 section 12 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 12 1773 continued on Monday April 19 he called on me with Mrs. Williams in Mr. Strahan's coach and carried me out to dine with Mr. Elphinstone at his Academy at Kensington a printer having acquired a fortune sufficient to keep his coach was a good topic for the credit of literature Mrs. Williams said that another printer Mr. Hamilton had not waited so long as Mr. Strahan but it kept his coach several years sooner Johnson he was in the right life is short the sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better Mr. Elphinstone talked of a new book that was much admired and asked Dr. Johnson if he had read it Johnson I've looked into it what said Elphinstone have you not read it through Johnson offended at being thus pressed and so obliged to own his cursory mode of reading answered partly no sir do you read books through he this day again defended dueling and put his argument upon what I have ever thought the most solid basis that if public war be allowed to be consistent with morality private war must be equally so indeed we may observe what strained arguments are used to reconcile war with the Christian religion but in my opinion it is exceedingly clear that dueling having better reasons for its barbarous violence is more justifiable than war in which thousands go forth without any cause of personal quarrel and massacre each other on Wednesday April 21st I dined with him at Mr. Thrails the gentleman attacked Garrick for being vain Johnson no wonder sir that he is vain a man who is perpetually flooded in every mode that can be conceived so many bellows have blown the fire that one wonders he is not by this time become a cinder boss well and such bellows too Lord Mansfield with his cheeks like to burst Lord Chatham like an Eolus I've read such notes from them to him as we're enough to turn his head Johnson true when he whom everybody else flatters flat as me I then am truly happy Mrs. Thrill the sentiment is incongruive I think Johnson yes madam in the way of the world quote if there's delight in love this when I see that heart which others bleed for bleed for me and quote no sir I should not be surprised though Garrick chained the ocean and lashed the winds boss well should it not be sir lashed the ocean and chained the winds Johnson no sir recollect the original quote in Corum at the Aeorum solitus severe flagellous barburs Aeolio nun cum cock in carcass process Ipsum compelibus qui vincerat in osigeum and quote this does very well and both the winds and the sea are personified and mentioned by their mythological names as in juvenile but when they are mentioned in plain language the application of the epithets suggested by me is the most obvious and accordingly my friend himself in his imitation of the passage which describes Xerces has quote the waves he lashes and and chains the wind and quote the modes of living in different countries and the various views with which man travel in quest of new scenes have been talked of a learned gentleman who holds a considerable office in the law expatiated on the happiness of a savage life and mentioned an instance of an officer who had actually lived for some time in the wilds of America of whom when in that state he quoted this reflection with an air of admiration as if it had been deeply philosophical quote here am I free and unrestrained amid the rude magnificence of nature with this Indian woman by my side and this gun with which I can procure food when I want it what more can be desired for human happiness and quote it did not require much sagacity to foresee that such sentiment would not be permitted to pass without due animate version Johnson do not allow yourself sir to be imposed upon by such gross absurdity it is sad stuff it is brutish if a bull could speak he might as well exclaim here am I with this cow and this grass what being can enjoy greater felicity we talked with a melancholy end of a gentleman who had destroyed himself Johnson it was owing to imaginary difficulties in his affairs which had he talked with any friend would soon have vanished Boswell do you think sir that all who commit suicide are mad Johnson sir they are often not universally disordered in their intellects but one passion presses so upon them that they yield to it and commit suicide as a passionate man will stab another he added I've often thought that after a man has taken the resolution to kill himself it is not courage in him to do anything however desperate because he has nothing to fear goldsmith I don't see that Johnson nay but my dear sir why should not you see what everyone else sees goldsmith it is for fear of something that he has resolved to kill himself and will not that timid disposition restrain him Johnson it does not signify that the fear of something made him resolve it is upon the state of his mind after the resolution is taken that I argue suppose a man either from fear or pride or conscience or whatever motive has resolved to kill himself when once the resolution is taken he has nothing to fear he may then go and take the king of pressure by the nose at the head of his army he cannot fear the wreck who has resolved to kill himself when uses but Joel was walking down to the Thames determined to drown himself he might if he pleased without any apprehension of danger have turned aside and first set fire to st. James's palace on Tuesday April 27th Mr. Bo Clark and I called on him in the morning as we walked up Johnson's court I said I have a veneration for this court and was glad to find that Bo Clark had the same reverential enthusiasm we found him alone we talked of Mr. Andrews to its elegant implausible letters to Lord Mansfield a copy of which had been sent by the author to Dr. Johnson Johnson they have not answered the end they have not been talked of I've never heard of them this is owing to their not being sold people seldom read a book which is given to them and few are given the way to spread a work is to sell it a low price no man will send to buy a thing that costs even sixpence without an intention to read it Boswell may not be doubted sir whether it be proper to publish letters arraigning the ultimate decision of an important cause by the supreme judicature of the nation Johnson no sir I do not think it was wrong to publish these letters if they are thought to do harm why not answer them but they will do no harm if Mr. Douglas be indeed the son of Lady Jane he cannot be heard if he be not her son and yet has the great estate of the family of Douglas he may well submit to have a pamphlet against him by Andrew Stewart sir I think such a publication does good as it does good to show us the possibilities of human life and sir you will not say that the Douglas cause was a cause of easy decision when it divided your court as much as it could do to be determined at all when your judges were seven and seven the casting vote of the president must be given on one side or other no matter for my argument on which one or the other must be taken as when I am to move there is no matter which leg I move first and then sir it was otherwise determined here no sir a more dubious determination of any question cannot be imagined he said Goldsmith should not be forever attempting to shine in conversation he has not temper for it he is so much mortified when he fails sir a game of jokes is composed partly of skill partly of chance a man may be beat at times by one who has not a tenth part of his wit now Goldsmith putting himself against another is like a man laying a hundred to one who cannot spare the hundred it is not worth a man's while a man should not lay a hundred to one unless he can easily spare it though he has a hundred chances for him he can get but a guinea and he may lose a hundred Goldsmith is in this state when he contends if he gets the better it is a very little addition to a man of his literary reputation if he does not get the better he is miserably vexed Johnson's own superlative powers of wit set him above any risk of such uneasiness Garrick had remarked to me of him a few days before Rabbalah and all other wits are nothing compared with him you may be diverted by them but Johnson gives you a forcible hug and shakes laughter out of you whether you will or no Goldsmith however was often very fortunate in his witty contests even when he entered the lists with Johnson himself Sir Joshua Reynolds was in company with them one day when Goldsmith said that he thought he could write a good fable mentioned the simplicity which that kind of composition requires and observed that in most fables the animals introduced seldom talking character for instance said he the fable of the little fishes who saw birds fly over their heads and envying them petition Jupiter to be changed into birds the skill continuity consists in making them talk like little fishes while he indulged himself in this fanciful reverie he observed Johnson shaking his sides and laughing upon which he smartly proceeded why dr. Johnson this is not so easy as you seem to think for if you were to make little fishes talk they would talk like whales Johnson though remarkable for his great variety of composition never exercised his talents in fable except we allow his beautiful tale published in Mrs. Williams miscellaneous to be of that species I have however found among his manuscript collections the following sketch of one glowworm lying in the garden saw a candle in a neighboring palace and complained of the littleness of his own light another observed wait a little soon dark have outlasted all of these glaring lights which are only brighter as they haste to nothing on Thursday April 29th I dined with him at General Oglethorpes where were Sir Joshua Reynolds Mr. Langton dr. Goldsmith and Mr. Thrill I was very desirous to get Dr. Johnson absolutely fixed in his resolution to go with me to the Hebrides this year and I told him that I had received a letter from Dr. Robertson the historian upon the subject with which he was much pleased and now talked in such a manner of his long intended tour that I was satisfied he meant to fulfill his engagement the custom of eating dogs at Otahete being mentioned Goldsmith observed that this was also a custom in China that a dog butcher is as common there as any other butcher and that when he walks abroad all the dogs fall on him Johnson that is not owing to his killing dogs sir I remember a butcher at Litchfield whom a dog that was in the house where I lived always attacked it is the smell of carnage which provokes this let the animals he has killed be what they may Goldsmith yes there is a general abhorrence in animals at the signs of massacre if you put a tub full of blood into his table the horses are like to go mad Johnson I doubt that Goldsmith nay sir it is a fact well authenticated Thrill we had better prove it before you put it into your book on natural history you may do it in my stable if you will Johnson nay sir I would not have improved it if he is content to take his information from others he may get through his book with little trouble and without much endangering his reputation but if he makes experiments for so comprehensive a book as his there would be no end to them his erroneous assertions would then fall upon himself and he might be blamed for not having made experiments as to every particular the character of Malay having been introduced and spoken of slightly by Goldsmith Johnson why sir Malay had talents enough to keep his literal reputation alive as long as he himself lived and that let me tell you is a good deal Goldsmith but I cannot agree that it was so his literal reputation was dead long before his natural death I consider an author's literal reputation to be alive only while his name will ensure a good price for his copy from the booksellers I will get you to Johnson a hundred guineas for anything whatever that you shall write if you put your name to it Dr Goldsmith's new play she stups to conquer being mentioned Johnson I know of no comedy for many years that has so much exhilarated an audience that has answered so much the great end of comedy making an audience marry Goldsmith having said that Garrick's compliment to the Queen which he introduced into the play of the chances which had altered and revised this year was mean and gross flattery Johnson why sir I would not write I would not give solemnly under my hand a character beyond what I thought really true but a speech on the stage that had flatter ever so extravagantly is formula it has always been formula to flatter kings and queens so much so that even in our church service we have our most religious king used indiscriminately whoever is king nay they even flatter themselves we have been graciously pleased to grant no modern flattery however is so gross as that of the augustan age where the emperor was deified presents divus habebitur augustus and as to meanness rising into warmth how is it mean in a player a showman a fellow who exhibits himself for a shilling to flatter his queen the attempt indeed was dangerous for if it had missed what became of Garrick and what became with the queen as sir william temple says of a great general it is necessary not only that his designs be formed in a masterly manner but that they should be attended with success sir it is right at a time when the royal family is not generally liked to let it be seen that the people like at least one of them sir joshia reynolds i do not perceive why the profession of a player should be despised for the great and ultimate end of all the employments of mankind is to produce amusement garrick produces more amusement than anybody boss will you say dr johnson that garrick exhibits himself for a shilling in this respect he is only on a footing with a lawyer who exhibits himself for his fee and even will maintain any nonsense or absurdity if the case requires it garrick refuses a play or a part which he does not like a lawyer never refuses johnson why sir what does this prove only that a lawyer is worse boss will is now like jack in the tail of a tub who when he's puzzled by an argument hangs himself he thinks i shall cut him down but i'll let him hang laughing for zifferously sir joshia reynolds mr boss will thinks that the profession of a lawyer being unquestionably honorable if he can show the profession of a player to be honorable he proves his argument on friday april thirtieth i dined with him at mr bro clerks where were lord charlemont sir joshia reynolds and some more members of the literary club who made obligingly invited to meet me as i was this evening to be belated for as candidate for admission into that distinguished society johnson had done me the honor to propose me and beau clark was very zealous for me goldsmith being mentioned johnson it is amazing how little goldsmith knows he seldom comes where he's not more ignorant than anyone else so joshia reynolds yet there is no man whose company is more liked johnson to be sure sir when people find a man of the most distinguished abilities as a writer they're inferior while he's with them it must be highly gratifying to them what goldsmith comically says of himself is very true he always gets the better when he argues alone meaning that he's master of a subject in his study and can write well upon it but when he comes into company grows confused and unable to talk take him as a poet his traveler is a very fine performance i and so is his deserted village where not sometimes too much the echo of his traveler where there indeed we take him as a poet as a comic writer or as an historian he stands in the first class boswell a historian my dear sir you surely will not rank his compilation of the roman history with the works of other historians of this age johnson why who are before him boswell hume roberton lord littleton johnson is in sympathy to the scotch beginning to rise i've not read hume but doubtless goldsmith's history is better than the verbiage of robertson or the fopry of delrimble boswell will you not admit the superiority of robertson in whose history we find such penetration such painting johnson sir you must consider how that penetration and that painting are employed it is not history it is imagination he who describes what he never saw draws from fancy robertson paints minds as sir joshia paints faces in a history piece he imagines a heroic countenance you must look upon robertsons work as a romance and try it by that standard history it is not besides sir it is the great excellence of a writer to put into his book as much as his book will hold goldsmith has done this in his history now robertson might have put twice as much into his book robertson is like a man who has packed gold in wool the wool takes up more room in the gold no sir i always thought robertson would be crushed by his own weight would be buried under his own ornaments goldsmith tells you shortly all you want to know robertson detains you a great deal too long no man will read robertsons cumbers detail a second time but goldsmith's plain narrative will please again and again i would say to robertson what an old tutor of a college said to one of his pupils read over your compositions and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine strike it out goldsmith's abridgement is better than that of lucius floris or utropius and i will venture to say that if you compare him with furto in the same places of the roman history you'll find that he excels furto sir he has the art of compiling and of saying everything he has to say in a pleasing manner he is now writing a natural history and will make it as entertaining as a person tale i cannot dismiss the present topic without observing that it is probable that dr johnson who owned that he often talked for victory rather urged plausible objections to dr robertson's excellent historical works in the ardor of contest then expressed his real and decided opinion for it is not easy to suppose that he should so widely differ from the rest of the literary world johnson i remember once being with goldsmith in west minstrelby while we surveyed the poet's corner i said to him farcitan et nostrum nomen miscubitur istis when we got to temple bar he stopped me pointed to the heads upon it and slightly whispered me farcitan et nostrum nomen miscubitur istis johnson praised john bunion highly his pilgrim's progress has great merit both for invention imagination and the conduct of the story and it has had the best evidence of its merit the general and continued approbation of mankind few books i believe have had a more extensive sale it is remarkable that it begins very much like the poem of dante yet there was no translation of dante when bunion wrote there is reason to think that he had read spencer a proposition which had been agitated that monument to eminent persons should for the time to come be erected in st paul's church as well as in west minstrelby was mentioned and it was asked who should be honored by having his monument first erected there somebody suggested pope johnson why sir as pope was a roman catholic i would not have his to be first i think militants rather should have the precedents i think more highly of him now than i did at 20 there is more thinking in him and in butler than in any of our poets some of the company expressed a wonder why the author of so excellent a book as the whole duty of man should conceal himself johnson there may be different reasons assigned for this any one of which would be very sufficient he may have been a clergyman and may have thought that his religious councils would have less weight when known to come from a man whose profession was theology he may have been a man whose practice was not suitable to his principles so that his character might injure the effect of his book which he had written in a season of penitence or he may have been a man of rigid self-denial so that he would have no reward for his pious labors while in this world but refer it all to a future state the gentleman went away to their club and i was left at book clark's till the fate of my election should be announced to me i sat in a state of anxiety which even the charming conversation of lady d book clark could not entirely dissipate in a short time i received the agreeable intelligence that i was chosen i hastened to the place of meeting i was introduced to such a society as can seldom be found mr atman berg whom i then saw the first time and whose splendid talents had long made me ardently wish for his acquaintance dr nugent mr garrick dr goldsmith mr afterwards sir william jones and the company with whom i dined upon my entrance johnson placed himself behind a chair on which he'll end as on a desk or pulpit and with humorous formality gave me a charge pointing out the conduct expected from me as a good member of this club goldsmith produced some very absurd verses which had been publicly recited to an audience for money johnson i can match this nonsense there was a poem called eugenio which came out some years ago and concludes thus quote and now yet trifling self-assuming elves brimful of pride of nothing of yourselves survey eugenio view him over and over then sink into yourselves and be no more and quote nay dryden in his poem on the royal society has these lines quote then we upon our globes last verge shall go and see the ocean leaning on the sky from thence our rolling neighbors we shall know and on the lunar world securely pry end quote talking of puns johnson had a great contempt for that species of wit dain to allow that there was one good pun in minagiana i think on the word corpse much pleasant conversation passed which johnson relished with great good humor but his conversation alone or what led to it or was interwoven with it is the business of this work on saturday may first we dine by ourselves at our old rendezvous the mitred turvone he was pleasant but not much disposed to talk he observed that the irish mix better with the english than the scotch do their language is nearer to english as a proof of which they succeed very well as players which scotchmen do not then sir they have not that extreme nationality which we find in the scotch i will do you boss will the justice to say that you are the most unscotified of your countrymen you're almost the only instance of a scotchman that i've known who did not at every other sentence bring in some other scotchmen we drank tea with mrs. williams i introduced the question which has been much agitated in the church of scotland whether the claim of lay patrons to present ministers to parishes be well founded and supposing it to be well founded whether it ought to be exercised without the concurrence of the people that church is composed of a series of judicatures a presbytery a synod and finally a general assembly before all of which this matter may be contended and in some cases the presbytery having refused to induct or settle as they call it the person presented by the patron it has been found necessary to appeal to the general assembly he said i might see the subject well treated in the defense of pluralities had although he thought that a patron should exercise his right with tenderness to the inclinations of the people of a parish he was very clear as to his right then supposing the question to be pleaded before the general assembly he dictated to me what follows against the right of patrons is commonly opposed by the inferior judicatures the plea of conscience their conscience tells them that the people ought to choose their pastor their conscience tells them that they ought not to impose upon a congregation a minister ungrateful and unacceptable to his auditors conscience is nothing more than a conviction felt by ourselves of something to be done or something to be avoided and in questions of simple unperplexed morality conscience is very often a guide that may be trusted but before conscience can determine the state of the question is supposed to be completely known in questions of law or of fact conscience is very often confounded with opinion no man's conscience can tell him the right of another man they must be known by rational investigation or historical inquiry opinion which he that holds it may call his conscience may teach some man that religion would be promoted and quiet preserved by granting to the people universally the choice of their ministers but it is a conscience very ill informed that violates the rights of one man for the convenience of another religion cannot be promoted by injustice and it was never yet found that a popular election was very quietly transacted that justice would be violated by transferring to the people the right of patronage is apparent to all who know whence that right had its original the right of patronage was not at first a privilege torn by power from unresisting poverty it is not an authority at first usurped in times of ignorance and established only by succession and by precedence it is not a grant capriciously made from a higher tyrant to a lower it is a right dearly purchased by the first possessors and justly inherited by those that succeeded them when christianity was established in this island a regular mode of public worship was prescribed public worship requires a public place and the proprietors of lands as they were converted built churches for their families and their vessels for the maintenance of ministers they settled a certain portion of their lands and the district through which each minister was required to extend his care was by that circumscription constituted a parish this is a position so generally received in england at the extent of a manna and of a parish are regularly received for each other the churches which the proprietors of lands had thus built and thus endowed they justly thought themselves entitled to provide with ministers and where the episcopal government prevails the bishop has no power to reject a man nominated by the patron but for some crime that might exclude him from the priesthood for the endowment of the church being the gift of the landlord he was consequently at liberty to give it according to his choice to any man capable of performing the holy offices the people did not choose him because the people did not pay him we hear it sometimes urged that this original right is passed out of memory and is obliterated and obscured by many translations of property and changes of government that scares any church is now in the hands of the heirs of the builders and the present persons have entered subsequently upon the pretend that rights by a thousand accidental and unknown causes much of this perhaps is true but how is the right of patronage extinguished if the right followed the lands it is possessed by the same equity by which the lands are possessed it is in fact part of the manna and protected by the same laws with every other privilege let us suppose in a state forfeited by treason and grounded by the crown to a new family with the lands were forfeited all the rights appended to those lands by the same power that grants the lands the rights are also are granted the right lost to the patron falls not to the people but it either retained by the crown or what to the people is the same thing is by the crown given away let it change hands ever so often it is possessed by him that receives it with the same right as it was conveyed it may indeed like all our possessions be forcibly seized or fraudulently obtained but no injury is still done to the people for what they never had they have never lost chaos may usurp the right of tissues but neither chaos nor tissues injure the people and no man's conscience however tender or however active can prompt him to restore what may be proved have been never taken away supposing what i think cannot be proved that a popular election of ministers were to be desired our desires are not the measure of equity it would be desired that power should be only in the hands of the merciful and riches in the possession of the generous but the law must leave both riches and power where it finds them and must often leave riches with the covetous and power with the cruel convenience may be a rule in little things where no other rule has been established but as the great end of government is to give every man his own no inconvenience is greater than that of making right uncertain nor as any man more an enemy to public peace and he who fills weak heads with imaginary claims and breaks the series of civil subordination by inciting the lower classes of mankind to encroach upon the higher having thus shown that the right of patronage being originally purchased may be legally transferred and that it is now in the hands of lawful possessors at least as certainly as any other right we have left to the advocates of the people no other plea and that of convenience let us therefore now consider what the people would really gain by a general abolition of the right of patronage what is most to be desired by such a changes that the country should be supplied with better ministers but why should we suppose that the parish will make a wiser choice than the patron if we suppose mankind actuated by interest the patron is more likely to choose with caution because he will suffer more by choosing wrong by the deficiencies of his minister or by his visors he is equally offended with the rest of the congregation but he will have this reason more to lament them that they will be imputed to his absurdity or corruption the qualifications of a minister are well known to be learning and piety of his learning the patron is probably the only judge in the parish and of his piety not lesser judge than others and is more likely to inquire minutely and diligently before he gives a presentation than one of the parochial rabble who can give nothing but a vote it may be urged that though the parish might not choose better ministers they would at least choose ministers whom they like better and who would therefore officiate with greater efficacy that ignorance and perverseness should always obtain what they like was never considered as the end of government of which it is the great and standing benefit that the wise see for the simple and the regular act for the capricious but that this argument supposes the people capable of judging and resolute to act according to their best judgments though this be sufficiently absurd it is not all its absurdity it supposes not only wisdom but unanimity in those who upon no other occasions are unanimous or wise if by some strange concurrence all the voices of a parish should unite in the choice of any single man though I could not charge the patron with injustice for presenting a minister I should sender him as unkind and injudicious but it is evident that as in all other popular elections there will be contrariety of judgment and acrimony of passion a parish upon every vacancy would break into factions and the contest for the choice of a minister would set neighbours at variants and bring discord into families the minister would be taught all the arts of a candidate would flatter some and bribe others and the electors as in all other cases would call for holidays and ale and break the heads of each other during the jollity of the canvas the time must however come at last when one of the factions must prevail and one of the ministers get possession of the church on what terms does he enter upon his ministry but those of enmity with half his parish by what prudence or what diligence can he hope to conciliate the affections of that party by whose defeat he has obtained his living every man who voted against him will enter the church with hanging head and downcast eyes afraid to encounter that neighbour by whose vote and influence he has been overpowered he will hate his neighbour for opposing him and his minister for having prospered by the opposition and as he will never see him but with pain he will never see him but with hatred of a minister presented by the patron the parish has seldom anything worse to say than that they do not know him of a minister chosen by a popular contest all those who do not favour him have nursed up in their bosoms principles of hatred and reasons of rejection anger is excited principally by pride the pride of a common man is very little exasperated by the supposed usurpation of an acknowledged superior he bears only his little share of a general evil and suffers in common with the whole parish but when the contest is between equals the defeat has many aggravations and he that is defeated by his next neighbour is seldom satisfied without some revenge and it is hard to say what bitterness of malignity would prevail in a parish where these elections should happen to be frequent and the enmity of opposition should be rekindled before it had cooled though i present to my readers dr johnson's masterly thoughts on the subject i think it proper to declare that notwithstanding i am myself a lay patron i do not entirely subscribe to his opinion end of section 12 section 13 of the life of samuel johnson volume 2 this is a livervox recording all livervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit livervox.org recording by anasimone the life of samuel johnson volume 2 by james boswell section 13 1773 continued on friday may 7 i breakfasted with him at mr thrales in the borough while we were alone i endeavored as well as i could to apologize for a lady who'd been divorced from her husband by act of parliament i said that he had used her very ill had behaved brutally to her and that she could not continue to live with him without having her delicacy contaminated that all affection frame was thus destroyed that the essence of conjugal union being gone there remained only a cold form a mere civil obligation that she was in the prime of life with qualities to produce happiness that these ought not to be lost and that the gentleman on whose account she was divorced had gained her heart while thus unhappily situated seduced perhaps by the charms of the lady in question i thus attempted to palliate what i was sensible could not be justified for when i had finished my orang my venerable friend gave me a proper check my dear sir never accustomed your mind to mingle virtue and vice the woman's a hole and there's an end on it he described the father of one of his friends thus sir he was so exuberant to talk or at public meeting that the gentleman of his county were afraid of him no business could be done for his declamation he did not give me full credit when i mentioned that i had carried on a short conversation by signs with some eskimo who were then in london particularly with one of them who was a priest he thought i could not make them understand me no man was more incredulous as to particular facts which were at all extraordinary and therefore no man was more scrupulously inquisitive in order to discover the truth i dined with him this day at the house of my friends measures eddard and charles dilly books had us in the poultry there were present their elder brother mr dilly of betfiture dr goldsmith mr langton mr clackston reverend dr mayo a dissenting minister the reverend mr toplady and my friend the reverend mr temple hawksworth compilation of the voyages to the south sea being mentioned johnson sir if you talk of it as a subject of commerce it will be gainful if as a book that is to increase human knowledge i believe there will not be much of that hawksworth can tell only what the voyages have told him and they have found very little only one new animal i think boss will but many insects sir johnson why sir as to insects ray reckons of british insects 20 000 species they might have stayed at home and discovered enough in that way talking of birds i mentioned mr dane baringson's ingenious essay against the received notion of their migration johnson i think we have as good evidence for the migration of woodcocks as can be desired we find they disappear at a certain time of the year and appear again at a certain time of the year and some of them when wary in their flight have been known to a light on the rigging of ships far out at sea one of the company observed that there had been instances of some of them found in summer in asex johnson sir that strengthens our argument exception poor but regular some being found shows that if all remained many would be found a few sick or lame ones may be found goldsmith there is a partial migration of the swallows the stronger ones migrate the others do not boss will i'm well assured that the people of otate who have the bread tree the fruit of which serves them for bread laughed heartily when they were informed of the tedious process necessary with us to have bread plowing sowing herring reaping thrashing grinding baking johnson hi sir all ignorant savages will laugh when they are told of the advantages of civilized life where you to tell men who live without houses how we pile brick upon brick and rafter upon rafter and that after houses raised to a certain height a man tumbles off a scaffold and breaks his neck he would laugh heartily at our fully in building but it does not follow that men are better without houses no sir holding up a slice of a good loaf this is better than the bread tree he repeated an argument which is to be found in his rambler against the notion that the brute creation is endowed with the faculty of reason birds built by instinct they never improve they built their first nest as well as anyone they ever build goldsmith yet we see if you take away a bird's nest with an eggs in it she'll make a slighter nest and lay again johnson sir that is because at first she has full time and makes her nest deliberately in the case you mentioned she is pressed to lay and must therefore make her nest quickly and consequently it will be slight goldsmith the identification of birds is what is least known in natural history they're one of the most curious things in it i introduce the subject of toleration johnson every society has a right to preserve public peace and order and therefore has a good right to prohibit the propagation of opinions which have a dangerous tendency to say the magistrate has this right is using an inadequate word it is the society for which the magistrate is an agent he may be morally or theologically wrong in restraining the propagation of opinions which he thinks dangerous but he is politically right may you i am of opinion sir that every man is entitled to liberty of conscience in religion and that the magistrate cannot restrain that right johnson sir i agree with you every man has a right to liberty of conscience and with that the magistrate cannot interfere people confound liberty of thinking with liberty of talking nay with liberty of preaching every man has a physical right to think as he pleases for it cannot be discovered how he thinks he is not a moral right for he ought to inform himself and think justly but sir no member of a society has a right to teach any doctrine contrary to what the society holds to be true the magistrate i say may be wrong in what he thinks but while he thinks himself right he may and ought to enforce what he thinks male then sir we are to remain always in error and truth never can prevail and the magistrate was right in persecuting the first christians johnson sir the only method by which religious truth can be established is by martyrdom the magistrate has a right to enforce what he thinks and he who is conscious of the truth has a right to suffer i am afraid there's no other way of ascertaining the truth but by persecution on the one hand and enduring it on the other goldsmith but how is a man to act sir though firmly convinced of the truth of his doctrine may not think it's wrong to expose himself to persecution has he a right to do so is it not as it were committing voluntary suicide johnson sir as the voluntary suicide as you call it there are 20 000 men in an army who will go without scruple to be shot at and mount a breach for five pence a day goldsmith but have they a moral right to do this johnson nay sir if you will not take the universal opinion of mankind i have nothing to say if mankind cannot defend their own way of thinking i cannot defend it sir if a man is in doubt whether it would be better for him to expose himself to martyrdom or not he should not do it he must be convinced that he has a delegation from heaven goldsmith i would consider whether there is the greater chance of good or evil upon the whole if i see a man who had fallen into a well i would wish to help him out but if there's a greater probability that he shall pull me in then that i shall pull him out i would not attempt it so are i to go to turkey i might wish to convert the grand signant to the christian faith but when i considered that i should probably be put to death without effectuating my purpose in any degree i should keep myself quiet johnson sir you must consider that we have perfect and imperfect obligations perfect obligations which are generally not to do something are clear and positive as thou shall not kill but charity for instance is not findable by limits it is a duty to give to the poor but no man can say how much another should give to the poor or when a man has given too little to save his soul in the same manner it is a duty to instruct the ignorant and of consequence to convert infidels to christianity but no man in the common cause of things is obliged to carry this to such a degree as to incur the danger of martyrdom as no man is obliged to strip himself to this shirt in order to give charity i've said that a man must be persuaded that he has a particular delegation from heaven goldsmith how is this to be known our first reformers who were burned for not believing bread and wine to be christ johnson interrupting him sir they were not burned for not believing bread and wine to be christ but for insulting those who did believe it and sir when the first reformers began they did not intend to be martyred as many of them ran away as could boss well but sir there was your countryman elwar who you told me challenged king george with his black guards and his red guards johnson my countryman elwar sir should have been put in the stocks a proper pulpit for him and he'd have had a numerous audience a man who preaches in the stocks will always have heroes enough boss will but elwar thought himself in the right johnson we're not providing for mad people there are places for them in the neighborhood meaning more fields male but sir is it not very hard that i should not be allowed to teach my children what i really believe to be the truth johnson why sir you might contrive to teach your children extra scandals but sir the magistrate if he knows it has a right to restrain you suppose you teach your children to be thieves male this is making a joke of the subject johnson nay sir take it thus that you teach them the community of goods for which there are as many plausible arguments as for most erroneous doctrines you teach them that all things at first were in common and that no man had a right to anything but as he laid his hands upon it and that this still is or ought to be the rule amongst mankind here sir you set a great principle in society property and don't you think the magistrate would have a right to prevent you or suppose you should teach your children the notion of the animites and they should run naked into the streets would not the magistrate have a right to flog him into their doublets mayo i think the magistrate has no right to interfere till there is some overt act boswell so sir though he sees an enemy to the state charging a blender bus he is not to interfere till it is fired off mayo he must be sure of its direction against the state johnson the magistrate is a judge of that he has no right to restrain your thinking because the evil centers in yourself if a man were sitting at this table and chopping off his fingers the magistrate as guardian of the community has no authority to restrain him however he might do it from kindness as a parent though indeed upon more consideration i think he may as it is probable that he who is chopping off his own fingers may soon proceed to chop off those of other people if i think it right to steal mr dilly's plate i'm a bad man but he can say nothing to me if i make an open declaration that i think so he will keep me out of his house if i put forth my hand i shall be sent to newgate this is the gradation of thinking preaching and acting if a man thinks erroneously he may keep his thoughts to himself and nobody will trouble him if he preaches erroneous doctrine society may expel him if he acts in consequence of it the law takes place and he is hanged mayo but sir ought not christians to have liberty of conscience johnson i've already told you so sir you're coming back to where you were boswell dr mayo is always taking a return post chase and going the stage over again he has it at half price johnson dr mayo like other champions for unlimited toleration has got a set of words sir it is no matter politically whether the magistrate be right or wrong suppose a club were to be formed to drink confusion to king george the third and a happy restoration to charles the third this would be very bad with respect to the state but every member of that club must either conform to its rules or be turned out of it old bexter i remember maintains that the magistrate should tolerate all things that are tolerable this is no good definition of toleration upon any principle but it shows that he thought some things were not tolerable top lady sir you have untwisted this difficult subject with great dexterity during this argument goldsmith sat in restless agitation from a wish to get in and shine finding himself excluded he had taken his head to go away but remained for some time with it in his hand like a game star who at the close of a long night lingers for a little while to see if he can have a favorable opening to finish with success once when he was beginning to speak he found himself overpowered by the loud voice of johnson who was at the opposite end of the table and did not perceive goldsmith's attempt thus disappointed of his wish to obtain the attention of the company goldsmith in a passion threw down his head looking angrily at johnson and exclaiming in a bitter tone take it when top lady was going to speak johnson uttered some sound which led goldsmith to think that he was beginning again and taking the words from top lady upon which he seized this opportunity of venting his own envy and spleen under the pretext of supporting another person sir said he did johnson the gentleman has heard you patiently for an hour pray allow us now to hear him johnson sternly sir i was not interrupting the gentleman i was only giving him a signal of my attention sir you are impertinent goldsmith made no reply but continued in the company for some time a gentleman present ventured to ask dr johnson if there was not a material difference as a toleration of opinions which led to action and opinions merely speculative for instance would it be wrong in the majested to tolerate those who preach against the doctrine of the trinity johnson was highly offended and said i wonder sir how a gentleman of europe piety can introduce this subject in a mixed company he told me afterwards that the impropriety was that perhaps some of the company might have talked on the subject in such terms as might have shocked him or he might have been forced to appear in their eyes a narrow minded man the gentleman with submissive deference said he had only hinted at the question from a desire to hear dr johnson's opinion upon it johnson why then sir i think that permitting man to preach any opinion contrary to the doctrine of the established church tends in a certain degree to lessen the authority of the church and consequently to lessen the influence of religion it may be considered said the gentleman whether it would not be politic to tolerate in such a case johnson sir we've been talking of right this is another question i think it is not politic to tolerate in such a case though we did not think it fit that so awful a subject should be introduced in a mixed company and therefore at this time waived the theological question yet his own orthodox belief in the sacred mystery of the trinity is evinced beyond doubt by the following passage in his private devotions oh lord hear my prayer for jesus christ's sake to whom with thee and the holy ghost three persons and one god be all honor and glory world without end amen bolswell pray mr dilly how does dr lilan's history of ireland sell johnson bursting forth with a generous indignation the irish are in our most unnatural state for we see there the minority prevailing over the majority there is no instance even in the ten persecutions of such severity as that which the protestants of ireland have exercised against the catholics they would tell them we have conquered them it would be above board to punish them by confiscation and other penalties as rebels was monstrous injustice king william was not their lawful sovereign he had not been acknowledged by the parliament of ireland when they appeared in arms against him i here suggested something favorable of the roman catholics top lady does not their invocation of saints suppose omnipresence in the saints johnson knows her it supposes only pleurer presence and when spirits are divested of matter it seems probable that they should see with more extent than when in an embodied state there is therefore no approach to an invasion of any of the divine attributes in the invocation of saints but i think it is will worship and presumption i see no command for it and therefore think it is safer not to practice it he and mr lengton and i went together to the club where we found mr burg mr garig and some other members and amongst them our friend goldsmith who sat silently brooding over johnson's reprimand to him after dinner johnson perceived this and said aside to some of us i'll make goldsmith forgive me and then called to him in a loud voice that goldsmith something passed today where you and i dined i ask your pardon goldsmith answered pleasantly it must be much from you sir that i take ill and so at once the difference was over and they were on as easy terms as ever and goldsmith rattled away as usual in our way to the club tonight when i regretted that goldsmith would upon every occasion endeavor to shine by which he often exposed himself mr lengton observed that he was not like adison who was content with the fame of his writings and did not aim also at excellency in conversation for which he found himself unfit and that he said to a lady who complained of his having talked little in company madam i've but nine pens in ready money but i can't draw for a thousand pound i observed that goldsmith had a great deal of gold in his cabinet but not content with that was always taking out his purse johnson yes sir and that's so often an antipers goldsmith's incessant desire of being conspicuous in company was the occasion of his sometimes appearing to such disadvantage as one should hardly have supposed possible in a man of his genius when his literary reputation had risen deservedly high and a society was much called it he became very jealous of the extraordinary attention which was everywhere paid to johnson one evening in a circle of wits he found fault with me for talking of johnson as entitled to the honor of unquestionable superiority sir said he you are for making a monarchy of what should be a republic he was still more mortified when talking in a company with fluent vivacity and as he flattered himself to the admiration of all who are present a german who sat next to him and perceived johnson rolling himself as if about to speak suddenly stopped him saying stay stay dr. johnson is going to say something this was no doubt very provoking especially to one so irritable as goldsmith who frequently mentioned it with strong expressions of indignation it may also be observed that goldsmith was sometimes content to be treated with an easy familiarity but upon occasions would be consequential and important an instance of this occurred in a small particular johnson had a way of contracting the names of his friends as beau clark beau boswell bossy langton lanky murphy mur Sheridan sherry i remember one day when tom davies was telling that dr. johnson said we are all in labor for a name to goldie's play goldsmith seemed displeased that such a liberty should be taken with his name and said i've often desired him not to call me goldie tom was remarkably attentive to the most minute circumstance about johnson i recollect his telling me once on my arrival in london sir our great friend has made an improvement on his appellation of old mr. Sheridan he calls him now sherry dairy to the reverend mr. backshore at bromley sir i return you my sincere thanks for your additions to my dictionary but the new edition has been published sometime and therefore i cannot now make use of them whether i shall ever revise it more i know not if many readers had been as judicious as diligent and as communicative as yourself my work had been better the world must present take it as it is i am sir your most obliged and most humble servant sam johnson may 8 1773 on sunday may 8 i dined with johnson and mr. Langton's with dr. bt and some other company he discounted on the subject of literary property there seems said he to be in authors a stronger right of property than that by occupancy a metaphysical right a right as it were of creation which should from its nature be perpetual but the consent of nations is against it and indeed reason and the interests of learning are against it for were to be perpetual no book however useful could be universally diffused amongst mankind should the proprietor take it into his head to restrain its circulation no book could have the advantage of being edited with notes however necessary to its elucidation should the proprietor perversely oppose it for the general good of the world therefore whatever valuable work has once been created by an author and issued out by him should be understood as no longer in his power but as belonging to the public at the same time the author is entitled to an adequate reward this he should have by an exclusive right to his work for a considerable number of years he attacked lord mon burdo's strange speculation on the primitive state of human nature observing sir it is all conjecture about a thing useless even were it known to be true knowledge of all kinds is good conjecture as the things useful is good but conjecture as to what it would be useless to know such as whether men went upon all four is very idle on monday may nine as i was set out on my return to scotland next morning i was desirous to see as much of dr johnson as i could but i first called on goldsmith to take leave of him the jealousy and envy which though possessed of many most amiable qualities he frankly avowed broke out violently at this interview upon another occasion when goldsmith confessed himself to be of an envious disposition i contended with johnson that we ought not to be angry with him he was so candid in owning it nay sir said johnson we must be angry that a man has such a super abundance of an odious quality that he cannot keep it within his own breast but it boils over in my opinion however goldsmith had not more of it than other people have but only talked of it freely he now seemed very angry that johnson was going to be a traveller said he would be a dead weight for me to carry and that i should never be able to lug him along through the highlands and hebrides nor would he patiently allow me to enlarge upon johnson's wonderful abilities but exclaimed is he like burq who wins into a subject like a serpent but said i johnson is the hercules who strangled serpents in his cradle i dined with dr johnson at general paulies he was obliged by indisposition to leave the company early he appointed me however to meet him in the evening at mister now sir robert's chambers in the temple where he accordingly came though he continued to be very ill chambers as is common on such occasions prescribed various remedies to him johnson flattered by pain prithee don't tease me stay till i am well and then you shall tell me how to cure myself he grew better and talked with a noble enthusiasm of keeping up the representation of respectable families his seal on this subject was a circumstance in his character excellently remarkable when it's considered that he himself had no pretensions to blood i heard him once say i have great merit in being zealous for subordination and the honors of birth for i can hardly tell who was my grandfather he maintained the dignity and propriety of male succession in opposition to the opinion of one of our friends who had that day employed mr chambers to draw his will devising his estate to his three sisters in preference to a remote air male johnson called them three dowdies and said with his highest spirit as the boldest baron in the most perfect days of the feudal system an ancient estate should always go to males it is mighty foolish to let a stranger have it because he marries your daughter and takes your name as for an estate newly acquired by trade you may give it if you will to the dark touser and let him keep his own name i've known him at times exceedingly diverted at what seemed to others a very small sport he now laughed immoderately without any reason that we could perceive at our friends making his will called him the testator and added i dare say he thinks he has done a mighty thing he won't stay till he gets home to his seat in the country to produce this wonderful deed he'll call up the landlord of the first in on the road and after a suitable preface upon mortality and the uncertainty of life will tell him that he should not delay making his will and here sir will he say is my will which i've just made with the assistance of one of the ablest lawyers in the kingdom and he will read it to him laughing all the time he believes he has made this will better he did not make it you chambers made it for him i trust you've had more conscience than to make him say being of sound understanding i hope he's left me a legacy i'd have his will turned into verse like a ballot in this playful manner did he run on exalting in his own pleasantry which certainly was not such as might be expected from the author of the rambler but which is here preserved that my readers may be acquainted even with the slightest occasional characteristics of so eminent a man mr chambers did not by any means relish this jocularity upon a matter of which parts magna food and seemed impatient till he got rid of us johnson could not stop his marament but continued it all the way till we got without the temple gate he then burst into such a fit of laughter that he appeared to be almost in a convulsion and in order to support himself laid hold of one of the posts at the side of the foot pavement and sent forth peels so loud that in the silence of the night his voice seemed to resound from temple bar to fleet ditch this most ludicrous exhibition of the awful melancholy and venerable johnson happened well to counteract the feelings of sadness which i used to experience when parting with him for a considerable time i accompanied him to his door where he gave me his blessing he records of himself this year between easter and witsentide having always considered that time as propitious to study i attempted to learn the low dutch language it is to be observed that he here admits an opinion of the human mind being influenced by seasons which he ridicules in his writings his progress he says was interrupted by a fever which by the imprudent use of a small print left an inflammation in his useful eye we cannot but admire his spirit when we know that amidst a complication of bodily and mental distress he was still animated with the desire of intellectual improvement various notes of his studies appear on different days in his manuscript diary of this year such as in koavi lektionem pentatorchi finivi lektionem confa pardonum leegi primum actum troadum leegi desartationem cleriki postreimam de pent two of clark sermons el apolloni pugnam betrissiam el centum versus homery let this serve as a specimen of what accessions of literature he was perpetually infusing into his mind while he charged himself with idleness this year died mrs selsbury mother of mrs thrill a lady whom he appears to have esteemed much and whose memory he honored with an epitaph in a letter from edinburgh dated the 29th of may i pressed him to persevere in his resolution to make this year the projected visit to the hebrides of which he and i had talked for many years and which i was confident would have thought as much entertainment to james boswell esquire dear sir when your letter came to me i was so darkened by an inflammation in my eye that i could not for some time read it i can now write without trouble and could read large prints my eyes gradually growing stronger and i hope we'll be able to take some delight in the survey of a caledonian log chambers is going a judge with six thousand a year to bengal he and i shall come down together as far as new castle and thence i shall easily get to edinburgh let me know the exact time when your courts intermittent i must conform a little to chambers occasions and he must conform a little to mine the time which you shall fix must be the common point to which we will come as near as we can except this i i'm very well bt is so caressed and invited and treated and liked and flooded by the great that i can see nothing of him i'm in great hope that he will be well provided for and then we will live upon him at the marital college without pity or modesty ex left the town without taking leave of me and is going in deep dudgeon to why is not this very childish where is now my legacy i hope your dear lady and her dear baby are both well i shall see them too when i come i have that opinion of your choice as a suspect that when i have seen mrs boswell i shall be less willing to go away i am dear sir your affectionate humble servant sam johnson johnson's court fleet street july 5th 1773 write to me as soon as you can chambers is now at oxford i again wrote to him informing him that the court of session rose on the 12th of august hoping to see him before that time and expressing perhaps in two extravagant terms my admiration of him and my expectation of pleasure from our intended tour to james boswell esquire dear sir i shall set out from london on friday the sixth of this month and propose not to loiter much by the way which day i shall be at edinburgh i cannot exactly tell i suppose i must drive to an inn and send the porter to find you i'm afraid bt will not be at his college soon enough for us and i shall be sorry to miss him but there is no staying for the concurrence of all conveniences we will do as well as we can i am sir your most humble servant sam johnson august 3 1773 to the same dear sir not being a mr. thrales when your letter came i'd written the enclosed paper and sealed it bringing it hither for a frank i found yours if anything could repress my ardor it would be such a letter as yours to disappoint a friend is unpleasing and he that forms expectations like yours must be disappointed think only when you see me that you see a man who loves you and is proud and glad that you love him i am sir your most affectionate sam johnson august 3 1773 to the same new castle august 11 1773 dear sir i came hither the last night and hope but do not absolutely promise to be an edinburgh on saturday bt will not come so soon i am sir your most humble servant sam johnson my compliments to your lady to the same mr johnson sends his compliments to mr boswell being just arrived at boys saturday night his stay in scotland was from the 18th of august on which day he arrived till the 22nd of november when he set out on his return to london and i believe 94 days were never passed by any man in a more vigorous exertion he came by the way of burq upon tweed to edinburgh where he remained a few days and then went by st andrew's abradine invernas and fort augustus to the hebrides to visit which was the principal object he had in view he visited the aisles of sky rizzi coal mull inch kenneth and ikholm kill he traveled through ergelsha by inverary and from thence by loch lohmund and dembarton to glasgow and then by ludon to ochenlik in aresher the seed of my family and then by hamilton back to edinburgh where he again spent some time he thus sold the four universities of scotland its three principal cities and as much of the highland and insular life as was sufficient for his philosophical contemplation i had the pleasure of accompanying him during the whole of this journey he was respectfully entertained by the great the learned and the elegant wherever he went nor was he less delighted with the hospitality which he experienced in humble life his various adventures and the force and vivacity of his mind as exercised during this peregrination upon innumerable topics have been faithfully and to the best of my abilities displayed in my journal of a tour to the hebrides to which as the public has been pleased to honor it by a very extensive circulation i beg leave to refer as to a separate and remarkable portion of his life which may be there seen in detail and which exhibits as striking a view of his powers in conversation as his works do of his excellence in writing nor can i deny to myself the very flattering gratification of inserting here the character which my friend mr curtney has been pleased to give of that work with reynolds pencil vivid bold and true so fervent boswell gives him to our view in every trade we see his mind expand the master rises by the pupil's hand we love the writer praises happy vein grazed with the naivete of the sage montane hence not alone our brighter path displayed but in the specks of character portrayed we see the rambler with fastidious smile mark the lone tree and note the heat-clad isle but when the heroic tale of floris charms decked in a kilt he wields her chieftain's arms the tuneful piper sounds a marshall's train and samuel sings the king shall have his zane during his stay at edinburgh after his return from the hebrides he was at great pains to obtain information concerning scotland and it will appear from his subsequent letters that he was not less solicitous for intelligence on this subject after his return to london to james boswell esquire dear sir i came home last night without any in commodity danger or weariness and i'm ready to begin a new journey i shall go to oxford on monday i know mrs boswell wished me well to go her wishes have not been disappointed mrs williams has received her a's letter make my compliments to all those to whom my compliments may be welcome let the box be sent as soon as it can and let me know when to expect it inquire if you can the order of the clans mcdonald is first mclean second further i cannot go quicken dr webster i am sir yours affectionately sam johnson november 27 1773 mr boswell to dr johnson edinburgh december 2nd 1773 you will have what information i can procure as to the order of the clans a gentleman of the name of grand tells me that there is no settled order among them and he says the mcdonalds were not placed upon the right of the army at colloden the stewards were i shall however examine witnesses of every name that i can find here dr webster shall be quickened too i like your little memorandums they are symptoms of your being in earnest with your book of northern travels your box shall be sent next week by sea you will find in it some pieces of the broom bush which you saw growing on the old castle of ochenleck the wood has a curious appearance when sewn across you may either have a little writing stand made of it or get it formed into boards for a treatise on witchcraft by way of a suitable binding mr boswell to dr johnson edinburgh december 18 1773 you promised me an inscription for a print to be taken from an historical picture of mary queen of scots being forced to resign her crown which mr hamilton at roam has painted for me the two following have been sent to me maria scotterum regina meliori secular digna use regium's kivibus seditiosis in vita resignat kives seditiosi mariam scotterum regina sesse muniri abdicare in vitam corgund be so good as to read the passage in robertson and see if you cannot give me a better inscription i must have it both in latin and english so if you should not give me another latin one you will at least choose the best of these two and send a translation of it his humane forgiving disposition was put to a pretty strong test on his return to london by a liberty which mr thomas davies had taken with him in his absence which was to publish two volumes entitled miscellaneous and fugitive pieces which he advertised in their newspapers by the author of the rambler in this collection several of dr johnson's acknowledged writings several of his anonymous performances and some which he had written for others were inserted but there were also some in which he had no concern whatever he was at first very angry as he had good reason to be but upon consideration of his poor friend's narrow circumstances and that he had only a little profit in view and meant no harm he soon relented and continued his kindness to him as formerly in the course of his self-examination with retrospect to this year he seems to have been much dejected for he says january 1st 1774 this year has passed with so little improvement that i doubt whether i've not rather impaired than increased my learning and yet we have seen how he read and we know how he talked during that period end of section 13 section 14 of the life of samuel johnson volume two this is a leap revox recording all leap revox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the life of samuel johnson volume two by james boswell section 14 1774 he was now seriously engaged in writing an account of our travels in the hebrides in consequence of which i had the pleasure of a more frequent correspondence with him to james boswell a squire dear sir my operations have been hindered by a cough at least i flatter myself that if my cough had not come i should have been further advanced but i have had no intelligence from dr webster nor from the excise office nor from you no account of the little borough nothing of the urse language i have yet heard nothing of my box you must make haste and gather me all you can and do it quickly or i will and shall do without it make my compliments to mrs boswell and tell her that i do not love her the less for wishing me away i gave her trouble enough and she'll be glad in recompense to give her any pleasure i would send some porter into the hebrides if i knew which way it could be got to my kind friends there inquire and let me know make my compliments to all the doctors of edinburgh and to all my friends from one end of scotland to the other write to me and send me what intelligence you can and if anything is too bulky for the post let me have it by the carrier i do not like trusting winds and waves i am dear sir your most etc samuel johnson january 29th 1774 to the same dear sir in a day or two after i had written the last discontented letter i received my box which was very welcome but still i must entreat you to hasten dr webster and continue to pick up what you can that may be useful mr oglethorpe was with me this morning you know his errand he was not unwelcome tell mrs boswell that my good intentions toward her still continue i should be glad to do anything that would either benefit or please her chambers is not yet gone but so hurried or so negligent or so proud that i rarely see him i have indeed for some weeks past been very ill of a cold and cough and have been at mrs thrales that i might be taken care of i am much better no virade and in proilia vires but i am yet tender and easily disordered how happy it was that neither of us were ill in the hebrides the question of literary property is this day before the lords murphy drew up the appellant's case that is the plea against the perpetual right i have not seen it nor heard the decision i would not have the right perpetual i will write to you as anything occurs and do you send me something about my scottish friends i have very great kindness for them let me know likewise how fees come in and when we are to see you i am sir yours affectionately samuel ronson london february seventh seventeen seventy four he at this time wrote the following letters to mr stevens his able associate in editing shakespeare to george stevens's squad in hamstered sir if i am asked when i have seen mr stevens you know what answer i must give if i am asked when i shall see him i wish you would tell me what to say if you have leslie's history of scotland or any other book about scotland except boetius and Buchanan it will be a kindness if you send them to sir your humble servant samuel ronson february seventh seventeen seventy four to the same sir we are thinking to augment our club and i am desirous of nominating you if you care to stand the ballot and can attend on friday nights at least twice in five weeks less than this is too little and rather more will be expected be pleased to let me know before friday i am sir your most etc samuel ronson february twenty first seventeen seventy four to the same sir last night you became a member of the club if you call on me on friday i will introduce you a gentleman proposed after you was rejected i thank you for the neander but wish he were not so fine i will take care of him i am sir your humble servant samuel ronson march fifth seventeen seventy four to james boswell isquare dear sir doctor webster's informations were much less exact and much less determinant than i expected they are indeed much less positive than if he can trust his own book which he laid before me he is able to give but i believe it will always be fine that he who calls much for information will advance his work but slowly i am however obliged to you dear sir for your endeavours to help me and hope that between us something will sometime be done if not on this on some occasion chambers is either married or almost married to miss wilton a girl of sixteen exquisitely beautiful whom he has with his lawyer's tongue persuaded to take her chance with him in the east we have added to the club charles fox sir charles bunbury dr fordice and mr stevens return my thanks to dr webster tell dr robertson i have not much to reply to his censure of my negligence and tell dr blare that since he has written hither what i said to him we must now consider ourselves as even for give one another and begin again i cannot have soon for he is a very pleasing man pay my compliments to all my friends and remind lord elebanck of his promise to give me all his works i hope mrs boswell and little miss are well when shall i see them again she is a sweet lady and she was so glad to see me go that i have almost a mind to come again that she may again have the same pleasure inquire if it be practicable to send a small present of a casque of porter to dunvegan rasay and kahl i would not wish to be thought forgetful of civilities i am sir your humble servant samuil johnson march 5th 1774 on the 5th of march i wrote to him requesting his counsel whether i should this spring come to london i stated to him on the one hand some pecuniary embarrassments which together with my wife's situation at that time made me hesitate and on the other the pleasure and improvement which my annual visit to the metropolis always afforded me and particularly mentioned a peculiar satisfaction which i experienced in celebrating the festival of easter in st hall's cathedral that to my fancy it appeared like going up to jerusalem at the feast of the Passover and that the strong devotion which i felt on that occasion diffused its influence on my mind throughout the rest of the year to change boswell a squire not dated but written about the 15th of march dear sir i am ashamed to think that since i received your letter i have passed so many days without answering it i think there is no great difficulty in resolving your doubts the reasons for which you are inclined to visit london are i think not of sufficient strength to answer the objections that you should delight to come once a year to the fountain of intelligence and pleasure is very natural but both information and pleasure must be regulated by propriety pleasure which cannot be obtained but by unseasonable or unsuitable expense must always end in pain and pleasure which must be enjoyed at the expense of another's pain can never be such as a worthy mind can fully delight in what improvement you might gain by coming to london you may easily supply or easily compensate by enjoining yourself some particular study at home or opening some new avenue to information edinburgh is not yet exhausted and i am sure you will find no pleasure here which can deserve either that you should anticipate any part of your future fortune or that you should condemn yourself and your lady to pernurious frugality for the rest of the year i need not tell you what regard you owe to mrs boswell's entreaties or how much you ought to study the happiness of her who studies yours with so much diligence and of whose kindness you enjoy such good effects life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions she permitted you to ramble last year you must permit her now to keep you at home your last reason is so serious that i am unwilling to oppose it yet you must remember that your image of worshiping once a year in a certain place in invitation of the jews is but a comparison and a similar known est idem if the annual resort to jerusalem was a duty to the jews it was a duty because it was commanded and you have no such command therefore no such duty it may be dangerous to receive too readily and indulge too fondly opinions from which perhaps no pious mind is wholly disengaged of local sanctity and local devotion you know what strange effects they have produced over a great part of the christian world i am now writing and you when you read this are reading under the eye of omnipresence to what degree fancy is to be admitted into religious offices it would require much deliberation to determine i am far from intending totally to exclude it fancy is a faculty bestowed by our creator and it is reasonable that all his gifts should be used to his glory that all our faculties should cooperate in his worship but they are to cooperate according to the will of him that gave them according to the order which his wisdom has established as ceremonies prudential or convenient are less obligatory than positive ordinances as bodily worship is only the token to others or ourselves of mental adoration so fancy is always to act in subordination to reason we may take fancy for a companion but must follow reason as our guide we may allow fancy to suggest certain ideas in certain places but reason must always be heard when she tells us that those ideas and those places have no natural or necessary relation when we enter a church we habitually recall to mind the duty of adoration but we must not omit adoration for want of a temple because we know and ought to remember that the universal Lord is everywhere present and that therefore to come to Jonah or to Jerusalem though it may be useful cannot be necessary thus i have answered your letter and have not answered it negligently i love you too well to be careless when you are serious i think i shall be very diligent next week about our travels which i have too long neglected i am dear sir your most etc samuel ronson compliments to madame and miss to the same dear sir the lady who delivers this has a lawsuit in which she desires to make use of your skill and eloquence and she seems to think that she shall have something more of both for a recommendation from me which though i know how little you want any external incitement your duty i could not refuse her because i know that at least it will not hurt her to tell you that i wish her well i am sir your most humble servant samuel ronson may 10 1774 mr boswell to dr johnson edinburgh may 12 1774 lord hails has begged of me to offer you his best respects and to transmit to you specimens of annals of scotland from the accession of malcolm kenmore to the death of james the fifth in drawing up which his lordship has been engaged for some time his lordship writes to me thus if i could procure dr johnson's criticisms they would be of great use to me in the prosecution of my work as they would be judicious and true i have no right to ask that favor of him if you could it would highly oblige me dr blare requests you may be assured that he did not write to london what you said to him and that neither by word nor letter has he made the least complaint of you but on the contrary has a higher respect for you and loves you much more since he saw you in scotland it would divert and please you to see his eagerness about this matter to james boswell asquare stretum june 21 1774 dear sir yesterday i put the first sheets of the journey to the hebrides to the press i have endeavored to do you some justice in the first paragraph it will be one volume in octavo not thick it will be proper to make some presents in scotland you shall tell me to whom i shall give and i have stipulated 25 for you to give in your own name some will take the present better from me others better from you in this you who are to live in the place ought to direct consider it whatever you can get for my purpose send me and make my compliments to your lady and both the young ones i am sir your etc samuel johnson mr boswell to dr johnson edinburgh june 24 1774 you do not acknowledge the receipt of the various packets which i have sent to you neither can i prevail with you to answer my letters though you honor me with returns you have said nothing to me about poor goldsmith nothing about langton i have received for you from the society for propagating christian knowledge in scotland the following earth's books the new testament baxter's call the confession of faith of the assembly of divines at west minster the mother's catechism a gaelic and english vocabulary to james boswell a squire dear sir i wish you could have looked over my book before the printer but it could not easily be i suspect some mistakes but as ideal perhaps more in notions than in facts the matter is not great and the second edition will be mended if any such there be the press will go on slowly for a time because i am going into wales tomorrow i should be very sorry if i appeared to treat such a character as lord hails otherwise than with high respect i return the sheets to which i have done what misty if i could and finding it so little thought not of sending them the narrative is clear lively and short i have done worse to lord hails than by neglecting his sheets i have run him in debt dr horn the president of mordland college in oxford wrote to me about three months ago that he purposed to reprint walton's lives and desired me to contribute to the work my answer was that lord hails intended the same publication and dr horn has resigned it to him his lordship must now think seriously about it of poor dear dr goldsmith there is little to be told more than the papers have made public he died of a fever made i am afraid more violent by uneasiness of mind his debts began to be heavy and all his resources were exhausted so joshua is of opinion that he owed not less than two thousand pounds was ever poet so trusted before you may if you please put the inscription thus maria scottorum regina nata 15 blank a suis in exilium acta 15 blank ab hospitia nakey data 15 blank you must find the years of your second daughter you certainly give the account yourself though you have forgotten it while mrs boswell is well never doubt of a boy mrs thrail brought i think five girls running but while i was with you she had a boy i am obliged to you for all your pamphlets and of the last i hope to make some use i made some of the former i am dear sir your most affectionate servant samuel johnson july 4th 1774 my compliments to all the three ladies to bennett langton isquire at langton near spillsby linkenshire dear sir you have reason to reproach me that i have left your last letter so long unanswered but i had nothing particular to say chambers you find is gone far and poor goldsmith is gone much further he died of a fever exasperated as i believe by the fear of distress he had raised money and squandered it by every artifice of acquisition and folly of expense but let not his frailties be remembered he was a very great man i have just begun to print my journey to the hebrides and i'm leaving the press to take another journey into wales with a mrs thrail is going to take possession of at least five hundred a year fallen to his lady all at stretum that are alive are well i have never recovered from the last dreadful illness but flatter myself that i grow gradually better much however yet remains to mend kirie eleison if you have the latin version of busy curious thirsty fly be so kind as to transcribe and send it but you need not be in haste for i shall be i know not where for at least five weeks i wrote the following tetastric on poor goldsmith on footnote begins mr seawood gives the following version of these lines who are thou art with reverence tread where goldsmith's lettered dust is laid if nature and the historic page if the sweet muse thy care engage lament him dead whose powerful mind their various energies combined footnote ends please to make my most respectful compliments to all the ladies and remember me to young george and his sisters i reckon george begins to show a pair of heels do not be sullen now but let me find a letter when i come back i am dear sir your affectionate humble servant samuel johnson july 5th 1774 to mr robert levitt clueny in demburshire august 16th 1774 dear sir mr thrales affairs have kept him here a great while nor do i know exactly when we shall come hence i have sensual bill upon mr strachan i have made nothing of the ipeca kahuna but have taken abundance of pills and hope that they have done me good wales so far as i have yet seen of it is a very beautiful and rich country all enclosed and planted denby is not a mean town make my compliments to all my friends and tell frank i hope he remembers my advice when his money is out let him have more i am sir your humble servant samuel johnson mr boswell to dr johnson edinburgh august 30th 1774 you have given me an inscription for a portrait of mary queen of scots in which you in a shortened striking manner point out her hard fate but you will be pleased to keep in mind that my picture is a representation of a particular scene in her history her being forced to resign her crime while she was imprisoned in the castle of lochlevin i must therefore beg that you will be kind enough to give me an inscription suited to that particular scene or determine which of the two formerly transmitted to you is the best and at any rate favor me with an english translation it will be doubly kind if you comply with my request speedily your critical notes on the specimen of lord hails his annals of scotland are excellent i agreed with you in every one of them he himself objected only to the alteration of free to brave in the passage where he says that edward departed with the glory due to the conqueror of a free people he says to call the scots brave would only add to the glory of their conqueror you will make allowance for the national zeal of our analyst i now send a few more leaves of the annals which i hope you will peruse and return with observations as you did upon the former occasion lord hails writes to me thus mr boswell will be pleased to express the grateful sense which sir david del rimple has of dr johnson's attention to his little specimen the further specimen will show that even in an edward he can see dessert it gives me much pleasure to hear that a republication of isek walton's lives is intended you have been in a mistake in thinking that lord hails had it in view i remember one morning while he sat with you in my house he said that there should be a new edition of walton's lives and you said that they should be benoted a little this was all that passed on that subject you must therefore inform dr horn that he may resume his plan i enclose a note concerning it and if dr horn will write to me all the attention that i can give shall be cheerfully bestowed upon what i think pious work the preservation and elucidation of walton by whose writings i have been most pleasingly edified mr boswell to dr johnson edinburgh september the 16th 1774 wales has probably detained you longer than i supposed you will have become quite a mountaineer by visiting kotland one year in wales another you must next go to switzerland cambria will complain if you do not honor her also with some remarks and i find concheser a column i the booksellers expect another book i am impatient to see your tour to scotland and the hebrides might you not send me a copy by the post as soon as it is printed off to james boswell a squire dear sir yesterday i returned from my welsh journey i was sorry to leave my book suspended so long but having an opportunity of seeing with so much convenience a new part of the island i could not reject it i have been in five of the six counties of north wales and have seen st asif and banger the two seats of their bishops and have been upon pen manar and snowden and passed over into anglesey but wales is so little different from england that it offers nothing to the speculation of the traveler when i came home i found several of your papers with some pages of lord hailsey's annals which i will consider i'm in haste to give you some account of myself lest you should suspect me of negligence in the pressing business which i find recommended to my care and which i knew nothing of till now when all care is vain in the distribution of my books i purpose to follow your advice adding such a shall occur to me i am not pleased with your notes of remembrance added to your names for i hope i shall not easily forget them i have received four urse books without any direction and suspect that they are intended for the oxford library if that is the intention i think it will be proper to add the metrical psalms and whatever else is printed in urse that the present may be complete the donor's name shall be told i wish you could have read the book before it was printed but our distance does not easily permit it i am sorry lord hails does not intend to publish walton i am afraid it will not be done so well if it be done tall i purpose now to drive the book forward make my compliments to mrs boswell and let me hear often from you i am dear sir your affection at humble servant samuel johnson london october 1st 1774 this tour to wales which was made in company with mr and mrs thrale though it no doubt contributed to his health and amusement did not give an occasion to such a discursive exercise of his mind as are taught the hebrides i do not find that he kept any journal or notes of what he saw there all that i heard him say of it was that instead of bleak and barren mountains there were green and fertile ones and that one of the castles in wales would contain all the castles that he had seen in scotland parliament having been dissolved and his friend mr thrale who was the steady supporter of government having again to encounter the storm of a contested election he wrote a short political pamphlet entitled the patriot addressed to the electors of great britain a title which two factious men who consider a patriot only as an opposer of the measures of government will appear strangely misapplied it was however written with energetic vivacity and accept those passages in which it endeavors to vindicate the glaring outrage of the heist of commons in the case of the middle sex election and justify the attempt to reduce our fellow subjects in america to unconditional submission it contained an admirable display of the properties of a real patriot in the original and genuine sense a sincere steady rational and unbiased friend to the interests and prosperity of his king and country it must be acknowledged however that both in this and his two former pamphlets there was amidst many powerful arguments not only a considerable portion of sophistry but a contemptuous ridicule of his opponents which was very provoking to mr perkins sir you may do me a very great favor mrs williams a gentlewoman whom you may have seen at mr thrales is a petitioner for mr heatherington's charity petitions are this day issued at christ's hospital i am a bad manager of business in a crowd and if i should send a mean man he may be put away without his errand i must therefore entreat that you will go and ask for a petition for anna williams whose paper of enquiries was delivered with answers at the counting house of the hospital on thursday the 20th my servant will attend you thither and bring the petition home when you have it the petition which they are to give us is a form which they deliver to every petitioner and which the petitioner is afterwards to fill up and return to them again this we must have or we cannot proceed according to their directions you need i believe only ask for a petition if they enquire for whom you ask you can tell them i beg pardon for giving you this trouble but it is a matter of great importance i am sir your most humble servant samuel johnson october 25th 1774 to james boswell esquire dear sir there has appeared lately in the papers and a count of a boat over set between mul and alva in which many passengers were lost and among them mclean of cole we you know were once drowned i hope therefore that the story is either wantonly or erroneously told pray satisfy me by the next post i have printed 240 pages i am able to do nothing much worth doing to dear lord hails his book i will however send back the sheets and hope by degrees to answer all your reasonable expectations mr frail has happily surmounted a very violent and acrimonious opposition but all joys have their abatement mrs frail has fallen from her horse and hurt herself very much the rest of our friends i believe are well my compliments to mrs boswell i am sir your most affectionate servant samuel johnson london october 27th 1774 this letter which shows his tender concern for an amiable young gentleman to whom he had been very much obliged in the hebrides i have inserted according to its date though before receiving it i had informed him of the melancholy event that the young lad of cole was unfortunately drowned to james boswell esquire dear sir last night i corrected the last page of our journey to the hebrides the printer has detained it all this time for i had before i went into wales written all except two sheets the patriot was called for by my political friends on friday was written on saturday and i've heard little of it so vague our conjectures at a distance as soon as i can i will take care that copies be sent to you for i would wish that they might be given before they are bought but i am afraid that mr strahan will send to you and to the booksellers at the same time trade is as diligent as courtesy i have mentioned all that you recommended pray make my compliments to mrs boswell and the younglings the club has i think not yet met tell me and tell me honestly what you think and what others say of our travels shall we touch the continent i am dear sir your most humble servant samuel johnson november 26 1774 in his manuscript diary of this year there is the following entry november 27 advent sunday i considered that this day being the beginning of the ecclesiastical year was a proper time for a new course of life i have begun to read the greek testament regularly at 160 verses every sunday this day i began the acts in this week i read virgil's pastorals i learned to repeat the polio and gallus i read carelessly the first georgic such evidences of his unceasing ardor both for divine and human law when advanced into his sixty fifth year and notwithstanding his many disturbances from disease must make us at once honor his spirit and lament that it should be so grievously clogged by its material argument it is remarkable that he was very fond of the precision which calculation produces thus we find in one of his manuscript diaries 12 pages in quarto greek testament and 30 pages in bezar's folio comprise the whole in 40 days dr johnson to john hoolesquire dear sir i have returned your play which you will find underscored with red where there was a word which i did not like the red will be washed off with a little water the plot is so well framed the intricacy so artful and the disentanglement so easy the suspense so affecting and the passionate part so properly interposed that i have no doubt of its success i am sir your most humble servant samuel johnson december 19 1774 end of section 14