Chapter 3

projected.... so many schools opened for general knowledge, and so many lectures in particular sciences attended.' Goldsmith, in his _Life of Nash_ (published in 1762), describes the lectures at Bath 'on the arts and sciences which are frequently taught there in a pretty, superficial manner so as not to tease the understanding while they afford the imagination some amusement.' Cunningham's _Goldsmith's Works_, iv 59.

[18] Perhaps Gibbon had read this passage at the time when he wrote in his Memoirs:--'It has indeed been observed, nor is the observation absurd, that, excepting in experimental sciences which demand a costly apparatus and a dexterous hand, the many valuable treatises that have been published on every subject of learning may now supersede the ancient mode of oral instruction.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 50. See _post_, March 20, 1776, note.

[19] See _ante_, i. 103.

[20] Baretti was in Italy at the same time as Boswell. That they met seems to be shewn by a passage in Boswell's letter (_post_, Nov. 6, 1766). Malone wrote of him:--'He appears to be an infidel.' Prior's _Malone_, p. 399.

[21] Lord Charlemont records (_Life_, i. 235) that 'Mrs. Mallet, meeting Hume at an assembly, boldly accosted him in these words:--"Mr. Hume, give me leave to introduce myself to you; we deists ought to know each other." "Madame," replied Hume, "I am no deist. I do not style myself so, neither do I desire to be known by that appellation."' Hume, in 1763 or 1764, wrote to Dr. Blair about the men of letters at Paris:--'It would give you and Robertson great satisfaction to find that there is not a single deist among them.' J. H. Burton's _Hume_, ii. 181. There was no deist, I suppose, because they were all atheists. Romilly (_Life_, i. 179) records the following anecdote, which he had from Diderot in 1781:--'Hume dAČna avec une grande compagnie chez le Baron d'Holbach. Il A(C)tait assis A cA'tA(C) du Baron; on parla de la religion naturelle. "Pour les AthA(C)es," disait Hume, "je ne crois pas qu'il en existe; je n'en ai jamais vu." "Vous avez A(C)tA(C) un peu malheureux," rA(C)pondit l'autre, "vous voici A table avec dix-sept pour la premiA"re fois."' It was on the same day that Diderot related this that he said to Romilly, 'Il faut _sabrer_ la thA(C)ologie.'

[22] 'The inference upon the whole is, that it is not from the value or worth of the object which any person pursues that we can determine his enjoyment; but merely from the passion with which he pursues it, and the success which he meets with in his pursuit. Objects have absolutely no worth or value in themselves. They derive their worth merely from the passion. If that be strong and steady and successful, the person is happy. It cannot reasonably be doubted but a little miss, dressed in a new gown for a dancing-school ball, receives as complete enjoyment as the greatest orator, who triumphs in the splendour of his eloquence, while he governs the passions and resolutions of a numerous assembly.' Hume's _Essays_, i. 17 (_The Sceptic_). Pope had written in the _Essay on Man_ (iv. 57):

'Condition, circumstance, is not the thing; Bliss is the same in subject or in King.'

See also _post_, April 15, 1778.

[23] In _Boswelliana_, p. 220, a brief account is given of his life, which was not altogether uneventful.

[24] We may compare with this what he says in _The Rambler_, No. 21, about the 'cowardice which always encroaches fast upon such as spend their time in the company of persons higher than themselves.' In No. 104 he writes:--'It is dangerous for mean minds to venture themselves within the sphere of greatness.' In the court that Boswell many years later paid to Lord Lonsdale, he suffered all the humiliations that the brutality of this petty greatness can inflict. _Letters of Boswell_, p. 324. See also _post_, Sept. 22, 1777.

[25] See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 19, 1773.

[26] Johnson (_Works_, ix. 107) thus sums up his examination of second-sight:--'There is against it, the seeming analogy of things confusedly seen, and little understood; and for it, the indistinct cry of natural persuasion, which may be, perhaps, resolved at last into prejudice and tradition. I never could advance my curiosity to conviction; but came away at last only willing to believe.' See also _post_, March 24, 1775. Hume said of the evidence in favour of second-sight--:'As finite added to finite never approaches a hair's breadth nearer to infinite, so a fact incredible in itself acquires not the smallest accession of probability by the accumulation of testimony.' J. H. Burton's Hume, i. 480.

[27] 'I love anecdotes,' said Johnson. Boswell's _Hebridge_, Aug. 16, 1773. Boswell said that 'Johnson always condemned the word _anecdotes_, as used in the sense that the French, and we from them, use it, as signifying particulars.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 311. In his _Dictionary_, he defined '_Anecdotes_ Something yet unpublished; secret history.' In the fourth edition he added: 'It is now used, after the French, for a biographical incident; a minute passage of private life.'

[28] See _ante_, July 19, 1763.

[29] Boswell, writing to Wilkes in 1776, said:--'Though we differ widely in religion and politics, _il y a des points ou nos ames sont animes_, as Rouseau said to me in his wild retreat.' Almon's _Wilkes_, iv. 319.

[30] Rousseau fled from France in 1762. A few days later his arrest was ordered at Geneva. He fled from Neufchatel in 1763, and soon afterwards he was banished from Berne. _Nonev. Biog. Gen., Xlii. 750_. He had come to England with David Hume a few weeks before this conversation was held, and was at this time in Chiswick. Hume's _Private Corres_., pp. 125, 145.

[31] Rousseau had by this time published his _Nouvelle Helloise_ and _Emile_.

[32] Less than three months after the date of this conversation Rousseau wrote to General Conway, one of the Secretaries of State, thanking him for the pension which George III proposed secretly to confer on him. Hume's _Private Corres_., p. 165. Miss Burney, in her preface to _Evelina_, a novel which was her introduction to Johnson's strong affection, mentioning Rousseau and Johnson, adds in a footnote:-- 'However superior the capacities in which these great writers deserve to be considered, they must pardon me that, for the dignity of my subject, I here rank the authors of _Rasselas_ and _EloA-se_ as novelists.'

[33] Rousseau thus wrote of himself:

'Dieu est juste; il veut que je souffre; et il sait que je suis innocent. VoilA le motif de ma confiance, mon coeur et ma raison me crient qu'elle ne me trompera pas. Laissons donc faire les hommes et la destinA(C)e; apprenons A souffrir sans murmure; tout doit A la fin rentrer dans Fordre, et mon tour viendra tA't ou tard.' Rousseau's _Works_, xx. 223.

[34] 'He entertained me very courteously,' wrote Boswell in his _Corsica_, p. 140.

[35] In this preference Boswell pretended at times to share. See _post_, Sept. 30, 1769.

[36] Johnson seems once to have held this view to some extent; for, writing of Savage's poem _On Public Spirit_, he says (_Works_, viii. 156):--'He has asserted the natural equality of mankind, and endeavoured to suppress that pride which inclines men to imagine that right is the consequence of power.' See also _post_, Sept. 23, 1777, where he asserts:--'It is impossible not to conceive that men in their original state were equal.' For the opposite opinion, see _ante_, June 25, 1763.

[37] 'Qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes.' 'Manners and towns of various nations viewed.' FRANCIS. Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 1. 142.

[38] By the time Boswell was twenty-six years old he could boast that he had made the acquaintance of Voltaire, Rousseau, and Paoli among foreigners; and of Adam Smith, Robertson, Hume, Johnson, Goldsmith, Garrick, Horace Walpole, Wilkes, and perhaps Reynolds, among Englishmen. He had twice at least received a letter from the Earl of Chatham.

[39] In such passages as this we may generally assume that the gentleman, whose name is not given, is Boswell himself. See _ante_, i. 4, and _post_, Oct. 16, 1769.

[40] See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's 'Collection,' where this assertion is called 'his usual remark.'

[41] See _post_, April 15, 1778.

[42] These two words may be observed as marks of Mr. Boswell's accuracy. It is a jocular Irish phrase, which, of all Johnson's acquaintances, no one probably, but Goldsmith, would have used.--CROKER.

[43] See _ante_, May 24, 1763.

[44] Johnson's best justification for the apparent indolences of the latter part of his life may be found in his own words: 'Every man of genius has some arts of fixing the attention peculiar to himself, by which, honestly exerted, he may benefit mankind.... To the position of Tully, that if virtue could be seen she must be loved, may be added, that if truth could be heard she must be obeyed.' _The Rambler_, No. 87. He fixed the attention best by his talk. For 'the position of Tully,' see _post_, March 19, 1776.

[45] See _ante_, i. 192, and _post_, May 1, 1783. Goldsmith wrote _The Traveller and Deserted Village_ on a very different plan. 'To save himself the trouble of transcription, he wrote the lines in his first copy very wide, and would so fill up the intermediate space with reiterated corrections, that scarcely a word of his first effusions was left unaltered.' Goldsmith's _Misc. Works_, i. 113.

[46] Mrs. Thrale in a letter to Dr. Johnson, said:--'Don't sit making verses that never will be written.' _Piozzi Letters_, ii. 183. Baretti noted opposite this in the margin of his copy: 'Johnson was always making Latin or English verses in his mind, but never would write them down.'

[47] Burke entered Parliament as member for Wendover borough on Jan. 14th, 1766. William Burke, writing to Barry the artist on the following March 23, says:--'Ned's success has exceeded our most sanguine hopes; all at once he has darted into fame. He is full of real business, intent upon doing real good to his country, as much as if he was to receive twenty per cent. from the commerce of the whole empire, which he labours to improve and extend.' Barry's _Works_, i. 42.

[48] It was of these speeches that Macaulay wrote:--'The House of Commons heard Pitt for the last time and Burke for the first time, and was in doubt to which of them the palm of eloquence should be assigned. It was indeed a splendid sunset and a splendid dawn.' Macaulay's _Essays_ (edition 1874), iv. 330.

[49] See _post_, March 20, 1776.

[50] Boswell has already stated (_ante_, Oct. 1765) that Johnson's _Shakespeare_ was 'virulently attacked' by Kenrick. No doubt there were other attacks and rejoinders too.

[51] Two days earlier he had drawn up a prayer on entering _Novum Museum_. _Pr. and Med_., p. 69.

[52] See _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's Collection.

[53] _Dictionarium Saxonico et Gothico-Latinum_. London, 1772. Lye died in 1767. O. Manning completed the work.

[54] See Appendix A.

[55] Mr. Langton's uncle. BOSWELL.

[56] The place of residence of Mr. Peregrine Langton. BOSWELL.

[57] Mr. Langton did not disregard this counsel, 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 two hundred pounds _per annum_. He resided in a village in Lincolnshire; the rent of his house, with two or three small fields, was twenty-eight pounds; the county he lived in was not more than moderately cheap; his family consisted of a sister, who paid him eighteen pounds 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 appurtenances to 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 had always a post-chaise, 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 a sum of money lying by him for any extraordinary expences that might arise. Some money he put into the stocks; at his death, the sum he had there amounted to one hundred and fifty pounds. 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 twenty-five pounds 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 practise 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 worth while to mention a method he took in regulating a proper allowance of malt 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 hogshead in a month, was not enough for his own family, he ordered the quantity of a hogshead 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 hogshead 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, at 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 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 wonder, with most that hear an account of his A"conomy, 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 any thing 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 expences within his income; and to do it more exactly, compared those expences with a computation he had made, how much that income would afford him every week and day of the year. One of his A"conomical 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 could 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 every thing as soon as he had it, except, alone, what were current accounts, such as rent for his house and servantsaEuro(TM) wages; and these he paid at the stated times with the utmost exactness. He gave notice to the tradesmen of the neighbouring market-towns 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 practiced.aEuro(TM) BOSWELL

[58] Of his being in the chair of THE LITERARY CLUB, which at this time met once a week in the evening. BOSWELL. See _ante_, Feb. 1764, note.

[59] See _post_, Feb. 1767, where he told the King that 'he must now read to acquire more knowledge.'

[60] The passage omitted alluded to a private transaction. BOSWELL.

[61] The censure of my Latin relates to the Dedication, which was as follows:

VIRO NOBILISSIMO, ORNATISSIMO, JOANNI, VICECOMITI MOUNTSTUART, ATAVIS EDITO REGIBUS EXCELSAE FAMILLAE DE BUTE SPEI ALTERAE; LABENTE SECULO, QUUM HOMINES NULLIUS ORIGINIS GENUS AEQUARE OPIBUS AGGREDIUNTUR, SANGUINIS ANTIQUI ET ILLUSTRIS SEMPER MEMORI, NATALIUM SPLENDOREM VIRTUTIBUS AUGENTI:

AD PUBLICA POPULI COMITIA JAM LEGATO;

IN OPTIMATIUM VERO MAGNAć BRITANNIAć SENATU, JURE HAćREDITARIO, OLIM CONSESSURO:

VIM INSITAM VARIA DOCTRINA PROMOVENTE, NEC TAMEN SE VENDITANTE, PRAćDITO:

PRISCA FIDE, ANIMO LIBERRIMO, ET MORUM ELEGANTIA INSIGNI:

IN ITALIAć VISITANDAć ITINERE, SOCIO SUO HONORATISSIMO, HASCE JURISPRUDENTAć PRIMITIAS DEVINCTISSIMAć AMICITIAć ET OBSERVANTIAć MONUMENTUM, D. D. C Q.

JACOBUS BOSWELL. BOSWELL.

[62] See _ante_, i. 211.

[63] See _post_, May 19, 1778.

[64] This alludes to the first sentence of the _ProA|mium_ of my Thesis. 'JURISPRUDENTAć studio nullum uberius, nullum generosius: in legibus enim agitandis, populorum mores, variasque fortunA| vices ex quibus leges oriuntur, contemplari simul solemus_' BOSWELL.

[65] 'Mr. Boswell,' says Malone, 'professed the Scotch and the English law; but had never taken very great pains on the subject. His father, Lord Auchinleck, told him one day, that it would cost him more trouble to hide his ignorance in these professions than to show his knowledge. This Boswell owned he had found to be true.' _European Magazine_, 1798, p. 376. Boswell wrote to Temple in 1775:--'You are very kind in saying that I may overtake you in learning. Believe me though that I have a kind of impotency of study.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 181.

[66] This is a truth that Johnson often enforced. 'Very few,' said the poet; 'live by choice: every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not always willingly co-operate.' _Rasselas_, chap. 16. 'To him that lives well,' answered the hermit, 'every form of life is good; nor can I give any other rule for choice than to remove from all apparent evil.' _Ib_, chap. 21. 'Young man,' said Omar, 'it is of little use to form plans of life.' _The Idler_, No. 101.

[67] 'Hace sunt quae nostra _liceat_ te voce moneri.' _Aeneid_, iii. 461.

[68] The passage omitted explained the transaction to which the preceding letter had alluded. BOSWELL.

[69] See _ante_, June 10, 1761.

[70] Mr. Croker says:--'It was by visiting Chambers, when a fellow of University College, that Johnson became acquainted with Lord Stowell [at that time William Scott]; and when Chambers went to India, Lord Stowell, as he expressed it to me, seemed to succeed to his place in Johnson's friendship.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 90, note. John Scott (Earl of Eldon), Sir William Jones and Mr. Windham, were also members of University College. The hall is adorned with the portraits of these five men. An engraving of Johnson is in the Common Room.

[71] It is not easy to discover anything noble or even felicitous in this Dedication. _Works_, v. 444.

[72] See _ante_, i. 148.

[73] See _ante_, i. 177, note 2.

[74] See _ante_, i. 158.

[75] See _ante_, i. 178, note 2.

[76] This poem is scarcely Johnson's, though all the lines but the third in the following couplets may be his.

Whose life not sunk in sloth is free from care, Nor tost by change, nor stagnant in despair; Who with wise authors pass the instructive day And wonder how the moments stole away; Who not retired beyond the sight of life Behold its weary cares, its noisy strife.'

[77] Johnson's additions to these three poems are not at all evident.

[78] In a note to the poem it is stated that Miss Williams, when, before her blindness, she was assisting Mr. Grey in his experiments, was the first that observed the emission of the electrical spark from a human body. The best lines are the following:--

Now, hoary Sage, purse thy happy flight, With swifter motion haste to purer light, Where Bacon waits with Newton and with Boyle To hail thy genius, and applaud thy toil; Where intuition breaks through time and space, And mocks experiment's successive race; Sees tardy Science toil at Nature's laws, And wonders how th' effect obscures the cause. Yet not to deep research or happy guess Is owed the life of hope, the death of peace.'

[79] A gentleman, writing from Virginia to John Wesley, in 1735, about the need of educating the negro slaves in religion, says:--'Their masters generally neglect them, as though immortality was not the privilege of their souls in common with their own.' Wesley's _Journal_, II. 288. But much nearer home Johnson might have found this criminal enforcement of ignorance. Burke, writing in 1779, about the Irish, accuses the legislature of 'condemning a million and a half of people to ignorance, according to act of parliament.' Burke's _Corres_. ii. 294.

[80] See _post_, March 21, 1775, and Appendix.

[81] Johnson said very finely:--'Languages are the pedigree of nations.' Boswell's _Hebrides_, Sept. 18, 1773.

[82] The Rev. Mr. John Campbell, Minister of the Parish of Kippen, near Stirling, who has lately favoured me with a long, intelligent, and very obliging letter upon this work, makes the following remark:--'Dr. Johnson has alluded to the worthy man employed in the translation of the New Testament. Might not this have afforded you an opportunity of paying a proper tribute of respect to the memory of the Rev. Mr. James Stuart, late Minister of Killin, distinguished by his eminent Piety, Learning and Taste? The amiable simplicity of his life, his warm benevolence, his indefatigable and successful exertions for civilizing and improving the Parish of which he was Minister for upwards of fifty years, entitle him to the gratitude of his country, and the veneration of all good men. It certainly would be a pity, if such a character should be permitted to sink into oblivion.' BOSWELL.

[83] Seven years later Johnson received from the Society some religious works in Erse. See post, June 24, 1774. Yet in his journey to the Hebrides, in 1773 (Works, ix. 101), he had to record of the parochial schools in those islands that 'by the rule of their institution they teach _only_ English, so that the natives read a language which they may never use or understand,'

[84] This paragraph shews Johnson's real estimation of the character and abilities of the celebrated Scottish Historian, however lightly, in a moment of caprice, he may have spoken of his works. BOSWELL.

[85] See _ante_, i. 210.

[86] This is the person concerning whom Sir John Hawkins has thrown out very unwarrantable reflections both against Dr. Johnson and Mr. Francis Barber. BOSWELL. See _post_, under Oct. 20, 1784. In 1775, Heely, it appears, applied through Johnson for the post that was soon to be vacant of 'master of the tap' at Ranelagh House. 'He seems,' wrote Johnson, in forwarding his letter of application, 'to have a genius for an alehouse.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 210. See also _post_, Aug. 12, 1784.

[87] See an account of him in the _European Magazine_, Jan. 1786. BOSWELL. There we learn that he was in his time a grammar-school usher, actor, poet, the puffing partner in a quack medicine, and tutor to a youthful Earl. He was suspected of levying blackmail by threats of satiric publications, and he suffered from a disease which rendered him an object almost offensive to sight. He was born in 1738 or 1739, and died in 1771.

[88] It was republished in _The Repository_, ii. 227, edition of 1790.

[89] The Hon. Thomas Hervey, whose _Letter to Sir Thomas Hanmer_ in 1742 was much read at that time. He was the second son of John, first Earl of Bristol, and one of the brothers of Johnson's early friend Henry Hervey. He died Jan. 20, 1775. MALONE. See _post_, April 6, 1775.

[90] See _post_, under Sept. 22, 1777, for another story told by Beauclerk against Johnson of a Mr. Hervey.

[91] Essays published in the _Daily Gazetteer_ and afterwards collected into two vols. _Gent. Mag_. for 1748, P. 48.

[92] Mr. Croker regrets that Johnson employed his pen for hire in Hervey's 'disgusting squabbles,' and in a long note describes Hervey's letter to Sir Thomas Hanmer with whose wife he had eloped. But the attack to which Johnson was hired to reply was not made by Hanmer, but, as was supposed, by Sir C. H. Williams. Because a man has wronged another, he is not therefore to submit to the attacks of a third. Williams, moreover, it must be remembered, was himself a man of licentious character.

[93] Buckingham House, bought in 1761, by George III, and settled on Queen Charlotte. The present Buckingham Palace occupies the site. P. CUNNINGHAM. Here, according to Hawkins (_Life_, p. 470), Johnson met the Prince of Wales (George IV.) when a child, 'and enquired as to his knowledge of the Scriptures; the prince in his answers gave him great satisfaction.' Horace Walpole, writing of the Prince at the age of nineteen, says (_Journal of the Reign of George III_, ii. 503):--'Nothing was coarser than his conversation and phrases; and it made men smile to find that in the palace of piety and pride his Royal Highness had learnt nothing but the dialect of footmen and grooms.'

[94] Dr. Johnson had the honour of contributing his assistance towards the formation of this library; for I have read a long letter from him to Mr. Barnard, giving the most masterly instructions on the subject. I wished much to have gratified my readers with the perusal of this letter, and have reason to think that his Majesty would have been graciously pleased to permit its publication; but Mr. Barnard, to whom I applied, declined it 'on his own account.' BOSWELL. It is given in Mr. Croker's edition, p. 196.

[95] The particulars of this conversation I have been at great pains to collect with the utmost authenticity from Dr. Johnson's own detail to myself; from Mr. Langton who was present when he gave an account of it to Dr. Joseph Warton, and several other friends, at Sir Joshua Reynolds's; from Mr. Barnard; from the copy of a letter written by the late Mr. Strahan the printer, to Bishop Warburton; and from a minute, the original of which is among the papers of the late Sir James Caldwell, and a copy of which was most obligingly obtained for me from his son Sir John Caldwell, by Sir Francis Lumm. To all these gentlemen I beg leave to make my grateful acknowledgements, and particularly to Sir Francis Lumm, who was pleased to take a great deal of trouble, and even had the minute laid before the King by Lord Caermarthen, now Duke of Leeds, then one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, who announced to Sir Francis the Royal pleasure concerning it by a letter, in these words: 'I have the King's commands to assure you, Sir, how sensible his Majesty is of your attention in communicating the minute of the conversation previous to its publication. As there appears no objection to your complying with Mr. Boswell's wishes on the subject, you are at full liberty to deliver it to that gentleman, to make such use of in his _Life of Dr. Johnson_, as he may think proper.' BOSWELL. In 1790, Boswell published in a quarto sheet of eight pages _A conversation between His Most Sacred Majesty George III. and Samuel Johnson, LLD. Illustrated with Observations. By James Boswell, Esq. London. Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly in the Poultry. MDCCXC. Price Half-a-Guinea. Entered in the Hall-Book of the Company of Stationers_. It is of the same impression as the first edition of _the Life of Johnson_.

[96] After Michaelmas, 1766. See _ante_, ii. 25.

[97] See _post_, May, 31, 1769, note.

[98] Writing to Langton, on May 10, of the year before he had said, 'I read more than I did. I hope something will yet come on it.' _Ante_, ii. 20.

[99] Boswell and Goldsmith had in like manner urged him 'to continue his labours.' See _ante_, i. 398, and ii. 15.

[100] Johnson had written to Lord Chesterfield in the _Plan of his Dictionary_ (_Works_, v. 19), 'Ausonius thought that modesty forbade him to plead inability for a task to which Caesar had judged him equal:--_Cur me posse negem posse quod ille pufat_?' We may compare also a passage in Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_ (ii. 377):--'THE KING. "I believe there is no constraint to be put upon real genius; nothing but inclination can set it to work. Miss Burney, however, knows best." And then hastily returning to me he cried; "What? what?" "No, sir, I--I--believe not, certainly," quoth I, very awkwardly, for I seemed taking a violent compliment only as my due; but I knew not how to put him off as I would another person.'

[101] In one part of the character of Pope (_Works_, viii. 319), Johnson seems to be describing himself:--'He certainly was in his early life a man of great literary curiosity; and when he wrote his _Essay on Criticism_ had for his age a very wide acquaintance with books. When he entered into the living world, it seems to have happened to him as to many others, that he was less attentive to dead masters; he studied in the academy of Paracelsus, and made the universe his favourite volume.... His frequent references to history, his allusions to various kinds of knowledge, and his images selected from art and nature, with his observations on the operations of the mind and the modes of life, show an intelligence perpetually on the wing, excursive, vigorous, and diligent, eager to pursue knowledge, and attentive to retain it.' See _ante_, i. 57.

[102] Johnson thus describes Warburton (_Works_, viii. 288):--'About this time [1732] Warburton began to make his appearance in the first ranks of learning. He was a man of vigorous faculties, a mind fervid and vehement, supplied by incessant and unlimited enquiry, with wonderful extent and variety of knowledge.' Cradock (_Memoirs_, i. 188) says that 'Bishop Kurd always wondered where it was possible for Warburton to meet with certain anecdotes with which not only his conversation, but likewise his writings, abounded. "I could have readily informed him," said Mrs. Warburton, "for, when we passed our winters in London, he would often, after his long and severe studies, send out for a whole basketful of books from the circulating libraries; and at times I have gone into his study, and found him laughing, though alone."' Lord Macaulay was, in this respect, the Warburton of our age.

[103] The Rev. Mr. Strahan clearly recollects having been told by Johnson, that the King observed that Pope made Warburton a Bishop. 'True, Sir, (said Johnson,) but Warburton did more for Pope; he made him a Christian:' alluding, no doubt, to his ingenious Comments on the _Essay on Man_. BOSWELL. The statements both of the King and Johnson are supported by two passages in Johnson's _Life of Pope_, (_Works_, viii. 289, 290). He says of Warburton's Comments:--'Pope, who probably began to doubt the tendency of his own work, was glad that the positions, of which he perceived himself not to know the full meaning, could by any mode of interpretation be made to mean well.... From this time Pope lived in the closest intimacy with his commentator, and amply rewarded his kindness and his zeal; for he introduced him to Mr. Murray, by whose interest he became preacher at Lincoln's Inn; and to Mr. Allen, who gave him his niece and his estate, and by consequence a bishoprick.' See also the account given by Johnson, in Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 21, 1773. Bishop Law in his Revised Preface to Archbishop King's _Origin of Evil_ (1781), p. xvii, writes:--'I had now the satisfaction of seeing that those very principles which had been maintained by Archbishop King were adopted by Mr. Pope in his Essay on Man; this I used to recollect, and sometimes relate, with pleasure, conceiving that such an account did no less honour to the poet than to our philosopher; but was soon made to understand that anything of that kind was taken highly amiss by one [Warburton] who had once held the doctrine of that same Essay to be rank atheism, but afterwards turned a warm advocate for it, and thought proper to deny the account above-mentioned, with heavy menaces against those who presumed to insinuate that Pope borrowed anything from any man whatsoever.' See _post_, Oct. 10, 1779.

[104] In Gibbon's _Memoirs_, a fine passage is quoted from Lowth's Defence of the University of Oxford, against Warburton's reproaches. 'I transcribe with pleasure this eloquent passage,' writes Gibbon, 'without inquiring whether in this angry controversy the spirit of Lowth himself is purified from the intolerant zeal which Warburton had ascribed to the genius of the place.' Gibbon's _Misc. Works_, i. 47. See BOSWELL'S _Hebrides_, Aug. 28, 1773.

[105] See _post_, April 15, 1773, where Johnson says that Lyttelton 'in his _History_ wrote the most vulgar Whiggism,' and April 10, 1776. Gibbon, who had reviewed it this year, says in his _Memoirs_ (_Misc. Works_, i. 207): 'The public has ratified my judgment of that voluminous work, in which sense and learning are not illuminated by a ray of genius.'

[106] Hawkins says of him (_Life_, p. 211):--'He obtained from one of those universities which would scarce refuse a degree to an apothecary's horse a diploma for that of doctor of physic.' He became a great compiler and in one year earned AL1500. In the end he turned quack-doctor. He was knighted by the King of Sweden 'in return for a present to that monarch of his _Vegetable System_.' He at least thrice attacked Garrick (Murphy's _Garrick_, pp. 136, 189, 212), who replied with three epigrams, of which the last is well-known:--

'For Farces and Physic his equal there scarce is; His Farces are Physic, his Physic a Farce is.'

Horace Walpole (_Letters_ iii. 372), writing on Jan. 3, 1761, said:--'Would you believe, what I know is fact, that Dr. Hill earned fifteen guineas a week by working for wholesale dealers? He was at once employed on six voluminous works of Botany, Husbandry, &c., published weekly.' Churchill in the Rescind thus writes of him:--

'Who could so nobly grace the motley list, Actor, Inspector, Doctor, Botanist? Knows any one so well--sure no one knows-- At once to play, prescribe, compound, compose?'

Churchill's _Poems_, i. 6. In the _Gent. Mag_. xxii. 568, it is stated that he had acted pantomime, tragedy and comedy, and had been damned in all.

[107] Mr. Croker quotes Bishop Elrington, who says, 'Dr. Johnson was unjust to Hill, and showed that _he_ did not understand the subject.' Croker's _Boswell_, p. 186.

[108] D'Israeli (_Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, i. 201) says that 'Hill, once when he fell sick, owned to a friend that he had over-fatigued himself with writing seven works at once, one of which was on architecture and another on cookery.' D'Israeli adds that Hill contracted to translate a Dutch work on insects for fifty guineas. As he was ignorant of the language, he bargained with another translator for twenty-five guineas. This man, who was equally ignorant, rebargained with a third, who perfectly understood his original, for twelve guineas.

[109] Gibbon (_Misc. Works_, v. 442), writing on Dec. 20, 1763, of the _Journal des Savans_, says:--'I can hardly express how much I am delighted with this journal; its characteristics are erudition, precision, and taste.... The father of all the rest, it is still their superior.... There is nothing to be wished for in it but a little more boldness and philosophy; but it is published under the Chancellor's eye.'

[110] Goldsmith, in his _Present State of Polite Learning_ (ch. xi.), published in 1759, says;--'We have two literary reviews in London, with critical newspapers and magazines without number. The compilers of these resemble the commoners of Rome, they are all for levelling property, not by increasing their own, but by diminishing that of others.... The most diminutive son of fame or of famine has his _we_ and his _us_, his _firstlys_ and his _secondlys_, as methodical as if bound in cow-hide and closed with clasps of brass. Were these Monthly Reviews and Magazines frothy, pert, or absurd, they might find some pardon, but to be dull and dronish is an encroachment on the prerogative of a folio.'

[111] See _post_, April 10, 1766.

[112] Mr. White, the Librarian of the Royal Society, has, at my request, kindly examined the records of the Royal Society, but has not been able to discover what the 'circumstance' was. Neither is any light thrown on it by Johnson's reviews of Birch's _History of the Royal Society_ and _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. xlix. (_ante_, i. 309), which I have examined.

[113] 'Were you to converse with a King, you ought to be as easy and unembarrassed as with your own valet-de-chambre; but yet every look, word, and action should imply the utmost respect. What would be proper and well-bred with others much your superior, would be absurd and ill-bred with one so very much so.' Chesterfield's _Letters_, iii. 203.

[114] Imlac thus described to Rasselas his interview with the Great Mogul:--'The emperor asked me many questions concerning my country and my travels; and though I cannot now recollect anything that he uttered above the power of a common man, he dismissed me astonished at his wisdom, and enamoured of his goodness.' _Rasselas_, chap. ix. Wraxall (_Memoirs_, edit. of 1884, i. 283) says that Johnson was no judge of a fine gentleman. 'George III,' he adds, 'was altogether destitute of these ornamental and adventitious endowments.' He mentions 'the oscillations of his body, the precipitation of his questions, none of which, it was said, would wait for an answer, and the hurry of his articulation.' Mr. Wheatley, in a note on this passage, quotes the opinion of 'Adams, the American Envoy, who said, the "King is, I really think, the most accomplished courtier in his dominions."'

[115] 'Dr. Warton made me a most obsequious bow.... He is what Dr. Johnson calls a rapturist, and I saw plainly he meant to pour forth much civility into my ears. He is a very communicative, gay, and pleasant converser, and enlivened the whole day by his readiness upon all subjects.' Mme. D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 236. It is very likely that he is 'the ingenious writer' mentioned _post_, 1780, in Mr. Langton's 'Collection,' of whom Johnson said, 'Sir, he is an enthusiast by rule.' Mr. Windham records that Johnson, speaking of Warton's admiration of fine passages, said:--'His taste is amazement' (misprinted _amusement_). Windham's _Diary_, p. 20. In her _Memoirs of Dr. Burney_ (ii. 82), Mme. D'Arblay says that Johnson 'at times, when in gay spirits, would take off Dr. Warton with the strongest humour; describing, almost convulsively, the ecstasy with which he would seize upon the person nearest to him, to hug in his arms, lest his grasp should be eluded, while he displayed some picture or some prospect.' In that humourous piece, _Probationary Odes for the Laureateship_ (p. xliii), Dr. Joseph is made to hug his brother in his arms, when he sees him descend safely from the balloon in which he had composed his _Ode_. Thomas Warton is described in the same piece (p. 116) as 'a little, thick, squat, red-faced man.' There was for some time a coolness between Johnson and Dr. Warton. Warton, writing on Jan. 22, 1766, says:--'I only dined with Johnson, who seemed cold and indifferent, and scarce said anything to me; perhaps he has heard what I said of his _Shakespeare_, or rather was offended at what I wrote to him--as he pleases.' Wooll's _Warton_, p. 312. Wooll says that a dispute took place between the two men at Reynolds's house. 'One of the company overheard the following conclusion of the dispute. JOHNSON. "Sir, I am not used to be contradicted." WARTON. "Better for yourself and friends, Sir, if you were; our admiration could not be increased, but our love might."' _Ib_ p. 98.

[116] _The Good-Natured Man_, _post_ p. 45.

[117] 'It has been said that the King only sought one interview with Dr. Johnson. There was nothing to complain of; it was a compliment paid by rank to letters, and once was enough. The King was more afraid of this interview than Dr. Johnson was; and went to it as a schoolboy to his task. But he did not want to have the trial repeated every day, nor was it necessary. The very jealousy of his self-love marked his respect; and if he thought the less of Dr. Johnson, he would have been more willing to risk the encounter.' Hazlitt's _Conversations of Northcote_, p. 45. It should seem that Johnson had a second interview with the King thirteen years later. In 1780, Hannah More records (_Memoirs_, i. 174):--'Johnson told me he had been with the King that morning, who enjoined him to add Spenser to his _Lives of the Poets_.' It is strange that, so far as I know, this interview is not mentioned by any one else. It is perhaps alluded to, _post_, Dec., 1784, when Mr. Nichols told Johnson that he wished 'he would gratify his sovereign by a _Life of Spenser_.'

[118] It is proper here to mention, that when I speak of his correspondence, I consider it independent of the voluminous collection of letters which, in the course of many years, he wrote to Mrs. Thrale, which forms a separate part of his works; and as a proof of the high estimation set on any thing which came from his pen, was sold by that lady for the sum of five hundred pounds. BOSWELL.

[119] He was away from the London 'near six months.' See _ante_, ii. 30.

[120] On August 17 he recorded:--'I have communicated with Kitty, and kissed her. I was for some time distracted, but at last more composed. I commended my friends, and Kitty, Lucy, and I were much affected. Kitty is, I think, going to heaven.' _Pr. and Med., p. 75_.

[121] _Pr. and Med_., pp. 77 and 78. BOSWELL.

[122] _Pr. and Med_., p. 73. BOSWELL. On Aug. 17, he recorded:--'By abstinence from wine and suppers I obtained sudden and great relief, and had freedom of mind restored to me, which I have wanted for all this year, without being able to find any means of obtaining it.' _Ib_ p. 74.

[123] Hawkins, in his second edition (p. 347) assigns it to Campbell, 'who,' he says, 'as well for the malignancy of his heart as his terrific countenance, was called horrible Campbell.'

[124] See _ante_, i. 218.

[125] The book is as dull as it is indecent. The 'drollery' is of the following kind. Johnson is represented as saying:--'Without dubiety you misapprehend this dazzling scintillation of conceit in totality, and had you had that constant recurrence to my oraculous dictionary which was incumbent upon you from the vehemence of my monitory injunctions,' &c. p. 2.

[126] _Pr. and Med_., p. 81. BOSWELL. 'This day,' he wrote on his birthday, 'has been passed in great perturbation; I was distracted at church in an uncommon degree, and my distress has had very little intermission.... This day it came into my mind to write the history of my melancholy. On this I purpose to deliberate; I know not whether it may not too much disturb me.' See _post_, April 8, 1780.

[127] It is strange that Boswell nowhere quotes the lines in _The Good-Natured Man_, in which Paoli is mentioned. 'That's from Paoli of Corsica,' said Lofty. Act v. sc. i.

[128] In the original, 'Pressed _by_.' Boswell, in thus changing the preposition, forgot what Johnson says in his _Plan of an English Dictionary_ (_Works_, v. 12):--'We say, according to the present modes of speech, The soldier died _of_ his wounds, and the sailor perished _with_ hunger; and every man acquainted with our language would be offended with a change of these particles, which yet seem originally assigned by chance.'

[129] Boswell, writing to Temple on March 24, says:--'My book has amazing celebrity; Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Walpole, Mrs. Macaulay, and Mr. Garrick have all written me noble letters about it. There are two Dutch translations going forward.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 145. It met with a rapid sale. A third edition was called for within a year. Dilly, the publisher, must have done very well by it, as he purchased the copyright for one hundred guineas. _Ib_, p. 103. 'Pray read the new account of Corsica,' wrote Horace Walpole to Gray on Feb. 18, 1768 (_Letters_, v. 85). 'The author is a strange being, and has a rage of knowing everybody that ever was talked of. He forced himself upon me at Paris in spite of my teeth and my doors.' To this Gray replied:--'Mr. Boswell's book has pleased and moved me strangely; all, I mean, that relates to Paoli. He is a man born two thousand years after his time! The pamphlet proves, what I have always maintained, that any fool may write a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us what he heard and saw with veracity.' In _The Letters of Boswell_ (p. 122) there is the following under date of Nov. 9, 1767:--'I am always for fixing some period for my perfection, as far as possible. Let it be when my account of _Corsica_ is published; I shall then have a character which I must support.' In April 16 of the following year, a few weeks after the book had come out, he writes:--'To confess to you at once, Temple, I have since my last coming to town been as wild as ever.' (p. 146.)

[130] Boswell used to put notices of his movements in the newspapers, such as--'James Boswell, Esq., is expected in town.' _Public Advertiser_, Feb. 28, 1768. 'Yesterday James Boswell, Esq., arrived from Scotland at his lodgings in Half-Moon Street, Piccadilly.' _Ib_ March 24, 1768. Prior's _Goldsmith_, i. 449.

[131] Johnson was very ill during this visit. Mrs. Thrale had at the same time given birth to a daughter, and had been nursed by her mother. His thoughts, therefore, were turned on illness. Writing to Mrs. Thrale, he says:--'To roll the weak eye of helpless anguish, and see nothing on any side but cold indifference, will, I hope, happen to none whom I love or value; it may tend to withdraw the mind from life, but has no tendency to kindle those affections which fit us for a purer and a nobler state.... These reflections do not grow out of any discontent at C's [Chambers's] behaviour; he has been neither negligent nor troublesome; nor do I love him less for having been ill in his house. This is no small degree of praise.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 13.

[132] See _ante_, ii. 3, note.

[133] The editor of the _Letters of Boswell_ justly says (p. 149):--'The detail in the _Life of Johnson_ is rather scanty about this period; dissipation, the _History of Corsica_, wife-hunting, ... interfered perhaps at this time with Boswell's pursuit of Dr. Johnson.'

[134] See _Boswell's_ Hebrides, Aug. 15, 1773, for a discussion of the same question. Lord Eldon has recorded (_Life_, i. 106), that when he first went the Northern Circuit (about 1776-1780), he asked Jack Lee (_post_, March 20, 1778), who was not scrupulous in his advocacy, whether his method could be justified. 'Oh, yes,' he said, 'undoubtedly. Dr. Johnson had said that counsel were at liberty to state, as the parties themselves would state, what it was most for their interest to state.' After some interval, and when he had had his evening bowl of milk punch and two or three pipes of tobacco, he suddenly said, 'Come, Master Scott, let us go to bed. I have been thinking upon the questions that you asked me, and I am not quite so sure that the conduct you represented will bring a man peace at the last.' Lord Eldon, after stating pretty nearly what Johnson had said, continues:--'But it may be questioned whether even this can be supported.'

[135] Garrick brought out Hugh Kelly's _False Delicacy_ at Drury Lane six days before Goldsmith's _Good-Natured Man_ was brought out at Covent Garden. 'It was the town talk,' says Mr. Forster (_Life of Goldsmith_,