Chapter 4

comedies were to be pitted against each other.' _False Delicacy_ had a great success. Ten thousand copies of it were sold before the season closed. (_Ib_ p. 96.) 'Garrick's prologue to _False Delicacy_,' writes Murphy (_Life of Garrick_, p. 287), 'promised a moral and sentimental comedy, and with an air of pleasantry called it a sermon in five acts. The critics considered it in the same light, but the general voice was in favour of the play during a run of near twenty nights. Foote, at last, by a little piece called _Piety in Pattens_, brought that species of composition into disrepute.' It is recorded in Johnson's _Works_ (1787), xi. 201, that when some one asked Johnson whether they should introduce Hugh Kelly to him, 'No, Sir,' says he, 'I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.' See _post_, beginning of 1777.

[136] _The Provoked Husband, or A Journey to London_, by Vanbrugh and Colley Cibber. It was brought out in 1727-8. See _post_, June 3, 1784.

[137] See _ante_, i. 213.

[138] April 6, 1772, and April 12, 1776.

[139] Richardson, writing on Dec. 7, 1756, to Miss Fielding, about her Familiar Letters, says:--'What a knowledge of the human heart! Well might a critical judge of writing say, as he did to me, that your late brother's knowledge of it was not (fine writer as he was) comparable to yours. His was but as the knowledge of the outside of a clock-work machine, while yours was that of all the finer springs and movements of the inside.' _Richardson Corres_. ii. 104. Mrs. Calderwood, writing of her visit to the Low Countries in 1756, says:--'All Richison's [Richardson's] books are translated, and much admired abroad; but for Fielding's the foreigners have no notion of them, and do not understand them, as the manners are so entirely English.' _Letters, &c., of Mrs. Calderwood_, p. 208

[140] In _The Provoked Husband_, act iv. sc. 1.

[141] By Dr. Hoadley, brought out in 1747. 'This was the first good comedy from the time of _The Provoked Husband_ in 1727.' Murphy's _Garrick_, p. 78.

[142] Madame Riccoboni, writing to Garrick from Paris on Sept. 7, 1768, says:--'On ne supporterait point ici l'indA(C)cence de Ranger. Les trA"sindA(C)cens FranASec.aisdeviennent dA(C)licats sur leur thA(C)Actre, A mesure qu'ils le sont moins dans leur conduite.' _Garrick's Corres_. ii. 548.

[143] 'The question in dispute was as to the heirship of Mr. Archibald Douglas. If he were really the son of Lady Jane Douglas, he would inherit large family estates; but if he were supposititious, then they would descend to the Duke of Hamilton. The Judges of the Court of Session had been divided in opinion, eight against seven, the Lord President Dundas giving the casting vote in favour of the Duke of Hamilton; and in consequence of it he and several other of the judges had, on the reversal by the Lords, their houses attacked by a mob. It is said, but not upon conclusive authority, that Boswell himself headed the mob which broke his own father's windows.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 86. See _post_, April 27, 1773, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 24-26, 1773. Mr. J. H. Burton, in his _Life of Hume_ (ii. 150), says:--'Men about to meet each other in company used to lay an injunction on themselves not to open their lips on the subject, so fruitful was it in debates and brawls.' Boswell, according to the Bodleian catalogue, was the author of _Dorando, A Spanish Tale_, 1767. In this tale the Douglas cause is narrated under the thinnest disguise. It is reviewed in the _Gent. Mag_. for 1767, p. 361.

[144] See _post_, under April 19, 1772, March 15, 1779, and June 2, 1781.

[145] Revd. Kenneth Macaulay. See Boswell's _Hebrides_, Aug. 27, 1773. He was the great-uncle of Lord Macaulay.

[146] Martin, in his _St. Kilda_ (p. 38), had stated that the people of St. Kilda 'are seldom troubled with a cough, except at the Steward's landing. I told them plainly,' he continues, 'that I thought all this notion of infection was but a mere fancy, at which they seemed offended, saying, that never any before the minister and myself was heard to doubt of the truth of it, which is plainly demonstrated upon the landing of every boat.' The usual 'infected cough,' came, he says, upon his visit. Macaulay (_History of St. Kilda_, p. 204) says that he had gone to the island a disbeliever, but that by eight days after his arrival all the inhabitants were infected with this disease. See also _post_, March, 21, 1772, and Boswell's _Hebrides_, Oct. 2, 1773.

[147] See _ante_, July 1, 1763.

[148] _Post_, March 21, 1772.

[149] This is not the case. Martin (p. 9) says that the only landing place is inaccessible except under favour of a neap tide, a north-east or west wind, or with a perfect calm. He himself was rowed to St. Kilda, 'the inhabitants admiring to see us get thither contrary to the wind and tide' (p. 5).

[150] That for one kind of learning Oxford has no advantages, he shows in a letter that he wrote there on Aug. 4, 1777. 'I shall inquire,' he says, 'about the harvest when I come into a region where anything necessary to life is understood.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 349. At Lichfield he reached that region. 'My barber, a man not unintelligent, speaks magnificently of the harvest;' _Ib_ p. 351.

[151] See _post_, Sept. 14, 1777.

[152] See _ante_, i. 116.

[153] The advancement had been very rapid. 'When Dr. Robertson's career commenced,' writes Dugald Stewart in his _Life_ of that historian (p. 157), 'the trade of authorship was unknown in Scotland.' Smollet, in _Humphry Clinker_, published three years after this conversation, makes Mr. Bramble write (Letter of Aug. 8):--'Edinburgh is a hot-bed of genius. I have had the good fortune to be made acquainted with many authors of the first distinction; such as the two Humes [David Hume and John Home, whose names had the same pronunciation], Robertson, Smith, Wallace, Blair, Ferguson, Wilkie, &c.' To these might be added Smollett himself, Boswell, Reid, Beattie, Kames, Monboddo. Henry Mackenzie and Dr. Henry began to publish in 1771. Gibbon, writing to Robertson in 1779, says:--'I have often considered with some sort of envy the valuable society which you possess in so narrow a compass.' Stewart's _Robertson_, p. 363.

[154] See _post_, April 30, 1773, where Johnson owned that he had not read Hume. J.H. Burton (_Life of Hume_, ii. 129), after stating that 'Hume was the first to add to a mere narrative of events an enquiry into the progress of the people, &c.,' says:--'There seems to be no room for the supposition that he had borrowed the idea from Voltaire's _Essai sur les Moeurs_. Hume's own _Political Discourses_ are as close an approach to this method of inquiry as the work of Voltaire; and if we look for such productions of other writers as may have led him into this train of thought, it would be more just to name Bacon and Montesquieu.'

[155] See _post_, May 8 and 13, 1778.

[156] See _post_, April 30, 1773, April 29, 1778, and Oct. 10, 1779.

[157] _An Essay on the Future Life of Brutes_. By Richard Dean, Curate of Middleton, Manchester, 1767. The 'part of the Scriptures' on which the author chiefly relies is the _Epistle to the Romans_, viii. 19-23. He also finds support for his belief in 'those passages in _Isaiah_ where the prophet speaks of new Heavens, and a new Earth, of the Lion as eating straw like the Ox, &c.' Vol. ii. pp. x, 4.

[158] The words that Addison's Cato uses as he lays his hand on his sword. Act v. sc. 1.

[159] I should think it impossible not to wonder at the variety of Johnson's reading, however desultory it may have been. Who could have imagined that the High Church of England-man would be so prompt in quoting _Maupertuis_, who, I am sorry to think, stands in the list of those unfortunate mistaken men, who call themselves _esprits forts_. I have, however, a high respect for that Philosopher whom the Great Frederick of Prussia loved and honoured, and addressed pathetically in one of his Poems,--

'Maupertuis, cher Maupertuis, Que notre vie est peu de chose!'

There was in Maupertuis a vigour and yet a tenderness of sentiment, united with strong intellectual powers, and uncommon ardour of soul. Would he had been a Christian! I cannot help earnestly venturing to hope that he is one now. BOSWELL. Voltaire writing to D'Alembert on Aug. 25, 1759, says:--'Que dites-vous de Maupertuis, mort entre deux capucins?' Voltaire's _Works_, lxii. 94. The stanza from which Boswell quotes is as follows:--

'O Maupertuis, cher Maupertuis, Que notre vie est peu de chose! Cette fleur, qui brille aujourd'hui Demain se fane A peine A(C)close; Tout pA(C)rit, tout est emportA(C) Par la dure fatalitA(C) Des arrtA¬s de la destinA(C)e; Votre vertu, vos grands talents Ne pourront obtenir du temps Le seul dA(C)lai d'une journA(C)e.' _La vie est un Songe. Euvres de FrA(C)dA(C)ric II (edit. 1849), x. 40.

[160] Johnson does not give _Conglobulate_ in his _Dictionary_; only _conglobe_. If he used the word it is not likely that he said 'conglobulate _together_.'

[161] Gilbert White, writing on Nov. 4, 1767, after mentioning that he had seen swallows roosting in osier-beds by the river, says:--'This seems to give some countenance to the northern opinion (strange as it is) of their retiring under water.' White's _Selborne_, Letter xii. See also _post_, May 7, 1773.

[162] _Travels from St. Petersburgh in Russia to divers parts of Asia_. By John Bell, Glasgow, 1763: 4to. 2 vols.

[163] I. D'Israeli (_Curiosities of Literature_, ed. 1834, i. 194) ranks this book among Literary Impostures. 'Du Halde never travelled ten leagues from Paris in his life; though he appears by his writings to be familiar with Chinese scenery.' See _ante_, i. 136.

[164] See _post_, Oct. 10, 1779.

[165] Boswell, in his correspondence with Temple in 1767 and 1768, passes in review the various ladies whom he proposes to marry. The lady described in this paragraph--for the 'gentleman' is clearly Boswell--is 'the fair and lively Zelide,' a Dutch-woman. She was translating his _Corsica_ into French. On March 24, 1768, he wrote, 'I must have her.' On April 26, he asked his father's permission to go over to Holland to see her. But on May 14 he forwarded to Temple one of her letters. 'Could,' he said, 'any actress at any of the theatres attack me with a keener--what is the word? not fury, something softer. The lightning that flashes with so much brilliance may scorch, and does not her esprit do so?' _Letters of Boswell_, pp. 144-150.

[166] In the original it is _some_ not _many_. Johnson's _Works_, vii. 182.

[167] _An account of the Manners and Customs of Italy_, by Joseph Baretti, London, 1768. The book would be still more entertaining were it not written as a reply to Sharp's _Letters on Italy_. _Post_ under April 29, 1776.

[168] Mrs. Piozzi wrote of him: 'His character is easily seen, and his soul above disguise, haughty and insolent, and breathing defiance against all mankind; while his powers of mind exceed most people's, and his powers of purse are so slight that they leave him dependent on all. Baretti is for ever in the state of a stream damned up; if he could once get loose, he would bear down all before him.' Hayward's _Piozzi_, ii. 335.

[169] According to Hawkins (_Life_, p. 460), the watch was new this year, and was, he believed, the first Johnson ever had.

[170] _St. John_, ix. 4. In _Pr. and Med_., p. 233, is the following:--'Ejaculation imploring diligence. "O God, make me to remember that the night cometh when no man can work."' Porson, in his witty attack on Sir John Hawkins, originally published in the _Gent. Mag_. for 1787, quotes the inscription as a proof of Hawkins's Greek. '_Nux gar erchetai_. The meaning is (says Sir John) _For the night cometh_. And so it is, Mr. Urban.' Porson _Tracts_, p. 337.

[171] He thus wrote of himself from Oxford to Mrs. Thrale:--'This little dog does nothing, but I hope he will mend; he is now reading _Jack the Giant-killer_. Perhaps so noble a narrative may rouse in him the soul of enterprise.' _Piozzi Letters_, i. 9.

[172] See _ante_, ii. 3

[173] Under the same date, Boswell thus begins a letter to Temple:--'Your moral lecture came to me yesterday in very good time, while I lay suffering severely for immorality. If there is any firmness at all in me, be assured that I shall never again behave in a manner so unworthy the friend of Paoli. My warm imagination looks forward with great complacency on the sobriety, the healthfulness, and the worth of my future life.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 147

[174] Johnson so early as Aug. 21, 1766, had given him the same advice (_ante_, ii. 22). How little Boswell followed it is shewn by his letter to the Earl of Chatham, on April 8, 1767, in which he informed him of his intention to publish his _Corsica_, and concluded:--'Could your Lordship find time to honour me now and then with a letter? I have been told how favourably your Lordship has spoken of me. To correspond with a Paoli and with a Chatham is enough to keep a young man ever ardent in the pursuit of virtuous fame.' _Chatham Corres_., iii. 246. On the same day on which he wrote to Johnson, he said in a letter to Temple, 'Old General Oglethorpe, who has come to see me, and is with me often, just on account of my book, bids me not marry till I have first put the Corsicans in a proper situation. "You may make a fortune in the doing of it," said he; "or, if you do not, you will have acquired such a character as will entitle you to any fortune."' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 148. Four months later, Boswell wrote:--'By a private subscription in Scotland, I am sending this week AL700 worth of ordnance [to Corsica] ... It is really a tolerable train of artillery.' _Ib_ p. 156. In 1769 he brought out a small volume entitled _British Essays in favour of the Brave Corsicans. By Several Hands_. Collected and published by James Boswell, Esq.

[175] From about the beginning of the fourteenth century, Corsica had belonged to the Republic of Genoa. In the great rising under Paoli, the Corsicans would have achieved their independence, had not Genoa ceded the island to the crown of France.

[176] Boswell, writing to Temple on May 14 of this year, says:--'I am really the _great man_ now. I have had David Hume in the forenoon, and Mr. Johnson in the afternoon of the same day, visiting me. Sir J. Pringle and Dr. Franklin dined with me to-day; and Mr. Johnson and General Oglethorpe one day, Mr. Garrick alone another, and David Hume and some more _literati_ another, dine with me next week. I give admirable dinners and good claret; and the moment I go abroad again, which will be in a day or two, I set up my chariot. This is enjoying the fruit of my labours, and appearing like the friend of Paoli.' _Letters of Boswell_, p. 151.

[177] See _post_, April 12, 1778, and May 8, 1781.

[178] The talk arose no doubt from the general election that had just been held amid all the excitement about Wilkes. Dr. Franklin (_Memoirs_,