The Life Of Johnson Vol 2 by James Boswell (page 12)

drinking a considerable quantity of strong beer to dull my faculties.’ _Letters of Boswell_, p. 215.

[1137] Voltaire wrote of Henault’s _Abrege de l’ Histoire de la France_:–‘Il a ete dans l’histoire ce que Fontenelle a ete dans la philosophie. Il l’a rendue familiere.’ Voltaire’s _Works_, xvii. 99. With a quotation from Henault, Carlyle begins his _French Revolution_.

[1138] My _Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides_, which that lady read in the original manuscript. BOSWELL. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale, ‘May 22, 1775:–I am not sorry that you read Boswell’s _Journal_. Is it not a merry piece? There is much in it about poor me.’ _Piozzi Letters_, i. 220. ‘June 11, 1775. You never told me, and I omitted to inquire, how you were entertained by Boswell’s _Journal_. _One would think the man had been hired to be a spy upon me_. He was very diligent, and caught opportunities of writing from time to time.’ _Ib_ p. 233. I suspect that the words I have marked by italics are not Johnson’s, but are Mrs. Piozzi’s interpolation.

[1139] ‘In my heart of _heart_.’ _Hamlet_, act iii. sc. 2.

[1140] Another parcel of Lord Hailes’s _Annals of Scotland_. BOSWELL.

[1141] Where Sir Joshua Reynolds lived. BOSWELL.

[1142] Johnson’s birthday. In _Pr. and Med_. p. 143, is a prayer which was, he writes, ‘composed at Calais in a sleepless night, and used before the morn at Notre Dame.’

[1143] See _ante_, i. 243, note 3.

[1144] ‘While Johnson was in France, he was generally very resolute in speaking Latin.’ _Post_, under Nov. 12, 1775.

[1145] Miss Thrale. BOSWELL.

[1146] In his _Journal_ he records ‘their meals are gross’ (_post_, Oct. 10). We may doubt therefore Mrs. Piozzi’s statement that he said of the French: ‘They have few sentiments, but they express them neatly; they have little in meat too, but they dress it well.’ Piozzi’s _Anec_. p. 102.

[1147] See _ante_, i. 362, note 1.

[1148] Boswell wrote to Temple:–‘You know, my dearest friend, of what importance this is to me; of what importance it is to the family of Auchinleck, _which you may be well convinced is my supreme object in this world_.’ _Letters of Boswell_, p. 217. Alexander Boswell was killed in a duel in 1822.

[1149] This alludes to my old feudal principle of preferring male to female succession. BOSWELL. See _post_, under Jan. 10, 1776.

[1150] He wrote to Dr. Taylor on the same day:–‘I came back last Tuesday from France. Is not mine a kind of life turned upside down? Fixed to a spot when I was young, and roving the world when others are contriving to sit still, I am wholly unsettled. I am a kind of ship with a wide sail, and without an anchor.’ _Notes and Queries_. 6th S., v. 422.

[1151] There can be no doubt that many years previous to 1775 he corresponded with this lady, who was his step-daughter, but none of his earlier letters to her have been preserved. BOSWELL. Many of these earlier letters were printed by Malone and Croker in later editions. See i. 512.

[1152] When on their way to Wales, July 7, 1774, _post_, vol. v.

[1153] Smollett wrote (_Travels_, i. 88):–‘Notwithstanding the gay disposition of the French, their houses are all gloomy. After all it is in England only where we must look for cheerful apartments, gay furniture, neatness, and convenience.’

[1154] Son of Mrs. Johnson, by her first husband. BOSWELL.

[1155] ‘A gentleman said, “Surely that Vanessa must be an extraordinary woman, that could inspire the Dean to write so finely upon her.” Mrs. Johnson [Stella] smiled, and answered “that she thought that point not quite so clear; for it was well known the Dean could write finely upon a broomstick.”‘ Johnson’s Works, viii. 210.

[1156] Horace Walpole wrote from Paris this autumn:–‘I have not yet had time to visit the Hotel du Chatelet.’ _Letters_, vi. 260. On July 31st, 1789, writing of the violence of the mob, he says:–‘The hotel of the Due de Chatelet, lately built and superb, has been assaulted, and the furniture sold by auction.’ _Ib_ ix. 202.

[1157] See _post_, under Nov. 12, 1775, note, and June 25, 1784.

[1158] The Prior of the Convent of the Benedictines where Johnson had a cell appropriated to him. _Post_, Oct. 31, and under Nov. 12.

[1159] The rest of this paragraph appears to be a minute of what was told by Captain Irwin. BOSWELL.

[1160] Melchior Canus, a celebrated Spanish Dominican, who died at Toledo, in 1560. He wrote a treatise _De Locis Theologicis_, in twelve books. BOSWELL.

[1161] D’Argenson’s. CROKER.

[1162] See Macaulay’s _Essays_, i. 355, and Mr. Croker’s answer in his note on this passage. His notion that ‘this book was exhibited purposely on the lady’s table, in the expectation that her English visitors would think it a literary curiosity,’ seems absurd. He does not choose to remember the ‘_Bibl. des Fees_ and other books.’ Since I wrote this note Mr. Napier has published an edition of Boswell, in which this question is carefully examined (ii. 550). He sides with Macaulay.

[1163] ‘Si quelque invention peut suppleer a la connaissance qui nous est refusee des longitudes sur la mer, c’est celle du plus habile horloger de France (M. Leroi) qui dispute cette invention a l’Angleterre.’ Voltaire, _Siecle de Louis XV_, ch. 43.

[1164] The _Palais Marchand_ was properly only the stalls which were placed along some of the galleries of the Palais. They have been all swept away in Louis Philippe’s restoration of the Palais. CROKER.

[1165] ‘Petit siege de bois sur lequel on faisait asseoir, pour les interroger, ceux qui etaient accuses d’un delit pouvant faire encourir une peine afflictive.’ LITTRE.

[1166] The Conciergerie, before long to be crowded with the victims of the Revolution.

[1167] This passage, which so many think superstitious, reminds me of Archbishop Laud’s Diary. BOSWELL. Laud, for instance, on Oct. 27, 1640, records:–‘In my upper study hung my picture taken by the life; and coming in, I found it fallen down upon the face, and lying on the floor, the string being broken by which it was hanged against the wall. I am almost every day threatened with my ruin in Parliament. God grant this be no omen.’ Perhaps there was nothing superstitious in Johnson’s entry. He may have felt ill in mind or body, and dreaded to become worse.

[1168] For a brief account of Freron, father and son, see Carlyle’s _French Revolution_, part ii. bk. 1. ch. 4.

[1169] A round table, the centre of which descended by machinery to a lower floor, so that supper might be served without the presence of servants. It was invented by Lewis XV. during the favour of Madame du Barri. CROKER.

[1170] See _ante_, i. 363, note 3.

[1171] Before the Revolution the passage from the garden of the Tuileries into the Place Louis XV. was over a _pont tournant_. CROKER.

[1172] The niece of Arabella Fermor, the Belinda of the _Rape of the Lock_. Johnson thus mentions this lady (_Works_, viii. 246):–‘At Paris, a few years ago, a niece of Mrs. Fermor, who presided in an English convent, mentioned Pope’s works with very little gratitude, rather as an insult than an honour.’ She is no doubt the Lady Abbess mentioned _post_, March 15, 1776. She told Mrs. Piozzi in 1784 ‘that she believed there was but little comfort to be found in a house that harboured poets; for that she remembered Mr. Pope’s praise made her aunt very troublesome and conceited, while his numberless caprices would have employed ten servants to wait on him.’ Piozzi’s _Journey_, i. 20.

[1173] Mrs. Thrale wrote, on Sept. 18, 1777:–‘When Mr. Thrale dismisses me, I am to take refuge among the Austin Nuns, and study Virgil with dear Miss Canning.’ _Piozzi Letters_, i. 374.

[1174] _Pensionnaires_, pupils who boarded in the convent.

[1175] He brought back a snuff-box for Miss Porter. _Ante_, p. 387.

[1176] 63 livres = L2 12s. 6d.

[1177] Torture-chamber. See _ante_, i. 467, note 1.

[1178] ‘Au parlement de Paris la chambre chargee des affaires criminelles.’ LITTRE.

[1179] The grandson was the Duke d’Enghien who was put to death by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804.

[1180] His tender affection for his departed wife, of which there are many evidences in his _Prayers and Meditations_, appears very feelingly in this passage. BOSWELL. ‘On many occasions I think what she [his wife] would have said or done. When I saw the sea at Brighthelmstone, I wished for her to have seen it with me.’ _Pr. and Med_. p. 91.

[1181] See _post_, p. 402.

[1182] See _post_, iii. 89.

[1183] Dr. Moore (_Travels in France_, i. 31) says that in Paris, ‘those who cannot afford carriages skulk behind pillars, or run into shops, to avoid being crushed by the coaches, which are driven as near the wall as the coachman pleases.’ Only on the Pont Neuf, and the Pont Royal, and the quays between them were there, he adds, foot-ways.

[1184] Lewis XVI.

[1185] The King’s sister, who was guillotined in the Reign of Terror.

[1186] See p. 391. BOSWELL.

[1187] ‘When at Versailles, the people showed us the Theatre. As we stood on the stage looking at some machinery for playhouse purposes; “Now we are here, what shall we act, Mr. Johnson:–_The Englishman in Paris_”? “No, no,” replied he, “we will try to act _Harry the Fifth_.”‘ Piozzi’s _Anec_. p. 101. _The Englishman in Paris_ is a comedy by Foote.

[1188] This epithet should be applied to this animal, with one bunch. BOSWELL.

[1189] He who commanded the troops at the execution of Lewis XVI.

[1190] 1462.

[1191] I cannot learn of any book of this name. Perhaps Johnson saw _Durandi Rationale Officiorum Divinorum_, which was printed in 1459, one year later than Johnson mentions. A copy of this he had seen at Blenheim in 1774. His _Journey into North Wales_, Sept. 22.

[1192] He means, I suppose, that he read these different pieces while he remained in the library. BOSWELL.

[1193] Johnson in his _Dictionary_ defines _Apartment_ as _A room; a set of rooms_.

[1194] Smollett (_Travels_, i. 85) writes of these temporary servants:–‘You cannot conceive with what eagerness and dexterity these rascally valets exert themselves in pillaging strangers. There is always one ready in waiting on your arrival, who begins by assisting your own servant to unload your baggage, and interests himself in your own affairs with such artful officiousness that you will find it difficult to shake him off.’

[1195] Livres–francs we should now say.

[1196] It was here that Rousseau got rid of his children. ‘Je savais que l’education pour eux la moins perilleuse etait celle des enfans trouves; et je les y mis.’ _Les Reveries, ix’me promenade_.

[1197] Dr. Franklin, in 1785, wrote:–‘I am credibly informed that nine-tenths of them die there pretty soon.’ _Memoirs_, iii. 187. Lord Kames (_Sketches of the History of Man_, iii. 91) says:–‘The Paris almanac for the year 1768 mentions that there were baptised 18,576 infants, of whom the foundling-hospital received 6025.’

[1198] St. Germain des Pres. Better known as the Prison of the Abbaye.

[1199] I have looked in vain into De Bure, Meerman, Mattaire, and other typographical books, for the two editions of the _Catholicon_, which Dr. Johnson mentions here, with _names_ which I cannot make out. I read ‘one by _Latinius_, one by _Boedinus_.’ I have deposited the original MS. in the British Museum, where the curious may see it. My grateful acknowledgements are due to Mr. Planta for the trouble he was pleased to take in aiding my researches. BOSWELL. A Mr. Planta is mentioned in Mme. D’Arblay’s _Diary_, v. 39.

[1200] Friar Wilkes visited Johnson in May 1776. _Piozzi Letters_, i. 336. On Sept. 18, 1777, Mrs. Thrale wrote to Johnson:–‘I have got some news that will please you now. Here is an agreeable friend come from Paris, whom you were very fond of when we were there–the Prior of our English Benedictine Convent, Mr. Cowley … He inquires much for you; and says Wilkes is very well, No. 45, as they call him in the Convent. A cell is always kept ready for your use he tells me.’ _Ib_ p. 373.

[1201] The writing is so bad here, that the names of several of the animals could not be decyphered without much more acquaintance with natural history than I possess.–Dr. Blagden, with his usual politeness, most obligingly examined the MS. To that gentleman, and to Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, who also very readily assisted me, I beg leave to express my best thanks. BOSWELL

[1202] It is thus written by Johnson, from the French pronunciation of _fossane_. It should be observed, that the person who shewed this Menagerie was mistaken in supposing the _fossane_ and the Brasilian weasel to be the same, the _fossane_ being a different animal, and a native of Madagascar. I find them, however, upon one plate in Pennant’s _Synopsis of Quadrupeds_. BOSWELL.

[1203] How little Johnson relished this talk is shewn by his letter to Mrs. Thrale of May 1, 1780, and by her answer. He wrote:–‘The Exhibition, how will you do, either to see or not to see? The Exhibition is eminently splendid. There is contour, and keeping, and grace, and expression, and all the varieties of artificial excellence.’ _Piozzi Letters_, ii. III. She answered:–‘When did I ever plague about contour, and grace, and expression? I have dreaded them all three since that hapless day at Compiegne when you teased me so.’ _Ib_ p. 116

[1204] ‘_Nef_, (old French from _nave_) _the body of a church_.’ Johnson’s _Dictionary_.

[1205] My worthy and ingenious friend, Mr. Andrew Lumisden, by his accurate acquaintance with France, enabled me to make out many proper names, which Dr. Johnson had written indistinctly, and sometimes spelt erroneously. Boswell. Lumisden is mentioned in Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Sept. 13.

[1206] Baretti, in a marginal note on _Piozzi Letters_, i. 142, says that ‘Johnson saw next to nothing of Paris.’ On p. 159 he adds:–‘He noticed the country so little that he scarcely spoke of it ever after.’ He shews, however, his ignorance of Johnson’s doings by saying that ‘in France he never touched a pen.’

[1207] Hume’s reception in 1763 was very different. He wrote to Adam Smith:–‘I have been three days at Paris, and two at Fontainebleau, and have everywhere met with the most extraordinary honours which the most exorbitant vanity could wish or desire.’ The Dauphin’s three children, afterwards Lewis XVI, Lewis XVIII, and Charles X, had each to make a set speech of congratulation. He was the favourite of the most exclusive coteries. J.H. Burton’s _Hume_, ii. 168, 177, 208. But at that date, sceptical philosophy was the rage.

[1208] Horace Walpole wrote from Paris in 1771 (_Letters_, v. 317-19):–‘The distress here is incredible, especially at Court…. The middling and common people are not much richer than Job when he had lost everything but his patience.’ Rousseau wrote of the French in 1777:–‘Cette nation qui se pretend si gaie montre peu cette gaite dans ses jeux. Souvent j’allais jadis aux guinguettes pour y voir danser le menu peuple; mais ses danses etaient si maussades, son maintien si dolent, si gauche, que j’en sortais plutot contriste que rejoui.’ _Les Reveries, IXme. promenade_. Baretti (_Journey to Genoa_, iv. 146) denies that the French ‘are entitled to the appellation of cheerful.’ ‘Provence,’ he says (_ib_. 148), ‘is the only province in which you see with some sort of frequency the rustic assemblies roused up to cheerfulness by the _fifre_ and the _tambourin_.’ Mrs. Piozzi describes the absence of ‘the happy middle state’ abroad. ‘As soon as Dover is left behind, every man seems to belong to some other man, and no man to himself.’ Piozzi’s _Journey_, ii. 341. Voltaire, in his review of _Julia Mandeville_ (_Works_, xliii. 364), says:–‘Pour peu qu’un roman, une tragedie, une comedie ait de succes a Londres, on en fait trois et quatre editions en peu de mois; c’est que l’etat mitoyen est plus riche et plus instruit en Angleterre qu’en France, &c.’ But Barry, the painter (_post_, May 17, 1783), in 1766, described to Burke, ‘the crowds of busy contented people which cover (as one may say) the whole face of the country.’ But he was an Irishman comparing France with Ireland. ‘They make a strong, but melancholy contrast to a miserable —— which I cannot help thinking of sometimes. You will not be at any loss to know that I mean Ireland.’ Barry’s _Works_, i. 57. ‘Hume,’ says Dr. J. H. Burton, ‘in his _Essay on The Parties of Great Britain_ (published in 1741), alludes to the absence of a middle class in Scotland, where he says, there are only “two ranks of men, gentlemen who have some fortune and education, and the meanest starving poor; without any considerable number of the middling rank of men, which abounds more in England, both in cities and in the country, than in any other quarter of the world.”‘ _Life of Hume_, i. 198. I do not find this passage in the edition of Hume’s _Essays_ of 1770.

[1209] Yet Smollett wrote in 1763:–‘All manner of butcher’s meat and poultry are extremely good in Paris. The beef is excellent.’ He adds, ‘I can by no means relish their cookery.’ Smollett’s _Travels_, i. 86. Horace Walpole, in 1765, wrote from Amiens on his way to Paris:–‘I am almost famished for want of clean victuals, and comfortable tea, and bread and butter.’ _Letters_, iv. 401. Goldsmith, in 1770, wrote from Paris:–‘As for the meat of this country I can scarce eat it, and though we pay two good shillings an head for our dinner, I find it all so tough, that I have spent less time with my knife than my pick-tooth.’ Forster’s _Goldsmith_, ii. 219.

[1210] Walpole calls Paris ‘the ugliest, beastliest town in the universe,’ and describes the indelicacy of the talk of women of the first rank. _Letters_, iv. 435. See _post_, May 13, 1778, and under Aug. 29, 1783.

[1211] Madame du Boccage, according to Miss Reynolds, whose authority was Baretti. Croker’s _Boswell_, p. 467. See _post_, June 25, 1784.

[1212] In Edinburgh, Johnson threw a glass of lemonade out of the window because the waiter had put the sugar into it ‘with his greasy fingers.’ Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Aug. 14.

[1213] Mrs. Thrale wrote to Johnson in 1782:–‘When we were in France we could form little judgement [of the spread of refinement], as our time was passed chiefly among English; yet I recollect that one fine lady, who entertained us very splendidly, put her mouth to the teapot, and blew in the spout when it did not pour freely.’ _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 247.

[1214] That he did not continue exactly as in London is stated by Boswell himself. ‘He was furnished with a Paris-made wig of handsome construction,’ (_Post_, April 28, 1778). His _Journal_ shews that he bought articles of dress (_ante_, p. 398). Hawkins (_Life_, p. 517) says that ‘he yielded to the remonstrances of his friends so far as to dress in a suit of black and a Bourgeois wig, but resisted their importunity to wear ruffles. By a note in his diary it appears that he laid out near thirty pounds in clothes for this journey.’ A story told by Foote we may believe as little as we please. ‘Foote is quite impartial,’ said Johnson, ‘for he tells lies of everybody.’ _Post_, under March 15, 1776.

[1215] If Johnson’s Latin was understood by foreigners in France, but not in England, the explanation may be found in his _Life of Milton_ (_Works_, vii. 99), where he says:–‘He who travels, if he speaks Latin, may so soon learn the sounds which every native gives it, that he need make no provision before his journey; and if strangers visit us, it is their business to practise such conformity to our modes as they expect from us in their own countries.’ Johnson was so sturdy an Englishman that likely enough, as he was in London, he would not alter his pronunciation to suit his Excellency’s ear. In Priestley’s _Works_, xxiii. 233, a conversation is reported in which Dr. Johnson argued for the Italian method of pronouncing Latin.

[1216] See _ante_, ii. 80.

[1217] As Mme. de Boufflers is mentioned in the next paragraph, Boswell no doubt, wishes to shew that the letter was addressed to her. She was the mistress of the Prince of Conti. She understood English, and was the correspondent of Hume. There was also a Marquise de Boufflers, mistress of old King Stanislaus.

[1218] In the _Piozzi Letters_ (i. 34), this letter is dated May 16, 1771; in Boswell’s first and second editions, July 16, 1771; in the third edition, July 16, 1775. In May, 1771, Johnson, so far as there is anything to shew, was in London. On July 16, both in 1771 and 1775, he was in Ashbourne. One of Hume’s Letters (_Private Corres_., p. 283), dated April 17, 1775, shews that Mme. de Boufflers was at that time ‘speaking of coming to England.’

[1219] Mme. de Boufflers was in England in the summer of 1763. Jesse’s _Selwyn_, i. 235.

[1220] Boscovich, a learned Jesuit, was born at Ragusa in 1711, and died in 1787. He visited London in 1760, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Chalmers’s _Biog. Dict_. See _ante_, p. 125.

[1221] See _ante_, p. 288.

[1222] Four years later Johnson thus spoke to Miss Burney of her father:–‘”I love Burney; my heart goes out to meet him.” “He is not ungrateful, Sir,” cried I; “for most heartily does he love you.” “Does he, Madam? I am surprised at that.” “Why, Sir? Why should you have doubted it?” “Because, Madam, Dr. Burney is a man for all the world to love: it is but natural to love him.” I could have almost cried with delight at this cordial, unlaboured _eloge_.’ Mme. D’Arblay’s _Diary_, i. 196.

[1223] ‘Though a sepulchral inscription is professedly a panegyrick, and therefore not confined to historical impartiality, yet it ought always to be written with regard to truth. No man ought to be commended for virtues which he never possessed, but whoever is curious to know his faults must inquire after them in other places.’ Johnson’s _Works_, v. 265. See _post_, April 24, 1779.

[1224] See _ante_, i. 46.

[1225] See _post_, iii. 12, and Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Aug. 22.

[1226] Johnson’s Dick Wormwood, in _The Idler_, No. 83, a man ‘whose sole delight is to find everything wrong, triumphs when he talks on the present system of education, and tells us with great vehemence that we are learning words when we should learn things.’ In the _Life of Milton_ (_Works_, vii, 75), Johnson writes:–‘It is told that in the art of education Milton performed wonders; and a formidable list is given of the authors, Greek and Latin, that were read in Aldersgate-street, by youth between ten and fifteen or sixteen years of age. Those who tell or receive these stories should consider, that nobody can be taught faster than he can learn. The speed of the horseman must be limited by the power of the horse.’ He advised Boswell ‘not to _refine_ in the education of his children. You must do as other people do.’ _Post_, iii. 169. Yet, in his _Life of Barretier_ (_Works_, vi. 380), he says:–‘The first languages which he learnt were the French, German, and Latin, which he was taught, not in the common way, by a multitude of definitions, rules, and exceptions, which fatigue the attention and burden the memory, without any use proportionate to the time which they require and the disgust which they create. The method by which he was instructed was easy and expeditious, and therefore pleasing. He learnt them all in the same manner, and almost at the same time, by conversing in them indifferently with his father.’

[1227] Miss Aikin, better known as Mrs. Barbauld. Johnson uses _Presbyterian_ where we should use _Unitarian_. ‘The Unitarians of the present day [1843] are the representatives of that branch of the early Nonconformists who received the denomination of Presbyterians; and they are still known by that name.’ _Penny Cyclo_. xxvi. 6.

[1228] Othello, act ii. sc. 1.

[1229] He quotes Barbauld’s _Lessons for Children_ (p. 68, ed. of 1878). Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 16), speaking of books for children says:–‘Mrs. Barbauld had his best praise; no man was more struck than Mr. Johnson with voluntary descent from possible splendour to painful duty.’ Mrs. Piozzi alludes to Johnson’s praise of Dr. Watts:–‘Every man acquainted with the common principles of human action, will look with veneration on the writer, who is at one time combating Locke, and at another making a catechism for children in their fourth year. A voluntary descent from the dignity of science is perhaps the hardest lesson that humility can teach.’ _Works_, viii. 384. He praised Milton also, who, when ‘writing _Paradise Lost_, could condescend from his elevation to rescue children from the perplexity of grammatical confusion, and the trouble of lessons unnecessarily repeated.’ _Ib_ vii. 99. Mrs. Barbauld did what Swift said Gay had shown could be done. ‘One may write things to a child without being childish.’ Swift’s _Works_, xvii. 221. In her _Advertisement_, she says:–‘The task is humble, but not mean; to plant the first idea in a human mind can be no dishonour to any hand.’ ‘Ethicks, or morality,’ wrote Johnson, ‘is one of the studies which ought to begin with the first glimpse of reason, and only end with life itself.’ _Works_, v. 243. This might have been the motto of her book. As the _Advertisement_ was not published till 1778 (Barbauld’s _Works_, ii. 19) it is possible that Johnson’s criticism had reached her, and that it was meant as an answer. Among her pupils were William Taylor of Norwich, Sir William Gell, and the first Lord Denman (_ib_. i. xxv-xxx). Mrs. Barbauld bore Johnson no ill-will. In her _Eighteen Hundred and Eleven_, she describes some future pilgrims ‘from the Blue Mountains or Ontario’s Lake,’ coming to view ‘London’s faded glories.’

‘With throbbing bosoms shall the wanderers tread The hallowed mansions of the silent dead, Shall enter the long aisle and vaulted dome Where genius and where valour find a home; Bend at each antique shrine, and frequent turn To clasp with fond delight some sculptured urn, The ponderous mass of Johnson’s form to greet, Or breathe the prayer at Howard’s sainted feet.’

_Ib_ i. 242.

[1230] According to Mme. D’Arblay he said:–‘Sir, I shall be very glad to have a new sense _put into_ me.’ He had been wont to speak slightingly of music and musicians. ‘The first symptom that he showed of a tendency to conversion was upon hearing the following read aloud from the preface to Dr. Burney’s _History of Music_ while it was yet in manuscript:–“The love of lengthened tones and modulated sounds seems a passion implanted in human nature throughout the globe; as we hear of no people, however wild and savage in other particulars, who have not music of some kind or other, with which they seem greatly delighted.” “Sir,” cried Dr. Johnson after a little pause, “this assertion I believe may be right.” And then, see-sawing a minute or two on his chair, he forcibly added:–“All animated nature loves music–except myself!”‘ _Dr. Burney’s Memoirs_, ii. 77. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 319) says that Johnson said of music, ‘”it excites in my mind no ideas, and hinders me from contemplating my own.” I have sometimes thought that music was positive pain to him. Upon his hearing a celebrated performer go through a hard composition, and hearing it remarked that it was very difficult, he said, “I would it had been impossible.”‘ Yet he had once bought a flageolet, though he had never made out a tune. ‘Had I learnt to fiddle,’ he said, ‘I should have done nothing else’ (_post_, April 7, 1778, and Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Oct. 15, 1773). Not six months before his death he asked Dr. Burney to teach him the scale of music (_ante_, p. 263, note 4). That ‘he appeared fond of the bagpipe, and used often to stand for some time with his ear close to the great drone’ (Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Oct. 15), does not tell for much either way. In his _Hebrides_ (_Works_, ix. 55), he shews his pleasure in singing. ‘After supper,’ he writes, ‘the ladies sung Erse songs, to which I listened, as an English audience to an Italian opera, delighted with the sound of words which I did not understand.’ Boswell records (_Hebrides_, Sept. 28) that another day a lady ‘pleased him much, by singing Erse songs, and playing on the guitar.’ Johnson himself shews that if his ear was dull to music, it was by no means dead to sound. He thus describes a journey by night in the Highlands (_Works_, ix. l55):–‘The wind was loud, the rain was heavy, and the whistling of the blast, the fall of the shower, the rush of the cataracts, and the roar of the torrent, made a nobler chorus of the rough music of nature than it had ever been my chance to hear before.’ In 1783, when he was in his seventy-fourth year, he said, on hearing the music of a funeral procession:–‘This is the first time that I have ever been affected by musical sounds.’ _Post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton’s _Collection_.

[1231] Miss Burney, in 1778, records that he said:–‘David, Madam, looks much older than he is; for his face has had double the business of any other man’s; it is never at rest; when he speaks one minute, he has quite a different countenance to what he assumes the next; I don’t believe he ever kept the same look for half-an-hour together in the whole course of his life; and such an eternal, restless, fatiguing play of the muscles must certainly wear out a man’s face before its real time.’ Mme. D’Arblay’s _Diary_, i. 64. Malone fathers this witticism on Foote. Prior’s _Malone_, p. 369.

[1232] On Nov. 2 of this year, a proposal was made to Garrick by the proprietors of Covent-Garden Theatre, ‘that now in the time of dearth and sickness’ they should open their theatres only five nights in each week. _Garrick Corres_, ii. 108.

[1233] ‘Mrs. Boswell no doubt had disliked his wish to pass over his daughters in entailing the Auchinleck estate, in favour of heirs-male however remote. _Post_, p. 414–Johnson, on Feb. 9, 1776, opposing this intention, wrote:–‘I hope I shall get some ground now with Mrs. Boswell.’

[1234] Joseph Ritter, a Bohemian, who was in my service many years, and attended Dr. Johnson and me in our Tour to the Hebrides. After having left me for some time, he had now returned to me. BOSWELL. See _ante_, ii. 103.

[1235] See Boswell’s _Hebrides_ near the end.

[1236] See _ante_, p. 383.

[1237] Mr. Croker says that he was informed by Boswell’s grand-daughter, who died in 1836, that it had come to be pronounced Auchinleck. The Rev. James Chrystal, the minister of Auchinleck, in answer to my inquiry, politely informs me that ‘the name “Affleck” is still quite common as applied to the parish, and even Auchinleck House is as often called Place Affleck as otherwise.’

[1238] See Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Nov. 4.

[1239] Acts of Parliament of Scotland, 1685, cap. 22. BOSWELL. Cockburn (_Life of Jeffrey_, i. 372) mentions ‘the statute (11 and 12 Victoria, chap. 36) which dissolves the iron fetters by which, for about 160 years, nearly three-fourths of the whole land in Scotland was made permanently unsaleable, and unattachable for debt, and every acre in the kingdom might be bound up, throughout all ages, in favour of any heirs, or any conditions, that the caprice of each unfettered owner might be pleased to proscribe.’

[1240] As first, the opinion of some distinguished naturalists, that our species is transmitted through males only, the female being all along no more than a _nidus_, or nurse, as Mother Earth is to plants of every sort; which notion seems to be confirmed by that text of scripture, ‘He was yet _in the loins of his_ FATHER when Melchisedeck met him’ (Heb. vii. 10); and consequently, that a man’s grandson by a daughter, instead of being his _surest_ descendant as is vulgarly said, has in reality no connection whatever with his blood. And secondly, independent of this theory, (which, if true, should completely exclude heirs general,) that if the preference of a male to a female, without regard to primogeniture, (as a son, though much younger, nay, even a grandson by a son, to a daughter,) be once admitted, as it universally is, it must be equally reasonable and proper in the most remote degree of descent from an original proprietor of an estate, as in the nearest; because,–however distant from the representative at the time,–that remote heir male, upon the failure of those nearer to the _original proprietor_ than he is, becomes in fact the nearest male to _him_, and is, therefore, preferable as _his_ representative, to a female descendant.–A little extension of mind will enable us easily to perceive that a son’s son, in continuation to whatever length of time, is preferable to a son’s daughter, in the succession to an ancient inheritance; in which regard should be had to the representation of the original proprietor, and not to that of one of his descendants.

I am aware of Blackstone’s admirable demonstration of the reasonableness of the legal succession, upon the principle of there being the greatest probability that the nearest heir of the person who last dies proprietor of an estate, is of the blood of the first purchaser. But supposing a pedigree to be carefully authenticated through all its branches, instead of mere _probability_ there will be a _certainty_ that _the nearest heir male, at whatever period_, has the same right of blood with the first heir male, namely, _the original purchaser’s eldest son_. Boswell.

[1241] Boswell wrote to Temple on Sept. 2, 1775:–‘What a discouraging reflection is it that my father has in his possession a renunciation of my birthright, which I _madly_ granted to him, and which he has not the generosity to restore now that I am doing beyond his utmost hopes, and that he may incommode and disgrace me by some strange settlements, while all this time not a shilling is secured to my wife and children in case of my death!’ _Letters of Boswell_, p. 216.

[1242] The technical term in Roman law for a building in good repair.

[1243] Which term I applied to all the heirs male. Boswell.

[1244] A misprint for 1776.

[1245] I had reminded him of his observation mentioned, ii. 261. BOSWELL.

[1246] The entail framed by my father with various judicious clauses, was settled by him and me, settling the estate upon the heirs male of his grandfather, which I found had been already done by my grandfather, imperfectly, but so as to be defeated only by selling the lands. I was freed by Dr. Johnson from scruples of conscientious obligation, and could, therefore, gratify my father. But my opinion and partiality of male succession, in its full extent, remained unshaken. Yet let me not be thought harsh or unkind to daughters; for my notion is, that they should be treated with great affection and tenderness, and always participate of the prosperity of the family. BOSWELL.

[1247] Temple, in _Popular Discontents_ (_Works_, iii. 62-64), examines the general dissatisfaction with the judicature of the House of Lords. Till the end of Elizabeth’s reign, he states, the peers, who were few in number, were generally possessed of great estates which rendered them less subject to corruption. As one remedy for the evil existing in his time, he suggests that the Crown shall create no Baron, who shall not at the same time entail L4000 a year upon that honour, whilst it continues in his family; a Viscount, L5000; an Earl, L6000; a Marquis, L7000; and a Duke, L8000.

[1248] ‘A cruel tyranny bathed in the blood of their Emperors upon every succession; a heap of vassals and slaves; no nobles, no gentlemen, no freeman, no inheritance of land, no strip of ancient families, [nullae stirpes antiquae].’ Spedding _Bacon_, vii. 22.

[1249] ‘Let me warn you very earnestly against scruples,’ he wrote on March 5, of this year:–‘I am no friend to scruples,’ he had said at St. Andrew’s. Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Aug. 19. ‘On his many, men miserable, but few men good.’ Croker’s _Boswell_, p. 844.

[1250] A letter to him on the interesting subject of the family settlement, which I had read. BOSWELL.

[1251] Paoli had given Boswell much the same advice. ‘All this,’ said Paoli, ‘is melancholy. I have also studied metaphysics. I know the arguments for fate and free-will, for the materiality and immateriality of the soul, and even the subtle arguments for and against the existence of matter. _Ma lasciamo queste dispute ai oziosi_. But let us leave these disputes to the idle. _Io tengo sempre fermo un gran pensiero_. I hold always firm one great object. I never feel a moment of despondency.’ Boswell’s _Corsica_, ed. 1879, p. 193. See _post_, March 14, 1781.

[1252] Johnson, in his letters to the Thrales during the year 1775, mentions this riding-school eight or nine times. The person recommended was named Carter. Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, i. 72) says ‘the profit of the _History_ has been applied to the establishment of a riding-school, that the polite exercises might be taught, I know not with what success, in the University.’

[1253] I suppose the complaint was, that the trustees of the Oxford Press did not allow the London booksellers a sufficient profit upon vending their publications. BOSWELL.

[1254] Cadell published _The False Alarm and The Journey to the Hebrides_. Gibbon described him as ‘That honest and liberal bookseller.’ Stewart’s _Life of Robertson,_ p. 366.

[1255] I am happy in giving this full and clear statement to the publick, to vindicate, by the authority of the greatest authour of his age, that respectable body of men, the Booksellers of London, from vulgar reflections, as if their profits were exorbitant, when, in truth, Dr. Johnson has here allowed them more than they usually demand.

[1256] ‘Behind the house was a garden which he took delight in watering; a room on the ground-floor was assigned to Mrs. Williams, and the whole of the two pair of stairs floor was made a repository for his books; one of the rooms thereon being his study. Here, in the intervals of his residence at Streatham, he received the visits of his friends, and to the most intimate of them sometimes gave not inelegant dinners.’ Hawkins’s _Johnson_, p. 531. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale on Aug. 14, 1780:–‘This is all that I have to tell you, except that I have three bunches of grapes on a vine in my garden: at least this is all that I will now tell of my garden.’ _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 178. This house was burnt down in 1819. _Notes and Queries_, 1st S., v. 233.

[1257] He said, when in Scotland, that he was _Johnson of that Ilk_. ROSWELL. See _post_, April 28, 1778, note.

[1258] See _ante_, ii. 229.

[1259] See vol. i. p. 375. BOSWELL. Boswell refers to the work of Dr. Cohausen of Coblentz, _Hermippus Redivivus_. Dr. Campbell translated it (_ante_, i. 417), under the title of _Hermippus Redivivus, or the Sage’s Triumph over Old Age and the Grave_. Cohausen maintained that life might be prolonged to 115 years by breathing the breath of healthy young women. He founded his theory ‘on a Roman inscription–_AEsculapio et Sanitati L. Colodius Hermippus qui vixit annos CXV. dies V. puellarum anhelitu_.’ He maintained that one of the most eligible conditions of life was that of a Confessor of youthful nuns. _Lowndes’s Bibl. Man_. p. 488, and _Gent. Mag_. xiii. 279. I. D’Israeli (_Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, ii. 102) describes Campbell’s book as a ‘curious banter on the hermetic philosophy and the universal medicine; the grave irony is so closely kept up, that it deceived for a length of time the most learned. Campbell assured a friend it was a mere _jeu-d’-esprit_.’ Lord E. Fitzmaurice (_Life of Shelburne_, iii. 447) says that Ingenhousz, a Dutch physician who lived with Shelburne, combated in one of his works the notion held by certain schoolmasters, that ‘it was wholesome to inhale the air which has passed through the lungs of their pupils, closing the windows in order purposely to facilitate that operation.’

[1260] See Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Aug. 24.

[1261] The privilege of perpetuating in a family an estate and arms _indefeasibly_ from generation to generation, is enjoyed by none of his Majesty’s subjects except in Scotland, where the legal fiction of _fine_ and _recovery_ is unknown. It is a privilege so proud, that I should think it would be proper to have the exercise of it dependent on the royal prerogative. It seems absurd to permit the power of perpetuating their representation, to men, who having had no eminent merit, have truly no name. The King, as the impartial father of his people, would never refuse to grant the privilege to those who deserved it. BOSWELL.

[1262] Boswell wrote to Temple about six weeks later:–‘Murphy says he has read thirty pages of Smith’s _Wealth_, but says he shall read no more; Smith, too, is now of our Club. It has lost its select merit.’ _Letters of Boswell_, p. 233. Johnson can scarcely have read Smith; if he did, it made no impression on him. His ignorance on many points as to what constitutes the wealth of a nation remained as deep as ever.

[1263] Mr. Wedderburne. CROKER.

[1264] A similar bill had been thrown out sixteen years earlier by 194 to 84. ‘A Bill for a Militia in Scotland was not successful; nor could the disaffected there obtain this mode of having their arms restored. Pitt had acquiesced; but the young Whigs attacked it with all their force.’ Walpole’s _Reign of George II_, iii. 280. Lord Mountstuart’s bill was thrown out by 112 to 95, the Ministry being in the minority. The arguments for and against it are stated in the _Ann. Reg_. xix 140. See _post_, iii. i. Henry Mackenzie (_Life of John Home_, i. 26) says:–‘The Poker Club was instituted at a time when Scotland was refused a militia, and thought herself affronted by the refusal. The name was chosen from a quaint sort of allusion to the principles it was meant to excite, as a club to stir up the fire and spirit of the country.’ See _ante_, p. 376.

[1265] ‘Scotland paid only one fortieth to the land-tax, the very specific tax out of which all the expenses of a militia were to be drawn.’ _Ann. Reg_. xix. 141.

[1266] In a new edition of this book, which was published in the following year, the editor states, that either ‘through hurry or inattention some obscene jests had unluckily found a place in the first edition.’ See _post_, April 28, 1778.

[1267] See _ante_, ii. 338, note 2.

[1268] The number of the asterisks, taken with the term _worthy friend_, renders it almost certain that Langton was meant. The story might, however, have been told of Reynolds, for he wrote of Johnson:–‘Truth, whether in great or little matters, he held sacred. From the violation of truth, he said, in great things your character or your interest was affected; in lesser things, your pleasure is equally destroyed. I remember, on his relating some incident, I added something to his relation which I supposed might likewise have happened: “It would have been a better story,” says he, “if it had been so; but it was not.”‘ Taylor’s _Reynolds_, ii. 457. Mrs. Piozzi records (_Anec_. p. 116):–‘”A story,” says Johnson, “is a specimen of human manners, and derives its sole value from its truth, When Foote has told me something, I dismiss it from my mind like a passing shadow; when Reynolds tells me something, I consider myself as possessed of an idea the more.”‘

[1269] Boswell felt this when, more than eight years earlier, he wrote:–‘As I have related Paoli’s remarkable sayings, I declare upon honour that I have neither added nor diminished; nay, so scrupulous have I been, that I would not make the smallest variation, even when my friends thought it would be an improvement. I know with how much pleasure we read what is perfectly authentick.’ Boswell’s _Corsia_, ed. 1879, p. 126. See _post_, iii. 209.

[1270] In his _Life of Browne_ (_Works_, vi. 478) he sayd of ‘innocent frauds’:–‘But no fraud is innocent; for the confidence which makes the happiness of society is in some degree diminished by every man whose practice is at variance with his words.’ ‘Mr. Tyers,’ writes Murphy (_Life_, p. 146), ‘observed that Dr. Johnson always talked as if he was talking upon oath.’ Compared with Johnson’s strictness, Rouseau’s laxity is striking. After describing ‘ces gens qu’on appelle vrais dans le monde,’ he continues;–‘L’homme que j’appele _vrai_ fait tout le contraire. En choses parfaitnement indifferentes la verite qu’alors l’autre respecte si fort le touche fort peu, et il ne se fera guere de scrupule d’amuser une compagnie par des faits controuve, dont il ne resulte aucun jugement injuste ni pour ni contre qui que ce soit vivant ou mort.’ _Les Reveries: IVine Promenade_.

[1271] No doubt Mrs. Fermor (_ante_, p. 392.)

[1272] No. 110.

[1273] No. 52.

[1274] But see _ante_, ii. 365, and Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Aug. 19.

[1275] See _ante_, ii. 8, and _post_, April 7, 1778.

[1276] Three weeks later, at his usual fast before Easter, Johnson recorded:–‘I felt myself very much disordered by emptiness, and called for tea with peevish and impatient eagerness.’ _Pr. and Med_. p. 147.

[1277] Of the use of spirituous liquors, he wrote (_Works_, vi. 26):–‘The mischiefs arising on every side from this compendious mode of drunkenness are enormous and insupportable, equally to be found among the great and the mean; filling palaces with disquiet and distraction, harder to be borne as it cannot be mentioned, and overwhelming multitudes with incurable diseases and unpitied poverty.’ Yet he found an excuse for drunkenness which few men but he could have found. Stockdale (_Memoirs_, ii. 189) says that he heard Mrs. Williams ‘wonder what pleasure men can take in making beasts of themselves. “I wonder, Madam,” replied Johnson, “that you have not penetration enough to see the strong inducement to this excess; for he who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”‘

[1278] Very likely Boswell. See _post_, under May 8, 1781, for a like instance. In 1775, under a yew tree, he promised Temple to be sober. On Aug. 12, 1775, he wrote:–‘My promise under the solemn yew I have observed wonderfully, having never infringed it till, the other day, a very jovial company of us dined at a tavern, and I unwarily exceeded my bottle of old Hock; and having once broke over the pale, I run wild, but I did not get drunk. I was, however, intoxicated, and very ill next day.’ _Letters of Boswell_, p. 209. During his present visit to London he wrote:–‘My promise under the solemn yew was not religiously kept, because a little wine hurried me on too much. The General [Paoli] has taken my word of honour that I shall not taste fermented liquor for a year, that I may recover sobriety. I have kept this promise now about three weeks. I was really growing a drunkard.’ _Ib_ p. 233. In 1778 he was for a short time a water drinker. _Post_, April 28, 1778. His intemperance grew upon him, and at last carried him off. On Dec. 4, 1790, he wrote to Malone:–‘Courtenay took my word and honour that till March 1 my allowance of wine per diem should not exceed four good glasses at dinner, and a pint after it, and this I have kept, though I have dined with Jack Wilkes, &c. On March 8, 1791, he wrote:–‘Your friendly admonition as to excess in wine _has_ been often too applicable. As I am now free from my restriction to Courtenay, I shall be much upon my guard; for, to tell the truth, I did go too deep the day before yesterday.’ Croker’s _Boswell_, pp. 828, 829.

[1279] ‘Mathematics are perhaps too much studied at our universities. This seems a science to which the meanest intellects are equal. I forget who it is that says, “All men might understand mathematics if they would.”‘ Goldsmith’s _Present Stale of Polite Learning_, ch. 13.

[1280] ‘No, Sir,’ he once said, ‘people are not born with a particular genius for particular employments or studies, for it would be like saying that a man could see a great way east, but could not west. It is good sense applied with diligence to what was at first a mere accident, and which by great application grew to be called by the generality of mankind a particular genius.’ Miss Reynolds’s _Recollections_. Croker’s _Boswell_, p. 833:–‘Perhaps this is Miss Reynolds’s recollection of the following, in Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Aug. 15, 1773’:–JOHNSON. ‘I could as easily apply to law as to tragick poetry.’ BOSWELL. ‘Yet, Sir, you did apply to tragick poetry, not to law.’ JOHNSON. ‘Because, Sir, I had not money to study law. Sir, the man who has vigour may walk to the east just as well as to the west, if he happens to turn his head that way.’ ‘The true genius,’ he wrote (_Works_, vii. 1), ‘is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.’ Reynolds held the same doctrine, having got it no doubt from Johnson. He held ‘that the superiority attainable in any pursuit whatever does not originate in an innate propensity of the mind to that pursuit in particular, but depends on the general strength of the intellect, and on the intense and constant application of that strength to a specific purpose. He regarded ambition as the cause of eminence, but accident as pointing out the _means_.’ Northcote’s _Reynolds_, i. II. ‘Porson insisted that all men are born with abilities nearly equal. “Any one,” he would say, “might become quite as good a critic as I am, if he would only take the trouble to make himself so. I have made myself what I am by intense labour.”‘ Rogers’s _Table Talk_, p. 305. Hume maintained the opposite. ‘This forenoon,’ wrote Boswell on June 19, 1775, ‘Mr. Hume came in. He did not say much. I only remember his remark, that characters depend more on original formation than on the way we are educated; “for,” said he, “princes are educated uniformly, and yet how different are they! how different was James the Second from Charles the Second!”‘ _Letters of Boswell_, p. 205. Boswell recorded, two years earlier (_Hebrides_, Sept. 16):–‘Dr. Johnson denied that any child was better than another, but by difference of instruction; though, in consequence of greater attention being paid to instruction by one child than another, and of a variety of imperceptible causes, such as instruction being counteracted by servants, a notion was conceived that, of two children equally well educated, one was naturally much worse than another.’

[1281] See _ante_, i. 348.

[1282] The grossness of naval men is shewn in Captain Mirvan, in Miss Burney’s _Evelina_. In her _Diary_, i. 358, she records:–‘The more I see of sea-captains the less reason I have to be ashamed of Captain Mirvan, for they have all so irresistible a propensity to wanton mischief–to roasting beaus and detesting old women, that I quite rejoice I shewed the book to no one ere printed, lest I should have been prevailed upon to soften his character.’

[1283] Baretti, in a MS. note in _Piozzi Letters_, i. 349, describes Gwyn as ‘the Welsh architect that built the bridge at Oxford.’ He built Magdalen Bridge.

[1284] ‘Whence,’ asks Goldsmith, ‘has proceeded the vain magnificence of expensive architecture in our colleges? Is it that men study to more advantage in a palace than in a cell? One single performance of taste or genius confers more real honour on its parent university than all the labours of the chisel.’ _Present State of Polite Learning_, ch. 13. Newton used to say of his friend, the Earl of Pembroke, ‘that he was a lover of stone dolls.’ Brewster’s _Newton_, ed. 1860, ii. 334.

[1285] Afterwards Lord Stowell. See the beginning of Boswell’s _Hebrides_.

[1286] See _ante_, i. 446.

[1287] See _ante_, ii. 121, and _post_, Oct. 27, 1779.

[1288] See _ante_, p. 424.

[1289] See _post_, under April 4, 1781.

[1290] See _ante_, p. 315.

[1291] See _ante_, i. 398.

[1292] ‘Hume told Cadell, the bookseller, that he had a great desire to be introduced to as many of the persons who had written against him as could be collected. Accordingly, Dr. Douglas, Dr. Adams, &c., were invited by Cadell to dine at his house, in order to meet Hume. They came; and Dr. Price, who was of the party, assured me that they were all delighted with David.’ Rogers’s _Table Talk_, p. 106.

[1293] Boswell, in his _Corsica_, ed. 1879, p. 204, uses a strange argument against infidelity. ‘Belief is favourable to the human mind were it for nothing else but to furnish it entertainment. An infidel, I should think, must frequently suffer from ennui.’ In his _Hebrides_, Aug. 15, note, he attacks Adam Smith for being ‘so forgetful of _human comfort_ as to give any countenance to that dreary infidelity which would “make us poor indeed.”‘

[1294] ‘JEMMY TWITCHER. Are we more dishonest than the rest of mankind? What we win, gentlemen, is our own, by the law of arms and the right of conquest. CROOK-FINGER’D JACK. Where shall we find such another set of practical philosophers, who to a man are above the fear of death?’ _The Beggar’s Opera_, act ii. sc. i.

[1295] Boswell, I think, here aims a blow at Gibbon. He says (_post_, under March 19, 1781), that ‘Johnson had talked with some disgust of Mr. Gibbon’s ugliness.’ He wrote to Temple on May 8, 1779:–‘Gibbon is an ugly, affected, disgusting fellow, and poisons our literary club to me.’ He had before classed him among ‘infidel wasps and venomous insects.’ _Letters of Boswell_, pp. 233, 242. The younger Coleman describes Gibbon as dressed ‘in a suit of flowered velvet, with a bag and sword.’ _Random Records_, i. 121.

[1296] ‘Formam quidem ipsam, Marce fili, et tamquam faciem honesti vides, “quae si oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amores” ut ait Plato, “excitaret sapientiae.”‘ Cicero, De _Off_. i. 5.

[1297] Of Beattie’s attack on Hume, he said:–‘Treating your adversary with respect, is striking soft in a battle.’ Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Aug. 15.

[1298] When Gibbon entered Magdalen College in 1752, the ordinary commoners were already excluded. ‘As a gentleman commoner,’ he writes, ‘I was admitted to the society of the fellows, and fondly expected that some questions of literature would be the amusing and instructive topics of their discourse. Their conversation stagnated in a round of college business, Tory politics, personal anecdotes, and private scandal; their dull and deep potations excused the brisk intemperance of youth; and their constitutional toasts were not expressive of the most lively loyalty for the house of Hanover.’ Gibbon’s _Misc. Works_, i. 53. In Jesse’s edition of White’s _Selborne_, p. ii, it is stated that ‘White, as long as his health allowed him, always attended the annual election of Fellows at Oriel College, where the gentlemen-commoners were allowed the use of the common-room after dinner. This liberty they seldom availed themselves of, except on the occasion of Mr. White’s visits; for such was his happy manner of telling a story that the room was always filled when he was there.’ He died in 1793.

[1299] ‘So different are the colours of life as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past, and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side…. One generation is always the scorn and wonder of the other; and the notions of the old and young are like liquors of different gravity and texture which never can unite.’ _The Rambler_, No. 69.

[1300] ‘It was said of a dispute between two mathematicians, “_malim cum Scaligero errare quam cum Clavio recte sapere_” that “it was more eligible to go wrong with one than right with the other.” A tendency of the same kind every mind must feel at the perusal of Dryden’s prefaces and Rymer’s discourses.’ Johnson’s _Works_, vii. 303.

[1301] ‘There is evidence of Phil. Jones’s love of beer; for we find scribbled at the end of the college buttery-books, “O yes, O yes, come forth, Phil. Jones, and answer to your charge for exceeding the batells.” His excess, perhaps, was in liquor.’ _Dr. Johnson: His Friends, &c_., p. 23.

[1302] See _post_, iii. 1.

[1303] Dr. Fisher, who was present, told Mr. Croker that ‘he recollected one passage of the conversation. Boswell quoted _Quern Deus vult perdere, prius dementat_, and asked where it was. A pause. At last Dr. Chandler said, in Horace. Another pause. Then Fisher remarked that he knew of no metre in Horace to which the words could be reduced: and Johnson said dictatorially, “The young man is right.”‘ See _post_, March 30, 1783. For another of Dr. Fisher’s anecdotes, see _ante_, p. 269. Mark Pattison recorded in his _Diary_ in 1843 (_Memoirs_, p. 203), on the authority of Mr. (now Cardinal) Newman:–‘About 1770, the worst time in the University; a head of Oriel then, who was continually obliged to be assisted to bed by his butler. Gaudies, a scene of wild license. At Christ Church they dined at three, and sat regularly till chapel at nine.’ A gaudy is such a festival as the one in the text.

[1304] The author of the _Commentary on the Psalms_. See Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Aug. 15, note.

[1305] See _ante_, pp. 279, 283.

[1306] ‘I have seen,’ said Mr. Donne to Sir R. Drewry, ‘a dreadful vision since I saw you. I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me, through this room, with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a dead child in her arms.’ He learnt that on the same day, and about the very hour, after a long and dangerous labour, she had been delivered of a dead child. Walton’s _Life of Dr. Donne_, ed. 1838, p. 25.

[1307] ‘Biographers so little regard the manners or behaviour of their heroes, that more knowledge may be gained of a man’s real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree, and ended with his funeral.’ _The Rambler_, No. 60. See _post_, iii. 71.

[1308] See _post_, iii. 112.

[1309] It has been mentioned to me by an accurate English friend, that Dr. Johnson could never have used the phrase _almost nothing_, as not being English; and therefore I have put another in its place. At the same time, I am not quite convinced it is not good English. For the best writers use the phrase ‘_Little or nothing_;’ i.e. almost so little as to be nothing. BOSWELL. Boswell might have left _almost nothing_ in his text. Johnson used it in his writings, certainly twice. ‘It will add _almost nothing_ to the expense.’ Works, v. 307. ‘I have read little, _almost nothing_.’ _Pr. and Med_. p. 176. Moreover, in a letter to Mrs. Aston, written on Nov. 5, 1779 (Croker’s _Boswell_, p. 640), he says:–‘Nothing almost is purchased.’ In _King Lear_, act ii. sc. 2, we have:–

‘Nothing almost sees miracles But misery.’

[1310] ‘Pope’s fortune did not suffer his charity to be splendid and conspicuous; but he assisted Dodsley with a hundred pounds, that he might open a shop.’ Johnson’s _Works_, viii. 318.

[1311] _A Muse in Livery: or the Footman’s Miscellany_. 1732. A rhyme in the motto on the title-page shows what a Cockney muse Dodsley’s was. He writes:–

‘But when I mount behind the coach,
And bear aloft a flaming torch.’

The Preface is written with much good feeling.

[1312] James Dodsley, many years a bookseller in Pall Mall. He died Feb. 19, 1797. P. CUNNINGHAM. He was living, therefore, when this anecdote was published.

[1313] Horace Walpole (_Letters_, iii. 135) says:–‘You know how decent, humble, inoffensive a creature Dodsley is; how little apt to forget or disguise his having been a footman.’ Johnson seems to refer to Dodsley in the following passage, written in 1756 (_Works_, v. 358):–‘The last century imagined that a man composing in his chariot was a new object of curiosity; but how much would the wonder have been increased by a footman studying behind it.’

[1314] See _ante_, i. 417.

[1315] Yet surely it is a very useful work, and of wonderful research and labour for one man to have executed. BOSWELL. See Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Oct. 17, 1773.

[1316] Two days earlier, Hume congratulated Gibbon on the first volume of his _Decline and Fall_:–‘I own that if I had not previously had the happiness of your personal acquaintance, such a performance from an Englishman in our age would have given me some surprise. You may smile at this sentiment, but as it seems to me that your countrymen, for almost a whole generation, have given themselves up to barbarous and absurd faction, and have totally neglected all polite letters, I no longer expected any valuable production ever to come from them.’ J. H. Burton’s _Hume_, ii. 484.

[1317] Five weeks later Boswell used a different metaphor. ‘I think it is right that as fast as infidel wasps or venomous insects, whether creeping or flying, are hatched, they should be crushed.’ _Letters of Boswell_, p. 232. If the infidels were wasps to the orthodox, the orthodox were hornets to the infidels. Gibbon wrote (_Misc. Works_, i. 273):–‘The freedom of my writings has indeed provoked an implacable tribe; but as I was safe from the stings, I was soon accustomed to the buzzing of the hornets.’

[1318] Macaulay thus examines this report (_Essays_, i. 360):–‘To what then, it has been asked, could Johnson allude? Possibly to some anecdote or some conversation of which all trace is lost. One conjecture may be offered, though with diffidence. Gibbon tells us in his memoirs [_Misc. Works_, i. 56] that at Oxford he took a fancy for studying Arabic, and was prevented from doing so by the remonstrances of his tutor. Soon after this, the young man fell in with Bossuet’s controversial writings, and was speedily converted by them to the Roman Catholic faith. The apostasy of a gentleman-commoner would of course be for a time the chief subject of conversation in the common room of Magdalene. His whim about Arabic learning would naturally be mentioned, and would give occasion to some jokes about the probability of his turning Mussulman. If such jokes were made, Johnson, who frequently visited Oxford, was very likely to hear of them.’ Though Gibbon’s _Autobiography_ ends with the year 1788, yet he wrote portions of it, I believe, after the publication of the _Life of Johnson_. (See _ante_, ii. 8, note 1.) I have little doubt that in the following lines he refers to the attack thus made on him by Boswell and Johnson. ‘Many years afterwards, when the name of Gibbon was become as notorious as that of Middleton, it was industriously whispered at Oxford that the historian had formerly “turned Papist;” my character stood exposed to the reproach of inconstancy.’ Gibbon’s _Misc. Works_, i. 65.

[1319] Steele, in his _Apology for Himself and his Writings_ (ed. 1714, p. 80), says of himself:–‘He first became an author when an ensign of the Guards, a way of life exposed to much irregularity, and being thoroughly convinced of many things of which he often repented, and which he more often repeated, he writ, for his own private use, a little book called the _Christian Hero_, with a design principally to fix upon his own mind a strong impression of virtue and religion, in opposition to a stronger propensity towards unwarrantable pleasures. This secret admonition was too weak; he therefore printed the book with his name, in hopes that a standing testimony against himself, and the eyes of the world, that is to say of his acquaintance, upon him in a new light, might curb his desires, and make him ashamed of understanding and seeming to feel what was virtuous, and living so quite contrary a life.’

[1320] ‘A man,’ no doubt, is Boswell himself.

[1321] ‘”I was sure when I read it that the preface to Baretti’s _Dialogues_ was Dr. Johnson’s; and that I made him confess.” “Baretti’s _Dialogues_! What are they about?” “A thimble, and a spoon, and a knife, and a fork! They are the most absurd, and yet the most laughable things you ever saw. They were written for Miss Thrale, and all the dialogues are between her and him, except now and then a shovel and a poker, or a goose and a chair happen to step in.”‘ Mme. D’Arblay’s _Diary_, ii. 263.

[1322] ‘April 4, 1760. At present nothing is talked of, nothing admired, but what I cannot help calling a very insipid and tedious performance; it is a kind of novel called _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy_; the great humour of which consists in the whole narration always going backwards.’ Walpole’s _Letters_, iii. 298. ‘March 7, 1761. The second and third volumes of _Tristram Shandy_, the dregs of nonsense, have universally met the contempt they deserve.’ _Ib_ 382. ‘”My good friend,” said Dr. Farmer (_ante_, i. 368), one day in the parlour at Emanuel College, “you young men seem very fond of this _Tristram Shandy_; but mark my words, however much it may be talked about at present, yet, depend upon it, in the course of twenty years, should any one wish to refer to it, he will be obliged to go to an antiquary to inquire for it.”‘ Croker’s _Boswell_, ed. 1844, ii. 339. See _ante_, ii. 173, note 2, and 222.

[1323] Mrs. Rudd. She and the two brothers Perreau were charged with forgery. She was tried first and acquitted, the verdict of the jury being ‘not guilty, according to the evidence before us.’ The _Ann. Reg_. xviii. 231, adds:–‘There were the loudest applauses on this acquittal almost ever known in a court of justice.’ ‘The issue of Mrs. Rudd’s trial was thought to involve the fate of the Perreaus; and the popular fancy had taken the part of the woman as against the men.’ They were convicted and hanged, protesting their innocence. _Letters of Boswell_, pp. 223-230. Boswell wrote to Temple on April 28:–‘You know my curiosity and love of adventure; I have got acquainted with the celebrated Mrs. Rudd.’ _Ib_ P. 233–Three days later, he wrote:– ‘Perhaps the adventure with Mrs. Rudd is very foolish, notwithstanding Dr. Johnson’s approbation.’ _Ib_ p. 235. See _post_, iii. 79, and April 28, 1778.

[1324] See _post_, May 15, 1784, where Johnson says that Mrs. Montagu has ‘a constant _stream_ of conversation,’ and a second time allows that ‘Burke is an extraordinary man.’ Johnson writes of ‘a _stream_ of melody.’ Works, viii. 92. For Burke’s conversation see _post_, April 7, 1778, 1780 in Mr. Langton’s _Collection_, March 21, 1783, and Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Aug. 15.

[1325] See _ante_, ii. 16.

[1326] According to Boswell’s record in _Boswelliana_, p. 273, two sayings are here united. He there writes, on the authority of Mr. Langton:–‘Dr. Johnson had a very high opinion of Edmund Burke. He said, “That fellow calls forth all my powers”; and once when he was out of spirits and rather dejected he said, “Were I to see Burke now ‘twould kill me.”‘

[1327] See _ante_, ii. 100, iii. 24, and under May 8, 1781.

[1328] In a note on the _Dunciad_, ii. 50, the author of this epigram is said to be Dr. Evans.

[1329] Capability Brown, as he was called. See _post_, Oct. 30, 1779.

[1330] Such an ‘impudent dog’ had Boswell himself been in Corsica. ‘Before I was accustomed to the Corsican hospitality,’ he wrote. ‘I sometimes forgot myself, and imagining I was in a publick house, called for what I wanted, with the tone which one uses in calling to the waiters at a tavern. I did so at Pino, asking for a variety of things at once, when Signora Tomasi perceiving my mistake, looked in my face and smiled, saying with much calmness and good nature, “una cosa dopo un altra, Signore. One thing after another, Sir.”‘ Boswell’s _Corsica_, ed. 1879, p. 151. A Corsican gentleman, who knows the Tomasi family, told me that this reply is preserved among them by tradition.

[1331] Sir John Hawkins has preserved very few _Memorabilia_ of Johnson. There is, however, to be found, in his bulky tome [p. 87], a very excellent one upon this subject:–‘In contradiction to those, who, having a wife and children, prefer domestick enjoyments to those which a tavern affords, I have heard him assert, _that a tavern chair was the throne of human felicity_.–“As soon,” said he, “as I enter the door of a tavern, I experience an oblivion of care, and a freedom from solicitude: when I am seated, I find the master courteous, and the servants obsequious to my call; anxious to know and ready to supply my wants: wine there exhilarates my spirits, and prompts me to free conversation and an interchange of discourse with those whom I most love: I dogmatise and am contradicted, and in this conflict of opinions and sentiments I find delight.”‘ BOSWELL.

[1332] We happened to lie this night at the inn at Henley, where Shenstone wrote these lines. BOSWELL. I give them as they are found in the corrected edition of his Works, published after his death. In Dodsley’s collection the stanza ran thus:–

‘Whoe’er has travell’d life’s dull round, Whate’er his _various tour has_ been,
May sigh to think _how oft_ he found His warmest welcome at an Inn.’ BOSWELL.

[1333] See Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Sept. 29.

[1334] See Shenstone’s _Works_, iii. 311. Rev. Richard Graves, author of _The Spiritual Quixote_. He and Shenstone were fellow-students at Pembroke College, Oxford.

[1335] ‘He too often makes use of the _abstract_ for the _concrete_.’ SHENSTONE. BOSWELL.

[1336] ‘I asked him why he doated on a coach so, and received for answer, that in the first place the company was shut in with him _there_, and could not escape as out of a room; in the next place he heard all that was said in a carriage, where it was my turn to be deaf.’ Piozzi’s _Anec_. p. 276. See _post_, iii, 5, 162. Gibbon, at the end of a journey in a post-chaise, wrote (_Misc. Works_, i. 408):–‘I am always so much delighted and improved with this union of easeand motion, that, were not the expense enormous, I would travel every year some hundred miles, more especially in England.’

[1337] Johnson (_Works_, viii. 406) tells the following ‘ludicrous story’ of _The Fleece_. ‘Dodsley the bookseller was one day mentioning it to a critical visitor with more expectation of success than the other could easily admit. In the conversation the author’s age was asked; and, being represented as advanced in life, “He will,” said the critic, “be buried in woollen.”‘ To encourage the trade in wool, an Act was passed requiring the dead to be buried in woollen, Burke refers to this when he says of Lord Chatham, who was swathed in flannel owing to the gout:– ‘Like a true obeyer of the laws, he will be buried in woollen.’ Burke’s _Corres_, ii. 201. Hawkins (_Life_, p. 231) says:–‘A portrait of Samuel Dyer [see _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton’s _Collection_] was painted by Sir Joshua, and from it a mezzotinto was scraped; the print whereof, as he was little known, sold only to his friends. A singular use was made of it; Bell, the publisher of _The English Poets_, caused an engraving to be made from it, and prefixed it to the poems of Mr. John Dyer.’

[1338] Such is this little laughable incident, which has been often related. Dr. Percy, the Bishop of Dromore, who was an intimate friend of Dr. Grainger, and has a particular regard for his memory, has communicated to me the following explanation:–

‘The passage in question was originally not liable to such a perversion; for the authour having occasion in that part of his work to mention the havock made by rats and mice, had introduced the subject in a kind of mock heroick, and a parody of Homer’s battle of the frogs and mice, invoking the Muse of the old Grecian bard in an elegant and well-turned manner. In that state I had seen it; but afterwards, unknown to me and other friends, he had been persuaded, contrary to his own better judgement, to alter it, so as to produce the unlucky effect above-mentioned.’

The above was written by the Bishop when he had not the Poem itself to recur to; and though the account given was true of it at one period, yet as Dr. Grainger afterwards altered the passage in question, the remarks in the text do not now apply to the printed poem.

The Bishop gives this character of Dr. Grainger:–‘He was not only a man of genius and learning, but had many excellent virtues; being one of the most generous, friendly, and benevolent men I ever knew.’ BOSWELL.

[1339] Dr. Johnson said to me, ‘Percy, Sir, was angry with me for laughing at _The Sugar-cane_: for he had a mind to make a great thing of Grainger’s rats.’ BOSWELL. Johnson helped Percy in writing a review of this poem in 1764 (_ante_, i. 481).

[1340] In _Poems_ by Christopher Smart, ed. 1752, p. 100. One line may serve as a sample of the whole poem, Writing of ‘Bacchus, God of hops,’ the poet says:–

”Tis he shall gen’rate the buxom beer.’

[1341] See Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Aug. 22.

[1342] Henley in Arden, thirteen miles from Birmingham.

[1343] Mr. Hector’s house was in the Square–now known as the Old Square. It afterwards formed a part of the Stork Hotel, but it was pulled down when Corporation Street was made. A marble tablet had been placed on the house at the suggestion of the late Mr. George Dawson, marking the spot where ‘Edmund Hector was the host, Samuel Johnson the guest.’ This tablet, together with the wainscoting, the door, and the mantelpiece of one of the rooms, was set up in Aston Hall, at the Johnson Centenary, in a room that is to be known as Dr. Johnson’s Room.

[1344] My worthy friend Mr. Langton, to whom I am under innumerable obligations in the course of my Johnsonian History, has furnished me with a droll illustration about this question. An honest carpenter, after giving some anecdote in his presence of the ill-treatment which he had received from a clergyman’s wife, who was a noted termagant, and whom he accused of unjust dealing in some transaction with him, added, ‘I took care to let her know what I thought of her.’ And being asked, ‘What did you say?’ answered, ‘I told her she was a _scoundrel_.’ BOSWELL.

[1345] ‘As to the baptism of infants, it is a mere human tradition, for which neither precept nor practice is to be found in all the Scripture.’ Barclay’s _Apology_, Proposition xii, ed. 1703, p. 409.

[1346] _John_ iii. 30. BOSWELL.

[1347] Mr. Seward (_Anec_. ii. 223) says that ‘Dr. Johnson always supposed that Mr. Richardson had Mr. Nelson in his thoughts when he delineated the character of Sir Charles Grandison.’ Robert Nelson was born in 1656, and died in 1715.

[1348] ‘Mr. Arkwright pronounced Johnson to be the only person who on a first view understood both the principle and powers of machinery.’ Johnson’s _Works_ (1787), xi. 215. Arthur Young, who visited Birmingham in 1768, writes:–‘I was nowhere more disappointed than at Birmingham, where I could not gain any intelligence even of the most common nature, through the excessive jealousy of the manufacturers. It seems the French have carried off several of their fabricks, and thereby injured the town not a little. This makes them so cautious that they will show strangers scarce anything.’ _Tour through the North of England_, iii. 279.

[1349] Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale (year not given):–‘I have passed one day at Birmingham with my old friend Hector–there’s a name–and his sister, an old love. My mistress is grown much older than my friend,

—“O quid habes illius, illius
Quae spirabat amores
Quae me surpuerat mihi.”‘

‘Of her, of her what now remains,
Who breathed the loves, who
charmed the swains,
And snatched me from my heart?’

FRANCIS, Horace, _Odes_, iv. 13. 18. _Piozzi Letters_, i. 290.

[1350] Some years later he wrote:–‘Mrs. Careless took me under her care, and told me when I had tea enough.’ _Ib_. ii. 205.

[1351] See _ante_, ii. 362, note 3.

[1352] Johnson, in a letter to Hector, on March 7 of this year, described Congreve as ‘very dull, very valetudinary, and very recluse, willing, I am afraid, to forget the world, and content to be forgotten by it, to repose in that sullen sensuality into which men naturally sink who think disease a justification of indulgence, and converse only with those who hope to prosper by indulging them … Infirmity will come, but let us not invite it; indulgence will allure us, but let us turn resolutely away. Time cannot always be defeated, but let us not yield till we are conquered.’ _Notes and Queries_, 6th S., iii. 401.

[1353] In the same letter he said:–‘I hope dear Mrs. Careless is well, and now and then does not disdain to mention my name. It is happy when a brother and sister live to pass their time at our age together. I have nobody to whom I can talk of my first years–when I do to Lichfield, I see the old places but find nobody that enjoyed them with me.’

[1354] I went through the house where my illustrious friend was born, with a reverence with which it doubtless will long be visited. An engraved view of it, with the adjacent buildings, is in _The Gent. Mag_. for Feb. 1875. BOSWELL.

[1355] The scene of Farquhar’s _Beaux Stratagem_ is laid in Lichfield. The passage in which the ale is praised begins as follows:–

‘_Aimwell_. I have heard your town of Lichfield much famed for ale; I think I’ll taste that.

‘_Boniface_, Sir, I have now in my cellar ten tun of the best ale in Staffordshire; ’tis smooth as oil, sweet as milk, clear as amber, and strong as brandy; and will be just fourteen year old the fifth day of next March, old style.’ Act i. sc. i. See _post_, April 20, 1781.

[1356] Though his letters to her are very affectionate, yet what he wrote of her to Mrs. Thrale shews that her love for him was not strong. Thus he writes:–‘July 20, 1767. Miss Lucy is more kind and civil than I expected.’ _Piozzi Letters_, i. 4. ‘July 17, 1771. Lucy is a philosopher, and considers me as one of the external and accidental things that are to be taken and left without emotion. If I could learn of Lucy, would it be better? Will you teach me?’ _Ib_ p. 46. ‘Aug. 1, 1775. This was to have been my last letter from this place, but Lucy says I must not go this week. Fits of tenderness with Mrs. Lucy are not common, but she seems now to have a little paroxysm, and I was not willing to counteract it.’ _Ib_ p. 293. ‘Oct. 27, 1781. Poor Lucy’s illness has left her very deaf, and I think, very inarticulate … But she seems to like me better than she did.’ _Ib_ ii. 208. ‘Oct. 31, 1781. Poor Lucy’s health is very much broken … Her mental powers are not impaired, and her social virtues seem to increase. She never was so civil to me before.’ _Ib_ p. 211. On his mother’s death he had written to her:–‘Every heart must lean to somebody, and I have nobody but you.’ _Ante_ i. 515.

[1357] See _ante_, p. 311.

[1358] See _post_, iii. 131.

[1359] Boswell varies Johnson’s definition, which was ‘a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.’ _ante_, i. 294, note 8.

[1360] ‘”I remember,” said Dr. Johnson, “when all the _decent_ people in Lichfield got drunk every night.”‘ Boswell’s _Hebrides_, Aug. 19. See _post_, iii. 77.

[1361] He had to allow that in literature they were behind the age. Nearly four years after the publication of _Evelina_, he wrote:–‘Whatever Burney [by Burney he meant Miss Burney] may think of the celerity of fame, the name of _Evelina_ had never been heard at Lichfield till I brought it. I am afraid my dear townsmen will be mentioned in future days as the last part of this nation that was civilised. But the days of darkness are soon to be at an end; the reading society ordered it to be procured this week.’ _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 221.

[1362] See _ante_, ii. 159.

[1363] Garrick himself, like the Lichfieldians, always said–_shupreme, shuperior_. BURNEY.

[1364] Johnson did not always speak so disrespectfully of Birmingham. In his _Taxation no Tyranny_ (_Works_, vi. 228), he wrote:–‘The traders of Birmingham have rescued themselves from all imputation of narrow selfishness by a manly recommendation to Parliament of the rights and dignity of their native country.’ The _boobies_ in this case were sound Tories.

[1365] This play was Gibber’s _Hob; or The Country Wake_, with additions, which in its turn was Dogget’s _Country Wake_ reduced. Reed’s _Biog. Dram_. ii. 307.

[1366] Boswell says, _post_, under Sept. 30, 1783, that ‘Johnson had thought more upon the subject of acting than might be generally supposed.’

[1367] A nice observer of the female form. CROKER. Terence, _Eun_. iii. 5.

[1368] In Farquhar’s Comedy of _Sir Harry Wildair_.

[1369] Gilbert Walmesley, _ante_, i. 81

[1370] See _ante_, i. 83.

[1371] Cradock (_Memoirs_ i. 74) says that in the Cathedral porch, a gentleman, ‘who might, perhaps, be too ambitious to be thought an acquaintance of the great Literary Oracle, ventured to say, “Dr. Johnson, we have had a most excellent discourse to day,” to which he replied, “That may be, Sir, but it is impossible for you to know it.”‘

[1372] _The Tempest_, act iv., sc. 1.

[1373] See _post_, iii. 151.

[1374] Johnson, in 1763, advising Miss Porter to rent a house, said:–‘You might have the Palace for twenty pounds.’ Croker’s _Boswell_, p. 145.

[1375] Boswell, after his book was published, quarrelled with Miss Seward. He said that he was forced to examine these communications ‘with much caution. They were tinctured with a strong prejudice against Johnson.’ His book, he continued, was meant to be ‘a _real history_ and not a _novel_,’ so that he had ‘to suppress all erroneous particulars, however entertaining.’ He accused her of attacking Johnson with malevolence. _Gent. Mag_. 1793, p. 1009. For Boswell’s second meeting with her, see _post_, iii. 284.

[1376] A Signor Recupero had noticed on Etna, the thickness of each stratum of earth between the several strata of lava. ‘He tells me,’ wrote Brydone, ‘he is exceedingly embarrassed by these discoveries in writing the history of the mountain. That Moses hangs like a dead weight upon him, and blunts all his zeal for inquiry; for that really he has not the conscience to make his mountain so young as that prophet makes the world. The bishop, who is strenuously orthodox–for it is an excellent see–has already warned him to be upon his guard, and not to pretend to be a better natural historian than Moses.’ Brydone’s _Tour_, i. 141.

[1377] He wrote:–‘Mr. Boswell is with me, but I will take care that he shall hinder no business, nor shall he know more than you would have him.’ Mr. Morison’s _Collection of Autographs_, vol. ii.

[1378] ‘March 23, 1776. Master Thrale, son of Mr. Thrale, member for the Borough, suddenly before his father’s door.’ _Gent. Mag_. 1776, p. 142.

[1379] See _post_, iii. 95.

[1380] ‘Sir,’ he said, ‘I would walk to the extent of the diameter of the earth to save Beauclerk’ (_post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton’s _Collection_). He had written of the boy the previous summer:–‘Pray give my service to my dear friend Harry, and tell him that Mr. Murphy does not love him better than I do.’ _Piozzi Letters_, i. 262.

[1381] See an accurate and animated statement of Mr. Gastrel’s barbarity, by Mr. Malone, in a note on _Some account of the Life of William Shakspeare_, prefixed to his admirable edition of that poet’s works, vol. i. p. 118. BOSWELL.

[1382] See Prior’s _Life of Malone_, p. 142.

[1383] _Piozzi Letters_, i. 307.

[1384] See _post_, iii. 18, note 1.

[1385] Mr. Hoole wrote of Johnson’s last days:–‘Being asked unnecessary and frivolous questions, he said he often thought of _Macbeth_ [act iii. sc. 4]–“Question enrages him.”‘ Croker’s _Boswell_, p. 843. See _post_, iii. 57, 268.

[1386] Sir Fletcher Norton, afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons, and in 1782 created Baron Grantley. MALONE. For Norton’s ignorance, see _ante_, ii. 91. Walpole (_Letters_, iv. 124) described him as ‘a tough enemy; I don’t mean in parts or argument, but one that makes an excellent bull-dog.’ When in 1770 he was made Speaker, Walpole wrote:–‘Nothing can exceed the badness of his character, even in this bad age.’ _Ib_ v. 217. In his _Memoirs of the Reign of George III_, i. 240, Walpole says:–‘It was known that in private causes he took money from both parties.’ Horne (afterwards Horne Tooke) charged Norton with this practice; _Parl. Hist_. xvii. 1010; and so did Junius in his _Letter_ xxxix. Churchill, in _The Duellist_ (_Poems_, ed. 1766, ii. 87), writing of him, says:–

‘How often…
Hath he ta’en briefs on false pretence, and undertaken the defence
of trusting fools, whom in the end
He meant to ruin, not defend.’

Lord Eldon said that ‘he was much known by the name of Sir Bull-face Double Fee.’ He added that ‘he was not a lawyer.’ Twiss’s _Eldon_, iii. 98. ‘Acting, it was supposed from resentment, having been refused a peerage,’ he made on May 7, 1777, a bold speech to the King on presenting the Civil List Bill. ‘He told him that his faithful Commons, labouring under burthens almost too heavy to be borne, had granted him a very great additional revenue–great beyond example, great beyond his Majesty’s highest wants.’ _Parl. Hist_. xix. 213, and Walpole’s _Journal of the Reign of George III_, ii. 113.

[1387] Burns’s Holy Willie, like Boswell, was an Ayrshire man.

[1388] Johnson, on May 16, wrote of him to Mrs. Thrale:–‘He has his head as full as yours at an election. Livings and preferments, as if he were in want with twenty children, run in his head. But a man must have his head on something, small or great.’ _Piozzi Letters_, i. 325.

[1389] Johnson wrote on May 25, 1780 (_Piozzi Letters_, ii. 136):’—- is come to town, brisk and vigorous, fierce and fell, to drive on his lawsuit. Nothing in all life now can be more _profligater_ than what he is; and if, in case, that so be, that they persist for to resist him, he is resolved not to spare no money, nor no time.’ Taylor, no doubt, is meant, and Baretti, in a marginal note, says:–‘This was the elegant phraseology of that Doctor.’ See _post_, iii. 180.

[1390] See _ante_, p. 460.

[1391] He did not hold with Steele, who in _The Spectator_, No. 153, writes:–‘It was prettily said, “He that would be long an old man must begin early to be one.”‘ Mrs. Piozzi (_Anec_. p. 275) says that ‘saying of the old philosopher, that he who wants least is most like the gods who want nothing, was a favourite sentence with Dr. Johnson, who required less attendance, sick or well, than ever I saw any human creature.’

[1392] Dr. Butter, of Derby, is mentioned _post_, iii. 163, and under May 8, 1781.

[1393] Andrew Stuart’s _Letters to Lord Mansfield_ (_ante_, ii. 229).

[1394] Johnson was thinking of Charles’s meeting with the King of Poland. ‘Charles XII. etait en grosses bottes, ayant pour cravate un taffetas noir qui lui serrait le cou; son habit etait, comme a l’ordinaire, d’un gros drap bleu, avec des boutons de cuivre dore.’ Voltaire’s _Works_, ed. 1819, xx. 123.

THE END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.