commoner as the above entry shows. Though he entered on Oct. 31, he did
not matriculate till Dec. 16. It was on Palm Sunday of this same year
that Rousseau left Geneva, and so entered upon his eventful career.
Goldsmith was born eleven days after Johnson entered (Nov. 10, 1728).
Reynolds was five years old. Burke was born before Johnson left Oxford.
[172] He was in his twentieth year. He was born on Sept. 18, 1709, and
was therefore nineteen. He was somewhat late in entering. In his _Life
of Ascham_ he says, 'Ascham took his bachelor's degree in 1534, in the
eighteenth year of his age; a time of life at which it is more common
now to enter the universities than to take degrees.' Johnson's _Works_,
vi. 505. It was just after Johnson's entrance that the two Wesleys began
to hold small devotional meetings at Oxford.
[173] Builders were at work in the college during all his residence.
'July 16, 1728. About a quarter of a year since they began to build a
new chapel for Pembroke Coll. next to Slaughter Lane.' Hearne's
_Remains_, iii. 9.
[174] _Athen. Oxon_. edit. 1721, i. 627. BOSWELL.
[175] Johnson would oftener risk the payment of a small fine than attend
his lectures.... Upon occasion of one such imposition he said to
Jorden:--"Sir, you have sconced [fined] me two pence for non-attendance
at a lecture not worth a penny." Hawkins's _Johnson_, p. 9. A passage in
Whitefield's _Diary_ shows that the sconce was often greater. He once
neglected to give in the weekly theme which every Saturday had to be
given to the tutor in the Hall 'when the bell rang.' He was fined
half-a-crown. Tyerman's _Whitefield_, i. 22. In my time (1855-8) at
Pembroke College every Saturday when the bell rang we gave in our piece
of Latin prose--themes were things of the past.
[176] This was on Nov. 6, O.S., or Nov. 17, N.S.--a very early time for
ice to bear. The first mention of frost that I find in the newspapers of
that winter is in the _Weekly Journal_ for Nov. 30, O.S.; where it is
stated that 'the passage by land and water [i.e. the Thames] is now
become very dangerous by the snow, frost, and ice.' The record of
meteorological observations began a few years later.
[177] Oxford, 20th March, 1776. BOSWELL.
[178] Mr. Croker discovers a great difference between this account and
that which Johnson gave to Mr. Warton (_post_, under July 16, 1754).
There is no need to have recourse, with Mr. Croker, 'to an ear spoiled
by flattery.' A very simple explanation may be found. The accounts refer
to different hours of the same day. Johnson's 'stark insensibility'
belonged to the morning, and his 'beating heart' to the afternoon. He
had been impertinent before dinner, and when he was sent for after
dinner 'he expected a sharp rebuke.'
[179] It ought to be remembered that Dr. Johnson was apt, in his
literary as well as moral exercises, to overcharge his defects. Dr.
Adams informed me, that he attended his tutors lectures, and also the
lectures in the College Hall, very regularly. BOSWELL.
[180] Early in every November was kept 'a great gaudy [feast] in the
college, when the Master dined in publick, and the juniors (by an
ancient custom they were obliged to comply with) went round the fire in
the hall.' Philipps's _Diary, Notes and Queries_, 2nd S., x. 443. We can
picture to ourselves among the juniors in November 1728, Samuel Johnson,
going round the fire with the others. Here he heard day after day the
Latin grace which Camden had composed for the society. 'I believe I can
repeat it,' Johnson said at St. Andrew's, 'which he did.' Boswell's
_Hebrides_, Aug. 19, 1773.
[181] Seven years before Johnson's time, on Nov. 5, 'Mr. Peyne, Bachelor
of Arts, made an oration in the hall suitable to the day.'
Philipps's _Diary_.
[182] Boswell forgot Johnson's criticism on Milton's exercises on this
day. 'Some of the exercises on Gunpowder Treason might have been
spared.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 119.
[183] It has not been preserved. There are in the college library four
of his compositions, two of verse and two of prose. One of the copies of
verse I give _post_, under July 16, 1754. Both have been often printed.
As his prose compositions have never been published I will give one:--
'Mea nec Falernae
Temperant Vites, neque Formiani Pocula Colles.'
'Quaedam minus attente spectata absurda videntur, quae tamen penitus
perspecta rationi sunt consentanea. Non enim semper facta per se, verum
ratio occasioque faciendi sunt cogitanda. Deteriora ei offerre cui
meliorum ingens copia est, cui non ridiculum videtur? Quis sanus hirtam
agrestemque vestem Lucullo obtulisset, cujus omnia fere Serum opificia,
omnia Parmae vellera, omnes Tyri colores latuerunt? Hoc tamen fecisse
Horatium non puduit, quo nullus urbanior, nullus procerum convictui
magis assuetus. Maecenatem scilicet nôrat non quaesiturum an meliora
vina domi posset bibere, verum an inter domesticos quenquam propensiori
in se animo posset invenire. Amorem, non lucrum, optavit patronus ille
munifentissimus (_sic_). Pocula licet vino minus puro implerentur, satis
habuit, si hospitis vultus laetitia perfusus sinceram puramque amicitiam
testaretur. Ut ubi poetam carmine celebramus, non fastidit, quod ipse
melius posset scribere, verum poema licet non magni facit (_sic_),
amorem scriptoris libenter amplectitur, sic amici munuscula animum
gratum testantia licet parvi sint, non nisi a superbo et moroso
contemnentur. Deos thuris fumis indigere nemo certè unquam credidit,
quos tamen iis gratos putarunt, quia homines se non beneficiorum
immemores his testimoniis ostenderunt.'
JOHNSON.
[184] 'The accidental perusal of some Latin verses gained Addison the
patronage of Dr. Lancaster, afterwards Provost of Queen's College, by
whose recommendation he was elected into Magdalen College as a Demy' [a
scholar]. Johnson's _Works_, vii. 420. Johnson's verses gained him
nothing but 'estimation.'
[185] He is reported to have said:--'The writer of this poem will leave
it a question for posterity, whether his or mine be the original.'
Hawkins, p. 13.
[186] 'A Miscellany of Poems by several hands. Published by J. Husbands,
A.M., Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxon., Oxford. Printed by Leon.
Lichfield, near the East-Gate, In the year MDCCXXXI.' Among the
subscribers I notice the name of Richard Savage, Esq., for twenty
copies. It is very doubtful whether he paid for one. Pope did not
subscribe. Johnson's poem is thus mentioned in the preface:--'The
translation of Mr. Pope's Messiah was deliver'd to his Tutor as a
College Exercise by Mr. Johnson, a commoner of Pembroke College in
Oxford, and 'tis hoped will be no discredit to the excellent original.'
[187] See _post_, under July 16, 1754.
[188] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 6, 1773.
[189] _Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of Dr.
Johnson,_ by John Courtenay, Esq., M.P. BOSWELL.
[190] Hector, in his account of Johnson's early life, says:--'After a
long absence from Lichfield, when he returned, I was apprehensive of
something wrong in his constitution which might either impair his
intellect or endanger his life; but, thanks to Almighty God, my fears
have proved false.' Hawkins, p. 8. The college books show that Johnson
was absent but one week in the Long Vacation of 1729. It is by no means
unlikely that he went to Lichfield in that week to consult Dr. Swinfen
about his health. In that case his first attack, when he tried to
overcome the malady by frequently walking to Birmingham, must have been
at an earlier date. In his time students often passed the vacation at
the University. The following table shows the number of graduates and
undergraduates in residence in Pembroke College at the end of each
fourth week, from June to December 1729:--
Members in residence.
June 20, 1729 . . . 54
July 18, " . . . 34
Aug. 15, " . . . 25
Sept. 12, " . . . 16
Oct. 10, " . . . 30
Nov. 7, " . . . 52
Dec. 5, " . . . 49
At Christmas there were still sixteen men left in the college. That
under a zealous tutor the vacation was by no means a time of idleness is
shown by a passage in Wesley's _Journal_, in which he compares the
Scotch Universities with the English. 'In Scotland,' he writes, 'the
students all come to their several colleges in November, and return home
in May. So they _may_ study five months in the year, and lounge all the
rest! O where was the common sense of those who instituted such
colleges? In the English colleges everyone _may_ reside all the year, as
all my pupils did; and I should have thought myself little better than a
highwayman if I had not lectured them every day in the year but
Sundays.' Wesley's _Journal_, iv. 75. Johnson lived to see Oxford empty
in the Long Vacation. Writing on Aug. 1, 1775, he said:--'The place is
now a sullen solitude.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 294.
[191] Johnson, perhaps, was thinking of himself when he thus criticised
the character of Sir Roger de Coverley. 'The variable weather of the
mind, the flying vapours of incipient madness, which from time to time
cloud reason without eclipsing it, it requires so much nicety to exhibit
that Addison seems to have been deterred from prosecuting his own
design.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 431.
[192] Writing in his old age to Hector, he said,--'My health has been
from my twentieth year such as has seldom afforded me a single day of
ease' (_post_, under March 21, 1782). Hawkins writes, that he once told
him 'that he knew not what it was to be totally free from pain.'
Hawkins, p. 396.
[193] See _post_, Oct. 27, 1784, note.
[194] In the _Rambler_, No. 85, he pointed out 'how much happiness is
gained, and how much misery escaped, by frequent and violent agitation
of the body.' See _post_, July 21, 1763, for his remedies against
melancholy.
[195] Thirty-two miles in all. Southey mentions that in 1728, the
Wesleys, to save the more money for the poor, began to perform their
journeys on foot. He adds,--'It was so little the custom in that age for
men in their rank of life to walk any distance, as to make them think it
a discovery that four or five-and-twenty miles are an easy and safe
day's journey.' Southey's _Wesley_, i. 52.
[196] Boswell himself suffered from hypochondria. He seems at times to
boast of it, as Dogberry boasted of his losses; so that Johnson had some
reason for writing to him with seventy, as if he were 'affecting it from
a desire of distinction.' _Post_, July 2, 1776.
[197] Johnson on April 7, 1776, recommended Boswell to read this book,
and again on July 2 of the same year.
[198] On Dec. 24, 1754, writing of the poet Collins, who was either mad
or close upon it, he said,--'Poor dear Collins! I have often been near
his state.' Wooll's _Warton_, p. 229. 'I inherited,' Johnson said, 'a
vile melancholy from my father, which has made me mad all my life, at
least not sober.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 16, 1773. 'When I survey
my past life,' he wrote in 1777, 'I discover nothing but a barren waste
of time, with some disorders of body and disturbances of the mind very
near to madness.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 155. Reynolds recorded that 'what
Dr. Johnson said a few days before his death of his disposition to
insanity was no new discovery to those who were intimate with him.'
Taylor's _Reynolds_, ii. 455. See also _post_ Sept. 20, 1777.
[199] Ch. 44.
[200] 'Of the uncertainties of our present state, the most dreadful and
alarming is the uncertain continuance of reason.' _Rasselas_, ch. 43.
[201] Boswell refers to Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_., pp. 77, 127), and Hawkins
(_Life_, pp. 287-8).
[202] 'Quick in these seeds is might of fire and birth of heavenly
place.' Morris, _Aeneids_, vi. 730.
[203] On Easter Sunday 1716 during service some pieces of stone from the
spire of St. Mary's fell on the roof of the church. The congregation,
thinking that the steeple was coming down, in their alarm broke through
the windows. Johnson, we may well believe, witnessed the scene. The
church was pulled down, and the new one was opened in Dec. 1721.
Harwood's _Lichfield_, p. 460.
[204] 'Sept. 23, 1771. I have gone voluntarily to church on the week day
but few times in my life. I think to mend. April 9, 1773. I hope in time
to take pleasure in public worship. April 6, 1777. I have this year
omitted church on most Sundays, intending to supply the deficience in
the week. So that I owe twelve attendances on worship. I will make no
more such superstitious stipulations, which entangle the mind with
unbidden obligations.' _Pr. and Med_. pp. 108, 121, 161. In the
following passage in the _Life of Milton_, Johnson, no doubt, is
thinking of himself:--'In the distribution of his hours there was no
hour of prayer, either solitary or with his household; omitting public
prayers he omitted all.... That he lived without prayer can hardly be
affirmed; his studies and meditations were an habitual prayer. The
neglect of it in his family was probably a fault for which he condemned
himself, and which he intended to correct, but that death as too often
happens, intercepted his reformation.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 115. See
_post_, Oct. 10, 1779.
[205] We may compare with this a passage in Verecundulus's letter in
_The Rambler_, No. 157:--'Though many among my fellow students [at the
university] took the opportunity of a more remiss discipline to gratify
their passions, yet virtue preserved her natural superiority, and those
who ventured to neglect were not suffered to insult her.' Oxford at this
date was somewhat wayward in her love for religion. Whitefield
records:--'I had no sooner received the sacrament publicly on a week-day
at St. Mary's, but I was set up as a mark for all the polite students
that knew me to shoot at. By this they knew that I was commenced
Methodist, for though there is a sacrament at the beginning of every
term, at which all, especially the seniors, are by statute obliged to be
present, yet so dreadfully has that once faithful city played the
harlot, that very few masters, and no undergraduates but the Methodists
attended upon it. I daily underwent some contempt at college. Some have
thrown dirt at me; others by degrees took away their pay from me.'
Tyerman's _Whitefield_, i. 19. Story, the Quaker, visiting Oxford in
1731, says, 'Of all places wherever I have been the scholars of Oxford
were the rudest, most giddy, and unruly rabble, and most mischievous.'
Story's _Journal_, p. 675.
[206] John Wesley, who was also at Oxford, writing of about this same
year, says:--'Meeting now with Mr. Law's _Christian Perfection_ and
_Serious Call_ the light flowed in so mightily upon my soul that
everything appeared in a new view.' Wesley's _Journal_, i. 94.
Whitefield writes:--'Before I went to the University, I met with Mr.
Law's _Serious Call_, but had not then money to purchase it. Soon after
my coming up to the University, seeing a small edition of it in a
friend's hand I soon procured it. God worked powerfully upon my soul by
that and his other excellent treatise upon Christian perfection.'
Tyerman's _Whitefield_, i. 16. Johnson called the _Serious Call_ 'the
finest piece of hortatory theology in any language;' _post_, 1770. A few
months before his death he said:--'William Law wrote the best piece of
parenetic divinity; but William Law was no reasoner;' _post_, June 9,
1784. Law was the tutor of Gibbon's father, and he died in the house of
the historian's aunt. In describing the _Serious Call_ Gibbon
says:--'His precepts are rigid, but they are founded on the gospel; his
satire is sharp, but it is drawn from the knowledge of human life; and
many of his portraits are not unworthy of the pen of La Bruyère. If he
finds a spark of piety in his reader's mind he will soon kindle it to a
flame.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 21.
[207] Mrs. Piozzi has given a strange fantastical account of the
original of Dr. Johnson's belief in our most holy religion. 'At the age
of ten years his mind was disturbed by scruples of infidelity, which
preyed upon his spirits, and made him very uneasy, the more so, as he
revealed his uneasiness to none, being naturally (as he said) of a
sullen temper, and reserved disposition. He searched, however,
diligently, but fruitlessly, for evidences of the truth of revelation;
and, at length, _recollecting_ a book he had once seen [_I suppose at
five years old_] in his father's shop, intitled _De veritate
Religionis_, etc., he began to think himself _highly culpable_ for
neglecting such a means of information, and took himself severely to
task for this sin, adding many acts of voluntary, and, to others,
unknown _penance_. The first opportunity which offered, of course, he
seized the book with avidity; but, on examination, _not finding himself
scholar enough to peruse its contents_, set his heart at rest; and not
thinking to enquire whether there were any English books written on the
subject, followed his usual amusements and _considered his conscience as
lightened of a crime_. He redoubled his diligence to learn the language
that contained the information he most wished for; but from the pain
which _guilt [namely having omitted to read what he did not
understand_,] had given him, he now began to deduce the soul's
immortality [_a sensation of pain in this world being an unquestionable
proof of existence in another_], which was the point that belief first
stopped at; _and from that moment resolving to be a Christian_, became
one of the most zealous and pious ones our nation ever produced.'
_Anecdotes_, p. 17.
This is one of the numerous misrepresentations of this lively lady,
which it is worth while to correct; for if credit should be given to
such a childish, irrational, and ridiculous statement of the foundation
of Dr. Johnson's faith in Christianity, how little credit would be due
to it. Mrs. Piozzi seems to wish, that the world should think Dr.
Johnson also under the influence of that easy logick, _Stet pro ratione
voluntas_. BOSWELL. On April 28, 1783, Johnson said:--'Religion had
dropped out of my mind. It was at an early part of my life. Sickness
brought it back, and I hope I have never lost it since.' Most likely it
was the sickness in the long vacation of 1729 mentioned _ante_, p. 63.
[208] In his _Life of Milton_, writing of _Paradise Lost_, he
says:--'But these truths are too important to be new; they have been
taught to our infancy; they have mingled with our solitary thoughts and
familiar conversations, and are habitually interwoven with the whole
texture of life.' Johnson's _Works_, vii. 134.
[209] Acts xvi. 30.
[210] Sept. 7, Old Style, or Sept. 18, New Style.
[211] 'He that peruses Shakespeare looks round alarmed, and starts to
find himself alone.' Johnson's _Works_, v. 71. 'I was many years ago so
shocked by Cordelia's death, that I know not whether I ever endured to
read again the last scenes of the play till I undertook to revise them
as an editor.' Ib. p. 175.
[212] He told Mr. Windham that he had never read through the Odyssey
completely. Windham's _Diary_, p. 17. At college, he said, he had been
'very idle and neglectful of his studies.' Ib.
[213] 'It may be questioned whether, except his Bible, he ever read a
book entirely through. Late in life, if any man praised a book in his
presence, he was sure to ask, 'Did you read it through?' If the answer
was in the affirmative, he did not seem willing to believe it.' Murphy's
_Johnson_, p. 12. It would be easy to show that Johnson read many books
right through, though, according to Mrs. Piozzi, he asked, 'was there
ever yet anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its
readers excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim's
Progress?' Piozzi's Anec., p. 281. Nevertheless in Murphy's statement
there is some truth. See what has been just stated by Boswell, that 'he
hardly ever read any poem to an end,' and _post_, April 19, 1773 and
June 15, 1784. To him might be applied his own description of
Barretier:--'He had a quickness of apprehension and firmness of memory
which enabled him to read with incredible rapidity, and at the same time
to retain what he read, so as to be able to recollect and apply it. He
turned over volumes in an instant, and selected what was useful for his
purpose.' Johnson's _Works_, vi. 390.
[214] See _post_, June 15, 1784. Mr. Windham (_Diary_, p. 17) records
the following 'anecdote of Johnson's first declamation at college;
having neglected to write it till the morning of his being (sic) to
repeat it, and having only one copy, he got part of it by heart while he
was walking into the hall, and the rest he supplied as well as he could
extempore.' Mrs. Piozzi, recording the same ancedote, says that 'having
given the copy into the hand of the tutor who stood to receive it as he
passed, he was obliged to begin by chance, and continue on how he
could.... "A prodigious risk, however," said some one. "Not at all,"
exclaims Johnson, "no man, I suppose, leaps at once into deep water who
does not know how to swim."' Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 30.
[215] He told Dr. Burney that he never wrote any of his works that were
printed, twice over. Dr. Burney's wonder at seeing several pages of his
_Lives of the Poets_, in Manuscript, with scarce a blot or erasure, drew
this observation from him. MALONE. 'He wrote forty-eight of the printed
octavo pages of the _Life of Savage_ at a sitting' (_post_, Feb. 1744),
and a hundred lines of the _Vanity of Human Wishes_ in a day (_post_,
under Feb. 15, 1766). The _Ramblers_ were written in haste as the moment
pressed, without even being read over by him before they were printed
(_post_, beginning of 1750). In the second edition, however, he made
corrections. 'He composed _Rasselas_ in the evenings of one week'
(_post_, under January, 1759). '_The False Alarm_ was written between
eight o'clock on Wednesday night and twelve o'clock on Thursday night.'
Piozzi's _Anec_., p. 41. '_The Patriot_' he says, 'was called for on
Friday, was written on Saturday' (_post_, Nov. 26, 1774).
[216] 'When Mr. Johnson felt his fancy, or fancied he felt it,
disordered, his constant recurrence was to the study of arithmetic.'
Piozzi's _Anec_. p. 77. 'Ethics, or figures, or metaphysical reasoning,
was the sort of talk he most delighted in;' ib. p. 80. See _post_,
Sept. 24, 1777.
[217] 'Sept. 18, 1764, I resolve to study the Scriptures; I hope in the
original languages. 640 verses every Sunday will nearly comprise the
Scriptures in a year.' _Pr. and Med_. p. 58. '1770, 1st Sunday after
Easter. The plan which I formed for reading the Scriptures was to read
600 verses in the Old Testament, and 200 in the New, every week;' ib.
p. 100.
[218] 'August 1, 1715. This being the day on which the late Queen Anne
died, and on which George, Duke and Elector of Brunswick, usurped the
English throne, there was very little rejoicing in Oxford.... There was
a sermon at St. Marie's by Dr. Panting, Master of Pembroke.... He is an
honest gent. His sermon took no notice, at most very little, of the Duke
of Brunswick.' Hearne's _Remains_, ii. 6.
[219] The outside wall of the gateway-tower forms an angle with the wall
of the Master's house, so that any one sitting by the open window and
speaking in a strong emphatic voice might have easily been overheard.
[220] Goldsmith did go to Padua, and stayed there some months. Forster's
_Goldsmith_, i. 71.
[221] I had this anecdote from Dr. Adams, and Dr. Johnson confirmed it.
Bramston, in his _Man of Taste_, has the same thought: 'Sure, of all
blockheads, scholars are the worst.' BOSWELL. Johnson's meaning,
however, is, that a scholar who is a blockhead must be the worst of all
blockheads, because he is without excuse. But Bramston, in the assumed
character of an ignorant coxcomb, maintains that _all_ scholars are
blockheads on account of their scholarship. J. BOSWELL, JUN. There is, I
believe, a Spanish proverb to the effect that, 'to be an utter fool a
man must know Latin.' A writer in _Notes and Queries_ (5th S. xii. 285)
suggests that Johnson had in mind Acts xvii. 21.