176 FAILURE NOT TO Be regretTED. "If you think this worthy of attention, you will be pleased to take a convenient opportunity of mentioning it to Lord North. If his lordship should happily approve of it, I shall have the satisfaction of having been, in some degree, the humble instrument of doing my country, in my opinion, a very essential service. know your good nature, and your zeal for the public welfare, will plead my excuse for giving you this trouble. "I am, with the greatest respect, Sir, "Your most obedient and humble servant, "WILLIAM STRAHAN." Nothing came of this recommendation; and perhaps the world has no reason to regret that Johnson was not allowed an opportunity of "trying his hand" at speech-making in the British National Assembly. His triumphs at the Mitre Tavern, at Mr. Thrale's, at the Club, at his own house-wherever, in short, he went as a private man-are indisputable; but it is by no means certain that his talking powers would have stood him in as good stead in the House of Commons, where subjects were to be discussed and not men to be opposed, where steadiness of argument was wanted and not rapidity of debate, where he would have missed that friendly friction which generated half his happiest hits, and that universal deference which made him feel himself the intellectual king he really was. Johnson, with all his talking talents, might have been a very silent member of the House of Commons. His services there would not have lost him the spurs he had won elsewhere; but neither would they, in all probability, have obtained for him one pair more. 66 BOSWELL TO DR. JOHNSON. "MY DEAR SIR, "Edinburgh, April 18, 1771. "I can now fully understand those intervals of silence in your correspondence with me, which have often given me anxiety and uneasiness; for although I am conscious that my veneration and love for Mr. Johnson have never in the least abated, yet I have deferred for almost a year and a half to write to him." In the subsequent part of this letter the writer gave an account of his comfortable life as a married man and a lawyer in practice at the Scotch bar; invited the Doctor to Scotland, and promised to attend him to the Highlands and Hebrides. "DEAR SIR, "TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "London, June 20, 1771. "If you are now able to comprehend that I might neglect to write without diminution of affection, you have taught me, likewise, how that neglect may be uneasily felt without resentment. I wished for your letter a long time, and when it came, it amply recompensed the delay. I never was so much pleased as now with your account of yourself; and sincerely hope, that between public business, improving studies, and domestic pleasures, neither melancholy nor caprice will find any place for entrance. Whatever philosophy may determine of material nature, it is certainly true of intellectual nature, that it abhors a vacuum: our minds cannot be empty; and evil will break in upon them, if they are not preoccupied by good. My dear sir, mind your studies, mind your business, make your lady happy, and be a good Christian. After this, 'tristitiam et metus Trades protervis in mare Creticum Portare ventis. "If we perform our duty we shall be safe and steady, ‘Sive per, &c., whether we climb the Highlands, or are tossed among the Hebrides; and I hope the time will come when we may try our powers both with cliffs and water. I see but little of Lord Elibank, I know not why; perhaps by my own fault. I am this day going into Staffordshire and Derbyshire for six weeks. "I am, dear sir, "Your most affectionate and most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." N "TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, IN LEICESTER FIELDS. "DEAR SIR, "Ashbourne, in Derbyshire, July 17, 1771, "When I came to Lichfield, I found that my portrait had been much visited, and much admired. Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place; and I was pleased with the dignity conferred by such a testimony of your regard. "Be pleased, therefore, "To accept the thanks of, Sir, "Your most obliged and most humble servant, "The bearer of this, Mr. Beattie, professor of moral philosophy at Aberdeen, is desirous of being introduced to your acquaintance. His genius and learning, and labours in the service of virtue and religion, render him very worthy of it and as he has a high esteem of your character, I hope you will give him a favourable reception. : "I ever am, &c., "JAMES BOSWELL." 66 TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE. "August 29, 1771. "DEAR SIR, "I am lately returned from Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The last letter mentions two others which you have written to me since you received my pamphlet. Of these two. I never had but one, in which you mentioned a design of visiting Scotland, and by consequence, put my journey to Langton out of my thoughts. My summer wanderings are now over, and I am engaging in a very great work, the revision of my Dictionary; from which I know not, at present, how to get loose. "PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS." 179 "If you have observed, or been told, any errors or omissions, you will do me a great favour by letting me know them. "Lady Rothes, I find, has disappointed you and herself. Ladies will have these tricks. The Queen and Mrs. Thrale, both ladies of experience, yet both missed their reckoning this summer. I hope a few months will recompense your uneasiness. "Please to tell Lady Rothes how highly I value the honour of her invitation, which it is my purpose to obey as soon as I have disengaged myself. In the meantime, I shall hope to hear often of her ladyship, and every day better news and better, till I hear that you have both the happiness, which to both is very sincerely wished by, Sir, "Your most affectionate "And most humble servant, Looking into the Doctor's "Prayers and Meditations" of this year, we find him taking himself solemnly to task for not rising earlier in the mornings; yet, in justice to his own state, he is constrained to add: "One great hindrance is want of rest; my nocturnal complaints grow less troublesome towards morning: and I am tempted to repair the deficiencies of the night." He appears to have been constitutionally unable to get up early; the following words were found written on a scrap of paper which he seems to have used in preparing his Dictionary: "I do not remember that, since I left Oxford, I ever rose early by mere choice, but once or twice at Edial, and two or three times for 'The Rambler."" But he never said to himself, this weakness is constitutional and therefore unconquerable: he fought against it all his life-with poor success, no doubt, but with much moral suggestiveness to us who now know his struggles. "The Spirit indeed is willing, but the Flesh is weak." 081 CONVERSATIONS. CHAPTER XX. CONVERSATIONS-JOHNSON ON GOLDSMITH-SILENT SORROWS. (1772.) IN March, 1772, Boswell again arrived in London. From the conversations he collected during this visit, we select the following as representative specimens. Johnson spoke of St. Kilda, the remotest of the Hebrides. BOSWELL: "I am thinking of buying it."-JOHNSON: “Pray do, Sir. We will go and pass a winter amid the blasts there. We shall have fine fish, and we will take some dried tongues with us, and some books. We will have a strong-built vessel, and some Orkney men to navigate her. We must build a tolerable house; but we may carry with us a wooden house ready-made, and requiring nothing but to be put up. Consider, Sir, by buying St. Kilda, you may keep the people from falling into worse hands. We must give them a clergyman, and he shall be one of Beattie's choosing. He shall be educated at Marischal College. I'll be your Lord Chancellor, or what you please."-BOSWELL: "Are you serious, Sir, in advising me to buy St. Kilda ?-for if you should advise me to go to Japan, I believe I should do it."-JOHNSON: "Why, yes, Sir, I am serious."- BOSWELL: "Why, then, I'll see what can be done." They talked of mimicry, Boswell expressing his opinion that it was a very mean thing. JOHNSON: "Why, Sir, it is making a very mean use of man's powers. But to be a good mimic requires great powers; great acuteness of observation, great retention of what is observed, and great pliancy of organs to represent what is observed. I remember a lady of quality in this town, Lady who was a won |