 section 20 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 Anna Simon the life of Samuel Johnson volume 2 by James Boswell section 20 1776 age 67 in 1776 Johnson wrote so far as I can discover nothing for the public but that his mind was still ardent and fraught with generous wishes to attain to still higher degrees of literary excellence is proved by his private notes of this year which I shall insert in their proper place to James Boswell Esquire dear sir I have at last sent you all Lord Hills papers while I was in France I looked very often into I know but Lord Hills in my opinion leaves him far and far behind why I did not dispatch so short perusal sooner when I look back I'm utterly unable to discover but human moments are stolen away by a thousand petty impediments which leave no trace behind them I've been afflicted through the whole Christmas with the general disorder of which the worst effect was a cuff which is now much mitigated the other country on which I look from a window at Stratham is now covered with a deep snow Mrs. Williams is very ill everybody else is usual among the papers I found a letter to you which I think you had not opened and a paper for the Chronicle which I suppose it not necessary now to insert I return them both I have within these few days had the honor of receiving Lord Hills's first volume for which I return my most respectful thanks I wish you my dearest friend and your haughty lady for I know she does not love me and the young ladies and the young Lord all happiness teach the young gentlemen in spite of his mama to think and speak well of sir your affectionate humble servant Sam Johnson January 10 1776 at this time was an agitation a matter of great consequence to me and my family which I should not have chewed upon the world were it not that the part which Dr. Johnson's friendship for me made him taken it was the occasion of an exertion of his abilities which it would be injustice to conceal that what he wrote upon the subject may be understood it is necessary to give a state of the question which I shall do as briefly as I can in the year 1504 the barony or manner of Affleck in Airshire which belonged to a family of the same name with the lands having fallen to the crown by forfeiture James IV King of Scotland granted it to Thomas Boswell a branch of an ancient family in the county of five styling him in the charter the electo familiar in nostrum and assigning as the cause of the grant pro bono at Fidele servicio nobis prestito Thomas Boswell was slain in battle fighting along with the sovereign at the fatal field of Flodden in 1513 from this very honourable founder of our family the estate was transmitted in a direct series of airs mail to David Boswell my father's great-grand-uncle who had no sons but four daughters who were all respectively married the eldest to Lord Cathcart David Boswell being resolute in the military feudal principle of continuing the male succession passed by his daughters and settled the estate on his nephew by his next brother who approved of the deed and renounced any pretentions which he might possibly have in preference to his son but the estate having been burdened with large portions to the daughters and other debts it was necessary for the nephew to sell a considerable part of it and what remained was still much encumbered the frugality of the nephew preserved and in some degree relieve the estate his son my grandfather an eminent lawyer not only repurchased a great part of what had been sold but acquired other lands and my father who was one of the judges of Scotland and had added considerably to the estate now signified his inclination to take the privilege allowed by our law to secure it to his family in perpetuity by an entail which on account of his marriage articles could not be done without my consent in the plan of entailing the estate I heartily concurred with him though I was the first to be restrained by it but we unhappily differed as to the series of heirs which should be established or in the language of our law called to the succession my father had declared a predilection for us general that is males and females indiscriminately he was willing however that all males descending from his grandfather should be preferred to females but would not extend that privilege to males deriving their descent from a higher source I had a zealous partiality for heirs male however remote which I maintained by arguments which appeared to me to have considerable weight and in the particular case of our family I apprehended that we were under an implied obligation in honour and good faith to transmit the estate by the same tenure which we held it which was as heirs male excluding nearer females I therefore as I thought conscientiously objected to my father's scheme my opposition was very displeasing to my father who was entitled to great respect and deference and I had reason to apprehend disagreeable consequences for my non-compliance with his wishes after much perplexity and uneasiness I wrote to Dr. Johnson staging the case with all its difficulties at full length and earnestly requesting that he would consider it at leisure and favour me with his friendly opinion and advice to James Boswell Esquire dear sir I was much impressed by your letter and if I can form upon your case any resolution satisfactory to myself will very gladly impart it but whether I'm quite equal to it I do not know it is a case compounded of law and justice and requires a mind versed in juridical disquisitions could not you tell your whole mind to Lord Hales he is you know both a Christian and a lawyer I suppose he is above partiality and above loquacity and I believe he will not think the time lost in which he may quite a disturbed or settle a wavering mind right to me as anything occurs to you and if I find myself stopped by one defect necessary to be known I will make inquiries of you as my doubts arise if your former resolutions should be found only fanciful you decide rightly in judging at your father's fancies may claim the preference but whether they are fanciful or rational is the question I really think Lord Hales could help us make my compliments to dear Mrs. Boswell and tell her that I hope to be wanting and nothing that I can contribute to bring you all out of your troubles I am dear sir most affectionately your humble servant Sam Johnson London January 15 1776 to the same dear sir I am going to write upon a question which requires more knowledge of local law and more acquaintance with the general rules of inheritance than I can claim but I write because you requested land is like any other possession by natural right wholly in the power of its present owner and maybe sold given or bequeathed absolutely or conditionally as judgment shall direct or passion in sight but natural right would avail little without the protection of law and the primary notion of law is restrained in the exercise of natural right a man is therefore in society not fully master of what he calls his own but he still retains all the power which law does not take from him in the exercise of the right which law either leaves or gives regardless to be paid to moral obligations of the estate which we are now considering your father still retains such possession with such power over it that he can sell it and do with the money what he will without any legal impediment but when he extends his power beyond his own life by settling the order of succession the law makes your consent necessary let us suppose that he sells the land to risk the money in some specious adventure and in that adventure loses the whole his posterity would be disappointed but they could not think themselves injured or robbed if you spend it upon vice or pleasure his successors could only call him vicious envelopes they could not say that he was injurious or unjust he that may do more may do less he that by selling or squandering may disinherit a whole family may certainly disinherit part by a partial settlement laws are formed by the menace and exigencies of particular times and it is but accidental that they last longer than their causes the limitation of feudal succession to the male arose from the obligation of the tenant to attend his chief in war as times and opinions are always changing I know not whether it be not usurpation to prescribe rules to posterity by presuming to judge of what we cannot know and I know not whether I fully approve either your design or your father's to limit that succession which descended to you unlimited if we are to leave sartum tectum to posterity what we have without any merit of our own received from our ancestors should not choice and free will be kept unviolated is land to be treated with more reverence than liberty if this consideration should restrain your father from disinheriting some of the males does it leave you the power of disinheriting all the females can the possessor of a feudal estate make any will can he appoint out of the inheritance any portions to his daughters there seems to be a very shadowy difference between the power of leaving land and of leaving money to be raised from land between leaving an estate to females and leaving the male air in effect only their steward suppose at one time a law that allowed only males to inherit and during the continuance of this law many estates to have descended passing by the females to remota as suppose afterwards the law repealed in correspondence with the change of manners and women made capable of inheritance would not then the tenure of estates be changed could the women have no benefit from a law made in their favor must they be passed by upon moral principles forever because they were once excluded by a legal prohibition or may that which passed only to males by one law passed likewise to females by another you mention your resolution to maintain the right of your brothers i do not see how any of their rights are invaded as your whole difficulty arises from the act of your ancestor who diverted the succession from the females you inquire very properly what were his motives and what was his intention for you certainly are not bound by his act more than he intended to bind you nor hold your land on harder or stricter terms than those on which was granted intentions must be gathered from acts when he left the estate to his nephew by excluding his daughters was it or was it not in his power to have perpetuated the succession to the males if he could have done it he seems to have shown by omitting it that he did not desire it to be done and upon your own principles you will not easily prove your right to destroy that capacity of succession which your ancestors have left if your ancestor had not the power of making a perpetual settlement and if therefore we cannot judge distinctly of his intentions yet his acts can only be considered as an example it makes not an obligation and as you observe he set no example of rigorous adherence to the line of succession he that overlooked a brother would not wonder that little regard is shown to remote relations as the rules of succession are in a great part purely legal no man can be supposed to bequeath anything but upon legal terms he can grant no power which the law denies and if he makes no special and definite limitation he confers all the power which the law allows your ancestor for some reason disinherited his daughters but it no more follows that he intended this act as a rule for posterity than the disinheriting of his brother if therefore you ask by what right your father admits daughters to inheritance ask yourself first by what right you require them to be excluded it appears upon reflection that your father excludes nobody he only admits nearer females to inherit before males more remote and the exclusion is purely consequential these dear sir are my thoughts immethodical and deliberative but perhaps you may find in them some glimmering of evidence i cannot however but again recommend to you a conference with lord hails whom you know to be both a lawyer and a christian make my compliments to mrs boswell though she does not love me i am sir your affectionate servant sam johnson february 3rd 1773 i had followed his recommendation and consulted lord hails who upon this subject had a firm opinion contrary to mine his lordship obligingly took the trouble to write me a letter in which he discussed with legal and historical learning the points in which i saw much difficulty maintaining that quote the succession of as general was the succession by the law of scotland from the throne to the cottage as far as we can learn it by record end quote observing that the estate of our family had not been limited to air's mail and that though an air male had in one instance been chosen in preference to nearer females that had been an arbitrary act which had seemed to be best in the embarrassed state of affairs at that time and the fact was that upon a fair computation of the value of land and money at the time applied the estate and the burdens upon it there was nothing given to the air mail but the skeleton of an estate quote the plea of conscience said at lordship which he put is a most respectable one especially when conscience and self are on different sides but i think that conscience is not well informed and that self and she ought on this occasion to be of a side end quote this letter which had considerable influence upon my mind i sent to dr johnson begging to hear from him again upon this interesting question to james boswell asquire dear sir having not any acquaintance with the laws or customs of scotland i endeavored to consider your question upon general principles and found nothing of much validity that i could oppose to this position quote he inherits a thief unlimited by his ancestors inherits the power of limiting it according to his own judgment or opinion end quote if this be true you may join with your father further consideration produces another conclusion quote he receives a thief unlimited by his ancestors gives his heirs some reason to complain if he does not transmit it unlimited to posterity for why should he make the state of others worse than his own without a reason end quote if this be true though neither you nor your father are about to do what is quite right but as your father violates i think the legal succession least he seems to be nearer the right than yourself it cannot but occur that quote women have natural and equitable claims as well as men and these claims are not to be capriciously or lightly superseded or infringed end quote when thiefs implied military service it is easily discerned why females could not inherit them but that reason is now at an end as manners make laws manners likewise repeal them these are the general conclusions which i have attained none of them are very favorable to your scheme of entail nor perhaps to any scheme my observation that only he who acquires an estate may bequeath it capriciously if it contains any conviction includes disposition likewise that only he who acquires an estate may entail it capriciously but i think it may be safely presumed that quote he who inherits an estate inherits all the power legally concomitant end quote and that quote he who gives or leaves unlimited an estate legally limitable must be presumed to give that power of limitation which he omitted to take away and to commit further contingencies to future prudence end quote in these two positions i believe lord hails will advise you to rest every other notion of possession seems to me full of difficulties and embarrassed with scruples if these actions be allowed you have arrived now at full liberty without the help of particular circumstances which however have in your case great white you very rightly observe that he who passing by his brother gave the inheritance to his nephew could limit no more than he gave and by lord hails's estimate of 14 years purchase what he gave was no more than you may easily entail according to your own opinion if that opinion should finally prevail lord hails a suspicion that entails our encroachments on the dominion of providence may be extended to all hereditary privileges and all permanent institutions i do not see why it may not be extended to any provision for the present hour since all care about futurity proceeds upon a supposition that we know at least in some degree what will be future of the future we certainly know nothing but we may form conjectures from the past and the power of forming conjectures includes in my opinion the duty of acting in conformity to that probability which we discover providence gives the power of which reason teaches the use i am dear sir your most faithful servant sam johnson february 9th 1776 i hope i shall get some ground now with mrs boswell make my compliments to her and to the little people don't burn papers they may be safe enough in your own box you will wish to see them hereafter to the same dear sir to the letters which i've written about your great question i have nothing to add if your conscience is satisfied you have now only your prudence to consult i long for a letter that i may know how this troublesome and vexatious question is at last decided i hope that it will at last end well lord hails's letter was very friendly and very seasonable but i think his aversion from entails as something in it like superstition providence is not counteracted by any means which providence puts into our power the continuance and propagation of families makes a great part of the jewish law and is by no means prohibited in the christian institution though the necessity of it continues no longer hereditary tenures are established in all civilized countries and are accompanied in most with hereditary authority so weym temple considers our constitution as defective that there is not an unalienable estate in land connected with a peerage and lord bacon mentions as a proof that the turks are barbarians they're want of stirps as he calls them or hereditary rank do not let your mind when it is freed from the supposed necessity of her rigorous entail be entangled with contrary objections and think all entails unlawful till you have cogent arguments which i believe you will never find i'm afraid of scruples i've now sent all lord hails's papers part i found hidden in a drawer in which i'd laid them for security and had forgotten them part of these are written twice i've returned both the copies part i'd read before be so kind as to return lord hails my most respectful thanks for his versed volume his accuracy strikes me with wonder his narrative is far superior to that of eno as i formally mentioned i'm afraid that the trouble which my irregularity and delay has cost him is greater far greater than any good that i can do him will ever recompense but if i have any more copy i will try to do better pray let me know if mrs boswell is friends with me and pay my respects to veronica and euphemia and alexander i am sir your most humble servant sam johnson february 15 1776 mr boswell to dr johnson eddingburn february 20 1776 you have illuminated my mind and relieved me from imaginary shackles of conscientious obligation or it necessary i could immediately join in a tale upon the series of heirs approved by my father but it is better not to act too suddenly dr johnson to mr boswell dear sir i'm glad that what i could think or say has at all contributed to quiet your thoughts your resolution not to act till your opinion is confirmed by more deliberation is very just if you have been scrupulous do not now be rash i hope that as you think more and take opportunities of talking with men intelligent in questions of property you will be able to free yourself from every difficulty when i wrote last i sent i think 10 packets did you receive them all you must tell mrs boswell that i suspect that her to have written without your knowledge and therefore did not return any answer lester clandestine correspondence should have been perniciously discovered i'll write to her soon i am dear sir most affectionately yours sam johnson february 24 1776 haven't communicated to lord hails or dr johnson wrote concerning the question which perplexed me so much his lordship wrote to me your scruples have produced more fruit than i ever expected from them an excellent dissertation on general principles of morals and law i wrote to dr johnson on the 20th february complaining of melancholy and expressing a strong desire to be with him informing him that the 10 packets came all safe that lord hails was much obliged to him and said he had almost wholly removed his scruples against entails to james boswell escuar dear sir i've not had your letter half an hour as you lay so much weight upon my notions i should think it not just to delay my answer i'm very sorry that your melancholy should return and should be sorry likewise if it could have no relief but from company my counsel you may have when you're pleased to require it but of my company you cannot in the next month have much for mr thrill will take me to italy he says on the first of april let me warn you very earnestly against scruples i'm glad that you're reconciled to your settlement and think it a great honor to have shaken lord hails's opinion of entails do not however hope holy to reason away your troubles do not feed them with intention and they will die imperceptibly away fix your thoughts upon your business fill your intervals with company and sunshine will again break in upon your mind if you will come to me you must come very quickly and even then i know not but we may scar the country together for i have a mind to see oxford and lichfield before i set out on this long journey to this i can only add that i am dear sir your most affectionate humble servant sam johnson march the fifth 1776 to the same dear sir very early in april we leave england and in the beginning of the next week i shall leave london for a short time of this i think it necessary to inform you that you may not be disappointed in any of your enterprises i had not fully resolved to go into the country before this day pleased to make my compliments to lord hails and mentioned very particularly to mrs boswell my hope that she's reconciled to sir your faithful servant sam johnson march 12 1776 above 30 years ago the heirs of lord chancellor clarenin presented the university of oxford with a continuation of his history and such other of his lordship's manuscripts as had not been published on condition that the prophets arising from their publication should be applied to the establishment of a manage in the university the gift was accepted in full convocation a person being now recommended to dr johnson as fit to superintendent this proposed riding school he exerted himself with that zeal for which he was remarkable upon every similar occasion but on inquiry into the matter he found the scheme was not likely to be soon carried into execution the prophets arising from the clarenin press being from some mismanagement very scanty this have been explained to him by a respectable dignitary of the church who had good means of knowing it he wrote a letter upon the subject which at once exhibits his extraordinary precision and acuteness and his warm attachment to his alma mater to the reverend dr weatherill master of university college oxford dear sir few things are more unpleasant than the transaction of business with man who are above knowing or carrying what they have to do such as the trustees for lord cornberry's institution will perhaps appear when you have read doctor blanks letter the last part of the doctor's letter is of great importance the complaint which he makes i've heard long ago and don't know but it was redressed it is unhappy at a practice so erroneous has not yet been altered for altered it must be or our press will be useless with all its privileges the booksellers who like all other men have strong prejudices in their own favor are enough inclined to think the practice of printing and selling books by any but themselves an encroachment on the rights of their fraternity and have need of stronger inducements to circulate academical publications than those of one another for of that mutual corporation by which the general trade is carried on the university can bear no part of those who mean neither loves nor fears and from whom we expect no reciprocation of good offices why should any man promote the interest but for profit i suppose with all our scholastic ignorance of mankind we are still too knowing to expect that the booksellers will erect themselves into patrons and buy and sell under the influence of a disinterested seal for the promotion of learning to the booksellers if we look for either honor or profit from our press not only their common profit but something more must be allowed and if books printed at oxford are expected to be rated at a high price that price must be levied on the public and paid by the ultimate purchaser not by the intermediate agents what price shall be set upon the book is to the booksellers wholly indifferent provided that they gain a proportioned profit by negotiating the sale why books printed at oxford should be particularly dear i am however unable to find we pay no rent we inherit many of our instruments and materials lodging and victuals are cheaper than at london and therefore workmanship ought at least not to be dearer our expenses are naturally less than those of booksellers and in most cases communities are content with less profit than individuals it is perhaps not considered through how many hands a book often passes before it comes into those of the reader or what part of the profit each hand must retain as a motive for transmitting it to the next we will call our primary agent in london mr. kadel who receives our books from us gives them room in his warehouse and issues them on demand by him they are sold to mr. dilly the wholesale bookseller who sends them into the country and the last seller is the country bookseller here are three profits to be paid between the printer and the reader or in the style of commerce between the manufacturer and the consumer and if any of these profits is too pernuriously distributed the process of commerce is interrupted we are now come to the practical question what is to be done you will tell me with reason that i've said nothing till i declare how much according to my opinion of the ultimate price ought to be distributed through the whole succession of sale the deduction i am afraid will appear very great but let it be considered before it is refused we must allow for profit between 30 and 35 percent between six and seven shillings in the pound that is for every book which cost the last buyer 20 shillings we must charge mr. kadel with something less than 14 we must set the copies at 14 shillings each and super add what is called the quarterly book or for every hundred books so charged we must deliver 104 the profits will then stand thus mr. kadel who runs no hazard and gives no credit will be paid for warehouse room and attendance by a shilling profit on each book and his chance of the quarterly book mr. dilly who buys the book for 15 shillings and he will expect the quarterly book if he takes five and 20 will send it to his country customer at 16 and six by which at the hazard of loss and the certainty of long credit he gains the regular profit of 10 percent which is expected in the whole sale trade the country bookseller buying at 16 and sixpence and commonly trusting a considerable time gains but three and sixpence and if he trusts a year not much more than two and sixpence otherwise then as he may perhaps take as long credit as he gives with less profit than this and more you see cannot have the country bookseller cannot live for his receipts are small and his debts sometimes bad thus dear sir i've been incited by dr blank's letter to give you a detail of the circulation of books which perhaps every man has not had opportunity of knowing and which those who know it do not perhaps always distinctly consider i am etc sam johnson march the 12 1776 end of section 20 section 21 of the life of samuel johnson volume 2 this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org the life of samuel johnson volume 2 by james boswell section 21 1776 continued having arrived in london late on friday the 15th of march i hastened next morning to wait on dr johnson at his house but found he was removed from johnson's court number seven to boltcourt number eight still keeping to his favorite fleet street my reflection at the time upon this change as marked in my journal is as follows i felt a foolish regret that he had left a court which bore his name to be affected with some tenderness of regard for a place in which i had seen him a great deal from once i had often issued a better and happier man than when i went in and which had often appeared to my imagination while i tried its pavements in the solemn darkness of the night to be sacred to wisdom and piety being informed that he was at mr. thrales in the borough i hastened thither and found mrs. thrale and him at breakfast i was kindly welcomed in a moment he was in a full glow of conversation and i felt myself elevated as if brought into another state of being mrs. thrale and i looked to each other while he talked and our looks expressed our congenial admiration and affection for him i shall ever recollect this scene with great pleasure i exclaimed to her i am now intellectually her mipus redivivus i am quite restored by him by transfusion of mind there are many she replied who admire and respect mr. johnson but you and i love him he seemed very happy in the near prospect of going to italy with mr. and mrs. thrale but said he before leaving england i am to take a jawn to oxford bermingham my native city lickfield and my old friend dr. taylor's at ashbourne in jerby shire i shall go in a few days and you baswell shall go with me i was ready to accompany him being willing even to leave london to have the pleasure of his conversation i mentioned with much regret the extravagance of the representative of a great family in scotland by which there was danger of its being ruined and as johnson respected it for its antiquity he joined with me in thinking it would be happy if this person should die mrs. thrale seemed shocked at this as futile barbarity and said i do not understand this preference of the estate to its owner of the land to the man who walks upon the lands johnson nay madam it is not a preference of the land to its owner it is the preference of a family to an individual here is an establishment in a country which is of importance for ages not only to the chief but to his people an establishment which extends upwards and downwards that this should be destroyed by one idle fellow it's a sad thing he said entails are good because it is good to preserve in a country series of men to whom the people are accustomed to look up as to their leaders but i am for leaving a quantity of land in commerce to excite industry and keep money in the country for if no land were to be bought in the country there would be no encouragement to acquire wealth because a family could not be founded there or if it were acquired it must be carried away to another country where land may be bought and although the lands in every country will remain the same and be as fertile where there is no money as where there is yet all that portion of the happiness of civil life which is produced by money circulating in a country would be lost baswell then sir would it be for the advantage of a country that all its lands were sold at once johnson so far sir as money produces good it would be an advantage for then that country would have as much money circulating in it as it is worth but to be sure this would be counterbalanced by disadvantages attending a total change of proprietors i expressed my opinion that the power of entailing should be limited thus that there should be one third or perhaps one half of the lands of a country kept free for commerce that the proportion allowed to be entailed should be parceled out so that no family could entail above a certain quantity let a family according to the abilities of its representatives be richer or poorer in different generations or always rich if its representatives be always wise but let its absolute permanency be moderate in this way we should be certain of there being always a number of established routes and as in the course of nature there is in every age an extension of some families there would be continual openings for men ambitious of perpetuity to plant a stock in the entailed grounds johnson why sir mankind's would be better able to regulate the system of entails when the evil of too much lands being locked up by them is felt then we can do it present when it is not felt i mentioned dr adam smith's book on the wealth of nations which was just published and that sir john pringle had observed to me that dr smith who had never been in trade could not be expected to write well on that subject any more than a lawyer upon physics johnson he is mistaken sir a man who has never been engaged in trade himself may undoubtedly write well upon trade and there is nothing which requires more to be illustrated by philosophy than trade does as to mere wealth that is to say money it is clear that one nation or one individual cannot increase its store but by making another poorer but trade procures what is more valuable the reciprocation of the peculiar advantages of different countries a merchant seldom thinks but of his own particular trade to write a good book upon it a man must have extensive views it is not necessary to have practiced to write well upon a subject i mentioned law as a subject on which no man could write well without practice johnson why sir in england where so much money is to be got by the practice of the law most of our writers upon it have been in practice the blackstone had not been much in practice when he published his commentaries but upon the continent the great writers of law have not all been in practice grotesque indeed was but puff and dwarf was not burlamaki was not when we had talked of the great consequence which a man acquired by being employed in his profession i suggested a doubt of the justice of the general opinion that it is improper for a lawyer to solicit employment for why i urged should it not be equally allowable to solicit that as the means of consequence as it is to solicit votes to be elected a member of parliament mr strann had told me that a countryman of his and mine who had risen to eminence in the law had when first making his way solicited him to get him employed in city causes johnson sir it is wrong to stir up lawsuits but when once it is certain that a lawsuit is to go on there is nothing wrong in a lawyer's endeavoring that he shall have the benefit rather than another baswell you would not solicit employment sir if you were a lawyer johnson no sir but not because i should think it wrong but because i should disdain it this was a good distinction which will be felt by men of just pride he proceeded however i would not have a lawyer to be wanting to himself in using fair means i would have him to inject a little hint now and then to prevent his being overlooked lord mount sturdts bill for a scotch militia in supporting which his lordship had made an able speech in the house of commons was now a pretty general topic of conversation johnson as scotland contributes so little land tax towards the general support of the nation it ought not to have a militia paid out of the general fund unless it should be thought for the general interest that scotland should be protected from an invasion which no man can think will happen for what enemy would invade scotland where there is nothing to be got no sir now that the scotch have not the pay of english soldiers spent among them as so many troops are sent abroad they are trying to get money another way by having a militia paid if they are afraid and seriously desire to have an armed force to defend them they should pay for it your scheme is to retain a part of your land tax by making us pay and close your militia boswell you should not talk of we and you sir there is now a union johnson there must be a distinction of interest while the proportions of land tax are so unequal if yorkshire should say instead of paying our land tax we will keep a greater number of militia it would be unreasonable in this argument my friend was certainly in the wrong the land tax is as unequally proportioned between different parts of england as between england and scotland nay it is considerably unequal in scotland itself but the land tax is but a small part of the numerous branches of public revenue all of which scotland pays precisely as england does a french invasion made in scotland would soon penetrate into england he thus discoursed upon supposed obligation in settling estates where a man gets the unlimited property of an estates there is no obligation upon him injustice to leave it to one person rather than to another there is a motive of preference from kindness and this kindness is generally entertained for the nearest relation if i owe a particular man a sum of money i am obliged to let that man have the next money i get and cannot injustice let another have it but if i owe money to no man i may dispose of what i get as i please there is not a deadium eustidia to a man's next heir there is only a deadium carotases it is plain then that i have morally a choice according to my liking if i have a brother in want he has a claim from affection to my assistance but if i have also a brother in want whom i like better he has a preferable claim the right of an heir at law is only this that he is to have the succession to an estates in case no other person is appointed to it by the owner his right is merely preferable to that of the king we got into a boat to cross over to black friars and as we moved along the themes i talked to him of a little volume which altogether unknown to him was advertised to be published in a few days under the title of john sonyana or bond moths of dr johnson johnson sir it is a mighty impudent thing boswell pray sir could you have no redress if you were to prosecute a publisher for bringing out under your name what you never said and ascribing to you dull stupid nonsense or making you swear profanely as many ignorant relators of your bond moths do johnson no sir there will always be some truth mixed with a falsehood and how can it be a certain how much is true and how much is false besides sir what damage would a jury give me for having been represented as swearing boswell i think sir you should at least disavow such a publication because the world and posterity might with much plausible foundation say here is a volume which was publicly advertised and came out in dr johnson's own time and by his silence was admitted by him to be genuine johnson i shall give myself no trouble about the matter he was perhaps above suffering from such spurious publications but i could not help thinking that many men would be much injured in their reputation by having absurd and vicious sayings imputed to them and that redress ought in such cases to be given he said the value of every story depends on its being true a story it's a picture either of an individual or a human nature in general if it be false it is a picture of nothing for instance suppose a man should tell that johnson before setting out for italy as he had to cross the alps sat down to make himself wings this many people would believe but it would be a picture of nothing blank naming a worthy friend of ours used to think a story a story till i showed him that truth was essential to it i observed that foot entertained us with stories which were not true but that indeed it was properly not as narratives that foot stories pleased us but as collections of ludicrous images johnson foot is quite impartial for he tells lies of everybody the importance of strict and scrupulous veracity cannot be too often inculcated johnson was known to be so rigidly attentive to it that even in his common conversation the slightest circumstance was mentioned with exact precision the knowledge of his having such a principle and habit made his friends have a perfect reliance on the truth of everything that he told however it might have been doubted if told by many others as an instance of this i may mention an odd incident which he related as having happened to him one night in fleet street a gentlewoman said he begged i would give her my arm to assist her in crossing the street which i accordingly did upon which she offered me a shilling supposing me to be the watchman i perceived that she was somewhat in liquor this if told by most people would have been thought an invention when told by johnson it was believed by his friends as much as if they had seen what passed we landed at the temple stairs where we parted i found him in the evening in mrs. williams room we talked of religious orders he said it is as unreasonable for a man to go into a carthusian convent for fear of being immoral as for a man to cut off his hands for fear he should steal there is indeed great resolution in the immediate act of dismembering himself but when that is once done he has no longer any merits for though he is out of his power to steal yet he might all his life be a thief in his heart so when a man has once become a carthusian he is obliged to continue so whether he chooses it or not their silence too is absurd we read in the gospel of the apostles being sent to preach but not to hold their tongues all severity that does not tend to increase good or prevent evil is idle i said to the lady abbess of a convent madam you are here not for the love of virtue but the fear of vice she said she should remember this as long as she lived i thought it hard to give her this view of her situation when she could not help it and indeed i wondered at the whole of what he now said because both in his rambler and idler he treats religious austerities with much solemnty and respect finding him still persevering in his abstinence from wine i ventured to speak to him of it johnson sir i have no objection to a man's drinking wine if he can do it in moderation i found myself apt to go to excess in it and therefore after having been for some time without it on occasion of illness i thought it better not to return to it every man is to judge for himself according to the effects which he experiences one of the fathers tells us he found fasting it made him so peevish that he did not practice it though he often enlarge upon the evil of intoxication he was by no means harsh and unforgiving to those who indulge in occasional excess in wine one of his friends i well remember came to sup at a tavern with him and some other gentleman and too plainly discovered that he had drunk too much at dinner when one who loved mischief thinking to produce a severe censure asked johnson a few days afterwards well sir what did your friend say to you as an apology for being in such a situation johnson answered sir he said all that a man should say he said he was sorry for it i heard him once give a very judicious practical advice upon this subject a man who has been drinking wine at all freely should never go into a new company with those who have partaken of wine with him he may be pretty well in unison but he will probably be offensive or appear ridiculous to other people he allowed very great influence to education i do not deny sir but there is some original difference in minds but it is nothing in comparison of what is formed by education we may instance the science of numbers which all minds are equally capable of attaining yet we find a prodigious difference in the powers of different men in that respect after they are grown up because their minds have been more or less exercised in it and i think the same cause will explain the difference of excellence in other things gradations admitting always some difference in the first principles this is a difficult subject but it is best to hope that diligence may do a great deal we are sure of what it can do in increasing our mechanical force and dexterity i again visited him on monday he took occasion to enlarge as he often did upon the wretchedness of a sea life a ship is worse than a jail there is in a jail better air better company better convenience of every kind and a ship has the additional disadvantage of being in danger when men come to like a sea life they are not fit to live on land then said i it would be cruel in a father to breed his son to the sea johnson it would be cruel in a father who thinks as i do men go to sea before they know the unhappiness of that way of life and when they have come to know it they cannot escape from it because it is then too late to choose another profession as indeed is generally the case with men when they have once engaged in any particular way of life on tuesday march 19th which was fixed for our proposed jaunt we met in the morning at the summer set coffee house in the strands where we were taken up by the oxford coach he was accompanied by mr gwen the architect and a gentleman of merton college whom we did not know had the fourth seat we soon got into conversation for it was very remarkable at johnson that the presence of a stranger had no restraint upon his talk i observed that garrick who was about to quit the stage would soon have an easier life johnson i doubt that sir bozwell why sir he will be atlas with a burden off his back johnson but i know not sir if he will be so steady without his load however he should never play anymore but be entirely the gentleman and not partly the player he should no longer subject himself to be hissed by a mob or to be instantly treated by performers whom he used to rule with the high hands and who would gladly retaliate bozwell i think he should play once a year for the benefit of decayed actors as it has been said he means to do so johnson alas sir he will soon be a decayed actor himself johnson expressed his disapprobation of ornamental architecture such as magnificent columns supporting a portico or expensive pilasters supporting merely their own capitals because it consumes labor disproportionate to its utility for the same reason he satirized statuary painting said he consumes labor not disproportionate to its effect but a fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man the value of statuary is owing to its difficulty you would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot here he seemed to me to be strangely deficient in taste for surely statuary is a noble art of imitation and preserves a wonderful expression of the varieties of the human frame and although it must be allowed that the circumstances of difficulty enhance the value of a marble head we should consider that if it requires a long time in the performance it has a proportionate value in durability gwyn was a fine lively rattling fellow dr. johnson kept him in subjection but with a kindly authority the spirit of the artist however rose against what he thought a gothic attack and he made a burst defense what sir will you allow no value to beauty in architecture or in statuary why should we allow it then in writing why do you take the trouble to give us so many final illusions and bright images and elegant phrases you might convey all your instruction without these ornaments johnson smiled with complacency but said why sir all these ornaments are useful because they obtain an easier reception for truth but a building is not at all more convenient for being decorated with superfluous carved work gwyn was at last lucky enough to make one reply to dr. johnson which he allowed to be excellent johnson centered him for taking down a church which might have stood many years and building a new one at a different place for no other reason but that there might be a direct road to a new bridge and his expression was you are taking a church out of the way that the people may go in a straight line to the bridge no sir said gwyn i am putting the church in the way that the people may not go out of the way johnson with a hearty loud laugh of approbation speak no more rest your colloquial fame upon this upon our arrival at oxford dr. johnson and i went directly to university college but were disappointed on finding that one of the fellows his friend mr. scott who accompanied him from new castle to edinberg was gone to the country we put up at the angel in and passed the evening by ourselves in easy and familiar conversation talking of constitutional melancholy he observed a man so afflicted sir must divert to stressing thoughts and not combat with them boswell may he not think them down sir johnson no sir to attempt to think them down is madness he should have a lamp constantly burning in his bed chamber during the night and if wakefully disturbed take a book and read and compose himself to rest to have the management of the mind is a great art and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise boswell should not he provide amusements for himself would it not for instance be right for him to take a course of chemistry johnson let him take a course of chemistry or a course of rope dancing or a course of anything to which he's inclined at the time let him contrive to have as many retreats for his mind as he can as many things to which it can fly from itself burton's anatomy of melancholy is a valuable work it is perhaps overloaded with quotation but there is great spirit and great power in what burton says when he writes from his own mind next morning we visited doctor weatherill master of university college with whom dr johnson conferred on the most advantageous mode of disposing of the books printed at the clarence and press on which subject his letter had been inserted in a former page i often had occasion to remark johnson loved business loved to have his wisdom actually operate on real life dr weatherill and i talked of him without reserve in his own presence weatherill i would have given him a hundred guineas if he would have written a preface to his political tracks by way of a discourse on the british constitution boswell dr johnson though in his writings and upon all occasions a great friend to the constitution both in church and state has never written expressly in support of either there is really a claim upon him for both i am sure he could give a volume of no great bulk upon each which would comprise all the substance and with his spirit would have actually maintained them he should erect a fort to the confines of each i could perceive that he was displeased with his dialogue he burst out why should i be always writing i hoped he was conscious that the debt was just and meant to discharge it though he disliked being done we then went to pembroke college and waited on his old friend dr adams the master of it whom i found to be a most polite pleasing communicative man before his advancement to the headship of this college i had intended to go and visit him at shrewsbury where he was rector at st chad's in order to get from him what particulars he could recollect of johnson's academical life he now obligingly gave me part of that authentic information which with what i afterwards owed to his kindness will be found incorporated in its proper place in this work dr adams had distinguished himself by an able answer to david humes essay on miracles he told me he had once dined in company with hume in london that hume shook hands with him and said you have treated me much better than i deserve and that they exchanged visits i took the liberty to object to treating an infidel writer with smooth civility where there is a controversy concerning a passage in a classic author or concerning a question in antiquities or any other subject in which human happiness is not deeply interested a man made treat his antagonist with politeness and even respect where the controversy is concerning the truth of religion it is of such vast importance to him who maintains it to obtain the victory that the person of an opponent ought not to be spared if a man firmly believes that religion is an invaluable treasure he will consider a writer who endeavors to deprive mankind of it as a robber he will look upon him as odious though the infidel might think himself in the right a robber who reasons as the gang do in the beggars opera who call themselves practical philosophers and may have as much sincerity as pernicious speculative philosophers is not the less an object of just indignation an abandoned profligate may think that it is not wrong to debauch my wife but shall i therefore not detest him and if i catch him in making an attempt shall i treat him with politeness no i will kick him down the stairs or run him through the body that is if i really love my wife or have a true rational notion of honor an infidel then shall not be treated handsomely by a christian merely because he endeavors to rob with ingenuity i do declare however that i am exceedingly unwilling to be provoked to anger and could i be persuaded that truth would not suffer from a cool moderation in its defenders i should wish to preserve good humor at least in every controversy nor indeed do i see why a man should lose his temper when he does all he can to refute an opponent i think ridicule may be fairly used against an infidel for instance if he'd be an ugly fellow and yet absurdly vain of his person we may contrast his appearance with sister rose beautiful image of virtue could she be seen johnson coincided with me and said when a man voluntarily engages in an important controversy he is to do all he can to lessen his antagonist because authority from personal respect has much weight with most people and often more than reasoning if my antagonist writes bad language though that may not be essential to the question i will attack him for his bad language adams you would not jostle a chimney sweep johnson yes sir if it were necessary to jostle him down dr adams told us that in some of the colleges at oxford the fellows had excluded the students from social intercourse with them in the common room johnson they are in the right sir there can be no real conversation no fair exertion of mind amongst them if the young men are by for a man who has a character does not choose to stake it in their presence boswell but sir may there not be very good conversation without a contest for superiority johnson no animated conversation sir for it cannot be but one or other will come off superior i do not mean that the victor must have the better of the argument for he may take the weak side but his superiority of parts and knowledge will necessarily appear and he to whom he does shows himself superior is lessened in the eyes of the young men you know it was said malem cum scaligaro a rare quam cum clavio recta superior in the same manner take bentley's and jason denorses comments upon horus you will admire bentley more when wrong than jason when right we walked with dr adams into the master's garden and into the common room johnson after a reverie of meditation i here i used to play at droughts with phil jones and fludger jones loved beer and did not get very forward in the church fludger turned out a scoundrel a wig and said he was ashamed of having been bred at oxford he had a living at putney and got under the eye of some retainers to the court at that time and so became a violent wig but he had been a scoundrel all along to be sure baswell was he a scoundrel sir in any other way than that of being a political scoundrel did he cheat at droughts johnson sir we never played for money he then carried me to visit dr bentham canon of christ church and divinity professor with whose learned and lively conversation we were much pleased he gave us an invitation to dinner which dr johnson told me it was a high honor sir it is a great thing to dine with the canons of christ church we could not accept his invitation as we were engaged to dine at university college we had an excellent dinner there with a master and fellows it being st cuthbert's day which is kept by them as a festival as he was a saint of dirham with which this college is much connected we drank tea with dr home late president of magdalene college and bishop of norwich of whose abilities in different respects the public has had eminent proofs and the esteem annexed to whose character was increased by knowing him personally he had talked of publishing in addition of walton's lives but he had laid aside that design upon dr johnson's telling him from mistake that lord hails intended to do it i had wished to negotiate between lord hails and him that one or other should perform so good a work johnson in order to do it well it will be necessary to collect all the additions of walton's lives by way of adapting the book to the taste of the present age they have in a later edition left out a vision which he relates dr john had but it should be restored and there should be a critical catalog given of the works of the different persons whose lives were written by walton and therefore their works must be carefully read by the editor we then went to trinity college where he introduced me to mr thomas worton with whom we passed a part of the evening we talked of biography johnson it is rarely well executed they only who live with a man can write his life with any genuine exactness and discrimination and few people who have lived with a man know what to remark about him the chaplain of a late bishop whom i was to assist in writing some memoirs of his lordship could tell me scarcely anything i said mr robert doddsley's life should be written as he had been so much connected with the wits of his time and by his literary merit had raised himself from the station of a footman mr worton said he had published a little volume under the title of the muse in livery johnson i doubt whether doddsley's brother would thank a man who should write his life yet doddsley himself was not unwilling that his original low condition should be recollected when lord littleton's dialogues of the dead came out one of which is between a picious an ancient epicure and dartin youth a modern epicure doddsley said to me i know dartin urf well for i was once his footmen biography led us to speak of dr john cambell who had read a considerable part of the biography of britannica johnson though he valued him highly was of opinion that there was not so much in his great work a political survey of great britain as the world had been taught to expect and had said to me that he believed cambell's disappointment on account of the bad success of that work had killed him he this evening observed of it that the work was his death mr worton not adverting to his meaning answered i believe so from the great attention he bestowed on it johnson nacer he died of want of attention if he died at all by that book we talked of a work much in vogue at that time written in a very mellifluous style but which under pretext of another subject contained much artful infidelity i said it was not fair to attack us thus unexpectedly he should have warned us of our danger before we entered his garden of flowery eloquence by advertising spring guns and mentraps set here the author had been an oxonian and was remembered there for having churned papest i observed that is he had changed several times from the church of england to the church of rome from the church of rome to infidelity i did not despair yet of seeing him a methodist preacher johnson laughing it is said that his range has been more extensive and that he has once been mehamitan however now that he has published his infidelity he will probably persist in it boswell i am not quite sure of that sir i mentioned sir richard steel having published his christian hero with the avowed purpose of obliging himself to lead a religious life yet that his conduct was by no means strictly suitable johnson steel i believe practiced the lighter vices mr worton being engaged could not stop with us at our end we had therefore another evening by ourselves i asked johnson whether a man's being forward to make himself known to eminent people and seeing as much of life and getting as much information as he could in every way was not yet lessening himself by his forwardness johnson no sir a man always makes himself greater as he increases his knowledge i censured some ludicrous fantastic dialogues between two coach horses and other such stuff which beretti had lately published he joined with me and said nothing odd will do long tristram shandy did not last i expressed a desire to be acquainted with a lady who had been much talked of and universally celebrated for extraordinary address and insinuation johnson never believe extraordinary characters which you hear of people depend upon it sir they are exaggerated you do not see one man should a great deal higher than another i mentioned mr berk johnson yes berk is an extraordinary man his stream of mind is perpetual it is very pleasing for me to record that johnson's high estimation of the talents of this gentleman was uniform from their early acquaintance sir josh will reynolds informs me that when mr berk was first elected a member of parliament and sir john hawkins expressed a wonder at his attaining a seat johnson said now we who know mr berk know that he will be one of the finest men in this country and once when johnson was ill and unable to exert himself as much as usual without fatigue mr berk having been mentioned he said that fellow calls forth all my powers where i just see berk now it would kill me so much was he accustomed to consider conversation as a contest and such was his notion of berk as an opponent next morning thursday march 31st we set out in a post chase to pursue a ramble it was a delightful day and we rode through blundheim park when i looked at the magnificent bridge built by john zuke of marlborough over a small rivulet and collected the epigram made upon it the lofty arch his high ambition shows the stream an emblem of his bouncy flows and saw that now by the genius of brown a magnificent body of water was collected i said they have drowned the epigram i observed to him while in the midst of the noble scene around us you and i sir have i think seen together the extremes of what can be seen in britain the wild rough island of maul and blundheim park we dined at an excellent inn at chapel house where he expatiated on the felicity of england in its taverns and ins and triumphs over the french for not having in any perfection the tavern life there is no private house said he in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern let there be ever so great plenty of good things ever so much grandeur ever so much elegance ever so much desire that everybody should be easy in the nature of things it cannot be there must always be some degree of care and anxiety the master of the house is anxious to entertain his guests but the guests are anxious to be agreeable to him and no man but a very impudent dog indeed can is freely command what is in another man's house as if it were his own whereas at a tavern there is a general freedom from anxiety you are sure you are welcome and the more noise you make the more trouble you give the more good things you call for the welcomeer you are no servants will attend you with the alacrity which waiters do who are incited by the prospect of an immediate reward and proportion as they please no sir there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or in he then repeated with great emotion shenston's lines who where has traveled lifestyle rounds where are his stages may have been may sigh to think he still has found the warmest welcome at an end my illustrious friends i thought did not sufficiently admire shenston that ingenious and elegant gentleman's opinion of johnson appears in one of his letters to mr graves dated february 9 1760 i have lately been reading one or two volumes of the rambler who accepting against some few hardnesses in his manner and one of more examples to enliven is one of the most nervous most perspicuous most concise and most harmonious prose writers i have known a learned dictation improves by time in the afternoon as we were driven rapidly along in the post chase he said to me life has not many things better than this we stopped at straddford upon avon and drank tea and coffee and it pleased me to be with him upon the classic ground of shakespeare's native place he spoke slidingly of dire's fleece the subject sir cannot be made poetical how can a man write poetically of surges and druggets yet you will hear many people talk to you greatly of that excellent poem the fleece having talked of grangers sugarcane i mentioned to him mr lighton's having told me that this poem when read in manuscript at sir joshua reynolds had made all the assembled wits burst into a laugh when after much blank verse pomp the poet began a new paragraph thus now muse let's sing of rats and what increased the ridicule was that one of the company who slightly overlooked the reader perceived at the word have been originally mice and have been altered to rats as more dignified this passage does not appear in the printed work dr granger or some of his friends it should seem having become sensible that introducing even rats in a grave poem might be liable to banter he however could not bring himself to relinquish the idea for they are thus in a still more ludicrous manner paraphrastically exhibited in his poem as it now stands nor with less waste the whiskered vermin race accountless clan despoil the lowland cane johnson said that dr granger wasn't agreeable man a man who would do any good that was in his power his translation of tibulus he thought was very well done but the sugarcane a poem did not please him for he exclaimed what could he make of a sugarcane one might as well write the parsley bed a poem or the cabbage garden a poem baswell you must then pickle your cabbage with the sal attitude johnson you know there is already the hop garden a poem and i think one could say a great deal about cabbage the poem might begin with the advantages of civilized society over a rude state exemplified by the scotch who had no cabbages till oliver calmwell soldiers introduced them and one might thus show how arts are propagated by conquest as they were by the roman arms he seemed to be much diverted with the fertility of his own fancy i told him that i heard dr percy was writing the history of the wolf in great britain johnson the wolf sir why the wolf why does he not write of the bear which we had formerly nay it is said we had the beaver well why does he not write of the gray rat the hanover rat as it is called because it is said to have come into this country about the time that the family of hanover came i should like to see the history of the gray rat by thomas percy d d chaplain in ordinary to his majesty laughing and moderately baswell i am afraid a court chaplain could not decently write of the gray rat johnson sir he need not give it the name of the hanover rat thus he could indulge a luxuriant sport of imagination when talking of a friend whom he loved and esteemed he mentioned to me the singular history of an ingenious acquaintance he had practiced physics in various situations with no great emolument a west india gentleman whom he delighted by his conversation gave him a bond for a handsome annuity during his life on the condition of his accompanying him to the west indies and living with him there for two years he accordingly embarked with the gentleman but upon the voyage he fell in love with a young woman who happened to be one of the passengers and married the wench from the impudence of his disposition he quarreled with the gentleman and declared he would have no connection with him so he forfeited the annuity he settled as a physician in one of the leeward islands a man was sent out to him merely to compound his medicines this fellow set up as a rival to him in his practice of physics and got so much the better of him in the opinion of the people of the island that he carried away all the business upon which he returned to england and soon after died end of section 21 recording by katie riley april 2009