 In 1764 and 1765 it should seem that Dr. Johnson was so busily employed with his edition of Shakespeare as to have had little leisure for any other literary exertion, or indeed even for private correspondence. He did not favour me with a single letter for more than two years, for which it will appear that he afterwards apologised. He was, however, at all times ready to give assistance to his friends and others in revising their works and in writing for them, or greatly improving their dedications. In that courtly species of composition no man excelled Dr. Johnson. Though the loftiness of his mind prevented him from ever dedicating in his own person, he wrote a very great number of dedications for others. Some of these, the persons who were favoured with them, are unwilling shall be mentioned, from a too anxious apprehension, as I think, that they might be suspected of having received larger assistance. And some, after all the diligence I have bestowed, have escaped my inquiries. He told me, a great many years ago, he believed he had dedicated to all the royal family round, and it was indifferent to him what was the subject of the work dedicated, provided it were innocent. He once dedicated some music for the German flute to Edward Duke of York. In writing dedications for others he considered himself as by no means speaking his own sentiments. Notwithstanding his long silence I never omitted to write to him when I had anything worthy of communicating. I generally kept copies of my letters to him, that I might have a full view of our correspondence, and never be at a loss to understand any reference in his letters. He kept the greater part of mine very carefully, and a short time before his death was attentive enough to seal them up in bundles and order them to be delivered to me, which was accordingly done. Amongst them I found one of which I had not made a copy, and which I own I read with pleasure at the distance of almost twenty years. It is dated November 1765, at the palace of Pascal Paoli in Corte, the capital of Corsica, and is full of generous enthusiasm. After giving a sketch of what I had seen and heard in that island it preceded thus. I dare to call this a spirited tour. I dare to challenge your approbation. This letter produced the following answer, which I found on my rival at Paris. Ah, Monsieur Boswell! Che, Monsieur Waters, Bonquieu à Paris. Dear sir, Apologies are seldom of any use. We will delay till your arrival the reasons good or bad which have made me such a sparing and ungrateful correspondent. Be assured for the present that nothing has lessened either the esteem or love with which I dismissed you at the carriage. Both have been increased by all that I have been told of you by yourself or others, and when you return you will return to an unaltered and, I hope, unalterable friend. All that you have to fear from me is the vexation of disappointing me. No man loves to frustrate expectations which have been formed in his favour, and the pleasure which I promise myself from your journals and remarks is so great that perhaps no degree of attention or discernment is sufficient to avoid it. Come home, however, and take your chance. I long to see you and to hear you, and hope that we shall not be so long separated again. Come home, and expect such a welcome as is due to him whom a wise and noble curiosity has led where perhaps no native of this country ever was before. I have no news to tell you that can deserve your notice, nor would I willingly lessen the pleasure that any novelty may give you at your return. I am afraid we shall find it difficult to keep among us a mind which has been so long feasted with variety. But let us try what esteem and kindness can effect. As your father's liberality has indulged you with so long a ramble, I doubt not but you will think his sickness or even his desire to see you a sufficient reason for hastening your return. Longer we live and the more we think, the higher value we learn to put on the friendship and tenderness of parents and of friends. Parents, we can have but once, and he promises himself too much who enters life with the expectation of finding many friends. Upon some motive I hope that you will be here soon, and am willing to think that it will be an inducement to your return, that it is sincerely desired by, dear sir, your affectionate and humble servant, Sam Johnson. Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, January 14th, 1766. I returned to London in February and found Dr. Johnson in a good house in Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, in which he had accommodated Miss Williams with an apartment on the ground floor while Mr. Levitt occupied his post in the Garrett. His faithful Francis was still attending upon him. He received me with much kindness. The fragments of our first conversation which I have preserved with these, I told him that Voltaire in a conversation with me had distinguished Pope and Dryden thus. Pope drives a handsome chariot with a couple of neat trim nags. Dryden, a coach, and six stately horses. Johnson. Why, sir, the truth is, they both drive coaches and six, but Dryden's horses are either galloping or stumbling. Popes go at a steady even trot. He said of Goldsmith's Traveller which had been published in my absence, there has not been so fine a poem since Pope's time. And here it is proper to settle, with authentic precision, what has long floated in public report, as to Johnson's being himself the author of a considerable part of that poem. Much, no doubt, both of the sentiments and expression were derived from conversation with him, and it was certainly submitted to his friendly revision, but in the year 1783 he, at my request, marked with a pencil the lines which he had furnished, which are only line 420, to stop too fearful and too feint to go, and the concluding ten lines, except the last couplet but one. How small of all that human hearts endure that part which kings or laws can cause or cure, still to ourselves in every place consigned our own felicity we make or find, with secret course which no loud storms an eye glides the smooth current of domestic joy. The lifted axe, the agonizing wheel, Luke's iron crown and Damien's bed of steel, to men remote from power, but really known leave reason, faith, and conscience all our own. He added, these are all of which I can be sure. They bear a small proportion to the whole which consists of four hundred and thirty-eight verses. Goldsmith, in the couplet which he inserted, mentions Luke as a person well known, and superficial readers have passed it over quite smoothly, while those of more attention have been as much perplexed by Luke as by Lydia in the vanity of human wishes. The truth is that Goldsmith himself was in a mistake. In the raised publica Hungarian there is an account of a desperate rebellion in the year 1514, headed by two brothers of the name of Zeck, George and Luke. When it was quelled George, not Luke, was punished by his head being encircled by the red-hot iron crown, coronar can descente ferea coronato. The same severity of torture was exercised on the Earl of Athol, one of the murderers of King James I of Scotland. Dr. Johnson at the same time favoured me by marking the lines which he furnished to Goldsmith's deserted village, which are only the last four. That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay, as ocean sweeps the laboured mole away, while self-dependent power can time defy, as rocks resist the billows and the sky. Talking of education, people have nowadays said he got a strange opinion that everything should be taught by lectures. Now I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be shown. You may teach chemistry by lectures. You might teach making of shoes by lectures. At night I subbed with him at the Mitre Tavern, that we might renew our social intimacy at the original place of meeting. But there was now a considerable difference in his way of living. Having had an illness in which he was advised to leave off wine, he had from that period continued to abstain from it and drank only water or lemonade. I told him that a foreign friend of his whom I had met with abroad was so wretchedly perverted to infidelity that he treated the hopes of immortality with brutal levity and said, as man dies like a dog, let him lie like a dog. Johnson, if he dies like a dog, let him lie like a dog. I added that this man said to me, I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them and I know how bad I am. Johnson, sir, he must be very singular in his opinion if he thinks himself one of the best of men, for none of his friends think him so. He said, no honest man could be a daste, for no man could be so after a fair examination of the proofs of Christianity. I named Hume. Johnson. No, sir, Hume owned to a clergyman in the bishopric of Durham that he had never read the New Testament with attention. I mentioned Hume's notion that all who are happy are equally happy. A little miss with a new gown at a dancing school ball, a general at the head of a victorious army and an orator after having made an eloquent speech in a great assembly. Johnson, sir, that all who are happy are equally happy is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness. A peasant has not capacity for having equal happiness with a philosopher. I remember this very question very happily illustrated in opposition to Hume by the Reverend Mr. Robert Brown at Utrecht. A small drinking-glass and a large one said he may be equally full but the large one holds more than the small. Dr. Johnson was very kind this evening and said to me, you have now lived five and twenty years and you have employed them well. Alas, sir, said I, I fear not. Do I know history? Mathematics? Do I know law? Johnson, why, sir, though you may know no science so well as to be able to teach it and no profession so well as to be able to follow it, your general mass of knowledge of books and men renders you very capable to make yourself master of any science or fit yourself for any profession. I mentioned that a gay friend had advised me against being a lawyer because I should be excelled by plodding blockheads. Johnson, why, sir, in the formulary and statutory part of law a plodding blockhead may excel but in the ingenious and rational part of it a plodding blockhead can never excel. I talked of the mode adopted by some to rise in the world by courting great men and asked him whether he had ever submitted to it. Johnson, why, sir, I never was near enough to great men to court them. You may be prudently attached to great men and yet independent. You are not to do what you think wrong. And, sir, you are to calculate and not pay too dear for what you get. You must not give a shilling's worth of court for six months' worth of good. But if you can get a shilling's worth of good for six months' worth of court you are a fool if you don't pay court. He said, if convents should be allowed at all they should only be retreats for persons unable to serve the public or who have served it. It is our first duty to serve society and after we have done that we may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls. A useful passion for abstracted devotion should not be encouraged. I introduced the subject to second sight and other mysterious manifestations the fulfillment of which I suggest it might happen by chance. Johnson. Yes, sir, but they have happened so often that mankind have agreed to think them not fortuitous. I talked to him a great deal of what I had seen in Corsica and of my intention to publish an account of it. He encouraged me by saying you cannot go to the bottom of the subject but all that you tell us will be new to us. Give us as many anecdotes as you can. Our next meeting at the MITRE was on Saturday 15 February when I presented to him my old and most intimate friend the Reverend Mr. Temple, then of Cambridge. I having mentioned that I had passed some time with Rousseau in his wild retreat and having quoted some remark made by Mr. Wilkes with whom I had spent many pleasant hours in Italy Johnson said sarcastically It seems, sir, you have kept very good company abroad Rousseau and Wilkes thinking it enough to defend one at a time I said nothing as to my gay friend but answered with a smile My dear sir, you can't call Rousseau bad company Do you really think him a bad man? Johnson, sir, if you are talking jestingly of this I don't talk with you If you mean to be serious I think him one of the worst of men A rascal who ought to be hunted out of society as he has been Three or four nations have expelled him and it is a shame that he is protected in this country Boswell, I don't deny sir about that his novel may perhaps do harm but I cannot think his intention was bad Johnson, sir, that will not do We cannot prove any man's intention to be bad You may shoot a man through the head and say you intended to miss him but the judge will order you to be hanged An alleged want of intention when evil is committed will not be allowed in a court of justice Rousseau, sir, is a very bad man I would soon assign a sentence for his transportation than that of any felon who has gone from the old Bailey these many years Yes, I should like to have him work in the plantations Boswell, sir, do you think him as bad a man as Voltaire? Johnson, why sir, it is difficult to settle the proportion of iniquity between them This violence seemed very strange to me who had read many of Rousseau's animated writings with great pleasure and even edification had been much pleased with his society and was just come from the continent where he was very generally admired nor can I yet allow that he deserves the very severe censure which Johnson pronounced upon him his absurd preference of savage to civilised life and other singularities are proofs rather of a defect in his understanding than of any depravity in his heart and notwithstanding the unfavourable Bohinian which many worthy men have expressed of his profession de foie de vicar sa voyade I cannot help admiring it as the performance of a man full of sincere reverential submission to divine mystery though beset with perplexing dites a state of mind to be viewed with pity rather than with anger On his favourite subject of subordination Johnson said So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal that no two people can be half an hour together but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other I mentioned the advice given us by philosophers to console ourselves when distressed or embarrassed by thinking of those who are in a worse situation than ourselves This I observed could not apply to all for there must be some who have nobody worse than they are Johnson Why, to be sure, sir, there are, but they don't know it There is no being so poor and so contemptible who does not think there is somebody still poorer and still more contemptible As my stay in London at this time is very short I had not many opportunities of being with Dr. Johnson but I felt my veneration for him in no degree lessened by my having seen Moultorum hominomores et orbes On the contrary, by having it in my power to compare him with many of the most celebrated persons of other countries my admiration of his extraordinary mind was increased and confirmed The roughness, indeed, which sometimes appeared in his manners was more striking to me now from my having been accustomed to the studied, smooth, complying habits of the continent and I clearly recognised in him, not without respect for his honest, conscientious zeal the same indignant and sarcastical mode of treating every attempt to unhinge or weaken good principles One evening, when a young gentleman teased him with an account of the infidelity of his servant who, he said, would not believe the scriptures because he could not read them in the original tongues and be sure that they were not invented Why, foolish fellow said Johnson has he any better authority for almost everything that he believes? Boswell, then the vulgar sir can never know that they are right but must submit themselves to the learned Johnson, to be sure sir the vulgar are the children of the state and must be taught like children Boswell, then sir A poor Turk must be a mohammedon just as a poor Englishman must be a Christian Johnson, why, yes sir and what then? This now is such stuff as I used to talk to my mother when I first began to think myself a clever fellow and she ought to have whipped me for it Another evening Dr. Goldsmith and I called on him with the hope of prevailing upon him to sup with us at the mitre we found him indisposed and resolved not to go abroad Come then, said Goldsmith we will not go to the mitre tonight since we cannot have the big man with us Johnson then called for a bottle of port of which Goldsmith and I partook while our friend, now a water drinker, sat by us Goldsmith, I think Mr. Johnson you don't go near the theatres now you give yourself no more concern about a new play than if you had never had anything to do with the stage Johnson, why, sir our tastes greatly alter the lad does not care for the child's rattle and the old man does not care for the young man's whore Goldsmith, nay sir but your muse was not a whore Johnson, sir I do not think she was but as we advance in the journey of life we drop some of the things which have pleased us whether it be that we are fatigued and don't choose to carry so many things any farther or that we find other things which we like better Boswell but, sir why don't you give us something in some other way Goldsmith, aye, sir, we have a claim upon you Johnson no, sir, I am not obliged to do any more no man is obliged to do as much as he can do a man is to have part of his life to himself if a soldier has fought a good many campaigns he is not to be blamed if he retires to ease and tranquillity a physician who has practiced long in a great city may be excused if he retires to a small town and takes less practice nay, sir, the good I can do by my conversation bears the same proportion to the good I can do by my writings that the practice of a physician retired to a small town does to his practice in a great city Boswell but I wonder, sir, you have not more pleasure in writing than in not writing Johnson sir, you may wonder he talked of making verses and observed the great difficulty is to know when you've made good ones when composing I have generally had them in my mind perhaps fifty at a time, walking up and down in my room and then I have written them down and often from laziness only half lines I have written a hundred lines in a day I remember I wrote a hundred lines of the vanity of human wishes in a day Doctor, turning to Goldsmith I am not quite idle I have one line the other day but I made no more Goldsmith, let us hear it we'll put a bad one to it Johnson no, sir, I have forgot it and as giving us a minute knowledge of his character and modes of thinking to Enet Langton Esquire and Langton near Spillsbury Lincolnshire dear sir what your friends have done for you I have done for you I have done for you I have done for you I have done for you I have done for you I have done for you I have done for you what your friends have done that from your departure till now nothing has been heard of you none of us are able to inform the rest but as we are all neglected alike no one thinks himself entitled to the privilege of complaint I should have known nothing of you or of Langton from the time that dear Miss Langton left us had I not met Mr. Simpson of Lincoln one day in the street by whom I was informed that Mr. Langton your mamar and yourself had been ill but that you were all recovered that sickness should suspend your correspondence I did not wonder but hoped that it would be renewed at your recovery since you will not inform us where you are or how you live I know not whether you desire to know anything of us however, I will tell you that the club subsists but we have the loss of Burke's company since he has been engaged in public business in which he has gained more reputation than perhaps any man at his first appearance ever gained before he made two speeches in the house for appealing the Stamp Act which were publicly commended by Mr. Pitt and have filled the town with wonder Burke is a great man by nature and is expected soon to attain civil greatness I am grown greater too for I have maintained the newspapers these many weeks and what is greater still I have risen every morning since New Year's Day at about eight when I was up I have indeed done but little yet it is in no slight advancement to obtain for so many hours more the consciousness of being I wish you were in my new study I am now writing the first letter in it I think it looks very pretty about me Dyer is constant at the club Hawkins is remiss I am not over diligent Dr. Nugent, Dr. Goldsmith and Mr. Reynolds are very constant Mr. Lye is printing his Saxon and Gothic dictionary all the club's subscribes you will pay my respect to all my Lincolnshire friends I am, dear sir, most affectionately yours Sam Johnson March the 9th, 1766 Johnson's Court, Fleet Street to Bennett Langton Esquire at Langton near Spillsbury Lincolnshire Dear sir, in supposing that I should be more than commonly affected by the death of Peregrine Langton you were not mistaken he was one of those whom I loved at once by instinct and by reason I have seldom indulged more hope of anything than of being able to improve our acquaintance to friendship many a time have I placed myself again at Langton and imagined the pleasure with which I should walk to Parkney in a summer morning but that is no longer possible we must now endeavour to preserve what is left us his example of piety and economy I hope you make what enquiries you can and write down what is told you the little things which distinguish domestic characters are soon forgotten if you delay to enquire you will have no information if you neglect to write, information will be vain read the note there is a lengthy footnote at this point number 57 which is read in full at the end of this letter return to text his art of life certainly deserves to be known and studied he lived in plenty and elegance upon an income which to many would appear indigent and to most scanty how he lived therefore every man has an interest in knowing his death I hope was peaceful it was surely happy I wish I had written sooner lest writing now I should renew your grief but I would not forbear saying what I have now said this loss is I hope the only misfortune of a family to whom no misfortune at all should happen if my wishes could avert it let me know how you all go on has Mr. Langton got him the little horse that I recommended it would do him good to ride about his estate in fine weather be pleased to make my compliments to Mrs. Langton and to dear Miss Langton and Miss Di and Miss Juliet and to everybody else the wonder with most that here an account of his economy will be how he was able with such an income to do so much especially when it is considered that he paid for everything he had he had no land except the two or three small fields which I have said he rented and instead of gaining anything by their produce I have reason to think he lost by them however they furnished him with no further assistance towards his housekeeping than grass for his horses not hay for that I know he bought and for two cows every Monday morning he settled his family accounts and so kept up a constant attention to the confining his expenses within his income and to do it more exactly compared those expenses with the computation he had made how much that income would afford him every weekend day of the year one of his economical practices was as soon as any repair was wanting in or about his house to have it immediately performed when he had money to spare he chose to lay in a provision of linen or clothes or any other necessaries as then he said he would afford it which he might not be so well able to do when the actual want came in consequence of which method he had a considerable supply of necessary articles lying by him beside what was in use but the main particular that seems to have enabled him to do so much with his income was that he paid for everything as soon as he had it except alone what were current accounts such as rent for his house and servants wages and these he paid at the stated times with the utmost exactness he gave notice to the tradesmen of the neighbouring market times that they should no longer have his custom if they let any of his servants have anything without their paying for it thus he put it out of his power to commit those imprudences to which those are liable that defer their payments by using their money some other way than where it ought to go and whatever money he had by him he knew that it was not demanded elsewhere but that he might safely employ it as he pleased his example was confined by the sequestered place of his abode to the observation of few though his prudence and virtue would have made it valuable to all who could have known it these few particulars which I knew myself or have obtained from those who lived with him may afford instruction and be an incentive to that wise art of living which he so successfully practised the club holds very well together Monday is my night I continue to rise tolerably well and read more than I did I hope something will yet come on it I answer your most affectionate servant, Sam Johnson May 10th, 1766, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street Readers note Footnote 57 reads as follows Mr. Langton did not disregard this council but wrote the following account which he has been pleased to communicate to me the circumstances of Mr. Peregrine Langton were these he had an annuity for life of £200 per annum he resided in a village in Lincolnshire the rent of his house with two or three fields was £28 the county he lived in was not more than moderately cheap his family consisted of a sister who paid him £18 annually for her board and a niece the servants were two maids and two men in livery his common way of living at his table was three or four dishes the pertinent sister of his table were neat and handsome he frequently entertained company at dinner and then his table was well served with as many dishes as were usual at the tables of the other gentlemen in the neighbourhood his own appearance as to clothes was genteelly neat and plain he always had a post-chase and kept three horses such with the resources I have mentioned was his way of living which he did not suffer to employ his whole income for he had always the sum of money lying by him for any extraordinary expenses that might arise some money he put into the stocks at his death the sum he had there amounted to £150 he purchased out of his income his household furniture and linen of which latter he had a very ample store and as I am assured by those that had very good means of knowing not less than the tenth part of his income was set apart for charity at the time of his death the sum of £25 was found with a direction to be employed in such uses he had laid down a plan of living proportioned to his income and did not practice any extraordinary degree of parsimony but endeavoured that in his family there should be plenty without waste as an instance that this was his endeavour it may be worthwhile to mention a method he took in regulating a proper allowance of mould liquor to be drunk in his family that there might not be a deficiency or any intemperate profusion on a complaint made that his allowance of a hog's head in a month was not enough for his own family he wanted the quantity of a hog's head to be put into bottles had it locked up from the servants and distributed out every day eight quarts which is the quantity each day at one hog's head in a month and told his servants that if that did not suffice he would allow them more but by this method it appeared at once that the allowance was much more than sufficient for his small family and this proved a clear conviction that could not be answered and saved all future dispute he was in general very diligently and punctually attended and obeyed by his servants he was very considerate as to the injunctions he gave and explained them distinctly and their first coming to his service steadily exacted a close compliance with them without any remission and the servants finding this to be the case soon grew habitually accustomed to the practice of their business and then very little further attention was necessary on the extraordinary instances of good behaviour or diligent service he was not wanting in particular encouragements and presents above their wages it is remarkable that he would permit their relations to visit them and stay at his house two or three days at a time the main text resumes after I'd been some time in Scotland I mentioned to him in a letter that on my first return to my native country after some years of absence I was told of a vast number of my acquaintances who were all gone to the land of forgetfulness and I found myself like a man stalking over a field of battle who every moment perceived someone lying dead I complained of irresolution and mentioned my having made vow as a security for good conduct I wrote to him again without being able to move his indolence nor did I hear from him till he had received a copy of my inaugural exercise or thesis in civil law which I published at my admission as an advocate as is the custom in Scotland he then wrote to me as follows to James Boswell Esquire Dear sir the reception of your thesis put me in mind of my debt to you why did you there is a footnote at this point stating the passage omitted alluded to a private transaction return to text I will punish you for it by telling you that your Latin wants correction footnote 61 the censure of my Latin relates to the dedication which was as follows Vero nobilisimo or natisimo Johani vis comiti month steward atavis edito regibus excelsi familaide butespe e alterai la bente secolo cum homines nullios origines genus aiquare oppibus agrediunto sanguinis antiqui et illustris semper memori natalium splendore via tutibus augenti note ends in the beginning spaei alterai not to urge that it should be prima is not grammatical alterai should be alteri in the next line you seem to use genus absolutely for what we call family that is for illustrious extraction I doubt without authority omines nullios origines for nullis or team majoribus or nulo loco nati is I am afraid barbarous rudman is dead I have now vexed you enough and will try to please you your resolution to obey your father I sincerely approve but do not accustom yourself to enchain your volatility by vows they will sometime leave a thorn in your mind which you will perhaps never be able to extract or reject take this warning it is of great importance the study of the law is what you very justly term it copious and generous and in adding your name to its professors you have done exactly what I always wished when I wished you best I hope that you will continue to pursue it vigorously and constantly you gain at least what is no small advantage security from those troublesome and wearisome discontents which are always obtruding themselves upon a mind vacant unemployed and undetermined you ought to think it no small inducement to diligence and perseverance that they will please your father we all live upon the hope of pleasing somebody and the pleasure of pleasing ought to be greatest and at last always will be greatest when our endeavours are exerted in consequence of our duty life is not long and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent deliberation with those who begin it by prudence and continue it with subtlety must after long expense of thought conclude by chance to prefer one future mode of life to another upon just reasons requires faculties which it has not pleased our creator to give us if therefore the profession you have chosen has some unexpected inconveniences for yourself by reflecting that no profession is without them and that all the importunities and perplexities of business are softness and luxury compared with the incessant cravings of vacancy and the unsatisfactory expedience of idleness Haik sunt quain nostra polui te voce monere va de age as to your history of Corsica you have no materials which others have not may not have you have somehow or other warmed your imagination I wish there were some cure like the lovers leap for all heads of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable and irregular possession mind your own affairs and leave the Corsicans to theirs I am dear sir your most humble servant Samuel Johnson London August the 21st 1766 to Dr. Samuel Johnson I can lack November the 6th 1766 much esteemed and dear sir I plead not guilty to note 68 the passage omitted explained the transaction to which the preceding letter had alluded end of footnote having thus I hope cleared myself of the charge brought against me I presume you will not be displeased if I escape the punishment which you have decreed for me unheard if you have discharged the areas of criticism against an innocent man you must rejoice to find they have missed him or have not been pointed so as to wound him to talk no longer in allegory I am with all deference going to offer a few observations in defense of my latin which you found fault with you think I should have used spae prima instead of spae alterae spae is indeed often used to express something upon which we have a future dependence as in Virgil's ecolog one line 14 Modo namque gemelos spem gregis a silicae in nuda conics are illiquid and in georgex book 3 line 473 spem que gregem que simul for the lambs and the sheep yet it is also used to express anything on which we have a present dependence and is well applied to a man of distinguished influence our support our refuge our price idiom as Horace calls my senas so a new book 12 line 57 Queen Amita addresses her son-in-law Ternus spae is to nunke una and he was then no future hope for she adds decus imperium que latini te penes which might have been said of my Lord Butte some years ago now I consider the present Earl of Butte to be excelsae familiae debutae spae prima and my Lord Mount Stuart has his eldest son to be spae alterae so in a neared book 12 line 168 after having mentioned Pate Ineos who was the present spae is the reigning spae is as my German friends would say the spae prima the poet adds et juxta ascarnius magnae spae alterae romae you think alterae ungrammatical and you tell me should have been alterae you must recollect that in old times alter was declined regularly and when the ancient fragments preserved in the jurisquilis fontes were written it was certainly declined in the way that I use it this I should think may protect a lawyer who writes alterae in a dissertation upon part of his own science but as I could hardly venture to equate fragments of old law to so classical a man as Mr. Johnson I have not made an accurate search into these remains to find examples of what I am able to produce in poetical composition we find in Actus Rudens Act 3 scene 4 nam huic alterae patria qui sit profectoneschio plotus is to be sure an old comic writer but in the days of Scipio and Leilius we find Terence, Heiautonium Act 2 scene 3 horc ipsa in itinere alterae dum narat forte audivi you doubt my having authority for using genus absolutely for equal family that is for illustrious extraction now I take genus in Latin to have much the same signification with birth in English both in their primary meaning expressing simply descent but both made to stand Greek cat exocene noble descent genus is thus used in Horus book 2 satire 5 line 8 et genus et virtus nisi cum rei vilio algar est and in book 1 letter 6 lines 37 et genus et formam regina pecunia donat and in the celebrated contest between Ajax and Ulysses of its metamorphoses book 13 line 140 nam genus et proavos et quainon fecimus ipsi vix e anostra voco homines nullios origines for nullis autimaioribus or nulla loco nati is you are afraid barbarous origo is used to signify extraction as in Virgil and Eid book 1 line 286 nasceto pulcra traianus origine Caesar and in Eid book 10 line 618 iletamen nostra deducit origine nomen and as nullus is used for obscure is it not in the genius of the Latin language to write nullios origines for obscure extraction I have defended myself as well as I could might I venture to differ from you as regard to the utility of vows I am sensible that it will be very dangerous to make vows rashly and without a due consideration but I cannot help thinking that they may often be of great advantage to one of a variable judgment and irregular inclinations I always remember a passage in one of your letters to our Italian friend Beretti where talking of the monastic life you say you do not wonder that serious men should put themselves under the protection of a religious order when they have found how unable they are of themselves for my own part without affecting to be a Socrates I am sure I have a more than ordinary struggle to maintain with the evil principle and all the methods I can devise are little enough to keep me tolerably steady in the paths of rectitude I am ever with the highest veneration your affectionate humble servant James Boswell End of section 1 Section 2 of the Life of Samuel Johnson Volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Life of Samuel Johnson Volume 2 by James Boswell Section 2, 1766, continued It appears from Johnson's diary that he was this year at Mr. Thrales from before mid-summer till after Michael Miss and that he afterward passed a month at Oxford He then contracted a great intimacy with Mr. Chambers of that university afterwards Sir Robert Chambers one of the judges in India He published nothing this year in his own name but the noble dedication to the king of Gwynne's London and Westminster Improved was written by him and he furnished the preface of the pieces which compose a volume of Miscellanies by Mrs. Anna Williams the blind lady who had an asylum in his house Of these there are his epitaph on Phillips translation of Aladdin epitaph on Sir Thomas Hanmer friendship anode and the ant a paraphrase from the Proverbs of which I have a copy in his own handwriting and from internal evidence I ascribe to him to Miss Blank on her giving the author a gold and silk network purse of her own weaving and the happy life Most of the pieces in this volume have evidently received additions from his Superior pen particularly verses to Mr. Richardson on his Sir Charles Grandison the excursion Reflections on a grave digging in Westminster Abbey There is in this collection a poem on the death of Stephen Gray the electrician which on reading it appeared to me to be undoubtedly Johnson's I asked Mrs. Williams whether it was not his Sir she said with some warmth I wrote that poem before I had the honor of Dr. Johnson's acquaintance I however was so much impressed with my first notion that I mentioned it to Johnson repeating at the same time what Mrs. Williams had said His answer was it is true Sir that she wrote it before she was acquainted with me but she has not told you that I wrote it all over again except two lines The Fountains a beautiful little fairy tale in prose written with exquisite simplicity is one of Johnson's productions and I cannot withhold from Mrs. Thrail the praise of being the author of that admirable poem The Three Warnings He wrote this year a letter not intended for publication which has perhaps a strong marks of his sentiment and style as any of his compositions The original is in my possession It is addressed to the late Mr. William Drummond, bookseller in Edinburgh a gentleman of good family but small estate who took arms for the House of Stuart in 1745 and during his concealment in London till the act of general pardon came out obtains the acquaintance of Dr. Johnson who justly esteemed him as a very worthy man It seems some of the members of the society in Scotland for propagating Christian knowledge had opposed the scheme of translating the Holy Scriptures into the Urse or Gaelic language from political considerations of the disadvantage of keeping up the distinction between the Highlanders and the other inhabitants of North Britain Dr. Johnson being informed of this I suppose by Mr. Drummond wrote with a generous indignation as follows To Mr. William Drummond Sir I did not expect to hear that it could be in an assembly convened for the propagation of Christian knowledge a question whether any nation uninstructed in religion should receive instruction or whether that instruction should be imparted to them by a translation of the Holy Book into their own language If obedience to the will of God be necessary to happiness and knowledge of his will be necessary to obedience I know not how he that withholds this knowledge and lays it can be said to love his neighbor as himself he that voluntarily continues ignorance is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a lighthouse might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwrecks Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity and as no man is good but as he wishes the good of others no man can be good in the highest degree who wishes not to others the largest measure of the greatest good to omit for a year or for a day the most efficacious method of advancing Christianity in compliance with any purposes that terminate on this side of the grave is a crime of which I know not that the world has yet had an example except in the practice of the planters of America a race of mortals whom I suppose no other man wishes to resemble the papas have indeed denied to the lady the use of the Bible but this prohibition in few places not very rigorously enforced is defended by arguments which have for their foundation the care of souls to obscure upon motives merely political the light of revelation is a practice reserved for the reformed and surely the blackest midnight of potpoury is meridian sunshine to such a reformation I am not very willing that any language should be totally extinguished the similitude and derivation of languages afford the most indudiable proof of the notion of nations and the genealogy of mankind they add often physical certainty to historical evidence and often supply the only evidence of ancient migrations and of the revolutions of ages which left no written monuments behind them every man's opinions at least his desires are a little influenced by his favorite studies my zeal for languages may seem perhaps rather overheated even to those by whom I desire to be well esteemed to those who have nothing in their thoughts but trade or policy present power or present money I should not think it necessary to defend my opinions but with men of letters I would not unwillingly compound by wishing the continuance of every language however narrow in its extent or however incomodious for common purposes till it is reposited in some version of a known book that it may be always hereafter examined and compared with other languages and then permitting its disuse for this purpose the translation of the Bible is most to be desired it is not certain that the same method will not preserve the Highland language for the purpose of learning and abolish it from daily use when the Highlanders read the Bible they will naturally wish to have its obscurities cleared and to know the history collateral or appendance knowledge always desires increase it is like fire which must be kindled by some external agent by which will afterwards propagate itself when they once desired to learn they will naturally have recourse to the nearest language by which that desire can be gratified and one will tell another that if he would attain knowledge he must learn English this speculation may perhaps be thought more subtle than the grossness of real life will easily admit let it however be remembered that the efficacy of ignorance has been long tried and has not produced the consequence expected let knowledge therefore take its turn and let the patrons of privation stand a while aside and admit the operation of positive principles you will be pleased sir to assure the worthy man who is employed in the new translation that he has my wishes for his success and if here at Oxford I can be of any use that I shall think it more than honor to promote this undertaking I am sorry that I delayed so long to write I am sir your most humble servant Sam Johnson Johnson's Court Fleet Street, August 13th 1766 the opponents of this pious scheme being made ashamed of their conducts the benevolent undertaking was allowed to go on the following letters though not written till the year after being chiefly upon the same subject to Mr. William Drummond dear sir that my letter should have had such effects as you mentioned gives me great pleasure I hope you do not flatter me by imputing to me more good than I have really done those who my arguments have persuaded to change their opinion show such modesty and candor as deserve great praise I hope the worthy translator goes diligently forward he has a higher reward and prospect than any honors which this world can bestow I wish I could be useful to him the publication of my letter if it could be of use in a cause to which all other causes are nothing I should not prohibit but first I would have you consider whether this publication would really do any good next whether by printing and distributing a very small number you may not obtain all that you propose and what perhaps I should have said first whether the letter which I do not now perfectly remember be fit to be printed if you can consult Dr. Robertson to whom I am a little known I shall be satisfied about the propriety of whatever he shall direct if he thinks that it should be printed I entreat him to revise it there may perhaps be some negligent lines written and whatever is amiss he knows very well how to rectify be pleased to let me know from time to time how this excellent design goes forward make my compliments to young Mr. Drummond whom I hope you will live to see such as you desire him I have not lately seen Mr. Elphinstone but believe him to be prosperous I shall be glad to hear the same of you for I am Sir your affectionate humble servant Sam Johnson Johnson's Court Fleet Street April 21st 1767 to the same Sir I learned this week from the country after an absence of near six months and found your letter with many others which I should have answered sooner if I had sooner seen them Dr. Robertson's opinion was surely right men should not be told of the faults which they have mended I am glad the old language is taught and honor the translator as a man whom God has distinguished by the high office of propagating his word I must take the liberty of engaging in an office of charity Mrs. Healy, the wife of Mr. Healy who had lately some office in your theater is my near relation and now in great distress they wrote me word of their situation some time ago to which I returned them an answer which raised hopes of more than it is proper for me to give them the representation of their affairs I had discovered to be such as cannot be trusted and at this distance though their case requires haste I know not how to act she or her daughters may be heard of at Cannon Gate Head I must beg sir that you will inquire after them and let me know what is to be done I am willing to go to ten pounds and will transmit you such as some if upon examination you find it likely to be of use if they are in immediate want advance them what you think proper what I could do I would do for the women having no great reason to pay much regard to Healy himself I believe you may receive some intelligence from Mrs. Baker of the theater whose letter I received at the same time with yours and to whom if you see her you will make my excuse for the seeming neglect of answering her whatever you advance within ten pounds shall be immediately returned to you or paid as you shall order I trust wholly to your judgment I am sir etc Sam Johnson London, Johnson's Court Fleet Street October 24th 1767 Mr. Cuthbert Shaw alike distinguished by his genius misfortunes and misconduct published this year a poem called The Race by Mercurius Spur Esquire in which he whimsically made the living poets of England contend for preeminence by fame of running proved by their heels the prowess of the head in this poem there was the following portrait of Johnson here Johnson comes unblessed with outward grace his rigid morals stamped upon his face while strong conception struggle in his brain for even wit is brought to bed with pain to view him porters with their loads would rest and babes cling frightened to the nursed breast with looks convulsed he roars in pompous strain and like an angry lion shakes his mane the nine with terror struck who Nair had seen odd human with so horrible amine debating whether they should stay or run virtue steps forth and claims him for her son with gentle speech she warns him now to yield nor stain his glories in the doubtful field but wrapped in conscious worth content set down since fame resolved his various pleas to crown though forced his present claim to disavow had long reserved a chaplet for his brow he bows, obeys for time shall first expire ere Johnson's stay when virtue bids retire the honorable Thomas Hervey and his lady having unhappily disagreed and being about to separate Johnson interfered as their friend and wrote him a letter of expostulation which I have not been able to find but the substance of it is asserted by a letter to Johnson in answer to it which Mr. Hervey printed the occasion of this correspondence between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Hervey was thus related to me by Mr. Bowclark Tom Hervey had a great liking for Johnson and in his will had left him a legacy of fifty pounds one day he said to me Johnson may want this money now more than afterwards I have a mind to give it to him directly will you be so good as to carry a fifty pound note from me to him this I positively refuse to do as he might perhaps have knocked me down for insulting him and have afterwards put the note in his pocket but I said if Hervey would write him a letter and enclose a fifty pound note I should take care to deliver it he accordingly did write him a letter mentioning that he was only paying a legacy a little sooner to his letter he added P.S. I am going to part with my wife Johnson then wrote to him saying nothing of the note but remonstrating with him against parting with his wife while I mentioned to Johnson this story in as delicate terms as I could he told me that the fifty pound note was given to him by Mr. Hervey in consideration of his having written for him a pamphlet against Sir Charles Hambury Williams who Mr. Hervey imagined was the author of an attack upon him but that it was afterwards discovered to be the work of a garateer who wrote the fool the pamphlet therefore against Sir Charles was not printed in February 1767 there happened one of the most remarkable incidents of Johnson's life which gratified his monarchial enthusiasm and which he loved to relate with all its circumstances when requested by his friends this was his being honored by a private conversation with his majesty in the library at the queen's house he had frequently visited those splendid rooms and noble collection of books which he used to say were more numerous and curious than he suppose any person could have made in the time which the king had employed Mr. Barnard the librarian took care that he should have every accommodation that could contribute to his ease and convenience while indulging his literary taste in that place so he had here a very agreeable resource at leisure hours his majesty having been informed of his occasional visits was pleased to signify a desire that he should be told when Dr. Johnson came next to the library accordingly the next time that Johnson did come as soon as he was fairly engaged with a book on which while he sat by the fire he seemed quite intent Mr. Barnard stole round to the apartment where the king was and in obedience to his majesty's commands mentioned that Dr. Johnson was then in the library his majesty said he was at leisure and would go to him upon which Mr. Barnard took one of the candles that stood on the king's table and lighted his majesty through a suite of rooms till they came to a private door into the library of which his majesty had the key being entered Mr. Barnard stepped forward hastily to Dr. Johnson who was still in a profound study and whispered to him sir here is the king Johnson started up and stood still his majesty approached him and at once was courteously easy his majesty began by observing that he understood he came sometimes to the library and then mentioning his having heard that the doctor had been lately at Oxford asked him if he was not fond of going further to which Dr. Johnson answered that he was indeed fond of going to Oxford sometimes but was likewise glad to come back again the king then asked him what they were doing at Oxford Johnson answered he could not much commend their diligence but that in some respects they were mended for they had put their press under better regulations and were at that time printing filibious he then asked whether there were better libraries at Oxford or Cambridge he answered he believed the Bodlin was larger than any they had at Cambridge at the same time adding I hope whether we have more books or not than they have at Cambridge we shall make as good use of them as they do being asked whether all souls were Christchurch library was the largest he answered all souls library is the largest we have except the Bodlin I said the king that is the public library his majesty inquired if he was then writing anything he answered he was not for he had pretty well told the world what he knew and must now read to acquire more knowledge the king as it should seem the view to urge him to rely on his own stores as an original writer and to continue to help his labors then said I do not think you borrow much from anybody Johnson said he thought he had already done his part as a writer I should have thought so too said the king if you had not written so well Johnson observed to me upon this that no man could have paid a handsome or compliment and it was fit for a king to pay it was decisive when asked by another friend at Sir Joshua Reynolds whether he made any reply to this high compliment he answered no sir when the king had said it it was to be so it was not for me to band his civilities with my sovereign perhaps no man who had spent his whole life in courts could have shown a more nice and dignified sense of true politeness than Johnson did in this instance his majesty having observed to him that he supposed he must have read a great deal Johnson answered that he thought more than he read that he had read a great deal in the early part of his life but having fallen into ill health he had not been able to read much compared with others for instance he said he had not read much compared with Dr. Warburton upon which the king said that he heard Dr. Warburton was a man of such general knowledge that he did not know anyone any subject which he was not qualified to speak and that his learning resembled Garrick's acting in its universality his majesty then talked of the controversy between Warburton and Loth which he seemed to have read and asked Johnson what he thought of it Johnson answered Warburton has most general most scholastic learning Loth is a more correct scholar I do not know which of them called his names best the king was pleased to say with the same opinion adding you do not think then Dr. Johnson that there was much argument in the case Johnson said he did not think there was why truly said the king when once he comes to calling names argument is pretty well at an end his majesty then asked of him what he thought of Lord Lytleton's history which was then just published Johnson said he thought his style pretty good but that he had blamed Henry II rather too much why said the king they seldom do these things by halves no sir answered Johnson not to kings but fearing to be misunderstood he proceeded to explain himself and immediately subjoined that for those who spoke worse of kings than they deserved he could find no excuse but that he could more easily conceive how some might speak better of them than they deserved without any ill intention for as kings had much in their power to give those who were favored by them would frequently from gratitude exaggerate their praises and as this proceeded from a good motive it was certainly excusable as far as error could be excusable the king then asked him what he thought of Dr. Hill Johnson answered that he was an ingenious man but had no veracity and immediately mentioned as an instance of it an assertion of that writer that he had seen objects magnified to a much greater degree by using three or four microscopes at a time than by using one now added Johnson everyone acquainted with microscopes knows that the more of them he looks through the less the object will appear why replied the king this is not only telling an untruth but telling it clumsily for if that be the case everyone who can look through a microscope will be able to detect him I now said Johnson to his friends who had passed begin to consider that I was depreciating this man in the estimation of his sovereign and thought it was time for me to say something that might be more favorable he added therefore that Dr. Hill was notwithstanding a very curious observer and if he would have been contented to tell the world no more than he knew he might have been a very considerable man and needed not to have recourse to such mean expedience to raise his reputation the king then talked of literary journals mentioned particularly the journal de savant and asked Johnson if it was well done Johnson said it was formerly well done and gave some account of the persons who began it and carried it on for some years enlarging at the same time on the nature and use of such works the king asked him if it was well done now Johnson answered he had no reason to think that it was the king then asked him if there were any more other literary journals published in this kingdom except the monthly and critical reviews and on being answered that there were no other his majesty asked which of them was the best Johnson answered that the monthly review was done with most care the critical upon the best principles adding that the authors of the monthly review were enemies to the church this the king said he was sorry to hear the conversation next turned on the philosophical transactions when Johnson observed that they had now a better method of arranging their materials than formerly I said the king they are obliged to Dr. Johnson for that for his majesty had heard and remembered the circumstance which Johnson himself had forgot his majesty expressed a desire to have the literary biography of this country ably executed and proposed to Dr. Johnson to undertake it Johnson signified his readiness to comply with his majesty's wishes during the whole of this interview Johnson talked to his majesty with profound respect but still in his firm manly manner with the sonorous voice and never in that subdued tone which is commonly used at the levy and in the drawing room after the king withdrew Johnson showed himself highly pleased and gracious behavior he said to Mr. Barnard sir they may talk of the king as they will but he is the finest gentleman I have ever seen and he afterwards observed to Mr. Langston sir his manners are those of a fine gentleman as we may suppose Louis XIV or Charles II at Sir Joshua Reynolds where a circle of Johnson's friends was collected round him to hear his account of his memorable conversation Dr. Joseph Wharton in his frank and lively manner was very active in pressing him to mention the particulars come now sir this is an interesting matter do favor us with it Johnson with great good humor complied he told them I found his majesty wished I should talk and I made it my business to talk I find it does a man good to be talked to by his sovereign in the first place a man cannot be in a passion here some question interrupted him which is to be regretted as he certainly would have pointed out and illustrated many circumstances of advantage from being in a situation where the powers of the mind are at once excited to a vigorous exertion and tempered by reverential awe during all the time in which Dr. Johnson was employed in relating to the circle as Sir Joshua Reynolds the particulars of what passed between the king and him Dr. Goldsmith remained unmoved upon a sofa at some distance affecting not to join in the least in the eager curiosity of the company he assigned as a reason for his gloom and seeming in attention that he apprehended Johnson had relinquished his purpose of furnishing him with a prologue to his play with the hopes of which he had been flattered but it was strongly suspected that he was fretting with chagrin and envy at the singular honor that Dr. Johnson had lately enjoyed. At length the frankness and simplicity of his natural character prevailed. He sprung from the sofa, advanced to Johnson and in a kind of flutter from imagining himself in the situation which he had just been hearing described exclaimed, well you acquitted yourself in this conversation better than I should have done for I should have bowed and stammered through the whole of it. I received no letter from Johnson this year nor have I discovered any of the correspondence he had except the two letters to Mr. Drummond which had been inserted for the sake of connection with that to the same gentleman in 1766. His diary affords no light as to his employment at this time. He passed three months at Lickfield and I cannot omit an affecting and solemn scene there as related by himself. Sunday October 18th 1767 Yesterday October 17th at about 10 in the morning I took my leave forever of my dear old friend Catherine Chambers who came to live with my mother about 1724 and has been but little parted from us since. She buried my father, my brother and my mother. She is now 58 years old. I desired all to withdraw then told her that we were to part forever and that I would if she was willing say a short prayer beside her. She expressed great desire to hear me and held up her poor hands as she lay in bed with great fervor while I prayed kneeling by her nearly in the following words Almighty and most merciful father whose loving kindness is over all thy works behold, visit and relieve this thy servant who is grieved by his grace. Grant that the sense of her weakness may add strength to her faith and seriousness to her repentance and grant that by the help of the Holy Spirit after the pains and labors of this short life we may all obtain everlasting happiness through Jesus Christ our Lord for whose sake hear our prayers, amen our father etc. I then kissed her she told me it was the greatest pain that she had ever felt and that she hoped we would meet again in a better place I expressed with swelled eyes and great emotion of tenderness the same hopes we kissed and parted I humbly hoped to meet again and to part no more by those who have been taught to look upon Johnson as a man of harsh and stern character let this tender and affectionate scene be candidly read and let them then judge the depth of hearts and grateful kindness is often found in human nature we have the following notice in his devotional record August 2nd, 1767 I have been disturbed and unsettled for a long time and have been without resolution to apply to study or to business being hindered by sudden snatches he however furnished Mr. Adams with a dedication to the king of that ingenious gentleman with his treatise on the globes conceived and expressed in such a manner as could not fail to be very grateful to a monarch distinguished for his love of the sciences this year was published a ridicule of his style under the title of Lexaphanes Sir John Hawkins ascribes it to Dr. Kenrick but its author was one Campbell a Scotch purser in the Navy the ridicule consisted in applying Johnson's words meaning to insignificant matters as if one should put the armor of Goliath upon a dwarf the contrast might be laughable but the dignity of the armor must remain the same in all considered minds this malicious strollery therefore it may be easily supposed could do no harm to its illustrious object to Bennett Langton Esquire at Mr. Rothwell's perfumer in New Bond Street, London Dear sir that you may have been all summer in London is one more reason which I regret my long stay in the country I hope that you will not leave the town before my return we have here only the chance of vacancies in the passing carriages and I have bespoken one that may if it happens bring me to town on the fourteenth of this month but this is not certain it will be a favor if you communicate this to Mrs. Williams I long to see all my friends I am dear sir your most humble servant Sam Johnson Litchfield October 10th 1767 End of Section 2 Recording by Katie Riley February 2009 Section 3 of the life of Samuel Johnson Volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Life of Samuel Johnson Volume 2 by James Boswell Section 3 1768 Itat 59 It appears from his notes of the state of his mind that he suffered great perturbation and distraction in 1768 Nothing of his writing was given to the public this year except the prologue to his friend Goldsmith's comedy of the good-natured man The first lines of this prologue are strongly characteristical of the dismal gloom of his mind which in his case as in the case of all who are distressed with the same malady of imagination transfers to others its own feelings Who could suppose it was to introduce a comedy when Mr. Bensley solemnly began pressed with the load of life the weary mind the general toil of humankind But this dark ground might make Goldsmith's humor shine the more In the spring of this year having published my account of Corsica with the journal of a tour to that island I returned to London very desirous to see Dr. Johnson and hear him upon the subject I found he was at Oxford with his friend Mr. Chambers who is now a Venarian professor and lived in Newin Hall Having had no letter from him since that in which he criticized the latinity of my thesis and having been told by somebody that he was offended at my having put into my book an extract of his letter to me at Paris I was impatient to be with him and therefore followed him to Oxford where I was entertained by Mr. Chambers with a civility which I shall ever gratefully remember I found that Dr. Johnson had sent a letter to me to Scotland which I was afraid of but his being more indifferent to my anxiety than I wished him to be Instead of giving with the circumstances of time and place such fragments of his conversation as I preserved during this visit to Oxford I shall throw them together in continuation I asked him whether as a moralist he did not think that the practice of the law in some degree hurt the nice feeling of honesty Johnson, why no sir you are not to deceive your clients with false representations of your opinion you are not to tell lies to a judge Boswell but what do you think of supporting a cause which you know to be bad Johnson, sir you do not know it to be good or bad till the judge determines it I have said that you are to state facts fairly so that your thinking or what you call knowing a cause to be bad must be from reasoning must be from your supposing to be weak and inconclusive but sir that is not enough an argument which does not convince yourself may convince the judge to whom you urge it and if it does convince him why then sir you are wrong and he is right it is his business to judge and you are not to be confident in your own opinion that a cause is bad put to say all you can for your client and then hear the judge's opinion Boswell but sir does not affecting a warmth and appearing to be clearly of one opinion when you are in reality of another opinion does not such dissimulation impair one's honesty is there not some danger that a lawyer may put on the same mask in common life in the intercourse with his friends Johnson why no sir everybody knows you are paid for affecting warmth for your clients and it is therefore a properly no dissimulation the moment you come from the bar you resume your usual behavior a man will no more carry the artifice of the bar into the common intercourse of society than a man who is paid for tumbling upon his hands will continue to tumble upon his hands when he should walk upon his feet talking of some of the modern plays he said false delicacy was totally void of character he praised Goldsmith's good natured man said it was the best comedy that had appeared since the provoked husband and that there had not been of late any such character exhibited on the stage as that of Croker I observed it was the suspicious of his rambler he said Goldsmith had owned he had borrowed it from thence sir continued he there was all the difference in the world between characters of nature and characters of manners and there is the difference between the characters of fielding and those of Richardson characters of manners are very entertaining but they are to be understood by a more superficial observer than characters of nature where a man must dive into the recesses of the human heart it always appeared to me that he estimated the compositions of Richardson too highly and that he had an unreasonable prejudice against fielding in comparing those two writers he used this expression that there was as great a difference between them as between a man who knew how a watch was made and a man who could tell you the hour by looking on the dial plate this was a short and figurative state with his distinction between drawing characters of nature and characters only of manners but I cannot help being of opinion that the neat watches of fielding are as well constructed as the large clocks of Richardson and that his dial plates are brighter Fielding's characters though they do not expand themselves so widely in dissertation are as just pictures of human nature and I will venture to say have more striking features and nicer touches of the pencil to quote with approbation the saying of Richardson's that the virtue of Fielding's heroes were the vices of a truly good man I will venture to add that the moral tendency of Fielding's writings though it does not encourage a strained and rarely possible virtue is ever favorable to honor and honesty and cherishes the benevolent and generous affections he who is as good as Fielding would make him is an amiable member of society and may be led on by more regulated instructors of a higher state of ethical perfection Johnson proceeded even Sir Francis Wronghead is a character of manners though drawn with great humor he then repeated very happily all Sir Francis credulous account to manly of his being the great man and securing a place I asked him if the suspicious husband did not furnish a well-drawn character that of Ranger Johnson No sir, Ranger is just a rake a mere rake and a lively young fellow but no character the great Douglas Cause was at this time a very general subject of discussion I found he had not studied it with much attention but had only heard parts of it occasionally he however talked of it and said I am of opinion that positive proof of fraud should not be required of the plaintiff but that the judges should decide according as probability or to preponder it granting to the defendant the presumption of affiliation to be strong in his favor and I think too that a good deal of weight should be allowed to the dying declarations because they were spontaneous there is a great difference between what is said without being urged to it and what is said from a kind of compulsion if I praise a man's book without being asked my opinion of it that is honest praise to which one may trust but if an author asks me if I like his book and I give him something like praise it must not be taken as my real opinion I have not been troubled for a long time with authors desiring my opinion of their works I used once to be sadly played with a man who wrote verses but who literally had no other notion of a verse but that it consisted of ten syllables lay your knife and your fork across your plate was to him a verse lay your knife and your fork across your plate as he wrote a great number of verses he sometimes by chance made good ones though he did not know it he renewed his promise of coming to Scotland and going with me to the Hebrides but he said he would now contend himself with seeing one or two of the most curious of them he said Maculay who writes the account of St. Kilda sent out with a prejudice against prejudices and wanted to be a smart modern thinker and yet he affirms of the truth and drives there all the inhabitants are seized with a cold Dr. John Campbell the celebrated writer took a great deal of pains to ascertain this fact and attempted to account for it on physical principles from the effect of a fluvia from human bodies Johnson at another time praised Maculay for his magnanimity in asserting this wonderful story because it was well attested a lady of Norfolk my friend Dr. Bernie has favored me with the following solution now for the explication of the seeming mystery which is so very obvious as for that reason to have escaped the penetration of Dr. Johnson and his friend as well as that of the author reading the book with my ingenious friend the late Reverend Mr. Christian of docking after ruminating a little this cause says he is a natural one the situation of St. Kilda renders a northeast wind possibly necessary before a stranger can land the wind not the stranger occasions an epidemic cold if I am not mistaken Mr. Maculay is dead if living the solution might please him as I hope it will Mr. Boswell in return for the many agreeable hours his works have afforded us Johnson expitiated on the advantages of Oxford for learning there is sir said he such a progressive emulation the students are anxious to appear well to their tutors the tutors are anxious to have their pupils appear well in the college the colleges are anxious to have their students appear well in the university and there are excellent rules of discipline in every college that the rules are sometimes ill observed may be true but is nothing against the system the members of the university may for a season be unmindful of their duty I am arguing for the excellency of the institution of Guthrie he said sir he is a man of parts he has no great regular fund of knowledge but by reading so long and writing so long he no doubt has picked up a good deal he said he had lately been a long while at Lickfield but had grown very weary before he left it Boswell I wonder at that sir it is your native place Johnson why so Scotland is your native place his prejudice against Scotland appeared remarkably strong at this time when I talked of our advancement in literature sir said he you have learned a little from us and you think yourselves very great men Hume would never have written history had not Voltaire written it before him he is an echo of Voltaire Boswell but sir we have Lord Cames Johnson you have Lord Cames keep him ha ha ha do you ever see Dr. Robertson Boswell yes sir Johnson does the dog talk of me Boswell indeed sir he does and loves you thinking that I now had him in a corner and being solicitous for the literary fame of my country I pressed him for his opinion on the merit of Dr. Robertson's history of Scotland but to my surprise he escaped sir I love Robertson and I won't talk of his book it is but justice both to him and Dr. Robertson's ad that he indulged himself in this sally of wit he had too good taste not to be fully sensible of the merits of that admirable work an essay written by Mr. Dean a divine of the Church of England maintaining the future life of Brutes by an explication of certain parts of the scriptures was mentioned and the doctrine insisted on by a gentleman who seemed fond of curious speculation Johnson he did not like to hear of anything concerning a future state which was not authorized by the regular cannons of orthodoxy discouraged this talk and being offended at its continuation he watched an opportunity to give the gentleman a blow of reprehension so when the poor speculatist with a serious metaphysical pensive face addressed him but really sir when we see a very sensible dog we don't know what to think of him Johnson rolling with joy at the thought which beamed in his eye replied true sir and when we see a very foolish fellow we don't know what to think of him he then rose up strided to the fire and stood for some time laughing and exalting I told him that I had several times when in Italy seen the experiment of placing a scorpion within a circle of burning coals that it ran round and round in extreme pain and finding no way to escape retired to the center and like a true stoic philosopher this sting into its head and thus at once freed itself from its woes this must end him I said this was a curious fact as it showed deliberate suicide in a reptile Johnson would not admit the fact he said Mopertu was of opinion that it does not kill itself but dies of the heat that it gets to the center of the circle as the coolest place that it's turning its tail upon a ted is merely a convulsion and that it does not sting itself as satisfied if the great anatomist were gagny after dissecting a scorpion on which the experiment had been tried should certify that its sting had penetrated into its head he seemed pleased to talk of natural philosophy that Woodcocks said he fly over to the northern countries is proved because they have been observed at sea swallows certainly sleep all the winter a number of them conglobulates together by flying round and round deep through themselves under water and lying in the bed of a river he told us one of his first essays was a Latin poem upon the glow worm I am sorry I did not ask where it was to be found talking of the Russians and the Chinese he advised me to read Belle's Travels I asked him whether I should read Duhal's account of China why yes said he as one read such a book that is to say consult it he talked of the heinousness crime of adultery by which the peace of families was destroyed he said confusion of progeny constitutes the essence of the crime and therefore a woman who breaks her marriage vows is much more criminal than a man who does it a man to be sure is criminal in the sight of God but he does not do his wife a very material injury if he does not insult her if for instance for mere wantonness of appetite he steals privately to her chamber made sir a wife ought not to greatly resent this I would not receive home a daughter who would run away from her husband on that account a wife should study to reclaim her husband by more attention to please him sir a man will not once in a hundred instances leave his wife and go to a harlot if his wife has not been negligent of pleasing he here discovered that acute discrimination that solid judgment and that knowledge of human nature for which he was upon all occasions remarkable taking care to keep in view then moral and religious duty as understood in our nation he showed clearly from reason and good sense the greater degree of culpability in the one sex deviating from it then the other and at the same time inculcated a very useful lesson as the way to keep him I asked him if it was not hard that one deviation from chastity should so absolutely ruin a young woman Johnson why no sir it is the great principle which she has taught when she has given up that principle she has given up every notion of female honor and virtue which are all included in chastity a gentleman talked to him of a lady whom he greatly admired and wished to marry but was afraid of her superiority of talents sir said he you need not be afraid marry her before a year goes about you'll find that reason much weaker and that wit not so bright yet the gentleman may be justified in his apprehension by one of Dr. Johnson's admirable sentences in his life of Waller he doubtless praised many whom he would have been afraid to marry and perhaps married one whom he would have been ashamed to praise many qualities contribute to domestic happiness upon which poetry has no collars to bestow and many heirs and sallies may delight imagination which he who flatters them never can approve praise senior Barretti his account of Italy is a very entertaining book and sir I know no man who carries his head higher in conversation than Barretti there are strong powers in his mind he has not indeed many hooks but with what hooks he has he grapples very forcibly at this time I observed upon the dial plate of his watch a short Greek inscription taken from the New Testament nukes gar a rittai being the first words of our Saviour's solemn admonition to the improvements of that time which has allowed us to prepare for eternity the night cometh when no man can work he some time afterwards laid aside this dial plate and when I asked him the reason he said it might do very well upon a clock which a man keeps in his closet but to have it upon his watch which he carries about him and which is often looked at by others might be censured as ostentatious Mr. Stevens is now possessed of the dial plate inscribed as above he remained at Oxford a considerable time I was obliged to go to London where I received his letter which had been returned from Scotland to James Boswell Esquire my dear Boswell I have omitted a long time to write to you without knowing very well why I could now tell why I should not write for who would write to men who publish the letters of their friends without their leave yet I write to you in spite of my caution to tell you that I shall be glad to see you and that I wish you would empty your head of Corsica which I think has filled it rather too long but at all events I shall be glad, very glad to see you I am, sir, yours affectionately Sam Johnson Oxford March 23rd, 1768 I answered thus to Mr. Samuel Johnson London, 26th of April 1768 my dear sir I have received your last letter which, though very short and by no means complimentary yet gave me real pleasure because it contains these words I shall be glad very glad to see you shortly you have no reason to complain of my publishing a single paragraph of one of your letters my invitation to it was so strong an irrevocable grant of your friendship and your dignifying my desire of visiting Corsica with the epithet of a wise and noble curiosity are to me more valuable than many of the grants of kings but how can you bid me empty my head of Corsica my noble minded friend do you not feel for an oppressed nation bravely struggling to be free consider fairly what is the case the Corsicans never received any kindness from the Genoese they never agreed to be subject to them they owed them nothing and when reduced to an abject state of slavery by force shall they not rise in the great cause of liberty and break the galling yoke and shall not every liberal soul be warm for them empty my head of Corsica empty it of honor empty it of humanity empty it of friendship empty it of piety no while I live Corsica and the cause of the brave islanders shall ever employ much of my attention shall ever interest me in the sincerest manner I am etc James Boswell upon his arrival in London in May he surprised me one morning with a visit at my lodgings in half moon streets was quite satisfied with my explanation and was in the kindness and most agreeable frame of mind as he had objected to a part of one of his letters being published I thought it right to take this opportunity of asking him explicitly whether it would be improper to publish his letters after his death his answer was nay sir when I am dead you may do as you will he talked in his usual style with a rough contempt of popular liberty they make a round about universal liberty without considering that all that is to be valued or indeed can be enjoyed by individuals private liberty political liberty is good only so far as it produces private liberty now sir there is a liberty of the press which you know is a constant topic suppose you and I and 200 more were restrained from printing our thoughts what then what proportion would that restraint upon us bear to the private happiness of the nation this mode of representing the inconveniences of restraint as light and insignificant was a kind of sophistry in which he delighted to indulge himself in opposition to the extreme laxity for which it has been fashionable for too many to argue when it is evident upon reflection that the very essence of government is restraint and certain it is that as government produces rational happiness too much restraint is better than too little but when restraint is unnecessary and so close as to gall those who are subject to it the people may and ought to remonstrate and if no relief is granted to resist of this manly and spirited principle no man was more convinced than Johnson himself about this time Dr. Kendrick attacked him through many sides in a pamphlet entitled an epistle to James Boswell Esquire occasioned by his having transmitted the moral writings of Dr. Samuel Johnson to Pascal Piolli general of the Corsicans I was at first inclined to answer this pamphlet but Johnson who knew that my doing so would only gratify Kendrick by keeping alive what would soon die a way of itself would not suffer me to take any notice of it his sincere regard for Francis Barber his faithful Negro servant made him so desirous of his further improvement that he now placed him at a school at Bishop Stortford in Hertfordshire this humane attention does Johnson's heart much honor out of many letters which Mr. Barber received from his master he has preserved three which he kindly gave me and I shall insert according to their dates to Mr. Francis Barber Dear Francis I have been very much out of order I am glad to hear that you are well and designed to come soon to see you I would have you say at Mrs. Clapps for the present till I can determine what we shall do be a good boy my compliments to Mrs. Clapp and to Mr. Fowler I am yours affectionately May 28th, 1768 soon afterwards he subbed at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand with a company whom I collected to meet him they were Dr. Percy now Bishop of Dromor Dr. Douglas now Bishop of Salisbury Mr. Langton Dr. Robertson the historian Dr. Hugh Blair and Mr. Thomas Davies had a very little opportunity of hearing them talk for within excess of prudence for which Johnson afterwards found fault with them they hardly opened their lips and that only to say something which they were certain would not expose them to the sort of Goliath such was their anxiety for their fame when in the presence of Johnson he was this evening in a remarkable figure of minds and eager to exert himself in conversation which he did with great readiness and fluency but I am sorry to find that I have preserved the whole part of what passed he allowed high praise to Thompson as a poet but when one of the company said he was also a very good man our moralists contested this with great warmth accusing him of gross sensuality and licentuousness of manners I was very much afraid that in writing Thompson's life Dr. Johnson would have treated his private character with a stern severity but I was agreeably disappointed and I may claim a little merit in it from my having been at pains and him authentic accounts of the affectionate and generous conduct of that poet to his sisters one of whom the wife of Mr. Thompson schoolmaster at Lanark I knew and was presented by her with three of his letters one of which Dr. Johnson has inserted in his life he was vehement against old Dr. Mounsey of Chelsea College as a fellow who swore and talked bawdy I have been often in his company said Dr. Percy and never heard him swear or talk bawdy Mr. Davies who sat next to Dr. Percy having after this had some conversation aside with him made a discovery which in his eel to pay court to Dr. Johnson he eagerly proclaimed aloud from the foot of the table oh sir I have found out a very good reason why Dr. Percy never heard Mounsey swear or talk bawdy for he tells me he never saw him but at the Duke of Northumberland's table and so sir said Johnson proudly to Dr. Percy you would shield this man from the charge of swearing and talking bawdy because he did not do so at the Duke of Northumberland's table sir you might as well tell us that you had seen him hold up his hand at the old Bailey and he neither swore nor talked bawdy or that you had seen him in the cart at Tyburn and he neither swore nor talked bawdy and is it thus sir that you presume to controvert what I have related Dr. Johnson's animadversion was uttered in such a manner that Dr. Percy seemed to be displeased and soon afterwards left the company of which Johnson did not at that time take any notice Swift having been mentioned Johnson as usual treated him with little respect as an author some of us endeavored to support the Dean of St. Patrick's by various arguments one in particular praised his conduct of the allies Johnson sir his conduct of the allies is a performance of very little ability surely sir said Dr. Douglas you must allow that his strong facts Johnson well yes sir but what is that to the merit of the composition in the sessions paper of the old Bailey there are strong facts half-breaking is a strong fact robbery is a strong fact and murder is a mighty strong fact but his great praise due to the historian of these strong facts no sir Swift has told what he has to tell distinctly enough he had to count to ten and he has counted it right then recollecting that Mr. Davies by acting as an informer had been the occasion of his talking somewhat too harshly to his friend Dr. Percy for which probably when the first abolition was over he felt some compunction he took an opportunity to give him a hit so added with a preparatory laugh why sir Tom Davies might have written the conduct of the allies poor Tom thus suddenly dragged into ludicrous notice in the presence of the Scottish doctors to whom he was ambitious of appearing to advantage was groveously mortified nor did his punishment rest here for upon subsequent occasions whenever he statesman all over assumed a strutting importance I used to hail him the author of the conduct of allies when I called upon Dr. Johnson next morning I found him highly satisfied with his colloquial prowess this evening well said he, we had good talk Boswell, yes sir you tossed and gored several persons the late Alexander Earl of Eglinton who loved wit more than wine and men of genius more than psychopaths had a great admiration of Johnson but from the remarkable elegance of his own manners was perhaps too delicately sensible of the roughness which sometimes appeared in Johnson's behavior one evening about this time when his lordship gave me the honour to sup at my lodgings with Dr. Robertson and several other men of literary distinction he regretted that Johnson had not been educated with more refinement and lived more in polished society no no my lord said senior Baretty do with him what you would he would always have been a bear true answer the Earl with a smile but he would have been a dancing bear to obviate all the reflections which have gone round the world to Johnson's prejudice by applying to him the epithet of a bear let me impress upon my readers a just and happy saying of my friend Goldsmith who knew him well Johnson to be sure has a roughness in his manners but no man alive has a more tender heart he has nothing of the bear but his skin end of section 3 recording by Katie Riley February 2009