 Section 4 of the Life of Samuel Johnson, Volume 2. In 1769, so far as I can discover, the public was favoured with nothing of Johnson's composition, either for himself or any of his friends. His meditations too strongly prove that he suffered much both in body and mind, yet was he perpetually striving against evil, and nobly endeavouring to advance his intellectual and devotional improvement. Every generous and grateful heart must feel for the distresses of so eminent a benefactor to mankind, and now that his unhappiness is certainly known, must respect that dignity of character which prevented him from complaining. His majesty, having the preceding year, instituted the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Johnson had now the honour of being appointed Professor in Ancient Literature. In the course of the year he wrote some letters to Mrs. Thrail, passed some part of the summer at Oxford and at Litchfield, and when at Oxford wrote the following letter. To the Reverend Mr. Thomas Wharton, dear sir, many years ago, when I used to read in the library of your college, I promised to recompense the college for that permission by adding to their books a Baskerville's Virgil. I have now sent it, and desire you to reposited on the shelves in my name. If you will be pleased to let me know when you have an hour of leisure, I will drink tea with you. I am engaged for the afternoon, to-morrow, and on Friday, all my mornings of my own. I am, et cetera, Samuel Johnson. May 31st, 1769 I came to London in the autumn, and having informed him that I was going to be married in a few months, I wished to have as much of his conversation as I could before engaging in a state of life which would probably keep me more in Scotland, and prevent me seeing him so often as when I was a single man. But I found he was at Brighthamston, with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. I was very sorry that I had not his company with me at the Jubilee in honour of Shakespeare at Stratford-upon Avon, the great poet's native town. Johnson's connection, both with Shakespeare and Garrick, founded a double claim to his presence, and it would have been highly gratifying to Mr. Garrick. Upon this occasion I particularly lamented that he had not that warmth of friendship for his brilliant pupil, which we may suppose would have had a benignant effect on both. When almost every man of eminence in the literary world was happy to partake in this festival of genius, the absence of Johnson could not but be wondered at and regretted. The only trace of him there was in the whimsical advertisement of a haberdasher, who sold Shakespearean ribbons of various dyes, and, by way of illustrating their appropriation to the bard, introduced a line from the celebrated prologue at the opening of Drury Lane Theatre. Each change of many-coloured life he drew. From Brighthamston Dr. Johnson wrote me the following letter, which they who may think I ought to have suppressed must have less ardent feelings than I have always avowed. To James Boswell, Esquire, dear sir. Why do you charge me with unkindness? I have omitted nothing that could do you good or give you pleasure, unless it be that I have foreborn to tell you my opinion of your account of Corsica. I believe my opinion, if you think well of my judgment, might have given you pleasure. But when it is considered how much vanity is excited by praise, I am not sure that it would have done you good. Your history is like other histories, but your journal is in a very high degree curious and delightful. There is, between the history and the journal, that difference which there will always be found between notions borrowed from without and notions generated within. Your history was copied from books, your journal rose out of your own experience and observation. You express images which operated strongly upon yourself, and you have impressed them with great force upon your readers. I know not whether I could name any narrative by which curiosity is better excited or better gratified. I am glad that you are going to be married, and as I wish you well in things of less importance, wish you well with proportionate ardour in this crisis of your life. What I can contribute to your happiness I should be very unwilling to withhold, for I have always loved and valued you, and shall love you and value you still more as you become more regular and useful—effects which a happy marriage will hardly fail to produce. I do not find that I am likely to come back very soon from this place. I shall perhaps stay a fortnight longer, and a fortnight is a long time to a lover absent from his mistress. Would a fortnight ever have an end? I am, dear sir, your most affectionate humble servant, Samuel Johnson. Bright Helmston, September 9th, 1769 After his return to town we met frequently, and I continued the practice of making notes of his conversation, though not with so much aciduity as I wish I had done. At this time indeed I had a sufficient excuse for not being able to appropriate so much time to my journal. For General Powley, after Corsica had been overpowered by the monarchy of France, was now no longer at the head of his brave countrymen. But having with difficulty escaped from his native island had sought an asylum in Great Britain, and it was my duty, as well as my pleasure, to attend much upon him. Such particulars of Johnson's conversation at this period as I have committed to writing I shall here introduce, without any strict attention to methodical arrangement. Sometimes short notes of different days shall be blended together, and sometimes a day may seem important enough to be separately distinguished. He said he would not have Sunday kept with rigid severity and gloom, but with a gravity and simplicity of behaviour. I told him that David Hume had made a short collection of Scottish-isms. I wonder, said Johnson, that he should find them. He would not admit the importance of the question concerning the legality of general warrants. Such a power, he observed, must be vested in every government to answer particular cases of necessity, and there can be no just complaint but when it is abused, for which those who administer government must be answerable. It is a matter of such indifference, a matter about which the people care so very little, that were a man to be sent over Britain to offer them an exemption from it at a hape near peace, very few would purchase it. This was a specimen of that laxity of talking which I have heard him fairly acknowledge. For surely, while the power of granting general warrants was supposed to be legal, and the apprehension of them hung over our heads, we did not possess that security of freedom congenial to our happy constitution, and which, by the intrepid exertions of Mr. Wilkes, has been happily established. He said, the duration of Parliament, whether for seven years, or the life of the King, appears to me so immaterial, that I would not give half a crown to turn the scale one way or the other. The habeas corpus is the single advantage which our government has over that of other countries. On the thirtieth of September we dined together at the MITRE. I attempted to argue for the superior happiness of the savage life upon the usual fanciful topics. Johnson. Sir, there can be nothing more false. The savages have no bodily advantages beyond those of civilised men. They have not better health, and as to care or mental uneasiness, they are not above it, but below it, like bears. No, sir, you are not to talk such paradox. Let me have no more on it. It cannot entertain far less can it instruct. Lord Montbodeau, one of your scotch judges, talked a great deal of such nonsense. I suffered him, but I will not suffer you. Boswell. But sir, does not Rousseau talk such nonsense? Johnson. True, sir, but Rousseau knows he is talking nonsense, and laughs at the world for staring at him. Boswell. How so, sir? Johnson. Why, sir, a man who talks nonsense so well must know that he is talking nonsense. But I am afraid, chuckling and laughing, Montbodeau does not know that he is talking nonsense. Boswell. Is it wrong, then, sir, to affect singularity in order to make people stare? Johnson. Yes, if you do it by propagating error, and indeed it is wrong in any way, there is in human nature a general inclination to make people stare, and every wise man has himself to cure of it, and does cure himself. If you wish to make people stare by doing better than others, why make them stare till they stare their eyes out? But consider how easy it is to make people stare by being absurd. I may do it by going into a drawing-room without my shoes. You remember the gentleman in the spectator, who had a commission of lunacy taken out against him for his extreme singularity, such as never wearing a wig but a night-cap. Now, sir, abstractedly the night-cap was best, but relatively the advantage was overbalanced by his making the boys run after him. Talking of a London life, he said, The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it. I will venture to say there is more learning and science within the circumference of ten miles from where we now sit than in all the rest of the kingdom. Boswell. The only disadvantage is the great distance at which people live from one another. Johnson. Yes, sir. But that is occasioned by the largeness of it, which is the cause of all the other advantages. Boswell. Sometimes I have been in the humour of wishing to retire to a desert. Johnson. Sir, you have desert enough in Scotland. Although I had promised myself a great deal of instructive conversation with him on the conduct of the married state, of which I had then a near prospect, he did not say much upon that topic. Mr. Seward heard him once say that a man has a very bad chance for happiness in that state, unless he marries a woman of very strong and fixed principles of religion. He maintained to me, contrary to the common notion, that a woman would not be the worse wife for being learned, in which, from all that I have observed of Artemisius, I humbly differed from him. That a woman should be sensible and well informed, I allow to be a great advantage, and think that Sir Thomas Overbury in his rude versification has very judiciously pointed out that degree of intelligence which is to be desired in a female companion. Give me next good, an understanding wife, by nature wise, not learned by much art. Some knowledge on her side will all my life more scope of conversation impart. Besides her inborn virtue fortify, they are most firmly good, who best know why. When I censured a gentleman of my acquaintance for marrying a second time, as it showed a disregard of his first wife, he said, Not at all, Sir, on the contrary, were he not to marry again, it might be concluded that his first wife had given him a disgust to marriage. But by taking a second wife, he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time. So ingenious a turn did he give to this delicate question. And yet, on another occasion, he owned that he once had almost asked a promise of Mrs. Johnson that she would not marry again, but had checked himself. Indeed, I cannot help thinking that in his case the request would have been unreasonable, for if Mrs. Johnson forgot, or thought it no injury to the memory of her first love, the husband of her youth and the father of her children, to make a second marriage, why should she be precluded from a third, should she be so inclined? In Johnson's persevering fond appropriation of his tetty, even after her decease, he seems totally to have overlooked the prior claim of the honest Birmingham trader. I presume that her having been married before had at times given him some uneasiness, for I remember his observing upon the marriage of one of our common friends. He has done a very foolish thing, sir. He has married a widow, when he might have had a maid. We drank tea with Mrs. Williams. I had last year the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Thrail at Dr. Johnson's one morning, and had conversation enough with her to admire her talents, and to show her that I was as John Sonion as herself. Dr. Johnson had probably been kind enough to speak well of me, for this evening he delivered me a very polite card from Mr. Thrail and her, inviting me to stretterm. On the 6th of October I complied with this obliging invitation, and found at an elegant villa six miles from town every circumstance that can make society pleasing. Johnson, though quite at home, was yet looked up to with an awe tempered by affection, and seemed to be equally the care of his host and hostess. I rejoiced at seeing him so happy. He played off his wit against Scotland with a good human pleasantry, which gave me, though no bigot to national prejudices, an opportunity for a little contest with him. I, having said that England was obliged to us for gardeners, almost all their good gardeners being Scotchmen. Johnson. Why, sir, that is because gardening is much more necessary amongst you than with us, which makes so many of your people learn it. It is all gardening with you. Things which grow wild here must be cultivated with great care in Scotland. Pray now, throwing himself back in his chair and laughing. Are you ever able to bring the slow to perfection? I boasted that we had the honour of being the first to abolish the unhospitable, troublesome and ungracious custom of giving veils to servants. Johnson, sir, you abolished veils because you were too poor to be able to give them. Mrs. Thrail disputed with him on the merit of prior. He attacked him powerfully, said he wrote of love like a man who had never felt it. His love verses were college verses, and he repeated the song, Alexis chunned his fellow swains, etc., in so ludicrous a manner as to make us all wonder how anyone could have been pleased with such fantastical stuff. Mrs. Thrail stood to her gun with great courage in defence of amorous ditties which Johnson despised, till he at last silenced her by saying, My dear lady, talk no more of this. Nonsense can be defended, but by nonsense. Mrs. Thrail then praised Garrick's talent for light, gay poetry, and as a specimen repeated his song in florizel and perdita, and dwelt with peculiar pleasure on this line, I'd smile with the simple and feed with the poor. Johnson, nay, my dear lady, this will never do. Poor David, smile with the simple. What folly is that? And who would feed with the poor that can help it? No, no, let me smile with the wise and feed with the rich. I repeated this sally to Garrick, and wondered to find his sensibility as a writer not a little irritated by it. To soothe him I observed that Johnson spared none of us, and I quoted the passage in Horace in which he compares one who attacks his friends for the sake of a laugh to a pushing ox that is marked by a bunch of hay put upon his horns. Phenom Habet in Cornel I said Garrick vehemently, he has a whole mow of it. Talking of history, Johnson said, we may know historical facts to be true, as we may know facts in common life to be true. Motives are generally unknown. We cannot trust to the characters we find in history, unless when they are drawn by those who knew the persons, as those for instance by Salast and by Lord Clarendon, he would not allow much merit to Whitefield's oratory. His popularity, sir, said he, is chiefly owing to the peculiarity of his manner. He would be followed by crowds, were he to wear a nightcap in the pulpit, or were he to preach from a tree? I know not from what spirit of contradiction he burst out into a violent declamation against the Corsicans of whose heroism I talked in high terms. Sir, said he, what is all this rout about the Corsicans? They have been at war with the Genoese for upwards of twenty years, and have never yet taken their fortified towns. They might have battered down their walls and reduced them to powder in twenty years. They might have pulled the walls in pieces and cracked the stones with their teeth in twenty years. It was in vain to argue with him upon the want of artillery he was not to be resisted for the moment. On the evening of October the tenth I presented Dr. Johnson to General Powley. I had greatly wished that two men for whom I had the highest esteem should meet. They met with a manly ease, mutually conscious of their own abilities, and of the abilities of each other. The General spoke Italian and Dr. Johnson English, and understood one another very well with a little aid of interpretation from me, in which I compared myself to an Isthmus which joins two great continents. Upon Johnson's approach the General said, From what I have read of your work, sir, and from what Mr. Boswell has told me of you, I have long held you in great veneration. The General talked of languages being formed on the particular notions and manners of a people, without knowing which we cannot know the language. We may know the direct signification of single words, but by these no beauty of expression, no sally of genius, no wit is conveyed to the mind. All this must be by allusion to other ideas. Sir, said Johnson, you talk of language as if you had never done anything else but study it, instead of governing a nation. The General said, Questo è un troppo gran complimento. This is too great a compliment. Johnson answered, I should have thought so, sir, if I had not heard you talk. The General asked him what he thought of the spirit of infidelity which was so prevalent. Johnson, sir, this gloom of infidelity I hope is only a transient cloud passing through the hemisphere which will soon be dissipated and the sun break forth with his usual splendour. You think, then, said the General, that they will change their principles like their clothes. Johnson, why, sir, if they bestow no more thought on principles than on dress, it must be so. The General said that a great part of the fashionable infidelity was owing to a desire of showing courage. Men who have no opportunities of showing it as to things in this life take death and futurity as objects on which to display it. Johnson, that is mighty foolish affectation. Fear is one of the passions of human nature of which it is impossible to divest it. You remember that the Emperor Charles V, when he read upon the tombstone of a Spanish nobleman, here lies one who never knew fear. Witterly said, then he never snuffed a candle with his fingers. He talked a few words of French to the General, but finding he did not do it with facility, he asked for pen, ink and paper, and wrote the following note. The author calls it Lingwam Korsikirostikam. She may have gone through it little by little, but she has certainly foreseen it again in the mountains and in the countryside. The same author says the same thing by speaking of Sardinia, that there are two languages in the island, one of the cities, the other of the countryside. The general immediately informed him that the Lingwam Korsikam was only in Sardinia. Dr. Johnson went home with me and drank tea till late in the night. He said, General Pauly had the loftiest port of any man he had ever seen. He denied that military men were always the best breadmen. Perfect good-breeding, he observed, consists in having no particular mark of any profession, but a general elegance of manners, whereas in a military man you can commonly distinguish the brand of a soldier, Lom de Pe. Dr. Johnson shunned, to-night, any discussion of the perplexed question of fate and free will which I attempted to agitate. Sir, said he, we know our will is free, and there's an end on it. He honoured me with his company at dinner on the 16th of October at my lodgings in Old Bond Street, with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr. Garrick, Dr. Goldsmiths, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Bickerstaff and Mr. Thomas Davies. Garrick played round him with a fond vivacity, taking hold of the breasts of his coat, and, looking up in his face with a lively arch-ness, complimented him on the good health which he seemed then to enjoy. While the sage, shaking his head, beheld him with a gentle complacency. One of the company not being come at the appointed hour, I proposed, as usual upon such occasions, to order dinner to be served, adding, ought six people to be kept waiting for one. Why, yes, answer Johnson with a delicate humanity. If the one will suffer more by your sitting down, then the six will do by waiting. Goldsmiths, to divert the tedious minutes, strutted about, bragging of his dress, and I believe was seriously vain of it, for his mind was wonderfully prone to such impressions. Come, come, said Garrick, talk no more of that. You are perhaps the worst. Hey, hey! Goldsmiths was eagerly attempting to interrupt him, when Garrick went on laughing ironically. Nay, you will always look like a gentleman, but I am talking of being well or ill-dressed. Well, let me tell you, said Goldsmiths, when my tailor brought home my bloom-coloured coat, he said, Sir, I have a favour to beg of you. When anybody asks you who made your clothes, be pleased to mention John Philby at the Harrow in Water Lane. Johnson, why, sir, that was because he knew the strange colour would attract crowds to gaze at it, and thus they might hear of him, and see how well he could make a coat, even of so absurd a colour. After dinner our conversation first turned upon Pope. Johnson said, his characters of men were admirably drawn, those of women not so well. He repeated to us, in his forcible melodious manner, the concluding lines of the duncead. While he was talking loudly in praise of those lines, one of the company ventured to say, too fine for such a poem. A poem on what? Johnson was a disdainful look. Why, on dunces, it was worth while being a dunce then. Ah, sir, had thou lived in those days, it is not worth while being a dunce now, when there are no wits. Bicca-staff observed, as a peculiar circumstance, that Pope's fame was higher when he was alive than it was then. Johnson said his pastoral's were poor things, those of versification was fine. He told us, with high satisfaction, the anecdote of Pope's inquiring, who was the author of his London, and saying, he will be soon deterred. He observed that in Dryden's poetry there were passages drawn from a profundity which Pope could never reach. He repeated some fine lines on love by the former, which I have now forgotten, and gave greater applause to the character of Zimri. Goldsmith said that Pope's character of Addison showed a deep knowledge of the human heart. Johnson said that the description of the temple in the morning bride was the finest poetical passage he had ever read. He recollected none in Shakespeare equal to it. But, said Garrick, all alarmed for the god of his idolatry, we know not the extent and variety of his powers. We are to suppose there are such passages in his works, Shakespeare must not suffer from the badness of our memories. Johnson, diverted by this enthusiastic jealousy, went on with greater ardour. No, sir, Congreve has nature. Smiling on the tragic eagerness of Garrick. But composing himself, he added, Sir, this is not comparing Congreve on the whole with Shakespeare on the whole, but only maintaining that Congreve has one finer passage than any that can be found in Shakespeare. Sir, a man may have no more than ten guineas in the world, but he may have those ten guineas in one piece, and so may have a finer piece, than a man who has ten thousand pounds, but then he has only one ten guinea piece. What I mean is that you can show me no passage where there is simply a description of material objects without any intermixture of moral notions which produces such an effect. Mr. Murphy mentioned Shakespeare's description of the night before the Battle of Ashingkor, but it was observed it had men in it. Mr. Davis suggested the speech of Juliet, in which she figures herself awakening in the tomb of her ancestors. Someone mentioned a description of Dovercliffe. Johnson knows her. It should be all precipice, all vacuum. The crows impede your fall. The diminished appearance of the boats and other circumstances are all very good description, but do not impress the mind at once with the horrible idea of immense height. The impression is divided. You pass on, by computation, from one stage of the tremendous space to another. Had the girl in the morning bride said she could not cast her shoe to the top of one of the pillars in the temple, it would not have aided the idea but weakened it. Talking of a barrister who had a bad utterance, someone, to rouse Johnson, wickedly said that he was unfortunate in not having been taught oratory by Sheridan. Johnson, nay, sir, if he had been taught by Sheridan he would have cleared the room. Garrick. Sheridan has too much vanity to be a good man. We shall now see Johnson's mode of defending a man, taking him into his own hands and discriminating. Johnson. No, sir, there is to be sure in Sheridan something to reprehend and everything to laugh at, but, sir, he is not a bad man. No, sir. Were mankind to be divided into good and bad, he would stand considerably within the ranks of good. And, sir, it must be a lard that Sheridan excels in plain declamation, though he can exhibit no character. I should perhaps have suppressed this disquisition concerning a person of whose merit and worth I think with respect had he not attacked Johnson so outrageously in his life of swift, and at the same time treated us his admirers as a set of pygmies. He who has provoked the lash of wit cannot complain that he is smart from it. Mrs. Montague, a lady distinguished for having written an essay on Shakespeare, being mentioned. Reynolds. I think that essay does her honour. Johnson. Yes, sir, it does her honour, but it would do nobody else honour. I have indeed not read it all, but when I take up the end of a web and find it pack-thread, I do not expect by looking further to find embroidery. Sir, I will venture to say there is not one sentence of true criticism in her book. Garrick. But, sir, surely it shows how much bold tear has mistaken Shakespeare which nobody else has done. Johnson. Sir, nobody else has thought it worthwhile. And what merit is there in that? You may as well praise a schoolmaster for whipping a boy who has construed ill. No, sir. There is no real criticism in it, none showing the beauty of thought as formed on the workings of the human heart. The admirers of this essay may be offended at the sighting manner in which Johnson spoke of it, but let it be remembered that he gave his honest opinion unbiased by any prejudice or any proud jealousy of a woman intruding herself into the chair of criticism. For Sir Joshua Reynolds has told me that when the essay first came out, and it was not known who had written it, Johnson wondered how Sir Joshua could like it. At this time Sir Joshua himself had received no information concerning the author, except being assured by one of our most eminent literati, that it was clear its author did not know the Greek tragedies in the original. One day at Sir Joshua's table, when it was related that Mrs. Montague, in an excess of compliment to the author of a modern tragedy, had exclaimed, I tremble for Shakespeare. Johnson said, when Shakespeare has got blank for his rival, and Mrs. Montague for his defender, he is in a poor state indeed. Johnson proceeded, the Scotchman has taken the right method in his elements of criticism. I do not mean that he has taught us anything, but he has told us old things in a new way. Murphy. He seems to have read a great deal of French criticism, and wants to make it his own, as if he had been for years anatomising the heart of man and peeping into every cranny of it. Goldsmith. It is easier to write that book than to read it. Johnson. We have an example of true criticism in Burke's essay on the Sublime and Beautiful. And if I recollect, there is also Du Bois and Bois, who shows all beauty to depend on truth. There is no great merit in telling how many plays have ghosts in them, and how this ghost is better than that. You must show how terror is impressed on the human heart. In the Description of Night in Macbeth the beetle and the bat detract from the general idea of darkness. Inspirated gloom. Politics being mentioned, he said, this petitioning is a new mode of distressing government and a mighty easy one. I will undertake to get petitions either against quarter guineas or half guineas, with the help of a little hot wine. There must be no yielding to encourage this. The object is not important enough. We are not to blow up half a dozen palaces, because one cottage is burning. The conversation then took another turn. Johnson. It is amazing what ignorance of certain points one sometimes finds in men of eminence. A wit about town, who wrote Latin bawdy verses, asked me how it happened that England and Scotland, which were once two kingdoms, were now one. And Sir Fletcher Norton did not seem to know that there were such publications as the Refumes. The ballad of hardy canute has no great merit, if it be really ancient. People talk of nature, but mere obvious nature may be exhibited with very little power of mind. End of Section 4. Section 5 of The Life of Samuel Johnson, Volume 2. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Gary Jerlinga. The Life of Samuel Johnson, Volume 2 by James Boswell. Section 5, 1769, continued. On Thursday, October 19th, I passed the evening with him at his house. He advised me to complete a dictionary of words peculiar to Scotland. Ray has made a collection of North country words. By collecting those of your country, you will do a useful thing towards the history of the language. He bade me also go on with collections which I was making upon the antiquities of Scotland. Make a large book, a folio. Boswell. But of what use will it be, sir? Johnson. Never mind the use. Do it. I complained that he had not mentioned Garrick in his preface to Shakespeare, and asked him if he did not admire him. Johnson. Yes, as a poor player who frets and struts his hour upon the stage, as a shadow. Boswell. But has he not brought Shakespeare into notice? Johnson. Sir, to allow that would be to lampoon the age. Many of Shakespeare's plays are the worst for being acted. Macbeth, for instance. Boswell. What, sir, is nothing gained by decoration and action? Indeed, I do wish that you had mentioned Garrick. Johnson. My dear sir, had I mentioned him, I must have mentioned many more. Mrs. Prichard, Mrs. Cibber, Ney, and Mr. Cibber too. He too altered Shakespeare. Boswell, you have read his apology, sir? Johnson. Yes, it is very entertaining. But as for Cibber himself, taking from his conversation all that he ought not to have said, he was a poor creature. I remember when he brought me one of his odes to have my opinion of it. I could not bear such nonsense. I would not let him read it to the end, so little respect I had for that great man, laughing. Yet I remember Richardson wondering that I could treat him with familiarity. I mentioned to him that I had seen the execution of several convicts at Tyburn two days before, and that none of them seemed to be under any concern. Johnson. Most of them, sir, have never thought at all. Boswell. But is not the fear of death natural to man? Johnson. So much, sir, that the whole of life is but keeping away the thoughts of it. He then, in a low and earnest tone, talked of his meditating upon the awful hour of his own dissolution, and in what manner he should conduct himself upon that occasion. I do not, said he, whether I should wish to have a friend by me or have it all between God and myself. Talking of our feeling for the distresses of others. Johnson. Why, sir, there is much noise made about it, but it is greatly exaggerated. No, sir, we have a certain degree of feeling to prompt us to do good. More than that, Providence does not intend. It would be misery to no purpose. Boswell. But suppose now, sir, that one of your intimate friends were apprehended for an offence for which he might be hanged. Johnson. I should do what I could to bail him, and give him any other assistance. But if he were once fairly hanged, I should not suffer. Boswell. Would you eat your dinner that day, sir? Johnson. Yes, sir, and eat it as if he were eating it with me. Why, there is Beretti, who is to be tried for his life tomorrow. Friends have risen up for him on every side. Yet, if he should be hanged, none of them will eat a slice of plum pudding the less. Sir, that sympathetic feeling goes a very little way in depressing the mind. I told him that I had dined lately at Foots, who showed me a letter which he had received from Tom Davies, telling him that he had not been able to sleep from the concern which he felt on account of this sad affair of Beretti, begging of him to try if he could to suggest anything that might be of service, and at the same time recommending to him an industrious young man who kept a pickle shop. Johnson. I, sir, here you have a specimen of human sympathy, a friend hanged and a cucumber pickled. We know not whether Beretti or the pickle man has kept Davies from sleep, nor does he know himself. And as to his not sleeping, sir, Tom Davies is a very great man. Tom has been upon the stage and knows how to do those things. I have not been upon the stage and cannot do those things. Boswell. I have often blamed myself, sir, for not feeling for others as sensibly as many say they do. Johnson. Sir, don't be duped by them any more. You will find these very feeling people are not very ready to do you good. They pay you by feeling. Boswell. Foot has a great deal of humor. Johnson. Yes, sir. Boswell. He has a singular talent of exhibiting character. Sir, it is not a talent, it is a vice. It is what others abstain from. It is not comedy which exhibits the character of a species as that of a miser gathered from many miseries. It is farce which exhibits individuals. Boswell. Did not he think of exhibiting you, sir? Johnson. Sir, fear restrained him. He knew I would have broken his bones. I would have saved him the trouble of cutting off a leg. I would not have left him a leg to cut off. Boswell. Pray, sir, is not foot an infidel? Johnson. I do not know, sir, that the fellow is an infidel. But if he be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel. That is to say, he has never thought upon the subject. Boswell. I suppose, sir, he has thought superficially and sees the first notions which occurred to his mind. Johnson. Why, then, sir, still he is like a dog that snatches the peace next to him. Did you never observe that dogs have not the power of comparing? A dog will take a small bit of meat as readily as the large when both are before him. The cannon, he observed, has many fewer centoes than any modern Latin poet. He not only had great knowledge of the Latin language, but was a great poetical genius. Both the Scallagers praise him. He again talked of the passage in congrieve with high commendation and said, Shakespeare never has six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven, but this does not refute my general assertion. If I come to an orchard and say there is no fruit there, and then comes a pouring man who finds two apples and three pears and tells me, sir, you are mistaken. I have found both apples and pears. I should laugh at him. What would that be to the purpose? Boswell. What do you think of Dr. Young's night thoughts, sir? Johnson. Why, sir, there are very fine things in them. Boswell. Is there not less religion in the nation now, sir, than there was formerly? Johnson. I don't know, sir, that there is. Boswell. For instance, there used to be a chaplain in every great family which we do not find now. Johnson. Neither do you find any of the state servants which great families used formerly to have. There is a change in modes in the whole department of life. Next day, October 20th, he appeared for the only time I suppose in his life, as a witness in a court of justice, being called to give evidence to the character of Mr. Beretti, who, having stabbed a man in the street, was arraigned at the Old Bailey for murder. Never did such a constellation of genius enlighten the awful session's house, emphatically called Justice Hall. Mr. Burke, Mr. Garrick, Mr. Bochlerc, and Dr. Johnson, and undoubtedly their favorable testimony had great weight with the court and jury. Johnson gave his evidence in a slow, deliberate, and distinct manner, which was uncommonly impressive. It is well known that Mr. Beretti was acquitted. On the 26th of October, we dined together at the Mitre Tavern. I found fault with Foot, for indulging his talent of ridicule at the expense of his visitors, which I colloquially termed making fools of his company. Johnson. Why, sir, when you go to see Foot, you do not go to see a saint. You go to see a man who will be entertained at your house and then bring you on a public stage. Who will entertain you at his house for the very purpose of bringing you on a public stage. Sir, he does not make fools of his company. They whom he exposes are fools already. He only brings them into action. Talking of trade, he observed, it is a mistaken notion that a vast deal of money is brought into a nation by trade. It is not so. Commodities come from commodities, but trade produces no capital S session of wealth. However, though there should be little profit in money, there is a considerable profit and pleasure, as it gives to one nation the productions of another, as we have wines and fruits and many foreign articles brought to us. Boswell. Yes, sir, and there is a profit and pleasure by its furnishing occupation to such numbers of mankind. Johnson. Why, sir, you cannot call that pleasure to which all are averse, and which none begin but with the hope of leaving off of. A thing which men dislike before they have tried it, and when they have tried it. Boswell. But, sir, the mine must be employed, and we grow weary when idle. Johnson. That is, sir, because others being busy, we want company. But if we were all idle, there would be no growing weary. We should all entertain one another. There is indeed this in trade. It gives men an opportunity of improving their situation. If there were no trade, many who were poor would always remain poor. But no man loves labour for itself. Boswell. Yes, sir, I know a person who does. He is a very laborious judge, and he loves the labour. Johnson. Sir, that is because he loves respect and distinction. Could he have them without labour? He would like it less. Boswell. He tells me he likes it for itself. Why, sir, he fancies so, because he is not accustomed to abstract. We went home to his house to tea. Mrs. Williams made it with sufficient dexterity, not withstanding her blindness, that her manner of satisfying herself that the cups were full enough appeared to me a little awkward, for I fancied she put a finger down a certain way till she felt the tea touch. In my first elation, at being allowed the privilege of attending Dr. Johnson at his late visits to this lady, which was like being a sicorabilis concilius, I willingly drank cup after cup, as if it had been the Heliconian spring. But as the charm of novelty went off, I grew more fastidious, and besides I discovered that she was of a peevish temper. There was a pretty large circle this evening. Dr. Johnson was in a very good humour, lively and ready to talk about all subjects. Mr. Ferguson, the self-taught philosopher, told him of a new-invited machine which went without horses, a man who set an attempt to handle which worked a spring that drove it forward. Then, sir, said Johnson, what is gained is the man has his choice whether he will move himself alone or himself in the machine too. Domeniceti, being mentioned, he would not allow him any merit. There is nothing in all this boasted system. No, sir. Medicated baths can be no better than warm water. Their only effect can be that of tepid moisture. One of the company took the other side, maintaining that medicines of various sorts and some too of most powerful effect are introduced into the human frame by the medium of the pours, and therefore, when warm water is impregnated with salutiferous substances, it may produce great effects as a bath. This appeared to me very satisfactory. Johnson did not answer it, but talking for victory and determined to be master of the field. He had recourse to the device which Goldsmith imputed to him in the witty words of one of Sivers' comedies. There is no arguing with Johnson for when his pistol misses fire he knocks you down with the butt end of it. He turned to the gentleman. Well, sir, you go to Domeniceti and get thyself fumigated, but be sure that the steam be directed to thy head, for that is the peckant part. This produced a triumphant roar of laughter from motley assembly of philosophers, printers, independents, male and female. I know not how so whimsical a thought came into my mind, but I asked, if, sir, you were shut up in a castle and a newborn child with you, what would you do? Johnson, why, sir, I should not much like my company. Boswell, but would you take the trouble of rearing it? He seemed, as well may be supposed, unwilling to pursue the subject, upon my persevering in my question, replied, Why, yes, sir, I would, but I must have all conveniences. If I had no garden, I would make a shed on the roof and take it there for fresh air. I should feed it and wash it much and with warm water to please it, not with cold water to give it pain. Boswell, but, sir, does not heat relax. Johnson, sir, you are not to imagine the water is to be very hot. I would not coddle the child. The hardy method of treating children does no good. I'll take you five children from London who shall cuff five Highland children. Sir, a man bred in London will carry a berthin, or run, or wrestle, as well as a man brought up in the hardiest manner in the country. Boswell, good living, I suppose, makes the Londoner strong. Johnson, why, sir, I don't know that it does. Our chairman from Ireland, who are as strong as any, have been brought up upon potatoes. This quantity makes up for quality. Boswell, would you teach this child that I have furnished you with anything? Johnson, no, I should not be apt to teach it. Boswell, would not you have a pleasure in teaching it? Johnson, no, sir, I should not have a pleasure in teaching it. Boswell, have you not a pleasure in teaching men? There I have you. You have the same pleasure in teaching men that I should have in teaching children. Johnson, why, something about that. Boswell, do you think, sir, that what is called natural affection is born with us? Johnson, why, sir, I think there is an instinctive natural affection in parents toward their children. Russia, being mentioned as likely to become a great empire by the rapid increase in population. Johnson, why, sir, I see no prospect of their propagating more. I see no more children than they can get. I know of no way to make them breed more than they do. It is not from reason and prudence the people marry, but from inclination. A man is poor, he thinks, I cannot be worse, and so I'll e'en take Peggy. Boswell, but have not nations been more populace at one period than another? Johnson, yes, sir, but that has been owing to the people being less thinned at one period than another, whether by immigrations, war, or pestilence, they're being more or less prolific. Births at all time bear the same proportion to the same number of people. Boswell, but to consider the state of our own country, does not throwing a number of farms into one hand hurt population? Johnson, why, no, sir, the same quantity of food is being produced will be consumed by the same number of mouths, though the people may be disposed of in different ways. We see, if corn be dear and butchers meet cheap, the farmers all apply themselves to the raising of corn, till it becomes plentiful and cheap, and then butchers meet becomes dear, so that inequality is always preserved. No, sir, let fanciful men do as they will, depend upon it, it is difficult to disturb the system of life. Boswell, but sir, is it not a very bad thing for landlords to oppress their tenants by raising their rents? Johnson, very bad, but sir, it never can have any general influence. It may distress some individuals. For consider this, landlords cannot do without tenants. Now tenants will not give more for land than land is worth. If they can make more of their money by keeping a shop or any other way, they'll do it. And so obliged landlords to let land come back to a reasonable rent in order that they may get tenants. Land in England is an article of commerce. A tenant who pays as landlord his rent and himself no more obliged to him than you think yourself obliged to a man in whose shop you buy a piece of goods. He knows the landlord does not let him have his land for less than he can get from others in the same manner as the shopkeeper sells his goods. No shopkeeper sells a yard of ribbon for six pence when seven pence is the current price. Boswell, but sir, is it not better that tenants should be dependent on landlords? Johnson, why sir, as there are many more tenants than landlords, perhaps strictly speaking, we should wish not. But if you please, you may let your lands cheap and so get the value part in money and part in homage. I should agree with you on that. Boswell, so sir, you laugh at schemes of political improvement. Johnson, why sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things. He observed, Providence has wisely ordered that the more numerous men are, the more difficult it is for them to agree in anything. And so they are governed. There is no doubt that if the poor should reason, will be poor no longer, will make the rich men take their turn, they could easily do it, were it not that they can't agree. So the common soldiers, though much more numerous than their officers, are governed by them for the same reason. He said, Mankind have a strong attachment to the habitations to which they have been accustomed. You see the inhabitants of Norway do not with one consent quit it and go to some part of America where there is a mild climate and where they might have the same produce from land with the tenth part of the labor. No sir, their affection for their old dwellings and the terror of a general change keep them at home. Thus we see many of the finest spots of the world thinly inhabited and many rugged spots well inhabited. The London Chronicle, which was the only newspaper he constantly took in, being brought, the office of reading it aloud was assigned to me. I was diverted by his impatience. He made me pass over so many parts of it that my task was very easy. He would not suffer one of the petitions to the king about the middle-sex election to be read. I had hired a bohemian as my servant while I remained in London, and being much pleased with him, I asked Dr. Johnson whether his being a Roman Catholic should prevent my taking him to Scotland. Johnson, why no sir, if he has no objection you can have none. Boswell, so sir, you are no great enemy to the Roman Catholic religion? Johnson, no more sir than to the Presbyterian religion. Boswell, you are joking. Johnson, no sir, I really think so. Nay sir, of the two I prefer the Popesh. Boswell, how so sir? Johnson, why sir, the Presbyterians have no church, no apostolical ordination? Boswell, and do you think that absolutely essential sir? Johnson, why sir, as it was an apostolical institution I think it is dangerous to be without it? And sir, the Presbyterians have no public worship, they have no form of prayer in which they know how to join, they go to hear a man pray and are to judge whether they will join with him. Boswell, but sir, their doctrine is the same with that of the Church of England. Their confession of faith and the 39 articles contain the same points even the doctrine of predestination. Johnson, why yes sir, predestination was a part of the clamor of the times so it is mentioned in our articles with as little positiveness as could be. Boswell, is it necessary to sir to believe all the 39 articles? Johnson, why sir, that is a question which has been much agitated. Some have thought it necessary that they all should be believed. Others have considered them to be only articles of peace that is to say you are not to preach against them. Boswell, it appears to me sir that predestination or what is equivalent to it cannot be avoided if we hold a universal prescience in the deity. Johnson, why sir, does not God every day see things going on without preventing them? Boswell, true sir, but if a thing be certainly foreseen it must be fixed that we cannot have it otherwise. And if we apply this consideration to the human mind there is no free will. Nor do I see how prayer can be any avail. He mentioned Dr. Clark and Bishop Brannhall on liberty and necessity and Bidme read South's sermons on prayer but avoided the question which has excruciated philosophers and divines beyond any other. I did not press it further but I perceived that he was displeased and shrunk from any abridgment of an attribute usually ascribed to the divinity, however irreconcilable in its full extent with the grand system of moral government. His supposed orthodoxy here cramped the vigorous powers of his understanding. He was confined by a chain which early imagination and long habit made him think massy and strong by which had he ventured to try he could at once have snapped us under. I proceeded. What do you think, sir, of purgatory as believed by the Roman Catholics? Johnson. Why, sir, it is a very harmless doctrine. They are of opinion that the generality of mankind are neither so obstinately wicked as to deserve everlasting punishment nor so good as to merit being admitted into the society of blessed spirits and therefore that God is graciously pleased to allow of a middle state where they may be purified by certain degrees of suffering. Sir, there is nothing unreasonable in this. Boswell. But then, sir, there are masses for the dead. Johnson. Why, sir, if it be once established that there are cells in purgatory it is as proper to pray for them as for our brethren of mankind who are yet in this life. Boswell. The idolatry of the mass? Johnson. Sir, there is no idolatry in the mass. They believe God to be there and they adore him. Boswell. The worship of the saints? Johnson. Sir, they do not worship saints. They invoke them. They only ask their prayers. I am talking all this time of the doctrines of the Church of Rome. I grant you that in practice purgatory is made a lucrative imposition and that the people do become idolatrous as they recommend themselves to the tutelary protection of particular saints. I think they are giving the sacrament only in one kind as criminal contrary to the expressed institution of Christ and I wonder how the Council of Trent admitted it. Boswell. Confession? Johnson. Why, I don't know, but that is a good thing. The Scripture says confess your faults to one another and the priests confess as well as the laity. Then it must be considered that their absolution is only upon repentance and often upon penance also. You think your sins may be forgiven without penance, upon repentance alone. I thus ventured to mention all of the common objections against the Roman Catholic Church that I may hear so great a man upon them. What he said here is accurately recorded but it is not improbable that if one had taken the other side he might have reasoned differently. I must however mention that he had a respect for the old religion as the mild melanchthon called that of the Roman Catholic Church even while he was exerting himself as a nation in some particulars. Sir William Scott informs me that he heard Johnson say a man who is converted from Protestantism to Popery may be sincere. He parts with nothing. He is only super-adding to what he already had but a convert from Popery to Protestantism gives up so much of what he has held as sacred as anything that he retains. There is so much laceration of mind in such a conversion that it can hardly be sincere in lasting. The truth of this reflection may be confirmed by many in imminent instances some of which will occur to most of my readers. When we were alone I introduced the subject of death and endeavored to maintain that the fear of it might be got over. I told him that David Hume said to me he was no more uneasy to think that he should not be after this life than that he had not been before he began to exist. Johnson Sir, if he really thinks so his perceptions are disturbed. He is mad. If he does not think so he lies. He may tell you he holds his finger in the flame of a candle without feeling pain. Would you believe him? When he dies he at least gives up all he has. Boswell Foote, sir, told me that when he was very ill he was not afraid to die. Johnson, it is not true, sir that he should be able to foot a breast or to Hume's breast and threaten to kill them and you'll see how they behave. Boswell But may not we fortify our minds for the approach of death? Here I am sensible I was in the wrong to bring before he view what he ever looked upon with horror. For although, when in a celestial frame in his vanity of human wishes he had supposed death to be kind nature's signal for retreat from this state of being to a happier seat. His thoughts upon this awful change were in general full of dismal apprehensions. His mind resembled the vast amphitheater the Colosseum at Rome. In the centre stood his judgment which like a mighty gladiator combated those apprehensions that like the wild beasts of the arena were all around in cells ready to be let out upon him. After a conflict he drives them back into their dens but not killing him they were still assailing him. To my question whether we might fortify our minds for the approach of death he answered in a passion No sir, let it alone it matters not how a man dies but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance it lasts so short a time. He added with an earnest look a man knows it must be so and submits it will do him no good to whine. I attempted to continue the conversation. He was so provoked that he said give us no more of this and was thrown into such a state of agitation that he expressed himself in a way that alarmed and distressed me showed an impatience that I should leave him and when I was going away called to me sternly don't let us meet tomorrow. I went home exceedingly uneasy. All the harsh observations which I had ever heard made upon his character crowded into my mind and I seemed to myself like the man who had put his head into the lion's mouth a great many times with perfect safety but at last had it bit off. Next morning I sent him a note stating that I might have been in the wrong but it was not intentionally he was therefore I could not help thinking too severe upon me that notwithstanding our agreement not to meet that day I would call on him in my way to the city and stay five minutes by my watch you are, said I, in my mind since last night surrounded with cloud and storm let me have a glimpse of sunshine and I shall go about my fares in serenity and cheerfulness. Upon entering his study I was glad that he was not alone which would have made our meeting more awkward there were with him Mr. Stevens and Mr. Tears both of whom I now saw for the first time my note had on his own reflection softened him for he received me very complacently so that I unexpectedly found myself at ease and joined in the conversation he said the critics had done too much honor to Sir Richard Blackmore by writing so much against him that in his creation he had been helped by various wits aligned by Phillips and aligned by Tickle so that by their aid and those of others the poem had been made out I defended Blackmore's supposed lines which have been ridiculed as absolute nonsense a painted vest Prince Volteger had on which from a naked picked his grand sire won I maintained it to be a poetical conceit a picked being painted if he is slain in battle and a vest is made out of his skin it is a painted vest one from him though he was naked Johnson spoke unfavorably of a pretty voluminous author saying he used to write anonymous books and then other books commending those books in which there was something of rascality I whispered him well sir you are now in good humor Johnson yes sir I was going to leave him and it got as far as the staircase he stopped me and smiling said get you gone in a curious motive inviting me to stay which I accordingly did for some time longer this little incidental quarrel and reconciliation which perhaps I may be thought to have detailed too minutely must be esteemed as one of those many proofs which his friends had that though he might be charged with bad humor at times he always was a good natured man and I have heard sir Joshua Reynolds a nice and delicate observer of manners particularly remark that when upon any occasion Johnson had been rough to any person in company he took the first opportunity of reconciliation by drinking to him or addressing his discourse to him but if he found his dignified indirect overtures sullenly neglected he was quite indifferent and considered himself as having done all that he ought to do and has the other now in the wrong being set out for Scotland on the 10th of November I wrote to him at Streetham begging that he would meet me in town on the 9th but if this should be very inconvenient to him I would go thither his answer was as follows to James Boswell Esquire dear sir upon balancing the inconveniences of both parties I find it will less incommode you to spend your night here than me to come to town I wish to see you and am ordered by the lady of this house to invite you hither whether you can come or not I shall not have any occasion of writing to you again before your marriage and therefore tell you now that with great sincerity I wish you happiness I am, dear sir your most affectionate humble servant Sam Johnson November 9, 1769 I was detained in town till it was too late on the 9th so I went to him early on the morning of the 10th of November Now said he that you were going to marry do not expect more from life than life will afford you may often find yourself out of humor and you may often think your wife is devious enough to please you and yet you may have reason to consider yourself as upon the whole very happily married talking of marriage in general he observed our marriage service is too refined it is calculated only for the best kind of marriages whereas we should have a form for matches of convenience of which there are many he agreed with me that there was no absolute necessity for having the marriage ceremony performed by a regular clergyman for this was not commanded in Scripture I was volatile enough to repeat to him a little epigrammatic song of mine on matrimony which Mr. Garrick had a few days before procured to be set to music by the very ingenious Mr. Dibbden a matrimonial thought in the blithe days of honeymoon with Kate's allurement smitten I loved her late I loved her soon and called her dearest kitten but now my kitten's grown a cat and crossed like other wives oh by my soul my honest mat I fear she has nine lives my illustrious friend said it is very well sir but you should not swear upon which I altered oh by my soul to alas alas he was so good as to accompany me to London and see me into the postchase which was to carry me on my road to Scotland and sure I am that however inconsiderable many of the particulars recorded at this time may appear to some they will be esteemed by the best part of my readers as genuine traits of his character contributing together to give a full, fair and distinct view of it End of section 5 The recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Richard Elwood The Life of Samuel Johnson Volume 2 by James Boswell Section 6 1770 I Attack 61 In 1770 he published a political pamphlet about the false alarm intended to justify the conduct of ministry and their majority in the House of Commons for having virtually assumed it as an axiom that the expulsion of a Member of Parliament was equivalent to exclusion and thus having declared Colonel Lutterl to be duly elected for the County of Middlesex notwithstanding Mr. Wilkes had a great majority of votes this being justly considered as a gross violation of the right of election an alarm for the Constitution extended itself all over the kingdom to prove this alarm to be false was the purpose of Johnson's pamphlet but even his vast powers were inadequate to cope with the constitutional truth and reason and his argument failed of a fact and the House of Commons have since expunged the offensive resolution from their journals that the House of Commons might have expelled Mr. Wilkes repeatedly and as often as he should be re-chosen was not denied but incapacitation cannot be but by an act of the whole legislature it was wonderful to see how a prejudice in favour of government in general and an aversion to popular clamour could blind and contract such an understanding as Johnson's in this particular case yet the wit, the sarcasm the eloquent vivacity which this pamphlet displayed made it be read with great avidity at the time and it will ever be read with pleasure for the sake of its composition that it endeavour to infuse an narcotic indifference as to public concerns into the minds of the people and that it broke out sometimes into an extreme coarseness of contemptuous abuse is but too evident it must not however be omitted in the form of his violent subsides he takes a fair opportunity to pay a grateful compliment to the king who had rewarded his merit these low-born rulers have endeavoured surely without effect to alienate the affections of the people from the only king who for almost a century has much appeared to desire or much endeavoured to deserve them and every honest man must lament that the faction has been regarded with frigid neutrality by the Tories who, being long accustomed to signalise their principles by opposition to the court do not yet consider that they have at last a king who knows not the name of party and who wishes to be the common father of all his people to this pamphlet which was at once discovered to be Johnson's several answers came out in which Care was taken to remind and of his now being a prisoner without allowing for the honourable terms upon which Johnson's pension was granted and accepted or the change of system which the British court had undergone upon the accession of his present majesty he was however soothed in the highest strain of Pagniric in a poem called The Reminstrance by the reverend Mr. Stockedale to whom he was, upon many occasions a kind protector The following admirable minute made by him describes so well his own state and that of numbers to whom self-examination is habitual that I cannot admit it June 1st, 1770 Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time that is the courtesy of experiment this opinion of our own constancy is so prevalent that we always despise him who suffers his general and subtle purpose to be overpowered by an occasional desire they, therefore whom frequent failures have made desperate cease to form resolutions and they who are become cunning do not tell them those who do not make them are very few for scarcely any man persists in a course of life planned by choice but as he is restrained from deviation by some external power he who may live as he will seldom live long in the observation of his own rules of this year I have obtained the following letters to the reverend Dr. Farmer Cambridge Sir, as no man ought to keep holy to himself any possession that may be useful to the public I hope you will not think me unreasonably intrusive if I have recourse to you for such information as you are more able to give me than any other man in support of an opinion which you have already placed above the need of any more support Mr. Stevens a very ingenious gentleman lately of King's College has collected an account of all the translations which Shakespeare might have seen and used he wishes his catalogue to be perfect and therefore and treats that you will favour him by the insertion of such additions as the accuracy of your inquiries has enabled you to make to this respect I take the liberty of adding my own solicitation we have no immediate use for this catalogue and therefore do not desire that it should interrupt or hinder your more important employments but it will be kind to let us know that you receive it I am Sir etc. Sam Johnson Johnson's Court Fleet Street March 21st 1770 to the Reverend Mr. Thomas Wharton Dear Sir the readiness with which you were pleased to promise me some notes on Shakespeare was a new instance of your friendship I shall not hurry you but am desired by Mr. Stevens who helps me in this addition that we shall print the tragedies first and shall therefore want first the notes which belong to them we think not to incommode the readers with the supplement and therefore what we cannot put into its proper place will do us no good we shall not begin to print before the end of six weeks perhaps not so soon I am etc. Sam Johnson London June 23rd 1770 to the Reverend Dr. Joseph Wharton Dear Sir I am revising my addition of Shakespeare and remember that I formally misrepresented your opinion of Lear be pleased to write the paragraph as you would have it and send it if you have any remarks of your own upon that or any other play I shall gladly receive them make my compliments to Mrs. Wharton I sometimes sink of wandering for a few days to Winchester but am apt to delay I am Sir your most humble servant Sam Johnson September 27th 1770 to Mr. Francis Barber at Mrs. Clapp's Bishop Stratford Hartfordshire Dear Francis I am at last sat down to write you and should very much blame myself for having neglected you so long if I did not impute that and many other failings to want of health I hope not to be so long silent again I am very well satisfied with your progress if you can readily perform the exercises which you are set and I hope Mr. Ellis does not suffer you to impose on him or on yourself make my compliments to Mr. Ellis and to Mrs. Clapp and Mr. Smith let me know what English books you read for your entertainment you can never be wise unless you love reading do not imagine that I shall forget or forsake you for if when I examine you I find that you have not lost your time you shall want no encouragement from yours affectionately Sam Johnson London September 25th 1770 to the same Dear Francis I hope you mind your business I design you shall stay with Mrs. Clapp these holidays you may go if Mr. Ellis gives leave I have ordered you some clothes which you will receive I believe next week my compliments to Mrs. Clapp and to Mr. Ellis and Mr. Smith etc I am your affectionate Sam Johnson December 7th 1770 During this year there was a total cessation of all correspondence between Dr. Johnson and me without any coldness I had no opportunity but merely from procrastination continued from day to day and as I was not in London I had no opportunity of enjoying his company and recording his conversation to supply this blank I shall present my readers with some collectiana obligingly furnished to me by the Reverend Dr. Maxwell of Falkland in Ireland some time assistant preacher at the temple and for many years a social friend with a very kind regard my acquaintance with that great and venerable character commenced in the year 1754 I was introduced to him by Mr. Greerson his majesty's printer at Dublin a gentleman of uncommon learning and great wit and vivacity Mr. Greerson died in Germany at the age of 27 Dr. Johnson highly respected his abilities and often observed that he possessed more extensive knowledge than any man of his years he had ever known his industry was equal to his talents and he particularly excelled in every species of philological learning and was perhaps the best critic of the age he lived in I must always remember with gratitude my obligation to Mr. Greerson for the honour and happiness of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance and friendship which continued uninterrupted and undiminished to his death a connection that was at once the pride and happiness of my life what a pity it is that so much wit and good sense as he continually exhibited in conversation should perish unrecorded few persons quitted his company without perceiving themselves wiser and better than they were before on serious subjects he flashed the most interesting conviction upon his auditors and upon lighter topics he proposed Albeno Musas de Monde Locutus though I can hope to add but little to the celebrity of so exalted a character by any communications I can furnish yet out of pure respect to his memory I will venture to transmit to you some anecdotes concerning him which fell under my own observation the very minute of such a character must be interesting and may be compared to the philings of diamonds in politics he was deemed a Troy but certainly was not so in the obnoxious or party sense of the term for while he asserted the legal and salutary prerogatives of the crown he no less respected the constitutional liberties of the people Wigism at the time of the revolution he said was accompanied with certain principles but laterally as a mere party distinction and the Pelhams was no better than the politics of stock-jobbers and the religion of infidels he detested the idea of governing by parliamentary corruption and asserted most strenuously that a prince steadily and conspicuously pursuing the interests of his people could not fail of parliamentary concurrence a prince of ability he contended might and should be the directing soul and spirit of his own administration in short his own minister and not the mere head of a party and then and not till then would the royal dignity be sincerely respected Johnson seemed to think that a certain degree of crown influence over the houses of parliament not meaning a corrupt and shameful dependence was very salutary nay even necessary in our mixed government four said he if the members were under no crown influence and disqualified from receiving any gratification from court and resembled as they possibly might Pym and Hasselrig and other stubborn and sturdy members of the long parliament the wheels of government would be totally obstructed such men would oppose merely to show their own power from envy, jealousy and perversity of disposition not gaining themselves would hate and oppose all who did not loving the person of the prince and conceiving they owed him little gratitude from the mere spirit of insolence and contradiction they would oppose and thwart him upon all occasions the inseparable imperfection annexed to all human governments consisted he said in not being able to create a sufficient fund of virtue and principle laws and to do an effectual execution wisdom might plan but virtue alone could execute and where could sufficient virtue be found a variety of delegated and often discretionatory powers must be entrusted somewhere which, if not governed by integrity and conscience would necessarily be abused till at last the constable would sell his for a shilling this excellent person was sometimes charged with abetting slavish and arbitrary principles of government nothing in my opinion could be a grosser columny and misrepresentation for how can it be rationally supposed that he should adopt such pernicious and absurd opinions who supported his philosophical character with so much dignity was extremely jealous of his personal liberty and independence and could not brook the smallest appearance of neglect or insult even from the highest personages but let us view him in some instances of more familiar life his general mode of life during my acquaintance seemed to be pretty uniform about twelve o'clock I commonly visited him and frequently found him in bed or declaiming over his tea which he drank very plentifully he generally had a levee of morning visitors briefly men of letters Hawksworth, Goldsmith Murphy, Langton, Stevens Buchlurk, etc. and sometimes learned ladies particularly I remember a French lady of wit and fashion doing him the honor of a visit he seemed to me to be considered as a kind of public oracle whom everybody thought they had a right to visit and consult and doubtless they were well rewarded I never could discover how he found his compositions he declaimed all the morning then went to a dinner at a tavern where he commonly stayed late and then drank his tea at some friend's house over which he loitered a great while but seldom took supper I fancy he must have read and wrote chiefly in the night for I can scarcely recollect that he ever refused going with me to a tavern and he often went to Renaeli which he deemed a place of innocent recreation he frequently gave all the silver in his pocket to the poor who watched him between his house and the tavern where he dined he walked the streets at all hours and said he was never robbed for the rogues knew he had little money nor had the appearance of having much though the most accessible and communicative man alive yet when he suspected he was invited to be exhibited he constantly spurned the invitation two young women from Stratfordshire visited him when I was present to consult him on the subject of Methodism to which they were inclined come, said he, you pretty fools dine with Maxwell and me at the mitre and we will talk over that subject which they did and after dinner he took one of them upon his knee and fondled her for half an hour together upon a visit to me at a country lodging near Twickenham he asked what sort of society I had there I told him, but indifferent as they chiefly consisted of opulent traders retired from business he said he never much liked that class of people for, sir, said he they have lost the civility of tradesmen without acquiring the manners of gentlemen Johnson was much attached to London he observed that a man stored his mind better there than anywhere else in most situations a man's body might be feasted but his mind was starved and his faculties apt to degenerate from want of exercise and competition no place, he said, cured a man's vanity or arrogance so well as London for as no man was either great or good per se but as compared with others not so good or great he was sure to find in the metropolis many his equals and some his superiors he observed that a man in London was in less danger of falling in love indiscreetly than anywhere else for there the difficulty of deciding between the conflicting pretensions of a vast variety of objects kept him safe he told me that he had frequently been offered country preferment if he would consent to take orders but he could not leave the improved society of the capital or consent to exchange the exhilarating joys and splendid decorations of public life for the obscurity, incipity and uniformity of remote situations speaking of Mr. Hart, canon of Windsor and writer of the history of Gustavus Adolphus he much condemned him as a scholar and a man of the most companionable talents he had ever known he said the defects in his history proceeded not from imbecility but from phoppery he loved, he said, the old black leather books they were rich in matter, though their style was inelegant, wonderfully so consisting how conversant the writers were with the best models of antiquity Burton's anatomy of melancholy, he said was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise he frequently exhorted me to set about writing a history of Ireland and archly remarked there had been some good Irish writers and that one Irishman might at least aspire to be equal to another he had great compassion for the miseries and distresses of the Irish nation particularly the Papists and severely reprobated the barbarous, debilitating policy of the British government which, he said, was the most detestable mode of persecution to a gentleman who hinted such policy might be necessary to support the authority of the English government he replied by saying, let the authority of the English government perish rather than be maintained by iniquity better would it be to restrain the turbulence of the natives by the authority of the sword and to make them amenable to the law and justice by ineffectual and vigorous police than to grind them to powder by all manner of disabilities and incapacities better said he to hang or drown people at once than by unrelenting persecution to beggar and starve them the moderation and humanity of the present times have in some measure justified the wisdom of his observations Dr. Johnson was often accused of prejudices nay antipathy with regard to the natives of Scotland surely so illiberal a prejudice never entered his mind it is well known that many natives of that respectable country possessed a large share in his esteem nor were any of them ever excluded from his good offices as far as opportunity permitted true it is he considered the scotch nationally as a crafty designing people eagerly attentive to their own interest and too apt to overlook the claims and pretensions of other people to find their benevolence in a manner exclusively to those of their own country they expect to share in the good offices of other people now said Johnson this principle is either right or wrong if right we should do well to imitate such conduct if wrong we cannot too much to test it being solicited to compose a funeral sermon for the daughter of a tradesman he naturally inquired into the character of the deceased and being told she was remarkable for her humility and condescension to inferiors he observed that those were very laudable qualities but it might not be so easy to discover who the ladies inferiors were of a certain prayer he remarked that his conversation usually threatened and announced more than it performed that he fed you with a continual renovation of hope and end in a constant succession of disappointment when exasperated by contradiction he was apt to treat his opponents with too much acronymity as sir you don't see your way through that question sir you talk the language of ignorance on my observing to him that a certain gentleman had remained silent the whole evening in the midst of a very brilliant and learned society said he the conversation overflowed and drowned him his philosophy though a steer and solemn was by no means morose and cynical and never blunted the laudable sensibilities of his character or exempted him from the influence of the tender passions want of tenderness he always alleged was want of parts and was no less a proof of stupidity than depravity speaking of Mr. Hanway who published an eight days journey from London to Portsmouth Jonas said he acquired some reputation by traveling abroad but lost it all by traveling at home of the passion of love he remarked that its violence and ill effects were much exaggerated for who knows any real sufferings on that head more than from the exorbitancy of any other passion he much commended Law's serious call which he said was the finest piece of oratory theology in any language Law said he fell laterally into the reveries of Jacob Bayman whom Law alleged to have been somewhat in the same state with St. Paul and to have seen unutterable things he would have resembled St. Paul still more by not attempting to utter them he observed that the established clergy in general did not preach plain enough and that polished periods and glittering sentences flew over their heads of the common people without any impression upon their hearts something might be necessary he observed to excite the affections of the common people who were sunk in langer and lethargy and therefore he supposed that the new commandments of Methodism might probably produce so desirable an effect the mind like the body he observed delighted in change and novelty and even in religion itself courted new appearance and modifications whatever might be thought of some Methodist teachers he said he could scarcely doubt the sincerity of that man who traveled nine hundred miles in a month and preached twelve times a week for no adequate reward merely temporal could be given for such an indefatigable labor of Dr. Priestley's theological works he remarked that they tended to unsettle everything and yet settled nothing he was much affected by the death of his mother and wrote to me to come and assist him to compose his mind which indeed I found extremely agitated he lamented that all serious and religious conversation was banished from the society of men and yet great advantages might be derived from it all acknowledged he said what hardly anybody practised the obligation we were under of making the concerns of eternity the governing principles of our lives every man he observed at last wishes for retreat he sees his expectations frustrated in the world and begins to wean himself from it and to prepare for everlasting separation he observed that the influence of London now extended everywhere and that from all manner of communication being opened there shortly would be no remains of the ancient simplicity or places of cheap retreat to be found he was no admirer of blank verse and said it always failed unless sustained by the dignity of the subject in blank verse he said the language suffered more distortion to keep it out of prose than any inconvenience or limitation to be apprehended from the shackles and circumspection of rhyme he reproved me once for saying grace without mention of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and hoped in future I would be more mindful of the apostical injunction he refused to go out of a room before me at Mr. Langton's house saying he hoped he knew his rank better than to presume to take place of a doctor of divinity I mentioned such little anecdotes merely to show the peculiar turn and habit of his mind he used frequently to observe that there was more to be endured than enjoyed in the general condition of human life and frequently quoted those lines of Dryden strange cousinage none would live past years again it all hoped pleasure from what still remain for his part he said he never passed that week in his life which he would wish to repeat were an angel to make the proposal to him he was of opinion that the English nation cultivated both their soil and their reason better than any other people but admitted that the French though not the highest perhaps in any department of literature yet in every department were very high intellectual preeminence he observed was the highest superiority and that every nation derived their highest reputation from the splendor and dignity of their writers Voltaire he said was a good narrator and that his principal merit consisted in a happy selection and arrangement of circumstances speaking of the French novels compared with Richardson's he said they might be pretty baubles but a wren was not an eagle in a latin conversation with the Peret Boscovich at the house of Mrs. Chol Mondalele I heard him maintain the superiority of Sir Isaac Newton over all foreign philosophers with the dignity and eloquence that surprised the learned foreigner it being observed to him that a rage for everything English prevailed much in France after Lord Catham's glorious war he said he did not wonder at it for that we had drugged those fellows into a proper reverence for us and that their national petulance required periodical chastisement Lord Lielton's dialogues he deemed a nogritory performance that man said he sat down to write a book to tell the world what the world had all his life been telling him somebody observing that the Scottish Highlanders in the year 1745 had made surprising efforts considering their numerous wants and disadvantages yes sir said he their wants were numerous but you have not mentioned the greatest of them all the want of law speaking of the inward light to which some methodists pretended he said it was a principal utterly incompatible with the social or civil security if a man said he pretends to a principal of action of which I can know nothing nay not so much as that he has it but only that he pretends to it how can I tell what that person may be prompted to do when a person professes to be governed by a written ascertained law I can then know where to find him the poem of Fingal he said was a mere unconnected rhapsody a tiresome repetition of the same images in vain shall we look for the Lucas Ordo where there is neither end nor object design or moral nexerta recute imagio being asked by a young nobleman what was become of the gallantry and military spirit of the old English nobility he replied why my lord I'll tell you what's become of it he's gone into the city to look for a fortune speaking of a dole tiresome fellow whom he chants to meet he said that fellow seems to me to possess but one idea and that is a wrong one much inquiry having been made concerning a gentleman who had quitted a company where Johnson was and no information being obtained at last Johnson observed that he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back but he believed that the gentleman was an attorney he spoke with much contempt of the notice taken of Woodhouse the poetical shoemaker he said it was all vanity and childishness and that such objects were to those who patronized them mere mirrors of their own superiority they had better said he furnished the man with good implements for his trade than raised subscriptions for his poems to make an excellent shoemaker but can never make a good poet a schoolboy's exercise may be a pretty thing for a schoolboy but it is no treat for a man speaking of Boatis who is the favorite writer of the Middle Ages he said it was very surprising that upon such a subject and in such a situation he should be Magius Philosophus Quiam Cristanius 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. Kineticott'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 everyone 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 Bing at the instigation of the ministry and was equally ready to write for him provided he found his accountant 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, faupery was never cured it was the bad stamina of the mind which like those of the body were never rectified once a coxcom and always a coxcom being told that Gilbert Cooper called him the caliban of literature well said he, I must dub him the poncinlo speaking of the old Earl of Cork and Ory he said that man spent his life in catching at an object 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 quequis dais miseris mortibalis avi prima fugit subiant morbi tristicae sinectis et labor et dure rapid 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 a noblest exhortation that could be instanced in any heathen writer and comprised in a single line which, if I recollect well, is translated by Dr. Clark thus semper apetere prastimistima et omnibus alis anticlare he observed it was a more 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 Sharp preach at the temple in the preparatory prayer Sharp ranted about liberty as a blessing most fervently to be implored and its continuance prayed for Johnson observed that our liberty was in no sort of danger he would have done much better to pray against our licentiousness one evening at Mrs. Montague'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 to 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 a birth and family especially among ladies he said, advantageousness 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 pretty 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 poor is the true test of civilization gentlemen of 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 an agitation in Ireland by which that country has been enabled not only to feed itself but to export corn to a large amount Sir Thomas Robinson observed that those laws might be prejudicial to the corn 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 then they can do it it being mentioned that the Garrick assisted Dr. Brown the author of the estimate in some dramatic composition no sir, said Johnson he would no more suffer Garrick to write a line 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 worthwhile to save anxiously twenty pounds a year if a man could save to that agree 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 fortune 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 quantity 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 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 in 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 tete tete at the mitre as I was preparing to return to Ireland after an absence of many years I regarded 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 tired 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 to his ignorance to condemn and after having viewed the gaudy bait can boldly say the trifle I condemn was such a one contented I could live contented could I die he then took a most affecting 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 toman end of section six