said of Pope in his behaviour to his parents:--'Whatever was his pride,
to them he was obedient; and whatever was his irritability, to them he
was gentle. Life has among its soothing and quiet comforts few things
better to give than such a son.' Johnson's _Works_, viii. 281. In _The
Idler_ of January 27, 1759 (No. 41), Johnson shews his grief for his
loss. 'The last year, the last day must come. It has come, and is past.
The life which made my own life pleasant is at an end, and the gates of
death are shut upon my prospects.... Such is the condition of our
present existence that life must one time lose its associations, and
every inhabitant of the earth must walk downward to the grave alone and
unregarded, without any partner of his joy or grief, without any
interested witness of his misfortunes or success. Misfortune, indeed, he
may yet feel; for where is the bottom of the misery of man? But what is
success to him that has none to enjoy it? Happiness is not found in
self-contemplation; it is perceived only when it is reflected from
another.' In _Rasselas_ (ch. xlv.) he makes a sage say with a
sigh:--'Praise is to have an old man an empty sound. I have neither
mother to be delighted with the reputation of her son, nor wife to
partake the honours of her husband.' He here says once more what he had
already said in his _Letter to Lord Chesterfield_ (_ante_, p. 261), and
in the _Preface to the Dictionary_ (_ante_, p. 297).
[1018] Writing to his Birmingham friend, Mr. Hector, on Oct. 7, 1756, he
said:--'I have been thinking every month of coming down into the
country, but every month has brought its hinderances. From that kind of
melancholy indisposition which I had when we lived together at
Birmingham I have never been free, but have always had it operating
against my health and my life with more or less violence. I hope however
to see all my friends, all that are remaining, in no very long time.'
_Notes and Queries_, 6th S. iii. 301. No doubt his constant poverty and
the need that he was under of making 'provision for the day that was
passing over him' had had much to do in keeping him from a journey to
Lichfield. A passage in one of his letters shews that fourteen years
later the stage-coach took twenty-six hours in going from London to
Lichfield. (_Piozzi Letters_, i. 55.) The return journey was very
uncertain; for 'our carriages,' he wrote, 'are only such as pass through
the place sometimes full and sometimes vacant.' A traveller had to watch
for a place (_ib_. p. 51). As measured by time London was, in 1772, one
hour farther from Lichfield than it now is from Marseilles. It is
strange, when we consider the long separation between Johnson and his
mother, that in _Rasselas_, written just after her death, he makes Imlac
say:-'There is such communication [in Europe] between distant places,
that one friend can hardly be said to be absent from another.'
_Rasselas_, chap, xi. His step-daughter, Miss Porter, though for many
years she was well off, had never been to London. _Post_, March 23,
1776. Nay, according to Horace Walpole (_Memoirs of the Reign of George
III_, iv. 327), 'George III. had never seen the sea, nor ever been
thirty miles from London at the age of thirty-four.'
[1019] For the letters written at this time by Johnson to his mother and
Miss Porter, see Appendix B.
[1020] _Rasselas_ was published in two volumes, duodecimo, and was sold
for five shillings. It was reviewed in the _Gent. Mag_. for April, and
was no doubt published in that month. In a letter to Miss Porter dated
March 23, 1759 (See Appendix), Johnson says:--'I am going to publish a
little story-book, which I will send you when it is out.' I may here
remark that the _Gent. Mag_. was published at the end of the month, or
even later. Thus the number for April, 1759, contains news as late as
April 30. The name _Rasselas_ Johnson got from Lobo's _Voyage to
Abyssinia_. On p. 102 of that book he mentions 'Rassela Christos,
Lieutenant-General to _Abysinia; Sultan Segued.' On p. 262 he explains
the meaning of the first part of the word:--'There is now a
Generalissimo established under the title of _Ras_, or _Chief_.' The
title still exists. Colonel Gordon mentions Ras Arya and Ras Aloula. The
Rev. W. West, in his _Introduction to Rasselas_, p. xxxi (Sampson Low
and Co.), says:--'The word _Ras_, which is common to the Amharic,
Arabic, and Hebrew tongues, signifies a _head_, and hence a prince,
chief, or captain.... Sela Christos means either "Picture of Christ," or
"For the sake of Christ."'
[1021] Hawkins's Johnson, p. 367.
[1022] See _post_, June 2, 1781. Finding it then accidentally in a
chaise with Mr. Boswell, he read it eagerly. This was doubtless long
after his declaration to Sir Joshua Reynolds. MALONE.
[1023] Baretti told Malone that 'Johnson insisted on part of the money
being paid immediately, and accordingly received £70. Any other person
with the degree of reputation he then possessed would have got £400 for
that work, but he never understood the art of making the most of his
productions.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 160. Some of the other circumstances
there related by Baretti are not correct.
[1024] Hawkesworth received £6000 for his revision of Cook's _Voyages_;
_post_, May 7, 1773.
[1025] See _post_, March 4, 1773.
[1026] _Ecclesiastes_, i. 14.
[1027] See _post_, May 16, 1778. It should seem that _Candide_ was
published in the latter half of February 1759. Grimm in his letter of
March 1, speaks of its having just appeared. 'M. de Voltaire vient de
nous égayer par un petit roman.' He does not mention it in his previous
letter of Feb. 15. _Grimm, Carres. Lit_. (edit. 1829), ii. 296.
Johnson's letter to Miss Porter, quoted in the Appendix, shows that
Rasselas was written before March 23; how much earlier cannot be known.
_Candide_ is in the May list of books in the _Gent. Mag_. (pp. 233-5),
price 2_s_. 6_d_., and with it two translations, each price 1_s_. 6_d_.
[1028] See _post_, June 13, 1763.
[1029] In the original,--'which, perhaps, prevails.' _Rasselas_, ch.
xxxi.
[1030] This is the second time that Boswell puts 'morbid melancholy' in
quotation marks (ante, p. 63). Perhaps he refers to a passage in
Hawkins's _Johnson_ (p. 287), where the author speaks of Johnson's
melancholy as 'this morbid affection, as he was used to call it.'
[1031] 'Perfect through sufferings.' _Hebrews_, ii. 10.
[1032] Perhaps the reference is to the conclusion of _Le Monde comme il
va_:--'Il résolut ... de laisser aller _le monde comme il va_; car, dit
il, _si tout riest pas bien, tout est passable_.'
[1033] Gray, _On a Distant Prospect of Eton College_.
[1034] Johnson writing to Mrs. Thrale said:--'_Vivite lacti_ is one of
the great rules of health.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 55. 'It was the motto
of a bishop very eminent for his piety and good works in King Charles
the Second's reign, _Inservi Deo et laetare_--"Serve God and be
cheerful."' Addison's _Freeholder_, No. 45.
[1035] Literary and Moral Character of Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL.
[1036] This paper was in such high estimation before it was collected
into volumes, that it was seized on with avidity by various publishers
of news-papers and magazines, to enrich their publications. Johnson, to
put a stop to this unfair proceeding, wrote for the _Universal
Chronicle_ the following advertisement; in which there is, perhaps, more
pomp of words than the occasion demanded:
'London, January 5, 1759. ADVERTISEMENT. The proprietors of the paper
intitled _The Idler_, having found that those essays are inserted in the
news-papers and magazines with so little regard to justice or decency,
that the _Universal Chronicle_, in which they first appear, is not
always mentioned, think it necessary to declare to the publishers of
those collections, that however patiently they have hitherto endured
these injuries, made yet more injurious by contempt, they have now
determined to endure them no longer. They have already seen essays, for
which a very large price is paid, transferred, with the most shameless
rapacity, into the weekly or monthly compilations, and their right, at
least for the present, alienated from them, before they could themselves
be said to enjoy it. But they would not willingly be thought to want
tenderness, even for men by whom no tenderness hath been shewn. The past
is without remedy, and shall be without resentment. But those who have
been thus busy with their sickles in the fields of their neighbours, are
henceforward to take notice, that the time of impunity is at an end.
Whoever shall, without our leave, lay the hand of rapine upon our
papers, is to expect that we shall vindicate our due, by the means which
justice prescribes, and which are warranted by the immemorial
prescriptions of honourable trade. We shall lay hold, in our turn, on
their copies, degrade them from the pomp of wide margin and diffuse
typography, contract them into a narrow space, and sell them at an
humble price; yet not with a view of growing rich by confiscations, for
we think not much better of money got by punishment than by crimes. We
shall, therefore, when our losses are repaid, give what profit shall
remain to the _Magdalens_; for we know not who can be more properly
taxed for the support of penitent prostitutes, than prostitutes in whom
there yet appears neither penitence nor shame.' BOSWELL.
[1037] I think that this letter belongs to a later date, probably to
1765 or 1766. As we learn, _post_, April 10, 1776, Simpson was a
barrister 'who fell into a dissipated course of life.' On July 2, 1765,
Johnson records that he repaid him ten guineas which he had borrowed in
the lifetime of Mrs. Johnson (his wife). He also lent him ten guineas
more. If it was in 1759 that Simpson was troubled by small debts, it is
most unlikely that Johnson let six years more pass without repaying him
a loan which even then was at least of seven years' standing. Moreover,
in this letter Johnson writes:--'I have been invited, or have invited
myself, to several parts of the kingdom.' The only visits, it seems,
that he paid between 1754-1762 were to Oxford in 1759 and to Lichfield
in the winter of 1761-2. After 1762, when his pension gave him means, he
travelled frequently. Besides all this, he says of his step-daughter:--
'I will not incommode my dear Lucy by coming to Lichfield, while her
present lodging is of any use to her.' Miss Porter seems to have lived
in his house till she had built one for herself. Though his letter to
her of Jan. 10, 1764 (Croker's _Boswell_, p. 163), shews that it was
then building, yet she had not left his house on Jan. 14, 1766 (_ib_.
p. 173).
'To JOSEPH SIMPSON, ESQ.
'DEAR SIR,
'Your father's inexorability not only grieves but amazes me[1038]: he is
your father; he was always accounted a wise man; nor do I remember any
thing to the disadvantage of his good-nature; but in his refusal to
assist you there is neither good-nature, fatherhood, nor wisdom. It is
the practice of good-nature to overlook faults which have already, by
the consequences, punished the delinquent. It is natural for a father to
think more favourably than others of his children; and it is always wise
to give assistance while a little help will prevent the necessity
of greater.
[1038] In the _Rambler_, No. 148, entitled 'The cruelty of parental
tyranny,' Johnson, after noticing the oppression inflicted by the
perversion of legal authority, says:--'Equally dangerous and equally
detestable are the cruelties often exercised in private families, under
the venerable sanction of parental authority.' He continues:--'Even
though no consideration should be paid to the great law of social
beings, by which every individual is commanded to consult the happiness
of others, yet the harsh parent is less to be vindicated than any other
criminal, because he less provides for the happiness of himself.' See
also _post_, March 29, 1779. A passage in one of Boswell's _Letters to
Temple_ (p. 111) may also be quoted here:--'The time was when such a
letter from my father as the one I enclose would have depressed; but I
am now firm, and, as my revered friend, Mr. Samuel Johnson, used to say,
_I feel the privileges of an independent human being_; however, it is
hard that I cannot have the pious satisfaction of being well with
my father.'
[1039] Perhaps 'Van,' for Vansittart.
[1040] Lord Stowell informs me that Johnson prided himself in being,
during his visits to Oxford, accurately academic in all points: and he
wore his gown almost _ostentatiously_. CROKER.
[1041] Dr. Robert Vansittart, of the ancient and respectable family of
that name in Berkshire. He was eminent for learning and worth, and much
esteemed by Dr. Johnson. BOSWELL. Johnson perhaps proposed climbing over
the wall on the day on which 'University College witnessed him drink
three bottles of port without being the worse for it.' _Post_, April
7, 1778.
[1042] _Gentleman's Magazine_, April, 1785. BOSWELL. The speech was made
on July 7, 1759, the last day of 'the solemnity of the installment' of
the Earl of Westmoreland as Chancellor of the University. On the 3rd
'the ceremony began with a grand procession of noblemen, doctors, &c.,
in their proper habits, which passed through St. Mary's, and was there
joined by the Masters of Arts in their proper habits; and from thence
proceeded to the great gate of the Sheldonian Theatre, in which the most
numerous and brilliant assembly of persons of quality and distinction
was seated, that had ever been seen there on any occasion.' _Gent. Mag_.
xxix. 342. Would that we had some description of Johnson, as, in his new
and handsome gown, he joined the procession among the Masters! See
_ante_, p. 281.
[1043] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3d edit. p. 126 [Aug. 31].
BOSWELL. The chance of death from disease would seem also to have been
greater on the ship than in a jail. In _The Idler_ (No. 38) Johnson
estimates that one in four of the prisoners dies every year. In his
Review of Hanway's _Essay on Tea_ (_Works_, vi. 31) he states that he is
told that 'of the five or six hundred seamen sent to China, sometimes
half, commonly a third part, perish in the voyage.' See _post_,
April 10, 1778.
[1044] _Ibid_. p. 251 [Sept. 23]. BOSWELL.
[1045] In my first edition this word was printed _Chum_, as it appears,
in one of Mr. Wilkes's _Miscellanies_, and I animadverted on Dr.
Smollet's ignorance; for which let me propitiate the _manes_ of that
ingenious and benevolent gentleman. CHUM was certainly a mistaken
reading for _Cham_, the title of the Sovereign of Tartary, which is well
applied to Johnson, the Monarch of Literature; and was an epithet
familiar to Smollet. See _Roderick Random_, chap. 56. For this
correction I am indebted to Lord Palmerston, whose talents and literary
acquirements accord well with his respectable pedigree of
TEMPLE BOSWELL.
After the publication of the second edition of this work, the author was
furnished by Mr. Abercrombie, of Philadelphia, with the copy of a letter
written by Dr. John Armstrong, the poet, to Dr. Smollet at Leghorne,
containing the following paragraph:--'As to the K. Bench patriot, it is
hard to say from what motive he published a letter of yours asking some
triffling favour of him in behalf of somebody, for whom the great CHAM
of literature, Mr. Johnson, had interested himself.' MALONE. In the
first edition Boswell had said:--'Had Dr. Smollet been bred at an
English University, he would have know that a _chum_ is a student who
lives with another in a chamber common to them both. A _chum of
literature_ is nonsense.'
[1046] In a note to that piece of bad book-making, Almon's _Memoirs of
Wilkes_ (i. 47), this allusion is thus explained:-'A pleasantry of Mr.
Wilkes on that passage in Johnson's _Grammar of the English Tongue_,
prefixed to the Dictionary--"_H_ seldom, perhaps never, begins any but
the first syllable."' For this 'pleasantry' see _ante_, p. 300.
[1047] Mr. Croker says that he was not discharged till June 1760. Had he
been discharged at once he would have found Johnson moving from Gough
Square to Staple Inn; for in a letter to Miss Porter, dated March 23,
1739, given in the Appendix, Johnson said:-'I have this day moved my
things, and you are now to direct to me at Staple Inn.'
[1048] _Prayers and Meditations _, pp. 30 [39] and 40. BOSWELL.
[1049] 'I have left off housekeeping' wrote Johnson to Langton on Jan.
9, 1759. Murphy (_Life_, p. 90), writing of the beginning of the year
1759, says:--'Johnson now found it necessary to retrench his expenses.
He gave up his house in Gough Square. Mrs. Williams went into lodgings
[See _post_, July 1, 1763]. He retired to Gray's-Inn, [he had first
moved to Staple Inn], and soon removed to chambers in the Inner
Temple-lane, where he lived in poverty, total idleness, and the pride of
literature, _Magni stat nominis umbra_. Mr. Fitzherbert used to say that
he paid a morning visit to Johnson, intending from his chambers to send
a letter into the city; but, to his great surprise, he found an authour
by profession without pen, ink, or paper.' (It was Mr. Fitzherbert, who
sent Johnson some wine. See _ante_, p. 305, note 2. See also _post_,
Sept. 15, 1777). The following documents confirm Murphy's statement of
Johnson's poverty at this time:
'May 19, 1759.
'I promise to pay to Mr. Newbery the sum of forty-two pounds, nineteen
shillings, and ten pence on demand, value received. £42 19 10.
'Sam. Johnson.'
'March 20, 1760.
'I promise to pay to Mr. Newbery the sum of thirty pounds upon demand.,
£30 0 0.
'Sam. Johnson.'
In 1751 he had thrice borrowed money of Newbery, but the total amount of
the loans was only four guineas. Prior's _Goldsmith_, i. 340. With
Johnson's want of pen, ink, and paper we may compare the account that he
gives of Savage's destitution (_Works_, viii. 3):--'Nor had he any other
conveniences for study than the fields or the streets allowed him; there
he used to walk and form his speeches, and afterwards step into a shop,
beg for a few moments the use of the pen and ink, and write down what he
had composed upon paper which he had picked up by accident.' Hawkins
(_Life_, p. 383) says that Johnson's chambers were two doors down the
Inner Temple Lane. 'I have been told,' he continues, 'by his neighbour
at the corner, that during the time he dwelt there, more inquiries were
made at his shop for Mr. Johnson, than for all the inhabitants put
together of both the Inner and Middle Temple.' In a court opening out of
Fleet Street, Goldsmith at this very time was still more miserably
lodged. In the beginning of March 1759, Percy found him 'employed in
writing his _Enquiry into Polite Learning_ in a wretched dirty room, in
which there was but one chair, and when he from civility offered it to
his visitant, himself was obliged to sit in the window.' _Goldsmith's
Misc. Works_, i. 61.
[1050] Sir John Hawkins (Life, p. 373) has given a long detail of it, in
that manner vulgarly, but significantly, called rigmarole; in which,
amidst an ostentatious exhibition of arts and artists, he talks of
'proportions of a column being taken from that of the human figure, and
_adjusted by Nature_--masculine and feminine--in a man, sesquioctave of
the head, and in a woman _sesquinonal_;' nor has he failed to introduce
a jargon of musical terms, which do not seem much to correspond with the
subject, but serve to make up the heterogeneous mass. To follow the
Knight through all this, would be an useless fatigue to myself, and not
a little disgusting to my readers. I shall, therefore, only make a few
remarks upon his statement.--He seems to exult in having detected
Johnson in procuring 'from a person eminently skilled in Mathematicks
and the principles of architecture, answers to a string of questions
drawn up by himself, touching the comparative strength of semicircular
and elliptical arches.' Now I cannot conceive how Johnson could have
acted more wisely. Sir John complains that the opinion of that excellent
mathematician, Mr. Thomas Simpson, did not preponderate in favour of the
semicircular arch. But he should have known, that however eminent Mr.
Simpson was in the higher parts of abstract mathematical science, he was
little versed in mixed and practical mechanicks. Mr. Muller, of Woolwich
Academy, the scholastick father of all the great engineers which this
country has employed for forty years, decided the question by declaring
clearly in favour of the elliptical arch.
It is ungraciously suggested, that Johnson's motive for opposing Mr.
Mylne's scheme may have been his prejudice against him as a native of
North Britain; when, in truth, as has been stated, he gave the aid of
his able pen to a friend, who was one of the candidates; and so far was
he from having any illiberal antipathy to Mr. Mylne, that he afterwards
lived with that gentleman upon very agreeable terms of acquaintance, and
dined with him at his house. Sir John Hawkins, indeed, gives full vent
to his own prejudice in abusing Blackfriars bridge, calling it 'an
edifice, in which beauty and symmetry are in vain sought for; by which
the citizens of London have perpetuated study their own disgrace, and
subjected a whole nation to the reproach of foreigners.' Whoever has
contemplated, _placido lumine_ [Horace, _Odes_, iv. 3, 2], this stately,
elegant, and airy structure, which has so fine an effect, especially on
approaching the capital on that quarter, must wonder at such unjust and
ill-tempered censure; and I appeal to all foreigners of good taste,
whether this bridge be not one of the most distinguished ornaments of
London. As to the stability of the fabrick, it is certain that the City
of London took every precaution to have the best Portland stone for it;
but as this is to be found in the quarries belonging to the publick,
under the direction of the Lords of the Treasury, it so happened that
parliamentary interest, which is often the bane of fair pursuits,
thwarted their endeavours. Notwithstanding this disadvantage, it is well
known that not only has Blackfriars-bridge never sunk either in its
foundation or in its arches, which were so much the subject of contest,
but any injuries which it has suffered from the effects of severe frosts
have been already, in some measure, repaired with sounder stone, and
every necessary renewal can be completed at a moderate expence. BOSWELL.
Horace Walpole mentions an ineffectual application made by the City to
Parliament in 1764 'for more money for their new bridge at Blackfriars,'
when Dr. Hay, one of the Lords of the Admiralty, 'abused the Common
Council, whose late behaviour, he said, entitled them to no favour.'
Walpole's _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, i. 390. The late
behaviour was the part taken by the City in Wilkes's case. It was the
same love of liberty no doubt that lost the City the Portland stone.
Smollett goes out of the way to praise his brother-Scot, Mr. Mylne, in
_Humphry Clinker_--'a party novel written,' says Horace Walpole, 'to
vindicate the Scots' (_Reign of George III_, iv. 328). In the letter
dated May 29, he makes Mr. Bramble say:--'The Bridge at Blackfriars is a
noble monument of taste and public spirit--I wonder how they stumbled
upon a work of such magnificence and utility.'
[1051] Juvenal, _Sat_. i. 85.
[1052] 'Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of
Briton.'--George III's first speech to his parliament. It appears from
the _Hardwicke Papers_, writes the editor of the _Parl. Hist. (xv. 982),
that after the draft of the speech had been settled by the cabinet,
these words and those that came next were added by the King's own hand.
Wilkes in his _Dedication of Mortimer_ (see _post_, May 15, 1776)
asserted that 'these endearing words, "Born,&c.," were permitted to be
seen in the royal orthography of Britain for Briton,' Almon's
_Works_, i. 84.