 section 18 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 the life of Samuel Johnson volume 2 by James Boswell section 18 1775 continued on Tuesday April the 18th he and I were engaged to go with Sir Joshua Reynolds to dine with Mr. Cambridge at his beautiful villa on the banks of the Thames near Twickenham. Dr. Johnson's tardiness was such that Sir Joshua who had an appointment at Richmond early in the day was obliged to go by himself on horseback leaving his coach to Johnson and me. Johnson was in such good spirits that everything seemed to please him as we drove along. Our conversation turned on a variety of subjects he thought portrait painting and improper employment for a woman public practice of any art he observed and staring in men's faces is very indelicate in a female I happen to start a question whether when a man knows that some of his intimate friends are invited to the house of another friend with whom they are all equally intimate he may join them without an invitation. Johnson knows sir he is not to go when he is not invited they may be invited on purpose to abuse him smiling. As a curious instance how little a man knows or wishes to know his own character in the world or rather as a convincing proof that Johnson's roughness was only external and did not proceed from his heart I insert the following dialogue Johnson it is wonderful sir how rare a quality good humour is in life we meet with very few good-humoured men I mentioned four of our friends none of whom he would allow to be good-humoured one was acid another was muddy and to the others he had objections which have escaped me then shaking his head and stretching himself at ease in the coach and smiling with much complacency he turned to me and said I look upon myself as a good-humoured fellow the epithet fellow applied to the great lexicographer the stately moralist the masterly critic as if he had been Sam Johnson a mere pleasant companion highly diverting and this light notion of himself struck me with wonder I answered also smiling no no sir that will not do you are good-natured but not good-humoured you are irascible you have not patience with folly and absurdity I believe you would pardon them if there were time to deprecate your vengeance but punishment follows so quick after sentence that they cannot escape I had brought with me a great bundle of scotch magazines and newspapers in which his journey to the Western Islands was attacked in every mode and I read a great part of them to him knowing they would afford him entertainment I wish the writers of them had been present they would have been sufficiently vexed one ludicrous imitation of his style by mr. Maclaurin now one of the scotch judges with the title of Lord Dreghorn was distinguished by him from the rude mass this said he is the best but I could caricature my own style much better myself he defended his remark upon the general insufficiency of education in Scotland and confirmed to me the authenticity of his witty saying on the learning of the scotch their learning is like bread in a besieged town every man gets a little but no man gets a full meal there is said he in Scotland a diffusion of learning a certain portion of it widely and thinly spread a merchant there has as much learning is one of their clergy he talked of Isaac Walton's lives which was one of his most favorite books dr. Don's life he said was the most perfect of them he observed that it was wonderful that Walton who was in a very low situation in life should have been familiarly received by so many great men and that at a time when the ranks of society were kept more separate than they are now he supposed that Walton had then given up his business as a linen draper and Sempster and was only an author and added that he was a great panigirist Boswell no quality will get a man more friends than a disposition to admire the quality is others I do not mean flattery but a sincere admiration Johnson nayser flattery please is very generally in the first place the flatterer may think what he says to be true but in the second place whether he thinks so or not he certainly thinks those whom he flatters of consequence enough to be flattered no sooner had we made our bow to Mr. Cambridge in his library than Johnson ran eagerly to one side of the room intent on pouring over the backs of the books Sir Joshua observed aside he runs to the books as I do to the pictures but I have the advantage I can see much more of the pictures than he can of the books Mr. Cambridge upon this politely said dr. Johnson I am going with your pardon to accuse myself for I have the same custom which I perceive you have but it seems odd that one should have such a desire to look at the backs of books Johnson ever ready for contest instantly started from his reverie wheeled about and answered sir the reason is very plain knowledges of two kinds we know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it when we inquire into any subject the first thing we have to do is to know what books are treated of it this leads us to look at catalogs and the backs of books in libraries sir Joshua observed to me the extraordinary promptitude with which Johnson flew upon an argument yes said I he has no formal preparation no flourishing with his sword he is through your body in an instant Johnson was here solaced with an elegant entertainment a very accomplished family and much good company among whom was Mr. Harris of Salisbury who paid in many compliments on his journey to the Western Islands the common remark as to the utility of reading history being made Johnson we must consider how very little history there is I mean real authentic history that certain kings reigned and certain battles were fought we can depend upon as true but all the coloring all the philosophy of history is conjecture Boswell then sir you would reduce all history to know better than an almanac a mere chronological series of remarkable events Mr. Gibbon who must at that time have been employed upon his history of which he published the first volume in the following year was present but did not step forth in defence of that species of writing he probably did not like to trust himself with Johnson Johnson observed that the force of our early habits was so great that though reason approved nay though our senses relished a different course almost every man returned to them I do not believe there is any observation upon human nature better founded than this and in many cases it is a very painful truth for where early habits have been mean and wretched the joy and elevation resulting from better modes of life must be damped by the gloomy consciousness of being under an almost inevitable doom to sink back into a situation in which we recollect with disgust it surely may be prevented by constant attention and unremitting exertion to establish contrary habits of superior efficacy the beggars opera and the common question whether it was pernicious in its effects having been introduced Johnson as to this matter which has been very much contested I myself am of opinion that more influence has been ascribed to the beggars opera than it in reality ever had for I do not believe that any man was ever made a rogue by being present at its representation at the same time I do not deny that it may have some influence by making the character of a rogue familiar and in some degree pleasing then collecting himself as it were to give a heavy stroke there is in it such a lobby factation of all principles as maybe injurious to morality while he pronounced this response we sat in a comical sort of restraint smothering a laugh which we were afraid might burst out in his life of gay he has been still more decisive as to the inefficiency of the beggars opera in corrupting society but I have ever thought somewhat differently for indeed not only are the gaiety and heroism of the highwayman very captivating to a youthful imagination but the arguments for adventurous depredation are so plausible the illusion so lively and the contrasts with the ordinary and more painful modes of acquiring property are so artfully displayed that it requires a cool and strong judgment to resist so imposing and aggregate yet I own I should be very sorry to have the beggars opera suppressed for there is in it so much of real London life so much brilliant wit and such a variety of heirs which from early association of ideas engage soothe and enliven the mind that no performance which the theatre exhibits delights me more the late worthy Duke of Queensbury as Thompson in his seasons justly characterizes him told me that when gay first showed him the beggars opera his graces observation was this is a very odd thing gay I'm satisfied that it is either a very good thing or a very bad thing it proved the former beyond the warmest expectations of the author or his friends Mr. Cambridge however showed us today that there was good reason enough to doubt concerning its success he was told by Quinn that during the first night of its appearance it was long in a very dubious state that there was a disposition to dammit and that it was saved by the song upon Dewell be not severe the audience being much affected by the innocent looks of Polly when she came to those two lines which exhibit at once a painful and ridiculous image for on the rope that hangs my dear depends poor Polly's life Quinn himself had so bad an opinion of it that he refused the part of Captain McEath and gave it to Walker who acquired great celebrity by his grave yet animated performance of it we talked of a young gentleman's marriage with an eminent singer and his determination that she should no longer sing in public though his father was very earnest that she should because her talents would be liberally rewarded so as to make her a good fortune it was questioned whether the young gentleman who had not a shilling in the world but was blessed with very uncommon talents was not foolishly delicate or foolishly proud and his father truly rational without being mean Johnson with all the high spirit of a Roman senator exclaimed he resolved wisely and knowly to be sure he is a brave man would not a gentleman be disgraced by having his wife singing publicly for hire no sir there can be no doubt here I know not if I should not prepare myself for a public singer as readily as let my wife be one Johnson arraigned the modern politics of this country as entirely devoid of all principle of whatever kind politics said he are now nothing more than means of rising in the world with this soul view do men engage in politics and their whole contact proceeds upon it how different in that respect is the state of the nation now from what it was in the time of Charles the first during the usurpation and after the restoration in the time of Charles the second who did brass affords a strong proof of how much hold political principles had then upon the minds of men there is in who did brass a great deal of bullion which will always last but to be sure the brighter strokes of his wit owed their force to the impression of the characters which was upon men's minds at the time to their knowing them at table and in the street in short being familiar with them and above all to his satire being directed against those whom a little while before they had hated and feared the nation in general has ever been loyal has been at all times attached to the monarch though a few daring rebels have been wonderfully powerful for a time the murder of Charles the first was undoubtedly not committed with the approbation or consent of the people had that been the case parliament would not have ventured to consign the register size to their deserved punishment and we know what exuberance of joy there was when Charles the second was restored if Charles the second had bent all his mind to it had made it his sole object he might have been as absolute as Louis the 14th a gentleman observed he would have done no harm if he had Johnson why sir absolute princes seldom do any harm but there you are governed by them are governed by chance there is no security for good government Cambridge there have been many sad victims to absolute government Johnson so sir have there been two popular factions Boswell the question is which is worst one wild beast or many Johnson praised the spectator particularly the character of Sir Roger to cover Lee he said Sir Roger did not die a violent death as has been generally fancied he was not killed he died only because others were to die and because his death afford an opportunity to Addison for some very fine writing we have the example of Theravantes making Don Cacate die I could never see why sir Roger is represented as a little cracked it appears to me that the story of the widow was intended to have something super induced upon it but the superstructure did not come somebody found fault was writing verses in a dead language maintaining that they were merely arrangements of so many words and laughed at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge for sending forth collections of them not only in Greek and Latin but even in Syriac Arabic and other more unknown tongues Johnson I would have as many of these as possible I would have verses in every language that there are the means of acquiring nobody imagines that in university is to have at once 200 poets but it should be able to show 200 scholars Peer Esk's death was lamented I think in 40 languages and I would have had at every coronation and every death of a king every Gaudium and every luptus university verses in as many languages as can be acquired I would have the world to be thus told here is a school where everything may be learned having set out next day on a visit to the Earl of Pembroke at Wilton and to my friend Mr. Temple at Mamhead in Devonshire and not having returned to town till the 2nd of May I did not see Dr. Johnson for a considerable time and during the remaining part of my stay in London kept very imperfect notes of his conversation which had I according to my usual custom written out at large soon after the time much might have been preserved which is now irretrievably lost I can now only record some particular scenes and a few fragments of his memorabilia but to make some amends for my relaxation of diligence in one respect I have to present my readers with arguments upon two law cases with which he favored me on Saturday the 6th of May we dined by ourselves at the MITRE and he dictated to me what follows to obviate the complaint already mentioned which had been made in the form of an action in the court of session by Dr. Memis of Aberdeen that in the same translation of a charter in which physicians were mentioned he was called a doctor of medicine there are but two reasons which a physician can decline the title of doctor of medicine because he supposes himself disgraced by the doctor ship or suppose as the doctor ship disgraced by himself to be disgraced by a title which he shares in common with every illustrious name of his profession with Burr-Harver with our but not and with Cullen can surely diminish no man's reputation it is I suppose to the doctorate from which he shrinks that he owes his right of practising physics a doctor of medicine is a physician under the protection of the laws and by the stamp of authority the physician who is not a doctor usurps a profession and is authorized only by himself to decide upon health and sickness and life and death that this gentleman is a doctor his diploma makes evident the diploma not obtruded upon him but obtained by solicitation and for which fees were paid with what countenance any man can refuse a title which he has either begged or bought is not easily discovered all verbal injury must comprise in it either some false position or some unnecessary declaration of defamatory truth that in calling him doctor a false appellation was given him he himself will not pretend who at the same time that he complains of the title would be offended if we suppose him to be not a doctor if the title of doctor be a defamatory truth it is time to dissolve our colleges for why should the public give salaries to men whose approbation is reproach it may likewise deserve the notice of the public to consider what help can be given to the professors of physics who all share with this unhappy gentleman the ignominious appellation and of whom the very boys in the street are not afraid to say there goes the doctor what is implied by the term doctor is well known it distinguishes him to whom it is granted as a man who has attained such knowledge of his profession as qualifies him to instruct others a doctor of laws is a man who can form lawyers by his precepts a doctor of medicine is a man who can teach the art of curing diseases there is an old axiom which no man has yet thought fit to deny nildat quad known habit upon this principle to be doctor implies skill for Nemo docket quad known did it in England whoever practices physics not being a doctor must practice by license but the doctorate conveys a license in itself by what accident it happened that he and the other physicians were mentioned in different terms where the terms themselves were equivalent or where in effect that which was applied to him was the most honorable perhaps they who wrote the paper cannot now remember had they expected a lawsuit to have been the consequence of such petty variation I hope they would have avoided it but probably as they meant to know ill they suspected no danger and therefore consulted only what appeared to them propriety or convenience a few days afterwards I consulted him upon a cause Paterson and others against Alexander and others which had been decided by a casting vote in the court of sessions determining that the corporation of sterling was corrupt and setting aside the election of some of their offices because it was proved that three of the leading men who influenced the majority had entered into an unjustifiable compact of which however the majority were ignorant he dictated to me after a little consideration the following sentences upon the subject there is a difference between majority and superiority majority is applied to number and superiority to power and power like many other things is to be estimated no numero said ponder a now though the greater number is not corrupt the greater weight is corrupt so that corruption predominates in the borough taken collectively though perhaps taken numerically the greater part may be uncorrupt that borough which is so constituted as to act corruptly is in the eye of reason corrupt whether it be by the uncontrollable power of a few or by an accidental poverty of the multitude the objection in which is urged the injustice of making the innocent suffer with the guilty is an objection not only against society but against the possibility of society all societies great and small subsist upon this condition that as the individuals derive advantages from union they may likewise suffering conveniences that as those who do nothing and sometimes those who do ill will have the honors and monuments of general virtue and general prosperity so those likewise who do nothing or perhaps do well must be involved in the consequences of predominant corruption this in my opinion was a very nice case but the decision was firmed in the house of lords on Monday May the 8th we went together and visited the mansions of bedlam I had been informed that he had once been there before with Mr. Wedderburn now Lord Loughborough Mr. Murphy and Mr. Foot and I had heard Foot give a very entertaining account of Johnson's happenings to have his attention arrested by a man who was very furious and who while beating his straw supposed it was William Duke of Cumberland whom he was punishing for his cruelties in Scotland in 1746 there was nothing particularly remarkable this day but the general contemplation of insanity was very affecting I accompanied him home and dined and drank tea with him talking of an acquaintance of ours distinguished for knowing an uncommon variety of miscellaneous articles both in antiquities and polite literature he observed you know sir he runs about with little weight upon his mind and talking of another very ingenious gentleman who from the warmth of his temper was at variance with many of his acquaintance and wished to avoid them he said sir he leaves the life of an outlaw on Friday May the 12th he had been so good as to assign me a room in his house where I might sleep occasionally when I happened to sit with him to a late hour I took possession of it this night found everything in excellent order and was attended by Honest Francis with the most civil acidity I asked Johnson whether I might go to a consultation with another lawyer upon Sunday as that appeared to me to be doing work as much in my way as if an artisan should work on the day appropriated for religious rest and Johnson why sir when you are of consequence enough to oppose a practice of consulting upon Sunday you should do it but you may go now it is not criminal though it is not what one should do who is anxious for the preservation and increase of piety to which a peculiar observance of Sunday is a great help the distinction is clear between what is of moral and what is of ritual obligation on Saturday May the 13th I breakfasted with him by invitation accompanied by Mr Andrew Crosby a scotch advocate whom he had seen at Edinburgh and the Honourable Colonel now general Edward Stopford brother to Lord Courtown who was desirous of being introduced to him his tea and rolls and butter and whole breakfast apparatus were all in such decorum and his behaviour was so courteous that Colonel Stopford was quite surprised and wondered at his having heard so much said of Johnson's slovenliness and roughness I have preserved nothing of what past except that Crosby pleased him much by talking learnedly of alchemy as to which Johnson was not a positive unbeliever but rather delighted in considering what progress had actually been made in the transmutation of metals what near approaches there had been to the making of gold and told us that it was affirmed that a person in the Russian dominion had discovered the secret but died without revealing it as imagining it would be prejudicial to society he added that it was not impossible but it might in time be generally known it being asked whether it was reasonable for a man to be angry at another whom a woman had preferred to him Johnson I do not see sir that it is reasonable for a man to be angry at another whom a woman has preferred to him but angry he is no doubt and he is loath to be angry at himself before setting out for Scotland on the 23rd I was frequently in his company at different places but during this period have recorded only two remarks one concerning Garrick he has not Latin enough he finds out the Latin by the meaning rather than the meaning by the Latin and another concerning writers of travels who he observed were more defective than any other writers I passed many hours with him on the 17th of which I find all my memorial is much laughing it should seem he had that day been in a humour for jocularity and merriment and upon such occasions I never knew a man laugh more heartily we may suppose that the high relish of a state so different from his habitual gloom produced more than ordinary exertions of that distinguishing faculty of man which has puzzled philosophers so much to explain Johnson's laugh was as remarkable as any circumstance in his manner it was a kind of good humid growl Tom Davies described it trolly enough he laughs like a rhinoceros to Bennett Langdon Esquire dear sir I have an old Emanuensis in great distress I have given what I think I can give and begged till I cannot tell where to beg again I put into his hands this morning four guineas if you could collect three guineas more it would clear him from his present difficulty I am sir your most humble servant Sam Johnson May 21st 1775 to James Boswell Esquire dear sir I make no doubt but you are now safely lodged in your own habitation and have told all your adventures to mrs Boswell and Miss Veronica pray teach Veronica to love me bid her not to mind mama Mrs. Thrail has taken cold and been very much disordered but I hope he's grown well Mr. Langton went yesterday to Lincolnshire and has invited Nicol Ida to follow him Bo Clerk talks of going to Bath I am to set out on Monday so there is nothing but dispersion I have returned Lord Hales's entertaining sheets but must stay till I come back for more because it will be inconvenient to send them after me in my vagrant state I promised Mrs. McCorley that I would try to serve her son at Oxford I have not forgotten it nor am unwilling to perform it if they desire to give him an English education it should be considered whether they cannot send him for a year or two to an English school if he comes immediately from Scotland he can make no figure in our universities the schools in the north I believe are cheap and when I was a young man were eminently good there are two little books published by the Fulis Telymakas and Collins's poems each a shilling I would be glad to have them make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell though she does not love me you see what perverse things ladies are and how little fit to be trusted with feudal estates when she mens and loves me there may be more hope of her daughters I will not send compliments to my friends by name because I would be loath to leave any in the enumeration tell them as you see them how well I speak of scotch beliteness and scotch hospitality and scotch beauty and of everything scotch but scotch oat cakes and scotch prejudices let me know the answer of Rasse and the decision relating to Sir Allen I am my dearest sir with great affection you're most obliged and most humble servant Sam Johnson may the 27th 1775 after my return to Scotland I wrote three letters to him from which I extract the following passages I have seen Lord Hales since I came down he thinks it wonderful that you are pleased to take so much pains in revising his annals I told him that you said you were well rewarded by the entertainment which you had in reading them there has been a numerous flight of Hebrideans in Edinburgh this summer whom I have been happy to entertain at my house Mr. Donald McQueen and Lord Monbodo sopped with me one evening they joined in controverting your proposition that the Gaelic of the Highlands and Isles of Scotland was not written till of late my mind has been somewhat dark this summer I have need of your warming and vivifying rays and I hope I shall have them frequently I am going to pass some time with my father at Okinleck to James Boswell Esquire dear sir I am returned from the annual ramble into the Middle Counties having seen nothing I had not seen before I have nothing to relate time has left that part of the island few antiquities and commerce has left the people no singularities I was glad to go abroad and perhaps glad to come home which is in other words I was I am afraid weary of being at home and weary of being abroad is this not the state of life but if we confess this weariness let us not lament it for all the wise and all the good say that we may cure it for the black fumes which rise in your mind I can prescribe nothing but that you disperse them by honest business or innocent pleasure and by reading sometimes easy and sometimes serious change of place is useful and I hope that your residence at Okinleck will have many good effects that I should have given pain to Rasse I am sincerely sorry and I'm therefore very much pleased that he is no longer uneasy he still thinks that I have represented him as personally giving up the chieftain ship I meant only that it was no longer contested between the two houses and suppose it's settled perhaps by the session of some remote generation in the house of Dunvegan I'm sorry the advertisement was not continued for three or four times in the paper that Lord Monbodeau and Mr McQueen should controvert a position contrary to the imaginary interest of literary or national prejudice might be easily imagined but of a standing fact there ought to be no controversy if there are men with tails catch and homo cordatus if there was writing of old in the Highlands or Hebrides in the earth's language produce the manuscripts where men write they will write to one another and some of their letters in family studios of their ancestry will be kept in Wales there are many manuscripts I have now three parcels of Lord Hale's history which I propose to return all the next week that his respect for my little observations should keep his work in suspense makes one of the evils of my journey it is in our language I think a new mode of history which tells all that is wanted and I suppose all that is known without laboured splendor of language or affected subtlety of conjecture the exactness of his date raises my wonder he seems to have the closeness of Hennott without his constraint Mrs. Thrall was so entertained with your journal that she almost read herself blind she has a great regard for you of Mrs. Boswell though she knows in her heart that she does not love me I'm always glad to hear any good and hope that she and the little dear ladies will have neither sickness nor any other affliction but she knows that she does not care what becomes of me and for that she may be sure that I think her very much to blame never my dear sir do you take it into your head that I do not love you you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem I love you as a kind man I value you as a worthy man and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety I hold you as Hamlet has it in my heart of hearts and therefore it is little to say that I am sir your affectionate humble servant Sam Johnson London August the 27th 1775 to the same sir if in these papers there is little alteration attempted do not suppose me negligent I have read them perhaps more closely than the rest but I find nothing worthy of an objection write to me soon and write often and tell me all your honest heart I am sir yours affectionately Sam Johnson August 30th 1775 to the same my dear sir I now write to you lest in some of your freaks and humours you should fancy yourself neglected such fancies I must entreat you never to admit at least never to indulge for my regard for you is so eradicated and fixed that it is become part of my mind and cannot be effaced but by some cause uncommonly violent therefore whether I write or not set your thoughts at rest I now write to tell you that I shall not very soon write again for I am to set out tomorrow on another journey your friends are all well at Stretton and in Leicester Fields make my compliments to Mrs. Boswell if she is in good humour with me I am sir etc Samuel Johnson September 14th 1775 what he mentions in such like terms as I am to set out tomorrow on another journey I soon afterwards discovered was no less than a tour to France with Mr. and Mrs. Thrail this was the only time in his life that he went upon the continent to Mr. Robert Levet September 18th 1775 Calais dear sir we are here in France after a very pleasing passage of no more than six hours I know not when I shall write again and therefore I write now that you cannot suppose that I shall have much to say you have seen France yourself from this place we are going to Rouen and from Rouen to Paris where Mr. Thrail designs to stay about five or six weeks we have a regular recommendation to the English resident so we shall not be taken for vagabonds we think to go one way and return another and four query see as much as we can I will try to speak a little French I tried hitherto but little but I spoke sometimes if I heard better I suppose I should learn faster I am sir your humble servant Sam Johnson to the same Paris October 22nd 1775 dear sir we are still here commonly very busy in looking about us we have been today at Versailles you have seen it and I shall not describe it we came yesterday from Fontainebleau where the court is now we went to see the king and queen at dinner and the queen was so impressed by Miss that she sent one of the gentlemen to inquire who she was I find all true that you have ever told me of Paris Mr. Thrail is very liberal and keeps us two coaches and a very fine table but I think our cookery very bad Mrs. Thrail got into a convent of English nuns and I talked with her through the grate and I'm very kindly used by the English benedictine friars but upon the whole I cannot make much acquaintance here and though the church's palaces and some private houses are very magnificent there is no very great pleasure after having seen so many in seeing more at least the pleasure whatever it be must sometime have an end and we are beginning to think when we shall come home Mr. Thrail calculates that as we left Strutham on the 15th of September we shall see it again about the 15th of November I think I had not been on this side of the sea five days before I found a sensible improvement in my health I ran a race in the rain this day and beat Barretti Barretti is a fine fellow and speaks French I think quite as well as English make my compliments to Mrs. Williams and give my love to Francis and tell my friends that I am not lost I am de sir your affectionate humble etc Sam Johnson to dr. Samuel Johnson Edinburgh October 24th 1775 my dear sir if I had not been informed that you were at Paris you should have had a letter from me by the earliest opportunity announcing the birth of my son on the 9th instant I have named him Alexander after my father I now write as I suppose your fellow traveller Mr. Thrail will return to London this week to attend his duty in Parliament and that you will not stay behind him I send another parcel of Lord Hales's annals I have undertaken to solicit you for a favour to him which he thus requests in a letter to me I intend soon to give you the life of Robert Bruce which you will be pleased to transmit to dr. Johnson I wish that you could assist me in a fancy which I have taken of getting dr. Johnson to draw a character of Robert Bruce from the account that I give of that Prince if he finds materials for it in my work it will be a proof that I have been fortunate in selecting the most striking incidents I suppose by the life of Robert Bruce his lordship means that part of his annals which relates the history of that Prince and not a separate work shall we have a journey to Paris from you in the winter you will I hope at any rate be kind enough to give me some account of your French travels very soon for I am very impatient what a different scene have you viewed this autumn from that which you viewed in autumn 1773 I ever am my dear sir you're much obliged an affectionate humble servant James Boswell to James Boswell a squire dear sir I am glad that the young lad is born and an end as I hope put to the only difference that you can ever have with mrs. Boswell I know that she does not love me but I intend to persist in wishing her well till I get the better of her Paris is indeed a place very different from the Hebrides but it is to a hasty traveller not so fertile of novelty nor afford so many opportunities or remark I cannot pretend to tell the public anything of a place better known to many of my readers than to myself we can talk of it when we meet I shall go next week to stratum from whence I propose to send a parcel of the history every post concerning the character of Bruce I can only say that I do not see any great reason for writing it but I shall not easily deny what Lord Hales and you concur in desiring I have been remarkably healthy all the journey and hope you and your family have known only that trouble and danger which has so happily terminated among all the congratulations that you may receive I hope you believe none more warm or sincere than those of dear sir your most affectionate Sam Johnson November 16 1775 to mrs. Lucy Porter in Litchfield dear madam this week I came home from Paris I have brought you a little box which I thought pretty but I know not whether it is properly a snuff box or a box for some other use I will send it when I can find an opportunity I have been through the whole journey remarkably well my fellow travelers were the same whom you saw at Litchfield only we took Barretti with us Paris is not so fine a place as you would expect the palaces and churches however are very splendid and magnificent and what would please you there are many very fine pictures but I do not think their way of life commodious or pleasant let me know how your health has been all this while I hope the fine summer has given you strength sufficient to encounter the winter make my compliments to all my friends and if your fingers will let you write to me or let your maid write if it be troublesome to you I am dear madam your most affectionate humble servant Sam Johnson November 16 1775 to the same dear madam some weeks ago I wrote to you to tell you that I was just come home from a ramble and hope that I should have heard from you I'm afraid winter has laid hold on your fingers and hinders you from writing however let somebody write if you cannot and tell me how you do and a little of what has happened at Litchfield among our friends I hope you are all well when I was in France I thought myself growing young but I'm afraid that cold weather will take part of my new vigor from me let us however take care of ourselves and lose no part of our health by negligence I never knew whether you received the commentary on the New Testament and the travels and the glasses do my dear love write to me and do not let us forget each other this is the season of good wishes and I wish you all good I have not lately seen Mr. Porter nor heard of him is he with you be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs. Addie and Mrs. Cobb and all my friends and when I can do any good let me know I am dear madam yours most affectionately Samuel Johnson December 1775 end of section 18 section 19 of the life of Samuel Johnson volume two 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 Len Nicholson the life of Samuel Johnson volume two by James Boswell section 19 1775 continued it is to be regretted that he did not write an account of his travels in France for as he is reported to have once said that he could write the life of a broomstick so notwithstanding so many former travelers have exhausted almost every subject for remark in that great kingdom his very accurate observation and peculiar vigor of thought and illustration would have produced a valuable work during his visit to it which lasted but about two months he wrote notes or minutes of what he saw he promised to show me them but I neglected to put him in mind of it and the greatest part of them has been lost or perhaps destroyed in a precipitate burning of his papers a few days before his death which must ever be lamented one small paper book however entitled France 2 has been preserved and is in my possession it is a diurnal register of his life and observations from the 10th of October to the 4th of November inclusive being 26 days and shows an extraordinary attention to various minute particulars being the only memorial of this tour that remains my readers I am confident will peruse it with pleasure though his notes are very short and evidently written only to assist his own recollection October 10 Tuesday we saw the école militaire in which 150 young boys are educated for the army they have arms of different sizes according to the age flints of wood the building is very large but nothing fine except the council room the French have large squares in the windows they make good iron palisades their meals are gross we visited the observatory a large building of a great height the upper stones of the parapet very large but not cramped with iron the flat on the top is very extensive but on the insulated part there is no parapet though it was broad enough I did not care to go upon it maps were printing in one of the rooms we walked to a small convent of the fathers of the oratory in the reading desk of the refectory lay the lives of the saints October 11 Wednesday we went to see Hotel de Chatlois a house not very large but very elegant one of the rooms was guilt to a degree that I never saw before the upper part for servants and their masters was pretty then we went to Mr. Montvilles a house divided into small apartments furnished with effeminate and minute elegance porphyry then we went to Saint-Ox church which is very large the lower part of the pillars encrusted with marble three chapels behind the high altar the last a mass of low arches altars I believe all around we passed through Place de Vendon a fine square about as big as Hanover Square inhabited by the high families loose the 14th on horseback in the middle Montvilles is the son of a farmer general in the house of Chatlois is a room furnished with Japan fitted up in Europe we dined with Boccage the Marquis Blanchetti and his lady the sweetmeats taken by the Marchioness Blanchetti after observing that they were dear Mr. Le Roy, Count Manucci, the Abbey, the prior and Fr. Wilson who stayed with me till I took him home in the coach Battiani is gone the French have no laws for the maintenance of their poor Monk not necessarily a priest Benedictines rise at four or at church an hour and a half at church again half an hour before half an hour after dinner and again from half an hour after seven to eight they may sleep eight hours bodily labor wanted in monasteries the poor taken to hospitals and miserably kept monks in the Convent 15 accounted poor October 12 Thursday we went to the goblins tapestry makes a good picture imitates flesh exactly one piece with the gold ground the birds not exactly coloured thence we went to the king's cabinet very neat not perhaps perfect gold ore candles of the candle tree seeds woods thence to Gagne's house where I saw rooms nine furnished with the profusion of wealth and elegance which I never had seen before Vazze's pictures the dragon China the luster said to be of crystal and to have cost 3,500 pounds the whole furniture said to have cost 125,000 pounds damas kanging was covered with pictures porphyry this house struck me then we waited on the ladies to moon veals captain Irwin with us Spain county town's all beggars at Dijon he could not find the way to Orléans crossroads of France very bad five soldiers women soldiers escaped the colonel would not lose five men for the death of one woman a magistrate cannot seize a soldier but by the colonel's permission good in at Neem Moors of Barbary fond of Englishmen Gibraltar eminently healthy it has beef from Barbary there is a large garden soldiers sometimes fall from the rock October 13 Friday I stayed at home all day only went to find a prior who was not at home I read something in canis neck Admiral neck Moulton Laudot October 14 Saturday we went to the house of Mr. Arjan son which is almost wainscoted with looking glasses and covered with gold the ladies closet wainscoted with large squares of glass over painted paper they always place mirrors to reflect their rooms then we went to Julien's the treasurer of the clergy thirty thousand pounds a year the house is no very large room but is set with mirrors and covered with gold books of wood here and in another library at D's I looked into the books in the ladies closet and in contempt showed them to Mr. T. Prince T. T. Bibla de Fay and other books she was offended and shut up as we heard afterwards her apartment then we went to Julien Le Roy the king's watchmaker a man of character in his business showed a small clock made to find a longitude a decent man afterwards we saw the Palais Marchand and the courts of justice civil and criminal queries on the cellette this building has the old gothic passages the great appearance of antiquity 300 prisoners sometimes in the jail much disturbed hope no ill will be in the afternoon I visited Mr. Fréran the journalist he spoke Latin very scantily but seemed to understand me his house not splendid but of commodious size his family wife son and daughter not elevated but decent I was pleased with my reception he is to translate my books which I am to send him with notes October 15 Sunday at Choisy a royal palace on the banks of the Seine about seven miles from Paris the terrace noble along the river the rooms numerous and grand but not discriminated from other palaces the chapel beautiful but small all china globes inlaid tables labyrinth sinking table toilet tables October 16 Monday the Palais Royale very grand large and lofty a very great collection of pictures three of Raphael two holy family one small piece of M Angelo one room of Rubens I thought the pictures of Raphael fine the Tuileries statues Venus Aeneas and Ankaisey's in his arms Niles many more the walks not open to mean persons chairs at night hired for two Sue apice Pond tournant Austin nuns great mrs. Farmer abes she knew Pope and thought him disagreeable mrs. Blank as many books has seen life their frontlet disagreeable their hood their life easy rise about five hour and half in chapel dine at ten another hour and half at chapel half an hour about three and half an hour more at seven four hours in chapel a large garden 13 pensioners teacher complained at the boulevards saw nothing yet was glad to be there rope dancing and farce egg dance note near Paris whether on weekdays or Sundays the roads empty October 17 Tuesday at the Palais Marchand I bought a snuff box 24 lever blank six lever table book 15 lever scissors three pairs 18 lever all-in-all 63 lever amounting to two pounds 12 and sixpence we heard the lawyers pleat note as many killed at Paris as there are days in the year chambre de question tournel at the Palais Marchand an old venerable building the Palais Bourbon belonging to the Prince of Condé only one small wing shown lofty splendid golden glass the battles of the great condé are painted in one of the rooms the present prince a grand sir at 39 the site of palaces and other great buildings leaves no very distinct images unless to those who talk of them as I entered my wife was in my mind she would have been pleased having now nobody to please I am little pleased note in France there is no middle rank so many shops open that Sunday is little distinguished at Paris the palaces of Louvre and Tuileries granted out in lodgings in the Palais de Bourbon gilt globes of metal at the fireplace the French beds commended much of the marble only paced the Colosseum a mere wooden building at least much of it October 18 Wednesday we went to Fontainebleau which we found a large mean town crowded with people the forest thick with woods very extensive Manucci secured as lodgings the appearance of the country pleasant no hills few streams only one hedge I remember no chapels nor crosses in the road pavements still and rows of trees note nobody but mean people walk in Paris October 19 Thursday at court we saw the apartments the king's bed chamber and council chamber extremely splendid persons of all ranks in the external rooms through which the family passes servants and masters bluenay with us the second time the introductory came to us civil to me presenting I had scruples not necessary we went and saw the king and queen at dinner we saw the other ladies at dinner madame elizabeth with the princess of Guimanay at night we went to a comedy I neither saw nor heard drunk and women missus th preferred one to the other October 20 Friday we saw the queen mount in the forest brown habit road aside one lady road aside the queen's horse light gray martingale she galloped we then went to the apartments and admired them then wandered through the palace in the passages stalls and shops painting in fresco by a great master worn out we saw the king's horses and dogs the dogs almost all English degenerate the horses not much commended the stables cool the kennel filthy at night the ladies went to the opera I refused but should have been welcome the king fed himself with his left hand as we saturday 21 in the night I got ground we came home to Paris I think we did not see the chapel tree broken by the wind the french chairs made all of boards painted note soldiers at the court of justice soldiers not amenable to the magistrates Dijon women faggots in the palace everything slovenly except in the chief rooms trees in the roads some tall none old many very young and small women's saddles seem ill-made queen's bridle woven with silver tags to strike the horse sunday october 22 to Versailles a meantime carriages of business passing mean shops against the wall our way lay through sev where the china manufacturer wooden bridge at sev in the way to Versailles the palace of great extent the front long I saw it not perfectly the menagerie signets dark their black feet on the ground tame halcyons or gulls stag and hind young aviary very large the net wire black stag of china small rhinoceros the horn broken and paired away which I suppose will grow the basis I think four inches cross the skin folds like loose cloth doubled over his body crosses hips a vast animal though young as big perhaps as four oxen the young elephant with his tusks just appearing the brown bear put out his paws all very tame the lion the tigers I did not well view the camel or dromedary with two bunches called the uguin taller than any horse two camels with one bunch among the birds was a pelican who being let out went to a fountain and swam about to catch fish his feet well webbed he dipped his head and turned his long bill sideways he caught two or three fish but did not eat them trianome is a kind of retreat pendant to Versailles it has an open portico the pavement and I think the pillars of marble there are many rooms which I do not distinctly remember a table of porphyry about five feet long and between two and three broad given to Louis the 14th by the venetian state in the council room almost all it was not door or window was I think looking glass little triano is a small palace like a gentleman's house the upper floor paved with brick little vien the court is ill paved the rooms at the top are small fit to soothe the imagination with privacy in the front of Versailles are small basins of water on the terrace and other basins I think below them there are little courts the great gallery is wainscoted with mirrors not very large but joined by frames I suppose the large plates were not yet made the playhouse was very large the chapel I do not remember if we saw we saw one chapel but I am not certain whether there or at trianome the foreign office paved with bricks the dinner half a louis each and I think a louis over money given at menagerie three levera at palace six levera October 23 Monday last night I wrote to Levitt we went to see the looking glasses wrought they come from Normandy and cast plates perhaps the third of an inch thick at Paris they are ground upon a marble table by rubbing one plate upon another with grit between them the various sands of which there are said to be five I could not learn the handle by which the upper glass is moved has the form of a wheel which may be moved in all directions the plates are sent up with their surfaces ground but not polished and so continue till they are bespoken less time should spoil the surface as we were told those that are to be polished or laid on a table covered with several thick cloths hard strained that the resistance may be equal they are then rubbed with a hand rubber held down hard by a contrivance which I did not well understand the powder which is used last seemed to me to be iron dissolved in aquafortis they called it as Barretti said Mach de Beaufort which he thought was dregs they mentioned vitriol and salt peter the cannonball swam in the quicksilver the silver them a leaf of beaten tin is laid and rub with quicksilver to which it unites then more quicksilver is poured upon it which by its mutual attraction rises very high then a paper is laid at the nearest end of the plate over which the glass is slided till it lies upon the plate having driven much of the quicksilver before it it is then I think pressed upon cloths and then said sloping to drop the superfluous mercury the slope is daily heightened towards a perpendicular in the way I saw the grief the mayor's house and the Bastille we then went to Saint Air a brewer he brews with about as much malt as Mr. Thrail and sells his beer at the same price though he pays no duty for malt and little more than half as much for beer beer is sold retail at sixpence a bottle he brews four thousand barrels a year there are seventeen brewers in Paris of whom none is supposed to brew more than he reckoning them at three thousand each they make fifty one thousand a year they make their malt for malting is here no trade the moat of the Bastille is dry october 24 tuesday we visited the king's library I saw the speculum humanae savattionis rudely printed with ink sometimes pale sometimes black parts supposed to be with wooden types and part with pages cut on boards the bible supposed to be older than that of ments in 62 it has no date it is supposed to have been printed with wooden types I am in doubt the print is large and fair in two folios another book was shown me supposed to have been printed with wooden types I think Durandi sanctuarium in 58 this is inferred from the difference of form sometimes seen in the same letter which might be struck with different pensions the regular similitude of most letters proves better that they are metal I saw nothing but the speculum which I had not seen I think before then to the Sorbonne the library very large not in lattices like the king's marbon and Duranda quarto collection 14 volumes scriptores de rebus calicus many folios istual genealogica france nine volumes gallia cristiana first edition quarter the last folio 12 volumes the prior librarian dined with us I waited on them home their garden pretty with covered walks but small yet may hold many students the doctors of the Sorbonne are all equal choose those who succeed to vacancies profit little October 25 Wednesday I went with the prior to Sinclude to see Dr. Hook we walked round the palace and had some talk I dined with our whole company at the monastery in the library Beirold Kaimon Titus from Bocacci Oratio proverbialists to the Virgin from Petrarch Falkland to Sands Dryden's Preface to the third volume of Macellanese October 26 Thursday we saw the china at Sev cut glazed painted Bellevue pleasing house not great fine prospect muddon an old palace Alexander and porphyry all over between eyes and nose thin cheeks Plato and Aristotle noble terrace overlooks the town Sinclude gallery not very high nor grand but pleasing in the rooms Michelangelo drawn by himself Sir Thomas Muir Decalt Boscha now Dacus Mazarin gilded wainscote so common as it is not minded goff and keen who came to us at the inn a message from drumgold October 27 Friday I stayed at home goff and keen and mrs. Essie's friend dined with us this day we began to have a fire the weather has grown very cold and I fear has a bad effect upon my breath which has grown much more free and easy in this country Saturday October 28 I visited the Grand Chartres built by Saint Louis it is built for 40 but contains only 24 and will not maintain more the friar that spoke to us had a pretty apartment mr. Barretti says four rooms I remember but three his books seem to be French his garden was neat he gave me grapes we saw the place de victoire the statues of the king the captive nations we saw the palace and gardens of Luxembourg but the gallery was shut we climbed to the top stairs I dined with Colbruck who had much company food Sir George Rodney Motta Odson taff called in the prior and found him in bed a hotel a guinea day coach three guineas a week valet de place three livre a day avant coureur a guinea week ordinary dinner six livre ahead our ordinary seems to be about five guineas a day our extraordinary expenses as diversions gratuities clothes I cannot reckon our traveling is 10 guineas a day white stockings 18 livre wig hat sunday october 29 we saw the boarding school the enfant trouvé a room with about 86 children in cradles as sweet as a parlor they lose a third take in to perhaps more than seven years old put them to trades pin to them the papers sent with them want nurses saw their chapel went to st eustatia so an innumerable company of girls catechised many bodies perhaps a hundred to a catechist boys taught at one time girls at another the sermon the preacher wears a cap which he takes off at the name his action uniform not very violent october 30 monday we saw the library of Saint-Germain a very noble collection codex divinorum or fichiorum 1459 a letter square like that of the offices perhaps the same the codex by foost and gernsheim mercy us 12 volume folio amades in french three volume folio catholic on cine colophone but of 1460 two other editions one by august and day keep it at a day without name data place but a foost square letter as it seems i dined with colonel drumgold had a pleasing afternoon some of the books of Saint-Germain stand in presses from the wall like those at oxford october 31 tuesday i lived at the benedictine's meager day soup meager herrings eels both with sauce fried fish lentils tasteless in themselves in the library where i found mafiasi's day historia indica promontorium flectory to double the cape i partied very tenderly from the prior and friar wilks met the desire two years back the all three years licentiate two years dr th two years in all nine years for the doctorate three disputations major minor sorbonica several colleges suppressed and transferred to that which was the jesuit's college november 1 wednesday we left paris cindy a large town the church not very large but the middle aisle is very lofty and awful on the left are chapels built beyond the line of the wall which destroy the symmetry of the sites the organ is higher above the pavement than any i have ever seen any i have ever seen the gates are of brass on the middle gate is the history of our lord the painted windows are historical and said to be eminently beautiful we were at another church belonging to a convent of which the portal is a dome we could not enter further and it was almost dark november 2 thursday we came this day to shanty the seat belonging to the prince of condi this place is eminently beautified by all varieties of waters starting up in fountains falling in cascades running in streams and spread in lakes the water seems to be too near the house all this water is brought from a source or river three leagues off by an artificial canal which for one league is carried underground the house is magnificent the cabinet seems well stocked what i remember was the jaws of a hippopotamus and a young hippopotamus preserved which however is so small and i doubt its reality it seems too hairy for an abortion and too small for a mature birth nothing was in spirits always dry the dog the deer the ant bear with long snout the toucan long broad beak the stables were a very great length the kennel had no sense there was a mockery of a village the menagerie had few animals for dr blagdon c post 1780 in mr langton's collection two faux songs or brazilian weasels spotted very wild there is a forest and i think a park i walked till i was very weary and next morning felt my feet battered and with pains in the toes november 3 friday we came to compien a very large town with the royal palace built round a pentagonal court the court is raised upon vaults and has i suppose an entry in one side by a gentle rise talk of painting the church is not very large but very elegant and splendid i had at first great difficulty to walk but motion grew continually easier at night we came to noion an episcopal city the cathedral is very beautiful the pillars alternately gothic and Corinthian we entered a very noble parochial church noion is walled and is said to be three miles round november 4 saturday we rose very early and came through sin canton to compre not long after three we went to an english nunnery to give a letter to father welch the confessor who came to visit us in the evening november 5 sunday we saw the cathedral it is very beautiful with chapels on each side the choir splendid the balustrade in one park brass the neph very high and grand the altar silver as far as it is seen the vestments very splendid at the benedictine's church here his journal ends abruptly whether he wrote any more after this time i know not but probably not much as he arrived in england about the 12th of november these short notes of his tour though they may seem minute taken singly make together a considerable mass of information and exhibit such an ardor of inquiry and acuteness of examination as i believe are found in but few travelers especially at an advanced age they completely refute the idle notion which has been propagated that he could not see and if he had taken a trouble to revise and digest them he undoubtedly could have expanded them into a very entertaining narrative when i met him in london the following year the account which he gave me of his french tour was sir i have seen all the visibilities of paris and around it but to have formed an acquaintance with the people there would have required more time than i could stay i was just beginning to creep into acquaintance by means of colonel drumgold a very high man sir head of le call militaire a most complete character for he had first been a professor of rhetoric and then became a soldier and sir i was very kindly treated by the english benedictine's and have a cell appropriated to me in their convent he observed the great in france live very magnificently but the rest very miserably there is no happy middle state as in england the shops of paris are mean the meat in the markets is such as would be sent to a jail in england and mr frail justly observed that the cookery of the french was forced upon them by necessity for they could not eat their meat unless they added some taste to it the french are an indelicate people they will spit upon any place at madame blanks a literary lady of rank the footman took the sugar in his fingers and threw it into my coffee i was going to put it aside but hearing it was made in purpose for me i.e. in tasted tom's fingers the same lady would needs make tea along glass the spout of the teapot did not pour freely she bad the footman blow into it france is worse than scotland in everything but climate nature has done more for the french but they have done less for themselves than the scotch have done it happened that foot was at paris at the same time with dr johnson and his description of my friend while there was abundantly ludicrous he told me that the french were quite astonished at his figure and manner and that his dress which he obstinately continued exactly as in london his brown clothes black stockings and plain shirt he mentioned that an irish gentleman said to johnson sir you have not seen the best french players johnson players sir i look at them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter like dancing dogs but sir you will allow that some players are better than others johnson yes sir some dogs dance better than others while johnson was in france he was generally very resolute in speaking latin it was a maxim with him that a man should not let himself down by speaking a language which he speaks imperfectly indeed we must have often observed how inferior how much like a child a man appears who speaks a broken tongue when sir joshua reynolds at one of the dinners of the royal academy presented him to a frenchman of great distinction he would not deign to speak french but talked latin though his excellency did not understand it owing perhaps to johnson's english pronunciation yet upon another occasion he was observed to speak french to a frenchman of high rack who spoke english and being asked the reason with some expression of surprise he answered because i think my french is as good as his english though johnson understood french perfectly he could not speak it readily as i have observed at his first interview with general pauli in 1769 yet he wrote it i imagine pretty well as appears from some of his letters in mrs piozzi's collection of which i shall transcribe one a madame la conteste de blank july 16 1775 oui madame le moment est arrivé et il faut que je parte mais pourquoi faut-il partir est ce que je m'oui je m'ennuyerai ailleurs est ce que je cherche quelques plaisirs quelques soulagement je ne cherche rien je n'espère rien allez voir ce que j'ai vu être un peu rejoué un peu de goûter me souvenir que la vie se passe en vain me plaindre de moi me endurcir au dehors voilà tout de ce qu'on compte pour les délices de l'année que je vous donne madame tous les accréments de la vie avec un esprit qui peut enjouir son si livré trop here let me not forget a curious anecdote is related to me by mr booklark which i shall endeavor to exhibit as well as i can in that gentleman's lively manner an injustice to him it is proper to add that dr johnson told me i might rely both on the correctness of his memory and the fidelity of his narrative when madame de boufflet was first in england said booklark she was desirous to see johnson i accordingly went with her to his chambers in the temple where she was entertained with his conversation for some time when her visit was over she and i left him and were got into in her temple lane when all at once i heard a noise like thunder this was occasioned by johnson who it seems upon a little recollection had taken it into his head that he ought to have done the honors of his literary residence to a foreign lady of quality and eager to show himself a man of gallantry was hurrying down the staircase and violent agitation he overtook us before we reached the temple gate and brushing in between me and madame de boufflet seized her hand and conducted her to her coach his dress was a rusty brown morning suit a pair of old shoes by way of slippers a little shriveled wig sticking on the top of his head and the sleeves of his shirt and the knees of his breeches hanging loose a considerable crowd of people gathered round and were not a little struck by this singular appearance he spoke latin with wonderful fluency and elegance when pair boskovich was in england johnson dined in company with him at sir joshua reynolds's and at dr douglas's now bishop of solsbury upon both occasions that that celebrated forader expressed his astonishment at johnson's latin conversation when at paris johnson thus characterized voltaire to freer on the journalist to dr samuel johnson edinburgh december 5 1775 my dear sir mr alexander mclean the young laird of call being to set out tomorrow for london i give him this letter to introduce him to your acquaintance the kindness which you and i experienced from his brother whose unfortunate death we sincerely lament will make us always desirous to show attention to any branch of the family indeed you have so much of the true highland cordiality that i am sure you would have thought me to blame if i had neglected to recommend you this hebridean prince in whose island we were hospitably entertained i ever am with respectful attachment my dear sir your most obliged and most humble servant james boswell mr mclean returned with the most agreeable accounts of the polite attention with which he was received by dr johnson in the course of this year dr bernie informs me that he very frequently met dr johnson and mr thrales at stretham where they had many long conversations often sitting up as long as the fire and candles lasted and much longer than the patience of the servants subsisted a few of johnson's sayings which that gentleman recollects shall here be inserted i never take a nap after dinner but when i have had a bad night and then the nap takes me the writer of an epitaph should not be considered as saying nothing but what is strictly true allowance must be made for some degree of exaggerated praise in lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath there is now less flogging in our great schools and formerly but then less is learned there so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other more is learned and public than in private schools from emulation there is the collision of mind with mind or the radiation of many minds pointing to one center though few boys make their own exercises yet if a good exercise is given up out of a great number of boys it is made by somebody i hate byroads in education education is as well known and as long been as well known as ever it can be endeavoring to make children prematurely wise is useless labor suppose they have more knowledge at five or six years old than other children what use can be made of it it will be lost before it is wanted and the waste of so much time and labor of the teacher can never be repaid too much is expected from precocity and too little performed miss blank was an instance of early cultivation but in what did it terminate in marrying a little presbyterian parson who keeps an infant boarding school so that all her employment and now is to suckle fools and chronicles small beer she tells the children this is a cat and that is a dog with four legs and a tail see there you are much better than a cat or a dog for you can speak if i had bestowed such an education on a daughter and discovered that she thought of marrying such a fellow i would have sent her to the congress after having talked slightly of music he was observed to listen very attentively while miss thrill played on the harpsichord and with eagerness he called her why don't you dash away like bernie dr. bernie upon this said to him i believe sir we shall make a musician of you at last johnson with candid complacency replied sir i shall be glad to have a new sense given to me he had come down one morning to the breakfast room and been a considerable time by himself before anybody appeared when on a subsequent day he was twitted by missy's thrill for being very late which he generally was he defended himself by alluding to the extraordinary morning when he had been too early madam i do not like to come down to vacuity dr. bernie having remarked that mr. garrick was beginning to look old he said why sir you are not to wonder at that no man's face has had more wear and tear not having heard from him for a longer time than i supposed he would be silent i wrote to him december 18 not in good spirits sometimes i have been afraid that the cold which has gone over europe this year like a sort of pestilence has seized you severely sometimes my imagination which is upon occasions prolific of evil the figure that you may have somehow taken offence at some part of my conduct to james boswell esquire dears sir never dream of any offense how should you offend me i consider your friendship as a possession which i intend to hold to you take it from me and to lament if ever by my fault i should lose it however when such suspicions find their way into your mind always give them vent i shall make haste to disperse them but hinder their first ingress if you can consider such thoughts as morbid such illness as may excuse my admission to lord hails i cannot honestly plead i have been hindered i know not how by a succession of petty obstructions i hope to amend immediately and to send next post to his lordship mr. thrill would have written to you if i had omitted he sends his compliments and wishes to see you you and your lady will now have no more wrangling about feudal inheritance how does a young layered of ock and neck i suppose miss veronica is grown a reader and discursor i have just now got a cough but it has never yet hindered me from sleeping i have had quieter nights and are common with me i cannot but rejoice that joseph has had the wit to find the way back he's a fine fellow and one of the best travelers in the world young call brought me your letter he is a very pleasing youth i took him two days ago to the mitre and we dined together i was as civil as i had the means of being i have had a letter from rase acknowledging with great appearance of satisfaction the insertion in the edinburgh paper i am very glad that it was done my compliments to mrs boswell who does not love me and of all the rest i need only send them to those that do and i am afraid it will give you very little trouble to distribute them i am my dear dear sir your affectionate humble servant sam johnson december 23 17 75 end of section 19