n. 3.
[25] _Post_, i. 501.
[26] _Post_, iii. 443.
[27] _Post_, iii. 314.
[28] _Post_, iii. 449.
[29] _Post_, iii. 478.
[30] _Post_, iii. 459.
[31] _Post_, i. 189. n. 2.
[32] i. 296, n. 3.
[33] _Post_, vi. 289.
[34] _Post_, ii. 350.
[35] _Post_, iii. 137, n. 1; 389.
[36] _Post_, i. 14
[37] _Post_, i. 7-8
[38] _Post_, i. 14-15.
[39] _Post_, iv. 31, n. 3
[40] ii. 173-4.
[41] vol. ii. p. 47.
[42] Johnson's _Works_, ed. 1825, vol. v. p. 152.
[43] Johnson's _Works_, ed. 1825, vol. v. p. 152.
[44] See _Post_, ii. 35, 424-6, 441.
[45] See _Post_, iv. 422.
[46] _Correspondence of Edmund Burke_, ii. 425.
[47] To this interesting and accurate publication I am indebted for many
valuable notes.
[48] _Post_, iii. 51, n. 3.
[49] Johnson's _Works_, ed. 1825, vol. iv. p. 446.
[50] _Post_, i. 331, _n_. 7.
[51] Johnson said of him:--'Sir Joshua Reynolds is the same all the year
round;' _post_, March 28, 1776. Boswell elsewhere describes him as 'he
who used to be looked upon as perhaps the most happy man in the world.'
_Letters of Boswell_, p. 344.
[52] 'O noctes coenaeque Deum!' 'O joyous nights! delicious feasts! At
which the gods might be my guests. _Francis_. Horace, _Sat_, ii. 6. 65.
[53] Six years before this Dedication Sir Joshua had conferred on him
another favour. 'I have a proposal to make to you,' Boswell had written
to him, 'I am for certain to be called to the English bar next February.
Will you now do my picture? and the price shall be paid out of the first
fees which I receive as a barrister in Westminster Hall. Or if that fund
should fail, it shall be paid at any rate five years hence by myself or
my representatives.' Boswell told him at the same time that the debts
which he had contracted in his father's lifetime would not be cleared
off for some years. The letter was endorsed by Sir Joshua:--'I agree to
the above conditions;' and the portrait was painted. Taylor's
_Reynolds_, ii. 477.
[54] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 24, 1773.
[55] 'I surely have the art of writing agreeably. The Lord Chancellor
[Thurlow] told me he had read every word of my _Hebridian Journal_;' he
could not help it; adding, 'could you give a rule how to write a book
that a man _must_ read? I believe Longinus could not.' _Letters of
Boswell_, p. 322.
[56] Boswell perhaps quotes from memory the following passage in
Goldsmith's _Life of Nash_:--'The doctor was one day conversing with
Locke and two or three more of his learned and intimate companions, with
that freedom, gaiety, and cheerfulness, which is ever the result of
innocence. In the midst of their mirth and laughter, the doctor, looking
from the window, saw Nash's chariot stop at the door. "Boys, boys,"
cried the philosopher, "let us now be wise, for here is a fool coming."'
Cunningham's Goldsmith's _Works_, iv. 96. Dr. Warton in his criticism on
Pope's line
'Unthought of frailties cheat us
in the wise,'
(_Moral Essays_, i. 69) says:--'For who could imagine that Dr. Clarke
valued himself for his agility, and frequently amused himself in a
private room of his house in leaping over the tables and chairs.'
Warton's _Essay on Pope_, ii. 125. 'It is a good remark of Montaigne's,'
wrote Goldsmith, 'that the wisest men often have friends with whom they
do not care how much they play the fool.' Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 166.
Mr. Seward says in his _Anecdotes_, ii. 320, that 'in the opinion of Dr.
Johnson' Dr. Clarke was the most complete literary character that
England ever produced.' For Dr. Clarke's sermons see _post_, April
7, 1778.
[57] See _post_, Oct. 16, 1769, note.
[58] How much delighted would Boswell have been, had he been shewn the
following passage, recorded by Miss Burney, in an account she gives of a
conversation with the Queen:--