Turns you from sound philosophy aside.'
Pope's _Satires_, ii. 5.
[1388] Mackintosh (_Life_, i. 71) said that 'Burke's treatise on the
_Sublime and Beautiful_ is rather a proof that his mind was not formed
for pure philosophy; and if we may believe Boswell that it was once the
intention of Mr. Burke to have written against Berkeley, we may be
assured that he would not have been successful in answering that great
speculator; or, to speak more correctly, that he could not have
discovered the true nature of the questions in dispute, and thus have
afforded the only answer consistent with the limits of the human
faculties.'
[1389] Goldsmith's _Retaliation_.
[1390] I have the following autograph letter written by Johnson to Dr.
Taylor three weeks after Boswell's departure.
'DEAR SIR,
'Having with some impatience reckoned upon hearing from you these two
last posts, and been disappointed, I can form to myself no reason for
the omission but your perturbation of mind, or disorder of body arising
from it, and therefore I once more advise removal from Ashbourne as the
proper remedy both for the cause and the effect.
'You perhaps ask, whither should I go? any whither where your case is
not known, and where your presence will cause neither looks nor
whispers. Where you are the necessary subject of common talk, you will
not safely be at rest.
'If you cannot conveniently write to me yourself let somebody write for
you to
'Dear Sir,
'Your most affectionate,
'SAM. JOHNSON.
'August 25, 1763.
'To the Reverend Dr. Taylor
in Ashbourne,
Derbyshire.'
Five other letters on the same subject are given in _Notes and Queries_,
6th S. v. pp. 324, 342, 382. Taylor and his wife 'never lived very well
together' (p. 325), and at last she left him. On May 22nd of the next
year Johnson congratulated Taylor 'upon the happy end of so vexatious an
affair, the happyest [sic] that could be next to reformation and
reconcilement' (p. 382). Taylor did not follow the advice to leave
Ashbourne; for on Sept. 3 Johnson wrote to him:--'You seem to be so well
pleased to be where you are, that I shall not now press your removal;
but do not believe that every one who rails at your wife wishes well to
you. A small country town is not the place in which one would chuse to
quarrel with a wife; every human being in such places is a spy.'
_Ib_. p. 343.
[1391] According to Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 210) he was accompanied by
his black servant Frank. 'I must have you know, ladies,' said he, 'that
Frank has carried the empire of Cupid further than most men. When I was
in Lincolnshire so many years ago he attended me thither; and when we
returned home together, I found that a female haymaker had followed him
to London for love.' If this story is generally true, it bears the mark
of Mrs. Piozzi's usual inaccuracy. The visit was paid early in the year,
and was over in February; what haymakers were there at that season?
[1392] Boswell by his quotation marks refers, I think, to his
_Hebrides_, Oct. 24, 1773, where Johnson says:--'Nobody, at times, talks
more laxly than I do.' See also _post_, ii. 73.
[1393] See _post_, April 26, 1776, for old Mr. Langton's slowness of
understanding.
[1394] See _ante_, i. 320.
[1395] Mr. Best (_Memorials_, p. 65) thus writes of a visit to
Langton:--'We walked to the top of a very steep hill behind the house.
Langton said, "Poor dear Dr. Johnson, when he came to this spot, turned
back to look down the hill, and said he was determined to take a roll
down. When we understood what he meant to do, we endeavoured to dissuade
him; but he was resolute, saying, he had not had a roll for a long time;
and taking out of his lesser pockets whatever might be in them, and
laying himself parallel with the edge of the hill, he actually
descended, turning himself over and over till he came to the bottom."
This story was told with such gravity, and with an air of such
affectionate remembrance of a departed friend, that it was impossible to
suppose this extraordinary freak an invention of Mr. Langton.' It must
have been in the winter that he had this roll.
[1396] Boswell himself so calls it in a Mr. letter to Temple written
three or four months after Garrick's death, _Letters of Boswell_, p.
242. See also Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 25, 1773.
[1397] Malone says:--'Reynolds was the original founder of our Literary
Club about the year 1762, the first thought of which he started to Dr.
Johnson at his own fireside.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 434. Mrs. Piozzi
(_Anec_. p. 122) says:--'Johnson called Reynolds their Romulus, or said
somebody else of the company called him so, which was more likely.'
According to Hawkins (_Life_, p. 425) the Club was founded in the winter
of 1763, i.e. 1763-4.
[1398] Dr. Nugent, a physician, was Burke's father-in-law. Macaulay
(_Essays_, i. 407) says:--'As we close Boswell's book, the club-room is
before us, and the table on which stands the omelet for Nugent, and the
lemons for Johnson.' It was from Mrs. Piozzi that Macaulay learnt of the
omelet. Nugent was a Roman Catholic, and it was on Friday that the Club
before long came to meet. We may assume that he would not on that day
eat meat. 'I fancy,' Mrs. Piozzi writes (_Anec_. p. 122), 'Dr. Nugent
ordered an omelet sometimes on a Friday or Saturday night; for I
remember Mr. Johnson felt very painful sensations at the sight of that
dish soon after his death, and cried:--"Ah my poor dear friend! I shall
never eat omelet with _thee_ again!" quite in an agony.' Dr. Nugent, in
the imaginary college at St. Andrews, was to be the professor of physic.
Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 25, 1773.
[1399] Mr. Andrew Chamier was of Huguenot descent, and had been a
stock-broker. He was a man of liberal education. 'He acquired such a
fortune as enabled him, though young, to quit business, and become, what
indeed he seemed by nature intended for, a gentleman.' Hawkins's
_Johnson_, p. 422. In 1764 he was Secretary in the War Office. In 1775
he was appointed Under Secretary of State. Forster's _Goldsmith_, i.
310. He was to be the professor of commercial politics in the imaginary
college. Johnson passed one of his birth-days at his house; _post_,
under Sept. 9, 1779, note.
[1400] 'It was Johnson's intention,' writes Hawkins (_Life_, p. 423),
'that their number should not exceed nine.' Nine was the number of the
Ivy Lane Club (_ante_, p. 190). Johnson, I suppose, looked upon nine as
the most _clubable_ number. 'It was intended,' says Dr. Percy, 'that if
only two of these chanced to meet for the evening, they should be able
to entertain each other.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 70. Hawkins adds
that 'Mr. Dyer (_post_, 1780 in Mr. Langton's _Collection_), a member of
the Ivy Lane Club, who for some years had been abroad, made his
appearance among us, and was cordially received.' According to Dr.
Percy, by 1768 not only had Hawkins formally withdrawn, but Beauclerk
had forsaken the club for more fashionable ones. 'Upon this the Club
agreed to increase their number to twelve; every new member was to be
elected by ballot, and one black ball was sufficient for exclusion. Mr.
Beauclerk then desired to be restored to the Society, and the following
new members were introduced on Monday, Feb. 15, 1768; Sir R. Chambers,
Dr. Percy and Mr. Colman.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 72. In the list
in Croker's _Boswell_, ed. 1844, ii. 326, the election of Percy and
Chambers is placed in 1765.
[1401] Boswell wrote on April 4, 1775:--'I dine, Friday, at the Turk's
Head, Gerrard-street, with our Club, Sir Joshua Reynolds, etc., who now
dine once a month, and sup every Friday.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 186.
In 1766, Monday was the night of meeting. _Post_, May 10, 1766. In Dec.
1772 the night was changed to Friday. Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 72.
Hawkins says (_Life_, pp. 424, 5):--'We seldom got together till nine;
preparing supper took up till ten; and by the time that the table was
cleared, it was near eleven. Our evening toast was the motto of Padre
Paolo, _Esto perpetua! Esto perpetua_ was being soon not Padre Paolo's
motto, but his dying prayer. 'As his end evidently approached, the
brethren of the convent came to pronounce the last prayers, with which
he could only join in his thoughts, being able to pronounce no more than
these words, "_Esto perpetua_" mayst thou last for ever; which was
understood to be a prayer for the prosperity of his country.' Johnson's
_Works_, vi. 269.
[1402] See _post_, March 14, 1777.
[1403] 'After 1783 it removed to Prince's in Sackville-street, and on
his house being soon afterwards shut up, it removed to Baxter's, which
subsequently became Thomas's, in Dover-street. In January 1792 it
removed to Parsloe's, in St. James's-street; and on February 26, 1799,
to the Thatched-house in the same street.' Forster's _Goldsmith_ i. 311.
[1404] The second edition is here spoken of. MALONE.
[1405] _Life of Johnson_, p. 425. BOSWELL.
[1406] From Sir Joshua Reynolds. BOSWELL. The Knight having refused to
pay his portion of the reckoning for supper, because he usually eat no
supper at home, Johnson observed, 'Sir John, Sir, is a very _unclubable_
man.' BURNEY. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 231) says that 'Mr. Dyer had
contracted a fatal intimacy with some persons of desperate fortunes, who
were dealers in India stock, at a time when the affairs of the company
were in a state of fluctuation.' Malone, commenting on this passage,
says that 'under these words Mr. Burke is darkly alluded to, together
with his cousin.' He adds that the character given of Dyer by Hawkins
'is discoloured by the malignant prejudices of that shallow writer, who,
having quarrelled with Mr. Burke, carried his enmity even to Mr. Burke's
friends.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 419. See also _ante_, p. 27. Hawkins
(_Life_, p. 420) said of Goldsmith:--'As he wrote for the booksellers,
we at the Club looked on him as a mere literary drudge, equal to the
task of compiling and translating, but little capable of original, and
still less of poetical composition.'
[1407] _Life of Johnson_, p. 425. BOSWELL. Hawkins is 'equally
inaccurate' in saying' that Johnson was so constant at our meetings as
never to absent himself.' (_Ib_. p. 424.) See _post_, Johnson's letter
to Langton of March 9, 1766, where he says:--'Dyer is constant at the
Club; Hawkins is remiss; I am not over diligent.'
[1408] Letters to and from Dr. Johnson. Vol. ii. p. 278 [387]. BOSWELL.
The passage is as follows:--'"If he _does_ apply," says our Doctor to
Mr. Thrale, "I'll black-ball him." "Who, Sir? Mr. Garrick, your friend,
your companion,--black-ball him!" "Why, Sir, I love my little David
dearly, better than all or any of his flatterers do, but surely one
ought, &c."'
[1409] Pope's _Moral Essays_, iii. 242.
[1410] Malone says that it was from him that Boswell had his account of
Garrick's election, and that he had it from Reynolds. He adds that
'Johnson warmly supported Garrick, being in reality a very tender
affectionate man. He was merely offended at the actors conceit.' He
continues:--'On the former part of this story it probably was that
Hawkins grounded his account that Garrick never was of the Club, and
that Johnson said he never ought to be of it. And thus it is that this
stupid biographer, and the more flippant and malicious Mrs. Piozzi have
miscoloured and misrepresented almost every anecdote that they have
pretented to tell of Dr. Johnson.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 392. Whatever
was the slight cast upon Garrick, he was nevertheless the sixth new
member elected. Four, as I have shown, were added by 1768. The next
elections were in 1773 (Croker's _Boswell_, ed. 1844. ii. 326), when
five were added, of whom Garrick was the second, and Boswell the fifth.
In 1774 five more were elected, among whom were Fox and Gibbon. Hannah
More (_Memoirs_, i. 249) says that 'upon Garrick's death, when
numberless applications were made to succeed him [in the Club], Johnson
was deaf to them all. He said, "No, there never could be found any
successor worthy of such a man;" and he insisted upon it there should be
a year's widowhood in the club, before they thought of a new election.'
[1411] Grainger wrote to Percy on April 6, 1764:--'Sam. Johnson says he
will review it in _The Critical_' In August, 1765, he wrote:--'I am
perfectly satisfied with the reception the _Sugar Cane_ has met with,
and am greatly obliged to you and Mr. Johnson for the generous care you
took of it in my absence.' Prior's _Goldsmith_, i. 238. He was absent in
the West Indies. He died on Dec. 16, 1766. _Ib_. p. 241. The review of
the _Sugar Cane_ in the _Critical Review_ (p. 270) is certainly by
Johnson. The following passage is curious:--'The last book begins with a
striking invocation to the genius of Africa, and goes on to give proper
instructions for the buying and choice of negroes.... The poet talks of
this ungenerous commerce without the least appearance of detestation;
but proceeds to direct these purchasers of their fellow-creatures with
the same indifference that a groom would give instructions for
choosing a horse.
'Clear roll their ample eye; their tongue be red;
Broad swell their chest; their shoulders wide expand;
Not prominent their belly; clean and strong
Their thighs and legs in just proportion rise.'
See also _post_, March 21, 1776.
[1412] Johnson thus ends his brief review:--'Such in the poem on which
we now congratulate the public as on a production to which, since the
death of Pope, it not be easy to find anything equal.' _Critical
Review_, p. 462.
[1413] _Pr. and Med_. p. 50. BOSWELL. He adds:--
'I hope
To put my rooms in order.
Disorder I have found one great cause of idleness.'
[1414] _Ib_. p. 51. BOSWELL.
[1415] It was on his birth-day that he said this. He wrote on the same
day:--'I have outlived many friends. I have felt many sorrows. I have
made few improvements.'
[1416] _Prayers and Meditations_, p. 58. BOSWELL. In his _Vision of
Theodore_ (_Works_, ix. 174) he describes the state of mind which he has
recorded in his Meditations:--'There were others whose crime it was
rather to neglect Reason than to disobey her; and who retreated from the
heat and tumult of the way, not to the bowers of Intemperance, but to
the maze of Indolence. They had this peculiarity in their condition,
that they were always in sight of the road of Reason, always wishing for
her presence, and always resolving to return to-morrow.'
[1417] See Appendix F.
[1418] It used to be imagined at Mr. Thrale's, when Johnson retired to a
window or corner of the room, by perceiving his lips in motion, and
hearing a murmur without audible articulation, that he was praying: but
this was not _always_ the case, for I was once, perhaps unperceived by
him, writing at a table, so near the place of his retreat, that I heard
him repeating some lines in an ode of Horace, over and over again, as if
by iteration, to exercise the organs of speech, and fix the ode in
his memory:
Audiet cives acuisse ferrum
Quo graves Persas melius perirent,
Audiet pugnas....
Odes, i. 2, 21.
['Our sons shall hear, shall hear to latest times,
Of Roman arms with civil gore imbrued,
Which better had the Persian foe subdued.'
_Francis_.]
It was during the American War. BURNEY. Boswell in his _Hebrides_ (Oct.
12, 1773) records, 'Dr. Johnson is often uttering pious ejaculations,
when he appears to be talking to himself; for sometimes his voice grows
stronger, and parts of the Lord's Prayer are heard.' In the same passage
he describes other 'particularities,' and adds in a note:--'It is
remarkable that Dr. Johnson should have read this account of some of his
own peculiar habits, without saying anything on the subject, which I
hoped he would have done.' See _post_, Dec. 1784, note.
[1419] Churchill's _Poems_, i. 16. See _ante_, p. 391.
[1420] 'It is in vain to try to find a meaning in every one of his
particularities, which, I suppose, are mere habits contracted by chance;
of which every man has some that are more or less remarkable.' Boswell's
_Hebrides_, Oct. 12, 1773. 'The love of symmetry and order, which is
natural to the mind of man, betrays him sometimes into very whimsical
fancies. "This noble principle," says a French author, "loves to amuse
itself on the most trifling occasions. You may see a profound
philosopher," says he, "walk for an hour together in his chamber, and
industriously treading at every step upon every other board in the
flooring."' _The Spectator_, No. 632.
[1421] Mr. S. Whyte (_Miscellanea Nova_, p. 49) tells how from old Mr.
Sheridan's house in Bedford-street, opposite Henrietta-street, with an
opera-glass he watched Johnson approaching. 'I perceived him at a good
distance working along with a peculiar solemnity of deportment, and an
awkward sort of measured step. Upon every post as he passed along, he
deliberately laid his hand; but missing one of them, when he had got at
some distance he seemed suddenly to recollect himself, and immediately
returning carefully performed the accustomed ceremony, and resumed his
former course, not omitting one till he gained the crossing. This, Mr.
Sheridan assured me, was his constant practice.'
[1422] _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, 3rd edit. p. 316. BOSWELL.
'The day that we left Talisker, he bade us ride on. He then turned the
head of his horse back towards Talisker, stopped for some time; then
wheeled round to the same direction with ours, and then came briskly
after us.' Boswell's _Hebrides_', Oct. 12, 1773.
[1423] Sir Joshua's sister, for whom Johnson had a particular affection,
and to whom he wrote many letters which I have seen, and which I am
sorry her too nice delicacy will not permit to be published. BOSWELL.
'Whilst the company at Mr. Thrale's were speculating upon a microscope
for the mind, Johnson exclaimed:--"I never saw one that would bear it,
except that of my dear Miss Reynolds, and hers is very near to purity
itself."' Northcote's _Reynolds_, i. 80. Once, said Northcote, there was
a coolness between her and her brother. She wished to set forth to him
her grievances in a letter. Not finding it easy to write, she consulted
Johnson, 'who offered to write a letter himself, which when copied
should pass as her own.' This he did. It began: 'I am well aware that
complaints are always odious, but complain I must.' Such a letter as
this she saw would not pass with Sir Joshua as her own, and so she could
not use it. _Ib_. p. 203. Of Johnson's letters to her Malone published
one, and Mr. Croker several more. Mme. D'Arblay, in the character she
draws of her (_Memoirs of Dr. Burney_, i. 332), says that 'Dr. Johnson
tried in vain to cure her of living in an habitual perplexity of mind
and irresolution of conduct, which to herself was restlessly tormenting,
and to all around her was teazingly wearisome.'
[1424] See Appendix C.
[1425] _Pr. and Med_. p. 61. BOSWELL.
[1426] See _ante_, p. 346.
[1427] His quarter's pension. See _ante_, P. 376.
[1428] Mr. Croker, misunderstanding a passage in Hawkins,
writes:--'Hawkins says that he disliked to be called Doctor, as
reminding him that he had been a schoolmaster.' What Hawkins really says
(_Life_, p. 446) is this:--'His attachment to Oxford prevented Johnson
from receiving this honour as it was intended, and he never assumed the
title which it conferred. He was as little pleased to be called Doctor
in consequence of it, as he was with the title of _Domine_, which a
friend of his once incautiously addressed him by. He thought it alluded
to his having been a schoolmaster.' It is clear that 'it' in the last
line refers only to the title of _Domine_. Murphy (_Life_, p. 98) says
that Johnson never assumed the title of Doctor, till Oxford conferred on
him the degree. Boswell states (_post_, March 31, 1775, note):--'It is
remarkable that he never, so far as I know, assumed his title of
_Doctor_, but called himself _Mr_. Johnson.' In this, as I show there,
Boswell seems to be not perfectly accurate. I do not believe Hawkins's
assertion that Johnson 'was little pleased to be called Doctor in
consequence of his Dublin degree.' In Boswell's Hebrides, most of which
was read by him before he received his Oxford degree, he is commonly
styled Doctor. Boswell says in a note on Aug. 15, 1773:--'It was some
time before I could bring myself to call him Doctor.' Had Johnson
disliked the title it would have been known to Boswell. Mrs. Thrale, it
is true, in her letters' to him, after he had received both his degrees,
commonly speaks of him as Mr. Johnson. We may assume that he valued his
Oxford degree of M.A. more highly than the Dublin degree of LL.D.; for
in the third edition of the _Abridgment of his Dictionary_, published in
1766, he is styled Samuel Johnson, A.M. In his _Lives of the Poets_ he
calls himself simply Samuel Johnson. He had by that time risen above
degrees. In his _Journey to the Hebrides_ (_Works_, ix. 14), after
stating that 'An English or Irish doctorate cannot be obtained by a very
young man,' he continues:--'It is reasonable to suppose ... that he who
is by age qualified to be a doctor, has in so much time gained learning
sufficient not to disgrace the title, or wit sufficient not to
desire it.'
[1429] Trinity College made him, it should seem, _Armiger_ at the same
time that it made him Doctor of Laws.
[1430] See Appendix D for this letter.
[1431] _Pr. and Med_. p. 66. BOSWELL.
[1432] _Single-speech_ Hamilton, as he was commonly called, though in
the House of Commons he had spoken more than once. For above thirty
sessions together, however, he held his tongue. Prior's _Burke_, p. 67.
[1433] See Appendix E for an explanation.
[1434] _Pr. and Med_. p. 67 BOSWELL.
[1435] See Appendix F.
[1436] Mr. Blakeway, in a note on this passage, says:--'The predecessor
of old Thrale was Edmund Halsey, Esq.; the nobleman who married his
daughter was Lord Cobham. The family of Thrale was of some consideration
in St. Albans; in the Abbey-church is a handsome monument to the memory
of Mr. John Thrale, late of London, merchant, who died in 1704.' He
describes the arms on the monument. Mr. Hayward, in _Mrs. Piozzis
Autobiography_, i. 9, quotes her marginal note on this page in Boswell.
She says that Edmund Halsey, son of a miller at St. Albans, married the
only daughter of his master, old Child, of the Anchor Brewhouse,
Southwark, and succeeded to the business upon Child's death. 'He sent
for one of his sister's sons to London (my Mr. Thrale's father); said he
would make a man of him, and did so; but made him work very hard, and
treated him very roughly.' He left him nothing at his death, and Thrale
bought the brewery of Lord and Lady Cobham.
[1437] See _post_, under April 4, 1781, and June 16, 1781.
[1438] Mrs. Burney informs me that she heard Dr. Johnson say, 'An
English Merchant is a new species of Gentleman.' He, perhaps, had in his
mind the following ingenious passage in _The Conscious Lovers_, act iv.
scene ii, where Mr. Sealand thus addresses Sir John Bevil: 'Give me
leave to say, that we merchants are a species of gentry that have grown
into the world this last century, and are as honourable, and almost as
useful as you landed-folks, that have always thought yourselves so much
above us; for your trading forsooth is extended no farther than a load
of hay, or a fat ox.--You are pleasant people indeed! because you are
generally bred up to be lazy, therefore, I warrant your industry is
dishonourable.' BOSWELL.
_The Conscious Lovers_ is by Steele. 'I never heard of any plays fit for
a Christian to read,' said Parson Adams, 'but _Cato_ and _The Conscious
Lovers_; and I must own, in the latter there are some things almost
solemn enough for a sermon.' _Joseph Andrews_, Book III, chap. xi.
[1439] In the first number of _The Hypochondriack_ Boswell writes:--'It
is a saying in feudal treatises, "Semel Baro semper Baro_," "Once a
baron always a baron."' _London Mag_. 1777, p. 493. He seems of Mr.
Thrale's inferiority by speaking of him as Thrale and his house as
Thrale's. See _post_, April 5 and 12, 1776, April 7, 1778, and under
March 30, 1783. He never, I believe, is thus familiar in the case of
Beauclerk, Burke, Langton, and Reynolds.
[1440] For her extraction see Hayward's _Mrs. Piozzi_, i. 238.