Speaking of Arthur Murphy, whom he very much loved, I don't know,' said he, 'that Arthur can be classed with the very first dramatic writers; yet at present I doubt much whether we have anything superior to Arthur.' Speaking of the national debt, he said, 'it was an idle dream to suppose that the country could sink under it. Let the public creditors be ever so clamorous, the interest of millions must ever prevail over that of thousands.' "Of Dr. Kennicott's Collations, he observed, that though the text should not be much mended thereby, yet it was no small advantage to know that we had as good a text as the most consummate industry and diligence could procure.' "Johnson observed, that so many objections might be made to everything, that nothing could overcome them but the necessity of doing something. No man would be of any profession, as simply opposed to not being of it; but every one must do something.' "He remarked, that a London parish was a very comfortless thing; for the clergyman seldom knew the face of one out of ten of his parishioners. "Of the late Mr. Mallet he spoke with no great respect said, he was ready for any dirty job; that he had wrote against Byng at the instigation of the ministry, and was equally ready to write for him, provided he found his account in it. "A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately after his wife died: Johnson said, it was the triumph of hope over experience. "He observed, that a man of sense and education should meet a suitable companion in a wife. It was a miserable thing when the conversation could only be such as, whether the mutton should be boiled or roasted, and probably a dispute about that. "He did not approve of late marriages, observing, that more was lost in point of time, than compensated for by any possible advantages. Even ill assorted marriages were preferable to cheerless celibacy. "Of Old Sheridan he remarked, that he neither wanted parts nor literature; but that his vanity and Quixotism obscured his merits. "He said, foppery was never cured; it was the bad stamina of the mind, which, like those of the body, were never rectified: once a coxcomb, and always a coxcomb. Being told that Gilbert Cooper called him the Caliban of literature, 'Well,' said he, 'I must dub him the Punchinello.' Speaking of the old Earl of Cork and Orrery, he said, 'That man spent his life in catching at an object (literary eminence), which he had not power to grasp.' "To find a substitution for violated morality, he said, was the leading feature in all perversions of religion. "He often used to quote, with great pathos, those fine lines of Virgil: Optima quæque dies miseris mortalibus ævi Prima fugit; subeunt morbi, tristisque senectus Et labor, et duræ rapit inclementia mortis.' Speaking of Homer, whom he venerated as the prince of poets, Johnson remarked, that the advice given to Diomed* by his father, when he sent him to the Trojan war, was the noblest exhortation that could be instanced in any heathen writer, and comprised in a single line: Αἰὲν ἀριστεύειν, καὶ ὑπείροχον ἔμμεναι ἄλλων : which, if I recollect well, is translated by Dr. Clarke thus: Semper appetere præstantissima, et omnibus aliis antecellere. "He observed, it was a most mortifying reflection for any man to consider what he had done, compared with what he might have done.' "He said few people had intellectual resources sufficient to forego the pleasures of wine. They could not otherwise contrive how to fill the interval between dinner and supper. "He went with me, one Sunday, to hear my old master, Gregory Sharpe, preach at the about liberty, as a blessing most fervently to be Temple.-In the prefatory prayer, Sharpe ranted implored, and its continuance prayed for. Johndanger :-he would have done much better to pray son observed, that our liberty was in no sort of against our licentiousness. "One evening at Mrs. Montagu's, where a splendid company was assembled, consisting of the most eminent literary characters, I thought he seemed highly pleased with the respect and attention that were shown him, and asked him, on our return home, if he was not highly gratified by his visit: No, Sir,' said he, not highly gratified; yet I do not recollect to have passed many evenings with fewer objections." Though of no high extraction himself, he had much respect for birth and family, especially among ladies. He said, 'adventitious accomplishments may be possessed by all ranks; but one may easily distinguish the born gentlewoman. "He said, "the poor in England were better provided for than in any other country of the same extent: he did not mean little cantons or petty republics; where a great proportion of the people,' said he, are suffered to languish in helpless misery, that country must be ill policed, and wretchedly governed: a decent provision for the Gentlemen of poor is the true test of civilisation. education,' he observed, 'were pretty much the same in all countries: the condition of the lower orders, the poor especially, was the true mark of national discrimination.' "When the corn-laws were in agitation in Ireland, by which that country has been enabled not only to feed itself, but to export corn to a that those laws might be prejudicial to the cornlarge amount, Sir Thomas Robinson observed, trade of England. 'Sir Thomas,' said he, 'you talk the language of a savage: what, Sir, would you prevent any people from feeding themselves, if by any honest means they can do it?' "It being mentioned that Garrick assisted Dr. Browne, the author of The Estimate,' in some dramatic composition, No, Sir,' said Johnson, 'he would no more suffer Garrick to write a line Dr. Maxwell's memory has deceived him. Glaucus is the person who received this counsel; and Clarke's translation of t e passage (II., lib. x. L. 208) is as follows:"Ut semper fortissime rem gererem, et superior virtute essem aliis.-J. BOSWELL, JUN. in his play, than he would suffer him to mount his pulpit.' "Speaking of Burke, he said, 'It was commonly observed he spoke too often in parliament; but nobody could say he did not speak well, though too frequently and too familiarly.' Speaking of economy, he remarked, it was hardly worth while to save anxiously twenty pounds a year. If a man could save to that degree, so as to enable him to assume a different rank in society, then, indeed, it might answer some purpose. "He observed, a principal source of erroneous judgment was, viewing things partially and only on one side: as, for instance, fortune hunters, when they contemplated the fortunes singly and separately, it was a dazzling and tempting object; but when they came to possess the wives and their fortunes together, they began to suspect they had not made quite so good a bargain. "Speaking of the late Duke of Northumberland living very magnificently when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, somebody remarked, it would be difficult to find a suitable successor to him: 'Then,' exclaimed Johnson, he is only fit to succeed himself." "He advised me, if possible, to have a good orchard. He knew, he said, a clergyman of small income, who brought up a family very reputably, which he chiefly fed with apple dumplings. "He said, he had known several good scholars among the Irish gentlemen; but scarcely any of them correct in quality. He extended the same observation to Scotland. "Speaking of a certain prelate, who exerted himself very laudably in building churches and parsonage-houses; 'however,' said he, 'I do not find that he is esteemed a man of much professional learning, or a liberal patron of it; yet, it is well, where a man possesses any strong positive excellence. Few have all kinds of merit belonging to their character. We must not examine matters too deeply. No, Sir, a fallible being will fail somewhere. "Talking of the Irish clergy, he said, 'Swift was a man of great parts, and the instrument of much good to his country. Berkeley was a profound scholar, as well as a man of fine imagination; but Usher,' he said, 'was the great luminary of the Irish church: and a greater,' he added, 'no church could boast of, at least in modern times.' "We dined tête-à-tête at the Mitre, as I was preparing to return to Ireland, after an absence of many years. I regretted much leaving London, where I had formed many agreeable connections: 'Sir,' said he, 'I don't wonder at it; no man, fond of letters, leaves London without regret. But remember, Sir, you have seen and enjoyed a great deal; you have seen life in its highest decorations, and the world has nothing new to exhibit. No man is so well qualified to leave public life as he who has long tried it and known it well. We are always hankering after untried situations, and imagining greater felicity from them than they can afford. No, Sir, knowledge and virtue may be acquired in all countries, and your local consequence will make you some amends for the intellectual gratifications you relinquish.' Then he quoted the following lines with great pathos: "He who has early known the pomps of state, (For things unknown 'tis ignorance to condemn ;) "He then took a most affectionate leave of me; said, he knew it was a point of duty that called me away. 'We shall all be sorry to lose you,' said he laudo tamen.” In 1771 he published another political pamphlet, entitled "Thoughts on the late Transactions re Being desirous to trace these verses to the fountain. head, after having in vain turned over several of our elder poets with the hope of lighting on them, I applied to Dr. Maxwell, now resident at Bath, for the purpose of ascertaining their author: but that gentleman could fur. nish no aid on this occasion. At length the lines have been discovered by the author's second son, Mr. James Boswell, in "The London Magazine" for July, 1732, published anonymously, but in fact (as he afrerwards where they form part of a poem on "Retirement," there found) copied, with some slight variations, from one of Walsh's smaller poems, entitled "The Retirement;" and they exhibit another proof of what has been elseJohnson retained in his memory fragments of obscure or where observed by the author of the work before us, that neglected poetry. In quoting verses of that description, he appears by a slight deviation to have sometimes given them a moral turn, and to have dexterously adapted different tendency. Thus, in the present instance (as them to his own sentiments, where the original had a very Mr. J. Boswell observes to me), "the author of the poem above-mentioned exhibits himself as having retired to the country, to avoid the vain follies of a town life,-ambition, avarice, and the pursuit of pleasure, contrasted with the enjoyments of the country, and the delightful conversa. tion that the brooks, &c., furnish; which he holds to be infinitely more pleasing and instructive than any which towns afford. He is, then led to consider the weakness of who is neither enslaved by avarice, ambition, nor pleasure, the human mind, and, after lamenting that he (the writer), has yet made himself a slave to love, he thus proceeds: If this dire passion never will be gone, If beauty always must my heart enthral, Than madly thus become a slave to all: 'One who has early known the pomp of state, (For things unknown 'tis ignorance to condemn ;) And, after having view'd the gaudy bait, Can coldly say, the trifle I contemn; 'In her blest arms contented could I live, Contented could I die. But O, my mind, Imaginary scenes of bliss deceive With hopes of joys impossible to find."" Another instance of Johnson's retaining in his memory verses by obscure authors, is given in Mr. Boswell's "Journal of a Tour in the Hebrides;" where, in consequence of hearing a girl spinning in a chamber over that said were written by one Gifford, a clergyman; but the in which he was sitting, he repeated these lines, which he poem in which they are introduced, has hitherto been undiscovered: "Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound: In the autumn of 1782, when he was at Brighthelmstone, chaise, to take the air; and the conversation in one of he frequently accompanied Mr. Philip Metcalfe in his their excursions happening to turn on a celebrated his torian, since deceased, he repeated, with great precision, some verses, as very characteristic of that gentleman. served; for they are found in a very obscure quarter These furnish another proof of what has been above ob. among some anonymous poems appended to the second the perusal. Before his order, a sufficient num ber were dispersed to do all the mischief, though, perhaps, not to make all the sport that might be expected from it. "I was last night at THE CLUB. Dr. Percy has written a long ballad in many fits; it is pretty enough. He has printed, and will soon publish it. Goldsmith is at Bath with Lord Clare. At Mr. Thrale's, where I am now writing, all are well. I am, dear Sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." specting Falkland's Islands," in which, upon materials furnished to him by ministry, and upon general topics, expanded in his rich style, he successfully endeavoured to persuade the nation that it was wise and laudable to suffer the question "Soon after your departure, I had the pleasure of right to remain undecided, rather than involve of finding all the danger past with which your our country in another war. It has been sug-navigation was threatened. I hope nothing gested by some, with what truth I shall not take happens at home to abate your satisfactica; but upon me to decide, that he rated the consequence that Lady Rothes and Mrs. Langton, and the of those islands to Great Britain too low. But young ladies, are all well. however this may be, every humane mind must surely applaud the earnestness with which he averted the calamity of war: a calamity so dreadful, that it is astonishing how civilised, nay, Christian nations can deliberately continue to renew it. His description of its miseries in this pamphlet, is one of the finest pieces of eloquence in the English language. Upon this occasion, too, we find Johnson lashing the party in opposition with unbounded severity, and making the fullest use of what he ever reckoned a most effectual argumentative instrument-contempt. His character of their very able mysterious champion, Junius, is executed with all the force of his genius, and finished with the highest care. He seems to have exulted in sallying forth to single combat against the boasted and formidable hero, who bade defiance to "principalities and powers, and the rulers of this world." This pamphlet, it is observable, was softened in one particular, after the first edition; for the conclusion of Mr. George Grenville's character stood thus: "Let him not, however, be depreciated in his grave. He had powers not universally possessed: could he have enforced payment of the Manilla ransom, he could have counted it." Which instead of retaining its sly sharp point, was reduced to a mere flat unmeaning expression, or, if I may use the word-truism: "He had powers not universally possessed: and if he sometimes erred, he was likewise sometimes right." 66 TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ. "DEAR SIR, March 20, 1771. "After much lingering of my own, and much of the ministry, I have at length got out my paper. But delay is not yet at an end: not many had been dispersed before Lord North ordered the sale to stop. His reasons I do not distinctly know. You may try to find them in volume of a collection frequently printed by Lintot, "See how the wand'ring Danube flows, "Now Protestant, and Papist now, In reciting these verses I have no doubt that Johnson substituted some word for infide in the second stanza, to avoid the disagreeable repetition of the same expression. MALONE. "Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands.' Mr. Strahan, the printer, who had been long in intimacy with Johnson, in the course of his literary labours, who was at once his friendly agent in receiving his pension for him, and his banker in supplying him with money when he wanted it; who was himself now a member of Parliament, and who loved much to be employed in political negotiation: thought he should do eminent service, both to government and Johnson, if he could be the means of his getting a seat in the House of Commons. With this view, he wrote a letter to one of the Secretaries of the Treasury, of which he gave me a copy in his own handwriting, which is as follows: "SIR, New-street, March 30, 1771. "You will easily recollect, when I had the honour of waiting upon you some time ago, I took the liberty to observe to you, that Dr. Johnson would make an excellent figure in the House of Commons, and heartily wished he had a seat there. My reasons are briefly these: "I know his perfect good affection to his Majesty and his government, which I am certain he wishes to support by every means in his power. "He possesses a great share of manly, nervous, and ready eloquence; is quick in discerning the strength and weakness of an argument; can express himself with clearness and precision, and fears the face of no man alive. "His known character, as a man of extraordinary sense and unimpeached virtue, would secure him the attention of the House, and could not fail to give him a proper weight there. "He is capable of the greatest application, and can undergo any degree of labour, where he sees it necessary, and where his heart and affections are strongly engaged. His Majesty's ministers might therefore securely depend on his doing, upon every proper occasion, the utmost that could be expected from him. They would find him ready to vindicate such measures as tended to promote the stability of government, and resolute and steady in carrying them into execution. * By comparing the first with the subsequent editions, this curious circumstance of ministerial authorship may be discovered. It can only be discovered (as Mr. Bindley observes to me) by him who possesses a copy of the first edition issued out before the sale was stopped.-MALONE. M Nor is anything to be apprehended from the supposed impetuosity of his temper. To the friends of the king you will find him a lamb, to his enemies a lion. "For these reasons I humbly apprehend that he would be a very able and useful member. And I will venture to say, the employment would not be disagreeable to him; and knowing, as I do, his strong affection to the king, his ability to serve him in that capacity, and the extreme ardour with which I am convinced he would engage in that service, I must repeat that I wish most heartily to see him in the House. "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. I know your good nature, and your zeal for the public welfare, will plead my excuse for giving you this trouble. I with the greatest respect, Sir, am, "Your most obedient and humble servant " Hamilton I have heard that Johnson, when observ 'Edinburgh, April 18, 1771. "MY DEAR SIR, "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." ried man and a lawyer in practice at the Scotch bar; invited him to Scotland, and promised to attend him to the Highlands and Hebrides. In the subsequent part of this letter, I gave This recommendation, we know, was not effec-him an account of my comfortable life as a martual; but how, or for what reason, can only be conjectured. It is not to be believed that Mr. Strahan would have applied unless Johnson had approved of it. I never heard him mention the subject; but at a later period of his life, when Sir Joshua Reynolds told him that Mr. Edmund Burke had said that, if he had come early into Parliament, he certainly would have been the greatest speaker that ever was there, Johnson exclaimed, "I should like to try my hand now." It has been much agitated among his friends and others, whether he would have been a power ful speaker in Parliament, had he been brought in when advanced in life. I am inclined to think that his extensive knowledge, his quickness and force of mind, his vivacity and richness of expression, his wit and humour, and above all his poignancy of sarcasm, would have had great effect in a popular assembly; and that the magnitude of his figure, and striking peculiarity of his manner, would have aided the effect. But I remember it was observed by Mr. Flood, that Johnson, having been long used to sententious brevity and the short flights of conversation, might have failed in that continued and expanded kind of argument which is requisite in stating complicated matters in public speaking; and, as a proof of this, he mentioned the supposed speeches in Parliament written by him for the magazine, none of which, in his opinion, were at all like real debates. The opinion of one who was himself so eminent an orator, must be allowed to have great weight. It was confirmed by Sir William Scott, who mentioned that Johnson had told him that he had several times tried to speak in the Society of Arts and Manufactures, but "had found he could not get on." From Mr. William Gerard Dr. Kippis, however ("Biograph. Britan." article "J. Gilbert Cooper," p. 266, n. new edit.), says, that he "once heard Dr. Johnson speak in the Society of Arts and Manufactures, upon a subject relative to mechanics, with 66 TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ. "DEAR SIR, 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 wished for your letter a long time, and when it neglect may be uneasily felt without resentment. I 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 va cuum: our minds cannot be empty; and evil will by good. My dear Sir, mind your studies, mind break in upon them, if they are not pre-occupied 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.' a propriety, perspicuity, and energy which excited gene ral admiration."-MALONE. Edinburgh, July 27, 1771. "MY DEAR SIR, "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." "TO BENNET LANGTON, ESQ., NEAR SPILSBY, LINCOLNSHIRE. "DEAR SIR, August 29, 1771. "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. "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. 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 to 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 affetionate and "Most humble servant, The second portrait of Johnson, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds with his arms raised, and his hands bent. It was at this time, it is believed, in the possession of Miss Lucy Porter, and is still probably at Lichfield.MALONE. In October, I again wrote to him, thanking him. for his last letter, and his obliging reception of Mr. Beattie; informing him that I had been at Alnwick lately, and had good accounts of him from Dr. Percy. In his religious record of this year we observe that he was better than usual, both in body and mind, and better satisfied with the regularity of his conduct. But he is still "trying his ways" too rigorously. He charges himself with not rising early enough; yet he mentions what was surely a sufficient excuse for this, supposing it to be a duty seriously required, as he all his life appears to have thought it. "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." Alas! how hard would it be, if this indulgence were to be imputed to a sick man as a crime. In his retrospect on the following Easter-eve, he says, "When I review the last year, I am able to recollect so little done, that shame and sorrow, though perhaps too weakly, come upon me." Had he been judging of any one else in the same circumstances, how clear would he have been on the favourable side. How very difficult, and, in my opinion, alınost constitutionally impossible it was for him to be raised early, even by the strongest resolutions, appears from a note in one of his little paper-books (containing words arranged for his Dictionary), written I supy about 1753: "I do not remember that, since teft Oxford, I ever rose early by mere choice, but once or twice at Edial, and two or three times for The Rambler."" I think he had fair ground enough to have quieted his mind on the subject, by concluding that he was physically incapable of what is at best but a commodious regulation. CHAPTER XIX.-1772. IN 1772 he was altogether quiescent as an author; but it will be found, from the various evidences which I shall bring together, that his mind was acute, lively, and vigorous. "TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. "DEAR SIR, Feb. 27, 1772. "Be pleased to send to Mr. Banks, whose place of residence I do not know, this note, which I have sent open, that, if you please, you may read it. "When you send it, do not use your own seal. I am, Sir, your most humble servant, "SAM. JOHNSON." |
